What fictional cliches annoy you?

[Adp]

-When the villain divulges his entire master plan at the singular moment before it is fully executed, allowing a tiny opportunity for the heroes to think of "something" (some bullshit) and thwart them just in time.

-Also, when the villain becomes absurdly stupid and gets defeated after looking invincible and in control the entire time before.

-A character that never loses a fight. (I'm looking at you Erza from fairy tail)

-The power of friendship

-The absence of fatigue or repercussion from injury

[Graeham]

Can't really wrap my head around the popularity of saying "I dislike that the good guys always win."

It's boring and predictable. A story is far more compelling when the antagonists are actually competent and succeed from time to time whilst the protagonists make mistakes and aren't perfect.

[Breccia]

And if they use energy weapons they suck. Lets look at Star Trek/Wars. People hide behind walls/stones and they are safe from the weapon fire. You would think they have weapons that should just annihilate any cover.

Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek calls this out every time. "They're behind normal rocks. Just crank those things up to 11 and vaporize the cover. Bam! Problem solved."

[Sorrior]

It's boring and predictable. A story is far more compelling when the antagonists are actually competent and succeed from time to time whilst the protagonists make mistakes and aren't perfect.

Or ya know Guyver where the villain SO fucking OP that the hero KNOWS he will lose without an INSANE upgrade.

[Kavoo]

1) Splitting up when you're in grave danger.

Every damn time Jason Voorhees/Leatherface/Chainsaw guy is chasing some group of kids they split up Im like WTF YOURE DOING FFS DUMBASSES

[Arrowstormen]

It's boring and predictable. A story is far more compelling when the antagonists are actually competent and succeed from time to time whilst the protagonists make mistakes and aren't perfect.

The majority of stories are like that. Pretty sure most people mean that the good guys always win in the end when they write the cliche down.

[Viscoe]

I hate it when MAGIC IS THE MOST POWERFUL SUBSTANCE EVER HELD EVER AND NO ONE CAN BEAT IT BECAUSE MAGIC.

The only OP wizard I like is the kind in Tolkien because magic is sacred as hell there and only in the hands of a few "people." But look at WoW lore: so very many magic users and lots of them are super duper strong almost-gods.

Also really tired of "I'm dead!" from a main character only to see them come back later. The only time I actually root for them to come back is Disney movies, regardless of how much I like the character - stop using "death" as a cheap heartstring-tug and make your character deaths meaningful.

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-When the villain divulges his entire master plan at the singular moment before it is fully executed, allowing a tiny opportunity for the heroes to think of "something" (some bullshit) and thwart them just in time.

-Also, when the villain becomes absurdly stupid and gets defeated after looking invincible and in control the entire time before.

YES. And the speeches! If they were truly evil they'd just shoot the protagonist in the head instantly at the soonest opportunity, not go into a long-winded speech and savor the moment. You can savor their death afterwards by beheading them and putting it on a pike outside of your castle!

[Deleted]

-Bad guy shows one tiny redeemable thing about him, the hero questions if he should kill him

-Bad guy speeches before killing hero

-Before I kill you, here's exactly how I planned everything

-Hacking something, anything, takes a few seconds and windows popping in and out on the computer

-You're the one

-I used to do this one thing, it will be needed later in the movie. (Anyone remember the girl from Jurassic park 2 who used to do acrobatics in school?)

-Bombs with timers on them

-Are you all with me? One guy says fuck that but shows up later to save them from a pickle

oh and one thing, Love trancends time and space....

[Soeroah]

A divorced/separated couple, both relevant, as main characters. Especially if one or more of them are 'seeing someone else'. Nine times out of ten they are going to get back together and it's sappy as shit.

Unimportant children characters being introduced solely for the emotional drama ("oh noes the vampire could hurt that poor innocent bratty disobedient seven year old!")

Other than that, I have surprisingly high tolerance for cliches.

[Flutterguy]

Poorly executed cliches bother me more than the cliches themselves.

[RH92]

Only thing that annoys me is villian revealling all his plans to a hero. It is just so incredibely dumb.

I actually don't have a problem with magical materials in fantasy or comic books (which I also consider fantasy.) It annoys me when it pops up in science fiction because part of the enjoyment of hard scifi is imagining that what you are watching could actually happen. I feel like they are switching genres on me- might as well add ghosts and demons into the mix at that point.

Well, I think Sci-Fi has became a fantasy based in future nowadays. At least a lot of people perceive it that way.

To be honest, I was one of them until I read your post and said to myself "Yeah, that makes a sense...". However I never really liked Sci-Fi to begin with.

[Zaelsino]

-Bad guy speeches before killing hero

-Before I kill you, here's exactly how I planned everything

Eh, this can work in the right context. Watchmen has a good example; the villain tells his old friends about his grand plan because a) it already took place half an hour ago and they just don't know it yet, and b) he honestly wants them to understand his motives before they have to deal with the fallout.

[The Flavour Cat]

.Women running with heels. I imagine that'd be really uncomfortable, and I could have sworn I saw it in Castle when Beckett was running and she had some sort of heeled shoe. Why would she even wear them at work?
.That gun cocking effect is used when someone comes into frame with a firearm. Yeah, it can sound dramatic, but it just makes me feel the shooter is stupid.

[Voidism]

One of the worst things I know of is "The Whiny Wife" cliche.

Examples:

Winona "Whineona" Hawkins from Justified
Rita Bennett from Dexter
Skyler White from Breaking Bad

Makes me see why some straight men hit their wives. :P
Just joking... kinda. :-3

Glad I'm gay is all I'm saying.

[Katchii]

Completely random, unplanned, or coincidental occurrences sparking the "AH HA!" moment that finally pushes the otherwise stagnant plot forward.

Seeing or hearing things that make the hero look exactly where they're supposed to look at exactly the right time, remembering something from their past that wasn't even brought up until that exact moment, having a bird or other animal show up in an otherwise completely empty area that "guides" the hero to where they need to go....

[Soeroah]

Another one: Pointless changes to characters for 'the audience'.

For example, characters who in the original work were elderly/aggravating being change to be more endearing/attractive to the reader/viewer. A character from I, Robot who was a 60 year old bitter woman, for example, being changed into a hot 30-something year old woman purely for the sex appeal/love interest tripe.

In fact I don't really respect most localised adaptations these days, though the US is a big one. Not sure I'd call that a cliche though. More a mechanism that leads to cliches.

[Sorrior]

Completely random, unplanned, or coincidental occurrences sparking the "AH HA!" moment that finally pushes the otherwise stagnant plot forward.

LOL i have those IRL all the freaking time.

[eschatological]

Completely random, unplanned, or coincidental occurrences sparking the "AH HA!" moment that finally pushes the otherwise stagnant plot forward.

Seeing or hearing things that make the hero look exactly where they're supposed to look at exactly the right time, remembering something from their past that wasn't even brought up until that exact moment, having a bird or other animal show up in an otherwise completely empty area that "guides" the hero to where they need to go....

I had something like this happen in a book I was reading this morning. Out of nowhere in this P.D. James crime novel, it's like "Oh hey Superintendent Dagliesh, you got a phone call from Soandso? You remember him, right? The guy you were supposed to have lunch with but then this murder happened? And he so happens to have known the dead man and belonged to the same club!"

So yeah - the random, unconnected character who provides the key clue in solving the crime, but only shows up halfway through the book. A very human Deus Ex Machina.

[Ciddy]

Every damn time Jason Voorhees/Leatherface/Chainsaw guy is chasing some group of kids they split up Im like WTF YOURE DOING FFS DUMBASSES

Yeah. Reminds me of that one Geico commercial.

[Shiny212]

None, I love fictional cliches. There are however poorly executed cliches, but they themselves can be and often are sublime. Becoming a cliche is no easy feat!