YA Tropes | October Writeathon 1/31

I really dislike most Young Adult Novels. There are a lot of reasons why, such as unrelatable characters, conflicting story beats, and very drab character development, but one thing that bugs me more than all that is the use of common YA tropes that takes away intrigue and pulls you out of the story. I know that many YA writers use these tropes because it'll sell better, but this takes away from the main purpose of fiction, which is to tell a story. It doest matter how much passion an author pours into their YA novel, if they follow these tropes, I probably won't like their book. Remember that this is my own personal opinion and without further ado let's get into 17 Common YA Tropes 

1. Female Protagonists- The undeniable truth is that almost all YA protagonists are female. This is understandable as the books are marketed towards girls, since statistically girls read more. I understand this, but for those male readers out there, it makes YA an incredibly difficult genre to get into. I, as a male reader, have never been able to get into the stories because I don't have a window into their world that is easily relatable to me. While it's an understandable trope, I still wish that there were a few more YA novels aimed at boys.
2. All adult are useless, cryptic and/or evil- Parent's in YA novels are horribly irresponsible. At the novels beginning they've either already abandoned their kid or are totally chill with their child doing some incredibly dangerous task. Granted, sometimes the parents have no choice, but the other important adults in the protagonist life are useless too. If they're good they just sit around and give out hard to understand advice. If their not good, their just outright evil. There are very few important adult deuteragonists in YA novels, and it sometimes breaks the immersion of the story.
3. Protagonists can spend the entire day battling without needing the bathroom once- YA protagonists seem to have near infinite stamina. No matter how much they run, kick, flip, and punch during a battle, they never seem to run out of breathe, in spite of being "ordinary" people. That's because you want you're protagonist to be a good role model, even if this suspends realism.
4. The protagonist thinks of themselves as plain for no reason- A requirement of all YA protagonists is that be incredibly beautiful, but in most stories they have no idea. Disregarding the message this sends to readers, it also makes no sense. Why would you believe you're plain looking when people are constantly telling you you're gorgeous, and your competed over by at least two smoking hot men. It makes no sense, and it again takes away realism and connectability.
5. You must wage war against the System- YA books are all about fighting the man. This ties into the dystopian setting of many YA novels, but even books like Twilight have some sort of hierarchy that's trying to put down the protagonists. This is because this appeals to young adults in their time of rebellion against their parents, so it can add to the immersion, but only if the conflict is close and personal, which it almost never is.
6. Monumental decisions are taken in stride- If you were to suddenly discover that you were half-human, half-mythological creature, how would you respond? You would probably freak out, be confused, and undergo a complete existentational crisis. Not if your a YA protagonist. Their immune ti that kind of stuff, so the only struggle they have is mastering their awesome new powers. It destroys your connection to the story.
7. A Resistance made you their leader, no experience necessary- Teens should not lead rebellions, especially inexperienced ones. This seems logical, but not to the mind of a dystopian rebellion. They think it's a great decision, and by dumb luck alone they manage to succeed. This makes the character an okay role model and teaches that you can achieve you're goals no matter how young you are, so i think I can give this trope a pass.
8. They never know they're holding their breathe- This one has nothing to do with story, it's just annoying. YA protagonists never realize their holding their breathe, and often release it with out even realizing they were holding it. It just annoys me so I wanted to include it.

So you may or may not have realized a pattern with these tropes, and it's that they tend to

1. Pull you out of the story and detract from the immersion
2. Exist only to make the protagonist a better role model

Tats the state of young adult fiction, and it's weakening writing as a whole. As more people grow up with these kinds of stories, they begin to think that they're okay. We need to be pickier about the literature we create and consume. The take away here is that we need to be the change we want to see, so any next time your doing some writing, try and avoid these tropes, and help bring back the Golden Age of books.

This was the first post of my October Writathon, and I hope that you enjoyed it, If you did, you can come back everyday this month for more content like this. Until tomorrow, have a very fine day.

The Evolution of the Beast

Over the years Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast has undergone many physical mutations. Sometimes its hard to remember all his transformations, So I've compiled a list of all of Beasts transformation's from Marvel's 616 continuity, so without further adue, let jump.

OG Beast

This is the form in which Hank McCoy first appeared. He was decidedly not blue, no furry, and there for not loved.  His costume is boring, his aesthetic as a whole is uninspired and his powers are lame. He looks like this because of his writer poor discernment his X-gene.

Better Beast

 

This is the Beast that we all love the most. He's blue, he's ferocious and he's wearing nothing but a speedo. He's more furrier and more powerful than before, and he has goofy hair to give him those good 70's vibes. He mutated because he drank a special serum to keep his work from getting stolen (don't ask)

Grumpy Cat Beast

This version of beast is much more recent. As you can see, he resembles a cat and has pants that look like they would be extremely uncompfortable. He's very intense, and occasionally wears glasses, which doesn't sense because cats have great eyesight. His mutation was explained as a "Sudden secondary mutation" which sounds okay on paper but when you think about it doesn't make sense. Was he predestined to have blue fur? Or if he didn't have the fur, would he have looked like a hairless cat? Explain!?

Beastcula

That's right, it gets weirder. This beast is confusing to me. He's huge, bigger than ever, but his head stayed the same size, giving him massive shoulder. He went back to the speedo and wears glasses again. His hair long cat fur is much shorter, and his ears look like they belong on an elf! Over all I really don't like this beast, and he mutated because of fan backlash, ironically generating even more.

Beast to the Future

That's right, OG Beast is back! His origin is weird (Beast pulled his younger self forward in time, probably causing Marvel: Flashpoint in the process) but his costume is slick. I have to say, honestly, this is my favorite Beast costume. It looks nice and avoids the stereotype that if your super strong you don't need a shirt.It's practical and really fits the character. I hope this Beast sticks around.

Dark Beast

Sound ominous doesn't it? While he's technically not from 616, he stayed there and masquerade as him for a while, so he counts.  He is, as you could probably guess, an evil counterpart to beast, and he hails from the Age of Apocalypse universe. His is rough around the edges ad great because of it.

And that concludes our list. Recently a new Beast form was revealed, but little to nothing is known about his, so we'll end this list here. Make sure to comeback next week for more great content, and post in the comments below who your favorite Beast is. For now, have a very fine day.

If you enjoyed this content, make sure to go check out my buddy Arthur's blog Bart is not the Villain, and my other blog Completing Catalyst. Ciao.

Does the Vision Lack Clear Creative Vision?

I'm gonna say this bluntly, and I know some people will be outraged by this, I hate Paul Bettany's take on the Vision. Now don't get me wrong, the acting is great, it's the writing and directing that's the problem. Everything about the character is too much or too little, leading to a clear lack of Vision, so here are the reason's I hate the MCU Vision.

Under-Development
When I look at scenes with the Vision, I see a clear lack of direction for the Vision's character development. First off he doesn't get enough of it, and second what his get is boring, out of place, and alienates him from the view. I know he's a robot, but in the comic it never feels like it. He feels a lot more human, and I feel like the direction they're leading him doesn't.

Under-Utilized
Let's be honest with ourselves, the Vision is a powerhouse, but only when the writers want him to be. When they need to take down Ultron? Powerhouse. When he's fighting in Civil War? Not so much. He's a powerhouse at their discretion, if he fights at all. Where was he when the events of Lagos went down? Seriously, the writers and and the Avengers are wasting the Vision.

Over-Designed
The Vision's costume is trash. The colours are disgusting, the design is blah and the cape MAKES NO SENSE How did he just magically summon a cape? Is that how he got all his sweaters? Let's talk about those sweaters, why did they choose to do that? Does it add to the story? No. Does it make sense? No. If you can't tell I really hate his costume.

Overly-Forced Romance
In the comics, Vision and Scarlet Witch are soul mates. They have a long and complex relationship that was set up long before it came to fruition. They failed to convey this in the films. I know there are time restraints, but they don't set up any kind of chemistry. He makes soup, she eats soup, boom love. The romantic subplot in Civil war was supposed to give the seen where she betrays the vision have emotional weight, but it fails. This romance made know sense.

In conclusion, I do not like like the Vision, and these are the reasons why. That's my opinion, and I would love to hear yours down below. Come back Friday for more content and until then have a very fine day.

If you enjoyed this content, make sure to go check out my buddy Arthur's blog Bart is not the Villain, and my other blog Completing Catalyst. Ciao.

Vampires Have Some Serious Vamproblems

I've noticed recently that for "deadly creatures of the night", vampires have a ludicrous amount of weaknesses, many of which are rather mundane.  In recent years, many of their weaknesses have been stripped away, leaving vampires pretty bland and one dimensional.  These modern vampires are better suited to romance then horror, and part of that is the loss of there weakness, so I've put together a short guide to vampire weaknesses, not only including what there weaknesses are but why.  Ill start with the most well known and work my way down, so let's fly right into it.

• Garlic
• Garlic is one of the most famous weaknesses of vampires.  It seems silly that vampires are weak to a vegetable, and that's because it is.  However, if you look into the history behind it in begins to make a lot more sense. Now I've found two possible origins of the weakness.
1. Back during medieval times, garlic was frequently use to drive away bloodsucking insects, including fleas mosquitoes and possibly vampires.
2. Garlic was also believed to to  be a natural purifying agent that drove evil from the body.  Because of this it repelled vampires, because vampires were seen as pure evil. Villagers would hang garlic over their door ways to repel vampires as well as witches.
• Sunlight
• Another famous weakness of vampires is sunlight.  This one is especially interesting because classic European vampires were not burn by sunlight like they are in Pop culture, but instead it simply robbed them of their powers (except at midday for some reason).  The origin of this weakness is pretty simple, during medieval times, people believe that sunlight equalled God, and because vampires were unholy, they died in the presence of God.
• Wooden Stakes
• Wooden stakes are the most interesting to me.  For years I wondered, why do they have to be wooden? But after learning the origin of it, I realize why their referred to as wooden. There a disease that used to be fairly common called consumption wear your body would wither away until you died, and the villeins believed that people who died of the disease would come back to life at night and infect other people. To avoid this, they buried victims face down with a long wooden stake driven through them into the ground, holding them there.  Eventually this idea moved to vampires too.
• Holy Symbols
• This one is probably the most obvious, and doesn't require much explanation. Vampire were considered unholy, therefore holy symbols were their foil, as unholy creatures could not survive in there presence.
• Fire
• Vampires are weak to fire for the same reason that werewolves and witches are, fire was believe to be a powerful purifier, and like garlic, drove evil from the body. Because vampires were considered to be soulless being of pure evil, without that evil they were just corpses.
• Running Water
• Many old folk stories about vampires had them unable to cross bodies of flowing water, especially rivers. This is because Jesus and his disciples were baptized in rivers, and therefore rivers were holy, and vampires cant handle holiness.
• Arithmomania
• Arithmomania is the compulsive need to count things. I actually could not find the origin of this, though it's interesting to note that the devil is also said to have this trait.  It's the inspiration for the Count from Sesame Street.
• Silver
• During this time period, silver was considered a very pure metal, and almost as valuable as gold.  Since it was pure it was attributed to killing unholy creatures, famously werewolves and vampire.

So you may have noticed by now that one thing that connects most of these weaknesses together is holiness and purity.  Vampire's were rising into infamy around the time of the rise of the Church of England, so the church spun the creature into being satanic in nature, so it made sense for them to be weak to things like this.

Many of these weaknesses were used in the two most influential vampire stories of all time, Nosferatu and and Bram Stoker's Dracula. These have affect all vampire stories since, in someway or another, but recently, writers have started to misrepresent vampires.  From films like Hotel Transylvania to novels like Twilight, vampires just aren't what they used to be.  They've become brooding romantics instead of savage killers. They've become less interesting, and I implore that next time any of you are writing vampire fiction, please help return them to their proper notoriety.

That's all I have today, please consider the above information next time you encounter vampires (real or fictional) and until then have a very fine day.

If you enjoyed this content, make sure to go check out my buddy Arthur's blog Bart is not the Villain, and my other blog Completing Catalyst. Ciao.

Welcome to All New, All Different Geekagogue!

Hey, hey, hey how's it going? As you might of notice, we're on a new blog! I'm so excited for a fresh start for Geekagogue! From now on were gonna bring you not only more content but improved content! We've done several things to ensure that this blog is a significant improvement to the last one, the most important is the addition of a post schedule!
I'll be posting Monday's, Kris will be posting on Wednesday's, and Arthur'll end out our week on Friday.
I look forward to seeing how this All New, All Different Geekagogue works out, and I see you on Monday.