Favorite Archetype/Stereotype/Cliche

I think it would be a good idea to find actors that dislike each other in real life
to play opposite each other. Would make the confrontations feel more realistic.

 

I'm a sucker for a good tsundere, as well as the characters who enjoy trolling them.

Also, the fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud...and the characters who troll them.

Also trolls, apparently.

 

Seconded

I've written plenty of villains who are convinced that they're The Good Guys, and I've written plenty of villains who don't care about whether what they're doing is right or not, but I've always had a special place in my heart for writing the likes of Dennis Rader, whose serial killer codename stood for "Bind, Torture, Kill," or Richard Ramirez, who'd torture and murder most of a family but then leave one survivor to tell the atrocities of the man calling himself "The Nightstalker."

Even if someone doesn't explicitly love the fact that their cruelty and disregard for human life makes them different from normal people – and there are plenty of sadists who do explicitly love the fact that they're different – someone can still be self-aware enough to recognize the fact that they're different, and I've never understood the argument that people like Dennis Rader and Richard Ramirez are "unrealistic."

Individual Card-Carrying Villains can certainly make for cartoonishly bad stories, but that's never struck me as a mark against the archetype itself. Individual Well-Intentioned Extremist "hero of their own story" villains can equally well make for cartoonishly bad stories.

 

Richard Ramirez may have been the basis for the creation of Konrad Curze (AKA Nighthaunter) in the WH40K universe.
Though they did similar things, Nighthaunter used it as a form of justice to the horrible conditions on Nostromo Quintus,
and eventually became the terror weapon to the God Emperor later on.

 

I love "traitors." Good guys who become evil, or evil guys that become good.

Classic example-- Murtagh from Eragon. He switches sides at least three times. He betrays his father and denies his evil heritage! He runs away to rescue the last dragon rider! Becomes best friends with the hero and redeems himself!

Then he gets captured by the evil overlord, tortured, and magically enslaved. Forced to betray his only friends. Hates the evil overlord for enslaving him... hates his best friend for failing to rescue him... hates himself for giving in.

I am a huge sucker for morally ambiguous characters.

 

I'm with the sidekicks on this one I have a real soft spot for the slightly bumbly but ever so important sidekicks who never get quite enough credit.

 

Knowing the fanfiction community, there are probably many. In the fandom I belong to, one character is more commonly shipped with his little sister than with his fucking girlfriend!

 

She'd have bullied the crap out of him and he would definitely have ended up killing her in a rage and their kids would have been weird. But yeah, they should've been together.

 

Ron was supposed to end up with Harry...

 

HP: Swingers of the Forbidden Forest

Everybody throws their wand in a sack, and who
ever's they draw they have to go sleep with.

 

I like the small, somewhat petite male who's gay and yet manages to kick ass.

I might even be using this stereotype to an extent.

...I am using this stereotype...just a little bit, though, promise.

I just saw this.

It's out there.

Incest is incredibly common in fanfction. I know because I write it and am currently writing one based on Loveless. I have an unhealthy love of this genre.

 

Wait, is that actually a thing that’s common?

Because I’ve been doing that too: two of my secondary villains — the bodyguards of my initial lead antagonist — are a large black guy who goes by “Mr. White” and a small white guy who goes by “Mr. Black,” and I realized a while back that Mr. Black is gay.

 

In my experience it's pretty common. I've read several books and manga where the main lead is male, generally of a smaller nature, fairly badass, and gay. My main character is a bit John Wick-ish, but he's gay and small of stature as well.

 

Related--

See "Agent Peacock" on TV Tropes.

It's not short gay guys specifically. But it's feminine gay guys who kick ass. There's a lot of different tropes out there.

 

That, he is not.

I don't think.

 

The power of love and / or friendship. Best summed up by the good line from the recent Fantastic Four, "He's stronger than any of us, but he's not stronger than all of us." It doesn't matter if it's being used to pull someone out of a dark spot, break a friend out of mind control, go into battle knowing with utter certainty that your bros have your back, withstand the worst hardship or to power a psychic laser cannon, it's something I love to see and use.

The redemption arc / reformed villain. It's easy when doing this one to make their redemption feel too cheap, make them into an irritating edgelord, or to conveniently kill them off in a heroic sacrifice. But when they hang around and have to honestly deal with the struggle to slip back to the old (easy) ways, the sins of their past coming back to haunt them, the earned mistrust of those around them--and despite all that, they still choose to do the right thing, that always hits the spot.

 

The retired badass who gets dragged back into the game to kick some major ass (John Wick, Robert McCall, Bryan Mills, etc..

The big bad

 

I love "he who fights monster" cliche, eventually the hero becomes the exact same thing they despise.

 

I like the reluctant hero - the ultra-badass who would do almost anything to not have to be a badass anymore. Jason Bourne is a good example.

I also like the techno-nerd who helps the hero. The hero makes fun of him all the time, but can't do his hero-thing without him. Q in the Bond films is the prime example. A variation is the guy who isn't made fun of, and is respected but a bit sidelined. The chief of the boat in Das Boot is a good example.

 

Wisecracking reluctant heroes. I love them. Han Solo (Star Wars.) John Crichton (Farscape.) Mal Reynolds (Firefly.) Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica.)

 

Losers

 

... Is that Peter Capaldi

 

A Confederacy of Dunces! I loved that book. I've read it twice. I think I've got a copy lurking somewhere on my Kindle. I should read it again soon.

 

more losers