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:
openCross Eyed
Am I daft? "X" eyes are an universal cartoon/comic indicator that a character is pining for the fjords. Still, I was not able to find it either under Eye or Death tropes.
openSubsequent lover hates their predecessor
Bob broke up with Alice. Bob is now dating Carol. Regardless of whether or not Alice and Bob are Amicable Exes (usually this is the case), Carol doesn't like Alice or avoids talking about them, usually because: 1) She believes Alice is a bad person because Bob is surely a wonderful person who can do no wrong, so Alice must've ruined the relationship, 2) She doesn't like being thought of as Bob's "second choice" and otherwise wouldn't have been with him, and/or 3) She's jealous that she didn't get to be with Bob first. At the very least, she acts awkwardly around her.
I've heard this be referred to as "the other woman"?
Examples:
The Age of Adaline: Adaline and Harrison Ford's character used to be lovers, but they got separated due to circumstances and Adaline got eternal youth. Decades later, they reunite through Ford's character's son (who Adaline is now dating) and Adaline means Ford's character's wife. Adaline (under a new identity) introduces herself as Adaline's daughter or something and Ford's character reminisces about Adaline. His wife is otherwise a Nice Girl, but pulls him aside and says that she feels uncomfortable about him reminiscing about Adaline because she doesn't want to feel like he was her second choice.
Miraculous Ladybug: Variation in that no one in this is an official couple yet. Adrien/Chat Noir asks Ladybug to be his girlfriend and she lightly rejects him because she loves someone else (Adrien, they don't know each other's identities). Adrien talks about this to Kagami and the two grow closer romantically. However, Kagami is led to believe that Marinette (Ladybug) is the girl that rejected Adrien and comes to believe she is a bad person that knowingly toys with Adrien's feelings. As a result, Kagami makes bolder moves to win Adrien's heart and starts acting coldly to Marinette, including telling her that she'll have to catch up if she really wants a chance at winning Adrien.
openWhy Didn't They Do This Sooner?
Sometimes, there's this important thing that needs to be done, but no one has gotten around to doing it yet. For whatever reason (usually plot contrivances), this important thing gets pushed back to the last minute and now the stakes are incredibly (and avoidably) high.
Disregarding procrastination and focusing on the writing itself, do we have a trope like this?
openreturning behind the scenes
Is there a trope for a person who was part of a show returning for a reboot but as part of the crew, not in-show?
openUnhelpful Cure
A cure, or an attempt at one, that does more harm than good in some way; either it cures nothing and just causes more pain and suffering, or it does work as a cure, but just creates more problems in the process, to the point where stopping it is more helpful; could be anything from pills to snake-oil.
openIntoxication Through Draining
Is there a trope where a vampire feeds off of someone who had just taken drugs or gotten drunk and gets stoned or drunk as a result? For example, when Spike talks about his experience at Woodstock on "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer": I fed off of a flower person and spent the next six hours watching my hand move.
openVideogame narrative in alternate media Literature
A story told as it was a video game. (ex: The characters loots in defeated villains as if they were bosses, there are levels instead of chapters, etc.)
openDrafted into Diplomacy
Do we have a trope for when a character (or group of characters) with no political or diplomatic experience is suddenly forced to act as an ambassador, peacekeeper, negotiator, or other diplomatic position?
In an example I recently encountered, a group of human colonists (mostly farmers and explorers) on an alien planet are tapped to join a peace conference/ treaty negotiation with a friendly alien species. The aliens have brought eight speakers to the conference, and expect to meet and negotiate with a group of eight humans. With only one official human diplomat available, seven colonists are asked to take on the role of negotiators for the conference.
openEmpty Box Trick
Do we have anything for when people are chasing the MacGuffin and when they get to it, they find an empty box while the MacGuffin is off somewhere else?
openTrope for Jedis and such
I'm trying to find a trope for a Order that exists with a world, whether it be lost or secret or not. Kinda like the Jedi Order in Star Wars, or like Gunslingers in The Dark Tower.
Edited by madbaseopen"soft" genocide
Is there a trope where someone plans to wipe some race/species out not by killing them but by making them sterile or otherwise stopping them from reproducing? Example: on Half Life 2 this is part of Breen's secret plan and the reason why he made some device that prevents people from having sex.
openMysterious Past
A character's past is poorly defined, but from what we do here it must have been crazy. Often including implying they have been to jail at some point. Usually played for comedy.
openThe Duelist
A character who is virtually unbeatable in one-on-one fight but is vulnerable to Zerg Rush tactic.
They can easily face off an One-Man Army on account of they are literally just one man. But is easily overwhelmed by a group of mooks due the the lack of Ao E ability or their single target focused kit.
Edited by AndermannopenWhispering constantly Live Action TV
Do we have a trope for how, in movies and TV, characters always talk in low, almost whispery tones of voice for no apparent reason? This is common in dramas from the USA. (I'm told that it's also common in Homeland and The Handmaid's Tale.)
openIntentionally attention-grabbing warrior
A warrior or group thereof that intentionally draws attention to themselves and ensures their enemy can identify them, either as a psychological warfare tactic because they're The Dreaded, or because they're so confident in their fighting prowess that they're willing to handicap themselves in order to show off.
Examples:
- The Dothraki in A Song Of Ice And Fire put bells in their hair so that their enemies know they're coming
- The Red Baron and his plane's distinctive red paint
- Poisonous animals often have bright, colourful skin as a way of warning off predators
openParalysis is Electric shock
Paralysis is portrayed as electric shock, with electricity running through their body.
Edited by AndermannopenIrrelevant Motive ; Strawman Motive
Two somewhat related motive tropes:
Bob does X for some reason. People debating over the morality of X are told the motive doesn't matter, only the end result does.
- Bob gives money to a homeless person. Alice argues that he only did it as a PR move, Charlie argues that to the homeless person, it doesn't matter if Bob did it out of the goodness of his heart or to show voters that he's a good person.
- Bob shoots a politician who was pushing an extremely controversial bill. When half the country wants him canonized, the cops have to point out that Asshole Victim or no, Bob still committed murder, even as further evidence comes out that the victim was a Complete Monster.
Bob does X for some reason. And while there are multiple reasons for his doing so, his enemies latch on to the single worst or self-serving one as if that was his true motive all along. Sometimes used to show the opponent is the one whose motives you should worry about.
- Bob the politician votes yes on a proposal to build a train station in town, expecting that it will help bring more people, more jobs and more money in town. Bob's political opponents point out that Bob owns stock in the railway company (even though the station is good for the whole town).
- Bob the writer institutes a Fanwork Ban because he doesn't like seeing characters he came up with in Canon Defilement or Rule 34, or to simplify copyright issues, or because of Sturgeon's Law, etc. The hatedom depicts Bob as not wanting anyone to find out they could write the series much better than he can.
I'm trying to find the trope for when a fan continues an existing work, and is able to professionally publish their work. The fan may have been warned about Legal action, but either the original creator didn't follow through on the threat or the courts dismissed (or found in favour of the defendant, it doesn't matter), the point is; the fan-work is legally considered distinct from the original-work.
Despite being legally distinct, fans still consider it a part of The 'Verse. This can technically happen in any medium, but I'm looking at an example in Literature. I've gone over Derivative Works, but the closest I can find, Spiritual Successor, says that production is related to the original creator.
What is the trope for "a fan created this professional work that is intended to be seen as a sequel to a property that they couldn't use for copyright reasons"?