Now it's time to be positive.
That was a weird video last time. If you missed it, it's over there.
Tier ranking my least favorite tropes of all time.
I don't tend to go super negative on this channel.
I'm comfortable with being honest about the stuff that I don't like,
the books that I don't like
but it's not really what I lean into here, and
I enjoyed making that video, but it also felt weird.
Now let's bring it back to positivity. Let's talk about
my least favorite tropes of all time
and instances where they've actually been done really well.
The first trope that we talked about in that video was insta-love.
In an instance where insta-love has been done well not just,
"Okay, you know what,
I can still get on board with this despite insta-love."
but actually, I liked it in this book.
I'm actually going to throwback to one of my childhood favorites.
It's called "Just Ella."
This is the copy that I had growing up and read over and over and over again.
This is the pretty copy that I bought as an adult because I love this book.
This is a Cinderella retelling.
The reason I liked this so much is because, it's a trope subversion.
We do get insta-love in the beginning
but the whole premise of this book is what happens after
she's been whisked away to the castle, taken away from her abusive family,
and has been given the world
by this beautiful prince that she fell in love with in a single night.
What happens is,
she doesn't actually like the prince.
and she doesn't want to be a princess.
Actually, she wants out,
but she doesn't really have a choice because her engagement was
pretty public, and they're going to make sure she stays.
I love this book so ridiculously much.
I've read it, I've reread it many times as an adult,
and probably nostalgia plays a really big role in it,
but I still love it every time I read it.
This is an instance where insta-love was something that I loved
because it was a subversion of the trope.
I don't know that I've ever loved insta-love to be taken seriously but
there you go, there's my answer.
Okay, next is "Stupid Mistakes."
This one was when--
The main characters are smart.
They're smart people.
They have intelligence.
They know how to do what they do well,
but also they're really dumb.
and they constantly make stupid mistakes.
Basically, their intelligence level is really high but their wisdom level
can sometimes be pretty low.
DND nerds, I see you.
And the answer is obvious for that.
If you've read "The Lies of Locke Lamora"
then you knew where we were going here.
Locke and Jean are just wonderful thieves
and great at planning these elaborate heist and elaborate plans
to get out of life ahead in the most dishonest way possible.
They're hilarious characters, the friendship.
Yes, I know, I said it, I got to talk about it.
The friendship in this book is my favorite of all time.
They're so smart, they're such--
When you think, when you see their plans in action and you realize
these people, these characters are brilliant,
and yet, they're constantly making bonehead decisions
that get them into trouble, but it makes sense.
Next book on the list was "Love Triangle."
Love triangles, we love to hate them.
Actually, no, we don't, we just hate them.
Love triangles are something that thankfully
I don't read very much anymore, but I used to read all the time.
I said in the previous video,
the reason they don't work is because
99% of the time we know who the author wants us-
we know who they're going to end up with in the end.
It's obvious who the author wants us to root for,
and so it's not really an honest love triangle because
we know who end game is from the start,
or [BEEP] then you show us
one that's wonderful and one that's terrible.
Then once you've decided that we're supposed to change our opinions,
you just changed the character's personalities entirely.
It's not a true love triangle for the readers.
It's mostly just an unnecessary and annoying piece of drama
that we'd rather do without.
I'm saying "we" a lot, I'm really talking about myself.
I know other readers have different opinions,
but this is how I feel.
Love triangles done well.
I'm holding out "Mansfield Park,"
but really, Jane Austen, in general, does love triangles great.
In a lot of her books,
the female lead has multiple suitors, multiple people that are interested in her
It's done so well because usually in an Austen novel,
unless we've been spoiled,
we don't know who endgame is.
We never know who they're going to end up with in the end
because there's so many potentially good suitors.
I think this one, in particular, is done well
because I read a lot of reviews for "Mansfield Park,"
which is her most disliked novel.
I really enjoyed it,
but I guess it is pretty low on my list too, now when I think of it.
I read reviews for "Mansfield Park" after I finished it.
There were so many people expecting it going what way
and then it went the other way,
and that was a big part of why a lot of people didn't like it.
I was really happy with who she ended up with, hidden in this one.
Anyway, Jane Austen
in not just "Mansfield Park," but in a lot of her books,
does a great job at introducing multiple love interest for our lead
and actually making us wonder who they'll end up with
and actually making us invested
in what's going to happen with this romance
where there's multiple options in the end.
The chosen one.
Some of my favorite series are the chosen one trope.
This is a really common trope for fantasy,
and I read a lot of fantasy, I read this trope a lot.
I mostly feel I don't really care about this trope.
It's not a trope that I have strong visceral feelings toward,
but it is one that I don't tend to care for.
I think the best way I've seen this executed,
from start to end is "The Wheel of Time."
It's a 14-book series where all of the books are over 500.
No, they're not all over 500 pages, but most of them are.
But in that 14-book series, by the end,
I loved the way this chosen one ended up.
It would be a spoiler for me to really explain
why I'm really happy with the way it turned out,
but the chosen one trope,
I thought,
because this is very blatantly chosen one,
especially in the first book.
I thought it was obvious what direction we were going
and the way Robert Jordan decided to treat it,
made it so much more layered and gave it so much more muscle
than what the chosen one trope ends up having most of the time.
I don't know how else to explain it, it was just--
It was a much fuller use of the trope
and much more satisfying to me as the reader
to see it executed in the end,
to see that final battle that we've been building up
for months of reading or years of reading.
I loved the way this particular trope played out.
There are other tropes throughout this series and in the end that I hated,
but this one, in particular, I think was handled really well.
All right, the next one is the woman who is--
Her being raped is what gives her her character growth.
Without the rape, without the sexual assault,
she never would have had the character growth.
They're tied together,
and readers are convinced that
one couldn't have happened without the other.
There is no example of this done well.
This cannot be executed well.
I hate this trope. I want it to die forever.
Moving on, miscommunication.
"Pride and Prejudice."
Those white books there are my Jane Austen set
if you didn't know, but here's the Barnes & Noble Edition.
"Pride and Prejudice," I think,
it was the only one I could think of
that I actually really liked the way miscommunication was handled,
the entire driving romance of the story,
which there's a lot happening in this book beyond romance.
Jane Austen books tackle so many things and
calling her nothing but a romance author is truly doing her a disservice but
moving forward.
For the romance, in particular,
it really hinges on miscommunication and stubbornness.
This is the only instance where I feel like I was on the edge of my seat
to find out how this would be resolved,
and it was so satisfying.
It's a well-known story so I won't spend much time on it,
but this was miscommunication done so well.
Everyone made it out alive.
I can't give an example for this because it would just be a massive
spoiler for whatever book I would have chosen, but frankly,
I don't know what book I would choose.
I'm sure I could come up with a good example.
There are several in my mind
of books, of series that I still love despite this trope.
As far as me thinking, "Yes, that was great.
No one should have died here. I'm happy with this body count.
I'm happy with the way this turned out."
I don't know that I have one of those,
but even if I did, it would be a spoiler, so we'll just move forward.
Next, we did resurrection. I forgot we skipped.
Okay, resurrection.
Again, it'd be a spoiler, right?
Because even if I just say
the resurrection trope is in this book,
then any death you see, you're going to assume it's that one, right?
It's going to be in your head,
so I probably can't give an example for this either.
I have seen resurrection done well.
It's rare. It's so rare.
I should say resurrection/fake-out deaths because I hate those just as much.
They're not actually dead but we thought they were for two pages.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
I have seen this done well.
I have seen resurrection treated well,
but it has to be a really unique instance and not just your standard--
because magic.
I don't think I can give an example for this.
I'm pretty sure that's a spoiler, so we'll just move forward.
Talking animals. I do have one for this.
Again, I said in the last video,
I don't even have a good reason for not liking this.
It's not one that people can say,
"Oh, I like it, but I think it makes sense that you don't like it."
No, there's no sense to be made.
It's illogical. I don't know why it bothers me.
It doesn't even bother me. It's just something I can't ever connect with,
except in "The Aeronaut's Windlass."
There's a talking cat in this.
It's been a minute since I've read it.
I don't remember if it's called a war cat.
I've seen war cats in other books,
but it's a talking animal, it's a talking cat
and when I was first introduced to it, I groaned
because I expected for it to really mess up my enjoyment of this book,
but it didn't.
In fact, it enhanced it because this cat,
first of all, it wasn't a full cast of talking animals
and I think that that's relevant for me at least.
Also, this cat was portrayed exactly how a cat should be portrayed.
That level of ambivalence, reluctance to do whatever you're asking it to do,
and it's done in this light-hearted,
not really silly, just easy to digest way.
It's hard to explain,
but it was done perfectly.
It's one of my least favorite tropes
and I actually, genuinely enjoyed it.
Not just, "I accepted it. It's there. Fine, I'll live with it."
No. I actually really loved this cat and every scene that it was in.
The next trope that I talked about in that video is flashbacks
and like I said in the previous video,
flashbacks don't even bother me that much.
Even when they're not done well, my reaction tends to be
mostly just being bored while I'm reading the flashbacks,
but it won't ruin a book for me, it'll just kind of,
"No, I don't really like that."
I really just included this
because so many people on the discord were saying flashbacks
and because I wanted to give examples for it done well.
We have the obvious one,
"The Lies of Locke Lamora," where half of the book is flashbacks.
It's done in such a jarring, intrusive way, and it takes time.
When you get a flashback,
the information that you gain in that flashback is going to directly
tie into and be important to what you're about to see in current day,
but it's still done in such a jarring way
that it takes a bit to get used to.
Once I got used to it, once I realized how the author was using these flashbacks
I thought it was brilliant, and I loved it,
but this is probably the most invasive use of flashbacks.
Even though it's done intentionally,
It's done so, so, so well, in my opinion.
The other example I'll give is "The Stormlight Archive."
I don't have Book Two on my shelves
because I'm currently rereading it in anticipation for Book Four,
but "The Stormlight Archive" leans heavily on flashbacks.
Each book spends a lot of time in flashbacks
giving us characters' deeper backstories
and I think it's done really well.
It's not nearly as abrupt and invasive as "Lies,"
but it's still done frequently and I think it's done
in a way that really flows well with the story.
The flashbacks are super important
and just well used for actually building up a character.
Instead of just, "Uh, I could have gotten this
attachment too or information about the character in a more cohesive way.
It actually feels like, "Yes, this is used really well."
Next one is the All Talk, No Action,
which is more of a writing flaw and less of a trope
and its characters that will get a whole monologue about
how they could kill everyone in the room and get out
and no one would even know about it.
We're just told constantly about how incredible a character is,
but we never actually see them do that.
It's just that the narrative is beating us over the head with it,
but nothing is ever actually shown.
This can be about the character being really strong, really brave, really funny,
a great friend, a great love interest.
I've seen it done in almost every aspect,
and it's really never done well.
I don't think this trope can be done well because it's not actually a trope.
It's really just a writing flaw,
but it's one that was brought up a lot in the discord
when I was chatting with people on the discord about it.
It's also one that I really really hate,
so it doesn't actually fit in this video
but I do still think that it belongs here.
I don't think this can be done well
because this is something that's actually just
you need to write it better.
you need to show me and not just constantly tell me, so
skip it.
The last one is romanticized cheating.
Or justified cheating? I'm not sure. Did I write something down for that?
I wrote down "Anna and the French Kiss."
It was late when I was making this list,
and I think I was trying to make a joke to myself.
Then I never move past that joke,
and actually, I came up with a good example.
I don't think I have an answer for this either.
I don't think I've ever read
cheating romanticized or justified cheating
in a book and thought,
"I'm rooting for you."
It's not that, just break up first. It's not that complicated.
So, I guess my answer is "Anna and the French Kiss,"
but it's not, if you're new here, it's not.
There you go. There is the list of some of
my least favorite tropes of all time
and some books that have done it so so well
for most of these, some of these I didn't give an answer for.
I'm sorry for that.
I'd love to continue chatting with you guys about this in the comments.
What are some of your least favorite tropes
and how have you seen them be executed genuinely well.
Not just you put up with it, but I actually liked it.
I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
All these books are going to be linked in the description.
I'll see you guys again soon, bye.