What is your most hated... immersion ruining thing a storyteller can do.

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

Ill go first. for me my number one most hated thing is when characters never die and always give you the middle finger... save the universe... whatever... I HATE IT... I jump for joy when I see, or listen to, or read a character get paid a visit from the angel of death in a story and it really effects the way the rest of it plays out. My prime example is the Netflix adaptation of Lost In Space.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

When a character whom we know nothing about, gets their entire sad backstory revealed and actually steps up, in the same arc in which they die (sometimes they are so shameless they do it one episode before, or the same one), its very cheap. Hell's Paradise is a really bad offender of this.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

When the story fucks up halfway through. Xenoblade 1 started off rather simple. Guy loses his gf to a machine, gets pissed about it, and decides that they must all be destroyed. He meets others along the way who feel the same way.

Spoiler: Bri'ish Chronicles 1

Upon getting to the world full of these machines, he discovers that they're sentient and some are just like him, which makes him rethink his view. He then has to take down the ruler who is really causing the conflict. This sounds solid at first but then they had to fuck it all up by bringing Fiora back to life. The way it happened doesn't even make sense either, cause we clearly saw her get stabbed and her body thrown by the wayside, so how did she end up on Mechonis? Someone take her there? Clearly wasn't Metal Face. It's not an android clone or anything either, it's just her. Solid story ruined by a deus ex machina to fill a 7th slot.

This annoyed me so much.

Also when the remake spoils the game. Very niche, but it's happened before (Etrian Odyssey Untold)

There's other stuff as well, one dimensional tropes that do nothing different, mandatory beach fan service, annoying character(s), and probably others I'm not thinking of

 

[UnDubious]

Any dramatic death scene for a character that's just been introduced is a bad idea. We don't know them yet, it just won't affect us like that.

 

[Den MDM Den MDM]

I agree with the guys above. Introducing a character and killing them like ten seconds after is like the cheapest and quickest way to get some highlights and it just doesn't work. Also when characters always power up after being beaten up to a pulp and half-dead, like be realistic for once, make them lose, I dunno.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

When a character survives or lives because plot when they really should have died ages ago.

 

[bjork]

That time on wrestling when Miz got eaten by zombies and they DIDN'T have him be a zombie for awhile, like he was doing anything better in storyline

 

[J.F.C]

Making snarky remarks to the viewer/reader/player, stuff like "This situation is just like something out of a Video Game" annoys me so much it's unreal.

 

[Antilocal123]

Fillibusters, I have no qualms with a story telling a moral but I prefer it subtly, managing to form a message over a narrative is so impressive and blatantly telling the audience can take you out in an instant.

 

[7eve70rd]

Deus Ex Machina ending and/or ". . . it was all a dream."

 

[Den MDM Den MDM]

Making snarky remarks to the viewer/reader/player, stuff like "This situation is just like something out of a Video Game" annoys me so much it's unreal.

THIS TOOOO we can tell what's happening and what to feel about it, it kinda feels like those pre-recorded laughs on sitcoms

 

[miguk miguk]

When a characters' behavior is only justified as "well, the story would end if they didn't do that." Even worse if they give you a verbal wink to show that the writer knows they did wrong, but you've already bought the ticket, so you can't do anything about it. That's not clever dialogue; that's just insulting the audience.

Post automatically merged: Feb 23, 2025

Fillibusters, I have no qualms with a story telling a moral but I prefer it subtly, managing to form a message over a narrative is so impressive and blatantly telling the audience can take you out in an instant.

This is one of the reasons I don't watch Christopher Nolan films any more, and haven't done so in a long time. The other reason BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMM that you can't BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM throughout most of the film. Dude sucks at audio editing.

 

[Antilocal123]

Making snarky remarks to the viewer/reader/player, stuff like "This situation is just like something out of a Video Game" annoys me so much it's unreal.

We live in a world that’s finally seeing Meta Humor as lame God is good ?

 

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

Fillibusters, I have no qualms with a story telling a moral but I prefer it subtly, managing to form a message over a narrative is so impressive and blatantly telling the audience can take you out in an instant.

oof... yeah, the villain pausing their world ending plot to take an exposition dump on you. love that...

 

[mousebites]

Clunky exposition/telling instead of showing is always annoying

 

[Tonberry]

Using worldbuilding for word-count purposes.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Lack of communication always gets me. Anytime a conflict occurs between a group that could've been easily avoided if they talked it out for five minutes.

 

[Antilocal123]

Lack of communication always gets me. Anytime a conflict occurs between a group that could've been easily avoided if they talked it out for five minutes.

You’d hate 2000’s dude-bro comedies and rom-coms.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Plot armor especially when a character meets a grueling fate only to survive unscathed.

 

[Deleted member 99901]

This may be a hot take, but I hate when the gravity of the story is killed with a fix-it-all dxm like "time travel". It was cute in End Game. It was much less cute in Dragon Quest XI. I was in awe by the end of act 2. The world is saved, but horribly broken. The party members go through literal hell to earn their victory, with one straight up dying. It was an intense game. Then the 3rd act happens and the story telling falls on its face with "we can prevent ever sad/bad thing that happens in this story through the magic of time travel!!"

Meh. Sometimes dead Aeris needs to be dead Aeris or the story is a dish rag.

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

We live in a world that’s finally seeing Meta Humor as lame God is good ?

Agreed. It takes immense writing chops to do it well. The only show I know of to consistently pull it off is The Amazing World of Gumball.

 

[miguk miguk]

This may be a hot take, but I hate when the gravity of the story is killed with a fix-it-all dxm like "time travel". It was cute in End Game. It was much less cute in Dragon Quest XI. I was in awe by the end of act 2. The world is saved, but horribly broken. The party members go through literal hell to earn their victory, with one straight up dying. It was an intense game. Then the 3rd act happens and the story telling falls on its face with "we can prevent ever sad/bad thing that happens in this story through the magic of time travel!!"

Meh. Sometimes dead Aeris needs to be dead Aeris or the story is a dish rag.

I'm on the fence about this. On the one hand, act 2 was very well done, and played out in a way not many video games ever do. However, act 3 was still pretty good, concluding several subplots that didn't get finished previously, with the only issue being the FF-style last boss at the very end. Still, the game was satisfying even after that.

At least we got to see the bittersweet ending play out. A lot of JRPGs wouldn't have even gone that far.

 

[Num]

im not really a fan of the herd mentality for the convenience of the narrative thing. like when everyone unanimously agrees on something or everyone shares the same feelings on something and it becomes this emotional echo chamber. its often used to give cheesy "heartwarming" moments or used to validate the feelings the reader is supposed to be feeling in intense moments, but all that does is get rid of any individuality of the characters and makes the world seem so flat and shallow it feels really so fake. there should always be someone whos skeptical someone who hesistates someone who just doesnt care. even if the opinions dont differ not everyone should be on the same wavelength, one thing might be more serious to one person than the other. yet a lot of writers often disregard any nuance just to create this universal shared sentiment for the sake of expressing the scene how they want to express it. it doesnt feel like organic storytelling in the slightest and just feels like the writer is standing behind me with a sign saying "you should feel this way!" in real life not everyone views one persons problems as their own theres bound to be varying levels of detachment from people. seeing this shit never fails to take me out of it and remind me that this really is just a story

 

[Nidoking's icon Nidoking Nidoking]

The main character being surrounded in regular allies/friends who never get to do anything substantial.

 

[NemissaFotia]

The biggest one for me is a problem Star Trek often had a lot where the characters would stand around and dump exposition to each other despite both characters knowing all of the stuff being discussed already. It's painfully obvious that the writer just couldn't think of a better way to clue the audience in on the situation.

Nothing takes me out of a story more.