What are your most hated fanfic tropes

[Lavos]

The fight scenes might be the worst. It's very clear especially with the sword fights that most fanfic authors don't understand how someone with a sword would fight nor did they take the time to watch actual HEMA practitioners demonstrate realistic sword fights/fencing instead of cribbing off of Hollywood's all style no substance choreography. The fucking reverse grip is the most egregious example because any human that's held a sword shaped object will be able to tell that's it's just trash for anything other than some lighthearted thrusting.

 

[sewwipvt]

I started writing my "Issei starts lifting and his whole life improves almost immediately" DxD fic specifically because I got back into taking the gym and bodybuilding seriously around 2019 and, surprise, my whole life improved almost immediately. You're literally just describing me right now.

Click to shrink...

Ayy nice man, started gym myself like 6 months back and it's honestly been great. It's honestly refreshing and missing a session makes me feel weird

Ironically I also started making proper progress on my fic after I started gym lol, though I've to start working on it again now

 

[Stimpak Medic]

The fight scenes might be the worst. It's very clear especially with the sword fights that most fanfic authors don't understand how someone with a sword would fight nor did they take the time to watch actual HEMA practitioners demonstrate realistic sword fights/fencing instead of cribbing off of Hollywood's all style no substance choreography. The fucking reverse grip is the most egregious example because any human that's held a sword shaped object will be able to tell that's it's just trash for anything other than some lighthearted thrusting.

Click to shrink...

Let's be real almost nobody watched HEMA. But they should if they're writing normal guys with swords.

 

[Cariannis]

I 100% believe that this is the case, either consciously or unconsciously. They don't have the experience or confidence to write someone built like a linebacker and it frightens them just enough to not write it, and that's pretty sad putting it nicely.

Click to shrink...

What are you telling me that the linebacker build isn't this guy?...

Spoiler: Perfect Linebacker

You mean Scott Bakula's Necessary Roughness lied to me? My day is ruined...

The fucking reverse grip is the most egregious example because any human that's held a sword shaped object will be able to tell that's it's just trash for anything other than some lighthearted thrusting.

Click to shrink...

Thank you! I fucking hate the reverse sword grip.

 

[Lavos]

Thank you! I fucking hate the reverse sword grip.

Click to shrink...

Genuinely anytime I read a passage that has the character hold the sword in reverse grip and CUT something, I'm out
Instant drop and ignore, that shit is too irritating to witness ngl, especially the fuckass 'infinitely sharp and durable double bladed' katana shit. YOU CAN'T CUT WITH A KATANA IN REVERSE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DELIVER ENOUGH FORCE AND YOUR WRIST ISN'T IN ALIGNMENT.
I can excuse authors not knowing how to write a typical sword duel match with proper movements but that reverse grip is just inexcusable .

 

[Cariannis]

I've been doing Judo since I was 11. I've taken classes in Karate and Aikido, and while waiting for my Judo class to start, I've tried Kendo. The one major thing I've learned from all of them is that the most important thing is the teacher.

The Karate class had a guy who couldn't have been more than 20 if he was over 18 at all. The Karate class felt like babysitting. The Aikido guy could barely be understood, but he seemed to know how to do the moves. The Kendo guy was good from what I saw and seemed pretty easy-going with the group. I mean, he let me, somebody who wasn't in his class, practice with them. The Judo teacher was an Army paratrooper who taught the class when he wasn't doing stuff for the Army. Best Judo teacher I ever had and the best I've ever seen.

Out of all of them, the Judo and Kendo guys were the only real teachers in the group. Outside of Naruto, something a lot of stories seem to overlook is how important a good teacher is. Even in modern days, it's hard to find a good, reliable teacher in martial arts. Getting fit and eating right is hard for a lot of authors to write about because they don't have the experience. They have just as hard a time with whatever martial arts their super special MC wants to learn.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Thank you! I fucking hate the reverse sword grip.

Click to shrink...

I mean, I kinda get it. If you messed up and someone's real close, maybe you don't have time for a proper grip and gotta try to pull the sword real quick to deflect an incoming strike. It's gonna suck, but better than getting hit. What I don't get is why the next move isn't getting distance and trying to get a proper grip tho.

 

[KaliYugaFan]

I mean, I kinda get it. If you messed up and someone's real close, maybe you don't have time for a proper grip and gotta try to pull the sword real quick to deflect an incoming strike. It's gonna suck, but better than getting hit. What I don't get is why the next move isn't getting distance and trying to get a proper grip tho.

Click to shrink...

I want you to pick up a baseball bat, or a length of steel pipe, and hold it in a firm reverse grip. Then I want you to swing it, even at 2/3 full force, at an object roughly equivalent to the thickness and density of human flesh. You won't be able to respond to this comment afterwards, because your wrist will, in all likelihood, be badly broken. It's all physics at the end of the day, the sword is a lever and you are exerting a lot of force in the wrong direction upon your wrist bones. That's why it's stupid.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

That's why it's stupid.

Click to shrink...

Well, there's a reason why I'm not suggesting it unless the other option is "be hit with a sword".

 

[KaliYugaFan]

Well, there's a reason why I'm not suggesting it unless the other option is "be hit with a sword".

Click to shrink...

No, that's fair. My reply came off overly harsh.

 

[Lavos]

Truthfully even in sword fights blocking with reverse should be the LAST resort because in reverse grip your guard is shit and you can't protect your hands or prevent the blade from moving with the force of the opponent's blow. It only really works for knife sized daggers built for thrusting like a rondell and even then you have to be up close so that your opponent doesn't just stab your hand.

 

[humon]

If you messed up and someone got real close, you still wouldn't have the sword in reverse grip. It would still be in your normal grip. And then, instead of spending time changing your grip, it would make more sense to just grapple him or pull out a dagger. That's usually what Dequitem does.

But that's neither here nor there. It's all just rule of cool, probably inspired by kerambit or bowie knife techniques and then improperly applied to swords where it wouldn't be practical. Not everybody's going to research these things. Some people just want their fic to look like a video game or shonen anime (spinning the weapon, leaping 20 feet in the air, doing a taekwondo kick or muay thai elbow when you could have just stabbed the guy, dual-wielding pistols and diving across a room, crossing blades and pushing against each other for 30 seconds while you talk shit to each other...)

There was one guy I collaborated with on a Halo fic a while back who wrote the most retarded actions. His Spartan got up on the roof of a pelican in flight so he could shoot a bunch of banshees down, somehow not just falling off while the pelican was dipping and weaving in the air to evade enemy fire... then when the pelican crashed, he wrote himself hopping out in front of it and stopping its skid with his bare hands, picking it up like He-man picking up a dinosaur or something. I asked him what normally happens in a Halo game when you stand in front of a moving vehicle. He didn't care. Rule of cool. I stopped collaborating with him.

Me, I hate rule of cool. But a lot of people disagree with my stance. They can do whatever they want.

 

[Friendly Boatman]

The fight scenes might be the worst. It's very clear especially with the sword fights that most fanfic authors don't understand how someone with a sword would fight nor did they take the time to watch actual HEMA practitioners demonstrate realistic sword fights/fencing instead of cribbing off of Hollywood's all style no substance choreography.

Click to shrink...

I would say that they would be fine if they just got the basics good and stuck to them instead of trying to portray characters as swordmasters. Basics, combined with some unfair (usually superhuman physique) advantages, will provide nice results when applied properly

Moreover, there's no need to stick to HEMA. Most of the times I've seen someone try to apply that for a fic... Well, authors fumbled fighting sequences and used too much terminology for something that could be described much simpler

Edit: wording

 

[Avernus]

On the danger of sounding like an idiot... Isn't a swimmer's build one with broad shoulders?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Swimmer's build

 

[humon]

Mer... MAN! *cough cough* MER-MAN!

 

[D72]

The inevitable maiming in historical SI's.
Be it the Anakin eye scar, loss of use of an arm, an eye being taken out entirely, I've noticed it always happens.
I don't care for it.

 

[Lord_Indoril_Nerevar]

As the designated gym autist of this website, I have been harping on this point (very publicly!) for YEARS now. It's very gratifying to hear I'm not the only one. As with many things wrong on the internet that I can't blame tumblr for, I blame 2000s chuuni culture; it really popularized this pathetic twig build as the ideal physique.

Additionally, in general I would say that Asian beauty standards (which a huge percentage of fanfic authors have internalized due to their media consumption) really don't prioritize lean muscle mass or physical fitness. They focus on things like having really clear skin, silky hair and a certain facial bone structure over being beefy and strong. This translates especially strongly when people are writing anime fics.

Thirdly, I think for a lot of authors, having a physically active AND visually impressive MC is somewhat threatening, as the authors themselves are oftentimes either some variety of unhealthily skinny, built like a gross potbellied skinnyfat goblin, or just outright hamplanet level fat. They want their MC to be able to do all sorts of cool things, but he still has to look like more or less an ordinary guy or else Mr. Writer is reminded that he himself looks like shit and would be better off spending his time lifting instead of writing.

All these factors combined lead to every 2000s and 2010s Naruto/Harry Potter/etc fanfic featuring the dreaded "runner's build" or "swimmer's build." They don't actually think their MC is built like a high-level distance runner or competitive swimmer. What they're really saying is "this guy can do cool stuff but he doesn't look like it, because I and my readers have paper thin egos and reading about a buff guy doing cool stuff reminds us of getting our heads shoved into toilets back in high school" or some such ridiculous variation.

TLDR it's all DYEL projection all the way down and it's never going to get better.

Click to shrink...

It's been like a week since this comment was posted but looking back at the previous pages of this thread, I feel the need to comment on this topic.

One of the reasons as to why everybody goes for the skinny build is, as you say, due to japan's Beauty standard which are the way they are because of Murasaki Shikubu, the authoress of the tale of Genji, who wrote that the perfect male Beauty standard was that of an androginous pretty boy. Pretty much a Bishonen.

And since the tale of Genji is a work that still influences Japanese society to this day, You can get and idea why Bishonen and femboy builds are popular.

Now, the next división I want to make is generational. Because depending on the decade You can see there's a clear diference in the Beauty standards depicted in media.

As a man who grew up in the 90's watching a Lot of 80's media. To me there's a clear difference between Bishonen and femboy.

Bishonen a teenage boys that can have a face and hairstyle indistinguishable from that of a woman. But they still retain the body and voice of a man and do not shy from getting involved in bloody battles and can beat the shit out of you with their bare fists.

As it is the case of all the cast of Saint Seiya or Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. Every single one of them are pretty boys who might have women faces.

But they take out their tops and you can see that their builds are not effeminate. Yes, they are lean but they do have muscles.

In fact, they have the same builds you can see from characters in boxing animes like Ashita No Joe or Hajime No Ippo. That is to Say, they have the builds of welterweight boxers.

This was the standard that Bishonens had in the 80's. Compare that to modern femboys. That not only have the face, but also the bodies and builds of skinny, flat chested women that the only way to differentiate them from one is by ascertaining if they have a dick.

As in the case of the gay cat in RE Zero or all the boys in Taimanin.

And if you start adding the existence of futas then might as well be no difference between them.

Now to continue with the topic of generational differences, since I grew up watching 80's action héroes movies. My standard on male héroes are those represented by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme and Even Bruce Willis in their prime.

This is represented in Anime by Goku and other animes of the era like Fist of the North Star, Sakigake Otokojuku, kinnikuman, Baki, Berserk and the first three arcs of Jojo Bizarre Adventure.

I don't know what kind of movies or examples to aspire to did GenZ and Alpha grew up with. But if it was just Naruto with his rather wimp build, then I believe I can see why.

Then again. I've seen Bleach too and I wouldn't call the male designs in that anime as wimpy nor effeminate.

Which leads to my third point. Genre...

Because even today, you can find animes where the characters have classical masculine looks. And I'm not talking about modern adaptations of 80's animes like Baki or Bastard.

As I've said. Bleach is a modern anime and the male cast looks classically Manly in which you cannot call any of them femboys. So too series like Kengan Asura, Record of Ragnarok, One Piece (Where there's also a Lot of Manly characters like whitebeard, Garp or Zoro, though this one is also two edge as there's lots of androginous characters too)

But the point is, the themes of the anime also play a part. And since most of the Isekai genre revolve around MC's with Kirito-like designs and modern shonen is dominated by either Issei or Deku designs, then that also can explain the why of this issue.


Me, however... My idealized male body would either be Schwarzenegger during his Golden era or pretty much just Baki in the Modern Era.

Though as I said. Growing up watching 80's anime has Made me not see anything wrong with Bishonen characters, but only in the classical sense of the Word.

 

[KaliYugaFan]

Then again. I've seen Bleach too and I wouldn't call the male designs in that anime as wimpy nor effeminate.

Which leads to my third point. Genre...

Because even today, you can find animes where the characters have classical masculine looks. And I'm not talking about modern adaptations of 80's animes like Baki or Bastard.

As I've said. Bleach is a modern anime and the male cast looks classically Manly in which you cannot call any of them femboys.

Click to shrink...

I love Bleach man, it's my favorite of the Big Three by a mile and I've been a huge fan of Kubo since the mid 2000s. All that being said, I want you to go look at the CANON heights and weights for some of these characters. Hell, you can even look at the heights and weights for DBZ characters too. They're all like 5'7 and 150lbs, because the average Japanese man is like 5'7 and 150lbs. The characters being drawn with visible abs and some decent vascularity in their biceps doesn't take away from the fact that they're all fucking tiny.

 

[Lightbringer]

Game mechanics into a fic.
It does annoy me but what annoys me the most is how I don't find a plausible solution for that.
At least when I am writing.

 

[Lord_Indoril_Nerevar]

I love Bleach man, it's my favorite of the Big Three by a mile and I've been a huge fan of Kubo since the mid 2000s. All that being said, I want you to go look at the CANON heights and weights for some of these characters. Hell, you can even look at the heights and weights for DBZ characters too. They're all like 5'7 and 150lbs, because the average Japanese man is like 5'7 and 150lbs. The characters being drawn with visible abs and some decent vascularity in their biceps doesn't take away from the fact that they're all fucking tiny.

Click to shrink...

Then I say normal humans in that verse must be the size of Munchkins or oompa lompas. (That is to Say, everybody is Rukia-sized) Because Ichigo himself towers over every single member of the female cast and chad is even bigger than him. And Kenpachi and Sunshi are just as, if not much taller.

I think this is a case of anatomy taking a sabbatical like sometimes happened in old mangas like in captain tsubasa.

You just need to see the last manga panel to see what I'm talking about.

 

[Vallander]

Game mechanics into a fic.
It does annoy me but what annoys me the most is how I don't find a plausible solution for that.
At least when I am writing.

Click to shrink...

Have the mechanics be a simplified version of the 'reality' of it as it were, like discovering in Skyrim the effects of eating Giant's Toe and Nightshade, are they actually consuming it or are they just distilling it and pouring a reactive agent on it to see what effect it has to see its effect, does the solvent turn purple for poison or start to congeal to signify paralasys

 

[humon]

As a man who grew up in the 90's watching a Lot of 80's media.

Click to shrink...

I'm kind of glad I grew up in the 80s and didn't get into anime until I was in college. The first time I saw a bishonen I just laughed and made gay jokes. I remember there was one guy who was supposed to be a samurai hero who fought demons with his katana but he wore a pink dress all the time... Inuyasha, that's it. It took me a while to remember his name. I never took those types of character seriously, I was just like, "Okay, Japan is weird, but at least they have some cool cartoons (like Ninja Scroll)".

Learning that this all stems from an old Japanese epic written by a woman, I guess South Park summed it up best, when Stan asks his dad: "Why do Japanese girls get to decide who's gay?"

Game mechanics into a fic.
It does annoy me but what annoys me the most is how I don't find a plausible solution for that.
At least when I am writing.

Click to shrink...

I agree with that. I write a lot of stuff inspired by video games, and it's a constant headache trying to take the stuff that happens in the game and translate it into a realistic world of three dimensions where things happen in real time. Sometimes I have to do major modifications to canon in order to make it work. Like for example, how flying units in a Fire Emblem game will just park themselves on the enemy phase and can be attacked in melee (I scrapped that and rewrote battle strategy to rely heavily on archers). Or why town portals in Diablo wouldn't break commercial trade (because of limitations on distance, and the amount of mass that can pass through them). Or how anyone has time in the middle of a swordfight to drink a potion (magical belts that transfer the potion's healing magic into your body just by tapping on the vial 3 times). Or the concept of getting an instant full heal when leveling up, and then following a gameplay strategy meant to exploit that feature, like making what should be a suicidal attack, knowing that the XP you gain from the attack will fully heal you so you can withstand the counter-attack (I haven't solved that one yet).

But that's also part of the fun of planning out a new story for me, which is trying to wrestle with these gameplay contradictions and make them make sense.