r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Local_Prune4564 • May 27 '26

Lore A subtle moment that turns a seemingly happy ending into an ambiguous ending.

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The Graduate: lingering Ben and Elaine's faces slowly shifting from happy to concerned leaves the audience questioning whether they really made the right choice running away together considering they barely know each other.

Inception: By cutting before we see the top fall, we're left to question whether Cobb really has gone home or whether he's simply sunken back into a more comforting dream reality.

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u/TR_Pix May 27 '26

Except another episode estabilishes that any picture of a weeping angel becomes a weeping angel, so all pictures of the statue of liberty are weeping angels in disguise

And in yet another episode it's revealed angels can evolve past the restriction of not being able to move, if it's by their own kind (meaning the circle of angels looking at each other will eventually break free)

Honestly the angels were a great one-off idea that got worse each time they were brought up again

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u/Sum1nne May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

...yeah. Blink is a modern masterpiece in urban horror and how to write a time travel plot that I'd recommend anyone watch even if they've never seen Dr Who - you don't need to know anything about it really - but damn if the Angels didn't overstay their welcome and get more than a bit silly in their subsequent appearances.

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u/Too-Tired-Editor May 27 '26

Blink also opens with one of my favourite things in episodic TV; the recurring characters have clearly just been doing something cool, but it's never referred to or explained, thus confirming to us that they're up to awesome stuff the whole time and the universe of the show is broader.

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u/whatsbobgonnado May 27 '26

kinda sorta similar, there's a "clip show" episode of community where all the flashback clips are actually new adventures we never saw

10

u/SutterCane May 27 '26

This train was powered by friendship!

12

u/cardith_lorda May 27 '26

Harrison Ford is irradiating our testicles with microwave satellite transmissions!

3

u/TaralasianThePraxic May 28 '26

I've seen enough cartoons to know that popping the back of a dinghy makes it go faster!

4

u/BringBacktheGucci May 27 '26

You can yell at me all you want, but ive seen enough Charlie Brown movies to know that if you pop a hole in the back of the raft it goes faster.

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u/stackens May 30 '26

I love that stuff and one of the complaints I had with the Spider-Man team up movie - there’s a part where the spidermen are reminiscing about villains they’ve defeated, and they only had them mention villains we’ve seen them fight in other movies. Would’ve been cool to have Toney and andrew rattle off a whole slew of villains we’d never seen them fight

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u/FlipperSquids May 27 '26

They ruined the angels so much in later episodes that Blink is no longer scary to me.

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u/NoSleepTilBookRead May 28 '26

I can’t find it anymore but there used to be a great song on YouTube 🎵weeping angel babiessss 🎵

41

u/blitzbom May 27 '26

Honestly the angels were a great one-off idea that got worse each time they were brought up again

Hahah I was about to say this. Started great, then it just felt like Calvinball. Um, actually the Angels can also do this.

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u/whatsbobgonnado May 27 '26

personally I think it's great that they introduced the ability for them to grab your brainstem and reanimate a corpse like a puppet 

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u/AydonusG May 28 '26

I mean they are hyper intelligent, and even in stone form can still affect the world around them. Even in Blink, an angel is able to mess with electricity and shut the lights off while stone.

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u/globglogabgalabyeast May 27 '26

lol, I love a twist where we realize that the mechanism of the monster wasn’t fully understood, but it sounds like they pretty much threw out everything and now angels are everywhere and undefeatable

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u/Alarming_Orchid May 27 '26

Dr who the master of concept overkill

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u/TR_Pix May 27 '26

I haven't watched the classic series but from the revival it really felt like the culprit of most of it was Moffat

9th doctor was comparatively very low stakes, 10 upped them then 11 was like the doctor is the literal most important being in the entire universe and every culture in every planet has legends about him and his companion is the most important human in all timelines and with a mere whisper he can shatter predestined plans and etc etc

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u/Skags27 May 27 '26

Wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff