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openIs this in use already?
Is the art concept of nude person with a snake or other animal used to hide their private parts covered (no pun intended) by other censor tropes?
openUnknown ally
Like Unknown Rival, but for allies: a character greets another as a friend, but the second has no clue who the other one is despite having actually fought on the same side or having saved the second's life. May get remarks to the effect of "Oh yeah, you're... that guy."
Edited by Chabal2openFading from old memories to current reality
What's the trope where it shows someone enter someplace they remember with everything as it was, then it fades to reality, where it is abandoned, empty, and unused for a long time?
openWhat trope is this? Is it Ask a Stupid Question?
In Lois and Clark the American guy put the newspaper article on the table and said "Explain this" then the French guy put a French copy of the same article on the table and said "And this"
openThe Predecessors
Is there a trope for when episodes set in an earlier time period feature a hero/team that fulfilled the same role as The Hero or the The Team do in the present day, but which is not simply an earlier incarnation of a Legacy Character and may not even be explicitly connected to the current hero and/or team. Often if it's a team, at least a few of its members will be clear analogues of present-day team members, in role if not in personality. For shows whose backstory reaches back far enough, there may have even been multiple predecessors during different periods.
openYou're not a killer, but I am
Bob and Alice have cornered the dastardly villain Steve. Bob is a moral person but wants to kill Steve in revenge for things that Steve has done to him. Alice, who's an antihero, stops Bob from killing Steve because she doesn't want Bob to be a killer, then kills him herself because she already is.
Do we have a trope for situations like that?
openVoice actor expected to ad-lib Anime
We have Throw It In! for unexpected VA ad-libs staying in the finished product. What if the director expects a VA to ad-lib?
In the particular instance I am thinking of, it can go under Method Acting as the character is goofy. But is there a more specific trope for this?
openFan Outcry After a Character Takes A Level In Jerk
YMMV-ish. When a character or more acts suddenly out of character in a very mean sort of way, causing fan out cry and making fans hate the episode where it happens. Interesting, if a villain (especially a popular one) acts uncharacteristically nice, people don't get as upset.
openDoes BaldOfEvil still apply?
Does Bald of Evil apply if the top of a character's head is bald, but they still have hair on the sides of their head?
Also, what do you call that hairstyle?
Example◊.
Edited by DrNoPumaopenFor this exchange...
Alice: Are you Bob Smith?
Bob: That depends on who's asking.
Is there a trope for this?
Edited by StarTropesopenMistakenForIndex issues
Mistaken for Index issues:
Done Do we have a Mistaken For Sex trope, for this entry on that page?
- PvP, which calls back to seventies shows often, does this quite a bit. Subverted in that Cole hears Brent and Jade having sex in their office, realizes he's probably making assumptions like he has lots of time before, and comes to the conclusion that they're just moving furniture.
- In Flying Down to Rio Roger is mistaken for a male prostitute and Belinha's aunt pays him and tells him "his services won't be needed". He quickly picks up on the misunderstanding but doesn't correct her, and instead uses the money to buy Belinha a flower (which she insults and refuses).
- Literary example where a mis-heard conversation made a major difference in the story: in David Weber's short story "Nightfall" in Changer of Worlds, two characters are preparing evidence so that, if it becomes necessary to remove another character (Esther McQueen), they'll have backup. They spend some considerable time talking about the necessity of hiding this action, since they need McQueen and will for some time yet. The final comment of the conversation (approximately, "We'll need this when we pull the trigger on McQueen") is overheard and passed to McQueen — where it triggers a full revolt. McQueen repeatedly complains that if she'd been given even six more weeks she would really have been ready. The revolt fails, McQueen dies, in the aftermath the government falls — and the entire premise of the first 8-9 books in the series (good monarchy against evil socialist republic) is fundamentally altered. The series is up to 12 books now.
- It should be noted the series was to this point Horatio Hornblower In Space with Esther McQueen being the expy of Napoleon. This is the story that goes off the plot rails.
- Jonathan Creek: Maddy does this deliberately to Jonathan, interrupting their phone conversation with lines like "Oh, go on! Take me! I'm powerless to resist!" He isn't fooled:
Jonathan: How many men left?Maddy: Four pawns and a bishop]].Jonathan: Resign.
- Three's Company:
- Chrissy then falls, hits her head and is rushed to the hospital, and her roommates misunderstand the doctor and she is Mistaken for Dying.
- Coupling does this a bit, too: Sally approaches Patrick's bisexual girlfriend, trying to get a confession that she "fooled around" with Jeff (when no such thing had occurred), and the girlfriend thinks Sally is hitting on her; Jeff talks about how Jane's clinginess to Steve means "he's got an unflushable", and Susan, who just met Steve in the bathroom, thinks it means something else entirely.
- In another episode, Steve and Susan are watching a TV show which mentions the number of men who continue to masturbate when in a committed relationship. In the awkward silence that follows, Steve starts whistling, in an attempt to seem relaxed. He justifies it by saying that he felt like some music but wasn't in the mood for a whole CD. "Sometimes you want a full orchestra, and sometimes you just want a... quick whistle?" Susan tells him that she doesn't mind his whistling, as long as he doesn't get "whistled out." Later in the episode, Susan's parents come round for a visit, and while Susan is out of the room her father mentions that Susan told him that Steve's been "going solo, and Steve interprets it how you'd imagine. This leads to the classic line, "If music be the food of love, then masturbation is just a quick snack between meals." And then Susan walks back in and says, "I was just telling Dad how you've started whistling to yourself." Later in the episode, we see Steve throwing them out for an apparently out-of-line comment, which Steve starts to repeat to Susan before self-censoring the end of it: "With all that whistling, by the time Susan gets home you'll be too tired to-" Susan then finishes it for him to make it clear just how badly he misheard it: "''pucker."
- Three's Company:
- Another example comes from the episode when the main characters met the British Ventriloquist Leslie and his puppet Pamela. Because he kept Pamela a secret for certain reasons (she was kept in a large suitcase that he would not let anyone touch), several misunderstandings came out. First Pamela was mistaken by Jack as Leslie's crime partner after reading a news article on the "Duke and Duchess" (Leslie was mistaken for being the "Duke"), then she's mistaken for being Leslie's girlfriend when Jack lets Janet and Terri hear Pamela's (actually Leslie's) voice through his bedroom wall. The Crowning Moment Of Funny of the episode was a case of Mistaken for Murderer when the trio break into Leslie's apartment, and Jack opens the suitcase thinking that's where Leslie kept the stolen money in, only to pull out Pamela's hand. Cue the trio screaming in terror and fleeing the scene in the most hilarious fashion.
- This was lampshaded in an early episode of Friends (who would later still use this trope plenty anyway):
Chandler: Oh, I think this is the episode of Three's Company where there's some kind of misunderstanding.(studio audience laughs)Pheobe: Well then I've already seen this one. (turns off TV)
- This was lampshaded in an early episode of Friends (who would later still use this trope plenty anyway):
- Another example comes from the episode when the main characters met the British Ventriloquist Leslie and his puppet Pamela. Because he kept Pamela a secret for certain reasons (she was kept in a large suitcase that he would not let anyone touch), several misunderstandings came out. First Pamela was mistaken by Jack as Leslie's crime partner after reading a news article on the "Duke and Duchess" (Leslie was mistaken for being the "Duke"), then she's mistaken for being Leslie's girlfriend when Jack lets Janet and Terri hear Pamela's (actually Leslie's) voice through his bedroom wall. The Crowning Moment Of Funny of the episode was a case of Mistaken for Murderer when the trio break into Leslie's apartment, and Jack opens the suitcase thinking that's where Leslie kept the stolen money in, only to pull out Pamela's hand. Cue the trio screaming in terror and fleeing the scene in the most hilarious fashion.
Do we have a Mistaken For Homophobe type trope?
Found this bad use of an index, in FanFic.Subversion:
- [[Mistaken for Index Mistaken For Homophobic]]: Finn, although without knowing what the readers know it's understandable how people would come to that conclusion.
openMore Idealist Than The Leader, More Popular Than The Leader
So, there's a Nebulous Evil Organization. The leader is likely to be Affably Evil. He has two vice leaders with this conditions:
1. Vice leader A acts more fierce and cruel to those who oppose the leader (e.g. torturing, spreading propagandas, etc.). More strict than the leader himself. The one who incite fear and discipline from its subjects. An extreme idealist.
2. Vice leader B acts more caring and nurturing to its subjects (e.g. giving them gifts). The one who provides good public image. Likes to compromise to suit the needs of the Organization.
What kind of tropes that applies to them?
Edited by AkiraKusanagiopenIllegal Residence
Do we have a trope for when someone lives (temporarily or permanently) somewhere they legally shouldn't, like a public property or private business, or perhaps secretly in someone else's house? Was thinking of putting this on the TLP.
Edited by FGHIKopenEven misses the negative traits?
So, let's say Alice is a bit of a sourpuss, but when she goes missing, Bob says, "You can complain all you want! Just come back!" or something like that.
openBlunt Force Edged Weapon Western Animation
A character has a sword, but when fighting enemies is more likely to hit them with the pommel or smack them away with the flat of the blade. It shows up mostly in movies and TV shows aimed towards kids. Usually this only applies to someone fighting humans or humanoid aliens; robots and non-living organics tend to be exempt.
I see it so often I know it HAS to be on here somewhere, but I can't find it.
openInsecurity
Is there a trope for those who often feel very insecure about themselves and constantly have self-doubts, low self-esteem and such?
openCamp / other tropes relating to it, and tropes relating to Lifetimemovieoftheweek Live Action TV
Although tagged as Live-Action TV, one entry relates to Western Animation:
Are there any tropes regarding Camp for these situations (formatted as if it were a trope or work page):
Live Action TV
- A work that's set in a Crapsack World like Jessica Jones or Game of Thrones has a Camp character, but rather than the character's campness being Played for Laughs, they show in his Back Story how and why he became camp, and take apart the whole concept of being camp, then modifies the Camp trope into something more realistic.
- A Police Procedural has a Camp character who later turns out to be a pedophile and Serial Killer, but no-one in the neighborhood even suspected he was one, and he got away with it for years because of his camp behavior.
- A woman in a Lifetime Movie of the Week drama (part of The 'Verse consisting of ten feature-length movies) is attracted to Camp men, mostly Camp Straight, but then their marriage runs into problems because of the Camp behavior. She considers having an affair, but her morality stops her.
- Within the universe/continuity of the Lifetime Movie of the Week, the morality is that neither side is particularly good or evil, for one character within The 'Verse good or evil is irrelevant, and one of the antagonists (the term antagonist is used "loosely" here, as she's more Obliviously Evil rather than a Complete Monster) (an Alpha Bitch named Kate) is only malicious/evil because of something that happened to her aged 15, that the protagonists feel sorry for her, so much so they want to help her.
Western Animation
- Lightning Bolt the Super Squirrel from Tom & Jerry Kids (later renamed to Lightening Bolt the Super Squirrel in the Spin-Off Droopy, Master Detective) is a Camp superhero who's over-the-top flamboyant with a highly prominent Minnesota accent and Flying Brick mannerisms.
- Not sure what tropes fit this, would he be a Captain Ersatz of Superman due to the Flying Brick, but as for the camp superhero behavior, is there even a trope for this?
- Ben 10 (2016) adds Alien X from Ben 10: Alien Force to Ben's Omnitrix, but unlike the original continuity where Alien X is a Story-Breaker Power with a Split Personality, this version of Alien X is one individual, his abilities aren't a Story-Breaker Power due to being The Klutz, and he acts more like Starman from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona including a British accent, and actually can speak this time (unlike in Ben 10: Alien Force where he could only speak as a Voice of the Legion and not speak on his own)
- Would this be Captain Ersatz or Composite Character or something like that?
What tropes would fit these situations? Checking before I make an index for camp-related tropes at TLP.
Edited by Merseyuser1
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