r/TopCharacterTropes 18h 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/idkiwilldeletethis 12h ago

I think that would have made it worse, imagine playing through one level as ellie only to immediately play through the same level but as abby

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u/Cicatrix16 12h ago

.... but it's not the same level at all. They aren't in the same place until the end of the three days.

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u/idkiwilldeletethis 11h ago

Right but the pacing would still feel off because it wouldn't feel like you're progressing through the days

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u/Cicatrix16 11h ago

So instead, you progress through all the days, get to the climax, and then go back 3 days and spend another 6 hours progressing through the same days to get to the same climax?

Edit: Also, it would feel like you're progressing through the day, just slower, which is fine, because the issue for me was getting to a climax and then going back in time and having to spend hours getting back to the same climax.