Chiron (Moonlight) - Initially a regular, sensitive kid, years of bullying and abuse take its toll on Chiron until he finally snaps. He attacks another student and gets sent to juvie, the first of many times he'd find himself in trouble with the law. By the time he's an adult he's violently repressed most of his personality, including his sexuality, by putting on the façade of a hardened gangster and turning to a life of crime.

Pyle (Full Metal Jacket) - Pyle struggles to keep up with the other recruits in boot camp and is regularly singled out for abuse by his drill instructor because of it. When his fellow recruits also start abusing him, Pyle loses whatever kindness or softness he may have had and suffers a mental breakdown that ends with him taking his own life.

Faye (Cowboy Bebop) - Faye was a sweet and loving girl in her youth with plenty of friends. However a series of tragedies and betrayals left her as a bitter, jaded adult who is unable to connect to or trust others, damning her to a life of loneliness.

Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - Zuko inherited his mother's gentle and compassionate nature. But when that compassion earns him a brutal attack from his father and banishment from his home, Zuko becomes much more callous and cruel.

Jenny Jones — AMC’s “The Walking Dead”

While living in Atlanta with her husband, Morgan, and son, Duane, Jenny succumbed to the first outbreak of the zombie plague. During Rick’s first encounter with Morgan in the latter’s home, he watches through the door peephole as Jenny walks onto the porch, and begins to intelligently twist the doorknob, trying to get in to her house. This moment is marked by fans as one of the series most chilling, as Jenny’s zombie displays far more “intelligence” than almost all others seen in the show.

Augustin Lambert/The Beast — Amnesia : The Bunker

In the 2023 survival horror game, players take the role of Henri Clement, a French soldier serving during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. After going on a solo night raid to rescue his friend and comrade, Lambert, Henri gives him strange water from a mysterious pit, before attempting to carry him back to safety. The two are caught in an explosion, with Henri awakening in an underground bunker some time later with Amnesia. But he is not alone. An inhuman beast has begun stalking the halls, and had killed nearly everyone in the bunker before Henri awoke. Soon, Henri pieces together that the Beast is his old friend Lambert, transformed into an otherworldly creature by the strange water Henri gave him. But even though the Beast is a feral animal that lives only to torture and kill, he still retains echos of his old self. If you listen closely, you can make out Lambert weeping and even apologizing as he attacks the player.

In X Men 3, Pyro said he would have killed Charles Xavier if Magneto had let him. Then Magneto comes back with his retort, showing how much he respected and missed Charles.

In Superman the Animated Series The Joker offers to kill Superman. Lex laughs, wondering how the Joker would kill Superman when he can't even handle a mere mortal in a Halloween costume. The Joker knows Batman is much more than that.

Oguri Cap (Uma Musume Cinderella Gray)

Nijika Ijichi (Bocchi the Rock)

1. The Cult of the Tree, Alan Wake 2: the opening minutes of the game supposedly show this group murdering a man running through the woods terrified. There is graffiti and legends in the nearby town framing them as a pagan cult who roams the woods committing ritualistic murders. Towards the end it is revealed the cult is more of a neighborhood watch who kill Taken (People possessed by a malevolent sentient darkness) before they can spread the darkness and claim more victims. The scary stories about the cult are actually spread by the cult themselves to keep people away from the woods at night where the Taken and the Dark presence lurk.

2. King Alfred, Assassins Creed Valhalla: King Alfred is suggested to be the leader of a centuries old cult called the order of the ancients. Throughout the game you receive letters from an anonymous source named “Poor fellow soldier of Christ” feeding you information to help you assassinate members of this cult one by one. It turns out Alfred IS the leader of the Order of ancients but he’s also the Poor Fellow Soldier of Christ. He inherited the leadership from his father but was disgusted by the cult and its methods of control, so secretly fed Eivor and the assassins information to help them bring down the entire cult.

3.Slugworth, Charlie and the chocolate Factory: Presented as a rival businessman, offering children wealth if they steal Willy Wonka’s secrets and bring them to him. At the end he is revealed to work for Wonka, only pretending to be a rival to test the trustworthiness of said children.

1. Morgan Moonscar (and zombies), Scooby Doo on Zombie Island: At first glance Morgan and his zombie army are pretty obviously the villains and IIRC the first ever sooby Doo monster that was actually a real monster rather than a guy in a mask. Eventually it turns out the people that hired Mystery Inc are the real bad guys, a pair of werewolf…er were cats? That feed on the life force of humans and have been for some time. Morgan Moonscar and the other zombies were previous victims trying to warn people from meeting their same fate.

They fake being kind and generous in order to take advantage of people. But in the process, they find themselves genuinely invested in their mark's well-being. And ends up becoming a genuinely better in the process.

1). Klaus:
Jesper is sent by his rich father to a far-north island. And told he will be disowned if he does not get the townsfolk there to adopt the postal service. Feigning charity, Jesper gets a local man to donate his toys to any kid that writes a letter asking for one. That way, it seems like the whole town has started using the postal service his father runs.
Jesper makes an offhand comment about only "good children" getting toys. So, the kids start doing good deeds and set off a series of events squashing the town's long-held blood feud. And Jesper ends up genuinely invested in making everyone happy.

2). Mob Psycho 100:
Reigen is a fake psychic. Soon after starting his business, he comes across a kid with genuine psychic powers. Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama is terrified of his own abilities so he leaps at the opportunity to be "mentored." Reigen calls Mob if his clients turn out to be actually haunted. He is paid sub-minimum wage for his time.
But Reigen gives Mob genuinely good advice that keeps the (potentially city-destroying) esper humble and well-adjusted. Unlike of the villains, who try to use their psychic powers to take over the world. He even admits his lies to Mob at the end of the series.

3). All Dogs Go to Heaven:
Charlie takes advantage of an orphan who can talk to different animal species. Mostly to cheat at gambling. But he ends up selflessly sacrificing himself for her.

1. Dwayne Johnson - Probably the most well-known example. For years now, The Rock has had a clause in his contract that he can't be shown to lose a fight in any movie he stars in. Pretty insecure behaviour if you ask me. Still, at least the other examples are much more interesting

2. Danny Trejo - Danny had a troubled childhood, having been arrested multiple times for dealing drugs before he was 18, and struggling with heroin addiction from the age of 13. As a result of this, Danny has a clause in his contract that states that any time he plays a character who is a criminal, they have to be killed because he wanted to teach his kids that crime never pays.

3. Reese Witherspoon - This one is more of a one-off, but it was still funny enough to deserve a mention. Following the success of Legally Blonde, when Reese was called in to make the sequel, she had a clause written in her contract stating that once the movie was finished, she would get to take home all the outfits she wore.

4. Fred Durst - The lead singer of Limp Bizkit has a clause in his contract stating that any anime or video game that uses his music must also feature himself as a character.

1-2. Jiu [Fight Class 3] Yes slide 1 and 2 are the same person. Jiu starts off as a kind boy who dosent want to hurt anyone but through the constant fighting he has to do to get revenge on his dad he’s become unhinged.

It’s actually quite common in the fanbase to think the MC is worse than most of the antagonist now at least mentally.

1. Jibea [Dominion] Dudes an ordinary guy. Loves his mom hangs out with his GF on the weekends but slowly everyone in the world starts acting weird. Im not gonna spoil it because it’s a thriller/ mystery but all the stuff he has to do makes him crazy

Edited: I didn’t read the second one in English so apparently I translated the title wrong it should be under Domination or Control based on the English tittles. Also the authors name is Tae-Hyeon Park he also wrote Burning Effect.

1. Ashley Graham from Resident Evil 4. She got a lot of hate for being “useless” and needed Leon to save and help her throughout the game. Mind you she has no training whatsoever and this is her first time dealing with mutants and monsters

2. Grace Ashcroft from Resident Evil Requiem. Just like Ashely when Grace is kidnapped and forced to deal with zombies and a giant mutant that can bite her head off she’s deemed “annoying” for not being nonchalant as Leon.

3. Sarah from Telltale’s The Walking Dead. After the zombie apocalypse her father spent months sheltering her from the real world and not teaching her any survival skills. So when she has to leave her home and join Clementine and the others she watches her father be abused by a deranged man and later watches him get eaten by zombies. She of course has panic attacks and freezes and some of the fans find her annoying for it.

Kiryu Kazuma (yakuza): a common misconception in universe is that the dragon of dojima doesn't kill. Just ignore all the lethal weapons that he uses or all the heat actions that are deadly for most people.

Hawkgirl (superman 2025): since Superman is busy in metropolis to save the people of Jarhanpur so he send his friends. After hawkgirl captures Netanyahu Vasil Ghurkos, the evil president that leads the genocide, he mocks of her cause she wouldn't kill him if she's friend of superman. Wrong.

Steve Rogers (MCU): everyone was surprised with how John Walker used the shield to kill someone. Seems like everyone forgot about how captain america was a WWII soldier known for throw his shield really hard straight to the head.

One of the strangest character tropes in real life has to be the "I accidentally made myself sound like a war criminal to look cooler" archetype.

Usually, people accused of war crimes deny them. These guys seem to do the opposite.

The two examples that always come to mind:

Tim Kennedy. Over the years he's told stories that include things like throwing grenades into rooms where women and children were present, and another account where, after a battle, his CO allegedly told him to shoot anything that still had a heat signature with a sniper rifle from a mile away, which he did for hours (?) not caring if those were enemy soldiers or civilians looking for their fallen sons/brothers/whatever. Both stories have been heavily criticized and challenged (aka people who were there confirmed that they are utter nonsense), and Kennedy has faced repeated accusations of embellishing or fabricating parts of his military experiences. But like... why would you invent the fact that you killed and maimed women and children?

Chris Kyle. In American Sniper, he wrote that during Hurricane Katrina he positioned himself on the Superdome and shot dozens of armed looters like some walking dead scenario. No evidence ever emerged that this happened, and Kyle himself later acknowledged the story wasn't true. Again, why invent a story where you're essentially describing the unlawful killing of civilians during a domestic disaster?

What's fascinating is that these aren't embellishments in the usual "I fought twenty guys" sense. They're embellishments that, if true, would amount to admissions of extremely serious crimes.

It's such a bizarre form of macho storytelling that it almost feels like its own trope: the veteran who thinks "the more ruthless I sound, the more badass I'll appear," without stopping to consider that indiscriminate killing isn't viewed by most people as impressive. It's viewed as criminal and disgusting.

The Cicada God/SCP 3004(SCP Foundation) the Cicada god is if some cicada god found out about i and interpreted it with a Cicada brain. It sent an avatar named “cousin Johnny” to change Christian rituals into its cicada brain. Like in Baptism having the baptized child shed their skin because that’s how cicada lifespan is.

What’s bad unlike many entities it doesn’t hurt humans out of malice. But because it treats humans like cicadas .

Nurgle (Warhammer Fantasy/Warhammer 40k) the chaos god Nurgle loves everything and that includes all the fungi, bacteria, and viruses inside you who he fills you with to show his love.

Scream- "cause I wanna know who I'm looking at."

Duck season - "Honey, have you seen the knife?"

1 - Nope 2022 The film opens on this shot of black square surrounded by a seemingly inorganic material, upon first watch one might dismiss this as nothing more than an innocuous design choice by the director. It isn't until later we find out we're literally staring the monster in the eye.

2 - The Ritual 2017 A more obvious one but it's a blink and you'll miss it moment. Throughout the movie the main cast are seemingly stalked through the woods without actually seeing anything except for partway through the movie we get this lingering shot of tree trunks and our first glimpse at what's following them.

1. Obsession (2026), Nikki walking backwards after 'seemingly' emotional exchange with Bear. (while she is walking backwards a distorted backwards angry boat sound plays that seamlessly interrupts the soundtrack).

2. Longlegs (2024), Lee Harker remembers painful buried memory or Longlegs after seeing a photo she took as a child. (the disturbing realization of Lee mixed with the indistinguishable sounds and imagery make this really jarring, at least for me).

3. Red rooms (2023), Kelly tries to provoke a man who is convicted of murdering girls while filming it and while Kelly is being dragged out of the trial - the screams of the girl she is impersonating from the video hauntingly screeches just for the viewer in an incredibly disturbing way.

1. Family Guy - Peter Griffin wakes up in the hospital with no arms and the doctor tries to break this news by showing him a Farewell to Arms. Peter takes this to mean that he fell in love with a nurse during World War I. The doctor even pauses to note “-there’s no way you’ve read that-“ in the middle of his clarification of what he actually meant.

⁠2. My Hero Academia - When Class 1-A is trying to pick superhero named, Kyoka Jirou suggests that resident electrokinetic (and admittedly something of an airhead) Denki Kaminari should call himself “Jamming-way”. He initially assumes this is a deep literary reference to famed American novelist Ernest Hemmingway and likes the idea. She then clarifies it’s actually because when he overuses his power he “Jams” his brain and the only thing he can say is a “Whey” noise. Ultimately he goes with “Chargebolt” instead.

(I forgot that Farewell to Arms is a Hemmingway work when I decided to make this post this I swear the fact that both are Hemmingway isn’t intentional)

El Macho's intro (Despicable Me) - Macho for a sole purpose to be Macho...and does hella good job at it.

Weaponized side-bars (Pootis Engage // EXTREME) - Self explanatory.

Snoop Dogg parrying nazi soldier and offering him a cigar (Call of Duty:Vanguard)

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, James Jonah Jameson. JJJ is the unrepentant #1 hater of Spider-Man, using his newspaper to slander or push him as a masked menace, which makes it hilarious that his main source for pictures of said menace is the same boy in the mask of Spider-Man. This doesn't stop him from being cranky, abrasive and a general dick-head boss. But when Green Goblin explodes into his office and holds JJJ aloft in a choke hold demanding the identity of the person who gives him his pictures of Spider-Man, with struggling to breathe his only hesitation, JJJ immediately lies his ass off to defend Peter Parker. This has caused many to believe he's not half the asshole he likes to make himself out to be, or approach it with pragmatism, saying that he refused to do it because in the reporter scene, selling out your sources is a major no-no.

Spirited Away, Kamaji. He works tirelessly to keep the furnace of a massive bathhouse running. The protagonist stumbles in and the cranky spider man initially rebuffs her efforts to offer help, as without a job, she'll turn into a mindless pig like her parents had. He understands her plight, but seems to be incredibly specific about how his job is done, he helps her to get a job at the upper portions of the bathhouse. When a would-be coworker isn't sure about hiring her, Kamaji immediately lies that the protagonist is his granddaughter and vouches for her.

Mass Effect 2 - Commander Shepard

In the Mass Effect games a core feature of the role-playing is that the player can overhear conversations in non-combat areas to pick up quests, learn lore, or just to hear a funny conversation. However, in the second game Shepard can listen in on an "intimate" conversation between two aliens. Right before things get too heated the female alien calls out Shepard for listening in on them and they both tell them to leave. Making it canon that Commander Shepard is a weirdo who listens in on other people's conversations and creeps them out.

Halo: Reach - Noble Six

This is a much less original observation. However, if the player stares at Commander Carter for a long period of time he will sometimes say "Your file mentioned this." Meaning that it's cannon that Noble 6 sometimes blankly stares at people. Given their reputation as a "hyper-lethal" super-soldier assassins, you can imagine how uncomfortable this might make someone.

1. The Dark Knight.

The Joker engineers a situation in which two ships full of passengers will explode, unless one of them blows the other up first.

He wanted to prove how horrible everyone was deep down. However, neither the ship full of civilians, nor the ship full of convicted criminals, went through with making the other ship explode.

The Joker is at a loss for words, and Batman remarks that not everyone is as horrible as him. He is alone.

1. Kubera: One Last God.

The god Visnu offers Asha great power, if she does as he says. Asha accepts, and her first task is to execute a group of blindfolded people. Asha kills them all without hesitation.

When Visnu notes her ruthlessness and her thirst for power, Asha responds that every human is like that.

Visnu agrees, but notes that not everyone would sink to the depths that Asha did. For example, Visnu made the same offer of power in exchange for murder to several other people but, unlike Asha, they refused. 

Most of them agreed to a gamble instead, that they would receive a better life if all other candidates also refused to commit murder. Asha, the last candidate, did not refuse.

• Robin (Ghosts): Robin was born roughly 12000 years ago according to a tie-in book, having seen many people die and ghosts leave long before Button House was even built. While he is saddened when ghosts move on and he's left behind, because he's experienced it all before he doesn't let it bother him too much and explains that he can't experience the grief every time it happens. He's also very dismissive of Christmas until the end of the show since from his perspective it's nothing more than a passing obsession that hasn't been around very long.
• John Oldman (The Man from Earth): A 14000 year old immortal, because people always got scared of him for not growing old John fell into the habit of moving on roughly every ten years. This includes leaving behind and having no contact with any wives, children or friends that he had. When asked about this by Sandy, who has feelings for him, he explains that while he does care for his partners he's fallen in love and gotten over it too many times to really believe in it. Also it is true that as people get older their perception of time gets faster, so for John his experiences with people happen incredibly quickly from his perspective.
• Armstrong (Valiant): Aram Anni-Padda became immortal 10000 years ago when the Boon was activated, and has had countless adventures while being hunted by the Sect. It's made clear however that his drinking stems from a depression over being immortal, and how whenever he talks to people he's always aware he will outlive them and we even get his POV where learn that Armstrong sees Archer as an old man.
• Michael (The Good Place): It's only brought up in one episode, but Chidi realises that Michael struggles with fully understanding guilt and ethic because he's immortal. If he lives forever then any guilt will eventually fade so why spend so much time worrying about it? Helping Michael realise that he could potentially die helps him understand Chidi's ethics lessons.

The title should be self-explanatory, it's a trope where a monster formed a friendly relationship with other characters, or at least tried to, but ended up showing their true nature towards that character. The story doesn't shy away showing the monster's real self, it's the plot way of saying, "yep, that's a monster," despite how we see them being friendly before.

Sister Sara to Madara-Chan - Madara
Madara is a relatively adorable creature that Sara found during her travel towards an orphanage. As a caring nun, she gave it a little water, and it grew up quickly. When she walked back to her home, a group of bandits appeared and tried to assault her, until Madara appeared and completely obliterated the bandits. As a nun, she couldn't help but felt responsible for its actions, as killing is such a sin. Therefore, sheoffered herself to be killed by Madara so that it can be forgiven for its sins, and Madara did.

Chimera no Sumu Mori - Chimera
A mix of beasts combined together, Chimera was known to predate humans. She killed an unnamed character's parents, which is why that character swore to become an adventurer so that she could get revenge on the Chimera. 10 years later, the adventurer searched the Chimera with a gun, but ultimately failed after the Chimera regenerated after being shot. Despite the panic inside of the adventurer's mind, Chimera's words were as if she wanted a friend or to play around. The adventurer, on her last attempt to get away from the Chimera, suggested a hide and seek. However, despite the Chimera nodding, at the end of the day she doesn't actually know any human words, nor does she know what the adventurer in front of her were suggesting. So the Chimera just proceed to took off her limb and started devouring her.

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

[Rocky, project Hail Mary] First ones a meme but has the tone of the trope. In the books Rocky and the rest of the Eridians do wear clothes unlike the movie where he's naked, but people head canonned that the Eridians do still wear clothes and Rocky is just a nudist

[Word, Star Trek] In Star Trek Worf always goes on about how Klingons don't laugh and are a super serious warrior culture. While they are a warrior culture the other Klingons do make jokes and have a good time pretty regularly Worf is just a hardass.

The Taxxons (Animorphs)- A species of centipede-like aliens who serve the parasitic Yeerks. The entire species suffers from hunger so bad, that they’re desperate for any way to alleviate it, which the yeerks promised under the condition that they serve them. It’s so bad that they’ll even eat their own fellow taxxons if they get wounded in battle.

The zombies (Marvel Zombies)- Anyone infected will still retain their consciousness, but be unable to control their desire to consume as much people-flesh as possible, to the point that even heroes end up forsaking their morals to eat anyone and everyone.

Skullcrawlers (Monsterverse)- These are gigantic two-limbed apex predators that have a very voracious appetite because of their heightened metabolism. They are a huge threat to anything lower on the food chain. Kong regularly battles them to keep their population in check.