Your ~Favorite~ cliches and tropes

[lepapillonrouge]

I think I've said this a billion times, but I like tsundere...guys. Because they are never that violent. 8D If they were, they'd just be jerkasses, or terribly misunderstood. Girl tsunderes are kind of annoying...exception being Misaki from Maid-sama, but it might be because that's a shoujo manga.

A typical high school shoujo romance story...there's a ton, but I love them. They make me happy inside. Of course, they cannot beat the sweetness of Kimi ni Todoke.

I like ... magic. And fantasy. And massive weapon spam, like Mami from that one show.

[Tachyglossus]

The church stuff combined with Tachyglossus mentioning resurrection reminded me of one I like a lot: retellings of the Christ story. I'm not religious, but the power of the story is undeniable. A character who lives at the junction of two worlds sacrifices himself/herself to enable the worlds to live in peace. The worlds can be as fantasy-oriented (ala The Silmarillion or a few Final Fantasy games) or as realistic (many examples... I recently played Higurashi and Furude Rika is important to both the research team and the village) as you want. It's just good stuff.

Now that is right on; I also love a willing sacrifice for a better cause, whether they come back or not. Sometimes returning (as much as I love it) can ruin the impact of the sacrifice, but sometimes it reinforces the power. I can't put my finger one why it works sometimes and other times it doesn't.

Another one I like is people being turned into something they are not and having to cope with it. Whether it is being turned into another race or into a creature, or even into a talking, animated object (Come hither hero of might and take hand of I, the legendary talking sword... AND GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!) it can result in some interesting developments.

[bellice]

Hmm, let me think about this for a moment...(and try to go on TVTropes without losing a chunk of my life)

- Defrosting Ice Queen. There's just something about a girl with cold personality that slowly warms up to you.
- Guys/girls who love killing, know that they're good at it and don't care about others, at least at first glance. A sociopath in a way, but since I prefer them in a romantic setting, they tend to have an emotional breakdown somewhere along the way to at least give them the potential of changing.
- Hot scientists. I LOVE them. Intelligence is a huge turn on, and what better way to explore this than a guy or, even better, a girl who will tell you all about the chemical components of whatever substance they're currently experimenting with, while looking really hot at the same time. You probably won't understand a thing, but who cares? TALK NERDY TO ME! <3
- Wrench Wench. Really, they may be covered in grease/dust and talk about machines all the time, but damn, that's exactly what I love about it.
- Small girls that can smack you down like the hand of god, no matter if that means they're incredibly strong for some reason or if they just carry a gun the size of a grown man.
- Tall, Dark and Snarky.
- Manipulative Bastard/Magnificent Bastard
- Mate Or Die. It's one of my guilty pleasures and I plan on implementing it in my VN...in some way I'm not sure of yet.

[kinougames]

- Defrosting Ice Queen. There's just something about a girl with cold personality that slowly warms up to you.
- Guys/girls who love killing, know that they're good at it and don't care about others, at least at first glance. A sociopath in a way, but since I prefer them in a romantic setting, they tend to have an emotional breakdown somewhere along the way to at least give them the potential of changing.
- Hot scientists. I LOVE them. Intelligence is a huge turn on, and what better way to explore this than a guy or, even better, a girl who will tell you all about the chemical components of whatever substance they're currently experimenting with, while looking really hot at the same time. You probably won't understand a thing, but who cares? TALK NERDY TO ME! <3
- Small girls that can smack you down like the hand of god, no matter if that means they're incredibly strong for some reason or if they just carry a gun the size of a grown man.
- Tall, Dark and Snarky.
- Manipulative Bastard/Magnificent Bastard

Youuuuuuuuuuuuuu are gonna looooooooooooooooove my group's games. xD Persephone is totally number 1 on that list. xD

[Celestie]

...too many to start counting because TVTropes is simply LOVE.

My ever-favorite one should be....Distressed Dude (the male equivalent to a Distressed Damsel)...if there is a tsundere-ish tomboy girl to save said dude. Or something. A combinationof many clichés, averting, subverting and deconstructing some and playing straight others will make it very interesting. I eman, I think a character and a stoyr HAS to have some tropes played straight, even some clichés that might be overused, and if there is a good portion of deconstructed/suberted/averted (I have to remember what differences these have because there is...I just haven't read about them seriously) tropes and clichés, it will spice up the character/story so much more.

Like, the MarySue-indications. There are a few things that might count as MarySue-ish (if there are too many clichés piled up) but would make the character really interesting and sort of realistci and sympathetic as well, instead of avoiding all chlichés and making a character bland...

Oh, right, Deadpan Snarker, love this trope, especially if in combination with Sarcasm Mode. Or, I love it when Jerkass-villains make a HeelFaceTurn, and end up as Jerk with a Heart of Gold *A*

[bellice]

Youuuuuuuuuuuuuu are gonna looooooooooooooooove my group's games. xD Persephone is totally number 1 on that list. xD

Damn, I'm already ridic excited about 'Papa Pirate, Baby Bandit' anyway and now you tell me Persephone is an Ice Queen to boot? My heart can't take it...>.<

[kinougames]

Defrosting ice queen. She does warm up to you prior to any fun stuff going down, but you gotta prove yourself!

[Tachyglossus]

Aight, I posted what plot general clichés I enjoy, now I'll talk about character types I like.

Again, no reference to T.V. tropes because I know if I go on there I won't come out until cockroaches rule the world.

-The rich eccentric gentleman.
-Since it's already been listed and did not require me to look it up on TV Tropes, Defrosting Ice Queens.
-Zealots. I LOVE me a zealot. They make some of my favorite villains... and if they are a bumbling zealot with more teeth than brain cells, they make a fun support character.
-Manipulative jerks. I don't like them in real life, but I like to sit back and watch them do what they do best.
-Go go go Sociopath! They are intrigueing if done well, but I don't tend to like them in a romantic view. In my mind they are irredeemable. Okay, well, I guess it's different if someone just has sociopath tendencies but isn't straight out without moral/feeling, it's just a defense put up to cope with.... are we treading in Mary-sue waters now?
-Alien/Robot/Genetically created lifeform trying to understand human emotions/habits (particularily of either a female or androgynous variety).
-If a comedy, I love obvious Mary Sue satire/parody character types. You know, someone so laden with all of the clichés that you know it was put there intentionally to make you roll your eyes? Epsecially if they contrast with more down to earth characters.

[bellice]

Defrosting ice queen. She does warm up to you prior to any fun stuff going down, but you gotta prove yourself!

You do know that I'll now be fangirling like crazy until the game comes out, right?
And that includes sending you random, weird PMs and possibly stalking you...as soon as I find out where you live.




(yeah, I'm joking. xD)

-Alien/Robot/Genetically created lifeform trying to understand human emotions/habits (particularily of either a female or androgynous variety).

THIS.

[Sapphi]

I forgot to mention Deadpan Loli. Like Eve from Black Cat, or Puchiko from Di Gi Charat... I like that they sort of invert the "all little girls are cute imouto-chans" thing that seems to be an anime staple. As a kid I was always slightly annoyed that most little girls in (non-child-centric) anime seemed to be portrayed as ideally and as angelically as possible.

[pondrthis]

I don't do sociopaths and/or fantasy creatures in romantic situations. If you stop to think about it, it's just ridiculous.

This is exactly the reason people who hate "Twilight" hate "Twilight" (my only opinion on it is that the movie had alright lighting). Someone who is in love with someone else who might kill them at any time is FUCKING INSANE. Even more insane than the psycho-killer he/she is in love with. My girlfriend and I watched "Kara no Kyoukai", in which the two leads are in love despite the fact that the girl repeatedly states her desire to murder the guy, and were like "those two are off their fucking rockers" through all seven movies.

The only way to have romance and action in the same story without it being ridiculous is to have either a) the action come up after the romance or b) the lovers fight on the same side without any threat of betrayal.

But speaking of sociopaths and "Kara no Kyoukai" (to get back on track), a cliche I DO like is the demonization of a character through cannibalism. Nothing gets disgust pumping through my veins like reading about a character eating a human being. And the whole point of anything outside the drama genre is to disgust you in my opinion: only fantasy/sci-fi with intense horror elements are fun to me.

[bellice]

I don't do sociopaths and/or fantasy creatures in romantic situations. If you stop to think about it, it's just ridiculous.

Oh, I completly agree. It's ridiculous to the point of being insane, but that's what I like about it. Something like this would be impossible in Real Life and THANK GOD for that. As far as I'm concerned, it makes the story more interesting and since I like the 'evil' characters more anyway, wooing them is really just the next step.
So yeah, it's ridiculous, but hey, it's fantasy. Whatever gets you going and all that.

[Tachyglossus]

Ha ha ha, is it bad that I agree with both pondr and bellice?

At one point, it's fun to explore unrealistic and crazy paths because there is no true threat to one's self when immersed in a fantasy. However, I also look at some shows and have the same reaction as pondr, thikning "are you crazy or just dense?" I don't understand people who fall for people who are a constant and blatant threat to them; however people who fall for a seemingly normal person, and then they turn out to be a threat is another issue altogether and too heavy a topic to discuss further here.

And how dare you diss Twilight? I will eat your first born child!

I don't see as much of a problem as someone falling in love with another fantasy humanoid, since fantasy races are usually symbollic of different ethnicities among humans, and finding it repelling makes me feel racist... unless they actually are inherently evil and it isn't just a cultural thing or misunderstanding.

[Radhreni]

At one point, it's fun to explore unrealistic and crazy paths because there is no true threat to one's self when immersed in a fantasy.

Bingo.

However, I also look at some shows and have the same reaction as pondr, thikning "are you crazy or just dense?"

If we're talking about romance here (or even employing the rules of romance), then there is a very simple reason: no matter how blatantly off-kilter or toxic the characters involved are, there is no real danger within the fantastical construct. One of the absolute ironclad rules of romance is that there must be a happy ending for the couple. (In past times, it had to be "happily ever after" or HEA, but there's been an increase in open-ended "happy for now" endings lately, which are also considered valid.) Playing off the Twilight example, the love interest can go on and on about how he wants to rip out the love interest's throat or what have you, but the laws of the genre completely and utterly prevent him from doing so. If he crosses that line, he is no longer an object of love; he is no longer "worthy."

Now, how many of us think he's "worthy" to begin with is another question -- but no romantic setup is going to work for everyone. (Personally, I'd be grabbing the stakes and holy water, and hoping vampire conventions haven't been distorted so much that they don't work.)

It also plays into the "taming the beast" fantasy -- only the Designated Love Interest has the power to curtail the "dangerous" partner's baser instincts and bring him or her in line with the DLI's societal norms. In such a situation, the DLI is the one with the power in the relationship. (Personally, I think it's a twisted, insidious form of power, and very problematic - but its origins lie decades (or more?) ago in a subversion of traditional male-female power structures, and it's important to keep that in mind. Also, not every version of the fantasy is going to be equally problematic.)

However, when these fantasies are presented or embraced as an "ideal"...yeah, that's a big problem. (This is one of the major complaints with the Twilight series, and one that I think is warranted.) Not only does it propagate an unrealistic image (and one that, in a real relationship, is BAD NEWS), but it glosses over the nature of the fantasy, as well as the potential positive effects that it could have.

[pondrthis]

First off, I didn't diss "Twilight". I made it clear that my only opinion is that I liked the movie's lighting.

Secondly, I'm not saying that the danger to the characters makes it an unworthy plot, I just feel like an author should be prepared for readers to question the reliability of his or her narrator. Great authors can pull off something like a romance with a magus/demon/psycho-killer/vampire, but they do it at the cost of reliability. I like stories which can be enjoyed from two sides: within the protagonist's frame of mind and from a more objective perspective.

To use a popular VN example, let's look at "Heaven's Feel" in "Fate/Stay Night". Shirou is in love with a young woman who might devour the entire world and give birth to the being which Satan was based on. You can look at it from his perspective, and enjoy his battle to save his loved one, or you could look at it as some twisted mental state. He's been depicted as twisted before, after all! It's a good example (although probably not intended, I don't give Nasu Kinoko all that much credit) of a plot which works either way.

TL;DR: I don't care if your hero(ine) is in love with a demon, but be prepared for some readers to think (s)he's batshit insane and write accordingly.

Let's get back to what we DO like, shall we?