Trope Idea Sounding Board

Looking it up, I believe it would count; it appears it would be signified by Michael's slow-motion fingersnap that bookends the flashback.

I could draft up something for the TLP, I'm just struggling to think of even a good temp name, haha. "Long Flashback Inside, One Second Outside"??? I dunno.

I still think it's worth a draft, though IDK what a good title would be.

I think that title is a good idea. I'm thinking about "Flashback Bullet Time" but that's a bit snowcloney.

Adaptational Antagonist is another good idea for a trope it’s the inverse to Adaptational Protagonist.

Different from Adaptational Villainy?

So this is a scenario that came up in a story I'm working on, and I think it's a valid trope, but I need more examples from actual published works to pitch the idea in TLP: Disliking The Replacement — in which a character hates another character because of any flaw on the latter's part, but because this second character took the place of someone the first character cares about.

Usually manifests in children resenting their Good Stepparent simply for replacing their Missing Mom or Disappeared Dad, but could also work for a replacement teammate or colleague.

• Midori Days: Shiori despises her father's new wife for "acting as if she's her real mother" because she's not over her biological mother's death. Seiji calls her out on this because her stepmother is trying her best to accept Shiori as her daughter, and Shiori's rebellion towards her is disrespectful at best.
• Dad, the Beard Gorilla and I: Discussed, but ultimately averted. When Souichi tells his daughter about his desire to court Tsukasa, Michiru just shrugs it off and tells him that it's fine. Souichi admits to his brother that he's expecting more resistance from her while having an Imagine Spot of Michiru rejecting his new girlfriend because she's not her mother.
• Ordeal by Innocence: This, combined with his Delusions of Parental Love, is the source of Micky Argyle's resentment towards his late adoptive mother, Rachel. Micky hates Rachel for taking him away from his real mother, despite the fact that Rachel is a far better caregiver towards him than his drunk and abusive biological mother had and could ever be.

Edited by Adept on Nov 21st 2023 at 8:21:08 PM

I think that's workable.

Any more thoughts on my idea from the last page before I make a draft?

Edited by WarJay77 on Nov 21st 2023 at 4:41:28 AM

Just got a response from the TF query about Disliking The Replacement, and it seems that there's an abandoned TLP draft that seems to cover the trope I'm looking for: The Replacement Nobody Likes. Before deciding to grab that draft though, I'd like to ask if there's any meaningful difference between "a character gets a replacement and everyone else hates the replacement" and "a character hates another simply because they replaced someone else". Because in the former, the "problem" seems to be on the replacement, while in the latter, the "problem" is with the other character for being unreasonably resentful towards the replacement.

The idea you posted seems workable to me.

Is this a trope yet? I feel like it might be — "Worthless Trinket Fight" (tentative title), where two or more people fight over something stupid that has little or no value, simply because they don't want the other person to have it.

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Hearth's Warming Eve", the leaders of the three pony tribes, who hate each other, flee into a cave to hide from the Windigos. They divide up their territory in the cave and then start fighting over a tiny rock simply because they don't want the other tribes to have it, which makes the Windigos stronger as they are fueled by hatred and causes them to be frozen alive.
  Commander Hurricane: (to Private Pansy) What are you doing!? Don't go around the rock, go over it! I'm not giving up an inch of territory to the enemy!
  Princess Platinum: That rock is clearly on the Unicornia side of the cave, and it belongs to us!
  Commander Hurricane: I claim this rock for Pegasopolis!
  Princess Platinum: Unhand that rock this instant, you scoundrel!
• Team Fortress 2: In his will, Zephaniah Mann left his twin sons Redmond and Blutarch nothing but a worthless parcel of land, correctly predicting they would fight each other for decades over it.
• Mick Harte Was Here: Phoebe gets into a fight with her brother Mick over a skull-and-crossbones pirate tattoo in a cereal box, which she doesn't want him to have because he always gets to the cereal toys before her. He makes her say "please" and "pretty please with sugar on top", but when he tries to make her say "Wee Willie Winkie went to town. Upstairs, downstairs in his nightgown", she wrestles him to the ground. Tragically, this is the last morning they spend together before Mick is killed in a bike accident.
  I should probably mention that I didn’t really want the tattoo. But that wasn’t the point. The point was, I didn’t want him to have it. Which I happen to think is a perfectly legitimate reason for fighting.

Edited by Snowsky on Nov 23rd 2023 at 12:32:25 PM

Video Game Trivia: Game Engine Change?

• LunarLux: From RPG Maker 2003 to I dunno, but it's not RPG Maker?

Hello! I hope to suggest a trope, but my description is very bare-bones right now. I feel like it's definitely a common enough trope. I've called it "Age Gap Love Triangle" (super straightforward).

The description I have so far: "Exactly What It Says on the Tin — a character is in a Love Triangle between someone who is considerably older or younger than them; their other option is the opposite, or the same age as them. This is a sub-trope of Love Triangle, and often overlaps with Age-Gap Romance or Precocious Crush.

Examples:

• In the music video She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5, the protagonist (played by the then-25-year-old Adam Levine) is in love with an older woman (played by Kelly Preston, who was then 43). He is dating the older woman's daughter as well; she is obviously closer to his age than the mom.
• One of the main characters in the Filipino series Drag You & Me is a young, bisexual drag queen named Jason. A few characters mention that he is of college age. He meets and falls for the slightly younger Betty, a high school senior who's about to graduate. But he's also conflicted about his feelings towards another character, Charlie. Although Charlie's age is never specified In-Universe, he is old enough to be Jason's drag mother (which he is, before his romantic feelings for Jason complicate things). Doubles as an example of Bisexual Love Triangle."

I thought of some more examples:

• In Batang Quiapo, the protagonist Tanggol is in love with Mokang, a woman of a similar age to him. However, Mokang at one point enters a relationship with none other than Tanggol's father, Ramon, though she still has feelings for Tanggol as well.
• TheTwilightSaga: Jacob Black is two years younger than Bella Swan, and he gets in the way of her romance with Edward Cullen. The latter seems to be the same age as Bella, seventeen (forever), but is actually a lot older.
• Friends: A big hurdle in Monica and Chandler's romance is an older man, Richard. He makes Chandler, who is in his twenties and thirties throughout the show, feel insecure because with Richard's age comes sophistication, charm, and maturity that Chandler doesn't think he has. However, Monica breaks things off with Richard more than once because their 21-year age gap poses problems for their relationship, and she ultimately ends up with Chandler, who is merely a few years older than her.

I'd love some help with this and more suggestions!

Edited by nameusernamenamehere on Nov 26th 2023 at 5:35:28 AM

How old is Clyde?

I Googled it and the fandom wiki says this Clyde character is 11-12 years old.

Edited by nameusernamenamehere on Nov 25th 2023 at 3:41:18 AM

IDK if it makes sense to call it a love triangle since the child is never going to stand a chance. Many of these stories are about someone being oblivious to how impossible such relationships are, while the older characters don't even see them as a candidate; at least, that's how it plays out in Gravity Falls and The Loud House. Otherwise, the ages don't appear to factor into things.

Edited by WarJay77 on Nov 25th 2023 at 7:00:11 AM

"IDK if it makes sense to call it a love triangle since the child is never going to stand a chance. Many of these stories are about someone being oblivious to how impossible such relationships are, while the older characters don't even see them as a candidate; at least, that's how it plays out in Gravity Falls and The Loud House. Otherwise, the ages don't appear to factor into things." Yeah, I can see those not counting (and they weren't my examples anyway), and maybe I can try to explain that. But the other examples, I feel are definitely examples of this. Love triangles where a younger adult has to choose between a parent and their kid, or the example I gave in Drag You & Me where Jason has to choose between Betty and Charlie. The age gap is definitely a factor because there's a scene where Jason lets Charlie kiss him on the lips, but also begs him to be his drag mom because he really needs a parent figure in his life at that moment. There are many valid examples of this, I think... the most common flavor is younger adult needing to choose between another younger adult and a parental figure. Another example I thought of was Mokang in Batang Quiapo (another Filipino series) entering a romantic relationship with Ramon, father of the protagonist Tanggol. Mokang still has feelings for Tanggol.

Edited by nameusernamenamehere on Nov 25th 2023 at 4:29:03 AM

• The Middle: When he's invited over to the Hecks' home for Thanksgiving, Bob (an adult) brings his girlfriend over. Since she's a librarian, Bookworm Brick (who is still in Elementary school at that point in the series) falls for her. While she doesn't reciprocate these feelings, she is impressed by his reading skills. This causes Bob to become jealous of Brick and actively competes with him for his girlfriend's affections. At one point, Axl points out the absurdity of Bob being jealous of his younger brother.

Protagonist's Number is Largest made me think of a near-inverse trope, Prized Low Number, where having a low number in something indicates seniority or high rank or becomes a valuable status symbol. The only fictional example I can think of is Social Security numbers in The Space Merchants, but license plates in some US states are this in Real Life.

Age Gap Love Triangle is just a Precocious Crush on someone in a relationship. It's not a real Love Triangle if the "hinge" of the love triangle isn't torn over the choice.

"Age Gap Love Triangle is just a Precocious Crush on someone in a relationship. It's not a real Love Triangle if the 'hinge' of the love triangle isn't torn over the choice." I've provided various examples that are decidedly not just "a Precocious Crush on someone in a relationship"

Would Breaking The Cycle Of Bad Leadership be a valid trope? Because it could see it being one of many attempts to avert The Chain of Harm.

^^ the examples that fall outside that seem like Blue Chairs. It's specific, maybe, but mostly arbitrary, and I don't see any big pattern underlying it.

For example, you could probably scrape up examples of blond-v-brunette love triangles, but that wouldn't mean much. What you need for a love triangle subtrope is substantive archetypes for the two suitors, not just random characteristics. For example, "mature v immature" could maybe be a better way to phrase it — not just their age, but what it symbolizes.

Edited by Eievie on Nov 26th 2023 at 11:42:51 AM

Does anyone have a third example of waining institutions in fantasy that were greater in their heyday and are now a shadow of their former self?

Examples

• A Song of Ice and Fire: The Night's Watch are several thousand year old military order, founded in The Time of Myths. Their mission is to guard The Great Wall and keep out the supernatural undead. In their heyday, the Watch was honorable and highly regarded, and younger sons without inheritance often elected to join. In the present day virtually no one wants to join the Watch, and most of their men are ex-cons who come to them via a Trading Bars for Stripes arrangement. They once had 17 manned fortifications along the Wall. Now they barely have enough men to man 3.
• The Tombs of Atuan: The Kargads Lands have three different gods, each corresponding to a different period of history. The oldest are the Eldritch Abomination "Nameless Ones", served by a reincarnated priestess. Nowadays the Nameless Ones are deprioritized and their temple is falling into disrepair.
  Manan: Long ago, you know, little one, before our four lands joined together into an empire, before there was a Godking over us all, there were a lot of lesser kings, princes, chiefs. They were always quarreling with each other. And they’d come here to settle their quarrels. That was how it was, they’d come from our land Atuan, and from Karego-At, and Atnini, and even from Hur-at-Hur, all the chiefs and princes with their servants and their armies. And they’d ask you what to do. And you’d go before the Empty Throne, and give them the counsel of the Nameless Ones.

Edited by Eievie on Nov 26th 2023 at 11:39:18 AM

Could animals in general that resemble other people be a trope as a supertrope to Uncatty Resemblance which is only for pets? I asked for this trope on Trope Finder a few months ago but got nothing

Trials of Mana could qualify for that trope as it involves institutions decaying as a result of The Magic Goes Away (albeit slowly).

Edited by Nen_desharu on Nov 27th 2023 at 1:03:08 PM

I might get to work on Narcissistic Artist first but can Gameplay Final Boss Story Final Boss be a viable trope? Many games have a boss that serves as the final challenge in the game while the actual Final Boss is scripted/hopeless/or otherwise only meant to be the final boss in terms of narrative (Humphrey the Whale from Omori is the final boss that is an actual boss fight while the actual Final Boss is a Hopeless Boss Fight). The difference between it and Post-Final Boss would be that the story final boss is meant to be the Final Boss and the gameplay final boss may not even tie into the climax or even be a story relevant fight.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Nov 27th 2023 at 5:44:55 AM