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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openSurprisingly smart native? Film
Our heroes (or villains) meet a native, aborigine, or other person in their native habitat and assumes they're stupid or at least ignorant about "civilization," only to be surprised when the person says something erudite or at least knowledgable.
Examples: Film: The black porters in the live-action George of the Jungle who talk photography jargon amongst themselves, while the arrogant white guy thinks they're savages who never saw a camera before.
Crocodile Dundee's aborigine friend who tells the heroine, "You can't take my picture, miss," but only because "you left the lens cap on" (and not, as she thinks, because the camera will capture his soul).
Literature: Patrick O'Brian's The Fortune of War: The giant Indian guarding the insane asylum, upon being addressed as "Ugh" by our well-meaning hero, turns out to be a Harvard graduate.
resolved Revealing deeply hidden thoughts or insecurities Film
Alice and Bob have a serious fight. Tensions are high, they are both agitated and as a result Bob says something he would normally just hide or keep to himself - but not an insult to Alice, but revealing is own inadequacy or expressing guilt over something. Both sides of argument instantly realise that this reveal would never happen in other circumstances.
Do we have any trope for this, or does it fall into Freudian Slip?
openSupernatural object uses the voice/appearance of viewers nearby Film
based on a sequence in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- Alice and Bob and Report Siht are observing a Weird Magic Thing. Report Siht doesn't believe in Magic and decides to grab it
- Report hears a voice that tells him to stop, and asks why Alice and Bob told him to not touch it
- Alice denies she said anything, and says Bob probably said it
- Bob denies he said anything and says he heard Alice and Report say not to mess with it
- the three look at each other confusedly
related: A Form You Are Comfortable With
openScientist records himself with a camera Film
Scientist records himself talking/journaling about their project/experiment, (In some cases you can see their descent into madness), usually way back in the past, these tapes are then (Sometimes) revealed in the future to some other character to discover secrets about something.
Examples: Simon Petrikov, Franz Hopper.
openA trope close to a villain Film
I need help with a specific character trope that describes villains-but-not-really
In The Ballad of Little Jo, there is Frank Badger. He has a looooong list of negative traits (bigoted, racist, hardass etc), at one points even prepares to lynch a completely innocent Chinaman for no other reason that the guy showing up in Ruby City, and on top of it all, he regularly butts heads with the main character, Jo... except he's not a villain of the story or not even an antagonist. In fact, he and Jo face together against the actual bad guys of the story. There is also the uneasy frendship-but-not-quite between him and Jo, going for decades, and he's the person that ultimately goes to burry Jo when she dies of old age in her lonely lodge. On top of it all he has many positive qualities, despite his clearly negative traits - but it's not a simple case of Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And throughout the whole story, he remains this uneasy, intrusive force in Jo's life, but out of nothing but the best intentions.
So do we have a trope for character that isn't exactly the villain of the story, but is one step away from that? I vaguely remember that there was something for this specific character type, and it was something else than Affably Evil (for which Frank absolutely qualifies, but that's beyond what I'm looking for)
EDIT:
Important note, to explain why Frank's intrusiveness is so crucial for being antagonistic - Jo is pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver for half of her life and her standoffish, isolated lifestyle is a way to make sure nobody figures it out. Frank thinks Jo is a weirdo that should get company of other people one way or another to not go crazy from isolation. This creates the main axis of conflict of the whole story.
Edited by TropiarzopenBecome who you were raised by Film
Interspecies Adoption is in play. A character is raised by another species at a young age. However, as the years go by, the adoptee starts to develop traits associated with the species that they were raised by, traits the adoptee's species normally doesn't have. For example, Elf is about a human who is raised by Christmas elves. While the human, Buddy, has a lot of the traits that most humans have, like his height and the way that he ages, he's also developed traits that elves mainly have, like how he seems relatively healthy despite only eating junk food for most of his life, and is an exceptionally skilled toy by human standards. Is there a trope for this? Thank you!
openPuddle step of Action shot. Film
A shot of a barefoot stepping on or running into a puddle for a dramatic effect.
openGrinch-Style Trope Film
The trope that consistently puts a lump in my throat whenever it occurs, is best exemplified by the part of π»ππ€ πβπ πΊππππβ ππ‘πππ πΆβπππ π‘πππ ! which is narrated as:
And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say That the old Grinch's heart grew π΅π©π³π¦π¦ sizes that day. And then the true meaning of Christmas came through, And the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!
It's that moment where a character's epiphany changes the whole situation, and they are able to transcend themselves and/or what they have been, conquering the challenge before them, often with sudden ease. What Trope is that?
openClosing credits, real song reprise Film
This is where a song is sung, in whole or part, by the characters in the movie. Then in the closing credits, a "real" version of the song is played — if not the original artist, then a well-known cover. Examples include:
Good Will Hunting - Will sings a few bars of "Afternoon Delight" as kind of a joke. The original version by the Starland Vocal Band is played over the closing credits.
An American Tail - Feivel and his family sing "Somewhere Out There" in hopes of finding each other. The popular version by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram is played at the end.
Scrooged - A choir sings "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" at the end of the movie; the closing credits immediately follow with the Annie Lennox/Al Green version.
Edited by SquirrelGuyopenBlindly following directions, even if absurd in the circumstances Film
Is there a troupe involved a character following directions as if they were a robot, even if those directions make no sense under the circumstances. This would be distinct from "Just following orders," since we're not necessarily talking about morally objectionable actions. Just directions that obviously don't make sense, and that any reasonable person would, at least, question. Often played for laughs.
Some examples:
1. In an episode of Big Bang Theory, Sheldon tries to reduce "making a friend" to computer flowchart, which he follows literally when trying to make friends with Kripkie. Hilariry ensues when he ends up in a perpetual loop.
2. In Superman III, a computer is programed to send a message to every oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean, ordering them all to sail to the middle of the ocean and "await further orders." All but one ship complies without question.
3. In a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bugs defeats two cowboys by becoming a square dance caller and direction them to do things like bash each other over the head, dance into a lake, etc.
4. In Die Hard 2, after being taken over by a group of terrorists, an Air Traffic Control tower orders all the planes to hold, indefinitely. They all do so, without question, even to the point of coming dangerously close to running out of fuel. In the real world, long before being in danger of running out of fuel, the pilots would have simply gone to another airport.
5. Averted in the opening scene of Wargames, when two airmen working in a missile silo suddenly and unexpectedly receive orders to launch their missiles. The junior threatens the senior with a gun simply because the senior wants to call someone to confirm that they have REALLY been ordered to launch their missiles.
Edited by wsmith76openOne Book Author Film
Does this trope apply if someone has a work in a major field? Denny Zeitlin is a renowned jazz composer, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the only film score he did. Does that fit?
openPoor Person Usurps Rich Person's Life Film
I know I asked this a while back, but I still haven't figured out the answer. Is there a trope where someone from a lower-class background worms their way into a wealthy person's life or upper-class society in general? This trope may or may not involve the poor person killing the rich person and/or other characters in order to attain that lifestyle. Examples that come to mind are The Talented Mr. Ripley, Parasite, and most recently, Saltburn.
openBoots, Boots, Heels Film
Surely this is already a film trope but I can't find it. Invariably seen at the beginning of a movie when The Team arrives. The camera only shows the bottom of a vehicle door (often a helicopter). The first couple of pairs of legs that jump down to the ground are in fatigues and boots; the third (invariably) is a slender feminine leg in heels. Example - near the beginning of The Abyss, but there isn't anything like that listed on the page.
openTrope where you see your desire everywhere Film
When a character starts hallucinating their obsession and/or person of desire everywhere they go.
Best examples I got of it is that one plane scene from Despicable Me 2
openMetaseries Film
A media franchise where each installment shares common elements, visual motifs or themes, but do not form one single continuity (Though there often will be occasional crossovers) and arent different versions or adaptations of the same characters For example
- The Gun Dam series
- The Pre Cure series
- The Ultra Series
- Super Sentai
- Kamen Rider
openBig meaningless battle / Hidden "real" battle Film
At the end of an eventful, epic adventure, thousands of good-guy soldiers meet thousands of bad-guy soldiers in a huge, epic battle that will invariably involve lots of rousing speeches, war cries, bravery, and a heroic sacrifice or two. It will feel like it should be the climax of the story, except . . . the outcome of this battle will have little or no effect on the war. Somewhere away from the action there is a smaller, hidden duel happening between the main hero and the main villain, and it is the outcome of THAT smaller fight — the REAL battle — that will determine the course of the story. The big showy battle doesn't really matter. In fact sometimes the good guys ultimately lose the big battle, but nevertheless everything is okay because the hero prevailed in the smaller fight.
Examples of this troupe include: Return of the Jedi, Willow, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
resolved "Destroy the Mothership" Film
What's the name for the trope where plucky underdogs win against insurmountable odds by destroying some kind of technology that inexplicably has a single point of failure that then destroys/renders inactive all of the enemy forces?
Obvious examples -
- Independence Day
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
- The Avengers
A common device, sometimes used for comedy, sometimes for drama. An immigrant family is trying to do something - get some paperwork done, shopping, asking for help, anything - but the only one of them fluent in the language of the country they are in is a teen or even pre-teen child, who works as a(un usually imperfect) translator for both sides of the conversation.
Do we have any trope for this specifically, or anything close enough for this?