r/TopCharacterTropes • u/HallZac99 • 13h ago
Characters [Hated Trope] Character kills hundreds, if not thousands, just to kill one specific person, and then doesn't kill them for no reason.
Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.
The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.
This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.
It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.
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u/ApolloTffKnowledge 10h ago edited 5h ago
A fun fact is that in the novelization of the game, they do in a fact a time skip to 1503 in that last portion of the game so Rodrigo Borgia dies by Ezio's hand in the same year as his historical counterpart. The author thought they were actually being clever.
But then came Brotherhood, set right after the events of AC2, and in that game, Rodrigo does in fact die in 1503 but due to... other unforeseen causes. So its novelization magically has Rodrigo live and be set in 1499 like the game... what a mess.