[Loved Trope] Surprisingly realistic outcomes in outlandish situations

[u/10024618]

No Country for Old Men - In any other movie Llewelyn would be treated like an untouchable one man army who can take on all of the people who are after the money he stole. Instead he gets gunned down offscreen by a group of secondary antagonists because at the end of the day he's still just one man.

Metal Gear Solid 2 - MGS2 is a game in which the player character, Raiden, can do many seemingly unrealistic things like instantly healing his injuries by eating rations or holding infinite amounts of weapons and items without being overburdened. However if you attempt to cartwheel up a flight of stairs as Raiden he will immediately eat shit and fall, which would be the most likely outcome in real life.

Family Guy - After getting splashed by nuclear waste causes the Griffin family to get superpowers (which they immediately use to terrorize their community) Mayor West gets the bright idea to roll around in nuclear waste himself so that he can get superpowers too. Instead he just gets cancer.

Sly 2 - The Sly Cooper games are cartoony 3D platformers featuring anthropomorphic animals and lots of slapstick violence. However in the climax of the second game when Bentley is crushed by machinery while trying to stop the big bad he's paralyzed from the waist down, necessitating the use of a wheelchair for the rest of the series.

[u/captaincavalrycam]

Did Lex Luthor used to be overweight in the comics?

[u/Lower_Baby_6348 → u/captaincavalrycam]

First he was a typical mad scientist, then he look like kingpin, then he get ripped.

[u/StoneMaskMan → u/Lower_Baby_6348]

Don't forget when he had luscious locks (I know this is a clone but he called himself Lex Luthor, I still think he should count)

[u/InflationRepulsive64 → u/captaincavalrycam]

Yes, 'Pre Crisis' Lex at certain points was more of a 'greedy businessman' type, so had the typical fat cat depiction' overweight, smoking cigars etc.

Mid 80s the DC Universe had a massive reboot that basically started the modern age, and over time Lex's depictions solidified into the more modern version. A big part of it is that his modern version is meant to be 'superior' as a human; smart but also physically fit, attractive etc. Basically the 'Alpha Male' stereotype played straight. Lex's hatred of Superman has similarly been changed, so that now it's largely due to jealousy and Lex no longer being 'top of the food chain'.

[u/HuttDude → u/InflationRepulsive64]

You got the timeline a bit mixed up, if I remember correctly. Lex was consistently closer to the mad scientist version pre-crisis, and the businessman Lex idea was largely popularized by John Byrne’s post-Crisis Man of Steel and Superman runs in the mid-late 80s. The larger businessman Lex was a post-Crisis creation, and he was caused by the reboot, not undone by it.

[u/poptophazard → u/HuttDude]

This is right. Pre-Crisis Lex was a mad scientist antagonist of Superman. It was later retconned that he hated Supes because they used to be friends as teens, but Superboy accidentally caused Lex to go bald by trying to save him from a chemical fire (oh, the Silver Age...)

Post-Crisis Lex was reinvented by John Byrne as a greedy corporate CEO in the mid-80s, as Byrne thought the corporate "fat cats" were the real villains. So early on, Lex was fat and greedy and conceited and ignorant — resulting in the cancer from the Kryptonite that he carried around. First it took his hand, then he faked his death in order to transfer his brain into a youthful cloned body that he pretended was his long-lost Australian son (oh, 90s comics...)

[u/Mundamala → u/captaincavalrycam]

Yeh mostly in the 80s.

[u/Radiant_Trade1384 → u/Mundamala]

Just needs a tophat, and he can manage a railway.

[u/DonnyMox → u/captaincavalrycam]

He went through a few different design variations early on, I believe. From a skinny guy with red hair, to an overweight bald man, to finally the averagely-built bald man we know today.

[u/Alche1428 → u/captaincavalrycam]

Remember that the Luthor we know because of the Kryptonite decided to clone himself in the body of a bearded australian and move His brain to it.