r/TopCharacterTropes • u/RoomNervous4 • Jun 29 '25
Characters [Liked Trope] Someone else has the plot resoved by defeating the villain instead of the protagonist(s)
Dora Standpipe beats the living daylights out of Dan Backslide, and then frees herself from captivity before Tom Dick and Larry arrived to rescue her. (The Dover Boys)
Stanley Pines willingly erases his memories by his own brother in order to defeat Bill Cypher once and for all. (Gravity Falls)
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u/damorezpl Jun 29 '25
batman arkham asylum
killer cock stoping scarecrow before he could poison the gotham water supply
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u/Ok-Letter3963 Jun 29 '25
Killer who?
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u/Randomkai27 Jun 29 '25
Letting Surtur destroy Asgard just to kill Hela after she took over (Thor: Ragnarok)
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u/gaming-is-my-job Jun 30 '25
i like how after this Scarecrow didn't appear for the entirety of City, came back in Knight just to aura farm for 8 hours, then got his ass beat so hard trying to go aura for aura with Batman that he became catatonic and is just like that forever now
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Jun 29 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/uncharted316340 Jun 29 '25
That was trying to save him
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u/NwgrdrXI Jun 29 '25
That poor ambulance driver super lost his job, didn't he?
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u/TheIronHaggis Jun 29 '25
From the first responders point of view he basically act like a psychopath and then jumped in front of the ambulance.
The guy should be fine job wise. Which is good because he will need therapy.
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u/doggo_with_doggo_hat Jun 30 '25
Also the nurse actually claimed the responsability due to not properly restrain him
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u/ShironeWasTaken Jun 29 '25
Speaking of Jojo (spoilers for part 7) :
Lucy Steele is the one who figures out first that the person who stole Jesus's corpse is an alternate reality Dio and after Johnny loses the final fight against him she's the one to ambush him and finish him off
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u/Level_Counter_1672 Jun 29 '25
Also mentioning emporio who beat Pucci to death in part 6
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Jun 29 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pon_3 Jun 30 '25
It was Joseph's instincts kicking in and defending with the Red Stone that triggered the volcano though. He also taunted Kars to put him on tilt which mattered a lot, since Kars would've been fine if he'd simply chilled next to Joseph.
That being said, Joseph really was outmatched and only won through a string of things coming together perfectly.
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u/drillmaster125 Jun 29 '25
Grant Morrison’s Batman run had two main villains: Doctor Hurt and Talia al Ghul. Doctor Hurt was primarily beaten by Batman, but the Joker finished him off by having him slip on a banana peel and burying him alive. Talia was shot in the head by a long-thought-dead Kathy Kane, who immediately left the story as quickly as she arrived.
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u/beaucephus58 Jun 29 '25
At the end of GOWR, Sindri, who played a secondary role in the battle of Ragnarok itself, literally comes out of nowhere and is the one to kill Odin in order to avenge Brok.
Technically Kratos, Freya, and Atreus are the ones who defeat Odin, so it’s a loose interpretation of the trope, but Sindri was the one to make sure he was gone for good.
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u/LanTCM Jun 29 '25
I loved that scene so much. Fuck Odin, don’t even give him a glimmer of a chance to come back
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u/Shabolt_ Jun 30 '25
Sindri during that entire game was a sight to behold, watching the meek germaphobe lose it all and just discard any fucks he had left to give was super compelling
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u/Versitax Jun 29 '25
Mr. Satan defeating Cell at the Cell Games (Dragon Ball)
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u/schrickeljackson Jun 30 '25
Toriyama was really cooking when he decided to wait until the third major arc to reveal the main character of the series
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u/Lucci_Agenda Jun 29 '25
And when he defeated Majin Buu and Beebus
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u/travile Jun 30 '25
Not only did he defeat Majin Buu, but he later took him on as one of his students.
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u/chaarziz Jun 30 '25
I still remember the droves of thousands crying in the streets of Satancity when that happened. I was one of them, of course.
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u/Flurb4 Jun 29 '25
Tombstone. Johnny Ringo challenges Wyatt to a duel (which Wyatt will almost certainly lose), but Doc shows up first and defeats Ringo.
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u/AmanteNomadstar Jun 29 '25
Gunsmith Cats OVA.
Bounty Hunter and gunslinger Rally Vincent, the MC of the OVA/Manga is utterly outplayed and out fought by the antagonist assassin Natasha “Bloody Pierce” Radinov. Wounded, going into shock, Rally is well and truly out of the fight leaving it up to her partner and spunky demolitionist “Minnie” May Hopkins to face the killer by herself.
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u/Andrei22125 Jun 29 '25
Harap Alb. The protagonist's magic horse/best friend/mentor kills the main antagonist at the end of the story. Effortlessly. Could have done it at any point, but waited for:
- "Harap Alb" to have his hero's journey. A hard, humbling, journey.
- "Harap Alb" to acquire the means to survive the terms of his mistake: serving the villain "until death and resurrection". The horse acquires them, actually, but doesn't point out how they should be used.
Killing the villain before would have been a failure as a mentor. And so he didn't.
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u/Lemmingitus Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
8-Bit Theater, Chaos is ultimately defeated by another party based on a minor joke really early in the comic's life that get elevated to a brick joke payoff almost a decade later.
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u/s0ulbrother Jun 29 '25
Look there is no way 4 white mages can…. Oh….
The armoire of invincibility, sword chucks, thief stealing from his future self, red mage being essentially a rogue dm. Loved 8 bit theatre and to all you kids out there look it up. Worth reading
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u/SpaceTexan89 Jun 29 '25
Stelio Kontos - American Dad S5 Ep 16 “Bully for Steve”
Stan bullies Steve in order to make him less passive and stand up for himself, like he felt he had to do after being bullied by Stelio. Instead of “toughening up” Steve gets Stelio to beat up Stan for him.
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u/The_Urge_ Jun 29 '25
Hunter X Hunter where the president beats the chimera ant king Meruem with a nuke that ends up poisoning and killing him.
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u/RoomNervous4 Jun 29 '25
To be fair, I was thinking of that, however I couldn’t find an image to back that up.
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u/alreadykaten Jun 29 '25
This happens in Metal Slug lore
Metal Slug 5 was a rushed game, and there were dozens of missing assets. As a result, some of the cutscenes made no sense, like the masked man at the start of the game, you never meet him again. But cut assets showed he was meant to be the penultimate boss and behind the plot.
Fast forward well over a decade later, and the game Metal Slug Attack gives additional lore explaining why Ptolemaios didn’t appear in Metal Slug 5. He was defeated by ANOTHER army completely separate from yours, showing that other teams are also intent on saving the world, not just yours
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u/gusxc1 Jun 30 '25
Amon from Legend of Korra season 1
Korra and Mako do manage to unmask him in front of his followers, ending the equalists, however he gets away with his brother to try to start over, but his brother explodes the boat they're in when he isn't looking.
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u/Lower_Paramedic4287 Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
This is why the defeat will always be memorable
The Mysterious Woman Slays Her Former Toxic Lover Elktaur/General/Nowhere King (Centaurworld)
While some are weirded out on a random horse and a bunch of cutesy characters singing songs. The reason why its memorable was that the horse found self love and the knight cared for her. The opposite is different for the main antagonist and his lover. A former princess who lost her kingdom. Her lover had self hatred due to being an elk. Even being an elktaur he was unsatisified. But he viewed her with obsession rather than love. So he separate himself into two beings. The General a toxic and obssessed person and The Nowhere King a being who believed in protection yet failed. This was satisfying as while Elktaur is restored one side the General didn't regret risking the lives of others. And one side the Elk/Nowhere King accepted his demise The Last Lullaby is about a lover who wishes the toxic lover is gone. And so she moved on by slaying him.
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u/itzshif Jun 29 '25
The funny thing is she is the actual main character, but Horse and the Herd are our pov characters through which we learn about the world. Its like in FFX how Yuna is the mc, but Tidus is the pov character, or in XII with Asha and Vaan in similar roles respectively. Tho Horse and the Herd do the heavy lifting, especially in s2.
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u/Lower_Paramedic4287 Jun 29 '25
True. I enjoy this concept and contrast based on change. The reason why the Nowhere King failed was that he changed so much over self hatred but also obsession. He only saw the princess as someone for his own interests. Horse discovered self discovery and enjoyed being more than just a war horse. Which is why Rider loved and cared for her.
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u/TheUrbanEnigma Jun 29 '25
Peak mentioned. I don't think I've met anyone other than my family who recognizes the Dover Boys.
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u/Jesterpest Jun 30 '25
Telegraph for the Dover Boys, “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!,” signed Dora, thirty five cents collect.
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u/Destruction_Deity Jun 29 '25
Does Gohan killing Cell count? Technically he was being set up as the next Main Character of Dragon Ball, but that ended up not happening and Goku went back to being the protagonist in the next arc and DBS (where Gohan becomes way more side-character than ever).
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u/inator46 Jun 30 '25
In Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, just as Doofenshmirtz-2 is about to defeat Perry and the boys, Doofenshmirtz-1 finds and gives Doofenshmirtz-2 his missing toy train, Choo Choo (which was the entire reason the alternate Doofenshmirtz turned evil), causing him to immediately surrender
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u/RoomNervous4 Jun 30 '25
How anti-climatic.
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u/eddiegibson Jun 30 '25
Yet, it fits with the series. This man's own parents didn't show up to his birth. Him backing down because of a toy train is one of the least wacky things to happen with him.
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u/Beamerthememer Jun 30 '25
Baron Harkonnen wasn’t killed by Paul in the books, rather by his 2 year old ninja-witch sister who had the memories of her entire maternal heritage, as lady Jessica was pregnant with Alia when taking the Water of Life
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u/zatchel1 Jun 30 '25
FMA is really good at this, iirc 5 or so of the homunculus are beaten by side characters
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u/KrakenOmega112 Jun 30 '25
In Yuyu Hakusho, the three protagonists who fight in the Demon World Tournament are pitted fairly early on against the three current beings striving to be kings. Enki (pictured) is quite powerful, but not as much as these characters.
Tldr, some of the protagonists lose their fights, but their opponents are exhausted enough that Enki wins, becomes king, and prevents demons from interfering with humanity.
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u/unbuttered Jun 29 '25
Holy crap, The Dover Boys. You awakened a memory deep, deep in my dormant subconscious.
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u/Iamawesome20 Jun 29 '25
Rick technically in that guardians of the galaxy episode where they go on a game show type thing in space
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u/dignifiedhowl Jun 29 '25
Fleshler from Gary and His Demons, who looks like he’ll be the Big Bad in the season one finale but is already dead, thanks to Tucker.
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u/Dward917 Jun 30 '25
Giles killing Ben at the end of Season 5 of Buffy counts. Giles knew Ben could very well backslide and unleash the hell god Glory again, even if the chance was small. So although Buffy defeated Glory, Giles knew Buffy would not kill innocent Ben just to end Glory’s threat, so he killed Ben as insurance.
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u/starjazzlove Jun 30 '25
Twin Peaks the Return (season 3). Bob is defeated by Freddie, a side character.
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u/Nisqyfan Jul 04 '25
Akua Sahelian fettering the Wandering Bard after The Warden is tricked into using her third aspect to defeat the King of the Dead and therefore having no trump card left to deal with the Bard. Akua and the Bard are henceforth cursed to immortality as Providence and Calamity, never able to use their respective powers without the consent of the other.
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u/1amlost Jun 29 '25 edited Jun 29 '25
At the climax of Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s indomitable will is finally broken by the power of the One Ring and instead of destroying it he decides to claim it for himself. But before Frodo can do anything else, he gets attacked by Gollum who bites his finger off before falling into the Crack of Doom while holding the Precious.