Storytelling CLICHÉS #1: Eight Examples of Things We've Seen a Little Too Often 

Oh god. You just made me remember a scene from an old cartoon where this exchange happened at the end of a random fight scene. They were fighting a random monster they had no context of and there was no follow up to any of it. Yet the last line of dialog spoken about it was “its only the beginning“ and I remember 8yo me asking “the beginning of what exactly?“ and I have not found out to this day.

Yah, too bad we don't get to see any after "the beginning" );

Like, its CLEARLY the end. Dont stretch it.

The one done right, on top of my head, is Lord of the Rings' ending, especially since the lines are different. This trope can be done right, especially if it is an engaging plot.

Lmao one of my favorite movies end like that but i hate it too

@Salokin Noraa dude I hate that part of a story. It’s like the protagonist is a genius, knew about the power, or the creator of the story is lazy because of of the golden rule 1, protagonist has plot armor

Good one. This is like any shonen climax, where the protag coincidentally masters a technique out of "strong will"

It's like.. that power was made for them.....

*cough* Rey *cough*

Or just any show with genius characters (CSI type shows especially) It might be ok if it wasn't that everyone who works with the hero is also one to some extent. lol

Is just like some of those anime battles where they regain some important memories, then they gain random power to fight them back XD

Don't forget when they remember *tHe pOwEr oF fRiEnDsHiP* and instantly become op lol

literally every yugioh match ever

@@theptatchip7082 Shh- Oh yeah what about Soul Eater? Ending pissed me off.

@@hi-bk6sy Literally every chapter of Fairy Tail xD

Voltie Art oh. My. Hecking. God. It’s interesting when the protagonist questions whether they are evil or not because of the villain, BUT a full on 5 hour speech just drags on and on. You don’t need to go out and say it!

"I AM NOTHING LIKE YOU!!!!"

What about vice versa?

Voltie Art oml I’ve heard that exact line so many times by so many different movies lol

I hate that especially when it’s incredibly and obviously not true but I want a moment where the villain says that and the hero goes “yeah you right” and murders the fuck outta the villain

teeheeheeheehee oh! I got a little confused there.

lol the more you know ;p

thank you, I'm very fussy about those things so i'm greatful you pointed it out for me. i shall change it now

Sometimes clichés also can depend on how they're executed.

lol thats actually probably more realistic than if they actually did hit - i think i saw a statistic ( i could be wrong about exact numbers but im fairly certain the general conclusion is the same) that around 90% of rounds fired by the military never actually hit the target being fired at

In some places it works. Forr example, in my favorite game, Gravity Rush 2, the characters can control gravity; so if they're in the sky then the bullets go away from them because, you know, the gravity concentration around them is a little bit different; hence why the bullets would lean away.

the gmun. well the thing is, over 100 bullets were shot at him and not even one hits him, yet when the protagonist gets to shot, it hits evry single bullet while in motion. nothing is wasted.

it loks so pathetic.

Rambo

>when they had a romantic relationship when they could've had a parent-child bond hmmm

@@yourbeau obviously not what I was talking about but thanks for being a jerk about it

@@squid24736 you keep kinda sounded like Terrible Writing Advise, he covered that topic talking how can it be developed correctly and the cliche's that are often used

I don’t get why romance is unnecessary but the other relationships are not. I mean I get it if you mean that romance is used a lot and the others aren’t but otherwise this just sounds weird

@@Zellow38 there are stories where a friendship would make more sense to the plot than a romance; like say there is this interesting character who could add a lot to the plot but is continuously ignored to make space for a romance that doesn't fit in the story

also explosions are so pretty who wouldn't want to watch them!?

Django stared at the explosions. It was glorious

@@goddessofchaos7754 I literally watched that movie for the first time last week, I remember that

That reminds me of a scene from megamind, lmao

@@kairoikki6981 I love that scene 😂

Grafight23 I’d argue the last one can be super clever if pulled off right- if you’ve ever seen the movie ‘death becomes her’ there’s a point where the supporting male character assured his fiancé he isn’t interested in her best friend. Then we cut to- not them kissing or otherwise cheating- but him literally walking down the aisle with her. It’s a funny visual cut, at least imo

I think you're watching a lot of animes, I may be wrong...

@@-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.- These can all be found in live movies and TV... and I'm sure Anime as well.

I think the last one is still funny, but I agree with you on the other ones.

That last one works when it comes to comedy however

Oh my god that is definitely a cliche and it's something that pisses me off so much, especially when the audience ships it because, "romance". There's nothing wrong with romance when that's the intention. What sucks is when everyone else tries to copy the same formula to get people emotional and forget that platonic friendships exist. It annoys me how it's become such a thing, that every time I read a comic or watch a film, people automatically start shipping. "Oh my gosh, you saw them blush! They like each other! Now kiss". Sorry I got heated there. It's just something that really grinds my gears

Like in Harry Potter?

I hate this one in particular as someone who has mostly opposite sex friends. Like I wish I could just watch a movie and not think AS SOON AS (a usually female) character of the opposite sex appears and I'm like, "awww shit, here comes the subplot that prolly can be removed from the movie without much detriment if were being honest." I want a lot more cool as fuck close guy girl friendships in fiction to counteract this if I'm being honest, hell I'd kill for a movie where EVERYONE tries to ship a guy and girl, but they STILL stay just a friends at the end because that's what's best for them. And if that already exists, PLEASE tell me the title of that movie.

-Queen

Savage 😂

asdfg hjkl I hope I can see that story in the theatres one day

It already exists it is about emojis

Call it "All the most common cliches in a single book."

Originality is kinda dead if you ask me

Depressed Rat Personally I find there's kind of a comfort in that everything could be interpreted as a cliche, because then there could be aspiring artists that wouldn't have their internal critic be as hard on them about including cliches in their art. That's not to say there shouldn't be constructive criticism or that improvement in art shouldn't be involved, just that some cliches and flaws may speak to a lot of people regardless of how common it is, and could work great art-wise (such as themes of friendship and family and comradery being in a lot of stories since that's where some people place their values in).

Originally is hard to do when there are over 7.2 billion people alive and before that

Weird af. I hate it.

Eh, it can work. In Stein's;Gate one of the characters kills many people many times. The MC forgives her because 1 he's not the kind of person to ignore someone's circumstances. 2 He's not the kind of person that holds grudges easily. 3 He's desensitised to violence and death to the point forgiveness is no big deal. It works and is consistent like this.

Orochimaru *cough*

So... Naruto?

very true

Yeah, that’s a pretty lazy method for ending a story.

It's such a lazy way to end a story, ugh

I once read a book and the author wanted to be original with the "it was all just a dream". They instead changed the ending to "She closed her book, placed it on the table and walked away. To a life that was no where near as magical as the one portrayed in this story"..... It was the 12th and final book of a series. IT STILL MAKES ME SO ANGRY!!!

Yellowish Green Dragon .-. Authors like that should be banned from ever picking up a writing implement again! After 12 books as well, you would have thought they could Neva little more inventive. You have my deepest sympathy.

@@alanbritton it took me 4 weeks to finish it and it was all going really well and it was really interesting. Then all of a sudden it ended like that without warning. It's been about 4 years since but I still feel angry about it. I'm not sure what was worse, going with that or the "it was all a dream".

UsoppFanGirl I’m okay with tragic backstories, but when it starts sounding like, “his mom and dad died in front of his eyes and he saw the murderer and he stabbed the murderer and he died and the boy went to live with his uncle but his uncle died and he went to the streets but his friend offered him a home but his friend and friend’s family died.” I lose a lot of faith.

@@high9170 the Sympathetic sue :P

@@Lewis_the_raider Well, when you hear it in not one, or two, but TEN fanfictions, it get's annoying. :P

@@high9170 very true. I just found the word with which to describe this type of 'sue' XD although one or two tragic tropes is okay, cause we all probably went through something tragic in our lives. But once there's like 5+ tragic events it gets a bit unrealistic.. or this person is reallyyy unlucky haha

Oof yeah. But then there's the complete opposite of that, who I have no way to describe except "I'm so perfect I'm annoying! I'm amazing and nice and popular and pretty and everyone loves me except the readers..." when I see a Mary Sue I just wanna die

Unless the character is suffering from memory loss I don't see how this would be used often

@@yellowishgreendragon.-. - If they were orphaned or taken from their parents when they were very young, that would work. But unless it's a plot point, it shouldn't be there. "I was passed around like a gift nobody wants but is too polite to reject. Probably started with my parents." This character is damaged by cycling through the foster care system.

They don't acknowledge the parents existence anyway

If the character has memory loss or something that made them be taken away from their parents before they were enough young to remember them, then i don't see the problem

Well this can work. I remember watching a movie about a young boy who was accidentally left in Japan during WW2 and was captured by the Japanese army. Towards the end of the movie, after going through a lot of hardships, he said to his friend he couldn't even remember his parents' face anymore. Idk, but to me that worked well.

Thanks! :D

Thanks a lot, Mate

Trope 1 - The Tsundere Trope 2 - The Hitchcock Trope 3 - The Cavalry has arrived! Trope 4 - The Orphan Child Trope 5 - The Misunderstanding Trope 6 - The Final Word Trope 7 - Assumptions About Foreigners Trope 8 - Subverting Expectations (can fit with almost all of the above)

There’s nothing inherently wrong with cliches, just like every other aspect of writing there are good and bad ways to use them. For example you could try fleshing out a cliche and give it more nuance or handle the cliche from a different/multiple perspectives.

that scene is so irrelevant that I swear I forgot about it and just thought they were all orphans living alone in that island, until I played KH1 again last year xD

Lul is Dutch for penis.

I absolutely agree. Like, is that shit supposed to be cute?

@@jinxluvver3909 Stop.. Just stop. Nobody here implied that men should be burned. We pointed out that it's a male CLICHÉ because it's most common with men.

Âlpha Ferocity offended?

​@@jinxluvver3909 You're welcome lmao Please tell me what part of my comment implied stalking is normal behaviour for men and they should all burn. Was something confusingly worded or do you just really really wanna feel attacked LOL Yeah it happens to be reversed too, sort of. I've seen that only in anime with yandere characters, but at least with those it's aknowledged that what the girl is doing is in fact creepy and stalkery. Maybe the cliche I described's done with women in live action romances from time to time too, I wouldn't know since I don't actively watch romantic movies. I'd love it if you point out some examples of that. But I've seen it mainly with dudes, and it's always portrayed as romantic and a show of his love, not the creepy harrassment that it really is.

Madicham I don’t care enough to provide examples because fiction is fiction. Ergo,it holds no bearing over anything. Ergo,why are you replying to a comment that’s half a week old?

Did someone say Goku

1. Godzilla vs mechagodzilla 2 2 literally legend of Zelda with link to the past and hyrule warrior

Tails Prower 3rd one is The Good Dinosaur

Dude, the waterfall one is golden. Evertime I've seen it it's been great... and is it really that overused? Off the top of my head I can only remember the one from Spirit stallion of the cimarron. I dont read a lot of normal books, but aside from some kid shows I cant remember seeing many.

The first one I am about to write. But it's been a long time coming. I've been planning it to happen for a while.

I use the anmesia thing. But I have it in a unique way.

It also works bc of Saitama's personality xD He literally doesn't like that super power of his, like yeah, that hard work paid off, but it takes all the "fun" of being a super hero xD

Also its not like Saitama didn't work hard. He spend those 2 years training to be strong and now he is, its just that his training was that good. Whats good about Saitama is that he has small goals like become a registered hero or become an S class hero, rise up the rakes. There are some chapter where he's rather humble and he's not like the other heros.

What if he dies before the hero is taught the essential lessons?

I agree.

Check out, The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell.

I've seen one where darkness looks like light and light looks like darkness. It was actually used really well.

Id love to see more gritty versions of this where its revealed that humans (and pretty much all living beings) are actually the “dark“ beings since they are leeching off the light and energy in general. Probably exists somewhere out there already...

@@remem95 dark souls?

remem95 yup that’s dark souls lol

@@MyLifeToons I should get into Dark Souls Lore then lol

Well then, that's a literal cliffhanger if I've ever seen one! (Ba-dum tshhh in the distance)

@@asteraquae Bravo **slow claps**

Eh, I dont think they're that cringy. A cliche? Most definately, but as long as it isnt contrived, I usually dont mind

**Cough** Fairy Tail *cough again**

*cough* POKEMAN *cough*

*COUGH COUGH* my little pony *COUGH*

Normal, they never know about plot conveniences

This can happen though,I've been through it once and I absolutely hate it.Still couldn't resolve the problem yet.Btw,Gravity falls did a good job,but still,Mabel is still an ungrateful shit to Dipper.My boy deserve better.

Azirul Disagree. Read the Gravity Falls Comic.

@@melioras_pheonoraptor8936 It's out already?Guess i try it out.Thanks for telling me

Nah thats fine as long as they got big tits

what are pervs doing here?

Please no no no NO NOOOOOOOOOO

@@AgMak lol

@@lailataluminousnight8064 What do you mean 'What are pervs doing here?' Pervs are everywhere.

Final getsugatensho

@@luxo2309 yup, was thinking of that when I posted that.

I have a question, does it count as this cliche when I don't reveal one of the main character's heritage and made the parent seemingly normal but with a few hints here and there? I don't know, im trying to work on a story and there's a lil twist where the main character A was unknowingly the one main character B was going to marry, cause of both of them oblivious of main character B's heritage and because the mother didn't reveal it to him. The mother helps the girl along the story for no reason at all till this is why the mother helped. I would really love feedback since I'm still learning

@@coffeetoffee4596 could you elaborate more? I don't know if it's because English is not my native language but couldn't understand what you meant.

@@jbgra2566 ah sorry, English isn't my native language too so that might be the case. So the two main character's parents were the ones who agreed to the arrange marriage but the girl didn't know any of this, the boy is oblivious of his family's history and stuff. It is later revealed when the boy confronts his mother about the strange things she did that was off and she wouldn't do to a stranger. He didn't point it out so quickly cause there alot of things happening so fast. Hope this is clearer :3

Yeah, frankly, I'm sick of chosen one stories because I mean, whatever they do they're chosen for this amazing fate anyway. Stories where characters rise up to be the center of the action due to their own choices and determination is far more engaging in my opinion.

harry potter is one of the worst stories out there lol, rowling has undeserved fame

*slobbers ur gobstopper* needs more bloggers many would beg to differ

@LagiNaLangAko23 While I agree that there are a LOT of clichés in Harry Potter, Rowling's net worth is $1 billion... she doesn't have to "try" and do anything... You say she's desperate to make it relevant, I say she is succeeding. She could go on the rest of her life (her family could go a few generations even), never touch that series again and not want for anything. Movies based off the universe today are still making millions. There's no desperation there... just good business sense.

@LagiNaLangAko23 I guess the info dump doesn't really bother me to the extent it does you. It's her prerogative to do what she wants. There are people practically at her feet begging to know what Dumbledore's sexuality is, so she responds. Do I care what Dumbledore's sexuality is? Absolutely not. That information doesn't change my view on the FICTIONAL character or the series one bit... but she's not the one making Harry Potter relevant, everybody else is doing that for her. “...aside from Potter, what has she made that have garnered so much attention?” Who. The f**k. Cares. I mean really... She doesn’t have to write another book if she doesn’t want to. She can make it a simple hobby now. She’s not the only author to be a victim of his/her own successes either. Stephenie Meyer and Twilight... no one is talking about The Host and it’s just as poorly written as her other books. Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games. Nobody really talks about the Underland Chronicles and they preceded The Hunger Games. Dan Brown and his Robert Langdon series... everybody mostly talked about the Da Vinci Code (ONE book in a SEVEN book series) and it wasn’t even the first book in the series contrary to what the movies tell you. And these are just to name a few in recent date. SIDE NOTE: the Angels and Demons movie is a poor representation of the book. It left out a huge plot twist that made the book 10x better... Conspiracy?... maybe... Missed opportunity?... definitely. As far as Rowling’s private detective series goes, it is actually pretty popular in the UK. Even has its own TV show, but I concede that you’re right it hasn’t received the INTERNATIONAL attention that Harry Potter did, and yet she still received critical acclaim from reviews and her peers on the new series. International attention to the extent that Harry Potter received is pretty rare. Even authors better than Rowlings didn't receive international attention until after their deaths (Jane Austen to name a pretty important one). In recent date (and in my opinion), the only other series that has received close to that kind of attention is The Hunger Games. I think it all has to do with the target audience. Let's face it, tweeners to young adults tend to get a little crazy about their "passions".

They don't even have to hate each other. They could just be indifferent to each other or tolerate but not necessarily like, until further development causes them to get to know each other and eventually fall in love.

What?! I think Digimon is one of the few series that handled the parents really well, specially Matt's dad, he was super helpful. And Mimi's dad even if he lacked strength he was willing to do anything to protect his family, which helped Togemon to digievolve into Lilymon. Also didn't also Sora's mom helped her with Biyomon?

@@JaelBreton To be honest the real romantic with classical bondings and all usually contain some reasoned calculation as well. It would be nice to see things sometimes warm up, realization that there are interest and they eventually calculate that this relationship is worth to take that deeper level. I don't have opposite sex childhood friend but I suppose friendships like that differ a bit from romantic kinds and I guess childhood friends absolutely do not want romantic involvements because it kinda takes away something which made their relation good in the first place.

That's so incredibly general I don't think it can even be counted, though. Like, *the overwhelming majority of people on the planet* have a childhood friend that's also a girl. And in stories, that's just, like, the absolute most basic starting point for a character.

@@thelordstarfish They mean one that almost always develop into a romantic relationship, no matter what. It is an incredibly common and dumb cliche.

sayori

Yeah

Yeah, that happened in Tangled! It’s kinda weird, how does it even happen?!

LuTube Well, in something like Tangled or Steven Universe, it makes sense because the main character was established to have magic healing powers prior to this moment, we just didn’t know the full extent of it yet. Their tears just are the most powerful part. It’s problematic in something like Stitch has a Glitch though, where they spend the entire movie building up that the character‘s life is in danger and when he dies in the end and everyone is sad and cries over his dead body, he just comes back to life for no reason. They literally asked that question in-universe and the answer given is „I dunno.“

Natives, especially from America and etc are too fast paced for people who are not or are learners. S yes, speaking a little slowly is good. Yours is different.

Lol so true 😂 I'm dying

I really enjoy watching that part of Castle

@@dindapriska I know. My partner got me into it. I may be official trash though and rented a Nikki Heat book from the library

Wow

buy his comics

I bought mastering manga2