I like how popular culture has gotten to the point that after years of āsubverting your expectationsā, it is now considered a subversion to either do the thing that audiences expected will happen, to show that being good can be rewarded, or to just tell a straightforward story.
Examples:
1) People speculating that there was going to be a twist main villain in Dispatch - namely Blonde Blazer - only for it to be revealed that itās literally a straightforward superhero story with the Z-Team taking down Shroud.
2) Game of Thrones became infamous for being the prime example subverting our expectations. So when Knight of the Seven Kingdoms turned out to be a straightforward underdog story, it ironically became a subversion of what we have come to expect of Game of Thrones.
3) Superman 2025 apparently got a lot of criticisms for portraying Superman as this kind, awkward goofball who just wants to help people, fight the bullies, and tries his best to minimize property damage. Which isā¦exactly what Superman is as a character.
4) This is a minor example but I did see people being surprised that Thunderbolts had scenes of the heroes saving civilians. You know weāve gone too far into the darkness pool when heroes saving people has now become something to highlight.
5) For me, I was shocked that Wake Up Dead Man portrayed a priest in such a positive light. Iām so used to negative portrayals of religion that the positive one stuck out. And Father Jud wasnāt even an outlier, heās literally what a priest should be. So, technically, heās an example of a movie just being straightforward with what theyāre making a character out to be.
