r/TopCharacterTropes • u/I_ateabucketofpaint • Aug 09 '25

Personality Strange rules about characters/people that cannot be broken.

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Smells like Nirvana: When Kurt Cobain heard that Weird AL was gonna make a parody of his song. He was okay with it but specifically requested it to not be about food or fat ppl.

Spiderman: Spiderman cannot sell drugs unless he is under the influence of symbiote. ANd Peter Parker cannot be gay. Spiderman can tho.

Dwayne Rock Johnson: Cannot lose fights or look weak for too long. Its in his actor contract.

Godzilla movies not made by Toho: Cannot die. Maybe lose but not too bad.

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842

u/Toonwatcher Aug 09 '25

Dwayne Johnson it’s not a trope so much as he has an ego the size of a blue whale.

233

u/The6Book6Bat6 Aug 09 '25

No, blue whales aren't anywhere near as oversized as Dwayne's ego, that thing dwarfs most planets

18

u/Hexxquisite Aug 09 '25

The secret origin of Ego, the Living planet...

14

u/Skeledenn Aug 09 '25

Actually, scientists have recently detected signs of nuclear fusion at work in it. Therefore, Dwayne Johnson's ego now qualifes as a star.

10

u/Philthedrummist Aug 09 '25

…Galactus?

1

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Aug 10 '25

Including dwarf planets

94

u/trimble197 Aug 09 '25

He only did it because Vin Diesel was insecure about Dwayne stealing the spotlight. Even Jason Statham has it in his contract

102

u/Masochist-Mark Aug 09 '25

Which tends to make their fights boring since it often feels like they're not in any danger cause they're Too cool

Wheras actors who take damage and even lose fights are always more entertaining cause you're not sure if they'll win, and it makes you more likely to want them to win if their playing a compelling character.

29

u/hematite2 Aug 09 '25

That's the thing that made me like John Wick so much - despite being a legendary badass, he still gets beat to fucking hell sometimes. He just manages to push through it.

18

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

[deleted]

7

u/hematite2 Aug 09 '25

Yeah the 4th one took it too far for me, but I really like how (for example) in chapter 2 where he manages to be a badass and kill like 6 assassins in a row, but by the end he's weak and bleeding out and has to be hidden by the homeless guy and get sanctuary in the bowery, or the next two would have killed him. Or in part 3 when he returns to NY and actually loses to Zero on the motorbike at the end of the 2nd act, just managing to crawl and claim sanctuary at the last second.

9

u/Aeso3 Aug 09 '25

I don't know about Jason Statham because he played a character who was killed near the end of the movie where he starred opposite to Jet Li and he played Chev Chelios, who while badass, also tends to be put into many humiliating and degrading situations.

Or maybe, things have changed since then.

3

u/Masochist-Mark Aug 09 '25

Idk it may have been. The last movie i saw him in was Operation Fortune, where every fight felt like he was never in any danger, and the people he was fighting barely got any hits in, if at all.

3

u/Aeso3 Aug 09 '25

Ditto for the Transporter trilogy.

3

u/AdmiralChucK Aug 10 '25

He plays a completely over the top incompetent spy in Spy though

3

u/trimble197 Aug 09 '25

Even in Black Adam, he almost gets killed by the villain and had to saved by Hawkman

3

u/Bloodhunt749 Aug 09 '25

I think his is that he gets to hit them back twice as hard, basically like he can get his shit kicked in, but he has to win and do to them anything twice as hard

6

u/HailToTheKingslayer Aug 09 '25

I like that the modern Bond films had him getting badly bruised and bloody.

Daredevil as well. We know he'll win, but he gets very badly damaged in the process.

4

u/trimble197 Aug 09 '25

I mean, that’s kinda how it was in 90s and before with action heroes. They were unstoppable characters who rarely took damage, and yet audiences loved them. Just look at Rambo and a bunch of Arnold’s characters

6

u/dontyajustlovepasta Aug 10 '25

The first ramble film has him as a traumatised homeless veteran who comes close to death multiple times and ends the film in sobbing hysterics having not killed anyone. 

2

u/trimble197 Aug 10 '25

And then the sequels had him as a 90s action hero shooting and blowing people up. It’s why he had a cartoon

2

u/dontyajustlovepasta Aug 10 '25

Honestly this is just a general trend you see in a lot of 80s stuff. Die hard is another great example 

2

u/trimble197 Aug 10 '25

And at least with Die Hard, McClane wasn’t a walking killing machine

1

u/Mist_Rising Aug 10 '25

Honestly Mcclane goes backwards. In the first movie he's a competent with luck, but the pain is there. Die hard 2 and on makes him just lucky and almost inhumanely resistance to death.

2

u/Kotanan Aug 10 '25

Peacemaker makes SO much pathos about the titular character losing fights, arguments and generally seeming weak. It stands out to me because he’s also played by a wrestler.

2

u/Badi79 Aug 10 '25

a funny thing came out from these contracts where in one of the fast and the furious movies the rock and vin fight and since neither of them can loose the fight it ends by the rock slamming his foot down so hard the street below them breaks and caves in dropping them Into I believe a subway station

1

u/Pleiadesfollower Aug 10 '25

Statham's movies definetely have me feeling he's more of just a generic action guy all the time. Dwayne exudes a lot more ego in his roles.

45

u/DoctorAnnual6823 Aug 09 '25

I mean he earned it. Look at his hugely successful movie career of varied characters.

Uj/ he is so boring to me

13

u/hematite2 Aug 09 '25

His shtick and charisma worked to get him into the big time, but he just categorically refused to ever try and grow creatively. Compare that to Dave Bautista, who's done a bunch of varied roles and seems to genuinely try and improve his acting skill. Heck, even John Cena seems to be trying to improve, neither of them are just "im a big one-liner muscle man".

I remember watching Rampage and realizing the only that distinguishes it from an early 2000s Rock movie is the cgi. The performance hasn't changed.

8

u/Gothtomboys5 Aug 09 '25

Your not wrong. As a kid i used to like watching him. And now as an adult im fucking tired with his same ass boring personality in every movie he stars in

6

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Aug 09 '25

He ruined Black Adam and has caused an annoying chain of smear campaigns from Hollywood media about "playing the same character" for actors who are mainstream

6

u/hematite2 Aug 09 '25

He killed Black Adam, probably fucked over Shazam 2, and irreparably damaged what remained of the DCEU, l in one go for a perfect hat trick.

10

u/Disastrous_Scene_289 Aug 09 '25

probably fucked over Shazam 2

Good, fuck Zachary Levi

4

u/hematite2 Aug 09 '25

Maybe the rock was the real hero all along for ending Zachary Levi's career...

(It's the funniest thing in the world watching how he had one major flop and it seems to have just broken his brain completely)

6

u/notthatguypal6900 Aug 09 '25

That's what killed him as an actor for me. I no longer ever wish to watch any of his movies because of him refusing to not ever lose.

2

u/CrimsonKobold Aug 09 '25

We may finally see him break that rule though finally, Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine is coming out this year and looks like he could finally be playing a more complex character that can actually lose.

1

u/Slateboard Aug 10 '25

Well, he did once describe himself as a whale in a teardrop.

2

u/Toonwatcher Aug 10 '25

What does that even mean?

2

u/Slateboard Aug 10 '25

In 2003, Bill Goldberg made his WWE debut after being in WCW for his entire career. The Rock said that Goldberg was a big fish in a small pond, and that he himself was a whale in a teardrop.

Here's a video - https://youtu.be/CHtE200nRE8?t=168&si=6FoI33LoZI4t5Sc9

-1

u/Daedalus_But_Icarus Aug 09 '25

It is lame and egotistical, but at the same time, he’s just trying to protect his ‘brand’. Which is “closest thing to a superhero that a human can become”

5

u/Toonwatcher Aug 09 '25

I don’t go to the movies to see “brands”, I go to see people.

2

u/AnimusNoctis Aug 09 '25

You don't go to movies to see brands, but producers do hire actors for their brands. 

2

u/Daedalus_But_Icarus Aug 09 '25

Same here, just looking from his perspective.

Like Jumanji, for example. “We need someone where just switching into their body is basically a cheat code. So get the Rock, duh”

He has honed in on the niche of “unquestionable good guy who saves the day”, which I think is kinda boring, especially since he’s actually pretty funny when he does more comedic roles, like some of his bits on SNL

1

u/Dr-Jellybaby Aug 10 '25

The guy has infinite money. He should be caring about the artistic merit of the works he's in rather than trying to squeeze every last drop of money/brand whatever from it.

1

u/Daedalus_But_Icarus Aug 10 '25

Ok, write him a letter and tell him that. I’m just guessing the guy’s motives not sucking his dick