Wow.  I've almost done 90 of these things.  That's almost 100.    I'll have to do something really special for episode 100.

So, y'know what really grinds my gears?

Picture it--a fantasy or superhero type movie.  Magical magic.  Super superpowers.  A heroic hero of light.  A villainous villain of darkness.  We've all seen this kinda sh*t a thousands times, right?  Epic, colorful explosions of epic magical energy, epic music, an epic struggle of epic proportions, an epic so epic you can't even epic the epic.

It's the climax.  A climatic, cataclysmic battle of good vs evil.  The stakes are nothing short of apocalypse.  The hero is down and out.  S/he has been beaten.  He's got nothing left.  The villain stands triumphant, all-powerful, laughing triumphantly in victory.  The hero lies on the ground, beaten, battered, dejected, destroyed.  We wait with bated breath as all light of hope fades.  And then what happens?

The hero hears some encouraging, inspirational words.  Perhaps the words are those of a spirit actually talking to him, perhaps it's just the hero's memories.  And then, all at once, for absolutely no reason, our hero summons the mighty, heroic strength and power!  Just because he believes in himself and the power of good, he suddenly powers up and becomes unbeatable.  His blast of powerful goodness sends out a shockwave that knocks the villain back.  The villain is stunned and can't believe what has happened.  Blah, blah, blah, you know the rest.

I... F*CKING... HATE these sorts of scenes.  The inexplicable hero's power up is the lamest, stupidest, more boring, most pathetic, biggest cop-out of an excuse for an ex machina you could ever write.  Give me a reason why the hero suddenly summons the power.  Make me actually care.  Don't just have it be because the hero gets inspired be some encouraging words.  Don't just make it because the hero really, really, really wants to win.  Ya gotta give me something better than that.  Also, as a general rule, epic, titanic battles of epic proportions with epic explosions should tend to be avoided unless it's for a really good story reason.  Characters with real emotions are more interesting than VFX.