r/TopCharacterTropes • u/RedNUGGETLORD • 21d ago
Personality A character trait is later recontextualized into something bad/tragic, it's always been there, we just never paid attention
Deku's self sacrifice - My Hero Academia
Initially portrayed as purely heroic, it's later shown to be extremely detrimental when he refuses any aid from his friends, abandoning them to "protect them"(of course, leaving them also puts them in danger since he can no longer be there to save them if something goes wrong
The same quality that makes him a great hero, also leads him to nearly lose everything and get EVERYONE killed(since if this tired, weakened Deku did encounter AFO/Shigaraki, he would almost certainly die and have his powers taken)
Seiya Ryuuguuin's cautiousness - Overly Cautious Hero
The whole series is about how the main character is prepared for any circumstance to an insane degree(being the highest level half-way through, perfectly predicting that an ally would betray them through ridiculous jumps in logic, etc)
It turns out that the reason for this was that in a past life(unknown to him) he was extremely easy-going and unprepared for everything, always winning due to luck and skill, however, one day he ends up losing due to not finding out about a bosses weakness, this leads to the demon king murdering his friend, eating his Goddess, and then devouring his girlfriend and the child inside of her right in front of him. The Demon King then takes over the world and basically turns it into Berserk on steroids
Erens entire character - Attack on Titan
He hates the titans not because of what they've done(though that's a part of it), but because they've stolen his freedom, so when he learns that in reality, the Marleyans are the true enemies, the ones who have taken his and everyone elses freedom away, he does exactly what he said he was going to do, just to a different enemy
Erens philosophy is that anyone that tries to take his freedom deserves to have theirs taken away, Zeke becomes a slave because he tried to take away the Eldians ability to breed, the Marleyans lose the freedom of living because they tried to take his, it's always been a core character trait, but when he becomes to antagonist of the story in the last parts, this character trait of his is front and center
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u/Yadin__ 21d ago edited 21d ago
Shirou Emiya(fate stay night)
On a shallow level he looks like a classic shonen protagonist "I want to save everyone and do good". As the story goes on you realize that he's a little too eager to save people, even at the cost of his own well being to the point of bordering on suicidality. If Shirou saw someone about to be hit by a car he would 100% push them out of the way and die instead. When faced with the trolley problem he would try to untie as many people as possible even if that means getting run over along with the people who remain
The reasons for this are twofold: first, he is one of the sole survivors of the Fuyuki fire, a great disaster that befell his hometown when he was a child. This left him with a very severe case of survivor's guilt causing him to not value his own life very much because he feels guilty about surviving when all other people died. The second reason is that he is desperately trying to carry on the wish of his late adoptive father to be a superhero