These are the tropes which have been handed down from the ancients. These are the tropes our forefathers gave their lives to defend. These are the tropes we use and take for granted every day, oblivious to their true significance. These... are the Tropes of Legend!
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Here is a list of the most widely-known and oft-referenced tropes we have on this entire site. If you’re new to TVTropes, this list will provide a good basis for understanding our… erm… unique vocabulary.
On the other hand, if you’re a veteran troper and you still aren’t familiar with all of these entries, this list might prove to be quite informative.
Most of the individual mediums have their own special vocabularies and tropes – see those sections for details. A few examples from each (Heel Face Turn, Mary Sue, etc.) have propagated beyond their home subcultures.
See also Trope Overdosed (for the equivalent in shows), Omnipresent Tropes, TV Tropes Glossary, Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions, Pothole Magnet. For Tropes Of Legend by sheer numerical weight, see Overdosed Tropes.
Body Horror: Someone's body is mutating into something horrible.
Brainwashed: A character is hypnotized into doing something against their will, but that something isn't necessarily violent.
Brainwashed and Crazy: A character is hypnotized into attacking or destroying someone or something against their will.
Break the Cutie: A sweet, lovable character is put through hell.
Buffy Speak: A fouled-up explanation of something by someone intelligent enough to understand it but not articulate/mature/educated/attentive enough to describe it, usually using overly simple language construction. A bit of a self-demonstrating title for the trope.
Canon: Plot, characterizations, and story elements that actually happened.
Fanon: Canon that isn't — plot, characterizations, and story elements that did not officially happen, but that the fans believe is sufficiently supported or implied by what did to "count".
Chekhov's Gun: A story element that is inconspicuously introduced now, but becomes extremely significant later.
The Chessmaster: A character who creates complex schemes, and gets involved into various events to make said schemes work.
Manipulative Bastard: A villain who gets what he or she wants by manipulating other people's emotions.
Magnificent Bastard: Chessmaster + Manipulative Bastard, with a lot of charisma to boot.
Cloudcuckoolander: A character who has a spacey personality and, while not necessarily stupid, usually lapses into odd non-sequitur sayings or actions.
Comically Missing the Point: A humorous situation where someone completely fails to realize what it is the other person is trying to convey, despite how obvious it is.
Crapsack World: A place which is really horrible to live in.
Damsel in Distress: A female character who continually needs others to rescue her
Darker and Edgier: The tendency of shows to try to give themselves a new feel that is darker and edgier. Usually involves trying to add more angst, more violence, more rage from the characters, and less lighting.
Dead Horse Trope: A trope that has been so overdone, analyzed, and mocked that its different varieties or parodies have had to be classified and given names. Most clichés are simply Discredited Tropes.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Is this suggestive of anything else other than what it actually is? And by that, we generally mean something sexual.
The Dragon: A character which represents and embodies the brute strength of the bad guy's evil ambitions, often serving as his right-hand man, personal bodyguard or 2nd-in-command.
I Knew It: When a particular theory turns out to be true.
Even Evil Has Standards: A case that has a villain reject another, terrible villainous deed due to his/her dislike for it.
Everything's Better with Princesses: Princesses are quite popular to use in fiction, thus they tend to show up whenever a writer can fit them in.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: When the title tells you almost everything about something; for example, the film Snakes on a Plane. Also used for YKTTWs that are exactly what they say on the title of the suggestion.
Executive Meddling: When a work is altered solely because the higher management of the company wants it to be changed.
Expy: A character who is very similar to another character in a different work, often by the same author.
Fan Nickname: A name given to a character by fan communities.
Fanservice: Material added to please the fans. Traditionally, this meant anything a casual viewer might not get, but now almost always means titillating or sexual content.
Faux Symbolism: Inclusion of various unnecessary religious, philosophical, and historical allusions with the purpose of lending an air of sophistication to a work.
Finagle's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Due to itself, often mis-attributed as "Murphy's Law."
Five-Man Band: A stock heroic team with five characters whose characterizations and interactions with each other fall into different, balanced, and specific roles. Variations include the Power Trio, the Four Girl Ensemble and the five-temperament version of Four Temperament Ensemble. The five-man-version consists of (though this can be varied):
Flanderization: Simplifying formerly complex characters by magnifying one of their character traits and making it their sole defining characteristic.
The Fourth Wall: The metaphorical wall between the characters and the audience. Most fictional characters have no idea that they're in a story.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Exceptions to the above. Scenes where characters demonstrate they are aware of the audience and the fact that they're in a story.
No Fourth Wall: Series and characters for which breaking the fourth wall is the rule, not the exception.
Genre Savvy: The opposite of the above; a character has an understanding of tropes relevant to their situation and uses their genre knowledge to their advantage.
Gilligan Cut: A character protests vehemently against doing something crazy and absurd, and the very next scene has the character doing just that. The very first trope on the wiki.
A God Am I: A delusion where someone thinks to be Godhood/Universal ruler.
Hand Wave: A brief explanation is offered that isn't actually an explanation, but gets the question out of the way so the story can work.
Happy Ending: The dilemma is solved, and everyone lives on happily.
Heel Face Turn: When a character switches sides from bad to good.
Face Heel Turn: The opposite; a character switching sides from good to bad.
Heroic BSOD: Some horrible event shocks the hero and makes him incapable of anything for a while.
Heroic Sacrifice: Character makes a great sacrifice to save others.
Hilarity Ensues: The consequences of a character's actions in a comedy show.
Hot Blooded: In shonen anime, everyone fights with BURNING PASSION!
Ho Yay: A scene or event between two characters of the same gender which implies sexual tension between them.
Foe Romance Subtext: Same thing, but between foes (not necessarily of the same gender)
Les Yay: Ho Yay which is specifically between two female characters
Humongous Mecha: Giant robots, in the shape of a human, mostly from anime/manga.
Idiot Ball: A metaphorical object held by a (normally reasonable) character which causes them to create a central plot conflict out of their own stupidity.
Idiot Plot: A plot that only functions by all of the characters acting like idiots.
What an Idiot: Similar to the Idiot Ball, this is when a character deviates from what most would describe as simple common sense.
Just in Time: Salvation that arrives just in time to create a fake sense of suspense.
Justified Trope: The work offers an explanation for the use of an otherwise illogical trope; can be anything from a Hand Wave to a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Karma Houdini: A character who gets off scot-free despite committing immoral actions (usually a villain, heroic examples are often YMMV)
Kick the Dog: An act done or statement made by a character in order to garner hate from the audience and illustrate their unlikable inner nature.
Pet the Dog: A kind act reveals that an outwardly mean character is tender and caring inside.
Shoot the Dog: A morally gray deed caused by a character against his own wishes just because it needs to be done for the sake of everyone else.
Moral Event Horizon: A deed so cruel, evil, and despicable that it irrevocably damns the character in the eyes of the audience.
Lampshade Hanging: When a writer acknowledges to the audience that a plot event is implausible or that they are using a trope. In the wiki, frequently used as a verb; i.e. "lampshading" or "lampshaded".
Lighter and Softer: The exact opposite of Darker and Edgier. Often throws in cuter, happier and cheerier, and often more funny parts to tone down the franchise and its characters.
MacGuffin: A physical object, the pursuit of which drives the plot; but the purpose of the object is irrelevant to the plot.
Mad Scientist: A character who exploits science for fun and profit.
Magic A Is Magic A: The "Rules of the World", a set of rules and themes that make the whole universe believable as long as they're consistent. Breaking them can destroy the audience's willingness to accept the story.
Masquerade: Weird things exist, but for some reason have to be hidden from the general public. The story thus takes place in "the real world", but with a supernatural undercurrent.
Meaningful Name: A name with a deeper meaning, which is no coincidence.
Memetic Mutation: Things (usually phrases) that are repeated and parodied everywhere, to the point where they become fads. Mutation comes in when the aspect being repeated is not representative of the series or character as a whole.
Mind Rape: A mental trauma to the point where it's similar to rape.
Mind Screw: A confusing plot so wrought with symbolism and psychological drama that it's hard to say for sure what actually happened.
Mooks: Minions. The enemy's weak, nameless foot soldiers who exist to be defeated en masse by the heroes.
More Dakka: Firing far, far more bullets than are actually necessary.
The Movie: A movie-length episode of a series shown in the cinemas.
Muggles: The "normal" people who exist outside the unusual, extraordinary, supernatural, or paranormal events taking place in the plot.
Mundane Made Awesome, formerly named "What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?": Trying to turn mundane scenes into great events using special effects or other stylistic means of direction.
Redshirts: The expendable, anonymous foot soldiers whose only purpose is to add emotional gravity to the story by being casualties in battle. Frequently killed off to show that a situation is dangerous without having to put one of the main characters at risk.
Refuge in Audacity: So over-the-top and/or bizarre that it can't be considered offensive.
Retcon: The act of portraying previously established canon information in a different way (sometimes even contradicting previous canon) to propel the current plot. Short for "Retroactive Continuity".
Rule Of Cool: If something is cool enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
Rule of Funny: If something is funny enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
Rule of Scary: If something is scary eno- Oh, you get the idea!
Running Gag: A joke that recurs throughout the episode or series.
Sarcasm Mode: Marking online text to indicate sarcasm.
Sealed Evil in a Can: A villain/evil force is locked away to prevent his escape. Usually breaks free.
Sequelitis: The unfortunately common occurrence that a sequel fails to live up to its predecessor.
Serious Business: A frivolous or commonplace activity that all the characters on the show take more seriously than they should, and which forms the premise of the show. Sometimes extended to everyone in the characters' "world".
Shout Out: A nod to another property that the author enjoyed.
Stable Time Loop: When an event caused by a time traveller is integral or responsible for the time travel in the first place. Most commonly, a time traveller goes back in time to try and prevent an event, but ends up inadvertently causing it instead.
Stalker with a Crush: A character noted for their obsession with another character.
Status Quo Is God: Each episode ends up with the protagonists roughly where they started, since change would mean that anybody who missed this episode would be lost. If they become rich at the beginning of the episode, they will lose the money by the end, and so on. Decades worth of shows, especially SitComs, lived by this. Averting this has become increasingly common over the years, though.
Story Arc: A series of stories which gradually moves a greater story along.
Sub Trope: A more specialized form of another trope, but which is distinct enough to be its own trope.
Subverted Trope: A story sets up a trope to happen and then yanks the rug out from under the audience by doing something with it that is different from their expectations. (Often referred to as "subverted" or "a subversion".)
Take That: Whenever a work of fiction knocks something not liked by the author.
Technobabble: Complex or intelligent-sounding explanations meant to convey the appearance of technical depth to the story universe, but doesn't have to make any sense whatsoever.
They Fight Crime: Got interesting characters? Need something for them to do? Something they can repeat endlessly?
This Loser Is You: The tendency for shows to make their heroes whiny, idiotic so-and-so's, since that's what they think viewers sympathize best with.
Title Drop: When the name of a work is spoken only once within the work, but in a particularly epic fashion.
Too Dumb to Live: The character who puts life and limb at risk by doing things that no sane human being would do.
Tsundere: Females whose temperament runs both hot and cold.
Understatement: Saying that, for example, the tropes on this page appear a few times on TV Tropes.
Unexplained Recovery: A dead character is restored to the status quo with no explanation whatsoever.
Up to Eleven: Reach the top, and go one step beyond. As in, "on a scale of 1 to 10"
Viewers Are Morons: The attitude often taken by producers, dumbing down shows or removing more complicated story elements to appeal to a wider audience.
Villainous Breakdown: The moment when a villain suddenly snaps and loses his cool, sometimes becoming extremely pissed off and/or sometimes going crazy, even Laughing Mad. Often done when the tables have turned on his plans.
What Could Have Been: Elements the authors thought about adding to the story but ultimately never did, usually with the implication that it would have been better had they included them.
What the Hell, Hero?: A hero is called on his morally ambiguous or directly evil actions by characters in the story.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The viewers' willingness to accept the story. The story doesn't have to conform to real world physics or logic, necessarily, but it does have to play by the rules it sets for itself (which are often referred to as 'internal logic').
Word Of God: Any statement made by the authors to clarify confusing or controversial parts in a series. The name is because their statements are taken as final and absolute.
World War II: The historical event which shaped the modern world more than almost anything else in the last century.
Xanatos Gambit: A plan designed to succeed regardless of the outcome — there are two or more possible outcomes to a plan, and you ensure that you win no matter which one happens.
X Meets Y: Stock show pitch — the premise is a combination of two well-known and well-liked things, with the hope that the new thing is greater than the sum of its parts.
In-wiki:Purely subjective tropes, or entries that concern the wiki itself.
Darth Wiki: The wiki's Evil Twin. As indicated by its white-on-black appearance, Darth Wiki is the home of venting, complaining, and tongue-in-cheek criticism that would be out of place in the actual wiki.
Sugar Wiki: Likewise, a section for mindless gushing and fandom, which is also not acceptable in the real wiki.
Moment Of Awesome: A great moment in a work that the fans will always remember.
Alternative Character Interpretation: A different way of looking at a character's actions which results in a distinctly different impression of their nature. When taken to extremes, or when very little information is available about a character, this can become Wild Mass Guessing.
Canon Discontinuity: When something is declared null and void by the authors themselves.
Fanon Discontinuity: When something that is canon is, for some reason - usually for being bad, out of place, or stupid - ignored by a large portion of the fandom.
Complaining About Shows You Don't Like: This is a big no-no here. Not that you can't voice your grievances about shows you don't like, but don't suggest a trope solely for this purpose - we already have a few designated places for that.
Designated Hero: A character who the story plays off as being good and heroic, but comes off as not, usually for being either a Jerkass or the cause of what ruins the story most of the time.
Designated Protagonist Syndrome: When the main character is less dynamic or intriguing than most (if not all) of the rest of the cast.
Draco in Leather Pants: The tendency of fandom to fetishize a certain character (usually a villain or Anti-Hero), and play up said character's attractiveness over his or her personality flaws.
Fridge Logic: Errors of logic or plotting which do not detract from enjoyment of the story; indeed, they're only realized in retrospect, as the viewer is walking back to the fridge after the show.
Jumping the Shark: A specific event or point in time at which an ongoing work begins to decline in quality or creativity.
Growing the Beard: The opposite; the point where a show starts getting better.
Justifying Edit: An attempt by a wiki editor to justify the use of a trope.
Love It or Hate It: When a work is incredibly divisive and very few people find it average.
Made Of Win: The in-wiki equivalent of Moment of Awesome, where a contribution is really funny or otherwise very, very good.
Mary Sue: When a character gets too much favor from the author in a way that breaks Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Has suffered considerable Trope Decay due to both subjectiveness and its pejorative status.
MST3K Mantra: Ie. "It's just a show; I should really just relax." A warning not to get too invested or emotionally involved in a work of fiction. It's not the end of the world; don't take things so seriously. Just roll with things and enjoy it.
Narm: A moment that is supposed to be serious, but becomes unintentionally funny.
Nightmare Fuel: Really, scary stuff, meant to scare everyone.
The Scrappy: A character that is out-and-out hated by the fandom.
So Bad, It's Good: Can mean two things. 1) A work which was intentionally poorly made, in order to be humorous. 2) A work that was created to be good, but garners a fanbase due to how ridiculous it is.
Squick: Something that makes you feel disgusted and/or nauseated.
Tear Jerker: A moment in a work sad enough to lead most viewers into crying.
Trope Codifier: The example that everybody else is copying, or at least copying a copy of.
