Your Most Hated Tropes

[YmaOHyd]

Agree, Bagman. Both of my examples -- group stories expanding the cast beyond the ability of the author to make the characters recognizable and idiocy-induced twists in the third act -- don't become apparent until well into the story. And that leads to frustration. If the author's set up a cool situation and then fails to execute, I'm more likely to stay invested and get annoyed than if they just don't set up the situation in the first place.

Another example: one of the common tropes -- god it's everywhere -- is 'big-dick nerd has sex with super popular girl, becoming more confident in the process.' There's a story that starts this way that looks like it's going to play with this formula in an interesting way. The girl has sex with the weird loser and starts to realize that, actually, maybe popularity doesn't matter that much, maybe true worth is internal, and maybe just maybe she has worth beyond her appearance. And the guy continues to grow in confidence, and it becomes cockiness, and soon he's just as much of an ego-monster as the jerks who bully him. And as he helped her realize that she was kind of a bad person, she returns the favor and helps him realize he's becoming one. That's the story the author suggests is coming.

Except... none of that happens. The girl has character development, but none of it happens on the page; she meets the male character every now and then and says "I am having character development, which is why I am not having sex with you very often anymore." The boy gets cocky, but nothing ever comes of it, even when he behaves badly, and he fails from one sexy lady to another, learning nothing. It's the biggest case of emotional blue balls ever, and you've got to wait sixty thousand words or something to realize what's (not) happening.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

There's no question some things are overdone, but I don't see why it's so vexing for people, because you always have the easy choice to ignore what you don't want to read. There's something for almost every taste. My attitude toward stuff I don't like is more "meh" than hatred.

Just hard to know in advance whether a story is going to rehash an overdone cliche or not, but yeah, I agree that a lot of consumers of, really any content, not just erotic literature, act like self-entitled jerks who think that everything they encounter should jive 100% with their expectations, preferences, and desires.

While I also wouldn't go so far as to use the word hatred, or even anger, to describe my own reactions to tiresome tropes, I think it's understandably vexing for some people for a few reasons. A list follows, because I know you like those.

1. Not every story is upfront about what the reader can expect. Some authors, as we know from frequent threads here in the AH, are adamantly opposed to things like forewords, tags, disclaimers, content warnings, and the like. That's their preference, and while I have no wish to revisit that discussion, it can make the 'easy choice' more difficult. Plus, not every author is equally adept at picking tags, titles, blurbs, and so forth, so even when they want to be transparent and upfront about content, stumbles can occur.
2. Not all tropes are obvious from the start. Things like the idiot ball or dream/hallucination may only become apparent once you're well into the story, or even near the end. Something that started out fresh and promising abruptly turns disappointing, and can retroactively sour the entire experience.
3. It becomes a kind of repetitive stress injury, like carpal tunnel or tennis elbow or being told you should smile more. It gets more and more challenging to endure the more it happens, especially when combined with (1) and (2), where the reader is actively trying to avoid things but keeps finding them anyway.

Re 1: I actually gave this a lot of thought before I started posting stories, because some readers are more open to anything that might be in a story and prefer to not be spoiled, and others may be looking for something specific. I finally settled on a standard of having a spoiler description at the very END, after whatever closing comments I have, and putting a short note at the beginning to inform people unfamiliar with how I present my works (which at this point is pretty much everyone, since I've only posted two stories so far) that the story may contain some unusual stuff, and to jump to the last page if they want to check what it is first. Yes, it takes a couple of extra clicks, but I figure it's better than opening the story with an overview of what's going to be in it and ruining it for people who may not want to see it, and whatever spoilers someone gets when they open the last page aren't much of a big deal, because they're specifically going there to find out what's in the story anyway...

Don't worry, I wasn't offended in the slightest. I try not to take my writing too seriously, and I often like to play with tropes like the one you mentioned.

And of course I'm glad you liked this particular story at least a little bit! I'll try to write more stuff like this in the future

Thanks. I'd gotten the feeling that you hadn't seriously been offended and were just having some good-natured fun on the newcomer's dime. Gotta say, I'm enjoying the banter.

 

[gunhilltrain]

In stage productions of the film script, Auntie Em's actress often plays Glinda.

I should have expected this, but Wizard of Oz parodies are - tropes? Simply common?

https://classic.literotica.com/s/dorothy-does-oz-ch-06

Popular too, judging by the scores he got along the way. I noticed that he's one of those writers, who when doing a sex scene, seems to forget about paragraph breaks. Too engaged in his own fantasies?

 

[xtorch]

1. Not every story is upfront about what the reader can expect. Some authors, as we know from frequent threads here in the AH, are adamantly opposed to things like forewords, tags, disclaimers, content warnings, and the like. That's their preference, and while I have no wish to revisit that discussion, it can make the 'easy choice' more difficult. Plus, not every author is equally adept at picking tags, titles, blurbs, and so forth, so even when they want to be transparent and upfront about content, stumbles can occur.

I wrote a story about a Librarian without realising, you know, the whole "Librarians and erotic fiction".
It was a story about a medieval librarian (male) and his female assistant and their Dr. Who style investigations of a crashed alien spacecraft.
But, looking back now, I could see how people might have made assumptions about "Librarian erotic fiction" and not gotten what they were expecting.

 

[madelinemasoch]

I wrote a story about a Librarian without realising, you know, the whole "Librarians and erotic fiction".
It was a story about a medieval librarian (male) and his female assistant and their Dr. Who style investigations of a crashed alien spacecraft.
But, looking back now, I could see how people might have made assumptions about "Librarian erotic fiction" and not gotten what they were expecting.

She gets fucked by the aliens, I am assuming.

 

[madelinemasoch]

I have a bunch of things I could say on this one. We’ll start with what I don’t like, which I’ve already said before on another thread, so I’ll try to talk about another aspect of this stuff.

I don’t like infodumping at the beginning. This is more of a convention on this specific website than it is a trope in fiction as a whole. I hate this first page infodump description bullshit that happens in sooooo many stories on here. There’s so many problems with this. Firstly, a bunch of numbers (measurements) doesn’t actually help me imagine the character. I don’t know what a 5’6” woman with a 36 inch waist and a perfect C cup bra looks like based on that information alone. Secondly, it’s lazy writing. Anyone will tell you this. Like, just find a way to get the image on the page without that crap. It’s written as if no one will read it. It’s masturbatory. It makes me distrust the author and puts me in a space of disillusionment and completely out of immersion.

On the other hand, I don’t like when there’s no physical description of the character’s bodies at all. To me that’s also laziness. Also I cannot relate to you as an author if you don’t describe your characters’ physicality especially in erotic fiction. It’s kind of a must have for me as a writer to know who the character is. It doesn’t inspire me not to know and I can’t imagine them in my mind without descriptors.

And then, there’s another thing… I’ll do another post.

 

[xtorch]

She gets fucked by the aliens, I am assuming.

You'd think, but no. She just fucks the Librarian, during which time they can telepathically communicate with the aliens. It allows the MCs to figure out how to set free the alien craft.

 

[madelinemasoch]

Here it is.

I can't stand the standard interracial "Black thug makes slave of white woman and her boyfriend" thing. It's just the most bog-standard scenario, and they're almost never written well. Honestly, my dislike of how boring that trope is really is what first motivated me to start writing.

I could do this well. I wouldn’t have the woman be a slave to the black guy or anyone though, just have the white boyfriend be a slave to her instead. I find it kind of funny how that’s what got you motivated because I’m kind of a similar way in that sense.

When I see porn that’s the way you describe I get disappointed because the entire point of cuckoldry is just completely lost on them. It’s not about men. It’s about the woman. If she’s still submissive to men then the whole purpose that the relationship dynamic of cuckoldry could be good for is rendered utterly meaningless. It’s like a libidinal tool for feminism to me, not about male competition, or these misogynistic stratifications of hierarchy where women are expected and conditioned to chase the “strongest man” which is kind of a mythical thing at this time and place in history to begin with.

I dislike male primacy and too much androphilia. I make a point not to write that way, not for any political reason but because I have to align myself with my ideas, and my ideas are already femdom-oriented as they come in to me. I also make a point to give expression to the different types of female dominants in the stories. There are some that are more like the traditional cuckoldry concept of needing to be satisfied by more masculine sexual traits, but there are others that are more complicated… it all depends on the implications of the dialogue, feelings, and behavior of the characters and what these relationship dynamics between them actually uphold in terms of both value/belief systems and social structures. I don’t like this idealist view that people can just do whatever they want and it’s fine.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You'd think, but no. She just fucks the Librarian, during which time they can telepathically communicate with the aliens. It allows the MCs to figure out how to set free the alien craft.

Spoiler Alert!

Well, it's different at least. Usually people don't mix the middle ages with aliens. (Or maybe they have and I've missed them.) Also, "librarians" usually imply female ones. Maybe a male one is a good touch.

It reminds me of A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is about a post-apocalyptic future Medieval period. It takes centuries, but eventually the destroyed earlier civilization is discovered and restored.

I see there was a podcast version of it a couple of years ago. Has anyone seen it?

 

[Bamagan]

Re 1: I actually gave this a lot of thought before I started posting stories, because some readers are more open to anything that might be in a story and prefer to not be spoiled, and others may be looking for something specific. I finally settled on a standard of having a spoiler description at the very END, after whatever closing comments I have, and putting a short note at the beginning to inform people unfamiliar with how I present my works (which at this point is pretty much everyone, since I've only posted two stories so far) that the story may contain some unusual stuff, and to jump to the last page if they want to check what it is first. Yes, it takes a couple of extra clicks, but I figure it's better than opening the story with an overview of what's going to be in it and ruining it for people who may not want to see it, and whatever spoilers someone gets when they open the last page aren't much of a big deal, because they're specifically going there to find out what's in the story anyway...

I suppose some people have a broader definition of what constitutes a spoiler than I do.
I generally add a foreword to my stories, or the first chapter at least, where I say it's going to have FF, MF, F+ groups, or whatever, and the main fetishes or kinks featured (I don't write much that would be taken as vanilla). To me, it spoils nothing about the story to know the sex is going to be, say, lesbian petplay. I gather other people feel strongly that this is too much information to have, which perplexes me, but since I can't please everyone, I have to settle for doing what I would prefer as a reader. In case it isn't already obvious, I would be more likely to consider a story 'spoiled' if I find out it includes, for example, scat or raceplay, after I started.

 

[rteny3245]

Male main character is woken up receiving a blow job.

 

[8letters]

I'm the only one bothered by small tropes? Tropes that bother me:
* A couple are going to have sex or someone is going to masturbate and they don't fully close the door to their room. Really? To me, it's pounded into people's head to fully close doors when they want privacy. And those are events I'd be even more concerned about my privacy than usual
* The door is not quite closed, so a character is able to put their eye to the crack and see all the action in the room like they were standing in the middle of the room. The reality is that they'd be able to see just a small slice of the room. And if you can see someone's face, they can see your face
* Character A accidentally sees Character B naked for a second. Now, both Characters A and B want to have sex with the other
* A guy is spying on a girl when she's naked. She catches him. Instead of being angry (and she should be totally pissed), she wants the guy to fuck her
* Alice has been heterosexual all her life. Brittney has been heterosexual all her life. Alice has sex with Christopher, and later Brittney has sex with Christopher. Suddenly, Alice and Brittney both realize almost simultaneously that they are bisexual and they are sexually attracted to each other. They then put on a show of having sex together to excite Christopher

Let me ditto those people who don't like dicks and breasts that are ridiculously massive.

 

[xtorch]

Spoiler Alert!

Well, it's different at least. Usually people don't mix the middle ages with aliens.

That was kind of my point. It's hard to let people know "This isn't the Librarian trope, this is <?????>" without spoiling the story.
But then, if you were looking for the Librarian Trope, you're kind of upset.

 

[FidelityBoss]

I dislike the term "hated" when referring to tropes. My attitude is that just about anything can work if it's done artfully.

The story theme I respond most negatively to at Literotica is the "burn the bitch" theme in Loving Wives stories that panders to a widespread, but wrong-headed, belief that the system screws over men. I'm sure there are some cases in which that happens, but it's the minority. Generally speaking, the system favors men, not women.

Even with this theme, there are some well-written stories, but more often than not I find that the stories, even if well-written, are unsatisfying because the characters are stereotypes and uninteresting exemplars of all good or all bad. It's a moral universe I don't recognize as the one I live in.

There's also nothing at all sexy or erotic about these stories. I come here to read about lust, not revenge.

Yeah, I totally get where you're coming with this. The "burn the bitch" trope can feel so one-dimensional and, honestly, exhausting, especially when it’s rooted in a skewed view of reality. It’s like, come on, can we get some nuance here? People are messy and complicated, not just cartoonish villains or saints. And you’re right, it’s hard to find anything sexy or erotic in stories that are more about revenge than passion. Like, if I’m here for lust, give me lust, not a moral lecture wrapped in stereotypes.

That said, I agree with your broader point almost any trope or theme can work if it’s handled with skill and depth. It’s all about execution. But when it’s just lazy, over-the-top pandering it's a hard pass. Give me characters with layers, conflicts that feel real, and, you know, actual heat.

 

[gunhilltrain]

That was kind of my point. It's hard to let people know "This isn't the Librarian trope, this is <?????>" without spoiling the story.
But then, if you were looking for the Librarian Trope, you're kind of upset.

Actually, I was referring to A Canticle for Leibowitz. I gave away the majority of the plot. Except, there is one big twist near the end that I didn't mention.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Actually, I was referring to A Canticle for Leibowitz. I gave away the majority of the plot. Except, there is one big twist near the end that I didn't mention.

Gunhill, I very much doubt the majority of people here will know of Canticle, let alone go off and find it.

Anyway, Stand on Zanzibar is more pertinent, and an easier read. The AI in that novel (by John Brunner, for those wondering what the fuck we're on about) pisses all over the AI wannabes we've got at the moment. Like HAL, it's got a sense of humour, which is absolutely missing from ChatGpt.

 

[FidelityBoss]

Quaranteam was one of the ones I was thinking about, yeah -- though in mitigation they're operating according to rules that one person has set, and I think at least one of those stories started before QT got to the "every male has 20 partners, people are developing superpowers and telepathy" place it is today*.

I'm not against harem stories or group stories more broadly. I just want each person in the group to have a reason to be there. A thing I don't like is when there's a harem and the guy keeps having to go outside the harem for help with things that people within it could provide. "I need someone to talk to about my feelings" boy, you have four girlfriends and five regular fuck-partners who want to be your girlfriend, talk to one of them, do not go meet another girl.

And sometimes that reason is that the story is reader-supported through a Patreon or something, and the patrons want something to happen -- they want a redhead, or they want this side character to get more prominence, or... I don't like it, but God knows I'm not going to criticize someone for finding a way to make a living doing what they love. I bet if I went back and looked, at least a couple of the decisions I dislike in one or two stories were driven by paid reader voting or are sponsored content.

*Quaranteam reminds me of another trope that I hate. Low-level drama is fine. Sometimes the stakes don't need to be raised anymore. "Andy is an author, and he's in over his head in a brave new world as the Quaranteam vaccine turns sexual morality upside down" is a premise with more than enough dramatic potential. We don't need Andy to be the next President, we don't need celebrity drama, we don't need shootouts and gunfights. We need to chill the eff out and actually explore the dramatic potential inherent in the premise. What does this mean for the women? What's it like for them, feeling their emotions being manipulated? The most interesting character in the whole Quaranteam expanded universe (as far as I'm aware of it, which isn't super far) is Feather, the conspiratorial protester from QT: Northwest, who I think chooses to die rather than take the vaccine. The whole Quaranteam premise, really, is that every single anti-vax conspiracy theory is true, and... no one really touches it. It's just a conveyor belt to feed female characters who are [bra size] [skin tone] [sexual characteristic] to the male narrator.

Oh man, you’ve hit on so many points here that resonate. The whole "guy keeps going outside the harem for help" thing is such a weird trope like, you’ve got this whole group of people supposedly dedicated to you, but you can’t talk to any of them about your feelings? It feels like a lazy way to introduce new characters or drama instead of deepening the existing relationships. And yeah, when Patreon or reader votes drive the story, it can sometimes feel like the narrative is being pulled in too many directions, even if it’s understandable from a financial perspective.

Quaranteam sounds like it started with a fascinating premise but then got lost in escalating stakes and unnecessary drama. Like, why do we need shootouts and presidential plots when the core idea, sexual morality turned upside down by a vaccine, is already so rich with potential? Exploring the emotional and psychological impact on the women, or diving into the ethical dilemmas, could’ve made for such a compelling story. Instead, it feels like it got bogged down in adding more characters and escalating conflicts, which is a shame.

Feather sounds like the most interesting character by far, and it’s frustrating when stories gloss over the deeper, more thought-provoking aspects of their premise in favour of surface-level drama or wish fulfilment. Like, give me the messy, complicated, human stuff not just a conveyor belt of tropes.

 

[FidelityBoss]

I'm the only one bothered by small tropes? Tropes that bother me:
* A couple are going to have sex or someone is going to masturbate and they don't fully close the door to their room. Really? To me, it's pounded into people's head to fully close doors when they want privacy. And those are events I'd be even more concerned about my privacy than usual
* The door is not quite closed, so a character is able to put their eye to the crack and see all the action in the room like they were standing in the middle of the room. The reality is that they'd be able to see just a small slice of the room. And if you can see someone's face, they can see your face
* Character A accidentally sees Character B naked for a second. Now, both Characters A and B want to have sex with the other
* A guy is spying on a girl when she's naked. She catches him. Instead of being angry (and she should be totally pissed), she wants the guy to fuck her
* Alice has been heterosexual all her life. Brittney has been heterosexual all her life. Alice has sex with Christopher, and later Brittney has sex with Christopher. Suddenly, Alice and Brittney both realize almost simultaneously that they are bisexual and they are sexually attracted to each other. They then put on a show of having sex together to excite Christopher

Let me ditto those people who don't like dicks and breasts that are ridiculously massive.

Totally agree these tropes are so overdone and unrealistic! From doors left ajar during private moments to sudden, plot-convenient bisexuality, they pull you out of the story. And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous anatomy.

 

[StillStunned]

* The door is not quite closed, so a character is able to put their eye to the crack and see all the action in the room like they were standing in the middle of the room. The reality is that they'd be able to see just a small slice of the room. And if you can see someone's face, they can see your face

Unless there's a convenient mirror...

 

[gunhilltrain]

Gunhill, I very much doubt the majority of people here will know of Canticle, let alone go off and find it.

Anyway, Stand on Zanzibar is more pertinent, and an easier read. The AI in that novel (by John Brunner, for those wondering what the fuck we're on about) pisses all over the AI wannabes we've got at the moment. Like HAL, it's got a sense of humour, which is absolutely missing from ChatGpt.

I happened to reread Canticle a few years ago. I can't find any information abut the podcast except that is was created in 2023. I read Stand on Zanzibar at least forty years ago. I remember liking it, but I can't remember much about it. It was episodic, as I recall.

There have been different versions of AI, but not called that, going back to the stage play R.U.R. which coined the word robot.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I don't see anything wrong with doors left ajar, as long as the execution is good. If two characters are sharing a heated, desperate moment, tearing at each others' clothes yadda yadda, I might be taken out of the scene if one of them stops to make sure the door is firmly shut, especially if they have an expectation that no one's home, or no one will be home, or some other guarantor of privacy. But that's the thing about execution: you can get away with just about anything if you do it well enough.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I like harem stories, but the constant addition of partners does get to be ridiculous. After a while you can't keep track and I lose interest. The Quaranteam stories are really bad about this.

Add in multiple pregnancies and you need to be super wealthy to support a family that size.

Unless you're an Ottoman sultan. According to the tags portal, it's a popular subject on here.

https://classic.literotica.com/s/rachael-and-sultans-daughters-pt-01

 

[gunhilltrain]

Male main character is woken up receiving a blow job.

Of course, it's his mom.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

When I see porn that’s the way you describe I get disappointed because the entire point of cuckoldry is just completely lost on them. It’s not about men. It’s about the woman. If she’s still submissive to men then the whole purpose that the relationship dynamic of cuckoldry could be good for is rendered utterly meaningless. It’s like a libidinal tool for feminism to me, not about male competition, or these misogynistic stratifications of hierarchy where women are expected and conditioned to chase the “strongest man” which is kind of a mythical thing at this time and place in history to begin with.

I get exactly what you mean here, and it’s something that I struggled with when I started my first story. My main POV character is bisexual - he was raised in essentially an all-male environment and that’s all he had access to until college and even then he started a friends-with-benefits with his roommate.

I thought this was completely reasonable and easy to understand, but you wouldn’t believe the comments from people complaining that MC was a ‘beta’ because he enjoyed giving blowjobs. Like, what? A guy who enjoys giving pleasure is a beta? I went back and reread everything and all I could see was a kid who was overwhelmed by people who wanted to sleep with him, something he wasn’t used to but welcomed. It weirds me out how if you try to write a realistic character that isn’t a trope, folks can’t wrap their brains around it.

The other thing about my hated trope is the dehumanizing aspect of the Black guy in the story. He’s always some form of a thug - either a criminal straight out, or an athlete or rapper with an arrogant attitude. That was another thing I wanted to stand on its head, so I had one of the MCs be a rich, well-educated and successful Black guy who is marrying the MCs Mom, and they actually love each other.

Annoying that this is something weird in interracial erotica.

 

[SmokingFap]

I dusluje (not sure if it’s a trope) how the general structure is blowjob, PIV (sometimes skipped), right to anal. Like there’s 1000s of ways to have sex? And I do t even go into the anal category lol

I'd be thrilled to hear about just 1,000...