Recently, I’ve become more interested in character development and how certain themes recur across multiple works. In my fiction writings, I’ve tried to incorporate new means of storytelling to give more depth to my characters and plots. This led me to start researching popular story devices and character tropes. Tropes are common, recognizable themes, plot devices, or archetypes in various media. For example, the concept of a five-man band, where a group of characters embodies archetypes that produce multiple dynamics (think “Sailor Moon” or “Avatar: The Last Airbender”). Or the archetypal story structure of the hero’s journey. Although tropes are extremely useful and entertaining when done well, many walk the line between iconic and cliche. For this article, I’ll focus on plot devices and character tropes that we tend to see in books, TV shows, and movies. In no particular order, here are some tropes that I think should have been left in the past.
- Death by Flashback
Let’s start with the trope that sent me into just enough rage to write this article, Death by Flashback. This occurs when a character receives a flashback sequence that explains elements of their backstory just before being killed off. It’s typically used to create empathy for a character so their death will hit the audience harder. However, it usually just comes across as lazy, especially if it’s a side character that didn’t really impact the story (which explains why they weren’t developed by the time they died).
- Women in Refrigerators
Typically associated with a 1994 issue of “Green Lantern,” Women in Refrigerators (or “Fridging”) is a term for when a male character’s loved one, typically a woman, is hurt in some way to motivate him. Aside from the misogynistic nature of this trope, one of the main problems I have with it is that someone has to be harmed in order to motivate a character. It seems to skip over other means of motivating a character — money, status, self-improvement, literally anything else — and goes straight to “harm the women closest to them” way too fast for my liking.
- The Makeover
This classic trope of giving an “ugly” character a makeover has really begun to bother me in the last few years. There’s just something about giving a character a makeover, typically against their will, to appease some third party that grinds my gears. Whether it’s for a crush or societal expectations, changing someone’s physical appearance so they’ll be better perceived feels like hollow storytelling above all else.
- Easy Amnesia
Despite amnesia being incredibly rare in real life, fiction utilizes it quite frequently as a plot device. In many cases on TV, the character’s amnesia will be magically cured by the end of the episode, which does absolutely nothing for the overall plot. Also, the type of amnesia that gets used is almost always retrograde amnesia (where someone can’t remember past events or information) and makes the character conveniently only forget the time frame the creator needs them to. While characters having amnesia isn’t necessarily bad on its own, the way it’s currently utilized in media could definitely use some work.
- MacGuffins
MacGuffins are objects, people, or events which motivate characters in a story but don’t hold any plot significance of their own. Some examples include the Holy Grail, the plans for the Death Star, and many others. This trope is the embodiment of “it’s about the journey, not the destination,” and I still have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, MacGuffins serve as constant character motivation in a story and keep the audience engaged. But on the other hand, finally reaching the destination can easily become lackluster if it’s not pulled off in a satisfying way.
- It Was All Just a Dream
As the name suggests, this is a trope that reveals that the events of a story were actually taking place in a character’s dream the whole time. Classic examples of this are stories like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” While creators can do this trope well, most of the time, it cheapens the events in the story in favor of having a twist ending.
- Damsels in Distress
The main issue I have with this trope is the fact that the damsel typically never tries to free themselves and essentially gets turned into a temporary MacGuffin in the process. Not to mention, making a character a damsel usually puts them out of commission for a large part of the story. This results in a sidelined, typically female character with little to no agency. Like many tropes on this list, this can be done well, but that’s unfortunately infrequent.
- The Token Minority
This is a pretty recognizable trope, but a standard definition is when a character belonging to a minority is included in a piece of media just so the media is more marketable to minority groups. The token minority’s only personality trait is usually the part of their identity that makes them a minority in the first place. For example, a token Black character’s only true characterization is that they’re Black. They don’t really exist outside of that and don’t contribute much to the story. In fact, they’re often used as comic relief. If creators start adding diverse characters with fully fleshed-out stories and personalities, this trope could easily be laid to rest.
- Bury Your Gays
This trope is pretty much what it says on the box: killing off queer characters at a higher rate than non-queer ones. This trope stems from a history of homophobia in media and the Hays Code, which enforced censorship. Despite being relatively underrepresented in media, when queer (or queer-coded) characters are introduced, they tend to be among the first to be killed off or otherwise indisposed. Not to mention, these characters’ deaths seem to be completely unnecessary or avoidable. Based on this, I feel like this trope should and can easily be put to an end.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Despite being turned into a joke lately, the trope of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is one that 100% deserves to be on this list. Although I used to love this trope, I just find these characters annoying in my adulthood. The MPDG is an eccentric woman whose personality serves to brighten the male protagonist’s life. She’ll often dress in a less traditional style, listen to obscure music, and just overall serve to bring color to the otherwise dull outlook of the protagonist. The real problem with this trope is that the woman is weird and high on life as a means of benefitting other characters, not herself. It’s perfectly fine to find this character trope enjoyable, but it’s just not for me.
A lot of the tropes on this list are very popular and can be done well, but I personally believe we’ve evolved beyond needing them. If you want to know more about tropes in media, I highly recommend watching Trope Talk and checking out the TV Tropes website!