r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jul 12 '25

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

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564 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?

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1.5k Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes • • 4h ago

Characters That one scene where the budget increase's so much it's comical

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5.6k Upvotes

Charro Negro (Legend Quest/Las Leyendas)

With the rest of the movie using subpar flash animation this moment here feels like the equivalent to Vincent Chansard animating a scene for a show like Total Drama or Johnny Test (I love Legend Quest but its animation is definitely a weak point)

James Baxter animating Gumball (Gumball)

Honestly any time James Baxter shows up in a Cartoon Network show its gonna kinda stand out (in a good way)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 9h ago

Lore Actors who suggested a change to their character’s design, personality, or lore because they thought the original script/concept was too lame

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12.5k Upvotes

Lucius Malfoy (Harry Potter) - Jason Isaacs

The studio originally wanted him in a modern Muggle pinstripe suit with short hair. Isaacs thought that looked like a boring businessman rather than a powerful wizard. He demanded the long platinum wig, wizard robes, and personally added the snake-headed walking cane that conceals his wand.

The Thin Man (Charlie's Angels 2000) - Crispin Glover

In the original script, he was just a generic, chatty action movie villain. Glover thought his lines were incredibly cliché and boring, so he suggested cutting all of his dialogue. He turned the character into a completely silent, hair-sniffing creep, making him the most memorable part of the movie.

Count Dooku (Star Wars) - Christopher Lee: In Episode II, George Lucas originally scripted/choreographed Dooku to use a standard, straight lightsaber. As a real-world world-class fencer, Lee found the standard hilt design clumsy and "lame" for a master duelist. He convinced the team to give Dooku the curved hilt, completely changing the character's fighting style and lore to fit elegant, fencing-based Makashi forms.

Superman (Superman 2025) - David Corenswet Following Henry Cavill's trunkless suit, director James Gunn and DC Studios initially leaned toward a "no trunks" design for the reboot, fearing that the classic red briefs looked too outdated, silly, or hard to make look "cool." However, David Corenswet passionately advocated for the trunks. He argued that Superman shouldn't care about looking cool. Instead, the trunks are intentionally a little silly and theatrical — like a professional wrestler—making an immensely powerful alien look approachable and safe, ensuring that everyday citizens and kids wouldn't be afraid of him.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 1h ago

Hated Tropes Stupid Contrived Survival Stories

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• Upvotes
  1. 12 Feet Deep - Two idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST go swimming in a pool after it's closed. An incredibly contrived sequence of events happens so they get stuck in a pool. So the movie can happen.

  2. Frozen (not that one) - Three idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST get on a ski-lift after it's closed. To the point of bribing the operator who for some stupid reason doesn't say anything. Do the movie can happen. Also, Wolves are not that aggressive. They are typically shy and avoid humans.

  3. 47 Meters Down- Arguably the most believable scenario on this list. It's still really stupid.

  4. Fall- Two idiots decide to climb an abandoned radio tower without proper equipment that would make escaping their predicament trivially easy. Stop me if you've heard this one before

so the movie can happen.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 6h ago

Lore The outsider earns everyone’s respect by accomplishing something extremely hard, or even supposed to be impossible

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2.2k Upvotes
  1. Tarzan, Tarzan

Tarzan was adopted by gorillas when he was a baby. As a human, he was always an outsider among them. This lessened as he grew older, but it was still there.

Eventually, Tarzan ends up fighting Sabor, the leopard that killed his parents, as well as the child of his adopted parents.

Tarzan manages to kill her in front of his whole pack, triumphantly lifting her body as everyone cheers him on.

  1. Chihiro, Spirited Away

Chihiro ends up working in an otherworldly bathhouse, hoping to save her parents that got transformed into pigs.

Many of the spirits look down on Chihiro for being a human. Then a polluted spirit arrives, and most of the workers at the bathhouse keep their distance from it.

Chihiro is assigned to clean the polluted spirit. In the process of doing so, she discovers the polluted spirit’s troubles are due to stuck garbage inside its body, which she and the other workers remove by working together.

The polluted spirit is cleansed, and everyone cheers for Chihiro.

  1. Grunt, Mass Effect 2

Grunt was a lab grown Krogan, a fact other Krogans looked down on him for.

He is allowed to take the Rite of Passage that all Krogans must take. During the Rite, the party is attacked by a giant Thresher Maw. It is possible to kill it, and since killing a Thresher Maw on foot is supposed to be borderline impossible, doing so earns Grunt the respect of the Krogan.

  1. Slaine, Aldnoah.Zero

Slaine is from Earth, so he always faced strong discrimination from Martians after arriving on their planet.

As fate would have it, he is adopted as heir of one of the 37 Clans of Orbital Knights. Following the death of his adopted father, Slaine takes his place as count.

In order to silence all voices of disapproval over an earthling becoming a count, Slaine single-handedly attacks one of Earth’s most important military bases, a military target that Martians previously failed to defeat in a recent battle.

Slaine is victorious, and is received with respect upon his return, even from other counts.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 7h ago

miscellaneous Even the camera man couldn't believe it.

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2.4k Upvotes

It Was Them: Ben 10 Omniverse:
- Ben Tennyson calls out Swampfire, but transforms into Echo Echo, but the camera still pans as if he was the taller Swampfire for a fraction of a second before going down to Echo Echo's level.

The Nightmare Begins: Invader Zim:
- Dib points out that there's an alien in the classroom, and the camera pans towards the direction he pointed. It started to go back, be he reiterates his point and it pans back to Zim.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 1h ago

Characters Characters have a certain ritual or technique that is unconventional for someone of their profession

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• Upvotes

Examples:

  • Odysseus (Christopher Nolan's Odyssey) - In the climax of the poem, Odysseus plucks his bow to create a musical note that signifies exactly who he is. The movie expands on this by making it a ritual that Odysseus does, where he plucks his bow before drawing it so that his target is aware of where he is, so that it's a fair fight/chase. He does this because he has a stern sense of honor. This is considered bizarre to many of his peers, as it typically defeats the purpose of hunting.
  • L Lawliet (Death Note) - L is the world's greatest detective. Because of how secretive he is, he seldom goes to a crime scene or actively hunts the criminal himself, instead opting to gather evidence with a small team and compile his notes. Often he'll just be weirdly sitting in a chair, scarfing down sweets while going over findings. This is mostly to avoid any possible risks of being murdered, which comes in handy especially if your opponent is a secret wizard who can kill people by writing their names down.
  • John Wick (John Wick) - Typically, an assassin would use rifles and snipers, but John often uses a pistol in the Center Axis Lock or CAR, which is basically where you treat a handgun like a melee weapon. This is because what makes him successful is how he is able to rampage brutally through waves of enemies.
  • Miyamoto Musashi (IRL) - Miyamoto's entire thing was being unconventional; he lived during the Edo Period when Samurai transitioned from warriors to nobility and when honor codes started to take root. This meant that many Samurai were more interested in order and discipline, while Miyamoto was all about getting victory by any means. One ritual he had was arriving late to a battle to anger his enemy and make them reckless.

r/TopCharacterTropes • • 17h ago

miscellaneous (risky trope) A show changes genres mid way

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10.3k Upvotes

The 100: the show starts as a somewhat grounded post apocalypse where humans who have taken refuge in a space station return to earth after it has become inhabitable again and resources on the space station run out. At first the show is about survival in a hostile environment. It slowly introduces more and more sci fi elements. At first, it's an Aİ that wants control over humanity. Towards the end of the show, the main characters have traveled throughout the galaxy, met humans from other planets, some of which have settled among ruins of ancient alien species, where they try to contact more advanced alien species in order to achieve "transcendence": rid humans of their physical bodies and become a more advanced lifeform.

AOT: this one is less gradual than the 100 and the change comes after a massive plot twist. The first 3 seasons of the show are about a relatively primitive society of humans who live inside humongous walls. Outside the walls are titans: giant monstrous creatures which hunt and devour humans. After a big plot twist and reveal, the society finds out that there is a whole bigger world out there, and the rest of the world is plotting to genocide them. They quickly industrialize after this discovery and wage war against other countries.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 3h ago

Characters Normal sized person takes out a giant

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571 Upvotes

Cole defeating a giant Oni (Ninjago: Duskfall)

Raiden defeating a Metal Gear RAY (Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance)

David defeating Goliath (The Bible)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 11h ago

Characters (Fun trope) Horror protagonists who are arguably a bigger threat than whatever the hell they are fighting:

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2.2k Upvotes

1- Asia Reeves "They will kill you" powers through a entire New York apartment building full of un-killable satanists to save her sister, through pure spite and a decade of prison fighting experience.

2- Ashley J. Williams "Evil dead" franchise, all around lovable looser, with a savant-like aptitude for killing evil monsters, which he does well into his late 60's.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 14h ago

Lore [Specific Trope] Trapped in a pool

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3.5k Upvotes

Slides in order: Bree and Jonna (12 Feet Deep), Day and the crocodile (The Pool), Dale (From), Sims (The Sims franchise)

To count, characters have to be trapped in a pool to the degree where they can't easily get out. It could be filled or empty.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 5h ago

miscellaneous [Mixed Trope] The realistic panic attack

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595 Upvotes

i don’t dislike these scenes at all and some of them are really good, but it feels like this very specific way of showing a panic attack has started showing up a lot in the last few years, especially since Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. loud heartbeat, breathing gets worse, everything around them starts fading out and there’s usually some kind of grounding until it passes. at this point it’s starting to feel a little overused.

Jax (The Amazing Digital Circus). after everything finally catches up with him he starts shutting down. his breathing gets heavier, his heartbeat takes over the audio and he doesn’t have some joke or response ready.

Puss in Boots (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish). after seeing Death again he runs off, can barely breathe and ends up on the ground struggling to talk. Perrito doesn’t try to give him some big speech, he just lies against him until Puss starts calming down. probably the example everyone thinks of now.

Riley (Inside Out 2). starts having one in the penalty box where her breathing gets faster, everything around her starts fading out and she completely loses track of what’s happening. she eventually starts grounding herself with what’s around her until she calms down.

i like this trope when it fits the character, i’ve just seen this kind of scene enough times now that i usually know what’s happening almost immediately.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 2h ago

Characters' Items/Weapons A weapon wielding character is named after a weapon that they don't use.

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298 Upvotes

A weapon using character's name features a weapon they don't actually use

Mace Windu uses a light saber not a bludgeoning weapon or chemical spray- Star Wars

Bayonetta uses many different guns but none of them feature a bayonet- Bayonetta

Decepticon Bludgeon uses a sword- Transformers

Instead of using a flail Charlie Mornstar wields a trident and shield- Hazbin Hotel

Arrow wilds a handgun- Megami Tensei

Kitana is portmanteau of kitsune (Japanese fox spirit) and katana, however there is nothing foxlike about her designand she wields fans instead of a katana.- Mortal Kombat

Pike uses a quarterstaff and various firearms, but not a spear- Wild C.A.T.s/Wildstorm/Image/DC Comics


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 4h ago

Lore Fixing them was actually a lot easier than expected

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420 Upvotes

Majin Buu (Dragon Ball Z) Buu before was on a killing rampage, but he’s basically a man child who was manipulated by Babidi, Buu only took orders from him because he didn’t know any better. Once Goku told him he didn’t have to do what Babidi says, he kills Babidi.

When he meets Mr. Satan, he somehow became friends with him and Mr. Satan simply asked him to stop being evil and killing people, and surprisingly it worked

Second Dimension Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb) He is an alternate version of Doof where he actually is evil and successfully took over the Tri-state area, turning it into a dictatorship. But the reason he became evil was because he lost his toy train as a child (yes that is the real reason, normal Doof points out how petty it is).

So at the end of the movie, Doof was finally able to make it to his apartment and he found the same toy train and gave it to second dimension Doofenshmirtz, which proceeded to make him happy and call off all the robots and destruction and he stops being evil. He still does get arrested though


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 2h ago

Characters [Loved trope] They have a no kill rule. But it is more of "I'll try my best, but if you insist... Aight."

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295 Upvotes

1) "You left me no other choice!"

Especially obvious with Powerplex who is somewhat understandable villain. Mark tries to save him multiple times, and still manages to spare him. But if the villains insist on it being fight to the death and are too dangerous... (Invincible from, uhm, Invincible)

2) "They are trying to kill us Harry! Stop sparing them!"

"Remus, are you aware what happens to human body if you are stunned and ram the ground from half a mile?"

Especially loved because while his mastery of expeliarmus starts as "I am trying to be mercifull," it develops into "don't fear a man who practices thousands cuts, fear a man who practiced one cut thousand times." (Harry Potter from, well take a guess)

3) Old Shatterhand from... This one is actually named after his "brother," Winnetou. Tries to give every villain a chance, but if they are actively under attack, he has no quarrel killing 20 enemies on one page. And while the fact that lot of the main villains gets "Disney death," aka hoisted by their own petard or by some secondary character is rather lame, it is somewhat explored. Such as in the "In Kordofan" where he realises his attempt to give the villain another chance caused many, many deaths when the Bad Guy escaped and kept being evil. And very much hates himself for being weak.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 1h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Demeaning male characters just to prop up female ones.

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• Upvotes
  1. This moment in Doctor Who
  2. There’s a subplot in episode 3 where Pug represents Jen’s obnoxious coworker Dennis (who is a male) who claimed he was catfished by a shapeshifter pretending to be Megan Thee Stallion. Jen testifies that Dennis is so deluded and his ego is so big and that wins the trial. This was the episode with the twerking (She-Hulk: Attorney At Law)

r/TopCharacterTropes • • 3h ago

Personality (Loved trope) Characters with signature Whistles

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192 Upvotes

The Whistling Man (Killer Frequency) everytime they are out to kill you can hear their whistle getting closer

Drifter (Deadlock) Often whistles Hush, Little Baby when using his Ult and is known for doing it often with his victims

Death (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)

Everytime Deaths appears he comes with his whistle that haunts Puss troughout the whole movie


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 15h ago

Lore (Loved Trope) Zombie Plagues not caused by the usual Virus, Bacteria, or Parasite

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1.6k Upvotes
  1. Poxwalkers and Nurgle (Warhammer 40k) While these Zombies are produced by horrific diseases and plagues. The ultimate source and reason behind their Zombification belongs to the Chaos God Nurgle. Meaning the disease ultimately has a core spiritual component to it.

  2. The Autophage (Dead Island) In the Dead Island series. We are initially lead to believe a series of Viruses created by mixing HIV and the Kuru Prion called Pathogen HK is behind the cause of all the outbreaks. Its only in the second game that we learn that HK only triggers a genetic timebomb in ALL of Humanity's Genes.

Meaning? Everyone will become a Zombie or an evolved Superhuman known as Numen. And from what the game said, Humanity only has at least one more generation left until we all sucummb to the Autophage.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 8h ago

miscellaneous A description more vivid than if they actually showed it

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447 Upvotes

Funny enough both of my examples are from the venture brothers

Episode 2 s7; the Rorqual Affair

Dr mrs the monarch: Wait. You were at movie night?"

Red death: "The Guild, before your time, tried to do a hostage thing. Jonas Venture. The big man and his space station. Ah, the '80s. We did that back then.

Dumb kids gonna get famous. Notorious.

We dressed as crew members. Some of us had our space suits on, some of us didn't. With this face, the helmet never came off. Went perfectly. Flawless. Well, until someone opened the bay doors. No one knew who did it.

The crew shot out like their mamas were ringing the dinner bell. You ever see a man die in space? You can tell the ones that held their breath. Their lungs rupture from all that gas expanding. Blood from their mouth like a torn pillow stuffed with red BBs. Stab Girl, she was a little thing, carried switchblades. She knew to exhale.

Watched her for a full minute. Puffed up like she had a peanut allergy. Floating by me with her mouth open, screaming, making no sound, spit on her tongue boiling.

anyway, got to see a little "Sharky's Machine.""

Episode 6 season 7: the bellicose proxy

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

: Well, that's treason. The punishment for that is a classic. It's called the Tub. It's filled with milk, you lay in it, if you're hungry we pour honey on your face.

Guild Stranger S-464: That sounds kind of nice, actually.

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch: At first — ya know, till the milk spoils. Soon the tub fills with your excrement, then the flies, and their maggots. At first it itches a bit, then it starts to burn. Your skin peels away with every scratch you can't stop yourself from making. The blood mixes with the foul milk and excrement, seeping into your open wounds. The smell of your own death causes you to vomit into your already toxic coffin. Then the rats.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 4h ago

Characters Heroes whose source of power is the very evil they are fighting against

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170 Upvotes
  1. Blue Beetle (DC Comics): Jaime Reyes gets his powers through his symbiotic bond to The Scarab, Khaji-Da. Turns out it’s one of many Scarabs created by The Reach, an alien race of conquerors who’d send The Scarabs to make sure they tale over the hosts and conquer planets on their behalf. However, Khaji-Da was damaged which prevented it from fullfilling its purpose of taking over Jaime’s mind. Now, Jaime uses the power of The Scarab for good.
  2. Deku (My Hero Academia): All Might had given him his quirk, One For All. The source of the quirk was All For One’s brother. Thinking his brother was quirkless, AFO had given him the quirk of “stockpiling quirks” which then combined with his own ability of “transferring quirks” to create One For All. This power would be passed down from generations to fight against evil people such as AFO with Deku being the latest.
  3. Kamen Rider (…): Every single Kamen Rider are somewhat related to the villains they are fighting against. Be it them being from the same source (KR Fourze and Horoscopes both using Cosmic Power, KR Saber and Megids both deriving their powers from Book of Omniscience) or being the same species as the monsters they fight (KR Faiz is Orphnoch, KR Kiva is half Fangire, KR Gavv is half Granute). Ever since the first Kamen Rider, every single one of them had their powers be connected to the villains they are fighting.

r/TopCharacterTropes • • 3h ago

Characters (Interesting Trope) Pink is for crazy people

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138 Upvotes

Yuno Gasai (Future Diary)

Homura Momiji (Dr Stone)

Satou (Happy Sugar Life)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 2h ago

Personality The textbook definition of persistent. Almost to an admirable level.

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106 Upvotes

Wile E. Coyote (Looney Tunes)

Bowser (Mario)

Sheldon J. Plankton (SpongeBob SquarePants)