• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Horrible cliche's

I know what you mean about the good guys winning. Let the bad guys win for once.

I hate it when the bad guy has the good guy at gunpoint and then proceeds to babble on and on about how he "waited a long time for this moment" or "I am going to enjoy killing you" While this moron is talking, it gives the good guy enough time to grab the gun or allow his buddy to show up and kill the bad guy. Why dont the bad guy just shoot the guy and then dance on his grave and talk trash AFTER the guy is dead.

Another thing I hate is when some moron is being chased by a serial killer/monster and they hit it in the head and knock it out and then walk away thinking it is over. You know it aint over and the killer/monter will wake up and come back after them. If that was me I would knock it out then proceed to bash its head in until the brains oozed out then break the legs and arms and crush its chest. I am going to make sure the thing is dead before I turn my back on it. Even if it dont die, it wont be in no shape to pursue me through the woods.

That reminds me of a brilliant quote from Terry Pratchett's Discworld:

pray you never face a good man...he'll kill you with hardly a word.

Although I do enjoy a good monologue, if it is artistically done.
 
^LOL! A prime example is Soren in Generations. He did all that talking and crap to Picard. I would have just walked down to Picard and killed him with a phaser blast to the face and then got on with my business of entering the Nexus. Dont leave an enemy alive who can thwart your evil plans.
 
Help I've fallen down and can't get up: Usually this cliche only happens to female characters, although sometimes it can be the guys too. but I hate it when one character is trying to flee a threat and trips for no good reason then can't seem to get up on their own power.
 
Super Ninja Action Woman - Echo from Dollhouse, Lana and Lois from Smallville, Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, River in Firefly (though mainly in Serenity), Kira Nerys in DS9 and so on.

Apparently normal (at least physically) women who somehow possess the strength of at least five men and can beat up men twice their size.

Some good examples being Echo beating up a trained bodyguard and throwing hardened criminals around in Dollhouse, Lana Lang beating up a frakking Superhero in the shape of the Green Arrow in Smallville and Starbuck taking out two marines wearing body armour and her 6'4"+ husband in Battlestar Galactica.

It doesn't matter how much "training" these people have. If someone who actually has that training in real life says it's dumb then you should stop doing it.

As a sub-cliche there's the shortcut they often use - kicking the guy in the groin.

Note that I'm not talking about skills like shooting guns, fighting with swords etc.
 
#2
The good guys win... again

The good guys almost always win it seems like. They hardly ever get their asses kicked and just barely scrape by. They're never totally defeated. The world never crashes down. Can't the evil guys have a chance? :devil:

I can help you with this one. Go read GRUNTS! by Mary Gentle. ;)

Or watch "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Is it still a spoiler if I don't tell you which version I'm talking about? :cool:
 
#5
I AM YOUR THIRD COUSIN TWICE REMOVED ON YOUR MOTHER'S SIDE!

I hate it when the villain turns out to be the hero's friend, love interest, family member, etc. It must have been really shocking when it was first popularly used in Star Wars, but now it's pretty much expected.
Wasn't too bad in Empire, it is my favorite Star Wars movie, but it did come out of left field, we where already told his father was dead, but even that didn't bother me, but the follow through was terrible.
Ok,ok, Luke must not have the same surname as his father, what they do? Ok, i guess skywalker is a common name, but surely Luke was secreted away somewhere his father doesn't know about..Oh wait he is living with his dad's relatives and gets a robot that his father build, oh and by they way the girl he had an incestrual crush on is his sister. And even thought they are powerfull in the force they can't since crap when they are next to each other until the story is ready for it.
 
#13 Fat, ugly guys with hot good looking wives. This usually a television cliche, i.e. King of Queens, According to Jim, Still Standing, etc, etc, etc. It gives us ugly fat guys the wrong impression.
 
I know... Where's the fat, ugly girls with hot, good-looking guys? Give me some hope, people!

Joy
 
Head them off at the pass.

"Head them off at the pass? I hate that cliche!" - [Hedley Lamarr]
 
Don't forget the most ironic cliche' to this discussion; it's what most of you likely think when you see the things you've noted.

Character drops to his knees and screams to the heavens, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
 
#One Last Try Cliche

Bad guy is defeated, but not dead...requiring bad guy to recover and try to get drop on the hero when his back is turned, only for hero or someone else to kill promptly bad guy. Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard...


#Just after the nick of time Cliche

Cavalry shows up after everything is done. Hero and pals have finally beaten the baddie, then the cops/army/feds show up 2 seconds later. See Cliffhanger, Commando, Die Hard movies...

#The mole

Movies have the traitor in the good guy camp. Usually the said traitor will survive and won't be exposed for at least 3/4 of the way through the movie. Air Force One, Cobra, Sudden Death
 
I'm remembering when Joss Whedon subverted the "Guards are idiots" thing in Titan AE. Couldn't stop laughing.
 
I'm tired of the robots always being the badguys cliche. Why can't we have more nice robots like Data or the Autobots?
 
The Experimental weapon

Scientist- We haven't had time to test it!

Hero- We don't have a choice!

and then the weapon works perfectly

^LOL! A prime example is Soren in Generations. He did all that talking and crap to Picard. I would have just walked down to Picard and killed him with a phaser blast to the face and then got on with my business of entering the Nexus. Dont leave an enemy alive who can thwart your evil plans.


Good example is "Tomorrow never dies"

Elliot: You're too late again, Mr. Bond! It's a bad habit of yours! There's nothing you can do. The missile's fully programmed; it can't be stopped! In a matter of minutes, my plan will succeed, and, thanks largely to your efforts, the British Navy will destroy the evidence! And I'll be out of here, in a Carver news helicopter, covering the event! It's going to be a fantastic show!

James: I may have some breaking news for you, Elliot!
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top