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:
open"You'll always be [x] to me"
When someone with a history with a character recognizes that person as a past role. Could be a stock phrase? Or maybe it's a different trope each time depending on the context?
Example, victim to reformed villain: "No matter how hard you try to convince the people, you'll always be the Red Baron to me."
Mentor to a hero after defeating the Big Bad: "They may think of you as the [hero name], but to me, you'll always be that scraggly kid from a decade ago."
openIn universe most annoying sound
Is there an in-universe version of Most Annoying Sound? By this I mean a sound the characters in the work find really annoying
Edited by BootlebatopenAll aliens breathe oxygen
All aliens breathe oxygen, and required the same type of atmosphere as humans do.
openNon-Fan dissonance
A movie adaptation/installment is only liked/loved by fans of the franchise and considered mediocre by non-fans.
openA clip of a vehicle, dot or line moving across a map to illustrate a character's journey.
Often used in the Indiana Jones franchise. When a character travels a long distance, a short scene of a dot, line or whatever vehicle they're taking moving across a map from the starting point to the ending point plays in order to show where they're going or emphasise how far they traveled.
openRedefined Echo
An "echo" where a word or phrase has several meanings that might have little or nothing to do with each other, where the first character uses it with one meaning and the second character uses it with a different one. Different from Ironic Echo in that that trope is about applying the same words (with basically the same meaning) to different contexts.
For instance, this exchange from Knighty Knight Bugs:
Bugs Bunny: (as court jester) Yuk-yuk-yuk! Only a fool would go after the Singing Sword!
King Arthur: A good idea... fool!
Edited by SteveMBopenEpisodic/Serialized flip flop
A work goes back and forth between telling a connected narrative spanning multiple episodes and one-off episodic sections/chapters/episodes.
Edited by AudioSpeaks2openChildren Are Replaceable
A character responds to the death of a (even their own) child with the statement that the parents can make another.
Can be used to show how callous the character is or to demonstrate what a Crapsack World they live in.
- In The Accursed Kings, a woman who's had and lost several children impatiently tells Marie that she can always have more (in medieval France, losing children isn't an unusual occurence).
- In The Punisher MAX, the Kingpin allows his hostage son to be killed to kill the murderer, telling his sobbing wife that they'll have more.
- In Animorphs, the Ellimist's proto-Andalite wife tells him they'll have another child to replace the one they just lost, as that's the point of life. This sparks the Ellimist's master plan of creating a species that will foster new life throughout the galaxy.
openstern bookworm
I'm looking for a trope that fits this. Something in between a regular nerd and a Badass Bookworm. They aren't bullied like a typical nerd but they won't resort to violence either because they're obsessed with rules (or look like the type who is).They also take things way too serious than they actually are.
Tenya Iida from My Hero Academia would be an example, right down to the robotic way he moves.
openActual Skeleton Prop Skeleton
Someone thinks a skeleton is a very realistic model/prop/whatever, only to find out they're actual human remains.
openIs there a trope for a character who is incompetent at their chosen craft?
I was wondering if that is a trope? For example someone who works as a plumber but is terrible at plumbing or a blacksmith whose armor falls apart from a stiff breeze.
openSun is a directional guide
Is there a trope for when somebody uses the sun (or moon or stars) to guide them when they are lost without a map or compass? A few examples are:
- The Marvelous Land of Oz: When Mombi throws many magical obstacles in the way of the travelers, the Scarecrow suggests that they use the sun as a guide, since no witchcraft can change the course of the sun.
- The Wizard of Oz: As there is no road to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy and her friends are told to follow the setting sun.
- The Famous Five: In Five Fall into Adventure, the Five are lost in a thick wood, and it is mentioned that they don't even have the sun to guide them.
openTrope for archetypical Theatre Kid?
The kid who's obsessed with theatre/acting, talks about everything like it's a play, acts like a Drama Queen, prone to burst into song, often very overexaggerated, emotional, and takes everything too seriously. Stereotypically "annoying," often gay.
Can't seem to find one of these.
openFriendly opponents
Not so much a punch-clock villain, but more two characters who are competing against each other that are kind to each other outside the competition.
openambiguous ethnicity
it's theorised in-universe that this character is of a certain ethnicity, but ultimately it's not known and is kept a mystery
openWandering Corpse? Live Action TV
Usually a murder mystery trope, Character A finds a corpse but by the time they return with the authorities/other members of the group the corpse has vanished. Character A is usually accused of imagining things/having made a really tasteless joke.
Trope where a series is set up as a fantasy, but revealed to actually be a sci-fi. Such as when it's established to make you believe it's on another world or whatever, and suddenly it's revealed to be earth after an apocalypse, or the whole series took place on a space-ship or whatever