movies/tv Cliches you like/dislike

[BlinkZ 1,151]

If I had to pick a few I say 

The lie and found out cliche: you know, the one where the main character lies and then when he/she is foudn out everyone pissed off for no real reason or just for the sake of a plot.  So many times i've seen this in kids movies i'm just shocked.

The "where all going to die!" cliche: were they play out the character is going to die but they are clearly the main character so plot armour. So the other are all sad and mopy that X character is died/dying...OH and dont get me started on brought back to life with flippin tears!!

[Props Valroa 26,033]

I despise that the 'good' always wins. 

Edited January 21, 2017 by NightMare Star.

[BlueStreak98 828]

I don't much like the "outgoing party girl feels lonely and wants to settle down" trope. It's just so predictable and overdone.

[Megas 27,063]

The deus ex machina object that ultimately brings about victory for the good guys. This cliche has practically been done to death to the point where it has lost all its meaning and is a sign of sheer laziness. For a cliche that I do like, I do like the anti-hero who likes to do good deeds if there was money involved as either a reward or could be collected along the way.

Funny enough, part of the reason I love Megas XLR so much is because of how much they take the piss out of the trope and turn it into a punchline, often by having Coop almost always beat the bad guy out of sheer luck or by pulling a really dumb solution completely out of his ass. This is further lampooned by the self aware buttons of plot convenience, such as 

 

 

And my personal favorite

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Travis Touchdown

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Funny enough, part of the reason I love Megas XLR so much is because of how much they take the piss out of the trope and turn it into a punchline, often by having Coop almost always beat the bad guy out of sheer luck or by pulling his solution completely out of his ass. This is further lampooned by the self aware buttons of plot convenience, such as 

 

When the deus ex machina can be turned into something funny and ridiculing it at the same time, then it's actually something to look forward to because you know it won't end up being cringe-worthy. I really need to watch Megas XLR again just to see those screenshots in action. A shame that it was cancelled before its time.

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,627]

There's so many. I guess I'll just stick with the main ones.

 

Like/Love:

-Anti-hero, the perfect balance between a goody two shoes and an asshole.

 

-The Villain Song, usually the best part of the movie.

 

-Ho Yay, if you know me. You know why.

 

-Whodunnit/Murder Mystery. I love murders, I love mysteries.

 

-Standing Up to the Bully. So satisfying to see, especially if the bully is a real shithead.

 

-Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. I wish I could be this.

 

 

Dislike/Hate:

-The Happy Ending, Not everything should end happy.

 

-The Love Interest, Literally only there for the main character to fall in love with. And it's almost always a girl.

 

-Mary Sue/Gary Stu, No personality. No flaws. Basically is a god. Nothing to make them relatable.

 

-Dead/Murdered Parents, seriously why is this used so much? Guys, witnessing the murder of your parents probably wouldn't inspire you to put on a suit and fight crime. It would most likely make you an emotional wreck.

 

(Fran Bow's a good example of a realistic murdered parents scenario)

 

-Everyone's a Friend, MLP is practically the inventor of this cliche.

[Zantetsuken 364]

Well I'm not sure if you can call these cliches but they are things I see and hate and like respectively 

 

Dislikes 

 

Coming back to life after and or getting out of certain death situations because main character can't (actually) die yet (Oh hi Project Horizons)

I hate this because if your character is dead they should stay dead, I don't care how many cybernetic enhancements you make. You will just turn the character into a god mod Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

 

Indestructible God Mod Protagonists 

It's unrealistic and takes away any sense of danger for the character cause you know they are going to get out of X situation alive even though they died a long ass time ago. They are just super cyborg hybrid now.

 

Writing established characters completely out of character 

I see this way to much, so much that I actually feel like I'm going against a commonly accepted understanding here. This presumed understanding being that characters in shows such as MLP don't need to be written in character in fanfics. I resent this, I think they should. It's surprising how much more believable a story or fic can be if you just think about how a character would accordingly act in whatever situation you decide to put them in. OC's and background charters with no real personality are of course exempt from this.

 

Real sad "cry for me for my life is so tragic" backstory

This one is pretty self-explanatory (can be done right but is mostly done wrong)

 

Likes 

 

Betrayal 

Real nice and I really don't see it enough. Bad guy works with good guys seamlessly only to completely fuck them over at the perfect time. If done right it can be a real great set up for a story or game or movie ending.

 

I more often see bad guys teaming up with with good guys to defeat the real bad guy. I wouldn't really say it's bad, It's a good enough variant but its not the same thing.

 

Relateable Character

Very rare to come by these days, If I'm reading a book or playing a game I find I can get way more invested and interested if I can relate to the character or they just seem like a normal individual with a unique quality to them that someone could easily have. This is one of the reasons the Mane 6+ Starlight are such likable characters for me. They feel real, like real individuals, even Twilight now as a Princess.

 

Satire 

I tried writing a social satire once. It was real fun to write and nearly everyone who read it loved it. When Satire and poking fun at other over done, stupid, or just generally bad ideas in a comedic mocking way is done right it can make for real entertaining media. Unfortunately it has the probability of becoming toxic if you choose too touchy of a subject so my advice with this is to be careful what you satirize or parody.

 

There are others I both hate and like but that's all I can think of for now 

[CosmicHooves 2,705]

-The Love Interest, Literally only there for the main character to fall in love with. And it's almost always a girl.

Exactly, it's also not realistic how the girl always falls in love with main character, no matter how ugly he may be, as if she has no preferences.

The game Bioshock Infinite destroys this concept with Elizabeth being your partner/friend with no love interest whatsoever.

 

Of course it'd be weird since she's you eventually find out she's your daughter.

Which makes all the r34 content relating to Bioshock further more disturbing.

 

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,627]

Real sad "cry for me for my life is so tragic" backstory

This one is pretty self-explanatory (can be done right but is mostly done wrong)

It can be done right if the character doesn't dwell on it much and brings it up casually like it's no big deal.

But, yeah most medias tend to screw it up, by making it the only thing they talk about.

Exactly, it's also not realistic how the girl always falls in love with main character, no matter how ugly he may be, as if she has no preferences.

Disney uses that cliche a lot. However, Moana did break away from it. 

[Discordian 6,013]

jumpscares everywhere cliche: not cool dude you ruined a possibly good movie by having the spooting monster jump out every few seconds.

Sparkly vampires: *sigh* why just why the hammer Dracula movies maybe corny by todays standards but at least drac don't shine like silver and gold vampires are supposed to die if they are in the sun not glow like the sun!

big lipped alligator moments: ya know what I'm talking bout that 1 scene that has nothing to do with the plot.

Twilight isn't the only, nor the first, thing that experiments with the idea that some vampires are powerful enough to walk in the daylight unharmed.

 

That's not even to mention that any creative medium has the freedom to do what they want with mythological creatures. Sometimes they make them more deadly, sometimes they make them more attractive.

 

You can't blame Twilight for taking its core theme of romance and making the traits of being a vampire match that theme. It's no different than Castlevania giving Dracula all of the powers of every demon and monster that resides in his castle to make him a particularly formidable foe for the "legendary" Belmont clan and bane to all humanity.

 

Also when it comes down to it, it's not a cliche if it's the only fiction to do it. A cliche almost by definition is common and overused.

[Castle Bleck 19,166]

-Mary Sue/Gary Stu, No personality. No flaws. Basically is a god. Nothing to make them relatable.

 

Even worse is the Villain Sue, who takes all of the above and combines them with a depressing, pointless, Shoot The Shaggy Dog atmosphere.

 

Examples: Master Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts), Goku Black / Zamasu (Dragon Ball Super), etc.

[StephenP 106]

The only real cliche I find myself hating is the over-usage of plot twists in modern SpongeBob. It makes the endings seem more and more lazy.

[FlootahBabby 265]

That in movies, every single animal in the world makes only a maximum of 4-5 different sounds.

 

I do get why they do this though. I live with like, 4 big dogs (Lab, Great Dane, Coonhound, Dutch Shepard) so hearing unique dog barking sounds from the tv is gonna make them go apeshit.

 

But hearing the same sound effects for these animals over and over again for pretty much every movie/TV show I'm gonna see for the rest of my life, is irritating. It kind of ruins the whole thing for me tbh. Like how people can't take the wilhelm scream seriously in like Star Wars or something.

[Steve Piranha 28,770]

 

Disney uses that cliche a lot. However, Moana did break away from it. 

Yeah, I was surprised not even a hint of romance came up

 

Dislike

-Well yeah, the romance it's peeving, as it's overused, badly done, and all end up close to "tier 15" in a matter of a few days

-White and black morality: Also overused, and shows a one sided morality and also tends  to abuse the protagonist centered morality on top of that

-For the evulz: these villains are like: normal life: check, got everything: check, no traumas: check..... I'm bored, let's destroy the world 

-Evil plan monologue: on top of that, they usually do it when they have the good guys cornered

-Idiot hero: Overused, usually represents the audience, and the show always reminds you they are the ones you should look up the most, and they lead a group of guys all more intelligent each

-Deus ex machina: win by pure luck at the nick of time. It'll work better if the hero sees a sudden opportunity to get out of it 

-Incompetent professional military personnel: The ultimate suspension of disbelief, a bunch of inexperienced guys, even if they are kids, are far more competent than professionally trained personnel

-Idiot plot: a plot caused by sheer stupidity 

 

I'll post what I like later, as it's late, and this has been long 

Edited January 26, 2017 by Steve Piranha

[Castle Bleck 19,166]

-White and black morality: Also overused, and shows a one sided morality and also tends  to abuse the protagonist centered morality on top of that

 

Kingdom Hearts: *Keeps preaching the Balance Between Good And Evil trope about Light and Darkness.* *Always boils down to the Light Is Good trope vs. the Dark Is Evil trope anyway.*

[Mothra 540]

I can't stand it when the stereotypical smart character is explaining something to an 'average' character using over-the-top scientific words and phrases and expects them to understand, then there's a pause of awkwardness, usually followed by a sigh, and explained again in like 5 words that are easy to understand. It's filler were there doesnt need to be filler and is stupidly overused, despite not being funny the first time. Die Hard 4 is a great example of this, but I hate that movie for so much more than just that

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

These are a few cliches that I find about horror movies that I find both annoying and hilarious and some horror movies do this so well, it makes me laugh:

 

Imagine this: Group of teenagers. Slow, shambling psychopath with a weapon. Young, healthy, athletic teenagers get killed somehow. What? Just, what? How? I personally find this to be very annoying but also hilarious.

 

Other funny horror movie cliches include the group of usually five teenagers where there's the jock, the cheerleader, the scholar, the weed guy and the virgin. The cheerleader and jock always die first while having sex, then the other two guys die, then the "virgin" either manages to find help or joins her friends in death. I've never seen any other movie poke fun at this cliche like Cabin in the Woods. I swear, that movie exaggerated those cliches so much, it was more of a comedy movie for me than a horror movie.

 

Another stupid cliche is the same as the fast victims, slow killers thing, but with freaking zombies. Just how? How do you get yourself killed by shambling zombies? Oh, you tripped and fell? Well, get up and fight back, you idiot!!! Don't just lay there and yell at the zombies!!!!! Whenever I see characters in a zombie movie trip and then react by SCREAMING AT THE HORDE OF ZOMBIES THAT HASN'T NOTICED THEM YET RATHER THAN GET UP OR FIGHT BACK, I think to myself "This moron deserves to die."

Edited January 27, 2017 by Kronos the Revenant

[Castle Bleck 19,166]

Slow, shambling psychopath with a weapon. Young, healthy, athletic teenagers get killed somehow.

 

Granted:

 

1. Weapon (duh).

 

2. Strength.

 

3. Surprise.

 

4. Supernatural (often).

Edited January 27, 2017 by A.V.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

I hate it when they never EVER get time travel right. Please, I beg you, please figure it out, it's not difficult. Back to the Future 2 actually spelled it out on a blackboard for everyone in the cheap seats to understand, and still everyone complained that they didn't get it! I think it was Project Almanac (I could be wrong) where the characters actually said that The Terminator was Time Travel 101. I almost gagged on my corn chips at that one! Terminator has more problems with peridox and plot holes than any other ten movies put together. Looper is just about the only one aside from the Back to the Future series that ever came close.

 

Also, shaky cameras, bullet-time and super-fast editing. I hate this most of all because it's been misused ever since Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg originated bullet-time to give the film a documentary look as the troops were landing on the beaches on D-Day. But ever since then every film-school clone misuses it (along with the other two aforementioned cliches) in the mistaken belief that quicker, shakier camera work equates to more excitement. If you want to make a film exciting, start by making it legible. If the movie's story has any merit at all, it'll generate excitement on its own. The Jason Bourne movies (aside from the first one) are absolute crap because no matter how many times you watch them, you can't tell what's going on!! It drives me crazy to see all that money spent and effort expended on a movie, with absolutely nothing to show for it but a lot of blurred images. 

 

It seems fitting that I wrap this up with another over-used line, "Let's all go home!" 

 

See you at the movies! 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Dreambiscuit

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Granted:

 

1. Weapon (duh).

 

2. Strength.

 

3. Surprise.

 

4. Supernatural (often).

I guess those can be some certain exceptions, I'll give you that, but other than those you still gotta help but wonder on how they get killed, which also often times is caused by stupid decisions on the victim's part.

[Nightshroud 331]

a few more i hate

 

Zombies oh my god stop it already almost every other movie uses this cliché

 

Exposition dumps as the nostalgia critic says. "Exposition expositon wrap it up asap."

 

Fart jokes not funny any more!

 

The bland 1 dimension villain who is evil for the sake of being evil.

No real motivation just I'm evil muhahahaha. 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Nightshroud

[Fluttershyponygal 82]

Like:

 

--Past villain/character with a dark past attempting to make amends by being the "good guy" but in his/her own way.(If executed properly, sudden reformations really make it hard for me to like the character despite it being a trope i enjoy)

--Magical Girl's true identity is a secret despite her outfit more or less revealing who she is.(There's a whole set of lore behind this trope that justifies it, but I won't get into it here)

--The protagonist is a royal ass but has a moral code of gold that comes out at the exactly right moment which portrays him/her in a heroic light yet still are an ass about it the whole time they save them.(Now if they are just totally and 100% unlikable, then there's the exception to the rule.)

 

--There's more but I can't think of them right now.

 

Dislike:

 

--Hero/protagonist gaining a super power at the last second with little to no explanation on how or why they were given this power.

--The villains just keep getting stronger and appear for no reason.(DBZ is the number one offender of this trope)

--The hero kicks butt but we the audience never see how.

--Magical Girl's identity is revealed and/or no one bats an eye or questions it.(The Legend of everfree pulled this trope and it annoyed me to no end)

--Hero suddenly dies at the very end of a series or movie with little to no build up on how or why.

[Brony Number 42 9,926]

Dislike:

Enemies that are defeated, but keep coming back. Especially in horror movies. What is the point in beating the bad buy when you know he will just come back? There is no satisfaction in the victory.

 

When the good guys can potentially die, but aren't allowed to kill the bad guys. Like when the chimera was going to eat Apple Bloom, but all she was allowed to do was trick it. Like, holy crap, she was almost killed! And the ponies aren't at war with them?

[Steve Piranha 28,770]

 

When the good guys can potentially die, but aren't allowed to kill the bad guys. Like when the chimera was going to eat Apple Bloom, but all she was allowed to do was trick it. Like, holy crap, she was almost killed! And the ponies aren't at war with them?

Oh yeah, that sucks also for the most part. I can understand shows like ponies, but others like Batman are either a misguided attempt to tell between good and bad guy, and/or keep the bad guys alive just to make them screw again, so they don't run out of ideas of new villains (though, from the meta point of view, makes sense, and that's OK. It's how poorly justified is made in-universe that peeves me )

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

 

Exposition dumps as the nostalgia critic says. "Exposition expositon wrap it up asap."

 

I'm pretty sure it's "Exposition, exposition: rush shit out, ASAP."

 

Another disliked cliche: The man-child who can't do anything without his bland, somewhat hot but sweet-enough-to-put-up-with-his-bullshit doing it for him (basically, the man-baby with hot wife/girlfriend cliche)