What are your most hated fanfic tropes

[Sargon]

Smug edgelord SIs ranting about shit, usually rants about how much they don't like the setting that nobody is forcing them to write a fanfic of or ranting about their victim complex and how much they are suffering.

 

[GoldenSimian]

Whenever song lyrics are copy/pasted into the fic. I don't even get why authors do it, this isn't TV or an audio drama or a movie. It should be common sense that music of all things doesn't work in writing. Pandora's Reader on FF is especially guilty of this from what I remember (he would copy/paste a song in each of his fight scenes, I would get chills from how cringe it was.)

 

[iceknight90]

Whenever song lyrics are copy/pasted into the fic. I don't even get why authors do it, this isn't TV or an audio drama or a movie. It should be common sense that music of all things doesn't work in writing. Pandora's Reader on FF is especially guilty of this from what I remember (he would copy/paste a song in each of his fight scenes, I would get chills from how cringe it was.)

Click to shrink...

Bonus cringe if it's painfully teenaged music.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Smug edgelord SIs ranting about shit, usually rants about how much they don't like the setting that nobody is forcing them to write a fanfic of or ranting about their victim complex and how much they are suffering.

Click to shrink...

That's the point of a hatefic I'd wager, though I gotta ask if writing something like that is even a good use of time. 'Cause I mean, if you want to shit on a setting, you have to familiarize yourself with that setting in-depth. I was sitting on a potential MHA hatefic a couple months back until I realized I'd actually have to seriously consider MHA if I were to do that in order to accurately capture the shitty nature of everything in it, at which point I had to ask: "Why would anyone want to do that to themselves?"

[person] reads [bad book] is another such series. Sure, making fun of something bad can be neat, but that's only when it hits "so bad it's good territory". And stuff like, say, Victoria? It just isn't. So it's not that I'm not appreciating the effort put in, but are ya'll sure that's good for your mental health?

 

[RuberFF]

One of my most hated is the Shared Harem one, which is one of the reasons why I rarely can stand the Harem genera nowadays and I guess the nice guy trope or the "I share everything I have with you kind stranger with huge boobs!" trope.
Or even when the MC of a story goes all murder hobo but once he sees a chick with huge TITAS (she's an enemy by the way) he lets her go because PUSSY.

And how I despise it when someone tries to justify a harem that works, they take already build-up characters that would NEVER even consider sharing their partner (like, for example, Garnet Til Alexandros from FF9) and they make them say shit like "Your heart is too big for a single woman" or "I know you are gonna go in other countries/world so I can't stop you from betray me".
Like they don't even fucking know how to write a constant and good single romance without running out of ideas

 

[Karp]

One of my most hated is the Shared Harem one, which is one of the reasons why I rarely can stand the Harem genera nowadays and I guess the nice guy trope or the "I share everything I have with you kind stranger with huge boobs!" trope.
Or even when the MC of a story goes all murder hobo but once he sees a chick with huge TITAS (she's an enemy by the way) he lets her go because PUSSY.

And how I despise it when someone tries to justify a harem that works

Click to shrink...

I always wanted to write one of those legit harem stories where all the bitches want to kill each other to place their son/daughter on the throne. Call it "My Father, The Harem Protagonist."

And show the aftermath of when the Harem Protagonist eventually goes on his multiversal journey to find more pussy. Because these guys typically murder entire kingdoms/ruling governments. How fucked up would society be once they leave as a stabilizing force? It would definitely devolve into warlords.

 

[RuberFF]

I always wanted to write one of those legit harem stories where all the bitches want to kill each other to place their son/daughter on the throne. Call it "My Father, The Harem Protagonist."

And show the aftermath of when the Harem Protagonist eventually goes on his multiversal journey to find more pussy. Because these guys typically murder entire kingdoms/ruling governments. How fucked up would society be once they leave as a stabilizing force? It would definitely devolve into warlords.

Click to shrink...

At that point the MC would find some if not all of his bitches dead someday I doubt they are gonna wait for him to fuck off somewhere else

 

[Theman]

I always wanted to write one of those legit harem stories where all the bitches want to kill each other to place their son/daughter on the throne. Call it "My Father, The Harem Protagonist."

And show the aftermath of when the Harem Protagonist eventually goes on his multiversal journey to find more pussy. Because these guys typically murder entire kingdoms/ruling governments. How fucked up would society be once they leave as a stabilizing force? It would definitely devolve into warlords.

Click to shrink...

I like the idea of harems causing destruction but remove the multiverse bullshit and make the harem protagonist weak against his kids so he can eventually be killed.

 

[fareakyhoneybee]

I got my two cents on the waifu catalog because I see a lot of people try to be white knights ignoring the fact that their slave owners. Even if you didn't treat as slaves consensual it would be questionable at best due to the fact you would hold all the power dominance. Like for example Historia Reiss if you summon or capture her you technically be taking a queen from country especially when her role is vital to the story or even the girls of totally spies you would doom the setting. My biggest gripe is that most stories when you take the mind control out of it a lot of waifu would have reason to go back home or flat out not listen to you because you are not what they like.

 

[Daytripper]

I posted my own rant on the subject here.

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/r34-economy-cyoa-thread.11289/page-1757#post-7142443

"The entire concede of the catalog makes it hard for there to be any or all actual or genuine romance when one character is a brainwashed slave. It's like watching the Mad Hatter from B:TAS trying to romance a brainwashed Alice. I want romance from two consenting adults and the lewds that come from that. It seems like the Waifu catalog was built for people who have never or don't have any interest in an actual relationship and can't flirt with a girl to save their life and have to brainwash a bunch of big tittied anime girls instead. Speaking which, when was the last time you saw a Waifu catalog try to flirt with a lady? Or sweep them off their feet? Or tell them how much they love her? Of course given the brainwashing aspects, those things would ring pretty hollow anyway."

 

[Bommel]

I posted my own rant on the subject here.

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/r34-economy-cyoa-thread.11289/page-1757#post-7142443

"The entire concede of the catalog makes it hard for there to be any or all actual or genuine romance when one character is a brainwashed slave. It's like watching the Mad Hatter from B:TAS trying to romance a brainwashed Alice. I want romance from two consenting adults and the lewds that come from that. It seems like the Waifu catalog was built for people who have never or don't have any interest in an actual relationship and can't flirt with a girl to save their life and have to brainwash a bunch of big tittied anime girls instead. Speaking which, when was the last time you saw a Waifu catalog try to flirt with a lady? Or sweep them off their feet? Or tell them how much they love her? Of course given the brainwashing aspects, those things would ring pretty hollow anyway."

Click to shrink...

On the subject of the Waifu catalog.
What I really hate is what the existence of "The Company" (a name like that is already a red flag) implies, and what it actually means for the setting of any story it's in.

"The Company" is basically a fusion of the worst aspects of an eldritch horror and dystopian capitalism mega-corp, as their business model is (mostly) forcefully recruiting people as their agents, giving them a bunch of very strong superpowers, drop them into a dimension, and have them kidnap, brainwash, and sell them in a enormous human traffic economy.
Moreover, because they're interdimensional/multiversal they're not beholden to any form of government, court, judge, or any other authority in general, so the only rules and morals they follow are the ones they set themselves (and as IRL businesses have shown, the bar is not exactly high, especially with multi-million companies).
And in a lot of stories the real goals, rules, morals, and capabilities are vague and far beyond human understanding, but completely uncaring if any individuals like civilians, their agents or even the whole dimension is in danger of being killed/destroyed.

Their agents don't really get paid in money, but in points that they can only spend with The Company itself, kind of like an in-game currency, the value of which they have complete control of, and the agents often have to find ways to get money on their own (like stealing or brainwashing some rich person).
And because of the work they have to do, these agents/protagonists almost inevitably come off as assholes, who are hypocrites when they're good guys, and low-ranking mooks when they're villains (and the grey/mortally ambiguous are almost always the worst of both and come off as indecisive between extremes or in denial about their unnecessary evil).

From the perspective of anyone in the dimensions that are "visited" by an agent isn't much better either, as they could get kidnapped and/or brainwashed just because something like being attractive, having a useful skill or talent, being "plot relevant", or just because "The Company" decided they're worth more points than average.

So in pretty much every Waifu catalog story the mere existence of "The Company" means there's always an eldritch abomination looming over it that invalidates any of the potential good, goals, or successes that the protagonist and his "companions" make, and just kills nearly every kind of genre.
This is why even the mention of waifu catalog or "The Company" sets of alarm bells with me when I read a story, and I avoid pretty much almost all of them, unless they radically change the nature of both what the protagonist can "buy" (like any people at all), or "The Company" itself and how it operates.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

So in pretty much every Waifu catalog story the mere existence of "The Company" means there's always an eldritch abomination looming over it that invalidates any of the potential good, goals, or successes that the protagonist and his "companions" make, and just kills nearly every kind of genre.

Click to shrink...

This, and it works in the opposite direction too. If you have a good capital G God in your setting... Then it's over. The story ends right here. Anything you could accomplish is divine providence. The only struggle that exists is the kind that the God allows for laughs, and you're bound to win not because of any skill, but because God doesn't like your opponent. It's Game Over from the start, because you have in-universe plot armor provided by the biggest thing there is.

 

[Bommel]

This, and it works in the opposite direction too. If you have a good capital G God in your setting... Then it's over. The story ends right here. Anything you could accomplish is divine providence. The only struggle that exists is the kind that the God allows for laughs, and you're bound to win not because of any skill, but because God doesn't like your opponent. It's Game Over from the start, because you have in-universe plot armor provided by the biggest thing there is.

Click to shrink...

Agreed, though it does depend on how powerful, omniscient and omnipotent the god is.
Because of a genuinely good divine isn't all powerful and has it's hands tied by rules, than conflict an struggle can still happen, especially if that god has an equally powerful evil opposite.

I've read a few fanfics where it's made clear at the start that there's an allpowerfull, all knowing, all loving god, and they all turned out to be terrible stories.

 

[fareakyhoneybee]

I find it funny as much as like evil si most of the time they wouldn't get very far and make a lot of enemies especially hurting main characters would never end well for you and even if you beat them they would come back stronger. I bet that most multiverse power grab fics would end with the protagonist getting caught or killed while grabbing power in the vast multiverse, would happen a lot and SI are no different from any other causality across universes. Especially if you attract other dimensional jumpers after you.

 

[Saintlike]

Not really fanfic trope but when readers keep hounding on the author that what they're doing is wrong or in general have no patience. Let them write, maybe he's just setting it up. Let him cook. Let em speak their piece.

 

[Lightbringer]

I find it funny as much as like evil si most of the time they wouldn't get very far and make a lot of enemies especially hurting main characters would never end well for you and even if you beat them they would come back stronger. I bet that most multiverse power grab fics would end with the protagonist getting caught or killed while grabbing power in the vast multiverse, would happen a lot and SI are no different from any other causality across universes. Especially if you attract other dimensional jumpers after you.

Click to shrink...

Fun part? The same heroes JUMPING to track and kill MC.
Now that is an idea.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

I find it funny as much as like evil si most of the time they wouldn't get very far and make a lot of enemies especially hurting main characters would never end well for you and even if you beat them they would come back stronger. I bet that most multiverse power grab fics would end with the protagonist getting caught or killed while grabbing power in the vast multiverse, would happen a lot and SI are no different from any other causality across universes. Especially if you attract other dimensional jumpers after you.

Click to shrink...

I mean, yeah. Heroic SIs have the plot to guarantee them a win in most settings eventually, while an Evil SI has to work against the plot. That's why a lot of them start with some form of "cheat" or another: They're basically up against the original author's favoritism, and that's a bad place to be.

 

[Dire Black Moose]

Au's, Crossovers, Oc/self inserts that literally do not change the plot in anyway possible because why am I just not reading the original fiction then. At least save me the trouble of skipping over the copy pasted dialogue.

Bash fics (with some exceptions) because it usually pains me to see normally good characters who have bad traits get any interesting feature about them removed to just be unlikable. If you hate the character so much just write them in a way that makes them more tolerable for you while keeping the drama.

"Rational" fics because it usually is just radiating keyboard warrior smugness when some insert uses "logic" to make everyone else look stupid. Villain/asshole SI's who go largely unpunished also bother the hell out of me.

The walls of numbers that gamer fics sometimes bring up because even if I like micromanaging it isn't particularly fun to read.

 

[Theman]

I mean, yeah. Heroic SIs have the plot to guarantee them a win in most settings eventually, while an Evil SI has to work against the plot. That's why a lot of them start with some form of "cheat" or another: They're basically up against the original author's favoritism, and that's a bad place to be.

Click to shrink...

Actually I disagree here both good and evil SIs have plot armor. I mean it's rare that an SI will get tortured raped or killed. They get cheat abilities and/or everyone is dumb and let's them get what they want.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Actually I disagree here both good and evil SIs have plot armor.

Click to shrink...

I don't disagree, I'm mostly saying that Evil SIs have an amount of plot armor by necessity, since most of the settings people SI into have heroes who have enough of it to outfit an army, whereas the villains a Good SI would fight are quite literally designed to falter and fail when the chips are down.

 

[bamba12]

Well, one unoriginal, agree on the Waifu catalogue, in 99.99% I immediately send them to ignore without thought these days but ESPECIALLY the self fellating ones with white knight mcs who choose not take a control option or even are just thrust without their knowledge with Waifu Catalogue harem, it's such a hollow and self indulgent way of basically going "look at me and my stellar morals".

And following the self fellating hypocrisy theme, and I suspect some might strongly disagree here with me, the "University instead of highschool" thing.
For every rule there is an exception, sure, I haven't seen it though, all the ones I saw were more or less the same but in University which brings us to why I hate it, it's once again just a morality wank, if you sit at home and fap to fucking character X who is 16 that's bad! But if you badly cover the 16 and slap over it 18 (the loli dragon is 300 years old okay??!!!) then it's all fine now, this arbitrary number suddenly makes you totally fine and you are no longer a "filthy pedo".
Either get over yourself and accept your waifu/waifus are below 18 and you reincarnated your character and now he isn't 18 either or just write about adult characters and not this half assed hollow "fix".

A similar theme is the self inserts that reincarnate/transmigrate into a younger than 18 body and constantly get women shoved in their face and start ranting how "no way I wouldn't even be able to get hard at anyone below 18!", dude, you don't want romance in the story? That's fine.
You want to fit the 18 thing? Sure, again just use above 18 characters in the story.
But this weird projecting of the author's "moral standards" for all to see and admire is just weird, either get off your high horse and just let the below 18 characters have relationships or don't do romance or just use above 18 characters anything is fine as long as it isn't another morality wank.

 

[fareakyhoneybee]

My thing with the waifu catalogue white knights are that if your so moral then why bother to summon them in the first place and the things is in any better written stories they would get called out for that.

 

[NightmareWarden]

Schoolyard bullying, name-calling from a bully, and the Xianxia Young Master equivalent. Young Masters, to my hatred, have Draco Malfoy's pride on steroids. As rotten as early Vegeta.

It is never brought up after the arc is concluded. It is never leaves a chip in someone's shoulder. It oh-so-rarely leads to an original redemption (instead it leads to a Sacrifice Equals Redemption trope).

 

[NightmareWarden]

On the subject of the Waifu catalog
(SNIP)

So in pretty much every Waifu catalog story the mere existence of "The Company" means there's always an eldritch abomination looming over it that invalidates any of the potential good, goals, or successes that the protagonist and his "companions" make, and just kills nearly every kind of genre.

Click to shrink...

I think the idea has potential, but it would be more interesting if there were multiple megacorps. They don't directly compete often, but they step on each others' toes. Sci-fi stories occasionally have businesses that operate in multiple star systems, multiple galaxies in the case of Ratchet & Clank.

The major opportunities for improvement in my opinion?

• Granted powers should require maintenance and repair, which is not free or painless. These companies should prey on their own employees. Company Script is evil.
• Teleportation and portals should be expensive because teleportation blockers should be abundant, just like FTL blockers; teleportation should be single-use which destroys itself, energy-hungry, or it should make powerful people upset enough to target you.
• Lobbying and frivolities to communicate with powerful entities in a company should be painful. Learn how to play golf, buy an appropriate outfit, buy alcohol tolerance or poison resistance for the chitchat, buy a potion of heat resistance for their preferred realm's temperature, buy a good translator, and of course obtain something valuable enough to warrant their time. These beings can control every aspects of their lives, they should never jump through hoops for "lessers."
• You are either a conscript with restrictions that implies, or you are "free" to dig yourself deeper into debt after the company first makes contact with you.

 

[Demiurgos]

The company is an interesting idea, but few seem to know how to use it 100%.

To add my grain of sand:

*Granted powers need upkeep, maybe defense or body skills. Because the attack ones I don't see as possible, the defense wears out and you are always wounded in battles. Therefore low level people have to spend a lot on low level defense and healing kits which will ruin their salary.

*Teleportation, it depends, although there are blockers, a company of this size would have a safe and easy way to travel. In addition, the blockers only work if someone wants to block you, traveling to romcom worlds and the company's area of influence would prevent that from happening.

*Different offices, waifus are appreciated but they are not the only merchandise. Have you seen the counterattack novels? for they are a department of a greater whole.

*Multiverse, it is very large, you can find everything including famous hentai. 'AU' will always be predominant, there will always be a small change or a total one.

*Merchandise, although known waifus are popular, including their variants. How about an alcoholic and depressed Ruby or a bimbo Wonder Woman. You've seen the Chinese mercenary king novels, numerous and full of useful characters. You can buy a cold business beauty or a stunning assassin.

 

[bamba12]

You both say similar things and it makes sense to a degree but aren't you describing basically another iteration of "The system is evoolll" we went through when the popularity of system stuff started calming down and people started writing fiction when the mc sooner or later discovers that ACTUALLY the litrpg system is evil/detrimental/whatever and start fighting against it?

The problem I see with it is that similarly to how with the system making it the enemy is a schtick that works once or twice and then gets old cause people who read litrpg or gamer fics came there for a system and making it antagonistic is counterproductive, the same way most people who come for the company stuff are there for waifu summoning/brainwashing and what you describe is too "complicated" I guess for the type of medium? Like, the premise itself is incredibly trashy and you are talking some serious world and character building here... character building in a setting whose main corner stone is brainwashing...

Same with the more realistic prices and need for maintenance on the skills, will it really change the story though? Sure the mc will have some more adversity but it will just add an annoying grind element to the plot and not a more "organic" conflict and hardship, I mean, so what if the mc has a quota of X company points to grind to maintain his bonuses? Just means he will be a more productive asshole and enslave more women per chapter...

Imho, at its core, the waifu catalogue is a hardcore wish fulfillment engine and nothing you can really do with it will make it a good basis for a deeper and longer story.

PS: On a side note, writing in present tense, it makes my eyes bleed and I have no idea why so many amateur writers gave up the ghost and instead of trying to get a handle on tenses just started writing everything in present tense, sorry, that's not a style, that's a white flag screaming "I gave up on figuring out the language I chose to write in!" .

 

[dsfjr1190]

Self-inserts that doggedly follow canon. What is the point of a SI fic where the mc refuses to change anything?

Self-insert stories that are exactly the same as other self insert stories. "Oh, I'm in DxD? I gotta save Rias from Riser, save Asia, save Kuroka, let Akeno know how much I accept her, fight Raynare and the Fallen, fight Kokabiel, etc."

Bashing fics. Particularly when the character getting bashed is innocent, or the one doing the bashing is even worse. Ron Weasley constantly gets bashed to make Harry look good even when it makes no sense.

Self inserts where the SI refuses to pursue a girl because she ends up with someone else in canon. It's even worse when he constantly hits on her, then turns her down when she tells him she likes him.

Linking to music in the middle of a chapter. I didn't read your stupid Simple Plan lyrics when you did it 20 years ago, and I'm not watching your stupid videos now.

Making the mc a generic harem anime protagonist. Dense, allergic to women, says "we can't" when a girl makes a move on him.

Passive mc. "Sure you disrespected me in front of the entire world, everyone is mocking me behind my back, and stole my money and property, but it's cool. I don't really care."

Preachy moralizing mc. Constantly whining about how bad slavery is in a waifu catalog story doesn't suddenly make me rethink the genre, it just makes me wonder why the fuck you are writing a WC fic if you hate it so much.

 

[Lightbringer]

Self-inserts that doggedly follow canon. What is the point of a SI fic where the mc refuses to change anything?

Self-insert stories that are exactly the same as other self insert stories. "Oh, I'm in DxD? I gotta save Rias from Riser, save Asia, save Kuroka, let Akeno know how much I accept her, fight Raynare and the Fallen, fight Kokabiel, etc."

Bashing fics. Particularly when the character getting bashed is innocent, or the one doing the bashing is even worse. Ron Weasley constantly gets bashed to make Harry look good even when it makes no sense.

Self inserts where the SI refuses to pursue a girl because she ends up with someone else in canon. It's even worse when he constantly hits on her, then turns her down when she tells him she likes him.

Click to shrink...

For the first: Guy, if you are going to only tell what we know...WHY WOULDN'T ANYONE JUST NOT WATCH THE DAMN SHOW?

For the second: Congrats, in your attemptives to make the bashed part unsympathetic, you made me sympathetic to them. Reminds me of a Naruto fic where the Sasuke bashing was so much that I began cheering for Sasu boy.

For the third: My dude...if MC and your waifu didn't got into a relationship and show NO INTENTION on going into one...YOU ARE NOT HARMING ANYONE on tying the damn knot. This last one is particularly one which I grinded to dust in an Round Robin. S.I was all 'buh girl ends up with MC, cannot do that' while said MC and ALL THE CAST had SET BETTING POOLS on when they would tie the knot and WHO WOULD BE THE FIRST to move to tie it. THE DAMN MC, THE DENSEST MOTHERFUCKER OF ALL noticed it...

For that reason quoting the four was pointless.

 

[Ragura]

I agree with the above, so here are some new ones

SI recruiting every canonical would-be villain into their new legitimate organization - and the author then forgetting to introduce new villains and wondering why they run out of plot.
First is fine, second gets boring, especially if the author then turns the heroes into the villains instead (granted, it can work with some heroes).

SI faction being so powerful that they run out of underdog-ness and need to contrive reasons for ever smaller groups of heroes encountering the remaining gribblies to keep things evenly matched
- and the author not bothering to introduce anything new (or depending on the canon, old) that could actually threaten their faction as a peer or constantly evolving threat.

SI being under-equipped, jammering how doomed they are, and the author dropping the story.

The author bending the setting into a prezel - via revelations about the 'true nature' of things or long-winded rants about things not being 'realistic' or 'in character' in canon - to make a solution that did not work in canon, suddenly work. It can be done well and legitimately make the story and setting better, but usually isn't.

Characters having completely different personalities from canon to cobble them into versions of other characters from a different setting that is also crossed over - instead of making "new" characters.

Fix fics that make things objectively worse without the author noticing.

 

[NightmareWarden]

Characters having completely different personalities from canon to cobble them into versions of other characters from a different setting that is also crossed over - instead of making "new" characters.

Click to shrink...

I'll own up to this being the case for Vathara's Embers, an Avatar:TLA fanfic. Introducing some perfect characters from Fire Nation OC island Byakko and twisting the canon good guys. Reminded me of how a few Worm fanfics handled Purity, and how other fics treat Lung.

I don't find stories that significantly change multiple characters' personalities very often. Fics that do so with positive intentions rather than malice or laziness? Embers, Number None, a few Star Wars fics… It is like striking gold.