favorite tropes in general?

[tesseractcube]

there are a lot of tropes in media, so i'm wondering about people's favorites 

personally, i love the story trope of ~evil experiments~ going on and making some weird creatures. right now i can only think of The Isle as an example for that right now, even though that's not the best example... 

oh, Rain World also kind of falls into that trope because many of the creatures in that game were engineered. As well as Monster Hunter Wilds where a certain subset of Monsters were experimented on and went rogue.

what tropes do you like? 


- a

[Symberzite]

It's a bit of a niche one, but I adore Hollywood movie hacking. I love the idea that someone is just sitting on their butt typing away at a keyboard, but good cinematography and pumping music make it more exciting than most gunfights. Good examples are Hackers and the Social Network.

 

[AY38910]

Hackers totally use MS-DOS on greenscreen CRT even in the far future. They always use that kinda shit on TV whenever they appear with a computer. But key, DOS was a great system with many really fun games. Also, I like green.

[MrsMoe]

Ohhhh!!!! There's tons of tropes I'm nuts for! I'm gonna list them all out cause I have a solid handful:

- Duel personas, or the self breaking apart into doppelgangers. Extra points if it plays into the horrors of being perceived.

- Wonderland-esque settings. Alice in Wonderland is one my favorite works of fiction ever, so I love any stories that take a young protagonist and thrust them into a strange fantasyland (think OTGW, Pan's Labyrinth, or Coraline).

- Eldritch locations (I think I just like places that are weird and nonsensical lol). I love the thought of a location being actively hostile or built around tormenting whoever inhabits it. The best examples would probably be the house from House of Leaves of Silent Hill.

- Dreams or mental worlds as a thematic or plot device in any capacity.

- Characters who are timid and reserved, but either have a dry, sarcastic side or have an underlying darkness to them.

- Guilt, trauma or grief being represented by an ominous being that plagues the protagonist (think Pyramid Head or Something from Omori).

- Themes of existentialism, or escapism vs reality.

- Stories in which several faucets of society and isolated behaviors interweave into something horrible, like Twin Peaks or Paranoia Agent.

- The general message of "life can be hard, lonely, and painful, but living it and connecting with others will always be worth it".

[thefanciestpigeon]

I love love love anytime characters are trapped in an isolated dangerous situation and have to deal with it. I believe tv tropes calls it locked in a freezer. I just generally love when characters are forced by extreme circumstances to do or admit or think things they wouldn't normally.

I also love in sci-fi media set in the future when the characters get time-travelled to whatever year was the present day when it was created. I looove star trek IV: the voyage home soo much.

I also like when there are non-human characters and the character's differences from the humans are vital to solving whatever problem is being faced!

Ohhhh!!!! There's tons of tropes I'm nuts for! I'm gonna list them all out cause I have a solid handful:

- Duel personas, or the self breaking apart into doppelgangers. Extra points if it plays into the horrors of being perceived.

- Wonderland-esque settings. Alice in Wonderland is one my favorite works of fiction ever, so I love any stories that take a young protagonist and thrust them into a strange fantasyland (think OTGW, Pan's Labyrinth, or Coraline).

- Eldritch locations (I think I just like places that are weird and nonsensical lol). I love the thought of a location being actively hostile or built around tormenting whoever inhabits it. The best examples would probably be the house from House of Leaves of Silent Hill.

- Dreams or mental worlds as a thematic or plot device in any capacity.

- Characters who are timid and reserved, but either have a dry, sarcastic side or have an underlying darkness to them.

- Guilt, trauma or grief being represented by an ominous being that plagues the protagonist (think Pyramid Head or Something from Omori).

- Themes of existentialism, or escapism vs reality.

- Stories in which several faucets of society and isolated behaviors interweave into something horrible, like Twin Peaks or Paranoia Agent.

- The general message of "life can be hard, lonely, and painful, but living it and connecting with others will always be worth it".

ooh I love all of those too! especially anything involving dreams or duality of the self!

[Bede]

I have a lot of tropes I love, but I'll try to keep it brief and limit it to just a few.

Internalized queerphobia. I'm known for this in my friend circles, to the point that if a character in a piece of art has internalized queerphobia, they think, "Bede would love this character". And they're right! It's the #1 trait to make a character instant me-bait. All flavors!!! "Same-sex attracted, not gay"-flavor, "it doesn't count because we're both the same gender"-flavor, "it's too late for me to transition, so I'll just give up"-flavor, "trans egg violently in denial"-flavor, "bullying someone who reflects your own queer traits"-flavor, and I can keep going. MAKE! THAT! CHARACTER! EXPERIENCE! SHAME!!!!

I also love exploring a disconnect from humanity as a result of being 'different'. Usually, through the lens of being an animal/being nonhuman. Think like the movie Nimona, which uses shapeshifting and monsterousness as a trans metaphor, and villainy as a blanket queer metaphor.

Lastly, I love a good Abrahamic religious motif, especially fallen angels and demons. But there are tons of specific Bible stories that I really love seeing referenced, too (like the Binding of Isaac (of the Bible, not the game), the kiss of Judas, the crown of thorns, the fruit of the tree of knowledge/apples representing temptation... again, I can keep going).

[RNotteLovesOwls]

oooohohoho BOY, time to channel my inner troper! #tvtropesruinedmylife

ahem anyway...

my favorite tropes are the ones that reject the negative perceptions of the dark (and related entities) and portray them in a positive light instead. such as "dark is not evil", "don't fear the reaper", "bad powers, good people", "friendly ghost", "friendly neighborhood vampire", "noble wolf", etc. because yeah; death, darkness, the night, magic, wolves, owls, crows, cats, and mythical monsters have been written in such a negative light for centuries, that it's refreshing when they aren't. see batman, monsters inc, loving reaper, okami, call of the night, and the owl house for some examples of this

[ValyceNegative]

I remember we were listing our favourite characters among friends and my husband commented I "like smartly dressed, tired men". Guess that's my trope xD

[sorrowshowers]

Internalized queerphobia. I'm known for this in my friend circles, to the point that if a character in a piece of art has internalized queerphobia, they think, "Bede would love this character". And they're right! It's the #1 trait to make a character instant me-bait. All flavors!!! "Same-sex attracted, not gay"-flavor, "it doesn't count because we're both the same gender"-flavor, "it's too late for me to transition, so I'll just give up"-flavor, "trans egg violently in denial"-flavor, "bullying someone who reflects your own queer traits"-flavor, and I can keep going. MAKE! THAT! CHARACTER! EXPERIENCE! SHAME!!!!

YESS SAME! It's a shame I don't see it as often as I'd like. I mean, internalized anything-phobia is really nasty and a nuanced topic that can be hard to convey in some mediums. I think more authors should take the "leap of faith" and depict it though. If I were to read something featuring the trope years ago (when I was an unsure queer teen) I'd have an "ah-hah" moment about myself.