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NotGonnaDoALot4
- At a crucial point late in the game, you are forced into a fatal Sadistic Choice in which whoever you do not pick will die. One of the people on the chopping block is someone with expertise on how to get the group as a whole to safety, but complicating matters is that the other person under threat is a little kid, and they will not be happy if their charge is sacrificed. So, who will it be - the expert or the child?
Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive and the choice between Barry and Cody or Your Turn to Die and the choice between Sou and Kanna? - The main protagonist starts off as a mere human - but quickly allows himself to become a Demon of Human Origin aided by a Fairy Companion. Despite his demonic power, he uses it for the sake of those he cares about, remains steadfast in killing the same demons he's technically part of, and in the end he saves humanity by killing a higher power.
Majyuo or the Freedom ending of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne? - The story focuses on a human who ends up having an unfortunate run-in with a Mad Doctor intending to mutilate their body to transform them into a walrus, and the attempts of people close to them to stop the procedure before it's too late.
Tusk (2014) or Johnny the Walrus? - A 2020 film about a severe social media-addicted Attention Whore willing to livestream themselves committing a murderous crime spree to burn their names into the history books.
Infamous (2020) or Spree?
- A group of people, all Color-Coded for Your Convenience are gathered in a huge building without a memory as to who they are or how they got here. To contrast the characters that are all dressed in their respective theme color, the place itself is largely grey and dull. This location turns out not to be entirely natural, as is hinted by these colors. The main character we follow gets emotional easily, often acting out of impulse. This is commonly remarked upon. It does not take long before they meet a calm and collected one, followed by others, all different in their own way. About a little before we're halfway through, one of the characters is proven unable to handle their own personal demons and ends up transforming for the worse. Later on they are encountered as partially human, and part shadowy entity. The name this character goes by starts with the j/y consonant. Is this Superego or Psychedelica Of The Black Butterfly?
- A game where the story plays out as a Visual Novel, with characters that represent the Tree of Life. They are Color-Coded for Your Convenience, mostly along the Queen Scale. The first of these characters we meet represents Malkuth, a kind girl. The one representing Binah has black hair, and her attitude is easily the most hostile towards you. Meanwhile, the one who represents Geburah has red hair, is strict and known for being able to shift into a more powerful version that nevertheless also comes with dangers for herself. They used to be human, but something happened and someone (the one who represents Kether) made them into something else. Despite that though, they appear human at first and even look rather cute due to the artstyle. If they cross the Despair Event Horizon, the facade breaks and they transform into a monstrous version of themselves that will actively hinder you. Is this Date A Live or Lobotomy Corporation?
- In an alternate version of earth, there is a specific kind of crystals found in the earth. There is a lot of energy within them, so they can be used for a lot of things. However, long contact with these crystals will inevitably cause infection and you really, really don't want that. These crystals also cause disasters to hit earth, and after every disaster, this material is abundant. To avoid millions of people dying, they have tried to mitigate the numbers a bit by mobilizing cities so that they can be evacuated quickly. To make matters worse, there is a certain army of rebel infected that terrorizes the earth. Luckily, you as player character, are part of a group tasked with surpressing said army. You clash with the leader in a process of deploying units in chibi form on the battlefield and encounter their leaders. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun or Arknights?
- In a world where both magic and advanced technology are normal, there is a character who is hot-blooded, and associated with fire and is exactly 160 cm 'tall'. This character with bright hair may or may not be artificially created, whether it is the case is left unclear and they may have a supernatural entity inside them that can manifest itself through this character's powers they themselves may not be able to control fully. What is known, however, is that they spent a large amount of their childhood in a lab. Two characters of the same gender, who are often shipped in the fandom, are involved. One of them is associated with wyverns and has light hair, and the other has dark hair. There was a Noodle Incident in the past, causing a break-away of the two partners, resulting in a strained relationship. The wyvern-associated character, who is still alive, can become even more destructive than they already are, but do not utilize this power for certain reasons. All of the characters mentioned end up joining the same organisation. Is this the backstory of Nakahara Chuuya, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud or that of Ifrit, Saria and Silence?
- A story that mainly features the relationship between two of the main charactes of the same gender. One of them is a good character who inspired the other due to being very different in the dark world they are in. This character disappeared from the life of the other some time before this story starts. The other one is jaded and serious. However, this universe the story takes place in, is vastly different from the one we're used to. The jaded character rewrites the universe in order for the other one to live a normal life and be safe. However, by doing so, they are warped into something they don't want themselves — but they take it in stride because their beloved is happy. At the end, still, they throw themselves off a building. Promotional-wise, the story shapes up at first to focus on different characters than it actually does. Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion or Bungo Stray Dogs 's BEAST universe?
- A show with themes of self-discovery and being who you truly are. The title starts with an S. The protagonist initially has three other characters that are semi-real who are representations of parts of their personality. One of them, dressed in blue, is their rational-minded part. The other, dressed in red, embodies their passion and creativity. The third one is representative of their courteous and kind side. Eventually, they discover that there is a fourth part to the protagonist, who is initially labeled as unkind and evil but they get better later on. They continue to deal with repressed parts of the mind. Is this Shugo Chara! or Sanders Sides?
- The protagonist of this series is a Badass Bookworm who has No Social Skills. They are often accompanied by a character who is associated with pink and is a Plucky Girl. The protagonist meets a rival who is arrogant, associated with blue and stars and boasts of their magical prowess. Said rival got their hands on a special amulet, which is the source of their powers. At the end, the protagonist exposes said rival and destroys the amulet. Gravity Falls or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic?
- This story revolves around horrific creatures that were once men born from profane magic, which is spread by a shining, innocent-looking entity. The only way to kill said monsters is to use said magic, which will end up transforming YOU into a monster eventually for others to kill in an endless cycle. Souls, despair, and hope are all central to the story, as despair is what triggers the transformation from man to beast. The main storyline also involves a Ho Yay -filled relationship between two sorcerers, one of which locks themselves into an endless loop in order to save their 'dear friend'. Soul Sacrifice or Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
- This story is animated in at least one version. It is about this young male character, who grows up under the tutelage of a benevolent father, who is known to fight for justice in their country and called 'king'. This father has been clashing with another male character for some time. This male character is a ruthless murderer, and will cheat to get their way. The sole mention of their name strikes fear in the hearts of everyone who hears it. Eventually, the father gets murdered and the aforementioned murderer takes over. The young male character is adopted into another family, and switches from side. It is until a childhood friend shows themselves, that they turn back and fight for justice once more. Together, they eventually manage to call the murderer out and punish them. The Lion King (1994), isn't it? Could be, but it could also be about the DL-6 Incident from Ace Attorney.
- In the Backstory, two men were fighting over a woman and hated each other. One was charismatic and athletic, with stag as an Animal Motif. The other was a brooding, black-clad man who was titled "Prince". The woman was a Blithe Spirit whose death happened at the end of a bloody war. One of the men caused the death of the other, and the surviving one lived a life of grieving over the woman who is known or implied to have loved the other, and hating his rival (and everyone related to him) even in death. Part of this information is kept secret until the end of the series.
- A boy raised by the family of the dead woman's sibling in which he is looked down on is sent to an institution whose members wear black. He has the best friend of one of the rival men as a father figure. The boy is a natural leader, has the head of the organization as a mentor and after his death takes the lead. One of his teachers is a bitter and gruff man who hates him because of his father or adoptive father. May or may not have a Secret Legacy as the son of the man and woman above who died in the backstory.
- A frail but cunning man was in love with a beautiful red-haired woman who preferred his athletic rival (who died), survives and retains his feeling for the woman, hating everything else and living a life of spite.
- Another grim and scarred man who hated his brother, but is not really a bad person himself, if somewhat unhinged and homicidal. His Animal Motif is a dog.
A Song of Ice and Fire (if a certain fan hypothesis proves true) or Harry Potter?
- Taken from this page: An incompetent, red-haired magic user with a scruffy beard who knows how magic works, but not how to use it, had a hard time at magic school, and, even though he considers himself a failure, still wears the traditional wizard garb, gets roped into something he wants (at first) no part in, and ends up saving the day. Are we talking about Sunburst or Rincewind?
- Taken from this video
: This 2014 film features an unlikely hero and an otherworldly "father" starred by Chris Pratt find an ancient artifact, after which he's immediately challenged by an evil authority figure. He's then captured but quickly freed by his future Love Interest. Right after, they head to a secret location, home to all kinds of unique individuals, and among Chris Pratt's future teammates include a one-of-a-kind creature with a super positive attitude and a horrible temper, a tech-savvy one who can build things really quick and deals with computers, and a stubborn muscle. This is where the team begins to form, but this location is then attacked by an invading enemy fleet with the aid of a pirate, but the team managed to get gone. From there, the team bonds and forms a plan, with the Chris Pratt character even saying "I… have a plan.", with his teammates not assured. They infiltrate the enemy base and everything was going according to plan until a massive battle breaks out and the team gets supported by an entire army that seemed to come out of nowhere. In the end, Chris Pratt defeats the enemy boss with the artifact said boss was after the entire movie. Among other things, there is a character with a vast collection of super-rare artifacts. Easter Eggs pertaining to its franchise abound. There's even an evil force pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
Is this film Guardians of the Galaxy, or The LEGO Movie? - Taken from this video: There is a pissed-off head of a samurai with a shrine. This head flew around and caused natural disaster levels of damage. And this samurai's goal was to liberate a nation being oppressed by (an) evil overlord(s) who wanted to control the everyday people.
Is this the legend of Taira No Masakado, or the plot of Samurai Zombie Nation? - Straight from a Discord thread: There's a lonely girl with a missing mother and a work-busy father who isolates herself inside a of a fantasy world where they can warp reality while also kidnapping people from the outside world to play. She is stopped by a group of children and realizes that they don’t want to live in a fake fantasy. There's also an important girl in this plot that's named Molly.
Is this Pokémon 3, or Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic? - Straight from a Discord thread: This story is a poignant tale involving a stitched together undead abomination being super cool and murderous. The catalyst involves a tragedy of miscommunication, a misunderstood monster that turns to violence much too quickly, and a malformed parent-child bond. It comes to a head in a frozen land between the patchwork child and its creator.
Is this the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, or of Valder and Ragna in the Dark Skies storyline in Wargroove 2?
- In the Early 2000s, a series of books was written in first person about a snarky new yorker teen who lives with their artist mother, they both have a life changing experience when they find out that their absent father is actually someone very important...They're also one of their father's few children... The Series of books had two films based on them that are known for deviating from the source material, The question is are they a female Princess (The Princess Diaries) or a male Demigod (The Camp Half-Blood Series)
- A guy is so inspired by the works of super heroes that he decides to become one. Time and time again though, he gets his ass kicked over and over, thus causing people in the city who are better at fighting than he is to persuade him to stop fighting. It gets to the point where the main character does something that manages to get positive attention from the normal crowds, causing them to believe in heroes. The main character, now kinda famous, is then forced to fight an even bigger villain that he never expected. He wins, of course, but not without some consequence.
Kickass or Samurai Flamenco?
- The British Crown is approached by a group of extraterrestrial occultists with innovative and esoteric uses for narrative structure, and the two of them make a deal that results in the occultists taking over a shadowy, gothic version of London where things don't work as they normally do. The fourth wall is regularly painted to more effectively convey an understanding of the impossible things happening the text - for example, letting a hostile character move into the space between the reader and the text and take over as narrator - with a recurring theme of the use of stories strategically as both a battlefield and an objective. While London's new lords are not directly involved, their bargain for London turns out to expose Earth to an ongoing cosmic war between tyrannical forces so far above human understanding that they may as well be divine, fighting over who gets to control natural laws like physics and history, and there's the ominous possibility of the British Empire aspiring to unprecedented levels of oppression and self-mythification to compete with the gods themselves.
Is London in the hands of alien space bats (Fallen London), or a time-traveling death cult (Faction Paradox)?
O
ObiwanLivesForever2
- In this Disney animated feature, a young person is kept isolated from the outside world in an old-fashioned structure by their controlling, emotionally manipulative, and eventually evil guardian of the same gender. This person is not their biological parent; instead, they took them from their parent(s) as an infant. The only friend that the main character has is a small, talking creature which lives with them in captivity. After a spectacular "I Want" Song, they are persuaded to leave their confines, with the help of a streetwise love interest who accompanies them on their journey. The love interest is an outlaw of some kind, but misunderstood by most of society. They also meet a soldier who initially attempts to stop them but soon comes over to their side. The love interest teaches the main character about the outside world, and in one scene the protagonist joins in a dance in the town square. Near the middle of the movie, the protagonist sings a love song comparing their romantic interest to light. In the end confrontation, which takes place upon the structure where the character was imprisoned, the villain attempts to kill the love interest, but they are saved from near death by the protagonist. The villain then falls over the edge to their death, with the help of one of the building’s denizens. The story ends with a mass celebration among the villagers.
Is it The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Tangled? - In this movie adaptation of a popular comic, a group of beloved characters bands together to save the world from alien invasion. Their greatest obstacle lies not in the enemy but in their unwillingness to work together. The team includes a patriotic American WWII veteran who constantly bickers with one of the other characters, an arrogant womanizer, and a Russian. One of the early scenes showing the alien invaders terrorizing random townspeople takes place in Germany. There is also a scene where a character makes a dramatic appearance while rock music is playing. Much of the action takes place aboard an airship, which at least one character falls off towards the ¾ mark of the movie.
Is it The Avengers or Hetalia: Paint It White? - Based loosely off real-life events, this upbeat story is set in Central Europe during a historical time period. A free-spirited, headstrong and optimistic young woman who finds herself incompatible with the group of people she wishes to belong to is sent to the household of an aloof dark-haired Austrian man. He’d had a previous marriage, but it is now over. Several younger people share the mansion with them; they are treated strictly by the man but kindly by the woman. One of these children, a naïve brunette, falls in love with a young blond German soldier, but his preoccupation with his duties to the ruling regime cause their romance to end in tragedy. Meanwhile, the man and woman find themselves inching closer and closer to love themselves. The man is revealed to have a softer side, as shown in his interactions with the woman as well as a scene where he plays music for the aforementioned child. In fact, music is an important theme for the main romance. A blond character also serves (more obviously in one story than in the other) as a rival love-interest for the man, but they are unsuccessful. The main man and woman are eventually married. After a time skip, the Anschluss of Austria places the characters in a tight situation, with the man being summoned to serve the Germans, but all the main characters survive.
The Sound of Music, right? Or is it Hetalia: Axis Powers, with an emphasis on the characters of Austria and Hungary? - In this modern retelling of the Nancy Drew mystery adventures, the girl sleuth goes to a major Californian metropolis and stays in an old house which used to belong to a famous actress. Her ghost is believed to haunt the mansion and 'appears' to Nancy twice, although it becomes apparent that a woman living there is faking all of the hauntings. Other characters Nancy encounters include a brunette twenty-something who is without a proper home and at one point resides in the mansion, and a middle-aged, grey-haired, sharply-dressed man who turns out to be the culprit. Nancy explores hidden passageways, investigates the historical actress' life, and, based off clues found in some of the woman's documents, discovers her will in a Chinese puzzle box. The next case she is to crack involves an iconic European figure and a missing diamond.
Message in a Haunted Mansion or the 2009 Nancy Drew film? - It takes place on a fictional American island called "[description] Island." Residents are in an uproar over a large marine creature which has recently appeared in the nearby water and seems to frequent the area. Some, including a grizzled old fisherman, think the creature should be instantly removed due to the threat it poses to locals, while others, such as a younger scientist from the city, wish to study it. One character is either mayor or running for mayor. The climax involves the protagonist, the scientist, one other important character with an obsession with a particular aquatic species, and the animal itself, and takes place aboard a boat. The antagonist threatens the protagonist and the scientist, but they both survive. The animal either kills or incapacitates the other important character on board the boat.
As a hint, this site also saw at least the "Residents in uproar over a large marine creature" part, though didn't give any specifics.
Is it Danger on Deception Island or Jaws? - In this famous musical, a Heartwarming Orphan girl is adopted by an initially aloof but ultimately benevolent father figure who gives her a better life and is himself changed by the child's love. A pair of devious small-time criminals, one male and one female, try to pass themselves off as the girl's rightful guardians, but are thwarted. One of the most famous and iconic songs in the play is an inspiring ballad about what will happen tomorrow. A live action movie version came out in the early 2010s.
Is it Les Misérables or Annie? - This mystery-adventure computer game from around the turn of the 21st century is the second installment of a long-running series. The protagonist investigates a case of murder/attempted murder among the cast of (one or more) live-action TV program(s). Some of the characters involved with this/these show(s) are two men – the brown-haired culprit and their Asshole Victim – two younger women, one of whom was romantically involved with both men in the past, and one annoying old woman. The main villain openly despises their victim/intended victim, and turns out to be a deranged psychopath and one of the most depraved and well-known villains in the series. They reveal their true nature to the protagonist in a creepy scene. A Big Damn Heroes moment in which a character bursts through a door factors into their defeat. At one point in this or a later game, this evildoer kidnaps the hero’s bubbly, Big Eater female friend and holds her hostage in exchange for something they want, but the protagonist and their more serious dark-haired friend manage to save her.
Is it Stay Tuned for Danger or Farewell My Turnabout from Phoenix Wright: Justice for All? - Our computer-animated story takes place in the British Isles, in a medieval castle surrounded by a mysterious moor. The area is haunted by stories of ghostly lights, witchcraft, and a vicious monster which was once a human being. One of the main characters is an adolescent girl who is unenthusiastic about her tutoring in the family duties by a woman whose name starts with E. The girl has a very strained relationship with her mother figure, causing her to drug her food and transform her (whether physically or psychologically) into the dreaded beast. A redheaded young woman must put things right. In the end, mother and daughter decide to patch up their relationship. A tapestry important to the family is involved in the story. One character is named Elinor.
Is it Curse of Blackmoor Manor or Pixar's Brave? - An eccentric, mysterious and talented man who has achieved near-legendary status within his own universe meets five children: the kind, optimistic and good-natured main character, a gluttonous boy addicted to candy, a rude, over-competitive girl, a greedy spoiled brat, and a boy obsessed with technology. Themes include the dangers of laziness, selfishness, and overindulgence in junk food, as well as the importance of good behavior in children. It takes place in a very bright, colorful setting in which impromptu musical numbers abound.
Is it Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or LazyTown? - A group of people are invited to a mysterious island, where they begin to be killed one by one in gruesome ways. They desperately try to make it to safety, but this is complicated by the fact that an ocean storm has cut off their access to the mainland. It takes place in a year containing the numbers 1, 9, 9, and 3 (in a certain order). There are 10 important characters, one of whom is played by Sam Neill.
Now, do some of them make it out alive, or do they all die? - This epic two-part finale concludes a section of an iconic sci-fi/action/adventure series involving time travel, extraterrestrial beings, and massive threats to reality as we know it. It serves as a Crisis Crossover in which a large cast of characters from multiple shows/movies within the same canon come together for a final battle. They range from centuries-old alien superheroes to Badass Normal human spies/agents. Their opponent is a megalomaniacal supervillain with a god complex who gathers together a group of objects to help him destroy life on an unimaginably huge scale (his victims are shown dissolving into nothing). At some point in the story, two different versions of one of the main heroes are seen side-by-side on screen. The first part of the finale ends on a cliffhanger, with things looking very grim for our heroes. The second part, however, sees the good guys come out on top, though not without losses of their own. At least one character chooses to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. A woman with long red hair gets a particularly tragic fate. Someone decides to stay in another dimension/timeline to grow old with their lover.
This is Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, right? Or is it the Doctor Who Season 4 finale, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End? - In this late 90s comedy, aliens come to earth to abduct a group of well-known actors, who soon find themselves way in over their heads. The good guys are led by a famous celebrity, who has taken a break from his career and worries he may be past his prime, but by the finale is inspired to go back to doing what he loves. The alien abuctors have two 'forms,' one significantly more monstrous than the other. They live in fear of the Big Bad, a big, ugly, green alien, who eventually gets what's coming to him. With its wacky premise and lighthearted tone, this film has become beloved by 90s kids. Its title has two words, with the first referring to the extraterrestrial realm from which aliens come...
Is it Galaxy Quest or Space Jam? - Around 20 teenagers are selected for a high-stakes reality TV show which pits them against each other in a gruelling, often sadistic competition. The contestants are eliminated one by one until a single victor remains. The final two competitors of the first installment are an aloof, cynical girl and a good-natured blonde boy. This franchise was most popular around the late 2000s/early 2010s and has several sequels and spin-offs focusing on different iterations of the titular tournament.
Is it The Hunger Games? Or, on a less serious note, Total Drama Island? - This lively, brightly-coloured superhero romp from Disney focuses on the theme of parents and their children. Kurt Russell plays a highly-superpowered being whose son initially believes he doesn't have any powers, only to discover he shares his father's abilities. The son and his green-toned love interest get into an argument when it appears he is neglecting his old friends (a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits including the love interest and a sarcastic little rodent) for his newfound power and the relationship(s) it brings. A supporting character, the vengeful child of a supervillain, antagonizes the group but eventually becomes their ally after forming a (non-romantic) connection with the green love interest. At least one character appears as a baby form after having been previously depicted as an adult. The hammy, fairly obvious twist villain is older than they look, and has a diabolical plan for which they created a large amount of children (at one point or another). Most of the movie takes place aboard a large object floating in the sky/space. During the climax, this location is threatened with destruction, and a character crawls through small tunnels to the heart of the object in order to save the day. The Hero uses his father's powers to fight the villain, but in the end, it is his connection to his mother that proves most valuable.
Now, does this film end with the villains failing to destroy the floating location? Or with the heroes succeeding in destroying it? - This film involves an icy, watery disaster that marks the end of a famous historical era. A man and woman from different backgrounds meet and fall in love in this doomed setting. During the climax, one of these characters saves the other from being trapped in a small, flooding area. At the end of the film, a character goes to a dreamlike heaven and is reunited with their dearest love.
Titanic (1997) or Ice Age: The Meltdown?
Omeganian
- In this work, there is a Deus est Machina AI created by a now gone civilization, destroyed in part thanks to them, now living on a moon base. The AI has trouble advancing further as a pure machine, and as such, they draw a group of adventurers to the base, among them, a surviving member of their creators' race. The plan is merging with said being and getting the possibility of advancing further as an AI/organic hybrid.
Foundation and Earth, by Isaac Asimov? Justice League, the episode "Twilight"?
Opabinia
- This series is about a family who lives in Oregon and is heavily involved with the supernatural; cryptids, mythical creatures, ghosts, and the like. The main story focuses on siblings who include a Badass Bookworm boy and an Action Girl, and an older relative who's trying to rescue a different relative who's been trapped in Another Dimension for decades. The missing relative left detailed journals about magic and creatures that the siblings often consult. The series is also full of pop culture references. A major plot involves the younger generation facing off against an Eldritch Abomination (with which several family members, including one of them, had made a Deal with the Devil) that was partially responsible for causing the missing relative to go missing, and defeating it with The Power of Family.
Is this Gravity Falls? Or InCryptid?
Ordeaux26
- A fanfic with the title Kids World in it, based on a popular animated work. It starts with a Depopulation Bomb that is Only Fatal to Adults. The kids are forced to survive on their own with no adults around, and everything falls apart quickly. A much darker adaptation of a normally kid-friendly series with few antagonists now has high stakes and major threats.
It's a Kid's World? Or Kids World (link)?
OriCat
- In this technically-a-children’s-book-series, our hero, a black-haired preteen orphan boy (who looks basically just like his dad), gets introduced to a whole society he has lived his entire life apart from - his family has kept him from it. The society informs him that he is The Chosen One - there’s a prophecy about it. Around the time of the hero’s birth, everyone was being terrorized by a cult of tattooed Noun Verber magical villains, who were defeated once (defied by the hero’s parents) but are now coming back into power, and he has to finish their defeat. The leader of the cult is driven by the desire to become immortal, and has sold away a significant portion of their humanity to do so, but they have to kill the Hero in order to make it final. The hero - along with his two best friends, one male, one female - episodically has one confrontation with the villains per book. He has to destroy some important magical artifacts, including one that was with him for the entire time although he didn’t know it. Nonetheless, The Hero Dies, gets a Pietà Plagiarism, but gets better. But the main villain dies too, fairly ignominiously. Also features the hero idolizing his father (who died trying to save his life) but finding out he was actually very flawed; a Love Triangle between the hero’s dad, mom, and another guy; the hero’s dad’s friends becoming mentors; loads and loads of Chekhov's Guns; scars that are very important to the plot; the hero’s girl friend getting tortured; the hero talking to a certain clade of animals; and the inherent immorality of raising the dead. Significant themes in the series include death and parental love.
Harry Potter? Or The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness?
P
Paper-Moon
- This is a movie from the 2010s produced by one of the many studios that comprise the Walt Disney Company, adapted from an older source material, and is part of one of Disney's largest, most successful franchises. This franchise has been criticized in the past for how it has portrayed gender dynamics and womanhood, something that this film works to address. The female lead has more agency than she did in the source material, not to mention some impressive action scenes. The story is about a woman with blonde hair. Years ago, she was abducted, and her kidnapper has been gaslighting her ever since, telling her that she is weak and that her safety and moral righteousness depend on staying with them. In fact, while the fans debate whether or not the antagonist actually cared about the heroine, it's clear that the kidnapper's priority is the woman's unique abilities. She has been imbued with a powerful energy that glows when activated, and allows her to do physically impossible things. One of many lies that she is told is that strange-looking, aggressive villains pose a threat to her. In fact, these "villains", while indeed strange-looking and not without sordid pasts, are ultimately good people just trying to get by in a world where they have been dealt an unfair hand. Gradually, the heroine figures out the secrets of her past and realizes who her true allies and enemies are. She triumphs over her abductor on her own terms, with help from a wisecracking male ally, her adorable but thoroughly badass animal sidekick, and the group previously perceived as villains. She reunites with her family, then has many other adventures explored elsewhere in the franchise. Also, the aforementioned animal causes the lead male character some grief.
Tangled of the Disney Princess line? Or Captain Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Pamina
- This 1997 animated feature stars a reddish-haired, blue-eyed, 18-year-old protagonist, who was born into a royal family but separated from them at a young age by the villain and grew up unaware of his/her heritage. His/her only clue is an engraved trinket that was around his/her neck when (s)he was found by the people who raised him/her. As a dissatisfied teenager, after singing a classic "I Want" Song about longing to find "where I belong," (s)he learns that (s)he is or might be the lost prince(ess) and sets out to do whatever it takes to reunite with his/her family. This involves gaining a helpful animal companion, then gaining a streetwise Jerk with a Heart of Gold male teacher (who trains him/her for his/her new role in a Training Montage set to music), and then traveling to a big city to prove him/herself. (S)he also finds a Jerk with a Heart of Gold love interest, who initially lies to him/her and uses him/her for personal gain, but eventually falls for him/her and becomes a better person. But then the love interest's duplicity is revealed to the hero(ine), who is devistated and loses all trust in her/him. The love interest is forced to take dramatic selfless action to get back in his/her good graces. The villain, meanwhile, is a funny yet dangerous supernatural male figure who lives in the afterlife, targets the hero(ine) because he hates his/her family, and has at least one comical non-human sidekick. He spends most of the story sending supernatural dangers the hero(ine)'s way, but (s)he survives them all and doesn't know about the villain until late in the movie, when they finally meet in person. In the final battle that defeats the villain, the love interest seemingly dies trying to save the hero(ine), who weeps over her/his body, but in the end it's only a Disney Death. Then our hero(ine) has to choose between living a royal life with his/her newfound family, as (s)he longed to throughout the story, or giving it all up to marry his/her lower-born love interest. (S)he chooses the love interest and says goodbye to his/her family, who lovingly accept his/her decision. This movie has often been criticized for making hash of its much darker source material.
Hercules or Anastasia? - In this musical retelling of a universally-known story, two legendary enemies are depicted in their youth as best friends. Only over time are they driven apart, as the protagonist becomes an outlaw who stands up for the oppressed, while the other character rises to power and upholds the oppressive status quo. The ending is bittersweet, as the two leads part ways forever, but the future looks hopeful for the protagonist, his/her love interest (who is initially linked to the second lead before switching to the protagonist instead) and the people (s)he champions. The musical score is by Stephen Schwartz.
Wicked or The Prince of Egypt? - In this popular family musical set in the New York City of a past era, a child separated from his/her family tries to find them. In the process he/she makes new friends, including a pretty, caring female, a common domestic animal, and the richest person in the city. There’s also a sleazy male villain who disguises himself to exploit the child for money. At one point the child is trapped in a place where he/she is forced to work like a slave, but runs away, and at another point (s)he meets a camp of cynical homeless people. The songs include an ode to optimism, a sweetly sad song that the child sings about his/her missing family, and a happy duet that the child and a friendly adult male sing about their relationship. All ends happily, with the child in the care of a loving family.
Annie or An American Tail? - This musical TV show for children stars a female magician with a horned head, multicolored hair, and one or more stars on her person, whose spells sometimes go awry. Other characters include an egotistical Jerk with a Heart of Gold who can fly, a female Big Eater, a pair of inseparable troublemakers, and a young male dragon to whom the magician is a big sister/mother figure and whose sneezes can be destructive.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Eureeka's Castle? - This musical children’s TV show takes place in a fantasy world inhabited by colorful non-human creatures. It centers around a Vague Aged group of friends, which includes a sweet, nurturing Girly Girl whose coloring includes pale pink, a brash, athletic Tomboy with a color-based name, a practical, down-to-earth character with an orange body and a “rustic” speech pattern who sometimes serves as the tomboy’s Friendly Rival, a nervous, insecure character whose coloring includes yellow (and who in one episode learns to be more “confident” but Takes a Level in Jerkass as a result), and an Only Sane Person/pessimist. These main characters sing the theme song themselves. Three different “races” of creatures exist in this world and rely on each other. Other characters besides the leads include a small, friendly green creature of a different species (or many), a large male of yet another species who starts out as a villain but eventually does a Heel–Face Turn, and various colorful background characters. Nearly every early episode features a letter exchanged between the main character and his/her older mentor of the same gender; this formula is altered later in the series. The Aesops of the series tend to involve harmony and friendship, but plenty of humor is present to keep it from becoming Anvilicious. This show has aired on The Hub, and is just as popular with adults as with children, if not more so.
Fraggle Rock or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? - This sweet and heartwarming yet Glurge-free children's classic of both page and screen takes place on a farm, with Talking Animals as the main characters. The protagonist is a male piglet, who is taken from his birthplace and sent to live on the aforementioned farm at the beginning. Initially lonely, he soon befriends a female creature of a different species, who becomes a mother figure of sorts to him. The humans plan to eventually butcher and eat him (which he naively doesn't realize until another animal tells him, leaving him distraught), but ultimately change their minds when an animal (either the pig himself or his close friend) performs a miraculous feat that in the real world would be impossible for his/her species. We also meet a Jerkass male animal who, surprisingly enough, helps the pig in the end. Another prominent supporting character is a water fowl. One sad scene late in the story involves the death of an elderly female creature who was a friend of the pig's. But the ending is a happy one, with the pig famous among humans and animals alike and secure in the farmer's affection and pride.
Charlotte's Web or Babe? - This children’s TV show stars a group of six friends: a nerdy female braniac, a tough, brash tomboy, a vulnerable, insecure character with yellow hair, a romantic-minded Large Ham, a fun-loving prankster, and a strong, competent character who’s probably the overall flattest of the group. In the first episode, one of these characters enters the show’s main setting for the first time and meets all the others. This show also includes a pair or group of Alpha Bitches, a kindly female teacher, assorted bullies, and a colorful variety of background characters. Episodes include one in which the athlete of the group has an emotional breakdown because (s)he thinks (s)he’s lost his/her touch, a few in which the meek one Takes a Level in Badass or Jerkass, one in which the romantic is disillusioned by his/her crush, one in which the five “supporting” leads all compete for a special favor from the main character which they all get to share in the end, one in which Hilarity Ensues after a group of kids play matchmaker to a female teacher and a man they know, and one or more in which one of the leads goes slightly insane.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Recess? - In this hit family musical based on a beloved printed-page source material, a spunky little girl escapes from her miserable upbringing, triumphs over three villains - a sleazy man always scheming to get rich, a bleach-blonde floozy, and a child-hating woman who runs an institution for children and terrorizes her charges - and in the end finds a happy new home with a loving adoptive parent.
Annie or Matilda? - In this classic musical fantasy film from the late 1930s, loved by both children and adults, the protagonist is an adolescent orphan girl who has one or more animal companions, and who wears an iconic dress that includes the color blue and at least one ribbon in her hair. At the beginning she longs for more than what she has and sings an "I Want" Song in the yard of her home. Soon afterward, she’s forced away from home and into a new place, where she meets several lovable male doofuses who become her best friends. The comic relief these characters provide is much needed to balance the Nightmare Fuel provided by the villainess, a wicked witch who wears black, lives in a castle, and cackles dramatically. She wants to kill the heroine because the girl has something that she wants, and is able to locate her at any time thanks to a magic crystalline object. The lovable doofuses eventually show surprising courage by facing the witch’s wrath to try to save the girl they’ve come to love. At one point the witch magically poisons some pretty red plant growth, which sends the heroine into a death-like sleep, but a benevolent third party revives her. Eventually the witch dies in a dramatic climax that involves water. At some point or other, the heroine meets friendly little people, while at another point she’s harassed by (seemingly) living trees. As much as she loves her new friends, her greatest wish is to reunite with some person or people she left behind when she left home. In the end she says goodbye to her friends, reunites with her long-lost loved one(s), and seems poised to live happily ever after. This movie is based on a story from a book, but has far eclipsed the source material in most people's minds.
That thing the heroine has that the witch wants... is it unsurpassed beauty or a pair of magic slippers? - A teenage boy moves to a new neighborhood, where he deals with bullies and being a misfit at school, as well as conflict with his (step)sister. But then he accidentally releases a group of comical fantasy creatures into the real world. Hilarity and complications ensue. Fortunately for the fantasy creatures, it’s Halloween when they arrive in the boy’s hometown, so they blend in with all the costumes. The plot largely consists of the protagonist and villains struggling over possession of a magical book, and at one point the villains cast a spell on all the adults in town, including the protagonist’s parents. The protagonist and his sister are forced to put aside their differences and work together to save the day and send the fantasy creatures back where they came from. The movie isn’t a musical, but at one point one of the fantasy creatures sings a pre-existing pop song.
Hocus Pocus or The Neverending Story III? - An innocent young male encounters an attractive married woman whose given name is never mentioned, who tries to seduce him. She later falsely accuses him of rape. In at least one version of the story, he eventually ends up with her daughter. This story originated in a book, but received a popular media adaptation in the late 1960s. It includes a character named Benjamin, and the protagonist, or at least the actor who famously played him, is Jewish.
The Graduate or the Biblical story of Joseph son of Jacob? - This work revolves around a rebellious young outcast from a troubled home. His/her main issues are related to his/her father. At the beginning we see his/her first day at a new school, where (s)he clashes with the other students. (S)he is a fundamentally good person, but over the course of the story, his/her own actions endanger him/her and inadvertently result in at least one other person's death. (S)he also becomes close to two other young people: one of the opposite gender who becomes his/her love interest despite initially being involved with someone else, and one of the same gender who's officially just a friend, but with whom Word of God has confirmed intentional Ho/Les Yay. Of these two, the girl treats the protagonist dismissively at first, but eventually warms up to him/her, while the boy is eventually killed (or seemingly killed), devastating him/her. The ending is bittersweet, with tragic loss but a note of hope. This work has been very popular with teenagers who identify with the protagonist.
Rebel Without a Cause or Wicked? - This puppet show for preschoolers was filmed in Canada and was a staple of many childhoods in the early '90s. It features a human woman who goes by her real first name and three animal puppets who live with her. The puppets are two boys (one a smart aleck, the other a goofball) and a girl, each of a differnt species. They're supposed to be children, though their ages are slightly vague, and the human woman is their mother figure, though they call her by her first name. The series is full of slice-of-life stories, Aesops for kids, and catchy songs. It also includes a Hanukkah special.
Lamb Chop's Play-Along or Under the Umbrella Tree? - This DreamWorks Animation film features a protagonist who used to lead a happy life as a normal brown-haired human until an event that should have killed them instead turned them into a white- haired superpowered being. Their main source of angst is how their newfound nature makes it nigh impossible for them to interact normally with humanity, and they join a team of similarly superpowered beings as the fifth and most powerful member to take down a sinister villain.
Monsters vs. Aliens or Rise of the Guardians? - This film is centered on a young woman whose name begins with J and ends with E and her painful struggle to cope with her husband's death, a struggle that involves her moving far away from her husband's home with very few possessions to call her own in spite of her late husband's wealth in an (ultimately futile) attempt to leave the past behind and build an entirely new life. In her new living grounds, she comes into contact with another female known (and often derided) for her sexual choices/lifestyle. The female protagonist, in contrast, has severe difficulties in forming a connection with another man in spite of at least one man professing his love for her. Later on in the film, it's revealed that the protagonist's husband had been unfaithful to her and that his mistress was someone the protagonist had known and trusted as a friend. A haunting song she connects deeply with her husband is frequently heard and referred to in the film. In addition, the film's title has the word "Blue" in it. Surely this film's title must be...
...Blue Jasmine! Or could it be simply Blue instead? - In this love story, the young heroine is an impoverished yet intelligent, strong-willed brunette who doesn’t fit into her era’s mold of what a woman should be like. Modern female audience members/readers tend to find her very relatable. Through some circumstance or other, she comes to live in the home of a wealthy yet brooding, physically unattractive man with a dark, secret past. At first he seems gruff and unpleasant, but gradually she comes to see a kinder side to him and they fall in love. (Some feminist critics lambast this work for “encouraging girls to think they can change abusive men.”) At one point she leaves him, but eventually she goes back and affirms her love for him after he nearly dies. Another, handsomer and more “respectable” man also proposes marriage to her, but she rejects him. Ultimately the two lovers are married and all ends happily.
Jane Eyre or Beauty and the Beast?
pathunknown
- The game's tragic, emotional story starts off with the protagonists as part of a resistance against an evil, powerful empire which uses magitek soldiers and captures and exploits deities. Late in the game, the Empire's role as the antagonist is usurped by one of their major functionaries, a Trollish, theatrical villain in flamboyant clothes who turns the world into a desolate wasteland known as the "World of Ruin". The protagonists, after defeating the three powerful statues he corrupted into evil, confront him and defeat him, restoring the world.
Which Final Fantasy: VI or XV?
PDL
- Within the backstory, there is a legend of two very closely related entities with god-like power who ruled the land. The elder one was associated with light, the color white and had control over fire while the younger one was associated with darkness, the color black and had control over lightning. Eventually, the younger one grew dissatisfied with the status quo and started to fight with the elder one, which threw the land into complete chaos. Eventually, one of the entities sealed the other within a circular object and peace was restored to the land. However, by the climax of the main story, the sealed entity is unsealed and six others have to face and defeat it with with The Power of Friendship. None of these characters are human.
Is this Pokémon Black and White or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic? - This Japanese made series stars a particularly badass protagonist who has a good heart but his way of solving problems is through the merciless slaughter of hundreds of mooks using deadly techniques that he can copy from his opponents. His resolve is able to trump over even the mightiest of foes. However, there are a few other characters who can rival his strength and are notably badass themselves. The main motif of this series are stars.
Kirby or Fist of the North Star? - In this Disney movie, a strange young girl who is bullied by others makes an unlikely friend who was created to be bad and destroy things. At some point, this friend ends up destroying something personal to the girl and she hates him for it. However, the supposedly bad friend does something to regain the girl's friendship.
Lilo & Stitch or Wreck-It Ralph? - A naive but idealistic young man grows up in a world where human beings are restricted to only a few safe spots while the rest of the world is filled with dangerous "monsters". Due to certain circumstances, he is forced to leave home, but at least he is granted a mystic power that allows him to survive away from civilization. He ends up befriending the non-human locals that live in these wild areas, including a spirit who initially dislikes him, but eventually warms up to him when he manages to prove his worth as a hero. With her help, the hero gains more powers after overcoming various trials and learns that there is an ultimate evil who wants nothing more then to destroy everything. The hero and the great evil do battle and eventually the hero is the victor, but the nature of this evil means that it cannot be completely eradicated. The Hero is eventually reincarnated and is tasked to protect the world from evil throughout all his lifetimes. This installment is the earliest in the series' timeline.
Is this The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, or the Beginnings two-parter of The Legend of Korra?
- In the Final Battle, the original main villain finds himself rejected by his own family. He is horribly mutated into a monstrous reptilian creature that breathes purple fire, and his body is possessed by a malevolent black/purple-themed demon who has been manipulating him the whole time and now has hijacked the plot, becoming the true main antagonist. The possessed villain is forced to keep fighting a battle he no longer wants to fight, and the heroes engage him in final battle atop a great tower in a major city. Upon his defeat, a wave of "light" energy is released, cleansing the city of the demon's "dark" energy.
Dino Attack RPG or Ninjago? - In the penultimate episode, the main characters are trapped in an Eldritch Location with a malevolent spirit which has cast illusions of their worst fears brought to life. For one character, his greatest fear is the death of a loved one, which leads to him suffering a Heroic BSoD even while she, unaffected by the illusions, tries desperately to snap him out of it. In the final episode, she is Killed Off for Real, sending him into a depression. He also learns that his days are numbered and begins to undergo Rapid Aging. In a Thanatos Gambit, he ultimately performs a Heroic Sacrifice to banish that malevolent spirit.
Dino Attack RPG or Being Human (US)? - A living planet seeks to reproduce by spreading to and infecting other planets. This planet can manifest itself as bright blue tendrils of energy, or in a humanoid form directly related to the protagonist. The hero, using the planet's own energy to fight against it, travels to the center of the planet and fights the humanoid form. When a giant brain at the center of the planet is killed, the humanoid form disintegrates and the whole planet implodes, with the hero barely escaping in time.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?
- In Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Han Solo says to his son Kylo Ren who used to be his son Ben Solo that he is only an expendable pawn of Supreme Leader Snoke's plans for the galaxy. I cannot help but notice its similarities to a line from the Dic Entertainment and Pioneer/Optimum English-language dub of Sailor Moon R: Promise of the Rose. Compare...
- Han Solo: Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you! ... You know it's true.
- Sailor Mars: You're the one who's been tricked! Kisenian Blossom wants to rule alone. She'll destroy you, Fiore. Once she gets what she wants, you're history, and Darien will be too!
- We have ourselves a young girl whose stories originated in a comic book. A Pint-Sized Powerhouse with short black hair, a noticeably bigger than usual facial feature, and Super-Strength, who never backs down from potential conflict when teased or taunted, usually having the upper hand in a fight.
Now, are we talking about Alita or Monica?
- A teenage boy, who's name begins with the letter "D" and is voiced by David Kaufman, interacts with technology which leads to an accident. After the accident happens he gains superpowers that can be activated at will by yelling out a certain phrase. Furthermore his family has no idea he has superpowers. Now am I talking about Dexter Douglas or Danny Fenton?
- A Manga released in the U.S. by Seven Seas Entertainment, that focuses on a dragon, who has been exiled by their parents for a trivial thing that they did, and as a result of the dragon being exiled, they have to live on their own. Now is this manga ''Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life'' or Dragon Goes House-Hunting?
- A disillusioned individual goes on a Rage Against the Heavens and is punished with godhood. Is this story about Bruce "Almighty" Nolan and the Christian God, or Salem and the Dark Brother?
- This animated Battle For BFDI episode published in the winter of 2017-2018 has a team with at least three round members lose. The person who got eliminated in the episode began with the letter L and is or will be on The Losers. The episode's numbers, in the BFB x format, are prime numbers. This episode's thumbnail has two characters in them from the same team. Taco is next to jawbreakers (which play a major role in at least one episode) at some point. A round character speaks during the stinger, and jawbreakers are present within the stinger.
Is this episode "Why Would You Do This on a Swingset?" or "The Liar Ball You Don't Want"?
- Once upon a time there was this guy who used the same number of swords as hands with a dead mother. He was trying to save the world from this Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who intends to use the goddess that they always worshipped in a way to destroy the world, there is rampant racism, especially towards those who were half-human and half-humanoid-other-person, a family in which said Woobie Destroyer of Worlds was involved in, with the help of a Deconstructed
Mary Sue who can be a vessel for a goddess, and his pessimistic, extremely intelligent half-blood mage best friend, one of whom has silver hair. Is this Tales of Symphonia or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn?
- A couple friends head to Las Vegas for a fun time, and after a night of drunken partying, wake up in their disheveled hotel room to discover they've apparently gotten married to some Vegas cocktail waitresses. As they attempt to make sense of what happened and get out of their new marriages, they face such obstacles as show tigers and a celebrity boxer.
The Hangover or "Viva Ned Flanders"?
- This anime film revolves around a universe that's very different compared to the series its based off. The film also involves an omnipotent goddess' powers being stolen by her otherwise loyal and logical friend that became emotionally unstable due to a "Groundhog Day" Loop. With that power, the friend creates a world where it's more of a normal and peaceful life for the main characters, even though that 1) they know full well that this world will not last and 2) one of them manages to be aware of the situation.
Now, was what happened in that film considered a disappearance or a rebellion? - There has been a disappearance. Police have been looking for this missing person. However, the evidence that piles on suggests that it's not a missing persons case, but rather a full-blown murder, with all the clues pointed to someone who spurned said missing person with an affair and who is said to have anger towards said missing person. However, it turns out this was all a plan conducted by a Woman Scorned in an attempt to get the accused into trouble and out of their life forever.
Now, was this the plot to a book or the subplot to a TV show? - In this 2015 spy thriller based off a classic series, the team our hero works for is under threat of dissolution due to his past actions in an attempt to uncover the truth behind an enemy force modeled after a villainous team from said series' past. As a result of this, the hero is labeled a rogue by his organization, currently undergoing a takeover by a larger organization with ties to said villainous team. This all culminating in a chase across London in the middle of the night. Now, the question is...
Is this enemy Spectre or a Rogue Nation? - In this 2015 movie set in the early 2000s and based off a true story, someone finds a scandal in which many, innocent lives are caught in ruin. The problem preventing him from bringing it up to light? The people behind the scandal are one of the largest organizations imaginable and to tango with them is close to impossible, but in the end, they manage to expose the scandal. The question then becomes...
Is this organization The NFL or The Church? - This battle anime takes place in a world formed around one base idea of warrior that is able to use a spiritual energy. The hero is a young and plucky kid who enters a school dedicated to training these warriors and ends up being in a four-man team that is the school standard. At some point, a Tournament Arc commences that ends with the entire city the school is based in getting invaded, ending with the Mentor Archetype being killed by the Big Bad, who was looking for a person to suit their needs and the team breaking apart. It's eventually revealed that the Big Bad isn't even the Big Bad, but having ties to the true Big Bad, a group of people who, in turn, are allied to an even bigger bad: a white skinned demonic woman.
Naruto or RWBY? - This story involves characters from a fictional story emerging into the real world. What results is reality ensuing as battles become devastating to the world and status quo, eventually getting the government involved. To everyone's surprise, though, the government is more than willing to help the fictional characters adjust to their home, even going as far as to say they don't resort to the cliches you see corrupt governments.
Is the story a fanfic or an anime? - This web series takes tons of famous people within a niche community and throws them into a political drama about the birth of a small nation that began with a war. Over the course of this drama, the president of this nation becomes more and more unhinged, someone gets exiled in the process, people who began to be displeased with the president plot to overthrow him by hiring an equally dangerous threat, and in the middle of all this, there's TNT layed down at every inch of the nation.
Was this nation Kickassia or L'Manburg? - In this 2016 superhero film, The Paragon is called out for their wanton destruction despite saving thousands of lives, with the one spearheading the movement being a billionaire superhero. After a hearing goes awry via blowing up a government building, the two superheroes eventually duke it out. Little do they know that this is all masterminded by someone who isn't superpowerful but has access to a superpowerful person who they intend to destroy the heroes with. In the middle of all this, we see the debut of quite a few superheroes that set them up for future films in the franchise, with one of them being a king who spends his movie fighting for the throne. Question is, was what occured in this movie...
A dawn of justice or a civil war? - In this sequel to a popular adaptation, our protagonists go to another world that defies all logic where they find that the Big Bad, a Scary Black Man who has the ambitions of a Multiversal Conquerer, vies on getting his machine improved so that he may commence his conquest. Our main group is comprised of a plucky comic relief protagonist, a more serious, older veteran, a kind-hearted yet can kick ass if need be companion, and an older and wiser woman who shares a past with the Big Bad. The Dragon is/was the Evil Knockoff of the protagonist, parallel worlds are a major plot point in this story and the climax involves one of the protagonists growing giant.
Was this a sequel canonical or fan made? (in the latter's case, it's the sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1993))
- In a time of change and upheaval, our main character - a man of great strength with an easily-recognisable mark on his person - finds himself unable to escape his past, and a woman's death weighs heavily on his conscience and influences his actions. He constantly crosses paths with a dogged police officer with an unshakeable moral code. In the meantime, following the death of a popular politician, a motley group of revolutionaries with a remarkably charismatic leader plan an uprising against the ruling government, and a brooding young man joins them - and for the sake of the girl that likes him, the main character must bring him back, all while trying not to kill anybody in the process. Other supporting cast members include a street urchin and pickpocket with absurd courage, an innkeeper with old ties to aforementioned brooding young man, and a crossdresser with a ton of unrequited love issues.
Les Misérables, or Rurouni Kenshin's Kyoto Arc?
- In a franchise where an ordinary game is played for absurdly and sometimes supernaturally high stakes and The Power of Friendship plays a major role, the third installment (directly preceding the significantly less popular one with aliens) has the protagonists face off against a group of time travellers (several of whom have Greek words as names) seeking to Set Right What Once Went Wrong - it turns out said all-important game has set in motion a chain of events that threaten the world's very survival many years into the future, and the antagonists are attempting to erase the game from history to prevent this from occurring. Also, the main antagonist has the same face as the protagonist.
Is the game soccer or cards? - A protagonist who is very bubbly and enthusiastic but not good at much encounters a calm and stoic nonhuman with a white/pale color scheme, whose pantlessness is the stuff of fandom memes, with a major part of his mind missing. The protagonist must collect the various shattered pieces of this person's mind, which have scattered all over town and semi-possess people by augmenting their fears and desires; and their love for this person also enables them to change form, assisted by the plot-important pendant they wear around their neck. The nonhuman love interest occasionally gets possessed by a fragment of the main antagonistic force, turning him evil and giving him a black color scheme instead. There is also a stoic and not very nice character with a darker and edgier color scheme that functions as both the protagonist's rival and friend; they turn out to not entirely be human, and this causes great anguish to both them and the protagonist attempting to bring them back with The Power of Friendship.
Is this Princess Tutu or Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL?
Q-R
QU4DR4X15
- A corrupt Japanese government official orchestrates a conspiracy involving nuclear terrorism using an unpopular party as a patsy in order to drive the US into conflict that would stimulate both nations' economy/war-machine.
- A power hungry villian wants to aquire a number of reality warping objects that will grant the possessor of all one wish. These objects also tend to give others superpowers, many of which create heroes that aim to stop said villian... -Steppenwolf- ?... one of the heroes is said villian's own child, and at least one incarnation of each has a somewhat noble goal.
- A globally renowned tech-mogul introduces a revolutionary new technology that almost everyone wants and/or gets; and said technology has a hidden protocol that makes it's users go crazy and kill one another.
- A group of down on their luck individuals venture into a mysterious zone that warps reality within it in hopes of finding the epicenter for an ambiguous form of fulfillment; and their allegiance and sense of self worth are brutally tested along the way.
- A brooding teenager gets involved in time travel hijinks that leads them on a path to discovering a love interest who starts to brings them out of their shell; only to have to sacrifice something dear to prevent an apocalyptic event.
- Two controversial video games featuring strong female protagonists with a plot ignited by a (very muscular) person with a grudge against the one who killed their father when they were younger ignites an even worse chain of violence when they get revenge on said killer; who themselves has a vengeful offspring who embarks on a blood soaked journey across a grotesquely delapidated country to find them; growing ever more monstrous as the campaign continues. Over the journey we get interludes that humanize the first killer as they nurture an odd-couple bond with a less violent individual who brings out their maternal side. However, they are forced back into bloodshed when more of whom they love are killed by whom they have crossed; and it does not end well for either of them. Despite divisive opinions and criticisms; both have been considered for "Game Of The Generation".
- Our main character is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who gets reborn into the world of a piece of romance fiction aimed at young women. This main character beats up, humiliates, and delivers Breaking Speech to each of the male Love Interests from that piece of fiction, all while protecting the original story’s protagonist, who is charmed by them. Our main character eventually engages in Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with some of these same male leads against outside threats, and is helped by a female sidekick who is comically obsessed with money. Is this Leon from Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs, or Melissa from Beware the Villainess!?
- It's hundreds of years after an unspecified apocalypse. Once vibrant cities are now teeming with overgrown foliage both new and familiar. Mankind has been decimated, with the bulk of humanity now living in underground bunker cities. Meanwhile, the surface world is now dominated by warring anthropomorphic animals who view humanity with disdain. Our hero? A human from one of these bunker cities who has little practical knowledge of the outside world, and is seeking more of their kind after an unfortunate incident leaves them traveling the surface without the loving guidance of a family member who secretly did have extensive knowledge of such. They quickly find themselves hunted by many of the surface's mutated animals, though they manage to strike friendships with some of them, as well as with a few other humans. And as they travel with their new friends, our protagonist discovers they have a bit more in common with the talking critters than they do their own species. Now am I talking about DC Comics' Kamandi or Dreamworks Animation's Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts?
- A secret group of scientists create nanites and unleash them into Earth's atmosphere, with the hopes that they'll be able to improve the conditions of humankind. However, something goes terribly wrong, and the nanites instead turn humans into bizarre monsters. Is this the world of Generator Rex or Scooby Apocalypse?
- There is a war going on between three factions: The United States, China, and a third faction whose home nation is never clear, but nonetheless have enough support and resources to be a superpower. In some cases, The United States and China team up, and in others, the third faction manages to manipulate both sides and their technologies.
Is the third faction Cordis Die or The Global Liberation Army? - This story takes place during a war between Capitalist and Communist nations. Among the more notable characters on the Soviet side are a manipulative leader, a subordinate played by Andrew Divoff whose name starts with "Kr", and a worrisome scientist. The scientist makes an attempt to defect to the Allies.
Is Divoff's character Kravchenko or Krukov? - In a war between Capitalist and Communist nations (again), the United States faces an invasion brought by the Russian army, in an act of bitter revenge. Two Russians, Vladimir and Yuri, are the most violent of rivals (and sometimes, enemies). The second entry in this game's franchise takes place mostly in the United States, while the third is a tad bit more international. One American isn't trustworthy.
Who is the Big Bad? Vladimir or Yuri? - Around the middle of the 20th century, crime is rampant in the city. A doctor brainwashes people into doing bad things, and a man named Fontaine is pulling the strings. The story also features an egotistical man named Cohen. The hero dies in the end.
Bioshock 1 or L.A. Noire? - On one half of the clouds in this realm is the overworld, full of floating land masses and a functional society. On the other half is an urban wasteland abandoned long ago. The villain attempts to manipulate the hero into furthering his own goals. With an adrenaline-pumping soundtrack, this gem of a story is bound to entertain you in some way, even if some elements of the story don't make sense. It also features a Cat Girl.
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie or Xenoblade Chronicles 2? - In this video game released in the 2010s with pixel graphics, it's said to be a "kill or be killed world". However, in spite of this, there are many relatable characters and an option to inflict as little violence as possible. Still, the most violent route ends up with many said characters kicking the bucket and one hell of a Downer Ending where everybody dies. There is a nefarious character who follows the player around and provides scathing commentary on the player's/character's actions with mind-bending powers. The game calls the player out on restarting the game in an attempt to change the narrative.
Undertale or Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number? - This game takes place in a twisted version of the United States of America. The main threat comes from a renegade faction of armed individuals with a devoted alleigance to a warped version of Christianity led by their beloved Father. In spite of this, there are people who resist their cause, eager to fight back. The game takes numerous departures from its franchise norms, and has a contested ending.
Does the setting take place high in the sky or does it stay on the earth? - This game franchise involves anthropomorphic animals and a Mad Scientist villain. Among the cast is a fox, a blue animal with a cocky stride, a pink cat, a purple cat, a lizard, a robot, and a divisive Love Interest. The series is a Fountain of Memes. In recent years the franchise has been considered stagnating, with its recent games being mostly contentious, and fans clamor for a return to form during its prime. One of its worst-performing games has a "0" in the title.
Star Fox or Sonic the Hedgehog? - "The Seven" are a group of powerful individuals that are cherished by many. Not everyone though, as these people have many skeletons in the closet. Among the real protagonists are a grumpy man with black hair and a bushy beard who used to be part of an organization he now bears a grudge against and an unpredictable woman with violent tendencies. One of the antagonists is a woman who's much older than she looks. Superpowers in this story are given to people at a huge cost.
The Boys or Divinity: Original Sin II? - At the start of this American-centric video game, Earth is destroyed by alien invaders, but some humans make it out alive. From a new home and battlefield humanity's survivors fight back against the aliens, becoming more powerful along the way. Your (customizable) main character can recruit others to help out, but will always end up being more powerful in general. Among those characters is a tech-savvy girl, a hot-tempered woman, a relaxed man, a legendary fighter, and someone who betrays you, but makes amends in the end. The leader of the alien race is an egotistical tyrant who always underestimates humanity's determination, and pays for this mistake with his life.
Xenoblade Chronicles X or Saints Row IV? - In this live-action fantasy town, there is The Hero, a female who bears witness to much of the main plot, a Dastardly Whiplash villain, a group of children, a well-meaning mayor, and a boy with a fascination for machines. It's a colorful musical that's portrayed with the help of puppeteering, animatronics, and choreographed dancing.
Babes in Toyland or Lazytown? - This story has two film adaptations, the first starring Gene Wilder, and the second being released in 2005 with more contemporary stars, as well as a stage adaptation. The one with Gene Wilder is considered to be a timeless classic, though the later film has its fans. One of the adaptations really goes all-in with the musical numbers. No matter which adapation you watch, however, there will be many quirky characters that really complete the story.
The Producers or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - In this RPG video game, you can select a few of the several characters to be in your party; you cannot switch them out in the middle of a playthrough. Each of the playable characters has unique interactions in the overarching plot, which involves the nations of the world being on the brink of war. There are dwarves, elves, and an anthropomorphic animal species. The main goal of the hero is to reach an ancient, secluded sanctuary in the middle of nowhere that brims with the world's magic to utilize it for themselves at the guidance of a divine being. Among the most dangerous villains are a Generic Doomsday Villain who wants to wreak havoc on the world because he can, a former hero of light who became corrupted and went off the deep end, and a Satanic Archetype demon whose agenda involves posessing someone and using that person as a host. One of the evil minions is a woman with a sadistic treacherous streak with a Freudian Excuse, and one of the heroes has familial tiles to one of said minions. The game features a somewhat flexible class and experience points system. The party does a lot of travelling on a galleon.
Trials of Mana or Divinity: Original Sin II?
- A silver-eyed young hero new to the wide world. Cheerful, innocent, fast on their feet, having a strong sense of justice, and possessing a rare incredible power that they don’t fully understand. Accompanied by: a Lancer commonly associated with water/ice whom had a rough childhood, an Everyman with no spectacular ability who none-the-less makes for a great audience surrogate, comic relief, and later determined warrior in his own right. As well as several others, including a sibling, a brawler, and one with a dark past they’re trying to overcome. Occasionally mentored by a gray-haired, wise Old Master who has a love of a brewed beverage. And menaced by a Quirky Mini Boss Squad and their firey leader. At least, until a greater Big Bad is revealed.
Avatar or RWBY?
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- A brown-haired hero with dead parents is supposedly destined for greatness, but is in fact an Unwitting Pawn in the villain's gambit for power. Things ultimately pay off for the villain when the death of a loved one pushes the hero over the edge to the point of turning evil himself and becoming The Dreaded - a transformation signified by the donning of a black suit of armor and a cape. Eventually, the villain accidentally causes his own downfall by attacking someone else close to the hero, who kills him in retaliation. The first six Star Wars movies or Kamen Rider Zi-O?
- In this 2017 installment of a popular action series, a veteran character and a newcomer join up to fight against the series' red and black Satanic Archetype villain. The veteran, who is the villain's Arch-Nemesis, had previously lost their weapon in a battle, and is less powerful as a result. The newcomer finds an ally in someone skilled with the sword, and eventually learns of their origins: They are the villain's "offspring" of sorts, brought into existence using the villain's DNA by someone who practically worships the main villain and plans to use the newcomer for their own ends. The newcomer is briefly corrupted by their "parent" at one point, but is ultimately instrumental in bringing about their downfall, and the veteran ends up getting their weapon back somewhere along the line. Ultraman Geed or season 5 of Samurai Jack?
- This work's title begins with the letter U. The Hero, a pacifist in blue, has an unchanging facial expression and fights monsters on the regular. While their method of dealing with these monsters usually involves bringing them to their senses through their aforementioned pacifism, they will sometimes fight back, and will sometimes even rely on brute force to bring an end to conflicts that they think can't be resolved peacefully. Their final adversary (who had previously appeared to them in at least one different form throughout their adventure) is a demonic entity made of hundreds (if not thousands) of other individual beings that can turn other creatures into corrupted versions of themselves. Ultimately, it is through sheer determination that the hero is able to purify this final enemy, and they later go on to live in a new home with the other monsters, their enemies-turned-friends. Undertale's Pacifist Route or Ultraman Cosmos?
- This story follows a courageous group of spacefarers on a mission to rescue a beloved friend. When the captain's child is harmed during the course of the mission, The Captain gets their revenge by subjecting the perpetrator to a violent explosion. The crew still has one last obstacle to contend with, but in the end, their friend is saved and the day is won. The "Saint's Cradle" arc of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S or Star Trek III: The Search for Spock?
- This work from the 2000s tells the tale of an eccentric individual with a hilariously warped perspective on reality. This is due in part to the fact that they didn't have many friends growing up, as well as their parental upbringing - one of their parents died when they were very young, and the other's parenting methods weren't exactly the best. They still love both parents just the same. As a adult, motivated by a single event and aided by advice given to them by a wise old man, our hero sets off to become a regular do-gooder - a Guardian Angel, if you will. This course of action involves bettering the lives of people less fortunate than themselves, as well as teaching a lesson to more unsavory individuals - both with varying results. In the case of the latter, they are by no means averse to playing tricks or otherwise stooping to a lower level in order to bring their target down a peg. Another part of their journey involves them wanting to make contact with a certain individual - someone they feel a deep personal connection to, and are ultimately successful in meeting. Amélie or Xavier: Renegade Angel?
- This movie celebrates the 50th anniversary of a live-action sci-fi show about an alien who finds himself running into a Monster of the Week every episode. In this movie, he must team up with two of his predecessors to fight off an invasion of monsters hailing from the distant past. Of the two predecessors, one is associated with the same time period from which the monsters came, and the other is associated with an object capable of bringing the world to ruin should it fall into the wrong hands. Later on, as the fight is taken across an entire planet, the hero is joined by even more of his predecessors, who lend their support on that front. Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman! or Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor?
- This tokusatsu show features a red-colored hero who fights using martial arts, swings around a pair of nunchucks, and has a connection to a big cat of some kind. Having lost his entire family and being left to fend for himself, he finds a new family of sorts in warriors much like himself, with whom he finds a common enemy in the man at least partly to blame for his family's death - a ruthless warrior in black. Later on, though his family was thought dead, it is revealed that one of them managed to survive - a warrior with a similar fighting style and Animal Motif who naturally has it in for the man in black and joins in the fight. Juken Sentai Gekiranger or Ultraman Leo?
- James Earl Jones stars in one of the most famous American adventure movies of all time as its villain: A swordsman in black armor with supernatural powers and a large following. It is he who is responsible for the death of the hero's family. This starts the hero, a legendary swordsman in his own right, on his quest for revenge, and thus his adventure. On his quest, the hero is joined by three companions: A Lovable Rogue, an Action Girl, and a hermitic wise old wizard. When hero and villain meet face to face, the villain tries to turn the hero to his side by referring to him as his son. However, this is to no avail, and the villain meets his end not long after this point. The original Star Wars trilogy or Conan the Barbarian (1982)?
- This American animated film stars a tall, thin, and somewhat theatrical man dressed in black and his animal sidekick. The two specialize in wreaking havoc and spreading fear and panic, and have achieved great notoriety for doing so. While they love their job, there comes a day where the main character grows bored to the point of depression with the direction his life is going in, and desperately seeks a change in routine. He decides to create that change himself, with the "help" of a man dressed in red. The results are disastrous: Apart from widespread chaos, the hero's actions earn him the ire of the man in red, as well as cause the film's villain to enter the picture and kidnap the female lead. In the end, the hero is able to set everything right, and he even gets the girl. Megamind or The Nightmare Before Christmas?
- This show stars a superhero as its title character. He has brightly colored skin of an inhuman and metallic color, and his costume mostly consists of the color red. He has made it his life's mission to defend the planet Earth - likewise, his Rogues Gallery is composed of those who pose the greatest threat to the planet and have no remorse for doing so. He relies on the sun as his main source of energy, and without it he is powerless. Speaking of powers, he has an insane amount of them, and with them he is able to resolve conflicts as quickly as possible. When not in battle, his consciousness is separated and resides within multiple power rings worn by a group of otherwise ordinary humans. As is formula of each episode, this group starts out by taking the initiative in handling the episode's conflict, but when it becomes too much for them to handle, they use their rings to call the superhero into battle. On at least one occasion, when one of the group was out of commission, their ring was given to someone else in order to perform this action. Captain Planet and the Planeteers or Ultraman Ace?
- In this episode of a popular Japanese show, the focus is on a legendary warrior with a preference for shooting attacks, a long and illustrious career of battling monsters, and a special item that they use to transform before heading into battle. Their accomplishments have made them an inspiration to others like them. However, by the time of this episode, our hero has finally met their match: A giant beast that is black, has creepy yellow eyes, has two long appendages growing out of its head, and an appearance vaguely resembling some kind of insect. The hero initially has the upper hand, at one point even (unsuccessfully) tying the monster up to keep it from getting away, but one swift strike is all the fiend needs to put them right at Death's door. Someone else is forced to pick up the slack in their stead and manages to finish the monster off before it can do further damage. Fortunately, our hero gets better. Despite that, both their death and their killer have left a significant impact on fans - the latter so much so that they have made reappearances and received significant attention in later media. The Puella Magi Madoka Magica episode "I'm Not Afraid of Anything Anymore" or the Ultraman episode "Farewell, Ultraman!"?
- This episode of a popular American cartoon has a Pun-Based Title and stars two opposing factions of animals. The heroes are a whole group, while the villain is a single individual. In addition, one side is normal-sized, while the other is tiny. It all starts when the small group messes with the temperature in the room, causing it to completely freeze over. Ice skating shenanigans ensue. As the battle on the ice reaches its crescendo, the temperature is tampered with again, turning the ice into water and then back into ice again, freezing the villain and leaving him at the heroes' mercy. The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Krabs a la Mode" or the Tom and Jerry short "Mice Follies"?
- This animated educational show features a group of children travelling the world in a sentient magical vehicle, with a redhead at the helm. The vehicle has all manner of gizmos and gadgets and is capable of transforming into just about anything - perhaps most famously a spaceship. Among the children are a red-haired boy with glasses, an Asian girl with short black hair, an African-American boy, a boy wearing a baseball cap, and a blond-haired girl with pigtails. The Magic School Bus or Little Einsteins?
- In this fantasy film, the disappearance of a mystical item leaves (a) god-like creature(s) fractured, twisted into an evil version of themselves. For as long as they remain in this state, life will be drained from the world, and darkness will reign. Our hero, a young individual with long dark hair, comes into possession of the item. Their elderly parental figure, as they lie on their deathbed, urges the hero to go forth and return the item to its rightful place before it's too late. The hero embarks soon after, leaving behind the peaceful life they once knew. Two of the people they meet on their journey become permanent traveling companions: One being another long-haired person with mystical powers (including the ability to fly) and an affinity for animals, while the other is a small animal who primarily serves as comic relief. Among the adversaries they must contend with are small creatures that they run into while on a boat, and homicidal monsters with hard shells, long insect-like legs, and crab-like claws. They also meet a wise old woman, who offers her assistance in returning the item, which the hero is ultimately successful in doing. The god(s), now returned to their original divine state, congratulates our heroes and send them on their way, but not before leaving a small token of their appreciation. Moana or The Dark Crystal?
- This work follows a swordsman and his two companions as they travel through multiple worlds based on previous works made by the same company - an adventure started after an invasion on the swordsman's own world. Whenever they come to a new world, the swordsman assumes a disguise that enables him to blend in. The formula for each world usually goes that there is a villain the heroes have to stop. The swordsman accomplishes this by forming a bond with the representative of that world, which manifests itself in the form of a power-up based on said world. However, as time goes on and more and more characters show up, both the plot and rules end up getting fairly convoluted. Among the many characters that appear are the Anti-Hero who has powers similar to the swordsman but mainly uses it to serve himself, the female lead who often needs saving, and the man who goes about the worlds pulling the strings in order to cause trouble for our heroes and bring out a great calamity that will occur on the final world. A great war that left behind much ruin is alluded to throughout. Kingdom Hearts or Kamen Rider Decade?
- This is an episode of a fairly obscure yet widely loved American cartoon known for its wackiness. The title character is a man who sees himself as something more than what he actually is - more specifically, he believes himself to be loved by all when just about everybody can't stand him. This episode in particular sees him messing with a computer and making it get a virus that starts messing with reality. Apart from the town he's in getting digitized, the effects of the virus include someone losing a limb, people getting trapped in saying the same thing over and over again, and our main character leaving the boundaries of reality and entering a pitch-black void. At one point, someone tries to come up with their own fix for the virus, but only makes things worse. Only through someone else knocking some sense into the computer does the virus disappear and things go back normal - or as normal as it gets for that show. The episode ends with the main character lamenting his separation from someone he loved, who was one of the first to fall prey to the virus. The Strong Bad Email episode "Virus" or the Xavier: Renegade Angel episode "What Life D-D-Doth"?
- This live-action film relies largely on special effects and has very few, if any, human characters. The main setting is a planet that has intense sunlight and is powered by an object with strong connections to that sunlight. Said object shines brightly and resides in a tall building. Of the people who call this world home, the people that benefit most from this power source and sunlight are a race of blank-eyed luminous beings that tower over the planet's other inhabitants. However, split from this peace-loving group comes a dark faction linked with the colors red, black, and purple. Hungering for power for power's sake and having an army of monsters at the ready, this faction steals the planet's source of power for itself, causing the planet to fall into darkness and spelling certain doom for its people, with the giants of light getting the worst of it as they are incapacitated. A small band of heroes goes forth in pursuit of this item, among them being a young man who has spent a good many years of his life living in the mountains under the tutelage of a wise old master, and someone with the ability to communicate with animals. In the end, it is the former who is responsible for vanquishing the evil and returning the power source to its rightful place, bringing life and light back to the planet and healing the giants. The Dark Crystal or Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends?
- In this film from the 90s adapted from a different work, the title character, whose name starts with an "M", is someone gifted with telekinetic powers. Having felt wronged by the people who gave them life, they spend the first part of the movie getting back at them in the worst ways they can think of, including an explosion created by their powers. Later on, they use their powers mostly to punish anyone else who dares to cross them, just like they did their parents. The climax sees our psychic joined by a group of others much like them against an opposing faction, headed by someone who wears dark green. This person ends up facing the brunt of the psychic's wrath - fortunately, they live to tell the tale. At the end, after things calm down, the psychic finds a new family and goes off to live a new peaceful life. Matilda or Pokémon: The First Movie (also known as Mewtwo Strikes Back)?
- This cartoon stars a group of teenage girls, headed by a girl who dresses in pink and wears her hair in pigtails. The cartoon is notorious for having the girls get killed off one by one every so often in the most gruesomely over-the-top ways possible (something the writer of the cartoon seems to have a thing for). Of course, after a while, the girls end up coming back to life none the worse for wear - only for the process to begin all over again. Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Teen Girl Squad?
- This is the story of young blond-haired boy living in the big city, who befriends a homeless person who has surrounded themselves with a large group of birds. As the two get to know each other, it transpires that the homeless person once led a fairly normal life before rejected by the people they called their friends. It was at that point they became a misanthropic hermit, eschewing the company of other humans for that of their present avian companions, and in doing so giving others the impression that they're not quite all there. However, it is through the boy's kindness that they regain some of the faith in humanity they had lost. Though the two end up parting ways after their short time together, they promise to never forget each other. The Hey Arnold! episode "Pidgeon Man" or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?
- This is an installment of a series from the 2000s, the heroes of which find themselves going back and forth between navigating their school life and combatting evil monsters - the latter often being done with the aid of a giant fighting robot. In this installment, the hero fights three dinosaur-based monsters — a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops, and a Pteranodon — created and set loose on the city by a Mad Scientist hellbent on world domination. Our heroes win the day by taming the three deadly dinos, who go on to become steadfast allies for the remainder of the series. The Power Rangers: Dino Thunder episode "Day of the Dino Part 2" or Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Jurassic Jackrabbits from Jupiter?
- In this classic tale recognizable by nerds the world over, one of the main characters is sold a small brown furry pet by an eccentric salesman. They end up learning two things about this creature the hard way: One, they are asexual explosive breeders; and two, feeding them can lead to absolute chaos. The pet ends up reproducing, and the ensuing vast number of the creatures naturally ends up inconveniencing just about everyone. After a myriad of shenanigans, most of the creatures unfortunately end up dying, and a certain characteristic of theirs is exploited by the characters in order to bring and end to their troubles. In the very end, the salesman who sold the original creature comes back to take the survivors away. Gremlins or the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"?
- In this story, the sentience and humanity of a man with paper-white skin are brought into question by another man, who is hellbent on exploiting that which gave him life to better his performance in his own field of expertise. The pale man's friends immediately spring to his defense, knowing that his life is on the line, and this sparks a back-and-forth between the two parties that lasts for some time. In the end, the would-be exploiter, who had remained steadfast and unrelenting throughout the whole ordeal, is put in his place by a bald old man with white hair and a red shirt. He relents, promising to leave the pale man alone and resume his own pursuits, which earns him the respect of the pale man and his friends. Frosty the Snowman or the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man"?
- This animated film takes place in a world populated by both humans and fantastic creatures, the latter of which range from being ordinary animals to being god-like in power. The strongest of these creatures is this world's creation god, which has been overcome with rage after having stolen from them a small green jewel that is the source of all life, which our heroes must retrieve and give back to the god in order to appease them. Among the heroes is a woman with powers that allows her to connect more closely with nature. Somewhere along the way, she meets up with one of her distant ancestors, who gives her their approval and encourages her to complete her quest alongside the other heroes. In the end, after a long and winding series of events - one of which involves attempting to placate some other creature after the jewel with what turns out to be a cheap imitation, which only angers them, causing them to shatter the fake jewel in their rage - our heroes are successful in completing their mission. They head back home and, from there, set off on a journey to parts unknown. Moana or Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life?
- Our hero, who dresses in blue and has black hair, comes from a race that possesses powers far beyond those of ordinary humans. One fateful day, one of their parents (played by an American actor putting on a British accent), fearing certain doom for their people, tells them about the powers they possess - specifically saying that they should only be used in secret - and sends them on their way, leaving them as the Last of Their Kind. Our hero comes upon a small town and is taken in by a kindly elderly couple, and all is well for the time being. After a time, however, they come to be seen as an oddball by many of the townspeople, which causes them to doubt themselves for a while. The story really begins to pick up after two events - one of the hero's foster parents being incapacitated and the hero themselves finally deciding to use their special powers for the good of humanity - and the hero goes from simply being made fun of to being actively targeted by multiple people. The story makes it perfectly clear that keeping their powers hidden from the ones they love often leaves the hero in positions they can't quite explain. This eventually results in mass destruction and utter chaos. In the end, the hero is able to make effective use of their powers to put an end to the madness, and the last shot is of them heading to their next destination. Superman: The Movie or Ida's Luck?
- This work is notorious for being so shoddily put together that it manages to be incredibly entertaining, being conceived by one person who did a good amount of the work and sees themselves more highly than other people see them (something reflected by the character they play being considered by many a clear Mary Sue), and having characters and locations very clearly based on those in the creator's personal life (with the characters being near impossible to keep track of apart from the main ones). In the midst of the madness, one can piece together a few clear story threads: The main character (played by the creator) and their rival are given magic necklaces from an ancient civilization which allow them to transform into animal-based superpowered alter egos, with the original wielders of the power being involved in a Love Triangle which is the cause of the present wielders' rivalry; everyone from a gang of hardened criminals to an evil magician are out to get the creator and their powers, with the creator being strong enough to mow everyone down in a blatant form of Power Fantasy; and the creator has to deal with an evil version of themselves. Aside from that, Narm, Big-Lipped Alligator Moments, senseless violence, and all-around insanity abound. Sonichu or Diamond Cobra vs. the White Fox?
- This episode of popular TV show focuses on a young boy in yellow who tends to get on the nerves of the adults living in his neighborhood, especially when he starts messing around with his friends. One day, through the carelessness of other people, the boy comes into possession of an otherworldly object with strange properties. It turns out that this object can create drawings that come to life, and the boy immediately takes advantage of this by drawing a creature of his own design. Though intended to be a harmless thing he hoped to show his friends, everything goes downhill when the creature begins wreaking havoc. People trying to get rid of it only angers it even more, resulting in it trashing the boy's home. The boy very nearly meets his end, but thankfully lives to tell the tale. While he was initially conflicted about seeing his beloved creation meet its end, seeing the damage it caused quickly changed his mind. He is able to quickly identify a weakness of the creature, and exploits it to quickly bring an end to the chaos. What's left of the creature is put on display for all to see. As a final note, the episode begins and ends with narration: First detailing how the object that gave the creature life came to the boy's city, and later imparting to the viewer a lesson concerning what to do if they ever find a similar object. The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Frankendoodle" or the Return of Ultraman episode "Horror! Birth of the Mansion Monster!"?
- This is the story of an old man who is fed up with the way his life has turned out. When the powers that be threaten to make things even worse, he decides to leave it all behind, taking others along for the ride. This he does by turning the building he's in into a sailing ship and starting a life of adventure. The group ends up getting more than they bargained for when they come across a rival group, but after a long struggle involving a swordfight, they are able to come out on top. The building, however, is not so lucky. Up or the "Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life?
- This classic of British media features as its antagonist a man with a considerable temper and an equally considerable appetite. Almost everyone is horrified of him, but one person knows that the only way to placate him is to feed him. And feed him they do - by presenting him with a veritable smorgasbord of dishes that no mere mortal could hope to eat all of in one sitting. The man, glutton that he is, manages to wolf down all of it, growing comically obese as a result. The server then tries to seal the deal by offering him an exceptionally small chocolate desert. The man refuses at first, but eventually relents, swallowing the desert in one bite. It turns out that this was as much food as he could keep down, as he then proceeds to explode violently. The server, with not much left to do, proceeds to carry on with life as usual. Not Without My Handbag or the "Autumn Years" segment of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life?
- This is the tale of a young child with black hair, who feels that the whole world is out to get them. Thankfully, they have the company of a trusted otherworldly companion to help them get through - someone who embodies all that they wanted out of a perfect friend. Despite this, one more slight against them is all it takes to push them over the edge. As they are overcome with rage, it is revealed that the companion is connected to the child's emotional well-being, and the child's rage turns him in a gigantic rampaging monster. He spends a good amount of time lumbering through the city, reducing buildings to rubble and terrorizing those who had wronged the child, only to calm down and return to their normal size once the child's rage is spent. When all is said and done, the child is actually left feeling worse than they did before the rampage. The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten or the Ultraman 80 episode "Duel! 80 vs. Seven".
- This work from the 2010s stars as its main character a black-haired individual who normally has their head in the clouds, but can be dead set on achieving whatever goal is set before them when such an occasion arises. Joining them are some with brown hair who can be extremely serious and is very protective of their younger siblings, but is still a nice person nonetheless; and someone else who dresses in a color normally considered "girly", but acts in a way that is anything but - namely by mostly being deadly serious and having a knack for extreme violence. All three are shown to drive around a vehicle of some kind, mostly bikes. This work in particular sees all three of them going after something related to ice, with our main character being most intent on getting there. Unfortunately, they fail, with the main character sustaining injuries in the process. Their allies decide to step in and help out, modifying their vehicle and subjecting them to an intense physical makeover. With renewed resolve, a souped-up mode of transportation, and physically stronger than they've ever been before, our hero aggressively dashes once more towards their long sought after frozen finish line, this time claiming their prize. To make things even better, the vehicle now has the ability to transform into a superpowered suit of armor for our hero to wear. The Despicable Me short film "Training Wheels" or the "Freeze Roidmude" arc of Kamen Rider Drive?
- This episode of an extremely popular science fiction TV show is one of the earliest appearances of what is considered the show's greatest villainous faction: A race of cybernetic assimilator aliens linked together in an insect-like Hive Mind, comprised mostly of drones and led by a queen, and hellbent on subjugating "inferior" biological lifeforms and forcing them to serve them for the rest of their lives. The episode in question starts off with the main characters going about business as usual, when a member of the hive mind appears to them, announcing his intent to recruit one of them into the fold. His target refuses, and a fight breaks out. The battle ends, and it looks like our heroes have won, when the drone returns to kidnap and assimilate one of their own - a male easily recognized by his red and black shirt. What's left of our heroes is left to figure out how to destroy the drone without doing harm to their stolen comrade. By some miracle, they are able to rescue their friend, who it turns out had learned quite a bit about the hive mind during his assimilation, and uses that knowledge to point out a weakness in the drone. Exploiting this weakness, the drone is incapacitated, and our heroes go on to life as normal. Little did they know that the hive mind now had it in for them, as was shown later on in the series. The Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds" or the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode "Doom With a View"?
- This Japanese TV series from the 2000s features a small group of humans as its protagonists. They are all partnered with gigantic creatures from another world - one of many different worlds apart from our own that exist in this series - whose personalities mesh with their own almost perfectly. The creatures came to Earth thanks in part to the intervention of their greatest enemy (who eventually follows them there), and as a result, were shrunken down into tiny forms resembling toys. Unable to fight on their own in this state, when the time to battle comes (usually against similarly gigantic opponents), their human partners use special objects to enable them to grow to their full size for a certain amount of time. Among the humans are a young man dressed in red with brown hair and a fiery personality, partnered with a flying creature of some kind; The Smart Guy, who dresses in blue; a girl who always tries to keep a smile on her face; a girl who comes off as a bit of a Tomboy, partnered with a tiger; and a stone-faced loner, partnered with a bird of some kind. Bakugan or Engine Sentai Go-onger?
- This popular kid's TV show features as its main characters a small group of superheroes who all met each other by chance. The team travels around in a flying red boat with their symbol emblazoned on the sail, stopping wherever they can to help out. As tends to be the formula for each episode, our heroes usually get a clue of their destination at the start, and with a quick costume change, they set sail. A recurring bit throughout their missions is that, when preparing to finish the job, the team introduces themselves - first individually, then as a group. More often than not, they also learn a lesson or skill early on in the episode that proves to be invaluable in helping them save the day. Later on in the series, they are joined by a grey-colored hero who tries his best to help out but often ends up unintentionally annoying the others. Wonder Pets! or Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger?
- This live-action work from a popular Japanese franchise features two men and one woman as its main heroes. The story goes that the meteor that supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs actually split the Earth into two different worlds: One where we humans came to be, and one where the dinosaurs continued to thrive. In their world, some of the dinosaurs evolved into human-like forms, while others evolved into creatures very similar to dinosaurs. Our heroes, who hail from the human world, learn about the existence of the dinosaur world when the barrier between them is lifted via a dimensional portal. Also around that time, the main villain, who hails from the dinosaur world, sets about bringing his master plan to fruition: Getting ahold of someone with a special connection to the meteor, which will enable him to wreak havoc on the human world. In the end, despite taking on a gigantic monstrous form in an attempt to defeat the heroes, the villain is slain and his plans are thwarted. The live-action Super Mario Bros. (1993) movie or Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger?
- This popular children's show features a group of superheroes who are relatives of figures that are considered legendary within their universe. As such, they possess the remarkable superpower of being able to create objects and even manipulate the reality around them by writing words in their native language, with the word producing an effect that corresponds to its meaning. As the formula for each episode usually goes, one or more of the heroes is going through a personal predicament that must be solved - one which, as if by coincidence, the mission of that episode also plays into. The mission itself also tends to be based around a popular piece of folklore that the viewers might be familiar with. The team then transform into their superhero guises and set about saving the day with their word-based powers. They are successful, and in doing so manage to resolve whatever problem their comrade is going through. At the end, the leader declares their victory, and the team congregate at their secret hideout to celebrate. Super Why! or Samurai Sentai Shinkenger?
- This is a story about family and friendship - in particular, the story of a young boy (the main character) whose name starts with an "S"; one of his caretakers, whose name starts with an "M"; and his best friend. The boy is extremely close to both, hanging out and playing with his friend and learning from his caretaker. Like any close group of friends, they have their ups and downs - one of the latter being when the boy is caught in a life-or-death situation from which his caretaker saves him in the nick of time. Then one day, tragedy strikes. The caretaker's younger brother, whose name also starts with an "S", had been harboring frustration with them for some time which they accidentally made worse, resulting in him eventually sending his sibling falling to their death. While the brother manages to cover up the circumstances of the death, the boy is overcome with the guilt of being unable to save the one he loved so dearly. This guilt is further stoked by the brother, who convinces him to run away in order to prevent him from discovering the truth. After a while, he finds himself in an idyllic paradise filled with quirky characters, where he spends the next several years of his life and is (mostly) able to forget about what drove him there in the first place. Meanwhile, back at home, life has practically become a waking nightmare for everyone the boy was close to - his best friend seems to have gotten the worst of it, which he finds out for himself after meeting them for the first time in years. A heated confrontation between the two ensues, ending with them parting ways once more. The boy is then guided by someone to a mysterious place, where he encounters the spirit of his long-departed caretaker, who bids him to stop running from his past and finally face it. This he does by finally returning home and confronting the traitorous brother who murdered his beloved. After he (and eventually others) learn the truth about the murder, the two battle in the very place the story first began. Though the brother looks to have the upper hand, our hero comes out on top. In the end, finally able to forgive and live with himself, he goes on to reconcile with his best friend and eventually move on to the next stage in his life. One of the last scenes shows the boy honoring his caretaker's memory by taking to a stage of some kind and carrying out a task his caretaker always wanted him to, while his friends look eagerly on and a reprisal of his own Leitmotif plays in the background. The Lion King (1994) or OMORI's Sunny Route (with the Good Ending)?
- This story is an adaptation of a previous work, starring a dark-haired and pale-skinned male character whose lack of emotion, shut-in tendencies, and overactive mind tend to be a source of concern for his friends. He is known to play the violin and leaves his house every now and again to join his friends for trips around town. In this adaptation, however, the characters and the world they live in are similar but quite different from how they were in the original. That is, until our hero goes to sleep. The world he sees in his dreams is nearly identical to the world of the original work, with it being recontextualized as distorted mental reflections of people and places he knows. These reflections are sometimes comedic, and sometimes twisted. The "twisted" part of the equation is amplified exponentially when his memories of a certain person enter the picture - someone he knew who (supposedly) committed suicide, an event that haunts him to this day. Slowly but surely, visions of the real world begin to bleed in, as well as increasingly unsettling visions of the suicide victim and the way they died. He spends much of the dream trying to figure out the truth behind the circumstances of their death, and eventually wakes up having learned to come to terms with their death and the aftereffects thereof. OMORI's Sunny Route (with the Good Ending) or the Sherlock episode "The Abominable Bride"?
- Set in the far reaches of space, this story starts with two opposing factions fighting each other in the skies above a certain planet. One inhabitant of this planet, a certain young boy with special powers, gets swept up in a galaxy-traversing journey to try and stop the fight. Everything goes relatively well up until near the end, when he comes face-to-face with the story's main villain - a traitor with powers of his own, who is at least partly responsible for instigating the fight that started his adventure in the first place. This traitor then reveals his secret weapon: A large moon-sized technological marvel with incredible destructive capabilities, which he plans to use against a certain planet with significance to the hero. Left with no choice but to face this new adversary, the hero hops into a spaceship and flies into battle against the machine, taking out its core and destroying it. He is also able to gain the upper hand over the traitor and put an end to the fight he started - for the time being, anyway. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope or the Kirby Super Star subgame Milky Way Wishes?
- Related to the above entry, this story takes place at a later date in the same timeline as the previous work. The boy, whose powers have grown a great deal since his last adventure, now finds himself dealing with a villainous organization hellbent on galactic domination. This group plans to use a certain planet - a planet that the boy just happens to be on - as a kind of power source for their secret weapon. This weapon, it turns out, is incredibly similar to the weapon from the previous story - a large moon-sized technological marvel with incredible destructive capabilities. It is just as powerful as its predecessor, if not more so, but comparatively incomplete in appearance. After a long adventure, during which he confronts the head of the organization and his right-hand goon, the boy is able to disarm the means by which the weapon gathers power from the planet. After the final confrontation, the right-hand goon ends up siding with the boy, in the process sending their former boss to his death by means of effectively being assimilated by the weapon. A final Space Battle ensues, and the weapon is destroyed just as its predecessor was - from the inside out. The story ends with the boy giving a last farewell to the friends he met on this latest adventure. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi or Kirby: Planet Robobot?
- In this popular live-action TV show, the main character is a time traveler - a doctor by trade - who began his journey by taking off in his time machine in an act of rebellion against authority. Each episode sees him and his companion(s) going to a different place and time, helping to solve whatever problems him and the people he meets happen to come across. Every so often, he ends up falling in love with a different woman that he inevitably must part ways with. Just as often, however, he ends up occupying the body of a completely different person, essentially becoming a brand new character in the process - a key component of the show. Doctor Who or Quantum Leap?
- This is a story arc in a popular Japanese series where the vast majority of the cast has superpowers that almost perfectly match their personality and interests. It follows a hat-wearing man in black and his friends, most of whom have such powers, facing off against a different enemy every so often. Here, the enemy is a gambler whose method of attack involves challenging unsuspecting victims to a card game and using his powers to steal their souls if he senses them losing their poker face, trapping said souls in coins. After the man in black's friends lose their souls to the gambler, he steps up to the plate to try and win them back. In the end, he is successful, and the gambler is put out of commission for the time being. The "D'Arby the Gambler" arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders or the "Don't Lay a Finger on M" arc of Kamen Rider Double?
- This TV episode, which has the word "time" somewhere in its title, tells the story of two people: The Hero, a distinguished member of a space-faring organization; and their best friend, a cold and near-emotionless individual. The friend, against their will, is trapped in a dire situation and made to fight the hero, at the behest of a woman of great power. The hero pleads with them to stop, but to no avail. The fight goes on, with both characters wielding nearly identical polearm weapons, and the hero is left with torn clothes and, ultimately, seemingly killed. However, it turns out they're alive and well, and though the friend is left somewhat distressed, the whole ordeal only serves to make their bond even tighter. The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha episode "Memories That Lie Beyond Time!" or the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time"?
- This video game is a more recent twist on a series that allowed people to gain knowledge through entertainment, which originally took the form of a 90s-era computer game framed as a TV show (or vice versa) in which one directly interacted with the host. In this take, however, the show/game has come under the ownership of an entertainment company with sinister intentions - one whose name, logo, and jingle pop up frequently throughout the game. If one manages to get the correct route, they'll find out the full extent of the company's evil deeds, not least of which being that they have trapped the host of the game against their will, intent on forcing them to act out their role for the rest of time. That, and being responsible for the disappearance of several unsuspecting victims. Amanda the Adventurer or You Don't Know Jack: Full Stream?
- A woman dressed in white runs as president of a large foundation, which researches alien life and uses creatures for experiments. After being exposed to the power of the aliens to isolate herself from the rest of the universe, she starts to go through Sanity Slippage. She becomes an Abusive Parent and uses her children as tools, discarding them as trash when they disappoint her due to the cause of her missing husband. One of her children, who dresses primarily in blue and white, becomes fed up with her mother's abuse and steals one of her experiments, with the intention of thwarting her mother's plans. Her other child, a Hot-Blooded Anti-Hero who dresses in red and black, steals another experiment, and runs away from his heritage and becomes a delinquent. Both siblings eventually unite to stop their mother's schemes. It is not known to some characters and the viewer that they are family until fairly late in the adventure, causing a massive plot twist. The mother succeeds her goal at first which creates a Near-Villain Victory. In the final battle, they go to a place away from Earth, and the Evil Matriarch fuses with the alien in order to defeat the heroes. There's also a half-naked man with an even more half naked alter-ego, a colourful character that provides the humor through wacky comic relief moments and there is an ally for the Japanese Delinquent that is a non-human that really isn't alien or creature that was made for killing the main villain. Is this Pokémon Sun and Moon or Kill la Kill?
S
Sapphirea2
- This attraction at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park's imagination-themed pavillion tells the tale of a Blithe Spirit with magical powers who arrives in a place desperately in need of fun, whimsy, and color. The person in charge, a Large Ham (and played by a performer likely recognized by the adult viewers for their other work), is aghast at the magic being woven by Our Hero and tries to get them under control. But Our Hero knows that they just need to get in touch with a hidden, lovely part of themselves, and — singing a catchy song all the way — makes a grateful friend of them and transforms the setting in the process. There's some Stuff Blowing Up, Everything's Better with Rainbows, and the final scene is set amongst the stars.
Captain EO or Journey into Imagination with Figment? (From 2010-15 these attractions played alongside each other) - In this colorful movie musical that went into wide release in 1989, a lonely human who yearns for ideal love is rescued from drowning by a fantastical being who becomes smitten with them. With a transformation to fit in better among the humans, and accompanied by comical sidekicks, the fantastical being is insatiably curious about this new world, struggles to properly act human, and doesn't say much. The human comes to love them all the same for their attractiveness and sweet personality, but is stopped from following their heart by someone who claims to love them but doesn't. In the climax, the wrong couple is headed for the altar but the unsure soul comes to their senses and chooses their fantastical true love, sailing away to a happily ever after.
Earth Girls Are Easy or The Little Mermaid (1989)?
Silverbolt1
- A Planet Eater, who transformed and upgraded an alien into his herald, is heading to the hero protagonists (who have a single female among them) homeworld. The initial heroes' attack on the eater failed. The herald turned against his master, but also failed. Then a flame-themed, impulsive Idiot Hero finds the only thing that can stop the devourer, who is successfully defeated.
The Coming of Galactus or The Transformers: The Movie? - A woman with a traumatic past involving a potential love interest becomes a cold person when she gets a position of power and nearly ruins the life of a girl who’s one generation younger. The woman has a mid-plot Heel–Face Turn and Took a Level in Kindness, but when her change of heart seems to have coming too late, the remorse for her cruel actions hits her hard.The woman saves the girl at a crucial point, and the girl returns the favor later on. By the end of the story, the woman and the girl share a strong familial bond. Although the girl has a romantic relationship with a male love interest, the plot focuses on the ups and downs between her and the woman.
Is it Maleficent or El privilegio de amar?
Simple Groups
- After their home is invaded by evil forces, a swordsman with spiky hair sets off with his father, his half-blood mage best friend, an innocent maiden with light hair, and an older female mentor figure to restore peace to the land. This group also includes a pair of siblings where the older one raised the younger after their parents abandoned them (in a house later in the game, one can find their mother, but the offspring end up rejecting her). The father trains the hero in swordplay until he leaves the group, and criticizes him for oversleeping on the day of their first mission. During the course of the journey, they must be wary of accepting help even from others who share their goal of defeating the Big Bad. In a large and powerful empire, they find a ruler willing to help them, but who is being manipulated by corrupt and racist political figures. An enigmatic non-human man with long hair, who turns out to be a legendary founding hero, also sometimes aids them, but is not on the same side and is actually The Chessmaster. The hero seeks to become stronger to protect the young innocent maiden in their group, who holds a plot device related to the Goddess. There is rampant racism, especially towards half-bloods, and several half-bloods on the other side comment on how the mage is similar to them. The hero manages to recruit several other characters to their cause, the first of which is a Fragile Speedster female assassin with purple hair who first helps them storm an enemy fort. After their father is no longer in the group, the hero learns that his father was one of the four leaders of the group they're fighting, but became wracked with guilt over killing his wife in extreme circumstances. One of these four is also secretly a leader in the opposing army. The hero's father must also fight his former student, who is a major figure of the evil side. The hero encounters this student twice before their real showdown, but both encounters are Hopeless Boss Fights. After a difficult battle where the hero must fight alone, a powerful and very old not-quite-human man who has betrayed the group before may join the group, depending on your gameplay - your alternative is someone much younger and associated with red and pink, who fights similarly and was on the other side in order to help someone they loved. In the end, the hero grows wiser but never loses his idealism, and one of the heroes of legend commends him on his worldview. The hero defeats the former student, and kills the Big Bad, who will change to a different form after he is defeated the first time. However, a couple years later it is discovered that after the hero removes the Big Bad, corrupt political forces from the most powerful nations have been oppressing one of the nations, and a powerful spirit threatened to cause destruction of the world unless it is stopped. Two new heroes, a young boy without parents and a girl, start a new journey, meeting up with the heroes in the original story and needing to fight with the original hero. On top of that, it turns out that the Goddess they had been worshipping was in large part, a lie, and one of legendary heroes from long ago is actually a major antagonist.
Tales of Symphonia or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn?
SlargTheGnome
- A group of protagonists moves into a mysterious old building to get a new start on life, which proves to be a fatal mistake. Everything seems fine at first, but gradually the tenants start making more and more disturbing observations about their building before arriving at the inescapable conclusion that something is horribly wrong with it - for starters, it's much, much Bigger on the Inside. The characters mount several days-long expeditions to explore the entirety of the building by traveling miles underground before everything goes to hell, one guy goes batshit crazy and tries to kill everyone else, and one character is killed by the building itself. Ultimately, the building is revealed to be nothing but a gateway to an incomprehensible Eldritch Location that the characters must scramble to escape from with their lives.
House of Leaves or 14? - Millions of years ago, an alien parasite crashed into earth and began influencing humans' evolution, causing them to emerge as the dominant species on the planet. However, this was all done by the parasite in order to harvest human energy and eventually destroy the earth, sending copies of itself out into space to begin the cycle anew. The protagonists eventually learn of the existence of this parasite and vow to destroy it, asserting their belief in humanity's will to live and determine its own fate. The first major (human) antagonist is a fearsome militaristic conqueror who commands a vast army and whose defeat seems crucial to save the world, until it's shockingly revealed that their goal all along has been to destroy the alien parasite, and they end up joining the heroes. The story's true villain is their mother, an all-powerful Evil Matriarch who rules over a mighty empire, allies with the alien parasite and betrays all of humanity in the process (even her own two children). She is ultimately defeated in a One-Winged Angel battle high above the earth, and the alien parasite is destroyed by crashing into it with a flying ship.
Kill la Kill or Chrono Trigger? - Every night at midnight, there exists a secret midnight hour that most humans cannot experience due to being frozen in time. During this hour, the world becomes tinted a certain color, (most) electronic devices stop working, there's a seriously Bad Moon Rising, and a slew of dark, shadowy creatures emerge to prey on humans. Only a group of seemingly Ordinary High School Students are conscious during this time, and they must use their various superpowers to fight against the dark creatures. The protagonist is a New Transfer Student who moves to a new city, is quickly taken under the wing of the other monster-fighting teens, and turns out to be the most powerful of them all. Together the teens must contend with not only the dark creatures but also a group of morally dubious humans who have been abusing the midnight hour for their own gain, as well as an Evil Mentor. In the end, the protagonist performs a Heroic Sacrifice to seal away the threat to the human world.
Persona 3, right? ...Or wait, is it Midnighters?
Sniccups
- A high-octane action film that also features a significant number of dramatic and powerful character moments. It taps into a cultural heritage of horrible oppression by an invading/colonizing power that treats the oppressed people as subhuman - and proceeds to use that as a backdrop for over-the-top awesome action sequences featuring a small group of heroes taking on the oppressors and winning, providing a cathartic triumph that is awesome despite completely flying in the face of historical events.
Inglorious Basterds or RRR?
- Our heroes, travelers who often encounter strange creatures, meet a group of individuals from a dying civilization. The members of this group kidnap one of the heroes, intending to save their civilization by surgically removing the hero's brain. Our heroes respond to this by attacking the dying group, saving the brain, and leaving the dying group to fend for themselves (and probably die out). Is this the video game generally considered the best ever made, or the Star Trek episode generally considered the worst ever made?
- In this 2005 TV show, a fantasy world of Elemental Nations once lived in harmony, but one day the fire nation became the bad guys by causing a war. The protagonist is an air elemental, and the show is divided into three seasons called "books".
You were probably thinking of Avatar: The Last Airbender when you read this, but the description is accurate for the original run of Encantadia as well. - An episode of a poorly-received, obscure cartoon where the main character is a brown-colored piece of Anthropomorphic Food. In the episode, the main character's gang goes into a video game and has to rescue a male who is dressed as a princess. Both episodes make reference to multiple real-life video games and are part of what is considered the shows' second seasons.
Is this the Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island episode "Sir Nut-a-Lot" or the Simple Samosa episode "Khelo Samosa"? - A cartoon aired by Disney Channel India about a boy who has a non-human best friend with special powers that can help him easily solve his problems. Each time he consults this special friend, however, the boy runs into problems with whatever wish was granted to him and has to revert the problem himself.
Is this Doraemon or Oye Golu?
- This indie game's name is one word long. It is littered with puns everywhere. Notable characters include: a male Foul Flower who is fond of making creepy faces, a female human(oid)/fish hybrid who has a nigh unavoidable attack that immobilises you but does no damage, which is associated with green and a robot who is considerably more dangerous compared to their creator. Said scientist may have come off as Unintentionally Unsympathetic or The Scrappy. In the battle against the robot, their body parts fall off. In the game's best ending, the game's MacGuffins are used to free everyone after you caused a demonic entity to break down crying. In the worst, you make a Deal with the Devil.
Undertale or Cuphead?
Steel Edge
- This trio consisting of two humans and a god live in a Crapsack World. The Heroic Mime Silent Snarker and the Plucky Girl lived with each other for as long as they can remember, but are not related. The Plucky Girl impatiently wants her and The Hero to become warriors together, but are deemed too young. On the day when their mentor figure(s) decide that they are ready to leave their safe haven and receive the weapons that allow them to fight, the life of the hero changes forever as they meet the god. The three of them gain companions on their journey to kill the beings that plague their world forever, including an older man whose younger brother is ashamed to be related to, a boy who is revealed to have a strong connection with the beings plaguing the world, and a tough Cool Big Sis who is a mother figure to her adopted family. The god aiding the heroes has some power involving death and also allows the hero to summon and command others in battle, the hero is the reincarnation of someone important to the reason why the world is so horrible, and the heroine is easily tricked by a god. One route involves killing everyone in the universe, including the hero's friends and the god. The route starts with the hero killing many people considered to be family, and ends with the death of the world's god. All real endings involve the hero going to an alternate dimension to kill the god ruling over a world.
Are the names of the hero, heroine, and god Nanashi, Asahi, and Dagda, or Revya, Danette, and Gig? - An infamous historical evil emerges because lots of people believe in them, which completely blindsides everyone else. One of the characters is initially antagonistic due to a complicated case of child abuse and the fact that one of the main antagonists is posing as their father figure after the death of their real father, and many other characters suffer from missing or absent parents. The plot is hampered because at least one main character has amnesia. Greek gods are prominent figures, and Apollo is especially important to the main protagonist.
The Trials of Apollo or Persona 2 (Innocent Sin)? - This story is the second part in a series. The main character is a young man with a strange power that he's had since childhood that is strongly associated with the sun, and at at least one point is shown riding a motorcycle. His allies include someone younger than him who is discriminated against due to their race, a guy who conceals his machine gun in an odd place, an attractive Cool Big Sis who revealed to be very linked with his past, and another young man of the same age who is a staunch ally despite fighting with the main character in his first appearances. That young man also views the Cool Big Sis as a mother figure, and has a complicated history with his father involving abandonment and rejection. All of these people fight against the fulfillment of an ancient Mayincatec prophesy. Nazi are involved, and one main character dies tragically. Also, there are several cameos of older versions from the previous entry.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, or Persona 2(Innocent Sin)? - This story is part of a franchise known for summoning monsters with computers, but this story is unusual because the heroes transform into monsters to fight. It is Lighter and Softer than the previous entries, and comes off the heels of another dark one. The heroes are granted that power by a mysterious woman who appears only as a voice and is sort of an angel. Their enemies have similar powers to theirs. The heroes are also arranged by element and have strong Five-Man Band themes. The fire elemental starts with the power of the Hindu god Agni but also gains the power of the Asura Vritra, along with a ton of control issues. The main character by the end gains the power of Ardha. The last party member to join is actually a ghost, and he looks almost identical to another party member, except for hair and clothes. The ghost knew why they're identical long before the party member figured it out. Everything changes after the digital world that the main characters were living in is deleted, and they emerge in the real world with their powers intact.
Digimon Frontier, or Digital Devil Saga? - The hero of this story is a genuine Samurai from a feudal kingdom, but goes by a Western name. He does have a Japanese name that is never revealed to the audience. He is called to fight a powerful demon with a black color scheme, but the demon evades him. The Samurai is then unwillingly sent to a futuristic world where the demon is the leader of a powerful faction. That faction has a heavy emphasis on survival of the fittest, to the point where caring for each other is considered weakness. That futuristic world is considered to be very odd by the Samurai, containing things like electricity and talking nonhumans. Culture shock is great.
Is the Samurai's name Jack or Flynn? - The deity of a militant, monotheistic, theocratic empire returns. Much to his displeasure, the empire has changed for the worse, as it is now plagued by paranoia and superstition. The Inquisition’s methods of dealing with heretics is particularly despised. The deity was once incredibly powerful, but lost most of his power. This deity is not completely good, however; he is an arrogant, childish jerkass who casually orders (ineffective) death warrants and verbally abuses his most loyal follower. This loyal follower is the only person who can hear him at first, and spends a lot of time telling his god about the going-ons of the empire. The follower is much nicer, does a lot of menial labor, has an excellent memory, and is later treated as the deity’s voice. The Inquisition is a prominent enemy, and one of its heads tries to kill the loyal follower, but fails. One character is an illiterate adult who learns later on.
Are the deity and follower a bona-fide god and a humble novice, or an immortal, powerful being who adamantly insists that he is still human, and the captain of his guard?
- A highly advanced piece of technology created by a peaceful, intelligent race that has since withdrawn from the galaxy is bonded to the protagonist's DNA, can't be removed easily, keeps the user alive and can assimilate DNA, technology, and scan any living being,but is prone to Once an Episode malfunctions that lock functionality or bring the user back to square one. Multiple groups reverse engineer knockoffs from this technology that aren't as good as the real thing. The world features many humanoid aliens that have sci-fi superpowers, some of which the protagonist fights on a regular basis, villains that can infect and assimilate technology and have infected the protagonist's device, and dead worlds that have been drained of all life by a corrupting entity that seeks to spread that corruption across the galaxy. Both protagonist's also regularly fight against evil copies of themselves. Am I talking about Metroid or Ben 10?
- This animated series is about the adventures of a Freudian Trio (a lanky male with black hair, a far larger-bodied male, and a sole female) who defend their town from alien invaders in their Humongous Mecha, all while providing a relatively unique twist on the genre. Sadly, it was screwed over royally by Cartoon Network; not only did they cancel it when the creators wanted to do more with it, but they wrote it off for tax purposes and can no longer legally air it on the network (though it did manage to get a background cameo along with other CN shows in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Crossover Nexus"). Which show am I talking about: Megas XLR or Sym-Bionic Titan?
- This live-action show is a re-imagining of a long-running family-friendly franchise known for its colorful aesthetic and red-headed protagonist. The show is comparatively Darker and Edgier (complete with a more muted color palette), with swearing and death being more commonplace than in the original and an overarching mystery surrounding the setting. Thanks to this, as well as various other changes, it's divisive at best to fans of the original. What show is this: Riverdale or Fate: The Winx Saga?
- In this story, a Disney-owned character with a reputation for being a powerful mage suffers a Trauma Conga Line and, as a result, magically (though not entirely intentionally) traps their loved ones in a world where everything is a throwback to cheesy family sitcoms of yesteryear. They're perfectly content living in this world, but the other characters start realizing that something isn't right and try to escape, resulting in them further attempting to reject reality and stay in the sitcom world. What am I talking about: the DuckTales (2017) episode "Quack Pack!", or the entirety of WandaVision?
SuperLlama
- The main characters face off against the ultimate Big Bad of the story, who stays in the background for most of said story. Try as they might, the main characters find that they can't defeat the Big Bad, due to said Big Bad being the Anthropomorphic Personification of something that will always exist as long as there are living things around to experience it. One of the main characters then manages to at least stop the Big Bad temporarily by performing a Heroic Sacrifice to form a seal around the moon.
Is this the ending to Soul Eater or Persona 3?
For certain values of "Main Character" and "Sacrifice/Seal", this could also apply to Final Fantasy IV. - Donald The Potholer
- A young woman, bitter at her partner who has wronged her, goes out drinking. She winds up at a bar and starts drunkenly rambling...and turns out to be hilarious! Someone at that bar realizes she has potential and convinces her to enter a profession that involves a lot of charismatic talking about her personal life. She eventually succeeds and comes into her own in the process. Wave, Listen to Me! or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?
T
TaylorHyuuga
- Technically the third entry in a series of mystery visual novels, that looks into the nature of truth and lies, doesn't tell you what is true and false by the end, has a twist that makes the events of the story fictitious, but with enough room to claim that they could have actually happened, has 16 humans as part of its main cast, with all but a handful of them being dead by the game's ending, a character who insists that magic is real and that they aren't using tricks, a delusional incestuous man whose lover is deceased, a main rival who's Good All Along and a giant Troll, a Big Bad with blue hair, Characters voiced by Kenichi Suzumura and Kikuko Inoue, shout-outs to previous games without being outright connected, and an Ambiguous Ending. Umineko: When They Cry or Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony?
- Animated series about a team of children training in a battle school where everyone has a weapon that is different from a normal weapon, whose main character is a girl who wields a scythe, and other main characters include her relative, who also wields a scythe, a ninja who wields a sword, a character with connection to the gods, a race of people with a connection to animals, which one of the main characters is a part of, and the main antagonist is an old evil with a black and white color scheme and a rivalry with the series' Big Good, and the two are a part of the same family. Oh, and there's a lot of focus on the moon, which is different from the normal moon in some way. RWBY or Soul Eater?
- The third game in an RPG series, that has someone close to the main character supposedly die in the first few hours, has robots as one of the primary antagonists, with creatures being merged with these robots, with the supposedly deceased character being one of them, both of whom are brainwashed into opposing the protagonist, the protagonist has blonde hair with a red color scheme in their clothing, is the chosen one because they have a special ability that nobody else has, the backstory involves the original world being destroyed, and the final boss's true name is "Claus/Klaus". Xenoblade Chronicles 1 or Mother 3?
ThatObscureDove
- A seven-minute Preschool Show dramedy created by Nicky Phelan grounded in a Montessori curriculum focusing on a three-year-old interacting with their friends while learning social-emotional lessons along the way. The main characters are both a Funny Animal.
TheBagel
- It's the third in a well-known sequence of games, all of which have similar gameplay; however, although some liked it, many others gave the game lower reviews than the obscure but still good first game and the famous second game. Also, PewDiePie has played at least one of the games at some point. The protagonist is a mostly ordinary girl who can fight sometimes, but is mostly helpless. The real gameplay comes from using a mysterious (male) spirit to overcome the obstacles of the story, including a group of people from a facility who wish to use her powers for their own selfish purposes. Despite how useful the spirit is, the girl is scared of him, and she has no real control over him, leading him to do annoying or destructive things just for fun. Eventually, it is revealed that the spirit is actually the protagonist's twin brother, who died when they were babies. Events of the story include: the girl being inside an institution for a significant part of her life, and the girl using her powers to take revenge on a group of bullies (which leads to her being considered insane by some of the characters).
Is it Clock Tower: Ghost Head/The Struggle Within or BeyondTwoSouls? - A work from the 90s that was born out of the creator's desire to make a story belonging to one of their favorite genres, but also to bring a Darker and Edgier tone to the medium (with the tone considerably altering the work's early concept). Despite being mocked frequently by people on the Internet for its emphasis on its melodramatic story, poor production values and frequent Mind Screw elements, all of which culminated in a highly unpopular ending which got rid of all action to the point of resembling a psychoanalysis session, the work is one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved in its medium. The plot concerns a young man who is thrust into a plot he does not understand because of a responsibility to pilot a Humongous Mecha and, despite the work's cliche start, it soon becomes a philosophical discussion on the nature of existence and the psyche (making use of religious symbolism and Freudian references - some researched, others not), with the hero having a twisted relationship with his red-headed girlfriend. Keeping track of which characters are actually the same becomes difficult due to Reincarnation, people using the same body, some characters splitting in two (with one half remaining the original body and the other entering a robotic one), and characters having split-personality disorders. Everyone in the cast has some kind of issues, such as: surviving the death of one parent and watching the other go off the rails, being separated from your same-sex parent and suffering through their slightly deranged actions, the mind of one parent being absorbed into a giant robot, actually being a reincarnation of a pseudo-deity, losing your father to an apocalypse, surviving the apocalypse but having your true powers be surpressed and being largely ignored in the modern day as anything but backup (the character suffering from this also generates a strong audience reaction), being a Double Agent, and going through a traumatic struggle and almost losing family members simply for being born in a certain way. In the end, the protagonist discovers that humanity was created by a godlike creature that was created from, and has the soul of, a creature from a higher dimension (which could easily be described as "God"), but the creature is not actually God in itself. It also created an Adam figure and an Eve figure; the Eve figure is the Big Bad who changes position and has her body altered several times throughout the story, and the Adam figure is mostly indifferent but could easily cause the apocalypse (it's a moot point anyway, because the Eve figure kills him to advance her own goals). More of an active Big Bad is the Ancient Conspiracy seeking a Depopulation Bomb, and the character who is related to the protagonist, hopes to revive someone following the death of a loved one, and kind of works for the Ancient Conspiracy but stabs them in the back when the time comes. Following the Depopulation Bomb going off (despite the death of the conspiracy members) and most (but not all) of the giant robots ceasing to function, the protagonist kills the god-like being with a combination of therapy and epic giant robot fights, and finally reunites with his girlfriend, hopeful for the future and preparing to reunite with his other friends, with one giant robot left as a symbol of the story's concepts. It's been retold as a series recently, with some characters altered and others being cut from wholecloth, but the reboot is considered inferior to the original (if still tolerable). The third installment of this reboot ended on a cliffhanger, with the deaths of several characters (although they may survive in another form) and attempts to restore the old planet - although this calls back to the beginning of the conclusion of the original work, the philosophy is traded for action.
Is it Xenogears or Neon Genesis Evangelion? - A 2013 video game where a manly character with a beard and played by Troy Baker guards a teenage girl who can occasionally hold her own in a fight as they explore a twisted version of the USA. The man does this because he failed to protect his daughter. Although the game features many monsters, humans are also major enemies, especially a corrupt human government and the morally ambiguous resistance movement. Despite being from a genre which produced many games in 2013 and the years before, the game was critically acclaimed and has at least one version in the top 100 at Gamerankings. The company which made it also produced other critically acclaimed franchises, and although the gameplay between the game and the franchise is similar, the company makes the shift between "adventure" and "tragedy".
BioShock Infinite or The Last of Us? - One character accidentally causes some kind of disaster, causing two other characters to chase them, with the viewpoint switching between the two characters and the one character. There's also a fourth character, but he only occasionally gets focus and is more often seen the story of another character who has a close relationship to them - when this character falls in love with another, the fourth character becomes less important. The protagonist also has superpowers, which another faction is very interested in, and has quite a lot of Angst involving seriously injuring someone. The plot goes in a different direction when it begins to make use of classic myths; at this point, objects start coming to life and acting malevolent, new villains are introduced, and a group of creatures find a prophecy which provides a solution to the problems, with one of the characters coming back to life through the mystical powers of these creatures. In the background, the characters' town is freezing over, with the snowstorm growing in scale until it becomes almost impossible to survive - the snow stops when the protagonist learns the secret of the aforementioned mystical powers. The story has become regarded as a particularly good example of it's sub-genre by critics, even proving that it is still a viable genre and setting a standard for it. The title is one word, beginning with "F".
Frozen? Or Fahrenheit? - Humanity is pushed to the brink of extinction by bizarre Eldritch Abominations, and only a small, specialized force has the means to combat them. The main character is a member of said force: a mentally disturbed teenager with a dead mother and an estranged father with glasses and a beard. He's able to fight said abominations by controlling a giant humanoid from within the back of its neck (though unfortunately said humanoid has gone berserk and out-of-control before.) Later on, it's discovered that a member of said force with a connection to the hero is actually a mole and one of the abominations they've been fighting.
Is this Neon Genesis Evangelion or Attack on Titan?
ThecnoNSMB
- The ongoing story of a team of friends, including the braggart speedster, the one who only wants to bring joy to everyone, the Large Ham, the stereotypical Southerner who's smarter than they look, the rogue with better fashion sense than the rest, and others. Occasionally they defeat hellish foes with the power of teamwork, but most of the time they just go about their day jobs.
Team Fortress 2 or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic? - After having to deal with a traumatizing loss, the hero realizes the evil inherent in the world's controlling government, and after assembling a team of friends, rescuing some prisoners, and going on a globetrotting crusade, the hero uses a technique that nobody outside of their team has discovered to take the fight to the government headquarters in Central Europe, where the fight climaxes with a deadly explosion.
Is the hero B.J. Blazkowicz or Bella Swan? - This over-a-dozen-times platinum album released in the early 80s by Columbia Records is one of the most iconic and bestselling albums of all time. Even though the topics across the album strike a balance between following your dreams and creeping danger, it's not a concept album, with songs about leaving town, meeting a pretty young woman, fame, a former acquaintance named B. Jean, the commonly misunderstood title tracknote , and others. The album got 7 Top 10 singles, and the album cover is famous in its own right, being an iconic shot of the male artist's torso against a simple background.
Is the album Thriller or Born In The U.S.A.?
TheGreatUnknown
- So, you wake up after a long hibernation in a medical capsule only to find out you're inside a scientific facility where an insane female AI has murdered all the personnel. She proceeds to mock and insult you the entire way through the mazelike corridors, and in order to beat her you have to repeatedly break parts of her off and destroy them. Then, in the sequel (set many years later), a new threat arises in the form of another AI, a male this time, equally evil but somewhat more bizarre and erratic in behavior. This requires you to temporarily team up with the female AI, who insists on referring to you as her minion despite being in a very diminished state. For some time, she also poses as a friendly Exposition Fairy but is very bad at it and obviously plotting against you.
Portal or System Shock?
Thelancasterhouse03
- It's an animated, Strictly Formula European series (with hour- length specials), about a blue eyed Magical Girl Warrior with a black best friend, french origins, and a diary she write in a regular basis. She must invoke the name of her mascot (who merges with her during the metamorphose) to transform, and it's a ladybug. It's the heroin official symbol, present on her costume. She is in love with her Pretty Boy usual partner, who is also a magical boy with a darker theme, but a terrible misunderstanding keep them apart (and they can't tell who the other is with just a domino mask) . The two heroes mostly only have interest in each other, despite others people try to tempt them frequently as they are chick and dude magnets. They have an assortment of diverse powers to fight, a Frilly Upgrade, and friends who are magical warriors boys and girls as well. One of the villains, under a mask most of the time, is one of the heroes father, while the blonde mother, who has disappeared, finally turns out to be comatose in a glass coffin. This tragedy has changed her husband for ever. Miraculous Ladybug or Angel's Friends?
- In this Pixar movie, an Education Mama and her red-haired teen daughter do not get along well, as the mother (the father is more unassuming) demands her to be an overachiever. Until the day the daughter is revolting and demands to do what she wants for once. Meanwhile, an ancient magic kicks in, and leads to cases of Forced Transformation into furry animals, in the heroine's family. Brave or Turning Red?
- In this 90's Disney animated movie, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, and with Disney Princess in it, the main character is dissatisfied with her/his current life. She/he dream of another world than hers/his, clearly visible, but yet out of reach. This obsession for said world will some day embody in a person who originate from it (having an inverted fascination for the protagonist's world) and met the main character. Life-saving, then reciprocal Love at First Sight ensues, but the two characters are abruptly separated. The deuteragonist even thinks that the main character is lost forever. Meanwhile, the protagonist is longing to see again the person she/he's in love with, and said feelings are exploited by the villain. The latter suggests to the main character to use a form of magic in order to help her/him to get back to their beloved, and pretends to be motivated only by philanthropy. All of this is actually part of the Big Bad Evil Plan. The protagonist finally concludes a deal with a Rule of Three contract. She/he is temporarily and magically transformed into the same type of person the beloved one is. The main character is reintroduced to him/her, and the deuteragonist does not recognize the protagonist at first. But the Love Interest becomes more and more suspicious, and finally totally embraces his/her love for the main character . Unfortunately, the villain makes sure the hero/in have less and less of the initial Rule of Three rule. Then, (among others by using Mind Control) the Big Bad gets what she/he wants : overthrowing the princess's father and taking his place. In the process, the villain brutally reveals the protagonist's true nature by giving her/him back her/his actual appearance. And in front of the Love Interest, whom is told by the main character: "I wanted to tell you, I swear!". The lovers are separated again, and the reign of the villain ensues. After an epic climax where the villain turns into a giant monster, she/he is definitely vanquished. Then the heroin's father realize how much his daughter and the man from another world love each other, so to make her happy, he uses his unique capacities to resolve the situation and allow the main character and her/his Love Interest to get married. The Little Mermaid (1989) or Aladdin?
TheWeb0123
- In this classic flash-animated cartoon, a terrific athlete gets into various hijinks with a nerdy bookworm, a quiet nature-lover, a store owner, a physics-bending comic relief, a rude magician, a pint-sized punching-bag, and the ruler of the land, who all tend to hang out by a tree. Letters are an integral part of the series and are treated as Serious Business by the leader of a group of friends. One of the main villains is an s-shaped dragon made out of various animal parts.
Homestar Runner or My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic?
TheWhiteQueen
- A movie about a bunch of soldiers from a well-known, old world. They are the first ones sent to a new world recently discovered, with the special mission to bring back home a precious mineral. One of them manage to approach the local chief's daughter, who is very close to nature, and they quickly fall in love. Meanwhile, their respective people do not get along well and finally decide to attack each other at the climax.
Pocahontas or Avatar?
TimeyWimeyBall
- Before the American Civil War, a strong-willed Southern Belle spends almost the entire movie chasing a guy who doesn't love her back, and he ends up marrying another woman, in which the Belle eventually doesn't like.
Jezebel or Gone with the Wind? - A religious order starts to find trouble while settling in an ominous place on a mountain chain, prompting them to leave this place at the end. They also have to deal with physical temptations along the way.
Black Narcissus or The Name of the Rose?
- A recent cartoon reboot based on a franchise originating in the '80s, spearheaded by producers and writers who've had previous experience in acclaimed animation. The series begins with a story arc spanning two episodes, and the first episode opens with the mention of a plot-significant historical event that most citizens no longer believe is relevant to the modern day. The main character's mentor is the ruler of the land, and the villain is the mentor/ruler's sibling, who rebelled in a fit of jealousy only to be defeated and sealed away for years. Now they've returned to take revenge and conquer the world, and only the hero and their friends can stop them.
That's My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic right? Or wait... Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures?
- A fantasy warrior character is somehow transported to the real world to live with his creator and proceeds to turn said creator's life upside down. He slowly takes over the creator's life by wooing his girlfriend, winning over his friends and taking his job, after which the creator transports himself into the fantasy world to take the character's place.
Terry Pratchett's Final Reward or Dragonbored?
U-V
UncleJellyfish
- Two men are trapped in the lair of a sadistic madman who plays twisted games with his victims. One is a snarky, high-strung, and somewhat selfish fellow who resorts to underhanded, dirty doings to get ahead in life. The other is stern, focused, and more professional, but also arrogant and oblivious to how his outlook affects those around him. Neither like each other, especially for how the former man played a cowardly trick on the other. But they've only got each other to escape this nightmare, even as the sterner man begins to sink into despair and eventually loses a limb.
Saw or Toy Story? - A lone protagonist arrives in a terrifying and merciless post-apocalyptic land ruled by a depraved, tyrannical warlord. The world has almost no water left, and the warlord seeks to control his subjects through the flow of water, all while fanatically preaching that he's their true savior. His army is composed largely of young men kidnapped from home and raised to be his fanatical soldiers. The hero is largely powerless when he's captured, enduring horrible torture and brutality before escaping and meeting a stoic and strong young woman with whom he endeavors to end the madman's cruel reign, along with a young girl who escaped her status as a sex slave for the kingdom's vile breeding programnote , and a defected soldier who is waking up from the nightmare he's been conditioned to enforce. In the end, the soldier dies fighting the regime he once served, the heroine delivers a very well deserved death to the mad warlord and topples his regime, the former slave girl stays behind to help build a better world, water is returned to the land, and the lone hero departs to find his place.
Mad Max: Fury Road or Now and Then, Here and There?note - This long running franchise began with the story of two siblings. One is a good natured youth who just wants to do the right thing and has trouble in love life. The other is a little blond boy who displays alarming sociopathic tendencies from a young age. In adulthood, the boy dons an iconic, forboding mask and both literally and figuratively becomes an unstoppable inhuman monster, hellbent on killing his sibling. As the hero battles their supernatural brother, they're joined by a determined old man who claims he can sense the darkness in the brother's soul. After much carnage, the brother's rampage is halted when he's trapped in a fiery explosion by one of the heroes, seemingly killing both. A new story then begins, which shifts settings and focuses on a perverted, slovenly Jerk with a Heart of Gold as he battles an ancient clan of humanoid sorcerers who seek to rule the world through the creation of masks with deadly supernatural powers. Come the next arc, the inhuman brother from the first story is back, having taken his place as the true icon of the franchise. He sets out to kill the last of his family's bloodline and indirectly forms a lethal psychic connection to a young woman who shares his genes. From there the story gets more and more convoluted, even splitting into alternate timelines. The evil brother also finds himself surrounded by devoted followers, who admire his superhuman prowess and view him as a superior being. Not that he gives a shit.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or ''Halloween"'? - A story released in the 90s and rightfully regarded as one of the bleakest Post-Apocalyptic works ever, the setting is a hellish future Earth reduced to a wasteland, ruled by an unapologetically depraved yet childish tyrant(whose name contains "AM"). The surviving humans are at the mercy of his twisted whims in the belly of a massive high-tech fortress and struggle to survive. From there, the story explores the horrors of torture, war, sexual assault, man's barbarism to each other to survive, and the protagonists' innocence being shattered as they navigated a fantastical world of real atrocities. While there is a vaguely hopeful outcome in ending this monster's reign and returning life to Earth, it only comes after almost every character dies.
- An Urban Fantasy series focusing on a legacy of adolescent girls with super powers specifically created to fight certain enemies (although both actually have very similar roots) with plenty of despair for everyone. These girls are overseen by a far-off group, who we don't see a whole lot (with the exception of a permanent fixture at their school) who are soon revealed to be Well Intentioned Extremists at best. There are two significant Les Yay pairings on the show. One is made up of a girl who tries to be noble, although is prone to Knight Templardom brought on by Heroic BSODs, and a girl with a terrible home life, and a more bloodthirsty fighting style. They start of excited to not be alone and find someone who understands them, although the former is somewhat disgusted by the latter's callous disregard for human life. The latter eventually finds redemption, several charged fights later. The other pairing most prominently features a girl who goes from an awkward, nerdy schoolgirl with a crush on one of her few friends, but becomes one of the most powerful characters on the show. She becomes especially powerful, and increasingly morally ambiguous, after the death of her lover. Eventually, her aforementioned crush, who also serves as The Heart, manages to save the world without the fight everyone else had been gearing up for. In general, everyone's parents are useless or abusive, although the main character's mom manages to dispense some good advice, despite being unaware of the supernatural context. The title, which comes from the main character's name and a description of her supernatural career, is...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
VanHohenheimOfXerxes
- In this tale, which reflects sexual and gendered anxieties of its era and has more than a bit of Values Dissonance, two travelers (at least one of whom appears to be a virgin) are on a trip to revisit their past when they get captured by a mysterious, insular group of degenerate foreigners with ways different from their own. The foreigners take the travelers to their bizarre and vampish leader, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette with extensive biological expertise, control over life and death, and uncanny powers of seduction. Despite the indiscriminate use of seduction as a means of control, this leader is in love with one specific man, who was previously a dead puppet but has recently come to life. The leader becomes violently protective of this lover, even going so far as to Murder the Hypotenuse and to force the man into eternal love-servitude. Fortunately, the leader dies during a strange ritual gone awry, and the travelers escape. Oh, and somewhere along the line, an attempt at cannibalism occurs.
She or The Rocky Horror Picture Show? - While settling into a new home and way of life in the big city, our psychologically troubled teen hero falls in with a group of friends who practice magic by channeling the power of a metaphysical entity. One of these friends - the eventual Big Bad of the story - can manipulate lightning, has a lot more to teach about magic than the others, and is sinister, charismatic, and delightfully hammy. The protagonist delves deeper and deeper into the supernatural arts and is quickly revealed to have far more natural ability than the other practitioners. Unfortunately, after foraying into Black Magic under the Big Bad's guidance, the protagonist becomes isolated and morally off track. And even though our hero embraced darkness partly for the sake of a relationship, the dark arts turn the relationship disturbing and creepy, and the Love Interest ends up dying as a result. Ultimately, the Big Bad makes a final dick move, leading the former hero to have a Heel Realization, defeat the Big Bad, and make peace with the other mages.
The Craft or Star Wars? - In one of the world's most populous, prosperous, and cosmopolitan cities, a young loner discovers a mysterious object that fell from the sky. With encouragement from a sinister and otherworldly - but entertainingly sassy - monster, the young man decides to use this object to commit murder (though only against Asshole Victims) and gain fame, prestige, and power (and the affection of an obnoxious, ditzy blonde girl, while he's at it). But eventually, after being slowly driven into villainy, our main character murders the only father figure in his life and ends up all alone - until his monstrous "friend" turns on him and kills him too. The ditzy blonde girl ends up dead too, and the monster is still out there, nastier and more powerful than ever and ready to wreak even more havoc upon humanity. Oh, and while all this is happening, there's a group of nigh-omniscient entities moving invisibly among the characters, watching and commenting on their every move.
Little Shop of Horrors or Death Note? - Starting in The '60s, this long-running franchise has been a staple of British popular culture. The franchise is known for featuring exotic locales, attractive female companions, zany gadgets, outlandish and often hammy villains, intense Mood Whiplash, and campy yet gripping adventures. Oh, and there are also the thrilling theme songs and beautifully surreal opening sequences (which have maintained iconic elements throughout the franchise's history, including a spiraling vortex in the opening sequence, and the twangy music used as the main theme in earlier installments). Over the course of fifty years, The Hero has been played by at least half a dozen actors (although most if not all have been white men), allowing the series to keep going and the fanbase to remain devoted even after half a century. The hero also has many morally ambiguous moments (which sometimes provide a healthy dose of Wangst) and has recently been hinted to be bisexual.
James Bond or Doctor Who? - This novel, later adapted into a play as well as a film featuring Danny DeVito, is largely set in a facility run by a mannish, sadistic Baroness figure for the purposes of shaping the people there into obedient members of society. Although there have always been occasional rebels against the totalitarian system, the only one who succeeds in the long term is a youthful newcomer with idealistic goals but cynical methods of carrying them out. This newcomer bands together with several sympathetic friends, including some who had gotten used to being terrorized by The Baroness (and by their family members) after experiencing repression all their lives. At the climax of the story, the newcomer devises and executes a plan to end the tyranny. Ultimately, even though The Baroness is still out there, she's utterly humiliated, defeated, and powerless. At long last, her former subjects can be themselves again.
Matilda or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?
Alternatively: The title character of this novel and its film adaptation is a girl raised by an abusive family that belittles her and refuses to let her be herself. The school she attends is equally abusive, but at least she finds a friend in a sympathetic teacher. While attending school, she discovers that she has burgeoning telepathic powers and ultimately uses them to get revenge on her abusers at the climax of the novel. At least one school staff member resigns in terror after this.
Matilda or Carrie? - An ethereal, animal-loving adolescent spends a century in suspended animation only to be awakened by the child of a local ruler. Sleeping Beauty or Avatar: The Last Airbender?
- In a story produced by Disney incognito and set in a City Noir, a Private Detective with a Dark and Troubled Past is forced to confront a depraved, superpowered mutant who is the primary cause of our antihero's Dark and Troubled Past (and whose actor is also known for playing a beloved time-traveling doctor). One of the main characters is an attractive woman named Jessica.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Jessica Jones (2015)? - This paranoia-inducing work from The '80s, written by a creator known for his scary stories, centers on creatures that have infiltrated the human race by making themselves look indistinguishable from us and posing as benevolent members of our society. With the help of at least one other human ally, our hero finds out about these grotesque foes, thereby learning how to identify them and how to protect himself and other humans. Eventually, he stumbles upon a secret meeting of the monsters (along with a human who was previously unaware of their existence). After one of the monsters at the meeting gives a speech detailing their plans, the hero discovers an enemy weapon that he hijacks to deal a debilitating blow to the inhuman enemies. Although he and the other human who witness the meeting have their lifespans severely shortened from the encounter, the hero considers it a worthy sacrifice since he enabled humanity to defeat the infiltrators.
The Witches or They Live!?
- A story about a main character whose main colours are pink, fight against Eldritch Abomination that were once a part of a sapient species and whose main antagonists were responsible from creating the system that made all of this possible.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Steven Universe? - A story of a main character whose pink and has connections to roses, whose companion is a girl with dark skin who fight against an oppressive system who treat their subjects like objects?
Revolutionary Girl Utena or Steven Universe.? - A story where the main character is a msyogynist who is obsessed with a woman and yet are such shallow people with an interest in something that only matters to them and who treat women really badly once their kindly facade wears off. The story even ends with the implication that their life will continue the same way again and again.
The Collector or American Psycho? - The main character is an edgy character who is required to help an Evil Mentor with his goals, yet the mentor's endgame is concealed from the main character until the end. The main character's friends are really annoying and you can even betray them. The enemy factions are all one dimensional and your choice doesn't matter much because the final boss controls the narrative.
Shadow the Hedgehog or ''Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse?
VenomousSeal
- The main heroes are three siblings consisting of Two Guys and a Girl, the female of the trio has a friendly relationship with the female Arc Villain, one of the siblings isn’t present in photos of precious events, despite others remembering them being there, and one of the antagonists is a Trickster Mentor fanboy of the franchise’s heroes who transforms into an Evil Knockoff of a previous hero. Am I talking about Ultraman R/B or Kamen Rider Revice?
Volt-V
- An enthusiastic yet naive pasta lover with a considerably less energetic older brother and a connection to a powerful man who vanished attempts to become a warrior. Despite his attempts, he's generally regarded as incompetent yet lovable. His friend, who is already quite the warrior in their own right, tries to help him train, but considers him not cut out for the job, even if they keep trying. He also befriends a former enemy after several captures and escapes that never last long, and they end up sort of "dating" this friend after some misunderstandings. So, is this pasta lover Papyrus or Italy?
- A film featuring an All-Star Cast, setting in Casino City as background, involving a convoluted heist against a powerful evil casino owner in order to rescue a crew mate, only to find out this convoluted plan is the cover to another plan in order to trick the casino owner.
Ocean's Eleven or One Piece Film: Gold? - A very gory Japanese manga series that feature alien organisms falling from the sky taking over human bodies giving each one power. This power would usually turn the character into a monster of sorts, however our protagonist is an exception and fights these monsters and along the way, he meets allies and enemies alike.
Parasyte or Jagaaaaaan? - In this anime/manga Sequel Series, The Hero has a son. Said son gets trained by his father's rival, who went from Big Bad to a sworn friend and Honorary Uncle to the son. The enemies the heroes have to face go from aliens who want to rule/destroy the Earth to cyborgs who want to kill the main hero. On an unrelated note, this series has a ton of fillers.
Dragon Ball Z or Boruto? - A crew of Ragtag Bunch of Misfits wreak havoc on society and are finding treasure while being hunted down by the law. The crew contains: a monkey-looking leader, a skilled swordsman, a sharpshooter, and a teasing hot thief.
Lupin the Third or One Piece?
W-Z
What Art Thee
- An eccentric individual travels around in a flying box through time and space, showing companions the wonders of the universe.
The Magic School Bus or Doctor Who?
Tropers/Wheelybard
- A woman wakes up in a seemingly idyllic world. She is married and has kids. However, there is something strange about this world; there are weird 'edits' and strange people appear out of nowhere. Meanwhile, a group of people from outside of this constructed reality want to make contact with the other side.
Is this the second part of Doctor Who's library two parter or Wandavision?
- In a sci-fi franchise, a member of Earth's military named Shep(p)ard is caught up in an epic struggle against an ancient and powerful race that hibernates for long periods, until they wake up to harvest people.
Stargate Atlantis or Mass Effect? - A cocky protagonist must save the world from evil by collecting seven magic gems before the villain, while sometimes undergoing a transformation that leaves all his hair golden and standing on end.
Sonic the Hedgehog or Dragon Ball? - A long running video game franchise where a blue protagonist must stop an evil doctor with a mustache and a bald spot from taking over the world with an army of machines. In the third installment of said franchise a red character is introduced who initially acts as an adversary to the hero but quickly becomes a staunch ally to him. Later, a black-coloured character is introduced with the same powers as the hero.
Mega Man (Classic) or Sonic the Hedgehog? - An Evil Overlord has conquered much of the known world and has banished the king into Another Dimension. A Ragtag Bunch of Misfits set out to stop the evil one and return peace to the land. They are led by a princess, the daughter of the king; a cocky, brash teen and the one who the show is named after; a cowardly Casanova Wannabe who likes the princess; and a young child who has the ability to fly.
Captain N: The Game Master or Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)? - The first iteration of a planned epic sci-fi trilogy relased on concoles, one which boasted a huge story and had choices that mattered. With humanity the newest player on the galactic stage, the fate of the galaxy rests on the shoulders of a human whose mind is expanding thanks to alien contact, and must embark on a planet sapnning adventure to stop a race of alien invaders.
Advent Rising or the first Mass Effect?
- I just finished watching an episode of The Simpsons that is generally considered the worst of all time. It's a Vacation Episode that was produced by Mike Scully and written by John Swartzwelder. The problem is, I can't remember if Homer was reluctant to go on the trip or the people who gave him the trip were reluctant to give him the trip.
- Temporal anomalies cause prehistoric creatures to arrive in the modern world. An elite team is sent to solve the problem, which leads to them discovering that said temporal anomalies and the people who cross into them end up causing ecological/temporal disaster. Humans battle the dinosaurs while attempting to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. A mysterious woman repeatedly appears with an ulterior motive and seemingly hostile intent, but may have a connection with one of the protagonists and be the key to the whole strange situation.
Primeval or Dino Crisis 2? - A protagonist haunted by the past leads a group of soldiers to recover the survivors of an accident on a deserted island. Along the way, they discover that the island is home to super-intelligent, genetically modified apes that prove to be the result of experiments gone awry. The hero must lead the survivors out, with the killer simians hounding their every step.
The Matthew Reilly novel Hell Island, or the film Primal Force staring Ron Perlman?
wootzits
- Two women, one an older, rich blonde and the other a younger, poor brunette, have a complicated relationship during Christmas.
The Legend of Frenchie King or Carol? - A naive heroine goes on an adventure in a world of weirdness to find someone. She picks up a few allies along the way, one of which she has to save from being harassed by the locals, and at some point or another travels through a labyrinth. There's also an evil, sexy monarch who has a crush on her.
Barbarella or Labyrinth? - Two sisters cope with a third family member's grave illness in the country. The stressful situation makes the two sisters fearful and angry at each other, while calm and stability comes in the form of someone big-bodied and lovable.
Cries and Whispers or My Neighbor Totoro?
Yisfidri
- A man ambitiously decides to commit murder for power and wealth, and his significant other aids him by planning how to carry it out. He pretends to be a loving protector of the victim, who is threatened by other enemies, and then kills them in their sleep, leaving a bloody mark to direct suspicion away from himself and his partner in crime. The plan starts to go wrong and the pair commit more murders to try (unsuccessfully) to get away with the first one.
Macbeth or Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile? - Suppose you're a kid attending wizard school, with classes in Potions and Broom Flying, in a medieval castle surrounded by dark forests. It's hard for you, since you weren't raised by a magical family, but you make two best friends pretty quickly, and then spend the rest of the series getting into adventures with them—usually of the out-of-bounds kind. Your chief rival, meanwhile, is the stuck-up scion of an old magical family... who, to make things worse, is blatantly the favourite of one of your most-hated professors, the sour-faced potions teacher. At least the kindly old head teacher is on your side.
The Worst Witch or Harry Potter?
ZehMonsieur
- Released in November of 2016, this story, part of an already popular franchise, sees its main character traveling to a foreign land. Powers never seen before in the franchise and alternate dimensions that house mysterious beings factor into the plot and the protagonist receives a sample of this power in the form of an accessory that houses a Mineral MacGuffin. The first antagonist featured is a man disinterested in the status quo due to how he perceives he was wronged by it; he, however, turns out to be a pawn for the real villain of the work, a prominently discussed character with access to these strange dimensions. In the climax of the story, the villain opens this dimension into the real world and assumes a monstrous humanoid form to confront the main character. After a final battle that plays with their series' conventions for such, the main character is given the opportunity to take on a position of great authority with the culture they have become acclimated to; a shorter sequence follows after the credits roll in which previously established characters ask the protagonist for their assistance.
Was this story produced by Nintendo or Marvel?
