The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
Find a Trope:
openStraight talk Print Comic
Is there a trope for straight-talkers? People who wouldn't know subtle if it tapped them lightly on the head?
Examples: Wolverine, Luisa of the Vault, Deadpool.
openMetafiction as Justification for Sillyness Print Comic
If a Super Hero story features a character who wears a costume and has a secret identity because he wants to appeal to comic book fans, despite personally thinking it's silly, what trope are we talking?
I'm thinking in particular about stories where real superpowers are Played for Horror and the characters talk about how "they made us wear the silly clothes so we wouldn't scare people".
openFreeze-Frame Chaos Print Comic
A comics trope where a single huge panel has a large amount of different events happening on it, something like a bunch of Funny Background Events happening at once. Usually the individual events are seen separately and then culminate in the large panel so the whole thing makes sense in context.
For instance, this page from the Scrooge Mc Duck comics: a bull has a dinosaur skull stuck on its head and is running after two panicking natives, a bear is chasing the villains, Scrooge is tied on the back of a calf, two scared horses are trying to get away from the calf, and in the middle Theodore Roosevelt is trying to make sense of what's happening.
openInverse Relationship of Power and Altruism Print Comic
It seems like superhero stories usually have the heroes get their powers by accident and feel compelled to fight crime. If a character wants to get superpowers, either he'll end up a freak thanks to the accident, or he's a gloryhog who cares more about his ego than with fighting crime and ends up performing Engineered Heroics.
Is that a trope?
openInverted Characterization Fix Print Comic
In The Eltingville Club, two muscular guys try to convince Bill to give up comic books and toy collecting. Bill is such an Uber-geek, however, that he ends up convincing them to pick up the hobbies.
Is there a trope for that? Like, Alice wants to change one of Bob's characteristics, but Bob is such an extreme example of it, in the end Alice is the one who acquires Bob's characteristic?
openThin person who is unfit Print Comic
Is there a trope where a character is noted to be thin and twiggy, lacking physical fitness?
openMedia adaptation trope Print Comic
Trying to find a Media Adaptation Tropes trope for WesternAnimation.Dexters Laboratory comic-book version:
- Compared to the TV series, Dexter is more of a Keet and not so much of a jerkass.
- In one story, Dexter wears a green crop-top-style blouse and leather trousers, but isn't camp in anyway (only makes sense if you've read it); In-Universe, Dee Dee mistakes him for camp. The storyline was about fashion.
openwrong place wrong time Print Comic
a character is endangered by being in the wrong place at the wrong time
Edited by rcraukaropenSimplification trope? Print Comic
I have examples but not the tropes for this one:
Comic Books
- Supergirl has done this a few times over the years, changing the artwork from ornate comic-book to much more simplified artwork. Let's go through them step-by-step:
- Supergirl (1996) redesigned the protagonist so she was more simple in character design and somewhat resembled a more generic blue-eyed, blonde "American Girl".
- Supergirl (2011), a Continuity Reboot that was within the New 52 Universe, also redesigned Supergirl so that she was simplified in design compared to her 2005 counterpart.
- Supergirl: Being Super, a non-canon one-shot storyline redesigned Kara Danvers in such a way she was simpler in character design.
- Supergirl Cosmic Adventuresinthe8th Grade, an Alternate Continuity takes this to the extreme; she's very Off-Model in design, but this is justified due to the younger audience it's aimed at.
- Dexter's Laboratory simplified the character models for Season 3 in 2001 and Season 4 of 2002-2003 with a more Retraux design after more complex character models were used from 1996-1998.
- Hamm-N-Eggz, a Back Door Pilot on The Pink Panther, produced in 1995 and aired in 1996, uses an animation style much like Klasky-Csupo shows like Rugrats as compared to the Pink Panther's more cartoonish animation.
- Teen Titans Go! uses much more Super-Deformed character models by comparison to its predecessor show, Teen Titans. Justified, as the emphasis is on comedy, not Darker and Edgier material.
Other than Art Shift, which is for a one-off gag, is there such a trope for this - basically, artwork becomes more simplified for a work, whether it's a reboot, adaptation or new continuity?
Edited by Merseyuser1openArt and dialogue segregation Print Comic
Is there a trope for when the visuals of something don't match what's being said? I'm specifically asking about speech bubbles in comics, but it could be seen in other media. Basically, when a character's speech bubble has them saying "I absolutely hate burritos," but they're drawn happily eating a burrito. And it's not played for laughs, lampshaded, mentioned by another character, or anything. It's almost as if the dialogue was written by someone who wasn't even looking at the art. Related would be intentionally-comedic redubs of TV, like what Bad Lip Reading does. But this would be unintentional, or at least appear as if it COULD have been unintentional.
I'm thinking it's somewhat related to Gameplay and Story Segregation, or Lyrical Dissonance? It's not really Art-Style Dissonance.
openWhat kind of twist is this? Print Comic
GI Joe A Real American Hero issue 35 has Buzzer take Zartan's motorcycle (which has holographic projectors to disguise it as anything) for a spin with Ripper and Torch. After Zartan finds out, we see a bus driving around with a little old lady as its only passenger and a driver who never speaks. Near the end, the bus turns out to be a helicopter with similar projectors and the driver turns out to be Zartan himself. After they return to Springfield, Ripper goes to check on the lady and discovers only her clothes and wig. Zartan comments that she wasn't what she appeared to be and comments that only a ninja master could escape from the helicopter while it was flying.
So what kind of twist is the reveal that the woman was actually a ninja master? (An analysis of her scenes seems to identify her as the Soft Master.)
openExclamation Point Above Head Print Comic
I can't find that thing where somebody who's surprised or noticing something has a cartoon exclamation point floating above their head. I expected to find that Sister Trope of Confused Question Mark listed on Briffits and Squeans, but I didn't. Alertness Blink uses a different icon, not an exclamation point.
openValid name by convention Print Comic
I’m looking for a way to describe the Roman, Gaul and foreign names in the ‘Asterix’ comics and likewise. It’s basically when you get a humorous effect by inventing a funny name for a place or character by playing with the naming conventions of the country/culture in question. Asterix does that by giving all Roman men names that end on ‘-us’ (Centurions Itakethebus And Yourasourpus ) all places names that end on ‘-um’ (Camp doomandglum) and all Gauls names that end on ‘-ix’ (the schoolteacher is called ‘Behomebysix’)
Although Asterix is the best example, there are lots of country/culture specifIc naming conventions that can be subverted for comic relief such as Dimitri Itsaripov the Russian store owner or Japanese supermodel Yoko Owhatakuti
Edited by EnnobeeopenBreaking the Fourth Wall by Interacting with The Medium Print Comic
Do we have a trope that covers Breaking the Fourth Wall instances of characters in illustrated works interacting with the paper of the page they're drawn/ printed on? Like tearing off a corner, or crawling through a hole in the paper to reach the next page. Frame Break doesn't quite cover what I'm looking for, and Medium Awareness seems too broad.
(Specifically: I've encountered an example of an illuminated manuscript from the 15th century where an illustrator drew the front half of a small dog on page 469, and the back half of the dog on page 470. The dog is drawn as if it's crawling through a tear in the paper.)
openEverybody Gets One Print Comic
A work of Speculative Fiction takes place In a World… where every person has a distinctive thing - a different superpower, a Mon, a weapon, a tattoo, whatever. The main character is distinguised because his thing is extra-special (the only golden weapon), or because he's the only one who doesn't have the thing.
Most times it's all about magic, but it can also be a cultural aspect.
openFishing for self-incriminating answers Print Comic
Is there a trope for where Character A asks Character B for an answer that will make Character B look bad if they respond?
For instance, if in front of B's girlfriend, Character A asks B for the details of a porn flick they watched together.
This can be either intentional or unintentional.
openForced to work for the enemy Print Comic
While fighting overseas, Tony the scientist gets a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart. He gets captured by the enemy, who promise to take it out safely- if he makes powerful weapons for them. If he refuses, they will leave him to die.
openCharacter is disgusted - doesn't do the right thing as a result Print Comic
See the example in the 4-koma manga Seitokai Yakuindomo (read the left strip):
https://mangadex.org/chapter/32045/2
In the second strip, titled "I'm a guy", the boy character doesn't want to touch the codpiece out of disgust, even though he feels a sense of duty to confiscate it.
Is there any related trope?
openNew Writer Breakup Print Comic
Though I've seen this in longrunning TV shows, it seems to be a mostly Comics thing, where a Canon couple has been through thick and thin, life and death, and then a new writer takes over the series and within an issue/episode "oh, we're not together anymore," and may not even give an explanation why. Do we already have that trope?
Wednesday Comics: The Batman story revolves around Batman trying to solve the murder of a rich man named Franklin Glass. The Big Bad later has their henchman stage an assassination attempt on them to draw suspicion away from the Big Bad. The Big Bad reveals that the assassination attempt was a fraud after they're exposed.