What are your most hated fanfic tropes

[fareakyhoneybee]

Isekai fics seem to forget that plans don't survive with contact with enemy quote because somehow all their plans execute flawlessly. Like, somehow the villain runs on a script to make the SI seem smart when reality everyone IQ level just drops.

 

[Avernus]

Isekai fics seem to forget that plans don't survive with contact with enemy quote because somehow all their plans execute flawlessly.

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That's less an isekai problem than it is with most portrayals of clever planners in fiction.

And a fair number of would-be clever planners in real life, for that matter. Except they don't have an author watching over them to make sure events run on rails for them, so their grand master plan goes off the rails after a few steps. That tends to end poorly.

 

[OverseerEX]

Mind control. I haven't read a lot of stories with it, and recently when I tried it just felt cheap and repulsing to read.

It takes away any sort of thinking (hah) that an author has to do in order for a story to make sense or be coherent, and just bashes it with a bat.

It can be done well, that's for sure, but that also means thinking about the plot, powers, and development, world building, etc, which is rarely seen or done in this case.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Nerfing characters when specifically justified by the idea that keeping characters abilities as they were would lead to a "boring story".

If you can't make a story work with two characters, maybe don't make the story in the first place or use other characters, or an OC. But no, of course they won't do that (Usually). Also, these nerfs are usually implemented in a way that completely breaks cannon.

The worst case of this I ever saw was Salem from RWBY with no stated or shown powerup defusing, restraining, and suppressing a Post Vegito fused Zamasu into a barely above human level Goku Black. That genuinely pissed me off.

 

[Arythios]

I've got a bunch. In no particular order:

1: The main character is supposed to be smart, but the writer just makes the rest of the cast stupid.
2: The main character is supposed to be smart, so the author dedicates at least a chapter if not more to them doing something completely irrelevant to the plot, like large-scale war gaming, starting a business or a cult, or designing and planting mystery box puzzles.
3: The main character is supposed to be pragmatic and morally grey, but suddenly gets uppity and self-righteous when another pragmatic character or faction is doing something that isn't 100% selfless and moral.
4: The main character is an implausibly young soldier and is somehow not messed up by it.
5: Mass Effect fanfics with alternate humanities, crossover or otherwise, where the authors entire story can be boiled down to, "lol just invent different technology, humans rule xenos drool". Bonus points for alt. Humans somehow figuring out reapers before they even meet the Citadel races, or alt. Humanity deciding to clutch pearls about how eezo is dangerous and how they will never use it, despite using equally if not more dangerous technologies themselves.
6: 'Dark' Pokemon stories. Darkness being conflated with realism overall, frankly.
7: The main character won't stop talking to the audience. Fourth wall breaks can be funny, but use them too much and they overstay their welcome.
8: Crossovers where it's just one side being aggressively bashed by the author.
9: Self Inserts being silently smug about having canon foreknowledge

 

[Stimpak Medic]

I've got a bunch. In no particular order:

3: The main character is supposed to be pragmatic and morally grey, but suddenly gets uppity and self-righteous when another pragmatic character or faction is doing something that isn't 100% selfless and moral.
4: The main character is an implausibly young soldier and is somehow not messed up by it.

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These two genuinely make me drop a story regardless of how good the story is otherwise, since they come packaged along with a myriad of other things you know are coming later on.