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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openFighting over the on/off switch
A battle between the hero and the villain over some sort of machine or magical ritual. When one character gets the upper hand in the fight they turn it off, when the other gets the upper hand they turn it back on. (Usually the villain is the one trying to keep it on and and the hero is the one trying to turn it off, due to Villains Act, Heroes React.)
openPsy Is Purple
Like with Gravity Is Purple and Supernatural Is Purple, this trope is about a specific element, in this case psychic power, being described with a purple theme and palette(or a color very closely related to purple like pink). A few notable examples of this are in Marvel comics, where psychics often glow in a pink-purple aura when using their powers(especially telepaths). Some of them(like Psylocke) even dress in purple to match. Another example of this is in Pokémon, where the psychic type’s main colors are pink and purple, which is not only reflected in psychic attacks, but also in a lot of psychic pokemon, whom are pink and purple(like Starmie, Mewtwo, Espeon, Grumpig, Musharna, Malamar, Mega Latios/Latias, etc...) too. A third example of this would be in the Kirby franchise, where the ESP ability’s icon is purple and the psychic enemies that kirby can swallow to get this ability are all dressed in dark purple cloaks.
Edited by MisterOMopenName change between alternate universes within a franchise Anime
The various universes that comprise the Mai Hime franchise share many characters, but often change at least part of a given character's full name, e.g. Natsuki Kuga and Shizuru Fujino from Mai-HiME are Natsuki Kruger and Shizuru Viola in Mai-Otome. What is the trope for this?
Edited by MarqFJAopenTrying to get fired or expelled
An employee or student has something to gain from being fired or expelled, which they would not get if they choose to quit.
Therefore they behave badly on purpose.
Police Academy is a prime example of this trope.
Mahoney is sentenced to prison. He gets his punishment commuted if he enrolls to the Police Academy and does not quit. He walks out if he gets expelled.
openOff-Site Weakpoint
A scenario has an enemy that's completely unkillable (due to force fields, Soul Jars, etc.) but whatever is keeping them invulnerable is never with them, instead in a remote location with much less security, or nearby but outside the force field. While it's obvious why for meta reasons, it's not explained in-universe.
- Several Soul Jar examples (Harry Potter, Prydain Chronicles, Koschei the Deathless) have the soul jar hidden away with no way for the sorcerer to find out if it's been taken or destroyed.
- In Return Of The Jedi, the Death Star is protected by a forcefield which is generated from the planet below it instead of inside the forcefield.
openNo Title
Cleaning up some trope misuse on Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake. Are there any tropes that properly fit these examples?
- Everybody Knew Already: Stanley leaves Zero's name and history when going through the campers' bios, but anybody who read the previous book should know his story.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Not the camp, but Zigzag, who keeps a TV guide from the week of March 22nd, 1986 and reads it daily, informing everyone what will be on TV "tonight".
openfinding movie Film
im looking for movie year 2006 and that movies kind of horror teenager he killed and he haunting her classmate and i remember the ending his body find in the hole of forest
openI Have Other Friends
A character is shown to hang out with people other than the main cast, or they simply state that they have other friends.
openTall Glass of Motor Oil
Characters from an inhuman race eat inedible objects as if they are a comparable food. Examples include a robot drinking oil as if it's soda, or eating bits of scrap like popcorn, or Gorons from The Legend of Zelda series who treat rocks as if they're cuts of meat.
openYin Yang Partnership
Polar opposite of Yin-Yang Clash and typical depictions of The Anti-God. This is when beings who represent, embody or are god of opposite things work together, rather than oppose each other. For example the God of Creation and Destruction are supposed to work with each other, Lord Chaos and Master Order are chaos and order partnered in a balance, ect. Compare God-Karting with Beelzebub(for specific characters) or The Balance Between Good And Evil (usually morality, unlike this they don't have to like the balance but it's a fact of life)
Edited by RJ-19-CLOVIS-93openDo we have tropes that cover...
- Aversions of Video Game Movies Suck?
- Fictional control schemes in which a single button or lever covers multiple functions with no explanation? (i.e. Plankton's debut episode has him control all of Spongebob's body functions individually using two levers and a single button)
- Characters realizing at the end of their quest that friendship was what they were really looking for (and actually being satisfied with it)?
- Character who are both very drunk try fighting each other with humorous results?
- A character reveals to someone else that they lied to them and expects to be rejected, only for the one who was kept in the dark to forgive them and accept them back because they appreciated the time they spent together (not Easily Forgiven because the one who lied didn't actually do anything evil)?
- Someone tells someone with a Loss of Identity that if they're unsure about who they are now, they are free to go down a certain path by choice?
- A character wants to kill someone, but the target says something without realizing the killer's ill intent that makes them pull a Heel–Face Turn?
openOpposite of Seinfeld is Unfunny
Where a work is appreciated by newer audiences because of its influence.
openSymbolic rebirth
A character symbolically "dies" and is "resurrected" - maybe they undergo some sort of permanent physical transformation, or they're declared legally dead and have plastic surgery done to make them look like a different person, or they go into a deep coma and have some sort of dream-epiphany that motivates them to change their whole personality - whatever, as long as they don't literally die and come Back from the Dead.
The Hero's Journey mentions a "Spiritual Death and Rebirth" but it just links to Can't Refuse the Call Anymore, which is much more specific (It only applies to the work's protagonist, as you'd expect.) and moreover doesn't have to involve much in the way of actual death-and-rebirth imagery.
For example, Xerxes' origin story from the 300 sequel and the Ironborn coronation ritual from Game of Thrones are symbolic rebirths but aren't Can't Refuse the Call Anymore, and (drawing on that page's examples) Odysseus being drafted into the Trojan war and the Enterprise crew being stranded in Star Trek: Beyond are Can't Refuse the Call Anymore but aren't symbolic rebirths.
openAll conspiracy theories are true
Is there a trope like All Myths Are True but for conspiracy theories (usually with them all being connected some how)? Example: the first Deus Ex game (and maybe the others, I haven't played them.)
openPunished For Discovery
Someone is punished socially, legally or whatever for discovering things and finding new knowledge. Real life example being Galileo being put under house arrest for giving evidence for the heliocentric model. Fictional example is that in One Piece, anyone who tries to learn about the Void Century will be terminated with extreme prejudice by the World Government
openHate/Love paired switch Live Action TV
Two characters prejudge something or someone. One is really positive, the other, really negative. After seeing the thing/meeting the person, their opinions have switched.
For example - Alice and Bob have to meet their daughter's boyfriend. Bob is a Papa Wolf and seems to hate everything about him - his job, his name, his car. Alice in loving and understanding. Then, they do meet the boy, and Bob learns he was mistaken (the boy's job is not what he thought, the car was borrowed from someone else, the name was chosen by a billionaire uncle to put him on the will, etc.), but now Alice hates the boy.
Is there a trope for that sitcom staple?
openvery strict but not abusive parents
- Abusive Parents: Downplayed. Sir Ector is a strict and demanding hardass on Wart, giving him loads of menial labor to do and is swift to add on hours more work for even minor infractions Wart does, but he's not evil or even all that mean either. His personality is basically a byproduct of the martial culture he lives in. When he's introduced, he even shows concern for Wart's wellbeing, berating his real son, Kay, for letting Wart go off into the forest on his own and risk getting eaten by wolves.
I pulled this from Disney.The Sword In The Stone because the example text goes out of its way to make it clear that Ector is strict, not abusive. Which means it's not that trope. Do we have a trope that this actually falls under?
openOutdated by the original work
There is a comic book storyline. It has an Animated Adaptation film, that remakes the whole story in animated format. The film is successful, so it gets a sequel: the new one follows the story from where it was left, introduces new characters, deals with some sequel hooks, etc. But the creator of the original comic then makes his own comic book sequel to the original work, which goes in a completely different direction, which is not compatible with the animated sequel.
A villain who has a lot of money, either by having something like piles of gold or owning a place which looks very wealthy.
I.e. Bowser in Super Mario 3D World who has an entire amusement park, an expensive looking car, and other stuff.
Edited by Devan2002