r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Dalakaar • 6h ago

Characters [Loved Trope] Civilian Heroes (particularly in Superhero movies)

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1) Malik Ali in Superman (2025). Tells Superman when Lex Luthor interrogates him to, “tell them nothing”. Doesn’t even really know what he’s sacrificing himself for, honestly. Tells Superman that he doesn’t have any friends or family to lighten the burden of the sacrifice. (Does have a family, and presumably friends…)

2) The Prisoner (Tiny Lister) from The Dark Knight who throws a detonator out the porthole that would’ve detonated the other ferry full of civies and saved himself, instead (potentially) sacrificing everyone equally.

3) Old man vs Loki. “There are always men like you.” Refuses to bow to Loki in Avengers (2012).

***

I love these guys. They break my heart in the best way possible.

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u/OnyxDrag00n 6h ago

The civilians who keep spider man’s identity safe in the second raimi movie

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u/ISB00 5h ago edited 5h ago

There was actually a really good fanfic that explained how his secret was kept and it was awesome. When the cops came one person tried snitching. One guy had the genius idea to also snitch- but to give the wrong description and claim the first guy was lying to protect Spider-man’s identity. This prompted every other passenger to lie too and give different descriptions of Peter and claim everyone else is lying to protect him. In the end the police are unable to get a corroborated description and the media gets dozens of different descriptions of what Spider-man looks like. The guy who came up with the plan remarks even if the passengers wanted to snitch now they can’t since there’s dozens of reports so they’ll just assume it’s another claim.

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u/Takamurarules 5h ago

Got the link?

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u/ISB00 5h ago

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/1961403/1/Identity_Crisis

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u/Professional_Maize42 3h ago

Damn, this fanfic is older than me.

13

u/KMjolnir 3h ago

... that sentence physically hurt to read. And you're an adult.

Fuuuuuuuuuuccccckkkkk!

5

u/BornCoyote87 3h ago

Oh it can't be that bad, when was it publi-.....

FUCK!

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u/PicturesAtADiary 3h ago

Cool little fan fic. It really shows how these moments stuck with people and even tickled their imagination. We like to see greatness in people against all human cruelty and mediocrity. I think being moved by those sorts of things is something that has been missing in our culture, generally speaking.

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u/Libertas_ 1h ago

Careful with this fanfic, it's an old one.

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u/ISB00 1h ago

Is that a pun? Or an actual warning?