17 Plot Twists That Have Been Done So Many Times, They're No Longer Surprising, Just Boring

Here are 17 overused tropes and plot twists people are tired of seeing:

1. "I HATE the secret child trope. I’ve never seen it used anywhere it wasn't cheap AF and doesn't scream, 'We ran out of ideas!' or 'We couldn’t figure out how else to resurrect this story.'"

—f4bul0u5

2. "When the main character finds out that they're actually the murderer or stalker, but they were unaware because they have a mental illness."

—palmtreeeeeeeee

3. "Amnesia storylines where characters lose their memory or forget who they are, usually after an accident."

4. "And you just have to hit 'em in the head again to make them remember everything."

—domitojo

5. "The trope where a single cop goes after the bad guy in some dark, abandoned warehouse or something, only to be ambushed, is especially irritating."

—conscientiousobservers

6. "Hitting someone on the head and they pass out. It actually takes a lot of force to hit someone hard enough to knock them out, and it is a serious injury!"

—emilypost

7. "In daytime dramas (soaps), the characters' ages are so fluid to fit in any scenario. In one of my favorites, a character was born in 1995, so she's not even 30, but she also has two kids who are in their early 20s!"

"There's also kids going off to boarding school, then returning the next year miraculously 10 years older!"

—emilypost

8. "In buddy cop movies, they screw up and get kicked off the case, but then they pursue the criminals without badges and save the day."

—shaunaa2

9. "What about when the anti-hero is about to get away at the end, and someone they met briefly and pissed off pops up out of nowhere and shoots them and kills them?"

"For example, I Care a Lot, Carlito's Way...I know there's more."

—cydneyanne

10. "When the main couple has been planning their perfect wedding for MONTHS, then suddenly the day of the wedding, everything goes wrong, and they have to get married in a last-minute ceremony that is much more intimate and somehow perfect. I HATE THAT."

12. "Someone getting a whiff of a rag soaked in chloroform and instantly passing out — it takes a lot longer than a couple of seconds!"

—emilypost

13. "Walking away from an explosion without any injury, let alone just falling down."

14. "Mine is the, 'We've only been on three dates, and now you're moving/leaving/whatever and how freaking dare you not choose me over literally anything else in your life!' storyline. It's such a boring way for writers to create relationship drama."

—sforsgren1

15. "It bothers me that, every time a character coughs, they're always sick. There are many reasons someone can cough that aren't always illness-related."

—annechananne

"If a character coughs, you know they're gonna die."

—cogentmutation

16. "When the bad guy's buddy/henchman/accomplice turns on him just in time to save the hero."

"You can either always see it coming from the first minute, or you didn't even really pay enough attention to the guy for it to have any impact."

—crojohnson14

17. And finally: "Knowing who the murderer is in a crime drama from the first second, because that actor has played a murderer on EVERY SINGLE crime drama."

—nicolamorrow84

Which of these tired plot twists and tropes annoy you most? Are there any others that you'd add to the list? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.