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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open"There is no such place as London" Literature
Is there any particular trope for situation where, for any given reason, characters declare a real, existing place to be non-existing or have no clue where it could possibly be, despite its obvious nature (to the audience)? Yes, I know there is Eskimos Aren't Real, but that feels like stretching it to the point of breaking.
The specific example that I have in mind is The Guns of the South, where the up-time travellers deliver guns from such places as "Yugoslavia" or "People's Republic of China". The readers know they are real and know what's up, but the down-time characters are puzzled where those places even are, after doing an extensive search through the books and maps they have access to, since none of the post-Cold War arsenals they are given access to won't be created for a next century.
openObsessed with research career or rival? Literature
Are there alternatives to Ambition Is Evil ?
I'm thinking of Frankenstein prior to activating the corpse collage, but that it can apply to anybody getting intense about their career or research. Detectives, even, maybe? Obsession with a case, and paranoia?
openSince the dawn of time... Literature
It's a pretty stock opening in non-fiction books, films, and shows about space exploration and it goes a little something like this...
"Since the dawn of time, humans have looked at the stars..."
Variants include have dreamed of traveling to the heavens, gazed at the stars with longing, etc. The general idea is that humans have wanted to go to space since the stone age.
openRevenge for a price Literature
What tropes are likely to apply to a person who contacts rich people who had family members murdered, and kills these murderers for pay? This person is extremely careful not to hurt innocent people directly, although at one point he staged what appeared to be a shark attack causing some people to get injured when escaping the water onto the beach. (I'm aware of Make It Look Like an Accident, don't need that trope mentioned here.)
openRehearsal 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
openMC is God Literature
The MC of these stories are God. And act as Gods should do, being worshipped. Delivering upon prayers while dealing with their own share of problems.
I cannot seem to find this trope anywhere
opentwo siblings that are different species Literature
Is there a trope where there are two (not blood-related) siblings are of different species. For example one is a human and the other is a robot.
openonly known by a pseudonym Literature
Only Known by Their Nickname's description excludes characters who are only known by an explicit pseudonym. So what trope should I use instead?
Thinking of characters like Motoko Kusanagi (said to be a pseudonym in several continuities) and Oliver Horn (concealing his real surname for Myth Arc reasons: his parents' surnames are Groves and Halford).
openOverruled from Upstairs Literature
Is there a trope for a situation where a representative of a higher power (like a god) passes judgement on someone and then an even higher power reverses that judgment, even if it undercuts the authority figure?
Two cases in the Heralds of Valdemar books
- Son of the Sun Solaris [read: female Pope] puts a spell/curse on a king who mistakenly assassinated one of her friends, binding him so that he can't lie, even to himself. A book later, an army from another country — which worships the same god, though no one knew it at the time — comes down specifically to ally with that king, and does so when Solaris is personally there on a state visit, shocking and embarrassing her.
- In The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, Gala, a Companion — the Bond Creature and Morality Chain for a Herald — rejects Tylendel, the Herald-trainee she Chose, because he was about to commit minor genocide. She then performs a Heroic Sacrifice trying to save the people he wanted to kill. Tylendel commits suicide and the rest of the Companions perform a ritual they do only for dead Heralds. The implications are either that they knew he was out of his mind when he did it (which he was) and that Gala was wrong to repudiate him. (It doesn't help that she had at least a month to intervene as Tylendel was slowly going insane and did nothing... but then, he was hiding it really, really well.)
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 TropiarzopenWhen animals eat humans Literature
Is there a trope for when animals eat humans in stories? Like how in the jungle book, shere khan eats humans even though its against the jungle law.
openFriend Today, Foe tommorrow Literature
This is a common thing spoken about in historical, literature, video games and anything that really has to do with Politics.
Short statement is : "How long Before I'm fighting you?" "You may have to fight me. You do understand this." "War may come to our people"
this isn't a personal betrayal or freinds turning against eachother or they hate eachother. It's just two folks who have the understanding they may have to take arms against eachother. They'd prefer to NOT fight, but outside forces are making it so they Have too.Usually over a stregic resource or political objective that is just too valuable to ignore.
openCasanova Indifferent to Beauty Literature
A character, who might be attractive himself, doesn't care about the appearance of his many sexual partners.
opendynamic name Literature
when a character is called a different name by the narrator
- the Ib fanfiction Mary, Quite contrary. under normal circumstances, mary is referred to as marcella by the narrator, but whenever confronted by garry, she’s referred to as mary also by the narrator.
openLightNovel namespace video remnants? Literature
Just asking this for a question: There has been a point somewhere that all works with the "Light Novel" namespace have to be moved to Literature namespace equally without discern, but I seen at least one video link (Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy, here) has it's link still redirect to the old nametag of Light Novel, despite the main page has been moved to Literature. (said video is shown as one of the video examples of Jerkass Gods trope) Is there something that can be helped about it?
EDIT: Wrong Query location, IGNORE THIS
Edited by JustNormalMusicLoveropenunworthy Literature
What is the trope where a character (usually due to past trauma)believes deeply that they are unworthy of love?
Edited by mishtully
Is there a trope for how magic in fantasy stories tends to always have been stronger in the distant past. And by the time the story takes place things have degraded or powerful spells have been lost to time?