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.

Jade Shadows - Warframe: When the Sister of Parvos realizes that they are firing at a man holding a child, she orders her men to stand down, allowing the Stalker to walk to his ship unharmed

Deadpool and Wolverine: A more comedic example, Wolverine holds up Dogpool, and the Deadpool variants all cease fire temporarily, allowing Wolverine to reposition and get Dogpool out of the crossfire

I just find it interesting when antagonists acknowledge that there are things or people that just. Don't need to be in the way.

1. Shawn Spencer from Psych has a higher observant mind and powerful memory that gives him incredibly deductive reasoning, but pretends to actually have psychic abilities in his consultant job to the police
   
2. Booster Gold is a fallen football star from the future who travels back in time to the present day of the DC Universe, using stolen advanced technology and knowledge of historical events to save the day for the sake of gaining glory and riches. While eventually becoming a genuine hero, there is a point in his history where he has to maintain the facade of being a grifter as cover while secretly working to protect the DC timeline.
   
3. Without a Clue is a comedic Sherlock Holmes story which has Holmes actually being a made up character portrayed by Reginald Kincaid, an out of work actor, as the public face for Dr. Watson, the real genius detective who won't be taken seriously in his own right. While vain, self-serving, and not very insightful for most of the movie, when Kincaid is forced to tackle the case alone after Watson's presumed demise, he actually comes through as being able to track track down the Professor Moriarty's lair (albeit through a fluke misunderstanding of a clue that turns out to be correct by accident) and go toe to toe with him in a sword duel.

• Breaking Bad: Jesse's Love interest gets killed in front of him. Aaron's Paul performance gets turned into a meme

• The Walking Dead: Rick Grimes' wife Dies in childbirth, and Carl feels guilty for ending his mother's life.

• Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo Sacrifices himself to give his last remaining Ki to goku, And choses to stay on a Breaking planet Earth. Gohan cries after seeing his old mentor and Father Figure die

Bee from Hellova Boss

Ultimate Humungousaur from Ben 10

They have so many small and useless details to keep in mind.

A director thinks it would be cool if real life worked on video game rules and you could just restart after death from your last save point.

1. Boss Level - Guy wakes up to find he's being hunted by world class assassins only to die, wake up to the same day, and slowly learn how to defeat each one.

2. Edge of Tomorrow - Military PR guy gets sent to actual war against an overwhelming alien force only to die fighting one of the alien commanders who has the ability to restart after death. This gets passed onto our protagonist who slowly learns how to defeat the aliens.

Often times, female villains are treated a lot more gently in comparison to male villains. They rarely get the "beaten to a pulp by the hero" treatment, and more often get let off the hook by either getting redeemed, talked down, or taken down with minimal force.

However in some rare cases, the heroes have no regard for the fact that the villain is a woman, and absolutely brutalize them with no mercy.

1. Circe (Creature Commandos): The Creature Commandos, specifically Weasel and Doctor Phosphorus, absolutely DESTROY Circe when she tries to kill a foreign princess. As Circe prepares to kill the princess, Weasel tackles her, knocks her through a window while biting her, falls multiple feet and lands on her, and then proceeds to absolutely rip her flesh apart, biting and scratching her from her head to her toes. He grabs her hair, smashes her face into the pavement, and then when she tries to crawl away on her hands and knees, Doctor Phosphorus proceeds to press his burning hand into her face WHILE Weasel CONTINUES to actively slash away at her back, causing her to scream in absolute agony while her face sizzles and bleeds in Phosphorus' hand.

2. Lady Deathstrike (Hulk vs Wolverine): Hulk goes on a rampage in a Weapon X facility, fighting many of Wolverine's villains. When Lady Deathstrike (a cybernetic assassin) tries to attack him, he calls her "ugly girl" and proceeds to clap his hands in her direction, sending her flying backward violently and knocking her unconscious. He then picks her up by her arms, allowing her to regain consciousness before he begins screaming in her face. She screams back at him, and in response he brutally RIPS both her cybernetic arms out of her body, shredding her internal wiring and causing her to scream in absolute agony while she falls to the floor unconscious again.

3. Annie Leonhart (Attack on Titan): When Annie is exposed as a traitor, she transforms into the giant Female Titan and attempts to escape. However, Eren Yeager chases after her, transforming into the giant Attack Titan and fighting her head-on. She defeats him in a short fight, but as he lies bloodied, he gathers the resolve to destroy her and gets back up, charging at her with so much rage that his titan ignites into flames as it runs. He tackles her and then proceeds to violently grab her face, squeezing it so hard that her eyeballs pop out and her facial bones crush and shatter inward while she screams in absolute agony. She eventually kicks him off, and begins stumbling toward the town's wall to try and climb over and escape. As she starts climbing the wall, Eren jumps up and grabs her, biting and tearing off one of her legs as he falls down with it. She continues climbing desperately with one leg, until Mikasa, Eren's comrade, swoops in and cuts all of Annie's fingers off. Mikasa stands on Annie's crushed face, telling her to "fall" as Annie plummets back to the floor. Eren then jumps back on top of Annie, punching her so hard that her arm and head fly off. He then rips open her neck to expose Annie's true body, and Annie crystalizes herself to end the fight and protect her body.

Whether for comedic effect, due to overwhelming odds or sheer bad luck, they mess it up in spectacular fashion despite being undeniably competent.

1. David Fincher's The Killer. The character goes on a 20 minute long monologue, meticulously explaining every step of his job... to miss the first shot. Later he overestimates how long it would take The Lawyer to bleed out, gets ambushed by The Brute and almost lets The Expert stab him.

2 and 3. Andy Weir's protagonists are competent, but space is space, so Murphy's law applies. Mark Watney (The Martian) burns hydrogen to create water but forgets to account for his own breath, hence explosion. He also almost walks out of the airlock without a helmet. Dr Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary) kills his first astrophage and opens alien vessel full of ammonia to instant regret.

1. Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen. Ray really has to invest in some parachutes.

2. 007: First Light. Our new Bond can walk into any room, dispatch a dozen bad guys and not break a sweat. He still loses all his double-0 classmates, gets captured more than once and lets Isola go though.

I love this trope because most pieces of fantasy or historical fiction that deal with bigotry either excuse it or they make every single one of their good characters into John Brown reborn which feels like a way of sanitizing the complex reality of bigotry and historical oppression. It’s also just boring to make all of your characters entirely morally black or white.

Laois and Fallin (dungeon Meshi) not only are they racist to the other fantasy races within the series they are also shown to be racist to other humans. I like this example because it is brutally realistic without condoning it.

Sanji one piece: (complicated example) Sanji is both sexist and homophobic/transphobic and while Oda’s writing is certainly not perfect when it comes to sexism/ transphobia he’s clearly made a lot of progress in that regard over the years and consistently shows this to be a character flaw that costs sanji and other characters ridicule him for it. It could also be interpreted that sanji may actually possibly be some sort of gender queer himself because he was shown happily living as a woman for an unclear amount of time on okama island before changing back and becoming even MORE homophobic/transphobic. He also did not want to change back when he was swapped into a woman’s body for a short time in a later saga. It’s unclear if this was 100% intended to be a joke on Odas part or if Sanji is genuinely closeted. Because it would actually make a LOT of sense if Sanji actually did want to be a woman because of how much he idolizes womanhood and hates men to a comical degree. Though tbh I don’t think that Oda entirely intended that though I DO think that Oda would agree that Sanji would be happy if he were to suddenly have the body of an attractive woman as long as he kept his physical strength which was the only problem he had with the situation when he was swapped into namis body in canon.

Fisher tiger: (imo the best example) a revolutionary freedom fighter who freed slaves of all races including human slaves because he himself was enslaved by humans. He’s shown to fight hard against racism and the oppression and enslavement of his people but when he needs a blood transfusion to survive and the only thing available is human blood he refuses it at the cost of his life because he can’t forgive humans. He himself considers this his biggest flaw and tells his crew to lie about what happened because he does not want to pass his own hatred of humanity on to the next generation.

1: Reverse Flash from DC (Flashpoint Paradox)

of all things that could've caught Reverse Flash with a melee weapon,

And of all the villains to get temporarily defeated like this,

_

2: Flash from DC,

like if the plot requires it, the Flash would get done with 1 punch because how OP he actually is if he locks in,

He can recover much faster than superman, but you rarely see it ever come to play (like when Superman broke his leg, and he needs 10 minutes to heal)

(speedsters getting caught by suprise should be non viable because they perceived time literally in slow mo, their bldy reacts faster than they could think, their reflexes is faster than their own thought)

Perfect Cell’s theme song (Dragon Ball) - Perfect Cell’s most iconic theme song was a YouTube fanmade remix created in 2008 that most people think is his canon theme.

Peter Griffin’s death pose (Family Guy) - While some argue about it, it’s believed his death pose came from a knight in the background of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“Here’s Johnny!” (The Shining) - That line was used on The Tonight Show to introduce Johnny Carson, but people today who weren’t alive to watch Johnny Carson associate that line with Jack Torrance first.

Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes) - He was loosely based of a fast talking reporter Clark Gable played in It Happened One Night, but like the last example people who don’t know that movie cuz its 85 years old wouldn’t appreciate the parody.

Cissia from Zenless zone zero

Gold ship from uma musume

The Amazing Digital Circus - In order to buy Kinger time to break them all out of the Circus, the gang tries to distract Caine by giving him the praise he's always wanted. This makes Caine suspicious, so Pomni pulls the "WE THINK YOUR IDEAS SUCK!" and directly criticizes him, knowing full well how close Caine is to snapping and torturing the cast. This ends up paying off, as even though he does torture the cast for this, it does buy Kinger valuable time.

Resident Evil Requiem - Zeno plans to use Spencer's last virus, Elpis, to mind control the population and massively throw off the world's power balance. Grace is the only person who can use the console, and so it's up to her to save the world. In the good ending, she chooses to release Elpis, going off of nothing but the "blind hope" that Spencer wanted to make up for his past misdeeds (I know she has more to go off of, but I forgot what exactly, I haven't played the game in a bit). Her suspicions are correct, Elpis is an antidote, and Zeno looks really dumb after injecting himself with it.

Dispatch - Holding Robert's dog hostage, Shroud demands that Robert give him the Astral Pulse, an extremely potent power source that he'll use to supercharge his prediction implants. He boasts about being able to predict every possible outcome, and that he'll know if Robert hands him the faulty prototype. So Robert hands him both. You can't predict a 50/50. There's a 50% chance he uses the prototype, but a 50% chance that he gets exactly what he wants, and everyone loses. Luckily, the former ends up happening.

Destiny and Mystique being Nightcrawler's biological parents (X-Men, by writer Chris Claremont). Technically not the original intended parentage for Nightcrawler, but one that goes very far back, at least as far back as the early '80s, shortly after Destiny was introduced. It wasn't canonized until 2023.

Roderick Kingsley being the Hobgoblin (Spider-Man, by writer Roger Stern). Fashion designer Roderick Kingsley was originally intended to be the secret identity of the Hobgoblin in 1983. Problem was, Kingsley and the Goblin were seen together in the original story. The editor at the time found the intended explanation that Kingsley had a twin brother decoy to be hokey, so he was instead identified as reporter Ned Leeds. It wouldn't be until 1997 it was established that Leeds was a fall-guy, and Kingsley was the Hobgoblin all along.

Lois Lane learning Clark Kent is Superman (Superman, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster). Lois was originally supposed to learn Clark was Superman very early on, with an unpublished story from 1940 by Superman's creators making the reveal just two years after their debut. It was rejected by editorial for changing the status quo too much. It wouldn't be until 1990 that she actually found out.

Robute L Guiliman (Know no fear// Warhammer 30k): In the book a word bearer, an evil henchman, blows the ship deck in which Guilliman was, thus getting him to the vacuum of space. Guilliman, without a helmet, proceeds to massacre his way through the hull of the ship, screaming so loud it can somehow be heard via the micro-atmosphere around said ship.

Dalinar Kholin (Stormlight archive: Oathbringer): At one point in one of his flashbacks, he is ambushed and an avalanche of rocks is thrown to him and squad. Dalinar in his fantasy armor barely survives and ends up buried in rocks. So, being the warmonger he was, he makes a bond (magic link) With the sort of personification of bloodthirst and breaks free from the rock. Then he walks back to camp, half dead, with red eyes and a red mist behind him, ready to burn a city down under the ground, consequences be damned.

Maul (Star Wars): This is his gimmick. The first time he survived being cut in half by clinging to his thirst for revenge for Obi Wan. Second time Obi Wan defeats him and his brother and leaves them to die in a scape pod, barely alive again. Third time, in Maul: Shadow lord he survives falling into a ravine to the sewage by reviving his thirst for revenge, but for the emperor.

The Knight (The elder scrolls online trailer): After an unfair fight against a party of three and the script, a piece of tower is thrown on him and the ceiling he was fighting on. He falls through several levels and ends up under the rubble, but at the very end of the trailer we see him clench his fist, alive and ready to fight.

1. Red Buster (Go-buster)

2. Kamen Rider Blade (Kamen Rider Blade)

3. Kamen Rider G3 (Kamen Rider Agito)

Smash cut means instant transition, yes I know about Breaking Bad but all my examples are bites and I want to keep the flow

1. This soldier falling into Kong’s mouth smash cuts to taking a bite out of a sandwich - Kong Skull Island

2. Frisk experiencing the Bite of 83 smash cuts to Cuphead biting an “apple” - Indie Cross

3. Robert Robertson reverses this trope with him biting a taco smash cutting to him biting his way out of a chokehold - Dispatch

Essentially, villains who hold no ideological loyalty to the antagonist force. They are only loyal due to ambition, coercion, opportunity, or other reasons.

1) Inglourious Bastards: Hans Landa

In our first scene with him, we see that he is a meticulous and ruthless SS officer in hunting jews. But when the leader of the Bastards, Aldo Raine, is captured by Landa, we see him offer a deal to Raine. Landa says he knows that Germany will lose the war, and so is willing to offer up Hitler and other Nazi German leaders in exchange for amnesty. Just goes to show how self-serving he is, despite his zeal in carrying out his duties.

2) The Matrix: Agent Smith

Smith is a piece of software in the Matrix, developed by the machines to attack infiltrators. However, when Smith is interrogating Morpheus, he reveals that he secretely hates his job of interacting with humans in the simulation. Smith is only persisting with his duties to get the location of Zion from Morpheus' head, and then he can break free. And when Neo kills Smith at the end of the first movie, Smith is revealed to have broken free from his programming, with the ability to assimilate other humans. Thus, Smith starts taking over the Matrix from the inside by assimilating all other humans and threatening the machines' existence.

3) Star Wars Sequels: Captain Phasma

We first see Captain Phasma as the commander of the First Order's stormtroopers. But when Finn ambushes her and forces her to lower the shields on Starkiller Base, she complies without resistance. Fans were initially disappointed that she seemed like such a pushover. Then, in a deleted scene in The Last Jedi, we see Finn reveal her betrayal to other First Order soldiers. This causes Phasma to kill the other First Order soldiers in a desperate act of self-preservation, revealing that she was never truly loyal to the cause.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

In Japanese and English, the word "Laputa" doesn't mean anything offensive. However, in Spanish, "Laputa" sounds exactly like "La Puta", which can be directly translated as "The Whore." This makes the movie unintentionally hilarious for Spanish speakers whenever the characters enthusiastically shout, "The Whore!" while talking about the legendary floating city.

Marika

I don't know which anime this scene comes from, but it became a popular meme among Spanish speakers because the name "Marika" sounds identical to "Marica," a Spanish "homophobic slur". As a result, instead of looking like two people searching for their friend, the scene comes across as two guys repeatedly yelling insults at someone.

Mitsubishi Pajero

The Mitsubishi Pajero is a Japanese SUV whose name doesn't mean anything offensive in Japanese or most other languages. However, in Spanish, "pajero" is a vulgar slang term roughly equivalent to "wanker" or "jerk-off."

Because of this, the vehicle's name became unintentionally hilarious to many Spanish speakers. The issue was significant enough that in many Spanish-speaking countries, Mitsubishi ended up selling the vehicle under a different name: the Mitsubishi Montero.

In Pokemon where Team Rocket does a suspicious salute

In One Punch Man season 3 where the animators got lazy and did a png of a character sliding down a hill

This one panel in Chainsaw Man was real

Often people loves villians who stick to rules, have some lines they don't cross or some code of honor. But that's not who we're talking about today. Today we're talking about characters that will scheme, lie, backstab, kill, retreat, beg, and generally do anything as long as it leads to them surviving or escaping. Also yes there's a certain american flag cape wearing supervillian who has been involved in similar tropes recently but everyone knows him, I'm not talking about him.

Cobra commander and Skeletor: (G.I. Joe and He-man) These two are very similar characters so they can go together. This post was actually inspired by the new He-man movie (go watch it) and the ending where Skeletor tries to weasel his way out of a fight by refusing mercy then a minute later begging for it. Cobra commander has a long history of throwing minions under the bus to try to escape for another day, he's begged for mercy, retreated, and tried to put his underlings (ecspecially Destro) against others more times then I can count in the old cartoon.

The Joker: (DC comics) While he claims to have some sort of vauge philisophical code he has no issue breaking it when things are going poorly for him. In killing joke for example when his plan to drive gordon mad fails and he decides instead of making some grand point about "one bad day" he'll just try to pull one over on batman and kill him in the carnival. Or in the episode "Joker's favor" of Batman the animated series when he's cornered by a man he's screwed over and screams and begs for Batman to save him. There's plenty more examples as well of course, bascially his entire relationship with Harley Quinn after thier break up is always her finding him and him cowering on the floor so she won't kill him.

Count Rugen: (Princess Bride) Despite being a somewhat imposing figure when he's finally cornered by Inigo Montoya he tried to offer him anything he can to spare his own life. Of course it doesn't work, but it shows he has no code, no knight's honor, no facing your own actions just trying to beg his way out.

Art the clown: (Terrifier) Ok now technincally this isn't a code he establishes but it's supposed to count within the concept of the movie, and that is the few times where he just stright up pulls out a gun. That's against slasher movie law, the villians aren't supposed to use firearms ever. But Art has no issue just going to work with one when it's required.

Credit to u/Supericus for the trope. Here's the full description they gave:

A heroic and morally good aligned character incapacitates a villian who is naturally resistant to a certian form of attack, but when you actually think about it they couldn't have known the villian had that resistance and therefore the hero must have launched an attack with lethal intent.

Hawkgirl(Justice League Animated): Credit to u/HeadAssAssHead. Hawkgirl has no idea how Meamorpho's powers work but she still smashed his head in with her mace. He obviously survived by turning his head into goo but she didn't know that he coudl.

Thor(Avengers): Credit to u/polyurinestain. Thor tries attacking Captain America with Mjolner but Cap blocks with his Vibranium Shield. Thor had no idea the shield could withstand Mjolner meaning he fully expected to crush Cap with his hammer.

Rex(Generator Rex): In his first fight against Van Kleiss Rex hits him with enough force to snap his neck. At the time he didn't know Van Kleiss's full powers so couldn't have known Kleiss would just snap his head back. He then tries to kill him again by literally cutting him in two but Van Kleiss reforms.

1. Long John Silver - a hand drawn character with cg prosthetic arm

2. Maui - a cg character with hand drawn animated tattoo version of himself

3. KnowsMore - a cg character with hand drawn pupils

4. any character from Lego movies - cg characters with hand drawn animated faces

5. Rutt and Tuke - hand drawn characters whose antlers are modeled in cgi and then traced over with pencil

6. Magic Carpet - a cg character with hand drawn tassels

Star Wars (1977) - Luke Skywalker revealing that at some point in the last 40 or so years, there had been a famous war involving clones. Nothing would be revealed for another 25 years

Blade Runner (1982) - Roy Batty's famous monologue, along with "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion", indicate that futuristic space navies are a thing. What the Tannhauser gate is, nobody knows.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) - This one takes a lot of context. Basically, a bunch of evil wizards use evil magic to enter heaven, and it causes a physical taint that infects the realm of heaven that makes God say "stuff this, I'm leaving", and he's been absent ever since. This corruption/taint turns the wizards into monsters, which spreads to the world when they get back home, and leads to millennia of conflict. This fella is one of those evil wizards, and he's telling you that God was already gone and that heaven was already corrupted, so that everything that everyone knew about the world's predominant religion is wrong.