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What are your most hated fanfic tropes

I'm picky and have moods, but generally:

Power fantasy stories that introduce stupid arbitrary limitations - "I can do god level spells, but for some reason I have to go to magic school and continuously deal with abuse/discrimination/etc." And of course the author needs to justify over and over why it's this school or the school has access to certain resources, etc. etc.

Any story where the Self-insert is the smartest in the room because the author dumbs down the cast- "Hey immortal never defeated General, you must follow my plan because we can't win in straight fight! Let's do a night raid." "How ingenious." I start to think the author has a low iq.

Yandere without the "I'm uncomfortable with this psycho phase". "I love and trust you and I'm super possessive of you for no good reason". "Oh ok, I love you too." Like I get writing romance is hard. But this is a such a cheap joke of character relationship that it's sad.

Lack of failure or adjustments. Nothing is more dull than already knowing the MC is gonna win every fight and escape unharmed. Now if the story is funny or clever, sure, but if it's purely train/study-event-result, over and over, I'm out.

Stories with an autistic MC. "I'm a bad ass General who leads a army, but I can't tell why my childhood friend gets mad when pretty girls talk to me." Some how this guy can inspire thousands, but can't figure out a close friend?

Glued in popular characters. "I'm in Gotham, and suddenly I'm banging Tifa and 2B." Just blatant pandering. The story deserves better.

The classic insta trust reveal scene or the insta loyal for the remainder of the story scene.
"I'm Ned's Starks son, don't you know he's honorable? Okay now follow me to the wasteland to fight zombies." "Oh Ned? I heard good things. Let me get everyone else."

The perfect solution to this random issue. "Oh a fire sword. I have a spell for a full body water shield."

The auto perfect sex into the insta connection. "My big dick made her cum 100 times so now we are super devoted to each other."

The auto fight after 3 chapters of training. "After years of climbing Mt. Everest one handed, while taming wild wolves and repeating the god mantra, we ran out of food. I made the wolfs eat each other and then took the dried wolf shit and bones, created a gilder and flew back home to confront my bully. I hit him hard and won." Fuck off.

Any tournament over three chapters. It's never as interesting as the author thinks.

Anything with too much enchanted armor or special gear. Harry had a wand and a invisible cloak and did work. Frodo had a cursed ring. You don't need much. Some guys had only a magic sword. Do better.

Grooming someone into a role and it works out perfectly or any power that allows for that. You motherfuckers couldn't even train a dog, and now you are a super parent/guru/sensei?

Speaking of Dogs, the insta perfect convenient pet. "The soul familiar hyper supportive snake mutated into a flying god hydra slept in the MC's pocket and only appeared when he needed a mount, ate, or was feeling down. The hydra never really interacted with any other cast members unless it was in a comical situation or to save MC's friends. Yet everyone loved how smart/cute/powerful/loyal the hydra which turned into a any weapon was. It was good with kids and may have sacrificed itself to save the MC." Hedwig didn't do shit outside one book. Old Yeller did everything and got taken out back.

Friendly mentions: pocket dimensions, one cure all medicine, super disguises, and the classic: MC is super attractive to everyone.

It's rough out here, lol.

Edit: Add in insta master of any skill, unlimited resources, pocket dimensions, and crazy teleportation.
 
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Mr. Mochi said:
Any tournament over three chapters. It's never as interesting as the author thinks.
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Adding to this any fight that takes more than a single chapter. That's an instant skip and come back later when the actual story happens.

Mr. Mochi said:
Power fantasy stories that introduce stupid arbitrary limitations
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Any power fantasy that tries to pretend it's not a power fantasy. Like a self insert with knowledge of the entire setting but doesn't use the DragonBalls to make an OP wish for some random BS reason
 
Sol Mark-1 said:
They used to be writen years ago, could have died, or the authors learned to hide it better, and only show tje propaganda during the middle of the story or later.
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Aw man, I remember this Pro-Christian Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town fic.
The harvest goddess and the rest of the town were described as a satanic cult that our Christian MC as to battle.

I wonder if it even finished. Pity I can't remember the name.

As for most hated fanfic tropes.
I suppose it's self insert stories where the SI just openly talks about being part of the game with all the characters just accepting this without question. The SI also displays perfect memory like he's memorised the script, but despite all of this everything remains stuck to the rails of canon.
 
I fucking loathe forced diversity and shoving morally superior beliefs down my throat.

Why the fuck would you make Harry Potter an Indian just to do nothing with it.

Every single fic I've seen do this just makes him enjoy curry more and used it for him to know Parseltongue naturally. It doesn't even make sense either, he grew up in 80s Britain, why the fuck would he not already like curries!? The Dursleys abused him, but curry is literally school lunch!

It is almost always done in a way that makes Harry into a shitty self insert. Usually an american one too, because nothing changes that wouldn't already be normal in the UK.

I've seen some complaints about there being no Muslims in Hogwarts on some other sites as well, and that also makes little sense. I met my first Muslim in secondary school, and this was something like 2011, literally every Asian I met before that was either Hindu or Sikh. In the 90s the Islamic population was a fraction of the size it is now, they were less than 2% of the total population.

There are less than 1000 students at Hogwarts, it is literally a matter of statistics, nevermind that Rowling might have just decided not to show a Muslim student. We don't see the entire school after all.

dsfjr1190 said:
I remember reading a Harry Potter fic where Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet during breakfast. The top story? School shootings in America.
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This one is time travel! Columbine wasn't a thing until 1999 and I'm pretty sure that was the first school shooting that was widely reported on. Why would anyone in Hogwarts give a shit?
dsfjr1190 said:
Hermione went on a tirade about the 2nd Amendment, how guns were too accessible in America and children and teens shouldn't be able to get their hands on them. They are dangerous and can cause real harm and death instantly.
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I kind of agree with this point, but holy shit is it weird. I've only become knowledgable enough about the US constitution in the past few years to even have an opinion, why would Hermione know about the 2nd Amendment?

What really grinds my gears though is anti-religion stuff. I don't give a shit if you hate Christians or Muslims, just don't shove it down my throat. I've seen the Protestants and Catholics at eachothers throats in comments a little too much to care about their arguments anymore. Anti-Semitism is actually surprisingly not something I see a lot of, though I think I'd have to go onto some sketchy forums to really find any.
 
CreepyUncleLuke said:
I fucking loathe forced diversity and shoving morally superior beliefs down my throat.

Why the fuck would you make Harry Potter an Indian just to do nothing with it.

Every single fic I've seen do this just makes him enjoy curry more and used it for him to know Parseltongue naturally. It doesn't even make sense either, he grew up in 80s Britain, why the fuck would he not already like curries!? The Dursleys abused him, but curry is literally school lunch!

It is almost always done in a way that makes Harry into a shitty self insert. Usually an american one too, because nothing changes that wouldn't already be normal in the UK.
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We got fics turning Harry into an Indian?
heh, I remember a whole thing about fanfics that turn Hogwarts into a nudist colony for some reason.

EDIT: And all the characters becoming mouthpieces about how nudism is somehow a morally superior way to live.
 
CreepyUncleLuke said:
Uh not really why? Unless you mean the Isreali war? There was a weird amount of backlash yeah, but I generally thought it was because of civilian casualties. Wow anti-semitism is much further spread than I thought if you're right.
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It was like some kind of rotting sore exploding, the amount of rot floating up suddenly was surprising, a lot of European countries and places in the USA getting really fucking concerning, plus places you wouldn't expect, like New Zealand and Australia.
 
TheMidnightRook said:
I'm guessing you haven't spent much time on reddit or twitter since october.
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CreepyUncleLuke said:
Uh not really why? Unless you mean the Isreali war? There was a weird amount of backlash yeah, but I generally thought it was because of civilian casualties. Wow anti-semitism is much further spread than I thought if you're right.
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Please dont make this thread political by continuing. I just wanna know what peeps dislike.
 
Hiddenhope said:
We got fics turning Harry into an Indian?
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It was entire genre for a while. I think there was a decent one where it was literally Harry but Indian. Just the HP books but Harry had a Indian granddad which is how it should be. Changing someones race without changing their experiences just hurts whatever point these people are trying to make.

bamba12 said:
It was like some kind of rotting sore exploding, the amount of rot floating up suddenly was surprising, a lot of European countries and places in the USA getting really fucking concerning, plus places you wouldn't expect, like New Zealand and Australia.
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I mean, I've got the standard racism pack from growing up English. But what is the point of going out to attack Isreal when they won't give a shit because they are fighting a war?

Please dont make this thread political by continuing. I just wanna know what peeps dislike.
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That's fair. I don't mind stopping.
 
CreepyUncleLuke said:
It was entire genre for a while. I think there was a decent one where it was literally Harry but Indian. Just the HP books but Harry had a Indian granddad which is how it should be. Changing someones race without changing their experiences just hurts whatever point these people are trying to make.


I mean, I've got the standard racism pack from growing up English. But what is the point of going out to attack Isreal when they won't give a shit because they are fighting a war?


That's fair. I don't mind stopping.
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That sounds like garbage. I hate the idea that "actually, the Indians have parselmouths and the English are all stupid, teehee!" It just makes the entirety of Hogwarts look pathetic, and if I can't take your setting seriously, why should I bother with it? Anyway, I much prefer the idea that Harry has Parselmouth because of some Gaunt lineage than Indian-shit-fuck.

Of course, I may be a little bit biased because I have some family up north in Canada, but I hate that indian harry shit.

Worst trope ever, definitely worse than Black-Hermione, because at least the black-hermione writers just can't bear to ignore her new race for even a single sentence, so there is no chance of me reading an entire fic only for the author to suddenly state that: "acktually she is black, heheheheeheheheheheh!"

Had that happen to me twice with the indian harry, fuck that shit.
 
Some fanfics when doing evil protagonist or SI they really don't work for me because mainly they seem to bleed into each other do to the way they act. Like being overly evil or very impulsive murder, lust happy. Strangely like it's this thing or how should put this hard to write a proper villain protagonist because most fanfics blow there steam out and stop being interested simply because there is no goal in mind for the character, so most writers simply scrap the fic or leave it at the cliffhanger and never really continue it.
 
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fareakyhoneybee said:
Some fanfics when doing evil protagonist or SI they really don't work for me because mainly they seem to bleed into each other do to the way they act. Like being overly evil or very impulsive murder, lust happy. Strangely like it's this thing or how should put this hard to write a proper villain protagonist because most fanfics blow there steam out and stop being interested simply because there is no goal in mind for the character so most writers simply kill the fic or leave it at the cliffhanger and never really continue it.
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It's like they can't write a villain that is just a mob boss instead it has to be someone over the top that does everything just to be "evil"
 
CreepyUncleLuke said:
I've seen some complaints about there being no Muslims in Hogwarts on some other sites as well, and that also makes little sense. I met my first Muslim in secondary school, and this was something like 2011, literally every Asian I met before that was either Hindu or Sikh.
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I went my entire school life with this one classmate, never realising they were Muslim until in year 10 because to them religion was personal thing, not something to shove in people's faces. Which is probably the best way to handle it in fiction.

For me, I hate the lack of timeskips. A isekai shouldn't cover the MC's entire childhood, never actually getting to the plot. A Harry Potter story should cover every day of class when it adds nothingbut 100,000 extra words.

As for the moral high ground, I remember this one story where we had a Grey!Independent!Hogwartsfounderheir!Noblelord!Harry literally give a soap box speech on the dining table about how the students of Hogwarts have to stop being sheep following the Daily Prophet and ministry, and to think for themselves.
The entire time the audience had members just repeat back what he said.
"We need to think for ourselves!"
"Think for ourselves!"
Yes it was a bashing fic, how could you tell.

Honestly my biggest hate in fanfic is how the MC can never have empathy or compassion. Every decision has to be about how it helps them, not helping others.
 
I hate war arcs that are only two chapters long. The amount of Naruto stories I've read building up 100k+ to war, only to time skip everything for some final big battle is mind numbing. Like, it would be nice to see some back and forth, at least two or three hard fought/desperate missions to see our MC's growth, and develop some relationships under the tension of all out war. Showcase how the village/society act differently.

I hate vanilla combat. Be descriptive! Most stories have the gore filter turned off sadly. No one ever gets charred from fire/lightning, or screams/grunts/gasps in pain when their legs get crushed. It's as if the enemies in stories aren't people smh.

carbon1923 said:
Honestly my biggest hate in fanfic is how the MC can never have empathy or compassion. Every decision has to be about how it helps them, not helping others.
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I would like an MC to show some loyalty to his friends, allies and teammates. But empathy/compassion can get very grating when someone like Deku/Naruto is the main character. Unfortunately, most authors don't understand nuance, and have savior complexes. Now there's nothing wrong with compassion so long as it's tempered with a rational mind. Otherwise when I see an MC use that compassion and compromise not only his safety, but the safety of others only to be saved by plot shenanigans, then I'm pissed! (Which is 50% of the time when compassion is used in a story. The other 40% of the time is to make the MC look like a cool badass. The 10% of the time when compassion is cool is when the MC really knows he shouldn't help against his better judgement/self interest, but does it anyway, confronting his fears of death to stand for his own beliefs.)
 
Karp said:
I hate war arcs that are only two chapters long. The amount of Naruto stories I've read building up 100k+ to war, only to time skip everything for some final big battle is mind numbing. Like, it would be nice to see some back and forth, at least two or three hard fought/desperate missions to see our MC's growth, and develop some relationships under the tension of all out war. Showcase how the village/society act differently.

I hate vanilla combat. Be descriptive! Most stories have the gore filter turned off sadly. No one ever gets charred from fire/lightning, or screams/grunts/gasps in pain when their legs get crushed. It's as if the enemies in stories aren't people smh.


I would like an MC to show some loyalty to his friends, allies and teammates. But empathy/compassion can get very grating when someone like Deku/Naruto is the main character. Unfortunately, most authors don't understand nuance, and have savior complexes. Now there's nothing wrong with compassion so long as it's tempered with a rational mind. Otherwise when I see an MC use that compassion and compromise not only his safety, but the safety of others only to be saved by plot shenanigans, then I'm pissed! (Which is 50% of the time when compassion is used in a story. The other 40% of the time is to make the MC look like a cool badass. The 10% of the time when compassion is cool is when the MC really knows he shouldn't help against his better judgement/self interest, but does it anyway, confronting his fears of death to stand for his own beliefs.)
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Additionally, if a character shows the slightest bit of annoyance or disrespect to a main character that offers empathy? They either apologize at the end of the arc, or they get a Bad End.

It is treated like any attempt at compassion is diamond-coated perfection, like the MC has nothing to improve upon- or that the MC's snub is equally worthy of attention as the person in need of compassion. Incredibly unrealistic. I'd go so far as to say it separates an attempt at an adult novel and an actual adult novel, which understands nuance.


Including violence or sex doesn't make a novel "adult." It will just read like a Young Adult story with smut or power fantasy.


Skipping steps, ignoring decorum, and whatnot... These can be perceived as pity because a dense character didn't consider that their worldview is heavily tilted, or oversimplified.
 
More mentions:

MCs that piggyback canon but are 10x stronger and smarter, know what happens next, and nothing changes for 80% of canon.

"Mysterious" MCs that change their 100 year complex plans in a minute cuz of a girl.

MCs who know nearly every detail of canon to manipulate at will- and mettle in every plot and side plot.

Stories where the MC is just grooming/pandering to the protagonist.

Parents who obey child MCs. Part of childhood is adults never listening and learning to listen to kids.

God-like figures catering to MC from chapter one on.

MC has personal army and everyone is just cool with that.
 
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Karp said:
I hate war arcs that are only two chapters long. The amount of Naruto stories I've read building up 100k+ to war, only to time skip everything for some final big battle is mind numbing. Like, it would be nice to see some back and forth, at least two or three hard fought/desperate missions to see our MC's growth, and develop some relationships under the tension of all out war. Showcase how the village/society act differently.

I hate vanilla combat. Be descriptive! Most stories have the gore filter turned off sadly. No one ever gets charred from fire/lightning, or screams/grunts/gasps in pain when their legs get crushed. It's as if the enemies in stories aren't people smh.


I would like an MC to show some loyalty to his friends, allies and teammates. But empathy/compassion can get very grating when someone like Deku/Naruto is the main character. Unfortunately, most authors don't understand nuance, and have savior complexes. Now there's nothing wrong with compassion so long as it's tempered with a rational mind. Otherwise when I see an MC use that compassion and compromise not only his safety, but the safety of others only to be saved by plot shenanigans, then I'm pissed! (Which is 50% of the time when compassion is used in a story. The other 40% of the time is to make the MC look like a cool badass. The 10% of the time when compassion is cool is when the MC really knows he shouldn't help against his better judgement/self interest, but does it anyway, confronting his fears of death to stand for his own beliefs.)
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Friends/Allies/Teammates? They're all just "followers" to the INO edgy characters

Which is ironic, I remember some guy bashing Naruto and saying he had no real friends and they were just "reliable companions" rather than ones he really is loyal to and vice versa
 
Mr. Mochi said:
MCs that piggyback canon but are 10x stronger and smarter, know what happens next, and nothing changes for 80% of canon.
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Ohhh this reminds me of something I both hate and am baffled by.
An oc (who is probably a self insert) who steals all of the canon achievements of the MC of the original and basically making the original MC into a supporting character, what's even the point of an oc at this point? Self insert into the mc and be done with it...
 
bamba12 said:
Ohhh this reminds me of something I both hate and am baffled by.
An oc (who is probably a self insert) who steals all of the canon achievements of the MC of the original and basically making the original MC into a supporting character, what's even the point of an oc at this point? Self insert into the mc and be done with it...
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Because they HATE the MC for being a "weakling" who's not "serious" like they are

Funny, as "strong" as they are, canon doesn't change much. At most some characters are brutally killed.
 
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