The original post: /r/television by /u/Mst3Kgf on 2025-08-20 15:45:01+00:00.
This can also be referred to as the “but for me, it was Tuesday” moment, inspired by the infamous moment in the “Street Fighter” movie where Raul Julia tells Ming-Na Wen that the day that changed her whole life was basically just a rough day at the office for him. It can be a very dramatic moment, especially in showing the cruelty of a villain or the pointless futility of a personal obsession or crusade. But in a TV series, it can be even more effective by showing a character follow that obsessive quest or revenge drive for episodes or seasons, only then to get that cold reality that in the end, the target is clueless and you’ll get no satisfaction. We got a masterful example of this on “Andor” where Syril finally confronts the titular character after chasing him and obsessing over him for the whole series, only to have Cassian utterly clueless as to who he even is. Having watched Syril spend his whole storyline up to this point leading to this moment and then having this happen just makes the impact hit even harder.
My favorite example of this, however, oddly enough comes from an animated series, in this case “Batman Beyond.” In one episode, new Batman Terry McGinnis confronts villain Derek Powers, aka Blight, the man who in the first episode of the show caused the death of Terry’s father. Understandably a very emotional moment, but here’s the exchange.
“You killed my father.”
(Pause)
“Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?”
Cold, dude.