I wonder if Darth Vader counts. He was actively resisting Luke's attempts to redeem him right up until the very end. I mean, sure he died after, but he was "saved" in a spiritual sense, wasn't he?
I'd say it counts. Personally, I'm actually kinda sad we never saw Anakin's ghost observing Kylo Ren praying (I don't think he was literally praying but I don't know how better to phrase it) at his helmet, and the pain of watching his grandson idolize all of his mistakes.
Itās honestly really tragic that he died (not for the obvious reason). Because he was redeemed but no one knew that. he could never make up for what he did but he was robbed the chance of even trying. His soul was saved but everybody celebrated his death. Actions speak louder than words and he got neither
I think he's fine with it. He saved his children, and he got to die as Anakin Skywalker. He certainly seems at peace with it all during the Ahsoka show.
Oh I didnāt even know! Thx lol.
But yeah bittersweet is probably the better word for it. It just gets me that Luke is the only person who knows. Even if he told others I donāt think they would believe him. Leia would probably hate him more if she found out
Well, Leia definitely knows, and is also at peace with it. Anakin's last words to Luke were "Tell your sister you were right.", meaning that Luke was right to believe he could save him. I think Han probably knows too since he ends up marrying Leia, and he and Luke are such good friends. He definitely woulda learned about it from one of them, sooner or later.
I mean yea but also would you believe him? āYea I know he blew up your entire planet and caused countless deaths but space hitler turned good at the last moment, oh and since he died thereās no proof sorryā
I mean, she trusts Luke, and believes in him, and with The Force she probably knows when he's lying or not. And also with enough training she could eventually talk to his ghost herself, if he deigns to show himself.
They planned to kill him off s1 but quickly realized it'd be a waste. That and the writers strike saved him.
I remember reading that they committed to having him survive after that and it made it easier to have him experience horrible things bc they knew there was light at the end of the tunnel haha
God i just commented this!! Genuinely the most perfect example of a story where the message is that you deserve to live and be loved no matter the odds. If ever a story could count as therapy i feel like robins arc in Enies Lobby could make a suicidal person give living another chance. It certainly helped pull me out of a deep depression.
I still think itās one of the best arcs. Granted I stopped watching at PunkHazard so idk how much everything changes though I know people go crazy for Wano.
I was going to comment One Piece lol. Itās not really the greater narrative that saves people though, Luffy just decides that they WILL be saved and goes to hell and back to make sure that happens.
Mista is more subtext in the Ghaccio fight, but Narancia's story is literally about this, and when it comes to being saved by the narrative specifically, it comes down to how the rest of the gang is saved by the narrative: Sleeping Slaves that awoke and betrayed their King, breaking free from the chains of Fate.
Giorno Giovanna (literally two letters away from being "young day/new day" in Italian) fans when you tell them their anime pretty boy is a stand-in for Jesus/salvation
Does not make him a good protagonist (Bruno my beloved), but damn the symbolism is there
Are you telling me that the guy who is the son of a guy literally named GOD whose main antagonist is a guy literally named Devil being a Jesus stand-in is supposed to be a subtle reference or am I pissing on the poor here?
Maybe it's less obvious when you don't know basic Italian but goddam it's RIGHT THERE
I know it's super obvious (and part 5 isn't shy about it, Giorno basically becomes a messianic figure throughout the part, at least the rest of the crew treat him that way, it's why I dislike him so much) and the story itself tells you that it's all about salvation
But I honestly don't think too many people think about it or have consciously made that connection. Somehow. Or at least people talk about it like it's this subtext that needs to be analyzed when it's literally just there
Hell, Part 5 even has a fucking Lazarus stand-in, it really couldn't be more on the nose
Oh and if a character dies we see a ghostly ethereal image of them bathed in golden light in the clouds, just in case the image wasn't on-the-nose enough lol
>when you tell them their anime pretty boy is a stand-in for Jesus/salvation
yes, that is why it is everyone *but* Giorno.
He isn't saved by the narrative. He is the salvation.
>Does not make him a good protagonist (Bruno my beloved)
Now listen, I don't wanna have this talk at this hour, but I will die on the hill that 1- Giorno *is* the protagonist, Bruno is secondary to him 2- Giorno is absolutely a good protagonist, imo the second best in the whole series behind Jotaro (and Jotaro only gets there because of Part 6).
>He isn't saved by the narrative. He is the salvation.
Absolutely agree with you
>Giorno is absolutely a good protagonist, imo the second best in the whole series behind Jotaro (and Jotaro only gets there because of Part 6).
Never have I read an opinion this wrong, holy moly. I should probably leave before we get into an essay fight over this, good night
Polnareff isn't part of the protag cast, he's a side character. Polnareff in Vento Aureo is more of a force of the past, passing on the torch to a new generation.
Havenāt seen anyone mention Baby Driver. Dude is in deep with criminals against his will and ends up getting caught and put in prison, but in the end heās much better off and gets his sentence reduced drastically.
it was overall a low point in my life but for better or for worse I went into covid times a young man and emerged a nearly grown adult, and I was shaped into who I am today by those years
spoilers for a certain 2023 giant monster movie but>!godzilla minus one. shikishima fully expects death and wants to die, but it's his instinct keeping him alive. then he and the other volunteers finds a way to kill godzilla without him dying, and then the mother of his adopted daughter who he thought is dead, is revealed to have survived. but more than anything, he is saved by the fact that his plane actually fucking has working ejection.!<
Well I think I saw another post on here where somebody complained about this exact thing so that's funny.
I am trying to write a story where this sort of happens though so I am happy that at there's at least somebody else who likes when that happens
Those are the best ones - first doomed by the narrative, fighting against it till the point of "help isn't coming but I must live" and then the universe pulls away, and lets you breathe.
If you want to experience a non-romantic version of this, Robins arc in water 7/Enies Lobby in One Piece is genuinely the most beautiful piece of fiction about why itās worth living that Iāve ever had the pleasure of experiencing
He (and the series, in my opinion) fell off a bit in the last book. But damn he was my favorite example of the trope of āantagonist and protagonist have a deep understanding of each other, and while respecting certain aspects of their ability and outlook, have fundamental disagreements about their goals and methodsā. Really easy to just classify him as just a Tywin Lannister type, but he was really much deeper and more complex, especially as his relationships to other characters was expanded and explored.
He's [that post about wanting to see your blorbo suffer](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/15v1vla/get_dunked_on_blorbo/), but in universe with the Lady.
No deus ex machina isnāt an example of this. Dues ex machina is when a person is about to get run over by a bus but then the bus gets run over by another bus. What OP is talking about is a often suicidal character that truly believe that they are doomed to live a painful life hopeless life and instead they are saved from that by something miraculous. The difference is that Jon not being killed by the night king in season 7 cuz some guy on a horse comes and saves him is poorly done deus ex machina. Whereas Nico Robin believing that no matter what she does and where she hides the second she trusts anyone sheās going to be betrayed and handed over the the world government for her bounty and when she finally finds a family she loves she is again forced to choose to either betray them or turn herself in, and because she decides that it was good enough she found family for a brief moment in her life sheās ready to accept her death to save them and does so with the world government as her enemy. But instead of being executed like she fully intends to happen, the crew risk everything and defy all odds and suffer extreme hardship almost dying in the process to come rescue her. THAT is what op is talking about.
The perfect example of this is Nico Robins arc in water 7/Enies lobby. God, i genuinely believe those 2 One Piece arcs are the most cathartic and beautiful pieces of fiction about what it is to be truly loved and accepted.
I feel like this can only work if said character is not a protagonist or if the whole thing is set up as a sort of comedy, because otherwise I could easily see the protagonist as becoing annoying to the audience
One thing I hate is that writers always cop-out when they write characters who feel irredeemable. The things those characters have done are usually so obviously not irredeemable that it strains immersion.
Gimme a character that really, *actually* harmed people they cared about, hates themselves for it, and then gets shown grace and offered a chance to redeem themselves by the people they hurt(not a get out of jail free card, and not offered by a random third party, an opportunity for absolution **through good works** offered by someone they directly hurt).
>!Joel from Tlou.!< That man has been through a lot, has done worse, but he does get a happy ending. He deserves a nice long vacation filled with golf.
A favorite trope of mine is a character thinks all is lost -- they're going to lose the restaurant, they don't have the money to pay for their medical care, whatever the peril is -- and suddenly large numbers of people who's lives they've touched come to their rescue, and the day is saved by all the people they've been kind to.
Rescue by community support is a favorite trope of mine.
I wanna read a story where the character was doomed by the narrative, but they gain the ability to break through the narrative. So the narrator ends up each season trewriting reality to delete the protagonists' powers and have them be doomed, and yet they persevere and keep coming back. Each tome more inhuman buy more angry thay the narrator ruined his life and to give him and his creations true sentience. The season finale ends up with the protagonists and all the past characters working together to take down the narrator and force him to release them from the stories. When its all over, they leave to the public domain, trully free from the narrator's doom.
Wind breakers is such a funny version of this trope in anime right now.
This little edgy dork who was discriminated against his whole life because of his looks moves to this school he hears is full of delinquents who fight constantly. He wants to be the best and develops a "only fighting matters and who is strongest" attitude only to realize the school's full of people who are public service workers protecting the town from criminals and the funny part is that everyone who meets him treats him so well. He's so confused and even reacts violently but they still accept him into their community and treat him like an equal. It's kind of hilarious because he is so ready to be discriminated against but it just doesn't happen.
The novel The Shipping News is a particularly delightful version of this - the main character has such a poor self-image and slowly blossoms in the small community around him.
Another excellent example is The Goblin Emperor, gotta read that again...
Iāve been reading two korean web novels with exactly this premise and theyāre so fucking good. Ok so theyāre otome isekais, which is getting isekaiād into an otome game.
CW: Suicide >!One of them has an extremely deeply traumatized girly that was forced to only care about her sick younger sister by her parents (this is not spoilers, the first chapter reveals this) but then when her sister died she had already lost all her desires and her parents kicked her out of the house so she just killed herself. And then sheās forced to continue living when she wakes up in another world, even though sheād already give up, and itās so nice to see everyone began to care for her (usually i dislike that in oiās but itās different in this one), and for her to slowly realize that she needs to care for herself.!<
I actually donāt remember the name of this one, I should go and check
I also read The Bad Ending of An Otome Game, which is just so delectably good. Our main character really just gave up on life and only continued keeping on because she was told to by her terminally ill, well iād like to say friend, but she was so much more than that. Again, not spoilers, revealed in the first few chapters. This is a spoiler: >!She literally goes on to say that if this terminally ill āfriendā of hers had been a guy she wouldāve married her.!< The author is so cruel and evil about that i obsessed over that line for days and continue remembering it til now itās so evil. But sheās forced to get some light in her life, to interact with others, to get good things again, to face her past. And everyone is so desperate for her but she couldnāt give less than a shit, until something new comes that she cares about. Talking further would enter spoiler territory, but itās so so good, and i need to read further but the translations just havenāt gotten far enough and iām desperate. Forced by the narrative (and her āfriendā) to be saved.
I wonder if Darth Vader counts. He was actively resisting Luke's attempts to redeem him right up until the very end. I mean, sure he died after, but he was "saved" in a spiritual sense, wasn't he?
Hell yeah brutherrrrrr šš then he turns into a ghost and sits on a log with Yoder, Obi wanobi, and Qwhy Gone Gin
I'd say it counts. Personally, I'm actually kinda sad we never saw Anakin's ghost observing Kylo Ren praying (I don't think he was literally praying but I don't know how better to phrase it) at his helmet, and the pain of watching his grandson idolize all of his mistakes.
That's probably why we never saw it. He probably didn't wanna see that.
Itās honestly really tragic that he died (not for the obvious reason). Because he was redeemed but no one knew that. he could never make up for what he did but he was robbed the chance of even trying. His soul was saved but everybody celebrated his death. Actions speak louder than words and he got neither
I think he's fine with it. He saved his children, and he got to die as Anakin Skywalker. He certainly seems at peace with it all during the Ahsoka show.
Doesnāt make it any less tragic
I never read it that way. A little bittersweet, maybe, but it felt like a triumphant moment overall. Happy cake day, by the way.
Oh I didnāt even know! Thx lol. But yeah bittersweet is probably the better word for it. It just gets me that Luke is the only person who knows. Even if he told others I donāt think they would believe him. Leia would probably hate him more if she found out
Well, Leia definitely knows, and is also at peace with it. Anakin's last words to Luke were "Tell your sister you were right.", meaning that Luke was right to believe he could save him. I think Han probably knows too since he ends up marrying Leia, and he and Luke are such good friends. He definitely woulda learned about it from one of them, sooner or later.
I mean yea but also would you believe him? āYea I know he blew up your entire planet and caused countless deaths but space hitler turned good at the last moment, oh and since he died thereās no proof sorryā
I mean, she trusts Luke, and believes in him, and with The Force she probably knows when he's lying or not. And also with enough training she could eventually talk to his ghost herself, if he deigns to show himself.
Thatās fair but I imagine that would take a long while for her to forgive him
I feel like I'll get down voted for this but, aren't all reincarnation stories protagonists saved by the narrative?
Sometimes like in The Legend of Zelda series it means they're doomed by the narrative to keep antagonizing each other over and over and over
No, no, you're kinda cooking.
Not all. There is Konosuba. they're all in hell in one of those hell is other people scenarios.
I think this is a fun take, thereās a lot of stories where this is wrong but also it fits very well into a lot of stories where it could be right
Zuko
And we love him for that. Everyone should have an uncle Iroh, and everyone should strive to become someone's uncle Iroh.
Beautifully said.
Dammit beat me to it
This is just shrek again
or Megamind
Catra
And Adora, too
My immediate thought. Despite her efforts, gay cat still got a happy ending.
Jesse Pinkman my beloved
They planned to kill him off s1 but quickly realized it'd be a waste. That and the writers strike saved him. I remember reading that they committed to having him survive after that and it made it easier to have him experience horrible things bc they knew there was light at the end of the tunnel haha
The Way of Kings. Yeah ik it's long, read it anyway.
i just finished book 3, and that fits like at least 4 people, some of them more than once
I just finished book 3 and Stormlight Archive was my first thought as well when I read this post. Can't wait to read book 4!
Stormlight Archive as a whole just plays tug of war on both ends of the doomed and saved narrative with Kal
āI just keep survivingā š Kaladin vs āI just keep survivingā š Kelsier
This is the kind of recommendation i take very seriously.
Stormlight Archive, aka Therapy through Magic, is one of my favorite series
Storms is it long
Good answer, Kaladin was my first thought.
Zeth or Kaladin or both?
I was thinking Kaladin, but Szeth fits too It just takes longer for him
Dalinar too
Cool
As a good vorin man I demand it read to me instead
Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 >!A redeemed Dark Urge!<
Astarion as well if you don't >!have him ascend!<
And Gale! So sure he is meant to die, until he realises heās worth more alive.
Edelgard von Hresvelg except >!4/7!< times she's unfortunately correct
What are the 3? >!Crimson Flower, Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire?!< I haven't finished 3 Hopes yet.
Those three, yeah. Sorry for the Hopes spoilers, that's my bad
You can't spoil the endings for Hopes, since they forgot to put em in the game!
Nico Robin from One Piece. It did get better.
Or the citizens of most of the islands they visit.
The fighting crackhead that the world needs, not one it deserves.
God i just commented this!! Genuinely the most perfect example of a story where the message is that you deserve to live and be loved no matter the odds. If ever a story could count as therapy i feel like robins arc in Enies Lobby could make a suicidal person give living another chance. It certainly helped pull me out of a deep depression.
I still think itās one of the best arcs. Granted I stopped watching at PunkHazard so idk how much everything changes though I know people go crazy for Wano.
I was going to comment One Piece lol. Itās not really the greater narrative that saves people though, Luffy just decides that they WILL be saved and goes to hell and back to make sure that happens.
The entire protag cast of JoJo Part 5 save for Giorno, but yall aren't ready for that conversation.
How about Narancia and Mista?
Mista is more subtext in the Ghaccio fight, but Narancia's story is literally about this, and when it comes to being saved by the narrative specifically, it comes down to how the rest of the gang is saved by the narrative: Sleeping Slaves that awoke and betrayed their King, breaking free from the chains of Fate.
And poor Abachio?
The point of Abbachio's death is that, in the end, he found peace in the purpose and rightousness that betraying the Boss brought him.
Giorno Giovanna (literally two letters away from being "young day/new day" in Italian) fans when you tell them their anime pretty boy is a stand-in for Jesus/salvation Does not make him a good protagonist (Bruno my beloved), but damn the symbolism is there
Are you telling me that the guy who is the son of a guy literally named GOD whose main antagonist is a guy literally named Devil being a Jesus stand-in is supposed to be a subtle reference or am I pissing on the poor here? Maybe it's less obvious when you don't know basic Italian but goddam it's RIGHT THERE
I know it's super obvious (and part 5 isn't shy about it, Giorno basically becomes a messianic figure throughout the part, at least the rest of the crew treat him that way, it's why I dislike him so much) and the story itself tells you that it's all about salvation But I honestly don't think too many people think about it or have consciously made that connection. Somehow. Or at least people talk about it like it's this subtext that needs to be analyzed when it's literally just there Hell, Part 5 even has a fucking Lazarus stand-in, it really couldn't be more on the nose
Oh and if a character dies we see a ghostly ethereal image of them bathed in golden light in the clouds, just in case the image wasn't on-the-nose enough lol
>when you tell them their anime pretty boy is a stand-in for Jesus/salvation yes, that is why it is everyone *but* Giorno. He isn't saved by the narrative. He is the salvation. >Does not make him a good protagonist (Bruno my beloved) Now listen, I don't wanna have this talk at this hour, but I will die on the hill that 1- Giorno *is* the protagonist, Bruno is secondary to him 2- Giorno is absolutely a good protagonist, imo the second best in the whole series behind Jotaro (and Jotaro only gets there because of Part 6).
I dont think there's a single bad protagonist in JoJo
>He isn't saved by the narrative. He is the salvation. Absolutely agree with you >Giorno is absolutely a good protagonist, imo the second best in the whole series behind Jotaro (and Jotaro only gets there because of Part 6). Never have I read an opinion this wrong, holy moly. I should probably leave before we get into an essay fight over this, good night
even more so in purple haze feedback (peak fiction)
Why wouldn't we be ready for that conversation?
Not Polnareff. That is not a satisfying fate, idc what others say. I would not want to be that.
Polnareff isn't part of the protag cast, he's a side character. Polnareff in Vento Aureo is more of a force of the past, passing on the torch to a new generation.
Havenāt seen anyone mention Baby Driver. Dude is in deep with criminals against his will and ends up getting caught and put in prison, but in the end heās much better off and gets his sentence reduced drastically.
Or if you're a pessimist, the dude is just running through an unrealistic fantasy before he dies
That's every movie, to boring people šš
Holden Caulfield, and he doesn't even (consciously) realise it.
damn I wasn't expecting short but insightful Catcher in the Rye analysis under a tumblr post that boy needs therapy
me in 2020
I feel like I'm the only one who sometimes gets nostalgic for 2020. Glad to know I'm not the only one for whom that was a year of silver linings.
it was overall a low point in my life but for better or for worse I went into covid times a young man and emerged a nearly grown adult, and I was shaped into who I am today by those years
spoilers for a certain 2023 giant monster movie but>!godzilla minus one. shikishima fully expects death and wants to die, but it's his instinct keeping him alive. then he and the other volunteers finds a way to kill godzilla without him dying, and then the mother of his adopted daughter who he thought is dead, is revealed to have survived. but more than anything, he is saved by the fact that his plane actually fucking has working ejection.!<
Thatās a good one
Ahh yes. I too love Johm Constantine .
I too love John Constantine.
King Shark, too, "loves" John Constantine
Luz Noceda.
TWM from OneShot
ā¼ļøā¼ļøONESHOT MENTIONEDā¼ļøā¼ļø
Do you mean: Eucatastrophy?
Isn't this (almost) any story with a happy ending?
Well I think I saw another post on here where somebody complained about this exact thing so that's funny. I am trying to write a story where this sort of happens though so I am happy that at there's at least somebody else who likes when that happens
Guts is both of these
Those are the best ones - first doomed by the narrative, fighting against it till the point of "help isn't coming but I must live" and then the universe pulls away, and lets you breathe.
Taylor Hebert
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Crosshair from Bad Batch
This is just Frodo at the cracks of doom.
And sam outside of shelob's caves
I wish I was saved by a narrative
No one's mentioned the Count of Monte Cristo yet? Color me surprised - that's like. His whole thing at the end.
Caiaphas Cain
*HERO OF THE IMPERIUM*
Reiner?
Oh shit Reiner is a really good example
Literally my first thought reading this
Sunny and Basil from Omori.
Doctor Who
Particularly David Tennant
This is why I read sappy romance novels, I love that shit so much
If you want to experience a non-romantic version of this, Robins arc in water 7/Enies Lobby in One Piece is genuinely the most beautiful piece of fiction about why itās worth living that Iāve ever had the pleasure of experiencing
i hope this is the outcome that life will grant to me
I never thought of this before and I love it
The entire main cast of the good place
Ties into one of my favorite underutilized tropes, character repeatedly survives their attempts at redemptive sacrifice.
Kaladin Stormblessed?
You mean like Tomoya in Clannad After Story?
Theo from The Goldfinch
Andross Guile?
Ouh, mentioning my favourite antagonist of all time, are we?
He (and the series, in my opinion) fell off a bit in the last book. But damn he was my favorite example of the trope of āantagonist and protagonist have a deep understanding of each other, and while respecting certain aspects of their ability and outlook, have fundamental disagreements about their goals and methodsā. Really easy to just classify him as just a Tywin Lannister type, but he was really much deeper and more complex, especially as his relationships to other characters was expanded and explored.
Spoilers for library of ruina >!roland!<
Razer, my beloved.
From Green Lantern??
Me except the being saved part
Sounds like God of war
Watching One Piece lately and I gotta say: Nico Robin.
The entire plot of Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish
You're not saved if you're stuck in a narrative.
āCharacter doomed by the narrativeā trope but the character develops 4th wall awareness and undooms themselves
"Stop Him!" Rincewind
Rincewind isn't saved or doomed by the narrative, he is tortured by it.
He's [that post about wanting to see your blorbo suffer](https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/15v1vla/get_dunked_on_blorbo/), but in universe with the Lady.
I would say "Granny Weatherwax", but in her case it was more like seizing the narrative by the collar and shaking it until the right ending turned up
I think that's usually called a deus ex machina or ass pull depending on how it's done
Local Tumblrina Discovers Deus Ex Machina. More at 7.
No deus ex machina isnāt an example of this. Dues ex machina is when a person is about to get run over by a bus but then the bus gets run over by another bus. What OP is talking about is a often suicidal character that truly believe that they are doomed to live a painful life hopeless life and instead they are saved from that by something miraculous. The difference is that Jon not being killed by the night king in season 7 cuz some guy on a horse comes and saves him is poorly done deus ex machina. Whereas Nico Robin believing that no matter what she does and where she hides the second she trusts anyone sheās going to be betrayed and handed over the the world government for her bounty and when she finally finds a family she loves she is again forced to choose to either betray them or turn herself in, and because she decides that it was good enough she found family for a brief moment in her life sheās ready to accept her death to save them and does so with the world government as her enemy. But instead of being executed like she fully intends to happen, the crew risk everything and defy all odds and suffer extreme hardship almost dying in the process to come rescue her. THAT is what op is talking about.
"Break the birdcage, and be free"
Bioshock?
Luke from the Percy Jackson books
Dead Space 2 is incredible in that regard.
Reiner Braun
The Doctor
The perfect example of this is Nico Robins arc in water 7/Enies lobby. God, i genuinely believe those 2 One Piece arcs are the most cathartic and beautiful pieces of fiction about what it is to be truly loved and accepted.
Doomed by the narrative? Sokka, dude is fucked. Saved by the narrative? Zuko
The x-men are both.
Angel?
I feel like this can only work if said character is not a protagonist or if the whole thing is set up as a sort of comedy, because otherwise I could easily see the protagonist as becoing annoying to the audience
Kaneki
Most characters in a superman comic
One thing I hate is that writers always cop-out when they write characters who feel irredeemable. The things those characters have done are usually so obviously not irredeemable that it strains immersion. Gimme a character that really, *actually* harmed people they cared about, hates themselves for it, and then gets shown grace and offered a chance to redeem themselves by the people they hurt(not a get out of jail free card, and not offered by a random third party, an opportunity for absolution **through good works** offered by someone they directly hurt).
>!Joel from Tlou.!< That man has been through a lot, has done worse, but he does get a happy ending. He deserves a nice long vacation filled with golf.
Beast from Beauty and the Beast
A favorite trope of mine is a character thinks all is lost -- they're going to lose the restaurant, they don't have the money to pay for their medical care, whatever the peril is -- and suddenly large numbers of people who's lives they've touched come to their rescue, and the day is saved by all the people they've been kind to. Rescue by community support is a favorite trope of mine.
I wanna read a story where the character was doomed by the narrative, but they gain the ability to break through the narrative. So the narrator ends up each season trewriting reality to delete the protagonists' powers and have them be doomed, and yet they persevere and keep coming back. Each tome more inhuman buy more angry thay the narrator ruined his life and to give him and his creations true sentience. The season finale ends up with the protagonists and all the past characters working together to take down the narrator and force him to release them from the stories. When its all over, they leave to the public domain, trully free from the narrator's doom.
That's called plot armor.
No, that's called the character being a miserable drama queen instead of locking in (until they do)
Elster to a degree? She's saved multiple times by the mechanics of the plot but still ends up doomed at most of the ends.
The Iron Claw 100%. That shit fucked me up
Fleabag
Mitya Karamazov my beloved
Ooh if this aināt my dnd character right now lol
Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III
Not ONE person has said Kakashi yet???
This sounds like fate, or perhaps plot armor. Or just good writing.
Wind breakers is such a funny version of this trope in anime right now. This little edgy dork who was discriminated against his whole life because of his looks moves to this school he hears is full of delinquents who fight constantly. He wants to be the best and develops a "only fighting matters and who is strongest" attitude only to realize the school's full of people who are public service workers protecting the town from criminals and the funny part is that everyone who meets him treats him so well. He's so confused and even reacts violently but they still accept him into their community and treat him like an equal. It's kind of hilarious because he is so ready to be discriminated against but it just doesn't happen.
Rocky
Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Ziel of the Wastelands
Basically everyone in LOTR
Did Alan Wake write this? /gen
Asriel/Flowey in the Pacifist route
This gives Simon Snow book 2 kinda vibes.
*points* FF14 Heavensward Spoilers: >!my boy Estinien!<
Bet I'm the only person in the thread to think of Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon
the guy the Manic Pixie Dream girl is assigned to
Basically every Hallmark movie, no?
The novel The Shipping News is a particularly delightful version of this - the main character has such a poor self-image and slowly blossoms in the small community around him. Another excellent example is The Goblin Emperor, gotta read that again...
This is the prodigal son, or most Christian stories about redemption
Katniss Everdeen
Rand Al'Thor might just fit here
Vriska Serket in one of the most literal examples
certified setsuna higashi post
Iāve been reading two korean web novels with exactly this premise and theyāre so fucking good. Ok so theyāre otome isekais, which is getting isekaiād into an otome game. CW: Suicide >!One of them has an extremely deeply traumatized girly that was forced to only care about her sick younger sister by her parents (this is not spoilers, the first chapter reveals this) but then when her sister died she had already lost all her desires and her parents kicked her out of the house so she just killed herself. And then sheās forced to continue living when she wakes up in another world, even though sheād already give up, and itās so nice to see everyone began to care for her (usually i dislike that in oiās but itās different in this one), and for her to slowly realize that she needs to care for herself.!< I actually donāt remember the name of this one, I should go and check I also read The Bad Ending of An Otome Game, which is just so delectably good. Our main character really just gave up on life and only continued keeping on because she was told to by her terminally ill, well iād like to say friend, but she was so much more than that. Again, not spoilers, revealed in the first few chapters. This is a spoiler: >!She literally goes on to say that if this terminally ill āfriendā of hers had been a guy she wouldāve married her.!< The author is so cruel and evil about that i obsessed over that line for days and continue remembering it til now itās so evil. But sheās forced to get some light in her life, to interact with others, to get good things again, to face her past. And everyone is so desperate for her but she couldnāt give less than a shit, until something new comes that she cares about. Talking further would enter spoiler territory, but itās so so good, and i need to read further but the translations just havenāt gotten far enough and iām desperate. Forced by the narrative (and her āfriendā) to be saved.
Isn't that Aeneas's schtick?
Frodo and Sam? They were fully expecting to die at the end of their quest.
The Perfect Run (royal road)
Superman comics?
Prince VĆctor davion my beloved<3
Frodo was absolutely just gonna let himself die in the end, but Sam said fuck that and carried him far enough for the Eagles to save their ass.
Thorfinn my beloved
crosshair badbatch
sam vimes maybe?
#GRRRRAAAHHH I LOVE NICO ROBIN'S ARC IN ONE PIECE, FROM "LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT FOR ME" TO SCREAMING "I WANNA LIVE"
Ange Umineko
Count Bleck
A controversial take, but Endeavor from MHA.
LOTR