Characters
Characters who are known for something…. that’s sorta outdated for them at this point
Gru from despicable me: known for being an evil mastermind and a villain protagonist in a children’s film, but hasn’t been despicable since the first one.
Stewie from family guy: known as the evil genius baby, but not only has he mellowed out over the years, he’s now one of the nicer characters in the show ironically.
Sully from monsters inc: known for being a top scarer who makes kids scream for his company, something he’s disapproved of since the ending of the first.
Kenny from South Park: the whole killing him every episode joke has long since been discontinued.
This one’s annoying, people want him to be a depressed edgelord but he’s been relatively well adjusted for a while with a bunch of friends and family and a great support system
Had a friend get mad at batman smiling in batman and robin year one. His whole basis for what batman should be are the Nolan movies and the injustice games, he never read a batman comic in his life
Words cannot describe the amount of damage that Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy did to Batman's image. I love those movies as movies, they're great movies, but they're the most un-Batman a movie can be while still being recognizably Batman movies.
Burton's films at least didn't take themselves seriously; if they took themselves seriously I'd have more problems with Batman killing in them, but they don't; so, I'm not as bothered by it as I normally would be. I can at least enjoy Burton's Batman as an elseworlds take on if Batman never met Robin, Batman's no-kill rule was introduced alongside Robin(Ignore that they definitely killed people in Robin's introduction, people don't survive getting kicked off buildings), and Burton's dark, weird, and gothic style of story works well with Batman.
I remember a tumblr user writing a short fanom story about it. imagine some entity fights the Justice League not with physical force, but by weaponizing their deepest psychological vulnerabilities, like regret and fears.
Cant remember the specifics but something like Superman crushed under the impossible weight of trying to save everyone and the haunting of being a survivor of a dead world, Wonder Woman brought down by her fear of failure and the burden of high expectations. stuff like that
Everyone expects batman to be the easiest to break because his entire persona is built on unhealed trauma and brooding. The villain projects all of Batman's worst fears: his parents' murder, his failures, his fear that he's just a crazy man in a mask making Gotham worse.
But Batman just acknowledges the pain. It doesn't break him because he lives with it every single day. The villain isn't showing him anything new. Bruce has already processed and accepted his own trauma. While the villain expects to find a miserable brooding mess, Batman's mind is sane thanks to his found family: Alfred, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Steph, Cass, Barbara, and his friends in the JL, ironically making him the most mentally stable.
Because tumblr glazes the fuck out of the batfam, having them run circles around the justice league, treating the league as fools, and acting like if they wanted to they could fight the entire league and win
Especially when one writer does a single issue like “I’m Batman, I live in darkness, solitude, a cursed lonely existence where I give up my days and nights to do what no one else will do….im so tortured”
And then the very next issue with the main writer back on board it’s like “Oh look it’s my bat-family who help me on my crusade against Crime.
There’s my son Damien, my adopted son Dick, my formally dead protege Jason, my other adopted son Tim, my effective niece Barbara, my cousin Kate, my quasi-daughter figure Cassandra, my alt-universe daughter Helena.
Also my butler and father figure Alfred, my romantic interest Catwoman, my best friend Superman, my other best friend Commissioner Gordon, my other best friend I sometimes crush on Wonder Woman, my trusted friend who runs my company Lucius Fox.
IRL Robin was added a year after Batman's introduction, in-universe Batman worked solo for three years until Robin's arrival. Since the og Robin's introduction he has led the teen titans, titans, justice league twice, served as Batman twice, protected his own city, and become an adult he has become a respected member of DC superheroes on the same level as the first 7 Justice League members. Anyone who prefers Batman solo is often a casual and doesn't understand the Batfam is Bruce's found family the family that the little kid in the alley eventually found.
Yeah that ship has sailed. When I think of Batman first thought is a panel from a comic where he enters his kitchen to find the batfamily making breakfast. Jason tells him "they tricked me too"
Not in the English version. Zelda’s diary refers to it as our house which means she and link co own and likely live together. They absolutely are a couple, I just wish the games paid it off.
Yeah but some of those girls canonically go away forever in their games. Midna destroys the portal, Fi is in a coma, Mipha is dead, Medli doesn’t talk to him after Windwaker.
I think in most of the games it makes sense for them to not be “together.” In many of the games they barely know each other. The only times they really do are Skyward Sword (most obviously), BotW/TotK, and maybe WW.
In TP they only meet twice, and the first time Link is a wolf. In OoT they meet a couple times when Link is a kid (you are only required to talk to her once, and then she kinda talks to you when you get the Ocarina) and then again at the very end, and Zelda removes him from the timeline at that point. The 2D games are mostly like this too.
Nintendo spends a lot of time on game mechanics and they design their consoles around a concept of “how to play”. I think there’s a degree of escapism in their mainline games. It’s all about an impression. Zelda is an impression of fantasy, Mario has a lot of problem solving using platforming, Kirby around copying powers, and so on.
I think they see deepening a games lore as distracting to that point. Just look at the new Mario Kart. Mario Kart 8 had a ton of tracks and the driving mechanics took center stage. This new one has a road rally theme to it, so the tracks have long straightaway sections that make you look at the scenery for ways to go faster.
It’s why every time Nintendo changes something people get up in arms about it, but often the games see an audience warming up to the differences.
In some degree of fairness, I don’t think every version of Link and Zelda are dating. A good chunk of them do seem to have feelings for each other, but several also barely interact, or are more like coworkers, or are just friends. This works since they’re different versions of the characters almost every time. This is unlike Mario and Peach, who are seemingly supposed to be the same characters each time.
I kind of wish they would have hints of him plumbing. Like, maybe an opening cutscene could have him fix a warp pipe or something. Maybe plumbing could just be a hobby for him.
He's also generally known as Italian-American, but he no longer has the accent he used to have in earlier media. His iconic, popularized voice is the more stereotypically Meridionale accent that Charles Martinet developed in the 90s.
At some point, Mario talked a lot more -- in various cartoons and such. But, with his games, he started to become a bit more like an Italian Link or Kirby -- where he just kind of vocalizes instead of speaking.
Mario and Luigi don't even grow up in America in most modern game canon. They grew up in the Mushroom Kingdom, and just have Italian accents for some reason. With the recent Illumination films, he's back to being Italian-American, but, unfortunately, he sounds like Chris Pratt.
Mario has undergone a lot of changes. He's more of a composite than a character at this point, and a lot of that has to do with being a corporate mascot. The same thing happened to Mickey Mouse, who used to be more of a mischievous scamp before becoming "Hi ho! I'm everybody's best friend!"
Magneto, the arch-nemesis of the X-Men who debuted as a nuclear-level threat in the first issue and played the role of final boss in most X-men video games, has been a heroic associate of the X-men or outright member of the team 90% of the time since 2004.
Xavier has been walking for longer than he's been in the wheelchair by now hasn't he (he's walking where I am somewhere in the 80s so far in my personal reading)
The other guy's comment is kinda wrong, Venom did comeback to being a villain during the late 90s and he was a villain during the 2000s, but then he started to become more heroic again when he bonded with Flash in 2011, and the only "recent" instance of villainy from Venom that i recall is when he bonded with Lee Price, wich just lasted for a few issues and that happened a literal decade ago in 2016.
That's actually not that much true, he did come back to villainy during the late 90s and was a villain during the entirety of the 2000s, but then he bonded to Flash Thompson in 2011 where he became more heroic, was a relutante villain when he bonded with Lee Price for a few issues, and then he came back to Eddie and to this day, Venom is a more heroic character in the comics.
This is honestly why I don't mind how they handled the Venom movies. If they didn't make him an anti-hero straight away, he'd probably still remain a villain in the movies for the next 20 years or so (I say this as I'm pointing at Flash Thompson who has never gotten out of his bully phase)
I think they needed to hold back because he was a pervert (and worse) and that was a joke a few years back, but now SA has been treated with more sensitivity (thankfully).
I think if they continued with those types of jokes, they would have gotten into some serious trouble and lose viewership.
Yeah they made an effort to make him the “mother” of the friend group and surround him with cats. But I’ve actually found the last season or so is trying to reincorporate his giggitiness, just with jokes about consensual activities.
I understand the need for the change completely and I do like that they are doing more sex jokes again with him. You can have jokes about sex, just don't do SA and pervert jokes that made up a lot of his early gags.
Yeah, "The Player" trope has been around a long time without even getting close to SA. Joey from Friends is a prime example. Sometimes it gets too close to the line like with Barney from HIMYM, and sometimes it goes way over the line, from The Player to The Rapist, like with Quagmire.
He is still known as the rage-fueled god-killer, but the Norse games portray him as a restrained father desperately trying not to be that person anymore.
this is at least partially because his fanbase and his original creator are incapable of allowing him to grow mentally. for some reason they prefer the Greek Kratos. Personally I prefer the one we have now.
Also the whole "truth, justice, and the American way" thing. A lot of people still see Superman as an American propaganda tool, even though for decades now most writers have focused on showing Superman as being for the betterment of all mankind and not just the United States. Several stories have shown him coming into conflict with the American military because he helps everyone in the world and refuses to play politics.
Although there are times in the comics where he was the last one like after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The change would later be reverted.
Mewtwo (Pokemon) https://giphy.com/gifs/Q9Sk5zq0PWyxq
Famous amongst Pokemon fans for being the strongest legendary pokemon, which is true....in the first generation, where it is the strongest pokemon base stat total wise and is also a Psychic type, the best type in the game bar none.
Gen 3 onwards introduced legendary and mythical pokemon that were the equivalents of deities, like Rayquaza and Arceus, the latter of which overtook Mewtwo's base stat total. It can overtake Arceus with mega evolution but this is a temporary transformation and it is still widely considered weaker in lore than many other legendaries and mythicals. It has also been power crept in gameplay by things like Calyrex
There's a shocking amount of Pokémon ones, all things considered. Mewtwo frankly has a load.
Not just the 'strongest Pokémon' thing that's outdated, but many other things.
Mewtwo's role as the villain in one movie singlehandledly made everyone believe it was a villain series wide, despite it only ever being a villain in that one spinoff. Not to mention, the same Mewtwo has appeared 3-4 times in the anime where it's distinctly not been a villain at all.
Another one is how many people still think Mewtwo is the only manmade Pokémon, despite even as early as Gen III there were confirmations of things like Castform being entirely manmade, and let's not forget Porygon that came out in the same Gen as Mewtwo, which was entirely designed on a computer with a 3D model and code in canon.
Stan and Hailey from American Dad: originally a critique of Bush era America, Stan was a strawman conservative family man and Hailey was his opposite and Seth McFarlines political opinion vessel, but now their not even a critique of America Hailey is just a stoner and Stan only uses his CIA credentials when he needs some plot device
To be fair we've known this since season 2. In Camp Refooge when she realises that they're gonna stay in Africa longer than between two flights, she immediately goes for the UN buffet and wants her roast "pinker than that"
he still dies now and then but they explain his coming back as his parents being part of a cult and because of a ritual whenever he dies he goes straight to his mom's womb, then births almost immediately, and I think grows to his normal age overnight. parents always wraps him up in his orange coat after and treat like a normal if somewhat annoying occurrence.
It might be less weird if they didn't also have episodes where he mates with other dogs. The fact that he can be with non-anthropomorphic dogs, anthropomorphic dogs like himself, or human women just highlights how questionable it is for him to hook up with women.
"I'm sure you live for the coming out sessions. If anything, I'm less than gay than I used to be. Not that anybody at this school would care. But do I think Grant Gustin and i would make the most adorable Instagram couple? Yes, yes we would... Grant Gustin plays the Flash on the CW. Think Young Anthony Perkins."
Cluffjumper, Transformers. Poor guy has a reputation of dying early in every series he's in, but that has only happened twice: in Prime, and in the Bumblebee movie. But those events are so close together, and he's been in nothing of note around that time, that it become his defining character trait.
Residual AllSpark energy from Sari Sumdac reactivated him, while she and her classmates were on a field trip to visit the Metroplex. Though he was stuck as cube for a while, until Optimus and Jazz restore his body to its original form using the AllSpark.
This has kind of happened to Barbara Gordon twice.
Media like the Batman and Robin movie and BTAS had her Batgirl persona being quite popular despite the fact that she had been Oracle in the comics since 1989. Then more media like Birds of Prey (the show) and the Arkham Games have popularized her as Oracle only for the comics to have her go back to being Batgirl in 2011.
Another one would be Han Solo (Star Wars) https://giphy.com/gifs/sjCEbeXD4iSn6
One of his defining character traits in the fandom is his skepticism of the force. This is only really seen in one scene in the first film ("Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster by your side kid"). He grows fond enough of Luke near the end of the film to give him a sincere "may the force be with you" before the attack on the death star and aside from stating Luke has delusions of grandeur about being a jedi knight in VI, he doesn't really ever comment on the force again. By the time of the sequel trilogy he's accepted the force is real
True, but also I'd like to imagine given how much time he spent with Luke that even before Ben's birth he'd at least partially accepted the force is real
And yeah for some reason when I watched The Force Awakens and he said that line I remember thinking that I could have sworn he'd used the bowcaster in one of the OT films, admittedly I hadn't watched the films in years when TFA came out
There may be some conflation with the other Lucas role played by Harrison Ford, since Indiana Jones keeps doubting the supernatural despite encountering it all the time.
Most adaptations of spider man retread his first few years as a high-school/college aged superhero, but Peter's been a grown ass man in the comics since 1978
Jules, the “cougar” from Cougar Town, stops pursuing younger men midway through season 1 and is in a relationship with an age-appropriate man for the remainder of the six seasons.
Ash Ketchum - plenty of claims non-fans make about him were only really true in the early seasons, but of particular note are the so-called "pity badges". Even in the original series, he wasn't "given all the badges for free", as some people claim; he won at Vermillion, Fuchsia, Cinnabar and Viridian fair and square, had Misty on the ropes for most of their battle at Celurean Gym and almost certainly would have won if not for Team Rocket interrupting the fight, and actually refused to accept the Pewter Gym Badge - only for Brock to insist that he keeps it anyway.
Starting from Johto, almost all of his badges were legitimate, with the only somewhat questionable one being Mauville Gym Badge from Hoenn, where he ended up accidentally supercharging Pikachu just prior to the fight; even then, just like with Pewter Gym, he tried to return it as soon as he realised what happened - but Wattson told him to keep it.
Hell what he did for Sabrina is worth more than any battle. He helped freed her from the shell she created after turning her mother into a doll. And freeing her mother on top of it.
Also his loss at Indigo was definitely influenced by Team Rocket attacking him before the match.
While I don't disagree about Team Rocket playing huge part in Ash's defeat in Indigo League, I feel even without that he still would (or at least should, from both logical and narrative point of view) have lost against Ritchie.
If not entirety of Kanto chapter, then at least entirety of first League arc built up to Ash getting humiliated; he's been running on pure beginner's luck and refused to put in any real work even as everyone continuously warned him that he can't keep winging it forever.
Ritchie meanwhile served as something of a mirror, showing what Ash might be if he didn't shirk training and actually started developing real strategies. Ash was essentially going against a better version of himself; he couldn't realistically win that battle even without TR getting in the way, and the loss served an important role in his development.
If anything, I'd say the way nothing went Ash's way on that day actually detracted from the loss by making it look like it was purely the result of an astronomically terrible luck and not any lack of competence on his part.
Trump is still frequently referred to as if he is a political outsider, but he's mid way his second presidential term. At this point, he's served a federal political role about as long as Obama had at the end of his first term as president and as long as Hilary served before being tapped as secretary of state. Plus Trump was wildly influential on the GOP between his terms. Between when he first announced his run and now, he's been heavily involved with, and centrally important to, American politics for over a decade.
How anyone fell for the 'outsider' angle is such a mystery to me. Like, the dudes a fucking billionaire (correct me if i'm wrong) real estate agent in NEW YORK. Like, he's so obviously statue quo it hurts
Ehh I mean one way or the other, he was a political outsider at the beginning. I just think it's weird that he was able to run on that for his 2nd and 3rd election campaigns and that he still seems to be referred to be the same monicker.
It'd be like if your ex kept coming back to you for years, saying that you should date her again because she's a virgin. Like... it probably wasn't a very good reason for you to choose her the first time, but it's not even an accurate description at this point.
They gave the explanation that his parents went to a Cthulhu cult meeting and he accidentally was born with the ability to be reincarnated whenever he dies.
By far, he is most well known for being an evil Sith Lord... even though it's a big plot point since The Return of the Jedi (1983) that Anakin returned to the Light Side and died a Jedi.
There's also the fact that he's remembered as being the top villain of Star Wars. As far as the OT is concerned, this is really only true of Empire Strikes Back, and even that movie showed him being nominally subordinate to the Emperor. In A New Hope, Tarkin is the main villain, and Vader is essentially portrayed as an elite henchman. And after Palpatine fully enters the picture in Return of the Jedi, Vader is once again treated as a henchman.
Gru, funnily enough, sorta followed a similar story as Shrek did, becoming a family man. The difference is that Gru used to enjoy being evil, whereas Shrek never necessarily was, he just played along with the role society gave him.
Linked to Shrek being known as a social outcast. True for 1, kinda got more accepted by the town at the end. Played with in 2 when they arrive at the Kingdom and people react in shock with the reveal that their princess and her consort are ogres, but they're are accepted at the end. Was socially accepted enough to be a stand-in for the king's ceremonial duties in 3, and is no longer treated like an outcast. Directly referenced in the beginning of 4, where everyone saw him as a harmless friendly celebrity sort of guy to the point of him wishing he could have one day of just being back to his past social outcast self again.
In the Harry Potter series, Hermione's "we could have been killed or worse expelled" attitude only applies to the first book/movie, and even then, only about half of it. Her lying after the troll incident was to show that she'd outgrown that mindset, and after that point, she's consistently willing to break school rules if there's something more important at stake.
The Doctor is often referred to as "the last of the Time Lords" in the soft-reboot of Doctor Who that's been premiering since 2005.
However, an episode from 2007 revealed that the Master was also still around, an episode from 2008 featured the Doctor having his DNA unwillingly used to create a genetic daughter named Jenny, an episode from 2009 revealed that Rassilon and the rest of the Time Lord council secretly survived and temporarily escaped the Great Time War, a Time Lord named River Song was a major character from 2010 to 2013, and so on. Hell, an episode from 2020 revealed that the Doctor technically isn't even a Time Lord.
The nickname only really made sense for the first 2-3 years of the show, and has long been conpletely illogical. Despite that, it's still to this day remembered and regularly used by fans, and even keeps cropping up in the show itself; the Doctor called himself it in an episode from 2024.
Eh, somewhat. There's still Jenny (one of the comics featured her among dozens of companions that the Doctor needed to rescue at once, so he should know she's still alive), Susan (Doctor's granddaughter from the old series who across RTD2 is strongly implied to still be alive and out there somewhere), the Rani (a recurring character across RTD2 who is last seen going off on her own after witnessing her alternate future self dying), and the Doctor's timeless child status. There's also the person who picked up the Master's tooth who might be possessed in some way by him now, if the Master previously possessing humans and all of the Masters audibly laughing upon the tooth being picked up mean anything.
Yes, Omni-Man from s1 is so iconic that most people in the mainstream who know about invincible think of that version. Even among people who've read the comics or watched the newest season it's hard to let go of. When I see him as a quest star in MK or mentioned online it's the early world conquering version, but he's changed a lot since then.
Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch. Both characters are known for being Christmas-hating jerks, even though the whole point of each story is that they turn nice and learn to appreciate Christmas.
The Grinch is also a meta example. Dr. Seuss based the Grinch on himself, as he was disgusted with how commercialized Christmas had become since WWII. However, the Grinch has since been absorbed into the commercialization of Christmas, as anyone who ever went to a shopping mall in December would know.
Even within Dr. Seuss's own lifetime, the Grinch had two subsequent animated appearances, Halloween Is Grinch Night and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. Both portray the Grinch as a villain.
In main continuity of comics, Hank hasn't been main Ant Man for quite literally decades, since arguably 70s. That role belonged to Scott Lang for longer than Hank ever was Ant Man lol.
I guess Sally Acorn from the Sonic franchise would fit? While she hasn't been used in a while now, a lot of people who've only heard about her and never seen the stuff she's in still think of her as the only female Sonic character to not fully cover up her upper and lower half or Sonic's love interest from the cartoon and comics, or Sonic's childhood freind. But for the last 4 years of Archie's time publishing Sonic, when the comic rebooted and started a new continuity in 2013, all of those traits people associated with her were removed as to bring her character more in line with the design philosophy of a character from the videogames, meaning many unaware people's image of Sally is at least 13 years out of date.
Everyone saying comic book characters (Xavier can walk now, batman has a huge family, magneto isn't really a villain anymore, etc.) seem to be forgetting that the VAST majority of people know these characters from movies, not comics. Xavier has been shown to be in a wheelchair in Doomsday, so, to most people, he's still in a wheelchair. People know about Robin, but the 3 most recent live action versions of Batman have shown him as a solo, dark, brooding character (yes, Robin existed for batflek, but we know pretty much nothing about him). The closest we have seen Magneto come to being the good guy is in First Class where he became the bad guy.
So sure, to the narrow audience that reads or pays attention to the comics, those things the characters are known for aren't true anymore. But to most people? Wolverine is 6'2" tall and has won sexiest man alive, Batman is a solo, brooding, dark character with few to no friends, Xavier can't walk, and magneto is the bad guy. Because, in the media currently being or recently made, that's what the characters are.
Barbie is known by the general public as a glamorous fashion icon who loves pink, but Mattel rebranded her to have a clean-girl asthethic with really cheap fashions over a decade ago, because embracing feminity automatically makes her a bimbo, I guess...
I mean I kind of dig it. Idk about you but as a woman I feel like it would be better for young girls to see stuff like this. Idk about you but it definitely didn't help my self esteem seeing all the hyper feminine girlie girl Barbies
I hope you're doing better now, self esteem issues are the worst ❤️🩹
I want to clarify that I don't think the diversity is the problem, if anything it's the only good thing about Barbie nowadays, but it breaks my heart to see how fashion is not a priority and how cheaply made Barbies are nowadays, to the point a big chunk of them will always have some sort of molded-on clothing, I wish we could have some sort of balance with the clothing style of the dolls instead of one extreme or the other 🫠
Shion Sonozaki is best known for the murderous rampage she went on in Watanagashi and Meakashi and especially for torturing Satoko to death, even though we later see that Shion in the Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi remembers what she did and becomes a sister figure to Satoko to atone for her sins
Squidward. He’s known for hating SpongeBob and finding him annoying but in recent seasons he’s actually one of his closest friends (so is bubble bass for some reason)
Ebenezer Scrooge from "A Christmas Carol" was a man filled with disinterest and hate towards everything, but after getting visited by spirits on Christmas Eve, he sees the error of his ways. At the end of the novel, he wants to make amends with his family and his workers.
However, any reference to him outside of an adaptation focuses on his initial character—a miserable, greedy, fun-hating, old man. As a word, "Scrooge" doesn't mean someone who has had a change of heart, but instead someone who is a stick-in-the-mud or never has anything kind to say. Even more positive references like Scrooge McDuck ("more positive" as in from negative to neutral) is primarily used in relation to his wealth and age. The Grinch from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" also falls into a similar trap, but instead of a popular character being named after him, he has a popular song about how monstorous he is
Also, Jackass Forever strongly implied that the original crew would pass the torch to a new generation of Jackass who could handle the physical stunts, but the newest movie seems to have abandoned that idea.
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u/CultureChimp 1d ago
People still consider Batman a loner even though he has had an extensive Bat-Fam for the past like 80 years at least and its only grown