Tropes that became problematic

[u/KalzK]

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.

[u/Beautiful-Cup4161]

The casual pervert who does stuff like grope women as a personality trait but you're generally supposed to like them and react to their antics in a "oh you silly rascal!" kind of way

Fell out of fashion for a good reason

[u/Roseking → u/Beautiful-Cup4161]

Jiraiya is one of the most beloved characters in Naruto and is the core of some very beloved moments of the show.

His introduction is him being a massive perv, including trying to fondle a gender bent Naruto who is both underage and later in the series reveled to be his godson.

Naruto even calls him 'Great Pervy Sage'.

And again, absolute beloved character that absolutely doesn't need that as his 'comedic' trait.

[u/Remi_cuchulainn → u/Roseking]

The show makes it entirely clear this is a character flaw. It is not treated as normal behavior.

People do not like jiraya because of that but in spite of that.

[u/Roseking → u/Remi_cuchulainn]

People do not like jiraya because of that but in spite of that.

I am aware of that.

But people who don't like the 'old man is a perv' trope because they think the show is saying being a pervert is a good thing. We hate it for the meta narrative that the creators mean for it to be 'funny'. I am aware the show is not trying to paint it as 'good' or 'normal'. Just that in a meta narrative sense it is used for comedy. And that is the problem. It goes way too far to ever be 'funny'.

Because again, the dude ogled his nude, underage, godson. And asked him to stay as a gender bent version so that he could continue to perv on his underage godson.

The dude should be in jail. But instead it and characters reactions of 'you dirty old perv' are treated as 'comedy'. That is what people have a problem with.

And I like Jiryra. But the perv character trope fucking sucks and it is weird. And treating it as a comedic 'Oh, you little rascal you' is not actually a real character flaw. Give me a show where they actually face repercussions and use it for character growth and I can buy that argument. But 99% of the time that is not the case.

There is like one moment where it is actually treated serious, and that is when he told a story of being so pissed off at him for peeping she nearly killed him. If there is a character that is a perv, goes through that, and then is like 'shit, I need to grow the fuck up', that can be a character flaw and an arc. But again, it basically never is.

But even with that moment of somewhat seriously addressing it, I still can't get over his introduction, and especially when you put it in context of the entire show. It is weird and gross, and the show absolutly treats it as a 'joke', even if it does have the other characters call him out for being a perv.

The character flaw portion of this trait is in regard to his (mostly) unrequited love of Tsunada. He can still be this loner sage who never got to settle down without outright being a perv. He can be a womanizer who never gets the girl he actually wants, and that is a very similar 'flaw' (using the word lightly as having a bunch consensual relationships is not the same as being a pervert). And the flaw is that lifestyle left him with a lonely life and him dealing with it.

Easy. Now the character can be enjoyed without feeling like they need to be put on the sex offender registry because being a massive pervert is somehow funny trope.