What is your biggest pet peeve(s) in stories/story lines?

[Zeromus]

I get it, everyone has their own opinion on what makes a good story line. I've spent a little over the past year devoting a large portion of my time reading through many, many stories. At this point, I've read through over 100 different stories (although I didn't necessarily finish them all due to various reasons) but having done so, I've come across some plot ideas that just bug the hell out of me to no end and really kills any sort of respect I have towards the story most of the time.

Now this is just my opinion, nothing more, nothing less. If you're a writer and I accidentally fire shots at you, I don't mean anything personal nor offence. It's an opinion, not a fact, so don't take it to heart.

Now the first one that comes to my mind are stories where the lead role is held by a male character, and every female character they come across falls in love with them. The male character is handsome, strong, smart, perfect! The females take every chance they can get to point this fact out and it makes them seem like brain-dead drones who are shallow to the point where they're blinded by the outward surface of this perfect "hunk" of a man. Is the male character in truth a selfish, self-absorbed snob? Who cares. Did they just commit some un-moral action? That's okay, they look fantastic so it's okay! Are they feeling depressed for some reason? Let's have a million females try and make him feel better.

This not only kills off the story, but it also metaphorically puts all of the characters involved in the situation into a blender, and shreds them into nothing but mush. The main character doesn't even have to be a Mary Sue/Stewe for this to even occur. There's a lot of other reasons why this kind of stuff bugs the crap out of me, but for the sake of not going too far off track, and lowering my chance of using a variety of words not allowed on this forum. Now when I say this happens when the main character is a male, this doesn't mean it doesn't happen with female leads too, it's just often on a much lower scale of severity.

Someone close to the main character is murdered by a pack of houndour(doom)s/mightyenas. Now this one is a limited to Pokemon fan-fiction unlike the previous, but goodness gracious me, this seems like the go-to Pokemon to be used as an inciting incident for a lot of stories. I mean, when was the last time you heard of the protagonist's family being beaten to death by a group of Lucarios, or vacuum'ed to death by a flock of Tropius? It's always these two pokemon that seem to be portrayed as the bad guys, and it makes sense (Houndoom is based off of Cerberus, the hellhound from Greek mythology) to do so, but it's gotten to the point where it's cliché now. Being torn apart and killed by a Houndoom or Mightyena might be the leading cause of death in the Pokemon world.

There's probably more that I can think of, but those are just two that I can think of off the top of my head where as soon as I see it happen, I just can't help but laugh at times. I'll leave it at that so I don't make this post any longer.

So the question is, what bothers you the most in the plot of stories?

[Grassy_Aggron]

I'm so glad the first part doesn't apply to me. My main lead is male, sure, and he so clearly is head over heels for a woman, buuuut she's honestly so dense his advances fly straight over her head and to the moon. I understand how annoying that is. I really like it when they play it up for a joke, though, because that's what it does to most stories - make it an absolute freakin' joke. If done right it's a hilarious romp or, perhaps, is a key point of development for the main lead (I.E. they hate everyone falling for them, use it to manipulate, etc.) but more often than not it is done wrong and just crashes everything to a halt.

And the second issue... yeah. That happens a lot. I'd like to see a story where someone gets beaten to death by a Togekiss. Feel the love! >:D I digress, however, people need to remember that Dark =/= Evil. Sure, I think in Japan it literally is Evil Type... but I like to think they are misunderstood. Go for uniqueness!

My biggest pet peeve is when people have a character be the long lost sibling of a canonical character. I'll cite any character from any video game. People don't try hard at all to write in a character for this. They just show up, no backstory, and they have applause. This isn't too bad for characters that are either minor, but for main characters it's a huge problem. This is especially apparent when that character is never stated to have any siblings or is 100% confirmed to not have any.

An example? I read a story that was a Sonic story. Shadow is confirmed to have no siblings, having been created on a secret base in space. Not only did he suddenly have several siblings, they were all developed on another secret base in space. Oh, and they were all ungodly powerful and switched sides on a dime for no reason. Said story also had a lot of rape/sex in it... X_x This is why I don't read fanfiction.net.

Now, obviously there are issues with the Mary Sue factor here, but that's a topic for another time. It just irks me so much when people break continuity to the point of adding in lost siblings and such. It's just so out of place and shoehorned in... I've rarely seen it done right. When it is, it works extremely well, but most of the time it just falls flat on its face and is cringeworthy.

[Neo Emolga]

Here are mine, besides the obvious Mary/Gary Sue/Stu stuff. No offense to anyone who does these. To each his/her own.

IN GENERAL

Really long, boring, drawn out conversations. Especially ones that really have nothing to do with the story and don't even impact character development that much. While some degree of not-so-exciting filler is a necessary evil, such as traveling, sleeping, and the like, you don't need a dragging conversation at any time.

The damsel in distress. I'm really tired of this cliche. It's been used so many times and it's extremely rare to see any deviation from the usual successful guy saving the girl. You never see it where the guy fails to do so or the girl was actually a trap the entire time and it blows up in the guy's face. For real.

POKEMON RELATED

I REALLY dislike trainer fics. Sorry, but no matter how you cut it, they're old, they're stale, they've been done so many times it makes Chuck Norris cry, and they're the epitome of unoriginality in terms of Pokémon fan fiction. I don't really care how many different things your characters do along the way or if there's something "different" about the Pokémon they're using, you're still just copying and pasting the same overused pattern and plot the games have already used to death and I pretty much already know what happens from beginning to end that it doesn't make worth reading. Reading is fun to discover new things and possibilities, and trainer fics just aren't open to that.

Plots focused entirely around legendary Pokémon and legendary Pokémon being thought of as gods. Again, the movies have already done this quite often. I also find using Arceus's name in vain in place of God is a really cheesy thing to do. Stuff like "Arceus damn it" and "oh my Arceus" just make me sigh and roll eyes. Legendary Pokémon aren't gods, they're just as mortal as any other Pokémon, even if some of them command powerful elements. Also, they can be captured and trained by humans, so does that make humans even higher than gods? No.

People using "under-appreciated" Pokémon just for the sake of using them. If you want to use Dunsparce, Garbodor, or whatever Pokémon that you think doesn't get enough spotlight, that's fine, but make really good use of them and give them a point and a purpose. If you can't really do that, please, I don't mind seeing yet another Pikachu or another Eeveelution as long as they're used well. The other thing is if a Pokémon is "under-appreciated," usually there's a good reason for that. Most people don't like them. So if you want to be a under-appreciated Pokemon's defense attorney, you've got to really put in a good case for the jury as to why this Pokemon should get more attention.

[Zeromus]

Oh, and they were all ungodly powerful and switched sides on a dime for no reason.

That's another good one. Insert evil character who is super mega powerful, and have them turn good in no more than 5 chapters for the most one-dimensioned reason ever.

Evil character: "I am evil because I have no friends!"
Protagonist: "We'll be your friends :) <3"
Evil character: "Okay, I am now good."

On a less relevant note, stories like that are actually not allowed on FF.net. You even agree to the terms of service saying that your stories don't include detailed sexual content since it's considered M+, and the ratings on FF are capped at M. Fun fact.

I'll admit to being somewhat guilty to some pet peeves mentioned such as placing the legendaries as "gods" and while I am only a prologue and chapter into my story, I can see drawn out dialogue and filler being an issue for me. I am a very wordy person, and right now one of the things I'm trying to learn to do is not to repeat myself, and be concise with what I want the characters to say. I've been fixing this as I proof-read, but being someone who wants a good portion of the interest in the story coming from dialogue, this will probably be one of my biggest faults. It's good that I'm reading this now (It's part of the reason why I posted this thread anyway, to figure out what bothers people) though so I can be more conscious about it.

The whole legendary pokemon being viewed so highly thing I'd like to think I have a pretty good way of dealing with it without being cliché, but I guess that's up to how I end up handling it in the end. Actually, I kind of handle it in the same way I'm dealing with my over use of popular pokemon (Eeveelutions ._.). I'm trying to use it as a way to play devil's advocate. In my story, the legendaries pretty much screwed the whole world over by not doing their job properly, so instead of fixing it, they pretty much just ditch everyone to hide away in another plane of existence and let the other pokemon deal with it. On one hand, the pokemon who don't know the true reasoning behind the legendaries leaving have the "Yeah! Legendaries! Super strong! We love you!" mentality, while the pokemon who know about this have the "Thanks for leaving us you jerks! I hope your first born is drop kicked off a cliff" mentality.

It's true though that even if these things are overdone or overused, or handled poorly in general, it opens up a whole new world of plot ideas. What was once used as a serious idea, can be then instead taken and used in a more satirical way that adds to the story instead of taking away from it.

Regardless, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, and I'm interested to see what bothers other people.

[Neo Emolga]

That's another good one. Insert evil character who is super mega powerful, and have them turn good in no more than 5 chapters for the most one-dimensioned reason ever.

Evil character: "I am evil because I have no friends!"
Protagonist: "We'll be your friends :) <3"
Evil character: "Okay, I am now good."

This is actually even worse than a Mary Sue. At least with a mega powerful villain, you'll have the feeling the protagonist and his friends are being challenged. When the writer does something like this, say goodnight, the story is a goner.

So why is Game of Thrones so popular (both the book and the HBO series)? Because the villains you HATE just keep coming up on top and the good guys that you love struggle and get slaughtered, so it keeps you reading until the bitter end and you're hoping the tables get turned in a nice and epic way. But the truth is that throughout that series, everyone struggles with some conflict or another and realistically no one has it easy. That's how it should be.


I'll admit to being somewhat guilty to some pet peeves mentioned such as placing the legendaries as "gods" and while I am only a prologue and chapter into my story, I can see drawn out dialogue and filler being an issue for me. I am a very wordy person, and right now one of the things I'm trying to learn to do is not to repeat myself, and be concise with what I want the characters to say. I've been fixing this as I proof-read, but being someone who wants a good portion of the interest in the story coming from dialogue, this will probably be one of my biggest faults. It's good that I'm reading this now (It's part of the reason why I posted this thread anyway, to figure out what bothers people) though so I can be more conscious about it.

The whole legendary pokemon being viewed so highly thing I'd like to think I have a pretty good way of dealing with it without being cliché, but I guess that's up to how I end up handling it in the end. Actually, I kind of handle it in the same way I'm dealing with my over use of popular pokemon (Eeveelutions ._.). I'm trying to use it as a way to play devil's advocate. In my story, the legendaries pretty much screwed the whole world over by not doing their job properly, so instead of fixing it, they pretty much just ditch everyone to hide away in another plane of existence and let the other pokemon deal with it. On one hand, the pokemon who don't know the true reasoning behind the legendaries leaving have the "Yeah! Legendaries! Super strong! We love you!" mentality, while the pokemon who know about this have the "Thanks for leaving us you jerks! I hope your first born is drop kicked off a cliff" mentality.

If there's one big thing I enjoy doing in my stories, it's killing cliches. I like having tough guys get humbled in humiliating ways, have characters make judgment calls that sounded fantastic but ended up getting them screwed, and making sure nothing comes easy. I also like making the threats and dangers take the forms of things you'd never suspect.

The other thing with legendaries being considered like gods is that humans have way more power than they do given the technological level. In many of the movies, legendaries are often pulverized and rendered helpless by human technology. It might make more sense for non-legendary Pokémon to regard legendary Pokémon as gods, but to humans, there's no reason why they should regard them that way when capturing them and controlling them is just a Pokéball away, if not all the other technological devices that are used in the Pokémon movies and anime.

I think one of the biggest fallacies in Pokémon is the utter mess of Pokédex descriptions. Either they're right and the world will probably end before lunch that day, or they're way over exaggerating the truth and giving the critters way too much credit.

[SassySnivy]

I'm really big on reading fics that are reader inserts and/or ones that feature some romantic-fluffy-thing about two characters I ship. I'm a big sap. However, a lot of reader inserts are just...really annoying. I hate when it's SUCH a reader insert that they are like, your (h/c) hair floated in the wind and your (e/c) eyes sparkled and you were wearing a (f/c) top on. Come on! D: A good reader insert doesn't have to worry about filling that info out. Heck, even if it's a nameless character written in the first or second person POV, I'm content. x] It's like...you don't even have to mention those details. At all. The reader's mind will fill in any blanks. x]

Also I like the confession part of it to be...climatic, semi-realistic, and bonus points if it gives me all those warm fuzzies. >w< If they're just like "OMHG I LOVE YOU!" then I just click out of the story. Sometimes.

Another thing about fanfics in general is when the author's notes is full of...chatting. Also, the things detailed in this video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR7uaIFVFiM)
Mainly I'm just a big fanservice nut and it bugs me when it's too weaboo-like. ._.

Also I agree with the OP when they said they dislike it when all of the opposite gender characters fall in love with the main character. Goes for both males and females. It's too Mary-Sue-like.

[EmeraldSky]

The tragic backstory--I know this one is likely older than dirt, but can't we have some characters with kind and loving families for a change?

The only thing worse than long-lost sibling of the canon character is the children of the canon characters.

Exact carbon copies of the classic Kanto Trio--main guy, token girl (that may or may not argue over the stupidest things), and older guy that's a good cook that goes gaga for girls)

Exact carbon copies of Team Rocket--extra points if they have a Rocket-esque motto

[Scytherwolf]

I'm another one who gets annoyed with the whole "I'm using underused pokemon so I'm more creative than the authors of those eevee stories" thing. If the species of your pokemon is what makes it 'interesting' then you've got a pretty bland character.

Another thing: Villainbots. Which is my word for those random pokemon/people who are evil for literally no reason and don't even have the slightest sign of a personality. Predator pokemon who are evil because they're predators are an example of this. Like the houndooms/mightyenas who decide to torture their prey to death because...well, I don't know why. There's literally no reason for a hungry predator to do this. They just want to eat.

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, it kind of makes me annoyed that people are saying things like "I'm guilty of..." or "I sort of like..." (not just here, but in general). I'm not annoyed at the people saying these things, but at the fact that they think they should or have to. So I'm just going to say that I'm a strong believer of "anything can be done well," and I think people should write what they want to without worrying about what others like or dislike. I actually think my biggest writing pet peeve is writing advice that says "Always do..." or "Never do..." anything, and those comments reminded me of it. xD

[Zeromus]

Also, the things detailed in this video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR7uaIFVFiM)

Oh my god, that video generalized and slammed almost every awful thing about FF.net. I am no stranger to anime having grown up with all the mainstream stuff as a kid, and even making it through most of the Naruto series, but that part about the shitty weaboo fanfic was so accurate it made me cringe as I began to recall stories that did just that. The random usage of Japanese words, the awkward use of Asian emoticons (^;^), and of course the random author notes in the middle of the story.

It's stuff like that that makes me doubt the idea of even writing a story, but then I remember even amongst all the garbage that "younger" writers publish, there are some awesome stories that I've come across, and it's those half a dozen really good stories that make up for the 100+ it took to find them.

I think it's also really good that no matter how bad you are, it's good to have people help iron your way through this if you want to pursue writing (something I will never do) as a serious career one day. And I know there's times when you should stick to your ideals, and do what you want to do, but I think writing is such a broad and impossible to master subject, it's keep everything you hear from people in mind. Hell, it's a good state of mind to keep yourself in if you ever want to create something different from others.

[Noblejanobii]

Probably my number 1 pet peeve with stories is that the main focus on the plot becomes lust love. Meaning like the whole point of the plot isn't going from point A to point B, it's getting the two main characters together. Twilight, for example, could not hold my attention because it was all about Jacob vs Edward. It's also why I generally don't like the second books in trilogies either because they're all about romantic tension. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I do like a little romance involved in a story. That's always good for me and I tend to include it in my own, but it's not like the main focus of the story for me. Plot first then romance. Occasionally I'll have like a little romance involved in part of the plot, like as a plot twist, but the whole plot usually isn't centered around them, if that makes sense. I try not to overdose on the romance because even though I enjoy having some, I don't like having a lot.

[Suicune's Fire]

I think most of the things I was going to put on the table were already covered here:

- Sex with no plot (50 Shades of Gray)
- Villainbots (minor or major)
- Stereotypes (with pokemon stories especially, when it comes to dark types/predators being evil)
- Everyone or even just one person is inexplicably in love with one particular character and pursues them despite not having a proper reason (50 Shades of Gray...)
- That the whole popular/unpopular pokemon debate even warrants a thought for the author
- When people don't bother to develop the characters
- Inexplicably overpowered main characters


Neo, I do disagree with you on the subject of legendary pokemon being the Pokemon universe equivalent of gods, because as I see it, that's how regular pokemon would see them. I don't have an issue with that. Considering their pokedex entries, I believe that legendaries definitely have godlike qualities (Dialga controlling time, Palkia space, Mew being the genetic relative to all pokemon, Groudon creating continents, etc) and could therefore be seen as such. I DO agree with your point that humans wouldn't see them as gods. Powerful beings who shouldn't be messed with, sure. I do get the whole "Arceus is god" thing because that's what mythology has told people. I suppose it's like religion, where there'd be people who believe in it and people who don't. P.S. I think the only reason legendaries can be actually captured in-game is the whole...ya know...it's a game thing. They have to be obtainable somehow. It doesn't mean that in a more realistic setting, they'd be just as freely available. Sort of like how if you have a level 100 igglybuff, you could defeat a wailord whose body slam does little damage. The game logic and real world logic doesn't match up...not that a lot of pokemon logic does, but you know what I mean.

I hate it when people pay attention to a pokemon's popularity within the Pokemon community. To me, you write about pokemon you want to write about, without a second thought as to whether or not they're overused or underused. I, personally, enjoy writing about pokemon I like. Yes, I DO think about pokemon I haven't written about before and have a want to include them, but that's only because I love writing about all sorts of pokemon. I want to explore different species, make personalities and backstories for them, and enjoy myself as well as allow the reader to enjoy it. My pokemon choice is a choice based on my likes and interest in writing about different pokemon alone, and sometimes I imagine scenes with a particular pokemon in mind. If that pokemon happens to be an eevee or a pikachu, so be it. I don't want people with shallow-minded opinions about "OVERUSED AND UNDERUSED!!1!1!!" reading my story anyway, so the faster they're warded off, the better.

I've probably missed many things which annoy me, but I've probably forgotten half of them. XD

[LKWayvern]

Sorry in advance if I go off on a rant. It's just most of the stuff I talk about in this post really annoys me.

My biggest pet peeve about fanfictions is definitely when they go off on tangents about how 'omg friendship lets u beat anything n makes u omnipotent lol >w<'
I don't have anything against stories about friendship, or teamwork in general. I am aware that having a group of people or Pokemon with different skills and such can be a really great advantage when it comes to taking down a foe. But when a fanfiction starts screaming about how two random Pokemon who met five seconds ago became best friends forever and took down some big boss with power of pure friendship, it gets kind of ridiculous. I don't care if you are such good friends that you can practically read each other's minds, there is no way two level five-to-fifteen Pokemon are taking down a level 50 Spiritomb overlord, or whatever.
That's the one thing that annoys me about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfictions. I really love reading PMD comics and fanfics, but it never fails to get on my nerves how fast the hero and partner become friends, or how the partner automatically believes that the hero is a human with no evidence at all.
To be honest, however, it would be kind of funny to see a satire making fun of this. Say, the hero is actually an outlaw on the run who decides to hide as a rescue team member, and the only Pokemon willing to be their partner is a guillable, idealistic young Pokemon who believes the hero when they lie and say they're a human come to save the world.
Another thing that gets on my nerves is when Dark automatically equals evil. It gets awfully dull and predictable when the evil Yveltal/Darkrai/Giratina is the antagonist because they're big and dark and spooky. If they have a really good personality or backstory that explains why they're the villian, I don't mind as much, though. I would really prefer it if the very last Pokemon you expect is the antagonist, though. I know that Gates to Infinity isn't the best PMD game out there, but I really like how Munna turns out to have been evil, and Hydreigon is the good guy. In a surprise twist, they managed to transform Hydreigon from a Dark typed villianbot to a cool, funny ally, and Munna was revealed to be a conniving antagonist with reasons as to why she was on Kyurem's side.
One final thing that really annoys me is when people use the most simplistic language in battles. I have read some fanfictions that would've been really good, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was all typed like this:
'Bob the Pokemon trainer woke up late. "Oh no," he said, "All the Pokemon at the Pokemon lab have probably been taken by now." Bob walked to the Pokemon center.
"Oh hi Bob. All the Pokemon but this Pidgey have been taken," Professor Oak told Bob.
"Okay I will take the Pidgey then," Bob said.
Then Gary challenged Bob to a battle with his Bulbasaur. "Hey Bob your wimpy Pokemon can get taken out in one shot. That's what you get for sleeping in."
"Go Pidgey use Sky Attack," Bob said and won.
"Wow, Bob, you are such a good battler," Bob's neighbour Sally who he had never before even acknowledged said. "I had no idea. I love you so much Bob."
"I love you so much too, Sally. Let's go traveling together," Bob said. '
That writing kind of distances me from the story, and makes it really hard for me to connect with any of the characters. And characters falling in love seconds after meeting each other is another big pet peeve of mine. They know very little about each other, and then they're suddenly boyfriend and girlfriend, or trying to propose to each other. I just find it very unrealistic. In addition, I only like having couples in a fanfiction if they have moments where they really connect, or bond. If I can see how their relationship is growing, and becoming something they both truly treasure. If they just jump from strangers to soulmates, then they skip all the moments in between that just make someone go 'Aaaaww', and I feel that that's a major loss in a fanfiction, or any story, really.

Again, sorry if I ended up going on a little rant in the middle of that. I just feel kind of strongly about these things.

[Dragon Master Mike]

I disagree with what a lot of people have said about the cliches. I believe overusing cliches is a bad thing, but I feel there is a place for them. I mean that less in the way of plot and more in the way of characters though. A cliche plot is boring. Throwing in a cliche character doesn't necisarily make it a boring character if it is used right. It's just when you have like, 3 main characters that are all completely cliche that it bothers me.

Other than that I more or less agree with what most people said, particularly the things involving romance. Oh, and when the character's aren't really given anything in the way of backstory (Guilty)

[Noblejanobii]

I have to admit that a cliche plot might be annoying, but it can be worked. I mean they did it with RomeoxJuliet and that was a fantastic show/manga. Still I think one of the better elements of a plot is having a mix of cliche and originality. For example, having a story that starts out with the weakling getting the best _______ but then, instead of them growing to be the strongest, having them stay one of the weakest and have the adventure spiral from there.

[Blaquaza]

Not entirely sure if I'm allowed to post here considering the last post was months ago, but it's on the first page and I have a little bit of a rant prepared, so I'm going to do it anyway (I know, I'm such a rascal).

I absolutely loathe the 'false imprisonment' trope to the point where it can instantaneously make me lose interest in whatever I'm reading/watching. It's even more annoying when it's either down to mind control or those who are supposed to be uncovering the truth just accept this one person is guilty. Personally, I believe it's such a contrived method of storytelling because the framed person is generally some kind of hero that has saved humanity before, yet the second he does something they don't like he should be imprisoned without question. There's also the fact that I pretty much hate prison scenes in general, but it's amplified when innocent people are subject to all kinds of torture just because one smug, usually moronic badguy has gotten away with something far too easily for it to be believable.

The one exception to that in my eyes is the Ace Attorney series, because you're proving that these people are innocent, so you get to put those smug prosecutors and dumb policemen (sorry Gumshoe) in their place.