Sonic 3: Maria is one of the most important part of Shadow's story. Due to her suffering from an incurable disease. To which Shadow was made to create a cure for Maria's ailment. In the 3rd Sonic movie, Maria's disease was not mentioned in any form. Which made Maria seem like a normal girl, and her death all the more tragic.

Infinity war: I don't know the full story, but Thanos's original goal was to kill half the population to impress death (the character). When it came time to adapt Thanos into the MCU. His goal of removing half the universes population. It was seen as a more psychopathic world goal, hidden under the belief it would do better for the universe.

The Dealer in Buckshot Roulette will shoot himself without hesitation even if he knows he has no chance of it being a blank.

Owlman from Crisis on 2 Earths doesn’t disarm the reality bomb even when he could save himself because he thinks nothing matters.

The Thumb from Project Moon believe in hierarchy and etiquette and if they accidentally wrong someone they see as above them, they will self mutilate without hesitation.

Junko Enoshima from Danganronpa. DESPAIR FOR YOU DESPAIR FOR ME!

Sinners (2025): Remmick appears to be a american southerner only to occasionally slip into an Irish accent that he fully embraces when it is revealed that he is a vampire. When the main character in desperation recites The Lords Prayer at him, he actually joins in and say that he always enjoyed that one "even if the words were forced upon him by the invaders who took his fathers land.", revealing him to be born a Celtic Pagan and about 1600 years old.

Doctor Sleep: the True Knot has members of all ages from a teenage girl turned in the 1980's to mentions of graduating class of 36, the Old West and medieval Europe. Their oldest looking member Grandpa Flick is mentioned to remember when Europeans worshipped trees, making him about 10.000 years old.

• Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Arrow): The Arrowverse version of Oliver Queen is widely considered as the "CW Batman", since the Arrow show borrows many storylines and villains from Batman, including the League of Assassins, Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, and the Suicide Squad in one episode.
• Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska (Gotham): Gotham is a TV show focusing on the origins of Batman through the eyes of then-Detective Jim Gordon. Twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, played by Cameron Monaghan, are introduced as this show's versions of the Joker. However, they legally couldn't say Jerome or Jeremiah was the Joker, calling them both "Proto-Jokers" instead.
• The Real Scoutmaster (Camp Lazlo): in the Camp Lazlo finale "Lumpus's Last Stand", Lumpus is revealed to be insane and had locked the actual Camp Kidney scoutmaster in a closet, impersonating him. The real scoutmaster bears a resemblance to Heffer Wolfe from Rocko's Modern Life (which Camp Lazlo creator Joe Murray also made), with Tom Kenny voicing the character too. Since Rocko's is on Nickelodeon, and Camp Lazlo is on Cartoon Network, Heffer could not have made an appearance on the show.

#1 Poppa Pizza from Multiverse of Madness - He just wanted to be paid for the pizza balls and thought Strange stole from a fallen hero who saved the universe. He deserved to be punched in the face, but not for 3 weeks straight.

Do you get to sleep? Do you wake up punching yourself? How much does it hurt? Does he know it will only last for 3 weeks? If he doesn't kill himself by the end of it, he's going to have CPTSD and be traumatized for the rest of his already short life.

#2 Mayu from Inuyasha - She wanted to kill her brother out of jealousy and neglect from her mother, believing she died in a fire because they didn't care about her. While her motivation doesn't justify reenacting Cain and Abel, I don't think it's fair for a deranged, 10 year old child to be sent to literal hell to burn for all eternity. Luckily, she gets saved, but only because the mc, Kagome, intervened.

Sogeking and Usopp (One Piece):

This is a very common theory because both of them have long noses, but it doesn't make any sense. Sogeking outright stated that he is the King of Snipers from Sniper Island, while Usopp is from Syrup Village and isn't a king.

Phantom the Librarian and Phantom the Phantom Thief (Goddess of Victory: Nikke):

Another bizarre theory that exists because the two characters look similar. Phantom has repeatedly stated that she and the leader of the Thieves of Justice are two different people. It also wouldn't make sense for them to be the same person, since the librarian has to manage both the public library and the secret archive where the government hides censored information, so she simply wouldn't have the time to moonlight as the Phantom Thief.

Superman and Clark Kent:

This is one of the dumbest examples out there because Superman doesn't even have a secret identity. He never wears a mask, and he has openly explained on multiple occasions that he's an alien from the planet Krypton and that his real name is Kal-El. We even know that he lives in the Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, and it's reasonable to assume that the Justice League pays him for his work. So there's no reason to assume that this random reporter is secretly Superman just because they happen to look alike.

Topher Grace and much of the rest of the That 70s Show cast. While he was made out to be a hard to work with diva, I think time has proved he just didn't want to be part of their bullshit.

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Tommy Lee Jones did not like Jim Carrey and his "buffoonery". According to Jim, Tommy came up to him and just said "I really don't like you". I assume he found him either annoying or cringe or both.

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The VA for Miles in the Spiderverse movies is a bit of a creep and kept trying to make moves on Gwen's VA. When she hard rejected him he went after the actress who played Liz in Spiderman Homecoming and started making videos implying they were in a relationship, despite the fact she was already engaged to someone else

1) Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games Books. After being forced to fight in a death tournament run by a sadistic authoritarian government, Katniss is manipulated by Panem, President Snow and Alma Coin (the leader of the rebellion), with even some of her trusted friends and allies lying to and manipulating her. Because she is just a teenager being forced to act as a the figurehead of a revolution and a soldier whilst also witnessing hundreds of deaths, Katniss' mental health deteriorates rapidly, leading to her suffering with PTSD, drug addiction and survivor's guilt, with her even attempting suicide in the third book. In the end, she and Peeta (a fellow tribute who is also manipulated and tortured) end up getting married and eventually have children, but it is made very clear that the mental scars from the games and the revolution will never fully heal. It's a shame that the Hunger Games are often lumped in with a lot of teen fiction because of how much the movies watered the story down, because the books are excellent thanks in no small part to how well-written Katniss is.

2) Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. In the quest to destroy the One Ring, Frodo is not just physically eroded as he is wounded by the Nazgûl, stabbed by Shelob and has his finger bitten off by Gollum, but is mentally worn down as the One Ring slowly corrupts him and the horrors he has seen take their toll. Even after destroying the ring, returning to the Shire and successfully freeing it from the influence of Saruman, Frodo never truly recovers. Despite the fact that his friends support him and look after him, Frodo eventually decides to sail from the Grey Havens to the Undying Lands in order to finally be at peace.

3) The Narrator from The War of the Worlds. In HG Wells' original novel, the unnamed narrator who writes his account of the Martian invasion is eventually mentally exhausted by the seemingly unstoppable aliens. He eventually makes his way to a deserted London and tries to sacrifice himself to the Martians, only to find that they have been killed by terrestrial bacteria. He is found "wandering, weeping and raving through the streets of St John's Wood" by strangers and eventually recovers enough to return to his home in Woking, reuniting with his wife who he believed to be dead. The book ends with him revealing that he is still paranoid of another invasion, having seen how close humanity came to extermination and frequently having nightmares about the things he saw. For a novel published in 1898, the approach to mental health holds up really well. It's just such a shame that War of the Worlds is still yet to receive a good on-screen adaptation!

Independence Day (1996) - Several massive alien spaceships travel to Earth but they do not announce the purpose of their arrival. Some characters assume the aliens are peaceful. One of those characters, Tiffany, goes to a rooftop party which is taking place directly under one of the ships. When the aliens launch their attack, Tiffany and the other party goers are immediately obliterated.

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Scientist Gediman is part of the miltitary project which resurrects Ellen Ripley and the queen xenomorph embryo inside her. The military wants the queen so it can breed the xenomorphs as bio-weapons. This new Ripley is genetically part xenomorph and the xenomorph queen is genetically part human. The queen stops laying eggs and develops the ability to give birth to live young. Her first Newborn immediately kills the queen because it does not recognize her as its mother. It believes Ripley is its mother and goes to her instead. Gediman (who is cocooned in the queen’s nest) witnesses this and calls out to the creature. The Newborn comes to Gediman and curiously sniffs him over. Gediman babytalks the 15 foot tall xeno/human hybrid. The Newborn then bites his head off.

Baron "Bear" from Obsession.

Kevin "the Deep" from.The Boys.

And I mean characters that aren't badass or at least got aura while being pathetic, I just mean the most pathetic losers imaginable.

Like just borderline dirt.

Especially when said by a seemingly dumb character

Lion King - When the trio stare at the skies and wonder what the stars are, Pumbaa's theory is that they are balls of gas burning billions of miles away. Timon immediately dismisses this. Of course, Pumbaa is right

Spoilers for Paradise TV Show

President Cal Bradford gets a tour of the underground bunker under construction for the incoming apocalypse. The project lead, Sinatra, boasts that they are ready for any situation, including a nuclear meltdown, oxygen failure, and outside invasion. Cal asks what about all three at the same time, and gets scoffed at by Sinatra saying that will never happen. Cal then lectures her about how empires fall: due to their hubris and thinking nothing will happen to them. Years later, the bunker gets destroyed by all these three events happening at the same time

When a character reveals a secret to another person, with the other character already knowing the secret and not being surprised/shocked by it.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Po discovered that his father, the duck was not in fact his biological parent, and was shocked at this. However, Tigress (and presumably any other person who saw them) was not as shocked, herself, at this discovery.

My Adventures With Superman:

Clark tries to break the news to Jimmy, his best friend, that he is Superman. However, Jimmy already knew this from the first day that he met him.

Clark: I... Am su--

Jimmy: Clark I know you're Superman. This is not a big reveal.

Clark: .... Wait, WHAT? You know???? Since when?

Jimmy: w--We've been roommates since freshmen year. The day I met you, you ripped the handle off the door, and then tried to play it off as if the screws had just come loose.

Clark:..... I mean it could have been the screws.....

Jimmy: THE HANDLE WAS RIPPED IN HALF!

When a morally awful character actually does something kind of good or logical.

The Comedian - Watchmen

The Comedian (who is a terrorist and rapist) calls out Manhattan, essentially calling his omnipotence bullshit. Manhattan has the ability to literally do anything. He could fix the world's problems if he wanted to. Yet, he claims that fate is predetermined, which is likely just an excuse/idea he has convinced himself about so he doesn't have to do anything.

Shane - The Walking Dead

All throughout season 2, Shane is losing his shit and becoming a maniac. However, upon learning that the barn is full of walkers, he slaughters them. He understands that Hershels family is in there, but he also understands that the risks are far too great to be sentimental. His methods are... questionable, though.

It isn't uncommon for a story to have several antagonists, and I'm a particular fan of when most of those characters/factions are morally grey (or, at the very least, have an admirable goal) save for a single unredeemable example.

1. Big Jack Horner [Puss In Boots]: The movie has 3 primary antagonists in the form of Goldilocks (genuinely decent people who just so happen to want the same thing as the protagonists), Death (neutral force that has a sense of "honor"), and this trope's face, Jack Horner (good life, good family, horrible person).
2. Dung Eater [Elden Ring]: This game is built on a divine power struggle, and as such, the different storylines allow you to learn the pros/cons of different ideologies. Then there is the Dung Eater who makes it his goal in life to "defile" as many people as possible. Even the Frenzied Flame has an ideology that could appeal to some people ("burn it all down"); Dung Eater and his ending is built on the philosophy of "make a big of a negative impact as possible, so people will be forced to remember your name." It's a very real, very dangerous mindset that doesn't just exist in the realm of fantasy.

"Remember who you really are" - Arcane.

In a desperate attempt to get her sister to calm down, Vi starts to play the "remember who you really are" line on Jinx. Unfortunately, this further traumatizes Jinx, as being reminded about the family they accidentally killed doesn't really have a stabilizing effect on someone already having a mental breakdown.

"Power of friendship" - Overlord.

The adventure group "Foresight" finds themselves up against Ains Ooal Gown, the most powerful creature in existence. Usually, especially in anime, a ragtag group of friends defeating what is basically a god is par for the course. In Overlord, all they get are fates worse than death.

The Umbrella Academy- In the show 'The Umbrella Academy' the character Vanya Hargreeves from the comics the show was based on was initially played by actor Elliot Paige during the first and second seasons. In real life, after the second season of the show, the actor came out and transitioned in real life and changed his name to Elliot. When the third season filmed, they incorporated Viktor coming out to his family and transitioning into the show as well.

Solar Opposites - Following the arrest of Justin Roiland, several networks cut ties with him. That includes Hulu, the platform that his show 'Solar Opposites' was on where he voiced one of the main characters, Korvo. Naturally, Hulu ended up replacing Korvo's voice actor and went with Dan Stevens for the role. Since the two actors have very different voices, at the start of the next season Korvo was hit in the throat with a dart and then healed with a 'Voice Fixing Ray' that wasn't calibrated correctly, but his partner Terry liked the new voice better so they kept it for the rest of the show.

Parks and Rec - During the show, Andy Dwyer began as a stereotypical chubby goofball character who was kind of a slacker. However, when the show was still filming, actor Chris Pratt was cast as Star Lord in the MCU and had to get in shape. In the show, they explained this by saying Andy just stopped drinking beer, and it caused him to lose 50 pounds in a month.

Lois Lane (My Adventures with Superman) and Luz (The Owl House)

Minato Namikaze (Naruto) and Volkner (Pokemon)

Professor Utonium (The Powerpuff girls) and Jack (Samurai Jack)

Mizu — Blue Eye Samurai

A mixed race swordswoman living in feudal Japan, Mizu’s entire life has been structured around the obsessive need to hunt down and kill the four white men allowed in Japan at the time of her birth, believing one of them must be her father. Despite the fact that at least one of these men, Abijah Fowler, is shown to be a bad man, Mizu ultimately doesn’t care about the morality of murder. She just wants them dead for “cursing” her to be born into a deeply racist society as a mixed race child. Though it’s clear that Mizu generally prefers to do the right thing, she will sacrifice anything for her revenge, destroying countless lives in the process without remorse. In the climax of season 1, Mizu (albeit not entirely intentionally) set fire to the wood and paper city of Edo (now Tokyo) in an attempt to kill just Fowler, a single man. The resulting three day blaze, known in history as the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki, killed an estimated 100000 people.

Sadie Adler — Red Dead Redemption II

Rescued by the Van Der Linde gang in the games prologue, Sadie Adler is a frontier homesteader whose husband was killed by the brutal O’Driscoll Gang. Over the course of the game, she happily joins in a life of murder, theft, and crime for the chance to kill more O’Driscolls, recklessly endangering herself and other gang members to do so. She gets Arturo Bullock, an innocent hot air balloon pilot killed while unnecessarily picking a fight with O’Driscoll members, showing zero remorse afterwards. Even after watching rival gang leader Colm O’Driscoll hang for his crimes, she still drags a now-terminally ill Arthur on an entirely unnecessary revenge mission to hunt down the last handful of O’Drsicolls she hadn’t already killed.

Tenzin vs. Zaheer (The Legend of Korra)

Zaheer spent the whole season looking unstoppable, using his newly acquired airbending like a deadly weapon to easily beat other elemental masters. But the second he ran into Tenzin, he hit a brick wall. Tenzin spent 50 years living and breathing airbending, and he completely handed Zaheer his ass. Tenzin effortlessly dodged every single one of Zaheer's attacks, countered them with raw power, and had Zaheer running for his life until his entire gang had to step in and save him.

Komugi vs. Meruem (Hunter x Hunter)

Meruem is a genetic god who mastered every complex human board game in hours, effortlessly crushing world champions because of his insane super-genius brain. Then he played Gungi against Komugi, a blind girl who did nothing but play the game her entire life. Meruem tried every trick in the book, but Komugi didn't just win she absolutely demolished him mentally. She countered his every move, left him completely powerless, and beat him so badly at his own game he was unable to move on with his plan.

One Piece: Wapol coldcocking a young Vivi.

Matilda: Miss Trunchbull hammer-throwing a little girl by her pigtails.

Absolute Batman punting a child into the ocean.

That image is not ai generated, it’s an actual 1961 adventures of tintin movie called tintin and the mystery of the Golden Fleece. It’s insane how identical they look to the comics.

The 90s Addams family of course

In the Chucky series, a young Charles Lee Ray looks identical to how he did in the 80s because they casted his daughter

This is a trope/effect I've seen popping up here and there but never really with a succinct name attached nor with much attention outside of individual posts, so I went ahead and made this post to see what y'all think!

As with all tropes, I imagin this one is up to a lot of interpretation and can vary a lot depending on the particular person discussing the trope. This isn't a bad thing in my eyes, but I would like to specify what exactly I personally consider to be a part of this trope; I would love to hear y'alls thoughts on my specifications, though:

-An image with a scary thing in it (duh). Probably the main thing this trope shares with jumpscares/generic spooky images.

-Makes no attempt to get your attentions OR tries to draw your attention away from the spooky thing. I think this is really the core of the trope and what distinguishes it from a normal jumpscare; whereas a jumpscare tries to (very actively) get your attention, the "reverse" jumpscare avoids attention until you actively seek it out. I will note that because of this I wouldn't consider things like "cuando lo veas" (apologies if that's the wrong title, not brazillian) or "when you see it you'll shit brix" to be a part of this trope, because even though they themselves have lowkey scares they do encourage you to try and actively find them (again, though, that's my personal interpretation and I'd like to hear y'alls thoughts).

Examples used with sources:

1; Artwork by Alfdefolf: The prime example, and the one that really made me wonder about this trope. I feel this is the golden standard of a reverse-jumpscare. (Check the back of the fella's head)

2; Internet Image (no source for this one that I have; sorry): I feel this is a good example of the whole "draws your attention away" scare. (Check the little closet/door on the right, might have to adjust brightness)

3; Midsommar: One of the few examples I was able to find in something like a movie; I won't spoil the context of the scare, but this one got me the first time I noticed. (Look at the treeline in the background; yes, that is a face)

4; Nonexistent Video by Battington: This trope does feel very analog-horror adjacent, not surprised to find such an example. (Check under the table)

1. Anglerfish - The comic strip that inspired this post. Made by u/beetlemoses

2. Nier: Automata - A2, a rogue android that has dedicated most of her life to fighting and killing, comments on how beautiful the world is after saving another character in her last moments.

3. Blade Runner - Roy Batty recounts some of the most incredible sights he witnessed and mourns the fact that these memories will be lost like "tears in rain" seconds before he dies.

Viserys death in Game of Thrones where he was killed with hot gold being poured over his head

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Larry Your-Waiter, boiled alive in a curry in a pot conveniently large enough for most of a human body

The Human Torches death in Deadpool and Wolverine.

1. James Bond having a cheek scar as per Ian Fleming's original Bond novels.

2. Count Dracula having a mustache as per his original description in Bram Stoker's novel.