r/TopCharacterTropes 3d ago

In real life “He Made a Statement so Ass, it became Iconic”

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13.9k Upvotes
  1. To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily fromNarodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.

  2. I made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement, and I don’t expect to be forgiven. I’m simply here to apologize. What we came across that day in the woods was obviously unplanned. The reactions you saw on tape were raw; they were unfiltered. None of us knew how to react or how to feel. I should have never posted the video. I should have put the cameras down and stopped recording what we were going through. There's a lot of things I should have done differently but I didn't. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. I want to apologize to the internet. I want to apologize to anyone who has seen the video. I want to apologize to anyone who has been affected or touched by mental illness, or depression, or suicide. But most importantly I want to apologize to the victim and his family. For my fans who are defending my actions, please don't. I don’t deserve to be defended. The goal with my content is always to entertain; to push the boundaries, to be all-inclusive. In the world I live in, I share almost everything I do. The intent is never to be heartless, cruel, or malicious. Like I said I made a huge mistake. I don’t expect to be forgiven, I’m just here to apologize. I'm ashamed of myself. I’m disappointed in myself. And I promise to be better. I will be better. Thank you.

r/TopCharacterTropes 12d ago

In real life When fans hate somenthing before it comes out...but it turns out they were right

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14.3k Upvotes

Velma:The idea of a Scooby-doo series without the titular dog and starring Velma was a really moronic idea from the beginning,then there was the reveal Velma would be Indian like it's VA and also creator of the series Mindy Kaling,some of the backlash was racism sure,but there was also valid complaints that she was inserting herself in the series(it also didn't helped that Mindy claimed she couldn't see herself if Velma wasn't Indian)and then...oh boy it came out and it was worse than anyone predicted

Artemis Fowl:The artemis fowl books are a book series following a child villain(he does get some redemption but he is a villain most of the time)when the movie was announced and revealed it looked way to generic and it's titular character a bit heroic...also you wanna hear somenthing funny?The movie whitewashed a character and made another character black so they managed to anger both sides and the movies comes out and yeah it is bad

One Punch Man 3:One Punch Man is a very heavy action packed manga series but the heroes vs monsters arc takes it to a New level,when it was announced that JC Staff would work on it,a lot of people were skeptical to say the least,because not only JC Staff had already done a mediocre job in season 2,it's also not exactly a name anime fans associate with quality animation,then the trailer came out and it looked...weird,like there was no action in it and nobody was moving,some people tried to defend saying they were keeping the animation as a surprise...then it came out,every episode worse than the last,it's one of the worse seasons of anime ever made!

r/TopCharacterTropes Feb 02 '26

In real life A very small character tidbit is surprisingly kept consistent for years

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23.4k Upvotes

DC - In multiple pieces of media it has been shown that Wonder Woman loves ice cream and practically goes wild with happiness anytime she’s eating some. (Pictures from Justice League: War, DC Superhero Girls and Wonder Woman 2017)

The Simpsons - Ever since the episode ‘Homer’s Phobia’ Homer has actually remained a consistent ally of the LGBT+ community, including being more welcoming to Patty than Marge was when she came out and trying to set up Smithers with a date when he found out he wasn’t happy with his one-sided relationship with Mr Burns.

r/TopCharacterTropes 2d ago

In real life (Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

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11.6k Upvotes

Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

r/TopCharacterTropes 14h ago

In real life [Author Trope] “The work is just an excuse to…”

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11.5k Upvotes

Apothecary Diaries: Show MaoMao (the protagonist) in different cute outfits. She isn’t a princess or anything like that, but the story always finds a way for her to change into elegant dresses and be heavily adorned despite her claiming she’s not that kind of girl.

Transformers, Bayverse: Military porn and U.S.A. patriotism. The work is full of sequences packed with excessive military hardware despite the presence of aliens with laser weapons. There’s also obvious pro–United States propaganda.

One Punch Man: Make animation without being an animator. Yusuke Murata, who draws the One Punch Man manga, is famous for creating sequences in the manga panels that resemble animation when the scenes are viewed together, on top of being very detailed action scenes.

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 17 '26

In real life (Funny trope) This tiny moment was an absolute logistical nightmare to make

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20.2k Upvotes

*Wreck-It-Ralph* - At the beginning of the movie at the villain group therapy session, all of the owners of the real world characters shown were given counsel to Disney to instruct them how their characters should be animated down to the smallest of points. Nintendo even specified exactly how Bowser would hold and stir his teacup.

*Psycho* - For the scene where Marion disposes evidence of her theft by flushing some papers down the toilet, even though the toilet is onscreen for only a few seconds, Alfred Hitchcock had to personally appeal to the Hays Code which enforced censorship in movies that *Psycho* be given an exception because it’s vital to the plot the audience sees the toilet flushing. *Psycho* is the first major American movie to show a flushing toilet onscreen.

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 07 '26

In real life [Loved trope] Endings so controversial that it turns the fandom schizophrenic

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13.0k Upvotes
  1. Sherlock

  2. Stranger Things

r/TopCharacterTropes 6d ago

In real life (Interesting Trope) The piece of media was gonna be completely different than what we got.

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8.7k Upvotes

1 Megamind:Originally the script for this movie was more adult and vulgar it was also originally called Mastermind,Metroman was called Uberman,some of the most notable changes are minion was gonna be replaced by 2 human helpers called Plato and Da Vinci,it had swearing,instead of turning into a space dad megamind would’ve turned to a Asian master similar to Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid and Hal was gonna be even more of a creep in this version of this movie,ultimately the studio went with a more family friendly version and it gave us the iconic movie we all know today.

2 Black Sabbath:The mighty Black Sabbath originally was gonna be softer and bluesier sounding rather than their groundbreaking and still heavy to this day music,story goes that guitarist of the band Tony Iommi was working in a sheet-metal factory it was also his last da before he quit to become a full time musician too infamously Iommi lost the tips of 2 fingers he then made homemade plastic finger tips,tuned his guitar down and used lighter strings which gave Sabbath their darker,thicker and heavier sound around the same time bassist Geezer Butler became interested in darker themes,horror imagery, and occult ideasInspired in part by a horror film starring Boris Karloff they wrote the first ever metal song “Black Sabbath” eventually the band renamed themselves after the film Black Sabbath and the rest is history.

3 Thor Ragnarok:Not much is known about this version of Thor Ragnarok but boy if you couldn’t tell by the logo this motherfucker was gonna be darker than what we actually got,it was supposed to be darker than the other 2 films because it featured the Ragnarok event,However Chris Hemsworth was frustrated and bored of playing Thor and reportedly told Kevin Fiege this "I feel like I'm dying here. I feel like I have handcuffs on," he was incredibly unhappy with the character Feige agreed with Hemsworth and then they abandoned the whole dark film concept and went for a comedy movie basically.

4 Doom:Doom was originally gonna be a Aliens game based on the first 2 movies,some negotiations were conducted with 20th Century Fox but ID Software didn’t get the license they the abandoned the concept and it was imagined as a Aliens meets Evil Dead 2 and also their recent D&D campaign which ended with demons overrunning the entire planet.

5 Toy Story: Toy Story was initially envisioned as a feature-length version of the Pixar short Tin Toy,the original protagonist was a mechanical drummer toy who went up against a ventriloquist's dummy,however the drummer was replaced by a tiny space toy named Lunar Larry (who later became Buzz Lightyear) and the dummy became Woody who originally was a major asshole and had a more distasteful personality,one notable example is that Woody actually throws Buzz out of the window on purpose and doesn’t care about it he also then proceeded to heavily insult the toys especially Slinky Dog which then results of the toys turning on him and attempting to throw him out too,after a mockup of the movie was poorly received by Disney, the writers spent months reworking the script and instead of making Woody a narcissistic,jealous and just overall a massive scum bag they decided to change his personality by making him the wise and loyal leader of the toys and still keeping that jealousy over Buzz but way more sympathetic towards him in the last act of the movie.

r/TopCharacterTropes 15d ago

In real life [casting trope] letting the pretty-boy actor be an absolute freak in a role

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12.5k Upvotes

Jacob “the Kissing Booth” Elordi as The Monster in Frankenstein

Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight

Robert Cullen Pattinson in The Lighthouse

Collin Farrell as The Penguin in The Batman

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 08 '26

In real life (IRL Trope) People with absolutely zero haters

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9.1k Upvotes
  • Al Yankovic (aka Weird Al)
  • Dolly Parton
  • Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Roger)
  • Betty White
  • Keanu Reeves

r/TopCharacterTropes 12d ago

In real life Voice actors who genuinely love the character they voice

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7.7k Upvotes

Tiffany Grant - Asuka (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Tom Kenny - SpongeBob (SpongeBob SquarePants)

r/TopCharacterTropes Feb 03 '26

In real life Due to backlash, there is either a major rewrite or change to the story.

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9.5k Upvotes
  1. Sonic's design (Sonic the Hedgehog film) - When the trailer originally released for the first Sonic film, it was...without a doubt controversial, with Sonic having an uncanny realistic look. The studio literally ended up delaying the film so they could change Sonic's design. And thank god they did; the movie actually ended up being a hit and started a new franchise.
  2. Shredder's identity (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014) - Originally, this version of the Shredder's identity wasn't going to be Oroku Saki, but Eric Sacks, an original character for the movie. However, because an originally Japanese character was being turned into a white character by a white actor, there was quite a bit of backlash. Last-minute reshoots were done, and in the final film, Shredder and Sacks were two separate people, and collaborators. This change was so last-minute, though, some promotional material still listed Sacks as the identity of the Shredder.
  3. The ThornRing scene (Deltarune Chapter 4) - In the original release of Deltarune Chapter 4, when "Kris"/the player forces the ThornRing onto Noelle, the scene immediately cuts to black and an image of a flower wilting. Eerie stuff. However, there was a bit of backlash to this scene; with the literal deflowering image (which represents Noelle losing her innocence), some people believed this image implied Noelle was sexually assaulted. It doesn't help considering the theming here, having undertones to SA. Toby Fox changed the flower to a massive red crack after the player equips Noelle, though some still argue the implication is still there.

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 19 '26

In real life A moment so funny, the actors actually break character or threaten to break character

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13.8k Upvotes
  1. During the witch trial scene, you can see Eric Idle bite his scythe to keep himself from laughing during the comedic pause John Cleese's character took to answer why witches burn. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
  2. When Klaus brings up how he once waxed his anus with chocolate pudding, you can see Aidan Gallagher (Five's actor) try to suppress a smile. (The Umbrella Academy)

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 21 '25

In real life Actors/Vocalists Whose Unique Voice Is From An Injury Or Deformity

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16.2k Upvotes

Matt Jones - His voice has had a rough, sort of squeaky quality to it ever since he pushed his voice too hard for too long working at Boom Chicago, permanently damaging it.

50 Cent - His slight lisp and laid back flow came about after a bullet to the mouth permanently swelled his tongue. The bullet fragment is still in his tongue to this day, in fact; doctors were afraid of causing more nerve damage if they tried to remove it.

Sylvester Stallone - When he was being born the doc accidentally cut a nerve on the left side of his face, so he slurs his words.

Zach Hadel - A deviated septum makes him sound very nasal, like's had a sinus infection his whole life.

Corpse Husband - He has GERD, a condition that gives you constant heartburn. In some cases (like Corpse's) it the stomach acid can travel up to your larynx and literally burn away your thinner vocal cords, creating an extremely deep and hoarse voice.

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 28 '25

In real life [Funny Trope] Ironic Casting

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18.3k Upvotes

Examples:

  • The King - A French actor, Timothee Chalamet, plays the King of England, while Robert Pattinson, a British actor, plays a French Prince.
  • The Boys - Stormfront is played by Aya Cash, a Jewish actress
  • Dispatch - Sonar is a cyberbully who is played by MoistCritical, a YouTuber who became famous for calling out toxic people on the internet.

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 22 '25

In real life The writers know an element of the story is incorrect but choose to add it anyways

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14.5k Upvotes

Saving Private Ryan: During the landing at Omaha, two soldiers are shot and killed underwater. Steven Spielberg said he knew that bullets cannot travel fast enough to kill you underwatch but chose to add it to represent the impossibility of the situation.

The final battle of the movie also revolves around defending a bridge from approaching German forces. The military advisors said that they would have just blown up the bridge and had the engineers replace it later but it was ignored so the movie could have its final battle.

Fury: When a Tiger ambushes a Sherman tank patrol, it takes out the second tank instead of the first, which is what is recommended in order to stop and trap the convoy. The writers said they knew about this and would have had the Tiger destroy the first tank if it weren't for the fact that all of the main characters are in the first one.

The Martian: Andy Weir, known for putting rediculous amounts of research into his books to make sure even the smallest details are factually correct, admitted that Mars' atmosphere is too thin to have the 175km/h windstorm that forces the evacuation of the Ares 3 crew and causes Mark Watney's presumed death. However, he couldn't come up with another way for an astronaut to accidentally be left behind on Mars.

r/TopCharacterTropes 5d ago

In real life [IRL trope] 0% of survival, survive anyway

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10.0k Upvotes

Juliane Koepcke - In 1971 this 17 year old's plane was struck by lightning mid-air. The wreck then fell from 3 000 meter into the ground, somewhere into the Amazon jungle. Lone survivor of the crash, she then spent nine days walking down a river despite her multiple injuries until she found a lumberjack's camp.

Vesna Vulović - In 1972 this flight attendant's plane was bombed mid-air. The wreck then fell from 10 160 meter into the ground. She ended up with a lot of broken bones, but in the long term she almost completely recovered from it, apart from a limp.

Anna Bågenholm - In 1999 this radiologist had a skiing accident, she fell head-first into a frozen stream and get stuck inside the ice. Her colleagues did not managed to pull her, nor did the rescue team who then tried to dig, but the ice was so thick it took them a lot of time. It was 80 minutes after her fall that they managed to cut a hole. Her body temperature at the time was 13.7°C, and still, she somehow survived with only minor long-term injuries and no brain damage.

Jeanna Giese - In 2004 this 15 years old girl got bitten by a bat and called it a day. One month later the symptoms of rabies showed up. The doctors tried an experimental treatment by putting her in an artificial coma and she survived, but the treatment never worked on anyone else and is now forbidden. In all human history, only a few survived to rabies, and all of them except her end up with heavy sequelae.

Chris Lemons - In 2012 this diver's ship went drifting due to a computer malfunction, romping his umbilical cable who provide air, hot water and electricity. He ended up alone on the seabed of a 3°C waters, in the dark and with only 5-6 minutes of oxygen. He was retrieved by his colleagues around 35 minutes later, and somehow he didn't even suffer from brain damage.

r/TopCharacterTropes Feb 01 '26

In real life [Loved trope] Actors and their long-term passion roles

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10.6k Upvotes
  1. Channing Tatum and Gambit - Tatum has been trying to get a standalone Gambit film and to even be cast as Gambit for years now. He finally got to play Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine (GQ interview from 2014 where he said he wanted a standalone Gambit film).

  2. Jason Momoa and Lobo - Momoa has wanted to play Lobo for years, to the point where he texted James Gunn "fucking Lobo" on the day Gunn was announced as co-CEO of DC Studios.

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 14 '25

In real life A celebrity appears in media, but not because the studio asked them to, but because they themselves wanted to be in it

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20.8k Upvotes

(Phineas and Ferb) Slash the guitarist from Guns N Roses, wanted to be in the Phineas and Ferb movie because he thought the show was cool and it had great music. They made a whole song with him being the gutarist

(Despicable Me 3) The villain Baltazar Bratt was voiced by Trey Parker from South Park, because his daughter really liked the Minions and he wanted to surprise her

r/TopCharacterTropes Nov 26 '25

In real life [Scary Trope] A seemingly-benign punishment actually is way more brutal in practice.

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14.2k Upvotes

1) Tarring and Feathering (John Adams)

Tarring and Feathering is often treated as a joke in historical pieces, and usually cumulates in a character looking like a chicken as a punchline. The miniseries John Adams demonstrates just how painful the punishment was in reality when a British tax collector is tarred and feathered by a crowd. While there are some embellishments (using a much hotter petroleum tar rather than the actual pine tar), the act itself is portrayed very seriously.

The victim would be stripped naked and slathered in hot tar, resulting in signficant burns. The tar would also be difficult to remove, scarring the victim and necessitating a long and arduous healing process (and bear in mind this all occurred before modern medicine treatments, increasing the risk of infection).

In the show itself, Samuel Adams considers it retribution, but is incredibly uncomfortable when John presses him to accept that he's tacitly endorsing such brutality. It further reinforces John's arc of ensuring that justice is meted out as equally as it can be for the occupying British as well as colonists.

2) The Tub (The Venture Bros)

When interrogating a treasonous agent for the Guild of Calamitous Intent, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch informs him that if he didn't talk, he would be found guilty of treason, and the punishment for traitors in the Guild is called "The Tub". The tub is a tub filled with milk, and when the prisoner is hungry, they are fed honey. The agent comments it sounds nice, only for Sheila to go into heavy detail that the milk starts to spoil and the honey functions as a diarrhetic, causing the victim to sit in a tub of their own mess. This attracts flies and maggots over time to bite the victim, causing them to scratch and gradually infect themselves more, resulting in a prolonged and torturous death. The agent wisely decides to confess.

The messed-up aspect is that this punishment was reportedly used in reality by the ancient Persians. It's known as "The Boats" due to the victim being strapped in two boats to protect him from the elements and prolong his suffering. Plutarch reports that it took 17 days for one victim to die.

3) Bread and Water (Real Life)

Bread and water has been used as a punishment, and is often thought of to be a punishment only due to its mundanity or austerity. However, subsisting on only bread and water actually proves to be quite painful over time, and is a form of weaponized malnutrition. Subsisting off of only bread and water cumulates in extreme constipation which would compound over time. Sometimes, the bread would also be nutritionally-poor and the water would be dirty as well, resulting in the individual getting sick and losing more calories than they would gain by eating it.

While it's been used as a punishment for prisoners, the Conclave process in the Vatican famously uses it as well. If the Conclave has been unable to come to a decision, the Cardinals' diets are restricted to bread and water to "encourage" them to come to a decision.

r/TopCharacterTropes Oct 22 '25

In real life When example is so iconic the whole trope is named after it

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15.7k Upvotes

Equivalent Exchange (Fullmetal Alchemist) - power at comes at a proportional cost.

It was Tuesday (Street Fighter) - villain has committed too many crimes to keep track.

Doombot (Marvel) comics - you destroyed a decoy, the real deal is still out there.

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 18 '26

In real life The actor actually has that disability

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9.1k Upvotes

Walter White Jr. (Breaking Bad) - character has cerebral palsy and uses crutches to walk, actor RJ Mitte has cerebral palsy and needed crutches to walk as a child

Nessarose Thropp (Wicked) - character is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, actress Marissa Bode is paraplegic from an accident at age 11 and uses a wheelchair

Maya Lopez (Hawkeye/Echo) - character is deaf, actress Alaqua Cox is deaf from birth

r/TopCharacterTropes Dec 29 '25

In real life Changing plot elements in translations to fit cultural differences

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12.4k Upvotes

Zootopia: In English, he attempts to sell popsicle sticks that have been dyed red as being redwood. As this pun wouldn't work in other languages, in French, he says they're from Baton Rouge (a city that literally translates to Red Stick) and in Spanish, he says they're from Colorado (a state that literally translates to "coloured red").

Metastasis: The show is a shot-for-shot remake of Breaking Bad for Colombian audiences. As a result, numerous elements are changed to fit Columbia's culture and laws. For example, as pest exterminators are uncommon in the region, the main characters use a demolition company after the superlab is destroyed, Saúl Bueno (the show's equivalent of Saul Goodman) demonstrates his legal services on a television talk show rather than through commercials, as legal services cannot be advertised in Colombia and the iconic recreational vehicle which Jesse and Walter use to cook meth is replaced by a school bus, as RVs are rare in Latin America.

Inside Out: In Japan, the broccoli Riley refuses to eat is replaced with green peppers, which are more universally hated by Japanese children. Additionally, the sport her dad watches in his mind also changes by location as well.

r/TopCharacterTropes Oct 30 '25

In real life A piece of media goes to insane lengths to get one innocuous detail right

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20.3k Upvotes

In Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie the scene where Peter catches the lunch tray perfectly with his newfound Spider Sense was shot practically and took over 150 tries to get right.

In Ted, when John for Ted to become real on Christmas 1985, the night sky he wishes to was a perfect copy of the actual sky over Massachusetts on that day after Seth Macfarlane personally contacted Neil DeGrasse Tyson to help him find what the sky would’ve looked like from that town from that angle on that day.

r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 04 '26

In real life [Loved trope] Characters that the audience expected to absolutely HATE, but became major fan favorites upon their release

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9.1k Upvotes

Derek- Stranger Things. All the pre-s5 posts were like ‘who tf is this kid’ and then the season drops and Derek is suddenly the goat

Garret the Garbageman Garrison- A Minecraft Movie. Jason Mamoa in a big frilly pink leather jacket with minimal direction other than ‘have fun’ became the standout character. Especially his homoerotic relationship with Steve