I ran across an article where the author couldn't resist a dig at "toxic nerds" and of course mentioned the sacred cow of The Last Jedi. I remember walking out of Last Jedi bored out of my mind and so I was very confused when I heard so many critics going on and on about how brilliant it was and how it subverted the expectations of those who wanted to see a more heroic Luke Skywalker, and (I think this was the first time I saw this line of reasoning) this was why that is a good thing.

I will never understand why Last Jedi and Female Ghostbusters are the sacred cows for media shills. I also hate how with modern entertainment doing something unexpected for the sake of it will get the shills clapping like seals.

Some horrible examples of subverting expectations in recent memory are Arya killing the Night King (I mean having Jon have an epic battle with the Night King couldn't possibly make any sense), Robin being a lesbian in Stranger Things season 3 (they actually said the original plan was for them to be together so forgive me if I think they changed things for woke points), and of course Last Jedi.

However if well done it can be good. I know I've made posts bashing George R. R. Martin but the man is a great writer and he said he set out to subvert the tropes of Tolkein when he wrote Ice and Fire. While I will never put him and Toklein on the same level, I will admit book 1 (season 1) was a great example of subverting expectations since Ned Stark was the main star of the show at that point.

To me another good example would be Yoda in Empire Strikes Back turning out to be a little green guy that seems like a nobody.

What would your examples be of a good subversion of expectations?