r/TopCharacterTropes • • 8h ago

Characters [meta trope] Characters that inexplicably disappear from the show, never being mentioned again.

Thumbnail
gallery
8 Upvotes

This trope refers to characters that are written out of a show with no explanation given, usually early on in the shows life. (Bonus points if they only appear in the pilot).

  1. Chuck Cunningham from Happy Days. Admittedly I haven’t seen this show but Chuck’s sudden disappearance after two seasons is what gives this trope its name so I decided to include him.

  2. Coco from the Golden Girls. In the pilot episode, the four ladies have a chef living with them called Coco. He never appears again in the show.

  3. Daniels from Brooklyn 99. In the pilot, Daniels is introduced alongside Hitchcock and Scully. While the latter two became main characters, Daniels never makes it past episode one.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 16h ago

Lore Character Was Created As A Literary Counter/Mirror Towards Another One

Thumbnail
gallery
0 Upvotes

The Mako X Korra Ship(Legend of Korra) - Was created by the writers to counter answer to the idea perpetuated by shippers that Katara X Zuko was the better Katara ship over Katara X Aang. Turns out they'll be super incompatible with each other and, this is more on Mako/Zuko than Korra/Katara, not mature enough to handle a serious relationship.

Weak Kinglsey(Cyberpunk Edgerunners Season 2) - Confirmed in an interview that he was partially created as a sort of "What If" where David survived or lived long, a forgotten and hated has-been clinging to his glory days with a destroyed body without the fancy upgrades that made him in/famous in the first place.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 8h ago

Lore (Annoying trope) "bitters" "walkers" JUST SAY ZOMBIE

Thumbnail
gallery
294 Upvotes

In a lot of zombie media they use don't say zombies they say stuff like "infected" "shamblers" "bitters" just things that sound more stupid than just saying zombies but this also applies to other monsters like Vampires

"Walkers" get a bit of a pass because the point is that zombies don't exist in media sense in that universe (TWD)

A very annoying example is from Back 4 blood with the "ridden" no one would actually say ridden during an apocalypse they'd say zombies (Back 4 blood)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 16h ago

Characters (Fandom trope) Characters everyone universally likes and are adored by fans

Thumbnail
gallery
321 Upvotes

Skylar White (Breaking Bad)- Everyone loved Skylar, the way she serves as a foil to Walt and the incredible plot line she brings into the show with Ted are two of the fan favorite moments from breaking bad. It’s a common complaint she’s actually not in the show enough.

Amber (Invincible)- It’s pretty well known that the arguments between her and mark are written amazingly with both have equally valid points to their statements, it’s common thought among invincible fans that she’s even better for mark then eve is. It is however unfortunate she received such a writing downgrade between seasons 1 and 2 of the show.

Rey Skywalker (Star Wars)- Luke and Anakin are decent characters sure but no one can compare to Rey. She’s the most powerful character in the Star Wars universe right now, and everyone loved how effortless she made being a Jedi look. And famously her taking on the last name Skywalker was meant with universal praise, people in the theater were literally clapping and crying with joy.

Scrappy-doo (Scooby-doo) Widely thought to be the best character ever added into a show, scrappy is almost every Scooby doo fans favorite character. With his hilarious lines and amazing catch phrases I promise you that you’ll have a great time as long as he’s on screen.

(Ok jokes aside, Skylar is a good character people are attack way too much, Amber should have had a little stronger writing but I do think she has some point in season 1 even if it’s a pretty weak one, Rey is a mess of writing and clearly had her story changed 100 times during writing, and fuck scrappy)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 1h ago

Hated Tropes [HATED TROPE] blue pig type characters: characters that show up in long term media revealed to be behind everything.

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

Gartan of banban: The Nanny: the gartan series is nitrousily bad for introducing last minute villains each episode going into its most recent one introducing another secret long term villain that makes the world real and not full of givanium creatures that tempts the character to join the evil

Naruto: kayuga: naruto already has a myriad of blue pig villains obito madura but atleast those two feel like they've substantially part of the narrative kayuga is introduced as a last ditch villain that orchestrated everything

Mass effect: the star child: technically theyre not a child but a super intelligence that waits to see if organics can evolve to the point of getting on with non organics. However the threat in mass effect is a super intelligence focused on mass destruction the star child feels irrelevant


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 20h ago

Characters [Recent Trope] Malenia Blade of Miquella

Thumbnail
gallery
184 Upvotes

Basically a super strong female boss meant to test the limits of the player. Bonus points of redhead.

In order

Malenia- Elden Ring. Secret boss sensation Malenia, was knowing as the toughest boss in an already hard name, beating her was considered a batch of honor.

Pieta- Lords of the Fallen. Big spoilers

While Pieta is more like the Margit of the game (the first hard boss that forces you to learn the mechanics, she is the final boss of the secret ending and the hardest boss in the game.

Rita- Aniimo. Kinda like the Pokemon champion, she is a fiery red head currently making players pulling their hair trying to beat her.

Cynthia- Pokemon Black. Speaking of champions, the previous champion of Pokemon D&P is also a super tough secret boss in the following game. Giving PTSD to players that came across her by surprise. She is kinda a precursor to the trope in a way.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 4h ago

miscellaneous Fat guys who get skinny and turn evil

Thumbnail
gallery
9.7k Upvotes

Yes of course I know many of these examples were already evil/controversial before losing weight, but I think there is a pattern of controversial behavior or scandal becoming more public after going through a major body transformation into something considered more conventionally attractive

Ethan Klein/h3h3– has gone through several weight fluctuations throughout his life but has been on the thinner side for the last several years, and has also become more ingrained in controversy online

David Harbour— Cheating scandal and harassment allegations coming to light after significant weight loss

Chris Pratt— was at one point a widely loved celebrity but has fallen into many controversies and weird political/religious associations.

Schmidt (New Girl)— needed a fictional example lol, I’ve never seen this show but apparently this character got arrogant and selfish after losing weight


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 16h ago

Characters' Items/Weapons [Funny Trope] A cartoonishly evil villain just gets real for a moment.

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes • • 5h ago

Personality Recontextualize version buff the brain power

0 Upvotes

I do not know many example, but essentially i love when a retell/recontextual stories interpret a 'dumb' character in the original into an 'intelligent' one, by explain the action that is previously viewed as dumb into a brilliant plan or scheme to fool everyone, with a context to back it up.

1 - Lubu and Zhang Fei in Ravages of Time.

Ravages of Time is a retell version of the classic novel Romance of Three Kingdoms. Lubu and Zhang Fei in the original novel are both characters being regard as 'all brawn and no brain', the classical brute. But RoT subvert it to make both of them actually the most "hidden genius", that smart enough to know how to hide their mastermind behind the 'brute' mask to fool other characters. And everytime they acting dumb in the original stories is just a play to pull off a hidden move in the dark (that the historian do not know of to tell). Many other characters is also receive 'brain buff' in that way like Sun Ce, Yuan Shao,....

2- Yáng Guózhōng in Lychees of Chang'an.

Yang Guozhong in history only become chancellor of Tang empire because his sister is the favorite concubine of the emperor, and often being look down by scholar because his lack of education. In the novel, he actually smart enough to be the only one recognize the brilliant logistical aspect in the plan to bring Lychees to Chang'an of the main player because while lacking the proper academic education, he is 'street smart' through his experience in society. But he use his intelligence to abuse and take advantage of the plan, turning a logistical wonder into a cover for corruption and embezzlement, and lead to countless suffer of the common people. In the end, it is Yang Guozhong intelligence that destroyed him because it enable his greedy to the point of no return.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 2h ago

Hated Tropes [hated trope] they fell in love too quickly…

Thumbnail
gallery
118 Upvotes

Romeo and Juliet, all version: they’re entire tragic love story talks place under 5 days at most, and they basically just fall in love after a quick meeting (granted I understand it’s very old story, so I’ll cut it some slack)

How to lose a guy in 10 days: it’s in the title: they manipulate each other and lie in order to get each other way from one another, despite that they end up falling in love despite their efforts.

Titanic: Jack and rose knew each other for 3-4 days and yet Jack is utterly smitten with her and she is into it, despite the fact that most people would be creeped out if someone was that into you in such a short time.

Snow White and the 7 dwarfs: the original animated relationship speed runner, they have exactly ONE conversation together and yet he’s presented as her true love.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 6h ago

Hated Tropes The long awaited... disappointment

Thumbnail
gallery
1.8k Upvotes

1) The Incredibles 2: Wait 14 Years

The only memorable thing about the villain was how obvious Evelyn Deavor (evil endeavor) was going to be the villian. The movie basically switched Bob and Helen's roles from the first one but worse.

2) One Punch Man - Season 3: Wait 6 Years

The animation fell off a cliff. The second season was a step down from the first first but the third season turned into a powerpoint presentation with partial redrawn manga panels to still images sliding down a hill.

3) Game of Thrones - Season 8: Wait 2 Years

Never has a series gone from a large part of the zeitgeist to never being mentioned again immediately after it aired. So many mysteries and storylines rushed to end in 6 episodes because the showrunners wanted to go do Star Wars and sUbVeRt eXpEcTaTiOnS.

Edit: No hate on anyone who enjoyed The Incredibles 2. To each their own


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 9h ago

Characters (School Trope) Hot for Teacher

Thumbnail
gallery
13 Upvotes

Kuniumi Maitake is tall, usually has a glow aura and good-looking and charming enough to get a legion of fangirls not long after he started teaching. (From “Lovely★Complex”)

Ms. French from the episode, “Teacher's Pet” has all the boys drooling over her. Including Xander. Turns out she's taking virgin boys home, mating with them, and biting off their heads. Because she's actually a giant praying mantis. (From “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)

Elizabeth is this, especially when she needs to raise money at a school car wash. (From “Bad Teacher”)

Gerri Dandridge is a professor of history and art at a Bucharest college. Of course, she just uses this to lure in young male victims. (From “Fright Night 2: New Blood”)

Sam Lombardo is seen as one in-universe. A lot of female students are shown to have the hots for him. (From “Wild Things”)

Paige has an affair with the hunky student-teacher Matt in the season 4. Their relationship is portrayed as a completely normal and decent thing to do, except that school rules unfairly ban it. As Paige points out to him, he's only three years older than her. A girl who hates Paige discovers her secret and taunts her, but when the relationship is exposed, no kid in the entire school cares, even though Paige has plenty of enemies. Matt gets fired, and the two of them think this is a good thing since now they can be together in public. Then he suddenly moves away, in a scene that ends with Paige's classic line, “You're dumping me and giving me drugs?!” (From “Degrassi: TNG”)

Will Schuester is so good looking to the point where Rachel and Susie went completely nuts over him and even followed him home to cook and clean up for him. Of course, one must admit he doesn't make it easier for his students by singing sexy songs on stage with them and accepting to play a role in a musical that requires him to be completely shirtless. (From “Glee”)

Tommy Oliver. To his embarrassment, several of his female students are Teacher/Student Romance. Oy. (From “Power Rangers Dino Thunder”)

Ezra Fitz had a brief romantic relationship with Alison before she vanished, during which she lied about being older than she was. When he found out she was a high school minor, he stopped seeing her, though he became deeply obsessed with her disappearance. (From “Pretty Little Liars”)

Desiree Atkins becomes the new high school’s sex-ed teacher in the episode, “Heat.” She shows up wearing very little and puts on a sex-education video. Clark tries to pay attention, but he keeps glancing at Ms. Atkins. Suddenly, the projector screen bursts into flames. (From “Smallville”)

Ms. Lana Lockhart from “Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Junior High” becomes the new English teacher. Chris falls in loves with her immediately. She is very busty and all of her clothes show off her sizable cleavage where she's constantly pulling things out of. (From “Family Guy”)

The entire series dedicated to a relationship between a female teacher named Claire and her male student named Eric. However, it also follows by the devastating fallout once the relationship is revealed. (From “A Teacher”)

Donny Berger had an affair with his female teacher named Mary McGarricle back when he was in middle school. The affair resulted in a son. However, the incident isn't so much played for laughs as it is a victorious wish-fulfillment fantasy. (From “That’s My Boy”)

Pacey and his English teacher Miss Tamara Jacobs start having a secret affair in the first season. (From “Dawson’s Creek”)

The handsome, charming Mr. Crane takes over the class at Bayside High in “The Substitute.” Kelly, Lisa, and Jessie immediately become infatuated with him. (From “Saved by the Bell”)

Storm is an instructor at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and Nightcrawler thinks she's beautiful. (From “X-Men”)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 8h ago

Personality (Funny Trope) Character keeps bringing up minor grievance from earlier.

Thumbnail
gallery
37 Upvotes

In “Don’t Look Up”, Dibiasky continuously harps on how the general offered snacks while waiting for the president to meet with her, but charged money. A handful of scenes later she finds out they were, in fact, free refreshments, and she brings up the general’s audacity to others several times throughout the movie.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 49m ago

Hated Tropes A character kills dozens or hundreds of people to reach the villain, only to say "I'm not like you" or "It's not worth it," and lets him live.

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

Ellie (The Last of Us Part II): In her quest for revenge against Abby, Ellie brutally kills dozens of WLF soldiers, cultists, and dogs, leaving a massive trail of blood across Seattle. However, in the final fight, just as she is finally drowning Abby, she decides to spare her life in order to "break the cycle of violence."

Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed II): Over the course of two decades, Ezio stabs, poisons, and hurls from rooftops hundreds of Italian guards who were simply going about their duties. Yet, upon reaching the final chamber in the Vatican, he decides to spare the main villain, Rodrigo Borgia, the person directly responsible for his family's death, arguing that killing him "won't bring his family back."

Matt Murdock (Marvel's Daredevil): Spends years cracking skulls, fracturing spines, and leaving hundreds of street-level thugs with permanent brain damage or dead. Despite this daily brutality, he adamantly refuses to kill Wilson Fisk, claming "Im not the bad guy"


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 3h ago

Characters Bad Guy main characters that initially had good intentions

Thumbnail
gallery
19 Upvotes

Now I don't know if this is me just doing a 'tism, I just have poor media literacy or both but I feel some of these characters are the prime example of the quote "the path to hell is paved with good intentions."

Lelouch - Code Geass - Lelouch basically became a terrorist war criminal for the sake of avenging his mother's death, to protect his sister, and then later trying to change the world for the better, so he made himself out to be the bad guy.

Walter White - Breaking Bad - When he got diagnosed with cancer he thought his life was over and that his family would be left with nothing, he learned of a way to get cash quick through drug dealing and set everything up so that his family would be well off when he died. He had good intentions for his family but he did what he did via any means necessary and things spiraled out of control.

Light - Death Note - His development of a god complex and looking at things from a purely black and white perspective saw all criminals as trash needing to be dealt with and executed. His intentions were to build a better world and reduce crime but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Edit: Just to be clear I don't idolize these characters and again this is from my own POV of these characters from what I saw of their characters.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 16h ago

Characters My Best Moments

Post image
0 Upvotes

My best Moments 👌 👍 😍


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 10h ago

Characters Tim traveling kid with a Jean jacket interacts with their father. Helps them beat a bully

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

1) trunks from dragon ball z. Shows up literally out of no where beats freeza. Comes back in time a second time and trains with his dad to beat cell.

2) Marty mcfly. Comes back in time and crashes into a barn. Meets his dad. Inspires him to ask Loraine out.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 20h ago

Characters' Items/Weapons Blades that aren't used to cut stuff

Thumbnail
gallery
151 Upvotes

Star Wars - The dagger from Rise of Skywalker is used as a message, not to cut anyone

Xiaolin Showdown - This is an interesting one. The Sword of the Storm can't be used as a regular sword. When Raimundo tries to the sword is intangible


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 1h ago

Characters [Hated Trope] When adorable and bubbly characters get called children by the internet, despite being canonically adults

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

​

Whenever there are characters that are all adorable, bubbly and sweet but being canonically adults, there are some idiots call them children for some reason

like Lanney from Gwain Saga

In Gwain Saga's official wiki page, her age is "18+", but in the show she's all adorable, bubbly and innocent. Basically being a bean character. Well, a bean character that will kick your ass. But i saw some idiots calling her child because of how she behaves. For fuck sakes, she even drank a beer and got so drunk she passed out.

And Emily from Hazbin Hotel

She's a seraphim, so she's obviously god knows how old, but by appearance, she's like in her 20's. She's so cute, sweet and energetic. And hell, She's even tall like Charlie, who's (approximately) 6'2". And a lot of haters called her a child and that whoever simps for her is a pedo.

Such judgment just looks like that only kids are allowed to be adorable and bubbly


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 20h ago

Personality [Actor Trope] Tics/behaviors that actors do in every movie

Thumbnail
gallery
5.0k Upvotes

This doesn't include actors who do similar types of movies/storylines. So no Matt Damon trying to get home or Rachel McAdams' romances with time travelers. Things like:

Tom Cruise is always running. Probably the best example of this trope, running has more or less become Tom Cruise's trademark to the point where it's notable when doesn't run (like in Digger). The Mission: Impossible franchise gives him an outlet for his running desires but he also has a pretty epic run in War of the Worlds. While he doesn't run in the original Top Gun (if I remember correctly) but he gets to run in Top Gun: Maverick. The Mummy reboot also gave him a chance to run from some sandstorms and even the non-action film Vanilla Sky has a pretty iconic running scene.

Brad Pitt is always eating. Probably the second best example of this trope, Brad Pitt eats a lot in his movies. Pretty much every single scene in Ocean's Eleven has him eating something (though he very rarely finishes anything). He also has notable eating scenes in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Inglourious Basterds, Burn After Reading, and Moneyball, which also features him licking his fingers quite a lot so he can turn through different scouting reports.

Tom Hanks is always peeing. Probably not quite as well know as the previous two, Tom Hanks pees in quite a lot of his movies. An iconic scene in Forrest Gump has him admitting that he needs to pee to JFK. He takes one of the manliest pees ever put on screen in A League of Their Own. A plot point in The Green Mile has his prison guard character suffering from a UTI that John Coffey cures. Even Apollo 13 shows the audience how astronauts go to the bathroom while in space.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 11h ago

Characters (Loved Trope) Rivalry with MASSIVE sexual tension / underlying feelings

Thumbnail
gallery
851 Upvotes

Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham - Hannibal

The Doctor and Missy - Doctor Who

L and Light Yagami - Death Note


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 22h ago

Powers [mildly annoying trope] Character with BROKEN abilities but they don’t use it to its full potential

Thumbnail
gallery
115 Upvotes
  1. Raven (Teen Titans) - her powers are mainly Telekinesis as well as magic stuffs involving her black energy. If you seen the force in Star Wars or watched Akira before, you would know how terrifying telekinesis can be: controlling/crushing people with your mind, leveling entire cities, and so on. Yet, Raven uses her telekinesis to throw things most of the time even when she could’ve easily incapacitate any enemies. She rarely uses her telekinesis to rip an enemy apart unless it’s an inorganic enemy like a robot. It’s kind of explained by how her dark energy is part of her soul and she doesn’t like to extend “herself” onto other living things. It’s also speculated she hold herself back from fear of losing control and becoming evil.

  2. Okuyasu (Jojo Bizarre Adventure) — Okuyasu’s stand, The Hand, has the terrifying ability to erase anything with a swipe of its hand! Even space itself! It’s a one-hit-kill stand that’s limited by Okuyasu’s own stupidity: he only uses his stand to…..swipe away spaces so he can get somewhere closer

  3. Duplikate (Invincible) — she can clone herself as many times as she’s able to, which even gives her partial invincibility since every clone is an “original” and she gets to live as long as one is alive. Yet, all Duplikate do with her clones is just gang up on people with them. Not even in a strategic way! In the hands of someone more experienced (like her brother), the disposable clones can act as a human shield, ladders, platforms, etc…the possibilities are endless! It can even serve as the perfect spying tool!

  4. Orihime (bleach) — Her powers is to “reject”, and that even includes reality itself. She can technically rewrite the laws of the universe if she wants to! However, because of her timid and kind nature, she has only used her powers as a healing tool or shield for most of Bleach. Thankfully, we FINALLY see her use her ability to it fullest potential when she used it to counter Ywach’s ability.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 10h ago

Lore That one point in the character’s story fans are ashamed of/never bring up

Thumbnail
gallery
476 Upvotes

Marvel: Hank Pym hitting Janet Van Dyne in this infamous panel absolutely shattered his reputation and made him out as a domestic abuser (somehow also overshadows his creation of Ultron as a mistake). What’s worse is apparently the artist was trying to convey Hank pushing Janet but it looks like he slaps her. So he got this label by mistake.

Ultimate Spider-Man: That one plot Spider-man and Wolverine switch bodies. Wolverine’s part is especially egregious considering he flirts with actual high schoolers.

Jun-Ho (Squid Game): Holy shit this one. I bashed season 3’s ending the other day in another post, and I brought him up as a major reason it was underwhelming at best and an actual trainwreck at worst, and I love how nobody actually like tried to defend or justify his failure afterthought of an existence. To repeat, I mentioned:

  1. Lied to Gi-Hun about knowing the front man or showing him a picture of his face, after all, even if he wants to help In-Ho waiting until they’re on the island is bad timing.

  2. Brought on some fishing captains he somehow NEVER tried investigating despite the recent revelations with his brother. What’s even more insulting is how easily Woo-Seok found out Park was a rat very quickly.

  3. Extremely unlikable. Like, never apologized to Mercenary Kim on how this guy he vouched for ended up killing most of them, and never apologized to Woo-Seok for his getting arrested saving his ass. He also never seems to regret how he hid any secrets from Gi-Hun that with the revelations front man pretended to be a player, did so much damage.

  4. Is completely irrelevant to the ideological battle between the MC and the big bad. It’s hilarious how many massive bits of knowledge Gi-Hun and Jun-Ho to the end do not know about each other. In fact Jun-Ho is 7 minutes late to the last game concluding meaning he was all in all, pretty fucking useless to the plot. Also the baby survives either way because In-Ho is there to take her off the island.

And yes the Minecraft parody version is still a flat out improvement over the real Jun-Ho. How pathetic is that? When the comedy abridged version is better? It’s not like “Creeper” or “Fallen Kingdom” which the original songs are really good in their own right, it’s literally the PREFERABLE version.

And for a more humorous note

Pink kryptonite (DC): Turns Kryptonians exposed to it gay.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 4h ago

miscellaneous Film adaptations of books that hadn’t even come out yet.

Thumbnail
gallery
15 Upvotes

Jurassic Park - Universal and Steven Spielberg secured the rights to Michael Crichton's novel in May 1990, months before its publication that fall.

300 Rise of An Empire - Was based off a follow up of the original 300 comic that wouldn’t come out a full 4 years after the movie did.

Ready Player 1 - Warner Brothers bought the film rights a full year before the book came out. Studios were just jumping on the premise.

(I’m aware this isn’t a trope but was surprised to see how often this has happened)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 15h ago

Characters [Oddly Specific Trope] Female hero turns into a male,more monstrous form to do hero work

Thumbnail
gallery
129 Upvotes

Goodness "Good" Silva aka Good Boy from Marvel Comics.- She and her brother Lucky turn into animals. Hers being a blue male wolf and his is a pink 2 tailed fox. She is a hero and part of the Great Lakes Avengers

Amanda aka Monster Girl form Invincible Comics- Amanda was cursed with the ability to turn into a monster that is male. She uses the power to be a hero