Trope Finder

Women are better than men Live Action TV

Expy or Captain Ersatz of buildings/landmarks in cities, towns? Live Action TV

Do we have a trope for where there's an Expy or Captain Ersatz of well-known buildings or landmarks, for example, if a work had the Chevrolet Tower in New York City as an equivalent to the real-life Chrysler Building?

Or if a work set in Paris had the Gustave Tower, instead of the Eiffel, or the Horn Buildings instead of Trump Towers in a work set in NYC, would these be an Expy or Captain Ersatz, or another trope?

I'm not implying there's any major physical changes to the buildings themselves, just they're sufficiently recognizable.

At first I thought that was No Communities Were Harmed, but that's for towns isn't it?

Episode is movie-length, but not quite part of previous season, but not its own season? Live Action TV

I'm trying to find a trope here for Recap.Doctor Who50th AS The Day Of The Doctor and Recap.Doctor Who 2013 CS The Time Of The Doctor, plus also Recap.Doctor Who 2017 CS Twice Upon A Time.

What trope is it for when the episode is longer than usual, and it feels more like a movie than an episode, plus, more importantly, it's not classified as being part of the current season, or the next season, but fits in-between (for recap pages)?

Are there tropes for these? I thought Extra Long Episode could fit, but as for it feeling more like a movie, less like a regular episode, and the being in-between seasons of a series, what tropes are these?

I'd appreciate it if anyone can help!

Kiss the Dog Live Action TV

I looked for this in Dream Tropes, and in the This Index Barks index about dogs.

This is when a guy is kissing a sexy woman, only to be revealed it was a dream, and that he's actually being licked in the face by a dog.

Not-So-Scatterbrained Senior Live Action TV

I'm realizing it's fairly common in police procedurals and mystery TV to have an elderly person suffering from dementia make what *seems* to be a nonsensical or mistaken remark, only for it to turn out later to be entirely correct and lucid... it's just that everyone else makes assumptions because the elder is a.) older than them, b.) actually diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia, or c.) both. This would be either an inversion or an aversion of Scatterbrained Senior.

Examples: There's an episode of Endeavor in which Morse tries to tell a woman with dementia that her daughter is dead, and ends up handing her a photo of the daughter to try and jog her memory. The woman identifies the photo as someone else, and Morse almost gives up, before realizing [spoiler] that the daughter who died is not who the police were told she was. [/spoiler]

It seemed rather familiar to me... perhaps a wider trope would be ANYTHING that's first assumed to be demented (or possibly insane) rambling, which later turns out to be not only lucid, but a case-breaking clue. So, the woman screaming "David!" in A Study In Scarlet, for example.

The person who speaks the clue is always mentally impaired, or at very least is considered to be by the other characters, and for a plausible reason.

(I know this sounds like a trope proposal, but I want to make sure it doesn't exist already first.)

Retool / continuity trope? Live Action TV

I was about to add this to a work page but wanted to be sure if it's the right trope:

For The Handmaid's Tale:

• Soft Reboot: Season 2 continues from the original source material, but adds new characters, and undergoes a Time Skip, but doesn't deny the events of the original or take them in Broad Strokes. In essence, it's a quasi-Continuity Reboot maintaining the existing actors.

For Dexter's Laboratory:

• Alternate Continuity: Although never confirmed officially by the creators, some Fanon considers Season 3 and Season 4 due to the amount of Retcons and Retools.
• Ambiguously Human: It's never confirmed In-Universe if Major Glory, a pastiche of Captain America, Uncle Sam (Major Glory's Uncle, whose Name's the Same as the DC Comics version) and Val Hallen are human or not, even though they look and act human.
• Soft Reboot: Although Season 3 and Season 4 (both Revival series) retain the core cast of Dexter, Dee Dee, Mom, Dad and Mandark, certain Retcons are made - for example, Dexter's surname Snodgrass revealed in "Dexter Dodgeball" isn't mentioned anymore, Mandark's sister Lalavava is Adapted Out, and The Justice Friends (outside of a brief aural cameo in Season 4 episode D2 and the Season 4 Something Completely Different episode "Dexter's Wacky Races") are Adapted Out completely, plus the animation style is very different.

For Police Camera Action:

• Soft Reboot: From 1997 onwards, the series changed slightly, adding European, U.S. and Canadian police footage alongside British police footage, instead of the footage solely confined to Lower Deck Episodes about Europe, the U.S. and Canada.

If I'm right, a Soft Reboot is a Continuity Reboot that retains existing actors/sets, but may be an Alternate Timeline, Retcon or Retool?

Have I got the right trope for these entries?

I would appreciate it if someone could check if I've got these wrong, and what the major difference is for Soft Reboot and Retool, so I don't make this error.

Work retroactively joins shared universe or continuity? Live Action TV

Is there a trope that would fit this situation:

Constantine was originally meant to be a separate continuity, but joined the Arrowverse retroactively.

and, although an Alternate Continuity for now:

Venom (2018) retroactively joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe

what trope applies to both of these?

Cop was in gang before being a cop? Live Action TV

I'm trying to find tropes before I add them to the work pages.

Is there a trope for this situation:

• Currently, within Home and Away, a storyline concerning Colby Thorne, a cop, in the current Story Arc, he's been exposed by Ebony Easton, the Big Bad of the Story Arc, as being in a gang called The River Boys before he was a cop, and then gets suspended, and the media exposes the revelation for a bit with his gangster past becoming interesting pieces of gossip for the media.

Is there a trope or tropes that could fit this as an entry?

Also, what Betrayal Tropes trope fits this, on the same subject - Home and Away:

• Colby Thorne ended his friendship with childhood friend Dean Thompson when Dean needed him and they were both in the River Boys gang, and then when Dean met him years later, could not believe Colby was a cop and felt it was a betrayal of sorts, considering they were in the River Boys gang as violent gangsters years ago.

A woman (usually mother) responding to bad news by cooking and baking as much as she can Live Action TV

A woman (usually mother) responding to bad news by cooking and baking as much as she can. For example: in That 70's Show, when Red's mother died, Kitty kept herself busy by cooking and baking an excessive number of dishes until she ran out of ingredients.

Visiting your own grave Live Action TV

Is there a trope for someone who is presumed dead visiting their own supposed final resting place or some other memorial? Danny Rand does it in episode 3 of Iron Fist 2017, and Nick Fury does it too in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Something of a cross between Attending Your Own Funeral and a Grave-Marking Scene.

Better to die than risk becoming a monster? Live Action TV

I wasnt sure which medium to put this under. Lets say John and David are crime fighting detectives. John is an ancient vampire who lives a solitary life . David is his best friend. On a case David is shot and dying. John offers to turn him but David perfers death then the risk of becoming a blood thirsty monster. Barring that risk death then live as something not human. Is there a trope for that?

Knowledge He Shouldn't Have Live Action TV

I'm watching an episode of Forensic Files where an arson investigator is found to have set many fires, and part of the evidence against him is that a dispatcher gave the wrong address to a fire but he managed to arrive at the correct location. Is there a trope for that?

Music is important to plot / story arc? Live Action TV

Is there a trope for where music in a series is more than just incidental / background music, and essential to set the tone of the scene, for example Pitbull's "Fireball" in the pilot episode of The Catch or Charli XCX featuring Rita Ora "Doing It" in online promos for Doctor Who on the BBC website? Or even the use of David Essex's "Hold Me Close" during a Fight Scene in documentary Police Camera Action involving Road Rage?

Is there a trope for these situations? Diegetic music wouldn't fit so what's the trope?

Would really appreciate it if anyone could answer.

What trope(s) for Spaleb (Spencer & Caleb) Live Action TV

Hey, I was wondering in which romantic trope(s) Spaleb (Spencer Hastings & Caleb Rivers from Pretty Little Liars) might fit. I couldn't find any topic about them and since I'm not fully familiar with every tropes there is, I was wondering if any of you knew where that might be ?

Thanks xx

Marrying Off the Gay Live Action TV

The trope where, instead of just outright killing the gay character, they make that character get engaged or married to a member of the opposite sex.

Time travel tropes?? Live Action TV

Is there a trope for this example:

Alice and Bob met the Twelfth Doctor in 2017, and went on adventures with him as companions, then the Doctor, Alice and Bob visited 1986 in The '80s, and Alice and Bob accidentally got left behind in 1986 as the Doctor became an Absent-Minded Professor and forgot to bring them on his TARDIS back to the Present Day.

Do we have a Time Travel Tropes trope for this?

Television signal bleeding across borders Live Action TV

Migrated to the right place.... is there a trope covering real life situations where one country's television signal reaches an unintended audience in the country next door? I know there's sometihng like this as I've seen such a trope - just can't locate it. thinking of, for instance, British TV signals being received in Northern France and vice-versa. It must happen a lot - TV does not stop at geographical borders - and seems to be a distinct, if related, thing to Periphery Demographic. Thanks for any pointers!

Camp / 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 and 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.

Character there, but only via archive footage? Live Action TV

According to a discussion about Series/Mr.Robot there was speculation that Darlene (main cast) would be absent from some episodes of the upcoming Season 4, but also in the episodes she's absent from via archive footage so that she's still got some role. Basically, they wanted her to be in every episode in the season, even if not physically there.

Is there a trope for this scenario where a character is an Absentee Actor but appears only via archive footage? Is this Loophole Abuse or Fake Shemp?

Place is hated?? Is there a trope? Live Action TV

Is there a trope for where a location becomes The Scrappy to viewers, not just a character? Ethnic Scrappy is about characters so that probably wouldn't fit.

Always kidnapped Live Action TV

So it is when a superhero has some friends and they always end up getting kidnapped or in trouble. Not always a girl, sometimes it is a kid. Any ideas?

Lookin for this trope Live Action TV

Hey, I am looking for a trope where a superhero adopts a kid, any ideas? Also, I am looking for that trope where a kid gets kidnapped all the time. Thanks

The Brady Bunch Live Action TV

family members character tropes

Standalone tropes / crossover trope? Live Action TV

I know there's Standalone Episode for when an episode of a Live-Action TV series is self-contained, but is there a trope for this situation:

• A Crisis Crossover involves three series from The 'Verse (maybe The Flash (2014), Supergirl and ''Legends of Tomorrow and is promoted as a separate series under a different title with its own Special Edition Title, and it's self-contained enough that the Story Arc within the Crisis Crossover doesn't have any effect on the Myth Arc of all three shows.

Is there such a Crossover Index trope for this?