r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Calvinball08 • 3d ago
Hated Tropes [Hated Trope] Crossovers that fundamentally don’t understand the source material
When a crossover basically does the exact opposite of what the source material clearly lays out because the creators clearly just don’t care about the source material at all.
Emil - Dead by Daylight
The one that inspired this post. Emil as a character is the most hopeful, optimistic, and kind character in the entire NieR series, maybe in all of Yoko Taro’s games (maybe aside from Yonah). His goal is to help as many people as he possibly can and even when he goes through immense suffering he always comes out the other side ready to keep on helping people.
Then Dead by Daylight adds him as a killer skin, because “he looks creepy.” You know, the aspect of the character that’s his biggest struggle, that causes him to be scared of how people will judge him, and that makes him hate himself. That’s what we’ll base our entire concept on. Genius idea.
Iron Giant - Ready Player One
Technically you could argue that it’s not an example because it’s just a part of the game and Wade is the one misunderstanding the source material. To that I raise you that this is actually an in universe example of the trope, with the game including the Iron Giant as a crossover where you can use him as a weapon, thereby misunderstanding the source material.
Also it’s probably the filmmakers completely misunderstanding the source material/not caring as well.
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u/QuincyAzrael 3d ago
Here's an example of a time they perfectly AVOIDED this trope.
The third entry in Nintendo's fighting game crossover, Smash Bros Brawl, was the first to feature content from Animal Crossing. But notably, there was no AC playable fighter. This made sense at the time- AC is a cozy game about managing a village, there's no combat at all so it wouldn't really make sense to have an AC fighter.
When 4 came out, though, they announced Villager was coming to Smash. They could have easily done the character a disservice, but all his moves are things you can do in the game- use a net to catch bugs, dig holes, plant and grow trees, etc. When you look closely at his eyes, he's never really focused on his foes, he's always focused on his activity or just kind of looking around at nothing.
The implication is that (in character, anyway) he's not trying to fight anyone, he's doing his normal daily chores and just keeps accidentally hurting the people around him in a 3-stooges style farce. It's a great solution to the problem and adds a level of comedy to the character. Hell, even his victory poses are just him showing off a cool fossil or bug he's found, like he has no idea he's even supposed to be in a fighting competition.