I don’t think character flaws is a trope. Least favorite: When IRL politics are inserted into a story to try to drive home a point, ESPECIALLY when the point is misguided or flat out wrong. That drives me -blam!-ing bananas. Also basically what everyone else said about the tragic backstory/ OP AF etc. Most favorite: When a character has to come up with an elaborate plan to defeat an enemy and it’s so crazy it works. Not in a stupid way, but a way that is feasible and if you put some time into thinking about the problem you could come up with that solution too.

I like the tropes where the character has a lot of power, but their flaws hinder their capabilities. That way, when they develop, you can see their growth through how they use their abilities as well as through basic interactions. A trope I don’t like is the basic greedy business man villain. I think it’s been severely overused and I haven’t seen any innovation in it. [spoiler]Fades Away[/spoiler]

For me it really just depends on the tone of the story. Like most of the time I hate villains that only exist to be laughed at, but if the tone of the story works/ the characters fit together nicely it’s comedy gold. The living embodiment of this is doctor doofenshmirtz, -blam!-ing outstanding. A generally good trope that I don’t see too often is where the “villain” is a hero with a bad/different method. The example I’m using is a spoiler for persona 5 Royal so don’t read it if you don’t want to be spoiled. [spoiler]Dr maruki from persona 5 is a perfect example of this. He’s a good person, and genuinely wants people to be happy. However the way he’s achieving his goal of everyone never being sad is by basically brainwashing people into perceiving stuff that’s not real, and basically halting humanities progression. In one case, a little kid NPC has their dog get sick and eventually die throughout the game, but during the maruki mass brainwash thing he has the kid, and in turn everyone else related believe that the dog never died and that he never got sick. Another example would be where one of the main characters had her mom “come back to life”, where her death was her motivation to change society. She now believes that her mom never died and that her and her adoptive dad are dating, which is also Enforced by how the adoptive father liked the mom character. [/spoiler] I generally hate “good/evil for no reason” characters. It’s kind of boring to watch because it feels like what’s happening in the story doesn’t really matter to the main character/ villain. This is mostly just a symptom of a shallow character honestly, as even having a small reason can make an outstanding character. The other thing that I hate is plot armor/ass pulls by the author. It completely sucks out the tension of a conflict by just solving it with something that doesn’t fit with the character at all. It’s especially bad when it only shows up once or has intentionally specific circumstances to be used in that it’s never seen again. It just feels like the guy making the thing realized he wrote himself into a corner and said “-blam!- it I’m not rewriting this” and slapped some shit on a paper and finished.

Good vs Evil gets really tiresome. Angels and Demons crap.

I’m real tired of the villains that are just manically insane. They might have ideas that make them so, but cmon they can’t all be Jokers. I used this in my first story, Blood and Water. I wrote it when I was literally 12 so I have sortof an excuse as to why it sucked. I think I did alright in some areas, but to the whole villain thing, ehhhh not all that great. He was basically crazy after his wife and kids died and he went numb, and started to believe in the afterlife in Greek mythology (?) so he started murdering people in the hopes others would agree with him that the afterlife is better than living. Another one I don’t like is when offtopickles are given the option of customizing a character, and they go full mysterious and deadly and make a total badass in a black cloak that barely speaks but kills gracefully. I hate that. I’ve seen it so very often. Just do something original. One I do like is when the main characters group start fights amongst each other. Seems like a pretty basic storyline that appears in every book I’ve ever read, but I think it adds a lot of realism. In a life or death situation when you’re scared out of your mind and delirious from exhaustion, you’re not thinking straight. You would start to suspect the worst of the people you’re around.

I like eldritch horrors (no shit, really?) but I think I could have laid the foundation for my own much better. Plenty of lore down my tag I’d love to throw out and start anew.

On plot armor. I make it seem like someone has it then just kill them.b

I dislike overly edgy heroes/villains. Moral lines don’t need to be blurred [i]all[/i] the time. To the surprise of no one, I really like the trope of the big and strong character be smarter/wiser than he lets on, or more than others of his stature. I also appreciate the tactic of a hero with few weaknesses except himself. For example, doubt, shame, anxiety, or, (in my case) social inadequacy. There’s also the trope I like to call the Batman) Syndrome. Essentially, the hero is t really that powerful but he doesn’t even need anything because he overcompensates in other areas, like wisdom, intelligence, or tenacity (like how Batman is able to stop intergalactic threats like Darkseid even though he’s just a guy in a batsuit, hence my naming.) One trope that I hate is the overly anti-authoritarian character (Those who know me from the D2 Lore forum know exactly what I’m talking about). Granted, some governments aren’t great, some are just outright horrible, but that doesn’t make it any less repetitive. In alignment terms, these are characters that are always in the Chaotic spectrum.