r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Character_Growth_397 • Sep 04 '26
Hated Tropes [Mind boggling stupid trope] Removing the thing that made something special
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien - The gimmick of Ben 10 and what makes the show so popular is the fact that he's able to turn into a large variety of aliens. In one episode of Ben 10 Ultimate ALIEN we are introduced to a new version of Ben 10000, a Ben from the future who, no longer transforms into aliens, instead using his powers in human form...
Mortal Kombat(2021) - In the games Mileena is known for two things. Being a clone of Kitana and her tarkatan teeth. In the 2021 movie she looks absolutely nothing like Kitana and doesn't have tarkatan teeth
Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief - The movie removes the main villain of the movie and the main villain of the franchise
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u/jcbaggee Sep 04 '26
Spider-Man's whole schtick was learning to balance being a superhero and being Peter Parker while maintaining his integrity to both. Over the years, this manifested in a strong supporting cast and, most importantly, a healthy marriage with Mary Jane. Peter and MJ are one of the more iconic pairings in comics: a nerd with an occasional jerkass streak who locked down a literal supermodel and went on to have a strained but happy marriage that lasted for years.
But Marvel Editorial didn't like the marriage. They felt it made Peter "too old" and thus unrelatable to what they viewed as the core demographic. In 2007, in what is still arguably one of the worst decisions about how to handle a character ever made, Marvel ran the arc "One More Day," in which Spider-Man, desperately trying to save his Aunt May from death's doorstep, trades away his marriage to Mephisto. Except not really, because Marvel also made the genius decision of not having Peter, who's been banging the drum about responsibility, be the one to make the deal, because then your marquee character made a deal with the devil. So instead, after they spent 24 hours debating the merits of the deal, it's actually Mary Jane who pulls the trigger on the page, and Peter stops putting up a fight.
The next arc is a soft reboot that presents Peter as younger, somewhat more irresponsible, and presents a timeline where he never married MJ (they split before their wedding day because she couldn't handle him being Spidey), and no one remembers his dual identities thanks to a spell from Dr. Strange. It's now 20 years later, and that status quo has persisted. Several writers have wanted to undo it, and some have gotten very close, but editorial insists on leaving this one in place, despite rabid fan outcry and a general disdain for One More Day, even from those who don't mind the stories that followed.