I have a few:
- Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It’s eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how “most people are just NPCs” (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
- Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
- All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
- Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
Tying onto that, having to do the “honorable thing” and fight battles symmetrically. Indy shooting the swordsman is peak cinema.
Always fuckin loved that one scene in Escape from LA where Snake is up against three guys and goes, “We’ll shoot when this can hits the ground”
He tosses the can into the air and then just wastes all three guys before it even starts coming down
If your hero can win fighting honorably, the odds aren’t against them enough.
Sun Tzu very specifically says to never fight an even battle unless you have absolutely no other chooice. oooooo