Quote from: Danvzare on Fri 03/03/2017 11:41:27Quote from: Radiant on Fri 03/03/2017 09:38:26You're right, tropes aren't negative. As a matter of fact, they're practically unavoidable.
"Hallmarks of a genre" is pretty much the definition of a trope. The word "trope" is not a negative term or an insult (although "cliche" may be).
Cliches on the other hand are overused and should be avoided.
The main difference between the two is that tropes can be used in many different ways, even when they're very specific, and people generally won't grow tired of them.
Cliches on the other hand are usually things that were great the first time, but became groan inducing pretty quickly soon after.
If you experience a trope (for example, Zombies) for the hundredth time, you probably won't mind it, you might even like it.
But when you experience a cliche for the hundredth time (for example, the protagonist is actually unknowingly working for the bad guys), you will undoubtedly roll your eyes because you've seen it happen too many times.
Well, this post kind of proves my point that the line between tropes and cliches is a rather blurry one. You list one example as a trope and the other one as a cliche, and presumably we are to react negatively to the latter and kind of neutral to the formal, but surely many people would argue that both are cliches, or both are tropes.
I wouldn't even say that "Zombies" is a trope - surely, 'trope' implies a story telling device rather than just a... noun?
The - ludicrously extensive - site tvtropes.org covers your example of a cliche and call it a trope:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceJobBreakingItHero
so yeah, let's not pretend these are clear-cut terms and labels!