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:
openShoutOut or VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory? Literature
Asking another question about Chance And Choices Adventures.
In the fifth book there's a scene where the characters are passing through a dangerous swamp at night. A local Bandit Clan tries to ambush them, but is frightened away by phantom soldiers that only they (the bandits) are able to see.
I know for a fact this idea comes from a fairly well known sermon, telling the story of a group of missionaries in Africa who are saved from a tribal raid in the same manner.
I'm not sure what this should be listed as.
I want to say Very Loosely Based on a True Story, but it's just one tiny element of the story that gets carried over, so I'm not sure it counts. (Also the veracity of the sermon is highly debated, with many people believing it's just a parable, but I don't think this would count as Based on a Great Big Lie because I think that requires intent.)
I was thinking it could be Shout-Out, but can you do a Shout-Out to a sermon?
EDIT: I also have Very Loosely Based on a True Story listed for the fact that a lot of the locations in the series are real - for example, the main characters' hometown of Harmony, Arkansas is a real place and is even in the same spot it's at in real life, however all of the characters and events are fictional. Is this proper usage of that trope, or should it be something else?
Edited by Mimic1990openFractal Series [FOUND] Literature
Is there a trope/trivia for a (book) series that gets increasingly more detailed and multi-threaded as it approaches the ending, with the end result that each new installment covers half of the in-story time that the previous one in the same volume of text?
Edited by KoverasopenDepraved supernatural club Literature
Do we have something for depraved superntural clubs. In essence in some fantasy works, you'll get places wherein people will go to get there often depraved sexual fetihses which invlove superntural elements. These can be everything from the vampire clubs of Guild Hunter where people pay to be bitten and drained for sexual pleasure to the demons club of Nightside where people will pay for demons to torture them
openPackrat? Literature
What is the trope for a person who is a packrat? Not a hoarder, just a packrat. Like Greer Gilman said, "I clink, therefore I am".
openFirst Line of A Book Referenced in another medium. Literature
Trying to find a Trope to reference for a page I'm working on.
In the film about a writer, he's shown writing the opening lines to a famous book of his. I'm sure there's a trope for this, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.
openIllustrations drawn color and grayscale interchangely Literature
In a picture book for Elephant's Child and the Commander Toad series, the illustrations are first drawn in color on the first 2 pages, drawn in grayscale in the next 2 pages, and the pattern goes on.
openLosing your Godhood Literature
What trope do we have for a deity that loses their godhood status.
openTests and Pride Literature
Working on examples for Way of Choices. Looking for two tropes.
First, there's a stone that tests cultivation (enlightenment/chi) levels by glowing. Is there a trope for having some device or artifact that just reveals special powers/destiny? Like the triluminary-thingie in Babylon 5, or the Jedi-scanners in the old Star Wars EU (and Midi-chlorian tests in the prequels?)
Two, the protag, Chen, is terminally, let's say ill. He is also engaged to marry one of the wealthiest and most important young women in the world, because his master saved her grandfather's life and he promised his granddaughter's hand. Chen goes to their house intending to break off the marriage contract, but her parents' snobbishness and various efforts to bribe or strong-arm him into breaking it convince him to keep it instead. What trope(s) would this fall under?
EDIT: Do we really not have a trope for a straight-up test of physical strength?
Edited by Rhodes7openCharacter dying before big event Literature
I'm just wondering if there's a trope for characters who die very early and never get to experience a world-changing event or the world after it.
Example: someone gets killed the day before a nuclear war and is spared the horrible fate of living in that new world, etc.
openA trope about little girls with big, protective dragons. Literature
A trope I see a lot of but can't find anywhere on TV Tropes is simply about, say, a princess being given to a dragon to be eaten, only the dragon doesn't eat her and instead raises her. Or, in other variants, a little girl (sometimes boy) stumbles onto a dragon and befriends him.
I was wondering if this trope existed. If so, what is it called?
Examples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/8e7yif/wp_as_a_solitary_dragon_youve_spent_countless/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/7zrk9l/wp_a_dragon_fights_to_protect_its_most_valued/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/813gcd/wp_youre_a_powerful_dragon_that_lived_next_to_a/dv0auer/
Etc.
openAuthor uses favorite topic a lot Literature
What do you call it when an author likes to insert a particular philosophical question in many of his works? In many of Isaac Asimov's short-stories, as well as in his over-arching galazy history, there is the question of controlled comfort that stops risky space expansion vs. mankind's progress that includes rocky competition and war.
openlooking for a trope.... Literature
I'm trying to think of the appropriate trope that describes a character or device that you have created that is, or becomes, such an impediment to the storytelling because their presence literally prevent the protagonists or fellow protagonists from getting into trouble in the first place, and so the author has to go to extreme lengths to keep them out of the way until the end when they inevitably appear and nullify the problem .The Luggage in the Rincewind Discworld books for example, Or indeed Miss Wetherwax herself in the later books.
So does such a beast exist or do we have to name it?
openAn antagonist who counts on a big bluff Literature
Is there a trope about an antagonist who convinces the weak he has power when in fact it's just an effective con? For example, he makes it seem like his "crew" is a lot bigger than it really is. In fact, he's desperate.
openUnreliable biography Literature
Is there a trope for a biography that seems hard to believe mainly because it casts the person in an incredibly negative light (or, conversely, seems to whitewash them a lot), as well as the claims in it being rather far fetched and/or contradicting what other people who knew the person in life claimed about them? I only have a Real Life example so I would prefer not to say it due to Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment.
openBound Literature
What trope is it to have a magic bond between to people? Similar to blood brothers, but magically permanent.
openNo Title Literature
This is a repeating theme in mythology: a human (usually a woman) is created by magic or the gods but they forget to give it some vital function such as morality, wisdom, patience or caution. Human naturally does something horrific because of this lack. I can't think of the trope title for this.
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
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 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.

So there is a story set in very recent times, say 2016, in a real place, say an American university. It has fictional characters doing their fictional stuff. Then at some point they drop by to hear an "edgy" speaker, and that's Milo Yiannopoulos. They perhaps chat to an unnamed protester, and then move on - Milo is not involved in the plot as such.
Is there a trope for Milo's appearance? "Historical domain character" sounds wrong, both because this is too recent and because it's just a cameo. But "Real person cameo" is a different thing entirely.