Trope Idea Sounding Board

If you're looking for examples:

• Known Space: The Puppeteers' Fleet of Worlds, a fleet consisting of five planets being moved through interstellar space, is lit by artificial sun-lamps in orbit around their equators.

• Andromeda: The final season takes place in a binary star system, where the stars are artificial constructs built by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. One of the stars also has a disquieting tendency to blink on and off at random times.

• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: The Land of the Chained Sun is an area of Aqshy named after the fact that, in the Age of Myth, the god Grimnir bound the primordial elemental serpent Ignax in its skies to serve as an artificial sun.

• Sunless Sea: The Dawn Machine in the far south of the map is a prototype meant to replicate the light of the Judgements — the suns and gods of the setting — in a controlled manner. The result is a huge clockwork machine that shines with searing light and mind-rattling law.
• Sunless Skies: The Clockwork Sun that lights up Albion (the zone in space where London has migrated to). Its light gradually turns unprotected people to glass. It's extremely evil, causes terror for miles around, and the only reason anyone built the damn thing is light is needed to keep the laws of reality in check in the High Wilderness (the lawless cosmic limbo that the game takes place in). There was some apparent misunderstanding about the builders ability to actually control it.

I know that the Pokemon Volcarona has at least one Dex entry saying that ancient people used it for a replacement for the sun when they had none.

- Seems to be Pokémon Black and White Black:

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Volcarona_(PokA9mon)#PokA9dex_entries

• Passive Man: An otherwise tough guy unconditionally does anything a girl(friend) asks.

Sounds possible, would need a less vague name.

Isn't it a variation of Submissive Badass?

If I'm reading it right it's more of a Real Men Wear Pink type more than a badass trope (real men let their girlfriends tell them what to do)

Edited by Synchronicity on May 11th 2024 at 5:46:12 AM

So this is something I thought of while half asleep last night and I wanted to run it by everyone. "Excited gushing" or similar; basically a moment when a character just gets so focused on something they love that they just endearingly gush over whatever it is. I think it can often be a juxtaposition with how a character usually acts; get them in front of something the genuinely care about and suddenly the walls are gone for a second as they're reacting out of a place of pure love and joy.

I only really have one example though. Likely wouldn't be taking it to TLP right away, if I ever do at all. I just want to know if this is tropeworthy at all.

Sounds like a Super-Trope of Gushing About Guest Stars.

Eh... in the way I imagined it that's not really similar. I was thinking more of, like, a moment of wholesome gushing over a favorite hobby or something. Gushing About Guest Stars I guess could be a subtrope but it would make the trope broader than I actually wanted it to be.

Sounds similar to infodumping. Or Squee.

Yeah, Squee is probably the most similar to my original idea, lol.

The only scene I really have in mind right now is a minor moment in House of Anubis (shocking I know) where Eddie is talking about the ghost hunt he and Mara are doing. He's usually such a snarky, lazy bad boy that season but aside from his relationship with Patricia, this ghost hunt is like the only thing that makes him display genuine, pure, uncharacteristic happiness to the extent that he forgets that they're feuding in order to tell her about the ghost and then goes on about how much it excites him when they're talking later on. He's so enthusiastic about it that it makes Patricia outright change her mind on it, and instead of following through with the plan to make him drop it, she just switches to encourage him because she doesn't have the heart to ruin it for him.

Could "I Love Play Rehearsal" from Be More Chill count? It's basically one long musical ramble about why Christine loves theater.

Sounds possible.

There's a particular recurring misuse of Dissonant Serenity I see where people use it to describe whenever someone is inappropriately smiley and happy — not necessarily like Laughing Mad or something, but not exactly "serene". I'm trying to think if there is a viable trope concept to wring from that that won't just end up being too overly broad in just "happy at inappropriate times". Does something like Dissonant Glee read as having potential?

Edited by number9robotic on May 11th 2024 at 7:17:22 AM

I might be late but: The Knights Who Say "Squee!"

A trope idea I've had for a while but never quite got a response to: Time Zone Tribulations (or Troubles), where "characters being in different time zones or having to shift between time zones causes issues."

Examples I can think of include Around the World in Eighty Days (where the ending twist hinges on the crossing of the International Date Line; I might need help writing that example), a fanfic in which characters teleport around the world several times in a short time span to celebrate New Year's internationally, and a couple of songs.

I think this can cover both geographical locations and daylight saving time, though I can't think of any examples for the latter.

Related tropes include and are not limited to Time Zones Do Not Exist (which this trope contrasts), Universal Universe Time (as attempts to standardize event times and deadlines would often reveal such issues), Fantastic Religious Weirdness, Long-Distance Relationship, and Sleep Deprivation.

• Thug Encounter: Heroes meet bandits/delinquents out of nowhere whose sole purpose is to get beaten up.

Does anyone else think "Land of Sweets" would be distinct enough to spin off of a sub-trope of Level Ate (which is already mentioned there)? A whole entire country made of candy, desserts and other sugary stuff that turns out to be a Crapsaccharine World surprisingly often. The Candyland board game, Sugarland from The Cuphead Show, Sugar Rush from Wreck-It Ralph, the Candy Canyon Kingdom from The Amazing Digital Circus, etc.

Edited by Snowsky on May 12th 2024 at 11:25:25 AM

Not unless there's many examples of Level Ate not being tied to a single "food group", or involving groups / based on groups other than sweets?

Mixing groups could be some trope about not staying on theme.

Edited by Malady on May 13th 2024 at 4:57:50 AM

I'd rather TRS Level Ate itself to not be videogame-focused, as there are many non-vg examples pf "edible kingdom".

Edited by Amonimus on May 13th 2024 at 3:07:48 PM

edited; realized there's a better thread for it.

Edited by Nethilia on May 16th 2024 at 5:21:43 AM

Agreed.

After all, Level in the Clouds, Fluffy Cloud Heaven, and Solid Clouds are all separate tropes.

Thus, a trope pertaining to land of food can be split between Level Ate and a new trope or a few pertaining to lands of food, inclusive of non-video games.

Is there something for "show initially billed as a one-off suddenly becomes an anthology" and if not could that work as a trivia trope? Recent examples include The White Lotus, Beef, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) (Shōgun (2024) also if we include "we finished adapting the novel and that's it, we swear...jk season 2"). We have Post-Script Season but that seems to require a cancellation rather than an unexpected (to the audience, anyway) renewal after good reception. Trilogy Creep is kind of similar but for film franchises.

Juxtaposed Opposites, because it's a clear category and a generalization of multiple Juxtaposition Tropes like Fire+Water, Light+Dark, etc?

For example, we don't have a trope for Past/Future Juxtaposition in general, and we wouldn't have to make one if we had generalized opposites?

Edited by Malady on May 14th 2024 at 9:31:24 AM