[Rare Trope] A story element that popularized a concept is actually the polar opposite of that concept

[u/DiveSideways]

Some franchises start off a bit specialized and evolve into something else later. Some stories get warped by pop culture and burdened with misconceptions. Some stories just don't make sense, or send the wrong message on accident.

Not these!

No, these examples are very clear (and not retconned) and yet pop culture has done a complete 180-degree turn on understanding them.

1. Romeo and Juliet routinely gets alluded to as though it's a classic love story. In fact it is an intensely melodramatic tragedy all the way through, everyone is shallow and exploitative and desperate--and they die for it. Even the opening of the play self-indulgently advertises how dire the whole situation is.

2. The One Ring from The Lord of The Rings isn't exactly meant to be a cursed item that corrupts the greedy or weak-minded. Geeky discourse loves to offer up examples of characters "strong enough" or "pure enough" to resist it, but The One Ring turns that trope on its head. The One Ring is an amplifier for power but lesser beings can't make full use of it. Being strong and noble and pure makes you more corruptible, you can bear a heavier load of its dark essence.

3. Keyzer Soze from The Usual Suspects is one of the most famous examples of a villain who fooled everyone and got away with his plotting scot-free. However, the whole huge convoluted mess of a scheme was intended to kill off the last living enemy capable of ID'ing him. Not only did Soze accidentally leave a new witness alive who then cooperated with the police and their sketch artist, he also got himself closely inspected by a whole police station (who now know his true identity.) Yes, it was a good twist and yes, Soze escaped police custody, but his efforts to tie off one loose end resulted in high-quality images of his real face for the FBI Most Wanted list. In most ways this was truly an epic failure for him.

[u/fenixforce]

I am 36 years old and only just realized that "Hyde" is how he "hides" his crimes

[u/Inannah90 → u/fenixforce]

If I remember correctly there's a pretty funny line in the book that mentions this: "If he be Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek."

[u/Several-Minute6846 → u/fenixforce]

https://giphy.com/gifs/eFifJQ2SUYxO0

[u/Zancibar → u/fenixforce]

Fun fact: Jekyll is a mix between the french je, for "I/me" and kill. Jekyll literally means "I kill". Jekyll was a murderer all along, he just needed a Hyde to unleash himself.

[u/GallifreysChildIs → u/Zancibar]

Not sure if that is deliberate

Robert Louis Stevenson took the name from a friend of his the Thomas Jeckyll the sister of Gertrude Jekyll a famous Gardner.

[u/Zancibar → u/GallifreysChildIs]

After going on a bit of a rabbit hole the guy was apparently Walter Jekyll, Thomas Jeckyll was a different guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jekyll

Still fascinated to find out Jekyll is an actual surname and not an invention for the book.

[u/GallifreysChildIs → u/Zancibar]

So if I remember correctly Thomas Jeckyll was Walter's older brother.

That said if you look into the backstory of the book it's petty interesting.

Firstly it came to RLS in a fever dream and the first draft was burned by his wife for being too disturbing

[u/PhDInAPickle → u/fenixforce]

It goes a layer deeper than that. Stevenson was Scottish so the surname "Jekyll" would be originally pronounced like "Jeekle" (the gif/jif war of the era). It's sometimes thought that this was chosen to be similar to "seek".

[u/slowc973 → u/fenixforce]

yeah he can rationalize it away via this disconnected personality. you'll notice some people speak in 3rd person sometimes when they are lashing out, insecure. self deciept.

[u/GallifreysChildIs → u/fenixforce]

It's also an anagram for "why dreaded"