Tropes: What's your weakness?
X-posted from my blog.
One of my favorite procrastination websites is TV Tropes Dot Org, a wiki which catalogues popular tropes used in movies, TV shows, manga, and literature. Talking to a friend the other day, I realized that there are some tropes I love- not because they're always done well so much as because there are some character types and situations that I'm so fond of that any fiction that uses them has an a priori advantage with me as a reader/viewer. And the converse is true, too- there are tropes that I just innately dislike, not because there's anything actually wrong with them, but just because I personally have an aversion to them, and any book that uses them has to overcome that hurdle to win me over as a reader.
Examples of my favorite tropes: slightly crazy, waiflike characters who are more than people give them credit for being (a la River in Firefly or Luna in Harry Potter), stories which contain characters who have an older brother or sister as their legal guardian (ie Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the Dawn/Buffy storyline in BtVS), characters with strongly literal or stylized speech patterns who don't quite understand human niceties (Anya from Buffy; Simi from the Dark Hunter series), and romances in which characters are drawn to each other based on some bone-deep similarity or flaw that makes them understand each other in ways that other people couldn't.
Some of my least favorite tropes: the best friend character who seems to have a vested interest in the main character losing their virginity (YA) or the state of the MC's sex life more broadly (adult); stories which revolve around an overachieving female learning to loosen up; the surprise werewolf (in which a male character in a known supernatural world is revealed at the very end of the book to be a werewolf).
Like I said before- it's not that I think the tropes I don't like are at all inferior to the tropes I love. I could name books that do tropes I dislike wonderfully well and that, as a result, I have enjoyed, and I could name books that have done my favorite tropes not-so-well (and which... I've still kind of enjoyed, because I just really love the trope).
So what are you guys? Any tropes you love beyond reason for no real rational reason? Any that you dislike, even when they're done well? In accordance with FFF policy, please no bashing of any trope or subgenre beyond simply expressing personal preferences and no finger pointing at specific books you dislike. Self-reflection > flame wars.
-Jennifer Lynn Barnes
One of my favorite procrastination websites is TV Tropes Dot Org, a wiki which catalogues popular tropes used in movies, TV shows, manga, and literature. Talking to a friend the other day, I realized that there are some tropes I love- not because they're always done well so much as because there are some character types and situations that I'm so fond of that any fiction that uses them has an a priori advantage with me as a reader/viewer. And the converse is true, too- there are tropes that I just innately dislike, not because there's anything actually wrong with them, but just because I personally have an aversion to them, and any book that uses them has to overcome that hurdle to win me over as a reader.
Examples of my favorite tropes: slightly crazy, waiflike characters who are more than people give them credit for being (a la River in Firefly or Luna in Harry Potter), stories which contain characters who have an older brother or sister as their legal guardian (ie Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the Dawn/Buffy storyline in BtVS), characters with strongly literal or stylized speech patterns who don't quite understand human niceties (Anya from Buffy; Simi from the Dark Hunter series), and romances in which characters are drawn to each other based on some bone-deep similarity or flaw that makes them understand each other in ways that other people couldn't.
Some of my least favorite tropes: the best friend character who seems to have a vested interest in the main character losing their virginity (YA) or the state of the MC's sex life more broadly (adult); stories which revolve around an overachieving female learning to loosen up; the surprise werewolf (in which a male character in a known supernatural world is revealed at the very end of the book to be a werewolf).
Like I said before- it's not that I think the tropes I don't like are at all inferior to the tropes I love. I could name books that do tropes I dislike wonderfully well and that, as a result, I have enjoyed, and I could name books that have done my favorite tropes not-so-well (and which... I've still kind of enjoyed, because I just really love the trope).
So what are you guys? Any tropes you love beyond reason for no real rational reason? Any that you dislike, even when they're done well? In accordance with FFF policy, please no bashing of any trope or subgenre beyond simply expressing personal preferences and no finger pointing at specific books you dislike. Self-reflection > flame wars.
-Jennifer Lynn Barnes