The one thing I hated the most about Rogue One.Trump and Hillary?
The trope I despise like a sickness is The Magic Negro character and books and movies do love their Magic Negroes.
See the works of Stephen King (The Shining, The Green Mile, The Stand) for three good books lousy with Magic Negroes or The Defiant Ones, Bruce Almighty, Lillies of the Field, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Ghost, The Matrix, and Bringing Down the House for examples of super-duper Magic Negroes working their mojo.
The Magic Negro must die.
Tropes you hate and why
- Thread starter creativemechanic
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Backing up slightly to male surnames and female first names, a recent election here made that trope painful and obvious.
In serious, stately fonts, the surnames of male candidates.
Smith
Johnson
Jones
In breezy, casual fonts, some resembling handwriting, the first names of female candidates. some with exclamation points at the end, stars or hearts dotting the letter i, and other fun stylings.
Maggie!
Louise
Lovely (her given name)
This really bothered me, that the women had to make their signs likeable while the men had to be serious. Of course, any woman who's too serious is called a bitch, so there's that.
Maryn, who lives in interesting times
In serious, stately fonts, the surnames of male candidates.
Smith
Johnson
Jones
In breezy, casual fonts, some resembling handwriting, the first names of female candidates. some with exclamation points at the end, stars or hearts dotting the letter i, and other fun stylings.
Maggie!
Louise
Lovely (her given name)
This really bothered me, that the women had to make their signs likeable while the men had to be serious. Of course, any woman who's too serious is called a bitch, so there's that.
Maryn, who lives in interesting times
I hate it how books and movies show a woman is going crazy by having her chop off all her hair. I get it that sudden changes in behavior and appearance can indicate a psychological break, but it's not convincing when that by itself is the sole indication and symptom of her losing it.
Yeah, even the most (in)famous real-life example came after a string of erratic behavior. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ead-ten-years-ago_us_58a5cff6e4b07602ad525d50
Sweet Escape
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What would be nice to see more is having parents of the main characters be three-dimensional characters and not always be either abusive, neglecting, or dead.
Often with wealthy characters, the parents are too busy with their careers to focus on their children. With characters coming from a poor home they often are controlling, strict, narrow-minded.
Characters like Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) and Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife) are well written and complex characteras, who have their flaws. They are not perfect mothers, but they are good mothers. .
I can understand why going down the route of having toxic parents or absent ones can make things look more interesting for your character's backstory, but having your character have good parents is not boring. More authoritative parenting style for parents would be good.
Often with wealthy characters, the parents are too busy with their careers to focus on their children. With characters coming from a poor home they often are controlling, strict, narrow-minded.
Characters like Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) and Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife) are well written and complex characteras, who have their flaws. They are not perfect mothers, but they are good mothers. .
I can understand why going down the route of having toxic parents or absent ones can make things look more interesting for your character's backstory, but having your character have good parents is not boring. More authoritative parenting style for parents would be good.
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Amen, Sweet Escape. Ever see the movie Easy A? One of the things I liked about it was the main character, a high school girl, has normal parents who have their flaws but are really doing a pretty good job, even though their kid makes a really poor decision. Contrast that with Brick, where the main character is also a high school student but seems to have no parents. He doesn't go home for days and nobody seems to care.
I prefer movies, books, etc. that show parents doing the best they can, even though it's never perfect. Most parents do just that, tempered by life circumstances that make it pretty damned hard for some to do a good job.
Maryn, perfect parent (as if!)
I prefer movies, books, etc. that show parents doing the best they can, even though it's never perfect. Most parents do just that, tempered by life circumstances that make it pretty damned hard for some to do a good job.
Maryn, perfect parent (as if!)