What's your least favorite type of story? (NOT TROPES)

[Deleted member 5865]

I have two:

1) Pointless revenge quests. I mean the type where the main character is obsessed with revenge and there's nothing to be gained from it because the bad guys aren't really doing anything noteworthy. As someone that believes success is the best type of "revenge", it's really boring to watch someone roam around doing nothing productive with their life. I don't mind this being someone's backstory, but it just doesn't work as a main thing

2) Ensemble stories. Idk, my brain isn't wired to care about a cast of random people doing random things. I need some sort of consistent anchor(s) to the world. Honestly I dont care if a story evolves into an ensemble, but you need to start out giving me someone/something to focus on. For example, I just watched Oz the other day, and I was halfway through episode 2 and was like "....huh? I dont care about any of this.". As a new viewer it was like the show gave me something, took it away and then asked "But dont you want to watch the other people do their thing?" and the answer was "No?"

What are your personal least favorite types of stories? I don't mean tropes or cliches, im talking about types of plots and more broader things of that nature.

 

[Thorn]

Shows that are just a marathon of bad things happening to people in a bleak hopeless setting.

 

[Lightus]

Serialized shows/movies etc where the main characters never get the thing they're working towards. It's the reason I stopped watching CatDog as a child.

I get the reason why, because if the characters get what they want, it changes the dynamic of the show. Still annoying to watch though.

 

[Annubis]

Romcoms that lead nowhere as the relationship is constantly re-initialized.

 

[jackie daytona]

Comedies of error. If they would sit down for 5 minutes and just discuss the situation, everything would be resolved. Meet the Parents was the movie that cemented this opinion for me.

 

[Deleted member 15240]

Stories about older cynics, usually men, finding redemption and/or rediscovering their humanity as they reluctantly help a younger/more vulnerable character, often a child or woman.

 

[Deleted member 5865]

Stories about older cynics, usually men, finding redemption and/or rediscovering their humanity as they reluctantly help a younger/more vulnerable character, often a child or woman.

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Can you give an example?

 

[404LinkNotFound]

Portal fantasies where a fantasy character ends up stuck on Earth . Wow look at that cool setting they came from! Too bad youll never see it again as the characters dick around on bog standard earth for most of the story

 

[Sulik2]

Ambiguous endings. Just a sign you didn't know to end the story or are afraid the audience won't like your ending. Have the balls to actually end your story.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Not a specific genre or anything, but I'm personally not a fan of movies with an unconventional structure. I generally like films to have a typical beginning-middle-end structure, and when a film deviates from that I usually find it unsatisfying in a way I can't quite explain. The Green Knight being a recent example; I liked a lot of things about it but I would have much preferred a traditional narrative structure and less 'open to interpretation'.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

Not a specific genre or anything, but I'm personally not a fan of movies with an unconventional structure. I generally like films to have a typical beginning-middle-end structure, and when a film deviates from that I usually find it unsatisfying in a way I can't quite explain. The Green Knight being a recent example; I liked a lot of things about it but I would have much preferred a traditional narrative structure and less 'open to interpretation'.

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Im convinced that smovie was 2deep4me cuz i see critics like it but i....just didnt get the movie at all. What was even the point. I felt like i wasted my time

 

[Tavernade]

I like it when a bad person suffers the consequences of their actions through vengeance ghosts. Especially if the vengeance ghost is actually the spirit of the wronged party inhabiting a pet cat.

It's happened at least twice.

 

[Modest_Modsoul]

Ironic/bad-luck comedy: when character(s) doing their best to do something, it failed & supposedly to be funny. There are 2 types.

1. Good, which I find it funny.
2. Bad, which annoying.

Example of #2:

F this film.

 

[toy_brain]

Fighting tournaments.
Nothing makes me lose interest like seeing the same two characters square off against the same backdrop for episode after episode, for no reason other than "to see who is the best" or whatever.
I couldn't care less about someone's 'personal journey of overcoming their own blah blah blah' if its just to take the No.1 spot.

Probably the reason I dropped a lot of Anime many years ago. If it wasn't a straight-up tournament, it was one in everything but name.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

Mystery box stories that string the viewer and characters along. While they can theoretically be done well, they tend to be a gimmick for writers who don't actually have ideas which go anywhere. And they require characters to be artificially stupid.

Also don't like many common romances, because they're based on false and even harmful ideas perpetuated by culture. Such as a single big gesture to win someone's heart immediately and forever. Or the protagonist "deserving" the romantic interest of the co-lead as a reward for whatever their journey is.

 

[THErest]

Prophecized chosen one/savior/messiah stories. So lazy, so contrived.
My two exeptions, off the top of my head, are Dune and The Matrix. Mostly because, in both cases, the prophecy was part of a grand and monstrous manipulation, and not magic or real.

So, Anakin Skywalker, Harry Potter, fucking Oz the Great and Powerful--fuck off.

 

[Parthenios]

Prophecized chosen one/savior/messiah stories. So lazy, so contrived.
My two exeptions, off the top of my head, are Dune and The Matrix. Mostly because, in both cases, the prophecy was part of a grand and monstrous manipulation, and not magic or real.

So, Anakin Skywalker, Harry Potter, fucking Oz the Great and Powerful--fuck off.

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The only "chosen one" story I've ever really liked was Harry Potter because

Spoiler: major Harry Potter spoilers

Harry was literally chosen by Voldemort, who had two options. Chosen One is almost always vague prophetic destiny shit, but in Harry Potter there was an actual decision to be made, and Harry was the one chosen.

 

[Deleted member 15240]

Can you give an example?

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The Last of Us Part I and II, Logan, Children of Men, God of War (2018), parts of RDR2, True Grit, those kinds of stories.

 

[captive]

What are your personal least favorite types of stories? I don't mean tropes or cliches, im talking about types of plots and more broader things of that nature

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I don't care for character development shows like mad Men.
Mad Men is very well acted, shot, produced but it just didn't do anything for me.

Shows that are just a marathon of bad things happening to people in a bleak hopeless setting.

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Outlander not your bag then for sure.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

The late 30s early 40s guy who has a family and money but keeps thinking about how awesome high school or college was. So they get a week to relive that while creepily hanging out with people half their age. Then in the end they realize they love their wives and kids, there are no consequences, the end.

 

[Deleted member 5865]

The late 30s early 40s guy who has a family and money but keeps thinking about how awesome high school or college was. So they get a week to relive that while creepily hanging out with people half their age. Then in the end they realize they love their wives and kids, there are no consequences, the end.

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I hated American Beauty

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Stories about older cynics, usually men, finding redemption and/or rediscovering their humanity as they reluctantly help a younger/more vulnerable character, often a child or woman.

Click to shrink...

I think I quite like these kind of stories, so long as they're well-written. I thought the writing in GoW2018 was really strong, and a nice antidote to the awful one-note writing in the previous GoW games.

Portal fantasies where a fantasy character ends up stuck on Earth . Wow look at that cool setting they came from! Too bad youll never see it again as the characters dick around on bog standard earth for most of the story

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Yeah, I hate this. It's so uninteresting. I particularly hate when we get a glimpse of an interesting fantasy world (Dolph Lundgren's He-man comes straight to mind) but they end up in a dreadfully dull adventure in suburbia USA.

I don't care for character development shows like mad Men.
Mad Men is very well acted, shot, produced but it just didn't do anything for me.

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Yeah, generally I agree with this. I bounced right off of Mad Men years ago. I generally need more stuff happening in what I enjoy.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

Fighting tournaments.
Nothing makes me lose interest like seeing the same two characters square off against the same backdrop for episode after episode, for no reason other than "to see who is the best" or whatever.
I couldn't care less about someone's 'personal journey of overcoming their own blah blah blah' if its just to take the No.1 spot.

Probably the reason I dropped a lot of Anime many years ago. If it wasn't a straight-up tournament, it was one in everything but name.

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Omg this
I find fighting tournaments so comparitively uninteresting cuz of the samey setting
The only media that i didnt mind it much was the original dragon ball which....was the whole reason it got popular.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

Main antagonist has a tragic backstory to explain away why they are so evil in the first place to gain sympathy from the audience and protagonist. Like I do enjoy a sympathetic villain every now and then, but I miss when villains are just straight cartoon evil. Everything has to be nuanced nowadays.

 

[Calvinien]

Shows that are just a marathon of bad things happening to people in a bleak hopeless setting.

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This. I've had so many people recommend me anime that turns out to be just pointlessly bleak that I now reflexively ask for the ending first.

I have no issue with dark, bleak stories. Hell, my favourite mecha show is V gundam, and that show is so depressing the creator literally tells people not to watch it on the dvd box set. But if you power through, eventually the show has a satisfying resolution for those who manage to survive. But so many writers out there seem to think that the bleaker something is, the better, which only makes the whole series feel like a waste of time when you get to the end and realize nothing mattered.

As for me:

ANYTHING in the sad dad subgenre of action stories. It's just juvenile power fantasy (which is fine as long as you admit it. I like a good shootemup as much as the next person.) wearing a self important mask. If stories about being a better parent were your real draw, you'd be watching kramer vs kramer of jersey girl. What you want, is a story about an unstoppable badass who murders, tortures and grimdark antiheroes his way through the story but it's all ok because he's doing in on behalf of his hyper idealized daughter figure who think he's the best fake daddy ever. There's a reason the protagonists of these stories are always male.

 

[meowdi gras]

"Hero's journey", definitely. Just feels so immensely played out.

 

[Daniel Jackson]

Children sports team of physically weak but lovable outcasts. Eventually they play against a rival team that is superior in every way, but they still win because they really believed in themselves.

 

[BossAttack]

Shows that are just a marathon of bad things happening to people in a bleak hopeless setting.

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Yep. This is up there for me. The 100 really ruined itself with this crap.

 

[Kitsunebaby]

Love triangles, or romances where all the drama comes from stupid misunderstandings.

 

[Doggg]

I'm also not a big fan of revenge stories. They tend to have few interesting plot developments and are overly predictable. The inner conflict that revenge will not give the protagonist closure is dull. Then there are those that dispense with the moral dimension altogether and indulge in lurid violence and sadism.

Naturally, there are exceptions, and some revenge stories can be quite good.

Fantasy stories about forbidden power I also find really boring.

 

[HouseDragon]

Stories in which a big thread is "Who is the father of the protagonist?" and what mysteries does that hold for him/her. Like, why should I care about who is the parent? Why should that shape who the protagonist is now, in their story? Unless the father is an active character in the story (like a Darth Vader situation), then it doesn't really matter to me and the story shouldn't build it up as such, I usually see it as a waste of time. Examples of this are The Force Awakens (I'm really glad with how they resolved it in TLJ, but then ROS happened) and the Amazing Spiderman movies.

Shows that are just a marathon of bad things happening to people in a bleak hopeless setting.

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This is a big one for me, too.

 

[TaySan]

I'm not a fan of torture porn. Or anything torture heavy.