YOUR Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy Tropes RANKED! (Tier List)

Let's tier rank some science fiction and fantasy troped for fun!

Lawful Times Series:

Equipment:

P.O. Box: PO Box 7874 Henrico, VA 23231

[randomdude]

I like the Daniel constantly injuring his hand trope.

[benjaminsuess]

I love the anti-antichrist trope, where you have someone fated to be evil or bring about some diaster and they choose to work against it. It's kinda this ultimate expression of free will and moral choice to me.

[elsad]

I would love to see a farm boy trope done where the fact that the protagonist is a farm boy is somehow crucial later on. Like they get to the climax and nobody knows how to grow corn until the hero arrives and saves the day

[highgrove]

One of my favorite tropes is "ancient high tech" that ties into the "ruins of a dead civilization" trope. It's when the long dead civilization possess a much higher level of technology than the current one.

[amosanon]

My absolute favorite trope is when a fantasy world is slowly or eventually revealed to be built on the bones of our civilization.

[morganwhaley]

"Lost Ancient Civilization" is my favorite trope. It provides mystery and it makes the world/universe feel more expansive and lived in.

[jakeburgard]

One of my favorite tropes is two powerful characters from separate subplots coming into conflict. The moment when they both realize they are dealing with a serious threat is so satisfying.

[FrostSylph]

Some of my favorites: "well intentioned leader, corrupt court." This can be anything from Ned Stark to Jayce from Arcane. And the somewhat related "burden of the crown" trope.

[ukotoa]

My favourite trope of all and I don’t care how played out it is I love it, the classic “I am your father/mother”

[AnotherQueer]

One of my favourite tropes is “chosen one realising they’re not the chosen one.” I especially love it when they’re relived by it, like, “thank f*ck, I’m going to take a nap now, tell me when you find the right person.”

[blackbenetavo]

Goblin: eliminates two rank categories "get outta here, we don't need you"

Also Goblin: puts multiple tropes halfway between two categories because there's not enough categories for everything to have its own place.

[Rolling]

One that obsessed me since I started reading: "The protagonist that slowly but surely becomes the antagonist". One of the very early books I read was a trilogy narrating Alexandros since childhood to manic tyrant. Which is a similar reason of why DUNE became one of the most influencing tales for me the second I got it. And ever since, a well executed "Road to Perdition" is to me an instant hook. How to forget also such powerful characters like Prometeus or the interpretation of Lucifer given by James Joyce. I'd also like to add Cao Cao from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Hell, besides exquisite narration skills my main drive to read Kvothe-self-propaganda is the hope he turns out to be a big bad dick at the end of it all.

[milospollonia]

Helm's Deep will forever taint my mind to be biased towards heroic last stands

[l.o.b.]

"I refuse to spread the lie that Star Wars invented laser swords and space"
Huh. Here I was thinking space was invented in the 70s.

[tnecniw]

Something I want to say regarding Irredeemable evil aliens...
for me, this works much MUCH better, if they aren't "evil" but just their nature.
Example being the Xenomorphs, they aren't inherently evil (as far as II understand it anyway) but rather they just follow their very predatory nature.
Which is very unfortunate for us.

[orbitingpluto]

"Every trope can be done well." Hard agree. My favorite fantasy tv show (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has my least favorite trope (the chosen one). My favorite trope is the self defeating evil. I love it when an antagonist's own actions cause his or her downfall.

[justthinkingoutloud]

In the case of Batman, the “no killing” thing works. I hate that trope, and for so long I didn’t get why Batman didn’t kill and loved Snyder’s for that, but I’ve realized that it has nothing to do with thinking killing is inherently bad, otherwise he wouldn’t be friends with Jim, who has certainly killed, but it is out of fear of what he could become if he crossed that line. He’s just holding on to his sanity by a hair, and having that limit is the only thing keeping him from becoming a total psychopathic murderer. As he says in Under the Red Hood, “if I allow myself to go down into that place, I’ll never come out.” So most of the time that trope is horrible, but when explored well, like it is with Batman, it’s great.

Edit: I should clarify that I don’t mean a natural reluctance to kill is bad, I find characters that have an emotional response to the prospect of killing so much more compelling, but when it’s just out of some sort of arbitrary code, especially if it only applies to the big baddie and not his minions, that’s the generally bad trope.

[yoavshamir]

I love how wheel of time has most of the tropes lower in the list, but executes each of them masterfully. farm boy, incredibly powerfull chosen one, cant kill women, etc etc

[shokeya]

Based on S categories, in the future, someone will write a book about two protagonists, an evil mentor and his ex student from an evil empire. Competing in a race which one first will find a key in the deadly ruins of long gone city. The key shows coordinate to the new word in which flying city located with whatever macguffin the heroes craving for. Sounds cheesy :D

[SiJay]

Daniel: Farm Boy Chosen One tropes are kinda played out ngl.
Rand Al'Thor: Am I a joke to you?