D. G. D. Davidson

Am I missing any? • Postmodern "deconstruction" of a genre that thinks it's more clever than it really is. • Everything is ironic because they're afraid attempts at sincerity will be seen as cheesy. • Bathos (when something serious happens but the drama is immediately undercut by a joke). • Fucked up moral lessons such as portraying selfishness as good. • Aversion to heteronormative romance. • Unlikable "strong female character" who talks down to everyone. • Fetishism masquerading as progressivism. • Villain is a thinly veiled stand-in for the writer's dad. • If it's a sequel, prequel, adaptation, or remake, then it's written less like a story set in that universe, and more like a metacommentary about the franchise where creative decisions are based not on what's natural or logical, but on audience expectations or the subversion thereof. • Protagonist was always perfect the way they are and they just had to learn to unleash themselves instead of improving or overcoming weaknesses. • "This is a good character because they're really powerful." • Conflating high stakes with high drama. • Soapboxing. • "It's sci-fi/fantasy, so it doesn't have to be consistent with its own internal logic or established rules!" ("space wizards" argument.) • "Who cares whether or not it makes sense! What matters is how it makes you feel!" Because these things are mutually exclusive somehow. • Female villain is only evil because of something a man did to her. • "The man-eating, soul-stealing, vampire rapist spider people are just misunderstood. Humans are the real monsters." • "Capitalism bad. Now here's a thing we included just so we could sell toys of it." • Pop cultural references. • "LOL drugs." • "Isn't it funny that we're drawing attention to this trope we're doing? We're so much smarter than those other shows and movies that do the same thing because at least we're self-aware!" • Ugly on purpose for no real purpose. • Snarky and irreverent protagonist who quips and has a witty retort for anything said to them. • Sexualizing women bad, sexualizing men good. • Safe-edginess that's just casual bigotry toward acceptable targets such as straight men, French people, American southerners, etc. • Old IP "reimagined" for the "modern audience". • Protagonist is a shameless self-insert. • "Humor" is "person I don't like dies." • "Muh realistic anxiety attack!" • Someone told them "write what you know" and what they know is coffee shops and porn. • Cute, child-like thing is evil. • "Traditionally heroic virtues are bad, actually." • "I may be a cannibal who burns down orphanages, but at least I'm not a racist!" • "Morality is subjective! Unless you disagree with my politics, in which case you're objectively evil!" • Thinks they can make a scene "emotional" by simply showing a character crying when they haven't done anything to earn that emotional moment. • Dialogue has a lot of "ums" and "yeeeahs". • Memes in the place of jokes. • "Creative" insults that are just swear words combined with other words, like "fuckstick", "shitballs", or "bitchmuffin". • Adult characters talk like teenagers. • Characters use internet slang in real life. • All male characters are stupid, evil, or both. • Baby talk combined with excessive profanity. • Male protagonist gets pushed aside for a female character. • All characters who oppose the protagonist (and therefore the writer's ideals since the protagonist is the writer) are strawmen because the writer cannot model other people's minds. • "Why tell a timeless story that will resonate with future generations when I can make it about my pet political gripe of the week?" • "How can I show that this character is unique and rebellious? I know! I'll give her blue hair and a side-shave!" • Sexual preferences/gender identity is a character's entire personality. • Stupid gotcha argument presented like it's profound wisdom and always goes unchallenged. • "It's a made-up story, so we can do whatever we want with our adaptation! Who cares about the author's intent or the reasons they wrote it how they did?" • Performative support for whatever happens to be the current political issue of the moment that no one will care about in five years.