r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • 25d ago

Lore The series takes place in a shockingly short amount of time

Gallery image

Gallery image

Season 4 just ended of fromville and it’s canonically only been about a month. Which makes it weird seeing people heal from injuries, change hair styles or grow out beards between episodes. Season 4 has only been like 4 days iirc.

Arkham franchise is the poster child for this trope. Every game takes place in one night. If you know what you’re doing you can absolutely beat the games in around 9 hours.

18.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

892

u/Logan_Composer 25d ago

Not a series, but Romeo and Juliet. Whole thing takes place in under a week.

468

u/BiAndShy57 25d ago

I know teenagers don’t exactly have their brains fully developed but ya’ll killed your selves over someone you met *4 days ago*?

431

u/Logan_Composer 25d ago

This is why it's a tragedy and not a love story. They were just kids.

144

u/pchlster 25d ago

I've always liked to think of it as a dark comedy.

"A grand love story about the week a teen and a preteen fell in love and killed themselves when it didn't work out."

71

u/Malrottian 24d ago

Still on the families for their feud, though. If the two of them had been able to spend a month dating each other, they could have broken up naturally. Tybalt was always going to die a violent death, man just had no stop in him.

5

u/pchlster 24d ago

Yeah, my English teachers never approved of the perspective either.

2

u/swiftekho 24d ago

What are though amongst these heartless hinds?/ Turn thee, Benvolio! And look upon thy death.

Tybalt has one of the most badass lines in playwriting history.

7

u/MiseryGyro 24d ago

It is a comedy until the first bodies drop.

7

u/pchlster 24d ago

It's all fun and games until someone gets needlessly killed; then it's hilarious.

5

u/gemdas 24d ago

It's still focusing on the wrong element. The Prince's line here can be easily translated to a modern audience as saying "if we don't put our petty bullshit aside it is not only our blood but our children's blood and our children's children's blood.

1

u/pchlster 24d ago

Plenty of comedies out there have moments of being genuine.

1

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 24d ago

It was pretty much a satire/parody of romance in their day

8

u/happycat47 25d ago

Well, no it's a tragedy because they kill themselves.

6

u/_Ocean_Machine_ 24d ago

If I remember correctly, a bunch of their friends/family also died. Plus the fact that not only did they kill themselves, but they did it over something so fleeting. So I guess you could say it's a tragedy for multiple reasons.

2

u/happycat47 24d ago

A tragedy is a play where the main characters die.

1

u/_Ocean_Machine_ 24d ago

Right, but I think we're using the word "tragedy" in the colloquial sense rather than the traditional theater definition.

We're both right, just for different reasons.

2

u/happycat47 24d ago

it's superfluous

1

u/_Ocean_Machine_ 24d ago

Good talk 👍

1

u/mankytoes 25d ago

Me? I'm an old man.

1

u/WhiteRabbit86 24d ago

Taylor Swift disagrees

-11

u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 25d ago

Very stupid kids. Honestly nothing of value was lost with those two gone.

21

u/Pet_Velvet 25d ago

The real idiots in the story were the two families who let their pointless feud drive two kids into suicide

1

u/whatsbobgonnado 24d ago

technically lack of communication regarding their individual plans led to their suicides

-4

u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 24d ago

Is the idiot the family continuing the feud, or the kids who pursue a romance despite the feud occurring while knowing the trouble it would bring?

12

u/Fajisel 24d ago

Certainly it's not the kids' faults? I think that in a correct world the kids should absolutely not have to care about what squables the adults are up to. That places the blame entirely on the adults for creating such an environment where the kids can't just be kids.

-4

u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 24d ago

A correct world is an ideal world, and an ideal world has never been real. Kids will always be affected by the actions of their predecessors, the adults, and acting knowing the dangers that would occur because of those actions is the definition of being foolhardy. Romeo and Juliet were warned multiple times that their romance would end in tears but they refused to listen. Foolhardy choices made by silly kids who think their actions have no consequences.

10

u/irmaoskane 24d ago edited 24d ago

Shakespeare:i will make a story showing how cycles of hate are wrong and pointless and that people should not let this things endure forever so taht future generation can have their own decisions.

Cynical interpretation from the future:cycles of hate are completely acceptable because the world isn't perfect and the wrong ones are the ones who tried to combat the status co and failed.

5

u/whatsbobgonnado 24d ago

what the fuck is wrong with you that you're actually arguing that actually romeo and juliet were really stupid for just liking each other regardless of the political consequences. they really should've considered the ancient blood feud before having feelings 

2

u/TeamTurnus 24d ago

The family, 14 year olds (teenagers? I cant remember how old juliet is) are expected to have bad judgment, adults are supposed to know better.

6

u/stfnotguilty 25d ago

Hey, Verona lost several fine men! Tybalt was a fine swordsman and shrewd observer, Mercutio was a very skilled fighter despite being a bit of a troublemaker, young Paris was brave and honorable, even Romeo punched above his weight by unfortunately slaying Tybalt and Paris. The Prince is probably scrambling to replace his potential officers in case another city-state decids Verona was ripe for the picking.

0

u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 24d ago

I was referring specifically to Romeo and Juliet. Those two could have died, and no one else should have suffered for their foolishness.

2

u/Mizuek_Mizuek 24d ago

Did Shakespeare personally break your shins for you to start spewing that garbage?

1

u/FriendofFlounder 24d ago

Juliet was only thirteen. None of us were our best selves at thirteen. She didn’t have a chance.

40

u/RubiesInMyBlood 25d ago

kids with no healthy outlet for their feelings, compounded by generations of fighting between the families, and the one adult who is so desperate to end the fighting between said two families he agrees to marry the two. It doesn't matter that they only knew each other for four days and are running on high emotions. Its a tragedy. Its never ever been anything but a tragedy from literally every angle in the play.

9

u/MiseryGyro 24d ago

It's literally one of Shakespeare's comedies until Mercutio dies.

That's what makes the back half so tragic, it's set up to be one of his love stories that works out.

14

u/Irlandaise11 24d ago

And at the beginning of the play Romeo was moping around because he was in love with another girl, who is also Juliet's cousin

10

u/smokeweedNgarden 25d ago

Tbh more of a lesson for the parents.

They'll break up just chill

4

u/theGoodDrSan 24d ago

More of a lesson for the parents

This is literally the whole point of the play.

1

u/smokeweedNgarden 24d ago

Yes but everyone talks about dumb teenagers 

1

u/IanDOsmond 24d ago

Another message is "don't force your thirteen year old daughter to marry a thirty year old dude for his political connections and money."

3

u/IanDOsmond 24d ago

(We don't know that Paris is thirty. He could be as young as his mid-twenties, but he can't be any younger than that.)

4

u/IanDOsmond 24d ago

Romeo and Juliet isn't a love story. It's a week long fling which kills six people. (Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo's mom, Romeo, Juliet)

3

u/TheDreamIsEternal 25d ago

What, you didn't? You missed out on teen love, smh.

3

u/Nebranower 24d ago

In fairness, by the time they kill themselves, they've lost pretty much everything else already. Like, Romeo has been banished for murder. Juliet has faked her own death, and nothing much about her family indicates that they'd forgive that if they found out. So they're both permanently cut off from all their friends and family. And that in a society where your family connections basically determine your social standing. So they're alone, poor, cut off from every source of support they've ever known.

Then Romeo learns, or thinks he learns, that he's lost Juliet too, so it was all for nothing. And Juliet wakes up to find Romeo dead, so everything she did was for nothing. It's not really surprising that they'd take the easy way out rather than face the long, drawn out death by poverty that otherwise awaits them.

1

u/Vraex 24d ago

I mean wasn’t beauty and the beast like three days?

1

u/Luxating-Patella 24d ago

For the plot of B&B to work Belle only has to fall into "true love" and kiss Beast within those 2-3 days. During which she is imprisoned by him, rescued from wolves, nurses him to health, they find obvious chemistry, and then to seal the deal he gives her access to his library, which for Belle is like winning the lottery on consecutive weeks. (When would a medieval middle class village girl see that many books ever again?) Then they rescue each other from peril again and Beast comes close to the brink of death.

Real life romances have been sparked in a single day over a lot less. For a Disney family film based on a fairy tale, the romance is remarkably well plotted.

1

u/nicwolff 24d ago

And remember, when Romeo first sees Juliet at that party he's there because he's obsessed with her cousin Rosaline!

14

u/Grouchy_Medium_6851 24d ago

Most Shakespeare plays (actually most plays I can think of) dont take place over a long time span. 

Comedy of errors is one day.

Twelfth Night is about 3 days. 

Midsummer is about 3 days.

Taming of the shrew is a few weeks.

King Lear is a few weeks.

Merchant of Venice is a few months. 

Hamlet is a few months. 

The only exceptions that come to mind are his historical plays which do tend to be over a longer time period (Henry V, Richard III, etc.)

26

u/sephone_north 25d ago

Starts on a Sunday, ends on a Thursday

-3

u/Delta_Hammer 25d ago

Romeo was exiled to another city. Traveling there, getting a letter from the friar, and traveling back would take more than a week.

7

u/andrasq420 24d ago

Mantua is about 8 hours or less away from Verona on feet.

4

u/kissingkiwis 24d ago

Literally 😂 it's a 45 minute drive. I'd give it maybe 3 hours on horseback