King Shark - The Suicide Squad (2021): King Shark by all rights should be a menacing, terrifying beast and in most media he is. His redesign in The Suicide Squad and to an extent the Harley Quinn Show feel like much better fits. He makes a lot more sense as a benevolent, kind, or even dumb character that is protective and can rage out. Like Majiin Buu

Lego Batman - The Lego Batman Movie (2017): I was one of the batman fans that was really frustrated by his portrayal in The Lego Movie. I never liked a silly Batman, but my mind was changed with The Lego Batman Movie. I think in such a silly, slapstick world I really like a pathetic, loner who is roasted by Alfred lmao. Especially because Legacy of the Dark Knight brought back the serious Lego Batman and it was a reminder he can work either way

Any example of firearms being lazily or incorrectly depicted, whether for dramatic effect or simply because the writers didn't bother to check.

Rango (2011): Rango's Single Action Army is depicted with a swing-out cylinder. While extremely common in revolvers nowadays, the SAA used a loading gate, the cylinder was unable to be moved from its position without disassembling the firearm.

Ant-Man (2015): During the mexican stand-off, all of the characters are seen cocking the hammers of their Glock pistols, of which all models have internal hammers.

The Walking Dead S1E1 (2010): Rick tells the new guy to take the safety off his Glock 17, which has no external safety mechanism. Instead, he simply wiggles the slide release.

Grand Theft Auto IV (2008): When reloading the "Carbine Rifle", Niko will yank on an imaginary charging handle and wills 30 new rounds into the magazine with the power of happy thoughts and well wishes. While crouching, he does replace the magazine, however.

Various FPS Games: In many depictions of weapons where the fire selector is visible to the player, more often than not it is set to "Safe", if not completely broken, such as the case of the M16A4 in Modern Warfare 3 (2011).

What If - In one of the comics Miles becomes Thor, and it's full of stereotypes about black people such as the Mjolnir having graffiti on it and the infamous "by Odin's fade"

Emilia Perez - Everything about the movie

A shot is set up in such a way where it looks fine from one angle, then they reveal another that makes it look way worse

Infinity War - Thanos reveals Nebula hanging up imprisoned, then when the camera follows Gamora going to her we see that mechanical components are stretched out and her head and body are in pieces.

Breaking Bad - Hector sets off a bomb in a murder suicide against Gus but he seems to walk out fine impossibly, then the camera moves to in front of him and you see half of his face is just not there anymore.

Zuko/Jin - Avatar: The Last Airbender: This was the result of Mai not being very well-liked by a segment of the fandom. Many people adore this character, even though she barely appears on screen. She doesn’t even have an entire episode to herself; her role is limited to a brief segment within an episode that is, in reality, a collection of short stories. However, many people prefer it—perhaps, regrettably—because they feel that Mai was given a rather strange and unpleasant attitude toward Zuko, not only in the series but also in the comics.

Ava Ayala / Peter Parker - Ultimate Spider-Man: This series didn't have romance, but I bring it up because, in the final seasons, there is a strong romantic undertone between Mary Jane and Peter. The problem is... the Mary Jane of this series was an extremely bland character who literally turned into Carnage for some reason I cannot understand. Ava, on the other hand, had a whole episode centered around her—an episode that many consider one of the best in the series. It compared the tragedies of both characters losing the most important person to them and wanting to be better. Additionally, she was the only one of his friends who not only understood his tragedy, but also the one Peter opened up to about what happened with Uncle Ben.

Ester / Ben - Ben 10: Omniverse: They had great chemistry right from their first appearance in Omniverse. Julie only wanted the human side of Ben, while Kai was only interested in his alien side. Ester, being a hybrid herself, cared about both facets of Ben.

1. Sekhmet reclaims her power from drolta who was once a priestess in the former's temple while making it very clear that she does appreciate drolta's attempts to bring her back. (Castlevania nocturne)

2. Blue fangs. A night creature who specifically calls out the bishop for his role in bringing down Dracula's wrath. The priest claims his work was in God's name but blue fangs retorts that "your life's work makes him puke" (Netflix Castlevania)

Pheobe (Pokemon) Wears a blue beach outfit with floral patterns and flowers on her head, surely she’s a water type Pokemon Trainer, right? No she’s actually a ghost type trainer

Hinako (King of Fighters) Small cute looking girl in a dress, you’d think she’s one of the obligatory “cute girl” fighting game characters, she’s actually a sumo wrestler and heavy grappler

Bob (Tekken) Due to his weight you would think he’s a slow, big body grappler style character, but he’s actually super fast all rounder with heavy mobility

1. In JoJo's bizarre Adventures Part 3, Kujo Jotaro is voiced in the English dub by Matt Mercer. When Jotaro mentions "If this were the wild west, the hero would say 'It's high noon' <...>" - a direct reference to Cassidy's Special move in Overwatch, Cassidy also being voiced by Matt Mercer.

2. In Spongebob, at one point Mr. Krabs is giving up his soul to the Flying Dutchman, but he tries to convince him, that actually he's not Mr. Krabs, he's Harold. Harold Flower. While just a random name in the original, referencing only the flowers next to his bed, the German dub actually changes the name "I am Benjamin, Benjamin Blümchen" (Blümchen being a dimunitive of flower) - a famous kid's TV character, who happens to be voiced by the same voice actor.

Deep-State Corporate Cover-Ups (K-Pop: Demon Hunters)

During a subway train fight, Huntrix failed their mission and let the swarm of demons suck the souls out of an entire train car full of commuters, vaporizing their physical bodies instantly and leaving nothing behind but piles of clothes. Because background news reports explicitly show that "missing persons cases have tripled" across Seoul, we know the victims aren't magically erased from history by their families cause their loved ones are still actively grieving them. This means the girls' management agency operates a deep-state shadow government that sits entirely above national law; to protect the group's brand image, the corporate executives must actively bribe thousands of grieving families, weaponize the mainstream media to gaslight the country into normalizing mass disappearances, and completely confiscate or erase government CCTV surveillance footage before the police can even arrive. If it's only a few individuals then it can be filed as normal missing person reports, but a whole train of passengers vanishing would definitely make into global news outside of South Korea yet the general public is still not aware of demons.

The Baby Corp Supply Chain (The Boss Baby)

Because all babies are manufactured on a giant conveyor belt at Baby Corp and sorted into "Management" or "Family Material," traditional human biology is completely irrelevant. Adult humans in this universe possess no biological reproductive capabilities, meaning humanity has completely broken off from Earth's natural evolutionary tree to become a species of corporate-manufactured clones. To make it even darker, official timelines reveal Baby Corp has existed since around 100,000 B.C., meaning that while prehistoric humans were discovering fire and painting on cave walls, a celestial corporate board of directors was already sitting in a high-tech skyscraper, drinking anti-aging formula, and managing the planet's population. Who even built Baby corp and do they just skip basic biology class at schools ?

Basically everything about this franchise (Cars 1/2/3 )

In Cars 2, they go through intense airport security checkpoints where they have to take off their tires like shoes, and in Planes, the Twin Towers are visibly missing from the NYC skyline meaning a Car 9/11 is absolute canon. Because planes are sentient living beings, it means aircraft were either radicalized into willingly committing acts of mass terror or were violently hijacked and forced to use their own screaming, living bodies as weapons. By extension, this means Car World Wars, a Car Hitler, and probably a Car Jesus too due to the existence of the Catholic Church via the Pope. On top of that, their society is built on a brutal caste system where your shape determines your freedom; if you are born a Ferrari, you are a wealthy celebrity, but if you are born a commercial jet/train/cargo ship, your anatomy dictates you are a literal slave-class, destined to spend your life parked in isolation and can't have social life because of your size, opening up your torso to let other cars sit inside your internal organs. Not to mention there are vehicles that get treated as animals ( the cows, insects and birds )

=> These are like details that were never really specified during the show or magically handwaved away but audiences can deduct by themselves from watching, a rabbit hole you may say.

Edgar the bug (men in black): giant cockroach monster using the skin of a dead man to try to look like a human, but is obvious that doesn't know how to do it and doesn't care to even put his neck right.

The pale visitor (no, I'm not human): All the visitors in the game are trying to look like humans, this one is described as a man that his skin doesn't fit with his body, a face that is always stretched and a chest and arms of completely different proportions. The game doesn't even try to hide that there's no way this one could be a person.

Kai (dorohedoro): wants to make dure that everyone knows that he's beyond sorcerers, but doesn't want to reveal what he actually is, so he just flashes people with some inhuman detail like eat like an animal, throw black and sludgy blood or ignore how mirror works.

The G-man (half-life): not as physical as the other examples, but still counts. The G-man not only his behaviour and totally Supernatural abilities, but also the way he speaks full of pauses and tone shifts that shouldn't be there.

Andor and Mon Mothma: When Mon Mothma made her scathing speech against the empire, she had turned herself into the prime target for the ISB (Star wars Gestapo), and taking her off the planet was the only way her safety could be ensured. However, escaping from the authorities and hiding underground wasn't something she had ever done in the relative "luxury" of her life until then.

When Andor arrived for rescue, he was very reassuring and understanding of Mon Mothma's background, and never acted in a condescending way while trying to get her off the planet. A crappier show would have made the protagonist smug and belittle their more privileged counterpart, but not Andor.

Bronn and Tyrion (and Jaime as well): Not the perfect example, and even if it was for his own person gain, I always loved how he treated both the bothers with respect for who they were, despite coming from a vastly different background. I presume, this kind of relation's quite uncommon in the world of Game of Thrones, that's rife with disparities of all kind, and hence made Bronn's attitude even more endearing to me.

- Behemoth from NIKKE: Goddess of Victory: She is a Heretic whose Dark Matter coating enhances her physical abilities. This liquid is actually made up of nanomachines and during a fight between Behemoth and the Commander's squad the Commander decides to use his special blood because it can interfere with and destroy nanomachines. To do this he comes up with the idea of smearing his blood onto Behemoth by punching her. The punch itself doesn't make a dent but the blood works and causes her great pain while disrupting her Dark Matter to the point where they almost kill her. However later in the arc Behemoth awakens her full Heretic form and the Commander's blood is the main reason behind the transformation. This new form makes her strong enough to start winning against the entire squad in a 1v6.

-The Gremloblin from Gravity Falls: After escaping thanks to Mabel's kindness in leaving it a key so it could leave its cage for a five-minute break, the Gremloblin goes on a rampage. To stop it, Dipper tries to read about its weaknesses in the journal. He reads, "When fighting a Gremloblin, use water..." and Mabel immediately dumps water on it, only for Dipper to finish reading the sentence on the next page: "...only as a last resort, as water will make it much, much scarier." The water causes the Gremloblin to grow bigger and develop spikes, making it even more dangerous.

-Anaconda Virtue from LISA: The Pointless – Scholar of the Wilbur Sin: Anaconda Virtue is a boss who primarily uses fire to attack you, so you might think to use Wet debuffs to extinguish his flames. This actually works, and he simply reignites himself. However, if you extinguish his fire a second time, he gets angry, restores all his health, gains new moves, and can even inflict a permanent debuff. So basically your attempt to exploit his weakness ends up making the fight considerably harder.

Spider-Ham (Spiderverse): During the final sequence of the first movie, Spider-Ham says the famous phrase ''that's all folks'' which is a callback to another famous pig (Porky Pig from Looney Tunes). One of the producers said that they pondered alot about if it was ok or not to use it, but ultimately having no issues having it on the film.

Dawn Greenwood (Marvel): The Silver Surfer and his companion Dawn Greenwood face off against a bizarre villain powered by pure imagination who summons a massive wave of fictional heroes and main characters to attack them. Dawn gets very close to recognizing them before she pulls back. The whole arc is also full of Doctor Who inspirations, said by the writer Dan Slott himself.

Isagi Yoichi (Blue Lock):
Isagi is a very kind and well-mannered person when he's talking to someone outside of football/soccer. His early interactions with Bachira are so fun and playful. On field, his 'ego' completely absorbs him. This is where you get the "Js pass the ball" and "Two loving parents btw" comments. I love it.

Jabami Yumeko (Kakegurui):
I just recently rewatched Kakegurui and I did not remember how polite and sweet she was. Her interactions outside of gambling and even WHILE gambling she maintains this sweet demeanor. Only when the stakes raise and she experiences true gambling, she truly lets loose.

The reason I love this so much is because it separates the line between daily life and the game. Obviously deviant behavior isn't acceptable in everyday situations, but in game, these are the raw, unadulterated reactions. You really feel how they feel in the moment because of the contrast. If Isagi was perma raging or Yumeko was always like.. that.. it wouldn't really hit the same.

Nico Robin (One Piece) She starts off very calm and reserved, with a weird morbid sense of humor but over the course of the show she starts becoming more expressive and goofy like all the other members of the Strawhats

Nebula (Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy) Throughout the first and second film along with the Avengers movies, she is very stoic and serious and will probably hurt you if you look at her the wrong way. But in GOTG three she is noticeably a lot more expressive, smiling more and making jokes and she has funny moments like the rest of her group

Sometimes a character can have more than one partner, and the game might seem like it doesn't plan to punish you for that, but that's not how it works here. Being too clever can lead to an ultimatum, or worse, a punishment, like someone who works in a mixed environment with drama happening every other day between colleagues. It's the norm.

1. Yennefer or Triss - choose one or neither - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Of all Geralt of Rivia's love interests, only two can be considered more than just a one-night stand: Yennefer of Vengerberg (his oldest love interest) and Triss Merigold (Geralt's love interest during his amnesia and his most recent). If you complete their quests and make it clear that you intend to try to rekindle the relationship, you can attempt to revive the flame. At first, they might not seem mutually exclusive, but that's not the case. If Geralt is too greedy and tries to rekindle the relationship with both, it will end in a side quest where you're invited to a threesome and left tied to the bed. For those less familiar, this means you've messed up. You can't have both, and you'll end up with the ending where Geralt doesn't end up with anyone, remaining single. a witcher walking the path, jumping between contracts.
2. You can only keep one - Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader: You are the rogue trader, heir to the von Valacius trade patent, a document signed by the God-Emperor himself granting you almost complete freedom to do as you please, as long as it contributes to the glory of the Imperium. You have planets at your disposal, billions of subjects, relics, and riches, but you cannot have more than one lover. As a rogue trader, you can establish relationships with your retinue, and if you complete their missions, these relationships can progress to romance. These romances may or may not include (a navigator, a cold trader, an Ordo Xenos inquisitor, a death cultist, a member of the Adeptus Arbritres, an Aledari, a Drukhari...). The power of the patent is glorious, but at a certain point in Chapter 4-5, if you have established relationships with more than one person, you will receive an ultimatum. Kleptocracy can be tolerated. Shameless, unbridled greed, alien trade, heretical relics, trafficking in chaotic objects, iconoclastic decisions against the emperor's good judgment, but not polygamy, and they all seem to have conspired to put you in a difficult position. Choosing one cancels out the other romances, so choose wisely or if you prefer, don't choose any at all. You're the rogue trader, they can't impose conditions on you... and you'll be left alone like at the beginning.

1. "They keep running" by @ssadev

Recording of family celebrating birthday only to immediately cut to cameraman being in the Backrooms with blood across the floor and the trail leading to the dark hallway, all the while cheerful music plays in the background, before hearing someone's scream and running away Did they all end up in the backrooms and an entity slimed them and the cameraman survived? Who knows. But the fact that you don't see the actual monster makes one shit bricks, and it's also unknown whether a family member screamed or it's the entity like Kane Pixel's bacteria mimicked the voice of its victim

1. Blair Witch

Too on the nose here but the uncertainty is still here.

Mike leads Heather down the basement to get away from witch before he ends up staring at the corner still, Heather screams in terror seeing the witch (which cannot be seen on cameras or mirrors) in front of her and backs away before she gets instantly knocked out by the entity

This is by far one of if not the most beautiful tropes that anyone could ever put into a Sci-Fi/Fantasy universe and that is a FACT. Imagine walking outside at dusk and seeing the moon, shattered into pieces, spread across the sky.

Image Sources
Oblivion
The Time Machine
Titanfall 2

Basically the “bait and switch” trope, but with the villain’s identity. The story sets up one person to be the main antagonist, only to reveal that the REAL main antagonist was just biding their time. Maybe they had a plan they wanted to get into motion first, maybe they weren’t involved in the story yet, or maybe they’re just starting to become villainous. A twist villain can also fall into this category, provided that, in their twist, they supplant another lesser villain to become the main threat of the story.

Characters in this trope get bonus points if they beat or kill the previously assumed main villain in a fight.

Examples (SPOILERS BELOW):

Kilmonger from “Black Panther” (2018): the example that inspired this post. Both “Age of Ultron” and the first act of this film set up Ulysses Klaue, the delightfully evil Afrikaner arms dealer played by Andy Serkis, to be the main antagonist. But after evading our heroes, one of his henchmen abruptly kills him, right after revealing his Wakandan heritage. That henchman is Erik “Kilmonger” Stevens, and his evil ambitions far exceed his former boss’s.

Azula from season 2 onward of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2006): throughout season 1, the exiled Fire Nation prince Zuko is the most persistent threat to Team Avatar. At the start of season 2, his sister Azula travels to the Earth Kingdom, initially seeming like she wants bring Zuko back into the family. But once her true intentions are revealed, she attacks him, places a bounty on him, and makes his exile seemingly permanent. While Zuko remains in the story and still has moments of antagonism on his path to redemption, Azula becomes a much bigger active threat to Team Avatar than Zuko ever was.

Tetsuo from “Akira” (1988): at first, the main antagonist appears to be Colonel Shikishima. He’s responsible for public order in the corrupt cyberpunk hellscape of Neo-Tokyo, which he maintains with extreme force, and orders the detention of Tetsuo, the best friend of our main protagonist Kaneda. However, Tetsuo was detained for a reason - he starts developing godlike ESP powers, rampages trough the hospital he’s being detained at, confronts Shikishima and the other ESPers, and then leaves to find the remains of Akira, tearing a path of destruction and violence through Neo Tokyo as he goes. Shikishima tries to stop this, throwing everything he as at Tetsuo before eventually being indirectly killed by him.

Tighten from “Megamind” (2010): a rare example of this trope being done with a villain protagonist. After Megamind seemingly kills Metro Man and gets everything he ever wanted, he grows bored and decides to recreate Metro Man so he can have a nemesis again. The person he builds up as this new hero, Hal Stevens Hal Stewart instead acts upon his worst aspects once gaining godlike powers. Donning the name “Tighten,” he demonstrates himself to be far more openly malicious and evil than Megamind ever was, and Megamind completes his heroic turn by stopping Hal.

EDIT: slight mistake: Shikishima doesn’t die. I thought he got killed when Tetso entered his final form, but I just forgot that the ESPers teleport him away. Whoops.

I’ve seen “Akira” tons of times in both English and Japanese. I honestly have no idea how I made this mistake.

EDIT 2: Hal Stewart, not Hal Stevens. God, I need to fix my sleep cycle.

Van Pelt (Jumanji) - This man-hunting murderer makes it clear that he could easily slay anyone who stands in his way, but the rules of the game forbid him from fatally wounding anyone but the specific player who summoned him.

Killers (Dead By Daylight) - Pawns in the Entity's twisted bloodsport are (usually) forbidden from outright killing their targets. Only after correctly performing enough ritual sacrifices are they permitted to satisfy their own bloodlust.

The Counter of the Mountertain (Squidbillies) - A flesh-eating monster that stalks the Appalachian wilderness in search of vulnerable prey. His obsessive compulsion forces him to extend and retract his claws exactly 36 times before he can attack, which commonly grants his would-be victim ample time to escape.

The Voice (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) - This unseen power (Satan himself?) wants nothing more than to warp you into a pocket dimension where his axe-wielding minion, Dennis, waits to chop you into pieces. He can't do this on a whim, though - consuming the entirety of the Broodwich is a prerequisite to him claiming your soul. Picking off even a single sun-dried tomato will prevent his powers from taking full effect over you.

B.R.A.Ds (Jurassic World Camp Cretacious)

In the fourth season, the series suddenly transformed into a science fiction story reminiscent of Star Wars or ARK: Survival Evolved. After accidentally ending up at a Manta Corp experimental site while trying to escape Isla Nublar by sea, the children find themselves in a place used for dinosaur fighting rings and illegal sales. The facility features domes that replicate the dinosaurs' natural habitats, along with robotic dinosaurs that handle all the work of protecting and managing the animals

Shadow Wing (How To Train Your Dragon: The Race of the Edge)

Hiccup and Toothless accidentally stumbled upon an island inhabited by a species of dragon where a larger individual uses smaller ones—positioned on its wings—much like the gun turrets found on an airplane. This dragon species appeared in only one episode and was never mentioned again

Muscular horse girls (Uma Musume Cinderella Gray and Uma Musume Star Blossom)

More muscular horse girls only appear in these two spin-offs; unfortunately, they are limited by the lack of corresponding 3D models to represent them with more muscle mass (I really hope they add them—for heaven's sake!).

- Paul Bunyan from Fate/Grand Order, when she was a kid she could grow as far as you could see and become gigantic, once she becomes a teenager she defaults to an "average" height.

This is implied to be because the change in size is tied to her emotions and she's now insecure about others around her not liking her that much, she now only grows after getting a bunch of likes online.

- Gohan from Dragon Ball, when he was a kid struggling he was a prodigy, strong enough to knock down enemies way older than him and defeat threats not even his dad could.

But as he moved on to an era of peace and dedicated himself to his studies, work and family he continuously slacked off in training and nearly every project he's in he's having to catch back up with a quick training or power up to hold his own in the field, hopefully this stops after his recent movie but who knows.

When it comes to level of dumbness in a character, I'm not talking like the Too Stupid to Live trope. More akin to The Ditz or Cloudcuckoolander, where they won't press the red button because they're too distracted by the blinking lights on the console. There can be well written airheads that don't dip into absurdity.

1. Zoey (K-Pop Demon Hunters): Zoey has shades of this, as she initally thought the Saja Boys were magicians and was naive enough to believe Dr. Han's scam. But, she is also responsible for writing the group's songs and can come up with at least 57 solutions upon hearing Rumi's vocal issue. She's also emotionally intelligent enough to be in-tune with her friends' true feelings.
2. Lindsay (Total Drama): Lindsay has a big heart and pure intentions, but other contestants are frequently annoyed by her lack of smarts, however she also has gone beyond expectations to solve problems in a Columbo-style manner.
3. Rowley Jefferson (Diary of a Wimpy Kid): Rowley is not very bright and often does silly things that end up getting Greg and himself in trouble, but he has is very caring and always wishes the best for everyone despite his parents' over-protectiveness preventing him from experiencing new things.
4. Kronk (Emperor's New Groove): Kronk is oblivious, devoid of common sense, and not very intelligent but he is also a genuinely kind person, and enjoys helping those around him. Despite not being as smart as Yzma, he does point out many flaws in her plan and is better at remembering her plans than her.

This trope refers to characters whose height is disproportionate compared to the rest of the cast (they do not possess any gigantification powers or anything of the sort; they are simply exceptionally tall).

1-[Baki]: Jack Hanma, who stands approximately 2.43 meters tall.

2-[One Piece]: Whitebeard stands 6.66 meters tall.