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.
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This one is more about the audience than the work itself. What is it when people misuse a work or metaphor because they don't understand or just haven't thought about it in any depth. Specifically, I'm thinking about the famous "onions have layers" metaphor Shrek stole from Peer Gynt, but then completely misunderstood as being about having hidden virtue rather than having no soul.
Edited by SimsKatieopenNo Title
Hey, what's that trope where security gaurds or professional soldiers get a moment of stupidity where they watch one of their buddies die in a strange way, and then they investigate what killed them, and then are killed in the same way. It sort of like a Death Conga line. I think it may be related to Idiot Ball and The Guards Must Be Crazy.
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Is there a trope for those times when the Hero and the Villain are in a Duel to the Death, with the Hero in the lead. But instead of the Villain meeting his well-deserved end (he spent the first 90 minutes Kicking the Dog with ice-climbing boots and laughing), the Hero wins and the Villain... survives? Both combatants have been using perfectly lethal weaponry, with every intent to use them lethally. In fact, if the Hero hadn't made a very suspenseful comeback, he would have died. But somehow the Hero wins definitively, yet the Villain is allowed to crawl back from whence he came. The film ties up the conflict neatly, but does not have to address the moral implications of killing the Villain and tarnishing the Hero. The audience is left to uneasily examine how they would have failed to show the same mercy.
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Unexpected badass move. When someone who is usually pretty useless unexpectedly does something badass, often revealing some unknown skill. It's not quite You Didn't Ask, but related. It's close to Took a Level in Badass, except it's not a newly acquired skill and it usually doesn't even come up again.
I'm sure we must have this but I can't find it. I just thought of it when I was watching The Mentalist. Grace (The Chick who is usually completely useless) suddenly showed she has some amazing driving skills in a car chase scene.
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I have a real problem with an Avengers series called Red Zone. Without full-on spoiling, it boils down to the idea that a cabinet-level position in the US White House is not something so easily compromised as depicted therein. Partisanship and even intra-party problems plus the press ensure that no one ever slides in for any prime position, I don't care who they know. I think this belongs somewhere in Did Not Do The Research, but which of those sub-tropes it falls into escapes me. Any help?—and sorry if I still spoiled.
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Is there a trope describing how random, destructive, life-threatening events are far more likely to occur when a character who is capable of saving the lives of those in danger is present? For example, take the scene in the first Superman film where the Lois Lane's helicopter gets snagged by a cable and Clark just happens to be walking out of the building in time to save them?
I hope I'm explaining this right. It kind of reminds of Good Thing You Can Heal, just in a more meta sense.
Edited by BrothaSoulopenNo Title
Is there a trope regarding a setting that essentially has crystal outcrops/the place is full of crystals? No, it's not civilized, so it can't be Crystal Spires and Togas.
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Is there an equivalent of Trailers Always Spoil for when the cover art of a book, DVD case, and so forth provides the spoiler? Or is that just a variant of the Trailer version?
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What's the trope for that "Voice Modulator" that KITT had in the [[Knight Rider]] series? Is there even one?
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Is there a trope that covers Seto Kaiba's constant refusal to acknowledge magic? Each 4 to 6 episodes, there will be a new magica plot device, but each time he will again refuse to believe in magic at all, even though he has seen Yugi transform half a hundred times. There are probably more examples in more "mature" works of fiction, but I don't remember any at the moment. Thanks in advance!
This variation on It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans, just has to be an established trope... Basically it's where in any given chase scene going through a Chinatown, the chase will always have to go through a dragon dance, despite it being nowhere near the Lunar New Year.
It's invoked on the Friendly Local Chinatown page but... that seems to be a more general "Chinese things happen in Chinatown" than the getting tangled up in a dragon dance that I'm thinking of.