# Things in fiction that annoy NTs.



## Homraigar (Jul 29, 2011)

What kind of things in books/movies/TV shows make you rage, cringe or facepalm?


Examples:

My INTP housemate had a sleepless night over a paradox in a Doctor Who special where the Tardis was inside itself.

Another friend, most likely INTJ, gave up on My Little Pony five minutes in after seeing a pony use her hooves to bake and eat cupcakes – the very hooves she’s just been walking with. Another pet peeve is characters in chase scenes who stop to talk mid-chase for the sake of drama. How about talking on the move, or better still, leave it till you’re not being pursued?

I myself might well give up on a show where an author shows obvious double standards, e.g. “OOH, the villain just kicked a dog! EVIL! They must be punished! …Never mind the heroine, she can punt all the puppies she wants and we won’t notice, y’know, because she’s the heroine and all. Plus she’s got boobs.” And such like…


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## Black Hole (Jun 9, 2011)

I'm just really annoyed by melodrama or anything too formulaic. Also, if doesn't even have a little good humor or some bright colors I can't watch it because I won't be able to sit through it for more than about a minute or so.


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## day_dreamer (Nov 8, 2010)

I had spoken of it somewhere else I can't remember. Things that disgust me in movies, books or games are-

1) Pansy romance and kissing/sex scene. Romance and sex is so overrated, that it makes me sick.

2) Stereotypical hero or villain portrayed as in black and white sort of evilness and goodness. E.g An evil person kicks dogs and the good guy helps old ladies and damsels in distress.

3) One man saves the world. Worse, he has a special gift no one else has and he is powerful only because of that. Why can't ordinary people rise to heroism without any special gifts?

4) Shallow/overused stories with illogical sequence of events. Like X coming to rescue Y exactly just before the point of the latter getting hurt. Well how did X know of Y's location and arrive at the perfect time?


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## ALNF1031 (Jul 27, 2011)

@Homraigar, but, but, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has magic in it! Magic!


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## Monkey King (Nov 16, 2010)

Everything I'm annoyed with in fiction is contained in Twilight.


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## L'Empereur (Jun 7, 2010)

Mary Sues and Gary Stus.


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## Snakecharmer (Oct 26, 2010)

Monkey King said:


> Everything I'm annoyed with in fiction is contained in Twilight.


My aunt said, "Don't you just love Twilight?" I said, "Actually, no. The author is a terrible writer, the story lines are ridiculous, and Bella annoys the cr*p out of me." 

She responded, "Well, if you don't like the series, keep your opinions to yourself."


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## L (Aug 12, 2011)

I'm pretty well done with tv in general....seems like everything just ticks me off.


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## possiBri (Jan 4, 2011)

When a character is talking and driving and they take their eyes away from the road for waaay too long... I'm ALWAYS expecting them to be doing it for a reason (to set up them crashing or something), but rarely it happens.


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## luxurieux (Aug 11, 2011)

There is a bomb. The bomb is set to explode in 30 seconds. Cue five minutes of the main characters trying to figure out what to do... 

And horror movies. Oh goodness, I cannot fathom how idiotic the characters are. Seriously? I just saw Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. She's in the bathroom. Tooth fairies turn the light off. She tries to open the door, but it's sealed shut. She walks back over to the bath tub. 

...

There is a light switch... *RIGHT. THERE*. They hate the light. The _logical_ thing to do would be to *gasp* turn on the light! Stupid girl. :dry:


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## Ben (Aug 23, 2009)

I hate how in action movies they just whip out some badly developed romance out of nowhere. Stick to the action, I want to say!


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## Penemue (Feb 23, 2010)

luxurieux said:


> There is a bomb. The bomb is set to explode in 30 seconds. Cue five minutes of the main characters trying to figure out what to do...
> 
> There is a light switch... *RIGHT. THERE*. They hate the light. The _logical_ thing to do would be to *gasp* turn on the light! Stupid girl. :dry:


Goddam those bombs! I still count down to see whether they actually make it in time, and normally it takes at least double the time.

I don't get why people ask "Is anyone there?" When their house has been broken into. I severely doubt they're going to get the reply "Oh, don't worry. It's just me, your friendly neighbourhood mad axe murderer. Your door was open, so i let myself in to bake you cookies." 

I read a lot of fiction and try to not get too picky over it, but sometimes the mistakes are just so blaringly obvious. Twilight and Dan Brown are the most annoying.


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## Ozymandias (May 6, 2011)

When nothing in TV shows obeys the laws of physics

-Cars exploding when hit by a single bullet
-People that get propelled backwards when they are hit by a bullet ( while the shooter is stationary and unaffected) 
-Explosions EVERYWHERE
-The sound that punches make when they hit people
-The hero magically avoids all incoming fire


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## Zeez Theory (Sep 1, 2011)

I hate "stupid comedy"

Stupid people are not funny, they pis$ me off. I see plenty everyday anyways...


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## kiskadee (Jan 9, 2009)

I utterly loathe tacked-on, shallow romantic subplots that add nothing to the story. Why does absolutely everything have to have a love story in it?


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## Zeez Theory (Sep 1, 2011)

Grish said:


> I utterly loathe tacked-on, shallow romantic subplots that add nothing to the story. Why does absolutely everything have to have a love story in it?


I like the sub-plots idea. It doesn't have to be romantic... just any dumb sub-plot.

But you also have to remember that INTP/ENTP's (correct me if I'm wrong) cover 5-6% of a population. They don't care about the 20th person if they can keep the first-19 on their toes about some insignificant add-on to the story.


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## Chaotic_Stupid (Jun 15, 2011)

Long fight scenes on TV shows annoy me greatly. Get it over with and move on with the plot!!!

Comedy that is based on peoples stupidity annoys me. Jim Gaffigan's _Beyond the Pale_ immediately comes to mind.


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## absentminded (Dec 3, 2010)

Inaccuracy and pointlessness.

/thread


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## ALNF1031 (Jul 27, 2011)

absentminded said:


> Inaccuracy and pointlessness.
> 
> /thread


I know, right. 




























How dare they get this wrong! Ponies can't be in two places at once!


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## Pendragon (Dec 31, 2010)

Ozymandias said:


> When nothing in TV shows obeys the laws of physics
> 
> -Cars exploding when hit by a single bullet
> -People that get propelled backwards when they are hit by a bullet ( while the shooter is stationary and unaffected)
> ...


Also, noises in space.

I dislike it when a show lacks internal logic. And I loathe people who, when I point this out, say "It's sci-fi/fantasy! It doesn't have to make sense!" IT HAS TO MAKE SENSE WITH ITSELF!

Also, stupid characters. In particular, stupid characters who are made out to be smart. (Obviously, stupid characters are fine if they're meant to be stupid.)


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## mariogreymist (Mar 19, 2012)

I have two that really get me:

Avoidance of ambiguity: Questions, when properly posed, are infinitely more interesting than overly simplistic answers. Fiction absent at least a few characters who show multiple, often conflicting impulses gets boring. 

Character shielding: For god's sake - can't a principal character die every once in a while? If you watch television, you'd think the answer is "no" with a handful of notable exceptions. Even in (popular) written fiction, it's notable when developed characters get the axe. (Due respect to George RR Martin, who got at least that much right)


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## Phoenix0 (Mar 16, 2012)

possiBri said:


> Fixed that for you ;D


w.... what did you change


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## possiBri (Jan 4, 2011)

Phoenix0 said:


> w.... what did you change


LOL the image wasn't showing up on my computer, so I removed the s in https and it worked. I thought that it was gonna be like that for everybody, but now I'm looking on my work computer and it shows up just fine. WTF?! Anyway... my bad. =]


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## crazyeddie (Oct 19, 2011)

The Honor Harrington series is awesome, but could somebody *please* tell David Weber to lay off the "literally"?

Also, fantasy or superhero stories that don't focus enough on how magic might affect everyday life. "Reed Richards is useless." Why did they never make the Stargate program public knowledge in Stargate SG-1, when there was so much technology and new planets that private sector entrepreneurs and scientists and hackers could play with and exploit? Especially when our enemies are starting out with such a huge resource base? We had an entire *galaxy* to play with, and the Air Force was hogging it all for themselves! No wonder the Lucian Alliance was giving us so much trouble!

Why do all the protagonists in L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s fantasies, including ones from our own world, not bother trying to advance their societies politically? Why do they always settle for a 19th Century-style aristocracy? Does Modesitt *hate* democracy and egalitarianism? Does he *like* aristocrats and oligarchs and near military dictatorships?

I like Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar stories, but I get *so* tired of coming of age stories. Lois McMasters Bujold is the only author I know of that tells good coming of age *again* stories. The Dresden Files aren't bad about that either, but that's almost a side effect of Harry's character development.


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## crazyeddie (Oct 19, 2011)

childofprodigy said:


> What annoys me the most about fiction is the fact that most of them bore me to death due to their banality...
> 
> Only the top 5% of fiction in terms of quality seem to be worthy of consumption in my opinion
> 
> I don't know how the general population can consume the other 95% without shooting themselves


Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.
Corollary: The remaining 10% is worth dying for.


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## crazyeddie (Oct 19, 2011)

A_D_Cloudsurfer said:


> Zombie apocalypse. They move so slow, as well as the fact that dead things do not come back to life. It's mind numbing that there are people that think
> this scenario could actually tale place. It reminds me of adults that talk about wrestling as if it were real.


Slow-moving I can get. You might be faster and better armed than them, but every time one of them bites a human, that's one more to their ranks. It's a numbers thing. Dead coming to life I can get - maybe the zombies aren't actually dead, or it's like a fungus or something that is drawing nutrients from the dead, rotting flesh.

What gets me is when the zombies are *still* moving weeks after most of humanity has been killed off! WTF are those things doing for energy! Young lady, in our house, we obey the Second Law of Thermodynamics! Grr grumble grumble


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## Phoenix0 (Mar 16, 2012)

possiBri said:


> LOL the image wasn't showing up on my computer, so I removed the s in https and it worked. I thought that it was gonna be like that for everybody, but now I'm looking on my work computer and it shows up just fine. WTF?! Anyway... my bad. =]


Ohh okay lol


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## LimeDegree (Mar 6, 2012)

Wilderness pursuits.

I'm an avid outdoors-man, so I do like when stories extend into nature. However, many books and movies portray wilderness pursuits as automatic tracking successes. Tracking is vastly affected by terrain and weather, and without dogs or a trained tracker, picking the correct direction of one's prey in a complete wilderness is extremely unlikely.

Yet, most writers treat the pursuer as though they have the advantage. That's really not the case. In thick vegetation, careless prey might indeed leave a visible trail that can't be missed. Undisturbed snow, mud, and sand in a large area can reflect recent passage. But most wilderness is not going to give a guaranteed indicator of someone's passage.

I don't object to the pursuer having an advantage somehow...but I would prefer a description of the tracking method.


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## OrdinarinessIsAFWTD (Jun 28, 2011)

Bombs:
* Why did the terrorists see fit to include a digital timer display?
* The hero always correctly guesses which wire to cut to disarm the device.
* In scenarios where the hero can't disarm the bomb, he escapes with one second to spare before the factory self-destructs.

Lava, in both movies and video games - As long as you don't touch it, it can't hurt you! 

Chekhov's Gun could stand to jam once in a while. Not everything has to be in service to a plot.


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## Pete The Lich (May 16, 2011)

Avatar

damnit the ending to the movie
"we have to crash our space ship filled with explosives directly into the tree ma jig!"
wtf... just nuke that place to pieces
they had an orbiting space ship
GLASS THE PLANET








dfjksdgkdfgkdfgkjdfnhgkudhfgdjfhgjdf


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## OrdinarinessIsAFWTD (Jun 28, 2011)

PeteTheZombie said:


> Avatar
> 
> damnit the ending to the movie


Don't you agree?


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## mariogreymist (Mar 19, 2012)

Meritocrat said:


> Don't you agree?


Meh...I think the real hateworthy thing was the astounding response the of the masses to Dances with Ewoks. The movie itself was not worth being upset about. The fact it made a trillion dollars? That's upsetting.


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## crazyeddie (Oct 19, 2011)

mariogreymist said:


> Meh...I think the real hateworthy thing was the astounding response the of the masses to Dances with Ewoks. The movie itself was not worth being upset about. The fact it made a trillion dollars? That's upsetting.


Meh. Nobody saw it for the plot. They went to see the eye candy that was purty that people got depressed when they left the theater and were stuck back in non-blue crappy world.


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## mariogreymist (Mar 19, 2012)

I actually thought it was visually disappointing compared to LoTR. The 3d is cute and all, but until I can turn around and look over my shoulder and see the movie rather than the audience, it's still just a gimmick.


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## 1848 (Mar 23, 2012)

any piece of fiction that tries to play to its "type" too seriously. don't write a piece a work to match a genre -- just go for it and let the publishing companies/advertising execs slap their farcical label on it. nothing irritates me more than shows that try to fashion themselves too seriously and then suddenly whip around and coax at the common denominator (this is the vox populi speaking, and we are not fond of your patronizing crusades. we are smarter than you give us credit for. start talking to us like an adult and stop perpetuating the gaudy bling bullshit on television).

\:​


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## possiBri (Jan 4, 2011)

1848 said:


> any piece of fiction that tries to play to its "type" too seriously. don't write a piece a work to match a genre -- just go for it and let the publishing companies/advertising execs slap their farcical label on it. nothing irritates me more than shows that try to fashion themselves too seriously and then suddenly whip around and coax at the common denominator (this is the vox populi speaking, and we are not fond of your patronizing crusades. *We* are smarter than you give us credit for. start talking to us like an adult and stop perpetuating the gaudy bling bullshit on television).
> 
> \:​


Unfortunately that "we" seems to be a nearly-silent minority =[


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## SophiaScorpia (Apr 15, 2012)

I hate too much melodrama where characters will cry for how many hours or become depressed for crappy reasons. Also, too much romance with cheesy lines and corny comments. That's so..yuck. 

Shameless sex, too.


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## Playful Proxy (Feb 6, 2012)

Extreme cases of idealism. 
"I dream of a world that we can all live in peace. If we put our minds to it, we can do it!"


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## hylogenesis (Apr 26, 2012)

Homraigar said:


> What kind of things in books/movies/TV shows make you rage, cringe or facepalm?
> 
> 
> Examples:
> ...


I've had similar problems with Doctor Who--not so much that example, as I can see how it could be possible, maybe...but certain glaring logical fallacies...like the star whale things. My issue was "how the hell is that thing breathing!?" and as much as I tried to find a way for it to be alive, I couldn't really...think of much that was feasible. Then again, it's Doctor Who. If I sit back and force myself to ignore these little things, it's actually a fun show.

I hate Technicolor. It's not vibrant and I'm reminded vaguely of construction-paper vomit. Slow stories bother the hell out of me because if nothing's going on for the first four hours and all the action is in the last half-hour...what a waste of time. That's why I had so much trouble with Pulp Fiction when I tried to watch it. Just...too slow. I am proud of the fact that I was able to muster the control to sit through two nonconsecutive hours of it, but at the same time I'm ashamed of wasting the time on THAT. This is the same reason I've never seen more than five minutes of all the Godfather movies put together.

Everything political gets tossed out the window, as well as any reality tv or one of those competition shows (American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and the like), and everything that's ever been played on Lifetime or Oxygen or Women's Entertainment...EVER. I won't watch documentaries that are too simple in nature (as a result, many of the lower-brow space documentaries get culled) or that present incorrect information (prompting me to become enraged that the network would allow such misinformation to escape), or if they explore ideas that are only feasible on a mathematical level with no real application to the real world, but present it to an audience that doesn't know how to make the distinction (another small handful of space documentaries discarded). I also hate the Military Channel, talk shows....basically anything that isn't bright or engaging. I think this paints an accurate-enough picture of the kinds of shows I watch....I hate MLP just because...it's MLP and I think it's completely, door-knobbingly stupid.


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## affezwilling (Feb 1, 2011)

Signify said:


> Extreme cases of idealism.
> "I dream of a world that we can all live in peace. If we put our minds to it, we can do it!"


This is why I stopped watching a lot of sitcoms, even some of the ones I like have episodes that are hard to sit through. I remember when I was a little kid I use to really like "Full House" and other show of the sort. Then one day I noticed that at the end of pretty much every single episode everything all worked out to make everyone happy, tra-la-la, and they all shared a group hug or some crap. Even as a little kid I looked at that and thought to myself "Wait a minute, that's not how things work. Things are *not* always happy, tra-la-la, and then you hug it out. Sometimes things just don't work out and you just have to suck it up and move on. These shows are all a bunch of crap..."


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