Writers: Don't Do These Two Things, Even Though You See It All Over

I’ve seen these two clichés several times in the last few days (and to avoid spoilers, I can’t tell you where, but they both happened together in more than one thing). But they still annoy the piss out of me, because they’re such cheap tricks. The first goes something like this:

CHARACTER A: I will make this sacrifice!
CHARACTER B: No!
CHARACTER A: I die!
[CHARACTER A DIES]
CHARACTER B: Nooooooooooooooooooo!
[CHARACTER B CRIES, POUNDS ON CHEST, ETC. MUSIC SWELLS.]
CHARACTER A: I live!
CHARACTER B: Hooray!

Don’t do it. Just don’t bloody do it.

The second thing is this: Make your handwavium consistent. Example:

CHARACTER A: Our Twist Drives cannot go past Twist 8! They’ll explode!
CHARACTER B: We have to take that chance!
[CHARACTER A PULLS OFF ENGINEERING MIRACLE]
CHARACTER A: We managed to do what nobody thought we could do! Now we know we can do it!

Two episodes later…

CHARACTER A: Our Twist Drives cannot go past Twist 8! They’ll explode!
CHARACTER B: That leaves us vulnerable to the crisis in this story or episode!
CHARACTER A: Crap! Let’s figure it out another way!

Seriously. I’ll take LOTS of handwavium without complaint. But make it bloody consistent.