Taking a step back and looking at how we look at things.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Absurdity Ascendant
- Common Fan Fallacies
- Continuity Tropes
- Creator Standpoint Index
- Creator-Viewer Reactions Index
- Deconstruction
- Doomy Dooms of Doom
- Fictional Media
- In-Joke
- Lit. Class Tropes
- Metafiction Demanded This Index
- The Newest Ones in the Book
- The Oldest Ones in the Book
- The Oldest Tricks in the Book
- Parody Tropes
- Self-Demonstrating Article
- Self-Referential Humor
- Shout-Out
- Stock Room
- The Shades of Fact
- Trope Tropes
- Accentuate the Negative: Focusing mainly on the negative aspects with little to no acknowledgement of the merits of the work being reviewed.
- Actor-Inspired Element
- Actor-Shared Background
- Allegory
- Applicability
- Archetype
- Ascended Meme: A meme is made officially canon by the work it is derived from.
- Camp
- Central Theme
- Cliché
- The Climax
- The Coconut Effect
- Competence Porn: A fictional work revolving around characters working together to solve an issue, highlighting cleverness and effort.
- Conceit
- Conflict
- Constrained Writing
- Constructive Criticism
- Continuity Drift
- Couch Gag
- Could Have Been Messy
- Cyclic National Fascination: A new fad rises in popularity and then falls. Rinse and repeat.
- Death of the Author
- Decompressed Comic
- Demonization
- Dénouement
- Defictionalization: A fictional object is made real.
- Derivative Differentiation
- Détournement
- Diegetic Switch
- Diegetic Visual Effects
- Different in Every Episode
- Direct Line to the Author
- Dramatization
- Drinking the Kool-Aid
- Dueling Dubs
- Dueling Products
- Dueling Works: Two works with similar premises are released at around the same time.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil
- Escapism
- Escapist Character
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Audiences find symbolism in a work where there wasn't any intended.
- Everyone Is Satan in Hell: A work receives unfounded accusations of featuring morally objectionable content.
- Fair for Its Day
- Falsely Advertised Accuracy
- Fan Disillusionment
- Fandom Rivalry: The fandoms of two different works do not get along well.
- Female Gaze: Arousing female audiences by focusing the camera on the male anatomy.
- Ficton
- Finagle's Law
- Flawless Token: A character belonging to a minority gets special treatment and has better things happen to them than the other characters.
- Fleeting Demographic Rule
- Follow the Leader: Works ape whatever work has been proven successful.
- Fountain of Memes: A character who tends to create memes.
- Formula with a Twist
- Fun for Some
- Fusion
- Garnishing the Story
- Gateway Series
- Gaze
- Generation Xerox: The children are carbon copies of their parents.
- Genre Blindness
- Genre Popularizer
- Genre Relaunch
- Genre Shift
- Gimmick
- Homegrown Hero
- How Unscientific!
- I Just Want to Be Badass
- I Just Want to Have Friends
- Inciting Incident
- Individualism vs. Collectivism
- Inferred Holocaust: The work glosses over the fact that certain actions and events in the story have most likely resulted in countless deaths.
- Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality
- It Was His Sled: A plot twist is so famous that even people who haven't seen the work are aware of it.
- Kayfabe
- Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: A work references something obscure and acknowledges that not many people are familiar with it.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you don't watch a series from the beginning, you'll get spoilers on what happened in the earlier episodes.
- Late to the Punchline: Not understanding the joke until a bit later.
- Law of Conservation of Detail
- Layout of a Season: The kinda Strictly Formula structuring of a show's seasons.
- Left the Background Music On
- Life Imitates Art
- Literary Agent Hypothesis
- Local Reference
- "London, England" Syndrome
- Long-Runner Tech Marches On: A series lasting a long time updates the technology used the same way real life technology is advancing.
- Male Gaze: Arousing male audiences by focusing the camera on women's breasts or butts.
- Meme Acknowledgment
- Memetic Mutation
- Men Act, Women Are
- Men Are Generic, Women Are Special
- Meta
- Meta Casting
- Metapuzzle
- Meta Twist
- Metagame
- Milestone Celebration: A work that celebrates the franchise's anniversary.
- Minimalism
- Modular Franchise
- Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness
- Narrative Filigree
- Nerdgasm
- No Canon for the Wicked
- Old Guard Versus New Blood
- Oneshot Revisionism
- Out of Character
- Out-of-Genre Experience
- Pastiche
- Perverse Sexual Lust: Sexual attraction to a fictional character.
- Playing with a Trope
- Popcultural Osmosis
- Popularity Polynomial
- Postmodernism
- Post-Somethingism
- Prop
- Propp's Functions of Folktales
- Public Medium Ignorance
- Radio Song
- Reaching Through the Fourth Wall
- Realism
- Reality Subtext
- Reality Is Unrealistic: There are certain aspects of the real world that are stranger than what is established in fiction.
- Redubbing
- Replay Mode: A feature to replay elements of a video game (bosses, Cutscenes, mini-games, or even whole levels/chapters), and thus rewind or revisit the tropes that occur within them.
- Retroactive Legacy
- Romanticism
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse
- Satire/Parody/Pastiche
- Satire and Switch
- Schematized Prop
- Season Fluidity
- Self-Plagiarism: Stealing material from your own work.
- Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted
- Spiritual Antithesis
- Squee
- Starring a Star as a Star
- Strictly Formula: Every episode of the series basically has the same plot.
- Stripperific: Character wears a very revealing outfit.
- Sturgeon's Law
- Surrealism
- Technology Marches On: An old work features use of technology that is now out of date.
- Television Is Trying to Kill Us: An index of tropes that one should not attempt in real life or assume is the case in real life because doing so can have serious consequences.
- Trauma Button
- Trope
- Trope Breaker
- Trope Codifier
- Trope Makers
- [Trope Name]
- Trope Telegraphing
- True Art Is Incomprehensible
- Two-Act Structure
- Unbuilt Trope
- Unintentional Period Piece: A work doesn't age well due to excessive references to the time period where the work was made.
- Ur-Example
- The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool
- Watsonian versus Doylist
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief
- Wish-Fulfillment
