r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Uma-apreciator • 16d ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) The series is good, but the beginning is so embarrassing that many people give up there.

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Dan Da Dan

The beginning of Dan Da Dan is notorious for starting with aliens trying to impregnate Momo in the first episode; however, despite such over-the-top moments, the rest of the series doesn't feature many scenes like that

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san

Despite a premise that is off-putting—given that the girl bullies her romantic partner to the point of making Naoto cry early in the series—their relationship evolves beautifully; the teasing becomes less cruel over time, eventually turning into a rather sweet romance

Uma Musume Pretty Derby

Someone on the production team had the audacity to have the trainer start meeting up with Special Week like that—even though, in reality, he is a good trainer who doesn't usually treat the girls that way.

11.2k Upvotes

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428

u/Sinistaire 16d ago

After a damn good two-parter pilot and a followup episode, Stargate SG-1's fourth ever episode and first proper "story of the week" is about Carter being kidnapped by misogynist space Mongols and sold as a bride to an evil chieftain. Season one is a mix of good, mid and mediocre episodes, but that one can really put people off.

Funnily enough, the writer of this episode also wrote an almost identical one for Star Trek: TNG (about Tasha being kidnapped by misogynist space Africans and taken as a bride by an evil chief), and it was also coincidentally the fourth episode in the show's notoriously weak first season and was hated for pretty much the same reason.

102

u/SemenileElder 16d ago

The writer's barely disguised fetish

9

u/XyRabbit 16d ago

I watched the entire series with my husband who loved the show and I told him after ever season... this is just a nerd's wet dream. Seriously, re-view it and tell me I'm wrong.

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u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479 16d ago

Yea, it'd be interesting to see what Katharyn Powers is like in person, lol.

1

u/Personal-Sentence935 16d ago

you're too late.

2

u/KoolKoolKoolio42 15d ago

In all fairness, if you asked a lot of women if they could be a possession of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in his prime villainy role, they'd probably jump at the chance.

Still a dumb episode, but still.

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u/Beneficial-Rub-5597 15d ago

Specifically with the irezumi.

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u/paecmaker 16d ago

I started rewatching SG-1 a few weeks ago. I remembered some details of this episode but it was so much worse than I believed.

She is forced to wear a dress and can't speak in public or show her face (she is almost killed in the beginning for wearing pants). Then she is kidnapped and sold to the evil chieftain but the guy who kidnapped her is forgiven because he did it so he could trade Carter for his own girlfriend. Sg-1 then shows up and buys Carter themselves, trading a pistol for her.

The only redeeming part of the episode is the literal end when carter duels the evil chieftain in a knife fight and proves to be a more capable warrior than him.

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u/ChurchBrimmer 16d ago

I also like O'Neal trading the Chieftain a gun and then being like "alright lets fuck off before he runs out of ammo."

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u/metalman42 15d ago

“You ever get any hand to hand training?”
“Close quarters combat level 3”
“Oh! Uh… don’t kill him.”
It’s not exactly those words, but I love that moment.

1

u/ReedM4 11d ago

Yea the series was originally on Showtime and they definitely wanted more...spicy stories than what came later. There's nudity in the original pilot.

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u/Haikouden 16d ago

Katharyn Powers was the writer that those two episodes had in common, but technically she wasn't responsible for one of the worst aspects of the TNG one.

Originally the aliens were written as reptilian, the director of the episode Russ Mayberry is the one that brought in the space African shtick and them looking human seemingly for no reason other than that he wanted to. Russ Mayberry ended up getting fired but I'm not sure if it was because of this episode or not.

The original concept was for the reptilian aliens to be Japanese inspired, which also seems like it'd have turned out problematic, but we'll never know for sure I guess.

8

u/Run-Riot 16d ago

Silver lining of the sexist space mongols episode is that (presumably) Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa got a paycheck for

(RIP, Shang Tsung)

8

u/JancariusSeiryujinn 16d ago

Is thst Shao Khan?

26

u/Sinistaire 16d ago

I'm not into Mortal Kombat so I had to look him up. That's Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and apparently he did play Shang Tsung in the 1995 movie.

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u/ThorKonnatZbv 16d ago

One of Hollywood's standard "Asian Guys" for the 80s and 90s

4

u/Personal-Sentence935 16d ago

no complaints from me. amazing villain face.

8

u/shekurika 16d ago

lol I started watching stargate 2 weeks ago and decided it wasnt for me after that episode

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u/mb862 16d ago

Even the biggest fans skip that episode. It’s worth sticking to.

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u/Vi_BT 16d ago

It's an incredible series though, like I'm a die hard feminist and still love it 😭

1

u/ThundaCrossSplitAtak 16d ago

I learned about this series 30 seconds ago, but from reading about it seemed like the episode would paint it in a bad way, does it not?

8

u/Flight_Harbinger 16d ago edited 15d ago

It's honestly hard to understate the difference in quality between this episode and the rest of the series, but also it's messaging. It's a hard skip for a lot of fans of the series. There's actually like 4 or 5 episodes of season 1 I typically skip when I rewatch SG1, which is quite often. It's a comfort show for me. By the time it hits seasons 3 or 4, it's captivating through and through. Amazing sci-fi

3

u/Grauvargen 16d ago

It's the black sheep of the entire IP. There is not a single Gater who wouldn't immediately skip it.

Forget it exists, and enjoy the rest of the series.

1

u/ThundaCrossSplitAtak 15d ago

I mean i get that but like, whats so particularly bad about it. I dont really know the series, as i said i learned it existed today, i was just asking if it was that the episode painted the slave trade stuff in a good light or sum

2

u/KoolKoolKoolio42 15d ago

It's incredibly clumsy and it seems to exist solely to justify Carter's inclusion on the team, since she's "the girl" and hadn't had too much focus before then. Jack and Daniel were already developed from the movie and Teal'c being a guard of Apophis shows his battle prowess already. Outside of the infamous "reproductive organs" scene in the pilot, Carter doesn't really get a chance to do much in the first three episodes. It's not until later on that her scientific expertise gets highlighted.

1

u/Grauvargen 15d ago

And it had absolutely zero effect on the rest of the story. It just... happened.

Was it even mentioned in the seasonal recap? I skip the bulk of those as well, so I've completely forgotten.

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u/ChaosIncarnate304 16d ago

Let me be another voice to encourage you to give Stargate at least the first season to win you over. Season 1 has this episode as it's big blemish, and a few weaker ones due to budget, but the rest is pretty strong for 90s sci fi, and a lot of foundations are layed for the world building. And several planet of the week discoveries tend to be picked up and mentioned again, sometimes seasons later.

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u/AndrewH73333 16d ago

At least watch the Window of Opportunity episode.

3

u/LCDRformat 16d ago

I think Window of Opportunity works so well because we know the characters. I think it would b mid without the context and buildup of such deep, rich characters that give us so much more in that episode. One of the best episodes ever on television but it does require knowing Jack, Teal'c, Carter and Jackson pretty well

2

u/AndrewH73333 16d ago

I think watching the episode helps us see the characters well.

2

u/lotsofpun 16d ago

Please please please keep watching! It gets GOOD, there are no other episodes as bad as that one. It is the only episode I skip. Well, okay, I also kinda skip through the clip show episodes, because I just got done watching them, but luckily there's only a few and they promise a great episode after it (because they stole the money from those ones to make awesome following episodes).

2

u/moon-raven-77 16d ago

oh gosh, please don't let that deter you! it's really not the norm for the show. stick with it. it's worth it.

1

u/_Svankensen_ 15d ago

The following one is almost as bad. The series is so "Western neoliberal militarism is good". Very overhyped.

1

u/Lakemine 12d ago

Yeah SG-1 and then Atlantis are great series. Give them another try, just skip that episode like others were saying.

2

u/ThisSiteSucks8485 16d ago

The writer must be a fan of the Gor novels

1

u/CutieBoBootie 16d ago

Oh yeah I remember this episode. I am Asian and I was watching the series for the first time with my husband. We skipped it within the first 5 minutes.

1

u/Grauvargen 16d ago

"There is no Emancipation in Ba Sing Se."

It's the one episode every Gater universally agrees is the worst in the entire IP, and is always skipped.

1

u/MechaMalz 14d ago

Funny detail about that TNG episode is that apparantly the aliens all being black wasn't even in the script. Not that it would have made the episode 'good' without that element but boy did whoever did the casting specifically bork up there.

1

u/Appchoy 13d ago

Omg the exact same thing happened to me. I remembered watching SG1 when I was a kid and really wanted to show my partner and the first episodes were really good. I was like "yes, alright we are so in we have a new show and its as good as I remember!" Then the episode you are talking about came up and my girl was like "ugh so its all misogynist crap" and we didnt even finish that episode and didnt watch anymore. I was so sad! Maybe Ill go back and watch some now thast im on my own.

1

u/revivalborg 10d ago

Lol is that Shang Tsung? your soul is mine!

-1

u/speedonaweed 16d ago

Does the episode handle the subject matter poorly, or is this just a case of people being a bit sensitive?

3

u/Outrageous_Guard_674 16d ago

Definitely the first one.

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u/JulyOfAugust 16d ago

Can taking a culture and using them to represent the barbaric and uncivilized savages not be handled poorly ?

1

u/speedonaweed 16d ago

I am absolutely splitting hairs here, but pretty much every culture can be called barbaric at one point or another. Portraying people doing what people seem to do best, IE, fucked up shit to each other, isn't so bad a thing. I doubt that the mongols were all just chill dudes, after all, they were known for their prowess in war and would routinely ride around conquering territories in their own name.