Rage Thursday: Tropes Fantasy And Sci-Fi Are Known For (and not in a good way)

Okay, so it’s not just fantasy and sci-fi that are responsible for recycling these over-used tropes; they pop up everywhere in TV shows, books, movies, in a large variation of genres.

I’m watching Blacklist on Netflix (My recent love; I can’t get enough of it, but I’m still in the 1^st season, so spoilers are FORBIDDEN), and in the episode The Alchemist, they claim that the titular bad guy can infuse his victims with alternate DNA or even “fabricated” DNA. And no one notices the false DNA at first. I mean, Come on. Really? It happens time and again, with Peter Quill and his mixed DNA from his father keeping the infinity stone from shriveling him up, and explaining why X-men can shoot quills out of their faces and make ice sculptures. If used sparingly, it can be moderately believable, but it would be nice if the respective entertainment industry would put this trope on the shelf for a while.

That being said… I’m totally using genetic manipulation as an aspect of plot in a sci-fi story I’m writing right now. But. It’s used with plants. And degeneration of genomes, so that makes it okay, right? Right?

Another tendency that I see over and over in plots is that there must be a death in the plot to make the story sad and all emotional-like. But the writers can’t stand to kill off one of the main characters so they create a fun, bubbly minor character that has two to three scenes that build rapport with the main character so we’ll like them, and then the audience will feel sad when they die a few minutes later. It’s lazy writing, whether it be in TV, books, or movies, so I tip my hat to those who will actually bite the bullet and have important characters die (Imagine the glare I am giving to Marvel and DC right now; if I begin talking about character resurrections, I might implode on the spot.)