Discussion Web/Light Novel Cliches List

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by cboy123, Jul 28, 2018.

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  1. cboy123

    cboy123 A Very Dirty Old Man

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    This list will provide writers on what cliches are there in web and light novels around the world that I could tell. Share your thoughts and let's update this list!
    1. If I were to start a story, I would have to prioritize the reincarnation genre. Why? Most people bite the bait anyway.
    2. If not, I would go with the Virtual Reality genre. Anyone wanted to be a twin-swords users after all.
    3. Or just both. Put a reincarnation to a game with medieval settings.
    4. Or maybe some kind of parody about Naruto or League of A-holes.
    5. Or let them live in the modern world WITH DUNGEONS AND MAGIC!
    6. Or a modern world with Dungeons and Magic and Gaming System!
    7. I will have the so called protagonist killed by the almighty Truck as it is considered the Escort-of-the-Gods-To-The-Another-World.
    8. Or get stabbed by a stranger, not killed by the almighty Truck
    9. The protagonist should be male.
    10. And he will be born into a noble/royal.
    11. He will be a dense protagonist as it gives off the passive chick magnet ability.
    12. Or maybe a jerkass, over-confident but cowardly and will think of sexual assault on sight on pretty girls.
    13. Or maybe a jerkass, over-confident, an asshole AND overpowered and will sexual assault at any time of his desire.
    14. Or maybe a guy with over inflated egos
    15. If the MC is Japanese, I shall make him use sword weapon types.
    16. If a Korean, maybe use some kind of magical spear that can evolve.
    17. or if a Chinese, eh. a fist will do.
    18. My title should be a long sentence.
    19. Or just put something that really saying the summary.
    20. The hero must be loved by the goddess.
    21. If not, curse him with questionable and stupid loopholes.
    22. Girls with names will have some kind of affection to the protagonist. Male or Female protagonist.
    23. If we're talking about rape here, let's just make the victims love the protagonist after the protagonist rapes them.
    24. Always make the protagonist discover the Adventurer's Guild (Come on! You do not go to an adventure.... That's just mercenary work!)
    25. There should be a Demon Lord. While waiting to be killed by the Hero, send progressive difficulty of mercenaries and/or underlings to give valuable experience to the Hero and his party.
    26. A villain must not see the worth of the protagonist until he is cornered by him.
    27. Or make him be more boastful of his power and then kill him in an instant.
    28. The king of the kingdom will be a jerkass. He will try to capture the protagonist and use him as a weapon.
    29. If the protagonist finished his quest of destroying a target, make him transfer back to his world with reasons like "The kingdom has betrayed me." or something along the line.
    30. "Has eyes but doesn't recognize Mount Tai."
    31. "THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!"
    32. "TALK NO JUTSU"
    33. "I am your father/grandfather/brother"
    34. If an important character will die due to a battle wound, make a character appear out of nowhere and save the other's ass.
    35. Important characters must be armed by the so-called PLOT ARMOR.
    36. The enemy marksmen must never hit the protagonist.
    37. Especially to the knee.
    38. To make people sympathy with the villain, make them see flashbacks of that character.
    39. If it is not according to plan, make the villain shout "Scoundrel or Bastard how dare you!"
    40. Always kill villain after their purposes are done.
    41. If not, erase and forgotten them.
    42. Villains should invade some kind of land that the MC is visiting.
    43. Or important to them.
    44. Or stole something important to the MC.
    45. The good man always wins, and he is handsome, and his rival has an ugly looking.
    46. This guy shall have a big sword why his rival will showered with insults of having a small one.
    47. The good man is always a member of communist party
    48. One dimensional antagonist who always treats peasants badly, and the antagonist is rich
    49. The protagonist will so young and so powerful that his single sentence can bankrupt another company.
    50. The girl or the gay guy the protagonist loves is innocent and naive
    51. An traffic accident, follows a lose of memory or a miscarriage
    52. "Woman, if you want to attract my attention, then you've succeed."
    53. MC will have a fat friend or sidekick
    54. Everyone threatens to kill their entire family just for not giving someone face.
    55. Doing drugs is considered the way to progress.
    56. Everyone who is not a cultivator is considered a peasant.
    57. Crowd mentality where everyone joins up with the one who spews the most BS.
    58. When fighting always put these "Rumbles and booms", "Looks of shock", "Cold snorts", and "coughing up blood"
    59. GLUTTONY THE BEST VICE OF THEM ALL.
    60. Protagonist should have a harem. I love everyone equally after all.
    61. Also add a powerful sexual drive and unlimited stamina on bed to make his harem satisfy on their harem needs.
    62. And don't forget to always mark the sex date as safe.
    63. Protagonist should able to hide his powers if he wanted to.
    64. Tournament arcs should be 50 to around a hundred chapters
    65. There shall be misunderstandings to make the story at least funny.
    66. Have the MC forget a skill that he acquired ages ago.
    67. Always use katana for weapon. Come on, its for honor!
    68. DO NOT FORGET THE BATH AND HOT SPRING
    69. INCEST FOR WINCEST
    70. Start the novel at 16 years old protagonist and a school life.
    71. And a fat and ugly one.
    72. FOOD CHAPTERS!
    73. Describe a beautiful female character in one chapter, I mean a paragraph.
    74. Girls should always be a damsel in distress.
    75. Tell a summary of the previous chapter.. It helps they say.
    76. If the character is weak, make him grow fasts to be an OP one or a god.
    77. Always make the character human. Who the hell cares about elves (Erofus) that are born to breed
    78. Every harem must have a loli in it.
    79. MC revived with previous life memories when he died literally. MC was outcast and bullied in his small clan; thereafter, forced to exile and broke off with his newly wedded wife. Comes back to take revenge with previous life knowledge.
    80. Describe character strength and growth when it boils down to "my numbers are larger than his numbers".
    81. The protagonist will only have the common sense of Earth.
    82. Make the protagonist on a power trip only to get a powerful unique skill that can go full-nuclear.
    83. Tsundere heroines.
    84. Reincarnated virgin protagonists who cannot seem to handle women even on a second try on life.
    85. Op protagonists that are too hypocritical of using their powers.
    86. Blonde heroines fit in the tsundere heroines category.
    87. Reincarnation to a child and being s magical genius by 3 years old without prior magical knowledge.
    88. Characters using dual sword or dagger sword. Come on! Check the Weapons Dictionary. THERE'S A LOT OF THEM!
    89. The lack of ambition for the heroines.
    90. Forced relationships ;
    91. Patriarchal society even in a fantasy setting;
    92. Lack of more gender variation aside the binary;
    93. The main character must always get involved with romance
    94. Repetitive statements, different chapters
    95. Have a weapon that can only be wielded by the chosen one, mostly the MC.
    I forgot to put the references. Haha. My bad.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2018
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  2. Kuro_0ni

    Kuro_0ni Cocooned in a Life transition

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    Oh this is in regards to Japanese web/light novels, for a second I thought you encompassed all of them (Korean, Chinese, etc).
     
  3. akki

    akki [Ani's C☕ffee-mate #3] [Shady Merchant]

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    .....dude wtf?!? I couldn’t read it. There’s just way too much there~
     
  4. Heroman Jr.

    Heroman Jr. Well-Known Member

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    Did you already include Game Systems and Interfaces? It makes it easier to quantify strength in a novel.
     
  5. Jigoku Shounen

    Jigoku Shounen An Envoy From Hell

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    Nah, CN and KR are there. Wait no, this is more like cliches of JP and CN novels. KR novels cliches are something in-between them, but the most distinctive cliches are relating to "Game System". Something like
    • MC was/is a Pro Gamer
    • MC was/is the Strongest/Best Player
    • Dungeons are always include, in modern worlds or isekai. And somehow the MC is always the 1st to do something new get unique items/titles/stats
    • MC was/is possessing somekind of unique play-style/item that only he/she had/has and was/is always the best
    But dang, there are a lot. With this much cliches, need an Author to create a novel that comprise all, or most of, JP/CN/KR novels cliches and then see how a mess it is.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2018
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  6. Flores520

    Flores520 Well-Known Member

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    If you read them, they are very funny and true.
     
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  7. Netto Azure

    Netto Azure Well-Known Member

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    I needed my comedy hit of the day :D
     
  8. CyberCypher

    CyberCypher Air Breather

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    1) female knights are always blonde ( the main one anyways)
    2) Every adventurer needs a loli ( Loli is usually in the support role)
    3) The healer is always a priest or priestess ( Druids can heal too)
     
  9. Goblin Sleuth

    Goblin Sleuth Well-Known Member

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    Great read, you pretty much covered everything that makes the reader roll their eyes, and groan in irritation.

    You know in all fairness if you read a lot of this crap, and try to come up with a story idea it can be pretty easy to fall into one or more of these cliches. That is the way the brain works, we output a re-imagination of the input we receive. So if you're only reading the same unoriginal tripe than you're gonna be less creative than a modern artist.

    The trick is to recognize when you've thought up something cliche, and call yourself out on it. Think what could I change or add to my story idea, to make it less cliche. For example want to write a story about a protagonist who is reborn as a monster, change it so the protagonist is a monster that was raised by a human, and has human values, or maybe a human who instead of being reborn was turned into a monster through a curse. Now not only do you have human to monster, you also have a goal (turning back) and a villain (person who cursed him).
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2018
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  10. Jigoku Shounen

    Jigoku Shounen An Envoy From Hell

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    To be honest, I rarely saw a novel with druid that I hardly remember about them anymore. I don't even think that Isekai novels, or asian novels in general, have druid cause never seen one. So the only healer in there is either the magician him/herself or priest/priestess. So I don't think it's part of cliches, cause for Asian Authors mindset then Healer = Priest/Priestess.
    Or more like, just read your post that I actually know about druids.
     
  11. CyberCypher

    CyberCypher Air Breather

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    That is what a cliche is a mindset on what something should, I.e its a healer so it should be a priest. Druids tend to be one of the other classes, the one not part of the main trio ( warrior, offensive support [ex. offensive mage, archer, lancer,] and soft support ex priest) . that being said. I have read druid classes like log horizon had a druid class, and goblin slayer had a druid ( or was it a shaman?) it was either the dwarf or the lizard man
     
  12. cboy123

    cboy123 A Very Dirty Old Man

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    And this list is still lacking like a hundred.
     
  13. akki

    akki [Ani's C☕ffee-mate #3] [Shady Merchant]

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    See what you needed to do was write it all out. Then find the ones that have a commonality and group them under one heading. Then post the headings with the cliches that go under it in spoilers. That would’ve made it easier to view~
     
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  14. Nimroth

    Nimroth Someone

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    What, no "armed by plot armor"?, you know when the author is so self-aware that the mc can't die that he plunges into what is well known as certain death or impossible scenarios just for a minor unnecessary power up. lol
     
  15. Fluffums

    Fluffums 【R-18 Researcher】【Seeker of Moe】

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    tl;dr just use TV Tropes for your list of every cliche.
     
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  16. Smaug

    Smaug Well-Known Member

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    You forgot the 3 clichés I hate the most
    1) if you are an Isekai only the protagonist will be a competent magician / cultivator / swordsman no matter if there are other wizards in the world, they will either be ignored entirely or will serve only to demonstrate how overpowering the MC is

    2) wizards only fire attack magic and AOE attacks

    3) if there are other spells they will be useless against the MC or he will be the only one to know them

    4) cheating skill better than all the skills in the world

    5) MC was an ordinary person who but somehow knew in detail all the processes and materials and techniques needed to reproduce modern technology in the Middle Ages

    6) MC and more powerful because it has cultivation techniques and or items that make it grow faster than anyone and challenge gods

    7) whether human or monster, one side will always be good and the other bad.

    8) nobles abuse power and the MC is there to do justice


    9) level is an absolute thing ... unless the MC and his teammates are struggling with. Someone of a much higher level

    10) all the other characters have been training for years but the As the MC has a lot more, ki chakara, DAO, magic power he much stronger than them

    11) wizards do not need to study magic because their level of power is decided at birth and there is nothing that can be done about it (unless it is the MC of course)

    13) swordsmen and magical warriors, magical knights
    14) If the MC is Chinese he must act like an arrogant king of the world and kill anyone he doesn't like, and that will never bring problems in the future

    15) Cold MC that sees everyone as a useful tool

    16) dark plot armor to justify the MC's least dubious character

    17) MC is being a manipulator and betraying his allies and justifies everything with "I will do everything possible to survive"
    18) discovers a pill or skill and hides it from everyone 90% of the time
     
  17. MarxDarkBear

    MarxDarkBear The Great Man

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    You missed several
    1. If the Mc goes to a new world and finds himself in a forest, the first people he will see is a carriage that is being attacked by wolves, goblins or bandits and Mc will help them out.
    2. The carriage has 1 fat old man who is a merchant and a girl and depending on the type of harem, the girl is a slave if it is a slave harem or the daughter of the merchant if it is a normal harem
    3. The first thought of the Mc is to register for an adventure guild, not to find shelter, food or whatever.
    4. If the Mc is a teenager or in a teenage body, there is a random thug a and b who is ready to start trouble with the Mc just so the Mc can show how op he is.
    5. The receptionist is a cute girl who goes out of her way to help the Mc and all the other guild members are just extras.
    6. The guild master just like the receptionist goes out of his way to become friends with the mc
    7. The mc's excuse for not having any common sense of this world is that he was training in the mountains with his master
    8. If the Mc is a middle age man who died from overworking, he has to have the mentality of a teenager
    9. A Mc idea of a slow and easy life is to be a farmer in the fkng middle ages. My man being a farmer in the middle ages was one of the worst jobs
    10. A female knight always has to have blonde hair and should be an absolute justice maniac, but she is surrounded by corrupt superiors.
    11. If there is a blond handsome looking hero knight, the guy is in fact an absolute douchebag and only the Mc sees through hin
    12. And one of the worst ones. The Mc has to go on a hunt for rice or Japanese food which is superior than the bland oily European food

    There are a lot more but I am too lazy to write them all
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2021
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