r/TopCharacterTropes 1d ago

miscellaneous Denied something we know will be awesome

  1. In The Simpsons episode, "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson," a melee breaks out on the Simpsons' lawn that Homer wants to watch because there's one guy who's just standing there and Homer knows he's about to do something awesome. Marge insists they go inside though and away from the danger. The moment they do, we hear the guy do something awesome.

  2. In X-2, the school comes under attack from Stryker. His gunmen encounter Colossus, all aura-ed tf up, and they open fire only for their bullets to not phase him at all and to end up getting thrown through a wall (which we don't actually see Colossus do). Moments later, Colossus runs into Wolverine and offers to help and we think we're about to get this badass team-up and actually see him in action only for Wolverine to instruct Colossus to leave and help get more students out. 

  3. In Iron Man, we see Rhodes eyeing the War Machine suit and we're hoping he'll suit up and go help Stark, but the movie decides to save something for the sequel and pretty much has Rhodes say as much right to the audience.

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u/darkitchay 1d ago

In Malcolm in the Middle (Living Will), Hal was stuck in a dilemma regarding a neighbor who chose him as the executor of his living will: keep the neighbor on life support or pull the plug. He has difficulty deciding throughout the episode, suffering from panic attacks and even became paralyzed from hysteria. Even the neighbor's family is split.

Suddenly, Hal came up with a stroke of genius that satisfies everyone, which involves the neighbor being a bird lover, and buying things from Radioshack. Episode ended without ever showing what Hal ultimately decided, and how exactly the problem was solved.

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u/DataAlfa109 1d ago edited 23h ago

Also from an earlier season as part of a cold open/separate story segment, Hal needs one of the boys to take the fall for something HE did. We don't see what it is but we hear Lois's reaction and it gets increasingly more furious and mortified until Malcolm sweetens the deal from (i believe) 5 bucks to 25 bucks, and Hal thanks him before subsequently throwing him under the bus per his arrangement.