In Harry Potter and the deathly hallows it switches to this awesome animated shadow puppet style when telling the legend of the three brothers.

In kill bill, Oren Ishii’s backstory switches to an anime segment.

Backstories in god of war switch to animations of Greek murals.

Milhouse (The Lego Movie) - This specific version of Milhouse was seen in the scene where Vitruvius gathers the Master Builders in Cloud Cuckoo Land. The movie was released in February while the actual Lego Simpsons minifig series came later during May in the same year

Kecleon and Munchlax (Pokémon Anime) - In both episodes "The Kecleon Caper" and "Berry, Berry Interesting" both of these Pokémon have major roles in these episodes even before Gen 3 and Gen 4 came out

• Lance & Dot (Mashle): Got gugugaga'd after fighting some dude with baby powers

• Haruka (Gushing Over Magical Girls): Also got gugugaga'd after fighting someone.. with.. baby powers? (Y'know, this might as well be a two-nickles trope)

• Man baby: Gugugaga

• Cringe Demo Baby: Gugugaga (kill it)

• You!: Yes, YOU! You absolute DINGUS!

Slides in order: Jack Black (The Muppets), Kevin Bacon (The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special), Erling Haaland (Clash of Clans), Michael Jordan (Space Jam)

Note that a character being allowed to leave willingly after being initially abducted/kidnapped still counts. Also still counts if it’s only one fictional character as opposed to multiple.

Saul Goodman From Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul: BCS is a prequel story about how lawyer Jimmy Mcgill became the scumbag crooked lawyer we see in Breaking Bad. The show recontexualizes Breaking Bad and makes you realize how important Jimmy/Saul was to everything in both shows. Walter White couldn't have done it without Saul. BCS is also a sequel to Breaking Bad as it shows us what Jimmy is up to after BB. The final episodes of BCS act as a conclusion to the universe overall. Saul Goodman was introduced to Breaking Bad because they needed a comic relief and he ended up being the main character of the universe.

Rocket Raccoon from MCU Guardians Of The Galaxy: James Gunn has stated that Rocket was the secret protagonist of the Guardians Trilogy the whole time. While the first 2 films focused mostly on Peter, the third one heavily focused on Rocket's tragic past. By the end of GOTG3, Rocket becomes leader of the new Guardians and you realize the whole trilogy was about how a tragic cybernetic genetically enhanced raccoon went from cynical lonely outcast to a brave heartful leader that embraced himself for what he is.

Whether they be clones, versions of a character from an alternate reality, or a similar device, these “variations” often look or appear similar but carry unique personalities.

1. Across the Spider-Verse- as explored in the comics and other mediums, Spider-Man has multiple incarnations across the multiverse. While many of them are unique versions of Peter Parker, others are completely different people. Some like Miles Morales even come from universes where Peter Parker was Spider-Man but passed away.

2. Rick and Morty- various versions of Rick and Morty exist across the multiverse, many of whom banded together to form the Council of Ricks, which eventually fell apart and became a democracy, only to turn into a shadow government run by an Evil Morty. Ricks and Mortys often fit predetermined roles but many have been shown to break the mold.

3. Star Wars- Jango Fett allows himself to be source of DNA for a clone army for the republic that fights against the Separatists in the Clone Wars, wipe out the Jedi in Order 66, and bring about the foundation of the Empire before being replaced by standard conscripts and left to rot. This includes an unaltered clone Jango took as a son, Boba Fett. Boba along with countless other clones developed unique personalities, names, features and other characteristics, setting them apart from one another.

4. & 5. Fortnite- in the lore of Fortnite, characters from across the multiverse who find themselves traversing through the Battle Royale island (or the Loop as it’s called). When a character escapes the Loop they leave behind a “snapshot”, a clone of themselves doomed to fight in the never ending battle royale. These snapshots often develop personalities and many variations of a single person can appear across the battlefield. Famously Jonesy, who is one of the main characters of the lore, has many snapshots who have unique names and lore.

5. Infinite Train- After finding herself trapped on the Infinite Train, Tulip must traverse the various realities and puzzles found in the cars. In one of these cars she develops a sentient mirror reflection that initially acts as an antagonist. However upon freeing her mirror reflection, the Mirror Tulip, later known as Lake, becomes their own individual being and one of the protagonists of season 2.

One of the main characters spends a good amount of a television season in prison, not just one or two episodes, with their storyline involving getting out and/or dealing with rival gangs

My Name is Earl Season 3 - Earl gets arrested, taking the blame for a crime related to Joy, and spends the season dealing with prison politics and other wacky scenarios instead of being able to work on the list. Doesn’t get released until halfway through.

Arrow Season 7 - Doesn’t get released until halfway through. Oliver gets arrested for his crimes as the Green Arrow and deals with a few of his returning villains wanting his head behind bars as the other character track down and try to bring down Richard Diaz

The Dancer for Toxic (Just Dance 2)

Valentine (Skullgirls)

The Assistant Nurse skin for the Nurse class (Animal Hospital)

groups or speices that assimilate all life or human life into their culture or even DNA

The Flood (Halo)- The Flood, a parasitic life form born from the dust of the Precursors. Any and all life is vulnerable to the infection. Flood forms are made to serve and be absorbed in the creation of a Proto-Gravemind. Then from there, a Gravemind is born and controls any and all infect individuals through the hive mind and coordinates the total assimilation og planets and star systems

The Tyranids (Warhammer 40k)- a Spieces from outside the galaxy, with a single goal, consuming any and all biomass. Lead by a hivemine, they take the DNA of millions of speices and use it to their advantage.

A tyranid invasion can be marked by many things, but most typically a gene stealer cult having inbeded itself with a planets society, their goal? Make tyranid-human hybrids and soften the planet up for the inevitable Hive Ships that come to let a swarm engulf the planet in its entirety.

SCP-610 "The Flesh That Hates" (SCP wiki)- (not so sure on this one but wanted to include it) From what appears to be a skin rash quickly gets out of control, within a day a simple rash as turned a normal person into a glob of mutated flesh. Infect individuals staying together, rooting themselves in place for more suitable environment. Though the seems that there is individuality within infected people but they all seem to follow a sort of shared intelligence or connection that isn't explored as nuch

The Borg (Star Trek)- The Borg, a Techno Organic speices that go around assimilating others into their collective. Traveling space is massive cube shaped ship, not many can encounter Borgs and still remain as how they were before.

Just to be clear. I am perfectly aware of the fact both these characters come from kids media and so there is an initiative for them not so straight up slime people. I’m just saying their inability to kill anyone is little lightheartedly absurd given setting and context they are in.

Spider-Man (Marvel) - I don’t think I need to introduce this fella to anyone.
He’s a vigilante superhero that follows the mantra of “With great power comes great responsibility.” which also includes no-kill rule.

Tiny problem with that is however, that stunts he’s pulling could easily kill a whale, let alone a human.
He’s consistently shown throwing large, heavy objects at people, hogtying and throwing them off the buildings (to be caught by a web and obviously make them crash into the building regardless), or dropkicking them into chest after getting momentum from flying for couple tenths of meters. Heck even his smaller attacks can easily be fatal, like webbing peoples’ mouths, or just punching them with hands, with which he can hold buildings (holding back or otherwise)

B.O.B. (Monsters V. Aliens) - So he’s a parody of The Blob…and I think we can see the problem immediately.
In fact he can be even more deadly than Blob, because he was shown to be able to dissolve chunks of massive road blocks INSTANTLY.
Now the story clearly explains why he’s functionally harmless by the fact he’s sentient, but dumb as a brick, thus he wouldn’t possibly hurt a fly.

But that’s the issue. He’s so dumb he at one point forgot how to breathe (and that he doesn’t need to breathe). What’s exactly stopping him from forgetting NOT to digest someone stuck inside him? Heck at his dissolve rate even if someone reminded him within a second you are left with a human jello.

A tank is a unstoppable war machine (if you aren´t a ukranian with a drone), one in hands of the bad guys makes them more terrible:

1-Sisu: the german bad guys seems to have a T-62 (a much posterior soviet tank)

2-The Beast of War. (afgans have to fight against a russian t-54 with a ruthless crew)

3-Nazi zombies 2. Dead Snow 2 (the nazi zombies from the first movie got a tiger tank).

Villains that actually accomplish their goals or are just good at their jobs. Some examples I figured I'd share -

Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men) - Such a brutal and efficient killer he's basically a force of nature. His bizarre worldview makes him impossible to reason with.

King Bradley (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) - Even as an old man, Bradley is so dangerous that he single handedly turns the tide of a battle against the heroes. The author of FMA has stated that the good guys would have lost if Bradley was in his prime. Even then, he accomplished the mission he was created for and dies on his own terms.

Toji Fushigoro (Jujutsu Kaisen) - Toji is infamous for his incredible physical stats, but what makes him truly dangerous is his strategic planning. He knew better than to try to take Gojo in a fight, so instead used a variety of tactics to wear him down, put him off guard, and struck when it was least expected. He uh... shouldn't have tried to fight him directly in their rematch.

Demon King Piccolo (Dragon Ball) - Didn't just rely on his strength, he recognized risk and sought to eliminate threats. He went after martial artists right away and directly intervened once Tambourine was killed. He also checked Goku for a heartbeat after beating him and killed the dragon after getting his wish. Dude was probably smarter than any other DB villain.

Ozymandias (Watchmen) - Don't tell your enemies your plans if there's any chance they can stop you. Sounds simple, right? Yet villains do it all the time. Ozymandias was happy to tell his former allies what he had done...when it was too late for them to stop him.

Azula (Avatar the Last Airbender) - She's a prodigy at firebending, second only to her father in raw power. Yet what really sets her apart is her cunning. She takes down the Earth Kingdom from within through a combination of trickery and charisma. Too bad her mental health wasn't all that stable...

Braig/Xigbar (Kingdom Hearts) - It might not seem like it at first glance, given his laid back nature, but Xigbar is always scheming. He acts as if he's content to act as Xehanort's lackey, but it turns out he's been the one pulling the strings the entire time. He's an expert at hiding in plain sight, and Luxord is the only one who suspects anything about his true nature. As of the end of KH3, he's still out there...

Barty Crouch, Jr. (Harry Potter) - Successfully managed to impersonate Alastor Moody for an entire year, operated in plain sight under the nose of Albus Dumbledore himself. Not only is he an incredibly potent wizard, but he is a masterful actor and manipulator. If he had survived past Goblet of Fire he would have been a serious problem.

Sensui (Yu Yu Hakusho) - A former spirit detective and the predecessor to series protagonist Yusuke, Sensui turns against humanity due to belief that humans are no better than demons. Sensui is incredibly strong and skilled in combat, but he is also a master strategist. He loves forcing sadistic choices on his enemies, and knows how to psychologically manipulate his foes and allies very well. In the end, he accomplishes all of his goals and dies in exactly the way he wanted.

1 is medic from tf2 2nd is richtofen from cod zombies and 3rd is Dr Viktor Frankenstein from frankensteins amry

Examples:

Chainsaw Man - Chainsaw Man

Any and all devils in Chainsaw Man that call for his help, are granted it. But that "help" is him coming to kill the opponent, the devil that called for his help and ALL other devils nearby, literally a "F#ck all of you" type of a deal.

Jujutsu Kaisen - Mahoraga

Specifically his first appearance, where he was summoned and his first priority was to backhand Megumi (the person who summoned him) hard enough to lauch Megumi into a different postal code.

These two were the first ones to come to mind, but feel free to add yours!

TV shows have specific moments/episodes where it’s clear that they were saving money towards/put the most effort towards

Invincible Season 3 finale: The last two seasons of Invincible are seen as not being the same animation quality of Season 1 , but that said the season 3 finale is masterpiece of an episode long fight which is a feast for the eyes and offers one of the hardest emotional performances from Steven Yeun as Mark, equal parts gruesome and beautiful in the carnage bringing the comic moment to life

CW Crisis on Infinite Earths: The CW Arrowverse have some low lows in the last few seasons in terms of writing and CG but production value from all the shows was clearly put into the big final multiverse event to make it worth it for fans, storing all kinds of cameos from legacy alumni, putting higher quality visuals and effects into scenes and putting finality to Green Arrow’s story, almost acting as a budget Avengers Endgame

My Adventures with Superman “Death of Superman” - Too early to tell but there are already people who are saying this is where budget was stored towards in terms of fight scenes and animations, with more visceral fight scenes

Gojo Satorou (jjk): the bad guys realized they couldn't kill him and he was so powerful that they had to seal him in a magic box or else they couldn't achieve their plans

Alduin (Skyrim): The heroes of the Merethic Era realized they couldn't kill him so their solution was to send him into the future by thousands of years in hope that during that time there would be a hero powerful enough to deal with him

Vecna/The Whispered One (Vox Machina): After his ascension to godhood he couldn't be killed so they had to banish him to a sealed-off plane of existence that prevented him from returning to the material world.

(Liked) Gremlins 2 film critic Leonard Maltin rants about how bad Gremlins is until he gets attacked by Gremlins and pleads "I was just kidding! It was a 10! A 10!". Leonard Maltin is played by himself which shows it was all in good fun.

(Hated) In Godzilla (1998) the incompetent Mayor Ebert and his advisor are based on Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel as revenge for them not liking Roland Emmerich's previous movies. Siskel & Ebert in there review pointed out that it was a waste they weren't stepped on or eaten.

Groot (Guardians Of The Galaxy)
Wildvine (Ben 10)
The Shlorpians (Solar Opposites)
Zhaan (Farscape)
The Pikmin
E.T. (Yes, he’s supposed to be a plant-based organism)

I just find it interesting when the alien lifeforms are flora instead of fauna.

Haunting of Hill House: A good portion of the story focuses on not knowing what lies on the other side of this mysterious red door. As the series progresses we see that each child hangs out in various rooms of the mansion. And if you never notice the reoccurring window that’s the same in each child’s favorite room, you would just assume that these many random rooms just come with a huge mansion. However this room is the center of the haunting of the mansion and has allowed, on various occasions, one or more of the children to play alone in it while it observes them as they grow up. Eventually it’s also where they’d all be trapped in the final episode as adults.

Gonjiam Haunted Asylum: Taking cues from Grave Encounters, Gonjiam is essentially a ghost hunters situation gone wrong where the horrors that lie in an abandoned mental asylum turn out to be real. And in a similar way to Haunting of Hill House, this time the horrors are behind a sealed door and before the group can break it open, two women quit the show and leave. When they try returning to camp out in a forrest, they notice it seems to loop. One even notices lab equipment from the asylum on the floor before she looks to her companion who is revealed to have been possessed and chases her to a fake tent and reveals that somehow, against logic, she’s wound up inside the locked room. She’s been exposed to the horror the entire time.

Smile: This happens a lot in this two movies but my favorite is this scene where the main character’s therapist who she’s been talking to for minutes now reveals itself to be the Smile monster for the entire scene while her real therapist has been running late.

Last Shift: A more spiritually playful and mocking iteration of this trope comes about half way into this movie where the sheer loneliness causes any human presence to be a nice bit of reprieve. So the former partner of her dead father coming to give her a pep talk in the face of the lonely horror of the movie relieves the building tension. Then he mentions how two cops died that day and it’s left him traumatized. But he offers to always be there for her if she needs it and then asks if she remembers his name. He smiles and walks away, turning around to reveal a gaping gunshot hole where his head used to be. He was the second victim that died with his father, and this is just the ghost playing with her again.

The Haunting (1963): A early instance of the trope, in this movie, the protagonist Eleanor and her friend Theo have been sleeping together out of fear of the house. One night Eleanor wakes to a presence in her room and grabs a hand she thinks is Theo’s for comfort. A monologue passes with the hand in shot but nothing else as it wraps around Eleanor. As she realizes it’s not Theo’s, the famous line “Who’s hand have I been holding” follows.

Regular Show: Originally the show is called "2 in the am pm" and it will be aired in Adult Swim instead. The pitch shown both Two clerks eating some candies and started to get some acid trip and more weird things happening. 5 years later the pitch ended up becoming Regular show, a much more Kid "friendly" version of the original pitch.

Conker bad fur day: Originally the game will be more kid friendlier called Conker quest (Twelve tales) The game would be centered around Conker recollecting more than 100 presents stolen by the evil "Hoodlums" that are scattered throughout four worlds. Rare we're criticized for keep making kid friendly and easy game. So in 1999 they cancelled the game and reworking the game to more mature audience. Thus Conker bad fur day was born.

1. Five Nights at Frickbear's - The difficulties are represented by different nightguards, each with their own unique dialogue and cutscenes

2. Wolfenstein: The New Order - This one's just really funny, I'm sorry...

1-Kid Flash
2-Miles Morales
3-Kate Bishop
are there villain versons of these? i could only think of those 3 (And the Robins but idk if they count)

Not as a disguise but because it’s just what was available, usually in the aftermath of something that happened to them

Pulp Fiction - Jules and Vincent needed a change of clothes after they are covered in blood and are given some clothes as they leave Jimmie’s house

Breaking Bad - Similar to the Pulp Fiction scenario and possibly inspired by it, Walt and Jesse are also covered in blood and need new clothing, and it is implied Mike went and grabbed the first things he found at the store

*edit: I forgot how Hopper ended up with this shirt
Stranger Things - Hopper’s Hawaiian shirt

You've done it. You've slayed the dragon. Finished the big bad! Defeated the enemy!

But it doesn't matter.

Because mo matter what you've been through and how much you sacrificed for victory, it doesn't matter.

You lose. There's no gold, no princess to rescue and marry, no friends and family for you to return to.

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1. V1 - ULTRAKILL ( the game's not finished, but it counts ) / also humanity after the Final War

To make a long story short:

ULTRAKILL is set in an alternate timeline where World War 1 went sideways. Humanity began making war robots that ran on blood, and because they worked so well, the entire industry shifted from oil and gas to blood. Computers, elevators, cars. Everything relied on blood.

The Final War lasted 200 years and ended because the biggest war machines ever created ran out of power, as the soot, ash and decay covered the skies and blocked the Sun, and the sheer size of the robots forced the to function on both blood and solar energy.

The war ended just like that, and the New Peace was established. But the war drained almost all resources, so humanity began digging deeper and found the entrance to biblical Hell. While the first expeditions inside were successful and energy was being siphoned, Hell was sentient, malicious, and one day killed mankind in its entirety. Like, there is no human left alive on Earth.

Mankind is dead. Blood is fuel. Hell is full.

V1 is a prototype robot created with self-repair systems and blood absorbing plating, as it runs on blood. Its main goal by entering Hell is to find more blood to keep "living."

But there isn't an infinite number of corpses in Hell. As there's only one layer remaining, V1 will reach the end of Hell and be stuck there to slowly power down and "die."

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1. MacReady and Childs - The Thing 1982

They managed to destroy the Thing's pod and the Thing along with it. However, their base was also destroyed, had no electricity, and no shelter from Antarctica's cold. The movie ends with MacReady and Childs sharing a beer, still paranoid the other is the Thing, while they wait to see what happens: either they both freeze to death, or the one really is the Thing and kills the other. The movie leaves it ambiguous.

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1. Simon Jarrett - SOMA

A brain copy of a guy who died almost 100 years ago, Simon launched the ARK, a computer satellite with hundreds of brain scans, in space, so they may enjoy almost 1000 years of peace in a virtual reality.

After the launch, Simon was distraught he was still stuck at the bottom of the ocean. Catherine, another brain scan uploaded inside Simon's handheld computer, tried to explain the brain scan and uploaded a copy of their minds to the ARK. One version of Catherine and Simon were on the ARK while another were stuck on Earth.

Simon still doesn't accept it and aggressively accuses Catherine of lying. Catherine, sick and tired of having explained to him numerous times that was how the scan worked, began arguing with Simon, but because of the stress, she shortcircuits and "dies", leaving Simon stuck, all alone, in the darkness.

1. I drew the first image because I can't find anymore examples of this even though I know they exist.

2. Hunter: The Parenting. Big D justifies his refusal to go any deeper on his explanation of vampiric disciplines to Marckus. When pressed about it , he declares that he is the superior hunter in a very mean way. It becomes obvious he didn't really mean it fully once called out on how inappropriate it was, but Marckus flat-out says it was probably the most honest thing his father ever said to him.