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/Altayrmcneto Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26

It can be polemic, but “Women which are Mean, but Competent Bosses”, precisely the ones like Miranda Priestly, which was stronger last decade.

Why? Because they appear to be progressive, but it only reinforces the patriarchal structure by giving for some women key positions from where they can absorve most of the criticism while doing the same like men in her position.

The system is bad? No, the boss that is mean, but look how cool is to have such empowered woman as leadership!

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u/Yes_Im_Positive Sep 06 '26

Similar to the 90's trope, "women can be strong, but that means they have to be aggressive and violent like a strong man."

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u/Toadsted Sep 06 '26

Coincidentally, the same parallel happens with black success, and being criticized as being too white now. Like you can only be successful if you act white.

You can only be rich of you're cruel.

You can only be attractive if you're vain.

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u/thefailtrain08 Sep 06 '26

Well, if we're honest, the second one is pretty realistic. You just don't get to the point of being a billionaire if things like other people's well-being are at any point more important than your bank account having another 0 at the end.

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u/Toadsted Sep 07 '26

You certainly can, it just takes longer.

Billionaires are, after all, just 1,000 millionares worth of wealth at the bare minimum. You can be an entirely ethical millionaire without spending your entire life to achieve it in this day and age. 50 years ago? Not so much. So it's all about relative economics.

We're at the point of trillionaires now. Now you're talking something that has to be backed by a country level movement, or absolutely entirely unethical behaviors.

People don't talk poorly about the ceo / founder for costco who still fights for cheap hotdogs, or the the guy who still has 99¢ on his cans of tea. Or the guy who has an online prescription / drug service that is cheap. They nitpick the other points about them.

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u/thefailtrain08 Sep 07 '26

If it takes a couple years to become a millionaire entirely ethically... then wouldn't it take more than a lifetime to become a billionaire that way, since they're "merely" 1000x the wealth, hmm?

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u/Toadsted Sep 07 '26

A millionaire can be anything between 1,000,000 and 999,999,999

But yes, you can also be a millionaire from generational wealth, or other collaborative means. All ethically.