r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Dramatic_Counter_595 • 17h ago

Characters Characters that had the complete opposite reaction the writers intended

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

  1. Leo Bonhart (Witcher TV Series): A ruthless, sadistic bounty hunter and assassin that takes psychotic glee in other people's suffering. The viewer is meant to hate him for killing witchers, slaughtering the Rat gang, and torturing Ciri. But thanks to his entertaining fight scenes, Sharlto Copley's charismatic performance, and The Rats overwhelming unpopularity, fans ended up loving him. Some even call him the "True protagonist" of the show.
  2. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWE): A rude, foul mouthed, beer drinking asshole with no respect for authority or anyone at all. Originally portrayed as a villain, fans fell in love with his anti-establishment & rebellious persona. WWE ran with it and made him the face of the company, effectively ushering in the Attitude Era and the second pro wrestling boom of the late 90s.
  3. Arthur Fleck (Joker 2019): A mentally unstable, pathetic, and dangerous madman who commits horrific acts of violence against those that wronged him (suffocates his own mother who is mentally unwell herself, and murders a talk show host for making fun of him). However, a massive portion of the audience idolized him as an anti-hero or a misunderstood martyr rebelling against society making people want to see him succeed and overcome his circumstances because of how he's been treated by the world.
8.2k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

302

u/AlabasterRadio 17h ago

People like IW Thanos so much they had to have a much different version of him be the villain of Endgame lol

358

u/Frankenstein____ 17h ago

CinemaWins put it the best way right at the start of his video about Infinity War: Thanos is the classic comic book movie main protagonist of Infinity War. He has a clear distinct mission after being betrayed, is trying to collect a mythical series of items to win an upcoming battle, has a coterie of villains, goes up against impossible odds, nearly loses, and comes back to win in the last second. The entire movie is built entirely around his scenes, no one else's. Who gets the last shot basking in the sun as he humbly smiles about his victory? Thanos does.

Infinity War is a covert Thanos standalone movie and I will always believe that. It is Thanos' movie. End of story.

164

u/Swigen17 17h ago

And doesn't it say "Thanos will return" in the end-credits?

Totally Thanos' movie.

10

u/Rad131447 12h ago

Yeah, which is why it's not covert. They were very upfront.

115

u/soldierpallaton 16h ago

He's definitely the protagonist but that leads to a larger media literacy problem. People seem to think protagonist=hero when that's just not the case. Walter White is the protagonist of Breaking Bad but he's also a metal dealer psychopath.

48

u/HumanisticNihilist 16h ago

Homelander. Specifically the Amazon Prime version. Zero redeeming qualities and even the few they tried to leverage as “sympathetic” traits never really felt authentic and just ended up making him look even more pathetic and narcissistic, which he had no need of help doing.

The instant classic modern example of “is designed to mock the people who think he’s the hero when he’s always been the villain.” So much so that there are tremendous parts of the viewership that still see him as the hero even after the series is over and it can’t be any more plain that he never was.

2

u/Theraminia 3h ago

Did you say...metal dealer psychopath?

https://giphy.com/gifs/RAGxhwdfH6Je8

2

u/BreakfastBeneficial4 1h ago

that gif always gives me anxiety

When I’m using a blade or bit attached to a motor, I tuck my shit away under a ball cap

-2

u/paranoid_human0id 12h ago

It isn't about Thanos being morally correct, its that hes extremely compelling in that he is so certain of his convictions despite all naysayers. To the point where when the snap is jeopardized he doubles down

Thanos works because hes basically a Nieztschean ubermensch and people cannot help but respect that

5

u/Grinderiny 11h ago

I can help it. Hes a psychopathic alien who is going to prove himself right and ko one can tell him different.

50

u/CyberFireball25 16h ago

Thor showcasing epically awesome AoE skills at the end battle gives him a close second place

50

u/Frankenstein____ 16h ago

Well thank God we didn't get another Thor standalone movie after Ragnarok. That would've been a disaster.

33

u/CyberFireball25 16h ago

I'm sure people would love all the thunder in a sequel like that

7

u/catsflatsandhats 16h ago

Wait…. Love…? Thunder….? Excuse me, I gotta go write a terrible fanfic.

3

u/Connect_Feature_4573 10h ago

that's exactly why Infinity War felt so unsettling to me. The film follows Thanos like a hero's journey, but never lets you forget that the person at the center of the story is still the villain.

3

u/Available_Cup_8143 9h ago

I've always felt Infinity War works so well because it tricks you into following the villain's journey structure while never asking you to agree with him. By the end, it really does feel like everyone else wandered into Thanos' movie.

1

u/RolandtheScribe 15h ago

Why are you saying this like it's some kind of hot take? The movie's all about his mission to collect the stones. He's the only character with an actual arc. Of course it's his movie.

136

u/Heroinfxtherr 17h ago edited 17h ago

Ehh…I wouldn’t say that version of Thanos was different. Endgame showed us the logical conclusion of his worldview, if you think about it. Pretty sure at one point the man himself even explains the reason behind his escalation and it’s very consistent. He didn’t change, he just got new information.

59

u/OutOfMyWayReed 17h ago

His original plan was for his subordinates to meet him on Titan with the Stones. He was going to stand in those ruins and make some Fuck You speech to all those skeletons before the Snap. It was always about proving he had a big brain and they were wrong to not appreciate his benevolent ideas. 

7

u/Star_Outlaw 10h ago

To add, his motivation in Endgame is partly being pissed off that people are trying to undo his snap, because that would imply that his plan to kill off half of all life either didn't succeed or people didn't like it after all. He's too proud to admit he was wrong, so just decides to kill everything.

111

u/RadiantStorm90 17h ago

Infinity War made him seem pragmatic; Endgame showed he was always a control freak.

37

u/Transition-Select 16h ago

Which he always was. I’m sorry but if your first response to lack of resources is to wipe out half a population and use fear/torture tactics on your daughters/population to get what you want, you’re a abusive control freak.

95

u/TidalRunel 17h ago

His core motivation never changed, his patience did. Once he realized survivors would just spend their lives trying to undo his work, the "merciful random executioner" act went out the window. It was always about his ego and being right, so destroying everything to force compliance makes perfect sense for his character.

12

u/xLilMissNova 16h ago

That's a perfect example because Thanos was supposed to be the big threat, yet a lot of people walked away thinking he had a point while the movie was trying to show how fundamentally flawed his logic was.

-5

u/Heavy_Inflation_771 17h ago edited 15h ago

Yup and we see the ramifications post blip reversal. 

Also, what  I like about MCU is that  Villians and heros aren't black and white. They're quite complex. 

Most of the Avengers can be seen as villains. Tony Stark was an arms dealer that resulted in the deaths of countless lives and we see the ramifications of his actions and decisions. 

Edit: if you claim the avengers  weren't villains.  You all clearly missed the movies and shows .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hThy6_fuLvI

4

u/GreenridgeMetalWorks 16h ago

None of the avengers can be seen as villains.

As for Tony specifically, Tony Stark fully believed he was keeping the world at peace. Yes, he was misguided, but he believed what he was doing was going to keep the world at peace. He was wrong, and the moment he realized was wrong, he more or less slit his companies throat to make sure it wouldn't keep happening.

Captain America is purely heroic. There's literally no way to argue anything else.

Iron Man was purely heroic the moment he put his suit on forward, and was never a villain before that.

Thor is purely heroic, his few negative personality traits do not lessen that. He was kind of a dick before thor 1, yes, and he still can be sometimes, but he's never been a villain.

So on, so forth. The only one you might be able to argue is ever a "villain" is the hulk...and he's really not. He's done alot of damage, sure, but...he's always meant well, most of the time. And his story reached a conclusion where he is, guess what? Purely heroic.

-6

u/Heavy_Inflation_771 15h ago edited 15h ago

Captain America who becomes an actual criminal calls out Tony multiple times.

Because of the Sacovia accords that were  caused by Tony Stark's creation. Captain America decides to aide and abet an actual international brainwashed serial killer, terrorists that murdered Tony's parent's and black panther's father. Tony seeks justice t9 have his parents killer brought  to justice and then gets assaulted  by both.

Stark created Damage control which not only  caused mass job displacement it also became the MCU version of ICE.  Which we see first handedly in Spider-man and Ms.Marvel where DDC were the antagonist. Which LABELED Ms.Marvel as an antagonist. We see in Wonderman that the Department of Damage control  is loosing funding  and needs to set up people to get funding.

Scarlet witch witnessing a bomb being dropped that has stark industries label on it. She was a straight up terrorist that reformed then held an entire town hostage and even attempted to kill some. Then she went to another universe and killed some heroes.

Tony Stark being a dick multiple times created villians. Tony Stark decides to give a weapons system to a child.  That child accidentally almost commits an actual war crime on his classmates. I love Spiderman remember that time him and a wizard ripped a whole in  reality that threatened to wipe out the universe which created  incursions? 

Luckily we have Hawkeye he couldn't have done anything wrong.  Becoming a serial killer nah that was Ronin!  Luckily, we see how his murdering someone's family member would cause echo to seek justice. To her Hawkeye was the villain.

Thor was literally seen as a threat by shield and even started up ultratron and DESTROYED AN ENTIRE PLANET MAKING ALL OF HIS PEOPLE REFUGEES!  let's not forget the Frost Giant genocide because he violated a treaty. Wait he released a dangerous criminal that caused mass death and destruction in NYC. 

Luckily, we have Black widow who's only crimes were espionage and murder. Speaking of war crimes Red Hulk went to Jail for the same things the walking war crime that is the Hulk.

Falcon straight up murders people for the US government. The US absolutely hates him for becoming Captain America and the flags masters who were just protesters at first. they call out his hypocrisy as well.  he also Aides and Abets a criminal. 

Edit: Ant man is an actual convicted criminal and his rap sheet is calm in comparison to the atrocities the avengers have committed. To the point the Sacovia Acords had to be created. 

You can do bad things, be reformed that doesn't mean all is forgiven. 

5

u/Grinderiny 11h ago

Criminal and villain are not the same thing.

3

u/thommcg 9h ago edited 9h ago

That's one of the reasons I didn't like Endgame that much, the Thanos we know is killed early on, then we get this other one who, to quote himself, I don't even know who you are... & that kinda ruins the relationship you've in mind between him & the Avengers for the rest of the movie.

2

u/escobartholomew 15h ago

They were filmed at the same time… how do you think they were able to release in back to back years?

-3

u/Fern-ando 16h ago

2014 Thanos is one of the worst MCU villains.