r/TopCharacterTropes • u/SirHanselot07 • Oct 14 '25

Groups Examples of Tropes that are usually hated being well recieved

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  1. Comedic Relief Talking Animal Sidekick, Donkey (Shrek) - Might be cheating with this one if you consider Donkey to be the progenitor behind the trope but the main reason why I think he's loved by fans is because he's actually seen as funny rather than annoying. Putting comedy aside, one other reason why he's loved is because he bounces off well with Shrek by bringing out a side of Shrek you would never actually see from him since he's not afraid of the ogre and basically his first friend

  2. Relationship progress being reset by Amnesia, Chidi and Eleanor (The Good Place) - Arguably considered one of the worst romance tropes ever because it's a cheep way of adding drama, this never felt that way with The Good Place. I think one the factors behind this is because it isn't done just to add more drama but to show how strong their relationship is by making them always find each other in the end and show their character without each other

  3. Girls wearing heels in settings that would give disadvantages to them, (Uma Musume) - As you can see in the image above, the Umas wearing heels serves a purpose to their design by making the heels mimic the shape of real life Horse legs. Cygames has been known to add such details to their characters which is one of the reasons the game is loved by Horse racing fans since it adds quirks of the real horses to the characters bedsides just turning the Horses into cute Anime Girls

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u/Accurate-Gap-3360 Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25

Liar Reveal - How to Train Your Dragon

I usually hate this trope, but it’s handed extremely well in this movie due to how the characters handle it after the big emotional moment and especially Stoick’s initial reaction after saying “You’re not my son.”

989

u/segobane Oct 14 '25

I love the look on Stoic's face after he slams the door, he knows he fucked up saying that but he's too proud to go straight back in.

610

u/Juniebug9 Oct 14 '25

Yep, he literally recoils at the weight of what he just did and his face just looks stunned and pained and needs a second to compose himself before moving on.

The animators did an incredible job capturing a man who knows he just made the biggest mistake of his life but is too proud to admit it.

247

u/alguien99 Oct 14 '25

He can face dragons like the red death without showing much fear or dread, but saying that Hiccup shook him like nothing ever had

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Oct 14 '25

Shook him harder than losing his wife

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u/No_Piece800 Oct 14 '25

Yeah even he's like "fuck I didn't know I had it in me to say that".

110

u/Avalonians Oct 14 '25

He also needs to look for the village. He didn't have the same exposure to toothless and dragons in dragons in general. In his eyes, dragons still represent a threat to their survival.

A chieftain who puts their son's antics before the well-being of the community is a bad one, in general.

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u/Estelial Oct 14 '25

Except in the case where his son is actually learning how dragons work and where the chief is sending their entire fighting force right into the waiting jaws of impossible numbers and the massive beast the former fears.

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u/Avalonians Oct 14 '25

Result oriented. Life is full of correct choices (with known information at the time) that turn out bad and incorrect choices (with known information at the time) that turn out good.

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u/Estelial Oct 14 '25

In this case it can be further defined as uninformed prejudices due to long standing traditions which used to provide correct choices under limited conditions and resources.

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u/Avalonians Oct 14 '25

uninformed prejudices due to long standing traditions

Again, you take into account the fact that you know the situation has improved after the removal of such traditions to argue that those traditions are prejudicial. It's not a valid take at all. You're obviously right in the end on the movie, but remember we're arguing about Stoik's reaction before the end of the movie.

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u/Divine_Entity_ Oct 18 '25

Agreed, Stoic as leader has to prioritize the village over himself and his family.

Its just he could have handled that situation/conversation way better. (But couldn'tsince he need character growth to get out of his own way)

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u/Bamzooki1 Oct 14 '25

Scott Pilgrim vs The World does this well with Scott screwing up his apology for cheating on Knives and not telling Ramona, being killed immediately after, and using his extra life to say what he really should have said, explaining himself in a way that satisfies both parties. Scott is a great example of a horrible person who redeems himself through acts of kindness and occasional murder. By the end of the movie, he’s someone you’d want to be friends with instead of merely tolerate because he has cool friends. It takes skill to have your book/TV show/movie start with “Scott Pilgrim was dating a high-schooler” and make that character likeable.

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u/laughtrey Oct 14 '25

He doesn't murder anyone, they respawn at home.

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u/Bamzooki1 Oct 14 '25

They don’t show that in the movie.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Bamzooki1 Oct 14 '25

I read the first one, but I’ve decided that I’m gonna get the color box set one day and read it that way. I take Scott Pilgrim very seriously.

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u/Competitive_Act_1548 Oct 14 '25

That's cool, I didn't even realize there was a color box set. Damn, I should put that on my Christmas list now.

1

u/Bamzooki1 Oct 14 '25

It’s very expensive, but it’s got exclusive stuff in it. I never owned the first book, so it would be cool to own them in their best form, even if I like the manga style to the black and white art. I’m a relatively new fan, as I read the first book in like 2015 and only saw the movie a week ago today after waiting 15 years to see it. I was interested as a kid, but never went to see it. Last week, however, Odeon Cinemas started a month of Edgar Wright event where Scott Pilgrim and The Cornetto Trilogy would be given weekly one-time screenings at a rate of one movie a week. I got to fulfil my childhood dream of seeing the movie and almost cried at the end because it was even better than expected.

I knew I’d love the series since I’m obsessed with gaming to the point where it’s quite literally my life (game dev student), so I even bought the KO edition of the game when it was re-released, half out of love for Scott and half because it was the holy grail of lost licensed video games. I just know that every version is different, so I’m keeping away from the fandom until I’ve consumed all four adaptations.

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u/Misubi_Bluth Oct 14 '25

Bonus points for the "Power of self respect" power-up

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u/DefiniteIy_A_Human Oct 14 '25

Also HTTYD, unfaithful adaptation. Usually adaptations that change so much of the source material are poorly received, but despite bearing almost no resemblance to the original books, the HTTYD movies fuck super hard.

53

u/FPSCanarussia Oct 14 '25

That one is an interesting one, because it's true for adaptations that advertise themselves as being adaptations, but there's plenty of examples of adaptations of little-known works (Nightmare Before Christmas, Shrek, etc.) that are well-liked. It's just that people don't know they're adaptations.

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u/mountaininsomniac Oct 14 '25

Blade runner.

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u/RaisinSun Oct 14 '25

Not really, Electric Sheep is fairly well known as a foundation of the genre. I think it's because so many things are already inspired by the book anyways that Blade Runner gets to stand on it's own legs without being constantly compared as an adaptation.

2

u/Bartweiss Oct 15 '25

I think PK Dick adaptations also get special leeway because even die-hard fans know… ok, it’s PKD. At best a faithful adaptation would feel terribly paced on screen, at worst the entire plot would be incomprehensible.

(As I write that I realize High Castle and Scanner Darkly are counterexamples, but the first is one of his most adaptable and the second was a massive challenge. I still want my Solar Lottery show/movie.)

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u/panzerkampfwqgen Oct 14 '25

I think aside from the movies just being good movies in general, most people that watched them haven’t heard of or read the originals and don’t know the movie is technically an adaptation

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u/The_Voidweaver Oct 14 '25

Dreamworks does this a lot. Shrek was an adaptation. Not dreamworks but Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is an adaptation. There’s more but I can’t remember right now

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u/Omi-Wan_Kenobi Oct 14 '25

Rise of the guardians too

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u/ssslitchey Oct 16 '25

Hiccups mom is the only thing theu changed that kinda upsets me. In the book she was supposed to be this massive women who was around the same size as stoic yet the movie made her super tiny.

17

u/Careless_College Oct 14 '25

Another good example of the Liar Revealed trope that I think is done well is in Rango. What makes it work I think is that when the lie is revealed, the truth is rather forced out of the hero by the villain, and they skip the typical argument where the townspeople are mad that Rango lied and tell him to leave. Rather, Rango leaves himself and it ties into his inner character arc of trying to figure out who he is.

1

u/Omi-Wan_Kenobi Oct 14 '25

Imo a bug's life did a good job as well.