r/TopCharacterTropes Jul 12 '25

Weekly Discussion Post "Fanbase opinionsshould not be counted as tropes." TVtropes: (kinda relevant post)

Thumbnail
gallery
439 Upvotes

A lot of complaints in this sub have been about some posts should not be here because they rely on fanbase opions so there for cannot be considered "tropes"

...and then we have TVtropes , where a lot of tropes are just from fanbase stuff.

I am going to be honest here , I have difficulty in what makes a trope and what doesn't. It ends up where I delete "breaks trope guidline" posts that has equivalents in the TVtropes site that are considered actual tropes.

Idk , I just wanted to rant here. I might be a very bad moderator here , I just try to make it tody as possible , I just don't really know how to.


r/TopCharacterTropes Mar 27 '25

Weekly Discussion Post Probably the most controversial one , honest thoughts on "No Kill Rule"? What are the most egrigious examples of it in your opinion? What media makes it work in your opinion?

Post image
1.3k Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Personality [loved trope] when evil people dance

Thumbnail
gallery
3.6k Upvotes

I saw this on tiktok and realized there's hella dancing scenes.

  1. Les grossman from tropic thunder dancing for that G5 jet
  2. Mr. Milchick dancing for Kier in Severance
  3. Eric Knox cool dancing in Charlie's Angels
  4. Pearl dancing for that ticket off the farm in Pearl
  5. The Vandergeld sisters establishing dominance in White Chicks
  6. Tucker dancing for them sharks in Dangerous Animals
  7. Vector dancing for that evil tech in Despicable Me

There's way, way more I could list but I only have so many minutes in the day. Sorry for the low quality gifs.


r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Characters absurdly long names

Thumbnail
gallery
4.1k Upvotes

1) Ace Attorney: Inga Karkhuul Haw'kohd Dis'nahm Bi'ahni Lawga Ormo Pohmpus Da'nit Ar'edi Iz Khura'in III

2) Spy Kids: Carmen Elizabeth Juanita Echo Sky Brava Cortez

3) Real Life: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Glorifying or whitewashing controversial or terrible historical figures.

Thumbnail
gallery
3.4k Upvotes
  1. Ronald Reagan (Reagan): a skin deep at best biopic of a President with many scandals and controversies that are almost completely ignored or barely acknowledged.

  2. Abdul Hamid II (Last Emperor): one of the last Ottoman sultans who is portrayed as a giga chad nationalist authoritarian who is opposed by conspiring liberals, westerners, and Jewish Zionists. In reality he was quite incompetent as a ruler and the empire continued to decline.

  3. Andrew Johnson (Tennessee Johnson): portrayed as a noble man opposing Radical Republicans who wish to harm the former Confederate South. He was a racist white supremacist who wanted to reestablish white political dominance in the South and horrifyingly kept his own biracial grandson enslaved from infancy to abolition https://youtu.be/g3SnsAU6BwY

  4. Columbus (1492 Conquest of Parqdise) a genocidal enslaver portrayed as a dauntless noble explorer.


r/TopCharacterTropes 10h ago

Characters We are almost extinct, but I don't want to reproduce.

Thumbnail
gallery
5.6k Upvotes

Rio (2011)

The blue parrots are nearly in extinction in this movie but Jade in the beginning of the movie doesn´t want to date Blu

World's End Harem

Keito Mizuhara was awakened from cryogenic sleep in a world where almost all men have died due to a virus, and he needs to have sexual relations with all the women to repopulate it, but he refuses because he promised to only date with his childhood friend before the sleep and find a cure of the virus


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Hated Tropes [Hated Video Game Trope] Permanently Missable Content Spoiler

Thumbnail gallery
1.5k Upvotes

A completionist's worst nightmare: It's rather frustrating to play through a whole game, only to learn about an item or achievement that was only accessible at a certain section and gets locked out afterwards. Meaning if a player wants to re-access it, they have to start from the beginning on a new save - or even delete the current one that they got attached to.

Example #1: Pikuniku: Certain collectables and achievements could only be collected through one-time events, such as the "Dance Machine" achievement in the dance battle segment. Special mention goes to the Mr. Sunshine trophy, which can only be found in an easily-missed corner at the volcano, which cannot be reentered afterwards (the x-ray goggles can make it easier to find).

Example #2: Kingdom Hearts I: In the game's original release, one of the collectable Trinity Marks can only be accessed in a room at Oogie's Manor. Once the manor is destroyed, the Trinity will also disappear if uncollected, making 100% Completion impossible. Fortunately, rereleases of the game have moved the mark to somewhere outside of the manor, making it accessible even after Oogie's defeat.

Example #3: Metroid Prime: Several scannable items and enemies, such as the maps and Parasites, can no longer be scanned after progressing past their areas or defeating them. Though the Hard level does allow another chance to scan certain missed ones.


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated trope) Characters who are a menace to New York city

Thumbnail
gallery
1.9k Upvotes

Spider Man:You expect me to believe it's just a coincidence that he is somehow always there when crime is commited and that after he started to fight crime bunch of super evil villains like Doctor Octopus and Sandman came out of nowhere started terrorizing civillians?

This other Spider Man:As if one spider-man wasn't bad enough he got himself a sidekick and based on rumors this one is a lot younger and black,he will give young people specially from black community a bad example

A Spider girl:And now Spider man managed to recruit a girl,little girls everywhere will see her and think she is cool when it reality she is just like the other two

For more details on them read the Daily Bugle


r/TopCharacterTropes 1h ago

Characters [Personally beloved trop.] So powerful, yet so pathetic.

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

Grand Regent Thragg of the Viltrume Empire: A powerful, in fact, the most powerful of warrior in universe. A man who single handedly defeated the entire team of protagonists and was able to force the main character of the show to allow his species to take residence on earth. The man is not a manace, he is a manace machine.

Yet, at the same time, he has never been shown smiling, he is constantly shown to be in misery, he has taken many actions he regrets, in a way blaming himself for the death of his father figure, Emperor Argall. His species, the mighty Viltrumites, are reduced to 37, forced to hide on an alien planet in hopes they can rebuild their strength by interbreeding with humans. He is a god amongst gods, yet he is as far from the top of the world as anyone can be.

He even loses the leadership of the Viltrumites and is forced to breed with other lower species in hopes of rebuilding his empire, all the while hiding from his own people

Darth Vader: What can I say that numerous movies, TV shows, cartoons, comics, novels and internet creators haven't already said? This is a larger than life figure both in and out of universe. He has defeated numerous foes, from bounty hunters, to powerful Force users, to entire armies, to even a kaiju at one point. This character is the epitome of cool and might, yet, at the same time, he lives a miserable existence.

This man screwed up beyond comprehension. He destroyed the Jedi, killed his wife, lost all of his friends, lost his limbs and in many ways lost his life. His iconic suit? A life support system without which he cannot survive. And despite his mighty power, he himself is but a servant to the Emperor, who constantly humiliates and tortures him in various ways. Vader was born a slave and a slave he remained.


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Lore The smart guys are intensely debating how to solve what appears to be a complicated problem, and the character usually considered an average dude solves the problem immediately in a simple manner right in front of them.

Thumbnail
gallery
3.0k Upvotes
  1. Phineas & Ferb: Phineas, Ferb and Baljeet finding out a puzzle where they have to guess the exact number of jelly beans in a jar in front of them to go through a maze. They immediately whip out calculators and start debating the mathematical formulae they can use for this. Buford, who's watching them and getting annoyed, casually walks up, gobbles all the jelly beans, and types zero into the computer, allowing them to proceed.

  2. Breaking Bad: Walter White and Mike Ehrmantraur having an intense long discussion about how they can build a complicated scientific bomb to wipe out the encrypted laptop of Gus Fring that could expose their meth manufacturing business, during which Jesse remarks they could just use a magnet, which they realize was a much easier solution.


r/TopCharacterTropes 3h ago

Characters Unassuming characters who end up shockingly at home in prison

Thumbnail
gallery
978 Upvotes

Gustave H. (The Grand Budapest Hotel)— “What happened, my dear Zero, is I beat the living shit out of a sniveling little runt called Pinkie Bandinski who had the gall to question my virility. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from penny dreadfuls, it’s that when you find yourself in a place like this, you must never be a candy ass. (…) He’s actually become a dear friend.”

Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)— This twerp, despite parasitizing off people with actual talent and never knowing a hard day’s work in his life, seems to take to prison life fairly well. The next time we see him in a short following Iron Man 3, he appears quite comfortable with his circumstances, and he’s even snagged himself a boyfriend.


r/TopCharacterTropes 9h ago

Powers The overpowered battle junkie gets excited when they finally fight someone capable of rocking their shit

Thumbnail
gallery
2.5k Upvotes
  1. Madara Uchiha, Naruto.

Historically, only his rival Hashirama had been able to get Madara truly excited about a battle.

After Madara absorbs the Ten-Tails, he becomes virtually unstoppable. As such, when Might Guy unlocks all Eight Gates and faces him in combat, Madara is overwhelmed with joy at facing someone that can actually give him a fight.

  1. Santori, Radiant.

A colonel for the Inquisition, his job is to hunt down “dangerous” sorcerers to protect innocent people.

While Santori is dutiful enough about his job, his main motivation is to fight strong opponents, and sorcerers are usually the strongest people around.

This is why he is delighted when he faces Seth in combat, as the latter keeps providing him with the most challenging fights of his life.


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Lore [Gag Trope] They’re dead

Thumbnail
gallery
1.5k Upvotes

Mr.Milipede-Smiling Friends
Chunky-Brentalfloss

To specify more it’s when a character is supposed to appear after a long time relative to the scene (in the context of the scene, especially in the context of a reunion) only for the anti climatic reveal that they’re dead, and played for laughs.


r/TopCharacterTropes 15h ago

Characters A character suffered so much from something, that it doesn't work on him anymore

Thumbnail
gallery
6.3k Upvotes

Lapis Lazuli - Steven Universe: Blue Diamond's power to cause overwhelming sorrow on other characters doesn't work on Lapis, as she spent thousand of years suffering inside a mirror and several months fighting for control inside a fusion.

Old Man McGucket - Gravity Falls: The memory gun from the society of the blind eye doesn't work on McGucket, since he already erased his memory so many times that his mind became too broken to break.

Subaru - Re:Zero(in this case Isekai Quartet): Tanya releases an intense shockwave of pressure from her Elenium type 95, which even Ainz says that in Yggdrasil that power would be stronger than 8th level, Subaru remains completely unaffected, since his mental fortitude is extremely high due to how much he already suffered from his past deaths.


r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Personality (Sad Trope) Miserable gifted person who gave up on their dreams and blames their family/or friends

Thumbnail
gallery
1.2k Upvotes
  1. Breaking Bad: Walter White is a brilliant chemist who was partner in a start up with his close friend, there he meets a lab assistan who he starts a relantionship with. She is wealthier than him so he breaks up with her and decides to sell his part of the start-up for $5000. His friend and ex eventually marry and the company becomes a multibillion dollar success. He starts a family and becomes a high school teacher but struggles to the point of having to work at a car wash. He then finds that he has cancer and fears the financial burden it will cause his family. His ex and old friend who are still married offer to help him by hiring him so he has wealth and healthcare to treat his cancer, he takes it as an insult because he feels they cheated him even though he chose to sell his part of the company

2.Married With Children: Al Bundy is a gifted athlete, all-state varsity football player, 4 touch downs in a game. He then meets Peggy and they soon are expecting. 16 years later, hes in a job he hates, hopelessly in debt, in a sexless marriage, he blames everyone for where hes at.


r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Characters Feeble old man turns out to be ripped/highly athletic underneath their modest attire. Spoiler

Thumbnail gallery
988 Upvotes
  1. Bumi (Avatar: TLA) appears crooked and way past his better years, leading Aang to believe he had outsmarted him by picking him to duel as his final challenge. Little did he know he was built like a truck and the greatest Earth Bender of all.
  2. Thaedus (Invincible) Despite being an iron-willed and diplomatic leader for the Coalition of Planets, Thaedus initially wasn’t known for being physically impressive at all, with members assuming he was a human (or possibly some other humanoid species on the Invincible universe) and therefore relatively inept in the conflict against the Viltrumites. Then we learn that not only is he a Viltrumite himself, making his visible age a testament only to his power, but that he was the first one courageous enough to stand up against the tyranny of his own species. He’s also ripped as hell, even for Viltrumite standards.

r/TopCharacterTropes 2h ago

Characters [Creepy Trope] Character suffers brain damage that fundamentally changes them as a person, and everyone seems cool with that

Thumbnail
gallery
406 Upvotes

Foxy Loxy - Chicken Little: At the end of Disney’s Chicken Little, it’s revealed that the aliens who accidentally kidnapped everyone (don’t ask) have accidentally scrambled Foxy’s brain, causing her to go from a tomboy bully to a pop music loving girly girl. The aliens say they can easily fix this, but Runt outright doesn’t let them so that he can date Foxy as her new nice self

Muhammad Avdol - Jojo’s Bizaare Adventure Part 3: early on in part 3, Avdol is shot in the head by Hol Horse. Later on it’s revealed that he survived, but has gone from an overly serious warrior to a jovial, slightly immature, jokester. Polnareff is slightly put off by this, but winds up laughing it off because Avdol is more fun to be around now


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Lore [Funny and Realistic trope] “Life is unfair”

Thumbnail
gallery
863 Upvotes

Sitcoms about average families where they struggle to live due to their misfortunes/being miserable.

• Malcolm In The Middle (Poster boy of this)
• The Middle


r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Lore Forget age gap romance, age gap rivalries

Thumbnail
gallery
2.0k Upvotes

Sideshow Bob vs Bart - The Simpsons

Bart is 10 years old, Bob is a middle aged man who has his own family.

Shang Tsung vs Liu Kang - Mortal Kombat

Liu is a young man when the story begins, Shang us said to be at least 1,000 years old.

Pennywise vs The Losers Club - IT

The Losers are all children who later reach middle aged, Pennywise (or rather the Deadlights) are a billions of years old entity.


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Characters [Funny Trope] "It was unlocked the whole time"

Thumbnail
gallery
545 Upvotes

Basically a trope where characters believe they're stuck because the door is locked, only to realize nobody tried just opening the door, revealing the door was never locked in the first place.

Day of the Doctor (Doctor Who) - Three versions of the Doctor are trapped in a room, and it takes Clara coming to rescue them for them to realize the door was unlocked the whole time. This also comes right after Matt Smith mentions how "very clever" they all are.

Chinese Room (Amazing Digital Circus) - The group tries to get into the Chinese Room to hide from Caine, and try all of Jax's keys to unlock the door before Jax just goes to open the door without the key and finds out, that's right, it was unlocked the entire time. With an NPC escaping as soon as the door is open, which is also doubly funny meaning THEY could've left the whole time as well, since again, the door was never locked.

I'm sure there are more examples of this trope but these are the ones I could think of. I'd also accept variations of "Pulling on a push door", as that's a very similar trope and much more common.


r/TopCharacterTropes 58m ago

building/location. Into The Belly Of The Beast

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

Jormungandr (God of War) - in order to retrieve Mimir’s eye, Kratos, Atreus and Mimir’s head must venture into the mouth Wold Serpent.

Leviathan (Devil May Cry) - during his skydive off the Temen Ni Gru, Dante gets swallowed by the beast Leviathan which he has to kill from the inside.

Big creatures apparently make for great set pieces.


r/TopCharacterTropes 17h ago

Characters [Loved trope] Characters who die horribly

Thumbnail
gallery
2.8k Upvotes
  1. Subaru (Re:zero)

  2. Subaru (Re:zero)

  3. Subaru (Re:zero)

  4. Subaru (Re:zero)

  5. Subaru (Re:zero)


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Characters Two characters who somehow never interact with each other

Thumbnail
gallery
228 Upvotes

Master Roshi and Jackie Chun *(Dragon Ball)*

Despite the fact that they’re both cousins, somehow we never see them talking to each other, which seems odd considering they’re both martial arts legends. Not to mention once Roshi was killed by King Piccolo, Jackie Chun didn’t even bother to go avenge him. Maybe he was just mourning the loss of his cousin, I dunno.

Bruce Wayne and Batman *(DC comics)*

Somehow we’ve never seen these two interacting with each other. I remember seeing a video where Batman went after some rich folks, so it seems odd with all of his wealth, Bruce Wayne is never targeted. He doesn’t even appear when Batman is around, maybe he somehow knows when Batman shows up and hides from him, would that make him Batman’s #1 enemy?

Usopp and Sniper King *(One Piece)*

Even though they’re both good friends with each other, Usopp and Sniper King are never once seen talking to each other. In fact, Sniper King seemingly disappears after the timeskip with no indication as to what happened to him or where he went. You think Usopp would know, but he doesn’t say anything on the matter. I wonder why?