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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 the Trope Launch Pad.

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eroock Since: Sep, 2012
2025-04-03 11:21:59

Jerkass Ball or Conflict Ball if they act hostile out of character. Not sure about random strangers. Perhaps Chandler's Law.

Edited by eroock
FerrousFaucet Since: Feb, 2014
2025-04-03 11:41:31

Chandler's Law looks good to me.

If the character comes out of nowhere and gets no established motivation before or after the conflict scene, then the character is being used as a plot device. But I can't offer anything more specific.

Edited by FerrousFaucet
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2025-04-03 11:45:38

Chandler's Law is a bit too specific but I guess it's the best we have. Both scenes I was thinking of involved characters being randomly dickish in a bar (randomly insulting the protagonists as their introduction), mostly for the point of starting a fight in said bar. The characters don't come back after this so we have no idea what their issue was aside from arbitrarily not liking the main characters. But this is probably too specific to really have a trope for. (In one of them it at least establishes that neither of the protagonists are respected, making them outcasts through the display of spontaneous bullying; in the other, it really is just for the sake of a fight scene)

(I mean, there's stuff like Jerkass, obviously, was just wondering if we had something more specific for a character we know nothing about showing up to start conflict before disappearing)

Edited by WarJay77 Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2025-04-03 11:56:20

I suppose...

I do think that the "establishes them as outcasts" version could fit nicely into a trope concept I've been toying with for a bit now. Otherwise this is probably just too niche, and covered by much broader concepts.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
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