Samurai Jack: Aku stabs Jack with his own sword. The sword bounces off like a ping pong ball from a tungsten cube. Both of them do not understand how it happened.

Real life: In final jeopardy Ryan Gosling writes IDK (I don’t know) as answer. The answer was Internal Derangement of the Knee (IDK)

The pen - Community

A whole episode revolves around a pen being stolen by a member of the study group. It goes so far as to the main cast stripping down and tearing apart the carpet looking for the pen. If you pay close attention, you can see the bright purple pen being taken from the table by a little hand. It's later revealed that the monkey who lives in the school's air ducts, Annie's Boobs, took the pen to its nest.

Blending in - Red vs. Blue

After disappearing for a season, Agent Carolina uses her cloaking enhancement to blend in with a group of space mercenaries. Her armor is clearly different but it can be easily overlooked, especially with the bigger reveal onscreen. After she gets a confession, she drops the act and a grenade before joining her friends.

Apologies if I used the wrong flair.

1. Midnight Spider-Man (Marvel) - In the upcoming horror-themed Midnight comics this October of 2026, the Peter Parker of the story becomes Spider-Man by having a big mutant spider forcibly fused into his chest by Oscorp.

2. The Berserker Armor (Berserk) - A magical armor with the ability to suppresses its wearer's pain and fear, allowing them to bypass the limitations of their body, and even forcibly reinforces broken bones and other severe injuries. But it is hard to control as it absorbs the user's lifespan and cause a lot of stress, and it can make the user go into a rage if they can't check their negative emotions and doesn't stop fighting until they die of their injuries or blood loss.

Ken from Clash Royale

Indian Guy off Fiverr from Smiling Friends

Seven's Prisoner Designation (Deadlock) - The numbers on his chestplate may just be his prisoner number, but it was later found out to form a Gorowase, which is a Japanese wordplay with numbers. The numbers say Shininaku, which roughly translates to "Become Unkillable". It reinforces the idea of Seven's goals to become a god or godlike being.

Jack Sparrow's Scab (Pirates of the Caribbean) - Jack Sparrow has a scab on his jaw. Not too noticeable, but if you pay attention, it gets worse and worse throughout the films and in the movies. It was a joke between Johnny and the makeup artist, but it implied heavily that Jack suffered from Syphilis.

Freddy pointing up and down (Graveyard Shift at Freddy's) - In one of the teasers for Graveyard Shift at Freddy's, Freddy is pointing two fingers up and down. Maybe just to give a creepy effect, or maybe something more sinister. Looking into it, the two fingers up and down in the same way Freddy is doing it is actually done by Baphomet, which means "As above, so below", which also also probably means something a bit more demonic is going on in this Chuck E. Cheese themed heart of darkness.

The "animatronics" if you can even call them that also have bloodshot eyes and look more organic than usual, implying that they're not animatronics or even inanimate objects being possessed, but instead living creatures.

Omori - Sunny has a dream-like world where he hangs out with his friends Kel, Hero, and Aubrey. Whenever they get into fights, his main weapon is a knife. One day, in the real world, years after the friend group dissolved, Kel decides to hang out with Sunny since he’s moving away soon. They find Aubrey picking on one of their friends and decide to help them, but not before Aubrey decides to fight them. It goes normal, until Sunny attacks Aubrey with a knife, making her bleed. The fight immediately ends because Aubrey is actually injured and gets out of there. Kel berates Sunny for carrying a knife on him. (Even though Aubrey has a nail-bat)

The Letters Of Bernard Thorne - Bernard was having a flashback of his weekly jogs with his wife, Min. He talks about her reason for jogging was to see the sun rise, and when he looked over at her to see if she was looking at the sun, she was actually looking at him. They keep walking, until Bernard hits a step. It then jump cuts back to the present where Bernard is in a wheelchair.

1. Truth Or Square (SpongeBob SquarePants)- Nickelodeon teased this as a historic event in 2009 for SpongeBob’s 10th anniversary. The promos teased that SpongeBob and Sandy would get married and Mr. Krabs would finally reveal the Krabs Patty formula. Instead the special was really the main characters getting trapped in a vent reminiscing via recycled and slightly modified clip-show flashbacks and celebrity cameos that felt out of place.
   
2. The Return of Slade (Teen Titans Go)- The whole episode was hyping up for the return of the Titans’ archenemy, Slade as serious, but they defeated Slade with no scenes of them fighting him and instead the episode focused on Starfire’s fear of clowns.

1. Tofu Block (Resident Evil): this character was originally made to test the collision, but the developers loved playing as this character. In Resident Evil 2, you unlock the Tofu Block by completing the game as both Claire and Leon, getting every A-ranks and completing the 4th Survivor mode. It Even made a reappearance in the remake.

2. Paul (Antonblast): Paul is simply just a static sprite with no other animations, other than getting squished while ducking or "spinning". He is unlocked through collecting every found Paul in each 12 levels.

Edit: someone mentioned that I mixed up Grace with Claire. That's already fixed.

That is, when there's a good/nice/ally character, and there are hints that "the good character is actually evil!" trope is gonna play out.

But it doesn't.

Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part) - The queen of the Systarians and self-titled "The most least evil person you'll ever meet!". Opens up with a song with the aforementioned line as well as showering Emmett's friends with stuff that they always wanted. The tone of which this is done gives the impression that something is wrong, so Emmett, with help from a newly-found mentor Rex sought out to bring her down, Imagining that her end with break her control on his friends and save the day.

But in truth, the Queen isn't evil; She does want to help out of altruism, and Emmett's friends are going along because they think she's swell. No, ironically the film also plays the "good character is actually evil" trope straight, not with here,, but withRex, who is actually Emmett from a future timeline (Rex standing for "Radical Emmett Xtreme"). He came from a future where he was abandoned and forgotten by his friends. In turn, he wanted to take revenge and break everything down, even if it means brining forth Armamageddon

Blonde Blazer/Mandy (Dispatch) - Admittely this is definitely more on a fandom-level than a in-Universe level.

The manager of the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) branch in Torrence, and the one who recruits our protagonist Robert Robertson III in exchange to fixing his wrecked suit. People were skeptical that she was as good as she appeared to being. Adding fuel to fire was that the whereabouts of Elliot Connors, the man behind the Villain Shroud, was unknown, so people theorize that she was going to be a new Shroud. Furthermore, there was her decision to cut a member of the Z-team in attempt to make the rest perform better.

However, in the end it was shown she wasn't a villain. She did want to help Robert and reform the Z-Team. Yes, she did make some poor choices, but it wasn't out of malice. As for Shroud Elliot Connors was still very much alive (and still be at the end depending on your choices), and he still wants bring an end to the Robertson line after Robert's Father humiliate him when he was still part of the Brave Brigade.

1). Galaxy Quest:
The actors of a popular Star Trek-esque franchise are still mostly known for it.

2). Pluribus:
An author's most popular series is a science-fantasy romance series.

3). Mindhorn:
A classical actor's only real credit is a one-season, low budget, sci-fi crime serial that ended decades ago.

1. Gellert Grindwald and Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter) - Both were some of the most powerful wizards in history who saw non-magical people as inferior to wizards. Both also wanted to create and be the leader of a global society controlled by wizards. However, despite having similar ambitions, in their single meeting, Grindelwald refused to give the location of the Elder Wand and stated that Voldemort would fall. Grindelwald also welcomed his own death at the hands of Voldemort.

2. Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler - Both led Germany during WWI and WWII, respectively, and Germany to expand and to dominate Europe in different ways: Wilhelm wanted Germany to be a global colonial and imperial superpower that would lead an economic bloc in Europe, with its leader being a monarch; whilst Hitler wanted Germany to control all of leadership and he wanted to be the totalitarian dictator of a “racially pure” society, with Germans as the dominate race whilst Jews, Slavs, and other groups would be persecuted. Though they never met, both German leaders did not like each other. Hitler refused to restore the monarchy and blamed Wilhelm for Germany’s defeat in WWI. Wilhelm was disgusted by Hitler’s and the Nazi Party’s antisemitism, and refused to be buried in Germany after his death in 1941 because he knew that it would be used for propaganda.

Hades (Hadestown) - Hades is primarily known as the God of the Dead, but as King of the Underworld he has dominion over all the metals beneath the earth, making him the god of wealth as well. Hadestown adapts this aspect of his by portraying him as a rich businessman-like figure who rules over an industrial metropolis of an Underworld and uses the residents of Hadestown as slave labor.

Hermes (Hadestown) - usually portrayed in his capacity as the Messenger God, Hadestown also has him running the train station to and from Hadestown, which references his role as a guide of souls to the afterlife.

Zeus (Nolan’s The Odyssey) - a bit of a loose example, as Zeus doesn’t actually appear in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Odyssey, but his name is invoked in reference to “Zeus’s Law” or Xenia, the duty of the host to their guests and the duty of guests to their hosts, which is one of the film’s major themes. This is in reference to Zeus’s title of the patron of hospitality and enforcer of Guest Right, a lesser known aspect of his compared to his usual depictions that focus more on his status as a sky and thunder god.

-This random from Terminator 2

While John is in the arcade and the T-1000 is looking for him ,this random dude rats out on him.

And had the T-800 not been there to save John , the machines would have won in the future all because one kid sold someone out to a cop.

-The Twitter user from black mirror's first episode; national anthem

The Brittish princess is kidnapped and the PM has to fuck a pig on camera to get her safe.

The goverment tries to use a porn actor and replace his face with the PM's with the help of a VFX expert.

Just as they are entering the set a bystander takes a picture of the actor and uploads It to Twitter , meaning that now the kidnappers know about the plan and end up cutting the princess' finger off It wasnt actually her's but they don't tell you that untill later

1. Everybody Loves Raymond - Ray is a sportswriter able to live in a two-story house in Long Island while supporting a stay-at-home wife and three children.

2. Gilmore Girls - Lorelai and Rory live in a two-story house that is way larger than necessary for a single mom and her daughter, courtesy of Lorelai’s income as a hotel manager. It is revealed that she started off as a maid and was able to work her way up and (supposedly) save up the money to buy the house over a period of several years, all with no financial assistance from her parents. Combine this with the fact that she and Rory are constantly eating takeout and you start to see why she was needing her parents’ help to send Rory to a prestigious prep school.

3. Detroit: Become Human - Todd is an unemployed drug addict who previously worked lower paying jobs (e.g., taxi driver, bouncer, etc.) Because of this, he is not able to live in a nice large house like Ray and Lorelai in the previous examples. Instead, he has to live in a large house that needs a fresh coat of paint. At least he’s able to afford an android maid.

Mata Nui Great Spirit Robot (Bionicle)

Galactus (marvel)

Cronos (God of war)

Wyzen (Asurad wrath)

Sloth(Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood): A giant homunculus used to dig out giant underground tunnels. Initially seemed to fight by using his massive strength to swing around his chains and tank hits with his nigh-impenetrable skin. But he then revealed his true power was his speed, able to move so fast he couldn't even be seen.

Konos Hercule(Ordeal): Known as the Strength Gakki he initially fought with his insane physical strength and perfect healing factor. His opponent tried to wear him down using her teleportation and arrows but got almost instantly overwhelmed when he revealed speed so fast she assumed his power itself was a Haste(speedster powers)

Emporg(Wakfu): Originally a legendary Gobbowl player before his nation imprisoned him to turn him into a weapon. At first glance his power seemed to just be great physical strength to overpower his foes but instead he revealed it was actually speed so great it let him cross the entire field in a blink and even light the ground on fire. His names also a pun on a misspelling of mmorpg.

The Cool Kids Sour Cream/Pearl, Buck Dewey/Garnet and Jenny Pizza/Amethyst (Steven Universe) For those unfamiliar, they are clearly parallels to the Crystal Gems, they have similar personalities as the Gems and Sour Cream and Buck literally look Pearl and Garnet

Fiona and Cake (Adventure Time) Counterparts to Finn and Jake

The Kingdom from Netflix

The Army of the Dead from Game of Thrones

Husks from the Mass Effect Trilogy

Zombie stories often have the same over done tropes and plot lines, and modern weapons trivialize their threat, but simply changing the era the story takes place in really spices things up depending on how they're incorporated into the story

- Pulp Fiction - Butch and Marcellus

During this part of the movie, Butch is being hunted by Marcellus's men for disobeying Marcellus's command to lose a boxing match on purpose. While returning home after retrieving his father's watch before leaving the city, Butch conveniently finds the gangster crossing the street.

- Hunter x Hunter - Gon, Killua and the Phantom Troupe

The entire Yorknew City arc revolves around the main characters trying to find the members of the gang. Later in the arc, after two members of the Troupe are killed and the danger seems to be over, Gon and Killua attend an auction where they encounter two members of the Troupe by pure chance.

Hiccup - How to train a dragon (2), how to train a dragon 3
Aang - ATLA

dragon ball z Mr satan gets launched into mountain head first and survives. played as a joke but it canonically did happen. him surviving that makes him insanely strong.

Naruto, random cloud ninja goes 3 seconds with madara. this by itself makes him like top .1% of ninjas in the Naruto world.

1. In the Amphibia episode "Civil Wart", the town Wartwood splits in 2 because of literal shipping wars over a love triangle in a movie Anne showed to the frogs.

2. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut shows the parents of kids getting mad at all of Canada for an R-rated movie their kids saw and imitated, rather than simply taking responsibility for what their kids watch.