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openFlame reflecting glasses
A character wearing glasses or reflective eyegear (gas mask, etc.) and surrounded by/looking at fire, so the flames are reflected in his eyes and make him look scary or evil.
open"If you're going to freak out, forget it. Really."
A group has a policy for new recruits; they take them somewhere private but not too far from their homes, tell them their mission of fighting monsters/aliens, etc... And if the recruit reacts badly, they erase his memory and put him back where they found him. They may even do this repeatedly if the recruit has skills they really want. Magic and sci-fi settings have Laser-Guided Amnesia, but even a relatively mundane group can just force a liter of booze down his throat and leave him at the local drunk tank to sleep off the hangover.
openCaptain Ersatz of an RL Original? Anime
Can one have a Captain Ersatz of a Historical Domain Character ? Someone who is clearly a reference to a real-life person. but has a different name etc. And it's only one character, so not a Roman à Clef.
In the anime Uma Musume the character is actually based on an RL horse. While the main characters are based on horses and licensed and have names and designs based om the horses, this supporting character represents a horse (incidentally, a dead horse by now) who could not be licensed, so she has a different name (with a clever reference) and a design that is a Shout-Out to an anime classic, not the horse. But I won't use Bland-Name Product, horses as prototypes are not products as such. Used Captain Ersatz for now but is it really applicable?
Edited by MikhailRopenBoss Decay Videogame
Is there a trope for when an enemy who initially appears as a boss shows up later as a random Mook?
openSuddenly remember everything?
Basically, when a character suddenly remembers everything after forgetting an important/significant portion of their life or possibly even their whole life. Naturally, this is somewhat realistic as amnesia typically doesn't work that way in real life. People with amnesia typically regain their memories slowly rather than all at once. I suppose that would make this Easy Amnesia but I'm looking more looking for that specific moment when a character suddenly remembers everything they'd forgotten, often via flashback or some similar device. They may grab their head in pain, or pass out, or do something else to show that this regaining of memories is physically affecting them. Anyway, I was just wondering if we have trope for this and/or what it would fall under? Thanks!
openisolation from preferred gender + token preferred gender newcomer = instant harem
You know that thing where a bunch of characters are isolated in a way that might lead to Situational Sexuality... and then suddenly a character of their preferred gender comes along and, voila, instant harem?
Note that this can be downplayed with just one character undergoing extended isolation before Meet Cute.
Edited by Miss_DesperadoopenTrope when an in-game event is re-run Videogame
What do you call the trope where MMORPGs have "event re-runs / redux" that basically allows new players to play old events that have been updated to meet the game's current quality. The said event has ran before, but on its second iteration, new features are added. Is it Updated Re-release?
openWrong Uniform?
I've searched for tropes keying on "Uniform" and "Military," but didn't find anything. Is there a trope for when a character in a medium has a uniform which belies what we know about the character? It's always comical to me as a veteran to see stuff like that.
Examples: In Western Animation's G.I. Joe, the character Shipwreck is rank E-7 and his uniform is something an E-7 would never have worn.
In Live Action TV's Gilmore Girls, a character known to have graduated and joined the Navy a year prior is shown wearing a uniform whose markings indicate he has been in the Navy for between eight and eleven years.
Thanks! Couldn't find the right one.
open Hypercompetent Hypersexual Female
A female character who is:
- A hypercompetent workaholic, Married to the Job
- Seldom jokes about anything.
- Brushes off romantic interests from coworkers, etc, with disdain.
- But when she *does* want sex, she'll go and get it in the most direct and forward way possible, often leaving her intended lover more surprised than anything else.
Is this a character type? I'm thinking of Carrie from Homeland and Elise from The Tunnel, but I'm sure there are more.
openHeroic Hangout
I think I saw a trope for this once, but I can't remember. It's a place where heroes gather to do various things. An example would be Lakewood Plaza Turbo from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, which is a shopping center for heroes that various people go to for goods, services, and/or to just loiter.
Edited by Crossover-EnthusiastopenMultiple-Location song
What's the trope for a song that cuts between various people in different locations singing it (for an example this xkcd)?
I know my grammar's off, but my brain is tired.
openOpposite opinion duo
Two characters are seen together with their characterization being that they have completely different opinions over a shared personality aspect.
In trope terms:
- Alice is an I Just Want to Be Normal girl with powers she wants to get rid of, her I Just Want to Be Special counterpart Bob would give his right arm for those powers.
- Alice Refused the Call and Bob was Refused by the Call, both work together to try and trade places.
- Alice has A-Cup Angst and stares daggers at Betty whenever she complains of her D-Cup Distress-induced back problems.
- Al the Celibate Hero Chick Magnet tries to deflect some of his admirers onto Bob the Casanova Wannabe, which little success for either.
May lead to Dramatic Irony or Cringe Comedy if the audience is aware of their different outooks but not the character(s). For example, Al has an Unwanted Harem and complains about it to Bob the Harem Seeker, noting how happy he must be to be free of female hangers-on and unaware of Bob's expression growing more strained by the second.
Edited by Chabal2opena dark character stuck in a happy land
dark character in a bright, colorful land, and desperately wanting to get out
Edited by CeaselessPhoenicopterineopenReconciliation Equals Death
Two characters have been at odds. Neither of them are bad people, but they just can't seem to find a way to get along. Finally, one or both of them realize what an idiot they're being, apologize, and the two of them start to build an actual friendship. Or they would have, except one of them dies shortly thereafter.
I recently read a story online where i immediately got suspicious of a character's odds of survival once he found a way to get along better with the crusty group leader he'd been butting heads with. It felt like something i'd seen a lot of times before. It's not Redemption Equals Death, because the one who dies isn't necessarily evil.
Other examples i can think of would be Han and Leia in The Force Awakens, Joel and Henry in The Last of Us, that one FBI agent in the early seasons of Supernatural, and Boromir in the movie version of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Edited by LadyArinopenNice detail to fit anatomy Anime
In Uma Musume characters are girls with horse ears. It tirns out that there are retro phones used for them regularly, with the kind of large handsets that they can hold to their ear with the mic close enough to their mouth. (In France, fittingly. the retro handset goes full-on imitation-nineteenth-century).
What trope should I list this under? While it was a blink-and-you miss it occurrence in Episode 1 it got Freeze Fame Bonus and Fridge Brilliance, but Episode 9 gave good screen time to these phones, so neither really applies anymore.
openSelf-inflicted difficulty
A character went through great hardship but never realized he could have made it much easier on himself (often someone discovers this fact but doesn't reveal it for fear of the psychological damage it could cause). Alternately, one character unintentionally ensures the rest of the group suffers through increased difficulty.
For example, someone surviving twenty years on a desert island and being rescued by complete chance at the end, when it turns out he had a distress beacon on him he never thought to turn on that would have gotten him back to civilization in a few days. Or a car trip that last five hours longer than planned because the navigator was holding the map upside down.
openNonverbal communication
I'm looking for a kind of "actions speak louder than words" kind of trope where a person does some simple action, and those around him manage to glean an entire conversation out of it.
As an example; in World of Warships, I was playing as a Cruiser, and was about to go into the narrow channel between a pair of small islands, when a Battleship next to me set off it's horn, which usually means we're going to collide, not to mention that they were critically low on health. But a quick assessment revealed he was about to go between the islands as well, which is normally a death sentence for Battleships. So I hit my Engine Boost, barreled into the channel ahead of him, then set off my Smoke Screen once I got in, at which point he sailed in after me at what I assume was his top speed (which, admittedly, was pitiful compared to a Cruiser at what is essentially Flank speed). Soon after, the two of us combined got close to a third of the enemy ships sunknote he shot two from halfway across the map, then got rammed by a third, while I torpedoed two others; one at damn near point-blank after he botched an ambush (Surprise, retard!), while the other was just a panic launch that only worked because he forgot about the torpedoes after blowing me up over the remainder of the match.
Edited by GofastmikeopenOtherworldly plane of exposition
So, I've noticed a -sort of- pattern, though whether it's precise enough to be qualified as a trope is up for question. But I haven't found anything that seems to fit or describe this, so I thought I'd ask about it, give some examples, and see if anyone can point me to the trope.
There is a moment where the protagonist literally leaves reality and goes to another plane of existence, to discuss -something- of significance. This isn't exactly a White Void Room situation, because while sometimes the plane is a white void, other times its colored or populated, though still typically sparse. But the point isn't the harshness of the empty place, but the exchange of information that goes on. Nor is this a 'Featureless Plane of Disembodied Voices' because that seems to refer more to the occurance (crime) of just drawing dialogue in a comic or in a stage without any background or real-world existence. The pattern here is that two characters are indeed physically together and talking in a place of significance, though in a place out-side of the normal world. It's generally the protagonist talking with God, or one of his wacky nephews, and either learning something significant for the climax, or resolving existential questions after the climax as a form of closure.
I think the key elements are the place of discussion being an otherworldly plane of existence, the speaking partner being some sort of diety, even if not exactly divine, and the content of the discussion being very poignant and momentous in some way shape, or form.
As with all things on this website, examples tend to explain better than words. Obvious these are going to contain spoilers since the events are significant and happen near the end of a story. I'll still try to be vague.
-2nd Matrix Movie: where Neo speaks with the Architect
-Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood: where Ed trades with Truth.
-Sword Art Online: the invisible platform in the sky where Kirito and Asuna talk with Heathcliff.
-Harry Potter: Harry seeing Snape's memories in the pensieve.
-Also Harry Potter: Harry's Chat with Dumbledore
-Avatar TLA: Aang and the Lion Turtle
Anyone know of an existent trope that fits the common elements in all these? If not, anyone have any thoughts on refinement? Distinction pre and post-climax occurrences? Dialogue partner? Location? Name? That discussion would probably belong in the Trope proposal forum, but I need to figure out if it exists first. So far, no luck.
Edited by NullHypothesis
Part of Paratext, but it isn't indexed there. While The Annotated Edition overlaps well enough most of the time, the foreword/afterword, and postscripts used in letters (such as Epistolary Novel) are a way to separate part of the message/story. But I can't seem to find anything except Fun With Footnotes and The Annotated Edition, neither of which really match every occasion.
The example I'm thinking of right now overlaps with By "No", I Mean "Yes", where the "yes" doesn't occur until the postscript.