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.
Find a Trope:
openNo Title Literature
I'm trying to figure out what the following quote describes. It's not exactly Damned by Faint Praise, but it's not a Stealth Insult or any kind of white lie either.
- Sitting in the bus shelter in which he had unrolled his sleeping bag one night, he had begun to translate key descriptive words: charming he decided, meant nondescript; scenic meant ugly but with a nice view if the rain ever lets up; delightful probably meant We've never been here and don't know anyone who has.—Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, by Neil Gaiman.
openNo Title Literature
Is there a trope for novels that are written like manga? Like, punches that cause craters and Made of Iron in fights, along with Kaleidoscope Hair and other manga descriptions so it really feels like the author wanted to write a manga or at least that was their strongest inspiration?
openNo Title Literature
This isn't so much asking about what trope applies as it is if a trope is flexible enough to cover the situation in question.
Specifically, the description for Consummate Professional specifies that part of it is that the Professional in question is intolerant about a lack of professionalism in others, but otherwise the example I'm thinking of seems like it'd best fit under CP. The example, done as a trope entry for the sake of copypasta later:
- In 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, Captain Raudegen, a soldier serving in the Bavarian military, is tasked with chasing down those who fled the duke, following two of them he spotted, even after he changes his allegiance from Bavaria to Duke Bernard, a foe of Bavaria. Toward the end of the novel, the two escapees meet the captain (now a Colonel) again shortly after finally losing him, when he's assigned to escort the group the two are with instead of hunt them down. One looks suspiciously at the colonel after realizing he's the one that's been chasing them, but the colonel replies "I'm a professional, boy. I cut my teeth on the Hungarian frontier. I'm in the duke's service now. When he says capture her, I try to capture her. When he says protect her, I use everything I know to protect her. Not just until your relative from Lyons joins her. All the way to Brussels," later adding that he's against cruelty for its own sake.
(Yes, I know that's a touch long, but there's only so much it can be compressed before context is lost.)
Edited by NohbodyopenNo Title Literature
Can Trilogy Creep be a good thing? I ask because I just found out that one of my favorite book series, Rangers Apprentice, is coming out with a twelfth book, after the tenth book stated it was "The Final Battle" and the eleventh book was like "Okay, really this time". Now, the eleventh book was excellent, so it's not like it's an exact example of Trilogy Creep, and I have high hopes for the twelfth book, which really does seem to be the Grand Finale.
openNo Title Literature
I'm adding a few entries to the Tortall Universe character page, from the Trickster books. Is there a trope for a character who is expected to be racist/sexist/prejudiced, but isn't? In this case it's a duke who married a native noblewoman, and the current duchess who is specifically mentioned to not be prejudiced despite her rank and upbringing.
openNo Title Literature
Is there a trope for bye forever to a place or person? This is when someone will never visit this place again, or meet this person again. This moment is the final goodbye. An example from The Lord of the Rings: "Suddenly the River swept around a bend, and the banks rose upon either side, and the light of Lórien was hidden. Never did Frodo see that fair land again."
The closest trope that I can find is Lost Forever, when someone misses the only chance to acquire some item.
openNo Title Literature
Is there a trope for a character who only gets a point-of-view section to show their death? I'm working on articles for the Shaara American Civil War novels and it's happened in all of them (sometimes just a few pages with a nameless soldier, but it's also happened with generals with famous deaths).
I've also seen it in A Song of Ice and Fire with the unfortunates that get stuck being the prologue character. It's kind of used in the same vein as Fatal Family Photo or Red Shirt (but I don't think it quite fits the latter and it's not like Real Life had a narrative purpose in killing people, so I hesitate to use it).
Edited by eowynjediopenNo Title Literature
Looking for a trope concerning a particular kind of shipping. The scenario is where two people, both in their late twenties, are intellectually inclined (both are university-level teachers and academics)who are possibly still virgins and who have been just too busy doing other (largely academic) things to get emotionally involved with anyone. They meet, and realise. But out of inexperience and lack of knowledge as to how these things go, their relationship is one long embarrassed fumbling "errr...", and more knowing friends have to give both frequent pushes and prods in the right direction. I just can't find a shipping trope for this, and I have been ploughing through possibly fertile ground like the millions of tropes listed under "The Big Bang Theory." Any pointers? Thanks!
openNo Title Literature
There is a scene in Agatha H And Clockwork Princess that goes like this: Agatha gets invited to dinner with royal family. Her circus friends do a very good job of making her look as plain and unappealing as possible, coupled with putting her in a horrible dress. All to make sure she doesn’t have to fend off Prince and his unwelcomed advances. I’m sure there was a trope for this, but I can’t remember its name right now.
Edited by CiabellaopenNo Title Literature
Do we have trope for the typical male love interest in Harlequin (AKA Boons & Mills) novels? You know, the kind of guy that the heroine writes off as an arrogant and selfish man at first, but who later turns out to have a softer, lighter side?
Edited by MichaelKatsuroopenNo Title Literature
Is there a trope for the way a work narrated in first person is inadvertently Spoiled by the Format (since, unless this person is an angel or spirit or something) s/he has to be alive to tell the tale, so at the very least you know the narrator lives to the end of the story?
I checked Spoilered Rotten and didn't see a close match
openNo Title Literature
I'm looking for a trope where a character has a misleading job title—specifically, Nora Barlow in Literature/Leviathan is a "zookeeper" but she functions as a diplomat and her suggestions have force with the captain of a military airship.
It's like Almighty Janitor, but not quite, because everyone recognizes her authority despite her job title.
openNo Title Literature
Is there a trope for when a book has so many flashbacks that you don't know what time it's supposed to be anymore?
openNo Title Literature
This is a very specific Harry Potter example and I know there's a term for this, but I haven't found it under The Scrappy or Fanon Discontinuity:
Whenever fanartists draw the Marauders in their high school years, a majority of them "conveniently" leave out Peter Pettigrew. For those who've read the books the reasons are pretty obvious, but it doesn't change the fact that in the high school days they were always a foursome. And yet due to the events of the book, a LOT of fans would like to forget that the Marauders were always the four of them, not just a trio. What would I call this phenomenon?
openNo Title Literature
Okay, a book series that's really good, but the first book in the series is the weakest of the entire series. To where you have to slog though a "Not quite bad, but not that good book" to get into the meat and tasty awesome books. Kind of like growing the beard, but not as gradual. Any thoughts?
openNo Title Literature
Is there a trope specifically for women being called Sir? Like how female officers in Star Trek are addressed with "sir" unless they ask not to be, or Alanna from the Tortall Universe specifically calls herself Sir Alanna. I know there's She Is the King, but that's pretty specifically a royalty trope.
(Otherwise I'll just call it Insistent Terminology for Alanna.)
openNo Title Literature
Is there any trope that involves an author using the name of one of his/her characters as his/her own pen name? I've heard about fanfiction authors naming characters after themselves, but this would be an author naming himself after his character.
openNo Title Literature
Is there are a general genre name for novels which involve RPG-systems, leveling up, that kind of stuff. I know that in Russia we call it "litrpg", and there are tons of this kind of stuff (both fanfiction and original settings). Best examples of this genre for English reader probably would be "Legendary Moonlight Sculptor" and "Naruto: Game of the Year Edition". If there is no name for this genre, maybe it is time to make one?
- Sorry for kinda hectic writing, I will flesh out my question if nobody will answer today :P*

Is there a trope for when protagonist A, following the trail of Protagonist B, travels through the same locations and meets the same people at different times? I'm specifically thinking of cases where this takes up a substantial portion of the story in question, where we get to see both protagonists interact with the same groups of characters (and perhaps deal with the aftermath of Protagonist B's passing through). Usually told in alternating chapters or series of chapters. I guess it'd be a subtype of Switching POV or Rotating Protagonist.
Book-length examples of this setup include Vonda N. Mc Intyre's "Dreamsnake" and Tanith Lee's "Vazkor, Son of Vazkor" and "Castle of Dark".