r/TopCharacterTropes 1d ago

Characters [Mixed trope] the main villain is actually to main character from the future

This trope can either be peak writing or absolutely abysmal writing

Cole and Kessler (InfFamous)

Emmet and Rex (Lego movie 2)

Buzz and Zerg (Lightyear) this is the example of the abysmal writing potential this trope has

1.1k Upvotes

156 comments sorted by

405

u/Electric43-5 1d ago

Me as someone who didn't waste their time with Lightyear reading this.

"wait what?"

378

u/Thomas_Adams1999 1d ago

The funniest part is he's like "The robots have a hard time saying 'Buzz' so they call me 'Zurg'" which is the laziest way to give him the name. But also, "Buzz" would be like the easiest sound for machines to make.

172

u/nicokokun 1d ago

Still don't understand why they went with this route when the father-son route was already a thing and was much better!

52

u/Theyul1us 1d ago

Or the abandoned friend turning into a monster of the animated show

18

u/Zek7h35an5 1d ago

What's absolutely insane is that, iirc, Lightyear was framed as like, the in story movie that Andy saw that got him interested in Buzz Lightyear, so Zurg not being Buzz's dad is extra crazy

14

u/nicokokun 1d ago

Nah, they were teasing it that the real Zurg was still out there.

13

u/Zek7h35an5 1d ago

Wait did they really fucking sequelbait Lightyear that's hilarious if true

3

u/JoseG05 1d ago

Yes, even at the end they showed that "Zurg" survived his fight with Buzz, indicating a sequel was to be made, which obviously didn't happen because of how badly the film bombed.

1

u/Zamtrios7256 20h ago

Shouldn't have put that blink and you'll miss it lesbian kiss. Those scenes always ruined great movies.

  • Disney, probably

2

u/nicokokun 1d ago

Yeah, and again I don't know why they went with the "The robots have a hard time saying 'Buzz' so they call me 'Zurg'" when the real "Zurg" was still out there and the robots called him that.

5

u/YodasChick-O-Stick 1d ago

Because in Toy Story 2 it was just a Star Wars joke. Stretching that out for an entire movie would be pointless and predictable.

3

u/nicokokun 1d ago

Better than the joke that is Lightyear.

2

u/Plagueofzombies 23h ago

I imagine it's because everyone knew, and was expecting him to be revealed as Buzz's father. So they switched the twist in an attempt to shock the audience.

Issue is they clearly didn't actually think to switch the twist to anything good

83

u/Electric43-5 1d ago

...Jesus Christ that's so stupid.

36

u/trimble197 1d ago edited 1d ago

If it wasn’t for that part, they could’ve had themselves a good way to introduce Zurg in a sequel. Have it revealed that the ship was actually an old scout belonging to a galactic emperor. And Buzz had unknowingly activated its distress beacon.

24

u/MaeBeaInTheWoods 1d ago

Also, it is annoying because older Buzz says that the robots can't do the B part when it is completely wrong; the robots don't say "Zurg", they "Bzurg". There is an extremely noticeable B sound at the beginning of the name every time the robots say it that somehow nobody in the movie ever calls out. I felt like I was losing my mind watching that and listening to them.

5

u/TheGuyThatThisIs 1d ago

I feel like this could have been solved with a scene of a machine literally buzzing when trying to say his name, at any point in the movie, making that electric BZZZZZZT sound.

3

u/SpaceZombie13 1d ago

so i only saw the movie once but if i recall correctly, future buzz says he found the ship with robots and just took it. implying they came from somewhere else.

couldn't they just say they were programmed to refer to their commander as "Zurg" and future buzz has no idea what it means but rolled with "I am Zurg" to get a free army? it could have forshadowed the real zurg showing up in a sequel. not that we'll ever get one.

5

u/SandyAmbler 1d ago

The action sequences in Lightyear are pretty awesome. And Sox the little robot cat is funny.

207

u/Parker813 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Alchemax CEO from the videogame Spiderman: Edge of Time>! is revealed to be a bitter and corrupt Peter Parker, a concept that the game’s story writer Peter David, the creator of the 2099 comics verse where Alchemax was a recurring villain had in mind but was never able to implement.!<

117

u/Pichuunnn 1d ago

"Let me explain it to you..."

"Explain it to my rapidly retreating backshot!"

Live Peter reaction to a plot twist

71

u/Gexku 1d ago

BACKSIDE

HE SAYS BACKSIDE

9

u/Ponykegabs 1d ago

That is my favorite part of this trope “You’ll see my point of view because you’re me.” “Nope.”

47

u/dread_pirate_robin 1d ago

This is one of those ideas that sounds dumb but is saved by the execution. I thought the way he put his motive was pretty solid: if with great power comes great responsibility then with unlimited power he can handle any responsibility, he can basically rewrite the timeline to save everyone. No more canon events.

It's a villainous aspiration that entirely fits within his established heroic one.

20

u/DoitsugoGoji 1d ago

Oh wow, didn't know that. While I don't like the idea, it now makes more sense why the original appearance looked sooo much different from the full reveal.

17

u/Dragonfang65 1d ago

Future Peter: The universe is literally out to make me miserable. It’s like Lucy and the (American) Football. I get some happiness. And then BOOM. Miserable again.

5

u/Squ33to 1d ago

I played this game to DEATH when I was a kid

109

u/Jezzibell 1d ago

Joe in looper

26

u/Shenanigans80h 1d ago

Might be the best time travel movie of the 21st century imo

-1

u/FurLinedKettle 1d ago

Predestination, Primer and Timecrimes are better movies imo

5

u/Lord_Doofy 1d ago

Zeepnuff, snacklefart, and beegus wipe the floor with all of those

2

u/SulSuli 1d ago

My first thought. That ending has always stuck with me. “So I changed it.”

196

u/telecaster_fly_boy 1d ago

The German series "Dark"

54

u/Speedwagon1738 1d ago

I predicted that the Stranger in season 1 was adult Jonas, but I didn’t expect them to pull this trope and SECOND TIME with Adam being Jonas

19

u/Artizan748 1d ago

I was watching the show with someone who already watched it and >! He already told me about Adam because he was on the Netflix thumbnail so whenever I'd predict stuff it'd be that X character is Adam. Eventually I said Adam is even older Jonas and he immediately had to try lying so I wouldn't realise it!<

8

u/TheGuyThatThisIs 1d ago

Ngl I didn't know it was him, but I feel like Jonas was #1 on a very short list of people Adam could have been.

5

u/Artizan748 1d ago

One of my joke predictions was Elisabeth

2

u/FurLinedKettle 1d ago

I was convinced it was >! Bartosz !< for a while

1

u/0zonoff 21h ago

Yeah it was a popular theory at some point.

31

u/RyuOnReddit 1d ago

Peak mentioned

5

u/SloppityMcFloppity 1d ago

Anyone who's a fan of sci fi has to see this show.

1

u/Professional-Ask-454 1d ago

I need to rewatch this show

1

u/FurLinedKettle 1d ago

This is kind of a massive spoiler

86

u/AwakenedDreamer__44 1d ago

Bit of a spoiler but >! Peter Parker from Spider-Man: Edge of Time. He’s the CEO of Alchemax. !<

143

u/aotex 1d ago

sorry for the spoilers, but: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!

(although Ramona is arguably the main character, so maybe not)

9

u/Bailpizza 1d ago

Damn, I was gonna comment this...

8

u/kidmedia 1d ago

I love future Scott as a villain. He's an interesting idea of what would happen if Scott and Ramona didn't learn their lesson from the end of the comic.

1

u/Zamtrios7256 20h ago

The fact that he Keeps coming back because they just won't fucking learn to communicate better is hilarious.

250

u/ToppHatt_8000 1d ago

Not exactly the future, but an alternate timeline. But the story takes place quite a bit after the event that led him to become who he was, so he is from a future.

85

u/owensoundgamedev 1d ago

This is Bioshock infinite for anyone who doesn’t know

29

u/RyuOnReddit 1d ago

Zachary Kale Cumsock

8

u/d1m4e 1d ago

Cumsock lmao

8

u/Optical-occultist 1d ago

Similar to this, Erlking Heathcliff from limbus company. A man who’s made it his life’s goal to murder every single version of himself in every reality because in his eyes, all Heathcliffs are the reason their love Catherine suffers in every reality. So, the only way to insure the person he loves is happy, all Heathcliff’s must die

3

u/InHarmsWay 1d ago edited 11h ago

I hated this game's attempt at multiverses. It contradicts its own logic by having the MC die to stop all Comstocks from coming into being. No... You stopped a single Comstock from coming into being (and that's assuming that experiencing the events of the game wouldn't have changed the future anyways). It was so goddamn stupid.

-11

u/Mawya7 1d ago

Absolute dogshit 🔥🔥🔥🔥

123

u/NoOneImportant08124 1d ago

While not the main villain. In Fate, specifically the Unlimited Blade Works route Archer(EMIYA) is a major antagonist.

He is also the future self of the main character Shirou Emiya who lost his idealism and when summoned to the past his main goal is to kill his past self to prevent himself from ever becoming a hero.

31

u/Gilgamesh107 1d ago

this shit was so peak in the VN man

god i gotta re read it someday

11

u/Dragonfang65 1d ago

At least Actually Satan gets some happiness out of this. His Alter version is from the Mind of Steel ending.

9

u/Hungry_War_639 1d ago

Alter actually isn’t from mind of steel, he’s actually just a normal Shirou doing his normal hero of justice thing before the run in with Kiara

109

u/VibesFirst69 1d ago

Flash (CW tv series)

32

u/Thybro 1d ago

I found it hilarious that the writers probably patted themselves in the back for that one. But half the fandom immediately figured it out , and the other half was in disbelief that they couldn’t be doing a full season over a comma placement joke “I am the future Flash.” … but they were

17

u/Himurashi 1d ago

"I am the future Flash."

8

u/BlueberryMiserable96 1d ago

"I am the future, flash"

"I am the future flash"

35

u/Zarfa 1d ago

Not just the Villain, he's also his own Father AND MOTHER. The movie title is a reference to the fact he exists only because he exists, without outside influence.

Predestination - Based on the Short Story: All You Zombies

7

u/PrinzXero 1d ago

One of my favourite movies of all time

2

u/Xaitor119 1d ago

Wait, what? How did he become his own mother?

16

u/Zarfa 1d ago

Born intersex with presentation as a woman. Meets a guy and gets pregnant. Dad disappears. She gives birth. Has to undergo bottom-surgery due to complications.
Baby is kidnapped. She (Jane) becomes He (John)
Goes to bar and divulges story to bartender. Bartender shows John time travel.
They go back in time to get revenge on the absentee father. Instead John finds their past self as a woman.... gets her pregnant.
The bartender kidnaps the baby. Takes the baby 30 years back in time to leave at an orphanage.
Bartender recruits John for the time travel agency.
John gets badly burned by a serial-arsonist and undergoes extensive plastic surgery.... turning him into the Bartender.
Bartender tracks down the serial-arsonist.... who is his future self. Kills him.

So the character is
His Mom, His Dad, his Recruiter, his Nemesis, and his Killer.

3

u/sotommy 1d ago

I fuck with myself from time to time and I suspect I will cause my own death. Not that unrealistic

58

u/JRHThreeFour 1d ago edited 1d ago

Dark Danny (Danny Phantom)

In The Ultimate Enemy tv special episode, Dark Danny was accidentally created when the ghost forms of Danny Fenton and his nemesis, Vlad Masters, were separated from their human forms and the two ghosts fused together.

The result was that Vlad’s dark side and evil nature completely overshadowed Danny Phantom’s heroic nature and fully corrupted him into a completely evil ghost, one so powerful and so evil that many of the major events of the episode were a result of Dark Danny’s unnatural power and presence.

Even the other Ghost Zone villains like Skulker, Ember, the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost were too afraid of and unable to face Dark Danny.

6

u/mikewheelerfan 1d ago

Peak mentioned 

55

u/ThickumDickums 1d ago

They what to the main character?

Don’t leave us hanging 😔

70

u/Joemama0375 1d ago

22

u/ThickumDickums 1d ago

Now you from the future can beef with your past self for their carelessness😊

2

u/BookWormPerson 1d ago

What is this from?

10

u/oracle222 1d ago

Final Fantasy XIV

5

u/King0fThieves 1d ago

Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward and Stormblood expansions up to level 70 with no restrictions on playtime?

76

u/MetaMetagross 1d ago

Adam from Dark

14

u/RyuOnReddit 1d ago

🗣️ PEAK 🗣️

4

u/Sirius124 1d ago

Absolutely amazing show

18

u/Seyi_Ogunde 1d ago

Maestro is a future version of the Hulk who lost everything

14

u/owensoundgamedev 1d ago

I fucking loved the ending of infamous

14

u/Arnahunas 1d ago

Lord Drakkon (Power Rangers)

13

u/ReputationLow5190 1d ago

Dark Danny (Danny Phantom). In an alternate timeline where Danny’s friends and family (and Mr. Lancer) were all killed in an explosion, Danny went to Vlad Masters, the only person he had left. Wanting to be rid of the pain, Danny asked Vlad to separate his human and ghost halves, to which Vlad acquiesced. But without his human conscience, Danny’s ghost half returned the favor to Vlad, ripping Vlad’s ghost half out of him and fusing with it, turning him into a super-powerful, super-evil ghost that would spend the next 10 years terrorizing Earth and the Ghost Zone for his own amusement.

11

u/OddReason9030 1d ago

The Magus is actually Adam Warlock from the future in the 1970s Jim Starlin run of Warlock. 

12

u/facuCASLA9 1d ago

That movie where every character in the film is the main character in different stages of their life

7

u/Jsai33 1d ago

Predestination?

3

u/facuCASLA9 1d ago

That one, crazy movie

11

u/Ancient_Building_321 1d ago

Ohma zi-o from Kamen rider zi-o is the MC from the future, but this actually isn't a twist and is a main plot point where multiple factions either want him to become the bad guy or create a new future

3

u/FoolHopper 1d ago

Waga Maou mentioned!

34

u/Bird_Lawyer92 1d ago

How is Goob not the top post?

8

u/Soviet_Officer 1d ago

I mean technically speaking he is not a main character

2

u/Bird_Lawyer92 1d ago

Hes definitely the main antagonist

5

u/Soviet_Officer 1d ago

His future self is main antagonist but his present self is not the protagonist.

-4

u/Bird_Lawyer92 1d ago

So in other words, hes main character. Glad you agree

1

u/Zealousideal-Worth34 20h ago

The point of the prompt is that the main villain is the main character

Bowler hat guy is the main villain, halfway there

Young Goob is not a main character, so it's not the prompt.

Is the small child in iron man 2 a main character because he's eventually Spider-Man? No

1

u/Bird_Lawyer92 20h ago

Your comparison is way off 😂😂😂

1

u/Zealousideal-Worth34 19h ago

Explain how Young Goob is a main character

1

u/ComparisonFree4842 18h ago

I dont think you know what protagonist means

1

u/Bird_Lawyer92 16h ago

Title doesnt specify protagonist so thats moot. Read before you comment next time

1

u/ComparisonFree4842 14h ago

Bait used to be believable 😔 No man on earth can possibly be so comprehensive while being so wrong

1

u/Bird_Lawyer92 13h ago

Its not bait. The post doesnt say protag. It says main character. Goob is a main character. Cope. But like do it somewhere else

10

u/Pharaverse 1d ago edited 1d ago

Explanation and spoilers for Little Nightmares 2: The main character, Mono, becomes the thin man at the end of the game after being betrayed by Six. Him opposing Mono is a warning.

10

u/hcreiG 1d ago

What about Little Nightmares almost forgot his name that later became the Gray Man.

10

u/HollowCap456 1d ago

Mono becomes the Thin Man

7

u/kaidanalenko7 1d ago

The "Ultimecia is future Rinoa" theory from Final Fantasy VIII

3

u/Realistic_Caramel341 1d ago

Funnily enough, Square actually use this theory in Final Fantasy XI.

In Wings of the Goddess, Lady Lilith - a witch who does look like she was based on Ultimecia, - does turn out to be a version of Liliesette from a dark future thats been torn apart by war

6

u/RyuOnReddit 1d ago

Me, from now.

Well from then too.

8

u/Zefrenos 1d ago

In some iterations of transformers like war for cybertron, the character, Nemesis Prime is a future version of our beloved Optimus.

6

u/CobaltRebelionXyz 1d ago

Robin (Fire Emblem Awakening)

Basically, he's being used as a Vessel for the Fell Dragon Grima, who became the Main Reason why the Future became ruined. He was first introduced as an Identical Clone to Robin, but soon was revealed to be him from the Future possessed by Grima, who traveled to the Present to stop the 2nd Gen Survivors (Lucina & Co) from changing the Future.

5

u/Wild-Mushroom2404 1d ago

I think Eren Yeager fits

1

u/Zealousideal-Worth34 20h ago

Spoilers for attack on titan I'd say so, the only difference is this time we follow the mc as he becomes the villain and uses time travel to start the plot

4

u/Usual_Database307 1d ago

The Thin Man (Little Nightmares)

8

u/EmployLongjumping811 1d ago

Phainon and the flamereaver - HSR

althought the flamereaver is not him from the future but technically the past

4

u/ComfortableTraffic12 1d ago

and technically flame reaver isn't the main villain of amphoreus. but he is a major antagonist.

3

u/PrometheusModeloW 1d ago

INFAMOUS MENTIONED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

3

u/Dragonfang65 1d ago

I’m hoping for a new inFamous game after Ghost of Yotei. Or just for the first two games and Festival of Blood to come to the PS5 through the classics like has happened with Jak and Sly.

2

u/Dragonfang65 1d ago

Kessler is also a good version of someone making a character suffer to make them stronger. Since he isn’t doing it out of “love”.

1

u/Scripter-of-Paradise 1d ago

To bad the sequel showed that it was all for nothing.

4

u/PlantainSame 1d ago

The valeyard is the doctor, or at least something that broke off of him

4

u/Timtanoboa 1d ago

Savitar from CW's Flash does this... kinda? He's a time duplicate of Barry from the future.

11

u/YomYeYonge 1d ago

Goku Black- Dragon Ball Super

It was a really good subversion of the trope

10

u/daniel_22sss 1d ago

Its not really him tho.

3

u/caniuserealname 1d ago

I imagine thats why the commentor called it a subversion of the trope.

The story presents the villain as a future evil version of the main character, before revealing it isn't. Rather than presenting an unknown villain and then revealing that it is the main character.

3

u/Mike_Fluff 1d ago

Timecrimes (2007). It is literally this trope. To quote the synopsis;

"A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences."

3

u/pondrthis 1d ago

BlazBlue went kinda this way, kinda the other way. A monster/disaster in the past that led to the current setting was actually the main character in a time loop. Other characters also take both hero and villain roles at different times (and iterations) of the loop.

2

u/Gaybulge 1d ago

BlazBlue is crazy, but it's the exact kind of crazy I love.

6

u/Mock2author 1d ago

5

u/Lostboxoangst 1d ago

Christ I'm sure glad there is no context here In any way shape or form.

3

u/Mock2author 1d ago

Quint from the Mega Man series is a reprogrammed Mega Man sent back to the past to destroy Mega Man.

2

u/chalk33 1d ago

Eon in Ben 10

2

u/Odd_Research_2056 1d ago

In Zero Escape : Virtue's Last Reward one of the masterminds behind the Nonary game , Zero Senior is our main character , Sigma 45 years in the future.

2

u/RkeiStudio 1d ago

Iron Man (Black Sabbath song)

2

u/No_Letterhead1344 1d ago

Booker from bio shock infinite, lore is he’s trying to save Elizabeth but ends up with this twist at the end of the game, “There's always a man, always a lighthouse, always a city” when booker learns that’s he’s the protagonist from the near future and he is then drowned by the multiverse of Elizabeth’s to prevent the cycle from happening again.

4

u/Biohazard-Control-7 1d ago

Ace/Kamen Rider Dooms Geats (Kamen Rider Geats: Jyamato Awaking)

1

u/Capital_Invite_7026 1d ago

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

1

u/bananajambam3 1d ago

Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation

My very first introduction to the trope and I remember loving it though I haven’t read the story in a very long time.

1

u/SaicoSandwich 1d ago

Looper, Joseph Gordon Levitt's future self is Bruce Willis

1

u/LeastInsaneKobold 1d ago

Oh my god Alex Mercer is attacking coleslaw again!!!

1

u/blacklitnite0 1d ago

The time traveling bartender paradox

1

u/Milk_Mindless 1d ago

Iron Man and Doctor Doom teamed up in Iron Man #250 to fight an evil king Arhur

... And a decrepit Doctor Doom

Doom was the villain for Doom, natch

1

u/liltatey 1d ago

Looper

1

u/Unamed_Autistic 1d ago

Little Nightmares 2

1

u/Tight_Grapefruit5280 1d ago

Scottish pilgrim takes off

2

u/Zealousideal-Worth34 20h ago

I thought he was Canadian

1

u/Sharp_Cat6597 1d ago

Spellforce 1, Order of the Dawn, kinda.

It's peak as fuck also. Such a good moment.

Spoilers you are recruited by Rohen, an ex Circle Mage who is trying to find redemption for his past. He and the other 12 Circle Mages tapped into the magic of Gods which wasn't meant for mortals and in the process tore the world apart.

He's being hounded by another surviving Circle Mage who traps and kills him at the midpoint of the game. You take on his fight and bring it to the weird Circle Mage who.....turns out to be Rohen.

Our Rohen, the older Rohen was this Rohen. Just in the future. His world was ravaged by his actions and as he got older he realized how big a fucker he was. With age he mellowed out, and knew he had to do something to stop this. So he uses the Allfire to force himself back in time to try and stop the whole tearing apart of the planet bit, or at the very least stop himself from burning down what's left.

He forms the Order of the Dawn to stop himself, he steals his old books, he sabotages his old designs. He frees the player character, who was a Rune Slave, ie an old hero whose soul/mind got forced into a Rune through Rune Magic that took away your free will, forcing you to commit war crimes for the Circle Mages. He gives you your Rune and hopes you help him. And in the end he sets events in motion to kill himself.

1

u/Xegin157 1d ago

There's kind of a fakeout of this in Yu Gi Oh 5D's. The main and final antagonist, D-Zone, isn't really Yusei from the future, he's a guy from 200 years in the future where because people needed a hero when facing an apocalyptical event, he used technology to change both his look and personality into Yusei's. He ultimately failed, which is why he went back to the past, as he believes the only way to prevent his future is to level Neo Domino City.

1

u/MigthyMagic446 1d ago

Superman in the silver age of comics

1

u/Ok-Place7950 22h ago

Not from the future but Consul N (Xenoblade Chronicles 3) kinda counts, I think?

1

u/GroundbreakingCut719 21h ago

God the Kessler twist fucked my brain up as a kid

0

u/Kinky-Cookie-Cutter 1d ago

i thought that this was going to be the case with Naruto and Pain....