Plot devices in stories that causes one to frown?

melchi

melchi

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Does anyone else have these? I guess this is sorta me venting as a reader too but it is good to know that perspective as an author too and avoid doing something that as a reader would turn myself off to the story.

Lately, my number one annoyance is the insta-gank scenario.

Someone sitting in town -> bound and gagged in less than paragraph.

Wait... what?

No foreshadowing... not change in perspective to that of an kidnapper... no,zero,nadda, just one sentence gank and defeat.

It is frustrating, like playing a video game where the very first fight you die in. What game developer does that?
 
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Representing_Tromba

Representing_Tromba

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SailusGebel said:
What?
Click to expand...
Have you decided to change your catchphrase from "no" to "What?"
melchi said:
Does anyone else have these? I guess this is sorta me venting as a reader too but it is good to know that perspective as an author too and avoid doing something that as a reader would turn myself off to the story.

Lately, my number one annoyance is the insta-gank scenario.

Someone sitting in town -> bound and gagged in less than paragraph.

Wait... what?

No foreshadowing... not change in perspective to that of an kidnapper... no,zero,nadda, just one sentence gank and defeat.

It is frustrating, like playing a video game where the very first fight you die in. What game developer does that?
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I dislike Deus ex machina and seemingly forced character dialogue that doesn't do anything but make things feel uncomfortable.
 
Jemini

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Contrived situations to create a damsel in distress scenario. The worst for me was that bit in Dan Machi where they have the whole stone that can absorb the soul of a fox girl, and only a fox girl, and they happen to have the fox girl there who just so happens to have a power that would make using the stone on her worth while.

It was so incredibly contrived I literally dropped the series as soon as I heard that plotline. I know people say it's a great series and all, and I did enjoy the 1st season, but that one irked me so bad. It's basically she was already a sex slave, so they had to find something worse to damsel her with than the whole classic "save the damsel from being raped" situation.

That save the damsel from being raped scenario, by the way, I'm not as offended by that one as most people seem to be, but my one condition for it is that it has to not be super contrived. And, it usually IS super contrived. Or rather, the thing that gets contrived about it is trying to create a scenario in which the hero can find out about it ahead of time and be able to still get there in time to save the damsel from it. That's where it gets super contrived almost every single time. If it's just saving the damsel from someone accosting her on the street, that's fine. That scenario actually makes sense. Some of the scenarios that come up in SAO, however, are incredibly bad.
 
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CapitaoCaverna

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Prince_Azmiran_Myrian said:
When the plot can only take place if nobody communicates and misunderstands everything.

When normal character picks up the idiot ball.
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Yes! Oh god yes.

That's so damn annoying. Even when the author does his work right and you can believe the characters would hide something from each other it's still so, SO annoying.

I think I once ranted for an hour straight about this to my brother. It absolutely ruins any story to me.

The only thing I hate more is when an author has to diminish or destroy an established character to make a new one appear good.

Like, the author went through all this trouble to make me believe this character is a fucking badass, but he wants to introduce someone new and doesn't want to have to go through all that again.

Instead, he just has the new character save the badass, or show him being better than the badass in some ways.

I mean, it can work, and I've seen it used to introduce a new, bigger bad so many times that it's not even funny but, most of the time, I find it annoying.

Particularly because it tends to destroy the original character the author went through all this trouble to stablish.
 
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There's currently a popular manga/J-webnovel device "expelled by my adventuring party/summoner but I'm actually overpowered".

I think I hate it even more than the "I have no idea how to write female characters so I'll have my gormless mook of an MC buy a female slave" device.
 
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CapitaoCaverna

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Jemini said:
Contrived situations to create a damsel in distress scenario. The worst for me was that bit in Dan Machi where they have the whole stone that can absorb the soul of a fox girl, and only a fox girl, and they happen to have the fox girl there who just so happens to have a power that would make using the stone on her worth while.
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In the defense of Danmachi, I'll say that, at least they didn't use that trope as badly as they could.

I mean, it is very contrived, I'll grant you that but, I think my main gripe with it was the fact that the stone could only work on fox people.

I think that I could buy everything happening if the stone could be used on most people.

It's still an extremely rare stone, and highly regulated, so that would explain why people wouldn't use it more.

I could buy that Ishtar familia had been looking for an edge against Freya for a long time and could have found the girl with that skill.

I could also buy that Ishtar managed to get the rare stone, and the way it was gonna be used.

The problem I had with that was the fact that the stone only worked on fox people, and only fox people had innate skills before even getting a falna.

Yeah... That was contrived as all fuc**.

Still, if you liked the first season, I really recommend you continue watching, it's very good.

(still, the light novels are MUCH better, and sword oratoria light novel is even better.)
 
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What irks me in a story are the following:

1). Level system (coz it doesn't make the character 'human' in my opinion)

2). Adventurers' Guild and the letter-based classification system (every damn time I read an isekai nowadays, there's this element)

3). Slavery, especially of women (think of me as a simp, but I'll always abhor forced relationships)

4). FMCs that are always beside the MMC only as the 'rah rah girl' (see, this FMC is touted as 'the greatest, the best, the unequalled', then MMC comes, defeats her, and suddenly she becomes the practice doll of subsequent villains/anti-heroes, like, where did her skills go to after getting defeated by the MMC?)

5). Forced situations like accidental peeping toms, accidental bumping into each other, accidental asking for a duel and ending up getting ass kicked (like man, that doesn't work in real life, I mean, it's fantasy, but still...a lot of those situations can be solved by using common sense and courtesy)

I'll add more after I finish my bath. ?
 
AnonUnlimited

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What I hate the most is when the MC is going to accomplish something but somehow something else happens to drag out the scenario.

I’ve dropped a lot of stories that do that.
 
BearlyAlive

BearlyAlive

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Most of what 'modern' weebs would consider their kind of writing. So harem, unearned OP MCs, one-dimensional characters, MC-centric ex machina developments, idiot plots, filler arcs, 'relationship trouble' based on one or more characters not using their brain. I guess I hate idiotic writing in general.

Also:
Time travel
Modern Vampires
 
Le_ther

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melchi said:
Does anyone else have these? I guess this is sorta me venting as a reader too but it is good to know that perspective as an author too and avoid doing something that as a reader would turn myself off to the story.

Lately, my number one annoyance is the insta-gank scenario.

Someone sitting in town -> bound and gagged in less than paragraph.

Wait... what?

No foreshadowing... not change in perspective to that of an kidnapper... no,zero,nadda, just one sentence gank and defeat.

It is frustrating, like playing a video game where the very first fight you die in. What game developer does that?
Click to expand...
Nerfing the strongest badass character to show that the mc and the villain have became a much more stronger.


This frustates me like imagine having a good strong and cool character that got turned into a clown at the end of a story due to how broken the villain and the mc have became. This mostly happens to rival character.
 
AryaX

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Unstoppable "Will" power...

That is.. A character does something that should be impossible, simply because they're so damn determined to do it... The very laws of physics (or such) just break or bend in the face of their overwhelming WILL!
 
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