1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

IT 2 - Grandma walking in the back later turning into monster

Welcome to Derry - IT creeping on the girl in a store

Obsession - Nikki won't stop looking at Bear for the entirety of this whole dialogue.

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.

The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

Smile 2 - In the third act, Skye Riley believes she’s about to defeat the smiling entity by temporarily killing herself. In actuality, the entire third act of the film was a hallucination created by the monster, and Skye Riley was nowhere near as close to winning as she thought she was.

Avenger’s Infinity War - After Thor impales Thanos with his hammer, he assumes victory. However, Thanos is still able to snap his fingers, carrying out his wish to erase half the universe, and ultimately survives the hammer injury too.

1. "Fridging" - a love interest female character is killed off (aka "fridged") to serve as motivation to the male main character. Named after a 1994 DC comic where the villain, Major Force, kills Kyle Rayner's girlfriend and stuffs her into a refrigerator.

2. "Flanderization" - A personality trait of a character is emphasized more and more as the series goes on, leading to them becoming what feels like a caricature of their past selves. Named after Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, whose religious observance became more and more emphasized until it turned into extreme dogmatism.

I get a bit miffed whenever I look at hard modes and see that the only differences are: enemies hit harder and have more health. That's why I find it so refreshing when a game's "hard mode" switches up how you play the game in general.

1. Cursed Mode [Look Outside]: The hardest difficulty of this game essentially takes everything in the base game and shuffles them around, mixing in new things throughout. A door that's usually open now requires you to beat an "optional" boss. The tutorial enemy now can kill you if you're not careful. Existing bosses have new phases. There are brand new bosses just... hanging out. I think you get it.
2. Lethal Mode [Ghost of Tsushima]: This difficulty setting is very simple and very fun. The enemies deal a shit-ton of damage, enough to kill you in couple swings, but you also deal absurd damage. It forces you to play carefully and near flawlessly if you want to win.
3. Survival [Fallout 4]: F4 is better in survival mode, full stop, and that's dimply because it adds in survival mechanics to your post-apocalyptic survival game. Hunger, thirst, fatigue. You actually have to engage with the world around you.
4. Nightmare Mode [Dying Light - The Beast]: At a baseline, this difficulty does some fun stuff that we've seen before; specifically, it is permadeath and adds in a hunger mechanic. What really sets this mode apart for me, however, is the fact that (unlike other difficulties) every single zombie you kill, stays dead. It's such a cool concept, and you could - theoretically - clear out the entire map given enough time.

Malenia's second phase transformation (Elden Ring)

The Angela twist reveal (Sleepaway Camp)

Eren's titan form and titans in general (Attack On Titan)

Lucy breaking out of the research facility (Elfen Lied)

Zombies eating and saying “BRAINS!” Originated from the 1985 movie Return of the Living Dead

Aliens saying “we come in peace” is believed to have originated from the line “we have come to visit you in peace and good will” from The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Wilhelm scream originated from the 1951 movie Distant Drums

DMC V: Vergils Chair Edition - An edit of a DMC V cutscene replaced the main antagonist fucked up evil tentacle chair with a regular cheap lawn chair. Many people thought this was just what the actual cutscene was (and still do)

Dragonball: Trunks is a fucking dumbass - An edit of a dragon ball scene where the character Trunks tries to throw his sword in the air and have it land in his scabbard. In the original show, this succeeds. The more widely known edit makes him completely fuck it up (like a dumbass)

Fake Portal 2 Endings - Ok I don't know if anyone else experienced this but it was a really popular thing when the game first came out to make fake versions of it's ending or alternate endings to it that I saw as a kid and thought were totally real, having only seen it on YouTube. Like I thought that there actually was an alternate ending where the view of the wheat field was revealed to just be a painted wall and it falls away to reveal you're still in the lab

MICHAEL DON'T LEAVE ME HERE MICHAEL MICHAAAAAAEL MICHAEL - A sound bite from a FNAF fan analog horror series on YouTube, where the main antagonist screams for help as he's burning to death. Many people believed this to be a sound bite from the games themselves.

The Bombchu Bowling lady (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time)

Ordinary Woman (My Hero Academia)

Lana’s Mom (Pokemon Sun And Moon)

Almost every character when Dizzy’s Instakill is used on them, they see the huge explosion and surrender on the spot (Guilty Gear XRD)

Vegeta crying after final form Frieza deflects his strongest attack like it was nothing (Dragon Ball Z)

The Punisher realizing he was fighting the Hulk (Spider-Man BND)

[Hotel Transylvania]

When Drac first meets Johnny, he's desperate to get rid of him so none of the guests or Mavis see him. While in a closet and Johnny is talking about something unrelated, he says to himself. "I can't kill him. It would set monsters back hundreds of years."

[Boss Baby]

When Tim is shown baby corp by Ted(yes, his name is technically boss baby but after hes back with the family at the end, his name is Ted), Ted reveals to Tim that Babies are all made at baby corp. Tim tellsTed what his parents told him about where babies come from,aka, the birds and the bees. Ted is grossed out.

[SpongeBob]

"But at least it's warm around the fire.

"Hey, if we're underwater, how can there be a-"

Danzo holds Karin hostage to get to Sasuke, but Sasuke shoots his Chidori right through her and through Danzo, not caring about her (Naruto)

The turtles hold Chris Bradford hostage so that Xever could release Mr. Murakami, but Xever knew that the turtles wouldn’t actually kill him so he didn’t care. They eventually gave in (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012)

Mr. Incredible threatens to crush Mirage if Syndrome doesn’t release him, but Syndrome knows Mr. Incredible wouldn’t actually do it, and even if he did, he wouldn’t care about Mirage (The Incredibles)

1. A Bug’s Life (1998) – Dim was supposed to be a fictional variation of a generic rhinoceros beetle, but in 2007, a new species of rhinoceros beetle was discovered, Megaceras briansaltini, which looks similar to Dim. Because of this, the phenomenon in which nature mimics art gets the term “Dim Effect".

2. Ice Age (2002) – The creators made up Scrat, a saber-toothed squirrel, as a joke, but in 2011, a real saber-toothed squirrel was discovered, Cronopio dentiacutus, although it wasn’t a rodent and lived during the Mesozoic Era.

3. Phineas and Ferb (2007) – Perry the Platypus was designed with a teal-green color because the creators thought it looked cool, but in 2020, it was discovered that platypuses are biofluorescent and appear teal-green under UV light.

O Brother Where Art Thou?

A satire over the Depression-era American South using The Odyssey as a template.

Ran

King Lear but in Sengoku-era japan (featuring elements of Japanese legends surrounding real figures).

Apocalypse Now

Like Heart of Darkness it uses a river journey to highlight the savagery beneath imperialism, colonialism and capitalism, but in South Vietnam and Cambodia instead of the Congo Free State.

Bonus points if the adaptation still keeps the main themes and ideas of the source material AND the influences have been confirmed by the creators.

Queen Maeve in the season finale (The Boys): Eric Kripke mentioned how they tried to get Queen Maeve actress Dominique McElligott to return for the final season but she retired from acting and didn't want to. I'm glad because she had a good ending of leaving Vought with no powers and gets to live a normal life with her girlfriend. You just know her appearance was going to have her be found by Homelander and killed.

Stephanie McMahon's baby is secretly Vince's (WWE): When Stephanie was pregnant, her father Vince wanted to do a storyline where her baby is his. When she refused to do it, he then said how about your brother Shane being the father and she said no again.

In episode four, Rentarou's harem stepped in for an idol group after the members conveniently suffered injuries that prevented them from dancing; the episode effectively depicts the training required for the performance as well as the girls' shortcomings The whole show (The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You)

Even though it was rotoscoped, they conducted extensive research on the town of Kasamatsu just for that dance sequence—which was essentially just a gag about her not knowing a victory dance after the race—though the version where she actually learns to dance does look well animated dance 1, dance 2 (Uma Musume Cinderella Gray)

It’s a dance anime, but they made all the dancing look like total crap, like those inflatable tube men (Wandance)

(Made in Abyss) it starts off as an innocent adventure show about exploring this massive mysterious abyss with many creatures and dangers, our two main characters Riko and Reg encounter many hardships on their journey in the abyss, dark monsters and environmental challenges but nothing too dark as they always come out on top, until episode 10 happens and Riko gets poisoned by a creature that attacked them, forcing Reg to move her up from the fourth layer of the abyss which triggers the curse of the abyss in Riko's body and so she starts bleeding from every orifice in her body, Reg is even forced to break her arm and cut it while she's awake so he can save her from the creature's venom. From this point on the show starts showing it's true horrific nature.

(Madoka Magica) it starts as a typical magical girl show about these magical girls fighting villainous creatures called witches and then episode 3 happens, on this episode Mami's head gets bitten clean off of her body by one of the witches and so the real Madoka Magica show kicks off from that point forward.

(Doki Doki literature club) a visual novel that plays like a dating sim, you play as a highschool boy who is trying to open up to people and make friends so he joins his friend's club (Sayori) who introduces him to the other 3 members who all happen to be girls you can talk to about their interests and do club activities with as you get to know them better. It's only 4 hours into the game that you're met with the shock of Sayori committing suicide because of her depression. The horror then keeps piling up after that moment and there's nothing you can do about it as you watch your cute dating simulator gradually turn into an insane asylum simulator.

Hundreds of Beavers

The Great Muppet Caper

Naked Gun (1988)

I’m specifically referring to games that aggressively handhold the player to the point where the game doesn’t seem to trust you to do anything on your own.

Insomniac’s Wolverine - One review describes permanent objective markers, characters quickly narrating environmental-puzzle solutions, Wolverine’s senses highlighting the relevant object, and tutorial reminders continuing long after the mechanic has been introduced. Another criticizes the game for literally marking optional collectibles so you barely even have to discover them.

Mario and Luigi dream team - The game keeps interrupting you to explain mechanics, sometimes well after you’re perfectly capable of figuring them out. It’s less “here’s a difficult puzzle solution” and more “We absolutely refuse to trust that you understand the game you’re currently playing.”

God of War Ragnarok - You enter a puzzle room, start looking around, and before you’ve even decided what the puzzle is, somebody starts going, essentially, “Brother, perhaps you could freeze that mechanism.” The complaints were widespread enough that Sony eventually added an option to reduce puzzle-hint frequency.

-Adventure Time: The Fantasy Setting is a future post apocalyptic Earth

Whether it's Avatar, Game of Thrones or My Little Pony, you've heard this one before. The fantasy setting isn't another world, but a post-apocalyptic future. Adventure Time is a rare case of this actually being right, with the later seasons confirming that the show takes place after a global nuclear war wiped out most of humanity.

-The Umbrella Academy: The character with mind control powers is secretly brainwashing people into loving her.

In season 1 of Umbrella Academy, the relationship between Allison and Luther was controversial due to the incestual undertones of a romance between adopted siblings. This lead to the common fan theory that Luther didn't actually reciprocate and that Allison was using Rumor to make him fall in love with her. Season 3 would later confirm that this actually was the case.

-Deus Ex: The main character was dead the whole time

In the canon ending of Human Revolution, Adam Jensen has Panchaea collapse on top of him seemingly killing him. At the beginning of Mankind Divided, he is alive and somehow managed to survive having megastructure collapse on top of him at the bottom of the ocean. This lead to the fan theory that Adam actually died at the end of HR and the one we play as in MD is a clone. In game, one of the Versalife vaults contains a dismembered corpse that is heavily implied to be the original Adam.

1. Cars 3’s original plot, which would have been an identity theft plot with a villain named Gerald Carr swapping bodies with McQueen

2. An R-Rated adaptation of Holes by the same director as Donnie Darko (photo by RebelTaxi)

3. Jurassic Park 4 would have featured human-dinosaur hybrids

4.Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World alternate ending, would have revealed Scott to be a serial killer

* The Legend of Korra: The villain tying someone to a railway track is one of the deadest horses in all of fiction, almost exclusively the domain of mustache-twirling cartoon scoundrels. When Kuvira does it to a gang of captured bandits, however, it comes across as entirely realistic - and profoundly terrifying. Which, let's face it, being chained in the path of a speeding maglev would be.

* Spider-Man - Homecoming: Adrian Toomes gets a rare live-action lightbulb moment when the reflection of a green traffic light on his face symbolizes his realization who "good old Spider-Man" actually is. It enhances, rather than undercuts, the tension of the scene.

* Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith: Anakin screaming "I hate you!" to Obi-Wan at the top of his lungs - normally a line reserved for a child's tantrum against a parent - is instead an agonizing gut-punch at the climax of an already tragic scene.

This is a trope where the audience suddenly starts seeing the world from a character’s perspective OR where we find out we were always seeing it from one character’s perspective, and suddenly start seeing things as they really are. Either way, it’s a complete gut punch if done right.

The Suicide Squad

An example of the former. Polka Dot Man is telling everyone about how his mother performed experiments on him to give him superpowers at the expense of his physical and mental wellbeing. When asked where his mom is now, he answers “everywhere” and it cuts to a POV shot showing that everyone looks like his mom to him.

American Dad

An example of the latter, Stan realizes he’s overweight and decides to get back in shape, but the more he tries, the fatter he gets. His family are also sabotaging his efforts by tricking or forcing him to eat fatty foods. During a blowup about this, everyone tells Stan that he’s not fat, but anorexic. Stan scoffs at this idea, but the next time the camera cuts to him, we see that they’re right, and that we’ve only been seeing him as fat because that’s how he sees himself.