What is a cliché?
A trope worn smooth by overuse, so it lands as tired rather than satisfying. A status a trope can reach, not a separate device.
How to spot it: When you can predict it and feel nothing: “it was all a dream”, the last-second rescue.
Often confused with trope: Every cliché was once a fresh trope; the difference is wear, not kind.
9 clichés in the vocabulary
It was all a dream
The worn-out reveal that the events of a story never really happened but were only a dream, retroactively voiding the stakes.
The last-second rescue
The overused resolution in which a hero or ally arrives just in time to avert catastrophe at the final instant.
The self-destruct countdown
The tired device of a facility or ship counting down to explosion so the heroes can escape at the last moment.
The evil twin
The overused device of a villain who is a duplicate or double of the hero, often distinguished by a superficial marker.
1 work
The idiot plot
A plot that only holds together because characters fail to have an obvious conversation or ask an obvious question.
Love at first sight
The worn convention of two characters falling instantly and completely in love on their first meeting, without development.
The last-minute magical cure
The overused resolution in which a previously unmentioned remedy conveniently solves an unsolvable crisis.
The dystopian love triangle
The now-tired convention of a young protagonist in a dystopia torn between two romantic interests amid the revolution.
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The villain's monologue
The overused scene in which a villain pauses to explain their entire plan, giving the hero time to escape or win.