Pet peeves (beware some RotE spoilers)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

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.

Spoiler

Erik, the young Magneto, is about the kill Shaw, and Charles Xavier acts like this is something horrible. Shaw, in case you haven't seen this movie, is a former nazi camp doctor who later almost succeeded in manipulating the USA and the Soviets into nuclear warfare and on a more personal note: killed Erik's mother. How is getting rid of that guy a bad thing? To my delight, Erik actually did go through with it.

['thul]

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.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

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.

Charmed has one of the worst examples.

On multiple occasions, time travel rears its ugly head. In one notable instance, the sisters reverse time to save Piper's life, although Prue dies in the new timeline. Later, a season-long story arc revolves around Chris, Piper and Leo's son from the furure, traveling back in time to prevent Paige's death and his brother Wyatt's turn to evil. Bear in mind this is not repairing the timeline - the oppressive future Chris comes from is the original, unaltered timeline. And he actually succeeds in his efforts!
Then, in the abysmally bad final season, Billie is introduced, and she's searching for her sister who was abducted as a child. After some fruitless efforts, Phoebe tells her to her face that she has to accept the past because it can't be changed. And she says this, even though she was perfectly happy to muck around with the timeline in the previous cases that I mentioned. It's stuff like this that I can't stand.

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.

[Nuytsia]

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

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.

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.

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?

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Spoilers for Liveship Traders

I'm not sure which of the three love triangles (Althea/Brashen/Grag; Malta/Reyn/Cerwyn; Etta/Kennit/Wintrow) you're thinking of, but in the first two cases, you'll have to admit that the nice boy is rather bland. And Etta does appear to choose the nice boy... after the bad boy is dead.

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.

[redchild]

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.

[Nuytsia]

Oh great my post was lost!
Errr crap, basically :
Liveship spoilers

Spoiler

I most definitely mean Althea (Brashen vs Grag).
I don't see the others as examples of the cliche. I don't really think Malta was seriously having a hard time choosing between Reyn and Cerwin. I really think she was just trying to add some drama to her life (again!). I don't really see Reyn and Cerwin as 'bad' and 'nice' either.
I don't recall Etta ever trying to decide between Kennit and Wintrow so that wouldn't qualify either. Although they'd definitely be 'bad' and 'nice'!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

LST

Reyn didn't strike me as a bad boy at first but more as a... creepy boy. I mean, for a guy "older than twenty" to go after a thirteen-year-old whom he's only met once with such ferocity... It was a bit unsettling at first, although I later grew to like him.

[Nuytsia]

I agree!

Spoiler

It didn't seem to be a wake-up call for him when Malta literally cried for her mama at the summer ball !

He did seem a likeable character overall. I think I would have felt more comfortable if Malta had been at least a year or two older.

[joost]

LST spoiler

Rain wilders look differently at age: Since rain wilders die younger, they marry younger. For a RW, 13 is a perfectly normal age for marriage.