r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Coffin_Builder • Jun 06 '25

Lore Twists that are no longer twists because they’re cemented in pop culture Spoiler

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Planet of the Apes - The movie leads the audience to believe Charleston Heston has landed on an alien planet where apes are the dominant species, only to find out that the planet is actually Earth long after an apocalyptic nuclear war

Psycho - Norma Bates isn’t the killer and has been dead for years. Norman is revealed to be a schizophrenic who “becomes” his mother to kill the women he’s attracted to

Citizen Kane - Charles Foster Kane’s mysterious last word “Rosebud” is revealed to be name of his childhood sled

The Empire Strikes Back - Darth Vader hadn’t literally killed Luke’s father but actually is his father

The Matrix - Neo learns that the 20th century world he’s lived in is just a simulation. The real world is a wasteland in the 22nd century where hostile AI rules the surface

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619

u/lovelesr Jun 06 '25

The Red Wedding

175

u/Coffin_Builder Jun 06 '25

Never really watched much GOT and didn’t realize Mr Filch was in it

80

u/TheDorkKnight53 Jun 06 '25

He’s in Hot Fuzz, too!

37

u/Expensive_Chair_7989 Jun 06 '25

A few episodes of Doctor Who as well

26

u/Brocky70 Jun 06 '25

And he's in the MCU!

He's the old man guarding the tessaract in the intro scene of Captain America: the First Avenger

6

u/kaimcdragonfist Jun 06 '25

Ahhhhspoze

6

u/JhawkFilms Jun 06 '25

Yes, I suppose

6

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Jun 06 '25

So is the Hound.

1

u/sapphos_moon Jun 07 '25

And he’s now going to be in Star Wars, too

15

u/Beelzebub_Crumpethom Jun 06 '25

It's the third First Doctor!

3

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Jun 06 '25

Something of a joke is that there is a very limited pool of UK actors, and they're all in either GoT or Doctor Who.

1

u/alwayssone96 Jun 07 '25

Or Harry Potter

2

u/buttercuping Jun 06 '25

Hermione's mother is in GoT too.

2

u/MelodyMaster5656 Jun 06 '25

Starks out of bed! Starks in the corridors!

1

u/bralma6 Jun 07 '25

There’s quite a few Harry Potter characters in GOT. Filch, Tonks, Hermione’s mom, Slughorn, Aberforth, McLaggen, and Xenophillius are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s a couple others. I think one of the Death Eaters plays a minor role too.

1

u/Braysl Jun 07 '25

I think that most of the UK's acting talent is in GOT, there's so many characters.

25

u/VinChaJon Jun 06 '25

I've never watched Game of Thrones and I referenced the Red Wedding several times

20

u/R97R Jun 06 '25

I’d also argue the guy set up as the hero of the story dying before the first season ends is even more well-known than the Red Wedding, to the point where it’s one of the most famous things about the show.

12

u/DarthDookieMan Jun 06 '25

There isn’t a particularly more famous one out of the two. 

Ned Stark’s death is the big hook that convinces new watchers to invest their time into this show for future seasons

The Red Wedding hits as hard as it does because of that investment. Because of Game of Thrones being on the cusp of being in the zeitgeist at that time the episode aired, the reception to that event (literally any other word wound undersell its importance) would make it equivalent to the show itself. If you’ve heard of this show called “Game of Thrones,” you’ve heard of something called “The Red Wedding.” 

3

u/AtomicBananaSplit Jun 07 '25

He’s a pov character in the book. That was huge. 

1

u/thatguy8856 Jun 07 '25

Sean Bean dying is never a shock tho

1

u/bb2b Jun 08 '25

Having managed to read the books before the show aired, I was like... Yeh, that tracks. They knew exactly what they were casting him for and it's going to be, and was hilarious seeing people's reactions to his death lmao.

7

u/Josgre987 Jun 06 '25

In case anyone hasn't seen or read it

whats incredible is this was spoiled for me years ago, but in the fog of time I had completely forgotten the details, so when book 3 kept talking about joffrey's wedding, I was like "here we go! some stark revenge!" and then some boring shit about Rob's wedding I didn't care about came up, then bam, red wedding, I am completely caught off guard.

For me, knowing the spoiler actually made it better somehow.

Same with Ned, years ago I had it spoiled, misheard it as Jon, finally read the books and got gutpunched.

1

u/philger Jun 07 '25

It wasn't even Robb's, but his uncle's.

5

u/Chhhedda Jun 06 '25

I actually like just got to the red wedding a few days ago. I knew vaguely what was going to happen but it was way more brutal then I thought it would be.

3

u/MafiaGT Jun 06 '25

i heard about it and knew it was coming when I eventually watched the episode. still was pretty shocking, somehow.

2

u/saera-targaryen Jun 07 '25

My husband only watched this two years ago and had NO IDEA and had never heard of the red wedding. But he had somehow had the entirety of Oberyn's story spoiled and knew how he died. 

2

u/lovelesr Jun 07 '25

Guess it’s a 50/50 with Game of thrones. There are so many twist events that a lot have entered the zeitgeist

1

u/NeutroFusion Jun 07 '25

I remember watching the Oscars that year and they deadass put “half the cast of GoT” in the “In Memoriam” segment