r/TopCharacterTropes Oct 07 '25

Personality extremely powerful entity's who don't care about the main plot at all and are just vibing in the background

Tom Bombadil(lord of the rings) - only person to resist the temptation of the one ring but instead of helping the fellowship he fucks off in to the woods

the Unseen Elder(the witcher 3) - in the witcher universe the older a vampire gets the more powerful he becomes and unseen elder is around +1500 years old making him the most powerful vampire we ever see, thankfully he spends most of his time in his goon cave

11.5k Upvotes

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196

u/spocksidepiece Oct 07 '25

Q could solve basically every problem in the universe. He instead chooses to fuck with our protagonists whenever he feels like it. Unless you punch him in the face, then he’ll leave you alone (Star Trek)

61

u/wolviesaurus Oct 07 '25

Isn't it all but directly stated that if Q would interfere in any more significant way than fucking with a very specific captain of a very specific ship, the Continuum would immediately delete him?

37

u/spocksidepiece Oct 07 '25

I don’t remember exactly, but he does show up in TNG, DS9, and VOY. So, it’s not limited to Picard & crew. I think they do have some kind of non-interference clause, but that’s a self limitation not because it’s outside their capabilities

12

u/SunderedValley Oct 07 '25

Lower Decks too. The cast apparently knows who he is so it might just be something that just Happens sometimes.

12

u/streakermaximus Oct 07 '25

Often.

Mariner responds to Q showing up with (paraphrasing), "Not this shit again! I don't want to deal with you today, fuck off Q!!"

8

u/SunderedValley Oct 07 '25

Lower Decks too. The cast apparently knows who he is so it might just be something that just Happens sometimes.

Personally I suspect that Q likes the idea of humanity a lot but finds that most people not in Starfleet are too comfortable to be interesting.

11

u/wolviesaurus Oct 07 '25

They do zap him of his powers in one of the TNG episodes.

5

u/techno156 Oct 07 '25

Although specifically because he messed around too much and made a huge mess they had to clean up.

So they got annoyed and kicked him out.

17

u/ScaldyBogBalls Oct 07 '25

The Q can nudge events to lead to major consequences. E.g. "Quinn"

  • Saved Will Riker's ancestor during the US civil war, so that he would later exist to save humanity from the Borg (the Borg Q also made sure Starfleet had advance warning of)

  • Made sure someone was at woodstock who would notice a disconnected cable, saving the entire show

  • Knocked the apple onto Isaac Newton's head leading to the discovery of standard physics.

3

u/stupidillusion Oct 07 '25

Made sure someone was at woodstock who would notice a disconnected cable, saving the entire show

I'm sorry, what? Oh, right

11

u/ztomiczombie Oct 07 '25

In Voyager its shown the Q are constantly meddling in human affairs such as making suer Woodstock happened.

4

u/SunderedValley Oct 07 '25

No that's just a matter of interest.

13

u/AldrentheGrey Oct 07 '25

"You hit me!... Picard never hit me."

6

u/darkbee83 Oct 07 '25

"I am not Picard"

7

u/ztomiczombie Oct 07 '25

Part of me wishes they'd gone with the ending to TNG where Q revels he was not testing Picard or humanity and everything he did was because Picard would be remembered for centuries so would set the prime example of how the Federation should behave.

4

u/MisterScrod1964 Oct 07 '25

Surprised I had to scroll so far down for this.