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Is there a trope for when somebody's so quick to deny somehting that they get suspected? Like in Company, where there's a donut missing and one guy immediately says he didn't eat it, and a woman comments that this makes people more likely to suspect him?
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So in "Who Goes There?", Red-Headed Hero McReady is described as "a man of bronze". Gray-eyed Norris is described as "all steel". ... And the doctor's name is Copper.
Is this an example of a trope? Like Theme Naming, but... not? A name that goes along with an existing theme?
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We have Interspecies Romance, of course, but what would the trope be for decidedly unromantic sex between two intelligent species?
Specifically, the example I'm looking at is basically rape, and treated as such (the victim doesn't really understand at the time, but is disgusted and horrified when he thinks about it later.) The work page has Interspecies Romance for the example now, but if there's a more fitting trope, I'd like to change it to that.
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Is there a trope for confusing similar-sounding words, especially in a foreign/alien context?
I'm thinking of the scene in The Planeteers where Penton has an imperfect telepathically-acquired knowledge of the Callistan language, and he has a minor freak-out while eating Callistan food. When Blake asks him what's wrong he says, "I was trying to remember it. For a moment I thought I had. You see, there's a thing called stragth that is a kind of red sea-worm, very poisonous; it stings. These are stragath, popularly so-called because they somewhat resemble the worm. Oh, they aren't, of course, but that's what had me scared."
Is this an example of a trope?
Edited by grenekni3topenNo Title Literature
It's a subtrope or related or something to Leaning on the Fourth Wall, along with Spoiled by the Format and Conversational Troping. On page 72 of a 154 page book, just after what might appear to be the plan for resolution of the story. Alice is a Jumped at the Call type of person, and a little miffed that the plot got resolved so soon. Bob isn't so sure that the planned resolution will go off as planned.
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Is there a trope for a situation where people in trouble, or in need of advice, will happily go to any professional other than the appropriate one?
Examples in literature include:-
In James Herriot's Yorkshire Vet stories, people will go to the vet with their own medical problems rather than to the doctor. Herriot recounts several instances of this, including officiating at a racetrack only to find he has to stitch up a human's gashed knee. Herriot also recounts an instance of the owner of a recently deceased pet earnestly asking him, rather than a vicar or priest, whether animals have souls and go to heaven.
As a parellel, in one of Neil daSouza's Father... stories about being a new Catholic priest learning the trade, a rich parishioner brings him an apparently dead cage-bird and tearfully asks if he can do anything for it. Father Neil, nonplussed, says a prayer for the bird and splashes holy water over it, at which point - possibly shocked by the cold water - the bird awakens and starts singing as if nothing has happened.
Perhaps James Herriot and Father Neil could have traded clients, or at least stories...
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Is there a trope page for when the parents of the protagonist keeps the Masquerade secret from their child? It seems to be common in Young Adult Literature.
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A book or short story I think I read about here on TV Tropes. Basically, an unmarried businessman named Bob Alicer finds an orphan to give his business to, on the condition that the orphan take his name and continue to Pay It Forward - he is to never get married/have kids, and towards the end of his life he is to find an orphan and pass the business along with the same stipulation. There have been several Bob Alicers in the past, and will continue forward forever (hypothetically).
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Is there a trope for one-upsmanship among servants? This can take at least three forms, which might even be three separate tropes:
1. "My master outranks your master" (and therefore I have higher status than you).
2. "My master is cooler than your master" (and therefore I have higher status than you).
3. "My skills are better than your skills" (and therefore I have higher status than you).
This seems to be mostly a literary trope, although it probably shows up in movies as well. I've seen it in both Western and Asian sources, although at the moment I'm mostly looking for the Western variety.
Edited by jayoungropenNo Title Literature
I think this is History Marches On, but it doesn't feel quite right. A throwaway exchange in Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archive has Mo find a copy of the missing volume four of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming (sort of like The Bible for computer scientists) on Bob's bookshelf. Volume four has been in Development Hell since the seventies. Bob explains that the Laundry has a deal with Knuth: "he doesn't publish volume four, and we don't render him metabolically challenged." In real life, the first part of volume four was finally published in 2005, one year after Archive.
So, is that History Marches On or one of its brethren?
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It's a humorous situation that arises when, for example, a character is prohibited from encouraging a behavior he wishes to encourage. For instance, Vimes tells his men they are not allowed to purchase any blackjacks or coshes in a range of styles and prices from x store and he will not teach them a variety of useful moves if they ask him in person: obviously encouraging the behavior, but not quite breaking the rules.
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In Sci-fi and fantasy works of fiction sometimes you get a villainous suficiently advanced alien that either exists on a higher plane of existance or has such a technological prowess that it can preform god-like skills and abilities but it just so happens to be holding a villain ball, which results in NOT using its powers to their logical conclusions insted choosing to fight through conventional means which results in the good guys finding a way to foil its plan even though logically speaking they shouldn't be able to stop it no matter how hard they try. Do we have a trope for when something like this happens? Because I'm planning to make one with the working title being "The Firstborn" named after the titular villains of an Arthur C. Clarke novel.
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In a lot of books I've read told through diary entries or letters, they seem unusually well written - i.e. with novel-like features such as having tons of dialogue and description, really nice plotting and lovely writing which (to my knowledge) most people who aren't professional writers generally wouldn't be able to compose on the spot. Is there a name for this?
Edited by lemonpleaseopenNo Title Literature
Which trope is Jung's "a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment"?
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The modern-day heroine spends the first four-fifths of the book looking for information on a famed wizard, missing a boatload of clues that the attractive guy she keeps interacting with (and is developing a crush on) is, in fact, that wizard. A succession of failed Spot Checks. It would be partially attributable to Weirdness Censor but with a heaping helping of "you are the most infuriating person I've ever met" sexual tension. Is there a specific trope for this?
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I'm having trouble deciding what trope the Artifacts from David Brin's Existence should fall under. They're foot-long egg-shaped crystals containing virtual extraterrestrial entities and are the primary movers of the overarching plot. I'm hesitant to say MacGuffin since the Artifacts actually do something, even if it's just talking to people and convincing them that they need to join them, or ignore the other Artifacts.
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What's it called when you start reading a series, and the first book is good enough, but then you realize that there are like thirty books in the series and there's no way in hell you can ever catch up, so you don't bother trying?
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Is there a trope for a character that carries around a gun or some sort of poison or any other simple and quick method of suicide, that acts as a kill switch? Simply so that they have the option of killing themselves if and when needed?
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Do we have a trope for local magic and/or superpowers? To clarify, a person has some kind of abnormal/supernatural ability, but it can only function in a specific area (usually their home, but it would be an interesting variation to see someone discover theirs by travelling).
The example that started me thinking about this is in The Chronicles Of Prydain, where the cauldron-born (are those class V zombies, btw?) are generally indestructible, but get weaker and weaker the farther they get from Annuvin. I'm sure we could find some other instances, though.
Unicorns Are Sacred, but in some settings they're total assholes. Is there a trope for this?