Tropes really aren’t a problem, I don’t think. It’s usually the fact that stories don’t have enough tropes where things get dicey. Making anything purely completely and utterly original in its purest form is impossible – and I think it’s probably always been impossible. Stories emerge from the union of tropes used in different and unique ways, not from the creation of entirely new ones or the complete omission of all of them.

I think the resident experts on this topic have a webpage about this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/JustForFun/TheTropelessTale

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/TropesAreNotBad

It’s possible I’m just muttering irrelevant nonsense though. Most of the discussion thus far has flown pretty spaciously over my head.