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openSignificant differences between different versions of the work Literature
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, near the end of the book, Malfoy says he has to kill Dumbledore because otherwise Voldemort will kill him. Dumbledore's answer in the American version:
Dumbledore's answer in the British version:
openEven Translated Animals Don't Speak
A situation where Animal Talk results in animal thoughts being expressed in a human language, but said thoughts aren't really communicating anything important.
- One Far Side strip has a scientist invent a helmet that translates dog barks, and it turns out they're all saying "Hey! Hey!" In another, birdsong consists solely of "hey baby", "you and what army", etc.
- In Rover Red Charlie, dogs barking is actually them saying "I'm a dog!" no matter the situation.
openTrope where a Reasonable Authority Figure purposely but unofficially gives the heroes a break
Is there a trope where a Reasonable Authority Figure purposely gives the heroes an opportunity to get something they can't officially give them? For instance, if they can't give them something they need, but go out of their way to tell them where it is before leaving them unsupervised?
Edited by halyasgirlopenFine, have it your way.
Somebody keeps defying whatever order or advice is someone else giving them. At one point the advice giver is fed up with the ignorance and just says something in the line of "have it your way/do whatever you want".
resolved Time compressed for dramatic purposes Live Action TV
Events that, in the real world, would occur over months or years are portrayed in fiction as taking place over a few hours, days, or weeks. Some examples:
1. Trials: On television, they make it look like a person gets arrested, and then their trial happens a few weeks later. In reality, it can take months or years. They do the same thing with civil cases: The car accident happens, the next day someone gets served with a complaint, there are one or two depositions over the course of the following couple of weeks, then there is a dramatic trial. Pretty much every legal procedure show (The Practice, Law and Order, JAG, etc.) does this.
2. Medical problems: Someone goes to the hospital with a medical problem. Over the next day or two, their doctors do a long list of scans, blood tests, biopsies, and other tests. Once the problem is diagnosed, surgery is scheduled for the next day, and then after a couple of days of recovery the patient, now cured, goes home. House, MD is a prime offender.
Is there a Troupe for events that would normally take place over a long span of time being portrayed as occurring in an unrealistically short timeframe for dramatic purposes?
openIs there a trope that aptly describes Scrimblos?
The meme about Scrimblos by 'n large refers to Collect-a-Thon 3D Platformers from the 5th and 6th gen, following the same beats as Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie in gameplay and artistic design. You can obviously be a Collect-a-Thon without being a Scrimblo, the games I think most people associate with the term are character-oriented (often of the small, mascot variety) and no more than PG-13 in tone, like Gex, Pac-Man World, 40 Winks and Vexx. A lot of them might also be Mascots With Attitude, but stuff like Banjo isn't while being in the same vein as those examples, and this would exclude games from the 4th gen.
I have the feeling there's a single trope that aptly describes what I'm talking about, but I haven't found it on here. Anyone have any ideas?
openThe Audience Is The Problem
The creator of a work is called out for a controversial aspect of his work. It turns out they agree with the criticism, the problem is the audience either loves it or doesn't want to see the opposite.
e.g. Men Are the Expendable Gender mentions that for all the perfectly justified reasons the trope is bad (infantilizing women, reinforcing that they shouldn't try to use violence, etc.), the simple fact is the audience doesn't want to see women getting disemboweled or brutalized like male characters do.
openRepetition Madness
Is there some kinda supertrope to Incessant Music Madness, Broken Record, Annoyingly Repetitive Child, Overly Long Gag, etc. that’s just “repeating things over and over is annoying”, or is it a Missing Supertrope currently?
Edited by Snowskyresolved Early Career Weirdness
Does Early-Installment Weirdness cover cases where a creator's early output is significantly different from what follows? (e.g. an author writes one realistic novel for adults, and then spends the rest of her career writing children's fantasy)
If not, do we have something that does cover it?
openThe inconspicuous Literature
Hi
What's a good trope for a character who is retiring, shy, doesn't leave much of an impression on people around her, just gets on with things in the background, doesn't stand out in a crowd or indeed at all, and once she's out of the scene, other people struggle to remember her face and general appearance? The Faceless doesn't really seem to fit, and I'm looking for something that conveys an ides of "The Anonymous" or "The Inconspicuous". Thanks!
openboss cliff Videogame
A videogame boss fight against a Kaiju-sized enemy where the player stands on top of a cliff while the boss stands on the ground at the bottom of the cliff, allowing the player to interact with the boss's torso, arms, and head instead of just its feet. Often also a Stationary Boss, since if the boss moved away from the cliff edge the player wouldn't be able to hit them.
Examples
- the second Metal Gear Ray fight in Metal Gear Rising
- The Human-Reaper in Mass Effect 2
- the Reaper on Rannoch in Mass Effect 3
- The Icon of Sin in Doom Eternal
- The raid boss version of Oryx in Destiny
The Icon of Sin and Oryx are notable as examples that aren't also Stationary Bosses, as there are multiple "cliffs" they regularly move between over the course of their respective boss fights.
openKorean manhwa awakened hunter setting/genre?
The increasingly common setting in korean Manhwa and webtoons/webcomics where in a modern day setting there was a big event invariably called something along the lines of the great cataclysm where lots of rifts/gates full of monsters started appearing and some people end up becoming awakened hunters to fight it and overtime most end up working for for-profit guilds or the government to "clear" the gates/rifts in order to stop the monsters inside from spilling out. Its just an oddly specific trope I've seen a lot in Korean media but haven't noticed that setting/genre anywhere else.
openBetter go to prison in the US than in Syria Live Action TV
A person on the witness stand is asked, on cross examination, about an incident several years earlier; he then basically claims all his prior testimony was a lie. It later turns out that the incident in question was a crime he comitted before becoming a US citizen; a conviction for that past crime would cause him to lose his US citizenship and be deported to Syria, while the worst he could get for changing his testimony is being sent to prison in the US where he is still guaranteed certain rights.
openCharacter devolution in dramas Live Action TV
I'm re-watching BSG currently. Even though I knew it wass coming, I again got crazy frustrated by some of the characters who start out as competent and then lose 10 IQ points per episode, ending up as whiny idiots who shift their loyalties every five minutes. I found similar decay of characters in The Expanse, ST:Disco, Fringe, etc (degrees may vary). No clear motivation/drive, just doing a random, detrimental thing, shouting, regretting, apologizing, then immediately doing this all over again, only faster and more stupid.
In a sitcom I think its okay to turn your main cast into caricatures (Joey from Friends as prime example), but in a drama IMO its just an easy out to suddenly create tension.
Am I alone on this, and if not, is there a name for it?
openZero-Sum Relationship
A relationship between two characters (not necessarily romantic) where what one character wants/likes is opposite to the other (and vice-versa), and they "keep even" by exchanging one activity for the other.
e.g.
- Alice hates action movies, but sits through them with Bob as it's the only way he'll sit through romance movies with her.
- Alice and Barbara are assigned to do a presentation. Alice is an extroverted Dumb Blonde, Barbara an introverted Brainy Brunette, Barbara agrees to do most of the work if Alice does most of the presentation.
- Al and Bob are roommates, Al is vegetarian, Bob isn't but is in charge of cooking, so for every vegetarian meal Bob makes Al orders him a huge all-meat pizza.
openShort Fuse
Characters associated with bombs tend to have anger issues. This is distinct from Mad Bomber in which bomb-related characters are Axe-Crazy.
openTwist Reveal that a Character Only Appears to One Person
Is there a trope for when there's a twist that a character the audience has been watching all along (and assumes is a regular person) is actually only appearing to one of the other characters? Usually this is because the character doesn't actually exist and is just an alternate personality of the other character, or because they're a ghost that most people can't see. Famous examples would be The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, or The Other (1972).
If there isn't one, I think it might be worth creating one.
Edited by Luanna255openCaptain Estraz for a setting
Is there are page for settings that are based on another work's setting?
Examples
- Abiotic Factor is a Survival Sandbox set in a faculty based of Black Mesa from Half-Life
- GURPS Reign of Steel is the future of the The Terminator films with a few more skynets for variety
- Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing for Whats Old Is New is based of world of Alien
Animals make normal animal noises like barking or neighing, which other animals understand as actual sentences. Like in Air Buddies when the dog and the goat are having a conversation in English, and then it cuts to the perspective of the humans, who hear it as "Woof!" "Maa!" "Woof!" "Maa!" Or how Warrior Cats uses "he mewed" as a dialogue tag. Can be Animal Talk if multiple species can understand each other's noises.