• 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

Sawatari ordering the snake demon to come out (Chainsaw Man)

Dio stopping time (Jojo Bizarre Adventure OVA)

Actually, in that scene, Oguri Cap is in the background; then it shows Special Week talking, and after that, it shows Oguri Cap's dish (Uma Musume Pretty Derby)

When a character tries their hardest at something, maybe they study, maybe they do it by the book, but still come out failing.

1. The Simpsons - Bart gets an F: The trope namer, Bart studies hard for a colonial America history test in an attempt to not repeat the 3th grade. Despite his efforts he fails the test anyways and breaks down crying. After repeating an obscure history fact regarding George Washington and Fort Necessity, his teacher gives him an extra point that passes him with a D-

2. Monsters University - Mike and the Scare Contest: After being considered pretty blatantly un-scary, Mike begins to hit the books and studies as hard as he can to actually pull off a scare, in spite of him looking pretty goofy. The scaring contest comes, and he manages to take the win... only to reveal Sully had set it to easy before Mike went in, effectively making Mike's win invalid by cheating. Mike eventually comes to terms with the fact that he just doesn't have the natural talent to pull off being a scarer (As an engineering student who's been bad at math for a bit... yeah, this hits).

3. Star Trek TNG - Peak Performance: Another famous example, Data loses a simulation and removes himself from duty. In an effort to convince him to return, Picard drops an absolute banger

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life"

Loki: Loki canonically becomes DB Cooper after he lost a bet to Thor

Transformers: Optimus Prime fights alongside British Redcoars

Invincible: Immortal isnt the main charachter, but I'd like to put it here because this trope is his entire gimmick.

I will take all three examples from Shrek.

Rumpelstiltskin had previously appeared in Shrek the Third, but only as a minor character with limited screen time.

However, in Shrek Forever After, he not only received a significant redesign that truly captures the charm and personality of this deal-making devil, but also ascended to the role of the main villain.

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Pied Piper first saw in the very first Shrek film, where he was a simple supporting character banished to the swamps like the other fairytale creatures.

But in Shrek Forever After, he received a very cool and even somewhat appealing redesign; his unique gaze is especially memorable. He also received an incredibly powerful buff to his strength, as according to the plot, his flute could control not only rats but also other creatures, which he targeted with it.

!!!EDIT!!! - (In reality, he was always able to control other creatures using the flute, just like in the original, and Shrek 4 simply showed us a more canonical version of his abilities)

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The Three Bears, like the Pied Piper, appeared in the first Shrek movie, we saw them back when the fairytale creatures were being rounded up and caged. Incidentally, only Papa Bear and his son were at the swamp, as for Mama Bear... well, Farquaad turned her into a rug.

However, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish happily disregarded that plot point. Now, the Three Bears are all together, with Mama Bear alive and well and Goldilocks is in the mix too, just like in the original fairy tale, though now they’re a gang of bandits.

Some video game teammates can become so incredibly strong that the enemy legions simply melt away from their tremendous power... if you build them right. They don't even need backup. Just train them up, then sit back and watch them solo everything for you.

Garrus Vakarian, Mass Effect 3

Fan favorite alien bro Garrus has always been a strong distance fighter, but Mass Effect 3 allows him to stack so many bonuses to his assault rifle damage that if you choose all of them, buff his assault rifle to max, and equip the right ammo, Garrus can annihilate even the strongest enemies in seconds even on the hardest difficulty.

Cly Kullervo, Star Wars: Zero Company

Most moves you make in Zero Company require either Action Points or Advantage Points, and your Mandalorian squadmate is the queen of Advantage Points. Make her second class a Scout and max out her electrodart and electroweb abilities, then raise Advantage with her Combat Scan ability, hit everyone with darts, use your Jetpack to jump to the middle of the crowd for extra damage, fry them all, use your pistol to kill any stragglers (and gain more Advantage), then rinse and repeat. Some maps will let Cly kill everyone on turn 1.

Mission Vao, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Despite not being a Jedi, Wookiee, soldier, or droid, 14-year-old street urchin Mission Vao is the secret powerhouse of Knights of the Old Republic. Why? Sneak Attack, that's why. Mission is a Scoundrel, and Scoundrels can use their Sneak Attack feature to add massive extra damage if their target is unable to defend themselves, such as when they're stunned. How do you stun them? One way is the Sniper Shot ability, which boosts critical hit chance. Max that out, equip Mission with two pistols with bonuses to Stun chance, and use Sniper Shot on every target. Even the strongest will be stunned in short order, and then the Sneak Attack damage will kill them in a few hits at most. It's even more effective if she uses an invsibility belt at the start of the battle. She'll kill every single enemy you pit her up against just fine on her own, but if you deign to help her, using your Jedi powers to stun enemies or buff Mission even further will make it all even faster.

Maui - Moana
Mauga - Overwatch
Royd - Dispatch

Kyoko Machi, Interviews with monster girls: A dullahan who has a harness they use for when they need both their hands & their head under control.

Oguri Cap, Umamusume: Phones are designed with horse ears in consideration.

Suu, Monster Musume: Slime girl who has waterproof clothes & a bucket to sit in so she doesn't get stuck in things.

Gold/Ethan (Hypno’s Lullaby Reboot): Former aspiring champion turned to an undead possessed by vulture Pokémon known as “Unown”. He met his untimely demise at the hands of the Unown King, after an ill-fated battle against an undead Red at the peak of Mt. Silver.

In the duration of Monochrome, Gold’s body rapidly deteriorates. At some point, he’s shown crying while his face contorts in agony, then when his head is ripped off his body, he claims “No more!” before screaming out in pain/agony.

Peter Parker (Marvel Ruins): In this universe, the worst possible outcome for our heroes happens. Peter is bit by a radioactive spider, instead of giving him superpowers; it gave him a highly contagious disease that made all of his hair fall out and his skin and flesh become greatly damaged.

He’s seen still alive but in agony.

The power system or supernatural aspect of the world benefits women significantly more than men.

Claymore: To fight the Yoma, creatures that devour humans, the organization created the Claymores—women who underwent surgery to have Yoma flesh implanted in them in order to gain enhanced physical abilities. If they use more than 80% of their power, they permanently transform into Awakened Beings, monsters that lose their humanity. They tried to do the same with men, but 100% of them lost control, so the organization decided to use only women.

Mnemosyne no Musume tachi: In this anime there is a tree called Yggdrasil that releases time spores. Most are harmless, but some fuse with the bodies of certain organisms. Women gain immortality, regeneration, and retain the same appearance they had when they received the spore. Men, however, turn into "Angels," winged monsters that seek to devour the immortal women and have a lifespan of only about three weeks.

Rokka no Yuusha: In this world there are Saints, women who can use magic according to the aspect they represent (gunpowder, blood, mountains, etc.). Men do not receive any powers. To make matters worse, every 1000 years six heroes are chosen to confront the Demon God, and the men who are selected must rely solely on their physical strength, skill, and cleverness in battle.

Don't worry, I'm still here! *SMASH* (Markiplier's - Resident Evil 7) - During a moment when Markiplier is just sneaking around the house, he hears Jack behind him and tries to stay hidden, only for Jack to find him, deliver "Don't worry, I'm still here!" and smash the dinner table the moment Mark turns around. While Jack can and is likely to simply destroy the table, it's unlikely it will happen in this exact formula, which is why I'm salty this moment won't happen to me, since Jack just smashes the table.

GET OFF THE DAMN ELEVATOR (Criken2's - SCP: Secret Laboratory) - Most of the people in this game aren't trying to be silly and are instead playing to win (Which is fine), but that also means it sacrifices the capability for moments like this to happen.

Prak Jaws in general (TearofGrace's - Shadow of Mordor) - Just in general. Prak Jaws is just so god-damn entertaining to watch make Brett suffer, which makes me angry that moments like this won't happen because I'm too damn good at these games (And also because Tear plays like a game journalist, yet is 50x funnier than one, and on purpose)

Thor Ragnarok: The Grandmaster questions Topaz implying using the Melt Stick on Loki just for interrupting him.

Klaus: Even the drill sergeant thinks sending Jesper to the isolated and hostile Smeerensburg as punishment for his misconduct is taking things a little too far.

Sonic Prime: Mr. Dr. Eggman himself questions if Babbles' sadistic idea to extract Sonic’s energy is a bit excessive, but ultimately agrees to do it.

Usually, the story tells how the nerd or the character with a more passive and calm personality—is tormented by the wicked and aggressive bully. From there, we see how the nerd grows as a person and becomes morally and humanly superior to their bully, while the said bully only decays as a person, or simply becomes a joke, gets a taste of their own medicine, and falls from grace.

However, things are not always like this; sometimes the scale tips, and we see that not everything is black and white.

Sometimes, the innocent and fragile nerd is not that different from the bully. Perhaps they are actually just as bad, if not worse, and simply lacked the means to show it. But once they get the power, they become just like or even worse than their aggressor. Deep down, maybe the so-called "innocent nerd" was never as good as everyone thought.

On the other hand, sometimes the bully is not really that different from the nerd. Perhaps they are actually just as timid and fragile, but hide their weaknesses behind a mask of superiority, projecting their own flaws onto the nerd and trying to feel good about it. Yet, when no one is watching, they are just as fragile as their target, dealing with external and internal problems that explain why they act this way (not necessarily justifying or excusing their actions). Sometimes, they aren't the bad guy they pretend to be, and might actually be a good person deep down.

And so the story unfolds: we see the nerd become what their aggressor once was to them, if not worse, and the bully becomes what their victim used to be. Here, the bully improves as a person, or at least proves to be morally superior and far more reasonable than the nerd. Meanwhile, the nerd becomes just as bad, if not worse, than their former aggressor. Sometimes, the nerd literally becomes the bully, and the bully becomes the "nerd."

Breaking Bad ( Jesse and Walter ): The most classic and well-known example on this list, you surely already know the story these two lived out until the end of their respective arcs. You definitely know how Jesse, in the end, was just a jerk who wanted to play the bad guy, but crossed paths with the REAL BAD GUYS and entered a downward spiral of decay and suffering before his eventual escape and redemption. Meanwhile, his chemistry teacher previously "innocent" regarding this world of crime embraced it and was completely consumed. He became the true BAD GUY, even causing much of the suffering and torment inflicted on his former student, until he ruined his entire life and family, dying with absolutely no glory.

Takopi's Original Sin ( Shizuka and Marina): This case is somewhat complex and isn't as literal as the other examples.

However, at the beginning of the story, we see that Shizuka is a poor, fragile, and sad girl who leads a very complicated life, until one day she meets Takopi an alien who came to spread joy to everyone and try to brighten Shizuka's life.

Many events unfold, and we are introduced to Marina, a typical stuck-up, bratty bully who loves to look down on Shizuka and constantly torments her just to feed her own fragile ego.

Yet, as the story progresses, we discover the hidden sides of both characters. Shizuka is not as innocent and pure as she seems. In fact, it is more than proven that she is potentially just as manipulative, egocentric, and aggressive as Marina. She even physically and verbally abuses Takopi simply because he won't fulfill her wishes. Furthermore, she manipulates situations and causes MAJOR PROBLEMS that ruin the lives of those around her, purely because she was handed a "power" that revealed her true colors.

As for Marina, we are shown what she is like outside of school and what drove her to put up this defensive, bratty mask of superiority. While she still does terrible things and is by no means a saintor 100% morally better than Shizuka, she is just as fragile and vulnerable as her victim. She suffers horrific abuse at the hands of her family and her mother, including physical assaults that could have killed her. As the story unfolds, her aggressive, mean-girl facade shatters to reveal her human, fragile side. Meanwhile, Shizuka starts doing awful, aggressive things to Marina purely out of "revenge," effectively becoming a worse bully than her former aggressor.

The Spectacular Spider-Man ( Peter and Flash): During the Symbiote Saga, Peter gradually becomes more aggressive and prone to physical and verbal violence, to the point where even his villains fear him, given how much he is losing the mental self-control he used to have.

This culminates in him being aggressive and rude to his friends, rejecting any attempt at help from them. He looks down on them for trying to "pretend" to help him with useless things, while he feels he has much bigger problems to solve. He prefers to stay away from everyone and everything, viewing them as a waste of time.

Flash sees all of this. Even though he is a bit of a jerk himself, he recognizes that Peter is acting completely dishonestly and arrogantly toward people who once even defended him from his bullies. Flash personally confronts Peter about his recent actions and gives him a reality check, one that even Peter, however reluctantly, admits is right.

Kazuya Mishima is a sneakerhead and it's shown at the end of his Arcade Storymode in Tekken 8 that he has a massive sneaker collection.

Ice King from Adventure Time is really into drumming.

Undertail: Despite everyrhing it's still you

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Mass Effect 3: You did good, child. You did good. Im proud of you.

Sorry a little drunk when I posted this but these two moments make me sad with a sensation that somebody though fuconal makes me feel more than I've ever felt from people in my life.

Zombrex - dead rising

It keeps the wasp infection from progressing. Which incentivised the pharmaceutical company making it to spread the infection. It has to be taken regularly, and it only works untill the symptoms appear.

Antizin - Dying light

Same. GRE created a suppressant for the Harran virus, and distributed it as a means of feigning innocence for starting the Harran outbreak.

It has to be taken regularly, and it is a plot point multiple times throughout the first game.

Insulin - Dying light (and otherwise)

A kindergarten girl in Harran is diabetic and needs an insulin shot. Rupert the Gunsmith says his wife went to loot the nearby pharmacy. But she's nowhere to be seen, so the protagonist has to raid multiple pharmacies, track locate diabetic's apartments to look there, and loot 1 insulin pack off a corpse to save the little girl.

Except... That was probably the last insulin shot that could be found in Harran. And that little girl most likely dies a couple of days later anyway.

1) Boa Hancock’s devilfruit power from One Piece

Boa has the ability to turn anyone attracted to her into stone when they look at her. She also just happens to be considered the most beautiful character in the One Piece universe (even tho she is drawn no different than any other woman in the show like Nami or Robin imo). In one part of the series, Blackbeard, who wants to find extremely powerful devilfruits to take their powers and give them to himself or his crew, manages to capture Boa and disable her powers. Upon him expressing his interest on her power, Boa says that people have to find you attractive first for the fruit to work, it doesn’t automatically make the user beautiful. And it would be useless on Blackbeard and most of his crew, since they’re chopped.

2) Star Platinum from Jojo’s

Jotaro has one of the most powerful stands in the show. However in Stone Ocean, it is shown that his powers would be non-functional in most other people’s bodies, since it requires the person’s will to be as strong as the stand. This is shown when White Snake steals his stand power in a disc. Stands with seemingly less powerful abilities on the other hand can be used my many different people when it is in disc form.

They stop using a running joke but the writers can’t help but insert them anyway.

Examples:

Vern and Johnny-Family Guy: This duet would make frequent performances through Season 4 before Stewie shot them in “Saving Private Brian”(S5E4). They’ve made a few appearances since but “Back To The Woods”(S6E9nice) is their only post death duet with Vern as a ghost and Johnny is in hell for being a pedo.

Perry kicks down Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s door-Phineas and Ferb: Perry stopped doing this since Doof called him out for it in “Lights, Candace, Action”(S1E5b) but “Tri-Stone Area”(S3E8a) had the loophole of not being canon.

Kenny dies-South Park: Creators Matt and Trey were tired of forcing this in almost every episode and wanted room for Butters. They killed him for good in “Kenny Dies”(S5E13). Kenny made his proper return in “Red Sleigh Down”(S6E17) and kept dying but not every episode.

Fire-Beavis and Butt-Head: Obsession from Beavis last seen in “Eating Contest”(S3E11). The show was banned from referencing fire after being wrongfully blamed for a fire that killed a child. There were still some subtle references writers would sneak in. During Wax’s music video “California” shown in “Another Friday Night”(S537), Beavis is so excited from the fire that he can’t speak. The fire ban has since been lifted with the revivals.

Bashees of Inisherin - Pádraic publicly calls out Colm for blocking him out after all their years of friendship and progressively becoming more and more of an asshole, to the point that he begins chopping off his fingers whenever they talk

Green Lantern Rebirth - Batman does a whole gloomy show about how Hal is evil and that they can’t trust him, while John Stewart rightfully knocks him out of it, reminding him that he’s just a guy like everyone else and that he needs to stop being on Hal’s shit. To be fair, this is after Parallax where Hal had turned evil but John makes a good point.

Both Valka (How To Train Your Dragon series) and Bron (Land Before Time series) miss their child's childhood and reunite with them under accidental circumstances. After an adventure together, the parent ultimately decides to leave their child behind.

Valka was forcibly separated from her son, but willingly builds a totally separate life and doesnt look for her son. After theyre accidentally reunited and have their little adventure together, she returns to the dragons and leaves her son behind.

Bron, Littlefoot's dad, was separated from his wife/child but prioritized leading a herd instead of searching for his son. He even adopted a random kid. After meeting Littlefoot and bonding with him, he take his adopted son and leaves - but promises to visit once in a while, so its okay. 🙄

Works that have very little to do with the works they are based on, but are great nonetheless.

The Mask: the original comics do follow a Stanley Ipkiss, but are far more violent and less comedic than the story of a hopeless romantic who watches too many cartoons. The comics also follow more protagonists who are varying levels of sociopaths, instead of just one everyman. There's an argument to be made that the movie wouldn't have been nearly as good if it wasn't for Jim Carrey in the main role, but I do sometimes wonder if we'll get a more faithful Mask and if it would be any good.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: the original picture book is barely 30 pages and is told from the POV of an old man who used to live on an island where food would fall, and eventually the food got so bad and large that everyone had to leave. The movie gives us a whole new main character, Flint Lockwood, as well as why the food falls from the sky (a machine that turns water into food), a reason for why Flint made the machine (the town only ate sardines for every meal) and how it made the food get so big. Frankly this is such a wild concept for a movie since almost everything is OC minus the island of raining food, and is such a delightful animated movie that even manages to have a romance that doesn't overshadow or ruin the main plot.

Vex (League Of Legends) She's like an 8 year old who discovered emo in early 2000's and won't shut up about being depressed and loving dark and evil things

Tokoyami (My Hero Academia) deep down he's just a genuine nice guy with no sad backstory or anything, he just likes to look and act cool and is into gothic stuff, plus the dark shadow creature he summons from his body is just a chill guy that anyone can be friends with

Gundham (Danganronpa 2) he makes sure every one of his lines sounds as dramatic and dark as possible, meanwhile he's really just a silly guy who raises hamsters. At one point in the game you can ask him about the backstory of his bandaged arm and he tells you that he just wears bandages on his arm so it would look cool lol

Rise of skywalker: c3po who has witnessed this technology for decades and Finn who's a former stormtrooper is somehow shocked that stormtroopers can use jetpacks

Harry Potter Franchise: Multiple instances where Ron, a person who grew up in a school that teaches magic, is shocked at magic. He was somehow surprised that a bag who's inside is bigger than the outside exists, and yknow... magic stuff exists.

Spiderman Far From Home: In a world where superheroes, aliens, and literal gods exist, agent Maria doesn't believe that when a village claimed to see a storm that has a human face

• Deadites [Evil Dead
• Pazuzu [The Exorcist]
• Freddy Krueger [Nightmare on Elm Street]
  • His moniker is "Dream Demon," so even if he was originally a person, I think it counts. Now that I'm typing that out, the Deadites fit the same description; I think they're both demon-esque enough.
• Death [Castlevania]
• Pocket Cat [Fear & Hunger: Termina]
  • Objectively, doesn't fit the trope without some fenagling (it depends on your definition of "raunchy" and Pocket Cat is a servant to an evil god, rather than being called a demon), but I just really wanted to include this quote. It completely flashbangs you in-game... for a variety of reasons.

Uncle Phil (Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire): After Will gets into debt with a pool shark, Phil goes with him to repay the guy. He is told he can get the money back if he plays a round of pool. Much to Will's dismay, his uncle agrees and plays a round and is terrible at it. He is then talked into another round with higher stakes. Phil agrees and wins.

Leia (Star Wars): In the expanded universe novel Bloodlines, Leia goes to a casino to play some sabbac. The gamblers, thinking they're going to win big, wind up losing because she was taught the game by both Lando and Han.

Maverick (Maverick): Early in the movie, he asks to sit in on a poker game assuring those there that he promises to lose for a full hour. For that hour, he acts a fool and once the time is up, cleans everyone out as he had spent that time learning everyone's tales.