When indulging in fantasy stories, no matter through which media, there are some tropes that can be found too often. Many of us have come to resent certain tropes — even if they’re well done — from the sheer amount of exposure to them. Here are some of the worst offenders that are found everywhere.
Do note that tropes are tools, so if you’re creating a fantasy story, don’t shy away from these tropes. Just make sure to do them well, else you’ll likely receive a lot of sighs from your work.
The death subversion trope
Something I personally find that cheapens any fantasy work is the subversion of death. A cherished character killed? No matter! They’ll just be brought back to life!
Whenever a character is brought back to life, unless it’s the central aim of a plot or makes sense in the context of the world, I typically sigh. It cheapens the significance of death as a tool, and I find it hard to start caring about that character again.
If a writer is scared to let a character go (from fear of the plot or audience reception), then they simply shouldn’t be let go. Death is a very real and scary thing, so to cheat it — oftentimes a poor or rushed exercise — only serves to diminish one of the only things that connects our world to the fantasy world: Proper death and grief.
Cheating death for a beloved character will always be annoying unless it is thoroughly supported by the plot and world context.
The protagonist subverting cultural norms trope
This one really irks me. In a setting where the protagonist’s family/tribe/community all abide by the same cultural norms, but the protagonist just… doesn’t?
Societal and cultural norms exist not for the sake of them but because they have been instilled over many generations to become normal. What makes this worse is when the protagonist is the only one to question them, only to be shunned by their peers’ complete ignorance.
What irked me when watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was when Finn couldn’t handle warfare. I mean, every single other Stormtrooper out there was doing just fine. It would have been more believable if other Stormtroopers were struggling, or if there was even a hint of their internal struggles, but as far as the plot was concerned, it was only Finn.
What blesses our dear protagonist with such outward thinking without any outward interference? It doesn’t make logical sense and is simply an easy way to kick-start their plot of discovery or being an outcast. If a protagonist is to question their very way of life, then have it occur naturally, and for the love of God have their peers be a little more receptive.
The ability to question shouldn’t be a trait given solely to the protagonist. Any questioning should arise naturally or be inspired by something else outside of what’s been instilled into their minds for all their years.
The “world is at stake!” trope
Not every damn fantasy story needs to have an entire world, continent, or way of life at stake.
Higher stakes do not relate to heightened care and tension. The consequences of the big bad don’t have to be catastrophic for us to care about them. The most important factor that makes readers care about stakes is how personal they are to the protagonist and those around them.
You can have a “save the world” plot as long as many more personal things are either at stake or have already been violated or destroyed. It is the personal factors from the struggle between the protagonist and antagonist that the readers will connect to – because, typically, the whole damn world is too big to care about.
What is at stake matters not unless it is personally connected to the characters we care about.
The protagonist having “natural talent” trope
Don’t get me started on this one. There are many ways that this can be explained and executed — and almost all of them are insufferable.
This typically means that the protagonist becomes a “master” or extraordinarily skilled in combat of a specific type despite zero or minimal training. Be it bloodline or simply a natural talent — no one wants to see someone become a master of an art without proper training.
Another awful way this trope comes to fruition is when, in combat, the protagonist simply finds the strength in them to “try harder.” This is seen a lot in magical-based combat, where both parties are inexplicably straining, and the one who strains the most wins! *cough cough Harry Potter*
Dragon Ball Z is another offender of the “strain-off” battles where we simply see Goku scream harder than he’s ever screamed before, unlock a new hair color, and then beat the opponent to shreds. The first few dozen times may be cool for the kids at home, but a little nuance won’t kill anyone.
Without appropriate training or reason, a character shouldn’t just become the best at anything or be able to become so much stronger through sheer will naturally. It’s lazy and bothersome.
The hard magic system essay trope
Writing magic into any story in any medium is difficult— but one thing to avoid is info-dumps about the intricate details of the magic system implemented into the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe any magic system requires at least some foundational rules to make them realistic and not a constant plot armor machine, but for the most part, it should remain in the author’s realm. As long as the magic feels like it’s a natural implementation, it’s fine. But I really don’t want to read essays on the subject.
Not only is it too much information to retain, but, ironically, it takes the magic out of it. Some explanations may be warranted but should be tempered and brought up naturally and simply. Having one scholar explain everything off the bat is boring.
You don’t need to explain every facet of your magic system just because you spent countless hours making it. Just have it exist behind the scenes for you to abide by.
The token “big fight” trope
Much like not all stories need to have the world at stake for high tension and engagement, not every story needs a big battle for the conclusion to be enjoyable.
Now, big fantasy battles are cool and all, but if they’re not needed, they merely become a boring event like any other that I have the displeasure of reading through merely because the author wanted a big battle. Typically, you’ll see a big battle composed of all the factions — and some surprise reveals!— that we’ve seen in the story before to make it as big as possible.
The final battle in The Lord of the Rings is awesome, but only because we’ve spent the last many hours learning about the factions and the politics that connect them. To have the riders show up is an example of a good surprise reveal. What would have cheapened this fight is if every faction we’ve encountered before come in to help out of nowhere, with a cheap explanation of “honor” being the reason why they decided to show up.
The thing is, this just isn’t needed for a story’s conclusion or the defeat of the big bad to be memorable. There are so many other ways to end a grand conflict than more large-scale battles.
The purposefully hidden information trope
“I have some incredibly crucial information that I’m going to keep hidden out of shame/jealousy/incompetence that would save us a lot of time, effort, and possibly save our lives, but I’m going to keep it hidden till the last possible moment!”
Come on! This line of thinking is so absurd and is ridiculously executed most of the time. If anyone was in a situation where their information could potentially save lives or an incredible amount of hassle and grief, they’d simply share it instead of sitting on it for little to no reason.This incredibly lazy writing merely drops the right bit of information into the hero’s path right when they need it — which is an awful trope that needs to be eradicated entirely.
Whenever this happens I can’t help but scream, “why didn’t you say this earlier?!” which is not a desirable response from an audience.
The misunderstood big bad trope
Speaking of big bads, must they all be so sympathetic? I’m all for villains that are more human than “evil for evil’s sake,” but must they all have such a tragic backstory? What’s even worse is when it turns out they’d been “possessed” or controlled, so none of their evil deeds were their own.
Some of my favorite villains are those who are merely evil. Not just for the sake of it, but villains that aren’t redeemable. If I’m forced to sympathize with a villain I’ve been despising the entire story I tend to care even less for them.
The worst renditions of this are when they redeem themselves inexplicably at the last minute, and it’s supposed to right all their wrongs. That’s right, I’m looking at you, Star Wars. We may have had years of extra Star Wars conflict to sympathise with Anakin Skywalker, but back in the day when those three films were the only ones that existed, and I’ve gotta say it comes out of nowhere.
Imagine watching the Star Wars trilogy with Darth Vader as this indomitable power of the Dark Side suddenly decides that he cares about his son and topples the big bad he’s been serving for all these years. Sure it is rather sweet and an emotional sequence, but it is the prime example of this trope.
And don’t get me started with “but he was the chosen one after all” and “Anakin was there all along” as there is nothing in the first trilogy that shows any of that – it was all implemented in later Star Wars media that wasn’t conceptualised then.
So, in short, suddenly sympathetic villains are annoying, especially when done last minute.
The Chosen One trope
“You’ve been chosen by a prophecy to complete X task — and it can only be you, plucky and unsuspecting hero! Only you, for some reason!”
Must there be a chosen one? Unless there are layers of complex and compelling writing, reason, and investment into the existence of one specific lifeform that can only complete a task, then just don’t bother having a chosen one.
There are so many stories that have a chosen one – either through set-in-stone prophecies or because a wise so-and-so decided.
It’s mostly unnecessary, as the story could have been written whether that protagonist was made the Chosen One or not. And it’s much more compelling when someone wasn’t prophecised to do something — they just completed the task through sheer willpower and determination, not because it was said that they would ages ago.
The enemies-to-lovers trope
You know this trope all too well, don’t you?
If a protagonist comes upon another core character they despise instantly, chances are they’ll become smitten with each other. This is such an unbearable and overused trope that it’s now an instant turn-off for many readers out there.
For some strange reason, Jurassic World comes to mind, with Claire and Owen. They start off butting heads due to ideological differences, but what do you know, they get together by the end of the film. I may be in a minority here, but I really didn’t care for them. I was there for a lackluster dinosaur cash-grab, not a lackluster contrived romance!
Characters are allowed to hate other characters without wanting to bed them — just hate and let hate, writers.
Again, these tropes are only bad if done in the poor manner that we see far too often, no matter the budget behind the project. So please, if you are creating a fantasy story, try not to perform any of these tropes poorly.