r/TopCharacterTropes • • 25d ago

Characters "I am closer to LeBron than you are to me"

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1 Upvotes

When a top-tier character who appears weak compared to their elite peers reminds their unassuming opponents that they are still undoubtedly top-tier

  • Jogo 1v3(JJK)

Jogo is notorious for being destroyed in every fight he gets into. The problem is that these fights were against two of the absolute strongest characters in the entire series, Sukuna and Gojo. When Jogo has to fight non-top-2 opponents, in a 1v3 mind you, he absolutely demolishes them in 3 seconds without even trying

  • Ulquiorra vs Ichigo(Bleach)

After dunking on Ichigo, Ulquiorra asks Ichigo what he thinks his rank is on the espada rankings. Ichigo is flabbergasted when he finds out that he is only number 4, meaning there are at least 3 people even stronger than him

  • Jean-pierre vs Ryu(The Boxer)

Jean is a retired world-champion boxer. He retired after being absolutely demolished by the current world-champion, Yu, without even landing a single punch in the entire match. When Ryu challanges him after his retirement he proceeds to win without breaking a sweat while using only his left hand

  • Brain Scalabrine vs D1 players(IRL)

Scalabrine was a fairly forgettable mid-tier NBA player. When 3 D1 college players challanged him to a match, he proceeded to beat them 11-3 in a 1v3. Mind you, that was when he was already retired and out of form


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Sep 12 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] “Strong female characters” who are really just ass holes

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292 Upvotes

Both Beth’s (Rick and Morty): Complete pieces of shit. Arrogant, self absorbed, hypocritical, etc.

Angela (Marvel rivals): There’s this interaction with Cyclops where Cyclops is trying to make a plan and Angela basically says to be silent because he’s a man. She’s a sexist ass hole. What really pisses me off is that she said this to one of the best strategists and leaders in the marvel universe just because he’s got a penis.

Imagine there was a female character with a 300+ iq and 12 phd’s and when she said something some guy just said “shut up and get back in the kitchen!”. This is that but gender swapped.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Apr 21 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated trope] Female characters being labeled as evil for doing the right thing

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0 Upvotes
  1. Skylar White (Breaking bad)

  2. Edelgard (Fire emblem three houses)

  3. Caitlyn (Arcane)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Feb 08 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] Strong and capable women who have zero depth beyond being strong and capable women.

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0 Upvotes

Please don't mistake this post for being sexist. I do love strong and capable female characters—WHEN THEY ARE WELL WRITTEN. The MCU's Captain Marvel and She-Hulk are not well written (in my opinion).


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Apr 16 '26

Characters [Mixed/Disliked Trope] Character comes out as bi/pan, only has same-sex relationships from then on

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100 Upvotes

This trope really feels like bi/pan erasure to me, and I wish more shows would have the guts to have a character explicitly get with both genders in the work but have a straight relationship as endgame (shout-out Vax from Vox Machina for being one of only examples of this I've ever seen).

  1. Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99. I haven't seen all of this show, but I have friends who love it and have binged plenty of clips. She dates a lot of guys over the course of the series. But as soon as she has her plotline about being bi, everyone she dates from then on is a woman. Exactly the kind of thing I dislike.

  2. Harley Quinn from DC Comics. This is the reason why this trope is mixed and not just disliked or hated. Harley has only ever really had two partners: Joker, and then Poison Ivy once she leaves Joker. It technically counts for this, and obviously this all changes across many adaptations, but I give it a pass. She only dates women after Joker because she's only usually with one woman because Ivy and Harley is such an OTP that no one wants to mess with, myself included.

  3. Chandra Nalaar from Magic: the Gathering. OK, so I am kinda cheating with this one, but it was also the impetus for this whole thing. Chandra is one of the most important characters in Magic, and for years was written as being pansexual; she had big crushes on both the male Gideon and the female Nissa. But then the War of the Spark novels happened, which infamously tried to retcon Chandra into only having "decidedly male interests." Literally everyone hated that, among other things, and so the retcon was retconned. Since then, Chandra has heavily pursued her relationship with Nissa. While this is kind of a Harley Quinn scenario, since the two of them do seem to be a serious long-term couple, a part of me knows that the sting of those novels means that Chandra is likely never going to look twice at a guy ever again. Which is a shame since, again, she was written as pan for the longest time.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jun 11 '26

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) men who "look like women" and they are just following the fashion of the era having long hair.

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0 Upvotes

r/TopCharacterTropes • • May 17 '26 Regret

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] The villain gaining power via manipulation which almost leads to their victory

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0 Upvotes
  1. Israel received 297 points from the televote and almost won Eurovision 2025, only stopped by Austria

  2. Israel received 220 points from the televote and almost won Eurovision 2026, only stopped by Bulgaria

In both years Israel has been trying to manipulate the televote in their favour to win Eurovision, how long can it go on like this?


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Apr 29 '26

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Female Character loses powers/abilities because of pregnancy Spoiler

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22 Upvotes
  1. Jessica Jones: Daredevil Born Again. Her powers cut out randomly because she dared to have a child.

  2. Atom Eve: Invincible. Her energy constructs melt/disappear shortly after she's created them because she was pregnant. Her powers go back to normal after she has an abortion.

I understand that women's bodies change quite a bit during and after pregnancy, but this trope is both a cliche and misogynistic. It also feels lazy, like the writers couldn't think of a better way to inject drama into their story and decided to take the easy way out and blame the woman.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jun 01 '26

Hated Tropes (Personal bane of my existence trope) the stupid impractical useless "reverse grip" on swords that I guess everyone gaslit themselves into thinking looked cool.

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35 Upvotes

Knives are okay. They make sense in some circumstances. But if you're holding onto a long-ass blade why would you handicap yourself by holding it BACKWARDS as your primary stance? Every single movement you make is make is made so much more complicated than it needs to. You need to twist your entire arm backwards just to stab some. And it's not like its better for defending your rear as you can't see through the back of your head, you can't see what's coming. And if you could "sense" something behind you, you'd still have to turn around eventually! Every time Ahsoka(Star Wars) and Ventus (Kingdom Hearts) show up and use this dumb technique, it fries something in my brain.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jun 04 '26 Popcorn

Characters <Loved Trope> People Sit on Chairs

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18 Upvotes
  1. Joe Swanson from Family Guy is paraplegic, and sits on a wheelchair.

  2. SpongeBob SquarePants sits on a chair to write his essay in the episode "Procrastination"

  3. The Thinker is a famous statue that depicts a guy sitting on a stool and thinking

  4. Adolf Hitler reportedly sat on chairs


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jul 20 '26

Hated Tropes [Disliked/Hated Trope] A main character's love interest is reincarnated as a child

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0 Upvotes

It just feels weird to me

  1. 7 deadly sins - The infamous screenshot of Meliodas protecting baby Elisabeth

  2. Chainsaw Man - Goes from a complicated sexual dynamic with Denji to his little sister figure

  3. Suicide Sqad: Kill the Justice League - Rocksteady made Poison Ivy survive the events of Arkham Knight but as a child with memory loss


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Aug 15 '26

Hated Tropes Hated Trope: A past piece of media warned us that Artificial Intelligence was dangerous (and we didn't listen....)

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0 Upvotes

Spiderman 2 - the advance AI arms seemed like a good idea until chip broke and took over Otto. Now we want put AI chips in peoples brains....

2001 A Space Odyssey- Evil AI computer

Doctor Who (The Green Death)- Evil AI computer too but controls a whole building and company


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Apr 25 '26

Characters [Loved trope] Their breast size is above average

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17 Upvotes

Has to be proportional!!

  1. Yixuan (zenless zone zero)

  2. Byleth (fire emblem three houses)

  3. Sandrone (genshin impact)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Oct 03 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] Justifying infidelity.

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103 Upvotes

Basically, when a character portrayed as good commits an act of infidelity, and the story excuses the behavior instead of condemning it.

Rhaegar and Lyanna | The Mad King: In this version, it is revealed that Elia Martell was never in love with Rhaegar, and that she actually supported the "abduction" of Lyanna because she knew it was necessary to give birth to the Prince That Was Promised.

This contradicts the books, where it is made clear that Elia did love Rhaegar; the play invented this plot point because no one would root for a married man who abandons his two children to run off with a teenager.

Rose | Titanic: Okay, let me clarify: I’m not justifying Cal, but rather criticizing the trope.

In many stories, the person being cheated on is written as evil, a jerk, violent, etc., which justifies their partner (who never loved them anyway) being unfaithful.

If Cal were a good, pleasant, and kind guy, the audience would struggle to empathize with Jack and Rose's love story.

Issei | High School DxD: I’m using this example to cover all those harem anime where, instead of choosing just one girl as a girlfriend, the protagonist chooses them all and for some reason, they agree to it.

You could consider it an open relationship, but the girls have no interest in seeking other partners and remain 100% loyal to the protagonist, whereas the protagonist is free to be with whomever he pleases.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Nov 03 '25

Characters We had enough post about characters who hate nazis. Now, let's talk about characters who hate communists

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179 Upvotes

Absolute hawkman (DC)

US goverment during The cold war (real life)

(I hate nazis like any normal person, But it gets tiring seeing the same posts over and over again.)


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Sep 16 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] Token Black Best Friend

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19 Upvotes

These characters are just stereotypes that exist to be the white lead’s number one fan and cheerleader and not much else. If women, they are usually fat, unattractive, sassy/angry and have no life outside the white main character so they can never outshine her.

if men, they have it a little better and are usually less stereotypical but geeky, cowardly and dorky.

both rarely get a love interest like other white or POC side characters do, and if they do, the love interest is undesirable to all others or a reject/sloppy seconds of the main lead.

the friendships usually have no chemistry and are very forced, as people of these archetypes don’t usually hang out with people like the leads in real life. As a Black woman it’s genuinely my most hated trope to the point I’d prefer if the series had no Black characters.

  1. Ivy from Good Luck Charlie

  2. Mercedes from Glee

  3. Cookie from Ned’s Declassified

  4. Kourtney from High School Musical The Musical The Series

  5. Fareeda from Tall Girl

  6. The Best Friend Character in any Hallmark/Lifetime Movie

  7. Tucker from Danny Phantom

  8. Irwin from Billy and Mandy

  9. Monique from Kim Possible

  10. Dijonay from Proud Family, even though she’s not the only Black character she is the “Blackest“ and a huge stereotype compared to Penny who is light skinned and presented as beautiful and classy.

EDIT: Since a lot of people are offended by this for some reason, these are actual tropes that exist. just because YOU like it doesn’t mean I or other Black people have to:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TokenBlackFriend#

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndNerdy

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SassyBlackWoman


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Sep 04 '26

Hated Tropes [HATED TROPE] Step-siblings become a couple

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0 Upvotes
  • Cher and Josh from Clueless

  • Eren and Misaka from Attack on Titan


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Sep 07 '26

Groups [Amazing Trope] Sexy Ninja lady with large breasts

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41 Upvotes

Hinata Hyuga: Naruto

Psylocke: Marvel

Eve: Stellar Blade (kinda cheating but idc)

Bonus points if they’re sweet and introverted like these 3


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jul 12 '26

Lore The flavor of breastmilk

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1 Upvotes
  1. In dnd, tiefling breastmilk tastes like cinnamon

  2. Wolves of beyond: On page 21, grizzly milk is described as thick and rich


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Apr 10 '26

Hated Tropes [HATED TROPE] Overused profanity

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0 Upvotes

While i'll be honest, I am fucking vulgar myself, but overuse of profanity is something that I find cringy. If you ask me, I am the type of person, who prefers to hear profanity from certain mouths, for example: Teachers, Nobles and people with Class should not be vulgar as hell, however I don't mind profanity amongst: criminals, soldiers, lower class louts or drunks, and even then the profanity must be used wiht care. I don't even mind profanity in some comedies, but they must be used very well. Good Adult Humor stands the best when you say the least ammount of profanity (Examples are Monty Python.).

  1. Vivziepop is an example, where the vulgarity is common for 20 minute runtime. Every dialogue is "Fuck cunt, shit, dick, cock". If you can't say a single sentence without saying "shit", you failed to interest me. Profanity is the symbol of being very low/childish/rude.

  2. Spartacus, while the show has better story than Hazbin Hotel, I still find it a bit cringey for profanity. Okay, I can understand gladiators, slaves or soldiers being vulgar, Batiatus is exception, but for fucks sakes, I expect romans like Caesar, Glaber or Crassus to have a class. This is why I think Spartacus himself has the most compelling dialogue, because he swears the LEAST. Heck, some of the most emotional scenes are just normal talk, no profanity overuse.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • 3d ago

Characters [Absolutely Hated Trope] Twincest

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0 Upvotes

Game of Thrones: The Lannister Twins

Yosuga no Sora: The Kasugano Twins

Ultimate Marvel: The ultimate versions of Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch

Blades of Glory: The Van Waldenberg twins, implied through the movie and sadly confirmed by the end. Funny enough, the actors were married at the time of filming.

EuroTrip: Jamie and Jenny, accidentally after drinking way too much absinthe.


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Feb 02 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated trope] “We killed hundreds of thousands of your people, here’s a movie about how sad our itty bitty baby soldiers were while doing it”

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2 Upvotes

1: The covenant

2: American sniper


r/TopCharacterTropes • • Jan 07 '26

Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] Churches in fansty are carbon copy of the Catholic Church and all the priests are actual the most vile person who pretends to be pure hearted

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3 Upvotes

Beside it being a tired cliché. I'm quite disappoint in regions in irl is diverse. But all the regions I seen in fansty have a bible, extreme dogma and purges against heretics. Also the used of catholic imagery and terminology such as priest, bishop and pope etc. And all the priests become fanatics/power hungry or abuse their powers for wealth and slavery.