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QUACKCAST 551 - Tropes we LOVE to hate...

Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Oct. 5, 2021
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Tantz explains why she really hates a bunch of tropes that are super commonly used in things, stuff like very obvious plot armour for the protagonist so that you KNOW nothing can seriously hurt them so you stop caring what happens to them and in the story in general, child-led stories where the adults are all useless and ineffectual because it takes away your suspension of disbelief, and amnesia where a huge bunch of the story is erased so the writers can just repeat stuff over and over. Banes and I join it to talk about stuff we hate too!

One of the tropes I hate is how assassins and great fighters are currently depectied as fighting with a mathematical prescision, ala John Wick, Daniel Craig's James Bond, Jason Bourne, the Black Widow, Captai America etc. It's not that it's not realistic because of course it isn't and it's not meant to BE realistic, the problem is that the precise, coreographed, balletic, perfect kung-fu style of gunfighting is a trope that's used as a shortcut to indicate that the person is a great fighter highly trained: It's a trope, and it's hugely overused and boring. No one ever fights like that, especially not with guns and it's not cool anymore because we've seen it a million times, Give it a rest and show us more natural fighting for a while. The same with wire effects, parkour: They've turned action heros into anime characters. That's great the first few times but it's at saturation point now and useless.

What are your most hated tropes?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The War Below Us - A rhythm heavy relaxing piece. A tribal dance sound that sends you floating away on soft clouds lit by golden lights and joy with the faint smell of incense. Too much energy to meditate, but great for concentration!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz' newspost on hatable tropes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/01/tropes-i-hate/

Featured comic:
Secrets of Uncrom The Balance of Life and Death - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/28/featured-comic-secrets-of-uncrom-the-balance-of-life-and-death/

Featured music:
The War Below Us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_War_Below_Us/ - by PuddingLem0n98, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

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comment

anonymous?

cdmalcolm1 at 2:54AM, Oct. 8, 2021

One good one is the villain Twice from My Hero Academia. I like the way they handle his conflict between himself.

Ozoneocean at 8:29PM, Oct. 6, 2021

@Anreas- they use that Trope in Scott Pilgrim perectly! Hahaha! He just makes friends with negaScott

Ozoneocean at 8:28PM, Oct. 6, 2021

@Jason Moon- we hold up Equilibrium as an example of using the trope correctly because it's part of the story :)

Jason Moon at 10:02AM, Oct. 5, 2021

I just love Equilibrium. The critics can kiss my butt

Andreas_Helixfinger at 8:18AM, Oct. 5, 2021

One trope that I find kind of tiresome is the hero fighting his/her evil self. You know the drill "You must conquer your worst enemy! YOURSELF!!!" and it's just a clone of the hero/heroine who's evil that he/she has to beat up in some kind of battle that is supposed to come off as something deep and intense, but is really shallow and really bland most of the time. It traditionally amounts to nothing more then just a one last throw away hurdle for the hero/heroine to overcome. Now like with most tropes I do believe this can be done well by a skilled writer, but I've seen this trope being done in the exact same way so many times that I can't help but find it so lazy and so cliché of an idea whenever it comes up in a movie or a video game.


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