I have found a second trend besides killing my favorite characters that has come to annoy the hell out of me lately, therefore I just have to ask:

Why does every piece of non-hard-sci-fi literature I read lately suddenly turns Star Wars on me? I mean:
Luke, she's your sister.
I am your father. *gasp*
He was a student of mine, then he turned to the dark side.
Join me and we will rule the universe together.
and so on and so forth.

Is the Universe really running out of ideas?