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openUnintentionally Unmasqued World? Literature
So a week ago, this Troper was sound asleep when he had a dream. This dream was ostensibly set in the world of Bitten, with a scenario that involved a Werewolf getting Drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War. The Alpha of the Pack at the time was faced with a dilemma: Werewolves in this setting are involved in a very strict Masquerade in which all humans, even the Government, are explicitly forbidden from knowing that Werewolves exist (Werewolves are explicitly instructed to kill any human who watches them Change). This becomes impossible with a Werewolf getting Drafted; Draft-Dodging is illegal, going AWOL to Change is illegal, and killing any of your squad-mates for watching you Change is HIGHLY illegal, and the Government WILL come after you for doing any of these. And the Pack can't really do anything either because the Government WILL come after anyone who murders active service personnel of the Armed Forces. Then this Troper woke up, thought about this scenario, and came to the conclusion that this sort of airtight Masquerade would have been unsustainable under the Selective Service system; the existence of Werewolves WOULD be exposed if a Werewolf got Drafted.
And the thing is- the Government was simply Drafting a new Army recruit, they weren't even intending on exposing the existence of Werewolves, which the Army didn't even know about. Creating The Unmasqued World was simply an unintended consequence of the Army doing Army things.
The only other time I've seen this archetype, of a Masquerade being blown open by someone who was trying to do something unrelated, was in the Worm/Twilight crossover fanfic Twisted Masquerade, where Director Emily Piggot doing a background check on Charlie Swan could have exposed the existence of Vampires, and the Cullens had to do some last-minute string-pulling to keep that from happening.
How common is it for The Unmasqued World to be the result of an accident, carelessness, bureaucratic processes, unintended consequences, or pure random chance, rather than deliberate action? Is it common enough to be a trope?
resolved Retitled in Home Country due to Censorship reasons Literature
The localized title of a certain Chinese danmei Web Serial Novel, Thrice Married to a Salted Fish, is a direct translation of the novel's title as a Web Novel. While the novel also received domestic publishing deals, China has a rather heteronormative policy on officially "published" material (i.e. published books and professionally created live-action shows and animation), and because of this the title is changed to the equivalent of Thrice Met a "Salted Fish" in print. Is this a Clean Dub Name? A Market-Based Title? A Publisher-Chosen Title? Or something else? (I have not read the insides, so I can't say if the gay sex scenes were also cut, so I'd hold off on the Bowdlerisation claims for now)
Edited by SamCurtopenWhen a character/detail of a book comes from a short story or another source Literature
One of the characters in Our Share Of Night came from an unrelated short story by the same author, and I was interested in potentially adding this information to a Trivia page, but I couldn't find anything similar enough to it. I tried checking on on Flowers for Algernon or The City We Became and the only thing I came accross is Adaptation Expansion, but doesn't quite fit since the book in question is not exactly an expansion of the short story.
Edited by alittlebookopenCanon-matching through cross-timeline coincidece Literature
An alternate timeline in the Harry Potter works, in which:
- While the Harry/Neville friendship has some reasonable likelihood in this timeline, the connection with the Weasleys and Hermione, years before the golden trio starts at Hogwarts, is an odd coincidence.
- The Malfoy family giving Tom Riddle's diary to a Weasley child in the child's first year at Hogwarts, although in this timeline it's Narcissa and Draco on Percy, not Lucius on Ginny.
- Harry getting the Marauder's Map, years before he does in the books and from a different source.
openLittle kid imitates parents' profession Literature
Young Hermione Granger, whose parents are dentists, plays dentist on her teddy bear
openRacism stops when hated race saves one's child Literature
Parents are racist. One day, their child nearly dies, and is saved by the hated race. Parents stop being racist as a result.
resolved The Relationship between Magic and Destiny? Literature
Magic as a force of Destiny. I'm particularly interested in tropes that describe the universe as deeply connected.
openJane Austin redacted Literature
In Jane Austin and similar, some place names and sometimes personal names are replaced with a dash (- - - - shire). What is this called, why did they do it, when did writers stop doing it?
resolved Storyline-exclusive villain. Literature
In Give Yourself Goosebumps, there’s usually two different storylines you could follow, depending on an early choice you make. Is the main villain considered a Big Bad if they only show up in one of the storylines? Or is it a slightly different trope?
open"Chicago is a hellscape in cyberpunk" Literature
I was speaking to a friend about the new Cyberpunk game that got announced set in a Chicago turned post-apocalypse and it reminded me that in Shadowrun the city of Chicago is under quarantine-or-a-nuke because of bug spirits.
Is this common enough to be a trope, or is this just a coincidence? Is Chicago uniquely terrible in Cyberpunk fiction?
openThe "Victory" brand in 1984 Literature
On Nineteen Eighty-Four, it says:
- The Dreaded: Anything bearing the "Victory" brand. Victory Coffee is undrinkable swill; Victory Gin smells bad, tastes much worse, and hits like a club to the head; Victory Cigarettes are so badly made that the tobacco falls out half the time; and Victory Mansions are decades-old apartment buildings coming apart at the seams.
openTrope for love Literature
one where the character cannot love, in the sense that he cannot feel affection for others and can only feel other emotions (in the case of a mother or father, it could be respect, in the case of a brother, companionship, in the case of a friend, just a sense of interaction, or in the case of a girlfriend/wife, love is confused with something that causes excitment).
Edited by tetradimensionalopenNo need to put in too much effort for one more conviction Literature
A Serial Killer is suspected of committing 9 murders; he only gets convicted of 6 because, given that he will be executed anyway, there is little value in putting in the effort for more convictions.
openDysfunctional family Literature
The scapegoat daughter who is ostracized from her family she always tried to believe that she was going to be something someday and like prove them wrong but she keeps failing cuz her trauma isn't taken care of her childhood trauma because she's dealt with like emotional neglect her family's campaign of denigration her character annihilation she's now drinking too much and so maybe like she's getting into an abusive relationships and so then she lost in this world of complete loneliness and confusion and isolation and then the next one would be the abuser who knows what she needs and so he completely love bombed her and played into her emotions and then when he got her right where he could of isolation control abuse he started to show his true colors was that he was just complete abuser and so then there's the mother the grandmother who is like always was jealous of her daughter and like try to get on the grandchild turned into her daughter like a redo and then started to fill the granddaughter's head up with a bunch of lies and manipulation and coercion and the father left when the daughter was young and then he would only come back occasionally and just completely forget that he hasn't been in the child's life and would dismiss any of the emotions of the daughter he's like a narcissistic malignant the mom is more of a borderline the brothers are obviously ones The Golden Child then there's the Lost Child who just stick to himself who doesn't want to rock the boat and then a daughter that was our child that's struggling with the loss of a sibling and in an accident or something you know the death of a sibling and now being blamed by her family for the death even though she's not responsible and so it's like this chaotic family of dysfunction and you got the enabling family and the naive and global Citizens the family that doesn't want to let the secrets out
resolved Animal Symbolism Literature
I'm trying to figure out what would be the trope name for characters loosely based off of or inspired by animals (not necessarily mythical), whether it be via their designs, personalities, or actions.
Edited by mystiqu3openCausation is backwards from what you think Literature
In the Book of Numbers, Balak says to Balaam "because I heard that he who you bless is blessed and he who you curse is cursed". However, careful reading of the subsequent story seems to show that Balaam merely expresses the blesses and curses God already placed on people.
Edited by Someone1981

I find this trope is really common in Romantasies and Platform/({Webtoon}}s. Is there a trope name for the "Sexy born yesterday"?