What Sterotypes do you hate?

[drothgery]

Young Heroes are not allowed to come from healthy, loving families, where both of their parents are still alive and are still married. Middle-aged heroes cannot have a stable relationship (if a spouse and/or kids exist, there are certainly factors that mean the hero's family is on the edge of falling apart). No one knows why this happens.

I understand faster than light travel is pretty much necessary for planet-hopping sci-fi, but that doesn't mean you need to throw a few dozen other impossible things into the story.

Plot reuse. If a series lasts more than two seasons, you will see the same episode repeated with a minor variation at least once.

 

[iwatt]

Goku from DB is probably the ultimate example of that kind of thing. He was an idiot.

No question that he was an idiot. But he was a freaking genius at fighting. So I don't think you cana ctually classify him as incompetent.

 

[Villano]

Incompetent Dads have become overdone by a good margin at this point.

I agree with that 110%.

Also, I hate when an innocent person stumbles across a dead body and either 1.) runs away because he thinks that the police will think he did it, or 2.) a stranger shows up and starts screaming that they saw the person commit the murder.

Idiot police are another pet peeve. You've seen them a million times. They're the ones that never, ever believe the hero no matter how obvious it is that he is telling the truth, or leap to incredible conclusions ("You obviously ripped the victim to pieces even though you don't have a weapon or a drop of blood on your clothes.").

People from the south that look like they stepped out of Deliverance. "We is from Georgia, we don't know nuttin' bout dese Cell Phones, shoes, or indoor plumbing. Hey, is dat a cee-ment pond?"

White teacher (coach, etc.) who shows up and mentors poor, minority children.

Scientists who walk up to the monster that just killed half the cast and try to reason with it. "It traveled here in a space ship, it must be intelligent!" Dude, it bit the heads off of three people. Trust me, it doesn't care about talking.

The moron in a horror film that doesn't know how to kill a werewolf. Someone always has to explain the whole "silver bullets" thing to them. Everyone knows about silver bullets!

The jerk in a horror movie. Night Of The Living Dead may have started it, but Romero gets a pass because, in the end, his jerk was right; the basement was the safest place. Jerks in horror movies today have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They are there to add simplistic conflict and to have someone there that the audience will root for to die. This is sometimes a part of...

The nerd fantasy. You know, the dorky guy saves the day and gets the girl, while the jock turns out total jerk and completely useless (in a cartoonishly over the top way).

And, for once, can the rich girls be nice and the poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks be the evil bitch?

Pre-teen heroes I am personally sick and tired of having series built around a bunch of thirteen year old kids "save the world" from "villians" who wouldn't even rate an honourable mention in the World Court and couldn't even get on the list of the International War Crimes tribunal.

I'll add "Teen Heroes" to the list, especially in Buffy-like horror films (watch the commercials for the new film The Covenant for an example).

 

[Jamdin]

With all the talk of teen heroes, my hate goes towards the treatment of older super heroes. I don't mind them retiring or dying if the story is good but I hate making them young again.

 

[ThirdWizard]

No question that he was an idiot. But he was a freaking genius at fighting. So I don't think you cana ctually classify him as incompetent.

Was he in Dragonball? I could be wrong, that's just how I remembered it. Though, it's been a while.


Villano, I'll add heroes going to check on the body of the monster and the monster suddenly jumping up to get shot down by another character before killing the hero. How many times do we have to see that???

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'm a little tired of sitcoms where the dad is a moron, the mom is a smug know-it-all, and the children all act about 5 years older than they really are.

One of the reasons I like King of the Hill is that it has a non-stereotypical sitcom family: Hank is a very competent, hard-working man (though kind of a square), Peggy thinks that she's a lot smarter than she really is and has an incredibly exaggerated sense of self-esteem (for example, in one episode she says "I'm what Oprah calls a superwoman"), and Bobby is a spaz who loves television, prop comedy, and video games.

 

[WayneLigon]

Done badly, there are any number of stereotypes that I find annoying. They can, all of them, also be done well and in an entertaining manner. It all depends on the subject matter, the personalities and charisma involved, as well as a hundred other subtle little things.

 

[Ranger REG]

Sighs.

I hate the "Steven Seagal & Jean-Claude Van Damme" stereotype.

 

[bodhi]

1) The reluctant hero. I mentioned this one in another thread at some point. I'm tired of the whiny "But Daaaaad! I don't wanna save the world today! I've got a zit!". Tough. You're the Chosen One/Slayer/Last Descendant of Googly-Moogly. Suck it up and save the world.

2) Characters not talking to each other. This is seen mostly in sitcoms to generate said comedic situations. Person A overhears a snippet of conversation between B and C, completely out of context, and draws the completely incorrect conclusion. Madcap hijinks ensue. Since, of course, finding out what's actually going on would end the show (or movie) about 10% in.

3) Science fiction movies where clearly none of the characters has ever read any science fiction. Or science textbooks, for that matter.

 

[Plane Sailing]

2. Incompetent heroes who always win because they're the protagonist even when for the entire balance of the piece except when they absolutely need to win they are completely useless tools.

Hate it with a passion. Makes the whole thing into a non-story for me.

A related issue is the fight in which the hero gets beaten to a pulp and hardly touches the other guy... and then suddenly gets his second wind and comes back to beat the villain.

Incompetent Dads have become overdone by a good margin at this point.

Also hate it with a passion. In the UK this has become a STAPLE of TV advertising. If the adverts were all full of incompetent wives with canny husbands there would be an outcry, but incompetent dads with canny wives? All over the shop. Bah.


Cheers