# Tired fictional tropes you hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937 "2020-05-16T19:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/301 "2020-06-11T17:12:50Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > But the Spartan concept of “freedom” had nothing to do with the modern concept of freedom, since they were basically a fascistic society based on slavery. The Spartans believed in liberty for themselves, but not for anyone else, and not as a general ideal. That hypocrisy is different from, say, modern America _how_, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/302 "2020-06-11T17:36:38Z")
> [@solost](#): > > … > “Crawling through ventilation ducts conveniently large enough to fit an adult human”. > > Tommy Lee and Linda Hamilton escaped though ventilation ducts not just large enough to crawl through, they were so large they sat upright in them at one point…! Mythbusters more or less busted that. They found that few ducts were big enuf but if they were you’d make a hellofa noise crawling. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/303 "2020-06-11T18:23:07Z")
[Moderating] This is not the place to debate modern American hypocrisy, or the lack thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/304 "2020-06-11T18:34:40Z")
Genius/Alien/Time traveler builds amazing gadget by sticking bits of everyday devices together, like technology is legos and you just have to snap it together in the right configuration. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/305 "2020-06-12T21:11:30Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > I don’t think I agree with that interpretation. Technically, yes, Rose slept with Jack before breaking her engagement to Cal. But it’s not like she carried on an affair that we’re supposed to forgive based on her gender. We’re supposed to forgive it because she was being forced into a marriage with a man who hit her, condescended to her, and was generally a boorish jerk (I also think that Picasso reference wasn’t about showing how sophisticated she was, but about how stupid he was to be so dismissive of her), but then she found true love and the inner strength to tell him to fuck off. That’s another trope. If a woman is with a man and the story requires that she cheat on him and be with our hero, then the man she cheats on has to be a monster. Must hit her and treat her like shit so that we actually root for her when she cheats on him. She cheats for true love. Men who cheat have a loving wife at home who never so much as raises her voice and is an all around wonderful person (think Michael Douglas’ wife in Fatal Attraction). When the man cheats it is fully out of selfishness and lust. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/306 "2020-06-13T00:40:24Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > That’s another trope. If a woman is with a man and the story requires that she cheat on him and be with our hero, then the man she cheats on has to be a monster. Must hit her and treat her like shit so that we actually root for her when she cheats on him. She cheats for true love. > > Men who cheat have a loving wife at home who never so much as raises her voice and is an all around wonderful person (think Michael Douglas’ wife in Fatal Attraction). When the man cheats it is fully out of selfishness and lust. Yeah, and he was cheating on Anne Archer… that ruined any plausibility the movie had right out of the gate. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/307 "2020-06-15T14:09:25Z")
Cop show. One cop standing behind another sitting at a computer. “Ok, give me a list of left-handed people who have a K, L or C in their middle name and sat within two desks of a Presbyterian kid in a state west of the Mississippi between 1971 and 1983.” Clackclackclack “Three results.” You know good and damned well that sort of database would nine kinds of not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/308 "2020-06-15T14:19:01Z")
Yeah. The only database I’ve seen like that covered only Methodist kids. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/309 "2020-07-13T10:04:05Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > Forced? in 1909? Hardly. Arm twisted by family maybe. If Cal was that bad, dont agree to the engagement. > > She was, as I recall, 17 in the movie, and her father had sunk the family fortune. Don’t underestimate the extent to which familial pressure exerted on a minor child (“Do this or we’ll end up on the streets, and you can make jokes about Freud and the male fascination with size all you want as you’re turning tricks in bars instead of being a pampered socialite girl!”) as being somewhat… deleterious to that child’s agency. > > I do hope you’re not one of those people who thinks the world’s problems can be reduced down to “women marrying jerks instead of nice guys” (referring to an element of a certain… troubling ideology). 1. That’s when Titanic sank. Even today, people get pressured by family into marrying the “right” person. No, Rose’s mom didn’t literally force her at gunpoint to marry Cal. But it’s pretty clear from the scene where they discuss the marriage and Rose’s willingness to toss herself off the stern of the boat in the middle of the night that that was pretty much her only option at that point. Who knows what happened to her mom, but Rose did have that big diamond in her pocket when they landed in New York. Although does beg the question how she managed to not have to pawn it. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/310 "2020-07-13T18:13:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The film also bothers me as it shows the “It’s evil if men cheat, but romantic if women do it” trope. > > _Bridges of Madison County_ is the standard bearer in this, but it is in many other films. Hell, at least _Bridges of Madison County_ only presented the women cheating=romantic side of things. In _Terms of Endearment_, they went full on hypocritical with scummy cheating husband character and empowered cheating wife character in the same damn movie. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/311 "2020-07-13T18:27:26Z")
It vexes me every time somebody dies that the corpse has always kept the eyes open, then a friend comes, caresses the face downwards from the eyebrows to the nose and the eyes are shut. Never had the chance to try it out myself, but I refuse to believe that it works like that. (now waiting for ignorance fighters on duty) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937/312 "2020-07-13T20:56:26Z")
Since this has been bumped, there has been a recent interesting real-world case of [omniscient database](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OmniscientDatabase)–a criminal suspect wearing a t-shirt sold only to a few people through Esty. > **[Masked arsonist might’ve gotten away with it if she hadn’t left Etsy review](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/masked-arsonist-mightve-gotten-away-with-it-if-she-hadnt-left-etsy-review/)** > > Woman who burned two police cars IDed by tattoo and Etsy review of her T-shirt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tired-fictional-tropes-you-hate/853937.md?page=15)