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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openCreatures that pursue through unusual mediums Literature
A horror trope in which there is some supernatural creature following a character, but they travel through a strange method. Often this is the subject of a photograph that gets closer to the camera (i.e. "The Sun Dog" by Stephen King), but I'm not looking for the Creepy Changing Photograph trope, but a more general trope about the monsters themselves.
In "The Hounds of Tindalos", the hounds pursue the narrator through corners/angles, hence he tries to build a room that has no corners in it.
In "Details" by China Mieville, there is a monster which appears in cracks/clouds/small details, and as usual appears to get closer to the viewer until it catches them.
In the "Mirror Mirror" episode from Amazing Stories, there is a killer who appears in mirrors and also gets closer and closer to the viewer.
openSignificant differences between different versions of the work Literature
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, near the end of the book, Malfoy says he has to kill Dumbledore because otherwise Voldemort will kill him. Dumbledore's answer in the American version:
Dumbledore's answer in the British version:
openEveryone in a whodunnit is a perfect actor Literature
Do we have a trope for how every suspect in a whodunnit mystery is perfect at not acting nervous or suspicious? In real life, criminals often get found out because they're acting weird, even though they're trying to act innocent. But in murder mysteries, the murderer alawys manages to act completely natural and convincing.
openStronger with fighting back Literature
So in Den of Shadows. The more powerful you fight back against your attacker/vampire sire while you're being turned into a vampire, the more powerful you are as a vampire.
Do we have anything for something like this ?
openPain induction powers Literature
In the Villains series , the Villain Protagonist has the ability to induce pain in his opponents. Effectively torturing or disabling them. Do we have this ?
openFandom Stockholm syndrom Literature
Let me describe a situation:
- There is a long running series of books
- It jumped shark at certain point
- Everyone is perfectly aware of the utter collapse of quality
- Despite that, the fandom, while non-stop talking smack about the books, bee-line for next one when it's published
- They keep talking smack about the series and its condition, but are anticipating already the next book
Is there any trope for this?
openIs there a trope for embracing stereotypes? Literature
As in, is there a trope for when people completely embrace the stereotypes associated with them? Such as a blonde deliberately acting fun, ditzy, and dumb (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DumbBlonde)? I'm working on a works page for my web serial, Gamer Girl, wherein a lot of the characters play up to stereotypes as part of their superhero/subculture gimmick (gamer girl, comic book fangirl, tomboy, girly girl etc). I can'f find anything like it on the Stereotype page (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Stereotype). I can't just link the Stereotype page as a trope, can I?
openStream of Consciousness Narration Literature
A narrative style that isn't in complete sentences and rambles on from phrase to phrase, bordering on Word Salad. Used to avert All First-Person Narrators Write Like Novelists and convey the feeling of a character's (who's often on drugs or a Cloud Cuckoolander) thoughts or mood rather than literal content.
openBackstory written on a wall Literature
Do we have a trope for a situation when main characters learn about the backstory, i.e. prehistory of an alien world or long lost civilisation by finding a conveniently placed wall with carvings or murals depicting it all in kind of a comic strip? This is basically what happens in Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, but I haven't found this thing listed there. It's a particular way of presenting an Expose. I guess it would be a sub-trope of Infodump.
openChange of style Literature
Bob is writing a book series. He creates few tomes, then takes a break. A really long break. He returns to the series years later, writes a new entry and it's in different tone and with distinctively different style, while still using the same characters and picking the plot right where it was.
Do we have any sort of trope for this, or it's just a really long description that applies to a subverted Orphaned Series?
Edited by TropiarzopenChicken-and-Egg Problem? Literature
Looking for a trope that describes a chicken-and-egg problem: you know, how did a cyclical situation get started with no apparent means for it to do so.
In this particular case, the problem is acknowledged and then explained as part of The Reveal: summoning demons in Torture Princess Fremd Torturchen requires a ritual that involves the use of demon flesh, so how did the first summoning happen?
open"...know you from somewhere?" Literature
May need to be "You Know, That Thing Where" but let's see!
What I'm thinking of is pretty alternate-universe-specific. Two characters recognize one another due to a strong connection they have/had in some alternate reality due to shared experiences and The Power of Friendship. Maybe they don't know how the other person seems familiar. Maybe they know they should trust the person, even though they don't have any good reason to.
I see this most often in fanfiction, for what should be obvious reasons. When played well, it creates a mystery/magical realism vibe I find delightful.
Sometimes subverted (or maybe undermined?) at the last moment by making the AU be a simulation/dream-state/holodeck within the original storyline, explaining after the fact how the characters "just knew" each other. I kind of prefer it when it isn't, though.
There is a similar vibe to a trope I'm sure exists on amnesia in-universe, but this isn't an amnesia trope. It's "the universe tells me we're close" — and the reason is shared experiences in some other timeline or reality, typically the canon timeline/reality.
Note: possible that this could be a reincarnation trope as well.
openMeta Trope about a work unfortunately remind the reader of another famous work of same genre. Literature
Hi there. Long time ago, I remember seeing a trope describes the phenomenon that audience will inevitably think that the work you created is a rip-off of another work which has become too famous not to think of.
The trope page lists a few examples where if you write a story about: - Ninja School => People will think of Naruto - Wizarding School => People will think of Harry Potter - Galaxy Adventure => Star Trek - Sci-fi Princess and Empire => Star War
Edited by misternimbusopenRehearsal Fan Fiction is Film Fic, or no? Literature
Let's say that the canon setting is a high school or maybe a university for the performing arts, and the canon characters of [insert media blahblah here] decide to answer a call for auditioning for a stageplay. The stageplay that they will be rehearsing for is [insert media soandso here].
The fanfiction is about their lives between and during rehearsals, but scenes from the thing they are rehearsing will be a major part of the plot of the fanfiction as they act it out.
What is this called?
If it's like...two canon episodes, two currently-nonexistent fanfictions as examples:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters rehearsing Oedipus Rex
Marge Simpson starring in A Streetcar Named Desire
A modern-day Alternate Universe fanfiction in that Neil Perry from the Dead Poets Society movie stars in bare: a Pop Opera
If We Were Villains characters getting cast after graduation in a production of Patrick Hamilton's stageplay Rope's End
openChiasmus/Antimetabole Literature
Chiasmus and antimetabole are closely related rhetorical techniques, in which someone uses the same, or related, words, in a certain order, and then in the opposite order, to make a point. There are many notable examples:
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
These examples all use the same words, but Chiasmus can also be employed by using similar concepts - "Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves". You see it all over the place, in any medium which involves words, and can be played for drama or indeed for laughs.
resolved Self-damaging attack Literature
Trying to find a trope for attacks that also slightly injure the attacker, a la Take Down in Pokémon. I looked at Self-Damaging Attack Backfire but that's not it.
ETA: The specific example I'm thinking of is new information about Lesedi Ingwe from Reign of the Seven Spellblades: she's a Kung-Fu Wizard Kick Chick who, it turns out, normally wears armor on her legs because otherwise she'd injure herself from the force of her kicks (apparently she lacks Required Secondary Powers). She takes them off in her fight scene in volume 10 to lose the Power Limiter, which ends with the flesh on her legs in tatters. I currently have the information listed as an inversion of Armed Legs.
Edited by StarSwordopen2 pet-related tropes Literature
1. A pet dog dies while protecting her owner from a rattlesnake. 2. A pet who had recently given birth dies, and the owners need to give maternal care to her babies.
openA major character is given no physical description for no apparent reason Literature
I.e what they look like isn't some kind of Plot Twist or Tomato Surprise or anything. The author just never describes them.
Edited by BootlebatopenIn the Country of Last Things Literature
Is there a page about the book In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster?
Using the search bar I can't find anything on either the book or the author.
What trope is used to describing being put into various groups? for example, the Four Houses of Hogwarts in Harry potter, the Cabins in Percy Jackson, the Factions in the Divergent series, and to a lesser extent, the districts in the Hunger Games.