Follow TV Tropes

Following

Establishing Character Moment / Fan Works

Go To

Canon may have already established some of these characters, but there's enough Adaptation Personality Change in fandom that authors often decide to quickly reestablish what's going on in their particular portrayal. And then, of course, there's the characters canon didn't have, or didn't establish the first time around.


Crossovers
  • Ace Combat: The Equestrian War rightfully introduces Mobius as a One Pony Army. He dispatches three griffon soldiers, each with a single hit and even stares down Razor. The entire Mirage squadron, especially Rainbow Dash, watches in awe as he performs his feats. By the end of the chapter, it is revealed he is a living legend and the best pegasus flier in the world.
  • BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: Jin Kisaragi's first moment in the story is casually defeating Team FNKI by himself and coldly blowing them off as "trash", showing that he's both a powerful fighter and a complete asshole.
  • The Bridge does this a lot with the kaiju roster and the Equestrian cast who don't get as much characterization in the show.
    • We spend an entire chapter following an unnamed character that shows they have memory problems and mental trauma, but are a Noble Demon at worst when they protect an innocent pony from an attacker. It's Monster X.
    • Princess Celestia's puts her hoof down with a magical wave that floors six transformed kaiju when they're taken by surprise as she's shouting in a Royal Canterlot Voice that makes Luna's sound like a whisper. She then calmly states there has been enough fighting and they need to figure out what's going on.
    • Our first big indication this is a heroic incarnation of Godzilla with the grown up Godzilla Junior is his intentional defense of Canterlot from the Gyaos horde.
  • The first episode of Christian Weston Chandler in Survivor: Kujira-Jima gives moments to most of the cast:
    • The introductory scene, while nominally one for everyone, is especially one for Chris, who harasses the other castaways throughout the whole sequence.
    • Kenny's moment also comes in the introduction. He introduces himself politely, but snaps when Chris becomes afraid that Kenny will shoot him.
    • Chlamydia introduces herself by her long and bizarrely-spelled name, calls everyone scum, tries and fails to commit assault, then immediately claims she's being raped.
    • Neri's first appearance sees her clutching onto Chris. She promises to cook and clean for Chris, and she's studying medicine, but she completely fails to realize that, despite being Chris's perfect girlfriend, he's terrified of her on account of her race.
    • For Jude:
      Jude: Clowns to the left of me. Degenerates to the right.
      • He gets a second moment when he and four tribemates are hoisting a huge log at the behest of his rival, Stan. The other four let go. He manages to keep hold of it all by himself.
    • The latter moment is also Stan's moment, as he manages to build a sturdy wall out of ropes and wood while high as a kite.
    • Roscoe rattles off some corporate jargon about how disorganized the tribe is. Then he realizes he's in the middle of a four-way free-for-all within his tribe. Then he decides he's in the perfect position to take charge.
    • Fabian starts the first day of the game by calling Chlamydia a fat bitch and spends the rest of it terrorizing Chris.
    • Senken tribe gets a collective one. Ato Chie tear themselves apart on the first day, screaming at each other and almost coming to blows. Cut to Senken peacefully cooperating to build a shelter and make fire.
  • Claymade's sequel to The Dark Lords of Nerima introduces the new Big Bad by having him casually defeating an assassin trying to kill him (that he had hired himself), who had already easily torn through his security forces.
  • Being a crossover between two popular series (Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon), Fist of the Moon has characters that the audience already knows, but their establishing moments for each other are quite potent.
    • Ranma grabs three kids that the senshi were protecting from youma and get them out of danger, then comes back to help again. During this they take two hits that leave her literally dead on her feet, and require the Silver crystal to heal.
      Usagi: We know her, Mars. She rescued three children and two senshi, putting her life on the line. We know her very well.
    • The above quote also serves as Usagi’s, justifying (potentially life-threatening) use of the Silver Crystal for someone they only just met.
    • And in the same event, Rei begins by begging her not to risk her life like this, and declares her hatred of “that life-sucking rock”.
    • When Usa shows up for the first time, her hair is in a braid and she tries a physical assault against Usagi.
  • Cinders and Ashes: the Chronicles of Kamen Rider Dante introduces original characters and re-introduces characters from Re:CREATORS given the larger roles they play in the story.
    • Altair is first introduced by offering Hotaro a Deal with the Devil to help her get revenge on the Land of Gods (i.e. the real world), only for Hotaro to establish his character by not only rejecting it, but also describing exactly what her motivation truly is... To which she takes rather well.
    • Marine is introduced by comforting a panicking Hoshi after he is chased by Altair, and then later on when he's looped in on being part of the heroes and the mess he has to help them solve.
    • Meteora's voice is described by Hoshi as "cold, distant, analytical". Her later chat with Hoshi alongside Kikuchihara shows they work in tandem together and are the closest things he has to commanders.
    • Yuuya's introduction, after a fight with Hoshi, shows he was able to figure out that he's Dante's author rather than Dante himself, showing that he's more observant than he lets on.
    • Tachibana's entire character began with this moment according to Word of God, as he was originally going to be a one-note character before a few dialogue exchanges between Hoshi and Tachibana showed he had Hidden Depths worth exploring.
    • Mamika and Alicetaria have a whole side-chapter introducing their characters, with Alicetaria wanting to kill Hoshi and Mamika wanting to protect him, before she gets Alicetaria to compromise with her having to deal with Hoshi if he presents himself to be a threat.
    • The first original Creation, Jurogumo, makes her introduction known through the murder of a gang member and giving him the moniker of "some pig", contrasting to how Magane's original establishing moment went down.
    • Magane's full introduction has her sow the seeds that lead to Hoshi's Unstoppable Rage-induced Face–Heel Turn by stringing together reveal after reveal after reveal, allowing him to find out four things in the worst possible way. note .
    • Suruga's introductory chapter has her be mysterious until she hands Hoshi the keys to the Machine Inferner and, in scene shortly after, confers with Kikuchihara that the revision powers worked as she had suspected.
    • Yudai's introduction was a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Hoshi that's later revealed to be an Extreme Mêlée Revenge, showing just how cruel and vindictive he is, especially taking into account that he's reflecting Hoshi's own vindictiveness towards Souta.
    • Vega, by contrast, is a lot calmer and methodical, referring to Hoshi by father on his first appearence and calming down Yudai enough to back off. We later learn he has a tendency to refer to the influences of his creation by these terms and sees Yudai as a son... Though treating him like one is another story.
    • Shimashima is introduced trying to reason with the other Creations that they can't include Mamika into the Elimination Chamber Festival due to her Creators wanting to distance from her due to current events, citing how it's out of his hands. Matsubara comments on how he's "a stuffy suit" and is even surprised that he'd be taking up such a white collar job as being the messengers of other companies. His inability to stick up for Mamika (which he later allows the Creators to Loophole Abuse) and his dutiful servitude towards the industry become foreshadowing to his true identity as Shimazaki Yuusuke, who had similarly been unable to stick up for his daughter Setsuna due to being a servant for the industry.
    • Hikayu has an entire introductory arc that establishes her as different from the canon self, being more willing to help the others stop Altair after some thought, putting some training into boxing and even getting to become a Magical Slayer.
    • Yuichi and Melt have a contrast to Mamika and Alicetaria's introduction to Hoshi, though it serves to establish how broken Hoshi has become, as he freezes up at Melt asking if he knew Mamika and barely struck up a conversation with Yuichi. It's played straight with Yuichi's debut as Kamen Rider Verge, given he gives a quick and merciless Curb-Stomp Battle with a snake-themed monster that had poisoned Hoshi just moments prior.
    • Izumi Dan's entire character arc kicks off with him mourning the loss of his childhood friend and being called out by Ohnishi for always having tragedy in his stories. Cue a victim of his tragic stories coming to get his revenge... and Dan accepts.
    • Freezing Bear's human form is introduced with Magane asking a simple question after showing Yudai his favorite hobby: "What happens to a stalker when they're given the power to do what they want without consequence?". Cue him murdering two girls and some cops just because one of them was an idol.
    • Sparking Giraffe's debut has him blasting a dude with his powers simply because he badmouthed the murdered idol.
    • Shimazaki Yuusuke's proper introduction makes it clear that he's just as psychotic, if not more psychotic, than Altair by insisting that he personally kills the man who prevented him from helping Setsuna not get cancelled at the expense of the artists who made her take the fall. Kamen Rider Toris also shows that reality itself is bending to their whims as while it could barely put together a form, it was able to be tangible enough to make his victim lose his sanity.
  • Hazredous Interruptions: Summer Rose makes her personality quite clear with the very first words she says in her official debut. For context, Team RWBY has just been thoroughly wiped out by Briar Breeze, the Maiden of Summer.
    Summer Rose: Don't you touch her, you hot-headed bitch.
  • The Protectorate in How To Drill Your Way Through Your Problems had already met Lagann a few times before, and realized he was a good person and ideal Hero material. They didn't quite understand how different Lagann was until he upgraded Armsmaster's cycle into the Gurrencycle while riding it and minutes later, stealing Squealer's truck(?) and turning it into a giant robot.
  • Lexi's first action in Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail after being recovered is to attack his father and lash out at how Titus was oblivious to the fact that his own son was Buried Alive for eight years in their own car. Then, when Chloe pushes him out of the way so his papers don't get soaked from a hot water kettle that got sent flying into the air, he looks in remorse when she gets hot water burns on her shoulder. This shows off how Lexi is filled with bitterness and wants to lash out at people who hurt him, but also has remorse when others get hurt becuse of him.
  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero Kyon's sister gets hers the first time the story is told from her perspective showing how much she admires and loves her brother and her fears of Kyon eventually drifting away from her.
  • Last Child of Krypton: In the first story scene, as soon as Shinji sees Sachiel he asks what that monster is and states firmly that it must be stopped. That moment shows this Shinji is not his timid, weak canon self even before being revealed he is Superman.
  • A Man of Iron has several of these:
    • Antony Stark shows the reader why the Stark family and the North are ashamed of him when he comes at Winterfell and proceeds to insult and snark about everything and everyone he sees. Then he immediately proves he can be a truly nice person by calling Jon a Stark and laughing when Arya sasses him back - Black Sheep he may be, he's also a very Cool Uncle.
    • Clynt actually jokes with Tyrion while serving Catelyn Stark - who kidnapped the dwarf - and easily slaughters many Hill Tribes warriors when their camp is attacked.
    • Thor acts as a huge, very oblivious ditz after his landing on Dragonstone, complaining about the Faith not getting his people right, groping Jane before deeming her a Queen over Stannis and thinking Shireen fought a dragon because of her scars. However, his genuine admiration for Jane's bravery in front of his arrival and praise for Shireen over living after receiving her scars shows he's very nice and gallant, while respecting strenght and courage above all.
    • Jane Seaworth would do anything for her loved ones, and lying doesn't bother her a wit for this. How does the reader know this? Because she didn't even hesitate to frame the Crown Prince up after seeing him bullying her charge Shireen. More subtly, the fact she twisted the situation to her advantage via creative use of the truth foreshadows her parentage as a daughter of Loki.
  • Mass Effect: Human Revolution:
    • Despite being off-duty, Adam Jensen takes down a ten-Asari bank robbery single-handedly through stealth, offers himself to the last one in exchange for her hostage, then defeats her non-lethally but painfully when she still refuses to see the light. He's a stealthy One-Man Army, but he's also always looking out for others; that said, Good Is Not Soft!
    • The first onscreen appearance of Johann Liebert Ramsus has him concoct a brilliant, bloodsoaked plan to get out of his holding facility, showing both his mental and combat prowess in the process.
  • In the Girls und Panzer and Saki crossover, Necessary to Win, which can be found here, there are quite a few.
    • Hisa, in her first scene, opposes Anzu's threatening to expel Miho in order to get her to join the tankery team, showing that while she strongly desires for Oarai's tankery team to be restarted and for Oarai itself to stay open, there are limits to how far she will go.
    • Like in canon, Erika insults Miho, claims Oarai should not even be entering the tournament if it can't hope to win, and gets offended when Mako (Reizei) brings up the possibility of them being defeated.
    • Maho, seeing Miho in the cafe, is forced to conceal her emotions and choose her words carefully as Nishizumi heiress. The only thing she can bring herself to say is "I didn't think you'd still be doing tankery" After seeing that this answer upsets Miho, she thinks, "Forgive me, Miho...". She subconsciously agrees with Hisa's arguing that one should not lose sight of one's reasons for wanting to win, and as she walks off, hopes Miho is happier at Oarai.
    • Teru, in response to Erika derisively bringing up Hisa's being a no-show at the middle school tankery tournament three years ago, tells her, "Some people have parts of their past that they don't want to talk about." When Saki notices her and calls out to her, asking why she is denying having a sister, Teru freezes in surprise before walking off without saying anything to Saki.
    • In a flashback, Takako is first shown slapping a student for making a minor mistake, then defending her actions to Shiho, saying that she uses whatever means are necessary to help them improve, showing her approach to the Drill Sergeant Nasty trope.
    • Masae, head of the Atago School of Tankery, watches her daughters, pleased with their performance, and briefly mentions her school's philosophy. This gives some idea of how she's a less demanding parent and a less ruthless tanker than Shiho.
    • Hiroe, Masae's elder daughter, after winning a match, alternates between bragging about her victory and sincerely complimenting her defeated opponents for their efforts, before gladly agreeing to sign an autograph for a fan from said opposing team, showcasing that she's outspoken and full of herself, but a kind person at heart.
  • The Night Unfurls has several, for both the original and remastered version.
    • The Hunter's very first scene is a Batman Cold Open that depicts him finishing off his hunt of an orc war band. His calm demeanour plus the trail of corpses he leaves behind is enough to tell the readers that he's an adept, experienced killer. There's also how this protagonist uses a demented saw-cleaver hybrid, instead of a sword or any traditional weapon, which immediately marks him as sinister, dangerous, and anti-heroic.
    • The Plain Doll kneels in front of a gravestone, praying for the Hunter's safety. The Hunter, who is introduced beforehand as a sinister individual, lets her finish. Then comes her signature, customary greetingnote . Within five short paragraphs, the Doll is established as a tender soul, something the Hunter also happens to have. The two are also clearly shown as dearest friends.
    • Celestine goes through a vision, a premonition of a man garbed in dark grey and a tattered tricorne hat, the saw-like thing in hand, capable of both peace and laying waste to everything, including those that she holds dear. Evidently, it is a Godzilla Threshold to seek him out in hopes of ending the Forever War her country is embroiled in, but even so, she chooses to do so.
    • Vault is introduced as The Leader of the Black Dogs, proud of his accomplishments. Regarding the Hunter, he recognises him as the person who managed to kill three infamous orcs with Names to Run Away from Really Fast. The Hunter replies that he is unaware that those orcs had names, a reply that Vault readily approves. Before their conversation, Kyril can somehow sense ambition by looking at his eyes, implying that he has a separate agenda unknown to others. Also counts as foreshadowing.
    • Original version:
      • Michelle interrupts the meeting between his father Lord Michael Pantielle and the newly-appointed Black Knight Sir Kyril by slamming the door open. When demanded to apologise to his guest, he whines about having to apologise to a person of lower status than he is, which earns him a slap and a lot of scolding from his already furious father.
      • Sanakan's first appearance shows her putting her trust on Hugh to find a way out of the chaos due to the Black Dogs, but her big moment is when she demands Kyril, an Advancing Boss of Doom who just massacred every single Black Dog in the church she is trapped in, to take her while leaving the others alone. He's impressed.
      • Regarding the protection of the nuns of Feoh, who were among the many victims of the Black Dogs, Archbishop Grishom has something to say about this: "My clergy cannot waste any more resources on those nuns." His reasoning for this is that he believes they would betray the country as they have been "tainted" by the Black Dogs.
      • Soren's introduction is a failed attempt at nabbing Sanakan's coin purse. The conversation between them after their Chase Scene cements him as a Cowardly Lion who, despite his nervousness, decides to go after a high-profile person, the target being Sir Kyril's right hand herself. Justified, for he fears the consequences of failing to meet the demands of his "boss", namely a street thug who owns the streets.
      • Shamuhaza is introduced experimenting on the citizens of Rad to produce a legion of Body Horror Elite Mooks via Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong. This is complete with a Wham Shot of Luu-Luu as the specimen for his final testing.
    • Remastered version:
      • Alicia Arcturus's tendency to judge and jump to conclusions is laid bare during her first interaction with Kyril. This is especially so for Kyril's status as a foreigner.
      • In spite of his brief first appearance in Chapter 4, the moment that establishes Boris as a character, together with the Black Dogs in general, is during Chapter 6, where he reluctantly reveals his secret to Kyril, that he killed one of his comrades for hurting a prisoner of war. Keep in mind that this happens right after a Flashback of Kyril witnessing several mercenaries molesting Chloe. Suffice to say, the readers are known that Boris is a Token Good Teammate amongst the depravity of the Black Dogs.
      • The first thing Morgan does in his initial appearance is to call out to Grace, shouting at her to "get her beautiful self out here". Then, while conversing, he reaches out, a gesture that causes her to slip away from his hand, taking a step back.
      • Just the Rat's first line of dialogue, bolded, reveals a lot about him. A complete enigma, he's probably some sort of god/demon/entity, from how he has lived for around thousands of years. For some reason, he knows that there's more to our protagonist, Kyril, than meets the eye.
        "Well now... thousands of years pass by in these woods and yet never have I met someone like you, a man touched by the gods..."
  • Paradoxus: Aen'da is introduced in the prologue as a powerful yet awkward Kaldorei/Sin'dorei hybrid. Proof of the former is that with one shoot from her bow Delune she can access the Maw where Sylvanas, thrice sent there, is without worrying about not going back. The latter is accomplished the moment she opens her mouth and doesn't quite know how to explain to Sylvanas why she's rescuing her from there or who she is. She admits not having prepared a speech.
  • In Point Me at the Skyrim, Antares' response to waking up bound in a cart surrounded by hostile strangers is to try and de-escalate the situation.
  • Some of The Prayer Warriors and the other characters have them.
  • Acknowledged In-Universe in Tavi's Blood And Fire:
    "Tali, Nihlus wouldn’t drag you across half the galaxy if you weren’t up to this. You introduced yourself to us by throwing a grenade at a crooked info-broker!"
  • Turnabout Storm's Cruise Control spends his first moments on-screen loudly yelling at himself for not saying "I'm sorry!" with enough remorse, and then it escalates from there — Except for those very few seconds he gets dead serious during that same first meeting.
  • The Weaver Option: Sliscus swaggers into the meeting of pirate admirals he called late wearing an outfit fashioned from the skin of a xenos that was still screaming. After bragging about the Asuryani princess he just bedded, he invites the other admirals on a "little adventure". They all smile and agree because doing anything else would get them gutted.
  • We Make Our Own Light: Dunstan's complete lack of respect for the divine is obvious when he attacks Gwynevere's illusion before chasing Gwyndolin down the endless corridor, just because he wanted to peek under the Moon deity's mask. But after ripping the crown away, the man is aghast by Gwyndolin being Just a Kid saddled with such crushing duties — for all his cynicism and weariness, Dunstan cannot help softening towards people when he gets to see them as they truly are, instead of their social persona.
  • Wonderful (Mazinja): Emma and Sophia's first appearances show that Emma never stopped being Taylor's friend, and unlike in canon, they never bullied her.
    • When Emma shows up, she complains about Taylor not calling her to let her know that both she and her mother were fine after the Leviathan's attack.
    • Sophia shows up straight after, and she and Taylor are relatively civil to each other.

The Black Cauldron

Bleach

  • In Swinging Pendulum Kaien is established as a male Genki Girl who wants to be Ichigo's older brother figure in his little note to Ichigo, remainding him of their lunch date:
    Morning, cousin! Join me for lunch today, okay? I’ll swing by at noon to pick you up. Your favourite big bro, Kaien^_^’
    • Asuka is established as a Shrinking Violet when she refuses to look Ichigo in the eye and addresses him very formally when she tells Ichigo that he has been assigned to tutor her for extra credit by their teacher, Koyonagi.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

  • In Xendra, Kennedy is introduced mentally complaining about her training as a Potential but reveling in her family's money letting her do things her way (to an extent) rather than the traditional way. Once she becomes empowered as a Slayer, she's ecstatic and is shown to have been genuinely hoping to be called.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

Danganronpa

  • Despair's Last Resort:
    • Kumiko Akamine crashes out of her hotel room and lands right on Takara, then acts like nothing's wrong moments later.
    • Takara finds Kazumi Katsuya shouting at Shigeru Kitagawa and threatening to punch him. Meanwhile, Shigeru is arguing with Kazuma, and enjoying making her angry.
    • Kaito Fujiwara tries to flirt with Takara but fails and manages to fall on his face in the process.
  • Where Talent Goes to Die:
    • Sae Edogawa greets Kaori Miura when she wakes up, asks her how she's feeling and walks her to the school, explaining the situation to Miura and listening to her. All this shows that she's a fairly intelligent and kind person who has a burgeoning friendship with Miura.
    • Shirou Kurogane immediately reacts with displeasure upon hearing Miura's name and snidely reminds her that they do, in fact, know each other, showing that he holds grudges easily.
    • Miura's moment comes when she refuses to take Kurogane's barbs personally and expresses her desire to get along with everyone else here.
    • Reiko Mitamura corrects Miura when she makes a grammatical error, and then corrects Yuuki when Yuuki calls her and Miura by their first names, showing her serious, straight-laced and humorless personality. More subtly, she introduces herself with her Ultimate Talent first, indicating how much she values her reputation.
    • Akito Sakuragi casually mentions that he's quite anxious to get out of here. He snaps and becomes the first murderer, so desperate to escape that he doesn't even need a motive.
    • Sora Hoshino snidely calls Yusuke Tezuka on accidentally calling him an astronomer, showing that he's brutally honest and not afraid to offend people.
    • Tezuka casually remarks that he "fucked up," showing that he's a far cry from the gentlemanly artist Miura pictured him as.
    • Kuro Akasaka politely greets Miura and wishes that they'd been matched together, showing that she's a friendly person who takes her checkers far less seriously than Kurogane takes shogi.

Dragon Ball Z

  • The first lines introducing Kaji in the Honor Trip Arcos Special Chapter have him scowling, & annoyed at having to wait. The next paragraph is a flashback detailing the brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he gave to a fellow soldier. Similarly, the other Arcosians are introduced in ways that reflect their personalities.

Dungeons & Dragons

  • Vow of Nudity: Fiora's first scene involves trying to sacrifice Haara to a demon lord, foolishly attempting to sleep with her while they wait, and then accidentally getting sucked through the portal alongside her intended victim, quickly establishing her as an evil-but-underwhelming witch whose impulsivity and shortsightedness tends to be the cause of her own troubles.

The Familiar of Zero

  • In Jus Primae Noctis the readers already know Louise's character, but she gets an in-universe one for Saito's mother Ayako when she's the only one to stop Ayako from beating up her son.

Fate/stay night

  • In Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged, Archer is introduced lazing casually on the wrecked furniture in someone else's house.
    "I saw a spider, so I threw a table at it. It survived, so I threw a cabinet at it. This continued. The spider escaped. I assure you I mean to track it down."
  • Lampshaded in Happy Riniversary, which opens with Rin wondering what to give her lovers for their first anniversary- because it's not enough for the gift to simply be good, it has to be perfect, and it certainly must be at least equal to the gift they're giving her.
    ...And if Rin didn't do something equally special, she would lose at the relationship.
    (At this point, it is best to take a brief aside to mention the fact that Rin Tohsaka thought you could "lose" at a relationship explained a lot about what was going to happen next. At the very least, it should tell you something very significant about the way her mind worked.)

Final Fantasy VI

  • In Antinomia Final Fantasy VI, a discussion between Leo and Kefka in Vector immediately establishes the type of characters they are. Leo shows concern for Biggs and Wedge after they didn't report back. Kefka immediately shows disdain for Leo, views Terra as his weapon, and calls the two soldiers disposable.

Five Nights at Freddy's

  • AIEchidna's Five Nights at Freddy's: Throughout most of Withered, Freddy Fazbear is foreshadowed only via Fritz's phone calls, said to be threatening and smart, as well as being heard through the phone taunting "Fritz". In Night 4, he finally makes himself known to Jeremy, who is scared by him immediately.
    Freddy: How could you forget your ol' pal, Freddy Fazbear, Jeremy?

Free!

Frozen

  • In What About Witch Queen?, Prince Ferdinand is established as a good counterpart to Hans and a honorable man when he apologizes to Anna for his brother's actions. The same scene, moments earlier, also sets him up as borderline dorky with his inability to form the apologies coherently:
    Ferdinand: Princess, I… Well, I believe one of us, von Schwalbes, that is, should finally say that to you, because, well, it's a disgrace that it's been over three months and we remained silent, that is, I understand Friedrich, that is the king, I mean His Majesty, had his reasons and that politics stand in his way, because not everybody would be happy about it, it being what I'm about to say, that is… Verdammt. (...) I'm rambling, am I not? (he proceeds to apologize properly)

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed

  • In Where There's A Will, There's A Road, Nie Mingjue holds his hand up to stop his sworn brothers from startling a deer early on. It quickly establishes Mingjue's characterization in the fic as a gentler, more thoughtful interpretation of the character than often appears in fan works.

Gravity Falls

Harry Potter

  • In Prince of the Dark Kingdom, the first thing Voldemort gets to do on-screen is to crucio an 11 year old Harry for something that technically wasn't his fault and usually would have warranted a laugh, instead of a curse...
  • In The Wizard in the Shadows, Harry introduces himself by chasing off the Nazgul at Weathertop with a patronus, setting one on fire, and then, a little later on, when asked what he's doing by a thoroughly suspicious Merry, says a line that cements him as a Deadpan Snarker and a total badass:
    "Looking for trouble."

Homestuck

  • Terrestrial Trolling: The narrator first notices Feferi when she persuades a total stranger to participate in a tarot card reading, cavalierly brushing off his disbelief in magic.

In Nomine

  • The Oops Cycle: Saminga, fresh off of being made an Archangel, quickly showed his hand to his new allies in Heaven. He let his more skeptical fellows in on the existence of a dangerous relic, a coffin which can turn someone into a undead without any consent and that Hatiphas, the top contender for succeeding Saminga in the Word of Death, has captured one of David's soldiers to use it on. In less than a few minutes Saminga possessed the Soldier (thus keeping their soul from being destroyed), broke free, destroyed the relic, possessed every zombie in the room and proceeded to go to town on Hatiphas and her minions. He then destroyed everything even remotely connected to sorcery in the site before bringing the remnants of the relic back to Heaven and informing the attending archangels there are 127 more of these things. The next few weeks one by one the remaining relics were all are brought forth and destroyed. This killed any doubt of his honesty or that he hadn't become more intelligent.

Jackie Chan Adventures

  • Queen of Shadows: Each of the Oni Generals, as well as each of Lord Rokutaro's inner circle, get their general personalities made quite clear within their first scenes.
  • The Ultimate Evil: The first appearance of Nataline "Nat" Homato has her attacking a demon that's about to eat its victim, using her various weapons to kill it mercilessly, calling an ambulance, leaving the spot, taking an interest in the reports of Jackie's encounters with the Demon Sorcerers, and deciding to do a little "cleanup".

The Legend of Korra

  • Unstable Equilibrium: A well-dressed Asami offers to pay for Korra's meal out of the blue, despite not even knowing her. This serves to show that Asami is a generous and wealthy person.
The Legend of Spyro
  • In Pure Light, we are introduced to Electroy and Burner with the former bragging about having pranked the Guardians, and the latter admonishing him as childish. This handily establishes that Electroy is a prankster with high enough social standing to have access to the highest ranking civilian organization in the city, and Burner as a grumpy Team Dad.

Lyrical Nanoha

  • In her first scene in Game Theory, Chikaze, an original character, saves Hayate from a zombie by pushing it down a flight of stairs, despite being a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy.

Mega Man

  • In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, the Stardroids make clear their intent and threat to Earth when they shoot down Galaxy Man and broadcast an ultimatum to the people of Earth to surrender.

Miraculous Ladybug

  • The Karma of Lies:
    • The very first lines show Lila feigning shock at her classmates 'surprising' her with a picnic, as her inner thoughts reveal that she's not surprised at all, having sown the seeds inspiring this idea.
    • Marinette is introduced coming out of her parents' bakery to confront her classmates for their failure to show up to a party she was throwing for them, having been pressured to Turn the Other Cheek with Lila and 'make up with' her bully.
    • Adrien casually dismisses Marinette's pain, trying to smooth things over with a smile even while telling her that it doesn't matter that Lila is conning their friends, or that she got them to donate all the clothes she made for them to a Fake Charity — after all, she can always make more, right? Even when Marinette states outright that she's hurt, he tells her she can handle it, illustrating how he completely ignores anything that doesn't align with what he wishes.
  • Leave for Mendeleiev:
    • Chloé introduces herself by tripping Marinette as she passes by, then leering down at her while taunting her for thinking that transferring out of Mme Bustier's class was honestly going to protect from her. This immediately drives home just how much Chloé is used to getting her way, and that she has no intention of letting her favorite victim slip from her grasp.
    • While Adrien's reputation as Gabriel's model son precedes him, he first appears when Marinette is stranded by a storm after school. Despite seeing that she's stuck, he offers little more than an apologetic smile as he hurries past; she's not one of his classmates, and he's not trying to clear up any misunderstandings with her, so he isn't motivated to help her out as he doesn't see any immediate benefit for himself.
    • Alya first appears as Lady Wifi, having gotten akumatized offscreen for getting punished for breaking into Chloé's locker. She gleefully 'exposes' her as the heroine Ladybug; after the real deal intervenes, she proceeds to chase after her demanding she reveal her Secret Identity. This shows that she's prone to leaping to conclusions and is more interested in Going for the Big Scoop than considering the potential consequences of her actions — even being victimized by Hawkmoth herself doesn't make her realize what kind of problems exposing their heroes could create.

My Hero Academia

  • Crimson and Emerald:
    • Hawks shows himself to be proactive as he goes to Hosu to help the local pros capture Stain out of his own volition. He then shows himself to be a cautious Reasonable Authority Figure as he listens to Tokoyami's concerns that his classmate might be in danger when Tokoyami is sent his classmate's coordinates without explanation. Worrying that they might be hurt or being attacked, he accompanies Tokoyami to his classmate's coordinates.
  • Whispered Tribulation opens with Principal Nedzu calling Yaomomo to his office and calmly explaining the situation to her, revealing that Aizawa kidnapped a Gen-Ed student with intent to secure a 'confession' about spying on U.A. for the League from them by any means necessary. Nedzu intervened, and bringing Momo into the matter demonstrates that he's a Reasonable Authority Figure while Aizawa is utterly unrepentant, insisting that his insistence on proper procedure rather than lynching the victim is 'getting in his way'.

My-HiME

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, we have two such moments for major characters.
    • For protagonist Nova Shine, the first we see of him is him approaching a beggar on the streets, taking him to a nearby apartment complex, and purchasing the beggar an apartment for two months to help him get back on his hooves, before swearing both him and the landlady to secrecy.
    • Aegis, a major character who is a peacekeeper in Canterlot, is introduced by "arresting" Nova just to get a rise out of him.
  • In The Non-Bronyverse, TD's establishing moment is when he walks up with quiet dignity and grace and punches Celestia in the snout.
  • If the Apple Trust from the Lunaverse was not meant to be seen as unsympathetic, neigh (sic), villainous, the self-righteous and jealously monopolising behaviour they demonstrated when first appearing in Boast Busted and Longest Night, Longest Day did not help.
  • As soon as Commander Hildread first appears in Loved and Lost, she makes her arrogance and hatred toward Shining Armor crystal clear before she proceeds to beat up the former captain with sadistic pleasure in his cell. Her Foil and subordinate Lieutenant Shackle in turn acts like a professional guard toward the imprisoned heroes before the appearance of her commanding officer whose orders she nervously follows. She also turns her pitying gaze away from Shining Armor's torture.
  • Sunny Breeze, the protagonist of Racer and the Geek is introduced all alone on a Friday night, when he is drunk, working on a conlang, and keeping an FN FAL within easy reach.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Persona

  • The first time we see Makoto in The Evil Queen, she is at a personal office desk in the student council room cutting the drama club's budget because she felt that their choice to perform Oedipus the King was inappropriate for school, demonstrating how Absurdly Powerful she is and how she abuses her power to uphold her own standards of decency.

Pokémon

  • Essence: Ash arrives at Professor Oak's lab 30 minutes early. This shows his dedication and excitement at becoming a Pokémon trainer. When he meets Growlithe, he calmly decides to stare it in the eyes and get on eye-level with it, which shows Growlithe that he wants respect and views it as a partner, not something to look down upon. Growlithe likes Ash's compassionate nature.
  • Pokémon Story: Sinnoh Journey:
    • Chapter 1 simultaneously establishes a few of Aaron's personality traits. He's calm and levelheaded, never reacting with the same distress as Ash and the group. He isn't soft, using Meowth as leverage against Team Rocket until his own Pokemon are safe. He's also analytical, only stopping in to help when he catches the precise moment he can save his Riolu and Mawile.
    • Chapter 3: Ian's darker choice of clothing and grim demeanor contrasts with the brighter setting the narration makes. Then, his more manic side emerges when Gengar suggests scaring two girls, which he fully intends to do. His Odd Keystone gets in the way of that, but when Spiritomb arrives all its spectral and abominable glory, Ian is more than thrilled to take it on.

RWBY

  • Children of Remnant:
  • The OC protagonists of For Tomorrow's Sake have distinct reactions to waking up in a room together:
    • Jeanne fearfully wonders where her children are.
    • Willow scowls, demanding to know what is going on.
    • Mei calmly remarks that this event "is most disturbing..."
    • Thorin is completely unfazed and enthusiastically asks if there's any alcohol in the room.
    • Qrow grumpily asks what's happened, and soon gets into an argument with his brother...which both abandon when Summer realizes that their family could be in danger.
  • In Hunting Monsters, the morality of the OC Umbra Academy characters is established by Headmistress Woden arguing with Ozpin, lying to his face and taking vindictive pleasure in reminding him of his past failure. The squad's overall moral levels are shown when Sanguin starts an easily avoidable fight and pointedly sends Dominic somewhere he won't interfere, while Argos makes it so that he is technically helping without having to do anything.
  • Hypothermia precedes Weiss's actual introduction into the story with a description of Ruby, the protagonist, gawking at her beauty. And then Ruby notices that all of Weiss's admirers keep their distance from her, and that nobody sits with her at lunch. Weiss herself seems completely unruffled by this. All of this is established before Ruby has so much as a conversation with her.
  • In Untouchable, Pyrrha tries and fails to sing. She sadly reflects that she doesn't know anything about music, as "combat had been all she'd ever known." The scene sums up a lot about her character.
    • Jaune is introduced several sentences later, when he comforts Pyrrha and makes her laugh (at his expense) despite that.

Sherlock Holmes

Slayers

  • In Flam Gush, Erik's is the dramatic confrontation he arranged with Lina and Gourry, who both have very good reasons to want to murder him slowly. He stops them in theirs tracks by revealing that he has Gourry's mother held hostage. When Lina agrees to a hostage exchange he thoroughly and successfully binds her magic and then has Gourry's mother knock him out with a nerve pinch. It shows how ruthless, thorough, and terrifying Erik can be, but also that in a straight fight he wouldn't stand a chance.
    • Although we don't actually meet her for several chapters, Lucilla has two such moments: first when Lina sees her with her uncle and second, when she fakes her death to turn the mob against Lina and Gourry, forcing them to retreat.

Soul Eater

  • Soul Eater: Troubled Souls:
    • Caius Vladingham is established as badass and Troubled, but Cute in the very first chapter, introduced throwing a small pebble in Scorpio’s face, talking down to it. He then defeats it in only a few blows. He has a brief flashback to two years ago that shows he is the survivor of some deadly attack, and he muses how he doesn't have friends but acquaintances. Claudia is established as an Ojou or Proper Lady with a hopeless crush on Soul when she squeezes lemon on Scorpio's Kishin Egg Soul before she eats it. She calls up her driver so she and Caius can exit via carriage and slowly starts to ramble about, you guessed, Soul Eater.
    • The Ricardsen Twins are established as Crazy is Cool and skilled yet being rookies. Tsuji headshots several of the Flatheads from atop a building, using a bow and arrow. Rowena flattens one of them along with a dumpster accordion-style, including J. Worski himself. They talk smack all the while. This is an unofficial mission to ascertain if they have the gall to go on actual missions.
    • Ignoring her name-only cameo in the prologue, the introduction of Cancer Lucrenian establishes her as a savvy Big Bad by standing in the middle of water like Jesus himself, only to summon a staircase of water and walk up it to approach Young Thief Gestas. She brings out this creature hidden in the shadows and ever so calmly instructs him to lure the Academy to Venice. Gestas does not disobey. When do they come, she attempts to kill them right off the bat but fails, only to force them into a Sadistic Choice.

Spyro the Dragon

Star Wars: The Old Republic

  • Blood and Honor: For the Sith Lord Sanguis - Vette is about to be killed by shyracks while raiding a tomb when Sanguis swoops in and saves her life. Only to then turn her over to the Korriban authorities for questioning, torture and possible execution.

Steven Universe

  • We get our first look at Blue Diamond in Chapter 10 of Blue Au-niverse, she and Blue Pearl visiting the beach to witness baby turtles hatching, only to rush in and save Greg from a corrupted gem. This tells you that this isn't the waifish, self-centered Blue Diamond presented in canon.

Superman

  • Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation: In the first chapter, Adam and Alan Kentstop some bank robbers. Alan gets upset because some persons got killed. Adam is just happy that they stopped a bunch of crooks.

Sword Art Online

  • Sword Art Online Abridged:
    • Kirito is introduced one-shotting a demonic boar enemy in the titular video game that Klein couldn't defeat, then launching into a long, sarcastic story mocking Klein instead of carrying on with his game session. Then after the Big Bad announces the start of the death game, Klein notes that while Kirito is "the most unbearable asshole I've ever met," he does see the advantage of them teaming up and offers to form a guild with him... but Kirito has already run off crying because the guy he was just mocking called him names. This establishes that 1) Kirito is very good at the game, and well aware of it, 2) his idea of entertainment is to make fun of the less-skilled players around him, and 3) as much of a Jerkass as he acts, he's in fact deeply insecure.
    • During Kayaba's speech to the captive players at the start of the death game, he's Affably Evil with his victims, makes movie references they don't get and has to quickly bring up media to make his points, and generally rambles and makes mistakes like accidentally muting himself. It's a pretty big hint that he's not a villainous mastermind, but someone loopy from sleep deprivation and desperately slapping together an "Evil Plan" to cover for the fact that he just discovered a game glitch that kills people.
    • In her introductory episode, Asuna is able to instantly see through Kirito's aloof front and realize he's an anti-social mess, foreshadowing that beneath her Mask of Sanity she's not that different from him.
    • The first time that Yui drops her act of being an innocent child, it's to correct Yulier on what irony is, as well as diss Thinker for being stupid enough to fall for an obvious trap and Yulier for falling in love with such an idiot. It's what starts to endear her to her "parents", and what starts to inform the audience of how similar she is to them.
    • In Suguha's debut scene in the second season, she thrashes her brother during a kendo match, then launches into a long, sarcastic story mocking him instead of carrying on with her day... or in other words, she's just as much a Jerkass in real life as Kirito was online before his Character Development, and presumably who he modeled his online persona on. Then when we first see her "Leafa" character in Alfheim Online, she's trying to act like a Damsel in Distress, making it clear that while Kirito goes online to indulge in his Power Fantasy, Leafa's trying to do the complete opposite.

Touken Ranbu

  • Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: When Sasanoyuki cuts a cat in half in the middle of the Halloween party and is about to do the same to Midare when he confronts him about it, effectively showing that not only is he blank and monotone, he's also perfectly willing to off anything and anyone, even his own allies, out of a twisted view of duty.

X-Men

  • X-Men: New Class:
    • Sooraya tries to stop Julian from bullying other students, and criticizes his moral hypocrisy note .
    • Laura Kinney, a new transfer student, is asked if she would like to tell the class about herself. Her typically curt response also establishes that she has No Social Skills.
    "No."

Yu-Gi-Oh!

  • Edwin Chaos in the SI Chaos Effect originally planned to keep his head down for a bit... until he sees Yugi and Joey shivering after diving off the ship to try and save the Exodia cards Weevil tossed overboard. Edwin storms into the common room where Weevil is, causing everyone to go silent, then drags the brat to a quiet corner of the ship and nearly THROWS HIM OVERBOARD, then demands his room key as payment. He then turns around and invited Yugi and his friends to share the room with him so that Joey and Yugi can warm up.

Alternative Title(s): Fan Fics

Top