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.
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openFake Expert
A character has to fake being an expert at something. Sometimes they're lucky and end up talking to a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, but sometimes to someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
- One Sherlock Holmes case has Watson cram as much knowledge of ancient Chinese ceramics as he can to distract a criminal's attention. He only manages a few minutes, but that's all Holmes needs.
- One Judge Dee case has the judge pretend his Boisterous Bruiser assistant is a great expert in pottery when talking to a collector. The collector asks for the hapless assistant's opinion on the authenticity of one piece, who pulls a disgusted face so terrifying the collector says he didn't think it was that obvious.
openMan-made avalanche
A character sets off an avalanche on purpose to kill someone, like in Mulan.
openChild-talk Induced Death Literature
Bob and Alice are loving couple and have been for a little bit now.
They are chatting about stuff when the subject of children comes up and instead of being scared or rejecting the idea, they actually seem quite positive towards the idea of settling down and having a child where before they definitely were not ready to even contemplate the idea.
After Bob accepts and maybe even promises to have a kid, showing all the character growth that comes with that admission, Bob goes and does something to get himself killed, devastating Alice and everyone around them. (As though the author used the loving, character growth filled interaction as a red flag to mark Bob for death.)
is there a trope for this scenario?
openWhat do you call a character that's ambiguous? Film
In Palm Springs, for example, the grandmother might or might not be stuck in a time loop.
It's one open question mark in a story where most things are answered.
Bagger Vance from Legend of Bagger Vance would be an example too, or Wilson from Home Improvement, or there was once a drifter in Fresh Prince of Bel Air who might have been a figment of the character's imagination or not.
openWaht do you call a place that looks bleak and depressing Film
Mostly because it's winter like Snow Falling on Cedars, Shipping News or First Reformed?
openMeeting the Final Boss Early Videogame
Is there a trope for when the bosses or final boss of a game is introduced at the very beginning of the game? An example of this is Resident Evil 7 where in the beginning Ethan is seated at a dining table with all four of the big bads of the game that he'll have to deal with later. This is redone in Resident Evil Village where Ethan is at a meeting with the four lords and (I assume) the final boss. Another is Mario & Luigi: Dream Team where the first battle of the game is against Antasma, one of the two main bosses of the game. Basically, instead of saving the bosses for a major reveal later they're shoved in your face early.
openBumbershooting
This would be a trope where you shoot someone using a modified umbrella as a launcher. You know, like Hagrid storing the pieces of his wand in his umbrella? Or the poison dart shot from a modified umbrella?
openRandom, irrelevant character is killed off to show how powerful the villain is
I saw this clique plenty of times, recently on Demon Slayer. When Tanjiro was about to fight that demon spider, a random slayer tries to take down the demon first, only to be killed within seconds. This is obviously done to show how powerful the villain is so we have to worry more about the protagonist.
Edited by BonusPersonopenSkill Download
Do we have a trope page for when a character or group of characters can download a skill directly into their brain and be able to perform it without having to do any of the learning or practice that would normally be required?
(I looked up one of the famous instances, The Matrix, and found that its page has that listed as an example of Powers as Programs, but that feels to me like it's been shoehorned in there for lack of a more appropriate place.)
openAscended Creator / The Creator Meets Their Inspiration
A certain work deeply inspires an up-and-coming creator, who create their own, brand-new work with that inspiration. The work gains enough popularity that it comes to the attention of the creator who made the work who inspired them, and they send their direct approval to the creator of the newer work, or sometimes even collaborate with them.
This trope seems to be a combination of One of Us, Ascended Fan, and Approval of God, so I'm not sure which one this would apply to.
Examples:
- Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, was deeply inspired by the Mother franchise. After Undertale went viral online, it came to the attention of Shigesato Itoi, the creator of Mother, who met with Toby. Also, while Itoi and Toby haven't yet directly collaborated on anything, Toby has since done some work on Nintendo games soundtracks, and Nintendo published the Mother series as well as Mario & Luigi, which also inspired Undertale.
- ninjamuffin99, creator of the viral game Friday Night Funkin', is a big fan of the video game music parody group SiIvaGunner, and has stated that they inspired him into making FNF a music-themed game. SiIvaGunner has acknowledged him, and have since regularly uploaded mods of the game, several of which he has commented on.
openReal animals voicing animated pets
Is there a trope that has pets voicing animated pets instead of voice actors?
openPost-Coital Smoke
After having a moment of love making (be it satisfying or not), a character and/or their partner light and smoke a cigarette in bed.
openI AM the groom! Literature
A character pretends to be another person, or have a relationship with another person, but it backfires because, unbeknownst to him, the person he's talking to is the "victim".
e.g.:
Wedding crasher: Relax, I'm a friend of the groom. Muscular Wrestler: Funny, cause I AM the groom.
openBody-Changing Confusion
Bob and Alice body-swap. Both are confused by the new things in their body (such as Alice being confused by the penis in Bob's body).
openA person (usually a kid) views everything before they were born as ancient history.
Is there a trope for this? Like, some kids, teens, and even 20-somethings in modern times seem to view things like The '70s as basically equivalent to Ancient Egypt (i.e so long ago it doesn't really matter to anyone but historians and the like), even though it was only 40-50 years ago and people born then are still alive today.
Edited by BootlebatopenGuts Expy TLP
I remember seeing a trope draft about expies of Guts incubating in the TLP, but I can't seem to find it. Its title was something like "Guts Copy" or "Black Swordsman Archetype". Does anyone know where it is?
openGovernment Censored Textbook
The government makes textbooks that censor events going against their ideals.
openDropping a mechanic for the next game Videogame
Is there a trope regarding criticism towards getting rid of a mechanic that was there in a previous game? I ask this due to the lack of evolution events in New Pokémon Snap. The closest I can think of is They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, but it's not like they changed anything. It just wasn't implemented in any way.
openEvery chapter ends on a cliffhanger Literature
Is there a trope for this? Goosebumps is probably the Trope Codifier, as other than the first few books almost every chapter of every book ends this way (even if it's the first chapter there's often something along the lines of "Everything seemed ok now, but little did we know what lay in store for us.") I guess this could happen in other media but I can't think of any examples offhand.
Edited by Bootlebat
Before I add these to Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions, what's the major difference between:
Adaptation Inspiration vs Adaptation Deviation
Adaptation Inspiration vs In Name Only
Adaptation Distillation vs Compressed Adaptation
I'm trying to expand that page (which does mention Adaptation Distillation) to include these tropes and want to get definitions right, even though the media adaptation tropes gives basic detail.
Edited by Merseyuser1