I hate that one trope where there’s an alien or a guy from an isolated tribe that’s never been to America, and they come to America and their new American friends show them shopping malls and fast food and the outsider is all “This is amazing! I love America!”

Just once I’d like this trope to be subverted with the alien or whatever spitting out the fast food and saying something like, “Oh god, what is this shit? It’s giving me a heart attack!” or they go to a mall and are mortified by the advertising and that they have to slave away to afford any of it.

Are there any tropes you’re tired of? They can be as dumb and petty as you want. It’s fun to rip on pointless things sometimes.

  • Othello [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    when the man “gets the girl” just by simping and being pathetic and wearing the woman down. boils my blood, If Pride and Prejudiced can force the man to change and apologize than so can you. that book was written in 1813 and its more progressive and better than most modern love stories because the man gets better and works on himself and respects the main characters boundaries. the amount of books and movies where the man STALKS the woman is stomach churning. i honestly hate most romance books and movies for similar reasons.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    Y’all tell me if there’s a name for this.

    This is usually something that happens in scifi or horror movies. There will be some kind of impending danger, like aliens attacking or zombies or something, but the scientist characters will be utterly unconvinced anything bad will happen. The only person who knows what’s going to happen will either be some kind of clearly deranged conspiracy theorist or a cop. No one listens to them until it’s too late, then cop and/or conspiracy theorist get to be super heroic and save everyone. Sometimes this person is a scientist too, but they’ll be on the fringe and mocked by their colleagues. Bonus points if the cop gets into an argument with a scientist and says something to the effect of “I don’t care about your egghead lingo. People’s lives are at stake here, goddammit.”

    In fact, most of the time when a conspiracy theorist is shown on TV or movies, only two things happen: they’re correct or they’re comic relief.

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    That movie trope where the parent (usually the dad) is a cold asshole who spends all his time at work but then he learns the true value of family and puts his children first and stops working so much.

    If you’re a corporate lawyer (everyone in movies seems to be PMC, btw) this could be true but for most parents working so much it takes a toll on family life is not something they do because they’re selfish. They do it because that’s what they have to do to make ends meet and support the family.

    This trope is shaming working class parents for not being rich.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      3 years ago

      I think that probably comes from the sort of socio-economic background of the writers, who generally come from secure (upper) middle class backgrounds where the idea of “we’re already comfortable why do you work 80 hours a week and spend the rest of the time golfing with your boss? you should focus on what’s important: me,” sort of fits as a naïve complaint that doesn’t understand all the toxic, patriarchal brainworms that infest the PMC.

      To add onto that point, there’s also the way the causes of overwork or workplace stress are also shifted from the realities of an endless grind and toxic environment into the sorts of things that cause writers the most stress: preparing discrete projects on a deadline.

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago
    • serious movie: man cries single tear drop, silent and stone faced. what a hero.
    • comedy movie: man cries openly/bodily, for comedic effect. what a goofus.

    i accept that people express sorrow/grief differently and god knows that the emotional self-mutilation boys undergo to wear the mask they live in as men contorts the shit out of expressing grief, but jesus christ… let’s not reinforce this so grotesquely. restrained grief can be done very well. Mr Inbetween’s Ray Shoesmith crushes it, in my opinion. but it’s used as commentary and it’s not so simple as the trope. it’s wet eyes, a long blink, eye contact avoidance, a nasal inhale followed by a resigned exhale and thoughtful gaze.

    1. also, supernatural magical minorities. it’s not that this can’t be done in a way that doesn’t bother me or lampshaded elegantly/humorously, it’s that it is so overdone and most of the time it’s like inexplicable/unrelated to anything, no callback, no nothing.
  • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    The government collapses, so everyone becomes a violent psychopath who takes what they want from others, rather than working together.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      3 years ago

      The First Purge is the only movie I’ve seen that does the opposite. All government services are shut down and laws are suspended on Staten Island for 12 hours as an experiment. Most people just have a big block party and only commit petty crimes like looting and vandalism. It only gets violent when the experiment’s organizers send in mercenaries to start shooting everyone to tilt the experiment’s results.

  • DragonNest_Aidit [they/them,use name]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    "Some people are just inherently superior over other and deserve to have all good things in life. Meanwhile equality is impossible and anyone who fights for it are secretly evil hypocrite who wants to be superior themselves.

    Also, equality is just white superior people genocide, the strong and beautiful would be oppressed while the inferiors and underserving would be in charge".

    You notice this trope once and you suddenly realizes that like 70-80% of fiction in existence have this trope like some sort of They Live bullshit. Holy shit.

    edit: we live in a fascist :society:

  • ssjmarx [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    The exposition conversation. If anyone in a movie says anything like “well well if it isn’t my dear sister” I will get up and leave.

    • purr [undecided]@hexbear.net
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      3 years ago

      like 5 minutes into the other boelyn girl natalie portman turns to scarlett johansen and is like “oh my dear sister, you are beautiful, smart and kind. I’m afraid i’ve been eclisped. you have made me into…the other boelyn girl” and i shouldve left at that point

  • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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    3 years ago

    Lying unnecessarily and making things so much worse. Or the lie is so horribly impossible to fake that the thought of seeing the lair twist for an entire movie makes my stomach hurt.

    Also, :maybe-later-kiddo:, what the fuck is up with the word “lie”? All of the variants that I tried to use in the first two sentences too way to long for me to figure out how to spell. I never noticed it until trying to make this comment.

    • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      3 years ago

      Yeah, it was a huge trope in the 80s’ so it makes sense that a show emulating the 80s’ would have that.

      Stranger things was okay for like the first season, but the third season especially sucks with all it’s capitalism deepthroating. Also, the creators of that show are apparently creepy fucks.

    • purr [undecided]@hexbear.net
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      3 years ago

      speaking of stranger things, i never really saw much of the show beyond a few episodes but i absolutely absolutely hate the trope of the main boy meeting a ~girl from out of this world~~ whose feminity becomes apparent when she Wears a dress and then nerd boy realizes he’s liked her the whole time. not entirely sure stranger things played this so on the nose but i saw the scene where eleven wears a dress and the boys are like OMGWOW and i had to dip. suburban boyhood centric shit is so played out

      after the 2000s im so tired of watching the seemingly charming idyllic nostalgic setting of teenage boys obsessing over girls with each other and dealing with purberty in suburbia. as a woman from the city ive always been like what do yall want me to do with this. why am i able to know so intimately what the white male suburban experience was like from 1970-the present even though ive never had it