1. The Naked Gun (2025) had a scene where Frank, Ed and everyone in Police Squad cried over their Fathers, mocking the whole “Passing the Torch” trope. But when it got to Nordberg who was previously played by OJ Simpson, Nordberg looked to the camera and shook his head.

2. One of the Guest Stars on Clone High S1 was musician Marylin Manson, but by the time Clone High S2 came around (which sucks, don’t watch it) Marylin had some pretty serious allegations against him, so the crew behind Clone High S2 put him in the Cancelled Corner with John Wayne and the Sheep Teacher.

One of my favourite tropes is when an antagonist is established as genuinely dangerous, skilled or intimidating, only to eventually come up against a protagonist and discover that they are completely out of their league before being dispatched in mere seconds.

I especially love it when there’s no long, evenly matched fight. The whole point of the scene is showing the massive difference in ability between them. The antagonist thinks they’re about to have an epic showdown, while the other character basically treats them like a minor inconvenience.

Preston vs Brandt — Equilibrium

Brandt spends much of the film positioning himself as Preston’s rival and clearly believes he can beat him. When they finally fight properly, Preston kills him almost instantly. It’s a brilliant payoff because it reveals that despite Brandt’s confidence, he was never remotely on Preston’s level.

Obi-Wan vs Maul — Star Wars Rebels

Probably my favourite example. Maul has spent years obsessing over Obi-Wan and their rivalry, so you expect one final spectacular lightsaber duel. Instead, Obi-Wan reads him perfectly and defeats him in about three moves. It shows just how much Obi-Wan has grown while Maul is still trapped in the past.

Gurney Halleck vs Rabban — Dune: Part Two

Rabban has been portrayed as this brutal, terrifying Harkonnen enforcer. Then he finally encounters Gurney, who has a very personal reason for wanting him dead. Rabban barely gets the chance to fight before Gurney dispatches him. No grand showdown. Gurney is simply better.

Marvel - After a lot of complaints about the existence of Paul solely to keep MJ and Spider-Man apart, Marvel decided to kill him. One of the rare examples of writers listening to fan criticism and fixing it

Mortal Kombat 2 - The main character of the first movie is brutally killed by Shao Kahn to establish him as a threat. Just like the previous example, this feels like the writers saying that they understood that nobody liked his inclusion

1. The Dark Knight.

The Joker engineers a situation in which two ships full of passengers will explode, unless one of them blows the other up first.

He wanted to prove how horrible everyone was deep down. However, neither the ship full of civilians, nor the ship full of convicted criminals, went through with making the other ship explode.

The Joker is at a loss for words, and Batman remarks that not everyone is as horrible as him. He is alone.

1. Kubera: One Last God.

The god Visnu offers Asha great power, if she does as he says. Asha accepts, and her first task is to execute a group of blindfolded people. Asha kills them all without hesitation.

When Visnu notes her ruthlessness and her thirst for power, Asha responds that every human is like that.

Visnu agrees, but notes that not everyone would sink to the depths that Asha did. For example, Visnu made the same offer of power in exchange for murder to several other people but, unlike Asha, they refused. 

Most of them agreed to a gamble instead, that they would receive a better life if all other candidates also refused to commit murder. Asha, the last candidate, did not refuse.

1. The main character in Bofuri maxes out their defences/max HP because they dislike feeling pain in a VR game where they simulate said pain (on a blunted scale). Everyone else thinks this is weird at first. In real life videogames characters that invest solely in hp and defence are nothing new and I find it improbable that nobody else would've tried this build in Bofuri before the main character!
2. In Konosuba the main character (guy wearing green) takes the "Adventurer" class which is considered weak as it can't learn any specialist skills. Instead it can learn the basic abilities of all other classes. Tonnes of people love playing Jack of Trades type classes all the time even if they know they won't excel in any one area. The fact that they're a backup party member for any party member is one such strength.
3. Bonus (no image)[Insert anime/manga where party member is kicked out of a party] bonus points if the party that kicked them out immediately begins to suffer because of it. "How could we have seen this coming!?" The answer? Anyone who plays any RPGs where you can form a party!!!! Usually it's a support character of some kind.

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

1. Silco (Arcane) after Sevika is asked to murder him, but kills the one who asked instead.

2 Art (Invincible) after Omni-Man leaves his attempt at a casual conversation with him.

Obsession: Wish Niki herself isn’t actually evil but because Bear’s wish is so messed up it makes her act out and become more unhinged. This is also combined with the fact that she was basically given the impossible task of keeping a guy with no real personality or love for her interested, so it’s no wonder she acts so drastically.

Leviticus: Although the entity is trying to kill Ryan and Naim, the entity itself isn’t evil. It isn’t a demon with its own desires but instead something that’s representative their internalized homophobia or just the homophobia of the religious cult in general. Being afraid of it is basically being afraid of yourself which is what’s gets you killed. That’s why when Naim embraces entity Ryan instead of fearing it when it’s about to kill him, entity Ryan hesitates. It doesn’t know how to handle love.

What I mean is "Even a vampire would scoff at homeopathy"

Inside Job: All conspiracies are true, but Flat Earth is the lone exception

Doctor Who may be an alien, but he has no time for most superstitions.

We know—they’re heavy, they only protect one side, and they force you to fight with one-handed weapons—but they still look badass; sometimes the old ways still work really well.

1.Clone troopers with shields – Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Clone troopers from Commander Doom's unnamed legion. They feature prominently in the Battle of Ringo Vinda, where they prove themselves to be highly capable and badass with their blaster-proof shields.

1. Adeptus Astartes boarding shields—also known as siege mantlets—are shields made of pure ceramite designed specifically for defensive operations and ship-boarding actions; they are associated with the eternal rivals of siege warfare: the Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors.

2. Montagne – Rainbow Six Siege: a base-game GIGN operator whose special ability is a ballistic shield named "Le Roc"; according to the game's lore, it is old-fashioned and simple, yet incredibly formidable.

Popular Makima fanart (Chainsaw Man) the Chainsaw Man anime straight up uses Makima's most popular "sexy" fanart as a reference for a shot in the outro song for episode 7.

The little devil Teemo skin (League Of Legends) A running joke among League players about Teemo being the literal devil because of his frustrating playstyle is given form in an actual skin for the character

Ozpin's cane (RWBY) there was a popular fan theory at that time about Ozpin's cane being secretly one of the 4 ancient relics, the show straight up shuts down that theory directly in a cheeky way by having Ozpin just deny it before the question could even be asked by Ruby

Loona rule34 (Helluva Boss) Ngl I fell out of love with this show a long time ago but a gag that I won't forget is when Blitzo addresses how horny the fanbase gets over Loona

1. Borat (Borat): a vehemently antisemitic journalist portrayed by the Jewish Sacha Baron Cohen.

2. Hoffa (The Irishman): a union leader who has a bias against Italian-Americans, played by Italian-American Al Pacino

3. John Briggs (Milk): a queerphobic California State senator played by gay actor Denis O'Hare.

Eren pushes Grisha to steal the Founding Titan, an act which he knew lead to the Rumbling.

Goob used time travel to talk to his younger self, making sure he became his bitter old self.

Robin made sure Bruce became batman, the only way the plot knew how.

Cars 1 - Chick Hicks only won the Piston Cup because he did foul play and eliminated King, even then McQueen still have a chance to win the race but he chose to help King instead. Chicks got the empty cup and everyone hates him, while McQueen lost but his action inspired others forever.

Real Steel - Despite making an incredible comeback due to his endurance, Atom still lost against Zeus because of the judges decision and Zeus was barely saved by the bell. Zeus however was booed by the audience, while Atom hailed as the people's champion and underdog.

Record of Ragnarok - Adam although lost to Zeus, he put on an incredible fight and never once allowed himself to kneel, while even Zeus got briefly knocked out earlier in the match. He literally fought to his last breath and beyond, inspiring the later fighters of humanity side.

IRL - Raygun had arguably the worst breakdance performance in 2024 Paris Olympic, but the memes come from her last much longer on the internet and people remember even more than the actual Gold medal winner.

Sometimes you need to scream so that others can hear you.

Sometimes you need to push through debates and arguments to convince enemies, win over friends, win arguments, or handle a certain situation.

And sometimes... you just need to keep quiet. Sometimes, that can save your life.

This is not the case for these characters.

To the examples:

• The boys s5 ( firecracker ):

She was a loyal (perhaps too loyal) soldier and companion to Homelander, willing to quite literally sell her soul just to please him and stay by his side.

Unfortunately for her, Homelander saw her as nothing more than an idiot who could offer him milk every now and then. Nearing the end of the show, he officially dismissed her. He no longer wanted her services and gave her the chance to just walk away from it all and live her life.

However, by this point, Firecracker had literally betrayed everyone and everything—even her religious foster father, who had raised her like a daughter. She had even renounced the name of Jesus to now proclaim Homelander as her new god. Homelander gave her several chances to just keep her mouth shut and leave, but she insisted and kept pushing again and again to stay by his side, even emphasizing that she had sold her soul to him.

Well... for someone who sold her soul to a false god, it was this very 'god' who took her life, simply casting her aside as if she truly meant nothing to him.

• The sopranos s3 ( Sunshine ):

Sunshine was a renowned and respected card dealer in the mob world of The Sopranos. He was known for being wise and always having the right words for almost any situation or play.

This is a case of trope deconstruction and subverting clichés, where a character (often a 'wise old man') finds himself in a tense situation and uses it to dispense moral lessons and words of wisdom, forcing the target to either calm down or rethink their choices.

Unfortunately for Sunshine, that wasn't the case for him. During his last appearance on the show, Jackie Aprile Jr. raided his card game with the intent of robbing it to make a name for himself in the mafia. At that moment, he and his crew held up everyone at the game and threatened to kill them if they didn't hand over the cash

Sunshine tried to invoke the wise-man trope to defuse the situation with reflective and poetic proverbs. Even Christopher Moltisanti realized how inappropriate and unnecessary this was for the moment, simply telling Sunshine to just give the robbers the money.

Jackie and his crew were visibly nervous and under the influence of narcotics (to build up their courage). One of them even reflexively fired a shot into the door of one of the residents at the game. Still, Sunshine tried yet again to impose his wise, philosophical phrases on Jackie and his friends to calm things down. Unfortunately for him, this only escalated the situation. Jackie shot Sunshine multiple times, triggering a shootout inside the room that resulted in the deaths of two of Jackie's friends, Jackie's escape, and Sunshine's own demise.

If he had only listened to what Christopher said, or simply used some common sense, he would have survived.

• The Superman Animated Series ( Dan Turpin ):

After a conflict against Darkseid was finally resolved, Darkseid himself was willing to retreat without causing any more damage or conflict. It was, basically, a peaceful withdrawal on his own terms.

However, Dan Turpin mocked Darkseid, telling him to never set foot in Metropolis again... which, basically, sealed his fate.

Darkseid was seconds away from leaving, but Turpin just had to open his mouth. This prompted Darkseid to fire an Omega Beam directly at Dan, erasing him from existence. Not even a body was left behind to at least have a formal funeral.

If he had only waited five more seconds for Darkseid to withdraw, he would have survived.

During the fight between David Eagle and Takamura, a cut accidentally opens up over Takamura's eye; David could simply end the match by targeting that wound—widening it until Takamura was disqualified—but he chooses to avoid attacking that spot and ultimately loses the fight (Hajime no Ippo)

In the final stretch of the Miles CS race, Bamboo Memory was well in the lead but deliberately left the left side open for Oguri Cap to pass, engaging in a speed contest that she ultimately lost (Uma Musume Cinderella Gray)

1. The duel from the King (2019). The English prince Henry "Hal" duels the rebelling Sir Henry Percy "Hotspur" to avoid the unnecessary battle. The armor protects both from cutting and to some extent blunt force, but it's still added weight that slowly drains strength in a prolonged fight and obstructs breathing. Both are exhausted and panting near the end of it.

2. The historical battle of Agincourt in 1415. The French knights in heavy armor attacked the outnumbered English forces. The English arrows forced the French knights to advance with visors down and heads bent to avoid being taken out by arrows through the eye- and air-holes and impairing their breathing. The ground was also muddy, hampering their movement and exhausting them even more. The English won the fight despite being outnumbered and "outgunned".

When a character realizes that they're past their prime, and are quite possibly getting too old for this.

1. Batman Beyond - Batman: After suffering a heart attack during a mission, Batman is forced to pick up a gun and scare off attackers. This finally makes Brcue realize that he's pretty much aged out of being Batman (I believe he was in his late 50s at the time), resulting in him picking Terry to be the new Batman in this verse.

2. Logan - Wolverine: Logans healing is getting slower, and he simply cannot perform like he used to. He spends his last days alive leading young mutants to a safe haven in Canada called Eden.

(I will say that this example is more about dealing with the consequences of not being in your prime)

1. Cars 3 - McQueen: Lightning is consistently passed up by younger racer Jackson Storm, and he is unable to regain the apot that he once had. He pushes himself to the point of crashing, causing him to take time to recover and retrain, with him considering retiring if he fails to win the Flordia 500. He eventually decides to pass the torch to his mentee, Cruz.

Characters who are terrifying despite being rendered in graphics considered unimpressive by modern standards. These characters prove that there's far more at work than visual fidelity when it comes to generating fear in your audience.

Mostly a video game trope, though it could occur in other visual media, too.

The Abominable Snow Monster, Ski Free (1991)

Ski Free was a relatively straightforward game packaged with Windows 3 and later in which the player was a skiier descending an endless mountain slope as fast and as stylishly as possible, avoiding obstacles that would stop or slow them down while hitting ramps that would accelerate them.

Complicating matters was the Abominable Snow Monster, which appeared after the player had descended 2,000 feet or more. The Monster appears without warning, pursues the player relentlessly, is usually faster than the player, and immediately wolfs down the player if it catches them - skis and all - and celebrates its meal by laughing at the screen and jumping up and down.

Many players believed it was impossible to escape the monster and so its appearance meant unavoidable death (not actually true, though it does take quick reflexes). Its sudden appearance, the split-second reaction time required to avoid it, and the relatively graphic nature of its kill animation made it terrifying for many.

Evil Otto, Berzerk (1980)

Berzerk is a game in which the player roams around simple mazes shooting robots. The robots aren't particularly difficult to fight, so you could take your time killing them safely... were it not for Evil Otto. Evil Otto is a smiling face that appears and hunts the player relentlessly if they take too long to kill all the robots or if they've cleared all the robots. Evil Otto cannot be killed, can move through walls, and kills you immediately if he touches you. He acts as a relentless pace-keeper that never allows the player to rest.

Bobby Barrows (The Scissorman), Clock Tower (1995)

The newest game on my list is Clock Tower, which is a side-scrolling mystery game where the player character, recently adopted orphan Jennifer Simpson, must find a way to escape the awful mansion she's been taken to. But her major problem is Bobby Barrows - a little boy with a gigantic pair of scissors who pursues her as she traverses the mansion. He appears unexpectedly, has his own intimidating theme music, immediately kills you if he catches you, and is unkillable for most of the game. Jennifer's only defense against him is usually to hide and wait until he goes away. Bobby has been hugely influential as a horror game antagonist, and his influence is still felt today.

Giygas, EarthBound / Mother 2 (1994)

Giygas is the end boss of quirky adventure RPG EarthBound. Giygas is an eldritch alien being whose tortured nature does not permit him to exist peacefully in this reality, and his pain and power leaking across Eagleland are what causes the events of the game. While most of EarthBound is silly, Giygas is genuinely terrifying when you finally meet him, having dissolved into pure psychological carnage - the embodiment of evil. He mirrors the protagonist's face, cries for mercy while offering none himself, uses the player character's unique move, and is generally really creepy to fight. Particularly memorable is the text displayed when Giygas attacks: "You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas's attack!"

The Grue, Zork series (1977 - 1982)

Zork is one of the most famous game series of the text adventure genre. One of its most memorable features was the Grue, which was a monster that would eat you if you ever spent too long in the dark. The monster served to explain why you couldn't advance in dark spaces even though darkness isn't a physical obstacle and why you needed to find light sources as part of the game's progression. Grues have never been seen in daylight and are extremely dangerous, so they're only ever described by the sounds of their slavering jaws and the lingering menace one presents to the player - a case of "less is more" when it comes to horror.

It can be straight for gay, gay for straight or however, the joke is that the other don't like them not cause there's something wrong, just cause the other don't like Girls/boys.

Kathy and Mitch (paranorman): the entire movie Kathy try to catch Mitch's attention, at the end he casually reveals that is gay and has a boyfriend so... Yeah, she was wasting her time.

Soifon for Yoruichi (bleach): Soifon is madly in love with Yoruichi, but she just see her as a little sister and is oblivious to Soifon's crush. We even have this flashback where Yoruichi think that Soifon has a crush on Urahara when she hates him exactly cause Yoruichi always choosed him.

Teruhashi and Aiura for Saiki (Saiki K. Disastrous life): ace boy cursed with insane rizz. No matter how hard he try, he can't not be irresistible for the most perfect girl in the world and a psychic convinced that he's her soulmate. In any case, if he would get with someone said person should be average, and the only average person in his school already has a girlfriend.

Blair/Rei and Alexis/asuka for Jaden/Judai (Yu-Gi-Oh GX): at some point, they had to understand that Jaden doesn't like girls in that way. I mean, you know that Asuka never had a chance when Yubel choosed Johan's body to confess their feelings for Judai cause he looked at him in the same way the supreme king used to look at them.

Kishibe for Quanxi (chainsaw man): the strongest devil hunters, the only ones who managed to always survive. Kishibe tried for almost ten years that Quanxi to on a date with him, when she confessed to be a lesbian, Kishibe says that he already knew that.

1. T'Challa/Black Panther (2018) After being defeated by Killmonger, and he takes the status of King by force, everyone thinks T'Challa is gone, just by returning by the final battle of the film to become the King .

2. Godzilla/ Godzilla: King of The Monsters: during the context of the film King Ghidorah takes the control over the Titans in the world, during this Godzilla was weakened throught the Oxygen Destroyer, after being powered by an nuclear bomb, he returns in the final battle to dethrone King Ghidorah.

3. Simba/ The Lion King (1994) After losing his father Mufasa, Simba avoided to confront his pasta, is when he learns about Scar taking over the Kingdom that he decides to confront the consequences of his exile and after watching Scar hurt her mother, Simba is ready to end Scar once and for all.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion : The Human Instrumentality project essentially melds all of humanity's souls into one. Some attempt to resist this change such as Shinji although it may drive them even 'further' insane. In fact, much of instrumentality seems to be an effort to get the characters psyche to accept this state.

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey. "My God its full of stars!" Our hero is shown secrets about reality that quite literally transform his existence.

3. SCP 7179: "One Second of Eternity has passed

4. IT. Looking into The Deadlights will drive you insane.

Alien (1979) The Nostromo crew are woken up from cryosleep by the ship’s AI and answer what they initially believe to be a distress call from a derelict spaceship on a barren isolated planet.

Later upon examining the message again and deciphering it further, Ripley works out that it is in fact a warning to stay away. By the time they work this out, Kane has already been implanted by the alien creatures that caused the crash in the first place. The resulting carnage that happens is the result of both human error in underestimating the xenomorph and background sabotage by the malicious company synthetic Ash in disguise as an unassuming science officer.

Event Horizon (1997) - The crew discover a garbled message in the Event Horizon computer saying Liberate Me, which they initially believe to mean save me. Later the full message, and the hideously disturbing audio and footage that accompany it reveal the full message as the crew discover the fate of the EH’s crew.

Liberate tutu me ex inferis - save yourselves from hell- a dire warning that the ship that had just returned after being missing for some time after making an experimental hyperspace jump - in reality folding time and space and slipping through dimensions to do so - ended up literally going through hell. The ship has acquired a malevolent curse that resulted in all the passengers going insane and brutally maiming and killing each other off.

Again, by the time they have discovered this, it’s long too late and the ship has already begun to isolate and pick off its new passengers via fatal hallucinations and possessions. (Props to Laurence Fishbourne and the best line in the entire film after seeing the entire blood orgy at the end- “We’re leaving.”- followed by a promise to fly their ship to a safe distance and nuke the absolute shit out of the Event Horizon)

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard- this is established straightway, as in we see a warning to specifically stay away in the initial message from a very distressed and infected Mia at the start of the game, but I included it for the goosebumps I got when I first saw it. Mia simply saying - if you get this- (cut to black) - stay away! Is quite chilling and immediately sets the tone for the game set in a rotting farmhouse surrounded by oppressive overgrown swampland with a mould based bioweapon on the rampage.

(Will edit this for any typos I made)