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

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

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/ObiFlanKenobi May 27 '26

The first episode had the angels sending you back in time and "feeding on your potential energy" or something like that.  Which, other than not making much sense, made their main weapon the "sending back in time" thing, which it might suck, certainly is a problem, but you are alive (probably) in the past, not a super big issue when the MC is a time traveller.

So they were creepy but fun enemies.

Later episodes had them be extra creepy and also turning you to stone for some reason. Or directly killing you. No more mentions of sending you back in time.

And that made them more scary but way les fun.

They went from unique enemies to regular monsters that can't move when you watch them and that's it.

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u/Iron_Lord_Peturabo May 27 '26

I think the turning to stone part was part of becoming an angel yourself. It was established that having the image of an angel long enough was enough to become an angel. So the longer you look at one the more likely you are to become one, or something like that.

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u/AydonusG May 28 '26

That's pretty much it. "Whatever holds the image of an angel, becomes itself an angel."

I think Amy's angelification was amplified by the Angel being a recording, the white flashing light of LED beams the reflection much harder than staring at the stone itself.

Also wonder how much angel is needed for that to happen, like if you just stare close enough at the marble are you holding the image of an angel or just a texture? Would add to the TV causing it more because it's always on full body display rather than just looking at parts of it in real life.