Every piece of media that has ever been conceived has had tropes.Tropes are recurring themes or motifs used in forms of story-telling, such as the hero’s journey or the damsel-in-distress trope.Tropes have shaped the way people view characters, and even real people who play them. The oversimplification that comes from using common tropes in media may come at the cost of the perception of individuals in the real world, trying to shape people into a clay mold of how they should be. This can even extend to real-world events being sensationalized to fit whatever tropes are popular at the time, disregarding the memories and stories of historical figures in the past.

The Misunderstood Villain

A common theme in movies and TV shows that became popular in the past couple of years has been that of the misunderstood villain, a person or thing that is committing atrocious acts, but is either implied or directly told to the viewer that they are simply products of the terrible world the character grew up in. After this is established, the character commonly gets a slight arc of redemption or a happily ever after type ending to give the viewer some sense of satisfaction that the character wasn’t all bad. Now this isn’t all bad when the story being told is complete fiction, but when the story is based on real-world events and a character is over-sensationalized to be some sort of fallen angel that could be forgiving, it disrespects real people involved. An example of this would be the Netflix show “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.” A serial killer with real-life victims is being treated as some sort of broken child who pays back the world by helping catch a different serial killer at the end of the show. Not only is the conclusion disrespectful to the victims of Ed Gein, but the serial killer helping catch Ted Bundy didn’t even happen. This portrayal of people also affects the perception of certain individuals outside of the screen, causing harm by having too much sympathy for real monsters.
The Dainty Dream Girl
The dream girl is another common trope used in a myriad of different TV shows and movies. This trope serves as a partner to the main character whose entire purpose in the story is to facilitate and support every need of the main character. This is usually paired with complete incompetence and the lack of any contributions to solving conflicts in the story. A classic example of this would be Allyson Reynolds from “The Breakfast Club.” A character whose entire purpose throughout the course of the movie is to shape into an accessory to a male character’s (Andrew’s) development in the story. She does this by undergoing a makeover in the movie to become a more conventionally desirable partner and calling that growth in the course of the story. This is inherently harmful to real-world perceptions as it incentives women to simply be a support beam to a man’s success, therefore taking away agency from anyone wanting to pursue life goals not related to someone else’s success.

Progression from Classic Tropes
In modern-day movies and TV, for the most part, tropes have evolved from forcing characters or real people into clay molds designed for television. They have become aspects of who a character is, simple seasonings on characters’ writing. This is mostly because of the increased awareness of tropes in the critics’ space, bringing attention to the over-generalization of characters to fit what the movie industries want. Tropes have been cornerstones of stories for as long as movies have been made. They are necessary to make a story complete, and the movie industry would not be complete without them. Tropes are simply meant to add onto what a character is, rather than just be the character as a whole.