Most Triumphant Example (Sugar Wiki)/A

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This is simply what you think is the (not some of the, the) best example of any trope (an objective trope, not subjective, since this already is subjective). The "Crowning Example" if you will.

There could be several reasons you think an example is the best.

• You thinks it's the best in terms of illustrating the trope.
• You think it's the most well done.
• It's your favorite play in that trope.
• You just really like the source material.

---

Please list tropes alphabetically.

• Abandon Shipping:
  • ...Sisteeeer! Obi-Wan was stupid to hide Leia's relations from you, Luke. Now his failure is complete. If you will not fall for her in the canon, then perhaps fanfiction will...
• Abhorrent Admirer
  • Wendy Oldbag. "Edgey-poooo!"
  • Leena Hyena, herself based on the stereotypical Abhorrent Admirers from The Golden Age of Animation, also the former Trope Namer.
  • Big Ethel from Archie. Has to be one of the, if not the longest running example of this trope, and having her pursue Jughead (who doesn't like girls at all) just makes it better.
• Abridged Series
  • MasakoX and Vegeta3986's Naruto the Abridged Series, which 25 episodes covered 101 episodes of the actual series. (It's not as well executed as Little Kuriboh's series but most definitely surpasses its predecessor when it comes to defining the word "abridged")
  • TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged, simply because it's Reginald Cuftbert
  • Kaiser Neko's Lupin III Abridged. Too Good to Last indeed
  • Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series: It did sort of start the trend and still stands at the top with everyone else.
  • Biographies, in a meta sort of way.
  • Negima: The Abridged Series, just to be different. Well, also because I nearly choked to death on oxygen while watching it.
• Absurdly High Stakes Game
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.
• Absurdly Powerful Student Council
  • The Best Student Council, natch.
  • The Student President in Chrome Shelled Regios controlled the entire city
  • The Student Council from Persona 3 deserves a nomination, especially since the Student Council President's family owns the school (and just about everything else on Tatsumi Port Island.)
  • The Ashford Student Council.
  • We will bring revolution to the world I can't believe no one has mentioned them yet.
  • The First Student Council President in Asura Cryin has the power to sentence students to death. And hunt demons with giant robots.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade
  • Death's Scythe in Discworld, especially in Reaper Man.
  • The Subtle Knife. So sharp it cuts through things like steel, atomic particles, and the fabric between dimensions, among other things.
  • Bleach. They cut entire buildings in two with those things on a regular basis.
  • The Keyblade, it cuts entire fucking BUILDINGS.
  • Youmu from Touhou has the dual swords Hakurouken and Roukanken. One can cut anything (including the fucking MOON but not soccer balls), while the other can cut through CONFUSION ITSELF.
  • Anything wilded by Shigure. ANYTHING!
  • Saladin's Damascus sword; drop a veil on it, the veil lands on the ground in two pieces.
  • In Kung Fu Panda, there is a sword that can cut you by you merely looking at it.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer
  • Freedom Fighters. The main rebel base for the first half of the game is in a part of the sewer with a thirty foot high ceiling, and the tunnels leading to it are big enough for rafts that can hold supplies, ammunition, and twelve people comfortably.
  • The Garamscythe Waterway, Final Fantasy XII. So big, you even find an esper down there.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The sewer was big enough to stage major fight scenes down there, plus the water down there was very clean-perhaps because Nobody Poops-and was as wide and deep as a river.
  • Mirror's Edge. They are absolutely massive, filled with more than enough space to do massive trick jumps all over. Admittedly it was justified as being the main sewer system for a massive city, but still.
• Abusive Alien Parents
  • Vriska's lusus, a.k.a. Spidermom. She forced her charge into becoming a serial killer. And if Vriska hadn't brought her bodies, her lusus would've eaten her instead.
• Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male
  • Louise.
  • Naru.
  • Chie, to Yosuke. Hence the famous "C-Critical hit to the nads..."
• Abusive Parents
  • Rosa Ushiromiya
  • you know who
  • Gendo and Yui Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion
    • Mostly just Gendo, and then mostly just in the main series, but yeah.
  • The Brood
  • Norman Osborn. Especially in the recent animated series.
  • Relius Clover
  • Firelord Ozai
  • Anthony Cooper
  • Josef Fritzl
  • Ghetsis
  • Lionel Luthor
  • Medusa
  • Jonas Venture Sr. No matter how bad Rusty is with his own sons, it's petty squabbles compared to the psychological abuse his own father dumped on him.
  • Precia.
  • Yuno Gasai Three times over
  • Matou Zouken.
  • The Fourth Kazekage
  • Peter and Lois Griffin.
• Abusive Precursors
  • The Reapers.
  • The Xel'Naga from StarCraft
• Academy of Adventure
  • The entire Moperville, Illinois public school system.
• Accent On the Wrong Syllable
  • Torgo
  • The G-Man
  • GLaDOS.
• Accentuate the Negative
  • The Westboro Baptist Church. I DARE YOU to find something more negative
• Acceptable Target
  • Twilight and its Fandom.
  • Nazis.
  • Justin Bieber.
• Accidental Kiss
  • Negi and Nodoka
• Accidental Pervert
  • Yuuki Rito
    • Lets see... around 160 chapters... Accidental Pervert moments happening about 2-3 times per chapter... Yeah, Rito is this trope personified.
    • "It's just a talent he has."
  • Keitaro Urashima.
• The Ace
  • Jack Rakan. The man was able to duplicate a sword technique flawlessly on his first try after having seen it performed years ago, punch—scratch that, flex his way out of a Phantom Zone, and temporarily will himself back into being after being erased from existence!. He can even see other people's flashbacks!
  • Lord Flashheart. No further questions.
  • Tsukasa Kodoya. The only thing he's not good at... is his job as a photographer.
  • Usui Tsukushima.
• Action Girl
  • Wonder Woman.
  • Xena.
  • Buffy.
  • Major Kira Nerys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • Cherry Darling of Planet Terror
  • Asuka Langley Soryu.
  • The "ass-kicking virgins" of The Faerie Queene
  • Lightning of Final Fantasy XIII
  • Gaia Moore of Fearless, especially since she routinely went looking for asses to kick.
  • Samus Aran.
  • Major Motoko Kusanagi.
  • Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass
  • Lara Croft
  • Yoko Littner
  • Toph Bei Fong
  • Falis
  • "She", Machete.
  • Tex. Any complaints?
  • Seargent Karrin Murphy
  • Birdy Cephon Altera
  • Erza Scarlet
• Action Mom
  • Nanoha. Full stop.
  • I see your Nanoha and raise you the Boss. She became one SECONDS after her birth...DURING NORMANDY CAMPAIGN!!!
  • Grainne Mhaol. Same as above, except against Turkish pirates a day after the birth of one of her children, in Real Life. Or so the legend goes.
• Actor Allusion
  • I am Wreck-Gar. I DARE to be stupid!
  • Konata Izumi always enjoys Aya Hirano's concerts and she's also quite fond of Haruhi Suzumiya (The latter is true for both the English and Japanese dubs).
  • (English dub only) Akira Kogami once thought, "you [Minoru Shiraishi] sound like a nerdy turtle." Gee, just who can she possibly be referring to?
  • From Archer, Jessica Walter and Jeffrey Tambor. They turn the show into Arrested Development with guns!
• Adaptation Decay
  • Shyamalan's The Last Airbender
  • The Golden Compass.
• Adaptation Displacement
  • The Mask. Ask anyone who believes that it's entirely a family-friendly series.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The original comics, compared to the marketing blitz of the late 80s-early 90s.
  • The Thing. It's hard enough to remember that it's a remake. Remembering the original short story is harder yet.
  • Little Nemo in Slumberland. It didn't start out as an NES game or a little known anime movie. It was originally a comic from the 1900's. And it's not about a fish.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Its popularity is massive, but good luck finding anything on Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～.
  • The Wizard of Oz.
  • The Princess Bride. How many people do you know who are even remotely aware it was originally a novel?
    • The book-reading scenes in the movie might have been a clue...but apparently they weren't.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist. For the majority of the last decade, at least. During that time, the first anime series' popularity was massive (and for good reason), so much so that it was much more well-known in the United States than the also amazing manga it was partially based on. The Brotherhood adaptation has... changed things, however.
  • Psycho. There was a BOOK?
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!. It's a trading card game based off an anime based off of a manga, yet criticisms will be made on how the second doesn't follow the direct rules of the first (that is, the criticisms that don't just insult the series in general). Not the Most Triumphant for the original source being erased from public knowledge completely, but the winner for the manga having been extremely popular...yet those from every walk of culture still think the true "canon" of the series come from the cards.
  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • They Live!. Even if you knew The Thing was based on a short story, you probably didn't know this was, too.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Fairy Tail
• Adaptive Ability
  • The Borg
  • SCP-682
  • The Daleks
  • There is a species, which lives on every corner of the globe, and has even lived in space. It's called the Homo Sapiens.
• Alliteration
  • V for Vendetta: V's introduction to Evey, shown here, starting at roughly the 0:30 mark.
• Adorkable
  • Adam Young
  • Doug Funnie
  • The Doctors, the newest ones particularly, but also Two and Five.
    • Ten
    • Eleven
  • Yugi Motou
  • Linkara
  • Connor Temple.
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal
  • Tavros.
  • Dr. Spencer Reid
  • Sora
  • Twilight Sparkle
• Adult Child
  • |Akio Furukawa.
  • Miss Yukari
  • SpongeBob.
  • BFF Nella
  • Rayne. Recently he's been used by his best friend as a warm up for when his wife gives birth.
  • Son Goku
  • Buddy the elf
  • Barney Stinson
  • Naota's dad.
• Aerith and Bob
  • Tales of Symphonia
  • The ENTIRE Fire Emblem series, hands down.
  • One Piece, names like Luffy, Zoro, Smoker and Teach go with Johnny, Franky, Brook and Ace
  • Star Wars: Qui-Gon Jinn and...Luke.
  • The ENTIRE Final Fantasy series! Somewhat normal (if awkward/uncommon) names like Cloud, Reno, Rufus, Vincent, Cid, Elena, and Zack... with Aerith, Tifa, Genesis, Sephiroth, Angeal, Cissnei, etc.
• Adored by the Network
  • SpongeBob SquarePants. Enough said.
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.
• Affably Evil
  • The Mayor
  • Milo Minderbinder
  • The Godfather
  • Hank Scorpio
  • Garland.
  • Cat R. Waul
  • Ichimaru Gin from Bleach.
  • Jack Spicer
  • Dracula
  • Colonel Hans Landa. The man made you like him, and his nickname was "The Jew Hunter."
  • Eric "Suck my balls!" Cartman. Full Stop.
  • Dr. Horrible
  • Al Swearengen
  • Kane
  • Tyki Mikk
• Affectionate Parody
  • A Very Potter Musical
  • The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
  • Young Frankenstein
  • "What is a man? *glass shatters* A miserable little pile of secrets! BULL SHIT! THAT'S WHAT IT IS, YA FUCKIN' ASS! ENOUGH TALK, HAVE AT YOU!"
    • "Argh! This cannot be! AHHHHHHHHH! Fuckin' ass..."
  • The Muppets Take Manhattan
  • Galaxy Quest
  • The Last Days of foxhound
  • The Ember Island Players.
  • Northanger Abbey
  • An American Werewolf in London; actually manages to be scarier than some of the movies it's spoofing!
  • High Anxiety
• After the End
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
  • The late Permian/early Triassic periods.
• Age-Appropriate Angst
  • Anything written by Beverly Cleary
• Agent Peacock
  • Emporio Ivankov...[[Catch Phrase|Or not
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
  • GLaDOS from Portal
  • SHODAN
    • Seconded so much
  • HAL, from 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • AM
  • The B.R.A.I.N. from 9. Caused the apocalypse of all living things. Then sucked the souls out of 5 of the 9 "living" things left.
  • ALLTYNEX from The Tale of Alltynex
  • Bomb #20, Dark Star. "Let there be light!"
  • Skynet
  • CABAL
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation gives us Picard, in the episode "Q Who", in which Q has thrown the ship to the Borg and the crew is close to being massacred:

"You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us we were inadequate. For the moment, I grant that. You wanted me to say I need you. I NEED YOU!"

• Airborne Aircraft Carrier
  • The Arcus Prima from Simoun.
  • The SHIELD Helicarrier from the Marvel Universe.
  • The Valiant.
  • Cloud Base.
  • Estovakia's Aigaion in Ace Combat 6.
• Alertness Blink
  • !
    • Admit it, that sound just played in your head
• Alien Geometries
  • HP Lovecraft
  • The paintings of M.C. Escher
  • Or those of H. R. Giger
  • Giygas Giygas Giygas Giygas Giygas...
  • Castrovalva
  • The house in The Haunting. Very subtle; not a single right-angle in the place.
  • Starts with 5/16 of an inch, and gets worse from there.
  • The Rebuild version of Ramiel
  • Leliel in the original, even moreso. That shadow on the ground is it's real body. The monochromatic sphere hovering in the sky? THAT is its shadow. Oh, and somehow, the two appear to be physically connected, i.e. entering one and coming out the other... and the shadow appears to have infinite space within it, i.e. a pocket dimension.
• The Alleged Car
  • The Trabant. 0 to 60 in like two minutes, and its 0.5-liter two stroke barely reaches the 10 hp with as much fuel as needed nowadays to reach the 150 hp! Reality is better than fiction here!
  • The DeMorgan
  • Roswdowermobile, away!
  • Jack Benny's Car
    • You took the words right out of my mouth. They started out with a shopping cart, you know.
  • Al Bundy's Dodge. "No brakes!" *CRASH* "Daddy's home!"
  • Dick Turpin - "Because it holds up traffic wherever it goes."
• All Just a Dream
  • Newhart
  • The S2 Finale of House
    • The S5 finale of House
  • Amy'sChoice. *Both* the worlds.
  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • The Angel episode "Awakening"
  • Alice in Wonderland
  • Yu+Me Dream ^{[dead link]}, the Web Comic (Sorry, I am not gonna link this one) Seriously, raise your hand if you could see it coming. And if you knew before you got to that part of the story, it doesn't count.
  • St. Elsewhere, notable because of the theory it makes everything else just a dream too.
  • Eraserhead.
  • The dream season in Dallas
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • Mulholland Drive. You're not even sure which part is the dream!
  • Clannad After Story. All the gripping sadness you can get in it, and you still get your happy ending.
• All Love Is Unrequited
  • Peanuts, of course!
  • Primeval.
  • Me! There's a reason some people are afraid to let their true feelings show, because other people don't like them having those feelings for them!
• All There in the Manual
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey: the movie and Clarke's companion novel.
  • Or how about The Lord of the Rings? The six Appendices at the end are only the start of a Lensman-like cascade of Manuals Behind The Manual, thanks to Christopher Tolkien's gradual editing and releasing of his father's manuscripts.
  • Activision's games for the Atari 2600
  • Final Fantasy VII is a strange example. Most of the (incredibly complicated) backstory was either really ambiguous or left out entirely, and none of the omissions were explained properly until a decade after the original game was released. So, for anyone who hadn't played the original game in 1997 got to experience the FFVII universe in the correct order, making them wonder why anyone would ever have been confused by the game when they finally get around to playing it only after working their way through the rest of the compilation. All explained in the manual(s)...eventually.
• All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"
  • School Days: Who doesn't watch it for the Nice Boat ending?
  • Citizen Kane: Rosebud was his sled. I haven't seen that movie. I don't even know what it's about, or what's so important about the sled. But I not only know that twist, I hear about it again every couple of weeks. And so did you, just now.
  • Jekyll and Hyde: Nowadays nobody actually realises that the fact that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person was only said in the last chapter and it was supposed to be a shocking reveal.
• All Your Powers Combined
  • Captain Planet, of course
• All Your Colors Combined
  • UNLIMITED COLORS! LASER! DRILL! SPIKE! ROCKET! CUBE! HOVER! FRENZY! FINAL COLOR BLASTER!
• Aloof Big Brother
  • Seto Kaiba
  • Byakuya Kuchiki
  • Itachi Uchiha
• Alpha Bitch
  • Bonnie Rockwaller
  • Uh, LIBBY.
  • Aki Honda
    • Seconded. No other Alpha Bitch has literally made me sick to my stomach.
  • Heather Chandler
• Already Done for You
  • Guardian's Crusade, in addition to making frequent and heavy usage of this trope, has one specific example which is incredibly played with. Heroic Mime Knight assigned to go collect an emerald guarded by a fierce monster from a rather greedy mayor; as he needs the emerald to pay for the ticket with which he'll set sail over the sea, he agrees to get the gem and return. After a series of sidequests during which he meets a knight, a wizard, and a witch who Knight trails behind right until they get to the boss, at which point just in front of them the traveling party defeats the monster effortlessly and takes the emerald. The party's Exposition Fairy Nehani is rightfully a bit upset, and exclaims that now they'll have to find something else to bribe the mayor with. The reason this becomes a Most Triumphant Example despite looking completely different at first is that while Knight's party's goals are basically only to get the gemstone and get the ticket to travel across the ocean and the knight does not have those goals (he is instead trying to stop Karmine, an opponent you yourself have to defeat later on), his actions dovetail nicely with yours later on. In addition, if you inspect the beast after the other party has defeated it you'll be able to go into a rather weak Bonus Boss which will earn you the best shield you can get at that point in the game. The options make the trope so confusing in terms of how it's played with that it could technically be Zig Zagged, Subverted, Justified, and Discussed, not to mention the tons of other times the trope constantly comes into play in Guardian's Crusade.
• Always Second Best
  • Salieri
  • Hikari
• Always Someone Better
  • Dave Strider, be it Bro, John, future versions of him, or Davesprite.
• Amateur Sleuth
  • Miss Marple
  • Lord Peter Wimsey
• Ambiguous Gender
  • Quina Quen: assuming s/he/it has a gender
  • Crona. Even the author doesn't know what gender Crona is (and doesn't much care at this point).
  • Envy. Word of God even confirmed that she doesn't even know what gender he (erm, /she? /it?) is. Maybe if "bastard" was a gender...
  • Vaarsuvius. When V is referred to as "Other Parent" to his/her mate by their children, that's going above and beyond the call of duty to maintain a Running Gag.
  • Desire. Full Stop. The very definition of "whatever I want to be at this given time." Even hir siblings address Desire as "brother" and "sister."
  • Yubel, to the point fans love to argue about it.
  • NiGHTS.
  • "Do they have male and female, like humans?"
  • Is it a girl or a he? A man or a she? It's time for androgyny! Here comes Pat!
  • Seem.
  • Yasu.
• Ambiguously Gay
  • Lelouch Lamperogue, let's see:
    • He has fabulous mecha, which has fabulous sparkly weapons and pink controls, which he controls with the legs crossed like a woman.
    • Has a fabulous clothes both as an student and as Zero, and becomes even more fabulous when he becomes emperor.
    • He geassed his sister bodyguard to View him as a fabulous Princess. He could have easily ordered follow my commands.
    • There's lots of homolust with his best friend, they both obsess over each other, and he ends up as his knight. And probably his lover too, given the subtext. Even those who don't like yaoi accept that their relationship is not a normal one (As opposed to 2 normal men), to say the least.
    • No romantic interest in any girl at all. C.C. is the closest to this and Word of God mentions that their relationship was purely fraternal.
    • Has no physical condition at all, but he's very skilled at cooking and choosing clothes.
    • His hand mannerisms are very fabulous, bordering on Camp Gay
  • Tobias Fünke.
    • Seconded
  • Debbie- wait, I mean DEMON LORD GHIRAHIM.
    • Seconded. So, so much.
  • Prince Tramennis of Jetstone. In tactics discussions with an entity who only appears in A Form You Are Comfortable With, said entity takes the form of rainbows to talk to him.
  • -points finger- The Ambiguously Gay Duo! - Seriously it's in the name
• Ambition Is Evil
  • Griffith
  • Tigerstar
  • Slytherin House
  • Seahn!
• Ambulance Chaser
  • Ambulance Chasers, naturally.
  • Lionel Hutz, Attorney at Law. He literally chases the ambulence.
    • "Is that a broken neck? Fantastic!"
• Amnesiac Dissonance
  • The Nameless One
• Amoral Attorney
  • Kristoph Gavin from Apollo Justice Ace Attorney.
    • From the same series, Manfred von Karma.
  • Maurice Levy
  • Lionel Hutz
  • Doctor Gonzo. "As your attorney, I suggest you take a hit out of the small brown bottle in my shaving kit."
  • Monstroso. He will happily put a clause in your contract where he's legally entitled to rip out your heart.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude
  • Rex The Wonder Dog
• Amusing Alien
  • Mork from Ork
  • The Doctor
    • Specifically, the Eleventh.
  • Roger Smith
• Amusing Injuries
  • Elmer Fudd
  • Tom
  • Daffy Duck
  • Mortadelo y Filemon
  • Basil
  • Wile E. Coyote
• And the Adventure Continues...
  • FIFA World Cup
• Anguished Declaration of Love
  • Hinata
  • Rue
  • Miles Vorkosigan
  • I'll always think of Jane Eyre when I think of anguished love declarations. Jane starts it all off in response to Rochester's aloof dismissal of her, then Rochester catches on and joins in with his own anguished declaration. Then, considering what happens next, it becomes clear just how anguished Rochester's declaration really was.
  • Twilight. Good God, Twilight.
• Anachronism Stew
  • Empire Earth. Steamrolling Caesar's legionarries with tanks, anyone?
  • Sengoku Basara, especially the Hondam
  • A Knight's Tale
  • Moulin Rouge
  • Samurai Champloo
  • The Flintstones
  • Civilization
  • The Poke of Zorro.

Bart: It's like a history lesson come to life! Lisa: No, it's not! Bart: Quiet, he's fighting the ninjas!

• Angry Mob Song:
  • "The Mob Song".
  • "Hang The Bastard!"
  • "Can you hear the people sing, sing the song of angry men!"
• Animation Age Ghetto:
  • Anime and Manga in general
  • The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
• Anime of the Game
  • Pokemon, because it is the most successful and has the highest number of episodes
• Animesque
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Annoying Laugh
  • Mozart
  • Ushiromiya Maria
  • Tatiana Del Torro
  • Dexter
    • I personally think Mandark's is even better/worse.
  • That damn one from Punch-Out!!, just because you hear the same grating gloating noise when FOUR DIFFERENT OPPONENTS (Bald Bull, Soda Popinski, Mr. Sandman, The Super Macho Man) beat you.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • Fran Fine
  • Woody Woodpecker
  • Aha! Aha! Aha!
  • Janice from Friends.
  • HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
  • The Annoying Orange. There's a reason he's called "annoying".
  • Walpurugisnaight from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
  • Honhonhonhonhonhonhonhonhonhonhon.
• Antagonist in Mourning
  • Bill the Butcher's annual celebration of Priest Vallon in Gangs of New York.
  • "Right at this moment, the biggest "R" I feel is Regret. Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever known, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alky piece of shit like you. That woman deserved better."
  • The Joker's reaction to Batman's "death" in an episode of Batman the Animated Series. He goes so far as to have a funeral for the Caped Crusader, complete with Harley Quinn playing "Amazing Grace" on a kazoo.
• Anticlimax
  • Breaking Dawn. To add insult to injury, there are 3 chapters of "buildup".
    • All of the Twilight books end with an anti-climax. All of them.
• Anticlimax Boss
  • Ganon. NO! NOT INTO THE PIT! IT BURNS!
  • This.
  • Bob the Goldfish
  • Yu Yevon. It's impossible to get a game over by the time you reach him, since all your characters have permanent Auto-Life.
  • The Gray Prince, the champion of the Arena in Oblivion IV. There's so much build-up that when he refuses to fight you and just lets you kill him, it's pretty disappointing. Not only that, but after you do kill him, everyone acts as though you've just completed an impossible task.
  • The Crimson King
  • Killer Croc from Arkham Asylum
  • General Scales from Star Fox Adventures. The game won't stop emphasizing what an evil guy this dinosaur is. You finally get to the fight against him...and he's told to give back the Krozoa Spirit that he has. He's then killed when it leaves his body. And then you have to fight fucking Andross. It wasn't even implied that he would show up. At ALL.
  • The Leader from the 16 bit Incredible Hulk game.
  • Blados & Chalis, Round 2. They are exactly the same as the first time you fought them, some twenty-to-thirty levels ago.
• Anti-Hero
  • In the classic sense of a loserly hero, Willy Loman
  • The Man With No Name
  • Harry Callahan
  • Magus
  • Wario
  • John Constantine
  • Kratos
  • Roland
  • Guts
  • Wesley Wyndham-Price, in series 3 and 4
  • Shosanna Dreyfus
  • Malcom Reynolds
  • The Punisher
  • Dr. House
• Anti-Villain
  • Baron Klaus Wulfenbach.
  • Mr. Freeze
  • Francis Dolarhyde.
  • Roy Batty
  • Mid-Boss
  • Scar
  • Hans Beckert, the peculiarly sympathetic child-killer
  • Zuko
  • Chao Linshen
    • Seconded
  • The Wolkenritter and the Book of Darkness
  • Ashram of Marmo—Even his heroic enemy admits that Ashram is just as much of a hero as he is, despite them being enemies.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist Greed
  • N (padding) from Pokémon Black and White
    • He's even more of an Anti-Villain in his Pokémon Special adaptation.
  • The Witch and the Giantess. The witch isn't all bad, and the Giantess's reasons for wanting to kill Jack are pretty justified.
  • Gentleman Johnny Marcone. He's a ruthless crime boss, but he geniunely cares about children, and will go to great lengths to protect them.
  • The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Her death is still one of the greatest Tear Jerkers in video game history.
  • Dr. Diabolik
  • Post-CS Litchi Faye-Ling - The most shining example of Type IV Anti-Villains, yet so many thinks she is such on the low scale of morality due to that one move.
• Anyone Can Die
  • Harper's Island - basically, it's the premise
  • A Song of Ice and Fire
  • Naoki Urasawa. Nobody is safe under his pen. Not even the main character or the Big Bad is immune to kicking it halfway through the series.
  • Claymore.
  • Snatch
  • Anything by Joss Whedon, but especially Firefly
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • Heavy Rain
  • Victory Gundam, Hard.
  • Lost
  • Degrassi the Next Generation, JT, precisely because given the series' setting and location one would expect nobody to die.
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki.
  • Lonesome Dove.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni does this Over and over and over again.
  • Into the Woods proves this when they kill off the least likely character out of all of them-- the Narrator.
  • A Death Note will kill anyone just by writing their name in it. Just ask Light Yagami.
  • Swordfish. The film opens with a five minute monologue about how softcore Hollywood villains tend to be, and questions what would happen if a hostage-taker really wanted to get away with it. The same character then proceeds to unapologetically kill a hostage when SWAT tries to rescue her. Only, he doesn't just kill her, he blows her up, spraying the surrounding street with 15 pounds of stainless steel ball bearings. Not only is it a Crowning Moment of Awesome for both the character and the movie itself (and this happens in the first 10 minutes), and a gigantic Take That to every traditional Hollywood villain, it also shows that the film is not afraid to ignore the rules, and that all bets are off.
  • Primeval. As of the end of the third series, there are three main characters left from the very beginning. Yes, THREE.
  • 24
  • The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan is a sadistic bastard.
  • Modern Warfare. Except Price. Well, he can, but it doesn't really inconvenience him anymore.
• Anyone You Know
  • The final boss of EarthBound.
• Anything That Moves
  • "Hi there. Captain Jack Harkness."
  • Yeoman Kelly.
  • The Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania, of course.
  • Kel
  • Zeus.
  • Sister Sweden .
• Apocalypse Wow
  • Madoka FUCKING Kaname!!!
• Apocalyptic Log
  • "They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums...drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We cannot get out...They are coming."
  • Look, if he were dying, he wouldn't bother to carve "Aauuurrrrgggghhhh". He'd just say it.
  • "The ship rolled in without a sound. The faithful captain, long since cold, he kept his his log till the bloody end. Last entry read: 'Rats in the hold. My crew is dead. I fear the plague.'"
  • "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon...and we succeeded."
  • Itchy. Tasty.
  • "These are just a few of the images we've recorded. And you can see, it wasn't what we thought. There's been no war here and no terraforming event. The environment is stable. It's the Pax. The G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate that we added to the air processors. It was supposed to calm the population, weed out aggression. Well, it works. The people here stopped fighting. And then they stopped everything else. They stopped going to work, they stopped breeding, talking, eating. There's 30 million people here, and they all just let themselves die. I have to be quick! About a tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite reaction to the Pax. Their aggressor response increased beyond madness. They have become… Well, they've killed most of us. And not just killed… they've done things… I won't live to report this, but people have to know. We meant it for the best… to make people safer."
  • In the wee hours I'll meet you, down by Dun Ringill, O and we'll watch the old gods play, by Dun Ringill
  • "Another Hunter, this wearing the traditional colors of Samus Aran, made planetfall today. Horrific as it may sound, there are two of them now."
• Apologetic Attacker
  • The turrets
    • "I don't hate you."
  • Katsudo apologising for needing to empty his bowels. Om nom nom.
  • "How can you ever have a civil war? 'Pardon me.' BOOM! 'I'm awfully sorry...'"
  • "Seriously, we're on your side!"
• Apologizes a Lot
  • Ikari Shinji
  • Colette. It's even lampshaded.
    • And from the sequel, Emil. Seriously, half is dialogue is "I'm sorry..."
  • Ai Kaga
  • Wilt
  • Fluttershy.
• Apron Matron
  • Ma Joad.
• Arc Number
  • 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42...
  • 528491
  • 28:06:42:12
  • 413 (and to a slightly lesser extent, 612 and 1025)
  • 42 itself
• Arc Welding
  • Pokémon Special. The FLRG arc was a direct consequence of every arc that came before it, not to mention as a whole there's so many frickin' Chekolv's Guns, which more than not will turn things around in an entirely different arc.
  • Robotech, taking together three different series and its three disparate plots, and welding together a semi-coherent universe out of it.
• Arc Words
  • Bad Wolf
    • Silence Will Fall
      • Umm...can you second two things at once?
  • "I'll see you in another life, brutha," and its variations. As far back as season one (with Nadia's note) we were seeing these bizarre, seemingly contextless assurances of people seeing other people in another life, and even with all those persistent theories of the whole show being the afterlife, the writers were so skillful that they still made it a surprise to everyone that it's the flash-sideways that's the afterlife, fulfilling this series-long Foreshadowing. And this was the most endlessly scrutinized and theorized-about show ever. How do you top that??
  • Persona 4 has a whole collection of them - "I art thou, thou art I" "YOU'RE NOT ME!" and "I am a shadow... the true self."
  • Everything Dies Alone
• The Archer
  • Ishida Uryuu from Bleach.
  • Robin Hood.
  • "That's very good. So good in fact, that I may have to...*FWOOP*...cheat." --
  • Katniss Everdeen.
  • Apollo and Artemis.
  • John Rambo.
• Archnemesis Dad
  • Lionel Luthor. No matter what side he's on today you can garuntee it's the opposite one from his kids.
  • Darth Vadar
• Are We There Yet?
  • Nappa.
  • Donkey
  • "Arewethereyet?" "No!" "Arewethereyet?" "NO!"
• Arm Cannon
  • Mega Man, of course.
  • Samus, of course.
  • Barret Wallace, of course.
  • Hordak
  • "Gutentaug!"
  • the Control Rod. ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢. Well, it is one in Hisoutensoku, at any rate.
  • Adam
• Armed Legs
  • Lenalee from D.Gray-man.
  • Ork boss Zagstruk
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
  • "Lincoln Stern, you stand here accused of 12 counts of murder in the first degree, 14 counts of armed theft of Federation property, 22 counts of piracy in high space, 18 counts of fraud, 37 counts of rape, and one moving violation."
  • Coop in Megas XLR
    • AND you made me run half a block!
  • "...impersonating a Cleric of the Church of England..."
  • "Often forcing men to eat their own lips, he was eventually caught and imprisoned...for tax evasion."
• Art Evolution
  • Questionable Content.
  • Dominic Deegan. This is the first one. This is one of the latest.
  • For me, it has to be The Simpsons. From this to this. Plus it is probably the best known example.
  • Goofus and Gallant. It took links to eight picture pages just to give a basic outline to how much they've changed over the years. There might've been others. And elf ears!?!
  • Penny Arcade. Not only Art Evolution but style evolution. Gabe had already evolved into an amazing artist years ago, but he still continues to subtly change and refine his style.
• The Artifact
  • The 700 Club on ABC Family.
• Artifact Title
  • Webcomic The Whiteboard, which switched media after 5 strips, and is now over 1200 strips in. A sixth strip on a whiteboard was done as a holiday treat, which means less than 0.5% of strips were actually done on a whiteboard.
  • D.C. Comics
  • Two and A Half Men
• Artificial Stupidity
  • Star Wars Battlefront
  • Every video game escort mission ever (with the exception of Metroid Prime 3)
• Artistic Age
  • The Battle Royale manga. Shogo looks like a Vietnam vet and he's sixteen.
• Ascended Extra
  • Doctor Frasier Crane, who started out as a one-shot rival for Sam Malone in Cheers, and eventually let Kelsey Grammar tie James Arness for the title of "Longest Time Playing the Same Character on Television".
  • Nana from the Madagascar movies. Initially a One-Scene Wonder in the first movie, she was brought back for the sequel, through sheer Popularity Power.
  • Chief Miles O'Brian
  • The Soul Reapers, the Visored, the Arrancar...just take your pick from any of the characters who get introduced in a new arc in Bleach. To put it in perspective: there are four character pages on this website for that manga, three of them for all the characters who aren't the five the series started off with. And they're all long. Only the Arrancar (and two traitor Captains) have died, so fully expect everyone else to come back when Ichigo's powers come back.
  • Star Wars: "Look Sir, Droids!" got his own EU story and an entry into the original Essential Guide to Characters. Aura Sing started out as the white bald chick watching the podrace in Episode I. All the scum and villainy hanging out in Jabba's Palace? Yep, they've all got names and their own fleshed out backstories, too. And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.
  • Nanoha. This troper had never even heard of Triangle Heart until long after he watched Nanoha.
  • Steve Urkel He starts off as a one shot character midway through the first season and quickly becomes focal point of the series.
  • Derpy Hooves went from an animation error, to appearing in the background every episode, to being an officially voiced, canonical character.
• Ascended Fanboy
  • Ryusei Date, epic-scale Super Robot adept with reflexes that have been honed by years of videogames.
  • David Tennant. How many of us grow up watching a series, wishing we could play the part-and then the day comes that the part becomes yours. Bravo, David, for living our geek-dream-come-true.
    • There's an even better one than that: Steven Moffat, the head writer. In his own words, "My entire career has been a secret plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back 'cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also, I was seven."
  • Eli Roth. Watch him interviewed, it's clear he's still amazed gets to make horror movies for a living.
• Ascended Glitch
  • Combos. A Good Bad Bug in Street Fighter II. Indispensable in all fighting games that came after it.
• Asshole Victim
  • 1000 Ways to Die features this quite frequently
  • Murder on the Orient Express. They all did it.
    • Seconded.
  • MW.
• The Atoner
  • Angel, mostly in his parent show but also less prominently in the parent show
  • Sol Badguy
  • Regal Bryant
  • Zuko
  • Severus Snape
  • Kenshin
• Attack Pattern Alpha
  • "Squadron 40! DIIIIIVE!"
  • "Attack Pattern Delta. Go now."
  • "Attack Pattern Alpha" is used twice, and there are others, as well.
• Attention Whore
  • Black☆Star
  • Haruhi Suzumiya. Drawing giant alien chalk symbols, smashing Kyon's head into a chair so she can scream her new idea at him in the middle of class, joining and quitting every club in the school before making her own club of people to demand constant attention from, and generally being absurdly bossy and hyperactive at all times; the sky's the limit! Or, in her case, the universe.
  • Rachel Stanley
• Attract Mode
  • DJMAX Technika 2.
  • "There are thousands of ghost stories, tales of loss, suffering and rejection - into a few - intrude the living."
• Audience Participation
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Author Existence Failure
  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood. How is it that speculation over the conclusion of a fairly mediocre novel can fill entire shelves and inspire at least three novels and a musical?
  • Robert Jordan
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for his Requiem.
  • Fermat. It took 350 years to finally figure the "truly marvellous proof" he commented about in the margin of his book.
  • Douglas Adams
• Author Filibuster
  • Atlas Shrugged
  • iCarly: iStart A Fan War ended with the main character basically ranting about how Shipping had taken over the in-universe equivalent of the real life fandom, and that everyone should just appreciate the show for the comedy. It was especially galling since the very next episode was entirely centred around shipping.
• Author's Saving Throw
  • The Dark Prince in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Not only did they abandon the obnoxiously Darker and Edgier tone of Warrior Within, they also explained why the Prince was voiced by someone else in said game, not to mention his Jerkass character derailment—and they did all this in-universe, with both actors voicing the character in The Two Thrones.
• Award Bait Song
  • "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams (from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) for existing or partly adapted songs (the melody was largely taken by Michael Kamen from a genuine medieval or Renaissance-era tune), "I Am the Wind" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for original songs.
  • "In your Belief" from Asura's Wrath, especially the Vocal Version, heard in the epic beginning of episode one the Heartrending ending of episode 12, and the credits fro the final episode.
  • Tale as Old as Time, Song as Old as Rhyme...
• Awesome McCoolname
  • JAZZ BONER
  • Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch. Go on, say it.
  • Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster, the manliest name in the world.
  • Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey. Come on, one of his middle names is Death!
  • Ragna The Frakking Bloodedge.
  • Lyra Belacqua
• Awesome Moment of Crowning
  • The Hallowed Hunt: Ingrey becoming the hallow king for one night.
  • ALL HAIL EMPEROR LELOUCH!!
  • "In life, everyone gets what he deserves! Well, come on, lets kill some more prisoners..." --
• Awesome Music
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog series, through and through.
• Awesomeness By Analysis
  • Sylar
  • Hotch
  • Shikamaru
  • Katsuragi Keima
• Ax Crazy
  • Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
  • Kid Buu
  • The World Eaters
  • Shion Sonozaki
    • Rena is a close second, Considering she owns one.
  • Patrick Bateman
  • Hollow Ichigo
  • Ren Hoek
  • Childerich
  • Yuuno
  • Bryan Hawk. Not just crazy, it's that violent, aggressive kind of crazy.
  • What about Khorne Berserkers? "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULL FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"
  • Annie Wilkes
  • Frank Booth.
  • Accelerator
  • The Joker, people
• An Axe to Grind
  • The Final Getter Tomahawk, which cleaved Jupiter in half and slashed right through three of its moons without slowing down
  • AND MY AXE!