| Since the title would be too long, I just put half the question in it: your most hated generic backstory that leads to generic basic personality. Well, I guess it's not that long. Anyway, I think it's pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just list mine: My childhood was kind of terrible, so I'll use that as an excuse to be shit to everyone - I've seen this one more times than I can count, and I honestly never liked it. There's also the milder version of it whereas bad childhood led someone to be shy/less involved with people, which I can kind of swallow if done well, but the prior one I can't stand. To me, it seems that the backstory is usually used just as an excuse for their behavior (for instance, Louise or whatever; some kids were mean to me because I couldn't use magic properly, so let me turn into a mayhem-bringing bitch to everyone). Next we have one that you can find in a lot of shoujo manga: I don't understand boys/ boys are aggressive / a boy was mean to me when I was a kid, so my personality dictates me to hate ALL the boys. Again, it's just used as an excuse to have a random bishounen sweep in and 'fix' that, and obviously to have dem sweet melodramatic moments. At this point, whenever this is a premise of shoujo manga, I just drop it if I'm honest. Not wroth it. Ugh, I feel like I could list dozen more, but I'll limit myself to this last one: I have traumatic past (or just a traumatic event), which I'll use as an excuse for ANYTHING I do. This is somewhat similar to the first, but even a greater offender. AGAIN, it's usually just used as a 'well, his life was shit so his completely erratic and random behavior can be excused', and it's obviously up to main guy/girl to 'fix' that... somehow. As you've realized, I have a problem with shitty personalities being excused with generic, sad-sob backstories. And don't even get me started on the 'Nobody can possibly understand how I feel' shit. It seems that generic, tragic backstory is a go-to strategy to excuse whatever shitty behavior the character has (which wouldn't be tolerated, fyi; bunch of people have sob stories, now imagine if all of them acted like tantrum-throwing children because of it for years and years) and call it a day. Well, anyway, this post dragged out a loooooot. I'm kind of interested to see you guys' opinion and examples. |
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| My least favorite backstory?... Well then... My parent(s) were killed by the thing that I now fight and I somehow became that thing... I was just born with this superhuman ability to not be scared of anything (Aka... The "I will protect everyone for no reason" type) My parents work overseas so I never see them and it makes me edgy My daddy hit me now I'm an asshole My moms a bitch so now I have 0 social skills ***** I mean these backstories can work... But they're usually just so generic... Not enough explanations and time put into why the character acts the way they do because of said event(s) |
| >My childhood was kind of terrible, so I'll use that as an excuse to be shit to everyone this is basically the backstory of the majority of shitty tsunderes what a lame excuse to justify garbage personality |
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| Dead/missing/abroad parent(s). A convenient way to let horny teenagers do what they want, but a stupid cliche. |
| Personal Most hated Backstory? Would be the recent 2 years trend: Died without accomplishing much, Reborn/summoned into a world with MAGIC!!! In which he/she becomes the new Hero/Demon lord!! Or anything close as having a Huge Advantage above anyone else. |
| Truck-kun ranks pretty damn high here on the generic scale. This magical omnipresent vehicle with a custom-tailored silent engine and invisibility cloak seems to show up quite frequently with a plethora of victims. Looks like that kid's about to cross the street, oops, guess he was an idiot. I've seen Truck-kun in so many instances of drama/melodrama for a character's backstory. Siblings, parents, friends. It's an easy way to off a character close to whoever the story is focusing on. Death can be an important part of any fictional story for a character, but a giant truck that conveniently appears? It's such a trope by this point that I make fun of it more than hate it. It's even happened in shows I like, even in some of my favourite episodes in general. But it's overdone. |
| Almost every isekai backstory lol. I thiink its 100% generic and the point is still the same. |
T31 said: Truck-kun ranks pretty damn high here on the generic scale. This magical omnipresent vehicle with a custom-tailored silent engine and invisibility cloak seems to show up quite frequently with a plethora of victims. Looks like that kid's about to cross the street, oops, guess he was an idiot. I've seen Truck-kun in so many instances of drama/melodrama for a character's backstory. Siblings, parents, friends. It's an easy way to off a character close to whoever the story is focusing on. Death can be an important part of any fictional story for a character, but a giant truck that conveniently appears? It's such a trope by this point that I make fun of it more than hate it. It's even happened in shows I like, even in some of my favourite episodes in general. But it's overdone. Truck death wins the cake of generic setting. |
CondemneDio said: Dead/missing/abroad parent(s). A convenient way to let horny teenagers do what they want, but a stupid cliche. i almost laughed cause its so true :3 |
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RLinksoul said: Second. Psychological shows tend to do this a lot, since it's a cheap and easy way for an anime to have a group of emotionally messed up characters. I'm pretty sure Penguindrum did this with at least three separate characters. The character with the abusive parents also tends to get a free pass for their actions because of it. Once it comes to light, everything they did is excused because a one dimensional smirking adult gleefully kicked them around when they were little. Also for villains, the "woman scorned" motivation that plagues female antagonists, especially in mahou shoujo anime. Girl fights evil by moonlight alongside a handsome guy. She falls in love with handsome guy, but gasp! He doesn't return her feelings. Because she apparently has no friends or family, this causes her whole world to fall apart, allowing her heart to be corrupted and consumed by darkness. Similar to the abusive parent angle, it can also be used to make the female antagonist redeemable, since she needs to be saved from the darkness, rather than atone for her actions. Yeah I noticed it a lot... That's one reason I loved ERASED... It went deeper into the idea of family abuse... Other shows mention it but that's all they do... Abused children react many different ways for different reasons, but most animes just bunch all together and call it a backstory... Not actually looking deeper into how events played out and how it affected them |
| Eh I don't really know if this relates, but I think its annoying when they introduce "story changing characters" in slice of life anime as being transfer students. Or times in shounens where they magically get a new ability to save their ass. |
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MAND4 said: Since the title would be too long, I just put half the question in it: your most hated generic backstory that leads to generic basic personality. Well, I guess it's not that long. Anyway, I think it's pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just list mine: My childhood was kind of terrible, so I'll use that as an excuse to be shit to everyone - I've seen this one more times than I can count, and I honestly never liked it. There's also the milder version of it whereas bad childhood led someone to be shy/less involved with people, which I can kind of swallow if done well, but the prior one I can't stand. To me, it seems that the backstory is usually used just as an excuse for their behavior (for instance, Louise or whatever; some kids were mean to me because I couldn't use magic properly, so let me turn into a mayhem-bringing bitch to everyone). Next we have one that you can find in a lot of shoujo manga: I don't understand boys/ boys are aggressive / a boy was mean to me when I was a kid, so my personality dictates me to hate ALL the boys. Again, it's just used as an excuse to have a random bishounen sweep in and 'fix' that, and obviously to have dem sweet melodramatic moments. At this point, whenever this is a premise of shoujo manga, I just drop it if I'm honest. Not wroth it. Ugh, I feel like I could list dozen more, but I'll limit myself to this last one: I have traumatic past (or just a traumatic event), which I'll use as an excuse for ANYTHING I do. This is somewhat similar to the first, but even a greater offender. AGAIN, it's usually just used as a 'well, his life was shit so his completely erratic and random behavior can be excused', and it's obviously up to main guy/girl to 'fix' that... somehow. As you've realized, I have a problem with shitty personalities being excused with generic, sad-sob backstories. And don't even get me started on the 'Nobody can possibly understand how I feel' shit. It seems that generic, tragic backstory is a go-to strategy to excuse whatever shitty behavior the character has (which wouldn't be tolerated, fyi; bunch of people have sob stories, now imagine if all of them acted like tantrum-throwing children because of it for years and years) and call it a day. Well, anyway, this post dragged out a loooooot. I'm kind of interested to see you guys' opinion and examples. Good thread OP! Ahh, this reminds me of why I really love how Horikoshi I don't mind sad/traumatic back story, I especially like them if it's well written. However, I hate it when it's sole purpose seems just to excuse the character's behavior. |
 OTP: KidLaw | IzuKatsu | GureShin | EruRi | AoKi | See more!» My art » My translation » Doujinshi collection » Favorite Kurobas doujinshi  BISHIES X RAP |
| being a lab rat, child experiment victim lol |
Cross  AngeHey guys check my profile for current airing season anime recommendation (guaranteed best taste) |
| Gets hit by a vehicle every isekai backstory |
"When you made this thread, I cried and screamed" -Swagernator 2017 |
| i had treated as an asshole, i have rights to be an asshole... oh, and superiority complex... |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
| Transferring into a school (sometimes an all girls school), with a goal to be the best <insert whatever the school does be it magic, mecha fighting or combat> because <insert some tragic backstory here> Wew! Sounds like the brewing of another shitty fantasy highschool harem ecchi. |
| I'm not a lolicon, you're just projecting your tendency to lewd 2D characters. If your favourite character is Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko, you are my soul mate. Been a long time since I've been here, I'll continue expressing myself freely and believe everyone should too. My MAL Interview |
| Random teenager becomes God of whatever setting their in. FMA, Akame, Naruto, One Piece hell even Yu Yu Hakusho. Basically the shonen genre of little kids doing about a weeks worth of training and becoming smarter and stronger than guys with twice their experience and in the best shape of their lives. Just so extremely frustrating because it doesnt even become a conflict anymore its what craziness are they going to throw in to make this kid who's been getting his ass handed to him for 20 minutes to suddenly come out with the win. |
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Kuma said: i had treated as an asshole, i have rights to be an asshole... oh, and superiority complex... i liek how that tends to be what people who read shounen manga would say XD |
| Hottest Take Ever, fite me: Fairy Tail is better than Seiya, Bungou Stray and Hitman Reborn |
| Being an experiment or some shit like that as a child then later on grow up to only trust one person and nobody else (normally a bad guy, but can be good sometimes) and then magically start trusting like 30 other people within the span of an hour because they helped them up when they tripped on a rock or something. |
| Long lost childhood friend with nostalgic cuts to them playing every now and them. |
| Someone close to a character dies by unavoidable means and the character takes the responsibility for them dying even if it wasn't thier fault. *cough*FruitsBasket*cough* (Absolutely love Fruits Basket, but Tohru is one of the most annoying mains I've ever seen.) |
 Anime Roleplayer. Message Me If Interested. |
| My parents died/were killed so now I'm going to fight against whoever was responsible is very overused. This can actually be done really well sometimes, but it tends to be quite predictable. Also, not sure if this counts as a backstory as such. But I hate the female characters who are madly in love with a male character because they did one nice thing for them years ago. |
Yasukoto said: Random teenager becomes God of whatever setting their in. FMA, Akame, Naruto, One Piece hell even Yu Yu Hakusho. Basically the shonen genre of little kids doing about a weeks worth of training and becoming smarter and stronger than guys with twice their experience and in the best shape of their lives. Just so extremely frustrating because it doesnt even become a conflict anymore its what craziness are they going to throw in to make this kid who's been getting his ass handed to him for 20 minutes to suddenly come out with the win. No MC or teenager in any of the series you mentioned actually becomes a god of anything......except maybe Naruto. |
| "Let Justice Be Done!" My Theme Fight again, fight again for justice! |
| "I have hidden power from old trauma I don't know about and was actually adopted, and now I meet these random chicks to fuck (btw i have imouto), but oh mah gawd I'm actually the chosen one to save the world and get powerups from thin air!!!!! THANKS AUTHOR-SAMA" aka fuck Rean from ToCS and bunch of shounen-trash anime |
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| Parents were killed, the only reason I live for is vengence. Fu** that shit. |
| worthless neet otaku playing garbage mmo get stuck in the game. worst thing ever!!!! |
| Is it really necessary ? Anyways , My childhood was painful , really painful |
  "elles sont bien noires les pensées des nuits blanches"  |
| I live in a world where everyone/almost everyone have X but I don't but I'll be Y no matter what! > Proceed to get X anyway. |
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RedRoseFring said: Yasukoto said: Random teenager becomes God of whatever setting their in. FMA, Akame, Naruto, One Piece hell even Yu Yu Hakusho. Basically the shonen genre of little kids doing about a weeks worth of training and becoming smarter and stronger than guys with twice their experience and in the best shape of their lives. Just so extremely frustrating because it doesnt even become a conflict anymore its what craziness are they going to throw in to make this kid who's been getting his ass handed to him for 20 minutes to suddenly come out with the win. No MC or teenager in any of the series you mentioned actually becomes a god of anything......except maybe Naruto. Like you didnt know what I meant. Essentially the best fighter of that series. Forgot to add AoT Yaeger some brat with essentially no fighting skill or ability to think 2 seconds ahead magically becomes a titan and starts murdering things 3 episodes in. Point is its annoying its giving a child(typically cocky and annoying) a gun and everyone else has both hands tied behind their backs or going with the if I believe hard enough Im sure to win or kid gets his ass beat most of the fight but with his guts spilling out some how wins the fight with some random bs move. |
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| Nahh still depressed.. The same ol' same ol' routine |
 "Think about that glowing dust That destroys the night sky's dream of Just being nothing"--  -- |
| Both parents work all the time either out of town or are never around so MC has to take care of (annoying) little sibling(s) as well as all the household chores. |
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