Ah, the Backstory; a trope that tells the reader what happened to Bob before all the chaos began. It can make you weep, groan with Narm, swell with pride, and hack phlegm all over yourself at the same time.
Tropes that are always backstories:
- Backstory
- Backstory Horror
- Backstory of the Day
- Belated Backstory
- Cynicism Catalyst
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Dead All Along
- Death by Origin Story
- Deceased Parents Are the Best
- Expansion Pack Past
- Freudian Excuse
- His Story Repeats Itself
- Historical Rap Sheet
- History with Celebrity
- How Dad Met Mom
- Multiple-Choice Past
- Mysterious Past
- Newspaper Backstory
- Parental Abandonment
- Parent Never Came Back From The Store
- Pre-Insanity Reveal
- Posthumous Character
- Rape as Backstory
- Retired Badass
- Sports Hero Backstory
- Standard Cop Backstory
- Surprisingly Normal Backstory
- Sympathetic Murder Backstory
- Troubled Backstory Flashback
- When It All Began
Tropes that are sometimes backstories:
- Abusive Parents
- Bad Dreams
- Campfire Character Exploration
- Career-Ending Injury
- Doomed Hometown
- Give Him a Normal Life
- Had To Be Sharp
- Heroic B.S.O.D.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!
- Kid Hero All Grown-Up
- My Greatest Failure
- Mythopoeia
- No Place for a Warrior
- Prequel
- Real Award, Fictional Character (when used to establish a character's credentials to the audience)
- Serial Spouse
- Shooting Lessons From Your Parents
- Start of Darkness
- The Lost Lenore (only Type A counts)
- When It All Began
- You All Share My Story
