[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/ipsum629]

Basically the quote, "a child who is not embraced by a village will burn it down to feel its warmth"

[u/nedonedonedo → u/ipsum629]

they didn't even go after anyone else. the monster went after frank after frank made it clear he would kill the monster or die trying

[u/ZebraAirVest → u/nedonedonedo]

I love that you’re in a nickname basis with Dr Victor

[u/amaranthinenightmare → u/ZebraAirVest]

Right? Thank you for pointing this out. I've never seen/heard anyone refer to him as Frank before and I had no idea who they were referring to, so you made it click and it's absolutely sending me.

[u/ZebraAirVest → u/amaranthinenightmare]

Hahahaha it also made me cackle 😂

[u/NBA314 → u/nedonedonedo]

He literally killed Victor's brother, framed the maid for it, & then killed Victor's best friend, followed by his wife.

This was done so Victor would feel just as alone as he felt.

[u/NewBoxStruggles → u/NBA314]

Considering the creature’s existence, I think it’s going to take a lot more than that…

[u/nedonedonedo → u/NBA314]

it's been quite a few years so I might be mixing up events, but didn't that happen because he came back to talk to vic and walked into a trap where they were going to kill him?

[u/ElectronicStretch277 → u/nedonedonedo]

Fairly sure that never happened. His first correspondence with Victor after the abandonment happens after he's killed the child and maid (this was indirectly).

No, the creature doesn't ever directly try to harm Victor and he is never innocent during the book. I'm fairly baffled by how much infantilization people do of the very clear murderer in the book.

[u/NewBoxStruggles → u/ElectronicStretch277]

The creature is never innocent during the book?

Uh huh..did ya skip a chunk of said book?

[u/ElectronicStretch277 → u/NewBoxStruggles]

No, he wasn't ever innocent when he interacted with Frankenstein. He was treated badly by others yes, he placed sole responsibility on Frankenstein and punished him for all his suffering despite the latter having very little to do with it.

[u/nedonedonedo → u/ElectronicStretch277]

m fairly baffled by how much infantilization people do

that was one of the sub-themes of the story

[u/ElectronicStretch277 → u/nedonedonedo]

The story doesn't exactly make Adam be an idiot. He's naive and curious at first yes, but he does grow up.

By the time he's talking to Frankenstein he's able to have an argument about morals and philosophy with him and was able to reason on how to go about hurting Victor (by framing him for murder). He's a very capable individual fully capable of making rational choices, not this blithering idiot that can't take responsibility for his own actions and I detest people for making him appear as such.