Have an idea for a new trope, but don't know for sure if it's a good idea? Did Trope Finder give you similar concepts, but not exactly what you wanted? Are you just looking for a focus to a broader idea?
You've come to the right place!
On this thread, you can share your ideas with the masses before making that TLP draft, so if there's any lingering uncertainty about the validity of your idea or you just want some help pinning down a good idea, ask away and help others out, too!
A related sandbox I need to pitch is the Trope Idea Salvage Yard. If you've an idea but can't personally work on it, you can add it to the yard and let someone else create the draft. Or you can browse it yourself if you need more draft ideas, whether or not you feel they should be mentioned here first.
Got ideas for non-trope pages you need help with? Never fear, the New Page Workshop Thread
is here!
With that out of the way: Let's discuss some ideas.
Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 27th 2022 at 1:49:11 PM
Every schoolyard game is a trope? Or is it? Fuck Marry Kill, a.k.a Forum Games: Kill, Sex, Marry.
Found one example, but it's a common enough game that there should be more? Somewhere?
- Description Cut: My Hero Playthrough: Izuku arrives late to the pool, only to find the boys and girls of Class 1-A are split up on opposite sides of the pool. He reluctantly joins the boys, only for them to try to draw him into rating the attractiveness of their female classmates. After he protests that the girls wouldn't do the same thing, the scene cuts to the other side of the pool, where the girls are playing "Boink, Marry, Goodbye".
- Recap.The Magicians 2016 S 04 E 04 Marry Fuck Kill
Edited by Malady on Nov 5th 2023 at 4:32:33 AM
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I agree with Miss Conduct, an Make Up As Empowerment would be great! Tropical Rouge Precure and even Sailor Moon (Which had Make Up at the end of the By the Power of Grayskull! as reclaiming the word as empowering.)
Discord: Waido X 255#1372 If you cant contact me on TV Tropes do it here.
Trope idea: All Crystals Are Quartz It just occurred to me that in fiction, it seems that every crystal is a hexagonal prism, like a quartz crystal. That is: six-sided with pointed ends. This is especially true when depicting 'natural' crystals, like on a planet's surface or in a cave. I assume this is largely due to quartz being one of the most common and recognizable crystals, so it's very easy visual shorthand for "this is a crystal" rather than something that's cubic or a rhombic dodecahedron.
Would be better if it's "All Crystals Have Six Sides" or something, since All Crystals Are Quartz could just be saying that they're all the same material, not its shape.
Edited by Malady on Nov 7th 2023 at 10:41:11 AM
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Trope Idea: Wandering Wordsmith
A character that wants to be/is an writer visits a location to gain inspiration for their novel/screenplay/play
Evil Eye is now a disambiguation, but the version where the eye is largely symbolic doesn't seem to have been troped. The eye may or may not belong to anyone specific and might not have any defined powers beyond giving the characters and/or the audience nightmares. Examples include the Eye of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings and the page image of NightmareFuel.Eversion.
Edited by Prfnoff on Nov 8th 2023 at 6:21:03 AM
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
All Crystals Have Six Faces can also work, though it can be confused with Only Six Faces.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
ignore
Edited by WarJay77 on Nov 8th 2023 at 12:50:34 PM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
- Good point! "hexagonal prism" was mentioned, so the trope name could use that instead.
https://www.geologyin.com/2019/10/crystal-habits-and-forms.html
Seems to indicate we want "dipyramid primamatic"?
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Sifting through my Sandboxes and I found this proposal for a No Celebrities Were Harmed subtrope for J.K. Rowling. The Other Wiki has a lot of examples, but I'm wondering if they're enough to justify a subtrope or not.
(I've probably posted this before, and if I have then I apologize. Poor memory'll do that to you.)
Kaito is an alien and he is kinda spacey, coming from the universe to party and go crazy!
There's a certain archetype found in most folklore around the world that I think merits its own page. I like to call it the Disciplinarian Bogeyman.
This is the kind of scary, intimidating figure from old cautionary tales whose purpose is to enforce the Space Whale Aesop being taught, existing solely to punish bad behaviour, noncomformity, and violation of social taboos with Disproportionate Retribution. Parents everywhere hate it when their kids act like annoying little shits no matter how much they're scolded. So they tell said kids to go to bed, eat their dinner, and just obey their elders in general... or else Krampus, El Cucuí, the Sack Man, or what-have-you will kidnap them specifically for not going to bed, eating their dinner, and not obeying their elders in general. That'll set them straight!
In fact, Wikipedia tells me that this is what the term "bogeyman" originally refers to. Not the generic monster in the closet that we tend to imagine upon hearing that word, but the monster they tell you stories about to scare you into not being an annoying little shit.
Drop the children from the sky.
When the young ones misbehave,
ESCORTS CHILDREN TO THEIR GRAVE.
Never back-talk, never lie,
OR HE'LL DROP YOU FROM THE SKY!
Edited by Unnerving_Posterior on Nov 9th 2023 at 7:06:07 AM
Seems like we currently cover that as the combination of Scare 'Em Straight and Things That Go "Bump" in the Night?
Splitting it out is fine by me!
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Does anyone have more examples of this?
Magic requires mental energy, and only lasts so long as the caster is concentrating on it. When their stamina or concentration fails, the spell breaks.
- The Glass Looker: Treasure digging has 3 basic pieces involved: 1) using magic to identify the location of buried treasure, 2) the physical work of excavating it, and 3) using magic to counteract the magical protections guarding the treasure. During Luman Walters' treasure dig, he demands silence from all his diggers. When Joseph interrupts them, Luman complains that this broke his concentration, which in turn broke the spell.
Luman: Damn kid broke my concentration. The treasure's sure to have moved!
- In the pilot episode of The Witcher (2019), the castle at Cintra is being attacked with overwhelming armies they cannot hope to defeat. As a final line of defense, Court Mage Mousesack creates a magical barrier around the moat, which he can maintain only so long as his energy and focus last.
Ciri: How long will it hold?
Mousesack: As long as I hold.
Edited by Eievie on Nov 9th 2023 at 3:21:07 AM
- Dungeons & Dragons: Concentration spells.
They apparently also appear in 3.5 and Pathfinder?
Mentioned more clearly: ObviousRulePatch.Dungeons And Dragons Fifth Edition:
Edited by Malady on Nov 9th 2023 at 8:35:10 AM
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Quirky Tech Sector CEO - a CEO, Millionaire, or Billionaire who presents themselves a really cool or quirky, tech savvy, and youthful rather than like stuffy distant and aloof like the traditional image of a rich company owner. Usually has a strong social media presence and likely runs companies with a Wacky Startup Workplace atmosphere and often strongly wants to be liked by the general public but is just, if not more, likely to be revealed to be a Corrupt Corporate Executive deep down than a more traditionally stoic CEO. May be a Gadgeteer Genius themselves or might just present themselves as that to the public but mostly have their employees come up with all the technical wizardy. Shares elements with the Eccentric Millionaire but can be very sensible just wants to be seen as "hip". Somewhat a parody of several real life figures - in particularly - Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and maybe Bill Gates though the Gates-alikes are probably less "hip". Probably should be a No Real Life Examples, Please! trope if only to avoid controversy.
Examples:
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe take on Tony Stark was this at first but he turned the actual running of the business side of Stark Enterprises to Pepper Pots when he realises he's more a inventor and she's better business woman.
- Mark Beaks in DuckTales (2017) is intentionally a parody of a "modern" Billionaire as opposed to the "Stuffy Old Guy in fancy clothes" presentation of Scrooge and Glomgold. He puts Social Media Before Reason and really wants to be seen as famous, even more than he wants to be rich. Runs a company called Waddle like a Wacky Startup Workplace with mandatory dance breaks and other cool things for his employees to do in the office but also with a constant reminder that all of his staff are replaceable.
- Dr. Anthony Ivo who is My Adventures with Superman's take on Professor Ivo who in DC Comics created the evil Android Amazo. Here he is the nearly bankrupt C.E.O. of AmazoTech and presented more like 'Tony Stark if he was far more corrupt', his companies are involved in forcing poor people out of neighbourhoods so he can buy up the land and trying to sell powered armor to rich people as "security systems" which he uses to attack Superman as part of a "tech demo".
- Bif Standard from Pretty Sammy who wants to standardise the entire world's computers - even when people are happy with their various OS's and is prepared to turn to supervillainy to do so - and pretty much was a direct Bill Gates Parody. He's nowhere near as hip and cool presenting as later takes on this characters but part of the early days of the internet where these characters might still wear suits and ties but also wanted to be known for their own intellect and tech savviness as much as they did their wealth.
Edited by GracieLizzy on Nov 10th 2023 at 12:29:31 PM
Owl House / Infinity Train / Inside Job Fan
I would like to once again pitch Assassin Works as a trope. Assassin movies are practically a genre on their own like spy films and superhero movies. The tropes are all there: professional killers with secret underworld connections for intelligence and other services which may or may not be a full-blown Wainscot Society. Works like Deadpool (2016), Spy X Family with Garden, Wanted, and John Wick, which codified much of the tropes.
I really do think there is a gem of an idea in here if y’all could help me out?
I may make a sandbox page ahead of an official proposal.
Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Nov 11th 2023 at 1:26:23 PM
The Owl House and Coyote Vs Acme are my Roman Empire.
^ Insert spiel about "works about x" being controversial here
^^ Is that sufficiently different from Tech Bro?
susie.
Potential trope: "Got/Lost the Friends in the Breakup". (Needs a better name.) Essentially, where after a couple breaks up, one of them "keeps" most or all of their mutual friends, either due to the friends actively taking their side, liking them better, or the friends having known them first.
Examples:
Live-Action TV:
- Abbott Elementary: After she and Tariq break up, Janine admits all their friends were more his friends, and her only social circle outside of him are her coworkers. Much of her arc in Season Two is trying to make new friends she can talk to outside of work.
- Friends: Defied. After Ross and Rachel break up, the other Friends make it abundantly clear that they're not taking sides or choosing between them. Either Ross and Rachel act civilly towards each other, or the others don't hang out with them.
- Gilmore Girls A Year In The Life: Discussed. Paris and Doyle are getting divorced, with Rory being a good friend of them both.
Paris: I know you guys were friends, but if push came to shove, and we had to make T-shirts…
Rory: Team Paris, all the way.
I know I've seen other examples, I'm just blanking.
I've been here too long. Regretting choosing this screenname ten years ago.
Owl House / Infinity Train / Inside Job Fan
Mark my words. Assassin movies will be a genre all its own by the end of the decade. And until then, I’ll be waiting…
Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Nov 11th 2023 at 10:30:12 AM
The Owl House and Coyote Vs Acme are my Roman Empire.
The thing about Assassin Works or Assassin Fiction is that in practice those works are usually covered by either Spy Fiction or Crime Fiction.
Damage Limiting Defence: sort of like Multiple Life Bars.
- Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Slimes will die in 5 hits. It doesn't matter how strong or weak the hits are, it takes 5.
- Pokémon: Substitutes last until they have a damage total equal to the creator's HP it took to create them, but it blocks all the damage in excess of that needed to destroy it.
- Single-Use Shield-s that can take 1 hit from any source.
- Touhou Lost Branch Of Legend: The Flawless status turns every hit into just dealing 1 damage.
Edited by Malady on Nov 11th 2023 at 10:55:55 AM
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Buzz
@ Adele Potter, another example is from the movie Game Night:
- Game Night: Gary and his ex-wife Debbie used to be regulars at Max and Annie's game nights till they split, after which Max, Annie, and co. would actively try to avoid Gary. In their words, Debbie was their real friend while Gary was the weird husband they had to put up with.
Joke idea for Double Subversion:
"You know how sometimes a story sets up expectations, and then seems to to do the exact opposite, only to do it straight after all? Well, This Is That Trope."
This is a subversion of Well, This Is Not That Trope, (which is a subversion of just saying what the actual trope is) making it a double subversion overall.
I could also imagine a modified version of this on Subverted Trope, I suppose.
If I were to actually add it, it'd likely need to be more concise, but I can't quite think of how.
Don't ask about the other moose-twin
@Synchronisty: Ah, I could not find that trope earlier (you'd think I'd jush seach "Tech Bro" but for some reason I tried looking for it via going indexes and character pages I thought it would be on and just didn't find it). Fair point.
Okay, I think I miscommunicated here.
There is already an angelic counterpart of Demon Lords and Archdevils; as Twiddler pointed out, that's Celestial Paragons and Archangels. On an individual level, we also already have Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, Archangel Uriel and Archangel Azrael. The concept of "very powerful individual angels in charge of the rest of angelkind" is already amply covered. That wasn't my angle.
What I was thinking of was the idea of angels as a, quote unquote, "species" being divided into a varying large number of ranks, "subspecies" or orders with distinct in-universe appearances, roles, and degrees of holiness. My thought was that, given that this is both widespread enough that at least some basic types are recognizable while not really being so universal that it inherently overlaps with Our Angels Are Different as it is currently, it'd be worth discussing as its own thing.
Just for reference, these are the three examples I have on hand right this minute. I just ported over with some editing from OAAD, so it's all still in very rough draft stage.