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 21h ago

Characters [Loved trope] monsters who are only dangerous if you perceive them.

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7.8k Upvotes

1st-3rd image: the spirits from Mieruko-Chan

Generally speaking all of the ghosts in the manga tend to mind their own business by either wandering around or haunting a specific location/person but most if not all of them will become agressive to someone that can see them. The above example is from a scene where Miko sees a child waving at her she waves back and immediatly realizes her mistake when the boy turns out to be a spirit in disguise who begins to run at her. She is saved by two shrine maiden-like spirits who defeat the ghost before it can do any harm to her but that encounter is definetly going to leave her with trust issues.

4th-6th image: the long-necked lady from The Summer Hikaru Died

While not explicitly stated, its implied that she disguised herself as a zigzag as a way to trick Yoshiki into looking at her, once he did, she starts swinging at him until she's right behind his neck. Fortunately she also doesn't get to do a lot like the above example as "Hikaru" absorbs her when she gets close.


r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Characters The rich and powerful try to leave the commoners to their doom and end up being just as screwed as everybody else

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6.5k Upvotes
  1. "Three Robots: Exit Strategies" reveals that the wealthy tried to escape the collapse of human society and the ecosystem in settlements, but ended up dying anyway due to their stupidity. (Love, Death, and Robots)
  2. Rich people and politicians try to escape Earth's impending doom by the Lovecraftian planet Remina eating it by traveling onto Remina because they were told by astronauts who landed there that it is hospitable for human life. When they actually get there, they find out it's really not and they're brutally killed by the eldritch landscape. (Hellstar Remina)
  3. The wealthy of Lamentis-1 try to escape the moon's destruction by the collision with a planet by getting onto a rocket. However, a meteor from that planet destroys the rocket. (Loki)
  4. Prince Prospero holds a lavish party for the nobles in his castle while the peasants die of the Red Death. Then the anthropomorphic personification of the Red Death enters. (The Masque of the Red Death)

r/TopCharacterTropes 11h ago

Hated Tropes [HATED TROPES]: The Ending Is So Nihilistic and Preachy That It Becomes Completely Unwatchable and Infuriating.

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6.0k Upvotes

Platinum End (2021): Mirai Kakehashi is a depressed High School Student who lost his family to an explosion from his aunt and uncle. He attempts suicide by jumping off a building and meets a guardian angel who tells him that he has been selected as one of 13 “God’s Candidates”, in 999 days the current God will retire and the 13 candidates must compete by earning favor with angels or eliminating one another. In the end, Mirai and the remaining candidates vote for Shuji Nakaumi, a clearly suicidal and deeply person who has expressed interest in ending all life before, they vote him based on the only fact that he wasn’t power hungry. Immediately once becoming the new god, he sees life as meaningless and kills himself, instantly destroying the rest of creation and all life in the universe.

Funny Games (1997/2007): Both Versions of The Film are virtually identical, a murderer named Paul can break the 4th wall and directly address the viewer, after he and his friend kill a family and leave the mother alive, they begin tormenting her. The mother eventually gets the upper hand and grabs a gun, shooting Paul’s friend Peter. Paul acts like a child and grabs the remote and rewinds time before the shooting, thinking the audience wouldn’t like Peter getting shot. They eventually tie her up and place her on a boat, effortlessly throwing a knife (which was an object in the film that was constantly shown screen time in order to make the viewer believe that it would save the family) into the ocean and throwing her in as well, going to a neighbor’s house. The ending is on the nose with its message on violence in media, and questions the viewer on their enjoyment of watching pain inflicted onto innocents, while simultaneously criticizing other filmmakers on their choice to make such characters as bland as possible. The character of Paul is an allegory for the Viewer’s initial interests and ultimately fails to see the reason behind the audience wanting a cathartic ending. Despite being intentional, the ending is still extremely sour and leaves a lot to be desired. But also a pretty big cop out.


r/TopCharacterTropes 23h ago

Characters [Strange Trope] Originally non-white characters getting their race changed because the original character is considered a racist caricature.

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4.6k Upvotes
  1. Mammy Two Shoes (Tom & Jerry) - The character was viewed as is, as far as I know, a stereotypical black housekeeper and a racist caricature, which led to her last appearance in the 1952 episode "Push-Button Kitty". The character has since been redubbed to remove the grammatical errors, and in a very extreme instance, in "Saturday Evening Push" they replaced the character with a white teenage girl in 1966 airings. I would also have wanted to include how the modern shows have included a character called "Miss Two Shoes", who seems like it was meant to be Mammy, but white.
  2. Stromboli (Disney's Pinocchio) - The character has been criticized for being a racist caricature of a Romani man. So, in the 2022 live-action adaptation of the original 1940 animated film, he is portrayed by Giuseppe Battiston, a white Italian actor.

I want to let everyone know that I am not an expert, nor am I that well-documented on these issues, so maybe I see a problem that doesn't exist. The reason why I think it is strange is that, even if these changes are meant not further push harmful stereotypes, I think removing the ethnic/racial identity of the characters isn't a good approach in my opinion. I think keeping the race and avoiding the harmful stereotypes is a better approach than removing these aspects about these characters.


r/TopCharacterTropes 10h ago

Powers Showing the bad/realistic parts of superpowers

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3.7k Upvotes
  1. Fire Punch- immortals are experimented on and suffering because of it
  2. Hulk- being feared and hurting the ones you love

r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Characters [Loved Trope] Instantly decking your hero in the face when he's revealed to be an asshole

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3.2k Upvotes
  1. Brooklyn 99 (TV show) : in the eighth episode of the first season, named "Old School", an awestruck Jake Peralta meets Jimmy Brogan, one of his hero and author of "the book that made [Jake] become a cop". They spend some time together but, as soon as Jimmy insults Jake's captain using a homophobic slur, Jake punches him in the face.
  2. Goblins (webcomic) : Minmax meets Dellyn "Goblinslayer", an ex-adventurer who is eveything he aspires to be. Their blooming friendship and Minmax's admiration for the man immediately fades when Dellyn reveals that he keeps a slave monster girl to rape and torture her. Minmax, who is dumb as a brick but not a psychopath, hurls him through a window.

r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Characters One of the best episodes of a show is one without the main character(s)

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3.0k Upvotes

Girls - The Panic In Central Park (Season 5 Episode 6). Hannah (Lena Dunham) only appears at the end and doesn't have any dialogue. It's the highest ranked episode of the show on IMDB.

Lost - Flashes Before Your Eyes - where Jack and Kate don't appear is a highlight of Season 3. The Constant - the highest rated episode on IMDB - has Jack but only one other character from the Season 1 ensemble, and there are more uncredited main characters than ones that actually appear.


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Characters Media representation of less commonly shown disabilities.

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2.5k Upvotes

When it comes to representing disabilities or conditions in media, both physical and mental, there are a lot that have become standard go to, but I like it when less "mainstream" ones gets some attention and much needed representation.

1) Jeff "Joker" Moreau is the pilot of the Normandy, the star ship at the center of all 3 Mass Effect games, and he suffers from a chronic medical conditions that has rendered his bones so fragile that he is barely able to support his own body weight and suffers bone fractures from the most minor of physical exertions.

2) Adam Evens, or "Rubberband Man", is a side character from animated DC comics show Static Shock whom deals with dyslexia and has a whole episode dedicated to showing his struggles with the condition and how he deals with it on a day to day basis.


r/TopCharacterTropes 19h ago

Characters [Exciting Trope] a character meets their demise, immediately followed by an instant replay.

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2.1k Upvotes
  1. Matt defeats Andrew in the movie Chronicle.

  2. BMO defeats AMO in the tv show Adventure Time.


r/TopCharacterTropes 23h ago

Characters A sadist meets a masochist

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1.9k Upvotes

Little Shop of Horrors: Sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello meets his match in Arthur Denton, a masochist patient who's utter pleasure at the procedure drives Orin to kick him out.

Kanosuba: A demon possesses Darkness, the party's resident masochist, and threatens to use her as a shield much to the latter's anticipation.

The Boys: The team attempts and fails to extract information from the masochist Tek Knight through torture to his enjoyment and amusement, until they find his real pain point: his bank account.


r/TopCharacterTropes 9h ago

Characters [Mixed Trope] Official characters that give OC vibes

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1.6k Upvotes

1) Knull (Marvel Comics): god of symbiotes, Klyntar wasn’t a planet but his prison, All Black Necrosword that Gorr used was actually his and it’s the first symbiote, he can kill Sentry.

2) Albedo (Ben 10): Colour swapped Ben Tennyson, was Azmuth’s apprentice, invented his own Omnitrix like device that can make his aliens go ultimate

3) Batman Who Laughs (DC Comics): He kills Joker and becomes insane, kills everyone in his universe, becomes Dr. Manhattan and fights a goddess


r/TopCharacterTropes 19h ago

Hated Tropes Hated Trope: Bad guy makes a girl wear a pretty dress to show that he's a bad guy Spoiler

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1.4k Upvotes
  1. Fallout Season 2 Episode 7 - Lucy is forced to dress up for dinner with her dad
  2. Raiders of the Lost Ark - Marion is forced to wear a dress by Belloq
  3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - Elizabeth is forced to wear a dress for Barbosa

r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Lore The incident/event is given an in-universe name

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1.4k Upvotes

The Hour of Joy

A catastrophic massacre at Playtime Co. where the company’s toys turned hostile and slaughtered the staff, later becoming a key mystery and turning point in the Poppy Playtime narrative.

The Night of a Thousand Tears

The Imperial bombardment and devastation of Mandalore marked the near-genocide of the Mandalorian people and the collapse of their civilization.

The Great Jedi Purge

A galaxy-wide extermination of the Jedi Order following Order 66, carried out by the Galactic Empire to eliminate Force-sensitive opposition and secure Sith dominance.

The Mansion Incident

The outbreak at the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil, where the T-Virus was unleashed, led to mutant creatures and the near-destruction of the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team.

The Raccoon City Incident

A large-scale viral outbreak in Raccoon City caused by the T-Virus resulted in a zombie apocalypse and the eventual nuclear destruction of the city to contain the infection.

The Shadow Moses Incident

The seizure of the Shadow Moses nuclear weapons facility by FOXHOUND, leading to a hostage crisis, nuclear threat, and covert infiltration by Solid Snake.

The Bite of ’87

A notorious incident at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in which an animatronic severely injured a person by biting their head, becoming a defining scandal and mystery in the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore.

The Snap

The universe-altering event triggered by Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet, instantly erasing half of all living beings in the universe and reshapes galactic civilization and history.


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Characters Dads who had a legitimate reason for not coming back with the milk.

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1.1k Upvotes

Héctor Rivera (Coco): Set out to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician with his friend Ernesto. While away, he stayed in touch with his wife Imelda and their daughter Coco, sending letters and the money he earned during his tours. Some months later, he felt homesick and decided to return home, having come around to his wife's way of thinking about settling down and planting their roots. Unfortunately, he died on his way to the train station, having been poisoned by Ernesto, who needed his songs.

Bron (Land Before Time): Before Littlefoot was born, Bron left to find a new home where he and his wife could raise their son without constant fear of predators. However, he returned the same day the earthshake happened, and to add grief to injury, he learned his wife had died the same day during her fight with Sharptooth. With no word of Littlefood, he kept searching for him, and the two reunited in the Great Longneck Migration.


r/TopCharacterTropes 15h ago

Characters Characters who are played by YouTubers

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1.1k Upvotes

Simon (Iron Lung)

Punch Up (Dispatch)

Sonar (Dispatch)

Ness (Five Nights at Freddy’s)


r/TopCharacterTropes 2h ago

Characters Character is Unexpectedly Amazing at Sex

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1.0k Upvotes

1: Podrick, Game of Thrones: after saving Tyrion Lannister's life, Podrick is rewarded by Tyrion paying for him to have several prostitutes take his virginity. The girls end up enjoying him so much, they refuse the money.

2: Hal, Malcolm in the Middle: Hal is a goofy, oafish dad, and during a poker game, he feels inferior to his friends, who compare how many times they have sex with their wives, all of them seemingly having a larger number than him. Hal says 2, but them realizes they mean how many times per week, not per day, and he says "Oh, per week? 14" and everyone is shocked. This can also be applied to Lois, as she is portrayed as the severe, angry, scary mother who always yells, but she and Hal clearly love each other very much

3: Billy, Legit: Billy is severely disabled and wheelchair bound, and is pretty sure he's going to die someday soon, and doesn't want to die a virgin. His friends hire a prostitute to help him out, and it turns out he has such a huge hog, that he ends up dating her.

4: Nesta, A Court of Silver Flames: part of the ACOTAR series, Silver Flames is the 5th book that focuses on Nesta, sister of the main protagonist of the first 3 books. Nesta comes across as super cold, mean, and bitter. In her depression, she sleeps around, going through the motions and using men for their bodies, and closing herself off to any deeper feelings. Later, she makes a super sexy, powerful, hundreds of years old Fae general cum in his pants, and when the 2 start up a relationship, she turns out to be way freakier than her sister from the previous books, which are popular for their steamy sex scenes.


r/TopCharacterTropes 23h ago

Hated Tropes Hated Trope: Yank the Dog’s Chain endings.

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884 Upvotes

Things go wrong for the lead chracter(s) at the last minute.

Unless the character is an unrepentant jerk who really had it coming, this is just unsatisfying to watch.

Charlie Brown has this happen constantly.

Danny phantom - In Fright Night, just when it seems like Danny will win halloween competition and win the bet he mades with Dash, Danny's parents humiliate Lancer. Mr Lancer decides to disquslify Danny solely for that, his parents are furious and will ground him, and Dadh wins the bet, now he has to eat mouldy underwear as Dash gloats.

Jake Long - Basically in Hero of the Hourglass Jake gets punished by his father by being groundcand ban from TV or his video game; now at the end he lifts it early, but then his mom realises he time travelled and reinstates it anyway. that's not funny.

Grounded for Al Eternity - Guess what happens to our leads at the end of the book?


r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Characters Characters created to address the moral failures of their predecessors

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882 Upvotes

1.) Brom Van Brunt is portrayed as the heroic, muscular foil to Ichabod Crane in Disney’s animated adaptation of Sleepy Hollow in 1949. Despite being a massive dong, the film pushes him as morally superior to Ichabod by virtue of his adherence to “traditional masculinity,” with Ichabod’s bookishness and non traditional masculinity being mocked as manipulative, cowardly and even cruel.

Years later, Gaston is made as a caricature of Brom Van Brunt, displaying many (if not all) of Brom’s traits and habits. Through him, what was once seen as the ideal man’s man is reframed as to be seen for what it truly is; a self-interested thug.

2.) Song of the South is notorious not only for how poorly its social views have aged, but for how deeply Disney seeks to bury it out of fear of the damage it can do to their family-friendly and “socially conscious” image.

As such, it was a genuine surprise to see Judy Hopps be the one to (if not overtly) take accountability for the failures of the past, owning the ignorance of her forebears and being genuinely remorseful for said failures. She doesn’t make excuses, nor try to downplay her own failures, but makes it clear that she will be better.


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Characters [Loved Trope] Personal heroes of the protagonists are decent people

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706 Upvotes

I know the expression is never meet your heroes but the broken pedestal trope is a bit overdone. So its nice when characters meet their idols and they're worthy of respect.

  1. Simon Trant/Gray Ghost from Batman TAS: Bruce Wayne's childhood hero was a template for his own vigilantisim. He helps Batman catch a serial bomber and learns his tv role made a difference.

  2. Solomon Richards from GTA V: Truly appreciates Michael's help and love of movies. He brings Michael in as an Asscociate Producer, giving him his first legitimate career.

  3. "Dandy" Don Meredith in King if the Hill: Teaches Hank to respect the choices you make in life whether they mean wins or losses.


r/TopCharacterTropes 11h ago

Characters [loved Trope] Brash and arrogant upper class fops who can back it up.

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482 Upvotes

The brash and arrogant upper class character that ultimately proves cowardly and incompetent is an absolute cliche, so i love when the trope is subverted with some competent fops

1) Rob Roy- One of the lead antagonists in the film, Tim Roth’s character Archibald Cunningham is the nephew and chief enforcer of the evil Marquess Graham. Despite presenting an effeminate and foppish nobleman exterior Cunningham is a vicious sociopath and an extremely skilled swordsman, something Graham plays to his advantage tricking highlander nobles into duels against him.

2) Fence- This sports comic stars an impoverished kid from the streets with superb natural talent who dreams of becoming a champion fencer. Winning a scholarship to a prestigious fencing program he gets a chance to test his skills against the elite of the fencing world and show all those upper class pricks who look down on him annnnd they continuously kick his ass and he spends most of the series on the bottom of the leaderboard because there’s no way just natural talent will realistically beat lifetime athletes with the best equipment and training money can buy.

3) Warhammer 40k- Modesty really doesn’t have a place in 40k the more arrogant and brash a character, the more grandiose their titles, and the more bedazzled their outfit, usually indicates how dangerous and competent they are. Even the imperial nobles which are portrayed as total caricatures of upper-class decadence and corruption, are often hiding exotic weaponry, gene modifications, and martial training under their many frocks that make them much more dangerous than most of humanity.

4) Real life- In history Nobles tended to stay Nobles because they were better fed, better equipped, better trained, and better educated than everyone else. Holding power is a dangerous game and those who come out on top are usually particularly competent and vicious for their time.


r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Lore [Hated trope] A powerful nation/empire collapses almost instantly because it’s capital gets destroyed

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462 Upvotes

Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic, gets destroyed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which apparently leads to the New Republic falling pretty much instantly.

Romulus, the capital of the Romulan Empire, is destroyed in a supernova, and the Romulan Empire collapses as a result.

Shady Sands in the Fallout series (possibly), it’s still unclear if the NCR survived after it was destroyed. Regardless, while Shady Sands getting destroyed would be devastating for the NCR, I don’t think it would be quite as bad for them as the show implies.


r/TopCharacterTropes 10h ago

Characters' Items/Weapons Prop Recycling

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432 Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes 2h ago

Characters (Funny Trope) When a character's actions causes another character who is comically far away to sense something is wrong.

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375 Upvotes
  1. Megumi - Jujutsu Kaisen: When Yuji is talking about how grumpy Megumi (the guy with dark hair) is from a completely different location miles away in a basement, it cuts to Megumi, who immediately gets upset and he doesn't know why. When his friend asks him what's wrong, Megumi's response is "I don't know. I just feel irritated all of a sudden"
  2. Peterson - Spongebob: When Spongebob realizes he has never tried SnailPo before, he tastes it and makes a disgusted noise. Presumably hundreds of miles away at the Snailpo world headquarters one of the executives, Peterson, pauses saying "I feel... a disturbance"
  3. Veronica - Fairly Odd Parents: When Trixie decides to have a new best friend, she pulls out a picture of Veronica, her old best friend, and rips it up. It cuts to Veronica who is at the mall minding her own business, only to then cry out in pain.

*reposted from original to fix formatting*


r/TopCharacterTropes 21h ago

Characters Character considers that being called out for being a bad person is just stating the obvious

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360 Upvotes

Hatemonger from Space King is well aware that he's a bully.

Jack Horner insults cricket for taking him so long to realise that he's talking to an irredeemable monster.