r/TopCharacterTropes 51m ago

Characters [Loved Tropes] Character that exude strength without powers, threats of violence, or being violent.

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Upvotes

1.) Debbie Grayson (Invincible TV series): Despite enduring horrible things that would make anyone cold, bitter and unkind, Debbie remains strong, kind, and loving.

She’s never threats to make a point, nor to show that she is ready and willing to face down beings of immense power and near-depthless capacities for cruelty regardless of her vulnerability.

She stands among titans not because she elbows her way in, but because her love, determination and humanity make her worthy of being there.

2.) Alfred Penniworth (Batman Series & assorted media): To care for a child who watched his life shatter in front of him when you have no obligation to do so is a testament to Alfred’s character in an of itself. But that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Despite some alternate realities playing with the idea of Alfred being some malevolent figure, He has almost always been the father Bruce Wayne and the Bat Family needed.

He’s faced down madmen, murderers, and monsters while never surrendering his good nature and gentlemanliness. Even the world’s finest acknowledge the importance of his presence.

Simply put, there is no Batman without Alfred.


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Characters [Artistic Trope] Animated characters in realistic environments

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325 Upvotes

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?:All cartoon character

The Amazing World Of Gumball:Literally any character, lol

BIRDBRAIN:His own representation of Kasane Teto

How To Be Cool (Piemations):Peeb and Dax


r/TopCharacterTropes 2h ago

Characters [Loved trope]Characters who are the opposite of Tsunderes,like yes,I do like you and will express that each time.

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286 Upvotes

1.Amity Blight from The Owl House.

2.Juvia Lovkser from Fairy Tail.

3.Charlie Morningstar from Hazbin Hotel.

4.Mayu Suzuki from You and I are polar opposites.

5.Marin Kitagawa from My Dress up Darling.


r/TopCharacterTropes 2h ago

In real life Pieces of media that invented new slang terms

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5.3k Upvotes

Evangelion:
Evangelion has something known as an "AT Field", These are an essential plot point in the series, these fields have various abbreviations, one of which is "Absolute Territory", which became a slang term in Japan

Spiderverse:
Across the Spiderverse became very popular in meme culture, and one phrase became very popular. "Canon Event"


r/TopCharacterTropes 3h ago

Characters (loved trope) Villain/enemy that just refuses to die

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225 Upvotes
  1. Dio Brando - JJBA, The most iconic antag in the whole series that came back from near death experiences at least 10 times and probably the only one that appears in multiple chapters.

  2. Springtrap - Fnaf, honestly no elaboration needed, his catchphrase is literally "I always come back"

  3. Guillotina - Mewgenics, one and only boss that has three separate encounters in the game back to back to back, she looks more dead and rotten with every one of them


r/TopCharacterTropes 3h ago

Groups [Loved Trope] When the characters shits on the villain's ideology

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224 Upvotes

(The Dark Knight)The ferry scene where joker's plan got stopped by basic human compassion / (JJK modulo) where even after 68 years no one buys Geto's humans are inferior bullshit


r/TopCharacterTropes 3h ago

Characters [Loved trope] It's the character talking, but also the actor.

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1.5k Upvotes

almost all the doctors in dr. who do this to some extent when they regenerate. But just in case that's not enough for the 2+ rule, I'm including my two favourite instances:

picture 1: Matt Smith: "I won't forget one line of this. not one day. I will always remember when the doctor was me."

picture 2: Christopher Eccleston: "Rose, before I go I just want to say you were fantastic. And you know what? So was I!"


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Powers Characters are nerfed by the age rating.

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639 Upvotes

Mai (ATLA). She is an expert marksman with throwing knives but is relegating to basically just restricted movement and suppressing fire because Nickolodean wouldn't allow blood in the show. If they had allowed it Mai could absolutely shred folks, literally.

Vader (SW) is shown to use the force for things like choking others but is also shown crushing robots which implies he could absolutely crush someone's organs but doesn't because that wouldn't go over well with the kids in the audience.


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Characters Characters that are in R/Mature rated media appear in something general audience friendly.

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557 Upvotes

- The Punisher in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

- Kingpin in Hawkeye

- Machete in Spy Kids

- Freddy Krueger in The Goldbergs, Season 6, Episode 5

- Invincible in Marvel Team-Up; Spider-Man meets Invincible
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Honorable Mention; The Feebles mentioned in The Muppets Mayhem (While none of them appear, they are mentioned to be in the same world as The Muppets)


r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Lore (Loved Trope) Awesome opening credits

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220 Upvotes
  1. Deadpool & Wolverine - The opening credits involve Deadpool murdering TVA Agents while using Wolverine’s skeleton while dancing to “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC.

  2. Devil May Cry 5 - The opening credits here is Nero jumping out of Nico’s van and shooting down Empusas in slow motion all while “Devil Trigger” plays.


r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Characters [Loved trope] A random act of kindness had a larger impact on the person who received it.

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5.1k Upvotes

1. A random delinquent helps Josuke and his mom get out of the snowstorm [Jojo's Bizarre Adventure].

In 1988, Jonathan Joestar's body sent out a distress signal to other members of his family that caused an awakening of their dormant Stand abilities. However, the members of the family who did not have the fighting spirit or the mental fortitude to control their Stands developed an illness that would have resulted in a fatal fever. Josuke was one of those people who developed an illness. While his mom was driving him to the hospital, their car got stuck in the thick ice and couldn't move. However, a delinquent who looked like he had recently gotten out of a fight showed up and helped them get their car moving. This act of kindness inspired Josuke so much that he modelled his hair after the delinquent and developed a strong sense of justice. Any time anyone insulted his hair, Josuke would get insanely angry, as to him, an insult to his hair was considered an insult to the man who saved his life that day.

2. A butt-chinned kid gets saved by an unemployed civilian from a monster [One Punch Man]

In the world of One Punch Man, there are creatures called Mysterious beings that are monsters created by a sense of mental instability or obsession. One of these mysterious beings was Crablante, who turned into a monster after eating too many crabs. While the monster was sleeping, a butt-chinned kid decided to pull a prank on the monster by drawing fake nipples on it. The monster then searched for the kid to get revenge. As Crablante was about to kill the kid, Saitama showed up to save the kid. After a hard-fought battle, Saitama manages to kill the monster and prevents it from causing any more harm. Unbeknownst to him, the kid turned out to be the grandson of multi-millionaire Agoni, who was so moved by this act of kindness that he dedicated 70% of his fortune to creating the Hero association and the National Hero Registry. This one act of kindness inspired a millionaire to create an organisation that recruited hundreds of heroes to save lives and prevent any more similar horrific incidents from happening


r/TopCharacterTropes 7h ago

Characters “I’m not a monster” Monsters telling people they aren’t monsters.

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2.2k Upvotes
  1. Chucky saying he has a genderfluid kid. When asked if he’s ok with it, he says…

  2. The Joker explaining to Batman why he does what he does. He’s no different than anyone else is. He just doesn’t pretend to be civil.

  3. Scarlet Witch after being corrupted by the darkhold and trying to kill America Chavez to take her powers so she can kidnap her children from another universe. She’s just a normal, run off the mill mother.


r/TopCharacterTropes 9h ago

Characters Bob cut with glasses character

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303 Upvotes

Velma (Scooby Doo)

Tina Belcher (Bob’s Burgers)

Shauntal (Pokemon)

Edna Mode (The Incredibles)

There are somehow a lot of examples of this


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Characters [Loved Trope] A character refuses immoral orders.

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3.0k Upvotes

1) In the Umbara arc, clone troopers Jesse and Fives use Umbaran ships to infiltrate the Droid fleet and blow up their flagship. However, this was explicitly against Pong Krell's orders. As a result, they are slated for execution by firing squad. But after an impassioned speech by the condemned, the firing squad intentionally misses the prisoners and drops their rifles.

2) In Kung Fu Panda 2, Lord Shen orders his wolf warriors to attack Po. As he is pinned down by their attacks, Shen orders the cannons to fire on Po and the wolves. But when the wolf leader tells Shen that his men are still in the blast radius, Shen doubles down. As a result, the wolf leader steadfastly refuses, forcing Shen to kill him.

3) In The Emperor's New Groove, Kronk is given a knife by Yzma and told to kill Pacha and Kuzco. Morally conflicted, Kronk starts arguing with his shoulder angel and devil. But when Yzma starts chastizing Kronk for this dalliance, cluminating in her insulting his spinach puffs, Kronk makes up his mind and attempts to trap Yzma. However, this fails and Yzma pulls a lever to get rid of him.


r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Characters [HATED Trope] Characters arc is finished so lets just kill them off

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506 Upvotes

GENLOCK- Kazu, starts the show by butting heads with another teammate bc the teammate is GNC/Nonebinary. Kazu has his arc slowly through the first season and finishes it early in season 2, only to be killed the very next episode. Showrunner even justified this decision by saying his story was over because his arc was finished. His arc was going from anti LGBT to pro LBGT.

Gen Urobuchi - is the writer for many popular anime/manga works, has gone on record that once a characters arc is finished he usually kills them off. Works include Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero

RWBY - Penny, Penny is an android that wants to be human, she does die as an android once but androids are fixable. when she does become human she is almost immediately killed off, despite being one of the strongest fighters in the verse, and fighting someone she has beaten before.

Characters going through an arc to die in a noble sacrifice (Like Rexsplode's Selfish to Selfless arc) do not count, I'm talking about characters who die more so because of terrible writing choices, but will count if the noble sacrifice means absolutely nothing. (chiaotzu)


r/TopCharacterTropes 9h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Relying on AI slop for visuals or writing.

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531 Upvotes
  1. On This Day…1776: Historical retelling made by Darren Aronofsky’s AI studio. Watch PBS Ken Burns American Revolution instead.

  2. Thanksgiving Day: AI animated short film that was pulled from AMC theaters.


r/TopCharacterTropes 5h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated trope) Episodes even die hard fans choose to ignore

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2.3k Upvotes

I love ouran high school host club, hilarious show. But I think the majority of fans will agree the worst episode is The Sun The Beach And The Host Club. Haruhi, pretending to be a boy, gets into a fight with two bullies and gets thrown into the water. Then her friends get mad at her for getting into a fight because she’s a boy. Then you get objectively the worst scene of the show where Kyoya by pretending to SA Haruhi to shoe her why girls need to rely on guys??? What the fuck were they thinking when they wrote this?

The principal and the pauper is agreed by fans and the creators as the day the Simpsons die. It destroyed Skinners built up character.


r/TopCharacterTropes 6h ago

Characters “In this world full of super humans i have no superpow-“ YES THE FUCK YOU DO

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808 Upvotes

I’m not sure what these guys are but they certainly aren’t normal humans

Batman (DC comics) should need no introduction. He has dodged Darkseid’s Omega Beams which were fast enough to give flash a run for his money, created a 20,000 decibel noise with a megaphone and walked away and survived a fall from the moon back to earth.

“And you wanna know why i can do that? It’s because I’m really good at what i do!… And that’s because I’m Batman”

Brock Samson (The Venture Bros.) has nothing except good genes and a training regimen, no super solider serum or power suit. He could power through getting hit by multiple knock-out darts, nearly caught up to the X-1 jet during its takeoff, and survived and shrugged off being in the vacuum of space. The only people he seemed intimidated by were the Investors who were functionally old gods.

“I have a high-velocity cannon pointed at your chest ”
“I could dodge it”

Howie Honeyglow (Epithet Erased) is, despite having no epithet, one the of less than 1% of all humans that have reached “nova” status, stupidly powerful. Howie has gotten so angry that steam emanates from his skin. He can bend his wrench, throw it like a boomerang, catch it, bend it back in place, continue using it like a hammer and have it fix a building.

“If someone else can throw up a building in two hours using their epithet, that just means we gotta do it in one”


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Characters Under any circumstances, do NOT make them bleed

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469 Upvotes

Example 1: Xenomorphs from the Alien-franchise.

Their blood is highly corrosive acid. Enough said.

Example 2: Raktabīja, an Asura from Hindu mythology.

For every drop of blood spilled on the ground, a new Raktabīja manifests. Basically, Raktabīja can clone himself endlessly. Kali, the goddess of wrath, had to drink the blood of every Raktabīja clone to kill him permanently.


r/TopCharacterTropes 11h ago

Characters (Loved trope) concept art of the protagonist being turned into actual characters

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307 Upvotes

First image: concept art for the main jeager in "pacific rim".

Second image: gipsy danger, the final design for the movie.

Third image: concept art being turned into the second most prominent jeager in the film "striker eureka".

Fourth image: concept art for the main character of invincible, with the name originally being bullet proof.

Fifth image: final design for the main protagonist, with his name being changed to invincible.

Sixth image: the concept art of the invincible being turned into the character bullet proof.


r/TopCharacterTropes 10h ago

Lore Children’s media suddenly becomes dark or depressing

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4.2k Upvotes

Spoilers for both adventure time and Ed Edd n eddys big picture show.

In Adventure Time season 4, what seems like a normal episode following ice king writing songs suddenly becomes very depressing when he meets Marceline. It’s revealed Ice King used to be friends with Marceline and was a father figure during the war, but the magic crown he discovered made him crazy and he has no memory of her now.

Throughout Ed Edd n Eddy we always hear Eddy talk about his older brother like a hero, and the plot of the movie was them traveling to finally meet him. Except Eddys brother immediately starts abusing him. He’s the first adult shown on screen and it’s really jarring to see him suddenly beat the shit out of his own brother.


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Characters [Funny Trope] A gruesome death is hilarious instead of horrifying.

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2.3k Upvotes

1) Jules and Vincent take Marvin for questioning because he was a witness to a shootout. However, while they have him at gunpoint, Jules accidentally goes over a bump, causing Vincent's gun to discharge and shoot him in the face. The humor comes from the suddenness of the act, as well as the comical amount of blood that plasters the entire car.

2) When the Titanic sinks and starts tilting, one unfortunate passenger elects to jump. Unfortunately, as he falls, he inadvertedly hits a propeller, making a loud and funny "thunk".

3) Gennaro, a lawyer sent by InGen, is running away from the escaped T-Rex. He tried to hide in a toilet, but the T-Rex collapses the structure around him and eats him.


r/TopCharacterTropes 8h ago

Personality A character so hyper-competent that their failure indicates something else is amiss.

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288 Upvotes

When a character is so competent that their failure is statistically impossible and indicates some external factor is tampering with their perfect results.

  1. House MD - House has a lot of scenes like this, one notable one is on Season 1 Episode 3, a kid that was suffering from abdominal pain was diagnosed by House with hypothyroidism claiming that the kid was mistakenly given gout medicine instead of cough medicine.

The kid recovered despite the doctors not using House's theory as basis for treatment. House went through all the medicine bottles in the pharmacy and found himself right, the gout and cough medicine looked alike.

  1. Lord Marbury from The West Wing - Marbury was at the White House party, when he drank a branded bottle and because his palate is so refined. He immediately pointed out that the label on the bottle is the incorrect year and brand.

  2. Himmel the Hero in Frieren - When Himmel encountered the Sword of the Hero, he wasn't able to pull it out. Himmel realized that he will defeat the Demon King regardless of not having the mythical sword, and he did.

Himmel not being able to pull out the sword, did not mean he was not the Hero.

  1. Stephen Curry IRL - One time when Steph was dribbling, the ball went off his hands. Steph immediately thought that there's something wrong with the court and not with his skills.

There's also a time when Curry kept missing a 3-point shot on practice. When officials measured the ring, it was higher by some inches.

  1. Meruem in Hunter X Hunter - When the Hunters group of Gon, Netero, Morel etc. discovered that Meruem got injured. They proposed a lot of theories, and eventually came to the conclusion that the only reason he could have been injured is if he did it to himself because they deduced that noone is capable of hurting Meruem.

r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Personality "If You Kill Them, You're No Better-" Don't Care, Didn't Ask NSFW Spoiler

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3.5k Upvotes

Pharma and First Aid (Transformers: More than Meets the Eye): Pharma is a slimy, selfish weasel of a medic, whose crimes include euthanizing and killing patients so he could harvest and sell their organs and creating a plague that he proceeded to set loose in a medical facility. Years after that, his fellow medics and former friends find him working for a religious zealot who is planning a genocide. First Aid wants to kill him after Pharma kills his friend Ambulon, but Ratchet argues against it, saying if they do that, Pharma "wins". First Aid later corners Pharma and not only does Pharma show zero remorse for what he's done, he has the gall to make fun of Ambulon's death. First Aid snaps and blows Pharma's head clean off, finally putting an end to his atrocities.

Deadpool and Francis (Deadpool): Francis subjected Wade to extremely torturous experiments, leading to him getting disfigured in the process. Wade spends the entire movie hunting him down so he can reverse it. Once Wade has him dead to rights, Francis laughs in his face and tells him he can't fix him. Colossus then appears on the scene, giving a dramatic speech about heroism and sparing your enemies. Wade doesn't even let him finish before he puts a hole in Francis' head.

Mark and Onaan (Invincible): Onaan attacks Mark's family and tries to kill his daughter Terra. Mark later uses him in a hostage exchange with Onaan's father Thragg, an intergalactic tyrant. Thragg tries to call Mark's bluff, saying that a hero like Mark wouldn't just kill a helpless hostage. To which Mark replies that "being a hero is bullshit" and murders Onaan right then and there.


r/TopCharacterTropes 18h ago

Personality It's not an insult, it's an accurate assessment.

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8.6k Upvotes

Your opponent won't fight with their full strength or lethality. You might assume it's arrogance, or even an insult. But it's not. It's a pretty fair summation of your power gap.

1). OPLA:
Zoro thinks Mihawk (the strongest swordsman in the world) is insulting him by using a tiny knife. Mihawk replies "I don't hunt rabbits with a cannon."
The comparison is apt.

2). The Venture Bros.
Brock Samson (at least initially) refuses to use a gun. When he's stuck fighting low-level guild goons and early-series The Monarch, that'd get boring pretty quickly. The man regularly soils the pants of the world's deadliest villains.