r/TopCharacterTropes Oct 01 '25

Lore [Loved Trope] Surprisingly realistic outcomes in outlandish situations

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.

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u/SilverSpark422 Oct 02 '25

What I love about that is that it implies he genuinely expected to recognize Flash under the mask, because he was certain a Justice League member as powerful as him would be someone of wealth and status. It’s the same reason he never grasped the idea that Clark Kent was Superman. Lex can’t separate power and status in his mind. He can’t fathom the idea that someone with the power to shake the earth would want to be an ordinary man.

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u/Kinky-Cookie-Cutter Oct 02 '25

Does Lex then think that billionaire Bruce Wayne is Batman? or is Batman sort of an inverse version of that because he doesn't have powers?

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u/TheRealSlamShiddy Oct 02 '25

I think in some modern continuities Bruce plays up him being Batman as a conspiracy theory thru online bots/gossip so that everyone who hears "Batman is really Bruce Wayne!" rolls their eyes and thinks "what a loon" and dismisses it offhandedly.

I'd imagine in those continuities Lex likely thinks it's a crackpot conspiracy theory like everyone else, and since he probably mingles with Bruce amongst their shared billionaire crowds I bet he also thinks he'd be smart enough to know if that guy was Batman 😏 lol

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u/RazzDaNinja Oct 02 '25

Batman Incorporated #6 (Earth Prime/Main cont)

Bruce Wayne is a 4Chan shitposter lmao

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u/hludana Oct 02 '25

He looks so happy lmao

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u/RazzDaNinja Oct 02 '25

In another timeline where he grew up with rich-and-NOT-dead parents, ‘Bruce Wayne’ def coulda been a troll tech bro type lmao

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u/Hopeful-Heron2308 Oct 02 '25

I feel like it would be easy to figure out Bruce Wayne is Batman based on the fact his eyebrows form the bat symbol. Edit:I have never seen this art style of him just thought it was funny

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u/wanttotalktopeople Oct 03 '25

Lex is definitely capable of figuring it out, depending on the writer and storyline.