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openFailing disguise
A character dons a disguise, only for it to start falling apart at the worse possible time—fake mustache starts slipping, a fake mole falls off, etc. If the disguise is supernatural in nature the falling apart is more pronounced, like limbs changing shape and size and hair changing color.
openCreepy black fuzz on the floor.
A horror trope.
I could swear I saw this thing before. A character is roaming a dark abandoned mansion or similar derelict place and in one room they discover that the floor is covered by weird black fuzz. The fuzz is moving, apparently being alive but stays in its boundaries. The hapless fellow is understandably reluctant to set their foot on the fuzzy floor because they're certain it won't do them any good.
An example would be the 5thnote not sure episode of Flip Flappers where the heroines encounter such fuzz on a mezzazzine of the stairway. They pause for a moment before deciding to avoid it by climbing over the handrail on the next flight of stairs.
I can't remember any other example right now but I'm certain I've seen this elsewhere.
openAdaptational Inflation
Do we have a trope for when a plot point is altered in an adaptation because doing it the same way would no longer have the effect that it had in the original time and place?
Like, the 1902 novel Brewster's Millions revolves around a fabulous fortune of seven million dollars, but in later adaptations the size of the fortune is increased to keep it seeming appropriately fabulous; in the most famous film version, made eighty years later, it's up to 300 million.
openTrope where nobody notices the truth Live Action TV
This trope is common in sitcoms and some kids shows
A character claims something (such as they saw a weird animal, an alien, a monster etc) but none of the other characters believe them. The rest of the episode consists of them trying to find it again (such as searching in the woods, setting traps, going to the location where it happened etc) but it never appears and the attempts to prove them right usually comically fail.
At the end of the episode, they all give up but the thing they were looking for appears but nobody notices because they all left.
openDoomed Savior Film
Hello,
I confess I feel a little bit stupid but this "bothers" me for right a while now.
I came up with the name "doomed savior" because it is not always a cop.
Me and my husband love a good horror movie and of course, like "The Cabin in the woods" does: TV-Tropes makes things even better.
A while ago I rewatched "Wrong Turn"and asked my husband why I don't find the trope of "The supposedly savior, who is doomed to die, most times before he even gets the situation." Not always a cop, sometimes a PI, a ranger in some cases a neighbor or anyone who the viewer thinks he can handle himself.
The doomed savior often arrives way too early in the movie, sometimes just because it would be strange if no one would take a look and has to die to toy with the viewer or because he would solve things to early, to cut and dry or in some way that would spoil an open ending or any sequel.
Something between: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoliceAreUseless and: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HopeSpot
But that specific that it should have an own trope (and maybe has already but I am to stupid to find it?).
Examples:
Wrong Turn: The cop who came after the "kids" called for help and ends up with an arrow in his eye while asking what the problem is.
"Ma": The cop who comes to Ma's house to save the day ... but gets shot with the gun she earlier said wouldn't even work.
"Greta" the father of the missing girl sends a private investigator, who is killed by Greta while the victim heard everything.
"Shut in", the doctor drives though the storm to warn an save her, because she has no idea that her stepson is not paralyzed (and completely nuts) and gets offed quite shortly after arriving... well, he tried!
I guess I can find more with exact timestamps, but I wanted to make sure, that I am not just to stupid to find the right trope?
That was even as a parody in "Tucker and Dale", the cop doesn't just die because he might have solved the situation, he had to die, because that is the role cops and other "doomed saviors" have in movies like that. Almost like a redshirt, they come and it seems they save the day and minutes or seconds later they are toast.
English is not my first language, so please be kind.
Hope I haven't wasted your time
Fraukie
openA sneaky reference that doesn't make sense in-universe?
Like Star Wars: The Clone Wars having a blink-and-you-miss-it movie poster about a Jedi and a hot chick vs. a giant round moon-sized superweapon years before the Death Star is a thing, or Star Wars Resistance having similar blink-and-you-miss-it sponsor stickers reading "Snoke Cones" and "Admiral Snackbar", where the former is either named for a mysterious terrorist leader or is owned by said mysterious terrorist leader and the latter is named for a legendary military hero who is still alive. These references are meant as jokes, but it raises Fridge Logic as to how they can exist in-universe without being insensitive or somehow knowing more things than what the public should know.
openPlanned Sacrifice
When characters are forced into a dire situation and have to come up with a plan on the fly. Said plan includes having to make a great sacrifice, whether it be a person, part of their ship, etc. Unfortunately this is just their only option.
openVery Nearly Broken
A character is tortured in some manner or other. They do not break and give the torturer what they want, but they state afterwards that had they been tortured in that manner one more time, they would have broken.
open"This is the [work] of [country]"
Is there a trope (would be trivia or YMMV) for works that are often called/considered the [insert well enough known western work] of their home country? Like "Artyom and Boris is the Alice and Bob of Russia" and that kind of thing?
openTrivia trope clarification
What is the trope for when a celebrity is a known fan of say, a band or music group? I thought it was Big Name Fan, but reading the actual trope page makes it seem like that's a whole different ball of wax.
openSynchronized Mecha Swarm
A bunch of small beings, often creatures or animals such as baby chicks or cats, form around a person so that said person can use them as a giant, living-mecha. Cue the bad guy failing to slash said mecha because the little whatchamawhosits keep moving out of the way.
openExclamation Point Above Head Print Comic
I can't find that thing where somebody who's surprised or noticing something has a cartoon exclamation point floating above their head. I expected to find that Sister Trope of Confused Question Mark listed on Briffits and Squeans, but I didn't. Alertness Blink uses a different icon, not an exclamation point.
openCharacter initials make a joke
There is a character named Elaina Tera Cameron. Her father deliberately chose it for the initials. "etc, etc, etc!"
Is this just an invoked example of Punny Name? Shades of Fun with Acronyms? Or something else? Not a trope at all?
EDIT: looks like Significant Monogram is the current best match...
Edited by underCoverSailsmanopenBackground allusion trope?
In today's episode of WandaVision, a theatrical marquee was visible in the background of some scenes. The films on the marquee were "The Incredibles" and "The Parent Trap", and there's clearly thought put behind those choices.
I know there's a trope there, but I can't put my finger on which one.
openThe Loadbearer
A character whose main purpose is to prevent The Load from being too heavy a burden on the rest of the group, e.g. a Damsel Scrappy's bodyguard preventing her from getting kidnapped every five minutes, the Tactful Translator for a Sheltered Aristocrat smoothing things over when his boss inevitably pisses someone off, the Hypercompetent Sidekick to a Pointy-Haired Boss, etc.
In more dramatic situations, they tend to be killed off to allow more problems for the rest of the group.
Edited by Chabal2openI'm Never Wrong
A character goes to huge lengths to rationalize times when he was wrong about something. Similar to Never My Fault (and can overlap), but for being wrong about something they have little control over rather than something they're personally responsible for.
e.g.
- "WW 2 ended in 1946." "You mean 1945." "There were places where they didn't stop fighting until after the ceasefire, so no."
- "It'll rain tomorrow." -> two days of sunshine -> "Based on the meteorological conditions at the time it should have rained."
- "I voted for X." -> X lost -> "X was planted by our enemies."
openMentor left important information out so student would be more likely to agree. Anime
A mentor purposely left important information out because he knew the hero would have likely not agreed so easily to be trained. Overall he did have good intentions though.
openThe Dutiful
I'm looking for a trope for someone with a chief characteristic of "always trying to fulfill their duties no matter what happens to them", sometimes even at their own expense.
Is there anything like that?
openUsing the little one for crime
I was looking for that kind of scene where a kid is used in order to do something crimina, like transporting some drugs from one place to another,because he's less likely to be questioned by the police
Do we have something that would cover a story presenting itself as one horror subgenre, but slowly revealing that it's a Cosmic Horror Story (helping to drive home the "humans are meaningless" aspect of the subgenre's horror)? Often with aspects that are clearly foreshadowing cosmic horror, but overlooked until the reveal proper.
- Bloodborne starts off looking like Gothic Horror, with the enemies being mutated by some sort of illness or Phlebotnium. Then it slowly reveals that the hunters' dream which the player's been respawning in is the work of an Eldritch Abomination, others of which become your new targets.
- Night in the Woods starts off as a Slice of Life dramady, with mystery and ghost story elements being speckled about (mostly via the protagonist having strange dreams and wanting to investigate what she things is a ghost). Then it turns out that the dreams are Mae astral projecting and running into uncaring or outright malevolent gods; and the "ghost" is just some guy...who's working for a cult feeding an Eldritch Abomination. This is set up nicely by the more grounded elements emphasising how little control people living in the rust belt have over their own lives and prosperity.
Edited by Bisected8