TEN FANTASY CLICHÉS THAT SHOULD BE PUT TO REST 

I think the only cliche that's ever really bugged me is the orphan one. Being an orphan can be sad and all, but I just get tired of all the extra special orphans out there.

I always roll my eyes at the prophesy one. Apart from it being used numerous times, it's almost like a spoiler giving away the ending of the story. I'm also not too keen on the red eyed entirely evil and powerful dark lord. But yeah, the orphan boy gets used quite a lot.

I'm actually surprised the "special quest item" wasn't included in this top 10 list.

I think orphans are used so much because the lack of parental figure in their lives makes it easier to manipulate them/make them want revenge/make people sympathise ect. Orphans give authors lots of freedom which can make the plot line really predictable.

The orphan one doesn't seem to have much reasoning behind why it's a cliché that needs to stop, it just says 'this is a cliché that needs to stop.' I'd say that authors having more freedom by using orphans makes the plot no more and no less predictable.
As for the prophecy thing, I think they tend to cause more problems in fantasy than they solve. They are rarely straightforward and usually miss out so much that they hardly act as spoilers in any way and definitely don't act as a cheat code for anything.
Actually, most of these I disagree with. The problem doesn't lie in author that repeatedly use these clichés but the ones that use them in a manner overly similar to other stories which makes them incredibly predictable and dull.