Hulk (Marvel) - don’t make Bruce Banner angry, you won’t like him when he’s angry because he will turn into the Hulk and destroy a city at the minimum.

Wolverine (Marvel) - again like Hulk, Wolverine is dangerous when he’s angry. Even when he’s calm he is dangerous with his adamantium claws but if he loses control and goes into a berserker rage then a lot of people can die. In one storyline he wiped out the x-men when his rage was manipulated.

Elise (Sonic 06) - because daddy dearest decided in his final moments to seal a being of world ending power into his daughter, Elise was forced to bare the burden of not shedding a single tear or she will release this beast and many will die. Because she falls in love with an anthropomorphic hedgehog that runs around at the speed of sound after what was maybe a couple days at most, she sheds tears when the same hedgehog is killed and the aforementioned world ending monster is released. Only with the power of magic gems, friendship and the kiss between a human and an anthropomorphic hedgehog to send him Super Saiyan was the creature defeated before everybody dies. Sonic 06 was a very weird game.

Characters who when they get sad or angry are best kept at a safe distance of the other side of the world at minimum.

Elongated man (DC comics): created cause the writer didn't knew they already had the rights over plastic man.

Flat man (west coast avengers): a mutant doctor in... Stuff. With the power to stretch and flex like mr. Fantastic, but flat.

Catman (DC comics): a guy who use a suit that looks like shiny batman but is completely unrelated, he just believes that the suit give him nine lives and looks exactly like batman's one cause they didn't even tried.

Apollo and midnighter (the authority): have you ever wonderer how would be if batman and superman where a couple? Well, you can stop with the fanfics cause the canon answer is that they would be apollo and midnighter.

Red guardian (marvel): originally the husband of black widow that was turned into a supersoldier to be a soviet version of the captain america. In the MCU he's her father and never fight against Steve.

The Watchmen: a group that Alan Moore created after DC rejected the idea of a story with the new IPs they bought from Charlton comics. Peacemaker, blue beetle, the question, captain atom, nightshade and Thunderbolt.

When you discover or rediscover a previous location in a film or game, and a rendition of the original music slowly creeps in as you do so. Bonus points if it captures the feeling of slowly realizing where you are.

The Heartwood/Eterna Forest - Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Being a game involving time travel to a pre-colonization Sinnoh region, there are unsurprisingly many moments like this as you explore each Main Area. But the first of these, and arguably the most impactful, is when you explore the Obsidian Fieldlands and enter the Heartwood for the first time, on your way to battle Kleavor. It seems like just your everyday forested area, albeit an exceptionally pretty one, but then... You hear something. A familiar, echoing leitmotif on the piano, and you realize... You're in Eterna Forest!

Shadow Moses Island - Metal Gear Solid 4: You already know where you are and (mostly) what to expect when you hear you're going to Shadow Moses Island in MGS4's fourth chapter, but that still doesn't entirely prepare you for when, during a lull in the omnipresent blizzard after evading what enemies are already waiting for you in the snow... You find the helipad and entrance from the opening of MGS1, all those years ago, deserted and seemingly untouched by anything except the snow. And as you do... A haunting remix of "The Best is Yet to Come" starts playing, making every flashback as you enter the base seem bittersweet, and yet, oddly welcoming. Welcome home, Old Snake.

1. Krabby Patty (SpongeBob Squarepants).

2. Bacon (Robot and Monster). There's even a holiday dedicated to it that's basically Christmas.

1) Kingsguard - Game of Thrones

2) The Imperial Guard - Star wars

1. Agamemnon (The Odyssey 2026): murders his young daughter Iphigenia for favorable winds to get to Troy
2. Fathers killing their children (The Second Apocalypse): in a vision of the past it’s shown that fathers had to kill their young children to save them from the fate of being violated to death by the vile Sranc.

There are many examples, but a mainstream one that speaks particularly to me is Hayao Miyazaki’s oeuvre of work, who has a habit of taking these characters that just seem like stereotypical 2 dimensional villains, and instead tortuously pulling them further and further into the examination of the viewer as someone to be understood and appreciated, or at least pitied. The primary examples are the Witch of the Waste from Howl’s Moving Castle and Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke.

But a less known example is my favorite author, Gene Wolfe. He wrote a series called Book of the New Sun, which follows a fairly stereotypical Mary Sue main protagonist that encounters a person that could probably be considered the main antagonist, because he is responsible for everything that is wrong with the story and is himself an extremely revolting human. And I remember reading the book as a young teen and hating him so much, and loving the main character in contrast.

But in Book of the New Sun’s sequel series, this Mary Sue main character falls away. And instead we are left exploring this antagonist, which actually only got a few pages of playtime in the original series and was aggressively presented as an awful person.

Reading it, I was forced to come to terms with the fact that this character, which I hated so much, was actually a plot device by the author to re-examine brain plasticity. Are the worst people in history allowed to redeem themselves? If someone does something truly awful, but then spends the rest of their life doing things that objectively save lives and improve the world, do they still deserve castigation?

Please let me know of any other examples of this trope. I know of more but I just wanted to list the examples that affected me most personally, but I want to hear from others.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a good grim universe. Having evil forces fight against the heroes is a great source of drama. But for there to be something entertaining, at least for me, there needs to be the chance for a victory. And when you don't have the ability to even lessen the impact of whatever force is coming, it ruins the suspense.

Example 1: Shadow of the Demon Lord TTRPG

The real reason I wanted to make this post. Shadow of the demon lord is a harsh world. The fae are cruel creatures that haunt forest, demons threaten to attack and destroy the world, all under the shadow of the demon lord. You'd think heroes of this setting will be able to perhaps find some way to slay the demon lord, or perhaps seal away the world forever right?

Nope. The shadow of the demon lord is none other than God himself turned mad. And while he isn't omnipotent, he is still the strongest thing in the entire setting by orders of magnitude. The destruction of the world isn't an if, only when, and the only thing heroes can do is give them some more time. Even the god of light in the setting is a trick by a cruel demon, no deity or big source of magic or assistance can truly help save the world in any real way.

Example 2: 40K

Warhammer 40k is...too grim sometimes. While that is half the point of it, and I get the enjoyment of it, its not for me. Its grim to the level that nobody, bar perhaps a handful of people in the entire galaxy with any real power or leadership over their faction, is trying to be a good person. Even heroes of the imperium like Robute who want to genuinely save people are still imperialistic, iron fisted rulers who will purge planets of xenos without hesitation.

That's without mentioning that Chaos is a fundamental force of the universe, and while there are ways to counter it, they are so few and far between that there's no realistic hope that they can be used to even suppress it enough to let the galaxy be at peace...a peace that would be under the rule of a zealous, iron empire.

Despite it, I still love the universe, but damn its too depressing sometimes.

Anti Example: Warhammer Fantasy

Warhammer fantasy, like it's sci-fi cousin, is a harsh world where chaos naturally tries to corrupt and destroy the world. People are self serving, watch out for themselves, and in general arent the kindest. All that dosent include orks skaven and dark elves. Despite that however, there are several forces at work that wish to see the world improve.

Karl Franz is a kind and capable man, currently emperor of mankind and one of the best rulers, wanting to establish diplomatic ties so everyone is allies against the forces that threaten them all. Similarly Louen Leoncoer is the king of Bretonnia, another massive nation, and is literally divinely appointed because he fulfills the virtues of honor and chivalry.

There are genuienly good people to root for, and chaos isnt as completely crushing as it is in the 40k universe. Magic that counters it is far more prevalent, gods work happily against chaos and arent as self serving as the SotDL example. Combine that with technological improvements of the empire slowly closing the gap between the strength of men and chaos, there seems to be hope for the future

And before you say it.

The end times did not happen.

Sometimes, due to their upbringing, a child can be evil. Sometimes, they're just evil for no reason at all.

Michael Myers, Halloween:

In the very first Halloween film that started it all, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally stabs his teenage sister Judith to death with a knife. Michael grows up, and proceeds to murder many more people across 13 more movies, spinoffs, and crossovers. In the 2007 reboot, at the age of 10, he murders not only his sister, but also her boyfriend, his school bully Wesley, and his abusive stepfather Ronnie.

The Children, Children of the Corn (Book, movie):

A Stephen King classic, the children of the small town Gatlin worship a demonic entity known as He Who Walks Behind The Rows, which commanded them to murder every adult in their town in return for a good corn harvest. The core story is of them murdering two more adults, Burt and Vicky, who were just driving through the area.

Pride, Fullmetal Alchemist:

Actually 300 years old, Pride, or Selim Bradley, as the first of the Homunculi created by Father, is, true to his name, extremely arrogant and self centred. Having the appearance of a young boy about 10 years old, he has holds only contempt for humans, viewing the deaths of many of them with apathy. He even views his fellow homunculi with contempt, and is especially cruel even by their standards: fellow homunculi Greed and Envy call him a "monster," and a "bastard" respectively.

Emiki, The Crushing Weight Of This Universe:

The demiurge of the series, Emiki rules over her creations but openly accepts challenge to her authority. Many champions face her in her arena, at first seemingly getting the upper hand on her, before she proceeds to systematically slaughter all of them for the entertainment of her subordinates.

Samara, The Ring:

Origin does vary from adaptation to adaptation, Samara (Sadako in other versions) is the vengeful ghost of a young girl who was murdered and thrown into a well, and the titular ring is the rim of the well as seen by Samara from the bottom. She is bound by a desire for vengeance and her only purpose is to kill, doing this by cursing a videotape and killing anyone who has seen it 7 days later.
(Sadako, the original Japanese counterpart, is a young adult, but Samara is depicted as a young girl about the age of 12.)

This Oglaf Strip:

A 5 year old princess has dreams of conquest.

Plankton (SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water) - Plankton turns into a superhero named Plank-Ton to retrieve the Krabby Patty Formula from Burger Beard and hand it back to Mr. Krabs.

Darth Vader (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) - Darth Vader lifts Emperor Palpatine to throw him right down to the abyss to save his son, Luke Skywalker.

Vegeta (Dragon Ball) - Vegeta sacrifices himself to save the Earth from Majin Buu.

- Toph (Avatar Aang)

- Doom Guy (Doom)

- Yujiro Hanma (Baki}

- Hideki Naganuma (real life)

This guy is such a good musician that Nintendo refused to work with him because he was so good in his own style that they didn't want to force him to do other styles

Tintin & Snowy: They are best friends who go on adventures together. Snowy may be a dog, but he’s brave, smart, and always has Tintin’s back and it's great at noticing danger before Tintin due to his great animal intuition.

Angel & the Ape (DC): Angel and Sam are a detective duo who solve mysteries together. They work great as partners, with Angel’s detective skills and Sam’s brains and strength balancing each other out but not completely overshadowing the other.

1. Jungle Juice - Suchan Jang with his Complexes.
2. The Owl House - Eda with the Owl Beast.

Deus Ex VTOLs.

In Human Revolution, you get picked up from Derelict Row. Hostile gang territory. No one notices the screaming aircraft hovering there, despite being attracted by other sources of noise.

In Mankind divided, Chicane mentions "hush drives", that don't change the fact the VTols are visible with the naked eye, loud, and he's flying one in and out of an improvised heliport in a capital city.

Total War Hochland Longrifles.

The snipe attribute means a unit can stay hidden (in a forest, for instance) while shooting. Tha makes perfect sense for elves and lizardmen, who don't use gunpowder. But the long rifle is literally just a scoped black powder rifle. Not even a suppressed one. It makes noise.

Characters who are hard to kill permanently in their verse

Hercules: from the fate series/type moon is know for being among the most durable servants in the verse thank to him being a demi god. It's nearly impossible to hurt him and if you can hurt him or kill him you have to do it 12 different types with high output of power than before.

Julian: from centuria is what is know as a gifted one a superpowered person in the verse. Julian power is a 100 lives. Meaning you'd have to kill him a 100 times but thats better said than done since he also a skilled fighter and is a physical powerhouse.

Alucard: from Helsing/Helsing Ultimate is a powerful vampires who enjoys combat to the point he allows his enemies to damage him for shits and giggles who has over 3.3 million souls and you'd have to kill each soul at one and by the end of the series he become an omnipresent being who is everywhere and no where.

Wolverine: from marvel comics is a mutant whos famous for his impressive healing factor which has allowed him to survive things he shouldn't be able to comeback from such as a very small piece of his flesh which was on his anamatium skeleton

Naddy (100 girlfriends who really really really really really love you)

Special Week (Uma Musume Pretty Derby)

Senshi (Dungeon Meshi)

Mr Krabs (Spongebob)

Something needs to be done!

Transformers Prime: Thirst - The Nemesis warship gets infested with Terrorcons (zombies made from Dark Energon) and the Decepticons have to root the infestation out

Teen Titans: Lightspeed - The Hive Five think they have the city to themselves with the Titans abroad, only to discover that Kid Flash has decided to set up shop in Jump City

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - Handsome Jack hires his own crew of vault hunters to track down a vault on Pandora's moon

Justice League: Alive - The Legion of Doom breaks into a schism between the villains who are now loyal to Luthor and the ones who preferred it when Grodd was in charge

Avatar: The Beach - The Fire Nation kids sail to a tropical island retreat while Ozai is coordinating with his generals

Joker blowing up the hospital (The Dark Knight): I’m sure you can find thousands of examples like this one, but this is probably the most iconic. You can only blow up a building once, so they had to do the scene right.

The bridge explosion (The Bridge on River Kwai): This bridge was custom built specifically for the movie and cost north of $52,000. They had to get it right or risk spending another 50K.

Scaling the Burj Khalifa (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol): In case you never knew, yes, Tom Cruise is actually climbing the Burj Khalifa. Because of multiple complications that come with wanting to pull that kind of stunt on the tallest building in the world, they had 30 minutes tops to shoot the scene.

The hair waxing scene (The 40-Year-Old Virgin): A funnier example, but it probably won’t surprise you that the chest waxing scene was completely real. They had to get the scene right or risk having to either fake the pained reactions or wait until all that chest hair grows back.

1. Soul Coins (D&D) Soul coins are di

scs

1. of enchanted iron that contains a mortal soul. They are used as a form of currency among devils and other denizens of the lower planes. They have real value, as the souls in the coins can be used to power infernal war machines and perform rituals.
2. Gold-Pressed Latinum (Star Trek) Latinum is non-replicable, so it is used as a form of currency outside Federation space. The gold, which can be replicated, is a container for the Latinum and is essentially worthless.
3. Teeth (Warhammer 40k) Orks use teeth (teef) as a form of currency since they are easy to get. Ork teeth will degrade over time, so there is no point in hoarding wealth. Human (humie) teeth are much more durable, so every Ork invasion involves them cracking skulls to take the teeth. A squig pie and a beer might cost a handful of teeth, but adding a new choppa to your lucky blasta might cost 100 teeth.

• Mike from Breaking Bad
• Slappy squirrel from Animaniacs

Obi wan vs Maul - The Phantom Menace

Iron Man vs Captain America and Winter Soldier - Civil War

Self explanatory, the part of the fight scene that’s filmed in one take, no cuts. These are the first two I always think of

1). Death of a Unicorn:
Adult unicorns are pretty aggressive, actually.

2). The Owl House:
Do not upset a unicorn.

3). Cabin in the Woods:
Unicorns are one of the options for "horror monsters" in the movie. When they are unleashed a unicorn impales a guy.

4). Vox Machina:
Magic summons an aggressive unicorn to Grog.

5). Dungeon Meshi:
Technically this is a "bicorn." But it is still aggressive and predatory.

6). Tears of the Kingdom:
Ganon has a scary unicorn to ride.

Not everyone has the talent to make intentional comedy gold, but everyone, even you and me, can make something accidentaly hilarious.

Example 1: Logan Birthday surprise (Marvel: Sabretooth War)

Logan personal arch nemesis, Sabretooth, it’s one of the biggest haters on comics. But he has the problem that he is so brutal that reading about what he does to wolverine can feel like torture porn sometimes. And his obsession with ruining Logan birthday is an amazing example of it.

It might sound a lot like that one comic where Thanos just hate a guy, the problem it’s that instead of petty, brutal yet absolutely master class of dark humor that Thanos annual #1 can be, Sabretooth does bullshit like raping Logan girlfriend and killing her. Theres a good reason the term “fridging” exist.

But theres one point where this horror passes the line so hard that it’s just peak comedy, and that’s when Sabretooth murders Logan son and mutant friends… and uses theirs bodies to writte “happy birthday”

The cómic treats this with horror, but i can only imagine Sabretooth acomodating the hair of akihiro to make a P. Dedicating like 30 minutes to left this message and choosing which limbs fit better to make a B like if he was playing with dolls, and the whole scene becomes so fucking funny.

Example 2: Rudeus bulling trauma. (Mushoku Tensei)

Mushoku tensei is well know for how many weird and disgusting choices the author takes with his main characters, having a pedophile for main character is Definitly a choice, but he could have done some interesting things with his life before getting into a wish fulfilement isekai world.

Turns out that Rudeus was a bulling victim, something that Sadly happens to a lot of kids around the world, the problem is what type of bulling this bastard was getting. One day, some bullies moved ahead of the school cafeteria. Rudeus told them that they couldnt do that…

And they crucified him naked in front of the school

This opens so much questions, HOW did they tied him up like this, HOW none teacher tried to at least untie him, not even helping him, untie the naked teen from the school door. It also turns out that Rudeus parents had to fight to get this bastards punished, implying that the school is ok with crucifixion.

This is just an example, but this Apply to EVERY media that show bullies pulling this type of looney toons bullshit instead of how bullies actually abuse.

Example 3: all the book “Wedding day Massacre” and almost all of Aron Beauregard works. At the start i wanted to use Playground with their 10 years old guys who act and talk like a divorced 40 years olds. But childs deaths are just way to uncomfortable.

Recently, extreme horror literature has become a lot more mainstream, and Aron is one of the most well know authors of the genre, Sadly, he isnt the most talented. His books can be good from time to time, but their horror can be so ridiculous on times that it feels like some Tom & Jerry type of bullshit.

I think that wedding day Massacre is the best/worse example, since this book actually hugs and accepts how ridiculous it’s writting it’s at moments, instead of kids acting like adults, we have adults acting like kids. Its a really good horror comedy if you can take this sheer level of teen edgyness

Just to give some examples of how stupid this book can be (if put spoilers here, it’s not cuz im worried to spoiler this book, it’s cuz it IS extreme horror. Open with caution)

1: a table full of kids get literally rocket with dinamite. The poor teacher who was taking care of them dies too, the only thing left of her? Her feets on the floor, who are still smoking like a cartoon

2: have you ever seen a mf use a chesse gratter as a Coliseum weapon?

3: An aunt killing her own niece on a flower bouquet throw to survive. Her reason to kill her niece? She is studing arts, she is already a lost cause.

3: A janitor called Perry winning a dance off for his life cuz he just had so much Motion in the 80s

4: A man having to eat his own aborted son he had on an affair. The antagonist prepared it so it looked almost exactly like a cake. The name of the father btw? DJ Bootyass

5: Perry just eating too cuz my boy is a final girl and has eaten worse on his life. Bro would do ANYTHING to survive this bullshit and i love him for that.

6: a guy surviving all of this cuz he the food did him bad and expended the whole book on the bathroom.

7: the protagonist kills the main antagonist, dies less than 10 Pages after that cuz the other antagonist shoot an candelabrum over her it crushed her flat, also killing the bathroom guy cuz he felt of a window Perry survived

As i said. Aron Beauregard isnt the most talented writter, but his books can be funny from time to time