The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
Find a Trope:
openOut of format episode
Is there a trope for an episode of a show with a Strictly Formula that doesn't follow said formula? Not quite Out-of-Genre Experience, but just some changes in the usual proceedings? Or are such episodes supposed to be listed as aversions of Strictly Formula?
openInsult Intentionally Cut Short
A character deliberately interrupts himself before he can finish saying something insulting, while saying enough of it to ensure everyone knows who he's talking about.
e.g. Bob used to work for a Corrupt Politician who employed him for all manner of illegal activities from picking up drugs to bribing officials to silencing witnesses and paternity suit cases. Whenever the subject comes up, Bob always refers to him as "the Republ- *cough* the politician", with no use of names or pronouns, the whole four words and a cough.
openDromaeosaurs going after large prey
It seems to be a cliche in dinosaur-focused media where pack-hunting dromaeosaurs (think Velociraptor or Deinonychus) go after large prey like hadrosaurs, ceratopsians or sauropods, despite their huge size difference.
Edited by BingChillingopenAngered Gestures of Restraint
When a character is enraged enough the point of wanting to choke a the offender, but has to restrain themselves by making strangling cupping gesture with their hands while trying to resist the urge to do so.
openA trope where someone reaches down another person's throat
Trying to see if there is a trope for when one character (let's say Alice) reaches their hand down the throat of another character (let's say Bob), and pull something out. It could be that Alice is pulling something out of Bob's "stomach of holding", or is trying to grab something stuck in his throat, or is feeling malicious and is ripping something out against his will. Is there such a trope for this? It seems like something that would be common in most forms of animation.
openAngelic/divine possession
Inverse of Demonic Possession, this is when a divine being possesses someone in order to closely see the mortal world, or to "talk" to certain people directly, or to assert more influence in the immediate surroundings, etc.
openI can still hear them... Western Animation
A character is presumed dead, but is alive and in danger nearby. The character will yell to a mourner, to which the mourner will say that they can still hear the character, before finally realizing what the person is saying and going off to help. Usually "I can still hear them now" or similar phrases are said.
Edited by DrOlsonopenColors of Darkness
When it comes to usual color schemes for villains, I often see combinations of red and black, black and purple, black and blue, even black with multiple shades of cyan. Either way, they're all color combos that are usually associated with darkness. I'm also sure there are plenty of evil color combos out there that may be listed. What are they?
Edited by TheSuperShinyMegaGengaropenPinball Playfield Prop
AKA a "Toy." This is basically what it says on the tin. Pinball tables with figurines of some description, ranging from a statue/doll to an animatronic.
Examples include:
Physical Pinball Tables:
- Apollo 13 has a Saturn rocket (the titular Apollo 13) and the moon, which has an electromagnet in it to make balls orbit.
- Mary Shellys Frankenstein has a bust (plus both arms) of The Monster, who acts as a Popper for the balls.
- Stern's Starship Troopers has a Brain Bug.
Digital pinball tables:
- Pinball Deluxe:
- Jurassic Links has several; a quartet of dinosaur eggs (that can be hatched with a skillshot, whereupon they react when hit), a bronosaurus figurine, and an animated golf cart being chased by a T-Rex.
- Rydes has a diner in the Town section, a gas pump in the Garage, and a quintet of traffic cones that play a honking car horn SFX.
- Tradewind is studded with various toys (a mine, a windmill, and some pine trees on table 1, and a gem mine and more pine trees on table 2. In the Galactic Trade skin it's changed to a centrifuge and cooling stack, and the trees are kept in biodome sattelites). It is a very quest-heavy table, with various Toys needed to be hit in order to collect and refine various resources.
openMistaking warning for outburst
You try to warn someone, but they think you're disrupting them. Here's the example:
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Food Con Castaways", SpongeBob and Patrick repeatedly annoy Mr. Krabs and Squidward in the car on the way to Food Con, and the former forces them to not make one peep until they get there. Suddenly, SpongeBob repeatedly screams, "PEEP!", and Mr. Krabs thinks he's disrupting again until everyone realizes they're going over Peep's Cliff.
resolved Parting Gift
Is there a trope where a character leaves something behind when they die - like, for lack of a better description, a video game character dropping loot after defeat? Intentionally or unintentionally.
openPoison the Antidote
A kind of gambit where a first attempt at something is a feint to see what the victim does, the second is the real deal.
e.g.
- Alice wants to poison Bob, who is paranoid about poison. She puts emetics in his food, not enough to kill him but enough that he thinks he's in mortal danger, and he pulls out a vial of antidote from a chain on his neck. Now knowing where he keeps the bottle and what it looks like, Alice can replace the contents with poison, and put emetics in Bob's food again, this time successfully killing him once he downs the bottle.
- Charlie is a general tasked with taking out a fortress. He first sends a mass attack wave of Cannon Fodder and takes careful note of where the traps, snipers, artillery etc. are located. His second attack uses combined arms to specifically target those locations first, neutralizing them and quickly swamping the defenders.
openGrounding Character Print Comic
What do you call the character in a grand universe sized adventure where all life is in danger, but the character helps keep you grounded. With so much going on, they are they reminder of what the little things are to be lost. An example I can think of is during world saving adventures, Spider-Man still takes time to save the little guy, this keeping us grounded.
openHuman Computer
An occupation found in some science fiction/fantasy settings where Omnidisciplinary Scientists or similar folk serve as general-purpose intellectuals, usually in service to a noble.
Examples off the top of my head are Mentats from Dune or Maesters from A Song of Ice and Fire. Are there any other examples for this to be trope-worthy?
openClasses in shooter games
When shooters have classes such as
- Standard soldier
- Heavy weapons guy, low damage but typically high fire rate and have abilities that increase their survivability
- Sapper, guy who builds stuff
- Sniper
- Medic
openSupernatural Compass
A trope where someone has a compass or similar trinket that, rather than pointing towards North, uses supernatural powers to point towards something else.
- Holly's pendant that points towards the Phoenix in Monster Rancher.
- Jacks' compass that points towards the holder's greatest desire in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
- Syaoran's Compass in Cardcaptor Sakura can point towards Clow Cards, and I think Sakura's staff can as well? That one I may be misremembering.
- In Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe?, Nestor (and later Hunter) has a scale from The Creature that points towards where the Black Lagoon is currently located.
Character feels bad because they feel useless to the group
Example: Quint in the The Last Kids on Earth Season 2, episode 3