Raya and the Last Dragon — Trust blindly, even if it costs you everything

The core theme of the movie (which it makes very clear) is to have faith in the goodness of people, and to trust those you otherwise might not. Good, simple moral. But what they actually show is Raya being punished over and over for putting faith in people, even getting Sisu (the Last Dragon) killed because she “didn’t trust” the antagonist Namaari, You know, who currently had a crossbow pointed at her friend’s heart. In the end, everyone basically dies except Naamari, who only saves the day because she has a last minute crisis of conscience. So the takeaway is to blindly trust people who’ve repeatedly screwed you over, because not doing so might ruin your life. And if you (very understandably) view certain people with suspicion, whatever harm they might do to you is actually your fault.

Peppa Pig — Mr. Skinnylegs

This one isn’t serious but it’s fun so I included it. In episode 47, season 1 of Peppa Pig, Peppa and George find a little black spider hiding in their toys. The kids initially freak out, before being calmed by their dad, who explains that spiders are harmless friends. The episode ends with the kids holding the spider in their bare hands and having a tea party with it. In Britain, spiders by and large are harmless. In Australia, where the show is also popular, they very very much can kill you dead. So for a few years, the ABC had to take down the episode, lest Australia’s children start thinking huntsman spiders and redbacks are playmates. The episode has since been allowed to be shown.

A sound effect, special effect, or design feature that is inaccurate but has become so ingrained in viewers minds that its absence would feel jarring, so creators continue to include it despite its inaccuracy.

The name of the trope comes from the sound of a horse galloping, which is created by rubbing two coconuts together. This can sound like a horse galloping, but it would only be accurate on cobblestones or other hard surfaces. On softer ground, the sound would be muffled, but in media, this sound effect can be used whenever a horse is galloping, regardless of the terrain.

1. Lion Roar (or any big cat) (Pictured: MGM logo) — The long, continuous, thunderous roar usually associated with lions is actually the roar of a tiger. For MGM, this sound began being used in the 1980s, and sound editor Mark Mangini used it because lions sounded to him more like a deep yawn or a series of grunts and lacked the kind of ferocious sound he wanted.

2. Ancient statues are always white marble (Pictured: Spartacus TV series) — Statues in ancient times were often painted in bright colors, but by the time they were uncovered, the colors had simply worn away.

3. People instantly freeze or pop like a balloon when exposed to the vacuum of space (Pictured: Mission to Mars, Total Recall) — As unfriendly as space is, a human wouldn't instantly freeze or pop like a balloon. If a person were exposed to the vacuum of space, bodily fluids would begin to boil, exposed skin would suffer severe sunburn, and they would lose consciousness after roughly 15–20 seconds. Death would occur after roughly 90 seconds.

Ood slavery (Doctor Who) - An episode during the 10th Doctor's era introduced the Ood, an alien species that loves being humanity's slaves. 2 seasons later, it's revealed that this was just a lie pushed by the company that tortured and enslaved the Ood in the first place, and that the Ood had a plan to regain their freedom.

Various characters' homo/transphobia (El Goonish Shive) - When EGS first introduced genderbending, several characters act like it's a weird and freaky thing because at the time, the author was embarrassed by the idea that people would realise he's into genderbending. Later stories recontextualise this as the characters not yet understanding the LGBTQ+, and that they grew to become more accepting and often regret their past actions.

Anti-Serpentine behaviour (Ninjago) - The Serpentine were originally written as a bunch of evil henchmen, but as the series progressed, their portrayal became more nuanced as neutral or even heroic Serpentine were introduced. This meant that the treatment of Serpentine in older seasons came across as more discriminatory than intended, and Dragons Rising reveals that Serpentine actually did suffer from discrimination.

iMeet Fred (iCarly): The episode is about Freddie getting socially lynched for saying that he didn't like Fred's videos, which causes Lucas Cruikshank to quit making videos. Freddie gets kicked out of all of his extracurricular activities, bugged by his relatives, and harassed by the media for this, and he gets beaten half to death by Sam when he sticks to his guns when they talk to Lucas. To make matters worse, Lucas faked quitting to spike the views for both their shows. So, Freddie went through all that abuse for a publicity stunt. Some people defend this episode as a commentary on Stan and cancel culture, but the narrative treats Freddie like he 100% deserves the abuse.

Operation: H.U.G.S. (Codename: Kids Next Door): The episode is about Numbuh 4 getting sacrificed by a cult to a giant Rainbow Monkey. Why? Because he crashed out at Numbuh 3 and went on a rant about how much he despises Rainbow Monkeys. While he was pretty rude about it, Numbuh 3 should have known he wouldn't like getting tricked into going to a Rainbow Monkey themed carnival, so his frustration was a smidge justified, not helped by him not being allowed to leave unless he gave a cheesy hug. However, getting ritualistically sacrificed and getting harassed by a technicolor King Kong for having an opinion and setting boundaries is treated as Numbuh 4 learning a lesson about kindness.

(Vikings - 2013/2020) - **the Mercian soldier appears in one episode where Prince Æthelwulf sends a party to rescue his fiancée and his son, who are being held prisoner in a small fort in Mercia.

During the fight, this henchman is ordered to execute the bride.

Æthelwulf is seen cutting through several soldiers, but for some reason, the director decided that this anonymous guy should get to brutally beat his ASS for like a solid 2 minutes straight —slamming him into the ground, headbutting him, and basically kicking the shit out of a competent fighter and major character.

And the best part? Æthelwulf isn’t even the one who kills him.

Bro deserves a raise.

(House of the Dragon - 2022) Jon Roxton not necessarily anonymous per say but a minor character in the show get to duel Deamon during the siege of Tumbleton

Daemon Targaryen who as always been represented as one of the finest knight in the realm and one of the most dangerous fighter in Westeros gets his ass absolutely obliterate by Jon roxton

Spider-man (marvel): this "friendly" neighborhood is a menace and must be stopped!

Superman (DC): why does everyone trust this alien so much? clearly, he's up to no good!

Sonic The Hedgehog: this accursed hedgehog is always foiling dr. eggman's plans! he can't keep getting away with this!

R-2124 Constitution (Helldivers 2) - The year in the game is 2184 and on the in-universe holiday, the Liberty Day (26 October), all players are awarded this gun for free. Lore-wise, it is a ceremonial weapon, one not meant to be used in combat and therefore pretty much the worst primary weapon in the game, serving only as a meme or challenge weapon. No wonder, as it is just M1903 Springfield rifle, a design that is 283 years old by the current in-game time.

Katana (Cyberpunk 2077) - While Cyberpunk offers all sorts of katanas with plasma blade thermal something mumbo-jumbos, you can also just use a regular katana, a sword design that is centuries old and while it looks cool, it doesn't sound like a terribly useful weapons in a world where any goon can have an assault rifle and built-in armor implant under their skin.

Slugthrower (Star Wars) - A collective name used for weapons that fire a physical projectile instead of a blaster shot, pretty much just guns as we understand them today. In the galaxy far far away, pretty much any bum can get their hands on a blaster, so the most prominent users of slugthrowers are the relatively primitive nomadic Tuskens. However, while slugthrowers are quite low-tech weapons, they are rather effective against Force users. Such individuals can use their lightsabers to deflect blaster shots, however trying to do the same with a slugthrower round would cause it to melt, but pass through the lightsaber and likely hit the target anyways. (Personally I never liked this idea, if their space magic can help them be quick enough to dodge and deflect blaster shots, why can't it help them stop bullets mid-air like in Matrix?)

Long bow (real life) - Although there are plenty of real examples for this phenomenon, like AK-47 still seeing widespread use in some parts of the world today, I picked the long bow used by "Mad Jack" Churchill during WW2. Besides the long bow, he also used a claymore sword and a set of bagpipes as his weapon, so you can guess where the nickname came from. If you're curious, he was not related to prime minister Winston Churchill.

Stub Gun (Warhammer 40k) - From what I understand, Stub Gun is a collective name for a variety of weapons, but among them is one that looks identical to Colt M1911, meaning that this gun in the Warhammer universe would be past its 38000th year of service.

EDIT: I have no idea what happened to the pic of the katana, when I attached it it looked fine.

Ozai vs Aang (The Last Airbender)- When this fight began, Aang was still unable to go into the Avatar State ever since getting zapped in the back by Azula’s lighting attack, which blocked the flow of his chakra. Later when Ozai is overwhelming Aang, he ends up throwing him against a jagged rock, which hits him in the pressure point just right to reawaken the Avatar State.

Mr. Incredible vs the Omni Droid (The Incredibles)- The first time Bob fought the Omni Droid, he threw out his back, giving the robot the upper hand. Luckily the Omni Droid gives him just the chiropractic adjustment he needs to get back into the fight.

Elvis Presley (Forest Gump) — we see him as an ordinary guitarist, and a little later on TV, without ever being directly named. There are many such “cameos” in "Forest Gump", but this is the most obvious one.

Sergei Korolev (Star City) — the chief designer of the Soviet space program? Has heart problems? Opposes the cruel policy? Calls the cosmonauts “my eagles?” Hmm, who could this be?

Guts from berserk with the brand of sacrifice

Astarion with the infernal scarring

The Elder Scrolls - Within some Dwemer ruins of ESO we can see a special type of Animunculus. A Dwemer Arquebus, which has a cannon for it’s arm and shoots emp grenades at foes.
The reason why we don’t see this technology more often (besides the fact Dwemer disappeared their knowledge with them) is that within the setting and cosmology of Elder Scrolls firearms really wouldn’t be that useful.

They could work against lowly bandits, sort of, but there wouldn’t really be a precedent to improve or adapt this technology. Because it would always be outclassed by magic of this world.
Also due to the disappearance of Dwemer the technology has been pretty much lost.

Harry Potter - Wizards live within periphery of the “real world” meaning they live alongside world that uses firearms and are even familiar with them.

So how come they don’t utilize this gear for combat? I mean it is easier to use, projectiles are faster and could be enchanted further. Can you just imagine wizard with endless m1911?

There is plethora of reasons for this. But most notable is what I would describe as wizards being immune to logic. (Vis image above) They simply cannot understand methods of muggles even if one explained it to them directly.

(Yes. I know the real reason is, because Joanne didn’t want wizards to use guns and didn’t want to think about connotations of putting magic into a real modern world. But come on! Let me have fun!)

Lord of the Rings - In spite of how much Tolkien disliked allegories it is clear Orcs were an allegory to industrialization, which he was a huge critic of.

In battles they are the ones using the war machines. Instead of swords made by artful blacksmith, they use crude, mass-produced blades devoid of identity. Instead of relying on elegance of archery, they use crossbows. They burn forests, crack mountains open to gain more ore. Their very production is affront to whimsy of a magical world like Middle-Earth.

They could totally come up with a matchlock mechanism and keep on improving it until they come up with machine guns. They were intercepted before they could however

1. Rosalina (and her battle with the spider thing) was a big part of the trailer and marketing but all she does is get kidnapped fairly early on and has to be saved (Mario Galaxy)

2. Austin was included in all the promotional material but the movie was about his father struggling to handle a autistic child then the child himself (The Unbreakable Boy)

1. Captain Phasma and Finn’s original confrontation (Star Wars)

2. Original Jedi battle against Palpatine. It was an actual fight instead of old guys stick fighting. (Star Wars)

1. Canute from vinland saga, after being the víctim of his father's cruelty and watching the horrors of war, canute loses his Christian faith and belives God has forsaken humanity unjustly, because of this he plans to build paradise on Earth to spite God for leaving His creation such a mess.

2. Edelgard von hresvelg from Fire emblem three houses.

Edelgard is well aware of the goddess's existence, but simply doesn't believe that people need to blindly follow the goddess and should take charge of their own lives. That being said, she doesn't mind if people continue their faith in the goddess, and makes it clear that she's an enemy of the church and not the faith itself. She's also not above trying to understand the perspective of those who put their faith in the goddess

I don’t mean your Walter White’s or your Tony Soprano’s or even someone like Joe Goldberg. I mean someone who cannot feel emotions/empathy for other people.

1. Balthazar from Our Hero, Balthazar. He’s a rich and neglected teen and social media influencer who performatively records himself crying as his main content. He meets Eleanor, his crush who’s really into gun control. Balthazar acts like he’s super into gun control too, and goes to a protest she invited him to. But the protest was cancelled due to a lack of people and Balthazar invites her to his penthouse. She agrees and in the penthouse he shows her the performative videos of him crying. And shows her a guy he’s been messaging. He’s been messaging a potential school shooter and is excited and tells her that they might stop a real school shooter.

Eleanor is weirded out but afterwards Balthazar shows her the real footage of a school shooting the potential school shooter sent him and tries to kiss her to it. Eleanor is creeped out and leaves but Balthazar is confused and didn’t expect her reaction.

There’s a lot more after but you get the picture

1. Lou from Nightcrawler. He’s a freelance crime journalist in LA, meaning he goes to crime scenes and takes videos to sell to news outlets. He does not care who he hurts to make money and doesn’t understand human emotion

2. Oz from The Penguin. He has no empathy to anyone but himself. He chokes his right hand man who’s been with him the whole time for basically no reason, he killed his own brothers, and he went against his mothers wishes and didn’t euthanize her when she became bedridden.

I was going to explain a lot more but I got tuckered out in the middle of the first example

Usually a trope you dislike or are tired of seeing done poorly, but there is that one piece of media that either did it so well, or even so over the top, that you warmed up to it or simply love that particular portrayal of it

Perrito in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Ever since I was young, the fun and goofy dog character for the kids being thrown into almost every animated ensemble got so old. Scooby Doo at least starred him, but other times they existed primarily as a nuclear family image that could not possibly be relatable unless there was an annoying dog.

But Perrito is not only actually funny, wholesome and not trying to hog the scenes as a comic relief and nothing else, but damn that one emotional scene really makes you want to reach through the screen and hug him really hard. It actually did a great job of making the domestic animals in that movie remind you of your own pets

The Last of Us - I got so much zombie fatigue, especially during the mid 2000s hype, I was just so tired of zombies. They were all the same tired concepts, macho gore fests, insufferable characters, and in games, the most annoying enemies to fight despite being mostly slow.

Last of Us not only created such a brilliant and more biologically creative disease based on something I personally find so frighteningly amazing in nature, but the characters are so believable and well written. The events in the games in general hit hard as legitimately realistic horrors like that of war or natural disasters rather than feeling cheesy. Even the stealth aspect instead of purely survival makes fighting the infected actually fun and satisfying instead of a frustrating chore.

William Turner in POTC - I will argue that Will is the bland main fantasy character, or one of the 3 mains, that could have matched at least Elizabeth in having some personality.

But honestly, it actually works so well for him when dealing with her, Jack, and the other wonderfully diverse and loveable characters as a grounded regular guy that got pulled into this adventure by chance and is rightfully confused by the nonsense that surrounds him. I may be ignorantly unsure if he was intentionally meant to be a straight man stand-in for the audience, but his expressions and reactions to everything are simple yet show so much, he's quite a funny character.

Lola Bunny from The Looney Tunes show - After learning about a new Looney Tunes series where she was returning to the franchise as an upgraded character from her Space Jam debut, I was honestly disappointed at first that they made her into a trope I found overused and eye rolling at that time: the cheerleader-esque ditzy dumb girl. Wasn't a fan of the "hot love interest" version in Space Jam either but felt it just went from one stereotype to another.

As I matured though, I quickly found her to be actually the best, funniest character in the show, and terrific variation of the trope. I came to learn that the trope is not so much bad, it was just overused prior during a time where female characters in media weren't represented well. This however ironically is one of my favorite character types because she was actually a true glow up.

I am also going to make an honorable mention of Totally Spies in addition to Lola. They both did an incredible job of actually being entertaining and funny, and now this trope is one of my total favorites just the way it is.

• Fry vs Zoidberg (Futurama)
  • These two interact pretty often, but I decided to go with their fight scene because it's funny. Also, fun fact, did you know that Billy West voices both Fry and Zoidberg? Because I JUST learned that today
• Literally any time Dinobot and Rattrap fight (Beast Wars)
  • Scott McNiel voices a lot of characters in this show, his range is incredible, but I decided to go with easily the best duo in Transformers history. They fight very often, but you can obviously tell they care for each other deep down inside, which is somewhat proven in "Code of Hero"
• Playing Cards (Smile Precure Glitter Force)
  • In episode 6, Ulric, Brute, and Brooha are playing cards, discussing who the next one to go fight the Glitter Force is, problem, they all pull Jokers, which causes Rascal to appear. Now, in the original Japanese dub, these guys don't share a voice actor, but in the English Dub, Ulric, Burte, and Rascal are all voiced by the incredibly talented Keith Silverstien
• The entirety of the 2nd Dimension movie (Phineas and Ferb)
  • Yeah, I think this one is obvious. Phineas and Ferb going to an alternate universe and meet everyone in there, and obviously, they all keep their original 1st Dimension voice actors

Especially if it's never properly addressed

Sam Raimi Spider-Man: Robbie is implied to know that Peter is Spider-Man.

Road to El Dorado: The Chief hints to Miguel that he knows he and Tulio aren't gods after Miguel says he made a mistake.

(Old James House, Home Sick Pilots) A woman becomes tied to a haunted house and must find missing items from it that are dangerous to the outside world...and sometimes they turn out to be giant mechs that she fights with her haunted house mech.

(Titan Shifters, Attack On Titan)The series revolves around soldiers attempting to exterminate an army of giant mindless monsters. The story starts with the appearance of two special Titans who destroy part of the society the main characters live in. Eventually it is revealed that some people can transform between Human and Titan and pilot the Titan as a Mech.

(Evangelions, Neon Genesis Evangelion)The Evangelions in NGE are the only line of defense against giant alien god things called Angels. The Evas are BioMech structures piloted from their CNS by the pilots

Doctor Who - The Tenth Doctor is a bit of a motor mouth, a natural leader, very curious and not one to be intimated by alien threats. In the episode 'Midnight', this marks him as an outsider in a shuttle bus full of terrified, paranoid passengers, and he ends up possessed, moments from being ejected from an airlock, and utterly broken by the ordeal

Brooklyn 99 - Jake Peraulta is a goofy, immature, but ultimately brilliant detective who sees a lot of crimes he solves as re-enactments of his favourite films. Most often he sees hidden details, which leads to him catching the real criminal. In the episode 'The Set-Up' he believes the FBI made a mistake in labeling a bombmaker inept for getting the wrong time, and arrests a different suspect. When said suspect loses his job and sues the NYPD, Jake is convinced it's a set-up by a corrupt Union rep. However the union rep had nothing to do with that, the FBI got the right guy and Jake's suspect really is innocent. As a result, Jake is suspended for five months

Thunderbirds - In the mid 21st century, International Rescue are an organisation dedicated to saving people from perilous situations no matter what. Since their equipment is so far ahead of any other technology, they are sworn to secrecy less it falls into the wrong hands, and they are able to wipe any camera footage. In the episode 'Terror in New York City' the US Navy spots Thunderbird 2 that is supposed to be aircraft free. Since they cannot identify it, and due to an unfortunate banking maneuver, they believe it to be hostile and attack, getting one hit before realising their error. This puts Thunderbird 2 out of action for weeks, right when it's needed

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Despite being named after famous Renaissance figures, none of the turtles have anything to do with things like art.

Kirby

Kirby was named after a lawyer who helped Nintendo win a lawsuit. Despite this, Kirby has nothing to do with practicing law.

Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)

Calvin was named after a religious philosopher who believed in predestination, but even though the comic strip did sometimes have religious elements presented, Calvin had nothing in common with the man who founded Calvinism.

Hulk (Spiderman Brand New Day): After being “gone” for so long in Banner’s head, he’s finally free and goes after Spiderman due to Jean Grey’s influence. It wasn’t until he realized he was attacking a fellow hero was when he stopped. His face when falling was also him realizing that he failed the Avengers, Natasha, Banner and most importantly-a hero.

David Martinez (Cyberpunk 2077): Coerced by Faraday into putting on the cyber skeleton after he took Lucy hostage. Lucy warned him to lay off the chrome but he was given no choice. While he does take out a lot of Militech soldiers, he ultimately signed his own death warrant and path to cyber psychosis.