r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Ultrimus-Prime • 1d ago

miscellaneous Media Made to Prove the Haters Wrong

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Tunak Tunak Tun (Daler Mehndi) Critics claimed his music videos were only popular because they featured attractive women dancing. Mehndi responded by making a music video featuring nobody except multiple green-screen versions of himself. It became a massive hit and his most famous song.

Five Nights at Freddy’s - Scott Cawthon previously made a family-friendly game called Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. Critics complained that the characters looked like creepy animatronics. Rather than abandon that visual style, Cawthon decided to turn them into an actual horror game using scary animatronics.

Superman Kingdom Come - Mark Waid and Alex Ross were reacting to the 1990s trend of increasingly violent, cynical superheroes.

Their story deliberately challenged the belief that traditional superheroes like Superman were outdated. It portrayed the consequences of abandoning heroic ideals and argued that compassion, restraint, and morality were still essential to superheroes.

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u/ProfIanHadrian 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Avatar sequels. People said the first one would never make its budget back. Then they said he could never do it twice. The third one less so, but it still made bank on its gargantuan budget for a third time in a row.

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u/rdhavoc5 1d ago

"I stare out of my window again"

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

I feel like people didnt doubt its ability to make money but more often just lauded its lack of cultural staying power

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u/Bauld_Man 1d ago

Avatar just completely blows my mind. It continually blows out every single box office record, but I have never heard it spoken about except to occasionally riff on it. The only thing I know about the sequel is that the most racist man alive gets a native gf, or something, and that it also broke every box office record. Again.

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u/Ok-Fisherman334 1d ago

I mean… technically he’s not the most racist man alive

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u/Bright_Economics8077 1d ago

To be fair, that's a fair amount of specific information to know about a 3rd film's plot for a series you don't watch. I'd argue Avatar has had moderate cultural impact, just not the amount that is typically congruous with the amount of financial success it has had.

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

I think its probably also way more behind the scenes, influencing the technical industry side of film rather than any large impact on popular culture. Liek they invented a entirely new way of film underwater for the 2nd. That means nothing to a viewer who might not see a difference in the film but a lot to a filmmaker who has a new approach at their disposal when actually creating it

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u/Reply_or_Not 1d ago

The first Avatar movie was a cultural touchstone.

At the time, 3D movies were being talked about again, and this time they were going to be better than ever!

I saw it in theaters in 3d on opening weekend, and it was pretty great. I never watched any of the sequels.

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u/ProfIanHadrian 1d ago

Honestly in the age of overarching IP it’s a relief to watch a movie where I don’t have to consume all the supplementary material and engage with the fandom.

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u/Meritania 1d ago

You won’t get the full nuance of the comment unless you were on Fornite in the Spring of 2021.

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u/skyforgesteel 1d ago

cough star wars cough

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u/Hysaky 1d ago

cough batman who laugh cough

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u/Solomon_Orange 1d ago

Talk about having zero foresight. That "crucial" piece of story advancement is now forever lost as playable media to anyone who might even know about it going forward.

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u/daecrist 1d ago

“Somehow, Zuul has returned.”

Mixing franchises but you get the gist.

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

That is a very good point. Alot of franchises Ive enjoyed get poisoned by themselves by recontextualizing and retconning their own source material through decades of sequels

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u/TheHarryman01 1d ago

I'm more bewildered by the fact that James Cameron is so passionate about Avatar that it's the only thing he has directed since Titanic in 1997. I mean, I'm glad he is doing what he wants to. I just don't understand the passion for these blue people and telling the same story three times in a row

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u/ProfIanHadrian 1d ago

Man likes blue

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u/Zapdos_Molquatro 1d ago

Franchise sells lots of merch: consoomerism

Franchise doesn’t sell merch: lol no cultural impact 

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u/Ditto13248 1d ago

Are you saying that avatar didn't sell merch, or that it failed to sell merch? Because it's definitely the second one

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u/Dkykngfetpic 1d ago

Its more then just merch. Its things inspired by. People mentioning. Cosplay etc.  Avatar for how massive a movie it was had has almost none of these.

Fan art both sfw and nsfw are a good way to tell cultural relevancy or popularity. Raid shadow legends has almost none so we know its cultural impact is almost irrelevant. This is with thousands of ads to force itself onto the public.

If we saw a rush of copy cat movies that is a cultural impact. And franchises with a big cultural impact spawn a lot of copy cats. Some looking to cash in. Others looking to evolve the genre and having been inspired by the first.

The other guys a movie with 170 million box office imo has more cultural staying power then the first avatar with almost 3 billion. As desk pop i have heard referenced in person more. As in desk popping a air horn. And if someone refers to a negligent discharge as a desk pop people will probably know what they mean.

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u/Yverthel 1d ago

The Avatar Series is entertaining but ultimately forgettable space opera that relies more on being a visual spectacle than anything else. It is seldom mentioned when discussing favorite films, and most people, despite having seen it, cannot tell you much about it, aside from the visuals.

And honestly? That's fine. Not every film needs to have cultural or pop-cultural significance and a long-term impact on media. The vast majority of films, in face, do not.

It's just a little weird that it happened with a box office giant.

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u/Stepjam 1d ago

You aren't wrong, but at the same time it is interesting how the (now) second most profitable movie of all time has basically zero cultural cache. Like compare Avatar to the previous most profitable film of all time, Titanic. Titanic still has a lot of cultural cache even now. People still talk about scenes from it, quote lines from it, discuss aspects of it. Nobody does that for Avatar.

I'd argue the SNL video about Avatar's title font probably gets quoted more than any scene from the actual movie itself. Nobody tried to make copy cat movies about colonizers on alien planets or inserting human minds into non-human organic puppets or anything like that.

The only thing people talk about with Avatar is the visual spectacle of it, and not even from like a direction standpoint really.

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u/Dkykngfetpic 1d ago

Its not just a giant its one of the top 100 media franchises of all time globally. Put their by a single entry alone.  For it to have such a low splash is notable. So notable people have probably studied it.

But for a movie which goes off visuals where is the art work? It didn't really inspire people to try and draw the scenes in the movie. Or characters visually appealing enough to cosplay and draw.

Imax didn't pop off as a filming standard. Despite avatar being the poster child for it at the time.

It didn't inspire really anything in the people which watched it. It just put people in seats and forgotten.

It does not need to be but why was it not is a question. How did they create a media so uninspiring yet get so many people to watch and come back for the second.

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u/OperativePiGuy 1d ago

At this point I'd argue part of its 'cultural impact' is being the franchise people like to rag on specifically because of how successful it is lol. It's always like the #1 answer to "what movie or show is overrated" questions. It has had an impact whether people want to admit it or not. It's like the ultimate movie for online contrarians.

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u/PrincessRuri 1d ago

Ironically, making fun of it's lack of cultural staying power... has given it cultural staying power.

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

Its a shame because I saw a documentary about the 2nd, sort of, where they followed whales on Earth and they did a convincing job of placing them at or above chimps as a species with 'culture', like behaviors that aren't just instincts but learned norms that only continue because theyre taught generationally, 'Secrets of The Whales', highly recommend.

But I think thats what avatar was going for but I dont think it quite put that idea in the public conscious like they wouldve hoped

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u/Creamcups 1d ago

There were a lot of people on Reddit doubting it would make its budget back

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

Ok I didnt notice that very much, not doubting

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u/jooes 1d ago

And yet, here we are talking about it.

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u/Ayotha 1d ago

Usually with an eye roll

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

Of course, its a real thing that happened, that doesnt mean it has a deep cultural impact

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u/Testosteronomicon 1d ago

Then again, how exactly are we defining low cultural staying power here? It's not talked about on social media? Little merchandise? No extended universe?

After the sequel made as much money a full decade later it's safe to say there was some kind of cultural power here, it's just the coworker-core kind.

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u/dimechimes 1d ago

I hate hated the prequels. I watched phantom menace, hate watch clones, and maybe saw 15 minutes of the last one.

But I can tell you the names of all of these characters, of planets, of quotes. All because I see references to it all the time in different places and formats.

I probably saw an hour and a half of the first Avatar movie. All I know is about it is blue people, Sully, and Unobtainium. We all know Darth Maul, Windu, Dooku, Palpatine etc.

Not a fair comparison because the prequels are a part of a larger phenomenon so I'm not comparing their worth as films against each other just trying to show cultural impact in a simplistic way.

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u/InstantRegret1999 1d ago

Reddit just hates being wrong, they can't stand it and when the Reddit Collective dictates something to be so, and then reality proves them horribly wrong, they move the goal posts, pick up their ball, and go home.

It's been funny to watch, I'm not even a big Avatar fan, in fact, I'm not a fan at all, I watched the first one ONE time like 11 years ago, then watched the second one half dying from a cold and barely paying attention, and I still haven't seen the third. Despite ALL of this, I know the premises to all three, I know characters, the world, most of the lore. I've seen parodies, porn, memes, so...I don't even no what the actual fuck "cultural impact" even means anymore???

The "no cultural impact" was, and continues to be insane cope from snobbish losers who just can't stand some basic sci-fi action schlock with no previous IP to stand on became huge. And I kinda get it as a joke before the second movie came out, it was a technical marvel of a movie that just obliterated the box office and then dipped, and nobody really talked about it after a few years. Some people might go "man, that was such a beautiful film for the time, incredible CGI" but if you asked people who the main character was, or the plot, or to name a quote, a lot of people just shrugged. But then, the sequel came out, and the series legitimately cemented itself into the cultural zeitgeist, people went and rewatched the first one, I saw actual memes and direct mentions of plot from the first film, people painted themselves blue, whole damn thing. The joke that nobody could remember anything from the movie that made 1 bajillion dollars died right then and there.

But noooo, Reddit STILL has to have the last laugh and pretend like they don't see memes, pretend like people don't know the general plot, pretend like it will be forgotten. Face it losers, Avatar will be remembered as well as Ghost Busters and for some of you, it's like your own personal cinephile 9/11, and that's fucking hilarious.

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u/Renonthehilltop 1d ago

Idk man, Star trek came out more than half a century ago and actors had their ashes brought to space, it explicitly inspired the design of real world technologies like flip phones owing their inspiration to tricorders in the show, the Space Force design draws inspiration from the federation logo, it features the first interracial kiss on television in the midst of the civilian rights movement, it directly inspired people to pursue STEM careers. And then theres still Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Terminator, etc. which have impacts you can tangible point out, Terminator especially, also James Camerson and has a noticeable influence on how alot people view AI.

And its not a bad thing most films dont have a very deep cultural impact, its just weird the outsized popularity of it vs the influence it had. I also enjoyed it, no need to get so upset

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u/PlasticAngle 1d ago

People claimed that the first one only success because it was the first blockburster in 3D and the visual is all it have and a sequel would never work since 3D are old now.

And then he prove everyone wrong twice.

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u/SuperSocialMan 1d ago

It's really weird lol, like how did it even happen?

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u/Digit00l 1d ago

Didn't the 3rd one do relatively poorly? Like still made a lot, but significantly less than the other 2, and haven't further sequels been soft cancelled?

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u/AkibaPurple 1d ago

At the very least, diminishing returns probably makes the studio reluctant to sign off on anymore movies.

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u/EmergencyGrocery3238 1d ago

Haven't seen them. Are they worth watching?

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u/gprime312 1d ago

Only in Imax, so no.

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u/Songbird_Storyteller 10h ago

There was a third one???

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u/Ayotha 1d ago

The lowest common denominator sure likes some films. Reminds be of the bad transformer films