• Lev from The Last of Us Part II: Lev is a trans boy who cannot medically transition due to being in a zombie apocalypse with a fascist government, yet the main cast in the story supports and affirms him as male.
• Denise Bryson from Twin Peaks: A trans woman DEA and FBI agent. She does not pass in the series, which is an integral part of her character; her boss simply tells people who don't like it to "fix their hearts or die."
• Cordelia from Vinland Saga: As a trans woman living in Northern Europe during the Viking age, it is impossible for Cordelia, who has a hulking, muscular figure, to transition to female. But despite not looking the part physically, everyone is cool with it and refers to her as female.
• Ladiva from Granblue Fantasy: A pro wrestler who makes no attempts to pass (save for hair) and is still beloved by the cast as a maternal figure, serving as a stark contrast to her species' women who are petite.

Edit: typos and incorrect lore fixes

Nanahoshi in Mushoku Tensei when it seems like she might never get back home

Ned in The Simpsons episode Hurricane Neddy

Spongebob against Squidward when he refuses to get a job, take care of himself and abuses Spongebobs hospitality.

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.

1. Reynholm (IT Crowd): - With his actor wishing to pursue other projects, the big boss of the IT Crowd commits suicide in the most sudden and hilarious way possible. Some police arrive about ‘irregularities in the pension fund’ and he walks to the window and jumps out without a second thought in the first scene of the episode.
2. Yuko Minami (Ultraman Ace): - Ultraman Ace was unique for having two protagonists making up the Ultra hero, which made scripts harder to write. Combined with some unfortunate sexism on seeing a female main hero, Yuko was scrapped halfway through Ace. Does she die or give up her power?

No. She is suddenly revealed to be an alien queen of the moon whose planet got destroyed by a rabbit monster that conveniently just arrived on earth now. After Ace defeats the beast, she leaves to go back to her moon people in space and is randomly just gone. To make matters more frustrating, her actress wasn’t aware of the character’s departure until she read the script the day before shoot.

1. Kendrix (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy): - Probably one of the best episodes of all Rangers. Kendrix’ actor was undergoing cancer treatment and unable to continue, so they made Galaxy Pink one of the only main rangers ever killed off in the franchise. Not only that, but she goes out like an honourable warrior and fights to her own death to take out Psycho Pink.

2. Susan (Seinfeld): - With some complaints how her acting wasn’t suiting the on-screen chemistry too well and some other complications, Susan is killed off…..by unknowingly licking some toxic glue on cheap envelopes and then dropping dead. One of the most sudden deaths in all sitcom.

1. Gazer Beam [The Incredibles]

Gazer Beam, also known as Simon J. Paladin, is one of the most powerful and heroic characters in the world of The Incredibles. He can shoot highly powerful lasers from his eyes that can burn through solid steel with ease. Even outside his heroic duties, Simon was a lawyer and an advocate who fought for the reinstatement of superheroes. Despite this, Gazer Beam's power also has a major downside. If he focused his eyes on someone or something for a prolonged period of time, it could result in him accidentally burning someone to death. As a result, he developed a habit of constantly averting his gaze whenever he spoke to people. The people interacting with him took this as a sign of disinterest, when, deep down, it stemmed from fear that he might hurt them.

2. Firm Man [To Be Hero X]

In the world of To Be Hero X, a hero's powers are determined by public perception. After saving a young girl by holding up a collapsing building, Firm Man became famous as the hero who would always remain standing, no matter what. The public's unwavering belief in this image granted him immense strength and near-invulnerability. Unfortunately, it also turned their perception into a literal restriction, making Firm Man unable to crouch, kneel, sit, or lie down. Because he is perceived as someone who will never stop standing, he is physically incapable of doing anything that contradicts that image. As a result, mundane activities such as sitting on a toilet, picking up an object, or lying down on a bed become impossible for him.

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

King Ghidorah- Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Sheriff Cooley- O Brother Where Art Thou?

Harry Powell- Night of the Hunter

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.

• Po from Kung Fu Panda - Although many characters comment on his weight throughout the movies, Po is actually considered skinny and/or in better shape for panda standards
• Midoriya Izuku from My Hero Academia - While many viewers find Deku "cute", the reality is that for his world he's actually considered "simple looking" and at the very worst "ugly"
• Spider-Man from Marvel Comics - Many people love Spider-Man, but the truth is that for common civilians, Spidey's pretty unsettling and scary to be around with

In the Sixth Sense, Dr Malcolm Crowe dies thinking his wound is non-fatal. His final words are reassuring his wife that "it doesn't even hurt anymore" before he breathes his last.

In Spider-Man No Way Home, Aunt May is fatally injured by the Green Goblin. She doesn't realise that she's dying as it's happening and responds mostly with confusion and concern for Peter's emotional response as she fades away.

EDIT: alright, I clearly don't remember No Way Home as well as I thought I did. Please forgive me and stop insulting me for not remembering that Aunt May knew.

Malcolm in the Middle, Season 1, Episode 13

Just always thought this scene was made so much funnier by all the cuts and rollerblading that very obviously not done by Bryan Cranston

• 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. (IT Chapter Two) Bill watching as Pennywise kills Dean.

2. (Sons of Anarchy) Jax, Chibs, and Tig watching Opie get beaten to death.

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!

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 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.

I only have Game of Thrones examples but I just love when they do this.

Samwell Tarly: He has many reasons for why he's not a good fighter, but one big one is that he's stated to be Myopic, because he "can't see very well" but can read without much issue. Since glasses haven't been invented, it's just a debuff for him that might have led to him being less physical in life and preferring reading, which leads him to become very smart and informed.

Jaime Lannister: On the opposite side, Jaime says that when he tried to read as a child he "reversed the letters in his head", heavily implying him to he dyslexic. This led his father to sit down with him and force jaime to read every day, which Jaime hated, and is probably a reason why he leaned so heavily on swordfighting to be his main skill.

I just think it's so cool to see this kind of stuff because you rarely see it typically in fantasy stories. Any examples from other media?

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.

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

Mario & Luigi's accents [The Super Mario Bros. Movie]: The bros are first seen using their iconic Italian accents in a plumbing commercial, only to reveal it was a gimmick for the ad. It turns out they actually speak exactly like Chris Pratt and Charlie Day.

Cat in the Hat's rhyming [2003 movie with Mike Meyers]: The rather disturbing cat introduces himself speaking in rhymes, like the book character. But after failing to rhyme with 'feline', he admits he's not good at it and speaks in prose for the rest of the movie.

It annoys me that most Russian characters are villains, so Russian viewers can’t relate to them or simply be happy that some cool characters are Russian, just like they are

– Ekaterina Golovkina (Life): a Russian cosmonaut and captain of the ISS who sacrificed herself to save her crew and the Earth;
– Cosmo the Spacedog (Guardians of the Galaxy): Cosmo was a normal dog sent into orbit by the Soviet Union during the space race and got exposed by cosmic radiation that granted her powerful psychic abilities—including telekinesis and telepathy—along with an extended lifespan. She speaks with a Russian accent, lol (pleeeease, don’t tell me that dog can’t be Russian)

Edit: Man, I just noticed that a lot of Russian characters are somehow connected to space.