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 You Know, That Thing Where.
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openPretending not to receive an order so you can disobey it?
I just watched the Deep Space 9 episode, "The Die is Cast," where Sisko takes the Defiant to go rescue Odo from the Cardassians, even though an Admiral just ordered him to stay and guard Bajor. It includes the following exchange...
KIRA: Commander, there's an incoming priority message from Starfleet Command. It's Admiral Toddman. He's repeating his order not to enter the Gamma Quadrant. SISKO: That's what you think it says. How can you be sure when a transmission is as badly garbled as that one? KIRA: You're right. There's an awful lot of subspace interference on this channel. Must be an ion storm or something.
...This seems like a pretty common trope to me, of people pretending not to receive an order so they can have some thin rationalization to disobey it (even though there's no chance in hell that would hold up in a court martial). Is there a specific name for this? I know about "Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!" but I guess I would think of this trope as being more about the method of making excuses for that action.
openCharacter is Ranting about another character, but then inmediatly does what said character did
For example, in an episode of American Dad!, Klaus, the fish, is disgusted to learn that Stan accidentally crapped his pants while jumping to a swimming pool, but then inmediatly he defecates (of course, he is a fish, but still).
Edited by BassikunopenActor playing all the characters Web Original
This is common in a lot of online videos, where clones of them are playing all the characters, with different shots for all the different characters they're playing.
openAlternate Song Interpretation? Music
Is there a trope similar to Alternate Character Interpretation but where a song that's generally thought to mean a certain thing is though by a small minority to be something different? For a personal example: I always found the song missing by Everything but the Girl to be a major Tear Jerker, till I read on some thread someone suggested the protagonist could be intended as a Stalker with a Crush, and the reason they can't find the person is they are actively trying to hide from them, which puts it in quite a different light.
Edited by BootlebatopenThey Wouldn't Do It To Me
Is there a trope for this, where a character willingly follows and trusts another character who they know for a fact is untrustworthy, because "they wouldn't backstab ME." (And, of course, the character is usually wrong.)
openHilarious 'I'm Outta Here' Run Anime
I would've said "Nigerundayou" Run, but I thought that'd be too myopic. (Though in context of the trope, it would form up a Pun)
But basically, it's the kind of run to show that the character is making his escape. Either for tactical retreat, or just plain Screw This, I'm Outta Here moment. However, a serious moment would mean that their hand motion would be played as normal as they run. Maybe hands clenched. Well, this is not that kind of run. This run is often when the situation is Played for Laughs. Hence, the character will bend their elbows on 90 degrees, only moving their arms so it formed like a horse without its front legs (or half of the swastika symbol), and having their palms open like they're about to do a karate chop (only that they don't chop.)
It's one of those quirky run styles like Airplane Arms or Girly Run.
Is there a trope like that?
Edited by ChrisXopenWrong Victim Investigation
Is there a trope for when the police investigate a murder, but look into who wanted to kill one victim when they should have looked into who wanted to kill another victim?
For example, this episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has them investigate a mass murder at a restaurant. The victims are the two employees (one of whom is pregnant) and three customers (two of whom are a local mobster and his bodyguard). At first, it appears to be a mob hit with the others being collateral damage. Later, they discover the pregnant employee hadn't told her parents about the baby which leads them to discover that the restaurant's owner killed her, then the others.
openSuper-deep secret in universe, easy to find in reality
I'm thinking of the Seeking Mr Eaten's Name questline in Fallen London; the very laws of physics themselves are conspiring to make it impossible for characters to recover his name now, but it's casually spoken in a Neathmas story (though your character forgets it by morning) and there's nothing stopping players from just looking it up online (SMEN is a case of Do Not Spoil This Ending, but the Name is considered only a mild spoiler, not covered by the secrecy).
The Name is ostensibly the Driving Question of the story, but it's only hard to learn in-universe.
Edited by wingedcatgirlopenPandora's Gag
Is there a general YMMV trope for when a concept is introduced into a fictional universe only for a single insignificant episode or even a one line gag, and the creators forget it immediately afterwards, but fans continue to mention it for Wild Mass Guessing for the entire rest of the run and its existence radically changes the entire fictional universe to certain fans?
Examples:
- A Filler Episode ending with an Ambiguous Clone Ending or Schrödinger's Butterfly, leaving the option of the entire rest of the series being a lie.
- A brief gag suggesting that Expendable Alternate Universe or Close-Enough Timeline is in play, opening up a lot of Fridge Horror if it's not a serious series normally.
- A new ability/spell/technology is introduced for a small purpose, that to theorizing fans would be able to solve major arcs and resolve later cliffhangers, but is instead never mentioned again.
- A trope like Opening a Can of Clones is used once and never again, but the possibility of it is forever etched as possible to fans.
openUtility Loophole
Is there a trope where a character is engaged in a scenario with a very specific set of rules or parameters, and creatively exploits those parameters to introduce an outside tool into the situation to make their task substantially (possibly even game-changingly) easier?
Examples:
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the champions are allowed only their wands to get a golden egg away from a dragon. With assistance, naturally, Harry comes upon the solution of using his wand to cast a summoning charm to summon his broom all the way from his dormitory, and then using that to complete the task.
- This example, from the Advertising examples on the Combat Pragmatist page: "A commercial in Geico's "rhetorical question" ad campaign tested the question of whether the pen is mightier than the sword. A skilled ninja shows off his sword skills, and his opponent uses a pen to sign for a package containing a taser, which he immediately uses on the ninja."
The main reason I'm wondering this is because I was reading that example and it struck me that I'm not sure whether that is the best example of Combat Pragmatism (or, rather, it seems more like Combat Pragmatism embedded in something else), and it reminded me of the Harry Potter thing, which I don't think qualifies as Combat Pragmatism at all. I know I've seen other examples of things like this, although I can't think of any others at the moment. I tried searching for relevant tropes, but to be honest, I couldn't even think of what any appropriate search terms would be, so obviously I didn't get very far.
Edited by vitalProximityopenFiction Becomes Real
Is there a trope for where something an author writes becomes true or a fictional character comes to life?
openRidiculously Tall Ice Cream Cone?
Is there a trope where a character has a towering ice cream cone with an absurd amount of scoops?
Edited by ninjamitsuki2openCarmen Miranda hat
When characters wear a fruit hat like Carmen Miranda’s iconic headgear.
Edited by jandn2014openEnglish wife sleeps with Groundskeeper Film
There was a limited series (maybe 6 episodes) where a wife was taking care of her paralyzed aristocratic husband. She has an affair with the groundskeeper and ultimately leaves her husband for the groundskeeper. Does anyone know what it’s called and where I can watch it again?
openMust stay busy
Is there a trope for a character who gets bored easily and likes to have lots of work to do?
openWilde Life: Heart Magic Webcomic
In the webcomic Wilde Life a shaman character stole a powerful magical artifact, a heart of a god, from a villain some time before. He is now using it to help an injured person but not using it to make the injured person that powerful. Just help him recover from a different monster's attack.
Would this qualify for Utility Magic?
openUsing an alternate setting to make a subject more palatable to the audience
Is there a trope for a work that uses a fantasy setting in order to include elements that the audience would be far less likely to accept in a more realistic work?
For example, Drifting Dragons uses a Steampunk setting and animals that look like giant, flying sea slugs to sell a story that's basically about the crew of a whaling vessel.
Edited by BattleMasteropenSqueaky toy impact
A normally harsh, brutal impact is made dumb and humorous by the sound effect being a soft "squeak" noise like those of a toy.
openOnline Framing Device
Do we have a trope where the story is told through Internet media, specifically chatlogs or video calls? I know a few movies have done this (usually as a modern take of Found Footage Films), and chatlogs are popular in fanfictions, and in light of the coronavirus pandemic it's becoming more common to film television shows and commercials via video conferences like Skype or Zoom.
Edited by mightymewtron
A program put in place to receive anonymous denunciations immediately backfires when it instead has to handle thousands of complaints, 99% of which have nothing to do with anything criminal but are the product of Moral Guardians, old people or other strawmen complaining about just about everything they find objectionable in modern society, e.g. "There's an unmarried couple living in sin", "Young people playing rock music", "The Johnsons only mow their lawn twice a month", "there's black people moving into my neighborhood, they're probably muslimic terrorists", etc.