TLP Ideas
open/close all folders
Sudden Coming Out valid examples
Film
- Miss New York in Miss Congeniality makes no mention of her romantic life until she gets eliminated, at which point she addresses the audience and says that she wants to tell any lesbians that may be watching that if she can make it this far, so can they. She then blows a kiss and yells "I love you!" to her girlfriend, who's revealed to be in the audience. Justified, as the film was made in 2000 — people were steadily growing more open-minded, but homophobia was still pretty rampant. Being upfront about it from the start likely would've damaged Miss New York's chances of even getting into the pageant.
- Invoked in-universe in Bedazzled (2000) when the Devil sabotages Elliot's wish to be a rich, intelligent, and suave man who Alison is head-over-heels in love with by making him gay. Prior to the reveal of this, Elliot appears to be very much into Alison and easily seduces her, only to find himself suddenly unable to kiss her after they discover a man waiting for Elliot in his bed. When Elliot tries to deny that he's gay, the man gives him a quick quiz ending with "What was the original Broadway cast of The Pajama Game?" He names off 3-4 characters in quick succession before catching himself and going, "Oh my God, I AM gay!"
- In Superstar (1999), one of Mary's friends, Owen, who seemingly was crushing on her best friend, suddenly kisses one of her guy friends on the cheek after winning the competition in the end. His stunned response "you're gay?!" just leads to the former kissing him on the cheeks 5 more times.
Live-Action TV
- On 30 Rock, womanizing Frank meets a cute guy named Jamie and announces that he's now gay. Later, he decides that he's just "gay for Jamie." Several (straight and gay) characters point out to him "that's not a thing", though Liz qualifies it with "unless you're a lady and you meet Ellen DeGeneres".
Webcomics
- Near the very end of Homestuck, after John's retcon, Dave, who despite a fair amount of Gay Bravado had only expressed interest in women is revealed to be bisexual and in a relationship with Karkat. John even wonders if his timeline-altering powers had somehow caused Dave to become gay, but Dave tells him he's thinking about it the wrong way, and that's how he was all along.
- In Rain, when the titular character is hanging out with Emily and Kylie, the trio are discussing prom and how difficult it would be to bring their friends together to their extremely homophobic school. Ky suggests that they instead have their own prom, which Emily considers a good concept, even if she'd rather go to the big school prom, and admits that she'd consider taking a girl. This comes as quite a shock to Rain and Ky, especially since Emily is pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child, but she explains that she's actually Pansexual. Cue the two imagining her cuddling with a frying pan.
Western Animation
- Parodied in an episode of American Dad! where Stan's friend's wife announces she's leaving him because she's a lesbian. When he protests, she says "You don't just become a lesbian! It's not like someone shot an experimental ray into my head and suddenly I'm gay!" Of course, Stan did just that; he's trying to get his friend, who's an atheist, to convert to Christianity by putting him through a Job-like situation.
Representation dark horse character
- Matilda from Everything's Gonna Be Okay is widely considered one of the most credible and sympathetic depictions of a person with autism, generally averting negative stereotypes about the condition. It helps that she's a Rare Female Example of such a character.
Creepy Pale Ambiguously Queer Boy
The Creepy Pale Ambiguously Queer Boy is a type of character often found in Japanese media, started by Ryo from Devilman and codified by Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Features common to these expies (Some of which are highly spoileriffic):
- Between 10 and 20 years old.
- White, silver, or sometimes even pastel blue or green hair. Older examples of this archetype often have blond hair.
- Red, blue, or sometimes even gold or grey eyes.
- Develops a strong bond or fascination with the male lead, to the point of seeming like Homoerotic Subtext. Bonus points if it's Foe Romance Subtext.
- Is often Affably Evil or otherwise an Anti-Villain or Anti-Hero. Often, he will have been raised by a villainous force, explaining his odd morals.
- Will sometimes die or part ways with his companion before any chance of a Relationship Upgrade, sometimes making the protagonist cross the Despair Event Horizon. Bonus points if the character dies by beheading as a Shout-Out to Kaworu.
- Like the Rei Ayanami Expy, many of them are Not Quite Human (e.g an angel, Artificial Human, or other supernatural being).
Sometimes, the character will stay a bloodthirsty Yandere, but other times, the character will eventually become more friendly and grow a heart, similar to the Rei Ayanami Expy's goal of gaining emotions.
As the Spear Counterpart to Rei Ayanami Expy, this character archetype often, but not always, overlaps with it. Compare Char Clone for similar phenomena. Subtrope of Fountain of Expies.
Examples: Mitsuki, Aru Akise, N, Joshua.
- The Trope Codifier is Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Hunter × Hunter brings us Killua Zoldyck, a 12-year-old boy with white hair and blue eyes who was raised by a family of assassins, making him initially unhesitant to kill people in cold blood. He wants to be a Hunter so he can escape his family and have friends, and he and Gon develop a strong bond upon meeting at the Hunter Exam, to the point where he calls Gon his "light". He gradually develops more empathy as the series progresses, and he and Gon part ways towards the end of the Election Arc.
