Our character is awakened by an alarm clock. She gets ready to go to a job where she is under appreciated, if not invisible. On her way out of the house, the person she lives with has prepared a breakfast buffet of which she takes one bite of one strawberry and rushes out, quipping something about “running late”.

We learn that our character is an avid runner. Not for the health aspect, but because she is running from her memories of some distant sad thing (cut scene to a terminally ill mystery person and/or a funeral in the rain—there is always rain).

She’ll go shopping at some point. The obligatory phallic form of naked French bread protrudes from the top of her grocery bag along with some random greens because no shopping trip is complete without them, apparently.

She will be kidnapped by men in suits and sunglasses. They render her unconscious, usually by an injection of some chemical sort. They toss her into a black SUV (bad guys purchase them by the fleet, you know).

She will come to in a mysterious location where it is explained to her that she is “the one” they need for a super-sensitive mission (save the world!). She is then able to hack into a sophisticated, multi-layer government mainframe with not problem whatsoever.

It then comes to everyone’s attention that “someone” is needed to break into an ultra-secure facility to access some key technical device. The team then squints at our character and they nod.

She just happens to be the final boss’ type, so a quick makeover is performed. She sheds her nerdy persona and is suddenly a knockout, ready to seduce her way into said facility.

Eventually, we find our heroine running in high heels and carjacking a European sports car, which she is able to drive like a demon. Cue the screaming pedestrians and hapless fruit stands.

She’ll crash, be uninjured. There's something counting down with red numbers (extra points for beeping). She finishes the mission. Is offered a job (clandestine, of course) with this alphabet agency (gotta leave that door for possible sequels open) and goes about her “ordinary” life.

The End.

Yawn.

Okay, yes I know… A lot of these are found in film, but when I see them applied in print, it makes me want to throw the book across the room.

incompetent female lead. now i know some people like this and i’m not judging personal taste i’m just tired of it. make her scarier then her man PLEASE!!

as @Ebcjpg1 once said on twitter, “the hottest thing a man can be is a little afraid of me”

MAKE HER COMPETENT MAKE HER SEXY MAKE HER SHOW HIM UP

this kinda got ahead of me so sorry <3

Geek. Freak. Smartest in the room.

The nerd character in every Disney live-action show. In every cartoon, in all the media kids consume that tell them how to act. What is right and what is wrong.

The nerd. The nerd is always wrong. That's why everyone, even his own family bullies him, degrades him, makes him feel less than, and the story allows it, makes light of it as part of its "comedy."

Being so smart, so socially stunted and a disaster. It's only natural even others who are intelligent and exceptional cringe to see that one young person with drive in their eyes, ambition and that awe of curiosity. That freak who just can't take a hint.

Silence those rambles no one understands. And no one cares to understand. It's egotistical to expect others to humor you.

Turn down the smile, it's too big, too corny. Completely unnatural and the most inane thing to be happy about. Space pellets, lizards, crosswords, and cleaning.

What is wrong with you? What. Is. Wrong with us all.

Because, any Troper worth their salt, any writer worth poignant, living documents can agree. All of us here, we're the ones who turned to media and pages to mediate the silence. We turned to TV and actors who played their roles looking more perfect and attractive than we'd ever hope to be. Even when they were weird in the same way we are. We do this, since people more often disappointed us.

Bullied us, degraded us, made us feel less than.

And that was the right thing to do.

Since we were too smart, too verbose, too reflective, too inattentive when our thoughts turned to questions and questions turned to queries, turning to winding down staircases echoing into a dark chasm. Where an answer lay.

I'm sure, at least here, I won't have to waste the words explaining myself. Since everyone else is too dumb and the dumb tend to deflect. Tend to turn the blame onto what they refuse to understand.

Lab Rats, 2012. It's the first time I really acknowledged how... distasteful this trope was.

Chase Davenport was the youngest and the smartest. Employed his analytical mind, a mind sharper than I could ever dream, one polished to perfection from work rather than bionics. He used this mind to win the day. Chase fights his battles verbally, succinctly. With poise and with cunning. Since, his brother is bigger. His sister is faster and with less holding her back. No care for others, no desire whatsoever, to make her carer proud. Chase is a genius bionically engineered to retain and catalogue information for later use. He is the cerebral, the tactician to put brutish force and nimble agility to use in saving lives.

He is what I related to most.

The sheer want and joy to learn.

Being jeered at by peers. He had that thing wrong with him. That thing wrong that buried me in books and my math sheets much more interesting that drawing or toys.

His siblings were the only ones to deign being near him.

No one else wanted to hear him, see him.

They spent that time making light of his talents. Dismissing him out of foot. Pushing him around. Hitting him.

Chase was such a nerd.

Chase was so weird.

Of course he didn't have any friends.

Of course his siblings were embarrassed to be seen with him when he fidgeted or bounced when excited.

It was his fault. Chase had to fix himself. Be less of what everyone told him was wrong.

I could always understand better where the "smart bully" came from. The one who weaponized his intelligence against others. Made them feel less than, degraded them.

Because when your family is permitted to make light of you and laugh at you, what are you going to do except lash out? How would a person act any different if they weren't taught how? Hadn't received any different in return?

So when Lab Rats' Chase became arrogant and uptight, self-righteous, and petty toward his older brother or father-figure, he persisted as my most favorite character. I could still love him and root for him, support him and remember the geeky kid who jumped to go to school.

Then to lose a day, because the siblings preferred a wild animal with brute force and no brain to show off with, no defective tics and social disaster.

When Ravi in Jessie would behave dismissively or finicky with adults, portraying his comical physical weakness I pitied him but I didn't dislike or was annoyed by him. More, I was annoyed by the siblings who would simply use him, blame him for being bullied, insist he change himself. Refusing to tell him what my family told me when the rest of the world didn't...

"Eres tan inteligente. Estamos tan orgullosos."

Spanish optional, but the point stands.

Maybe I never bought into the 'geek-freak' narrative media seemed so intent on pushing to children, but, how many other kids did? How many turned on their set, maybe despondent, only to learn... they were the problem. It was their fault. That they were the geek, freak, nerd.

Was I bullied since my schoolmates with the privilege of cable saw me as persnickety, snitching, haughty Chase Davenport supportively torn down? Ravi Ross, the friendless loser with an odd accent and high, some may say annoying voice. I happen to like the voice! I happen to like his escapades and the full magician regalia of 'The Princess and the Pea Brain.'

How is it right to bully the smartest and only ever the smartest in the room? Why is it, Chase, Ravi, I... am not deserving of friends or support? To be appreciated and acknowledged as I am without being cruel?

Years ago, I couldn't take the words of my family to heart. Didn't feel proud for my intelligence, for my single-minded focus on schoolwork and picking up "factoids." Which I realize were incorrectly used on ANT Farm since they're the false facts used by tabloids to purposefully influence readers into believing something that is in itself untrue (thank you Logan Sanders)-- even if you may be fun to make unsympathetic, I love you you nerd.

Back to the topic, I couldn't be thankful, really acknowledge how they put up with me, even as I showed off to my older brother who was in a bad place at the time. They still loved me. They still saw me. They loved my goofs, they loved me, and never tried to tell me being outcast was my fault.

Not every piece of fiction has an LGBTQ+ character(s), and it doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes I'll be reading, a character will be mentioned to be gay, and a few possible things happen sometimes.

1. The only reason they're there is to be The Gay One. They have no other personality, except for "Yep, I'm gay" like it's fine if it a large, important part of your identity, but people can have other traits.

2. They die. "Hi, I'm gay-" and boom, dead. Not a fan, makes me scared that if I talk about my sexuality in public that will bring upon the end of the world.

3. They're creepy. It's fine to have LGBTQ+ villains/anti-hero's (I admit a lot of those are my favorite characters) but if they act weird/inappropriate relating to their gender/sexual identity, in a way that makes it seem against people who identify as that, I can no longer read that book.

Are there more? Most definitely yes, but I can't remember them at the moment.

The woman who doesn't know she's beautiful. Her outfits are always described in some sort of sexual/erotic way - how her dress hugs her hips, she bites her lips and laughs, her eyes dancing. The majority of the time it's women's outfits described, and I could not care less what the character is wearing.

Admittedly, I can enjoy this trope when it's done well but most of the time, it's not. The enemies to lovers trope can be a well-written trop about forgiveness and recovery but when it is done in media it is boiled down to: punch then kiss five seconds afterwards. Enemies to lovers is a trope, that needs time to build on the characters. They should hate each other, then slowly grow to like each other and finally become lovers. In many pieces of media, the middle part of that is skipped. The characters alternate between the first and the last parts. For example, in "Shera and the Princess of Power", Catra and Adora's relationship Arc feels very rushed into the plot, even if the show went on for five seasons. There wasn't a lot of buildup into WHY they should be seen as romantic. In the show, they would be fighting to the death and their romantic feelings aren't shown until the finale of season five. Shera isn't the only victim of this, and this isn't an attack on the show. This is just what happens in many enemies to lovers stories, they forget "to lovers". Enemies to lovers can be done right, but often times, in eagerness to write the well-loved trope, many forget how much buildup it needs. It can take a long time for people to forgive someone for doing something wrong and I don't like it when Enemies to Lovers gloss over that to make two people get together.