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What things anoy you when they occur in a story? These are mine. They don't necessarily completely preclude my enjoyment of the story, but they do irk me when I happen across them.

Intelligent dragons

Now this might surprise you a bit, considering that Robin Hobb's RotE books involve this quite heavily. But the idea of an intelligent dragon just doesn't make sense to me. They're big, clawed, flying and often fire-breathing beasts. Why would they need to be able to hold a conversation? Have you ever seen The Land Before Time? No, not one of those lousy sequels, the original movie. Okay, remember Sharptooth? Now imagine that guy with wings. That's what a dragon should be.

Artificial blood for vampires

Or animal blood, or anything else than human blood straight from the source. Once again, I've enjoyed stories that used this. George R. R. Martin's excellent Fevre Dream revolves around a vampire trying to develop artificial blood. Angel from the Buffyverse is able to subsist on animal blood, although it is hinted that it doesn't taste as good to him. This trope, however, detracts from the real horror of vampirism: the need to prey on humans.

"If you kill him, you will be just like him"

Our hero finally has the horrible villain he has been fighting the entire story at his mercy, prepares to kill him... and then his friends implore him not to, because this would be bad somehow. One of the most ridiculous examples in recent memory comes from the film X-Men: First Class.

Well, these beings also have one or two such peeves about dragons.

fire-breathing dragons
Dragons should not be able to breathe fire. Biologically it should be impossible to construct a useful throat using materials that are fire resistant, and fire is generally harmful to tooth enamel. Dragon fire should either be a form of acid like in RH, or some way to control the fire of the earth. one possibility that is weakly acceptable is for them to magically create fire just outside their mouths, but the scientific senses of these beings do not like that.

tiny-winged creatures that fly
Any creature with wings should have the right wing size to account for the ability to fly. a wingspan of 2m on a creature the size of the average dragon is like sticking a pair of oars on an aircraft carrier. Dragons should have a vast wingspan.
I personally think that firebreathing is cool enough to not worry about the scientific repercussions, although I do agree about wing span. I think that GRRM's take on dragons is the best I've seen so far, although dragons being hermaphroditic is a bit... odd.

And here's the big one that I somehow forgot. I can deal with the other ones, but this one makes me bang my head against the wall in frustration:

The time travel episode in a series not focused on time travel

Long-running fantasy and SF shows have a tendency to throw in a time travel episode sooner or later. Now, I don't hate time travel, but if you stick it in your story, you better make it the central component of your story.
We humans tend to live our lives as a straight line. We can never change our past decisions, so we have to accept the consequences of our actions and come to terms with the past. Time travel turns this idea on its head. Therefore, it is very jarring to see it pop up once... and then never coming up again.


Star Trek, Charmed, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, Gargoyles and many more have committed this sin and I hate it. It's the moment in an otherwise good story that makes me cringe.

And one more to finish the list:

That episode that every cartoon show must apparently have in which the characters are shrunken down and pilot a tiny submarine into someone's body

Because it's gross, not funny and done a million times before.
Being in the middles of re-reading the Liveship Traders I am going to say:

Girl has to make a decision whether to choose the nice boy or the bad boy and chooses the bad boy

(Aug-23-2011, 01:36 PM (UTC))Albertosaurus Rex Wrote: [ -> ]I think that GRRM's take on dragons is the best I've seen so far, although dragons being hermaphroditic is a bit... odd.

I really like GRRM's dragons too.
.... they are hermaphrodites??? I didn't even realise.

(Aug-23-2011, 01:36 PM (UTC))Albertosaurus Rex Wrote: [ -> ]The time travel episode in a series not focused on time travel

Yeah I know what you mean.
Although Star Trek doesn't just do it once, it does it a LOT. And it usually has a reasonably plausible reason.

(Aug-23-2011, 01:36 PM (UTC))Albertosaurus Rex Wrote: [ -> ]That episode that every cartoon show must apparently have in which the characters are shrunken down and pilot a tiny submarine into someone's body
Because it's gross, not funny and done a million times before.

What, even the Futurama episode?

About dragons: Yeah, GRRM's dragons are hermaphroditic. It's mentioned rather offhandedly - something about Valyrian nouns not being gendered because the dragons can change their sex.

About Star Trek: Yes, it was much more than once, which is also the case for my spoilered out Charmed example. But my point still stands: it's a minority of all episodes, and it's very jarring that in many situations the characters never even think about time travel. I don't hate time travel, but in my opinion, you go all-out or not at all.

About Futurama: I have never seen that show.
Let the overreaching generalizations begin!

An overabundance of vulgarity with no wit. Family Guy comes to mind. It was funny for a while, until every minute of it comprised entire episodes.

Random, infantile humor with no wit. Anchorman was funny. Everything after it was just tiresome. The Simpsons seem to have fallen victim to this for the past....decade?

1970s remakes.

The "Chinatown" episode.

How every cop show deals with terrorism every week. I'm sure there are many more cases of domestic crime than there are Islamic extremist plots.

Hammy dramatics seem to have transferred from soap opera fare to primetime dramas via blood transfusions and extensive plastic surgery.
Oh great my post was lost!
Errr crap, basically :
Liveship spoilers
I agree!
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