It was against the law
It was against the law
Oh what my momma saw
It was against the law
Some tropes seem to be an expression of an underlying law of fiction. This category attempts to collect these fundamental elements. If some of these entries seem a bit tongue-in-cheek to you ... well, you should probably just get used to that feeling. And yes, sometimes there are two or more that are directly contradictory. We don't write them. We just catalog them.
Note that where this wiki refers to
actual laws, such as the concept of Copyright and legal requirements, those can also be included in this index.
Tropes:
- Anthropic Principle: For any given story, there exist basic elements that are required for the basic premise to happen; there would be no story otherwise.
- Apocalypse How
- Artistic License: Accuracy may be sacrificed for the sake of the story.
- Authority Equals Asskicking :The higher a character is in his hierarchy, the better he is in a fight. This goes double for non-protagonists.
- Ban On Politics: If a forum is not specifically about political current events, then you are usually not allowed to talk about political current events there.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: If a character is beautiful, then that character is a good person, either publicly or secretly. If a character is good, then that character will either be beautiful or be treated as beautiful.
- Beauty Is Bad: If a character is beautiful, then that character is a bad person, either publicly or secretly.
- The Bechdel Test
- Bellisario's Maxim: Don't examine this too closely.
- Catharsis Factor: Video game violence relieves stress.
- Chandler's Law: "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand."
- The Chris Carter Effect: If the fans decide that the writing team will never resolve its plots, then they will probably stop following the work.
- Chunky Salsa Rule: Any situation that would reduce a character's head to the consistency of chunky salsa dip is fatal, regardless of other rules.
- Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys: Toys marketed to girls don't use technology; they use magic.
- Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Common Mary Sue Traits
- Competence Zone: Every television show has its own average age-range of competence. Only people inside that range, whatever it is, are likely to be competent at anything relevant to the show.
- Conservation of Competence: There is only so much competence a given faction can distribute amongst its membership.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: In any martial arts fight, there is only a finite amount of ninjutsu available to each side in a given encounter. As a result, one Ninja is a deadly threat, but an army of them are cannon fodder.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: The top-level bosses in a game will be immune to the player's most effective or strongest attacks.
- Contractual Immortality
- Conveniently Empty Building: When a building in a modern action film or series is blown up or otherwise totaled, there will be no people or plot-critical items inside when the destruction hits.
- Convenient Questing: In an Adventure Game or RPG, your next destination will be the closest area that you haven't been able to get to before.
- Copyright
- The CSI Effect: "I saw them do it on CSI. It has to work that way!"
- Cute Is Evil: Cute is disturbing and unnatural.
- Cuteness Proximity: The nearer a character is in relation to something cute, the more likely they are to be reduced to babytalk.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss".
- Death Equals Redemption
- The Dilbert Principle
- Distribution of Ninjutsu: For any group of ninjas, the ninjitsu in that group will not be evenly distributed; some ninja will be in a more powerful class than others. Which ninja are more powerful will stay constant even when the group as a whole gains ninjitsu.
- Direct Line To The Author
- Deggans Rule
- DMCA
- Easy Come, Easy Go
- Easily Overheard Conversation
- Emotional Torque
- Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism
- Ermine Cape Effect
- Every Car is a Pinto
- Evil Is Sexy
- Evil Makes You Ugly
- Faction Calculus
- Failure Is the Only Option
- Fair Use
- Finagle's Law
- First Girl Wins
- First Law of Gender Bending
- First Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics
- First Law of Resurrection
- First Law of Tragicomedies
- Fleeting Demographic Rule
- GIFT
- Godwin's Law
- Godwin's Law Of Time Travel
- Godzilla Threshold
- The Good Guys Always Win
- The Grand List of Forum and Community Laws
- Grand Theft Auto Effect
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
- Hanlon's Razor
- The Hero's Journey
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act
- The Hollywood Formula
- House Rules
- Immortality Hurts
- Immortal Life Is Cheap
- Immortal Procreation Clause
- Incendiary Exponent
- Inevitable Waterfall
- Inverse Law of Complexity To Power
- Inverse Law of Sharpness and Accuracy
- Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality
- Kryptonite Factor
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere
- Kuleshov Effect
- Last Confession Wins
- The Law of Conservation of Detail
- Law of Conservation of Normality
- Law of Cartographical Elegance
- Law of Chromatic Superiority
- The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort
- Law of Disproportionate Response
- The Law of Fan Jackassery
- Law of Inverse Fertility
- Law of Inverse Paternity
- Law of Inverse Recoil
- Law Of Inverse Romantic Interest
- Law of One
- Law of 100
- Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
- Literary Agent Hypothesis
- Locard's Theory
- Loophole Abuse
- Lord British Postulate
- The Magazine Rule
- Magically-Binding Contract
- The Magic Poker Equation
- Magnum Opus Dissonance
- Million to One Chance
- Moff’s Law
- Monster Delay
- The Morality Mortality Equation
- Movie Twist List
- MST3K Mantra
- Murphy's Law (a disambiguation page - if you want the trope, see Finagle's Law)
- Never a Self-Made Woman: A female character is likely to be part of the story as a relative or Love Interest to one of the male characters. If she holds skill or power, it is likely to be attributed to the influence of a man
- Nominal Importance
- No Transhumanism Allowed
- Occam's Razor
- Oscar Bait
- The Peter Principle
- Poe's Law
- Popularity Polynomial
- Rattling Off Legal
- Reality Is Unrealistic
- Redemption Earns Life
- Redemption Equals Death
- Redemption Equals Sex
- Refuge in Audacity
- Rule Number One
- Rule of Animation Conservation
- Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment
- Rule Of Cool
- Rule of Cute
- Rule of Drama
- Rule of Empathy
- The Rule of First Adopters
- Rule of Fun
- Rule of Funny
- Rule of Glamorous
- Rule of Perception
- Rule of Personification Conservation
- Rule of Pool
- Rule of Romantic
- Rule of Scary
- Rule of Sexy
- Rule of Symbolism
- Rule of Three
- Rules of Orphan Economics
- Rules of the Internet
- Rules Of The Road
- Rule Zero
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction
- Schrödinger's Gun
- Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum
- Science Fiction Versus Fantasy
- Science Is Bad
- The Scientific Method
- Seinfeld Is Unfunny
- The Sidekick Theory Of Heroic War
- Significant Birth Date
- Significant Reference Date
- Sliding Scale of Beauty
- Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness
- Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism
- Sliding Scale Of Shiny Versus Gritty
- Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness
- Sliding Scale Of Video Game World Size And Scale
- Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue
- Sliding Scale of Villain Threat
- The Smurfette Principle
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil
- Sorting Algorithm of Face Heel Turning
- Sorting Algorithm of Mortality
- Sturgeon's Law
- Sukhomlinov Effect
- Super Weight
- Tenchi Solution
- Tethercat Principle
- Theiss Titillation Theory
- The Theorem Of Narrow Interests
- Theory of Narrative Causality
- Three Month Rule
- Too Many Cooks Spoil The Soup
- Tort Reform
- Triang Relations
- Trope Example Laws
- TV Never Lies
- Twain's Observation on Originality
- Two Girls to a Team
- The Tyson Zone
- Underdogs Never Lose
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee
- Variable Terminal Velocity
- Videogame Caring Potential
- Video Game Cruelty Potential
- Video Game Perversity Potential
- The Villain Makes the Plot
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?
- The Wiki Rule
- Wunza Plot
