I take your point, but what does any of that have to do with the rancor and breathless bluster of the article above?
I’m not familiar with Ms. Sarkisian’s work, but anyone who criticizes tropes in and of themselves is misguided. Tropes = Bad is not a battle plan for good storytelling. I doubt anyone who says such a thing, though again I’m not sure of her specific views, has ever written a story worth repeating.
Subject matter and tropes are not the enemy, they are a means to an end, or at their very best, a set up to ultimately surprise the audience. You have to have an expectation in there audience in order to play off of it.
Great storytellers sometimes play off of stale tropes. Boy Meets Girl. Revenge Plot. Loss of Power. Rise to Power. Loss of Identity. Return from the Ashes.
Let’s take you example of “Family Member Schism” revenge plot. Surely no one could bring life into such a turd as that!
Oh, but wait a minute. Hamlet is based on that trope. As is Carnage. As is Kill Bill. As is Point Blank. As is Oldboy. As is As is How I Learned to Drive, one of the best plays written by a female playwright, and is based on the idea that revenge is a long game.
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