The final entry for my own TVTropes answers, featuring tropes that I usually (or never) can stand...
Misaimed Fandom: When what a fan wants becomes so important to them that they'll ignore or dismiss anything contrary, they've closed off their mind to everything. It's not just a failure of individual thought, but it holds back personal growth and development. Pretty much any fandom trope can fall under here, so I'll leave it at that instead of filling the list with Draco in Leather Pants, Opinion Myopia, Ruined FOREVER, etc.
Status Quo Is God: Particularly damning in franchise superhero comics, where the notion that everything will reset makes every new development seem like a temporary diversion. But if you're going to have a dramatic series that continues to be interesting, you need some forward motion, even if it's a risk.
Magical Negro: Because even though we live in a world of countless cultures and creeds, they all exist to prop up the white, straight, able-bodied, male lead. Sadly, this is what defines Morgan Freeman's career, despite his prodigious talents.
Stuffed In The Fridge: Because women don't exist except to prop up men, and can be easily sacrificed to the altar of drama. Though to be fair, Ron Marz (who wrote the scene with Green Lantern's girlfriend stuffed in said fridge) is far from the only culprit, has written plenty of instances of strong female characters who aren't disposable, and should be able to live down what so many other authors do on a regular basis.
Hollywood Psych: A lot of these representation tropes are asinine to the NTH degree, but this especially pushes my buttons. Especially when a character on the autism spectrum is portrayed, because it almost always makes them a burden on their lived ones (an indirect Magical Negro variant) and/or a sociopath.
Rule of Funny: Too often used in lieu of good writing, as Family Guy continually proves.
Moral Guardians: Even though I have a lot of problems with representation, I think it would be better to try and inform people, rather than brainwash them by removing alternative thoughts.
Shallow Female Love Interest:Not just because it makes the female character a prize for the male, but because it makes the male seem like a shallow sex hound for being interested in just a pretty face.
I'm A Man I Can't Help It: And yeah, it's confirmed a LOT in real life, but it doesn't mean a dick is a dickhead license.
Showing posts with label critical reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critical reading. Show all posts
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Top 10 Favorite Tropes: Blog-A-Day, Part 2
In no particular order, the TVTropes that I love to read and write most;
Tear Jerker. I love a good tragedy, and this page helps me find plenty of reading material. Admittedly it's subjective, as some of the Tear Jerkers listed came across as gratuitous and over-the-top to me (see: Identity Crisis), but those of us who aren't afraid of a sad story can get a good idea of what they'll like.
Deconstruction: Tropes can be interpreted as rules, and when it comes to art, rules were meant to be broken. In a post-modern world, everything we know is driven by narrative, and if you're not actively taking it apart, you should ask yourself what you're doing.
Deconstructor Fleet: Most of my favorite stories of all time fall here.
Growing the Beard: The fact that series can do this is why I'm so drawn to serial fiction. While plenty of series run on longer than they should, and terrible sequels are practically the norm for many mediums, this is the strongest advantage of continuity.
Dysfunction Junction: Characters are more interesting when they're a complex mess, and the notion that ensemble casts need a token stable and happy character to balance out the more interesting characters is misguided. Everyone's some kind of mess, but that doesn't mean they can't be different kinds of screwed up.
Earn Your Happy Ending: To show that I'm not all about misery and ennui, I like it when all the character suffering and trauma actually results in something. If there's no ultimate gain to the protagonist's struggles, even if it doesn't occur within the protagonist's lifetime, then you run the risk of just being immature cynicism.
So Bad It's Horrible: You can learn just as much from complete failures as you can from a medium's canon, or even from its uneven but interesting entries. That, and they're fucking hilarious (albeit unintentionally).
Nakama: The one form of sentimentality that never fails for me is the kind that's earned through comraderie and shared experience. Religion, nationality, and ideology mean nothing without actual human relationships to back them up. Many of my favorite series run on this trope, and Ruby's World uses a similar structure.
ViewersAreGeniuses: Rare, and not always done well, but far better than the alternative.
Child Soldiers: In the real world, one of the worst examples of humanity's failings. In fiction, it appears a lot, and is often romanticized (see: most young adult fantasy stories). When played believably, mixing the horrors of war with the innocence of youth offers insight into the human condition, and how it can (and SHOULD) be bettered.
Tear Jerker. I love a good tragedy, and this page helps me find plenty of reading material. Admittedly it's subjective, as some of the Tear Jerkers listed came across as gratuitous and over-the-top to me (see: Identity Crisis), but those of us who aren't afraid of a sad story can get a good idea of what they'll like.
Deconstruction: Tropes can be interpreted as rules, and when it comes to art, rules were meant to be broken. In a post-modern world, everything we know is driven by narrative, and if you're not actively taking it apart, you should ask yourself what you're doing.
Deconstructor Fleet: Most of my favorite stories of all time fall here.
Growing the Beard: The fact that series can do this is why I'm so drawn to serial fiction. While plenty of series run on longer than they should, and terrible sequels are practically the norm for many mediums, this is the strongest advantage of continuity.
Dysfunction Junction: Characters are more interesting when they're a complex mess, and the notion that ensemble casts need a token stable and happy character to balance out the more interesting characters is misguided. Everyone's some kind of mess, but that doesn't mean they can't be different kinds of screwed up.
Earn Your Happy Ending: To show that I'm not all about misery and ennui, I like it when all the character suffering and trauma actually results in something. If there's no ultimate gain to the protagonist's struggles, even if it doesn't occur within the protagonist's lifetime, then you run the risk of just being immature cynicism.
So Bad It's Horrible: You can learn just as much from complete failures as you can from a medium's canon, or even from its uneven but interesting entries. That, and they're fucking hilarious (albeit unintentionally).
Nakama: The one form of sentimentality that never fails for me is the kind that's earned through comraderie and shared experience. Religion, nationality, and ideology mean nothing without actual human relationships to back them up. Many of my favorite series run on this trope, and Ruby's World uses a similar structure.
ViewersAreGeniuses: Rare, and not always done well, but far better than the alternative.
Child Soldiers: In the real world, one of the worst examples of humanity's failings. In fiction, it appears a lot, and is often romanticized (see: most young adult fantasy stories). When played believably, mixing the horrors of war with the innocence of youth offers insight into the human condition, and how it can (and SHOULD) be bettered.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Why Iron Man Represents Civilization's Worst
(Reposted from the Iron Man Message Board, in response to the usual bitching about Matt Fraction's run)
Science isn't bad, but weapons are. And the problems with Tony's character are thus;
A.) He started out making weapons. He wasn't a civilian scientist who helped the war effort against a common enemy, he was an arms manufacturer from the start.
B.) He made billions off of the weapons he designed, and was very conspicuous about the way he used that money. Wearing suits that cost more money than an Afghani family makes in a year, paid for off of land mines that maim and kill those families, isn't in good taste.
C.) Tony's wars have never been the wars for which America is proud. In the past, in-comics jingoism aside, he was associated with Vietnam. In recent years, he's been associated with Afghanistan and the War on Terror. Regardless of your personal position on either of those wars, neither has been a particularly good mark on America's reputation.
D.) Up until that one fateful trip, Tony was never a soldier. He didn't see combat himself, and left his devices in the hands of the actual fighting men and women risking their lives. Even as Iron Man, he goes into combat insulated in a metal prosthesis that does all the fighting for him. At least in the past he entered combat with a heart injury and was truly putting himself at risk each time, but once his ticker was fixed, he was hardly facing opponents stronger than himself most of the time.
E.) Tony didn't even make his money himself. He made Stark Industries more successful than during his father's tenure, but he already had millions upon millions with which to start. The hardships he knew were from his father's disdain, but to most people, that just comes across as "poor little rich boy" syndrome.
F.) Even once he became Iron Man and stopped making weapons for others, he still made himself a symbol of imperialism. A billionaire playboy, putting on an ostentatious gold-and-red war suit, entering combat with a weapon that may avoid accidentally launching missiles at wedding parties, but has no problem shooting brown people with guns. That line is paraphrased from a particularly insightful (if harsh) assessment of the movies...
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/current-movie-reviews/iron-man-drivel.php?page=3
Basically, the problem isn't that Tony's a nerd and not a jock, or even that he's about science and not procreation. Even if he wasn't deliberately evil before he became Iron Man, even afterwards he represents a global system of profound inequality and constant struggle. The ending to issue 500 was the worst-case scenario of Tony's fears-- that he'd never do enough good to make up for his sins. The ending, however, had his daughter live in a society starting from zero, so at least Tony's sacrifice earned humanity a second chance, with a new generation that can at least make their own mistakes instead of having to struggle with their parents and grandparents' sins.
With Iron Man, you can either try to ignore these concerns and play the character as a straight superhero genre story, or you can deal with them. If you choose the latter, as Matt Fraction has done, you're dealing with an extremely tragic narrative.
Science isn't bad, but weapons are. And the problems with Tony's character are thus;
A.) He started out making weapons. He wasn't a civilian scientist who helped the war effort against a common enemy, he was an arms manufacturer from the start.
B.) He made billions off of the weapons he designed, and was very conspicuous about the way he used that money. Wearing suits that cost more money than an Afghani family makes in a year, paid for off of land mines that maim and kill those families, isn't in good taste.
C.) Tony's wars have never been the wars for which America is proud. In the past, in-comics jingoism aside, he was associated with Vietnam. In recent years, he's been associated with Afghanistan and the War on Terror. Regardless of your personal position on either of those wars, neither has been a particularly good mark on America's reputation.
D.) Up until that one fateful trip, Tony was never a soldier. He didn't see combat himself, and left his devices in the hands of the actual fighting men and women risking their lives. Even as Iron Man, he goes into combat insulated in a metal prosthesis that does all the fighting for him. At least in the past he entered combat with a heart injury and was truly putting himself at risk each time, but once his ticker was fixed, he was hardly facing opponents stronger than himself most of the time.
E.) Tony didn't even make his money himself. He made Stark Industries more successful than during his father's tenure, but he already had millions upon millions with which to start. The hardships he knew were from his father's disdain, but to most people, that just comes across as "poor little rich boy" syndrome.
F.) Even once he became Iron Man and stopped making weapons for others, he still made himself a symbol of imperialism. A billionaire playboy, putting on an ostentatious gold-and-red war suit, entering combat with a weapon that may avoid accidentally launching missiles at wedding parties, but has no problem shooting brown people with guns. That line is paraphrased from a particularly insightful (if harsh) assessment of the movies...
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/current-movie-reviews/iron-man-drivel.php?page=3
Basically, the problem isn't that Tony's a nerd and not a jock, or even that he's about science and not procreation. Even if he wasn't deliberately evil before he became Iron Man, even afterwards he represents a global system of profound inequality and constant struggle. The ending to issue 500 was the worst-case scenario of Tony's fears-- that he'd never do enough good to make up for his sins. The ending, however, had his daughter live in a society starting from zero, so at least Tony's sacrifice earned humanity a second chance, with a new generation that can at least make their own mistakes instead of having to struggle with their parents and grandparents' sins.
With Iron Man, you can either try to ignore these concerns and play the character as a straight superhero genre story, or you can deal with them. If you choose the latter, as Matt Fraction has done, you're dealing with an extremely tragic narrative.
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