r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KalzK • Sep 06 '26

miscellaneous Tropes that became problematic

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The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

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u/Temporary_Cap5927 Sep 06 '26

While on the topic of The Notebook. Cheating being normalized in favor of "true love"

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u/PharrowXL Sep 06 '26

Oh god the whole Hallmark thing of “engaged woman with a future who has a good man with goals and habits aligned with hers visits her small hometown for a holiday and runs into a crush from her childhood and over the course of a couple of interactions decides to throw everything precious away for a chance at true love”

Is that just one story or does that actually happen in multiple things

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u/Hawkeye2701 Sep 06 '26

Dude, that is so many Hallmark movies. My mum loved those stupid ass films and I just sat with her going "What's the name of the small town in this one? What company is she a sales executive for? What silly folksy career does the love interest have? Reindeer dentist or something?" And I was always right!

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u/WaspsForDinner Sep 06 '26

Ha. My mum's thing was 'quirky detective procedurals'.

"So what's this one's quirk?"
"They can smell crime scenes."
"Okay..."

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u/Darehead Sep 06 '26

“Yeah and what if his head is just a giant nose??”

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u/IHavePoopedBefore Sep 06 '26

Write that down

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u/Arcus_Of_Narnia Sep 06 '26

Yeah just a big ol nose on dolph lungrens body

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u/boneseaba Sep 07 '26

What if he can smell crime BEFORE IT HAPPENS??

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u/AreYouThereSagan Sep 06 '26

What if he was just a naked ass with a pair of legs? (The premise is genuinely the only reason I remember Assy McGee.)

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u/Alien_Diceroller Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

There's a Japanese kids cartoon called Oshiri Tantei -- Detective Butt. It's about a detective with a butt for a head.

Someone needs to do a gritty live action version.

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u/DothrakiButtBoy Sep 06 '26

Seeing Dee Reynolds in one of those types of shows made me sad.

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u/Conscious-Lunch-5733 Sep 06 '26

i too had thought that was a strange career arc for her...

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u/czcaruso Sep 06 '26

Rob and Kaitlin are the worst actors on the show. While I’ve only seen Glenn in BlackBerry, he fucking killed it. And obviously Charlie and Frank are great actors. She probably felt like she had to branch out and do something different. And unfortunately landed on that.

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u/Esquire_NZ Sep 07 '26

I enjoyed Olsen in "The Mick" and McElhenny in "Mythic Quest".

Even if they are the weakest of the gang I wouldn't say they're bad.

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u/heyoyo10 Sep 06 '26

Funny enough, before I saw this I was thinking of that detective Charlie and Mac came up with who can smell crime before it happens

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u/Chalupa-Supreme Sep 06 '26

That was the first thing I thought of too.

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u/Ok_Signature7481 Sep 06 '26

Yeah, I ended up watching like 3 episodes of this on a flight. It....didnt make me want to watch the rest

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u/GumboMumbo49 Sep 06 '26

Buddy, I’ve SEEN that one. It’s a Russian show about a man with an overdeveloped sense of smell who can tell if a woman is pregnant from smell alone. It gets wild in the final season. Also detective shows are my thing man, I love them and all the cheesy tropes. New kid, funny forensic guy, comic relief, the serious one.

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u/Weird_Brush2527 Sep 06 '26

I love them but that one was especially bad

Like bad bad

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u/BuckRusty Sep 06 '26

“Smells crime, you say… How much full penetration is there..?”

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u/Temptest1 Sep 06 '26

Yuya fungami jjba

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u/alaska1415 Sep 06 '26

You underestimated me Mayor Johnson, because I have no sense of smell, but you made one mistake, you let me SEE the documents!

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u/bolobar Sep 06 '26

To this day, I'm positive that they come up with the plots of Hallmark movies using a standardized ad lib prompt. Don't forget to mention that its usually set around some kind of holiday too, which is usually christmas. My god they make so many christmas movies.

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u/RealityOk9823 Sep 06 '26

Busy, modern executive woman has to visit her rural hometown for...reasons, I dunno. Let's go with she inherited some money & property and has to sign the papers in person for some reason. Gets stuck in snowstorm trying to make it back to seal a deal. Rescued by hunky, widowed rancher with charming daughter who live in a small, but immaculate cabin. Forced to stay for several days due to blizzard.

Soaked through and cold she's given a set of pajamas. "Those were mommy's but they fit your perfectly!". Finally gets back to big assed city, realizes she hates her life and everyone in it, misses pancakes for breakfast, gives it all up to go back and be "new mommy" with Hunky Hank and Darling Daughter just in time for Christmas.

Where's my money, Hallmark?

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u/OkDeer120 Sep 07 '26

I love how the hunky small-town guy is ALWAYS a widowed dad, because it’s the only “safe” and perhaps Christian-approved reason why he doesn’t have a wife, and they can show that he’s good with kids and represents family values at the same time, lol.

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u/Mother_Ad3988 Sep 08 '26

It kinda shits on some people's world views. Interacted with a few elderly and middle aged people who were widowed, some had zero interest in dating again. 

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u/swskeptic Sep 06 '26

But imagine how much they're saving on set dressing!

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u/packofkittens Sep 09 '26

Hallmark makes so many of these dumb Christmas movies, they have an entire Hallmark Christmas Movies channel. Ask me how I know.

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u/FlemPlays Sep 06 '26

They need a sequel where the woman ends up regretting the choice she made. The love interest guy turned out to be a raging alcoholic that managed to keep it from her until she was with him and ruined the relationship with the other guy. He dropped the mask and revealed how shitty he was. He keeps getting fired from jobs, never helps out around the house or with the kids (if it takes place long enough to where they have a kid or two).

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u/cwn24 Sep 06 '26

And around Christmas there’s always an ill-disguised Santa moonlighting as a kindly janitor or chimney sweep

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u/aartadventure Sep 06 '26

Those Hallmark movies are just soft core porn for women too repressed to just watch regular porn

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u/HoneyHoundGames Sep 07 '26

"You're just gonna take off for Thailand to build houses for all of those elephants without even saying goodbye to me?" Best line in all of cinema

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u/soulreaverdan Sep 06 '26

Don’t forget the final five minutes where her original partner suddenly reveals some massive flaw or problematic behavior that hasn’t at all been mentioned or hinted at before, but now retroactively justifies her own infidelity.

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u/NerdHoovy Sep 06 '26

It’s even worse because usually that woman is mostly fulfilled in a high stress career that she chose and left the small town for. This being her dream in many instances. It’s meant to make the choice to leave the big town behind more meaningful but it also implies that the woman doesn’t know what she wants and the career she worked for all her life is something she only did because society expects her to.

Also when the genders are flipped and it’s a man meeting and falling for a small town woman, the guy is often a widower/divorced with child. It’s make him sympathetic as a father but you will never see a divorced woman or widow with child do the same.

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u/ZoominAlong Sep 06 '26

I just watch the Hallmark shit backwards, a woman breaks up with her small town bf and finds herself and a fulfilling life in the big city. 

As far as I'm concerned,  that's the way they're meant to be watched.  

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u/David_the_Wanderer Sep 06 '26

I remember a sketch or comic (can't find it anymore, RIP) that basically pointed out how the plot of your average Hallmark Christmas Movie is basically describing a manic episode. The girl's therapist basically went "Alright, so you abandoned you home, fiancee and career after spending a weekend back at your parents' and meeting a random guy who validates all your decisions. Have you been taking your meds?"

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u/snoogle20 Sep 06 '26

It’s because 84% of Hallmark movies are a remix of Sweet Home Alabama. The other 16% are The Holiday or a shocking number of movies about meeting an actual prince who is charming.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Sep 06 '26

There's a joke tweet from forever ago that pitches the reverse of this story, where a woman from a quaint small town goes to visit the big city for Christmas and falls in love with an investment banker who teaches her that Christmas sucks actually and vacationing in Hawaii instead is much more fun than dealing with her shitty small town family. It's crazy nobody has made it yet even as a parody because I'd watch it.

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u/PharrowXL Sep 06 '26

eh, when you put it in the reverse it's just a story of hypergamy. people already kind of expect this of women to their detriment, so a work like this wouldn't come off as much else than a sexist tantrum

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Sep 06 '26

And the normal Hallmark movies which position driven ambitious career women as secretly craving domestic bliss in a small town traditional environment aren't sexist because...?

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u/PharrowXL Sep 06 '26

It’s levels to the shit lol

They both paint an unsavory view of women

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u/Fragrant_Western7939 Sep 06 '26

A few years back SNL did a great parody of the Hallmark Movies - A Stab at Love - from their new Hallmark Horror studio.

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u/laix_ Sep 06 '26

Its conservative propaganda. Or at the very least, an ideal fantasy.

"Small town rustic manly guy who cares about the little things" gigachad vs "big city not as manly guy who is always rusing and doesn't care about the little things" soyjack, combined with "stacy in school went after chad when i was weak, but look at me now, and stacy falls in love with me over chad who is a terrible boyfriend" fantasy.

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u/GumboMumbo49 Sep 06 '26

Oh my god, that one makes me so mad! Like girl you already engaged if you didn’t like him why did you say yes in the first place?!

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u/Xilizhra Sep 06 '26

Isn't it better to figure it out before divorce?

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u/copperpin Sep 06 '26

It's the fantasy that their children are going to give up their careers in the big city and move back to the country where they belong. Sells like hotcakes out in the country.

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u/SneakyDeakyJr Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

I lived this. My ex before my wife and i dated on and off for 10 years because her family couldn’t accept i was black. We moved cities, made it official. She went back to our small town for christmas one year and j couldn’t get off because i was working 3 jobs. She meets her ex at a party, fucks him, comes back and asks me if i would raise his child if he leaves her.

I told her fuck no and we broke up. Then she lead me on with promises of not talking to him another couple years until her roommate outed her as a liar and user.

Left without giving her a goodbye. She messaged me after the wedding saying he didn’t want me there because she still had feelings.

Me: “Cool. Enjoy life”

They move to japan to live on base.

Then 6 months later she’s crying to me about how he’s treated her because of her miscarriage. I told her straight up i feel for her but it’s not my job anymore to be that guy and respectfully, fuck off.

She wasn’t alone. She had a real support system. All the friends they lied to about what happened between us so they wouldn’t have to feel guilty.

She’s miserable with 2 kids now and my wife and i are celebrating our tenth year anniversary next year by finally seeing the cherry blossoms i’ve wanted to see since i was a literal child.

I wish her nothing but the best but i want nothing to do with her.

Eta: i was alone until i met my wife because of their actions. Only one person in our friend group believed me when i said i wasn’t the problem. Me and him are still great friends and i eat at his family restaurant once a week minimum. Even if i only have a single bite, I’ll never let my boi who had my back go. Sad part is we all planned to have kids and raise them together as friends. I don’t get that ending but i’m there for my boi when he needs me or a babysitter.

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u/Hayden_Jay Sep 06 '26

The only time it worked for me was this one where both men were relative strangers to her, and the "jerk" rich businessman was actually skeevy. Like, tricked her family into selling their family business out from under them, kind of skeevy.

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u/Toadsted Sep 06 '26

FemaleDatingStrategy subreddits

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u/Substantial_Army_639 Sep 06 '26

Was stuck in a hospital a few Christmases ago and the tv was stuck on Hallmark, this is essentially every plot, there also has to be one scene where the MC and their love interest argue over getting a real Christmas tree, occasionally the third act tragedy is said tree falling over and ruining Christmas until the MC's love interest cobbles together a bunch of random items to save country style rustic Christmas.

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u/roahir Sep 06 '26

Oh my god, my mom is a sucker for those movies and I can't stand them! It has even become an inside joke now.

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u/BigProduce6727 Sep 06 '26

I thought that was all of them.

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u/kalaniroot Sep 07 '26

They try to justify a lot of those actions by making the fiancé an asshole/bitch. It's even more fucked when said fiancé is actually a nice person who truly loves the MC but still gets fucked over. Not a great example but the first one that comes to mind is Twister.

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u/100_Orange_Juice Sep 09 '26

Hallmark becoming the Holiday Cuck Channel

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u/KingRattigan Sep 09 '26

One of the rare good later episodes of the Simpsons is actually quite a good parody of this. They are filming a Hallmark movie in Springfield while at the same time actually having a hallmark style movie with the production crew.

Long story short the movie head looks like she is going to fall in love with Skinner. Until the end when her rich handsome doctor fiancé turns up and everyone agrees he is way better. Also giving up her life for someone she just met in a small town a week ago is totally bonkers.

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u/Sabgren Sep 09 '26

In Unfaithful (2002) that ends like shit

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u/Pokemaniac101yt Sep 06 '26

La La Land almost does this

SPOILERS

It definitely raises an eyebrow but she does let the other guy go pretty much immediately after the first dance with Seb which minimizes the potential drama, which then raises the question why include her in an existing relationship in the first place if they get rid of it immediately. It feels like a cheap toeing the line of the trope in an otherwise really good and really realistic romance movie with a bittersweet but healthy ending. They could have cut the one will-they-won't-they scene with little to no impact, probably for the better, because otherwise their relationship is one of the most realistic and healthiest depictions of a relationship that just doesn't work out, no drama required.

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u/Chazprime Sep 06 '26

Totally.

And in reality, sometimes “true love” really just means a few weeks of nonstop fucking.

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u/GlossyBuckthorn Sep 06 '26

Happens in "You've Got Mail" too. It's a film that actively promotes emotional infidelity. Sleelpless in Seattle does the same thing, IDK, it feels like the creators make movies like that to justify being horrible people.

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u/PlagueOfLaughter Sep 06 '26

One of the reasons why I wasn't a fan of Brokeback Mountain. Yes, I get that it was basically impossible for them to have a normal relationship outside of the titular mountain, but they were both cheating on pretty likable wives.

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u/Elite_AI Sep 06 '26

I think that's still a big thing in our culture though. It hasn't become retroactively problematic

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u/pichael289 Sep 06 '26

The whole book was shit. The guy is a sappy romance writer for the most part, I liked some of his books like the one with the dying girl, but I just remember putting this one down and thinking "what was the point?"

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u/Maximillion322 Sep 06 '26

I mean it’s been normalized since the 1100s as the French literary trend of “courtly love” (or courtois in french) in which adultery was viewed not as a betrayal but the primary vehicle for true love. It’s been a popular concept in the western literary canon for over a thousand years, and I don’t really expect that to change any time soon.

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u/Madara1389 3d ago

Right. It's been pretty universally normalized for far, far longer than modern society. In fact, it's so normal throughout history that if often makes those who study anthropology wonder if monogamy is actually natural and not just a byproduct of oppressive cultural norms from specific religious groups.

There's an increasing amount of evidence that supports the belief that monogamy is just as made up as the concept of personal space or private property & that it similarly wasn't practiced among hunter/gatherer societies that predate the agricultural revolution.

That's all to say that we're not evolved to be monogamous; we're forced into monogamous relationships by cultural norms set long before any of us were born.

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u/-Release-The-Bats- Sep 06 '26

This is one of the reasons I can’t stand After. Hardin’s awful, but Tessa isn’t any better. It’s infuriating that the narrative treats her as if she’s innocent because, oh, Noah was boring and safe and told on her for going to a party.

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u/teskar2 Sep 06 '26

Also various instances where a love interest has a casual kiss from another person, but we’re supposed to think it didn’t mean anything for the relationship. Off the top of my head I remember it happening in “Bones” and “Parks and recreation”

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u/bluemountaintrees Sep 06 '26

That movie basically destroyed an entire generation because it made women think that’s what love is

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u/CassiusPolybius Sep 06 '26

Did you mean: Lancelot du Lac?

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u/zack189 Sep 06 '26

that's still normal though?

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u/binary_ch0de Sep 06 '26

Doesn’t she hit him at some point too? Like a hard slap?

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u/MeekAndUninteresting Sep 06 '26

Better than that, she slaps him, and he not only doesn't get upset, he actually starts slapping himself too.

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u/AccomplishedEcho948 Sep 06 '26

The internet loves this and always wants this and loves to speculate how it will happen with ANY couple because apparently every relationship in the universe can turn to a Love Island episode where this happens

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u/unhappy_femboy_1028 Sep 06 '26

This confuses me when people do it irl. Why not just break up with your partner if you like someone else? If you like them too much to break up with them, why would you then cheat on them and potentially hurt their feelings even more?

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u/Wonderful-Mode1051 Sep 07 '26

I literally watched The Notebook yesterday and was BAFFLED at why the heck it was lauded as the All Time Best Romance....

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u/Temporary_Cap5927 Sep 07 '26

I'd say it's because Ryan Gosling is THAT charming.

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u/DaaaahWhoosh Sep 07 '26

Does kinda make you wonder, if that's a popular trope, what it says about the target audience. Reminds me of that idea Beauty and the Beast type of stories are for women who are in arranged marriages so they can fantasize about their forced husband becoming beautiful and kind. Feels to me like this trope isn't so much about cheating being good, more about "hey are you unhappy in your current relationship? Can you imagine if you met Ryan Gosling and ran off with him?"

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u/Cooperativism62 Sep 07 '26

I want to watch romance movies with my wife, but somehow all of them include cheating as a part.

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u/Oro-Lavanda Sep 07 '26

This reminds me of the X-men Fox films and their obsession with pairing Logan and Jean even tho Jean was the literal fiancée of Scott??? Like why are we pushing this cheating love triangle and acting like it is good?

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u/Gavri3l Sep 09 '26

Lot of those boil down to “Wouldn’t you rather become a tradwife to a poorly educated, salt-of-the-earth guy than have a big city career?”

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u/Sampletest1486 Sep 09 '26

Nowadays they compensate by making the current partner the most cartoonishly evil and cruel person so it's justified when they get dumped

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u/LeftWhale Sep 06 '26

That "woman finds true love after cheating on her husband/boyfriend" era was WILD.