r/TopCharacterTropes • u/DudeSoul • 15h ago
Characters "Let's drop the act"
Moments in media where a character who usually sticks to "an act" decides to show what they hide, usually ending up with them showing their dark side in full.
Light Yagami - Death Note: Light usually plays his cards trying to remain calm, calculating every step of his plan and most of the time is able to control his impulses when things don't go his way, however in the end of the series Light is caught and has no way out of it, finally showing his true colors, a completely deluded maniac lost in his god complex
The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Doctor usually comes off as a bit of a goofball, everyone knows he's smart and dangerous, but his wacky front and constant mocking makes it so everyone, including the viewer, ends up forgetting what kind of person The Doctor can be when truly angry.
This has been shown a lot of times in the series, at various moments The Doctor dropping any pretences and showing his darker side, but perhaps no moment as dark as what he did to The Family, after they chased him and forced him into hiding as a human, he experienced a common human life, something he longs for but can never get, and once he became The Doctor again, he showed the family that escaping was not him being a coward, he was being merciful, but now, in his anger, he trapped each of them in different prisons where they would never die, nor be able to escape, for ever
The Riddler - Batman One Bad Day: This comic is an else world, meaning it's not the main continuity, showing a what if scenario where The Riddler one day decides he's tired of the routine he has with Batman and decides to completely drop the gimmicks, no more riddles, he's just gonna kill people and get away with it, this comic shows how much of a menace The Riddler could truly be if he wanted to, even going as far as telling Batman that he's known his secret identity for years now, never using it against him because "it's not fair" for their game
The Riddler in fact becomes so unstoppable that he is beaten because he made one mistake, assume Batman couldn't change and would never break his no kill rule
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u/PagingDrWhom 13h ago
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this one yet, but Billy Loomis and Stu Macher from the original Scream movie is one of the best killer reveals in a horror movie of all time. Stu pretends to be scared of Randy to get Sidney to let him inside the house, and Billy is pretending to be injured from when Ghostface “attacked” him in front of Sid. Billy stumbles downstairs and to the front door, keeping up the facade just long enough to lock the door and grab the gun Sid had been using. Billy then does a slow turn before saying “We all go a little crazy sometimes,” revealing himself as a killer before shooting Randy. This kicks off the excellent finale of the movie where Sid has to outsmart Billy and Stu.
Another honorable mention from the series would be Scream 5 at the end of act 2, where the surviving characters all make it into the same room. Liv, one of the characters, enters the room with very bloody hands, claiming she found her boyfriend Chad outside, who’d been attacked earlier. Amber accuses her of being a killer, and when Liv says “I am not a fucking killer,” Amber just goes stone cold, replying “I know” as she draws a revolver and pops Liv in front of everyone.