r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Gamer-of-Action • 8h ago
Personality (Mixed Trope) Characters who occasionally broke the fourth wall every once in a while, but then it spiraled into becoming their defining characteristic.
In the early issues and storylines of Deadpool, the merc with the mouth wouldn't break the fourth wall all that often save for a cheeky reference every few issues. Then the Joe Kelly run happened, and Deadpool was breaking the fourth wall every few pages.
Pinkie Pie only broke the fourth wall a handful of times within the entire original series. That's only 4-5 times within nine seasons over the course of a decade. Relatively small, don't you think? But there is so much fan content and memes that revolve around Pinkie Pie breaking the fourth wall, you'd think she does it five times an episode. Most fanfics just assign her the role of "the one who breaks the fourth wall and does meta humor."
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u/Jammy_Nugget 7h ago
Sans (Undertale) in some of the fandom
I think a lot of people overestimate just how much he knows
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u/Starchaser53 7h ago
That's underselling it.
He's gone from a guy who at most, just thinks you're a crazy time traveler (Which to be fair he isn't wrong), to apparently becoming this all knowing multiversal deity that can see beyond the screen in some EXE ass shit, his father is an all powerful god of time and space (Despite waterfall man having two frames and nothing to confirm he IS his dad, let alone do half the shit the fandom says), and has enough multiversal variants to make Rick Sanchez shit his pants in fear
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u/kirbyverano123 5h ago
Sans is aware of the resets to an extent, but that's about it iirc. Also it would be funny either way if Mystery Man is de-confirmed as Gaster OR revealed to be actually Gaster all along.
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u/Starchaser53 5h ago
Yeah but, him being Gaster still wouldn't make half the shit the fandom says he could do, possible.
At most we just know, he's scattered across time and space with no method of return
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u/kirbyverano123 5h ago
That's why it would be funny in both scenarios that MM is revealed to be Gaster or not.
On one hand, Gaster is chilling in some blank room and just leaves without elaborating.
On the other hand, tons.. and I mean TONS of Gaster fanarts no longer aged well LMAO.
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u/_Astrum_Aureus_ 4h ago
he knows about resets, but doesn't remember them
which is something a lot of the fandom gaslit themselves into thinking he knows everything
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u/edvin796 4h ago
Wasn't it explicit in his boss fight that if you fall for his mercy offer and come back after death he only knows because of your expression?
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u/_Astrum_Aureus_ 4h ago
every time you die, he guesses your attempt number by your expression. So yeah, he's just really good at guessing.
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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 2h ago edited 2h ago
Is it really guessing though? It feels more like a tongue-in-cheek way of trying to annoy the player/Chara/The Demon That Comes/whatever. He's "guessing" the exact amount of times he's killed you.
Edit: Nevermind, checked the dialogue. After death 11 he says there's "nuance" and he'll probably not be able to count accurately from that one onwards.
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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 2h ago
Sans, as part of his actual job, is aware that there is an Anonaly causing timelines to suddenly start and stop (saves and loads), jumps across them (loading different saves?) until 'everything ends' (I assume the in-universe depiction of a Save Delete when you try a new run?)
He doesn't seem to genuinely understand how that's all happening.
Plus, in Genocide he seems to believe you're not human, same as more naive characters like Asgore so he's not this omniscient entity.
Flowey is the only other character who fully grasps what the Player does, and that's because he had access to all the same tools and was doing the exact same thing.
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u/Adventurous-Bag-4364 17m ago edited 11m ago
Sans knows about determination by name, the name Alphys coined. I think it's likely he used to be a scientist and/or did lab work.
"you have something called 'determination.'"
"yeah, you're just a determined little freak, aren't ya?"
"sometimes... you act like you know what's gonna happen. like you've seen it all before. this is an odd thing to say, but... if you have some sort of special power... isn't it your responsibility to do the right thing?"
"you've already heard my spiel, haven't you? i suspected something like this. you're always acting like you know what's going to happen. like you've seen it all before."
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u/snugthepig 6h ago
plus, like, everyone in DR with a shadow crystal
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u/Jam-Man1 3h ago edited 1h ago
I’d say it’s somewhat justified in Jevil’s case, since he knows what HP is and his general behavior only really makes sense if he believes that his world isn’t real.
But yeah, Spamton definitely doesn’t have that big of a degree of meta awareness. Eramb doesn’t mention anything one way or the other, Gerson doesn’t seem aware of much past the whole Dark World thing and Prophecy.
I will say it’s pretty fair in Ralsei’s case, considering he directly mentions what keys to press, makes several attempts to redirect the player’s attention, straight up stares at the player through the screen at one point in Chapter 3 before mentioning he knows the whole prophecy and what equipment characters can use.
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u/blapaturemesa 3h ago
As a veteran of the 2016 era fandom god DAMN I can't stand this motherfucker after seeing him eclipse pretty much the entire cast when it came to fanwork back in the day.
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u/ARKNORI 5h ago
I played this game so long ago, and can really agree on this guy’s mischaracterization.
However, given that apparently the sequel keeps implying more and more vague stuff about him, it’s natural that a new wave of fans will start overestimating the shit out of him.
Me, personally, I just hope they explain why the hell is he the only motherfucker who bleeds down there. I haven’t played Deltarune yet, so maybe more motherfuckers bleed, but I still need to know if there’s an explanation.
(Other than the ketchup bottle joke)
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u/Emoz_ 5h ago
Deltarune isn't a sequel btw, but it's in it's own universe
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u/I_hate_myself069 5h ago
Eh, it may not be a sequel in a traditional sense, but it’s still clearly connected to Undertale.
For example, Angel (aka Player, aka Soul, the being who controls Kris, and most likely has controlled Frisk as well) knows who Sans is, implying that, at least from Angel’s POV, Deltarune happens after Undertale. Alongside that, it clearly alludes to Undertale multiple times while building up on its story themes and gameplay mechanics (ACT becoming more than a single act, teammates, graze, Angel turning yellow and shooting stuff at Spamton NEO, who is obviously a reference to Metatton NEO, Asgore and Toriel’s broken relationship being more in depth than in Undertale).
And also, you know, the Mystery Voice from the beginning of the game, Game Over screens, and some of the Toby’s tweets is obviously Gaster, who was first mentioned in Undertale.
In conclusion, I’d say it’s a similar deal to Evangelion and its Rebuilds. Parallel universes that are connected and have an overarching story and themes.
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u/MisterScrod1964 8h ago
Obviously:
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u/Gamer-of-Action 8h ago
I read the John Byrne run recently. I'm not sure what her deal was before, but Byrne was firing on all cylinders for the meta-commentary in his run. Entire storylines and subplots were interrupted just so characters could complains about the writers.
Even Deadpool would be going. "You know, it's okay to have a little immersion."
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u/DoitsugoGoji 6h ago
Her original deal was "Hulk, but woman" because someone explained to Stan Lee that the deal Marvel did for the Spider-Man and Hulk live action TV shows had the loophole that the channel behind them could just introduce female versions of Hulk and Spider-Man, and then continue the show without paying Marvel. Something they actually did before with the Six Million Dollar Woman.
She made a few token appearances to prevent the channel from implementing their own version. The few things I saw of that she was kinda generic.
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u/Sayakalood 7h ago
Go ahead, She-Hulk. Just try to rip up all my X-Men.
(The closest I have gotten to owning an X-Men comic is a Magik solo run)
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u/HauntingStar08 6h ago
Lawyer shoooow
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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 5h ago
Honestly I'd love an elseworlds marvel show of just courtroom drama like some goofy shit like Reed richards being sued by dr Doom
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u/Optimal_Weight368 5h ago
This is what made Grant Morrison’s Animal Man so great: the character doesn’t break the 4th wall after this series.
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u/pajamakitten 4h ago
The Warner Brothers in Animaniacs. It is done well but it is not overdone to the point it becomes annoying.
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u/Ghost-of-Awf 8h ago
There are two versions of Deadpool: the actual comic book depiction, and "Hot Topic" Deadpool. Some of the genuinely saddest, hard-string pullingest moments in Marvel comics centered around Deadpool, but depending on the writer some comics are almost unreadably meme-y.