5 Worst Hero Cliches (Writing Advice)

I hate it so much when they kill thousands upon thousands of the villain's henchman but refuses to kill the actual villain because "it's not correct"

I hate protagonist-centered morality where everything the character does is treated as correct and good while anyone who disagrees with them is evil.

Worst hero cliche: normally significant wounds that barely phase the hero

I always hate when an ordinary character with no prior fighting skills and no experience murdering, becomes an unfazed badass killing machine out of no where or in a brief time

0:25 - Cliche #1: Dark Helmet: I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate. Lone Star: So what does that make us? Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing.

The one I really hate is "I can't kill this villain because that would make me evil too, even though I know the second I let him out of my sight he's going to blow up an entire city." Moral codes are good because they create tough choices, but at some point when confronted with unreasonable evil it becomes absurd and comes across as valuing one's own self righteousness above their duty to protect, making the hero look weak and unwilling to make tough choices.

"So the main character dies, that will change things significantly." "Not at all, actually it's barely an inconvenience."

I hate when the hero makes an obviously terrible decision, like sparing a villain who has no business being spared, because "it's not the right thing".

Your Ant-Man example is ALSO an example of one of my most hated tropes: Trinity Syndrome: where the obviously-more-competent female character only exists to train the hero, and once the hero has been trained she suddenly has no role in the movie anymore except to be the love interest.

I think the worst ever example of everyone is connected to the hero is the Fast and the Furious, every single villain has to be from Doms past for no reason

My most hated hero cliche is “Because the hero made that choice or took that stance, it is the right choice”

My most hated Hero cliché is the prophecy/Destiny/chosen one trope.

One of my most hated hero clichés is the hot blooded reckless hero, the guy who immediately jumps into action with a positive attitude but no discernible plan. Go guns blazing and hope for the best is not a plan. I think this is most often seen in shonen manga/anime and fantasy RPGs. My problem with this is that this often makes hero look incredibly stupid, and when his antics acually save the day it also makes his adversaries look incompetent by extension. I much prefer heroes who make plans, their plans fail, and then they have to keep a positive attitude and adapt to the situation.

Similar to the first one: Everyone loves the hero. The supporting cast and even NPCs get along with the hero a little TOO well, a lot of times despite just meeting them, and anyone who doesn't like them is very obviously a villain. It makes the character dynamics feel very shallow and it completely defangs any potential conflict or rivalry between the hero and the rest of the cast.

A great inversion of the "resurrected hero" trope is in Megamind. That whole movie is a masterpiece, but I love how metroman's "return" to stop the bad guy at the end is the trope that happened so much that Megamind was able to play off of it and make it a fun twist

As a writer, I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who hates the second cliche.

Another major problem with Jon Snow's resurrection is that it doesn't have anywhere near the same effects on him as it did for other characters in the story. In the books, anyone who is resurrected in this way loses a part of themselves in the process. Beric becomes more hollow and soulless with each time he's resurrected, and Catelyn becomes Lady Stoneheart (mostly due to the length of time that passed between her corpse being found and the resurrection ritual taking place.) Jon didn't seem to 'lose' anything at all - it was literally as if someone had just hit 'Respawn' on him in a video game.

Mary Sue/Gary Stu types of heroes are the cliché I like the least. Innately good at everything they try, liked by everyone and winners of every argument. Even the villain secretly likes them and only fights them because they won't join them.

Similiarly to the „unearned skill“ topic, another chliché is the hero‘s ability to solve unsolvable problems within seconds if he reeeally puts some effort into it. It usually goes like this: A: Have you found a way to deactivate the bomb? B: No, it can‘t be deactivated because it has been locked by . It cannot be done and no one has ever managed to deactivate bombs of that kind. A: But we‘ll explode within 30 seconds, so I‘m gonna put a gun to your head now. B: Oh now that you‘re doing this, I could try .