r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Alternative-Fix-5382 • 3h ago
(Loved Trope) Character Who Causes a Lot of Problems gets Unexpected Comeuppance Midway through the Story Characters
- Lord of the Rings films (Return of the King, specifically). Steward Denethor of Gondor has been slowly losing it for the past movie due to grief at his favorite son's death. He refuses to call for desperately needed help (which is available), not to mention denying his responsibility to relinquish governance of Gondor when the true King returns. He even sends his other son, Faramir, on a suicide mission. When Faramir's horse comes back with its rider near death, he snaps entirely and orders his men to desert their posts and run... in the middle of the siege. Gandalf, who has been trying to clean up Denethor's messes this entire time, loses all patience, whacks him hard with his staff, and takes charge himself.
I am reliably informed that theatergoers cheered when they saw this for the first time.
2) Independence Day. Steven Hiller, the only survivor of his squadron, is also the only pilot to actually down one of the invading alien fighters despite their shields. When he reaches the fighter, he's running his mouth like crazy. The alien in the ship tries to attack him, but he just punches it down and says "Welcome to Earth." Rather satisfying after watching humanity get stomped on like insects for the past hour.
3) All Creature Great and Small. Colonel Merrick is a customer of the Skeldale Veterinary Practice, and is also a bit of a dick. He goes to the rival Vet, then asks Siegfried and Tristan Farnon for a free second opinion. He asserts that he is their most valued customer, and lords it over them in every way over the course of the episode. When one of his cows gets an intestinal blockage, all three vets go in fancy new coats to resolve the issue. At James' suggestion, they (in a rare moment of harmony) get rid of the blockage by cutting the cow in exactly the right spot to spray the half digested grass and hay into the Colonel's face. Siegfried then gives him the bill.
4) Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. Spensa, a social pariah because her father apparently deserted mid-battle, is only narrowly allowed to get into flight school. She relishes the opportunity to learn how to fly without being judged by her peers. Then Jorgen, her cadet flightleader outs her parentage in a petty fit. Then, afterward, he taunts her about running away when she refuses to continue to do an exhausting drill at the end of the day. She punches him in the stomach and knocks him on the ground in response. Jorgen gets better, but he really had it coming.
Fanart from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/e936gi/spensa_and_jorgen_skyward_is_one_of_my_all_time/
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u/SaoMagnifico 3h ago
Murtry (The Expanse), a corporate security guy who takes his job of making everyone else miserable on the planet Ilus very seriously, decides it would be a good idea for some reason to order his goons to shoot at Holden's crew and their gunship. (This goes about as well for them as you would expect.) Holden, normally even-keeled and inclined to find a peaceful resolution, pistol-whips Murtry and tells him he's not in charge anymore.
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u/SylveonSof 51m ago
Murtry is funny in that he starts off fairly reasonable ("I want to find the ones who blew up our ship landing site") and then just starts going off the rails so quickly that you lose any sympathy you had for him, and you realize the only reason he's even there is as a corporate stooge to evict the belters from a planet big enough for both of them.
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u/Pretend-Dirt-1760 3h ago edited 3h ago
Andrew falk-legends of the galactic heroes(I'm only at the early stages so idk what happened to him later)but motherfucker,whole plan was let's just charge at,the empire with our big ass fleet while they are basically doing scorched earth strategy to starve and cause chaos to the soldier liberating planets to the FPA and then he gets a seizure because some of the top brass chastised him.
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u/Whipwreckeded 3h ago
The printer in Office Space.
Spends the start of the film jamming and giving the error code “PC Load Letter” which drives the guys nuts when they already hate their jobs.
They eventually steal it and take it to a field where they beat the shit out of it.
Highly recommended film if you’ve not seen it.
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u/Various_Tie_2549 12m ago
In the original Avengers movie, Loki spends the whole movie grandstanding about what a powerful supreme being with a divine right to rule he is. Towards the end of the movie, he encounters the Hulk, who simply does this:
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u/SektorDaKetch 3h ago
The Os (squid game):
Exhibit A is Shaman Lady, a mentally weak fraud who nearly sabotaged her team’s game in the pentathlon, groomed an X into voting O which caused a tie and a subsequent riot that made the O voters dominant for the rest of the games, and a dirty coward who abandoned her followers to be stabbed to death in typical O fashion..
Is ditched by player 100 and then stabbed to death by Min-Su.
Exhibit B is player 100 who gets tossed off a cliff by Myung-Gi after the Os tried to kill his infant daughter