Hello, my name is Elizabeth and as I have seen, cliche stories get a lot of hate like: “How the hell does cliche stories get more reads than my super great story what doesn’t have ANY cliches at all?!?”. The answer is very simple. There’s a very small fact what actually not everybody knows or wants to know is that cliches are actually pretty popular. They might not be good, they might not have great plot, they might not have good characters, people read them because they are cliches. Cliches may get hate and people say that they are very boring but still they get reads because well you guessed it, they are cliches. Many people also say that ALL cliche stories are very bad (there are a lot of cliches like: mafia (my personal fav) pregnant by teacher etc. but you can’t say that they are ALL bad just because they are cliches. Cliche can be with amazing directing, characters and plot and you are coming and saying it’s bad without reading it. *tea pause *. You can either love or hate cliches but reads stay the same. I hope that I don’t get much hate
I don’t wanna lie but I love cliche, I mean whatever you said is true, Cliche has good plots and everything else so I don’t mind cliche, Instead I enjoy it
I love me some cliches from time to time, but it can get boring easily. Why would you want to read something that’s easily predictable with the same recurring character roles is what I don’t understand. I love coming across stories on the app that are refreshing. There’s always plot twists that I never expect. But still, nothing wrong with cliches. Not many ideas are particularly new these days. It’s hard to do something that hasn’t already been done, but what’s not hard is putting a spin on it. I love cliches that have a spin.
(hope I didn’t offend )
I think the main problem people have with them are the toxic themes in them. For instance, a lot of mafia stories usually show toxic relationships, and they’re not ok. Neither is having an affair with your teacher, or hot bro/sis (did you mean step? Cause if not that’s kinda creepy lmao). I think that most of these clichés give of the wrong message. The problem is not the fact that their clichés, but that a lot of them have toxic themes.
I really hope this makes sense I’m terrible at explaining
Couldn’t have said it better myself. People who actually genuinely hate cliches are most likely the minority. The rest of us are just sick of seeing toxic themes like glorifying the mafia, abuse, SA, etc. thrown into the cliche box. Abuse isn’t cliche, it’s just wrong lol, let’s not normalize it.
I agree, some cliche stories are good. I enjoy stories that have cliche characters/plots sometimes, as they can also be very well written and directed, as you said.
Cliches are cliches because they’re good concepts that have become very popular because a lot of people like them.
It’s just up to the reader whether they like it or not. It does get very tiring and frustrating for me personally–and others, too, I know–to constantly see the same concepts/plots/characters in basically every story, even if a few things are changed here and there. (But of course, that does NOT mean anyone can be sending hate to those authors!)
A lot of the cliches on Episode are mafia/gang/bad boy related, which tend to be problematic in itself due to the lack of research and the extreme romanticize and glorification.
Where are all the threads and people saying all cliches are bad or that cliches are bad because they’re cliches? Undoubtedly people would place me in the category of cliche hater, but it would mean they don’t actually read my comments.
Cliches are cliches for a reason, yes, and they are popular. But everyone should know at this point it’s the way they are portrayed that is often the problem. And they are a problem. The ways in which cliches often portray abusive behaviors in a positive light and the reliance on racist tropes are the problems. Some cliches are inherently problematic - such as student / teacher - but most of them just require more nuance.
So when people are talking about a specific cliche in a more general way, the context is that the app is inundated with stories that follow the same problematic format and contain the same harmful themes. It doesn’t mean we don’t understand there are ways of writing the cliche that - even if they take on serious issues and heavy topics - don’t perpetuate harm.
Just because something is cliche, doesn’t mean it should be allowed.
The issue with some cliches is not that they’re overused or everywhere, but that they are totally inappropriate and should NOT be on an app with such a young audience–or any app at all, because glorification and romanticize of dangerous things like the mafia, toxic love interests, controlling love interests, etc. is just wrong.
This ain’t it. Nothing, not even amazing directing or characters, can make that acceptable, especially if it’s biological siblings. I wouldn’t consider a cliche that’s good at all or even can be made good. I can sort of agree with your other points, but just…“hot brother/sister” doesn’t feel right.
I haven’t found a thread that hated on cliche stories. But I have found many that called out problematic themes. Maybe you think it’s the cliches is because you tend to read the problematic cliches
Even step is bad. What do I look like dating you if we spewed out one of the same reproductive organ??? (like I get sometimes, you can become siblings through just marriage but still for those other instances…its gross)
Yeah like the whole concept of siblings and parents even step siblings is disgusting.
The most common one I’ve seen is the step dad step daughter one. Doesn’t the daughter feel at least a little uncomfortable having sex with a guy that’s not only supposed to be her dad, but a guy who her mother is also doing it with? Like stop, please. It’s revolting. Go get a guy your own age who is not your dad
The reason people like cliches so much is that it’s familiar. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with writing cliches as long as it doesn’t promote topics that shouldn’t be promoted. A cliche can make a great story as long as it’s different in some way, which makes it stand out from the other cliches. However recently cliches have been getting out of hand, they have been promoting themes there are against guidelines but because they are popular they slide under the radar of Episode. I think what we need to do is promote the hidden gems that small authors put lots of hard work into and get those popular instead. That way the trending stories aren’t full of cliches, but they are there alongside other genres of stories.
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