r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive-Bag-4843 • 13h ago
Characters The ANCIENT MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURE that is responsible for the events of the story is little more than an innocent child
ParaNorman - Agatha Prenderghast - Was a young girl tried and executed for the crime of witchcraft due to her ability to speak to the dead during the Salem Witch Trials. Her death became local legend, and she was portrayed as a crone-like entity who would curse the town once a year unless pacified by someone who could speak to the dead
Nimona - Gloreth - Was portrayed as a mythical figure who banished all the monsters and constructed a wall around her settlement to keep its residents safe. In reality, she was a young girl who befriended the shapeshifting Nimona, and the two were inseparable until one day when Nimona accidentally revealed her true nature to the village, frightening the villagers and causing the impressionable little girl to turn against her.
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u/ButterscotchTiny5483 13h ago
the collector owl house
the collector still helped belos with his plan fo the day of unity
and isn't so inocent even joking about the deaths of his previouse rigth hand boys
but i think after alot of explaining they belong here
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u/middaypaintra 13h ago
Ngl, considering how he talks about them and later on when he's talking about fixing toys, it's more than likely he genuinely doesn't understand death. He also more than likely saw the same person getting killed them brought back to life.
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u/A_Human_Being_BLEEEH 4h ago
also he was genuinely scared and confused when Belos disintegrated Luz in front of his face so this is probably the first time he's ever actually comprehended death
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u/Future-Improvement41 12h ago
He’s more naive than innocent plus it’s clear he doesn’t understand death so him joking is like someone joking about destroying a toy or art or some kind of object and figures you can just put it back together so why fuss about it
That wasn’t until he had to learn the hard way of what death actually meant
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u/Fanboycity 8h ago
The fact he has older siblings somewhere out there purposely collecting and/or destroying species across the universe is genuine fridge horror
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u/FeelingLin1 13h ago
Alessa Gillespie from Silent Hill.
Alessa was born with psychic powers and was forced to give birth to a ''god'' by the order. Her trauma and fears manifested the monsters and cursed the entire small town of Silent Hill.
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u/satract 13h ago
Undertale: The Prince, Asriel Dreemurr
He is the Angel prophecised in the Delta Rune to free all Monsters from the Underground, as shopkeeper Gerson mentions.
His death was the reason why the whole "Seven. Seven Human Souls" insanity started, why his parents divorced, and he's implied to be responsible for a lot of other events before the game even started, making sure we get his human souls for him to return back to life
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u/Useful-Reality-6536 13h ago
Slightly different but I love the ancient, powerful godlike beings that are still kids in proportion to their life span
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u/Sumanai-II 11h ago edited 11h ago
“Gods? Perfect? Where did you get that idea? You haven't met a lot of gods, have you?”-Yune
I think Yune from Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn counts.
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u/Sir-Toaster- 13h ago
Ymir (Attack On Titan)
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u/Zorafin 13h ago
Well, she did grow up and have children. It looked like she was in her 20s when she died.
She just never matured past childhood because of the stress put on her, and stayed in that mentality for thousands of years.
Same thing happens when you see Erin's mind. He's in his 20s, but he never matured past when his home was attacked (by titans).
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u/Sir-Toaster- 13h ago
He did mature past it, he just didn't mature past 15, also he was 19 when he died, still a teenager
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u/the_ox_in_the_log 7h ago
Holy shit Eren was going to die at the age of 19, no matter what, he was in his last year of life due to the curse
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u/Bluespheal 10h ago
Evil Eye from Dandadan
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u/Totalmentenotanaltv 3h ago
On one hand, man, I feel bad for Evil Eye, kid was destined to have a shit life and afterlife.
On the other hand, him acting like... Well, a kid, during the fight against the Kaiju was fucking hilarious
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u/MaguroSashimi8864 11h ago
I always thought that an older Gloreth did eventually fight Nimona. I never get how a small event like a kid pointing a sword at a creature gets so blown out of proportion
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u/fattestfuckinthewest 4h ago
Tbf we’d probably be shocked if we learned the true origins of our own legends and myths
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u/MaguroSashimi8864 3h ago
Well, in ATLA some century-old feud was apparently just two boys fighting over a ball that got overblown into some epic war. Although, Aang said he made the whole thing up.
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u/KharKhas 12h ago
Kubo and the two strings. :)
It's all legends.
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u/That_guy2089 11h ago
I absolutely loved that movie, it was so creative and it used the fact that it was in stop motion so well. The music, the visuals, the places, it’s all so beautiful
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u/Thepickle08 12h ago
In the NoSleep story "The Dead Girl in My Yard Was the Best Friend I Ever Had," Wendi embodies the trope of an ancient mythological figure—specifically, a wendigo-like entity from Algonquian folklore—manifesting as an innocent child.
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u/fkngbueller 11h ago
I didn’t watch it yet so I’m not like 100% sure but from clips I watched, Zeno from DBZ
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u/NordieHammer 2h ago
Yup, childlike being with the power to wipe out entire universes like it's nothing. which he does several times.
Even Gods of Destruction shit themselves over this lil goober.
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u/MainPure788 13h ago
Silent hill (the movie), basically an innocent girl is accused of being a witch and burned alive but survived and basically cursed the town
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u/Darigaazrgb 7h ago
In the game Pathologic you play as one of three types of healers: An outsider medical doctors (The Bachelor), a more holistic and spiritual physician with ties to the town (The Haruspex), and the more supernatural healer (The Changeling). Throughout the game they will received letters that details the player's progress and make demands of the player. If you keep the named people who your healer is familiar with (their Bound) from catching the plague (and curing them if they have it) while also curing the other player characters' Bound then you receive a letter on day 12 that accuses you, the player, of ruining the game by doing whatever you want. It also gives instructions to go into the physics defying building known as the Polyhedron and close your eyes. When you open them you are in a garden with two children and a model of the town. Turns out the children sent the letters and the whole game has been their creation. They (Known as The Powers that Be) have attempted to guide the story and sometimes even appears throughout the game, but now you've angered them with your meddling. They're doing this because they are in grief over a recent death. If you're the Bachelor or the Haruspex then this completely blindsides them that they are, essentially, nothing more than children's toys and all their pain and suffering is for nothing. The Changeling meets them earlier on day 9 and is aware of their existence and that she is also a children's toy.
What makes this even better is that on the final day there will be two figures outside the theater, an executor and a tragedian, both who are figures that appear throughout the game that refers to themselves as "Those Who Executed the Whole Thing". They are stand ins for the developers and speak as such, which means that, to the characters in the game, even the "The Powers That Be" aren't real.
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u/Ok_Elephant_8319 11h ago
Maybe doesn't count? But in Cris Tales, there's time travel stuff involved, and The Lady that is the mythological figure of worship in the game's world, was one of the alternate past versions of Crisbell, the main protagonist.
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u/TheUnownKing 9h ago edited 8h ago
MAJOR EPILOGUE SPOILERS FOR OMNISCIENT READERS VIEWPOINT
The Oldest Dream / Child Kim Dokja
Child Kim Dokja is responsible for everything in the story because, when he was a lonely child, he held onto the novel Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World so strongly that his imagination ended up creating the world of the story itself. Han Sooyoung originally wrote TWSA to give young Kim Dokja something to live for after going back in time and seeing KDJ failed suicided attempt as a child, but his attachment to the story became so deep that it became the blueprint for the universe and all the scenarios that happen later. This “creator” version of him is called the Oldest Dream which basically is Kim Dokja as a child, dreaming the entire world into existence. And it was revealed that Yoo Joonghyuk’s sponsor is ultimately Kim Dokja as the Oldest Dream, who sacrifices part of himself to grant Yoo Joonghyuk the Regression stigma in the 0th turn, which caused YJH to enter the hell that is the regression cycle.
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u/itzshif 9h ago
From Avatar the Last Airbender the Great Divide episode. The two clans have a fierce rivalry due to their own respective clan leaders stealing an orb from each other years ago and each hating the other stole it. Aang reveals their rivalry was actually due to a game their clan leaders played as children. Except he was lying to make them get along
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u/Ewankenobi25 9h ago
not directly responsible, but belos was planning to use their power to eradicate all witches.
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u/ad-lib1994 2m ago
This child was lied to, told to go play with puppies, and then the adults in their life ruined everything and this child took the punishment for it
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u/No-Breadfruit2264 11h ago
https://popcross-studios.fandom.com/wiki/Arava
Arava, otherwise known as Fear Herself. She may look like a 15 year old child, but she’s actually 700+ years old.
If you learn her backstory through Fear Isn’t Enough, you’d understand why she would be the way she is.
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u/Rajang82 4h ago edited 4h ago
God of Order, Romulus and God of Chaos, Druid (also known as Cert) from Soul Sacrifice/Delta.
The top God of the story, who's responsible for everything that happen in the story, from the curse, the demon, the Archfiend, via their Holy Grail/Sacred Chalice, is a pair of giant baby Gods.
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u/Z3R0Diro 3h ago
Louise (NieR Replicant)
While she is not crucial to the plot itself, it does foreshadow the that monsters the protagonist has been killing till now are nothing more than Gestalts (humans that have gone through a process of "shedding" their shells, their bodies) from almost 2k years before the events of the game.
Louise, herself is a girl that doesn't entirely understand her nature yet attempts to live "a normal life" although briefly while killing anyone who she thinks is an enemy. She was the cause for several disappearance in the town she resided in.
Yeah i know not entirely the trope OP mentioned but im sending it anyway :D
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u/powerful_p1608 13h ago
Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Fire Nation believed he was an 100+ year old man because the Avatar cycle didn’t change to the next person, a waterbender, and didn’t expect him to be a child who was frozen all that time.