How about when the villain sends the world's worst assassin to make a pathetically weak attempt on the protagonist's life, while carrying an incriminating note?
Or the Demon King starts conquering the world with sending the weakest mob monsters into human territory head on. It's like a business card saying "Hello Hero, I'm the End Boss and here's some free EXP. Let's get along!"... I blame Dragon Quest for that stable trope...
Here's another one I'm sick to death of, and really wish would die:
"Oh my god, these *insert bad guy establishment* troops are so dangerous and deadly, well trained, efficient, and unbeatable! Going up against the *insert bad guy establishment* would be suicide!"
*heroes tear through bad guys like they're the most pathetic things ever making you wonder why anyone is scared of them*
We've all seen it in Star Wars - the famously incompetent stormtroopers who can't hit a barn door despite Obiwan saying how precise they are. We've seen it in Spartacus - the Roman soldiers who are so pathetic one wonders why Spartacus and Ganicus are even scared of Romans. We've seen it in Vikings, where a dozen Danes can wipe out an army of hundreds of Saxons without losing a single guy, then act as though they've won some great victory against a difficult foe (I'm of Saxon descent (well okay, I have a Saxon name... that counts, right?) so this one kind of hurts! ;p ). Even The Hobbit did it with the orcs who are so useless that Legolas and Tauriel can take down entire hordes of them barely breaking a sweat, even though "if I was an orc you'd already be dead". It's the old "incompetent bad guys" syndrome, where they tell us how dangerous they are and then go on to show them barely able to hold a sword. I get that they want to show the heroes looking amazingly badass and super-strong, but come on, can we see some scenes of these supposedly highly competent bad guys actually looking competent? And if it's not too much trouble, can we at least see the heroes struggling to take down these bad guys, so their fear of them is justified?
Come on Hollywood, show, don't tell! If these guys are supposed to be competent, I want to see them being competent, and if the heroes are really that much better than them, I want them to act like it and not pretend to be scared of them - the humility of these heroes is incredible!
@squire Speaking of Saxons, I thought Stellan Skarsgard made a seriously fierce looking Saxon King Cerdic in the movie King Arthur with Clive Owen. He says, speaking of Arthur: "Finally, a man worth killing"
Regarding Star Wars it's really interesting that when any protagonist is present the imperial troops barely know how to shoot their weapons but when there are no protagonists they are able to destroy entire rebellion fleets and bases, discover and kill all spies, etc... Maybe it's The Force
@Squire Was that really prevalent in any part of the original trilogy beyond "A New Hope"? It's outright stated that the Storm Troopers were missing so much on purpose to allow the rescue of Leia. Led them straight to the rebel base. They basically succeed EVERY other ground mission against the rebels barring the shield generator in "Return of the Jedi".
*EDIT* Sorry if that come off as harsh. This one is major pet peeve of mine. I don't even know how the "stormtroopers can't hit anything" meme started.
This is an oldie but not sure if it's been mentioned yet. I'm an evil villain, maybe even a super-powerful villain, here let me describe to you in detail what my evil plans are and not just shoot you in the head but devise some over-complicated death scenario or turn over the duty of killing you to some underling who accidentally frees you by being a complete idiot after I've left.
It seems the only detail of the evil plan left to chance is the demise of the only person(s) who can stop it! (James Bond anybody?)
This is an oldie but not sure if it's been mentioned yet. I'm an evil villain, maybe even a super-powerful villain, here let me describe to you in detail what my evil plans are and not just shoot you in the head but devise some over-complicated death scenario or turn over the duty of killing you to some underling who accidentally frees you by being a complete idiot after I've left.
It seems the only detail of the evil plan left to chance is the demise of the only person(s) who can stop it! (James Bond anybody?)
I reckon it's the whole good prevails in the end thing that is rampant in so much of the movies and TV shows. Many books to for that matter.
I wonder how hard it would be to write a book where the conflict was evil versus a different kind of evil. Both side would see themselves as heroes, of course.
This is an oldie but not sure if it's been mentioned yet. I'm an evil villain, maybe even a super-powerful villain, here let me describe to you in detail what my evil plans are and not just shoot you in the head but devise some over-complicated death scenario or turn over the duty of killing you to some underling who accidentally frees you by being a complete idiot after I've left.
It seems the only detail of the evil plan left to chance is the demise of the only person(s) who can stop it! (James Bond anybody?)
@ThacoBell I can understand how that might be a thing in the whole "escape from the death star" part, but they were already unable to hit anything as early as Mos Eisley, before they even knew about the plan to stick a tracking beacon on their ship. Plus they did get wiped out by a bunch of teddy bears with pointed sticks.
Of course, the real reason is "plot armour". No matter how good you are - you could, literally, be the world's best sniper - but you will always miss the hero character unless the plot has decided that he is to have a dramatic death at that point. The only time Imperial ground troops are even remotely competent is when they're up against an army consisting entirely of extras.
But again, it's not just Star Wars, it happens in lots of things where we're told how well trained and badass the bad guys are only to watch the heroes cut them down effortlessly without so much as a scratch.
ETA: actually this reminds me of another one: the-number-of-bad-guys to bad-guy-toughness ratio. The more bad guys there are, the easier each one is to drop.
50 odd bad guys = each one drops with a single punch; one bad guy = half-hour fight scene in which the hero almost gets beaten but manages to dramatically kill the bad guy with a plot device.
a book where the conflict was evil versus a different kind of evil.
A Song of Ice and Fire.
Even the Song of Ice and fire seems to be going "the good guys win" way if the John Snow arc actually makes him the king as Game of Thrones seem to indicate... At least they won't win easily.
I wonder how hard it would be to write a book where the conflict was evil versus a different kind of evil. Both side would see themselves as heroes, of course.
Well Joe Abercrombies First Law universe definitely fits pretty well into that, although I don't interpret it as good or evil.
I wonder how hard it would be to write a book where the conflict was evil versus a different kind of evil. Both side would see themselves as heroes, of course.
They don't consider themselves heroic, but Thieves World is pretty much villain vs villain.
I wonder how hard it would be to write a book where the conflict was evil versus a different kind of evil. Both side would see themselves as heroes, of course.
They don't consider themselves heroic, but Thieves World is pretty much villain vs villain.
Personal pet peeve to the collection - crime lords everywhere! You leave a group of old monks from respected monastery for one day without supervision - half of them form mafia and force the rest (except one hero and his faithful-but-stubborn-at-first follower) to join. And authorities never able (and allowed!) to do anything about it.
No, seriously, what's up with every space station with tight security (trained personnel, good weapons, big numbers) having whole sectors controlled by bandits? There is one dock, but criminals somehow able to transport anything and anyone they want. With complete inability of said security to do anything about it. And how do these criminals got to the station on the first place? What do they eat and drink, where do they get oxygen? Ugh!
Another thing - Lord of the Flies trop. Why, WHOW Book/TV/Movie/etc. came to idea that kids can not be taught any sense and manners? All teenagers are idiotic rude young criminals - some (oh, so sweet!) unintentionally, but 100% jerks all of them! And god forbid to raise kids with any grand idea like "help your country"! Even if life of the whole society depends of everyone collective work in accord.
Seriously, that kind of things (not the nudity) I would count as an "adult fantasy" and forbid kids under 25 to watch.
William Golding write Lord of the Flies whist teaching English at a British Public school. It's based entierly on observation*.
*having both been a student at and taught at such a school I can attest to his accuracy.
No doubts "Lord of the Flies" or "A Clockwork Orange" can happen, but it describes one specific type of kids, it's far from a general rule (not to mention "Déformation professionnelle"). Yet, in books/TV/Movies it's a trait shared by any group of teenagers (which according to that media means youngsters 20+) regardless of historical period, society type, any country/planetary size events and so on.
Would you expect some amish kids behave as group from NY getto? TV would.
Comments
All regular people just getting on with their lives without too much angst are stupid and/or undoubtedly evil when push comes to shove.
Male or female they are always, always "mean girls" .
Being socially adept, popular and (God forbid) attractive is the sign of the devil.
If you haven't got an "issue" forget it, you are not worthy.
"Oh my god, these *insert bad guy establishment* troops are so dangerous and deadly, well trained, efficient, and unbeatable! Going up against the *insert bad guy establishment* would be suicide!"
*heroes tear through bad guys like they're the most pathetic things ever making you wonder why anyone is scared of them*
We've all seen it in Star Wars - the famously incompetent stormtroopers who can't hit a barn door despite Obiwan saying how precise they are. We've seen it in Spartacus - the Roman soldiers who are so pathetic one wonders why Spartacus and Ganicus are even scared of Romans. We've seen it in Vikings, where a dozen Danes can wipe out an army of hundreds of Saxons without losing a single guy, then act as though they've won some great victory against a difficult foe (I'm of Saxon descent (well okay, I have a Saxon name... that counts, right?) so this one kind of hurts! ;p ). Even The Hobbit did it with the orcs who are so useless that Legolas and Tauriel can take down entire hordes of them barely breaking a sweat, even though "if I was an orc you'd already be dead". It's the old "incompetent bad guys" syndrome, where they tell us how dangerous they are and then go on to show them barely able to hold a sword. I get that they want to show the heroes looking amazingly badass and super-strong, but come on, can we see some scenes of these supposedly highly competent bad guys actually looking competent? And if it's not too much trouble, can we at least see the heroes struggling to take down these bad guys, so their fear of them is justified?
Come on Hollywood, show, don't tell! If these guys are supposed to be competent, I want to see them being competent, and if the heroes are really that much better than them, I want them to act like it and not pretend to be scared of them - the humility of these heroes is incredible!
*EDIT* Sorry if that come off as harsh. This one is major pet peeve of mine. I don't even know how the "stormtroopers can't hit anything" meme started.
It seems the only detail of the evil plan left to chance is the demise of the only person(s) who can stop it! (James Bond anybody?)
Of course, the real reason is "plot armour". No matter how good you are - you could, literally, be the world's best sniper - but you will always miss the hero character unless the plot has decided that he is to have a dramatic death at that point.
But again, it's not just Star Wars, it happens in lots of things where we're told how well trained and badass the bad guys are only to watch the heroes cut them down effortlessly without so much as a scratch.
ETA: actually this reminds me of another one: the-number-of-bad-guys to bad-guy-toughness ratio. The more bad guys there are, the easier each one is to drop.
50 odd bad guys = each one drops with a single punch;
one bad guy = half-hour fight scene in which the hero almost gets beaten but manages to dramatically kill the bad guy with a plot device.
minor
Villain monologing - he is playing for time.
Popular girl who the hero likes is mean - no, she isn't
No, seriously, what's up with every space station with tight security (trained personnel, good weapons, big numbers) having whole sectors controlled by bandits? There is one dock, but criminals somehow able to transport anything and anyone they want. With complete inability of said security to do anything about it. And how do these criminals got to the station on the first place? What do they eat and drink, where do they get oxygen? Ugh!
Another thing - Lord of the Flies trop. Why, WHOW Book/TV/Movie/etc. came to idea that kids can not be taught any sense and manners? All teenagers are idiotic rude young criminals - some (oh, so sweet!) unintentionally, but 100% jerks all of them! And god forbid to raise kids with any grand idea like "help your country"! Even if life of the whole society depends of everyone collective work in accord.
Seriously, that kind of things (not the nudity) I would count as an "adult fantasy" and forbid kids under 25 to watch.
*having both been a student at and taught at such a school I can attest to his accuracy.
Would you expect some amish kids behave as group from NY getto? TV would.