Screenwriting : Tropes? Cliché Or Not? by Hanna Arley

A trope I love to see in Action/Adventure movies is a character putting a map, blueprint, etc. on a table when it's time to go over the plan, Hanna Arley. A trope I hate to see is when enemies attack the main character one by one instead of attacking at the same time.

Love - rope bridges

Hate - Gun out of ammo, toss it at somebody or use it as a hammer

I am a sucker for a great training/preparation montage. (insert South Park's "We're Gonna Need a Montage!")

I hate seeing unrealistic fight mechanics in a movie that does not have a fanciful element. Also, when someone one-shot's the hero over the head to knock them out like it's no big deal and they wake up later like nothing happened. Like, sir, you need a neurologist and likely have some brain damage.

Sucker Punch Movie Hanna Arley From asylum to super-heros.

Tom Lapke yes!! a great training montage always gets me too!

Full points on the tropes you guys love so far. Rope bridges. So funny. I still like to hear the words deadly mission in an action movie. Dislike it when two men meet and are instantly very hostile... because they're old pals.

I can only think of what I hate at the moment, I hate movies that try to imitate Taxi Driver. It was done. It cant be copied!!! So don't even try!!!

Mike Childress, I honestly agree! The Chosen One trope is something super overused but, honestly, it's also something that is really easy to write, especially in a fantasy movie (can someone tell me how to link a person's name? I'm having a hard time figuring it out-)

Put @ in front of their name, Hanna Arley.

I love when someone everyone thought abandoned the main mission returns at the last minute to help/save the protagonists. It's cheesy but I'm a sucker for that. I hate when a protagonist has a chip on their shoulder that's milked for all its worth to the point that it becomes extremely annoying (e.g., being a woman in a male dominated sphere, an orphan).

Tropes don't need to be clichés, often they are simply things that can help identify a genre, so use them to your advantage uniquely by subverting them.

Lukas Strautins is correct. Tropes aren't inherently negative, however clichés are.

^^^...this recent flick "In a Violent Nature" used the oldest trope in the book, but they made it completely from the killers POV...boom, jackpot...

We now have sensitivity script readers to check for toxic tropes. Yet I don’t think all stereotyping necessarily bad especially for minor characters. EG A petty character serves as obstacle to protagonist. Or highlights established social/systemic/economic bigotry Etc. There’s worn out cliches with own traits every genre. Last decade a surge of films with Bad Mom, Troubled Teen & Swearing Granny soon could be considered old.

Convienance for story either way. Any label/trope really.

Convienance of existing trope can be really cool weaves understanding, guessing, predicting.

Convienance of trope to make story work can also be hollow leaving audience cold.

I probably spelled convienance wrong.

Oops. Human brain here.

thanks, Maurice Vaughan! And an interesting point Lukas Strautins, subverted tropes are always more interesting to me.

You're welcome, Hanna Arley.

Hi Hanna Arley So, you have to realize that there are only 12 archetypes to storytelling and the key to being a great writer is to find ways to re-create upon the archetypes. The reason why tropes can get exhausting is because of approach. It's when we find uniquely constructed stories with several of those tropes meshed in that most audiences are enthralled - and it's a hard balance but also its unavoidable. No matter what you create it will fall into one of those 12 archetypal categories somewhere.

interesting perspective, Sai Marie (Sarah) Johnson! i agree that no writer can avoid tropes, especially the big ones so, it's important to find a way to make it interesting.

The Knives Out movies are a great example of taking a genre and playing with all of its tropes to subvert convention. A fantastic example of “you’ve got to know the rules to break the rules”.

There are many resources that can explain the usual tropes and clichés when it comes to writing a TV series of a full feature. My advice: avoid them as much as possible.

Also, the deus ex machina trope/method has been abused over, and over, and over... AGAIN! Avoid it at all costs if you want to build anticipation for a powerful ending.