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.
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openNot in the Original Moment Film
Sometimes in dubbed films, a line of dialogue is very different to the original line or added when it wasn't present in the original. One example is the Russian dub of Kung Fu Panda 2 which features Russian Po saying "Oh nyet" (Oh no) before being thrown onto a conveyor belt leading to lava by Shen.
openShorter Than They Feel
Alice is mistaken as taller than she actually is, before Bob realizes that no, she isn't actually tall, she just feels tall.
Examples include Granny Weatherwax from Discworld (Tiffany Aching describes her as such), and Stanley Yelnats's eventual lawyer from Holes.
Edited by AsteroidsOnSteroidsopenDid you miss me? Film
One character, usually a supporting character, hasn't been seen for a while. They're either missing, presumed dead, or otherwise unavailable. Then, usually near the end of the story, they come back to reunite with the other characters, and we often hear them before we see them. They might say something obvious like "Did you miss me?" or something more specific to the context. Crucially, what they say isn't very important, so as not to distract from the dramatic impact of them showing up. In film and TV, this is often emphasized by a rack focus shot toward the character in question. This trope has a lot of overlap with the deus ex machina, but is not necessarily the same thing.
openMedia person alter ego
I was wondering if there was a trope in which an otherwise ordinary character secretly works as a journalist/podcast host/gossip columnist/etc...
Examples: Teresa/Tara from Shrinking Violet/Radio Rebel, Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton
openIllegitimate Favorite
A parent has several children, at least one of them illegitimate. However, that's the one they favor, possibly to the point of their legitimate offspring becoming Well Done Son Guys and Gals / The Unfavorite / The Resenter. Often involves Arranged Marriage, since they're more likely to dote on the children they had willingly with their love rather than the Heir And A Spare required by their place in society.
And a variation where the illegitimate one isn't necessarily treated better or worse than the legitimate ones, but are instead much better in some way (physically, mentally, superpowers, etc.) e.g. a king's bastard is free of Royal Inbreeding-caused health issues; a woman in an Arranged Marriage to a Pathetically Weak man has an affair with a much stronger man so the illegitimate son is naturally much stronger, etc.), sparking similar resentment from the legitimate child(ren).
openDromaeosaurs going after large prey
It seems to be a cliche in dinosaur-focused media where pack-hunting dromaeosaurs (think Velociraptor or Deinonychus) go after large prey like hadrosaurs, ceratopsians or sauropods, despite their huge size difference.
Edited by BingChillingopenOut of format episode
Is there a trope for an episode of a show with a Strictly Formula that doesn't follow said formula? Not quite Out-of-Genre Experience, but just some changes in the usual proceedings? Or are such episodes supposed to be listed as aversions of Strictly Formula?
openAngered Gestures of Restraint
When a character is enraged enough the point of wanting to choke a the offender, but has to restrain themselves by making strangling cupping gesture with their hands while trying to resist the urge to do so.
openA trope where someone reaches down another person's throat
Trying to see if there is a trope for when one character (let's say Alice) reaches their hand down the throat of another character (let's say Bob), and pull something out. It could be that Alice is pulling something out of Bob's "stomach of holding", or is trying to grab something stuck in his throat, or is feeling malicious and is ripping something out against his will. Is there such a trope for this? It seems like something that would be common in most forms of animation.
openI can still hear them... Western Animation
A character is presumed dead, but is alive and in danger nearby. The character will yell to a mourner, to which the mourner will say that they can still hear the character, before finally realizing what the person is saying and going off to help. Usually "I can still hear them now" or similar phrases are said.
Edited by DrOlsonopenPinball Playfield Prop
AKA a "Toy." This is basically what it says on the tin. Pinball tables with figurines of some description, ranging from a statue/doll to an animatronic.
Examples include:
Physical Pinball Tables:
- Apollo 13 has a Saturn rocket (the titular Apollo 13) and the moon, which has an electromagnet in it to make balls orbit.
- Mary Shellys Frankenstein has a bust (plus both arms) of The Monster, who acts as a Popper for the balls.
- Stern's Starship Troopers has a Brain Bug.
Digital pinball tables:
- Pinball Deluxe:
- Jurassic Links has several; a quartet of dinosaur eggs (that can be hatched with a skillshot, whereupon they react when hit), a bronosaurus figurine, and an animated golf cart being chased by a T-Rex.
- Rydes has a diner in the Town section, a gas pump in the Garage, and a quintet of traffic cones that play a honking car horn SFX.
- Tradewind is studded with various toys (a mine, a windmill, and some pine trees on table 1, and a gem mine and more pine trees on table 2. In the Galactic Trade skin it's changed to a centrifuge and cooling stack, and the trees are kept in biodome sattelites). It is a very quest-heavy table, with various Toys needed to be hit in order to collect and refine various resources.
openMistaking warning for outburst
You try to warn someone, but they think you're disrupting them. Here's the example:
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Food Con Castaways", SpongeBob and Patrick repeatedly annoy Mr. Krabs and Squidward in the car on the way to Food Con, and the former forces them to not make one peep until they get there. Suddenly, SpongeBob repeatedly screams, "PEEP!", and Mr. Krabs thinks he's disrupting again until everyone realizes they're going over Peep's Cliff.
resolved Parting Gift
Is there a trope where a character leaves something behind when they die - like, for lack of a better description, a video game character dropping loot after defeat? Intentionally or unintentionally.
openPoison the Antidote
A kind of gambit where a first attempt at something is a feint to see what the victim does, the second is the real deal.
e.g.
- Alice wants to poison Bob, who is paranoid about poison. She puts emetics in his food, not enough to kill him but enough that he thinks he's in mortal danger, and he pulls out a vial of antidote from a chain on his neck. Now knowing where he keeps the bottle and what it looks like, Alice can replace the contents with poison, and put emetics in Bob's food again, this time successfully killing him once he downs the bottle.
- Charlie is a general tasked with taking out a fortress. He first sends a mass attack wave of Cannon Fodder and takes careful note of where the traps, snipers, artillery etc. are located. His second attack uses combined arms to specifically target those locations first, neutralizing them and quickly swamping the defenders.
openHuman Computer
An occupation found in some science fiction/fantasy settings where Omnidisciplinary Scientists or similar folk serve as general-purpose intellectuals, usually in service to a noble.
Examples off the top of my head are Mentats from Dune or Maesters from A Song of Ice and Fire. Are there any other examples for this to be trope-worthy?
openSupernatural Compass
A trope where someone has a compass or similar trinket that, rather than pointing towards North, uses supernatural powers to point towards something else.
- Holly's pendant that points towards the Phoenix in Monster Rancher.
- Jacks' compass that points towards the holder's greatest desire in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
- Syaoran's Compass in Cardcaptor Sakura can point towards Clow Cards, and I think Sakura's staff can as well? That one I may be misremembering.
- In Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe?, Nestor (and later Hunter) has a scale from The Creature that points towards where the Black Lagoon is currently located.
A music album that has been released in atleast half a dozen different versions, each with a minimally different choice of songs on them. Imagine Dragons is a serial offender of them.