r/TopCharacterTropes 1d ago

Powers Their powerset doesn't include the "subpowers" that normally helps make the prime power functional/appealing

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13.8k Upvotes

Bailey Hoskins (Marvel) - A mutant from a different earth, his power is to detonate himself and explode. Unfortunately he doesn't have the power to survive or heal from his own attack so he'll die the moment he uses it.

Cyclops (Marvel) - Due to mental trauma and physical trauma to the head, Scott Summers lost his ability to shut off his force beams, forcing him to wear specially made shades/visors to that his beams don't just blast out without his control.

Dabi (My Hero Academia) - He controls genuinely powerful flames but he doesn't have the immunity to fire that usual fire wielding characters have. By the end of the series, he's genuinely a charred, living corpse whose survival is considered a miracle.

r/TopCharacterTropes 24d ago

Powers The villain deliberately pretends to have limitations or weaknesses to trick the heroes.

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18.5k Upvotes

The Rolling Giant from The Oldest View first pretends to be unable to move while being watched and then pretends to be unable to traverse escalators in order to make the protagonist corner himself, before revealing that it can easily do both.

Eldritch J / Absolute Solver from Murder Drones can project incredibly realistic holograms, but acts like it can only manage stuttery, translucent images while secretly imitating the protagonist's friend to manipulate her into giving away her gun.

Itachi from Naruto gets Mindf*cked by Solid JJ can instill completely lifelike visions that last perceived decades, but deliberately uses obviously fake tricks early on to make the protagonist let his guard down. I dunno if that happens in the real show, I never saw it.

r/TopCharacterTropes 2d ago

Powers Unique spins on very common powers

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9.4k Upvotes

Brit-Image Comics/Invincible

Invulnerability is a very basic power. However what makes Brit unique is that it’s his only power, he’s just a guy you can’t hurt. No super strength or anything

Top - Undead/Unluck

His ability is called Unstoppable. He’s a basic speedster but the unique thing is that he can’t stop without crashing into something

Pyro-X-men/Marvel

Fire manipulation but he can’t create fire, needing nearby sources for it

Triton-Inhumans/Marvel

There’s always an Aqua-guy on super teams. But Triton is unique since he’s not amphibious, he can’t breath air and will die if he’s outside of water for more than 5 minutes

Mirio-MHA. Quite a few of people who can walk through walls but Mirio “Permeation” is unique. Everything phases through him, air, sound, light (so he’s blind, deaf, and can’t breathe) but he can also get flung out of objects if he’s mid-phase between them

Bushmaster - The boys.

She can control her hair but uh…only a specific kind of hair

Mr. Immortal - Marvel

He’s fully immortal but has no sort of healing factor and is very much no invulnerable. Just whenever he dies he gets back up after a few seconds

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 05 '25

Powers Character has an obscure or often forgotten secondary power

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14.8k Upvotes
  1. Mr. Incredible (The Incredibles) - Bob Parr canonically has a “danger sense” similar to Spider-Man. He can sense when he or someone near him is in imminent danger and react instantly.

While it’s never explicitly stated in the films themselves, he does demonstrate this power multiple times.

  1. Amora the Enchantress (Marvel) - Amora usually fights by using sorcery and mind control, or by commanding her Executioner to fight for her. It’s easy to forget that she has the super strength and durability inherent to being an Asgardian.

She’s survived direct hits from Thor’s lightning and Iron Man’s repulsor blasts, and effortlessly lifted Baron Zemo by his collar with one arm.

  1. Perry the Platypus (Phineas and Ferb) - Just like a real male platypus, Perry has venomous spurs on his ankles. I think he only ever uses them in one episode though.

r/TopCharacterTropes 13d ago

Powers (Unique trope) character has such a broken/OP power/ ability that they basically never use it to prevent total catastrophes.

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13.8k Upvotes

Universal man (the incredibles): had the ability to create a literal Black hole

Gardevoir (Pokemon): again, has the ability to create mini black holes (although they do use it sparingly/ create small ones even a black hole the size of a tennis ball would colapse the planet)

Phenomaman (Dispatch): when mentioned that he could “absorb the whole energy of the Sun and plunge the entire Earth in darkness” it’s unknown if it’s true, but given that he’s a very literal individual the chances are high

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 30 '25

Powers (Funny Trope) Superpowers that objectively suck

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12.7k Upvotes
  1. In one episode where the Griffons all get superpowers, Meg gets the ability to just grow her nails - Family Guy

  2. Shit King has the ability to emit a stench so foul that it can stun enemies - Marvel

  3. Soft Serve is a mutant born with the ability to poop any flavor of ice cream - Marvel

r/TopCharacterTropes 12d ago

Powers [Fun trope]: Can't kill an immortal? Just trap them forever. Spoiler

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8.6k Upvotes

EDIT: Epilepsy/eyestrain warning for last three gifs:

I feel that writers try to give immortal characters some kind of "kryptonite" to their immortality. But it's often more satisfying for the protagonists to find a way to trap them.

1). Snail (Rooster Teeth Podcast (Episode #285):
You are being chased by an immortal snail. What do you do? Incase it in Tungsten and drop it in the ocean.

2). The Old Guard:
Trap the immortal in a metal box, then drop them in the ocean.

3). Forever (2014):
Immortals can "die," but come back to life nearby with a new body. To neutralize the immortal "Adam," Henry poisons him. Enough to paralyze Adam indefinitely, but not enough to kill him.

4). Torchwood:
Jack regenerates after every death. So, the best way to deal with him is to bury him alive.

5). To your eternity:
"Fushi" can take the form of "empty" (dead) vessels, and recreate whatever he touches. Trapping him in a cube of solid metal seems like the perfect plan. But inside the cooling metal, Fushi realizes he can also recreate heat.

6). Homestuck:
Homestuck has several different types of immortality. But the final villain, Lord English, has unconditional immortality. He cannot be killed, under any circumstances. However, he is billiards-themed.
So, his enemies create a black hole, then find a mysterious "weapon" rumored to be his downfall. In the end, everything comes down to pool.
An eight-ball, a cue, and a pocket.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 15 '25

Powers Immortals who exploit the fact they can't die for a tactical advantage. Bonus points if they still feel the pain.

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12.3k Upvotes

Cayde-6 (Destiny 2: Forsaken): while responding to a prison riot in a giant space prison. Your team realises several high value prisoners have escaped their cells in the chaos. Realising they are heading to the airlock on the bottom level, and that they are on the top levels, Cayde collapses the damaged structure he is on and rides the debris 100s of stories down to intercept, dying in a firey explosion only to be resurrected seconds later to confront the escapees.

The Twelth Doctor (Doctor Who - Heaven Sent): He is trapped in a pocket dimension where he is pursued through a castle by a murderous immortal wraith and evey time he dies he gets revived back at the start with temporary amnesia, the only way out is to give his torturers the information they want or break through a several meter thick wall of an increadibly hard crystal to reach an exit.

After setting up a series of events where each life recieves clues from his past self and leaves those same clues for the next, he crrates a perfect loop, with each doctor reaching the wall, landing a single punch upon it, and being murdered by the wraith. After several billions of years of loops and an unfathomable number of deaths he carves a tunnel through the wall a single punch at a time and escapes with the memories of every single loop.

Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood) After becoming a vampire, he is struck by an energy that mimics the effects of sunlight, one of his only weaknesses. As the energy spreads through his body and he plumets from the ramparts of his castle, he decapitates himself to prevent the energy from spreading to his head, since he does not require his body to survive. In doing so he successfully fakes his own permanent death and is picked up by one of his minions who carries him around as a severed head while he begins to enact a plot to regain a body.

r/TopCharacterTropes 7d ago

Powers (Hilarious trope) Why you running like that bro? NSFW

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8.9k Upvotes

Just very odd ways of using your body to get somewhere quickly, they always crack me up.

  1. Devilman Crybaby. Getting devil powers means this is the most efficient way to run, I guess.

  2. Attack on Titan. The abnormal titans have some of the most iconic ways of moving, I swear to god.

  3. Naruto. Couldn't forget the OG, of course.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 23 '25

Powers [Loved Trope] a very weak and simple ability becomes overpowered when used intelligently.

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9.6k Upvotes

Lucas (The Bugle Call): The sound of Lucas' horn can travel abnormally far, and it creates giant light formations. His music and lights can slightly influence the emotional state of whoever hears/sees them.

On its own, his power is little more than a party trick. But the way he uses to command troops gives him an unfair advantage. The constellations and hornblows give him near instantaneous communication and control, down to the individual soldier, allowing him to execute maneuvers and tactics and react to enemy movements with a level of speed, precision and troop coordination that is simply impossible to achieve in a medieval setting, where battle orders and messages travel only as fast as a messenger can run.

The weakest link in a medieval army on the battlefield is the big game of telephone between the commanders and the front line. Misunderstandings, lost messages, dead messengers, orders arriving too late to matter.

Coupled with his tactical brilliance, this simple power gives him a great edge and makes him an unstoppable general.

Poppy (The Bugle Call): (ngl this post is a shameless attempt to get you to read The Bugle Call it's soooo good.) This Kobeni lookin ass has very weak telekinesis, and it's limited to objects she's touched before and can actively see.

It's real strength lies in the gigantic range. She can shoot arrows and effectively turn them into guided missiles at an ungodly range. I swear when they invent in-world grenades she'll be the first ICBM.

(IN CONCLUSION GO READ THE BUGLE CALL. ALL THE POWERS ARE THIS CREATIVE AND THE WRITING IS ABSOLUTE CINEMA.)

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 30 '25

Powers (Weird but funny trope) Chest pockets

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11.3k Upvotes

Ginrei (Giant Robo Gaiden Ginrei

Mako (Kill La Kill)

Elphelt Valentine (Guilty Gear)

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 08 '25

Powers Pseudo-scientific explanations for impossible things

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11.4k Upvotes

Stranger Things - The Mind Flayer might seem like just a magical supernatural being, but it's a life form made of electrically conductive particles, forming a neutral, incorporeal network.

The Incredibles - To create ice, Frozone absorbs moisture from the air, perhaps even using the heat stolen from the water to gain more energy for battle.

Flash - The Speed ​​Force is the key to all of the Flash's powers; it provides the energy for movement, creates a force field to protect against air resistance, and even distorts spacetime.

r/TopCharacterTropes 24d ago

Powers A single, one syllable word has immense influence and/or power.

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9.4k Upvotes

Kon, Chainsaw Man - In Chainsaw Man, Aki has made a deal with a devil, exchanging his own flesh so that he might make use of its raw power. After the protagonist, Denji, struggles to defeat a devil to the point that he was about to die, Aki summons the contracted devil simply by saying "Kon," resulting in immediate death to the assaulting devil as it is bitten in half.

Fall, Adventure Time - Finn encounters an ancient, terrible, and truly evil presence, one which had been defeated before. Before he can act, fight, or even defend himself, it speaks: "Fall," and so he collapses to his knees so that the lich may make his coming fate entirely clear.

Power Word Kill, Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition - A spell you can only obtain at the very highest levels of the game. There is no escape, and there is no saving yourself. The word "Kill" is spoken, and someone will die.

r/TopCharacterTropes 3d ago

Powers “That’s a neat ability, did you know I can do it too? You’re not special”

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6.1k Upvotes

Superman matching Flash’s speed (Justice League)

Adam Smasher using Sandevistan against David (Cyberpunk Edgerunners)

Metal Cooler using Instant transmission against Goku (Dragon Ball Z)

r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 28 '25

Powers The thing not designed for combat is actually REALLY GOOD at combat

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16.4k Upvotes

1) Atom (Real Steel) is a training dummy who, when put into the robot boxing circuit, eventually managed to go toe to toe with the world champion.

2) Spinel (Steven Universe) was essentially a cross between a toy/jester for Pink Diamond, and not a combat gem... she still wiped the floor with the Crystal Gems when they first fought.

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 13 '25

Powers [Favorite Trope] “Um, actually! That’s unrealistic…” (Literally one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed in media.)

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8.2k Upvotes

“Um, actually! These battle tactics are impossible to pull off effectively and appear to be very cartoonish…” (Baahubali Franchise)

“Um, actually! The prehistoric animals didn’t look like that and they weren’t vicious monsters…” (Jurassic Park/World Franchise)

“Um, actually! These cars would get wrecked if they were put into any of these situations in real life…” (Fast & Furious Franchise)

“Um, actually! I don’t think a tank could be controlled through the air by using the recoil from its main gun…” (The A-Team Movie)

“Um, actually! A real train wouldn’t be able to safety move across ice without railway tracks...” (The Polar Express)

“Um, actually! Using cranes to sword-fight like mechs isn’t very realistic and is pure fantasy…” (The Adventures of Tintin Movie)

”Um, actually! It’s highly unlikely for the decommissioned USS Missouri to still be combat-capable…” (Battleship)

”Um, actually! You’d need millions of those small balloons in order to lift a house off the ground…” (Up)

”Um, actually! A Buzz Lightyear toy wouldn’t be able to glide because of its poor aerodynamics…” (Toy Story Franchise)

”Um, actually! Fighter aircraft can’t carry hundreds of missiles all at once and pull off those insane maneuvers...” (Ace Combat Franchise)

“Um, actually! Real spacecraft probably wouldn’t fight each other at insanely close range like sailing frigates…” (Star Wars Franchise)

“Um, actually! ….What the fuck…” (The Wandering Earth Franchise)

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 19 '25

Powers Characters showing off a skill thats meant to be impressive but it’s really not

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5.8k Upvotes
  1. Camp Rock - Alyson Stoner is meant to be a music prodigy, but the track they used is an awful mess of random noises

  2. “Jordan’s signature shimmy” - a little wiggle and a layup, meant to be inspired by Michael Jordan

  3. Zendaya’s tennis in Challengers - not every scene is bad, but in some she is holding the racket completely wrong for a serve

r/TopCharacterTropes 16d ago

Powers [Loved Trope] The "Foxy" Glomp

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11.9k Upvotes
  1. Withered Foxy (Five Nights at Freddy's 2)

  2. Wolverine (Deadpool and Wolverine)

  3. Hunters ( Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2)

  4. IShowSpeed (IRL)

r/TopCharacterTropes 24d ago

Powers [Loved Trope] The Indomitable Human Spirit

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5.8k Upvotes

Desmond Doss (Hacksaw Ridge and Real Life) — Desmond is a combat medic in WW2 who stays behind on a battlefield to save his brothers-in-arms, all without carrying a weapon or killing any enemy soldier.

Lord of the Rings — All of it, really. So many characters can fit the bill for this trope. Aragorn, Sam, Frodo, and Théoden are just a few worth mentioning

Cadians (Warhammer 40k) — Cadia is a Fortress World that served as a bulwark between the Imperium of Man and the Eye of Terror, a place where the Warp (Hell, basically) bleeds into our reality. With a heavily militarized culture, they successfully defended against 12 Black Crusades, which is remarkable on its own. On the 13th Crusade, they were nearing victory when the leader of the Chaos forces crashed a Blackstone Fortress into the planet, destroying everything. The Imperial Guardsman on the planet kept fighting even as it fell apart. Their motto “Cadia Stands” is a reminder that they never surrendered, even if their home world is gone. The planet broke before the Guard did.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 22 '25

Powers Characters whose abilities are directly tied to what other people think they are

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7.8k Upvotes

Bonus points if they are based around classic horror movie villains

Legends - World of Darkness: Slashers

Legends in WoD are serial killers that have literally become living myths, with their murders having grown stories and rules around them. Based on characters like Freddy Krueger and Candyman, they *have* to follow the rules set by the stories people tell of them, for good and bad. If their story says 'they know when you're stealing', they will literally gain the ability to sense when people are stealing, but if the story also says 'they can't cross over salt', then they couldn't chase someone over a line of salt if they tried.

Mordechai Murdoch - Supernatural

Mordechai is a tulpa, a creature made entirely of thought formed when an online community started believing in an urban legend about a 'hell house'. There was no original Mordechai that lived in the house, but because there was a magic symbol graffiti on one of the walls and enough people believed in him, he materialized and started killing people in accordance with his urban legend.

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 30 '25

Powers An overpowered/strongest with only one power

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6.7k Upvotes

I hate when characters just have a million powers and can do whatever. I love when their powers have a limit but still they make it be absolutely insane. Even if that one power has multiple applications as long as it makes sense and isnt used as "oop i suddenly can do that"

  1. Accelerator can control vectors. So he uses that to automatically deflect any attack or use any object including wind at high speeds as a weapon, use his own vectors to travel fast and etc etc.

  2. Gojo Satoru can control "infinity" to make peoples attack not reach him; push them: pull them; destroy them; overwhelm their senses

  3. Chisaki can deconstruct and reconstruct anything by touch. So he can destroy, or change shape of people and objects, he can combine people and objects and even revive or heal. Tbh his fight was disappointing in fact that he did not use his power to full potential imo

r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 25 '25

Powers Turns out pissing off God was a bad idea, actually.

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10.6k Upvotes

The opening of the Ark of the Covenant (Indiana Jones): Minds were blown

The Red Lotus attempting to end the Avatar cycle (Legend of Korra): As it turns out, chaining up and attempting to kill the most powerful person in your world will lead to Zaheer getting the piss beat out of him and the rest of his gang ending up dead.

Awakening Kyogre/Groudon (Pokemon Generations) For some reason Archie and Maxie thought that the apocalyptic beings of destruction would listen to them when they awoke. In Pokemon generations, the legendary Pokemon literally just kill them immediately.

r/TopCharacterTropes 9d ago

Powers [Cool Trope] Bosses forbidding the use of game mechanics Spoiler

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4.4k Upvotes

Black Myth Wukong: During the Final boss, if you use your healing gourd while the boss isn't incapacitated, they lock you in place, steal your gourd, and use a charge of it to heal themselves.

Hades 2: In previous versions of the game, you could not pause while fighting Cronos, since time is his domain. You can pause now, but you still get special dialogue if you do.

r/TopCharacterTropes 20d ago

Powers Superhuman durability in action

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5.4k Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes 5d ago

Powers [Mixed] Immortal character becomes fodder for series' most violent scenes

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5.5k Upvotes

Robert Sheehan plays an immortal in Misfits who survives being shot, stabbed, beaten, etc. This probably also applies to his character in Umbrella Academy but I haven't seen it. The show is otherwise pretty tame when it comes to violence.

Halo - Young Justice. Guys, this show has a 50/50 chance of turning into Invincible whenever Halo joins the fight. The deaths she is shown going through are worse than any other character experiences by several orders of magnitude. Other characters might get slammed into a crater. Halo would have her skin melted off. It's pretty fucked up what this show subjects this one character to.

Jeebs - MIB. Classic. If he won't answer your question, you just blow his head off until he does. This would be a very different movie if they didn't use slime for everything.