What are your most hated fanfic tropes

[Theman]

I hate when the MC is glazed, but keeps telling the subordinates not to glaze him, but they find new and creative ways to glaze him even more.

Was reading a story the other day where it's nothing but 20k+ of experiments and this faux style of glazing. This phenomenon occurs so often, it is aggravating. I feel like these kinds of authors like getting glazed, but don't want to be proud and open with it, and I think there's a lot of people who share this mindset irl.

I hate when everyone just goes along with the MC without ever questioning his actions. Or when we the reader are pushed into thinking their actions are morally good/correct. Yes, not everything has to be dark or edgy or even have morally grey antags, but why is the MC the good guy, because we followed his POV and a hot woman is hanging off his arm calling some other guy a creep? Tch!

I hate when MC's don't get a reputation. People talk, and that ballsy ponzi scheme you pulled off in the other city? Yeah, everyone knows about it. How tf can some dude fight off a country ending invasion, but the generic stuck up nobles have never heard of him? There's ALWAYS only that one group that is aware, and rides the MC's coattails to victory. Yeah, there are some arrogant ignorant mofos irl, but is EVERY noble an idiot? Education, apparently no longer exists.

I hate MC's who are always correct, or are aware of every iota of information from the setting they isekai into. Like, it's cool to know a lot, we're all super nerds, but every last fucking detail?! Nonsense! It would be cool to see your assumptions or estimations turn out bunk at least once, Mr. MC.

I think I've said this before, but I hate an all female cast with one male. Has anyone ever been around a group of 4 or more women before? How these men MC's stay sane is anyone's guess.

As always, I've got more to hate, but I'll save it for later. Good to see more people hating in this forum as of late.

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Like I said before that last one would be interesting if the people writing it weren't incels who don't know how women can act and be very bitchy and actually did have the harem cause problems like the death of the isekais and a civil war.

You know like how the ottomans and Chinese used to have.

 

[CanYouMeme]

Cooking.

Some authors seem to take the term "food porn" far too literally. They shove it into chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter. They wax (not) eloquent for lines and lines, paragraphs and paragraphs about how impressive the character's cooking skills are, usually but not always accompanied by moaning and totally-not-orgasming from whoever's smelling/eating it, and cooking food is used as a mark of moral superiority (and thus, worthiness of bitches (any sex) and indulgence) even if the character is a shitbag.

Entire plot points revolve around cooking to manipulate other people in some fashion. And it's almost always poorly written because, again, they are far too literal about "food porn".

 

[Bear_Mint]

Shokugeki no Soma has done irreparable damage to fanfics.

 

[Blundo]

Cooking.

Some authors seem to take the term "food porn" far too literally. They shove it into chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter. They wax (not) eloquent for lines and lines, paragraphs and paragraphs about how impressive the character's cooking skills are, usually but not always accompanied by moaning and totally-not-orgasming from whoever's smelling/eating it, and cooking food is used as a mark of moral superiority (and thus, worthiness of bitches (any sex) and indulgence) even if the character is a shitbag.

Entire plot points revolve around cooking to manipulate other people in some fashion. And it's almost always poorly written because, again, they are far too literal about "food porn".

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I feel like I see this mainly in two places:
- Fate fics, where for better or for worse it's an established meme in official material since F/SN itself, just gradually flanderized.
- Waifu Catalog fics, where supernaturally good cooking is one of the cheapest brainwashing options, and a 'mild' enough one that even WC authors who try to write 'good guy' mind control harem protagonists feel comfortable using it. So basically all of them end up going for it.

Can't say I've encountered it to an extreme degree anywhere else. I agree it can get very tiresome though, especially when the author is writing about everyone cumming from a mac and cheese or some shit like that.

 

[Savinkov]

I feel like I see this mainly in two places:
- Fate fics, where for better or for worse it's an established meme in official material since F/SN itself, just gradually flanderized.
- Waifu Catalog fics, where supernaturally good cooking is one of the cheapest brainwashing options, and a 'mild' enough one that even WC authors who try to write 'good guy' mind control harem protagonists feel comfortable using it. So basically all of them end up going for it.

Can't say I've encountered it to an extreme degree anywhere else. I agree it can get very tiresome though, especially when the author is writing about everyone cumming from a mac and cheese or some shit like that.

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It is maddening how much Shirou fics overplay his cooking.

 

[Bear_Mint]

We need to balance the scales and create a boyfailure shirou emiya who can't cook to save his life.

 

[CanYouMeme]

We need to balance the scales and create a boyfailure shirou emiya who can't cook to save his life.

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Well, if we're going for a saturation bombardment of the fandom, might as well drop the nuke too;

A Shirou who is in a monogamous relationship with no harem because he doesn't have Author-Fiat levels of sexual brainwashing.

 

[Amazon Climber]

I swear it feels like most fanfic readers and authors have never had a genuine friendship in their lives. The moment an ounce of meaningful emotional intimacy appears between two characters, readers insist on wanting it to be romantic/sexual, even if one or both characters have a well-established orientation which would preclude it. Many authors at first seem to be writing a good depiction of friendship, but then they have one character say "I love you", and more often than not the writing of the relationship devolves into self-indulgent sludge from that point onward. As if the author achieved their goal and now it's just a victory lap of "oooooh look how cute/hot these two are together!" rather than developing them further in any meaningful way.

Not sure if this is a trope but it feels common enough to be one. Feels like a miracle when a fanfic includes a friendship that isn't just one character being a sidekick or 'yes man', and where it seems like the characters actually care about one another.

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On one hand I get it, but on the other, this is a pornography forum. You're reading pornography. It's kind of like hating how women never have enough cash to pay the pizza guy.

 

[Blundo]

On one hand I get it, but on the other, this is a pornography forum. You're reading pornography. It's kind of like hating how women never have enough cash to pay the pizza guy.

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There's a reason I posted in this thread, not a QQ specific one! It's an issue endemic to fanfic and fanfic discussion as a whole, pretty much everywhere I've encountered it (FFN, AO3, SB, SV, QQ, etc.). If anything, weirdly enough, the issue might be slightly less prevalent here than on the not-pornography-specific platforms based on my anecdotal experience.

 

[Hellhound_dow]

It's not really a trope, but I've discovered I despise people who comment about how something in a fanfic isn't canon. Like why the fuck are you reading a fanfic if you only want canon in the first place, much less commenting about it?

 

[Leviticusrex]

It's not really a trope, but I've discovered I despise people who comment about how something in a fanfic isn't canon. Like why the fuck are you reading a fanfic if you only want canon in the first place, much less commenting about it?

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Same reason people comb a fic looking for small, insignificant details so they can very loudly ask the author when (stupid bullshit from a single comic in 1973) will show up. It raises your dweeb level by three points, and shows everyone how smart you are.

 

[Bear_Mint]

People will feel the need to correct someone about a topic they are familiar with. It's the same sensation to get when you see an obvious solution to a movie character's problem but you are yelling into the ether because the characters can't see it.

 

[Vanrus]

I think it's fairly context-dependent as well, as sometimes authors are just straight up wrong about something.

If something is intended to be different or the story is an AU, that's one thing (ideally this is also shown/explained in-universe but at this point I'll take what I can get) but if an author just spits out something that completely contradicts established and doesn't have a reason why?

Yeah, that's kind of annoying. Same reason I dislike age-up fics, because by and large they're fucking lazy and fail to understand the ramifications of an established story suddenly taking place with characters who are 3-4 years older than they're supposed to be. Bonus points if the author then sticks to the rails of canon like glue and only adds some sexy bits.

 

[S.I.N]

Since I see it all the time I hate it. Mc who always in a position of power tells everyone to not treat them like they anyone special

Like its just being fake humble and it's annoying to see it all the time.

 

[Karp]

High School DxD

How I loathe you.

At first, everyone was a fucking Phenex. This meme was so pervasive, there's even a story title memeing it. Now, a days, everyone is a "not a Pillar, but still noble." Everyone makes peerages with the power of friendship. There is no goal but collect pieces, or be cute with their younger sibling.

Non-stop training to work up their mana, and use some conceptual cheese to do what exactly? Have "pure" moments with your collection.

I'm so done with these dragons, demons, angels, fey, and yokai. You can coat this cutsie crap in big tits and special to much cinamon for this world younger sisters all you want, but I've had enough with this franchise.

One day, I will write:

The Pinnacle of all Races: Escanor (DxD)

View: https://youtu.be/vMDWoqCzkCg?si=G_UN76HBfZ8hupAc

 

[Position Zero]

Overuse of ephitets. Especially made up ones to describe a someone's hair color (Ex. bluenette). Sounds so tacky. I'll admit I was guilty of this when I first started writing fanfiction. There are better ways to describe someone's hair color. Perhaps mention what shade of blue it is?

 

[Elysia565]

Some ROB getting shoved in the first chapter before the mc transmigrate. It completely killed my mood to read the story.

 

[Bear_Mint]

Maybe the ROBs would be more tolerable if most of them didn't have the vocabulary range of a Xbox Gamer.

 

[Tusk]

Maybe the ROBs would be more tolerable if most of them didn't have the vocabulary range of a Xbox Gamer.

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"Hey, Fucktard! Guess what? Ya dead. Take these hacks and give me a good show! Now get the fuck outta here while I fuck your mom! lmao" - A literal deity.

Been years since I've played on Live, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

I should stop trying to be funny. I suck at it.

Would have peppered in a few n-words in there to make it more accurate, but I didn't want to deal with people possibly giving me shit for it lol

 

[Blundo]

Yeah typically a first chapter like that adds pretty much nothing of value to the narrative, and may as well be skipped. It's ok in Youjo Senki because it has a meaningful impact on the characterization of the protagonist and overall themes of the story, and it could be interesting in a story where it leads to the protagonist getting religion and thinking they're on a mission from God, etc. Obviously even those won't be to everyone's taste, but they have a purpose, whereas the average fanfic ROB is completely pointless and often actively detracts from the story in some ways.

Anyone including a godlike entity responsible for the isekai should first think very hard about whether it adds anything to the story they want to tell.

"Hey, Fucktard! Guess what? Ya dead. Take these hacks and give me a good show! Now get the fuck outta here while I fuck your mom! lmao" - A literal deity.

Been years since I've played on Live, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

I should stop trying to be funny. I suck at it.

Would have peppered in a few n-words in there to make it more accurate, but I didn't want to deal with people possibly giving me shit for it lol

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ROB who is sending someone to a different world with a cheat skill because it's their equivalent of a single mom's shady new guy giving the kid a candy bar and sending them to watch a movie as he fucks their mom... whole new level of cursed...

 

[CanYouMeme]

It's ok in Youjo Senki because it has a meaningful impact on the characterization of the protagonist and overall themes of the story, and it could be interesting in a story where it leads to the protagonist getting religion and thinking they're on a mission from God, etc.

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Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me - Youjo Senki in general.

-----In the Manga and LN, it is explicitly stated in half a dozen different variations that Being X is a backstabbing liar. It masquerades as Zeus, and Ganesha, and literally every other pseudo-respectable character it can third-rate cosplay as. Even the anime includes several of the elements that demonstrate this. Perhaps ironically, It checks all the boxes for what Ye Olde Catholic Crusader would have called a Demon/Pagan Spirit.

So why is every single YS fanficcer so apparently gullible as to take it at its word? Where's the fanfics that portray it as a Sidhe, or a Daemon, or an avatar of Nyarly? Where's the cold iron blades and the salt, the Ghostbuster proton packs and the ghost dances?

Where's the part where any given SI or Tanya crossover gets off their worthless ass and starts meaningfully fighting?

-----Tanya herself is a boring character. The sort of useless self-centered catastrophe who's no more interesting than GRRM's excuses for why he hasn't finished ASoIaF yet. There's only so much "She's a neurotic fool holding an idiot ball and making everything worse" you can take.

 

[Bear_Mint]

-----Tanya herself is a boring character. The sort of useless self-centered catastrophe who's no more interesting than GRRM's excuses for why he hasn't finished ASoIaF yet. There's only so much "She's a neurotic fool holding an idiot ball and making everything worse" you can take.

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Tanya is one of the poster children of SB Competence with Hikigaya Hachiman, so her self-centered neuroticism is seen as an endearing character trait.

 

[CanYouMeme]

Tanya is one of the poster children of SB Competence with Hikigaya Hachiman, so her self-centered neuroticism is seen as an endearing character trait.

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Which is ironic and doubly insulting, due to the other complaint about a lack of competence.

 

[dsfjr1190]

* The story opening with an author's note bashing the original author. Whether it is bashing their writing capabilities or their politics doesn't matter. It makes me not want to read the fic.

* RWBY fics that change Ruby or Weiss into a faunus. What's the point? It adds nothing.

* Main characters that refuse to kill, even when their family and friends are in active danger of being killed, kidnapped, or raped. It's even worse when the author steps in to say the MC is in the right because killing is bad and good guys shouldn't kill.

* The obsession with portraying muggles as superior to wizards in Harry Potter fics. Constantly harping on how backwards the magical world is and how muggles and technology can easily beat magic. Also the weird way the stories portray the muggles as a bastion of acceptance and equality that will civilize the magical world, completely ignoring that muggles can't even get along with each other and will absolutely be unable to accept a sovereign people who all have literal magic.

 

[Blundo]

* The obsession with portraying muggles as superior to wizards in Harry Potter fics. Constantly harping on how backwards the magical world is and how muggles and technology can easily beat magic. Also the weird way the stories portray the muggles as a bastion of acceptance and equality that will civilize the magical world, completely ignoring that muggles can't even get along with each other and will absolutely be unable to accept a sovereign people who all have literal magic.

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Oh man, I normally try to avoid posting extremely fandom-specific fanfic tropes in this thread, but yeah. First off there's the issue that a single sufficiently determined and psychopathic wizard 18 year old could end Muggle civilization in under a week, unless stopped by other magicals, if he's willing to accept a new world consisting of magical city-state and smaller islands connected via teleportation on an otherwise ruined Earth (which actually sounds like a sort of cool post-apoc magitech setting). But I don't mind that side of things too much because I don't really give a shit about people adjusting power levels to tell the story they want to tell.

What I do care about is how the typical HP fic author, when writing wizarding culture, just copy-pastes their meme understanding of the Victorian era with a dash of medieval for flavor, despite pretty much nothing like that being indicated by the actual books. You know the type, where the wizarding world is "behind" (at least insofar as how it would be perceived by an average western reader) the Muggle world in every way possible, even when that makes zero sense given the different needs and stresses which would have shaped their culture, and has zero support in the books. It's just so lazy and boring and ignores how cultures develop. I made a long post about it once and stand by pretty much all of it:

I'm fine with it in a fun power fantasy porno fic like this, but this is such a lazy fanon cliche, and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The magical world shouldn't be a copy paste of the muggle world that's behind the times, it should be different from the muggle world. Ahead in some ways, behind in others, due to different pressures. Average fanfic author just doesn't want to think about the implications magic has on a society's development.

Technology? Behind, because there's not much need for nonmagical innovation.

Gender relations? The wizarding world should be ahead in that, as magic flat out eliminates many of the pressures that lead to inequality between the sexes. Physical strength is largely irrelevant, one's ability to make a living or make war are determined by one's magical prowess, and so on. Women as property should be a non-starter. If anything, this should be one of the historical roots of anti-muggleborn prejudice. Muggleborn come in with muggle values, some of which Purebloods would find retrograde and idiotic. Imagine a Pureblood witch who has grown up in a society which treats them as equals ever since the time of Morgana le Fey, suddenly needing to deal with some 1960s muggleborns treating her the way they consider normal to treat women (Let alone 1700s or 1800s muggleborns). "The muggleborn are bringing their brutish and retrograde muggle ideas into our society!" is an easy rallying cry, one it's very easy to find real world equivalents for. We actually see a bit of this in canon, with how Snape's mom marries a muggle and gets heavily abused in a manner we don't really see among any of the magicals.

Socioeconomic equality? Simultaneously ahead and behind. Ahead in that any vaguely competent witch or wizard will be able to survive easily. Behind in that magic and long lifespans allow for much more hoarding of power and wealth, and because there are various less fortunate sapient magical species. Basically, a higher 'minimum quality lifestyle' for humans than you'd see among muggles, but much more resilient class divides beyond that.

Marriage and childbirth norms? Long natural lifespans, way lower disease vulnerability, etc. all means that the pressure to marry and have kids young would be much lower historically than they were for muggles, and muggles would be playing catch-up. When you're able to live over a century pretty easily, there's no real reason to worry you won't see your grandkids if your kid only marries at 30+. People can point to a few young marriages in canon as a counterpoint, but most of those happened in wartime (which makes people marry much faster and fear mortality) and/or involve at least one muggleborn (who need to consider their muggle parents' age and grew up with muggle norms)

Racism? Could go either way. On one hand, many might feel that magical vs. nonmagical is a more important divide, and that ease of magical travel (which muggles are only recently catching up with thanks to cheap air travel) means wizarding society might be more cosmopolitan. On the other hand the easy availability of resources needed for basic survival and various other factors mean that a lot of the motives for mass emigration don't really exist for wizards. So wizarding societies may be more ethnically homogeneous and parochial.

Arranged marriages? On one hand they might make sense if one rolls with the wizarding aristocracy/oligarchy concept, but on the other hand magic allows for a lot of other ways to secure alliances. If they're a thing, due to the sexual equality factor they'd be a thing you'd expect to see with both guys and girls, with the advantage going to parents, not any specific gender of child. The very silly fanon contracts which always disadvantage the woman specifically don't make much sense.

There's a lot more, but you get the picture.

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[Eruvadhor.1]

Just as the title says. Ill go first!!

My most hated one is gamer systems tbh. Dont get me wrobg i enjoy gamer fics its just thete are so many issues with the format. Plus from my experiance most non gamer-lite gamer fics get dropped.

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My problem with gamer fic is the "party" system where the MC shares his power with everyone, I drop it immediately. (I even dropped the OG)

 

[CILinkz]

* The obsession with portraying muggles as superior to wizards in Harry Potter fics. Constantly harping on how backwards the magical world is and how muggles and technology can easily beat magic. Also the weird way the stories portray the muggles as a bastion of acceptance and equality that will civilize the magical world, completely ignoring that muggles can't even get along with each other and will absolutely be unable to accept a sovereign people who all have literal magic.

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wonder what would happen if an SI, upon finding out hes a wizard, promptly shows up at the Buckingham Palace or the Parliament and tries to verify if the British Wizarding Ministry is actually a legitimate and (secretly) recognized State or if they just hide from the highest echelons of the British Government lol. Dont want to be a traitor to your own Country after all.