So you want to be a hero? Fight bad guys, right wrongs, defend the innocent; that kind of thing. Do you think that heroes just pop up out of nowhere? Of course not. From superhero to chosen one, martial arts expert to super spy, heroes spend years (or at least an epic montage) training to become what the world needs them to be. And while there are a few self-taught capes flying around, most every other kind of hero needs a mentor. Someone who can teach them the skills that let them survive the fights and adventures that would fell…
Category: Troping the Riff
Troping the Riff- Tech Support
A pitched battle to save the day and stop evil in its tracks. It’s a race against time, the hero has beaten their foe into submission and now all they have to do is solve some sort of hi-tech problem having with computers. A situation that can’t be solved by punching, uh-oh looks like our hero is in trouble. It’s time to call Tech Support. Some tropes are as old as storytelling itself and some are rather modern inventions. In terms of human history, computers are still a relatively new concept. Which might be why Hollywood still treats anyone who…
Troping the Riff- The Trickster
The Trickster is one of the original storytelling tropes, existing in some of humanity’s earliest myths. In Africa he was Anansi the spider, in Europe he was Reynard the Fox, in Asia he was the king of the monkeys, and in the Americas, he often appeared as a coyote. Same archetypal character just wearing a different name and a different skin. After creation myths, tales about the trickster are perhaps the most common across humanity’s myths and folklore. The trickster defies convention and flouts authority, challenging what is known and accepted often through deception and trickery. The trickster is a…
Troping the Riff- The Asylum Episode
There is nothing more difficult to quantify than someone else’s’ reality. And if I told you that I had lived a life battling the forces of evil or traveling the stars you would assume, and perhaps rightly so, that my perceived reality had gone a little far askew of the reality everyone else was living in. If I persisted with my delusions, there would be little choice but to have me committed to an institution. This is something we all accept as part of the real world and is a far more likely explanation for what is going on than…
Troping the Riff- Groundhog Day
Haven’t you ever had a day go so horribly you wish you could just get a mulligan? A do-over. A chance to go back in time and correct whatever mistakes you made and get the day right. Well if you have then you are in luck because this edition of Troping the Riff is for you. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most standard plot tropes out there, you are about to experience a Groundhog Day. (and I don’t mean the holiday.) This is one of those rare tropes that actually gets its name from the movie…
Troping the Riff- The Ancient Menace
The signs are all there. Time the prophecies warned us about is coming. Darkness comes and the end of all things is at hand. It has returned. The ancient enemy. Or at least that’s what they tell me. Because in today’s Troping the Riff we tackle perhaps the oldest trope in storytelling: The Ancient Menace. The Ancient Menace is a storytelling trope that dates back as far as the earliest mythologies. It is an evil that was present either before or at the creation of the world or at least before the current civilization came to be. This great and…
Troping the Riff- Bottle Episode
An unknown contagion has been detected. The station is under quarantine until further notice. Or maybe there was an explosion and we’re stuck in this room until help arrives. Maybe we’ve been taken prisoner and are stuck sharing a cell until we can make bail. However it plays out, the main cast is stuck in a single location for an entire episode. In this Troping the Riff post we take a look at the most cost-effective of tropes: The Bottle Episode. The phrase bottle episode originated with Star Trek: The Original Series. The crew often called these types of episodes…
Tropping The Riff: Star-Crossed Lovers
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” (Romeo and Juliet, Prologue 5-6). It’s not the best line Shakespeare ever wrote, but it’s definitely in the running for the most influential. The tale of two lovers destined for disappointment and tragedy is a story as old as civilization itself. And while the old cliche in Hollywood might be that audiences love a happy ending, often it is the stories that end in heartbreak that stay with us the longest. In this edition of Troping the Riff we take a look at…
Troping the Riff- The Brainwashed Hero
Whether its mind control drugs, an evil spell, or just good old-fashioned hunk of red kryptonite there is nothing worse for the good guys than having to fight one (or more) of their own because a villain got their hooks into their brain. In this edition of Troping the Riff we take a look at one of the most over-used tropes in the superhero genre: The Brainwashed Hero. For as long as there have been heroes there have been geeks arguing over which hero would win in a fight. Comic book shops and then internet chatrooms have been the source…
Troping the Riff- The Chosen One
Born the seventh son of a seventh son. Last of his kind. Marked at birth to be evil’s bane. Fulfiller of prophecy. Touched by the Gods. Filled to the brim with midi-chlorians. He (or she) alone can halt the darkness and bring peace to the land. It is THE CHOSEN ONE. Folks there are tropes and then there are Tropes and The Chosen One is right up there with the greats. It’s also the subject of today’s Troping the Riff. So what do I mean by The Chosen One? Well this is any character in a story that has been…