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 You Know That Show and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
The G In GPS Stands For God
When a character follows GPS’s direction, no matter how absurd it is.
Because GPS said so, it can’t be wrong.
Ashamed of what I was
After a disastrous event, a person feels contempt for himself (and the group he was in) for letting it happen so easily. It’s mainly because they were so easily misled.
Fan Example: In Star Wars, sometime between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, a group of people will be talking about how the Empire came to be. among them is a Jedi who survived Order 66. One person will ask how the Jedi Council, guardians of peace in the galaxy, could allow the Emperor to gain control of the Republic, crumble it and reign control of the Empire. The surviving Jedi (before or after revealing himself as such) says with a tone of contempt: “The Jedi Council were a bunch of fools who trusted the wrong people.”
Edited by JohnShel91
Some bad thing in the work is especially disturbing because it's more realistic than usual
What trope would this fall under? some examples:
- A lot of people find The Jokers horrible treatment of Harley Quinn to be his most despicable trait, as it seems all too similar to a real abusive relationship
- One for me personally, (although I doubt I'm alone), the Yuuzhan Vong in the Star Wars Legends EU freak me out, as their mindset seems too much like real religious extremist/terrorist groups.
Levitation Leg Bend
Is there a trope for the standard pose a character takes when levitating where they usually have one leg out straight, but one will be bent slightly? It's usually used in animation along with Mid-Air Bobbing to show that the character is floating and not aligned with the ground.
Character is ironically told "have fun"
Is there a trope for when a character is told "have fun" before doing something scary or tedious?
Game that needs you to do something outside the game Videogame
Example: In Who Framed Roger Rabbit there's a 1-800 number that you're supposed to call. As in actually call, using a landline or cell.
Hidden Limbs Trope?
Is there a trope where it turns out someone has body parts that are unexpected? {like, say, a flower character popping out of the ground to reveal they have legs?}
It's okay to be gay?
There have been a lot of Queer Romance songs related to lgbt rights and pro-lgbt rights songs lately. Is there a trope for that?
Bad Bedroom
A character's neglect, poverty, or general life-struggle is often highlighted by giving them a particularly bad bedroom, especially if the house they live in is overall much nicer than their bedroom would suggest. The Unfavorite suffers from this a lot, from Harry living in a cupboard to Cinderella (and other characters in her sort of situation) living in cramped attics or similar.note
Edited by WarJay77
"I want to change"?
So basically, a trope where a character either believes they are headed down a dark path, and wants to change before they become beyond redemption. Do we have that?
Supernatural entity capable of things
The Deepness is a supernatural entity capable of exploring the psyche of a human and putting out an impression. In its sealed form, it resembles a swirling pool that is dark and deep.
When a subject dives into the pool of the Deepness, the Deepness will enter the mind of a human and produce a spectral creature called a Figment. After a subject emerges out of the pool, a Figment is formed.
At first tries, Figments are weak and shimmer quickly. But over time, when a subject repeatedly dives into the Deepness, the Figments get increasingly stronger and stronger. This is because subjects carry the Deepness out of the vortex through symbiosis if parasitic.
If it is not Watched, the Deepness will escape from its pool and can never be sealed again. Most of all, never feed it with fear. The Deepness gets stronger from the fear that subject.
What tropes that can be inferred from the paragraphs above?
Spoilers from real life Anime
So there is a situation where a character is based on a historical character and so we know, sort of, what is going to happen at an approaching moment in the timeline. Like, Lincoln is entering the Ford Theater, etc. Depending on the looseness of the history, it might be a foregone conclusion or a buildup of tension for "how will they handle this?" - it was the latter in the particular anime I am troping on.
Is there a trope for this?
Chasing your own tail
A tailed animal — typically a dog or a cat, and especially one a juvenile one — is driven to chase their own tail for one reason or another; knowing or eventually realizing that their quarry is actually part of their body is optional.
Do we have a trope for this? It's definitely not Chasing Your Tail, which although its name gives that impression, is actually about a Boss Battle in which both the player and the boss run around in circles chasing/running away from each other.
Edited by MarqFJA
"Take your kids to work" episode Western Animation
Usually seen in cartoons, in this episode the parents take their children with them to work. An alternative could be "Take your daughter to work". I've seen this in The Loud House and Lampshaded once in an episode of Phineas and Ferb by Vanessa.
If I'm not mistaken, this is not very common in media nowdays, so it could very well be a Dead Horse Trope.
Explaining Episode
Is there a trope for an episode of a show that's basically dedicated to explaining things about the world of a series, but isn't a Recap Episode?
Rape/Abuse makes a woman stronger
This is a particularly annoying trope which posits that when female characters are raped or endure horrible physical abuse, it makes them stronger, tougher people. Sometimes its framed as a necessary occurrence for them to become stronger. It's often employed to give a female character development or toughen her up. in reality, this usually gives a person PTSD and impedes their strength by giving them trauma to overcome, which is what makes it irritating. The trope can be seen in "The Perfection" and "Game Of Thrones"(Sansa) off the top of my head, and probably almost every rape revenge film. I was looking through the different tropes about rape and i dont think we have this one. Rape as Backstory is similar but doesnt quite cover it. What should we call this one and can it be added as it's own entry?
Wait, You Forgot Your X!
I'm looking for a trope for when someone leaves in a hurry, and someone yells for them that they forgot something but they're already gone, usually used for comedic effect, and fairly common in Western Animation.
For example, when a man finds that all of the food at a hamburger restaurant is made of insects, he runs off. The waiter, however, yells for him, "Wait! You forgot your fries!" while holding up a bag of worms.
Does that trope exist?
Bait-and-switch origin story
You think it's an origin story about character A, but it's actually an origin story about character B, who apparently was very similar to character A when they were young.
Buddy-cop protagonists put siren on top of unmarked car.
The protagonists receive word from their dispatcher that there is an emergency nearby and they plop the siren on top of their previously incognito car, usually accompanied with eye-contact and a cliche line like "let's roll." Also which films do this if you can think of any?
Edited by spyingcomet85
Death episode
A kind of episode that often shows up in shows for young children which discusses death, usually by having something like a bird dying.
Progressively Immoral Recounting
A gag where the description of character's actions start out as heroic, then not quite heroic, then outright evil.
Something like this:
- "My great-grandfather hid Jews in his basement during WW 2." -> "He made them pay rent." -> "We haven't told them the war's over."
- Bob saves Alice from a gas leak. -> Bob was nearby because he's stalking her -> Bob orchestrated the gas leak in the first place.
Sand message washed away by the waves
Seems to be a really popular visual trope, but do we have a specific page on it?
Awkward with kids
Is there a trope for a character who doesn't dislike kids but doesn't know how to interact with them? An example would be a character not understanding that playing a violent movie in front of a child isn't a good thing but would do so in an attempt to bond with the child.
"Don't make me turn this car around!"
Is there a trope for a driver (most often a parent) threatening to turn a car around and go home if their passengers don't behave?
groups Literature
What trope is used to describing being put into various groups? for example, the Four Houses of Hogwarts in Harry potter, the Cabins in Percy Jackson, the Factions in the Divergent series, and to a lesser extent, the districts in the Hunger Games.