Guilty pleasures in SFF cliches

Ardent Kat · Sep 14, 2009

There are plenty of well-worn cliches in sci-fi/fantasy fandom that make editors cringe after seeing them for the umpteenth time, but that continue to delight readers no matter how many times they're rehashed.

What's your guilty pleasure when it comes to cliche SF/F plots and character types? Share your favorite cliches and tell us what attracts you to them.

Do you feel obliged to avoid these guilty pleasures in your own writing, or do you use them anyway by putting a new twist on an old formula?

This thread is a fun confessional of sorts, so please don't snipe others for sharing what they like. (It's already understood that cliche = bad.) If you want to comment on a cliche you find especially odious, share your suggestions on how writers can breathe new life into it.

triceretops · Sep 14, 2009

My guilty pleasure would have to be my own, which I've seen out there every since the SF genre reared its head. Planet Janitor crew crash lands on hostile planet and encounters voracious creatures which soon overwhelm them. That book sold three times before I landed with my pick of small publishers. Nothing new there at all--I guess it depends on how you do it.

Tri

Kitty Pryde · Sep 14, 2009

I'll play! My favorite SF cliche is the macho manly dashing brave starship captain who gets all the girls and always saves his ship at the last second. My favorite specimen of this is Captain Joshua Calvert of the Lady Macbeth in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. He's absolutely perfect.

I dunno why I like this cliche so much. It's just fun to have a studly uber-hero swishing around the galaxy saving planets and bedding hot ladies.

I've never written one, and I don't know if I would. Though one time Pthom and I brainstormed about turning this cliche on its head and writing the female version of it, a bad-ass lady starship captain that makes all the guys go weak at the knees

I think that would be great fun to write.

In fantasy, I love the brooding antihero who is horrifically tormented by his past. I have no idea why. This sort of character would be super-unpleasant in real life, but somehow in books it totally works. My favorite would have to be Severus Snape, but there's also John Constantine (Hellblazer), Captain Jack Sparrow, and Captain Jack Harkness (from Torchwood). Actually, and everyone else from Torchwood too.

BigWords · Sep 14, 2009

I like any time that evil twns are introduced into a story precisely because the idea is dumb. Spaceship captains (especially fat ones) who sleep will all manner of exotic alien women don't really interesst me (hence my random insults aimed at Star Trek every so often), and the idea that humanity is the center of the universe is annoying.

There's so many stupid SF clichés which haven't been addressed very often from a realistic standpoint that I really would have to go through TV Tropes to pick out the best.

Smiling Ted · Sep 14, 2009

Kitty Pryde said:
I've never written one, and I don't know if I would. Though one time Pthom and I brainstormed about turning this cliche on its head and writing the female version of it, a bad-ass lady starship captain that makes all the guys go weak at the knees I think that would be great fun to write.

I think Steph Cherrywell would agree with you.

geardrops · Sep 14, 2009

I was gonna just link images, but they got to be a lot and I don't want to break anyone's connexion.

Two tropes that'll get me every time, when handled correctly:

(1) Tough heroic badass with a dark/dim past (for this I was linking Han Solo, Malcolm Reynolds, Starbuck, and Batman)

(2) Heroic badass who fights so hard to do good yet ultimately falls to evil, aka the Tragic Reversal (Anakin Skywalker is an instance of this done very poorly)

JMBlackman · Sep 14, 2009

My favorite cliche is the dark, pushy vampire/werewolf/alien/demon/otherworldly male who just has to have his way (with situations, and zee ladies); and to pair with him, I love the bad-ass, punch-whoever-in-face chick who always has something clever to say. Willing to get hurt, more than willing to hurt others and not putting up with dark&pushy's attitude. So over-done. So lovable every time. Squee.

alaskamatt17 · Sep 14, 2009

I'm a big fan of the overused fantasy protagonist who, orphaned at an early age by some horrible disaster managed to overcome all odds and become a hero after finding out they're the descendant of some great warrior or kind of the past. I don't feel guilty about it, though. It's a cliche because so many people like it, after all.

Izz · Sep 14, 2009

Ardent Kat said:
What's your guilty pleasure when it comes to cliche SF/F plots and character types? Share your favorite cliches and tell us what attracts you to them.

I, like dempsey, love the heroic bad-ass with a dark/dim past.

I also love a good epic SFF tale. Y'know, the one where the protag has a special destiny and needs to fulfill it in order to save his people, world, universe, or just because a prophecy said he had to. Or, another take being what alaskamtt17 mentions. Go orphaned farmboy (or farmgirl--there needs to be more orphaned farmgirls who fulfill special destinies). Unfortunately, i can't think of any particularly good examples of one of these in the last twenty or thirty years.

Do you feel obliged to avoid these guilty pleasures in your own writing, or do you use them anyway by putting a new twist on an old formula?

Nah, i don't feel particularly compelled to avoid them. That being said, i haven't yet written any novels based around my favorite SFF tropes. I do, however, have an epic SF tale of Dune-like proportions that needs telling. It's been swirling about in my head for at least 10 years. Right now, it's about three novels down on my to-write list. By that time i hope to have the skill level needed to tell it like it needs to be told.

Salis · Sep 14, 2009

It's not really a strong SF/F trope, but I like antiheroes, especially ones that aren't even remotely heroic. i.e, villain as protagonist.

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 14, 2009

Young heroes and darkness... lots and lots of darkness. The anime "Shigofumi" is a great example. The Ender books by OSC, too. I dont mind if they grow up a little. It's just so dang cool. Bonus points if it has a "new myth" aspect like the planet "Path" in ender. Corruption just rules, no matter who is the cause, and who the victim. I love writing this, too. Here's hoping I have the chops to write and get them marketed as attractive to adults, not that I have anything against YA. Also shades of grey and black.

Shurikane · Sep 14, 2009

I'm a sucker for laser guns. Tons and tons of laser guns that fire bolts that somehow travel slower than conventional bullets!

As the saying goes: lasers pew-pew!

Chasing the Horizon · Sep 14, 2009

Quest plots. Really, having to find a powerful magical object in order to save the world is just cool. Never get tired of this, because it never unfolds the same way twice. Most versatile plot ever. Still waiting to read one where they don't get the object in the end, though.

Badass warrior women with short dresses, long swords, and sharp tongues. I never see characters like this actually done well, though.

And yes, I write both these cliches in abundance.

sunandshadow · Sep 14, 2009

I'm not sure whether it's a sf cliche or a romance cliche, but I'm a sucker for human/alien romances; usually these are of the 'Mars needs women!' variety where the aliens for some reason don't have any/enough women of their own.

I also like 'psychic human bonded with a sentient animal' stories (e.g. dragon/dragonrider, wolf/wolfrider, magic horse/rider, falcon/falconer. Possibly mecha/pilot stories and sentient magic weapon/wielder stories could fit into this category too.

bettielee · Sep 14, 2009

The grand quest, and the portal to another world. And when the grand quest leads me through a portal to another world...

**shivers with delight**

sunandshadow, you will like every book I write.

SPMiller · Sep 14, 2009

Salis said:
It's not really a strong SF/F trope, but I like antiheroes, especially ones that aren't even remotely heroic. i.e, villain as protagonist.

Villain-Protagonists are wonderful to read about, especially if they don't brood about their problems and just get on with life.

Plain old antiheroes are better, being mixes of both noble and ignoble qualities, but I'd much rather read a villain-protagonist than a standard fantasy ueberhero any day of the week.

AMCrenshaw · Sep 14, 2009

Sturm Brightblade. Believe it or not!

AMC

blacbird · Sep 15, 2009

Time-travel, of any kind. Ditto shape-shifting and invisibility. And FTL travel. And lifeless planets with oxygen atmospheres.

caw

sunandshadow · Sep 15, 2009

bettielee said:
The grand quest, and the portal to another world. And when the grand quest leads me through a portal to another world...

**shivers with delight**

sunandshadow, you will like every book I write.

Lol, I'll have to keep an eye out for your books then.

I also like 'portal to another world' and 'villain major character', although I prefer my villains as the love interest not the mc.

alaskamatt17 · Sep 15, 2009

I'm actually a fan of most of the tropes listed, and not ashamed to admit I use them in my own writing. My perennial WIP, Orion's Key, manages to touch on a fair few of them.

AceTachyon · Sep 15, 2009

Chicks in chainmail. My faves are Xena, Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion, the recent comic incarnation of Red Sonja, and the anthology series edited by Esther Friesner. (I have Moore's Jirel of Joiry, but have not yet read it).

The "chosen one" fantasy story, specifically Eddings's Belgariad. I read that sucker every year and it never gets old.

Dicentra P · Sep 15, 2009

Orphan with a destiny epic fantasy done well.
The thief/assassin con as hero, either accidentally or undercover.

I don't write them or if I do I mess with them.

Higgins · Sep 15, 2009

Chasing the Horizon said:
Badass warrior women with short dresses, long swords, and sharp tongues. I never see characters like this actually done well, though.

And yes, I write both these cliches in abundance.

I've tried the Badass warrior girl thing, but I made her more of a pure killer and user of clustered thermonuclear good-byes (like Oppenheimer mentioned when he saw the first atomic test -- Trinity -- ) more like "Corporate Legal" at its most devastating, wiping out whole small, first world regions like Iceland or Des Moines, Iowa. Plus...longer skirts, higher heels, better accessories, no sword, just a pistol when needed. I hope this is still resonant with all the best clinches.

Higgins · Sep 15, 2009

dempsey said:
(1) Tough heroic badass with a dark/dim past (for this I was linking Han Solo, Malcolm Reynolds, Starbuck, and Batman)

This one too...but with variations along the lines of burnt out and/or mostly just evil in a perfunctory way...

MattW · Sep 15, 2009

The big, sprawling battle of good nations vs evil nations. Even better if our heroes are simultaneously struggling against the main protagonist on a much smaller scale (Return of the King / Return of the Jedi).

Guilty pleasures in SFF cliches

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Blowing in the Wind

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Prodigiously Hanged

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Company Man