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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openWhat is this trope?
OneyPlays was playing an Avengers video game and there was a scene where Kamala Khan and the Hulk find an enemy base. Kamala tries to come up with an intricate plan on how to infiltrate the base, while the Hulk just runs in and starts smashing things. The guys complain that this is a joke that's been made many times before. Is there a trope for this?
openLiteral Game-Changing Spells
I don't think there's already a trope about spells or abilities that temporarily relax or completely nullify some of the estabilished rules of the setting, especially in games?
Take for example the "Room" Moves from Franchise/Pokémon- for a max of 5 turns, they change the in-battle rules: one Room deactivates all held items, one switches the values of Defense and Special Defense for all mons, and especially Trick Room, which makes slower mons move before faster ones.
Another example that I remember could be a Yu-Gi-Oh! card that allows the user to have more than 6 cards in their hand, I guess it's called "Infinity"?
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.
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.
openA trope on manifestos
Is there a trope (that fits) for when a bad guys makes a manifesto to be shown online or in print?
openParanormal/Supernatural Law or Clause
Is there a trope where a city or organization has a law or clause in a contract explicitly for dealing with the supernatural, regardless of whether the setting is explicitly supernatural or not?
- The example that prompted this query is from Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe? After a series of mysterious pranks during Broadway shows turn deadly, the actors go on strike, and it's stated that they can do this indefinitely because Actors Equity has specific bylaws on dealing with hauntings and the owners are required to hire a paranormal investigator to either exorcise or disprove the haunting.
- I'm sure I've seen some things like this pop up in Marvel stories, but they don't stand out as much because of all the superhero stuff.
- I also know there are real life practices in some places where real estate agents must disclose if they're showing a house that is haunted, and also in New Orleans how you can't call cabs to certain older parts of the city because there have been too many reports of ghosts getting picked up and then disappearing before the cabbie is paid.
openAbrasive American
Something that supposedly happens in East Asian countries where the culture is all about hierarchy and respecting superiors, where they hire Americans to have someone who can call out the boss on their misbehavior without losing face (which the American is immune to since he doesn't, y'know, care).
Not quite "Ugly American" Stereotype since there's not necessarily any Cultural Posturing involved.
Edited by Chabal2openInterplanetary Genre Live Action TV
There might be more than trope to answer this question, but is there a name for the subgenre of sci-fi show that deals with multi-planetary societies of one sort or another? The story could be exploring these multiple societies like in Doctor Who or Star Trek, or it could be about the tensions between different planetary societies (Star Wars, maybe?)
openA play in the song Music
Hey, do we have a trope for when a song is sort of like a little audio play about the characters singing the song? This is especially common in children's music, and especially when it's based on pre-existing franchises.
Like, the characters aren't just singing, they're also saying stuff like "Okay, now it's your turn to sing, Bob!"
Remember how, in "The Chipmunk Song", it starts with Dave telling the chipmunks it's time to sing, and yells at Alvin for being inattentive? And only after that does the song actually start?
(The Pokémon song "Christmas Medley" is the best modern example.)
Is that a trope?
Edited by MisterMusicopenNo Title
There is kind of overused trope, when a newspaper or flyer on the wind suddenly hits into a character's face, and most often the newspaper contains some important information for a character, or the plot (pretty sure, most of you seen that a lot in the animated shows or anime). What exactly is the name of this trope?
openBoring White People
White people (usually WAS Ps) as an ethnicity are shown to be boring and unable to contribute meaningfully to culture, incapable of showing any skill at things like dancing (one toothpaste ad touted "teeth so white they can't dance"), eating even slightly-spicy food, playing sports or making music (especially rap), but have a disproportionately inflated and Nigh-Invulnerable ego (e.g. "Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man"). Any exceptions to the rule (white rappers, sportsmen, etc.) are explained by all the talent that should be spread out actually concentrating in that person.
Oddly, this seems mostly stated and agreed upon by white people, like Self-Deprecation meets N-Word Privileges.
Do we have something like that? It's usually either played for comedy or making a point about cultural appropriation driven by insecurity as with Pretty Fly for a White Guy.
Edited by Chabal2openDrug to make animals grow bigger
As I'm working on the TLP draft Giant Logistics, is there a trope about somebody finding a way to make animals grow bigger? It's often sold as a great business idea, to solve food shortage, but often overlooks the problem of feeding and looking after giant animals.
openGeographical In-Joke
like Historical In-Joke, except for locations: a work will bring up something that locals or long-time tourists to the area will know.
this ranges from subversions of the Eiffel Tower Effect (like showing bars or restaurants popular with locals and unknown to tourists) to local-specific issues plaguing the characters, like ungodly Los Angeles traffic, homelessness in San Francisco and angry Tech Bro characters also in SF, clueless tourists in Aloha, Hawaii! getting chased on the West Side of the island
examples include homelessness and a Tech Bro being integral to the plot of Venom set in SF - both have been hot-button topics in the Bay Area for ages
Edited by MsOranjeDiscoDanceropenDefinitely don't do this*
Character A wants Character B to do something (like press the obvious self-destruct button), but can't directly tell them to do it. Instead, they repeatedly tell Character B to not do the thing, sometimes even explaining how to do it, in the hopes that they get the hint and do it anyway.
open"No Jury Would Convict Me!"
A kind of Black Comedy where Alice proclaims aloud her intent to murder Bob and her belief that no one would feel she committed a crime. Not necessarily Bob being an Asshole Victim, can be Bob being Too Dumb to Live / The Millstone / an Insufferable Imbecile and his death being a net positive (e.g. Alice is the office IT girl, Bob needs his password reset five times a day, preventing Alice from dealing with the server catching fire after Bob turned off the cooling system so it'd make less noise).
Rarely results in Bob's death (save as a Red Herring in crime works) but often combined with Let Me at Him!.
Edited by Chabal2openBizarre Boomerangs
Is there a trope for using strange objects as boomerangs? It feels like it doesn't quite fit neatly into Abnormal Ammo, Improvised Weapon, Nerf Arm, etc.
I can think of a few examples:
- Donkey Kong uses a ton as his primary weapon, the Bwananarang, in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. He starts with the Potassium Pulverizer, a large banana, and gets a ton of others like the Habanero Caballero (hot pepper), Koi Ploy (koi), Curtain Call (rotary telephone receiver), and Weiner Whacker (hot dog).
- Ratchet & Clank has the Comet-Strike, a throw done with a comically oversized wrench. Clank can also use one of his Heli-Pack propellers for it, and in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal you can do the move with a whip made of plasma.
- In Donkey Kong Country and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate King K. Rool throws his crown as a boomerang. Additionally, in Donkey Kong 64 he can throw a boxing glove as a boomerang.
- Ape Escape has a bananarang that can lure apes with its delicious scent.
I'm looking for basically Bad Future, but it is instead about the past. A past in which society was far more oppressive and regressive compared to know. The closest tropes we have right now are The Dark Times and Dung Ages, but I'm not looking for either of them specifically.