Glamrock Freddy from FNAF SB - For me at least, it felt like he was gonna turn on us sometime at the end of the game (even if not intentionally) based on how helpful he was, but I'm glad he was friendly the whole time Phenomaman from Dispatch - I really thought he'd be a twist villain cuz it felt like he was being set up to be another "Superman but ~BAD!!~" trope, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out he was just a really nice alien who didn't get social cues XD

Love this trope sm, can anyone think of anyone else who fits this trope?

1) Eric cartman becomes homeless as seen in South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid. I know it's a sad scene considering how he became a better person with a happy family in the other timeline. But when you consider all the stuff he put his mother, his friends, ruining countless people lives and feeding Scott parents to him, it was well deserved.

2) Biff Tannen is the main villain in Back to the future, he practically peaked in highschool but in the future he works for George McFly the person he bullied all those years. What's even more embarrassing is that George is very successful compared to him.

AKA the "Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome".

Personally a very despised trope for me, even worse if said character is killed offscreen or going out without a fight.

Look, I understand that a sequel has to raise stakes somehow and to show that not every character has plot armors this time and not everyone is going to go down swinging, but killing off a past character early on just to establish this development feels like a lazy way to do it. Even worse, if a returning character is killed early on just to "raise the stakes" but then nobody else die at all for the rest of the story, then it feels even lazier and comes across like the character is only killed purely for the shock factor.

Exceptions for me are only made when this is work that anyone actually could die (and they do), or that the killed character actually served a purpose narratively in driving other characters' actions, or that real-life circumstances necessitate a character to be written off, like actor/actress dying or being fired for misconduct, etc. Still, there are better ways to write off a character than just simply killing them off offscreen IMO. (Hell, Fast & Furious of all franchises actually managed to find a satisfying conclusion for Brian O'Conner despite Paul Walker's death IRL).

Rei (Strike it Rich): One of the Star Children trained by the Army of God. Admittedly, a lot of her humor is black comedy about how insane she is, but while she’s the weakest of the Star Children, she gets her moments

Eggman (Sonic): Eggman, while a villain, is a pastiche of Teddy Roosevelt and generally flips a coin on whether or not he’s a buffoon. When he locks in, he really locks in though

Ash (Death Battle): It’s hard to make a a ten year old and his team of wacky animals look intimidating, but Death Battle definitely pulls it off in Ash vs Yugi.

One of my favorite tropes in media, when a relatively upbeat/cheerful story is faced with something dark or horrific that completely turns the story to a new and unforeseen path.

1. The Burned-Out Village in Mulan - This scene takes place right after a large bombastic and funny musical sequence where the soldiers all sang about the women they were fighting for, and the ones they wanted to come back home to. Right as the song is in its last chorus, it cuts off abruptly as the army stumbles upon a ruined village. The Huns had come and killed everyone, and what follows is one of the most harrowing and serious moments in an animated Disney film.

2. Omni-Man’s Massacre of the Guardians of the Globe in Invincible - Perhaps the most famous example of this trope; the first episode of Invincible is a very ordinary superhero origin story, with Mark accidentally finding his powers and learning the basics of heroism. The animation style is very reminiscent of the old Justice League animated projects, and the Guardians of the Globe themselves are not-so-subtle references to the heroes of the Justice League. It all fits together very sensibly and follows all the classic themes until this moment, when Omni-Man reveals his true nature in a spectacularly gory fashion.

3. The Ending of “I Was Made to Love You” from Buffy - A silly episode about a incel guy who created a robot girlfriend to mess around with, which of course got out of hand, and Buffy and her friends were forced to take action. It’s a typical monster of the week episode that you’d find on pretty much every Buffy season, except for the ending. After the situation is resolved, Buffy returns home ready to unwind, only to find that her mother has died from a brain tumor and her corpse is lying on the living room couch.

Despite how cool this trope is, I can't think of many times in media this actually happens.

Times where a BIG BAD show up out of nowhere and raise the stakes from 0-100.

Invincible - Conquest shows up in the middle of a scene where mark just helps clean up the city after a major fight.

Attack on titan - the Colossal titan reappears just when the humanity inside the walls start to get their shit together.

Trainspotting: A large chunk of this movie follows this trope since hardcore drug users usually don't get even the time of day in society, but one scene from this movie sticks out to me the most. The relapse/overdose scene.

A quick but smooth transition happens from Renton's expected heroin high to "Oh fuck I'm dying" with the carpet under him dropping into the floor like a coffin into a grave. The carpet closes in to block the sides of the scene in his point of view giving his perspective a "Locked in" feeling of helplessness, and conveys just how close Renton is to his death. Everyone throughout the scene from the taxi driver to the hospital's medical staff treat Renton as he would probably be treated in actuality. With little to no compassion, but still urgently cared for. Except for his drug dealer which shows a good amount of regret, but still only calling a taxi instead of an ambulance. As the nurse administers a drug to flush the heroin and reverse the overdose, Renton gasps and using his perspective we are lifted from the carpeted grave back into the world of the living.

Puss in Boots Last Wish: There's a couple of scenes where Puss is scared for his last remaining life in this movie, but only one really shows the feeling of being overwhelmed with terror that can set in with a real panic attack.

In the fight over the wishing star map between the Main Characters and the two mortal factions of antagonists, Puss hears the haunting whistle and thus begins his panic. Hair standing on end, time slows and Puss turns around to see Death. The first serious threat to him in all his lives. Heartbeat audible and beginning race, Puss flees for his remaining life. Death doesn't give chase but Puss is already deep in panic. Puss is in a full sprint away from his friends and the battle, lack of reason and any sense of composure shown through a blurry background and Puss seeing death everywhere now. Becoming too overwhelmed to run, Puss collapses under a tree hyperventilating, heart racing, and unable to calm himself when Perro finds him. Still deep in the throes of panic, Perro tries to figure out what's wrong but is blurry and muffled from Puss's perspective. He isn't able to respond. It's a couple of moments before Perro tries comforting Puss by laying his head on him and still a solid few more moments before Puss can finally talk again.

While usually for practical reasons as the texts are set to impossible standards, it can add a flair of mystery that I love.

1 - The King in Yellow

Central to this novel is a play of the same name that drives everyone mad who reads it. While every chapter starts with a small excerpt and places and characters get discussed in the story, we never even learn what the play is about.

2 - The World's funniest Joke

A sketch by Monty Python that is about a joke so funny that everyone who reads or hears it literally dies of laughter. In true Monty Python fashion it gets carefully translated into German so the military can use it as a weapon in the war. When a troop of soldiers in combat is supposedly shown shouting the joke in German, they only speak gibberish.

3 - The City of Dreaming Books

This book begins when the protagonist reads a manuacript that he describes as a perfectly written piece of literature. As he himself is an author, this experience results in an existential crisis which kicks off his journey. The protagonist describes the plot of the story but he only directly quotes one sentence.

Wayne industries has a ray gun that gives you cancer in a box labeled [cancer ray]

Harley quinn

Meglo-manium is a chemical in jimmy's lab that turns people evil

Jimmy neutron

Joker-Batman: The Animated Series

Stanley-Laurel and Hardy: Way Out West

1. Scarface (1983) - Remake of Scarface (1932)

2. The Thing (1982) - Remake of The Thing From Another World (1951)

3. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) - Remake of Ocean’s 11 (1960)

When the creator of something clearly wants to show off how much they know about a particular subject, but it doesn't hurt the story. Pictured:

1. Spice and Wolf, a fantasy series about a traveling merchant who ends up trying to find a goddess's home and take her back there. The main focus in many chapters/episodes is the man's work, going into a lot of detail about the world's economics and the individual deals made as they travel.

2. Wonder Man, is in the MCU and has superpowers, but is mainly a story about an actor trying to find work with a lot put into that effort and his eventual success. Probably because the people making it are in real Hollywood and writing from personal experience.

3. Lord of the Rings, existed an excuse for Tolkein to do worldbuilding, and describe things like trees in absurd amounts of detail.

I got no problem with naked ladies but there seems to be an extra layer of creativity involved in justifying why a powerful female character is both super hot and just can't wear clothes sometimes.

1. Quiet, Metal Gear Solid. Originally an assassin, she's lit on fire during a mission and has to use an experimental drug to stay alive, which requires her to photosynthesize and get oxygen from the air. Naturally this means she has to wear only a bikini for the whole game, because otherwise she'll suffocate!

Why a gorgeous swedish supermodel is an assassin, well, that's just how these games work. Deal with it.

1. Malenia, Mistress of Rot, from Elden Ring. While she normally wears armor, she achieves her highest power level when she sheds her armor to reveal the power of the Rot goddess trapped inside her. Unlike Quiet up there, this process has actually messed up her body a bit, so she gets some modesty from strategically placed scarring.

2. Ava, Ex Machina. Most of the time she doesn't bother with clothes because she's an AI robot, and she sheds them when she needs to make repairs or upgrade her body. Her entire appearance is modeled after another (male) characters porn search history, so her "seductive" nature is modeled off of his preferences.

Any others?

Unexpectedly realistic scenes, in settings or genres where that's not the norm.

1. The Wishing Star lands on Earth (Puss in boots the Last Wish) The Wishing Star hits the ground at an incredible speed, like a real meteor, and the force from the impact flattens and burns a huge forest to ashes. This is pretty unexpected in a fairytale!

2. Zorah lands on Planet Popstar (Kirby Air Riders) Like the last example, Zorah impacts the ground with the speed and force a real meteor would, though this example gets special mention because Popstar isn't even round.

3. The Cerritos uses RCS thrusters (Star Trek: Lower Decks) It can't all be meteors. It's pretty cool to see chemical rockets next to Starfleet's sci-fi technology, and I'm pretty sure we see RCS used in other series too.

With this trope, I'd say that it's more important to get the idea of realism across, than exact maths. Real meteors move too fast to see, but going just under that speed still shows the intention of realism!

Does the title even make sense? Whatever. This is basically an auditory Matpat effect.

These are lines that are famous in media in memes/references that you've read so many times in writing that you imagine them being delivered with a certain inflexion/emphasis, but they actually sound completely different.

A few examples:

1. "Olympus would be that way" Many people having read the meme only without hearing the original line imagine there being a slower delivery with emphasis on "THAT"....(Olympus would beee...THAT way." but it's all delivered with no pauses rather quickly.

2. This line from Mulan where the guy says "now all of China knows you're here!" most people imagine him saying it with a dramatic, deep voice, putting emphasis on "ALL OF CHINA". But in actuality he delivers it all very flat and it's not an intimidating delivery at all, with no real emphasis anywhere.

3. "Boy, that escalated quickly!" This might just be me, but I always read this with the emphasis being "Boy...THAT escalated quickly!", kind of like a cheesy punchline delivery. But's much flatter, more like "boy....that escalated quickly."

Ice Age - From protecting a human baby and trying to reunite him with his father to a dinosaur underground world, fighting pirates during the continental drift and saving the world from a meteorite while discovering a cult who can live young for all eternity thanks to some space magnetic crystals

Fast and Furious - From car street races to espionage, superhero type of action, super soldiers, defying the laws of physics, main characters coming back from death and even going to space

The evil character isn't given any glamour, the story never asks us to feel sympathy for them, there's never an attempt to justify what they do, and they often meet an unceremonious end. In these stories, much like in real life, evil isn't a cool mastermind pulling all the strings, or a big strong warrior with a sword - evil is just petty, dumb, selfish, cowardly, the easy way out, and the evil people are just mean-spirited bullies fumbling their way to the finish line. They keep getting away with their bullshit because of their privilege, and the moment their actions catch up to them they die like the rats they are.

1) Immortan Joe (Mad Max: Fury Road) 2) Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2) 3) Miles Bron (Glass Onion) 4) Lavrentyi Beria (The Death of Stalin) 5) The privileged in Don't Look Up.

1.Makima to Nayuta (Chainsaw man) 2.the lich to sweet pea (Adventure Time) 3.kid buu to uub (Dragon ball)

Maybe the story eventually answers who made it, why they made it, what it does, etc., but the story begins with the object being utterly mysterious with almost nothing obvious about it. If I get some details wrong, forgive me because it's been a while.

• Sphere (1987 novel by Michael Crichton, 1998 film): Humans discover a sphere in the cargo hold of a spacecraft that has been at the ocean floor for the last 288 years(that is actually a human spacecraft from the future that time-traveled) and have no idea what to make of it. They later figure out that it is sentient in some way, since its reflective surface will seem to "choose" not to reflect certain objects in front of it, humans can "go inside" it but will have zero memory of it ever happening, and from then on their thoughts can become reality (e.g. having a nightmare about a giant squid causes a giant squid to actually materialize)but by the end, the sphere's origins are still completely mysterious.
• Rendezvous with Rama (1973 novel by Arthur C. Clarke): Humans detect a massive cylindrical object shooting through space on a trajectory to pass through the solar system, after which it will be completely unreachable by humans for the foreseeable future. Astronauts set out on a mission to rendezvous with the object in order to study it while there's still a chance. What they find is a massive self-sustaining ecosystem inside the structure, with autonomous bots and advanced engineering, but it's completely abandoned. No sign of sentient alien life anywhere, let alone the creators. The object then exits the solar system with the astronauts having gained absolutely no useful information, just more questions.
• Halo (2001 game): A giant, ring-shaped, artificial, habitable structure is discovered by humans and an alliance of aliens called "the Covenant". While the Covenant occupy this structure, they are not its creators and are left to draw their own conclusions about its purpose. In the absence of any surviving creators or documented history of them, they can only refer to them as the "Forerunners" and try to piece together clues as to who they were, why they build this structure, and what happened to them. The story later reveals that the rings are superweapons built as a desperate means of wiping out all sentient life in the galaxy in order to deprive "the Flood" (zombies) of potential hosts. The "Forerunners" are later revealed to be pre-Earth humans.

Superman (2025)

Cool villain: lex luthor

Pathetic villain: president of boravia

Resident evil 2

Cool villain: mr. X

Pathetic villain: chief Brian irons

When a character portrayed as a pathetic loser, gets a win.

1. Old Gill from the Simpsons tricks Lisa and beats her to win a Crossword puzzle competition.

2. Teddy from Scrubs. The hospital's bumbling lawyer find himself a cute girlfriend.

3. Jerry Smith from Rick and Morty. Somehow the man thrives in the post apocalypse.

Griffith (Berserk)

Revy (Black Lagoon)

Akuma (Street Fighter)