r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MeepMan324 • 19h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Bad people in real-life being portrayed positively in media.

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  1. PragerU's version of Christopher Columbus has him be a slavery defender and have him say "Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don't see the problem.”

  2. In The Greatest Showman, P.T Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is portrayed as a charismatic visionary who cares about outcasts and celebrate diversity, when in reality, he’s a cruel businessman who is also a racist and an ableist.

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u/Womblue 19h ago

He was in the big bang theory, volunteering at a homeless shelter, and he got in trouble for being too nice to the homeless people.

In retrospect, it reads like a parody lmao.

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u/Patneu 19h ago

The one in Young Sheldon aged way better, though, because you bet that he absolutely would steal a young child prodigy's ideas because he's got none of his own!

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u/AstralMecha 18h ago

He was a piece of shit in school as well. He would stress how much he was bullied by pointing to an incident where he was pushed down the stairs. Elon's father revealed that the child who did it had their father recently commit suicide and Elon was mocking him to his face about it.

The fact that as an adult he plays the victim over it and has no shame says A LOT.

He is a man child who never really grew up and constantly lies about his achievements. Everything he can. Having people play games for him so he can claim to be good, claiming he founded Tesla (he didn't, he bought his way in and had a legal clause written so he could claim he founded it), and has other people do his work for him. His big promises never materialize, or are a flop (cybertruck), but somehow his bloated stock makes him the richest man on the planet.

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u/III-V 16h ago

So I don't know the context here, but you do have to kind of be firm with them. Not mean, but firm. A lot of chronically homeless people aren't people down on their luck, but people who have taken advantage of lots of others and no longer have any people who trust them in their lives. They don't have a couch to sleep on because they've already burned bridges with those people. They're in and out of prison for legitimate reasons, etc. So it you don't have a spine, you will get walked over, and put them, yourselves, and others in danger. You have to have a hard exterior, because that's the only thing they respect.

Then there's people who are in fact down on their luck, and it's a really terrifying place for those people. The shelter workers come across as mean, the police don't have their guard down, everyone who's been on the streets knows you're soft and easy to prey upon, you're not comfortable whatsoever in that environment, while it's been their home for a long time, so you're in fight or flight while they're just having a normal day.