Welcome to the official tropes list for TV Tropes The TV Show. This list will be under construction at least until all of the episode scripts are finished, if not till the episodes are complete.
Please do not list TV Tropes The TV Show on any of these trope pages! Quite a few things are still in flux and no episodes have been released yet. (The exceptions are I Wish It Were Real and Running the Asylum, which accurately apply to this project in its planning stages, so don't kill those examples if you come across them.)
Once we complete episode scripts, we'll add the appropriate entries. Please add additional tropes as you notice they are needed. Ironeye will be keeping a watch on the list to ensure that it is as accurate as possible for the specified constraints. Character tropes for major characters are found on the characters page.
See the character page for tropes relating to a specific major characters or entire organizations/teams that they belong to.
A World Half Full: The world is a complete mess after the Convergence, but that won't stop the protagonists (and some of the antagonists) from trying to make it a better place...and succeeding.
Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Given the animation limitations, the show depends on these sorts of scenes. If anything, the action is there to break up the talking and to give the characters something to react to.
All Love Is Unrequited: Ironeye likes Matrix, who (along with Cody) likes Murky. It changes once Cody gets over his feelings, and Fawriel shows up and gets into a relationship with Murky.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Depending on how you see things, each of the main characters can either be the most or least sympathetic of the bunch.
Anti-Villain: Matrix, Ironeye, Gabriel, Hikari, and most of &&&
Back Story: Everyone was up to something interesting in the five months since C-Day. The real question is whether or not they'll tell you about it...and if what they're saying is the truth.
Beast and Beauty: Fawriel and Jinxed (although it's more like Critter and Cutie)
Beauty, Brains and Brawn: Jinxed, Kara, and Murky, respectively (again, Jinxed is more of a Cutie than a Beauty)
Chekhov M.I.A.: Murky's parents turn up alive at the end of the story. Subverted by Gabriel's parents, who turn up dead a bit before then.
Code Name: The main characters and TV Tropes characters other than Karalora, Cody, Gabriel, and Fawriel—the first three just use pseudonyms, while the last just uses a nickname because he doesn't know his real name.
Comic Trio: Jinxed (the leader), Hikari (the follower), and Matrix (the powerless one)
Competence Zone: The main team: the fighters sit in the 17-25 range; no one under the age of 20 is ever allowed to do the thinking, with the key planners all being at least 25.
Faux Yay: Ironeye and Matrix act ridiculously over-the-top gay for each other for the lulz. In Ironeye's case, it's only half an act, but almost everyone knows that.
Four Temperament Ensemble: The leaders of the group fall into this pattern: Kara - sanguine, Korg - choleric, Faw - phlegmatic, Ironeye - melancholic. Ironeye's fire team also fits. Ironeye remains melancholic, while Hikari is choleric, Matrix is sanguine, and Gabriel is phlegmatic.
Genius Bonus: About half the humor depends on familiarity with either TV Tropes or the fiction being referenced. Also, some of the contributors are specialists themselves, so things like mathematics, linguistics, and music are all either correct or intentionally wrong for comedic effect.
Genre Blindness: Justified in the case of the fictional characters, since they are written that way.
Genre Savvy: The entire main cast either heavily consumed fiction before the Convergence, or has done so in the time since then.
Grey and Gray Morality: All of the human characters are both flawed and sympathetic to varying degrees. The fictional characters obviously match their canon alignments, but do draw some sympathy in the sense that they are physically incapable of acting any other way.
Hurting Hero: By the second episode, it's clear that both Hikari and Murky have moments in their past that still haunt them. Over the course of the show, pretty much every other main character is revealed as one through backstory exposition or flashbacks.
Limited Social Circle: Effectively—it's not that the main characters exclude any other members of the the TV Tropes organization...it's that the camera does.
Next Sunday A.D.: The events of the story begin in a 2013 that isn't much different from the present. By the time the plot gets going, things are a bit different...
Scavenger World: Parts of Earth, particularly the USA, though there's strong evidence that society is recovering.
Shadow Archetype: Hikari to Ironeye, in a rare case of the "shadow" being more heroic because Ironeye wants to be a manipulative, cynical bastard.
Shape Shifter Baggage: Conservation of mass need not apply to Convergence-granted powers
Shout Out: To more things than its worth listing here; it's half the point of the show (Ironeye's Note: I am slowly compiling a list of actual fictite appearances and standard Shout Outs.)
Type II: Kara (arguably the only character with good intentions, moral methods, and good sense)
Type III: Cody, Murky
Type IV: Ironeye, Korg
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Character range all over the scale, but most of the protagonists tend towards Idealism. Characters on both extremes are proven wrong on occasion.
Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: The premise of the show tends towards the silly, but the show takes itself seriously. Individual scenes (and even individual characters within those scenes) may be all over the scale.
Sole Survivor: Kara, Jinxed, and Matrix were all the only survivors of the events that killed their families. Murky's case is more ambiguous: she's the only known survivor of a kraken attack, but she didn't see if anyone else made it. Her family survived.
Teens are Short: Though seemingly played straight with Jinxed, it's actually averted: the other characters comment on her small stature and most people mistake her for being about 2/3 her actual age. (While arks is also rather short, the older teens all range up to over 6' tall, and thus no statement is made about people in that age range.
There Are No Therapists: There wouldn't be enough therapists to handle the trauma caused by the Convergence even if they were all able to keep their practices open. In particular, no member of the team is a therapist.
The Three Faces of Eve: Jinxed as the Child, Kara as the Mother, and Murky as the Seductress (inasmuch as she's the only woman anyone has a crush on)
World Of No Grandparents: Justified—with how hard the characters have to work to get in touch with missing parents, it's not surprising that they never managed to reunite with more distant family members.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Most of the main characters fall into this to varying degrees, though some are hit particularly hard:
The team's possibly rehearsed pose in their first scene shows that this isn't your normal Badass CrewAfter the End.
Ironeye's conversation with the mayor reveals him as both focused on information and at least attempting to be deferential to authority figures, two aspects that remain constant even as he undergoes Character Development
Hikari's conversation with the waitress in the diner reveals him to be a goofy kid who wants to be a hero, the focus of his characterization for most of the story.
Why Are You Looking At Me Like That?: Everyone looks at Ironeye when Cody brings up the idea of ropes or handcuffs to restrain Hikari. Ironeye's response: "What are you looking at me for?"
