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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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 Chabal2openAntidote trope? Western Animation
Trying to find a trope for WesternAnimation.The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy?:
- In the episode "Chocolate Sailor", the antidote for Billy being turned into a chocolate being was... chocolate and a flavor labelled antidote, but more specifically hard chocolates not soft chocolate. He chose the soft ones and exploded into chocolate. This despite the titular Chocolate Sailor telling him to only eat the hard ones.
What trope is it for when the antidote is the thing itself?
Edited by Merseyuser1openAccidentally destroying set/equipment (trivia) Web Original
Is there a trope where a prop/set was destroyed behind-the-scenes?
My example: https://youtu.be/wdgiTQffiwk?t=145 by Mehdi Sadaghdar
I know it's not quite behind-the-scenes, but in that case, Mehdi actually destroyed his phone in the process of making that video.
Edited by ExaskliriopenCharacters not using oven mitts? Live Action TV
Hey, I tried finding anything about this on the site but nothing came up.
I've been watching 2 shows in a row now where the characters pull something that should be freshly cooked and hot out of the oven but aren't wearing oven mitts. Their hands should be burning, but it's all fine.
This happens multiple times on Frasier, especially any episodes where they're trying to throw yet another failed dinner party. I'm watching Regular Show and it just happened again in the season 5 Thanksgiving special.
This is something that seems like more of a continuity error than a plot convention. Is this worth cataloguing, and is it something that happens often enough?
openAdaptation corrects aspects of the original?
Is there a trope for when an adaptation of a work aims to rectify a flaw of the original? For example, if a mystery story originally had a Conviction by Counterfactual Clue, an adaptation of that story changes the clue to be something, well, factual. Or if one character had an Informed Attribute in the original, the adaptation attempts to showcase that trait more. That kinda thing.
openCrying non-tears
Do we have a trope for characters that have something else that replaces tears when they cry? Sort of a less gross super-trope to Tears of Blood? Since that one seems to read as just "bad things crying" instead of "odd things".
Edited by ZootyCutie94openSomething only affects one gender?
It's something I've seen several times, for instance:
- I haven't seen it, but apparently, there's an episode of Sailor Moon where there's a weapon or something that only affects women, specifically women who want to lose weight.
- In an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, there are some alien women who can cause Rapid Aging via telepathy, but only to men.
openJudas' 30 pieces
The thirty pieces of silver given to Judas have special, evil powers.
- In The Dresden Files, the Denarians are humans given power by Fallen Angels contained in the thirty pieces of silver. Some are full-on possessed while others have more of a partnership with their angel.
- In Sleepy Hollow, the episode "The Root of All Evil" sees people driven to violently betray those they care about by what turns out to be ane of the Judas coins. Benedict Arnold's betrayal is revealed to be caused by the same coin.
openTeenagers with magic beads Western Animation
So there was these girls and they were like typical popular girls who liked shopping etc. But they had this bracelet with beads that theyd pop off that they used to fight or something? The animation was similar to totally spies but I dont remember much.
openReluctant/Tragic final battle Videogame
This is for battles where there's a feeling of finality, but also that it shouldn't have come to this. In fact, perhaps one (or both) of the combatants doesn't want it, and is only fighting because of necessity, or because the other combatant wishes it. Hell, maybe both combatants see this fight as a Necessary Evil. In any case, you get the feeling that this isn't a glorious fight that you're watching for the action. Expect Sad Battle Music to be playing all the while
Examples:
- A great example is the fight against The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Both Snake and The Boss have a great deal of affection for each other. Snake still has reservations about fighting his mentor, a great war hero. And as for The Boss, even before you find out she was a Fake Defector about to die and let herself be vilified for her country, she still makes it clear that she cares for Snake. And yet, she still urges Snake to "Finish your mission! Face me!"
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko's final battle with Azula, aka. "The Last Agni Kai," where the fight is visually spectacular, but somber music is playing all the while to illustrate the fact that these are two siblings, broken by their father's mistreatment, with one turning away from him to become The Atoner while the other stays with him and is now in the throes of a particularly brutal Villainous Breakdown.
openRemaster/remake of previous episode
Surprisingly, Arthur is gonna be remastering "The Great MacGrady" next month, and replacing Lance Armstrong with a different character due to the doping scandal. Is there a term for when an episode gets remade or remastered in the exact same show?
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."
Edited by Chabal2