each company has its tropes. Bioware had a very long tradition of a whining sidekick (Anoman->Carth->Kaiden->Alistair), and Fire emblem practically made tropes part of the gameplay (for example, in each game you have a Jagen kind character which is usually an old and experienced guy who is very strong gameplay-wise but becomes weaker later when the other characters catch up).
It's not necessarily bad if you know how to play with fans' expectations. Another Japanese example - each Final Fantasy game has a character named "Cid" and in most cases, he is a smart ass supporting character with a thing for machines. Final Fantasy XII used the same trope, but this time made him one of the villains of that game, which is a nice twist
How dare you lump Alistair in with the rest of those. Alistair was actually likeable.
Plus. Swooping is.... bad...
