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.
Find a Trope:
openBorn into Evil
A character becomes evil because they were born into a family of villains/criminals. For instance, the reason Tony Soprano became a mobster was because his father and uncle were both gangsters. By the end of the series, it's implied his kids are going to go down the same path because of him.
openTaking the chute
Traveling down some sort of chute (like a trash chute or laundry chute).
openBypassing rules against swearing
Technically saying a swear word by not saying it directly (ex. spelling out F-U-C-K).
openGold Pile (Empty) Videogame
No, you can not take these valuable and useful resources because they are just there for visual.
openPunctuation changes the meaning
Is there a trope for where two lines have identical diction, but the placement of punctuation completely changes the meaning? An example on How I Met Your Mother had someone's opinion on an art piece turn from overwhelmingly negative to overwhelmingly positive solely by changing the punctuation.
openConcept art is better
Fans prefer how certain aspects of a work looked or were during development over the final product.
openDoing bad things for good reasons
ATTS, a person or group doing things that would normally be considered wrong, illegal, or downright amoral, with the ultimate goal of doing good things in the end.
For example, in a setting where Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil, many adventurers dedicate themselves to freeing said slaves. In the event they come across a slave who's entire life revolved around their (now-former) master, they are taken to an organization for which their public image is benevolent slavery. Basically, instead of just throwing them into society and expecting them to function properly, they continue to be slaves, but to a group that intends on freeing them gradually, and letting them earn their freedom at their own pace. The hopeless ones are either hired as members of the organization, or given jobs as proper servants to people who will take care of them (basically the same thing as slavery, except their master is legally required to keep them safe, sane, and healthy), while the successful ones are transferred to a nearby town, where they subsequently find their true calling, and are ultimately let loose into the world to practice their craft on their own terms.
openWhen robots and sentient machines have a metaphysical aspect
Are there any tropes that cover the situation where a sentient machine or robot is portrayed as having an immortal soul/an afterlife or any other metaphysical aspect to their existence or other aspect explaining just how they manage to "stay alive"? Two very different examples:
-In the Transformers G1 cartoon/Transformers the Movie, Optimus Prime says he will be one with the Matrix when he dies; later, the Autobot Matrix causes Rodimus Prime to have a kind of bonding experience with prior Autobot leaders during a near-death experience (as I recall/understand the scene). Also Starscream's ghost surviving his being completely destroyed by Galvatron; Starscream possesses Cyclonus and goes to Unicron to ask for a new body
-In Rocko's Modern Life, there is, as I recall, an episode where Rocko's car has an accident or something and its soul ends up going to heaven and growing wings. Then IIRC the car ends up being repaired, so its soul returns to Earth - the car basically had a near-death experience.
open"Save or destroy the world" choice
Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The protagonist is given the choice to save or destroy the world/let the world end.
Edited by TimeLordVictoriousopenVideogame Imput Attack
I've only one example or two in mind, so I'll put them here. Essentially, as some sort of visual gag, when a character (in both case in a manga) perform an attack, complete with Calling Your Attacks and the balloon also showcases a fictional "move imput" as if it was a technique from a fighting videogame. In one case, it was clearly a gag (with the attack being a vague Shoryuken Shout-Out), in the other it is done by two characters piloting a mecha with a controller, apparently using the controls to peform the named attack.
openCowboy BeBop At His Computer is cited as truth?
Is there a trope bigger than Cowboy BeBop at His Computer, where this incorrect fact, rather than being dismissed as incorrect, is cited instead? Like with other locations treating it as truth? Or is it still just Cowboy BeBop at His Computer?
openInterruption hand wave
Character A says something that doesn't make sense. Character B asks about it. Then Character C speaks and the question is never addressed again.
openRolling log of doom
A cylinder of some sort (such as a tree log) rolls down a slope, becoming an obstacle to everything in its path.
open"That's what i said!"
Character 1 misspeaks, Character 2 corrects them, and Character 1 claims to have said it the right wayto begin with.
openGone for a bit, feel like a stranger
Is there a trope for when a character is gone for a while, and then comes back, but feels out-of-place-now? The relationships changed, people changed, they've missed out on certain things everyone else knows about, etc, and they're left trying to play catch-up or desperately trying to pretend nothing changed at all.
Seen it in Hannah Montana, House of Anubis, and The Things They Carried.
resolved Last-minute Princess reveal Literature
A story/fairytale about a prince who meets a peasant, they fall in love and he learns to look past class prejudices to be with her...then in the end it's revealed she's the lost princess from another kingdom. Convenient.
Genders might be inverted, too. Modern versions of the trope have the peasant/poor girl be revealed to be related to a rich family.
openOverpowered cutscene attack NOT depowered in gameplay Videogame
When a video game character uses a super powerful attack in gameplay, like a huge nuke that wipes out loads of enemies at once. Much later you get the ability to use that attack in gameplay, and it is JUST as powerful as it was in the cutscene (frequently resulting in it being a Game-Breaker). Is this a trope?
openTrope where a character says the same word in different tones
This is usually a comedy trope where two characters are talking and one keeps saying the same word (usually an exclamation such as "oh" or "Huh?" or "Woah!") In different tones to show their feelings of what their other person is talking
Here's an example of that kind of conversation (not from any media it is just an example I made up)
1: I have good news
2: (Excitedly) Oh?
1: you won $100
2: (Happily) Oh!
1: But you cannot keep it
2: (Sadly) Oh...
1: But you do get to do something with it
2: (Curiously) Oh?
1: You get to give it to a charity:
2: (Interested) Oh..
1: But your kid has to choose the charity
2: (annoyed) Oh!
I've Seen This A Thousand Times. Is there a trope for when a "normal" person gets to meet a celebrity by winning a contest or something? Examples include the Odd Couple 1970 episode "Big Mouth", in which Howard Cosell takes a young fan into the recording booth, and the ''Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes" episode "Revenge of the Skrulls", in which the Four hold a "Be a Fantastic Fifth for a Day" contest. I checked the Fan and Admiration indices, but I couldn't locate this specifically.