The amazing world of gumball - the triangle: gumball is jealous of darwin skills while playing the flute, so when his instrument gets ruined by someone, everyone points fingers to gumball. The real person that ruined the instrument being leslie, if you pay attention at the moment he handles the instrument to darwin, you can see him put some gum inside of the flute.

Coyote vs acme: this one I caught it in the cinema, willie has tons of blueprints and the one that is used for planning the court outcome. If you look at it directly, you can see he was planning to make the roadrunner explode during the court session. Even before this is revealed.

1. The Rakata (SW Legends): an early force sensitive race whose vicious imperial expansion frequently devolved into enslavement genocide of conquered worlds not to mention their regular cannibalism make even the early Sith appear saintly in comparison.

2. Slaver’s Bay (ASOIAF): a cruel slavocracy in Essos that Daenerys seeks to upend.

3. The Coalition (Xeelee Sequence): child soldiers, thought crimes, xenocidal campaigns and abuse of its citizenry are only scratching the surface of this far future human empire.

4. Forkrul Assail (Malazan): a fanatical race that even killed their own God when they failed to live up to their expectations, their return is not a good thing.

5. Dwemer (Elder Scrolls): a somewhat more ambiguous example as their civilization has disappeared, however their treatment and species mutilation of the Falmer does not imply their values were benevolent.

Tiger 131: Fury

Part of the reason why the tanks depicted in Fury felt so weighty was because they were all restored WW2 tanks loaned from the Bovington tank museum. These included several M4 Shermans and the only original Tiger tank restored to running condition, Tiger 131. Unfortunately, to reduce wear on the tracks, Tiger 131 was only allowed to move back and forth. However, this can be explained in-universe as the tank having an inexperienced crew late into the war.

Candlelight: Barry Lyndon

Director Stanley Kubrick aimed to shoot the 18th century epic Barry Lyndon with no artificial lighting. However, this meant indoor and nighttime scenes had to be shot with candlelight, or with manipulated natural lighting. So after experimenting with different candles, lenses, and shots, Kubrick found the perfect formula that created the haunting compositions that the movie is famous for.

Onion Soup: Vinland Saga

During one episode, you can hear a medic in a Viking hospital ask for onion soup. At first, you may think the soup is for nourishment. However, it is actually an important tool of Viking triage. Medics would feed a wounded Viking onion soup and would try to smell it from their wound. If they could smell it, it meant that the wound perforated their gut and that it was untreatable.

Examples

1. In Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Ralph uploads a series of unremarkable videos to "BuzzzTube" (the movie’s equivalent of YouTube). The videos instantly become a global smash hit, garnering millions of views across diverse demographics. Realistically, if a creator uploaded videos of a video game character doing silly stuff, it might build a small niche following, but it wouldn't achieve overnight global fame.
2. In Free Guy (2021), the protagonist, Guy, becomes a worldwide phenomenon simply by acting slightly more realistic and polite than other NPCs. He goes viral as "Blue Shirt Guy", a name as unremarkable as the premise, and dominates mainstream media attention, leading to people campaigning for his freedom.
3. In Sleepless in Seattle (1993), a young boy calls a late-night national radio show asking for dating advice for his widowed father. The father joins the call and opens up about his grief, sparking a national phenomenon that receives widespread news coverage for over a week. As a result, thousands of women send him fan letters hoping to date him, entirely sight unseen.

(Edit: I retract Sleepless in Seattle, the 90s were a different time.)

Counterexamples

1. In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), three escaped convicts record a folk song under the name "The Soggy Bottom Boys" in a rural radio studio for a quick $10 cash payout. Unbeknownst to them, the track becomes a massive regional radio hit that ultimately saves them from execution and secures their financial future. In real life, the film's soundtrack became a genuine cultural phenomenon, winning multiple Grammy awards including Album of the Year in 2002 and going 8× Platinum, with the individual song winning Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

2. In Nathan For You ("Dumb Starbucks", S2E5), Nathan Fielder opens a functional coffee shop called "Dumb Starbucks" to exploit parody law and profit off brand confusion. The stunt was an accidental real-world success, generating international news coverage and drawing huge amounts of customers, with many speculating whether it was a stunt by street artist Banksy.

River Song (Doctor Who): If she doesn’t sacrifice herself here, then all the time she spends with The Doctor will never happen

Korosensei (Assassination Classroom): If he isn’t killed by the end of the year, then he will destabilize and die, destroying earth and killing everyone on it

Jason Brody (Far Cry 3): He goes from being a privileged, party-loving college student on vacation to a bloodthirsty tribal guerrilla fighter in a matter of days. The story explores how the jungle, and the urgent need to rescue his friends, shatters his psyche, until the act of killing ceases to be traumatic and instead becomes his very nature.

Leon S. Kennedy (Resident Evil): He was a rookie police officer who arrives in Raccoon City and faces zombies and mutant monsters. He would later become one of the deadliest characters in the franchise, but at that time, he was just a rookie cop.

Jim (28 Days Later): Jim was an ordinary delivery person who had an accident and fell unconscious. When he wakes up, a zombie apocalypse has broken out. For most of the film, he is very passive, but when the climax arrives and he must save his friends from a group of deranged soldiers, he transforms into a monster, wiping out the entire squad all by himself.

The timeline you've been watching/reading is revealed to be an already-altered one. It's not a stable time loop where the protagonist becomes the "future" version of themself. Something has been irreversibly altered, and this happened before the story started.

1). The Flash:
In the "original" timeline, Barry Allen becomes the Flash in 2020. And he grew up with both of his parents. His nemesis, the Reverse Flash, goes back in time and kills Barry's mother in an attempt to traumatize him out of existence. But the Reverse Flash gets trapped in the past, and is forced to re-create Barry's existence as the Flash in order to get home.
In this altered timeline, the Reverse Flash uses his knowledge of the future to speed up the development of the particle accelerator that gave him his powers. So, Barry becomes the Flash in 2014 instead of 2020.

2). Madoka Magica:
"Homura" is a mysterious magical girl who is extremely opposed to Madoka becoming one. We eventually learn that Homura has time travel powers, and became a magical girl after Madoka was killed. So, she went back in time to prevent Madoka from ever becoming a magical girl in the first place.

3). Pantheon:
The show is about "uploaded intelligences," or people who have uploaded their minds to computers. Every now and then the show has a "glitch" effect during the real-life parts of the story. At first you assume this is just for dramatic effect.
But the final two episodes show Maddie (one of the protagonists) lose her entire family. So, she uploads herself, downloads her mind into a satellite, and spends 100,000 years building a Dyson sphere. In this star-powered computer, she creates billions of simulated realities. Her goal is to create a "perfect" simulation so she can bring back her deceased loved ones.
The show we've been watching up until this point was never actually the "real world," which we never see. It was just the final, "perfect" simulation that the final Maddie created. And then it's revealed that THIS reality is just another simulation created by an even more advanced superintelligence.

4). Homestuck:
The comic is about playing a magic game. If you beat the game, you create a new universe. But in exchange, the players' home planet is decimated by meteors. That way, you either create a new universe to live in or doom your entire species to extinction.
The human players end up botching their game session. They get help from the "trolls," which are aliens who beat their OWN session of the game, creating our reality. When it becomes clear the humans have no chance at winning, they start researching a mysterious process called "the scratch."
If a group of players choose to "scratch" their game session, they are wiped from existence. Their planet is reset, and another group of players will get a chance to play the game again.
The trolls, who beat their game and thought they knew everything about it, are confused about this. It turns out they never knew about it because their game session had already been scratched. A group of troll players lost their game, and reset their session. Creating the new version that the trolls (who the audience met) beat.

Magikarp (Pokemon): famous for being useless, hard to evolve and good after evolving into Gyarados at level 20

M1911 (Call of Duty Zombies): the starting weapon you get when you start your game is very weak even on round 1, but if you keep it, unlock and use Pack-a-Punch, you'll get a dual wielded version that shoots explosives and stays strong for a lot of rounds.

Uber Pixie (Shin Megami Tensei 3): the first demon you get in the game as an ally. if you don't dismiss it from the party (or if you don't dismiss the demon it was fused with), the door rewards you with a late game build, which you can use to pass other doors that have stats checks, or use it to fuse stronger demons as it comes high level skills

1. h3h3 in Payday 2: Well before h3h3 became embroiled in controversy (Yes perfect time to karma farm ik), Ethan and Hila were added into Payday 2 as DLC characters complete with new weapons and a perk deck. This quickly became one of the worst DLC packs for PD2 as the voice acting from both is atrocious, the weapons aren't anything special, and experienced players stay far away from the perk deck as it does more harm than good to their builds. On top of all that, they just felt so unfitting for a heisting game, especially when they're not voicing original characters but rather themselves. There's already been crossover characters that made much more sense like Jacket from Hotline Miami, John Wick, and one no longer available through legit means, Tony Montana/Scarface, so h3h3's inclusion has felt like a headscratcher from the start.

2. Hiroshi Jackson from Screamer 2026 in Fortnite: Introduced as part of the ongoing Fortnite Season 7 Chapter 4, which is video game themed, Hiroshi Jackson is the protagonist of the 2026 reboot of racing game Screamer. Not hating on his skin (It looks fine) or his game in the slightest, but Screamer is incredibly niche and feels like a wasted spot when far more popular franchises like Kingdom Hearts, Sonic and Persona all made their debut this season, and we even already got skins from big IPs in the past like Halo, Resident Evil and Overwatch, so why bother picking him as your Fortnite skin over any other franchise?

3 and 4. Cup Noodle in Final Fantasy XV: Product placement is nothing unusual in gaming, but FFXV takes it a step above by not only adding Cup Noodle as food you can make, but also adding in a side quest that's basically just one big advertisement for Cup Noodle, and even a Cup Noodle hat Noctis can wear (See slide 4)

Me again. This time the intresting Trope that authors like to imagine a world in which almost everything bad is erridicated but also freedom is limited or close to non-existing

Brave New World: The most famous example. The world state erridicated sickness, aging, poverty and psychological pain by establishing a strictly regulated government in which everyone has his spot and is fed Soma a drug which makes you euphoric.

Jour J L'Etoile Blanche: Max Waterson the protagonist, prevents the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. In the following years he gathers through his press, money, resources and dedication immense political power. After a few uprising that were crushed the world is in 1999 a steralized confirmity dictatorship. Everyone has food, education, medicine and a place to live. In exchange all people wear uniforms and streets are patrolled by PAX Troops, there is no individuality and the people are euthanized when they reach the age of 100. The government follows even the principle of "positive eugenics".

Clark (Backrooms) - Clark, an abusive alcoholic who lost his house after his divorce who had no one left in his life but his two employees and his therapist, after discovering the insanity and bizzarreness of the Backrooms. The fact he is free to be his flawed self there without ever needing to change or having someone oppose him deeply appeals to him.

Viltrumites being sent to Earth (Invincible) - Viltrumites were power obsessed Darwinist society that raised everyone to be conquerors and nothing more. Grand Regent Thragg sent the remaining Viltrumites to Earth to repopulate and discreetly take over, but after feeling love and compassion for the first time in their lives, Kregg and Lucan completely give in. Kregg gets like 15 wives who he all loves and protects despite Thragg's orders to be distant, and Lucan marries one woman and has a child with her despite Thragg's orders to have as many children with different partners, with Lucan saying that he didnt want to because it would hurt her feelings.

Gilmore Girls

Cheating, running away from the altar, home wrecking, and a slew of terrible decisions committed by the title characters, both of whom always seem to find a way to play the victim in situations they themselves created. It’s a miracle either of them have a friend in the world left after the shit they pull.

The Notebook

The female lead cheats on her fiancé, an all around decent guy who trusts her implicitly, just before their wedding with the creepy, obsessive asshole who refused to take no for an answer.

This is apparently the most romantic thing ever, and not a horrible and selfish betrayal of a loving partner a week before their wedding.

The Office - Jim and Pam

I kind of like the office, but this is just hard to stomach.

Being concerned about your boyfriend or girlfriend hanging out and openly flirting with the girl or boy he or she works with is not controlling or annoying. It’s a perfectly rational concern.

A rocky relationship status does not constitute an excuse to cheat, even emotionally.

And when both parties that end up getting left are made out to be irrational or toxic bad guys in a true love story, that is not fair.

I’ve been thinking about games where the mechanics are incredibly fun to engage with, but the narrative seems to punish you for engaging with them in the way the game encourages you to.

Dishonored

Part of the fun is experimenting with your powers and finding creative ways to deal with enemies. You can stop time, set up elaborate traps, and pull off some genuinely hilarious kills. The problem is that killing people contributes to the plague and makes the world worse off. The game essentially punishes you for engaging with one of its most entertaining systems, with the best outcome encouraging you to play nonlethally instead.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

You have an arsenal of guns, gadgets, and tools at your disposal, and the game gives you plenty of freedom in how you approach missions. But if you give in to your more violent impulses, you eventually develop a literal demon horn, with your appearance reflecting your descent into brutality. The mechanical consequences aren’t particularly severe, but the narrative and visual symbolism make it clear that you’ve become a monster. It’s an interesting idea, though it does make you feel as if the game is judging you for using the tools it gave you.

Disco Elysium

Harry is a complete mess of a man, and part of the game’s appeal is figuring out how to navigate the world through skill checks. But what can help you pass those checks? Drugs and alcohol. They can boost your attributes and help you succeed in situations where you might otherwise fail.

The problem is that Harry’s journey is also about confronting his self-destructive behavior and potentially becoming a better person. Choosing sobriety is part of that redemption, but it also means giving up a useful mechanical advantage. You’re effectively being asked to choose between optimizing your character and committing to his recovery. There’s also something particularly tragic about the possibility that, even if Harry gets better, his history of addiction means he could relapse in the future.

The Last of Us Part II

The game’s exploration of the cycle of violence, revenge, and the possibility of choosing to be better is compelling. My problem is that the combat system is so lovingly crafted that it can make the violence itself incredibly satisfying.

Every blow has weight. Enemies react to being shot, stabbed, or beaten in ways that make the encounters feel visceral. The animations, sound design, and general responsiveness make combat genuinely engaging. You’re encouraged to master a system that makes violence feel good, only for the narrative to ask you to reflect on the cruelty of what you’ve been doing.

I understand that this contradiction is arguably intentional. The game wants you to experience the brutality firsthand rather than merely hear characters condemn it. But there’s still a tension between what the gameplay rewards you for doing and what the story wants you to feel about doing it.

I have a lot more in the tank for examples but I decided to leave it to you guys to share what games punish players for playing the fun way.

The Rowdyruff Boys (The Powerpuff Girls): They are the male but wicked counterparts of the Powerpuff Girls created by Mojo Jojo and after their death, they were resurrected by HIM, Brick (counterpart of Blossom), Boomer (counterpart of Bubbles) and Butch (counterpart of Buttercup).

BeelStarmon (Digimon): Originally as joke character due fan request of a female Beelzemon, BeelStarmon eventually became an actual Digimon in the franchises, in the game Digimon Time Stranger if you talk your BeelStarmon companion she complains about everyone calling her "Lady Beelzemon"

Linkle (Hyrule Warriors): During the development of Hyrule Warriors, Linkle was originally designed as a female version of Link. Linkle is a young woman who lives in a small village in Hyrule where she takes care of Cuccos as a shepherd and believes she is the reincarnated hero, while Link is a Soldier working in Hyrule Castle and the actual reincarnated hero.

Acts that, when done in the heat of the moment and without much knowledge of how hard they are, don't seem all that impressive. But people in the know of the lore or backstory of the universe realize that act, despite how simple it looked, are indicative of intense skill and talent.

Random Marauder (40k, And they shall know no fear): During the cool action sequence of astartes mowing down soldiers of chaos, a marauder with a horned helmet manages to dodge an axe blow.

While fairly impressive since viewers can see how proficient the astartes are, background lore suggest this to be a nigh-superhuman feat. Astartes move so fast only the most experienced and capable human warriors are able to see their movements in a hand to hand fight, let alone react and dodge accordingly, with people able to do so considered as master warriors and paragons of skill. While he doesn't last long after, the fact he was able to perceive, react, and almost counter after the astartes tried to lop his head off makes him easily the top 1% of human capability as a warrior.

Stark Jegan vs Kshatriya (Gundam Unicorn): During the opening fight of the unicorn gundam anime, a small team of soldiers encounter a key character of the story, who quickly intercepts them deals with the soldiers. That is, except the commander. Using a mix of clever tactics, he manages to force the fight into a close range duel, and almost beats the side character right then and there if not for a clever trick using the jets to blind him at the last second.
While already a little impressive, those with background knowledge of gundam realize this is one of the best displays of piloting seen in the series. Intelligently dealing with the drone lasers, a weapon known for being so lethal they're a turning point in weapons tech of gundam, and then fighting a psychic pilot flying a machine that has better speed, durability, every spec over your own, makes the pilot of what equates to a suped up van nearly beating a sports car in a race all the more impressive. Its to the point fans genuinely question if he was a psychic as well to come so close to beating her, and only dismiss it on the grounds a regular person being just that skilled is far cooler.

1.the Goddamn Resident Evil verse.

Literally nothing but zombies, killer animals of all kind,monsters,creatures, etc..

Literally just bullshit in any shape and form.

2.Gotham City in DC.

Anyplace with people like Killer Croc,Bane,Clayface,Joker,etc..is the worst to even live in cause almost all of those guys will kill you and destroy your life and the people you care about for shits and giggles.

3.Jujutsu Kaisen's world.

You basically have to deal with constant curses who only exist cause you have the audacity to feel negative emotions and they all come in many shapes and sizes,even Dagon has a massive body count.

And also,unless you're willing to throw away your humanity and morals + are born basically built different ,becoming a top tier is damn near impossible.

4.Berserk's world.

What more can I even say on this that hasn't already been said?

Like I could go on about Berserk but I think the world and such speaks for itself.

Will returns to his hometown of Philadelphia and his old friends remind that he has unfinished business with Omar the thug who caused Will to move to California. Carleton asks who Omar is, to which Will responds that Omar is the dude who spins Will around in the opening credits.- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

IIRC There's an episode where Raphael tells Donatello to fix the macguffin device of the week and Don asks him why he has to to do it. Raphael responds because "Donatello does machines" a line from the intro song.- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes

Leela crashes the Planet Express ship into a billbboard for Fishy Joe's in a manner similar to how the ship crashes into a giant TV screen at the end of the intro- Futurama

1. Sly Cooper in Egypt (After Sly Thieves in Time)

2. Mega Man Volnutt on the Moon (After Mega Man Legends 2)

The Shape of Water - Elisa Esposito, a mute woman working as a janitor, falls in love with the Amphibian Man. Unlike her fellow humans, he sees Elisa for what she is, as she is, and it seems that he is the first one to do so.

Wicker - The Fisherwoman and her Wicker Husband. He is soft spoken, kind, a good listener (and lover!) and fills the Fisherwoman's life with love.

The Liar Revealed is one of the most divisive tropes in fiction. Some are fine with it, but many, myself included, despise it as overused and cliche.

But... There exists a rare variant where a liar is finally ousted and they absolutely delight in being caught, because either their plan is coming to fruition, or they're just having a great time in the thrill of the chase.

Arasha lied (Smosh/IRL): If you haven't seen the three part epic that is Arasha's little prank on her coworkers at Smosh, it is insane. First was a subtle one, lasting only a week. She pretended to have booked Marvel (which would be HUGE for the small time actress), but the second, far greater one was her pretending to be engaged for six months. The reveal was DEVASTATING to her friends and lasted for way longer than the prank did, with some not finding out until way later. And now that she's leaving Smosh, some people don't know if she's even telling the truth.

Spy Master (Doctor Who): I don't watch Who, but apparently the 13th doctor was pretty contentious. However, this scene of her realizing that an MI6 agent is actually her old nemesis the master is absolutely delightful, with him just so excited to have his plan laid bare at last.

If we send enough men at the enemy, sooner or later they will run out of bullets and we will have won...

1.B1 Droid - Star Wars: Produced by Baktoid Armor Workshop for various buyers including the Trade Federation and later the Separatist Alliance, it was a simple droid about 1.93 meters tall that had the reputation of being the "worst soldier of the clone wars," and rightly so, weak, with little precision, slow, but with an advantage that makes them viable, they are very cheap and easy to mass produce, you can produce dozens of B1 droids for the cost of one specialized droid, and when you use them you don't send one B1 droid, you send hundreds of B1s.

Despite its reputation as a poor soldier, the B1 unit is also very useful for various jobs, not just cannon fodder. It can function as crew for the main ships of the Separatist Alliance, a job that should be done by clones or other organics on the Republic side, who are more valuable and not so replaceable. It can also carry out tasks that do not require specialist droids (civil security, protecting supplies, manning vehicles and turrets), which allows freeing up units to fight directly on the front lines.

1. Gaunt Broods - Warhammer 40k: If there was a unit more disposable than the Imperial Guard, it's the Tyranid foot soldiers: Termagaunts, Hormagaunts, Barbgaunts, and more variants, are sent to die en masse by the Tyranid swarm in order to bury the enemy in corpses, literally, they are even created without a stomach or digestive tract, they are not expected to live beyond a few hours after leaving the hatcheries, and even if they die the corpses will be taken to the digestion pools to be processed to recover the biomass and produce more Tyranids.

Despite their mindless horde image, gaunts demonstrate some intelligence. They are aware of their expendability and will attack any enemy that threatens a superior Tyranid organism (such as a Tyranid warrior) to save it or even commit suicide. Several gaunts have also been seen hiding among corpses and local wildlife to ambush the Hive Mind's enemies when it retreats or is repelled. This suggests that there is a guerrilla-like strain of gaunts capable of surviving beyond a few hours and possessing more initiative and cunning than the others.

1. Unggoy - Halo: The Unggoy, or Grunts, were the most recent species to be incorporated into the Covenant. They are used as cannon fodder by Covenant forces (they have a very high reproduction rate). For every Elite or Brute killed, you'll have taken out dozens of Grunts in your path. They are weak, their weapons usually do relatively little damage, and they frequently flee when you kill their officers... or they go suicidal, pulling out two grenades and charging at you. Although they seem to be the most pathetic enemies in Halo, perhaps this is because most are forced to fight for their Covenant masters. However, if they have quality training and weaponry, they can be more than capable of putting up a tough fight. Furthermore, if regular Grunts are motivated or enraged, they can cause a lot of trouble thanks to their numbers (as the Covenant saw during the Grunt Rebellion). They are also used as crew members in many Covenant defenses and vehicles (freeing up manpower), demonstrating a capacity equal to the other races also demonstrated a great capacity for learning... The Grunts were able to master up to 5 human languages ​​just by monitoring UNSC communications.

Nico (dmc5)- drives on ceilings and nearly kills v once

Haru (p5 strikers) - “I have a special technique”

Asian lady (family guy) - “good luck everyone else”

Cyberpunk Edgerunners

In this universe, the more technological implants someone gets, the greater the chance of suffering from cyberpsychosis, which causes them to lose consciousness and suffer hallucinations that lead them to go insane and kill everyone around them (except for Adam Smasher, who already has no compassion and therefore already has the disease)

Madoka Magica

To become a magical girl, one must enter into a contract with Kyubey, which requires the girl to relinquish her soul—transforming it into a "soul gem." This gem must be recharged using "witch seeds," which are obtained by killing witches. This traps the girl in an endless cycle: she will either die at the hands of a witch, or fail to recharge her gem and end up transforming into a witch herself.

Uma Musume Cinderella Gray

In the series, we see several examples of horse girls whose careers are cut short due to fractures. Even when this doesn't happen,it is explained that the immense physical toll taken by every race eventually reaches a point where their hearts can no longer pump enough blood to sustain such extreme exertion—a phenomenon reflected in what happens to Oguri Cap at the end of the series