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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openIs there no "Deliberate Fanservice Girl" trope?
We have the Innocent Fanservice Girl, who either doesn't notice what's showing or doesn't realize that there's anything wrong with showing it, the Reluctant Fanservice Girl, who seriously hates how she ended up showing it, and the Shameless Fanservice Girl, who knows what's showing, and why she shouldn't show it, but honestly doesn't give a flip about such rules. However, there's one "Fanservice Girl" we don't seem to have: the "Deliberate" Fanservice Girl who specifically seeks to show it. May extend to people that deliberately let a certain person catch a peek to get their attention/desire, all the way to exhibitionists who get a kick out of showing. Thing is, Shameless Fanservice Girl is rather clear that it isn't this. The laconic version is someone who knows but doesn't care, and the long description specifically notes that things like exhibitionism where one is actually seeking to expose themselves are not part of this trope. While it's not as common, I have seen a fair number of stories with exhibitionists, and a lot where people deliberately dress to give people an eyeful, but I haven't seen any specific trope used to reference this in such characters, or often they're labeled as "Shameless" despite them being quite distinct from said trope.
openHow did you get into my room?
I'm pretty sure that Batman does this a few times, but in any case, what is the trope for when a character breaks in another character's place and waits till they return to talk to them? I can't seem to find it.
openAquaman Unavailable For The Job
Instead of "highly-specific scenario happens to give specialized character time to shine", it's "for dramatic / Cringe Comedy reasons, the scenario happens to the least-suited character".
e.g. the heroes need to Bring News Back, but all of them are in some way incapacitated, and so it falls to the scrawny, asthmatic, nerdy guy to run through two forests and a mountain without getting lost. Or The Big Guy is stuck trying to fend off a Media Scrum that The Face could have handled in his sleep; the guy who Cannot Talk to Women needs to persuade The Baroness to give up the cause of evil instead of The Casanova; the Shrinking Violet needs to cosplay a Genki Girl, etc.
Usually they succeed.
Edited by Chabal2openVictims NEVER have a gun
I know this is a case of being necessary for the plot, but while watching so many films of innocent people being stalked, terrorized, robbed, killed, etc. by the villain/gang member/serial killer/burglar/carjacker/stalker/crazed husband/crazed ex-husband/crazed boyfriend/crazed ex-boyfriend/crazed wife/crazed ex-wife/crazed girlfriend/crazed ex-girlfriend/territorial drug dealer/recently released ex-convict/psycho cop/creepy neighbor/school bully/stalker with a crush etc., I'd like to see more scenes of the small defenseless woman getting threatened by the serial killer and doing a "say hello to my little friend" while pulling a gun out of her purse and emptying the magazine into him. For films set in the US, we need a trope called No One Ever Heard Of The Second Amendment or something. I know much of this is due to this troper being an ex-cop and combat veteran who carries a gun everywhere, and that if we didn't have this than most of the movies I go to would be over before I took the first bite out of my popcorn. NOT trying to use this to start a debate on gun rights or gun control.
openWhat is this trope again? Literature
Character A is an orphan, adopted into a very wealthy family. Character A has a hard time adjusting to his new life, but character A's sisters, with various professions, starts teaching character A. When he gets tested in an exam from each of them, character A, for some reason, passes it with flying colors by accident, as he just does them half-assedly, to the point he accidentally invented something new for humanity.
openawoman has no social skills in a relationship due to nature
Poor Things Little Mermaid My Stepmother is an Alien Splash
I'm told Born Yesterday is like this
openWhat is this trope called?
What is the trope where a character seeks revenge on the person who killed their love interest?
openSurprisingly Cynical Moment
Alice and Bob live in a Sugar Bowl of happiness and healing. The sun is always shining, there's never a bad word, all the villains can be reformed, and with effort, hope and friendship can overcome all. Bob says life is just fine!
Alice stops smiling and turns to the camera. Life's not fine at all, she intones. There's several wars going on with no end in sight, powered by a tribalistic human desire to cause suffering to the other tribe. Political divisions are at an all-time high because greedy Mega Corps drive extremist viewpoints for profit. Your ability to focus has been shattered by consumable, forgettable pop culture. And for the kids in the audience, Growing Up Sucks. You're going to watch your parents die when you get old. Kids are going to bully you just because. You're going to be stuck working a job you hate just to keep a roof over your head, wishing desperately to be anywhere else as your dreams of being an astronaut or a movie start disappear completely. And even if you somehow find happiness, you're probably going to get cancer and die out of the blue someday.
Bob is sobbing. Suddenly, Alice is all smiles. She's just kidding! Back to your regularly scheduled happiness!
TL;DR: A really cynical moment in an otherwise very lighthearted work, especially one that goes against the show's themes — Humans Are Bastards in a work where the only bad guys were simply trying to save their family, how no one will miss you when you're dead in a work that emphasises The Power of Friendship, romantic love always being doomed to fail in a work that preaches being kind.
Examples include the Spongebob joke about "life on the outside" being no different from prison or The Powerpuff Girls episode where they move to a crime-ridden Urban Hellscape where everything they do either hurts someone or invites vicious mockery from asshole kids.
Related: Black Comedy Burst, Author Tract, Out-of-Character Moment, Hard Truth Aesop, Parental Bonus, Deconstruction
Edited by MsOranjeDiscoDanceropenRetroactively Important Backwater
A work introduces the protagonist or other important character as coming from a place or faction that is a complete obscure backwater, so that it's a surprise someone from there would have such an influence on global events. However, when a prequel comes around, due to trying to reproduce the nostalgia of the original, major characters and plot points continue to originate from that place/faction as if it's the center of the fictional universe rather than just picking new places in the setting to give characters an obscure origin from.
I.e how in Lord of the Rings it's noted to be very unusual that humble hobbits, who mostly stick to their corner of the world, are playing a role in global events, but then in Rings Of Power hobbits are still playing important role even in the second age. Or in The Hunger Games where it's unusual that the protagonist is from District 12 which is mostly forgotten and doesn't produce winners of the games, but then the the prequel centers around district 12 again rather than another of the districts (this doesn't contradict previous canon since it was established there were 2 winners from there, but they still made a choice to use the same district as the focus twice despite it being said to be rarely focused on). Or, I'm not that familiar with Star Wars, but as I understand it was a complaint that the original movies introduced the protagonist as coming from Tatooine which was established to be the middle of nowhere where Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here, but then in the prequels everything important seemed to happen there.
openIf a character doesn't pay off their debt ASAP, they'll have to sell the house.
Therefore, the plot focuses on the character trying to avoid selling the house. Broke Episode is related, but it doesn't necessarily include the threat of selling the house. Could lead to Hey, Let's Put on a Show if that's they way they make the money.
resolved Depressing Facility Daycare Live Action TV
An evil government facility or private laboratory is performing experiments on children (or, if not so evil, keeping children who might be dangerous otherwise under control), and they'll have this sad underground daycare with a bureaucrat's idea of what makes kids feel happy and safe - old toys and puzzles, faded out painting on the walls, an artificial "outside" look with fake clouds, trees and grass...
Is that a trope?
openI suck at titles
When a show (any form of media, usually a show in my experience), wants to have a character naked with their privates out, but because their show would get not shown on normal TV (or maybe the creator's own boundaries) they place the character behind objects that perfectly cover the privates but still show the nakedness.
Ex: How people normally draw Adam and Eve with tree branches and leaves covering their privates
Ex 2: In "How I Met Your Father", there's this one male character who has his privates out, but they stick the man behind a lamp, and then behind a couch, so it can still go on streaming services
openAnalysis Bait
Something added to a story so that critics would overanalyze it and make theories about its meaning. I remember hearing a story about a writer who would include symbolism that had no real meaning, knowing that the critics would assume that there was a deeper meaning.
resolved Evolving Chorus
A song's chorus isn't exactly the same every time it's sung.
The French song "La pêche à la morue" has a sailor tell his captain he won't go back on the fishing ship without first courting/kissing/marrying/burying the woman he loves.
openEmergency Evacuation
Is there one for when there is an emergency evacuation, especially at night, and people have to sleep in an odd place? In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the alleged killer Sirius Black is suddenly discovered in Hogwarts, and the entire school has to sleep in the Great Hall in sleeping bags that night, for their own safety.
Do we have something, be it trope, YMMV or tivia, that covers the case when some work's visual/artwork is similar to another's?