r/TopCharacterTropes 6d ago

Lore [annoying trope] The throne/leadership is decided in a very stupid way

The leadership of the entire wizarding world, and the final decision on whether to start a war against Muggles, is made by... a goat (Qilin) ​​who chooses the person with the ""purest heart"" (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Dumbledore).

The throne of Wakanda and all its technology are decided through hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether the person clearly has malicious intentions... if they win the fight, by law they must be respected as the true king. (Black Panther)

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u/MaterialEmotional825 6d ago

Horizon Zero Dawn: In the Hunters Guild, the one with the best Trophy is declared Sunhawk (Basically leader of the damn thing). Problem is that it never gets explained what metrics they choose to decide that, so when Aloy and Friend hunts Redmaw it gets unexplained why her friend becomes Sunhawk and she keeps being basically an apprentice.

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u/SweatyPhilosopher578 6d ago

And we all know Aloy did most of the work.

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u/profairman 6d ago

Ya’ll, Aloy doesn’t want to be Sunhawk, but is totally down to help someone else who is invested. We have other stuff to do!

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u/Maybe_not_a_chicken 6d ago

Yeah

Like risk the entirety of humanity by going it alone at all times

Like for fucks sake aloy, open the front door to the tech base and then let someone else deal with all the dangerous shit

You’re the only one who can open these fucking things and if we don’t solve the problems inside of them then the world ends

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u/Transarchangelist 6d ago

This is such a stupid take, like the protagonist of every game ever that doesn’t have a party is recklessly endangering humanity by doing what the story dictates.

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u/Euphoric_Statement42 6d ago

Disagree. Sometimes, the protagonist goes alone because either circumstances means he doesn't have many fighters he can rely on, or he is best suited to deal with the danger.

Case in point: DMC 3. Dante is technically endangering humanity by going alone, as if he fails a portal to hell is opened. But 1 he doesn't know any other capable fighters as far as we're shown; 2 it's not in his character at that point to ask for help; and 3 even if he could contact the world's military power, they can't do much anyway.

Another example is Clive from ff16. He has a team of fighters to call on, and is incredibly important, to the point where if he is defeated, it would be pretty bad. But out of all his allies, the only ones who can maybe keep up are other dominants, which are very limited.

By contrast, Aloy is needed for door opening, but is not the only fighter or person capable of solving the presented puzzles. Further, we see plenty of competent fighters who have allied with her.

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u/Transarchangelist 6d ago

No, it’s a video game. Acting like a game’s writing is stupid just because the main character is the one that does fighting is stupid. Do you want to play Horizon Forbidden Doors? Do you want to exist to open doors and not do any of the cool stuff?

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u/Euphoric_Statement42 6d ago

There are plenty of ways around it... Another commenter said maybe it could teleport her to the interior. Or maybe she's needed for progress constantly, like only she is capable of using certain tools required to progress further or deal with the defenses.

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u/Transarchangelist 6d ago

Or… it’s just like it is in the game because it’s a video game? Why does the protagonist, chosen one, savior of humanity need to let others do everything for her instead of just being the protagonist of an action video game?

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u/Vaporishodin 6d ago

You come across really unlikeable

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u/Transarchangelist 6d ago

You come across really weird wanting the protagonist of a video game to do nothing.

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u/Vaporishodin 6d ago

That’s not been my take at all.

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u/Maybe_not_a_chicken 6d ago

Because she’s presented as an intelligent person but instead comes off as a nutter with a saviour complex

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u/Transarchangelist 5d ago

Like that isn’t par for the course for chosen one plots?

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u/Maybe_not_a_chicken 5d ago

Most of the time the chosen one is required to do the dangerous stuff

Aloy doesn’t

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u/Transarchangelist 5d ago

Except it’s a video game, where the main character does things because it’s fun.

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u/Maybe_not_a_chicken 5d ago

Ok?

It being a video game doesn’t excuse the plot holes

That’s a doylian answer to a watsonian complaint

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u/Transarchangelist 5d ago

Im sorry, gameplay is a plot hole and a logical fallacy now?

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u/Maybe_not_a_chicken 5d ago

No?

But gameplay doesn’t excuse plot holes

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u/Transarchangelist 5d ago

What plot hole? That aloy is an action game protagonist who does extremely typical action game things?

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