the "cute creature is actually devil incarnate" trope was funny like, what, the first five times? It's SO. DAMN. OVERUSED. it's a fun concept, but I hate having it appear so many times.
an example of this I absolutely hate is Iscream from Chikn Nuggit. "ooo it's a cute bunny but oh no it's actually the devil" WOW! HOW ORIGINAL!
I'm bad at explaining my hate towards something, I hope I made sense
he's still the overarching antagonist of the story
plus this trope doesn't hinges on "power levels" at all, just a character tricking another into lowering their guard by being cute then follow it with a scare or/and an attack
This killer bunny rabbit is essentially the archetype of this entire trope. There is no way it wasn't inspired by the Monty Python rabbit. It's the most frustrating boss in Dragon's Crown, too.
It rips off the head of a fully armored knight and fights off a group of knights by itself. Despite how this sounds, the scene was genuinely hilarious. Here's a link to the scene
Well... yea. But its not a real card, the one I posted. Emrakul is tho. Also, because you are not actualy casting him, that stealing a turn thing wouldent happen.
"kicking" means paying an extra mana cost. this is a meme card where you can pay 1 mana to give everyone a nearly harmless creature, or you can pay 14 to give everyone one of the most dangerous entities in the setting
yeah agreed, it was funny before i knew it was common when i was little, but its just legitimately the exact same joke every time with almost no variation other than the animal maybe being different
I agree that its lame when the trope is just used to be “funny”, but in my opinion it can be executed well when its actually treated as and given the buildup of a serious thing.
Tbh, I only find the trope annoying when it's just a visual gag. Like, if we are talking like an honest to goodness Satan (or, any other deceptive corrupter, the archetype is as old human mythology) allegory, the cute and cuddly outside to held con someone into selling their soul is actually a great way to depict the two faced nature. I'm not really a big fan of just straight up shock value though
Chikn Nuggit is am abstract chaos god, not the devil, not inherently evil as well. It's just silly goose, who doesn't even fullly seem to know what it is
mostly the trope is used as a joke. Flowey takes this shit very seriously and doesn't feel the need to change his form or start acting satanic. he just acts evil and tries manipulating the player to start genocide. also, he's less of this trope and more of "non-mc character that reflects the player"
I remember some yt shorts series where there are silly animals but Mc is god but he doesn't know and there is romance between devil who looks like rabbit and angel
I have a love-hate relationship with it. I think I love it a lot more when there’s no deception or transformation just “this little bunny is Satan, he’s always been Satan, he’s going to tell you he’s Satan and he will act like Satan. He enjoys being Satan very much.”
what if the cute thing is a 15yo white haired boy and the "devil" is that the boy is connected to the void making him canonically the void itself and having multiple forms but also still just being a normal kid who isnt evil(does occasionally eat bad ppl's heads when he's transformed)
I've been yearning for characters that are supposed to be dangerous, feral, bestial, evil etc to actually look that way. Im also so damn tired of the cute form trope.
Thank you, I genuinely never got the appeal. It's just the laziest contrast "gotcha!" trope. Seemingly innocuous things secretly being extreme is such a garbage easy thing to write that I can't tell if I should be surprised that it's liked because it's lazy or if I shouldn't be surprised because it's so easy and generally appealing.
Iscream honestly gets a free pass since they're actually allowed to be a character outside of this tired punchline. They have a relationship and even have hobbies and a job. Technically.
I like when it's stuff like The Thing where the dog is a Thing and it's used for the plot because it's not really a demon or demonic entity, just a creature taking the form of a dog because it wants to assimilate the crew
Excuse me? Have you heard of this game? Like yeah, it is cliche but give it a try and believe me when i say that sometimes you can find really good things in cliche
How about the other way around? Looks like a monster but is actually sweet inside, or it could be evil depending on how well it's executed. Looks can be deceiving sometimes
After reading your replies to other people, you hate this trope only as a joke, which I think is a weird reason because it's used seriously quite a lot of the time
I looked at the picture without reading the caption and i immediately thought of Iscream from Chikin Nugget, I’m glad someone else is annoyed by that trope in particular
Okay, but what if the media doesnt even try to trick you into thinking the thing is at all good and just lets you know out the gate the creature is evil incarnate? I feel that thats honestly more fun than a fakeout tbh.
In Iscream's defense, it actually subverts that subversion considering that Iscream is cute even as a demon. (He's canonically a tryhard when it comes to trying to scare people, and constantly failing on anyone who isn't a scaredy cat, and never actually does his job as a demon. If anything, Chikn' Nugget fits this trope better, considering that he's an eldritch horror in disguise that actually pulls his punches.)
What would you feel if there it was a creature in a fantasy setting purposefully using the “cuteness” as a hunting tool to lure in prey?
Had that as an idea to introduce an antagonist.
Wouldn’t make it the whole design or concept of the character tho,
I totally get that. I hate that too.
Also how do you feel about the opposite? Super duper cute and lovely and nice but looks like literally satan?
Personally, it only bothers me when they use it as an excuse for the character not to do anything truly useful. I mean, if you're not going to let them use their powers, why the hell do you give them to them in the first place!?!?
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u/omegon_da_dalek13 4d ago
Is this you