History Main / InvertedTrope

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' Inverts many tropes, a few examples are:
** Inverts CatsAreMean with Clawhauser, the cast's most prominent feline who is [[AllLovingHero the nicest character in the movie]].
** Inverts UsedToBeASweetKid with minor character Gideon Grey, as he goes from a violent WouldHitAGirl school bully to a well-adjusted and successful pastry chef as an adult.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' is about a living boy venturing a realm inhabited by [[DemBones dead spirits]], the inverse of a ghost in the living world.

* WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur features a pack of T-Rex's that completely flip the concept of the TerrifyingTyrannosaur. They aren't out to just eat any dinosaur, and actively help the protagonist (a vulnerable herbivore) gather some courage. By the time they part, the two groups have a strong mutual respect for one-another.

* In the beginning of ''Franchise/StarWars Episode I: Film/ThePhantomMenace'', the Jedi are trying to get into the control room where the Neimodians are. Lucas explained that this is an inversion of typical scene where a monster tries to get into the room where the protagonists are. And just like the monster may be scared away at the beginning of the film, so are the Jedi.
* ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' inverts the ArtificialLimbs trope with the [[http://www.filmjunk.com/images/weblog/treknobabble12_firstcontact.jpg android Data]] by [[spoiler:having living flesh grafted onto his body by the Borg queen.]] It doesn't last.
* ''Film/AKidInKingArthursCourt'', while having a lot of Chickification, manages to invert a lot of tropes surrounding the two Princesses. Princess Katie is established as a capable swordswoman and horse rider -- the tomboy of the pair. [[FauxActionGirl She is then abruptly kidnapped and must be saved by the heroes]]. We are led to believe that Katie was the toughest of the two sisters while her older sister Princess Sarah was a typical medieval lady. [[spoiler:The end reveals that Sarah was the one who had been dressing as The Black Knight and stealing from the rich to give to the poor.]].
* Sweet Pea in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' goes through most of the story being the stereotypical SourSupporter, reluctantly joining the team, reminding everyone of how dangerous and stupid the plan is, and eventually calling it quits when things get too dangerous. When it is revealed that the Sour Supporter -- which is usually a left of center character at most -- is actually the [[DecoyProtagonist plot central character]] and the HeroicSacrifice is made ''for'' her instead of ''by'' her, the trope inverts.

* In Film/AndJusticeForAll, the trope of a guilty person getting OffOnATechnicality gets cruelly inverted with Jeff, who's innocent but can't get ''out'' of prison because of a technicality.
* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' inverts the GuysSmashGirlsShoot trope. ActionGirl Rita Vrataski uses a CoolSword as her preferred weapon, whereas Cage uses machine guns for most of the film.

* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' inverts pretty much every gender-related trope, ''except'' the one about polygamy -- they do have the many women, one man model. Because men are [[GenderRarityValue rare]], women do all the fighting and stuff, while their husband sits well-protected in a comfy home and cares for the children. Then there is the protagonist Jerin, who inverts everything again by being a [[SpiritedYoungLady spirited young gentleman.]]. Notable inversions include the one of AManIsAlwaysEager -- Jerin is not very happy about the prospect of marrying thirty women, and comments that he would feel like a prostitute. He ''is'' fine with ten wives, however.

* Marc in Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath is a classic BigGuy, but he fakes [[TheBerserker berserker rages]] so he doesn't have to fight.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' inverts CrystalDragonJesus. In the straight trope, the religion resembles Christianity, but the deity is not the Christian God. In ''The Silmarillion'', Eru Ilúvatar is much like the Christian God, but the way to worship Eru is very different from Christianity.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** In the episode "There all the honor lies," a gift shop opens in the space station that sells [[RubberForeheadAliens human masks for space aliens to wear]].
** Similarly, Londo takes issue with the state of the genitalia present on the dolls made in his likeness; when it's assumed he's upset about a breach of decency, he clarifies that he's upset ''because'' there are none shown. It turns out that ALL Centauri depictions of a nude form are anatomically correct, and he feels he's being literally portrayed as dickless. And due to Londo's BizarreAlienBiology, being "dickless" means the doll is missing six tentacles sticking out of its sides!
* Quite a lot of instances on ''Series/{{Friends}}''. An example would be Phoebe's husband, in season 2, quoting stereotypical lines like "experimenting in college" to excuse himself for going out with women, a trope used the other way around for straight men or women realizing that they are gay. Here it's the other way around.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Tomb of the Cybermen" inverts BlackDudeDiesFirst by having the only black character in the story be the ''last'' to die.

* ''Series/{{Spartacus}}'' in the end inverts the BuryYourGays trope ([[spoiler: Agron and Nasir, major characters and a gay couple, are the only male characters on the good side to survive the show. In fact, the only other named characters to get out alive are two non-combatant women who were only introduced in the last season.]]). This was partly due to realism (most of the other male characters were real historical people whose deaths during the rebellion were documented), but also likely meant as an apology to LGBT+ fans, who had complained that [[spoiler: the first couple of gay characters to be introduced died early and violently in the middle of the first season.]]
* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' inverts both the mechanics and the theme of the fading of the Elves. In this version, Elves are only immortal due to the ImmortalityInducer of the Light of Valinor derived from the now-deceased Two Trees without which they will ultimately die, thus making their quest to create the Rings akin to {{Immortality Seeker}}s striving for the ElixirOfLife. Tolkien himself, [[SpiritualAntithesis in complete contrast]], described immortality as just as inherent to Elves as mortality is to Men, and the Elves' fading as the ever-increasing weariness and sorrow inherent in their misguided and futile attempts to stop the changes wrought by time and embalm the living earth to preserve its beauty and thus assuage [[WhoWantsToLiveForever their own angst about existing forever]], with the Rings as their most erroneous attempt to "fix" the mortal world by coercing it into a sterile facsimile of the bliss and beauty they knew in Valinor.

* ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' inverts the trope TerminatorTwosome, both in terms of where the twosome goes and what happens when they get there. [[spoiler: Succoria, Emperor of the Tainted Coil, goes to the future to retrieve its technology; Riggnarok, humanity's champion, uses the opportunity to assassinate her by masquerading as one of her slaves. However, Succoria has a VillainousBSOD upon realizing that the future belongs to humankind, and Riggnarok takes pity on her. LoveRedeems, but in this case, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath Redemption Equals]] DeathByChildbirth, and Riggnarok ended up raising protagonist Eddie Riggs in the modern world on his own.]]

* EasyModeMockery is inverted in ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan10 10]]''. You cannot earn Achievements in the harder difficulty modes, or when playing as Proto Man in ''9''.
* ''[[VideoGame/BatenKaitos Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean]]'' inverts the ShopFodder trope. A certain item from a random drawer in [[KleptomaniacHero someone's house]] (called the Small Debt) actually ''removes'' money from your wallet if you sell it. Holding on to it will cause it to evolve into [[FromBadToWorse Large Debt]], which removes more money from your inventory if sold, and finally into the [[OhCrap Snowballing Debt]], which removes a tremendous amount of money. Fortunately, you don't have to sell it, and the game shows the price of selling it clearly.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'', those who played this game consider Superfly's and Mikiko's deaths to be the best part of the game, inverting the AlasPoorScrappy trope. Mind you, this isn't ''really'' an example, since this was unintentional; players just hate the game so much they take cynical glee in the suffering of its characters.
* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Fall-From-Grace is a Succubus. You'd expect a tragic backstory about how her Succubus nature caused her to commit some wrong that justified her current tragic state of being cast off from her more judgmental deva peers who rejected her for being so disgraceful which led to her suppressing her darker Succubus side or some such, but no. She's very polite and graceful the entire time.
* [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Gameplaywise]] RedemptionDemotion appears in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' in the Scourge campaign. [[FallenHero Arthas]], the main character in the human campaign, by the end will have likely maxed out, acquired a number of really strong items, and as part of his StartOfDarkness, [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Frostmourn]], giving him a massive boost to melee damage Chaos-type damage for his attacks that allows him to deal full damage to all armor types. By the start of the Scourge campaign, he's just an ordinary Death Knight, and will never be as strong as he was before.
** Another case of this with Illidian going into ''Frozen Throne''. When the player controls him in the original campaign, he'll be able to go into a permanent demon form, which he loses in Frozen Throne, where the player is fighting him more often then using him, though he's still a level 10 demon hunter.
** Yet another case, this time with the gameplay itself in the Scourge campaign from the Frozen Throne expansion. Arthas starts as a level 10 Death Knight, but he ''loses'' levels from one stage to the next, going from level 10 to level 2 as his power source (The Lich King, before Arthas merged with him) grows weaker. He gets all his levels back in time for the last stage of the game.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' Saix inverts XMarksTheHero.

--> '''Doctor Shinobi:''' [[WithholdingTheirName My name and past are irrelevant]].
--> '''Lumi:''' I didn't ask about them.
--> '''Doctor Shinobi:''' My name is Doctor Shinobi. Ever since I was born, I was [[ProfessionalKiller trained to assassinate people]]...

* TacticalShooter games often invert InsurmountableWaistHighFence by having fences be the ''only'' obstacle you can hop over. This is done not so much for the purpose of trope play but rather for purposes of realism.
* The Flash game ''VideoGame/DontEscape'' is an inversion of the RoomEscapeGame--the protagonist is a werewolf whose goal is to lock himself in as best he can before he transforms and becomes a danger.
* In ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'', [[spoiler:Lilly's good ending]] inverts YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle. [[spoiler:The good and bad endings play out exactly the same, except the former has a few additional scenes.]]
* ''VideoGame/InvisibleInc'' inverts ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy. Guards and drones will ''never'' miss a shot.
* ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'' has you playing as a border inspector and making sure everyone's papers are in order before letting them through. One ending inverts RunForTheBorder where [[spoiler: you (and your family if you can afford to bring them along) flee your increasingly totalitarian country and cross into another country for safety. This time, ''you'' are the one trying to cross the border with fake documents while dealing with an inspector that does not care about your reason for crossing the border. He lets you pass.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'''s Switch version has an inversion of SecretAIMoves with the assist Horse Whispering/Horseplay, which can only be used by the player when Autobattle is turned off- AI-controlled characters cannot use it.
* ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' Episode 1: ''Homestar Ruiner'' inverts JustifiedTutorial as Strong Bad (under the guise of Homestar Runner) asks for instructions before a big race, which only confuses Coach Z as "Homestar" was training for the event for weeks, leading the player (and by extension Strong Bad) to make an embarassing attempt at it and lose terribly. [[AllAccordingToPlan (As Strong Bad intended.)]]

* It's one thing to wake up in a tub of ice [[OrganTheft missing your kidneys]]. As ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' shows, it's quite another to [[http://xkcd.com/914/ wake up in a tub of kidneys missing your ice]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries'' inverted AdaptationalComicRelief. Peter Parker in this series is one of the least jokey incarnations of Spider-Man, though he's still pretty quippy and snarky (it ''is'' Spider-Man, after all).
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' played straight the HideYourLesbians trope throughout the series, giving only the tiniest of hints that Maggie Sawyer was gay, despite her status as an out-lesbian in the comics since 1988. However, the series not only subverted, but ''inverted'' the BuryYourGays trope when it came to Maggie. The opening scene of ''Apokolips...Now!'' contained a perfect set up for [[BuryYourGays her death]], she is blown out of her car during an attack by Intergang and the next shot has her badly burned and motionless beneath a crushing pile of rubble, ''without'' [[EyeAwaken moving her eyes]] or [[FingerTwitchingRevival her fingers]], but she ultimately survives the encounter. That is a straight subversion of the BuryYourGays trope. However, the show then went on to invert the trope as well, as the same scene that revealed that Maggie had survived (Subverting the trope) was also the first scene to hint at her sexuality, when she was visited in the hospital by a woman the DVD commentary and credits reveal to be Toby Raines, her partner from the comics. BuryYourGays is often used as a way of getting rid of homosexual characters, of obscuring their nature before it could be brought into the story, but here it is used as a way to ''reveal'' a homosexual character. Also Inverted when [[spoiler: her straight beat partner Dan Turpin is KilledOffForReal.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pelswick}}'' inverts ObfuscatingDisability. The main character ''is'' disabled (paraplegic for [[NoodleIncident nebulous reasons]]), but is afraid that a girl he met online won't like him if she finds out, especially since she loves to dance, so he gets robotic legs in order to pretend to be able to walk. HilarityEnsues. [[spoiler:She never discovers the ruse, but dumps him anyway [[{{Irony}} for not being "laid-back" enough.]]]]
* ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'' inverts BondingOverMissingParents. The thing that bonded Spear (a caveman) and Fang (a tyrannosaur) was that they both lost their families. One day while hunting for food for his family, Spear hears screaming and runs to see his wife and children being eaten alive by a pack of Horned Tyrannosaurs. Then after some time has past, he sees the same Horned Tyrannosaurs attacking Fang and her babies. Spear steps in and teams up with Fang to fight them. When it appears that they have slain all the Horned Tyrannosaurs, Fang's babies come and gently play with Spear's hair. Then the Horned Tyrannosaurus alpha appears and before Spear or Fang can do anything, it eat Fang's babies alive, to their shock and horror. Spear and Fang fight together and kill the alpha. Nether of them are satisfied, having both failed to protect their families. Fang just lays down while Spear sadly walks alway. Later, while walking on a beach, Spear sees Fang following him, and after a moment of consideration, Spear accepts Fang, and the two head off into the night as a new family.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' inverts TigerVersusDragon. Among the 12 talismans based upon the Chinese Zodiac, the tiger talisman possesses the power of [[LiteralSplitPersonality balance]] and the dragon talisman possesses the power of [[PlayingWithFire combustion]]. The episodes in which the two talismans were found, "The Tiger And The Pussycat" and "Bullies", respectively deal with this. In "The Tiger", the last episode in the "Talismans" arc, Jackie accidentally gets split into Yin and Yang, the latter of which sides while the Dark Hand tries to forcibly take the talismans in Section 13's possession. In "Bullies", after Captain Black is injured by Valmont wielding the dragon talisman, Jackie struggles to control his anger whenever someone mentions Black's injuries and/or Valmont.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' inverts UnbalancedByRivalsKid. [[BigBad Vlad]] actually ''likes'' Danny, in a twisted, FauxAffablyEvil way. His big dream is basically to steal Maddie back from Jack and make Danny (and Jazz, to a lesser extent) his own adopted children, something which ''they'' understandably find unsettling.
* ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' inverts WifeHusbandry in the episode "Callie's Sister". The titular character, Lilith Maggotbone, is given in arranged marriage to Dwayne Boneraper when she becomes of age and in the meanwhile, Mark Lily is more than happy to raise her as his daughter (made easier because she ages one year per day). However, during the wedding ceremony, she reveals she wants to marry her adopted father, so first she tries to kill both Callie and Dwayne.
* Francine of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' is an inversion of the typical 'Chinese baby raised by white people' scenario - she's a white woman who was raised by Chinese people.

-->''ROAD RUNNER (Geococcyx californianus)''
-->''COYOTE (Canis latrans)''

** HePannedItNowHeSucks and ReviewsAreTheGospel

SuperTrope to OppositeTropes which specifically focus on taking completely contrasting takes on the same idea.

* ''Fanfic/WanderOverFostersAUOneshot'': Inverts MistakenForAliens. Wander is an alien, but no one but Bloo believes him. They just think he's an abandoned imaginary friend who thinks he's an alien.

[[caption-width-right:349:"Check the closet! I think I saw [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc a little girl with pigtails]]!"]]

* UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan knew upon leaving office that he was unpopular, and that he was blamed by many for the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar national crisis]] that was starting. Buchanan said at the time [[VindicatedByHistory "history will vindicate me"]]. No such luck, as he's still considered one of the worst American Presidents, 160 years after leaving office.

* In an inversion of {{Portmanteau}}, the show ''Animation/{{Nussa}}'' names its main charcaters as the split parts of one word: "Nusantara", the term for the Indonesian "outer islands" or archipelago. The titular boy is Nussa, his pet cat's name is Anta, and his sister's name is Rarra.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'' inverted the SecretKeeper trope with Nereus. He often kept many details about certain things secret from the Nekton family, which often caused them to distrust him.

* [[NubileSavage Krystal]] from ''Franchise/StarFox'' inverts DigitalBikini. When she first appeared, her pubic area (which her impressively short loincloth fails to cover) was rendered as a [[BarbieDollAnatomy completely featureless]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190420031948/https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/1ec06389-f4ab-497e-a62f-e26f580ff146/dcdwg1h-2e838433-d9ee-43b2-97ba-0db87673525f.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzFlYzA2Mzg5LWY0YWItNDk3ZS1hNjJmLWUyNmY1ODBmZjE0NlwvZGNkd2cxaC0yZTgzODQzMy1kOWVlLTQzYjItOTdiYS0wZGI4NzY3MzUyNWYuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.kftPPYmtciq_xj4K7Ob2SW5npLpWxDD-W1KYLKp-qMo white patch]] that somewhat resembles panties. ''Videogame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' replaced the simple white texture with ''[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1NEb5AXcAATaog.jpg detailed]] [[https://i.imgur.com//OffoMLh.jpg labia]].''

[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monsterbed_90.png]]