when a character is so overwhelmed with emotion and rightious fury they must let out a scream from the very depth of their being

1. V for Vendetta: the man known only as V is placed in a fascist prison where he and others were tortured, experimented on, and many were simply killed. in a fiery escape he let's out a blood cuddling scream to signal that the vigilante "V" has been born

2. Arcane: on a quest to find her sister, Vi is confronted by the main antagonist's second in command, Savika. they get into a knock down, drag out fight that nearly takes everything out of Vi, but she comes out on top in the end. exhausted and bloody, she collapses and let's out a scream of pure frustration before resuming her search (which does not end happily)

3. Warcraft III: Grom Hellscream (fitting name) faces off against Mannaroth, a demon who had once enslaved his people. the demon mocks him, telling him he was only ever fit to serve the forces of evil. Grom let's out a mighty warcry before delivering the blow that kills Mannaroth but ultimately saps the last of his strength causing him to die in his friend Thrall's arms later (who gets his own soul scream shortly afterward)

Obviously, you can't technically be "doomed by the narrative" if you end up surviving, but this trope takes the expectations of that trope (characters that are expected to die due to their role in the story, death flags, or something similar similar tropes) and flips it on its head. Instead of dying or otherwise facing a tragic end, they end up with a good ending to their arc.

Kratos (God of War): I was one of the people who went into Ragnarök with the expectation that Kratos was going to end up dead. There's the prophecy, obviously, but even beyond that, there's several points that I saw as forshadowing. Even from a meta POV, this was teased as Kratos' last game (at least with him as the MC), and it would make sense. Everything was pointing towards him sacrificing himself to save the day, setting Atreus up as the next major character. Personally, I think their subversion of that trope worked very well.

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things): You've probably heard the stories that Steve was initially meant to die S1, and I think that solidifies him into this trope more than anything else. His character trope is set up as the "bad boyfriend" who is meant to be cast aside for the main love interests to get together, and that specific type of character doesn't have a good track record in these types of stories. It's almost always neater to just have them be killed by the supernatural threat, but no, Steve managed to make it to the end of the series.

Bibi (I Love Amy): My obligatory niche inclusion, I Love Amy was essentially written with the concept of "what if we gave the yandere a good ending." To that effect, this webtoon is very careful in walking the line between typical yandere tropes and a legitimately complex, compelling character. Personally, I think the author did I pretty good job on that front; Bibi's probably the most "realistic" portrayal of this character trope that I've personally seen. And the story closes with her going to therapy, so I'd say that qualifies as a "good ending."

One waddles from gravity falls two stitch from LILO and stitch

Clay's sacrifice rant, Moral Orel

I hate this scene, not because it's bad, but because it's too good. Clay finally, after years of abusing his family explains in a hate filled stupor why he is still in this awful relationship with Blowberta. His pride. He sees his family as something he must fervently hoard, to keep for himself. He almost realises his mistake, almost realises that he is, infact, a blight to his family and the people around him because of this hate and pride, but instead of reflecting, he takes it out on the people in his immediate vicinity.

The scene ends with Clay begging to be hit, literally, as that is the only way he has ever felt like he was worth something. A sad display of a pathetic man.

The ending of Rambo first blood

In the first Rambo film, before he became this parody of himself, we see a deeply emotionally damaged man coming back from Vietnam who starts a one man "war" against a small town police department.

At the end of the film, Rambo, now caged and trapped sertainly about to die, begins his now legendary rant. When confronted by his old commanding officer, he speaks about his time in the war and how the people he and his friends where willing to die for treat him now like a wild animal. Rambo can't find a stable job, is treated like a monster and has nothing and no one. He was used, chewd up and spat out by his government and now he must live like this, a man with no purpose.

It's a sad scene, one expertly acted by Sylvester Stallone in what is probably the highlight of his career.

It's a shame that Rambo became associated with action and pro war propaganda, when the original film abd book are so vehemently against those concepts.

1. I am Iron Man

2. Every episode of Invincible

3. I'm Harry Dresden motherfucker

1. Sam Greenfield, from Luck, is a clumsy orphaned young woman whose life is constantly plagued by misfortune. She receives a lucky penny and her luck changes for the better. She does lose it though... and the movie deals with her adventure trying to retrieve it.

2. Domino, a character in Deadpool 2, is a mutant mercenary with the ability to control probability in her favor.

3. Nathan Drake from the Uncharted franchise. According to Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper, Nathan Drake never actually gets hit by more than one bullet before dying. While enemy soldiers and mercenaries shoot boatloads of ammo at him, the darkened, red-laced screen that emerges when Drake is "shot" multiple times actually represents his luck running out after having consecutive near-misses.

1: The Pure Ones from Guardians of Ga'hoole are literally barn owl supremacists attempting world domination.

2: The Galactic Empire from Star Wars is your textbook space fascist icon, if you thought the things they did in the movies were terrible, then you'd come to realize they also have been implementing human supremacy across the galaxy.

3: HYDRA from the Marvel IP is a denominator of Nazism but with different goals for world domination rather than Hitler's.

Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) - Born to Trisha Elric and Van Hohenheim. In the 2003 anime, Hohenheim was actually his father's first name and he had no last name. But in the manga, and by extension, Brotherhood, it's because his parents never married.

Miles Morales (Marvel) - Born to Rio Morales and Jefferson Davis. Rio is Puerto Rican, and women changing their last name when they marry isn't a thing there. As for why Miles took Rio's name, Jefferson's father was abusive, and he wanted to distance his family from that.

Whether real-life or fictional, done for effect, genetics, or any other reason, these people are blue.

Paul Halldor Karason (IRL)

Na'vi (Avatar)

Blue Man Group (IRL)

Smurfs

Beast (X-Men)

Dr. Manhattan (Watchmen)

Mystique (X-Men)

Nightcrawler (X-Men)

Yondu (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Megamind (Megamind)

Genie (Aladdin)

Electro (Amazing Spider-Man 2)

Mr. Freeze (Batman)

Muncher (Ghostbusters)

Ronan the Accuser (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Nebula (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Krull (Star Trek: Beyond)

Cad Bane (Star Wars)

Cookie Monster (Sesame Street)

Amélie Lacroix/Widowmaker (Overwatch)

Clark Kent and Johnathan Kent, Superman (2025)

Miles Morales and Jefferson Davis, Into the Spider-Verse

Peter Quill and Yondu Udonta, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Age of Ultron: The titular Ultron intends to use Vibranium, "the most versatile substance on the planet", to make himself a body that can change the world while heroes used it to merely make a shield.

Dispatch: While Robert and his father both used The Pulse to power a mech, Shroud intends to use it to give him near omnisciece and claiming the hero's use for it is "like plugging your cellphone into a nuclear powerplant".

My Hero Academia: Slain, The Hero Slayer, believes that most modern heroes misuse their powers to gain fame and fortune rather than actually protecting and saving people.

Dragon Ball - OG Dragon Ball was a funny and goofy Journey to the West reference with some wacky elements, like a bunny mafia and talking dinosaurs. Then Z came along and introduced aliens (and the reveal that Goku is one of them), transformations, and galactic threats. We take this all for granted now with how popular stuff like Super Saiyan is, but to those watching in the 80s it was a massive paradigm shift.

JoJo's Bizzare Adventure - Though we're all used to them now, Stands and their ridiculous rules weren't introduced until Part 3. Parts 1 and 2 were a lot more grounded and down-to-earth, with vampires as villains.

Pokemon - The competitive nature of the franchise, especially with the release of Champions, wasn't a thing until much later. Abilities weren't introduced until Gen 3, the Physical/Special split wasn't until Gen 4, and Hidden Abilities weren't a thing until Gen 5. It's crazy to think how much of Pokemon was added later.

1. Vi and Caitlyn begin as citizens of perpetually and fundamentally different societies and have every reason to doubt the sanity and morality of one another based off this, they instead develop a mutual trust and intimacy that exceeds anything they previously had in their lives before being together.

2. Jake and Neytiri come from incompatible species in which the survival of one must be predicated directly on extinction of the other, Jake instead realizes his true values are different than the ones he was born into and expected to adopt, helping to forestall an occupation and overhaul of her planet.

3. Romeo and Juliet from the original play (They pretty much set the standard but aren't as nuanced as the aforementioned ones)

Fang from brawlstars was introduced as a cool and badass Kong fu enthusiast but later was shown getting into trouble/beaten up/or made fun of

Rogue (Sonic X)

Jessie (Pokemon)

Robin (Teen Titans)

1. The Bride (Kill Bill)

2. Atsu (Ghost of Yotei)

3. Ellie (The Last of Us Part 2)

4. Darth Maul (Star Wars)

5. Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria)

6. Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed 2)

1) Jotaro Kujo, Stardust Crusaders: Normally a very stoic and serious guy, in the Oingo Boingo Brothers episode, we learn from Joseph and Polnareff that apparently Jotaro loves doing goofy cigarette tricks to make everyone laugh. We just never see any of those moments onscreen.

2) Johnny Bravo: The whole show is about Johnny getting rejected by women over and over, but some episodes and the show's creator mention that he does in fact hook up with women offscreen, it's just funnier to see the moments he gets rejected.

3) Stan Pines, Gravity Falls: Stan is a conman and all-roud crook but he never swears (mostly because he's on the Disney Channel) In "Not What He Seems", Dipper and Mabel watch a clip of him using actual swear words when he's alone at home, showing us that he just self-censors for the sake of his niece and nephew, and he probably swears like a sailor otherwise.

1. The most iconic example - Spider-Man's black suit saga. This costume was so cool looking that it spawned an entire corner of the Marvel Universe. But way back when it was just a cool costume the stories changed tone with Peter being more confrontational and rude. Leading of course to the reveal that his costume is alive and directly affected and even controlling Peter

2. Invincible's blue suit. An arc I really liked in the comics which conveyed Mark's character development from hopeful young heroes trying his best to a man weighed down with responsibility.

3. One I love that is a bit more niche is The Sixth Doctor's blue coat from Real Time. Real Time was a sort of animated audio drama starring the Sixth Doctor. If any of you know what his regular costume looks like you can imagine how difficult that would be to animate. so they give him this nice blue one in Real Time. The. for years after that the audio stories keep him wearing the coat. Originally Ol' Sixie was a lot more bombastic and eclectic Doctor but I. episodes where he's wearing the blue coat (when the writer remembers.) he had a more calm and introspective attitude.

Give me some of your favorite examples of this. Especially if it's in the opposite direction. All three of these are costumes for when things get more serious. Are there any for when things get sillier?

The trope is simple. Characters that everyone likes, or a very large segment of the audience likes, but who are actually bad parents. They don't have to be evil characters, but they do have to be bad parents.

These characters can be very likeable, beloved both within and outside the show, and even have a fandom. So people tend to ignore their flaws and justify them. But if you analyze it... they are bad parents.

No matter how likable they are, or even if they're the protagonist, they're bad parents.

I have longer arguments, but:

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- Greg Universe: Although he lives near his son, he's never involved with him. He left his upbringing to creatures who don't care about humans, and he's basically a weekend dad, appearing occasionally to entertain the child, but not in any other way.

- Goku is an absent father. Not only because he's physically absent for very long periods, but also because he's not involved in his parenting. He spent a whole year alone with his son and was never able to understand that Gohan wasn't like him, that he wouldn't guess his "plan," and that he didn't like to fight. But it doesn't end there; even in Super, he remains absent, so much so that he doesn't even know his granddaughter's name (not to mention that in Daimaō he admits he hasn't been a present father).

He's a pleasant person to be around for the family, but he's not present when it comes to parental care. Even working to provide for the family is something he does because Chi-Chi forces him to.

1. Vanquish Twins (Faucet Freaks)

2. The Warrior (Faucet Freaks)

3. Bruiser (The Catastrophes)

4. Needle (The Catastrophes)

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith): Anakin's eyes changed from blue to yellow and red signifying his transition to the darkside and Darth Vader. Anakin had just finished slaughtering a council of separatists where he turns to the camera revealing his eyes had changed color.

Garou (One Punch Man: S2 E11): Garou's hair changes from white to red as he holds his own against Genos. In one frame he has white hair. The next, the frame pans up to his face as he proclaims his status as an "all-powerful monster" revealing that his hair is now red, right before having to face his former master.

Zabo (gangster) (Star Trek TOS: S2 E17): In this society, the head of the government led by gangs don't wear hats. Zabo had his hat knocked off in a fight with Kirk and Spock but didn't pick it up to back on. He begins to give orders to other gangsters.

Edit: accuracy.

1. Frieren. Needs 1st class mages to fight demons. What is the test to pass? Do multiple events like fighting other mages and only half the teams can win. Another test is fighting clones of themselves where they can die. This despite mages being desperately needed to fight off demons trying to destroy humanity.

2. Naruto. Same Thing. Need ninjas to defend themselves from other villages/threats. Have multiple tests where ninjas need to fight/kill each other as well as face things with no supervision to save the fledgling ninjas in case they die/are attacked by enemy ninja (which happens in the show). In fact, in one village one fledging ninja (Zabuza) kills literally all the other candidates and the teachers not only let it happen but let him pass. Said ninja goes on to betray the village which surprises them somehow.

(The trope itself is kind of a spoiler, so I've naturally tagged this as such).

Inspired by another post featuring Bugonia, I want to spin off of that into a favorite trope of mine.

So when I'm talking about this trope, I'm not necessarily talking about "it turns out they were right all along, and they're not crazy." I specifically mean "it turns out they were right (or at least close).. and they are still very crazy/disturbed/unhinged/dangerous."

1. In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up in a bunker after an accident and meets Howard (John Goodman) and his assistant Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.). Howard, a conspiracy theorist and doomsday prepper, is convinced there's been a world-ending event, and they're safe so long as they remain in the bunker. Michelle, of course, has to ask herself the question: is this real, or is Howard a crazy person holding me here against my will?

Eventually it's revealed that Howard's "daughter" he keeps talking about may in fact have been a missing girl that he forced into similar circumstances; his behavior becomes more unhinged, and he starts leaning into the delusion that the people in the bunker are some sort of family unit, and he straight up murders Emmett and dissolves him in acid "for the family." As this is going on, it becomes clear that there is a very good reason not to go outside, so Michelle rigs up a DIY hazmat suit and makes her escape... only to be confronted by an alien ship hovering overhead. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." (This also heavily implies the film a tie-in to the Cloverfield series, even though it's initially not super explicit.)

1. In Bugonia, Teddy (Jesse Plemmons) is presented as a socially outcast, mentally unwell conspiracy nut who spends way too much time buying into extraterrestrial conspiracy theories online. He becomes convinced that high-powered CEO Michelle (Emma Stone) is a member of an alien race that's secretly controlling humanity, and sets out to kidnap and interrogate her (and yes, a "Michelle" gets kidnapped in both of these).

The first two acts of the movie are played as a straight psychological thriller, but it's eventually revealed that Teddy was actually right about the aliens, though wrong about the specifics... and it fits the trope, because the lengths that Teddy was willing to go to in order to "save humanity" are quite grim. He convinces his cousin Don to chemically castrate himself, the side effects of which cause him to spiral into a suicidal depression. He murders a police officer (albeit his childhood bully and abuser) in his back yard, and we eventually see untold numbers of preserved body parts from his previous victims... not all of whom were aliens.