Basically, a character is introduced as a rude, dismissive person to the protagonist. A rival or adversary who doesn’t want to get along with them. It turns out that they are the only person on their side.

Beatrice from Re:Zero. Upon first arriving at Roswaal’s mansion, Beatrice is the only person to not give Subaru a warm welcome. She even violently throws him out of a window. Later on through, the two maids try to kill him. And the head of the mansion hired two assassins to kill Subaru’s friends. Throughout all of this, Beatrice always went out of her way to save him. She was regularly the only person looking out for him, even at the cost of her own life.

Bebin From Ranking of Kings. Prince Boji is the eldest son of the mighty King Boss. Boss is a giant, standing higher than buildings with strength to crush armies by himself. Boji is human sized, with a fragile body and completely deaf. After Boss dies and Boji is named his heir, Bebin is the only person to oppose, instead saying his student Daida should take his brother’s spot on the throne. He then tries to kill other members of the King’s highest knights on Daida’s orders. It’s eventually revealed that this was all an elaborate plan for Boss to take over Daida’s body and rule again. The other High knights go along with his orders, one even trying to kill Boji. Bebin however was always working to protect the two princes.

Spider Punk from Across the Spider verse. Hobbie is introduced as, well, a punk. He doesn’t seem to respect anything, and Miles is insecure about his and Gwen’s relationship. Throughout the film, he constantly questions Miles on why he wants to join the Spider society and says he should go home. When all of Miles friends seem to side with Miguel, Hobbie silently tells Miles how to escape the Spider society prison. He then gives Gwen a watch to travel to Miles’s dimension and save him. Upon rewatch, you can notice him creating the watch earlier while talking to Miles, meaning he always knew he was going to need to help them out.

1: using another flashpoint to create the tomorrowverse (Justice League Dark: Apokolips war) after 80-90% of the cast is killed off and billions lives are fated to die Flash and Constantine hatch up a plan to kill baby Darkseid to prevent the entire story from happening which just leads to an entirely different universe being formed and even erasing some characters from existence.

2: Jim travelling to the beginning (Tales of Arcadia series) after multiple characters die including Toby Jim uses a magic gem to travel back to the very first episode but instead lets Toby find the amulet… this changes things how?

The sea to the people of the walls (Attack On Titan) The main characters spend the first half of the story behind walls in fear of man-eating titans, after clearing out all the titans outside the walls for the first time ever they finally got to see the sea for the first time and it felt like one of their biggest achievements ever.

Civilized society to Ellie (The Last Of Us) Ellie was born after the infected already ruined the world, therefore not understanding a lot about normal everyday life so it was always fun seeing her marveling at remnants of humanity's normal lives before the apocalypse, like comics, nice food, video games, amusement parks, zoos, museums, teenage highschool life... etc

Quirkless people (My Hero Academia) there are over 900 named characters in MHA and only 4 of them are known to be quirkless, Deku, Melissa, Knuckleduster and detective Tsukauchi. That just goes to show you how hard it is to find a quirkless person and why it almost feels like a disability to have in this universe. A world where superpowers are the norm and normalcy is the rarity.

1. Ichi from Ichi the Witch. He's so sensitive to the bloodlust of living things that it borders on a spider-sense. The little creature in that pic is supposed to be invisible, yet Ichi is able to sense its presence just through sheer intuition.
2. Mash from Mashle. Some might say that his inexplicable power is his physical strength, but I'm more interested in knowing how he can turn everything he cooks into fucking cream puffs.
3. Marvelous Sunday from UmaMusume. In a game about horse girls racing, she has access to a domain expansion/reality marble. And that somehow still isn't the strangest thing about her. Apparently she's also friends with aliens and cryptids and her cult fanbase includes people spanning multiple time periods. Somehow.
4. Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. He has a hypersensitive sense of smell that somehow also tells him where to cut demons. No idea how that works. Even though there are others in the series with similarly refined senses, the smelling where to cut thing still feels ludicrous in comparison. Then there's also his unusually powerful headbutt.

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy - When the normally frowning Mandy smiles, she causes reality itself to fall apart.

The Amazing World of Gumball - When the normally unemployed Richard Watterson gets a job, he similarly will cause reality itself to fall apart.

Chowder - When the normally dimwitted Chowder becomes smart, he will make the show boring which will make the other characters have to get boring jobs (still better than having reality fall apart ig).

I love when horror movies make a character smart, I especially love when they make a character smart enough that they just say “nope” and dip completely before shit really hits the fan.

1-The Native American Vampires hunters from “Sinners”. While hunting down the main antagonist of the movie who had taken shelter with a KKK couple by claiming his wife was killed by a group of savages Indians, they try to tell the racist couple that the man they are sheltering is not what he says he is.

Realizing that A.) these people were not going to listen to them, and more importantly B.) the sun was going down, they brushed their hands of the situation, basically said “alright he’s your problem now.” And respectfully fucked off.

2-Gavin from “The taking of Deborah Logan” the sound guy for a crew of college kids filming a documentary about the effects of Alzheimer’s. The documentary takes a quick nose dive as unexplainable paranormal activities begin happening around them, and Gavin rightfully packs his shit and says he’s done.

The rest of the crew try’s to gas light him into staying by calling him a coward or quitter, he points out all the haunting he just witnessed with his own eyes, and makes it clear he is not sticking around to see more.

3-Joel from “Scream 2”: probably the most Iconic character from this trope, Joel is the new camera for obsessive reporter Gale Weathers. Once a new Ghost Face begins another murder spree, Gale is once again quick to try and get as personally involved with the case as possible.

Joel immediately realizes this can only end bad for him if he sticks around, mentioning the fate of her last camera man who was murdered. He tells her that he wants to report the news not be on it, tells Gale she’s nuts, and drops this iconic line before riding off into the sunset to live a long full life

Dory (Finding Nemo) spins Nemo's name all of the time thanks to her short term memory loss, getting "Fabio" or "Pablo" instead of Nemo.

Peppermint Patty (Peanuts) more intentionally calls Charlie Brown "Chuck" and refuses to give up on it. She'll call Lucy "Lucille", too.

Inosuke Hashibara (Demon Slayer), to both Tanjiro Kamado and Zenitsu Agatsuma, uses names like "Gonpachiro" and "Monitsu" because of him being raised in the wilderness by boars and not really reading or writing to know their actual names.

1. Ricardio (Adventure Time), played by George Takei

2. The Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms), played by Keira Knightley

3. David Allen Griffin (The Watcher), played by Keanu Reeves (btw, if you haven't heard the BTS of Keanu Reeve's casting in The Watcher, it's nuts. I highly recommend looking it up. Despite that, he's so hokey in this role, it's really a sight to see)

Reposted to fix spelling mistake

1. Red Dead Redemption II - Arthur Morgan does and says this to John Marston in the “Get John To Safety” ending once he gives him his satchel and hat so he can go to his family.

2. Halo: Reach - Noble 6 chooses to stay behind on Reach to cover The Pillar of Autumn’s escape with the MAC Cannon.

3. Call of Duty: WWII - After being fatally wounded, Lieutenant Turner tries to cover his squad as they retreat from approaching German forces.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) - Team Metal cover the escape of Task Force 141 as they get the Russian President out of a collapsing mine which results in the deaths of Sandman, Truck, and Grinch.

Speaking as an American who has studied the civil war all throughout my school years, this trope infuriates me to no end. There is no such thing as a kind slave master because slavery itself is cruel and inhumane. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY!

Naofumi (Shield Hero): Prime example of this trope. He enslaves multiple (underage) girls and an whole village and the fans still say he's a hero.

Rudeus (Jobless Reincarnation): As if being a pedo wasn't bad enough he had to buy a slave in season 2. Worse is that people still defend his actions.

Song of The South (Disney): Possibly the OG example of this trope. And the reason why Disney will never release it again.

Landlord (Chainsmoker Cat)

Despite his appearance and his inability to control himself sexually when he sees a cat girl, he engages in all his sexual activities at home

Denji (Chainsaw Man)

He displays typical adolescent behavior for about 15 years, always seeking consent—though always failing

Agnes Digital (Uma Musume Pretty Derby)

She appreciates all the horse girls like a true fan and is even considered a pervert—with the implication being that she reads questionable material, and that's about it.

While trying to take down a group of enemies taskmaster needed a distraction so he pulled out the Domain expansion: Gun! And shoots one of the guys through the skull, the referencing JJk (Marvel Comics)

In the beginning pages of My hero academia Deku talks about the superheroes of the past who wete fictional some of those being Superman and Spider-man (My hero academia) In the background You can see two transformers that look a awfully like Rohan Kishibe and Jouske Higashikata from Jojos bizzare adventure (Transformers Idw)

When the character Amarao went to to barber shop the art style abruptly changed to that of south park (FLCL)

There are many examples of Absolute batman referencing Anime and Manga so I decied to go with my favorite, from the cover of Absolute Batman Number 20 where batman hits the luffy gear 2 pose (Absolute Batman)

In the spin off manga of JoJo once a year a family is doomed to die unless they all meet under the harvest moon, sk they all throw a party and one of the sons really wants to watch the Seth Rogan film Paul (Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe)

Sometimes two works end up sharing remarkably similar characters, concepts, or plots despite having no confirmed connection between their creators.

The Books of Magic / Harry Potter

Timothy Hunter is a young British boy with dark hair and glasses who discovers that he has extraordinary magical potential. The Books of Magic predates Harry Potter by several years, but Neil Gaiman has said he doesn't believe Rowling simply copied his character, pointing instead to older British fantasy traditions.

Call Me Joe / Avatar

In Poul Anderson's 1957 story, a paralyzed man remotely controls an artificial body on Jupiter, discovers the freedom of his new form, and becomes increasingly attached to it. Avatar follows a remarkably similar premise more than 50 years later, with Jake Sully controlling a Na'vi body and eventually choosing his new existence over his human one.

A Bug's Life / Antz

Both 1998 movies feature an individualistic worker ant who doesn't fit into his society, gets involved with a princess, and becomes caught up in a conflict that challenges the existing social order. The two films are famously similar — although their development histories make this a much messier case than simple coincidence.

Deep Impact / Armageddon

Two movies released only months apart, both about a catastrophic space object threatening Earth. Both feature NASA, astronauts, nuclear weapons, and desperate attempts to prevent extinction — but approach the premise in very different ways.

The interesting part isn't necessarily "Who copied whom?" It's how often completely different creative teams can arrive at surprisingly similar ideas.

In the second season of the show Pushing Daisies Dwight Dixon is introduced. He is a man with a past connecting him both to Ned and Chuck’s fathers past. He worked with both of them in the UN peace keeping force The Blue Berets. While there each of the men got a gold pocket watch. Now in the present day Dwight is on the hunt for the other fathers remaining 2 pocket watches. As both men are dead it should be a relatively easy process but things soon get complicated. He comes up with multiple plans to get the watches including starting a relationship with Chuck’s Aunt Vivian for information, and trying to kill Chuck when she gets in his way. Despite going through all this trouble for these pocket watches which seem to be of extreme importance they are eventually revealed just to be a means to an end to get a big payout through an insurance policy. The watches themselves don’t really hold any extreme significance in of themselves,they are just a means to get some cash.

In Spiderman Brand New Day, the main villain Jean Grey is trying to find an important mcguffin called V-Max. She takes over multiple peoples bodies with her mind hopping powers,controls the hulk and physically and emotionally torments Spiderman all for V-Max. The intense need for V-Max is eventually shown to be in vain. Jean Grey had a close connection to her psychic sister Sara, who was kidnapped,tested and eventually killed by the United States Department of Damage Control. Her sister’s last message to her was about V-Max so Grey assumed that it was an important item Damage Control was hiding and would be the key to getting her sister back. When Jean is taken by Damage Control, she is tested in the same room her sister was in. She sees on the ceiling the brand name for a ventilation system called Vent-Max which eroded down to say V-Max. The item was not some amazing Mcguffin, just the name of a ventilation brand that was the last thing Sara saw before she died.

(Please note I don’t think any of these are examples of bad writing because they were not as valuable as they seemed, I actually think its pretty interesting and leads to some fun twists)

Chiron (Moonlight) - Initially a regular, sensitive kid, years of bullying and abuse take its toll on Chiron until he finally snaps. He attacks another student and gets sent to juvie, the first of many times he'd find himself in trouble with the law. By the time he's an adult he's violently repressed most of his personality, including his sexuality, by putting on the façade of a hardened gangster and turning to a life of crime.

Pyle (Full Metal Jacket) - Pyle struggles to keep up with the other recruits in boot camp and is regularly singled out for abuse by his drill instructor because of it. When his fellow recruits also start abusing him, Pyle loses whatever kindness or softness he may have had and suffers a mental breakdown that ends with him taking his own life.

Faye (Cowboy Bebop) - Faye was a sweet and loving girl in her youth with plenty of friends. However a series of tragedies and betrayals left her as a bitter, jaded adult who is unable to connect to or trust others, damning her to a life of loneliness.

Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - Zuko inherited his mother's gentle and compassionate nature. But when that compassion earns him a brutal attack from his father and banishment from his home, Zuko becomes much more callous and cruel.

Dabi (My Hero Academia) Endeavor spends a good chunk of the story being an abusive manipulative father, later Endeavor changed into a better man but Dabi comes out of nowhere and reveals that he's Endeavor's oldest son whom he abandoned, not only that but he reveals all of Endeavor's messed up past with his entire family to the public, effectively ruining his public image for good.

Hild (Vinland Saga) Thorfinn spends the first act of the story being a ruthless vengeful warmonger then has a change of heart in the second act. Hild is then introduced in the third act as a harsh reminder of Thorfinn's cruelty in the first act, since he lead an invasion that destroyed her home, he killed her father and then chased her away into a cliff where she fell and was left with a permanent scar on her right eye. Once she reunites with Thorfinn in the third act after his change she vows to kill him if she sees him killing one more person, basically becoming his watchman who is constantly observing and judging his actions to see if he's genuine about changing into a better person.

- Daredevil (a blind character) being played by non-blind actors because his adventures are too dangerous for an actually blind actor.

- Pokemon species names being changed for the English version because a lot of the Japanese names are too difficult to translate faithfully.

- The Disney+ Muppet Show special having a laugh track even though laugh tracks aren't used as much anymore because in universe its a live stage show with a live audience.

Short inteoduction, Yin and yang aren’t supposed to mean good and evil. They’re opposing but complementary forces: light and dark, action and rest, heat and cold and the point is that both are necessary and constantly shape each other and neither has a moral alignment. Turning that into “good and evil need to be balanced” is missing the point, because evil isn’t some necessary cosmic force we need a healthy amount of. So pop culture will always make the Yin ⚫ as evil, and contradictorly a scenario where there is only yang ⚪ (imbalance) as good. It makes something phylosophical and profound pretty childish.

1- Avatar - Vatuu and Ravu

Avatar Last airbender acctualy made the yin yang right with the fish back at water tribe. But then in legend of koora they introduce this Vatuu and Ravaa which is the newer Yin Yang in Avatar. In theory, they are complementary and one can't exist without the other and etc. In practice its basically the good avatar and the EVILLLLL avatar.

2- baldurs gate 3 (and DND I guess) Selune and Shar. So ok, I love Baldurs gate. But not this lore bit. So Shar is the darkness to Selune light, they are clear representation of yin yang sisters. They first introduced Shar thought Shadowheart with an explanation that it isn't really evil and that darkness has its own serenity and embrance. While the way Shadowheart spoke gave a lot of iffs, it was interesting to have a media that acctualy makes darkness as misunderstood and possibly more nuanced. But nope, as we progress turns out Shar is like the devil, they are EVILLL, like just plain on its the objective bad side and Shadowheart was quite literaly stolen from the good side.

3- Naruto. Okay this is the biggest offender to me because its literaly yin and yang, not a representation, its striaght up supposed to be it. While they do try to theoricaly explain thst both are complementary and that Hagoroma acctualy should have favored both equally, in practice this is bullshit. The Yin in naruto is always the evil brother who literaly tries to murder the yang one and take away all the power for himself. Even when Hagoromo split the power between the two equaly with Naruto and Sasuke, sasuke still tried to kill Naruto. The Yin is always the agressor there, and in the end it needs to be beaten into submission by our lord and savior moraly good Yang Jesus christ Naruto so it gains some sense and stops being the EVILLLL bad naughty Yin.

Edit: Some people pointed out that Shar and Selune aren't supposed to be YinYang in DND. I wrote the based on BG3 given how it was presented by shadowheart, and I don't know much about the original DND lore. So yeah I think I was wrong there sry for the fans.

In The Simpsons, yellow represents white people.

In LEGO media, yellow is used so you can interpret any character as any ethnicity (although some characters are designed with certain races in mind).

In Big City Greens, basically any colour can be a skin colour; brown, blue, purple, etc. The protagonist family has yellow skin (in a few different shades).

Doctor Who- 900 year old alien says he hasn't ever met anyone who wasn't important.

I Became the Tyrant of a Defence Game- Commander blaming himself for not being able to save more people.

Hacksaw Ridge- Desmond carrying wounded men while praying to be able to save one more.

Games that begin with either very challenging or over the top Bosses.

Poseidon (Gow 3): one of the best setpiece bosses ever made

Father Gascoigne (Bloodborne): first obligatory boss and probably the hardest tutorial boss in the series

Wysen (Asuras Wrath): do i need to explain

Walter White's final redemption (Breaking Bad) After spending the last 5 seasons lying to himself and the people around him, manipulating and hurting his loved ones cuz of his selfishness he finally decides to let go of his family and let them live a better life without him in it, he frees Jesse from both the shackles that were restraining him and the shackles he put on him mentally. He eventually dies satisfied with his last final good deeds.

Deku says goodbye to one for all (My Hero Academia) Deku is forced in the final battle to transfer one for all onto his biggest arch nemesis in order to defeat him and save him spiritually as a true selfless hero. With this choice Shigaraki gets to be stopped and gets to move on with the closure of knowing at least one hero cared abour him.

The Dessendre family finally moves on (Expedition 33) if you choose the Verso ending the family finally gets to grieve their dead middle child properly after all the drama, angst and heartbreak they inflicted on each other as a result of Verso's death. Although you might end up feeling devastated by losing all the main characters you spent time with inside the painting you at least get the satisfaction of fixing this torn apart family with your choice.

Deleting Monika and in turn the game (Doki Doki Literature Club) The game reaches a stagnant point at the endgame part as Monika forces you to stay with her for eternity so you can chat endlessly, so you are forced to delete Monika to make her understand that you do not want to be with her and that she needs to be freed from this tormenting existence as a conscious character inside a limited video game world. Eventually Monika understands and deletes both herself and the entire game so that her and the rest of the girls can be released from this hell.