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:
openAlpha, beta, omega, etc...
When terms like "alpha" or "omega" are used for the sake of coolness.
openSexy sunscreen
A woman invites a man to rub sunscreen on her as a flirtation technique.
openUnexpectedly Occupied
A character expects to have a place to themselves, only to find people there. Often a result of Trespassing to Talk.
openNon-binary means androgynous
Non-binary characters are frequently given androgynous appearances.
openSomeone who lost has his former fans turn to his rival Videogame
Some big superstar's defending his title against someone else, be it in a baseball game, wrestling, boxing, basketball, etc. He's real famous, not a single person expects him to lose against this newcomer. Newbie doesn't have a chance anyway.
...right?
Well, his supporters certainly THOUGHT the newbie didn't have a chance. And guess what? The champ's lost his title, and now his fans are heartbroken, devastated, etc.
Basically, they've become so disappointed in the champ, that they've even stopped rooting for him altogether, instead rooting for the one who defeated him. What would this trope be?
openStar playing a fish
When a big name star is hired to play a silly character like a plushie or a slice of pie.
openMorality pet or something else?
I'm looking for the right trope to describe this Game Grumps intro, which suggests that Arin's wife Suzy is the only thing to keep him from being grumpy. Would it be Morality Pet or not really since it's more about his mood than how he treats others around him? Alternatively, do we have a "cooldown kiss" trope akin to Cooldown Hug? (I know we have "Shut Up" Kiss but I don't think this is that.)
openDumped in the wilderness
Someone has to go through Training from Hell, so they are left out in the wilderness all alone to survive.
Edited by sifsandopenCanadian Horror Setting
Is there a Canadian equivalent to Lovecraft Country, Campbell Country, Southern Gothic, Weird West and Uberwald?
openPicard Uses The Force
Same principle as Gretzky Has the Ball but for non-sports examples, a gag where someone mashes up a bunch of names and concepts from different works (usually in the same genre or type of work: shonen, fantasy, sci-fi...) as if they were a single work, prompting an Eye Twitch or worse from fans of those works (in-universe and out).
Something like this:
- "My favorite Captain Picard moment would be when he uses the Force to realize that the Dalek he's talking to is actually a Terminator and he kicks him through the Stargate to rescue Ripley."
openEyes fit within the frames
When a character is drawn wearing glasses, the character’s eyes seem to fit perfectly within the frames.
openEmotionally-suppressed time bomb
A character has their emotions suppressed within, but never fully eliminates them, meaning that they’re full of tons of dormant emotion waiting to go off all at once.
openPortrait Bait And Switch
Bob is sitting for a portrait drawn by Alice. The audience sees that Alice is actually focusing on something else and the Bob is sitting still/smiling "naturally"/holding a pose for nothing.
Alternately, Bob only thinks he's being used as a model and all the posing is on his initiative, the artist is actually drawing something else that's next to Bob.
openPossessive Bully Western Animation
Kind of like a reverse We Want Our Jerk Back! trope, where a bully or another type of jerk gets mad when someone else is annoying his favorite target, and sometimes goes as far as beating the rival bully up.
openFantastic Ableism?
Is there a trope for this kind of thing? I.E a world with superpowered/magical/transhumanist etc characters who look down on normal (non-super) people?
openManipulation realization
Someone figuring out that all of their actions have happened due to being manipulated.
openIs there a trope for this?
I'm looking for the phenomeom common in giant monster movies — i.e. various Godzilla films, Pacific Rim, etc. — where the monsters and giant robots are somehow standing upright and waist-deep in water that should be well over their heads?
openbeauty-lethality correlation
Two questions about a scene in a Star Wars novel.
Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves: Han Solo's party is trekking through a swamp when a large ugly monster rears out of a mud puddle in front of them. Han tells his companions not to shoot it because its flat teeth and wide-set eyes mark it as a herbivore; "Don't shoot it for being ugly." Shortly afterward, a beautiful butterfly-wasp thing appears, and Han is the only one to skip ogling it and go for his blaster, but not soon enough to keep it from stinging the Mauve Shirt to death. Bright colors in a dangerous swamp denote it as the most dangerous thing of all.
Leia and the others are surprised at Han's insight and concern for the innocent swamp-monster; this is pre-Empire when he's still mostly just a rogue to them. Is there something better or more specific than Hidden Depths?
And there has to be a trope for the situation itself, the contrast between big-ugly-harmless and small-beautiful-deadly.
openParental Miscommunication
One parent uses Lies to Children on their kid without the other's knowledge. The kid ends up parroting it to the other parent, causing drama and/or humor.
Like this SMBC, where a child now thinks falling off a roof sends people to sleep and recommends it to her stressed-out father.
Edited by Chabal2
I.e. Some idiot says some pretty stupid things in front of a bunch of news reporters and threatens to kill them if any of his "secrets" about his current problems/issues get out to the public, prompting one reporter to ask if this is the first press conference he's ever given.