r/TopCharacterTropes • u/DiveSideways • Aug 30 '26
Lore [Rare Trope] A story element that popularized a concept is actually the polar opposite of that concept
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.
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.
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.
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.
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u/MrAkaziel Aug 30 '26
Carmen is an even worse offender than Romeo and Juliet. When you think Carmen, you think sulfurous love story, but not really. Virtually all the characters could come straight out of the worst, trashiest reality TV.
The plot is basically: Carmen gets arrested for trying to stab another woman over a love quarrel, she seduces the soldier in charge of bringing her to prison, which ends up following her and her band of smuglers when they ditch town because he basically fucked his life over letting her escape. Turns out the guy is terribly jealous and Carmen gets quickly fed up with him. She dumps him to get swept by the toreador, but her ex finds her and kills her out of jealousy.
Everyone is vain, petty, jealous, prone to anger, sometimes straight up rapey; there's, like, one character that's not a complete jerk or a tool.