Basic Trope: A fictional government agency.
- Straight: The United States has T.R.O.P.E., the Trope Registery Of Perfect Examples, a fictional agency that doesn't appear in real life.
- Exaggerated: The United States, aside from T.R.O.P.E., has A.V.E.R.T.E.D. (American Vault of Enforced, Rudimentary Tropes of Everything Directorate), S.T.R.A.I.G.H.T. (State Task Regiment of Abnormal Internet Groundworks for Homepage Tropes) and S.U.B.V.E.R.T.E.D. (State Utilization of Badass, Vicious, Extreme and Radical Tropes Endangered Directory).
- Downplayed: The United States has the OSS, a historic organization, in modern times.
- Justified: There are matters the CIA, FBI or NSA just can't handle that only T.R.O.P.E. can.
- Inverted: Real agencies appear in fictional worlds.
- Subverted:
- Turns out T.R.O.P.E. was just a ploy by the CIA to distract from their real operations.
- Turns out that T.R.O.P.E. is just a database maintained and used by the FBI.
- Double Subverted: But then T.R.O.P.E. becomes its own organization for real.
- Parodied: The United States has a government agency for just about everything, including making sure the president's refrigerator remains running.
- Zig-Zagged: In his attempt to get to the bottom of the USA's bureaucracy, Bob discovers T.R.O.P.E., the CIA, and the FBI are fronts for each other depending on the situation.
- Averted: No fictional-from-scratch agencies are in the work, and any real agencies that appear are shown to be operating within their actual competencies.
- Enforced:
- The creator thinks the CIA, FBI, and NSA are just too underwhelming for what he has planned and needs something better.
- The creator has had past experience with actual government agencies and wants to stay as realistic as they can, yet also concluded that the actual agencies wouldn't be up to the task of doing what they want this agency to do for the purposes of the work, so they make up a new one to be able to fit into the story as needed.
- The Real Life agencies don't want to appear in the work, and force the author to make up something fictional.
- The creators do not believe their idea of Eldritch Abomination hunters can function if the characters are not some kind of Elite Agents Above the Law, but the executives are a little iffy about potential Moral Guardians outrage over "propaganda". So the writers create T.R.O.P.E., add a subplot about the other law enforcement agencies and civilians being nervous about its power, and presto.
- Lampshaded: "How come I've never heard of this agency before?"
- Invoked: Matters only tropers can deal with are threatening the country and possibly others, so the US creates T.R.O.P.E. in response.
- Exploited:
- T.R.O.P.E. uses its power to take control of the government.
- Alice, who somehow has memories that suggest this isn't the world she's used to for whatever reason — parallel universe, time travel shenanigans, etc. — looks for agencies that she's not heard of before to narrow down where she needs to search for the truth.
- Defied: The CIA convinces the government they don't need another agency and they can handle the problem themselves.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs: The Heads of State all make up new agencies to see who is the cleverest with acronyms.
- Played for Drama: The United States' overreliance on various agencies generates hot Interservice Rivalry between the agencies, resulting in fighting over who has authority over what. Eventually, the agencies break down and engage in all-out war for command.
- Played for Horror: T.R.O.P.E. is a Sinister Spy Agency, The Men in Black incarnate, those who do the things [read: atrocities] that keep America safe that people only talk about in the most hushed of whispers because revealing they have anything resembling information about the agency tends to leave them lying in a morgue very shortly afterwards.
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