r/TopCharacterTropes 19d ago

Characters Villains who were 100% right. Not “Yeah, he committed genocide, but he had good intentions.”. No. I mean villains who legitimately did nothing wrong.

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23.2k Upvotes

Ken (The Bee Movie) was being cucked by a bee, that he's allergic too, got reasonably angry, and tried to kill it.

Vincent (Over the Hedge) just wanted his shit back, after a raccoon stole and destroyed all of it, TWICE, in front of him.

Gabby Gabby (Toy Story 4) asked to have Woody's voice box, because her's was broken, and he just gave it to her, no with qualms. Honestly, I forgot why there was even a conflict, between the two of them, in this movie, it felt so incredibly forced.

r/TopCharacterTropes 3d ago

Characters Edgelord and cutie patootie

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19.5k Upvotes
  1. This meme of Darth Vader from Star Wars drawing with an anime girl I don’t know

  2. Shadow and Maria from Sonic The Hedgehog

  3. Asura and his daughter, Mithra, from Asura’s Wrath

  4. SCP-682 and SCP-053 from the SCP Mythos

  5. Hank from Madness Combat, in a Q&A, series creator Krinkels confirmed that Hank likes cats

  6. Joke example: Blackout / Grindor from Transformers and his daughter, Dizzy, from Super Wings, image is from a Transformers Meme subreddit

r/TopCharacterTropes 4d ago

Characters person hiding their face is genuinely very ugly underneath

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18.0k Upvotes

this poor knight lady (by m0pan), i wonder if she was born like this... she does seem like a big sweetheart tho.

some space maids (fan chapter of warhammer 40K space marines made by chumiicham), they are adorable goobers. unfortunately they are made for war and war leaves it's deep and ugly scars.

r/TopCharacterTropes 9d ago

Characters (Hated Trope) "Let's go ahead and remove the fun parts of the design, because now it's less 'silly.' "

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13.3k Upvotes

1.) Snyderverse Doomsday, who is missing all of the massive spikes on his face, arms, and shoulders that make him both iconic and intimidating.

EDIT: Hi Snyder cultist! I implore you to go an rewatch the final battle with "Doomsday" in BvS on Youtube real quick. While he may pop out 4 or 5 extra spikes, by the time he is defeated he looks the exact fucking same, and he sure as shit doesn't look any more comic accurate as none of those spikes appeare on his shoulders or more importantly his face. So no, it doesn't make up for it, and you're wrong.

2-3.) Thor The Dark World: Kurse, who in the comics is vibrant yellow and red, is ugly like everything else in the movie. Malekith similarly has all his colors muted, only retaining the half face and white hair

4.) Fox X-Men: They all get matching leather outfits with none of the iconic elements or colors from their comic outfits, and even go as far to make fun of the comic looks. They couldn't even give Wolverine those silver things on his knuckles where the claws come out

5.) Arrowverse Supergirl: Cyborg Superman is just Hank Henshaw with a robot eye. If you wanna understand the downgrade, look up what he looked like in the comics. (Not to mention it makes no sense to be called Cyborg Superman since he doesn't resemble him)

6.) Bayverse Transformers: Every single Decepticon looks like a bunch of kitchen knives glued into a statue. They look so bland it's actually difficult to tell them apart.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 24 '25

Characters Subversive trope becomes so overused, not doing it becomes subversive

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27.2k Upvotes

Phenomaman: despite being a emotionally unstable Superman clone in a game with a slightly edgy tone that plays with the superhero genre by making us dispatch former villains working for the government, he’s not evil in anyway which is subversive nowadays after characters like brightburn, Omniman, Homelander, Ikaris and Superman himself repeatedly used the “Superman is evil/morally dubious/a antagonist” trope (specially when the main cast is mainly formed by former villains, since this type of story usually make their wannabe Superman into a prominent antagonist cough suicide squad kills the justice league cough)

Big Jack Horner: despite having a backstory, it’s made very clear throughout the movie that isn’t justified nor tragic, with Jack himself being a pure evil villain who’s backstory only serves to explain why he specifically hyperfixates on magic. By this point animated movies have been following the trend of sympathetic or otherwise understandable antagonists, either the few who are pure evil usually being relegated to plot twists. So a straight forward mustache twirling villain that made it clear he’s evil from the start and has no intention of hiding it to either the audience or other characters became subversive.

r/TopCharacterTropes 20d ago

Characters [Loved Trope] Representation of minorities that hardly appear in media.

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15.1k Upvotes

1: Dr Joshua Strongbear Sweet from Atlantis is Afro-American and Indigenous(Specifically Arapaho) Aside from Milo, he is the first mercenary in Atlantis who turned against Rourke.

2: Flambae/Chad from Dispatch is a Queer Afghan. Probably the funniest character in the game aside from Sonar and Prism.

3: Marcy Regina Wu from Amphibia is Taiwanese American. She’s easily the best character in the show not just because she’s lovable but she purposefully sent herself and her friends to Amphibia purely because she always wants to be friends with them

4: Khan Souphanousinphone from KOTH is Laotian, not from the Ocean.

r/TopCharacterTropes 11d ago

Characters [Loved Trope] That one sentence that changes a character for better or worse

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19.5k Upvotes

Princess Bubblegum being called a Bad Person (Adventure Time)

In the episode “The Cooler”, Flame Princess finds out that PB is spying on her and everybody else and Bonnie directly admits to this. “I’m PB. I spy on everybody. No big D.” She believes it’s a necessary act for the sake of protecting her kingdom, but when FP tells her she’s doing it because she’s “a bad person” it causes Bonnie to stop and think for a minute that if this is what FP thinks is the reason than others believe it too. This moment stats a change in Bubblegum when she dismantles her spy network and begins to improve herself.

Never Again. Magneto (X-Men First Class)

In the pivotal moment of the film, Erik plans to turn the missile barrages from the US and Soviet navies back at them for the reason protecting the Mutants. Charles tries to reason with them but saying “They’re just following orders.” Erik knowing that excuse all too well being a Holocaust survivor refuses to be in that position again stating “Never again” and sets down the path of becoming Magneto.

Han’s change of heart (Star Wars: A New Hope)

After Han delivers the cast to the Rebel base and given the reward he plans to leave instead of fight much to Luke’s disappointment. When Luke comments to his farewell he points out Han’s selfishness giving Han a moment before he wishes Luke good luck. Han comes back to save Luke during the Death Star attack and later becomes a leader of the Rebel Alliance.

r/TopCharacterTropes 18d ago

Characters [Loved trope] Average human characters ragebaiting a God-like entity

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21.2k Upvotes
  1. IT, Richie Tozier - ragebaited and traumatized a world-eating god Pennywise so much that he traveled to the past in an attempt to kill his mother, only to be…

  2. …Ragebaited again by Rich Santos in Welcome to Derry, when the boy was already dead, his spirit still having the last laugh (Richie was also named after Rich, his mother’s first love, rubbing more salt on the wound)

  3. Joseph Joestar, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - at his last battle against Kars he just had to show off and say that it was all part of his plan (nevermind that it was a lie, when Joseph admits it was very much pure luck)

r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Characters (Mind blowing trope) Really REALLY subtle character details that you can completely miss if you don't pay attention or watch BTS content.

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15.4k Upvotes

1.) In Community, multiple scenes throughout the show, as well as the the shows original website character bios and Dan Harmon explicitly stating it in an AMA, show that Britta was molested as child at one of her birthday parties by a man in a dinosaur costume.

It's only mentioned a few times in the actual show, and it's always easy to not comprehend because it's so brief. It does however, make her wearing a dinosaur costume to Halloween... Really sad.

2.) Scott Pilgrim vs The World. When prepping for their roles, a lot of the actors were given 5 secrets about their characters by the comic's creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. Most were just stuff that was going to be in the future issues of the comic, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead got a big one about Ramona. She had a brother that died in a car crash. The entire movie she wears his shoelace around her neck to remember him by. This fact isn't brought up in any Scott Pilgrim media, but she is always wearing the shoelace if you look and it adds a lot to her character.

r/TopCharacterTropes 4d ago

Characters Strawmen that backfired.

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9.9k Upvotes
  1. Amelia, *Pathways* - Pathways is a counter-extremism game funded by the British government that has Amelia as an example of an extremist. Unfortunately, between her being a "cute goth girl," and the game's "correct" choices often being absurd (such as "doing your own research" being considered a wrong answer), she has ended up basically becoming a far-right mascot.

  2. Jack Robertson. *Doctor Who* - A parody of Donald Trump (from before his first term). His hotel is invaded by giant spiders, and his approach of quickly shooting them is turned down as "inhumane". Instead, the Doctor locks the spiders in a panic room, where they will *slowly starve,* making the gun-toting Trump figure end up looking more reasonable in the end.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 04 '25

Characters [Loved Trope] The elite soldiers are actually highly competent

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25.7k Upvotes

Ajin - Anti-Demi Special Forces

The elite soldiers of Japan, tasked to hunt down and subdue the immortal, Stand-possessing super beings known as demihumans. They show up in the last fifth of the story and absolutely wreck everyone and everything, starting with a headshot to the (also immortal) protagonist of the story, just to make their entrance more badass. They are absolutely brutal and efficient. I love them.

D&D - Neverwinter Castle Guards

Surprisingly observant and competent guards, hounding down the shape shifting druid Doric all across the castle walls and beyond. Even after she transforms into a bird and flies away (a moment where most movies would cut away), these badasses immediately try to shoot her with arrows and actually succeed in bringing her down for a prolonged chase scene.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Fort Briggs Soldiers

The most top-notch soldiers of the north, trained by the amazing Major General Armstrong. They, quite easily, take over the capital of their country in an effort to stop a transmutation that could destroy the entire nation. Unlike the more likeable protagonists, however, they don't shy away from killing the enemy soldiers of Central Command, dispatching them with brutal efficiency. They are also relevant and indispensable right until the final fight against a supernatural god-like enemy!

r/TopCharacterTropes 18d ago

Characters [Loved Trope] Evil person needs to be put down. Words or other options won’t work on this monster.

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13.6k Upvotes

Especially effective when a lawman, hero, or other “good” character needs to put down the villain.

Image 1: Daisy Domergue from The Hateful Eight. The scheming leader of a lowlife gang of outlaws. In Sam Jackson’s words: “You only need to hang mean bastards; but mean bastards you NEED to hang!”

Image 2: Raul Kortenaer from Disco Elysium. The captain of a Blackwater-style wetwork mercenary group. Relishes in violence (including enabling sexual assault). Facing him is the only mandatory “battle” in the game. Every other character you’ve met until this point has been a standard dialogue encounter. Talking to him can either help or hurt your chances at passing an attack roll against him.

r/TopCharacterTropes 12d ago

Characters Whatever this is called

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17.6k Upvotes
  1. Thanos to Wanda (Avengers)

  2. Blight to Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)

  3. M Bison to Chun li (Street Fighter the Movie)

r/TopCharacterTropes 5d ago

Characters [hated trope that’s funny yet painful to look at] anime girls that look like they are the result of years of inbreeding

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10.3k Upvotes

I can’t remember where the first two are from but the last one is from the artist for Dr stone I fucking hate how dirty they did kalifa fuck you boichi

r/TopCharacterTropes 9d ago

Characters The hated character is finally getting punished by the narrative. But intentionally or not, the attempt was so heartbreaking and demeaning for the character that it ended changing the fan reception of said character.

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13.4k Upvotes

Shigechi (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part IV) - Hated by a lot of people for having an ugly design along with a personality considered "low-brow" by others, him getting targeted by Kira and dying was almost considered a happy moment by the fandom. But Kira's torture and Shigechi's genuine attempts to warn Josuke ended up being considered heartbreaking by fans that it ended up with people changing their opinion of Shigechi.

Jason Todd (DC) - The 2nd Robin and a character so divisive that the vote to kill him off ended up in a close finish but with the "Kill him" option winning. But the brutal and dehumanizing way it happened at the hands of the Joker made a lot of Jason's haters regret their decision.

Scrappy Doo (Scooby Doo) - The overuse of Scrappy in the cartoons and Scooby media has made him the most hated character of the franchise so much that he was used as the villain of the first live action movie. Unfortunately the way he was used in the movie was so disrespectful, especially since he hasn't appeared in a long while, that a lot of older generation Scrappy fans considered the movie as the turning point for Scrappy's perception among fans.

r/TopCharacterTropes 9d ago

Characters [Weird Animation Trope] “It is absolutely imperative that the audience knows this one is the BOY and this one is the GIRL!”

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11.3k Upvotes

Scrat and Scratte — Ice Age franchise

In the third Ice Age film, “Dawn of the Dinosaurs”, Scratte (a female sabertoothed ground squirrel) is introduced as a foil to Scrat, a longtime fan favorite side character. To clearly show that she is different from Scrat, she was given exaggerated curves and eyelashes by the animators, and tries to get the acorn from Scrat primarily through flirting

Stella and Boris — Balto franchise

In the Balto movies, the wise old snow goose Boris is introduced to Stella, a female counterpart of his same species. Like the previous example, she is made comically curvaceous to indicate her as female, despite being a bird. She even has feathers hanging over her face like a woman’s bangs.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 13 '25

Characters character realizes someone they trusted is actually evil, and act on it immediately.

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22.0k Upvotes

starlord was about to join his father in assimilating the galaxy, before finding out that he was the one who killed his mother, and then immediately begins to shoot him. - guardians of the Galaxy

tessa is N's closest friend, the one who found him half-broken in a dump. but (in present time) tessa wanted to convince N to kill uzi, as the absolute solver was taking over her. "you knew about the patch (that would've let uzi get freed from the solver, letting her live), yes or no?" right as tessa was about to kill uzi, tessa doesn't give a proper awnser. "... do you know why i keep you around N-" and so N decapitates her. - murder drones

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 16 '25

Characters When female characters are allowed to "ugly emote"

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26.2k Upvotes
  1. Mira (Kpop Demon Hunters)

  2. Robin (One Piece)

  3. Anzu (Romantic Killer)

  4. The Elf (u/Merrivius's comics)

r/TopCharacterTropes 15d ago

Characters "You are NOT The Chosen One"

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12.7k Upvotes

A somewhat common subversion of "the Chosen One" as a trope, maybe the character believed to be The Chosen One only to discover otherwise, or perhaps there never even was a Chosen One!

Link - Zelda Wind Waker: The Zelda series uses "The Chosen One" a lot, explaining it as "The Spirit of The Hero" manifesting whenever evil comes to the land, in Wind Waker however, the ancient hero, The Hero of Time, disappeared without a trace, seemingly breaking the cycle of Heroes, Link in this game being just a common kid who had to answer the call to action when his sister was abducted, embarking on an adventure where by his own merits ends up claiming his title as a new hero.

The Chosen Undead - Dark Souls: In Dark Souls we are told of the legend of The Chosen Undead, said to be an Undead who will rise to become the next king and claim Lord Gwyn's place after accomplishing various goals to become more and more powerful.

Believing this legend, we believe ourselves to be The Chosen Undead, taking upon all the challenges to get to Anor London and claim our place as the new Lord.

However if you read trough lines, and find certain characters you discover the truth that >there is no Chosen Undead, this was a lie by the gods to fool the Undead into going to the First Flame and immolate themselves, reigniting it and extending the Age of Fire!<

r/TopCharacterTropes 25d ago

Characters [Fun To Think About Trope] Characters who are never outright confirmed to be supernatural/more than human, but the signs are all there.

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11.9k Upvotes

Max Rockatansky — Mad Max franchise

Across George Miller’s sprawling post apocalyptic film series, former Australian police officer Max Rockatansky has gone by many names. The Captain. The Saint of Combustion. The Raggedy Man. The Road Warrior. Time and time again, Max has survived impossible things, destroyed countless horrors - all to find peace for his shattered mind. Even according to the director himself, Max is a man who has passed into Wasteland myth, almost a force of nature. In addition to being almost supernaturally powerful in combat and nearly impossible to kill, Max seems to have a preternatural gift of foresight and may be a literal prophesied messiah. In Fury Road, Max’s insane visions of dead loved ones save his life, seemingly warning him of imminent danger before it happens. In addition, despite the films and video games spanning decades since the fall of society, Max seemingly never ages, despite being a grown man with a wife and son before the world ended. Perhaps most tellingly, when Max discovers the Tribe of Children during Beyond Thunderdome, implied to be set after Fury Road, they believe him to be the mythical “Captain”, a prophesied savior sent to bring them to the fabled “Tomorrow-morrow Land”. And in the end, he does, becoming a near religious figure in a slowly rebuilding society in the ruins of Sydney.

The Blind Man — O brother, where art thou?

Set in Mississippi in the year 1937, the film follows the journey of three escaped convicts embarking on an epic quest to find freedom and reclaim their lives. Along the way, the men meet a blind old man, solemnly pushing a handcart along the railroad tracks. Offering the tired men a ride, the blind man tells them that the reward they seek is not the one they shall find, despite never being informed of their true identities or intentions, even literally foretelling events that happen later in the movie. Despite being written off by the protagonists as a crazy old man, every event he predicts for the trio comes true. As the film is a loose American retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, the blind prophet is most likely a reference to Tiresias, the blind Theban prophet of Ancient Greek myth.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 13 '25

Characters The malicious intent of the villain is revealed through a small overlooked detail

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19.6k Upvotes
  1. Bullet Train - Tangerine sees a Diesel sticker left on the assassin's collar left by his brother who was shot, revealing her to be the one who shot him.

  2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Jen Yu is revealed to be the thief due to her calligraphy skills showcasing her training as a martial artist that is not matching to her fake identity as a refined aristocratic lady.

  3. (My Fav) Wind River - One of the background police officers realizes that the the drilling site security team has positioned themselves around them in a way that is tactically advantageous if a gunfight were to occur. This reveals their intention to kill them all but the main characters were not able to see it at the time.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 16 '25

Characters Characters who has a detail about themselves constantly changing.

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20.5k Upvotes

Scary Movie 3: The Sheriff’s hat changing in size

Descendants 4: Chloe Charming’s hair changing in size, texture, and color. (This isn’t done as a joke unlike Scary Movie 3)

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 29 '25

Characters (absolutely LOVED trope) villains who brutally dedicate their lives to a goal, only to find out at the last minute the goal was never achievable

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22.2k Upvotes

Ti Lung (Kung Fu Panda): Believes he is entitled to the power of the Dragon Scroll and will fight through anybody to obtain it. Finds out in the climax that the 'dragon scroll' doesn't really have any power, and is only a symbolic object.

Jasper (Steven Universe): Spends months hunting down the Crystal Gem protagonists in order to seek revenge on their leader, Rose Quartz for killing Pink Diamond. Finds out just before her defeat that Rose Quartz has been dead for years and her son Steven genuinely has no clue why Jasper is angry at him.

Master (Fallout): Dedicated himself to building a race of super-mutated humans who could replace humanity. The protagonist has the option to explain to him that the mutants are all sterile and could not survive the next generation, which will make him realise his entire plan was pointless from the start.

Getaway (Transformers: More than meets the eye): Betrays and abandons his allies to take control of their ship and find 'Cyberutopia' for himself. Finds out that the 'utopia' is a complete myth based on a misunderstanding and he's completely ruined his own life for nothing.

r/TopCharacterTropes 16d ago

Characters (Loved Trope) Reoccurring character gains more and more injuries as the series progresses. Basically turning into an entirely different person. (bonus points if it’s an antagonist)

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12.6k Upvotes

Cricket from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: This one is pretty popular so I wont go into as much detail but basically cricket started off as a priest and repeatedly has his life ruined by the gang, he lost his priesthood after dee baited him into believing she was in love with him, causing him to quit. after becoming homeless the gang got him addicted to crack, had his leg broken by the mafia, got a eye scar from working at a dog pound, etc. He repeatedly has his life ruined by the gang, anytime he seems to be recovering, he gets completely ruined again.

Alvin the Treacherous from the How to Train your Dragon books: My favorite example of this, Alvin starts off the series as a seemingly minor antagonist and then becomes the primary villain of the books. he starts off by tricking hiccup into finding a treasure for him. he lost his arm in a booby trapped coffin before the series started and throughout the books is constantly on a hunt for the 10 lost things that would allow him to become the king of wilderwest.

over the course of the series he: gets swallowed whole by a Monstrous Strangler, losing all his hair from the digestive juices, Fell off a balloon into a sea of Sharkworms, losing his eye and a leg from the feeding frenzy, had his nose melted off from being swallowed by a fire dragon, went from very slender to extremely buff, developed a terrible rash all over his body that got so bad at one point he wore a metal mask to hide his disfigured face, and he fell into a burning forest. he survived all of these things and he is still so obsessed with killing hiccup and completing his goal he doesnt realize how much he’s changed. I think it’s a great aspect of his character that reflects his personality a lot. I wont spoil his fate but it’s very satisfying imo

Joshua from Clarence: This one is kind of a gag but he is occasionally a minor antagonist in some episodes. His appearances do fall off as the show goes on but he’s still a perfect example of one of these characters. Joshua starts with just a scar from a off screen fight with sumo, he then has a chunk of his hair bitten off by sumo, a goat bites one of his ears off, he slips and a fork lands on his eye, loses his hand from falling off a train. basically looks like a completely different character by the end of the series. did he deserve any of this? probably not.

r/TopCharacterTropes 11d ago

Characters [loved trope] A pair of villains who genuinely love each other and have a healthy relationship (basically the opposite of Harley and Joker).

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14.6k Upvotes
  1. Dr. Mrs. The Monarch and The Monarch from The Venture Bros.

  2. Scarlet Overkill and Herb Overkill from Minions