Anyone here like to talk about tropes?

[Corrupt-Canine]

If you don't know what tropes are, they're basically ideas and common writing seen in all media, writing, and entertainment. about. By the way, they're helpful to look at if you want ideas of what to write and do.
Have any you'd like to talk about? Haven any that you hate? It could probably be even an ambiguous one.

I'll start off. One of my favorite (though infamous ones) I seem to like reading about are Scrappies and Designated Hero tropes. A scrappy is basically a character that's annoying to the general audience, constantly praised, and not a very pleasant character. Here's an article about it if you want to read more of it: The Scrappy - TV Tropes

 

[PlusThirtyOne]

TV Tropes are a fun internet rabbit hole to fall into but it's difficult to discuss on the whole. it's too wide a topic to start a thread about. it's like asking, "Hey! Who here likes Wikipedia? Wanna talk about it?" Also, tropes are hard to pick out and discuss without coming off like a big fiction snob. Comparing story X to story Y because they both feature common thread Z can get kinda grating to some people. Yes, tropes exist. Yes, there are consistencies between stories. it's fun to read about them but i've found that tearing down fiction to its core, analyzing and dissecting every world and character it down to their tropes and generalizing can sometimes ruin the fun.

But that's not to say that tropes are bad!
They're just pedantic and over-analyzed.

 

[nerdbat]

They're just pedantic and over-analyzed.

Not really a bad thing, especially for an aspiring writer. TVTropes is pretty much a "writer's cookbook" of the Internet - a place where you can read in-depth about various plot devices, how to fit them into the story properly, how to write complex characters and compile a strong long-lasting story, etc. The "Playing With" system used on the site is especially cool in my opinion - the whole "aversion/subversion/justification" thingie that explains many imaginative ways of messing with the plot in simple and demonstrative form. On one side, it may "ruin the fun", but on the other, it lets the writer itself write a fascinating story which will amaze those who don't know the "magic" behind it.

 

[PlusThirtyOne]

Not really a bad thing, especially for an aspiring writer. TVTropes is pretty much a "writer's cookbook" of the Internet - a place where you can read in-depth about various plot devices, how to fit them into the story properly, how to write complex characters and compile a strong long-lasting story, etc. The "Playing With" system used on the site is especially cool in my opinion - the whole "aversion/subversion/justification" thingie that explains many imaginative ways of messing with the plot in simple and demonstrative form. On one side, it may "ruin the fun", but on the other, it lets the writer itself write a fascinating story which will amaze those who don't know the "magic" behind it.

Oh, don't get me wrong. i LOVE TVTropes! it's a valuable resource for research and writing but boiling down a story to its tropes can sometimes feel like boiling down a person to racial and character stereotypes. Some characteristics may be true but some are just incidental.
i've had friends who've refused to see a movie based purely in known tropes. i've had stories ruinned by others pointing out predictable tropes. i've fallen victim to over-analysis before. Sometimes a story is just a story. Sometimes a bad guy is just a bad guy. Sometimes a plot twist is just a plot twist. Sometimes over thinking can ruin the fun.