• Lev from The Last of Us Part II: Lev is a trans boy who cannot medically transition due to being in a zombie apocalypse with a fascist government, yet the main cast in the story supports and affirms him as male.
• Denise Bryson from Twin Peaks: A trans woman DEA and FBI agent. She does not pass in the series, which is an integral part of her character; her boss simply tells people who don't like it to "fix their hearts or die."
• Cordelia from Vinland Saga: As a trans woman living in Northern Europe during the Viking age, it is impossible for Cordelia, who has a hulking, muscular figure, to transition to female. But despite not looking the part physically, everyone is cool with it and refers to her as female.
• Ladiva from Granblue Fantasy: A pro wrestler who makes no attempts to pass (save for hair) and is still beloved by the cast as a maternal figure, serving as a stark contrast to her species' women who are petite.

Edit: typos and incorrect lore fixes

A character meant to be very popular with audiences but never caught on even if the rest of the project did

Tori Vega-Victorious

Victorious was created to make Victoria Justice a real pop star the way through the character of Tori Vega the same way Disney did with Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana but while the show was popular Tori ended up being the least popular of the main cast and the plan failed. Ironically the show featured Ariana Grande who did become a real pop star.

Klaus Heisler-American Dad

Early in American Dad Klaus was meant to be one of the mascots for the show along with Roger a la Brian and Stewie from Family Guy but while Roger worked Klaus didn't and by the end of the first FOX run he was the least prominent of the main characters. In the TBS era however he was retooled into more of a pathetic dudebro character and became much more popular.

Silver the Hedgehog-Sonic the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog was meant to be the breakout star of Sonic 06, completing the hedgehog trio with Sonic and Shadow but Sonic 06 was a complete mess and Silver has been a side character ever since.

Leo Bonhart, Witcher season 4. The show tried to get us to fall in love with the scampy Rats, only for Leo Bonhart, grandiosely played by Sharlto Copley, to slaughter them to the joy and revel of the crowd. The only good part of the wretched 4th season.

EDIT: I don't know who wrote the screenplay for season 4, but by god i hated every second that Leo wasn't on screen, and how do you mess up so epically that the character that you set up to hate is loved by everyone?

Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF. Introduced as a heel, he really took off on his own in 1996 taking the Stone Cold persona, a beer chugging rebel that regularly insulted the audience and focussed his hatred on Vince McMahon, he was absolutely loved by the crowds.

Character is pushed so far, they become the worst versions of themselves, usually leaving a trail of destruction and death in their wake

Dune series: Paul Atreides after what the Emperor and Harkonnens did and seeing what paths to take that will ensure his family's survival, Paul embraces his Harkonnen side and launches his Holy War

Attack on Titan: Eren Yeager after years of struggle and learning the truth of the Titan origins and what his people have gone through, embraces his fate and starts the Rumbling

X-Men (First Class): Magneto was already on the edge but Charles working on him to be more sympathetic towards humans, but after killing Shaw and the start of WW3, both the Russians and Americans decided to try to end the mutants, pushing Magneto to decide, finally, that humans are the true enemy.

EDIT: For Paul, I'm specifically referring to the movies and what's been shown so far. I understand that Paul's motivations are entirely different in the book series, at least right now. Denis has changed a lot from the books, especially with Chani so we'll see what he lands on with Part 3

For Eren, admittedly a bit of a stretch, but if you compare how he was in the beginning (an angry kid who wanted to kill all titans) to the end (wanting to use the Titans to kill everyone), he's definitely been radicalized

For Magneto, I'm also referring to the movies for him, X-Men First Class specifically, where he starts out as just wanting revenge against Shaw, to declaring war on the humans.

Shrimp eating scene(Substance) - The director deliberately zoomed in on the actor's mouth and made the chewing sound loud to create an uncomfortable effect.

Odin kills Thor(God of War: Ragnarök) - Odin used his son, Thor, just as a tool. When Thor first rebelled against his father, Odin immediately killed him. It is right after the scene where he gaslights his son. That's why it feels even more uncomfortable.

Sung Ki-Hun meet his daughter's stepfather(Squidgame) - When Ki-Hun's mom got diabetes, Ki-Hun had no money to take care of her. So he went to his ex-wife and begged for money. The ex-wife's husband watched this situation, and he gave money to Ki-Hun. Ki-Hun was grateful for the money. However, this was actually a warning and a demand that he stop approaching his daughter, and upon hearing this, Ki-Hun got angry and hit him. And his daughter watched the whole situation.

Nanahoshi in Mushoku Tensei when it seems like she might never get back home

Ned in The Simpsons episode Hurricane Neddy

Spongebob against Squidward when he refuses to get a job, take care of himself and abuses Spongebobs hospitality.

• Po from Kung Fu Panda - Although many characters comment on his weight throughout the movies, Po is actually considered skinny and/or in better shape for panda standards
• Midoriya Izuku from My Hero Academia - While many viewers find Deku "cute", the reality is that for his world he's actually considered "simple looking" and at the very worst "ugly"
• Spider-Man from Marvel Comics - Many people love Spider-Man, but the truth is that for common civilians, Spidey's pretty unsettling and scary to be around with

Walter White poisoning Andrea Cantillo's 6-year-old son for the sole purpose of manipulating Jesse Pinkman, while knowing that this could have potentially killed him - Breaking Bad

Bojack trying to have sex with his friend's 17-year-old daughter when he was at least 51, then continuously trying to find a way to justify this act throughout the series - Bojack Horseman

Dexter Morgan going outside of his moral code and murdering a completely innocent police officer who was just trying to do his job - Dexter: New Blood

1. Giotto of Florence from real life. The pope wanted to commission a painter and sent a messenger to collect works from a bunch of artists so that he may examine their skill. When the messenger got to Giotto, Giotto simply freehand drew a perfect circle on a sheet of paper in front of the messenger. The messenger was confused, but Giotto told him that it'll make sense once he tells the pope how he drew the circle. Sure enough, the pope recognised the skill it takes to draw a perfect circle freehand without a compass and gave Giotto the commission.
2. Johnny from The Devil Came Down to Georgia. While the Devil's solo sounds cooler on the surface, Johnny's solo is actually more difficult to play and showcases more advanced technical skill.

1. Amon Goeth (Schindler's List) Would you believe that an SS Commadant's Crimes can be downplayed? Well thats what happened to Amon Goeth in the film. Even though he is shown to be a waste of humanity, he is actually downplayed on how vile he is.

How bad is he? He was fired from his Job for Mistreatment of Prisoners among other reasons. Yes thats right. The Nazis were disgusted by how cruelly he ran a Concetration Camp meant to exterminate undesirables.

1. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Death of Stalin) Head of the NKVD, Stalin's Himmler, and a massove Pedophile and Rapist. You think this Monster is already vile enough. Well, you would be wrong. The Director actually downplayed how much of a serial rapist and pedophile Beria is by hinting at it and onky revealing how many he molested and raped.

Wanna know how bad Beria is? The Tunisian Embassy in Russia was bulit on the grounds of his former Dacha. When the Soviets were excavating it to begin renovations, they found several remains of women and children he murdered and raped. Yes, he buried them in his own gardens.

Steven Steel (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run)

A 51-year-old man who married a 14-year-old girl named Lucy.
Turns out it was purely a protective marriage in name only. Lucy’s father owed a massive debt to the mafia, and Steven married her solely to give her legal protection. He treated her entirely as a guardian figure and never made a single romantic or physical advance on her.

Mohg, Lord of Blood (Elden Ring)
Kidnapped his half-brother Miquella (who is cursed with eternal youth) to force him into godhood and a creepy marital dynasty. The entire fanbase dubbed him a pedo for two years.
Then the DLC Shadow of the Erdtree revealed that Miquella actually used his divine charm powers to brainwash Mohg into kidnapping him. Mohg wasn't the predator. He was an unwittingly manipulated puppet used as a stepping stool for Miquella's divine ascension plans.

Sherlock: Having been cornered after ruining Sherlock's life and reputation, Moriarty, very causally, kills himself so, in theory, Sherlock can never prove his innocence.

King of the Hill: Peggy makes it clear she wants Cotton to live forever and be miserable for how he made Hank suffer. Cotton responds, smiling, with "do you now?" and immediately dies.

Malcolm in the Middle, Season 1, Episode 13

Just always thought this scene was made so much funnier by all the cuts and rollerblading that very obviously not done by Bryan Cranston

EDIT2: I give up, I can't read all of you, please don't be sad, I love the recommendations, some I realy don't know.

EDIT: Yes I missed the Batman in Bat themed Heroes: THE BIG LEBOWSKI

I hate me more than you could for it

Internet finally good, so here the repost:

Bullet Train: Big bad guy plans revenge for his dead wife on her killer. Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is identified as the target, but in reality he is just the substitute because the real one is sick at home

Metal Gear Solid V: Big part of the game is Snake(you) fighting against Skull Face(Bad Guy) with who you finally come close, he even gives an evil monologue. What he doesn't know (and atm the player and the charackter you play, too), Snake is not the real snake (Big Boss) but his double (venom snake) with brain damage.

The Hunt: CEOs make fun about hunting rednecks (pretty much), chat gets public, they get fired, they want revenge, they hunt now rednecks for real because they were very rude and unfair on the internet. But our mainchar (Crystal) is not the real one who wrote something on the internet, but another woman in the same city with almost same name.

Idea came when I watched Bullet Train. And now I have to think about chars with silly names...

FYI: Please don't react on typos in titles, that's a new engagement cancer.

Sonic 3: Maria is one of the most important part of Shadow's story. Due to her suffering from an incurable disease. To which Shadow was made to create a cure for Maria's ailment. In the 3rd Sonic movie, Maria's disease was not mentioned in any form. Which made Maria seem like a normal girl, and her death all the more tragic.

Infinity war: I don't know the full story, but Thanos's original goal was to kill half the population to impress death (the character). When it came time to adapt Thanos into the MCU. His goal of removing half the universes population. It was seen as a more psychopathic world goal, hidden under the belief it would do better for the universe.

1. Reynholm (IT Crowd): - With his actor wishing to pursue other projects, the big boss of the IT Crowd commits suicide in the most sudden and hilarious way possible. Some police arrive about ‘irregularities in the pension fund’ and he walks to the window and jumps out without a second thought in the first scene of the episode.
2. Yuko Minami (Ultraman Ace): - Ultraman Ace was unique for having two protagonists making up the Ultra hero, which made scripts harder to write. Combined with some unfortunate sexism on seeing a female main hero, Yuko was scrapped halfway through Ace. Does she die or give up her power?

No. She is suddenly revealed to be an alien queen of the moon whose planet got destroyed by a rabbit monster that conveniently just arrived on earth now. After Ace defeats the beast, she leaves to go back to her moon people in space and is randomly just gone. To make matters more frustrating, her actress wasn’t aware of the character’s departure until she read the script the day before shoot.

1. Kendrix (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy): - Probably one of the best episodes of all Rangers. Kendrix’ actor was undergoing cancer treatment and unable to continue, so they made Galaxy Pink one of the only main rangers ever killed off in the franchise. Not only that, but she goes out like an honourable warrior and fights to her own death to take out Psycho Pink.

2. Susan (Seinfeld): - With some complaints how her acting wasn’t suiting the on-screen chemistry too well and some other complications, Susan is killed off…..by unknowingly licking some toxic glue on cheap envelopes and then dropping dead. One of the most sudden deaths in all sitcom.

1. Gazer Beam [The Incredibles]

Gazer Beam, also known as Simon J. Paladin, is one of the most powerful and heroic characters in the world of The Incredibles. He can shoot highly powerful lasers from his eyes that can burn through solid steel with ease. Even outside his heroic duties, Simon was a lawyer and an advocate who fought for the reinstatement of superheroes. Despite this, Gazer Beam's power also has a major downside. If he focused his eyes on someone or something for a prolonged period of time, it could result in him accidentally burning someone to death. As a result, he developed a habit of constantly averting his gaze whenever he spoke to people. The people interacting with him took this as a sign of disinterest, when, deep down, it stemmed from fear that he might hurt them.

2. Firm Man [To Be Hero X]

In the world of To Be Hero X, a hero's powers are determined by public perception. After saving a young girl by holding up a collapsing building, Firm Man became famous as the hero who would always remain standing, no matter what. The public's unwavering belief in this image granted him immense strength and near-invulnerability. Unfortunately, it also turned their perception into a literal restriction, making Firm Man unable to crouch, kneel, sit, or lie down. Because he is perceived as someone who will never stop standing, he is physically incapable of doing anything that contradicts that image. As a result, mundane activities such as sitting on a toilet, picking up an object, or lying down on a bed become impossible for him.

Or when someone tries to do something cool fails at first and either succeds the next time or does something even better

like Mr terrific landing recovery

Or this kid breakin a cement block after failing to break a stick

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

Examples:

• Evelyn Wang (Everything Everywhere All at Once) - The Alphaverse was the first universe to contact the others by possessing their other variants through a process called Verse-Jumping. Alpha Evelyn was one of these Verse-Jumpers. She conducted experiments on her daughter, Joy, which caused her to psychologically fuse with all other variants of herself, becoming the nihilistic, omnicidal terrorist, Jobu Tupaki. The Evelyn we meet in the story is a random variant whose living a normal, miserable life until the war with Jobu finds her universe.
• Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty) - It's stated there are only a handful of Ricks who invented transdimensional portal travel on their own. Rick Prime, and Rick C-137. There are typically two types of Ricks in the multiverse, the Ricks that have portal guns, and "Basic Ricks" who didn't develop extradimensional technology. Rick C-137 was a basic Rick before meeting Rick Prime who was creating the Citadel of Ricks. Rick refused the offer because he saw the type of person he'd become in Rick Prime, a nihilistic self-absorbed maniac. In rage, Rick Prime killed C-137's Beth and Diane causing him to go on a violent path killing other Citadel members to hunt down Rick Prime. The more we learn about our Rick, we realize that he doesn't at all fit the "classic Rick" that the initial seasons of Rick and Morty establish. Typically, most Ricks are unempathetic douchebags who abuse their Mortys and never change. But our Rick is highly emotional, empathetic and deeply cares for Morty, even going on a slow but sure change over time.
  
• Miles Morales (Spiderverse) - The Miles Morales we know in the Spiderverse is an anomaly, because the radioactive spider which bit him was from another universe. Later, we go to this universe and meet Prime Miles, whose father died causing him to become the Prowler.
• Mark Greyson (Invincible) - While it's never outright said, it's heavily implied that Mark in our universe is an anamoly because Angstrom absorbed the minds of all varients of him causing him to dissociate, believing Mark killed all his loved ones. In each of these universes, Mark and Angstrom are archenemies who hate each other, but unlike in the ones we follow, where Mark is a hero and Angstrom is the villain, Angstrom is the hero and Mark is the villain trying to conquer the Earth. Debbie even calls Angstrom out saying that he's probably petty that Mark is the hero in this universe while Angstrom is the villain. We never meet any "prime" Mark so it's very likely that the one we meet is not the Prime Mark Greyson.

This is in reference to a tweet I've seen quite a lot and it surprises me how many pieces of media I've seen with this in it. Spoilers for most of these.

Resident Evil (2026) - Bryan Hodukivich is a medicial courier who takes a double-paying order to deliver a cooler ASAP to a big city. It turns out the city has just succumb to a zombie virus in a matter of hours. Bryan's package is a stabilizer for the cure, contained in a lab in the city. He's the last ditch effort of scientists working on that cure.

Project Hail Mary (2025) - Ryland Grace is a scientist and school teacher who's career didn't go as well as he wanted. He becomes the titular "hail mary" against his will when the sun starts going out, after he discovers the cause and all the others who could fix things are killed in an accident.

REC (2007) - Angela and Pablo. A news reporter and her camera operator are doing a tag-along with firemen for a news show not many people watch. On a routine call to an apartment building, a zombie virus and ensuing panic spread with all the building's residents put on quarantine. Now they are the only ones who can document the story of the people trapped inside as it unfolds.

Half-Life (1998) - Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist at a big facility who is part of an experiment which causes an alien invasion. At first his goal is just to survive, but then he becomes humanity's last hope from interdimensional aliens after the military kills most everyone else and tries to kill him, in a coverup.

Iron Lung (2026) - Breaking the rules a bit here, but Simon is a convict forced to operate a dinky sub on an ocean planet of blood as part of his punishment. He's initially just going on a suicide mission for minor data collection of the planet but discovers something huge and becomes a bastion for humanity.

Edit for minor plot corrections

Edit 2: Covering up spoilers for Resident Evil since it's recent. I forgot reddit could do that, sorry! I thought the first warning about how there were spoilers for each film was enough :(

Edit 3: added the date to Iron Lung

King Ghidorah- Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Sheriff Cooley- O Brother Where Art Thou?

Harry Powell- Night of the Hunter

Gideon Grey (Zootopia): As a child, he violently clawed and tormented Judy Hopps. As an adult, he undergoes therapy, learns to manage his deep-seated insecurities, and sincerely apologizes to Judy, ultimately becoming a successful pastry chef and business partner to her parents.

"Baby" Brent McHale (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs): The arrogant town celebrity who spent his youth peaking in high school and mocking Flint Lockwood. During the food crisis, he abandons his selfish persona, rebrands himself as "Chicken Brent," and actively helps save the town.

Buford van Stomm (Phineas and Ferb): While he never entirely stops his tough-guy act or verbal ribbing, he transitions from an active threat to a core member of the friend group who frequently tags along on adventures.

Sunset Shimmer(My Little Pony: Equestria Girls / Friendship is Magic): Sunsettransitions from a ruthless high school dictator into a deeply remorseful, compassionate leader.

To be honest, I prefer this compared to the ones out of character or out of nowhere but the mileage may vary with the reasoning and character, if this gets hit with the adult thing, that’d be funny because most of these I got from Reddit itself

Midnight from My Hero Academia:

She has two reasons, she just likes to dress like this and it does help with her gas powers since she can release pheromones from her skin, in fact her costume you see here had to be redesign in universe due to legislation that were started due to her

Edit: it was pheromones not sleepijg gas, must have forgot

Andy from Undead Unluck:

The way he fights causes his clothes to be destroyed with his body, and after getting Clothy, he still has his dick out in at least one per fight

Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury/King of Fighters:

Her fighting style is fighting dirty and she uses her body to distract the enemy, I think there was a theory that it may impact the players but I don’t know

John Carter from John Carter of Mars:

The whole planet is very hot so the characters wear more skimpy clothing to stay cool, simple to understand

Power Girl from DC:

There’s two explanations for the boob window, either because she didn’t have a symbol to cover it or that she likes dressing that way, I prefer the second because it gives the character agency

Mirko (My Hero Academia) It was stated that she is into people who are stronger than her, it doesn’t seem specific until you realize she’s one of the top heroes in the world, leaving her with arguably less than 10 potential options. Some of those are villains so that’s out of the question and we don’t even know her orientation

Esdeath (Akame Ga Kill)

Listed is her ideal man, super specific, so specific that she only found one guy like him, Tatsumi and that was her first potential lover