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.
Find a Trope:
openAuthor forgetfulness?
Does it count as Retcon if a change in story details is probably caused by the author forgetting about it, rather than a deliberate change? E.g. a minor character is said to have blue eyes in their first few appearance, but is described as green-eyed in subsequent appearances?
And on a slightly unrelated note, do we have a trope for when a character's description is different from their official illustration/book cover/poster/etc.?
openA Shaggy Dog's Mock Execution
Everything's been going wrong, just like any Shoot the Shaggy Dog trope. Everything's going wrong and as the protagonist is about to arrive to the mansion to return to the Shaggy Dog to its owners for a reward, it gets shot. Thankfully be it blind luck or good reflexes the dog gets only grazed and the story ends with a pay-off. Essentially, while the protagonist and other characters were almost constantly pointlessly suffering throughout the story and many died or suffered terrible fates, the ending is still a happy(-ish) one where one way or the other something is affected in a good direction.
Contrast Shoot the Shaggy Dog, where the characters end up not affecting anything and being worse-off, instead, the whole story follows the same cynical path but ending with some idealism (compare Bittersweet Ending, though it may turn out to be a Happy Ending.)
Does such a trope or combination of tropes exist? If so, I'd like to find a story like that.
openAltered version of episode? Live Action TV
I have this example but am not sure which trope it fits:
- Supergirl (2015) had on one episode, a part of an episode where Samantha Arias/Reign had more dialogue than usual, and has some dialogue with her daughter which could fall into Funny Moments. The scene could be considered Padding or Filler as it had no impact on the ongoing Story Arc about Reign. It does not appear on any broadcast versions and is believed to be a Missing Episode; although it is believed one of the executives or producers owned a copy, yet this has not turned up anywhere so far.
- British Reality TV / documentary Police, Camera, Action! had the episode "Coat Hanger Man" which aired in October 1998. This episode has two significant alterations:
- A second version which omits footage from the October 1998 original, but adds new footage and narration not found in the original, which aired on ITV 4 from 2007 to 2010. This added new footage from police in London and motorway camera footage featuring a Jaguar reversing, that the original one didn't have in 1998, and cuts footage from the Scottish police and a Ford Fiesta nearly hitting a police car which were in the original, scenes that could be considered as Padding.
- There was also a third version, which was never aired to the public, featuring new links with Alastair Stewart, footage from police in Texas and California (one clip from Arkansas state police was re-used from the October 1995 episode "International" with Looping Lines of dialogue from the episode), and replacement footage in part two. This version is a Missing Episode, technically.
Which trope fits these entries? - is it:
I'm not sure which one would fit these two examples
Edited by Merseyuser1openHollywood Forest Film
Forests in live-action media conspicuously having flat and clear ground, and neatly spaced trees, due to being shot at a tree farm.
openWhen Someone in Love Lists All the Details They Know About Their Crush
I don't know if we have this one yet, but is there a trope for a person giving out a laundry list of details about their loved one? Like, either general trivia or stating all of their flaws and peculiarities, but it's a clear indication that they love the person enough to pay attention to all of their actions big and small.
openThere was a simpler solution.
What was the trope when AFTER a bunch of flashy stuff a character says there was a simpler thing? Not Stating the Simple Solution (since that is before it’s done and not done) or Muggles Do It Better (no magic vs. science).
I.E. The goverment keeps Bob in a high tech jail secured by hundreds of cameras. Alice mentions that she could have just duct taped him to a chair and he would be fine.
Edited by JTTWloveropenReal Life Time and Work's timelines, not keeping pace joke...
Real Life Time and Work's timelines, not keeping pace joke...
I know I've seen this elsewhere on this site, but can't remember where...
- Manga.B Gata H Kei:
Yamada: Kosuda, it's been a year and nine months since we first met, but it feels like it's only been three months.
openArgument of kindness
An argument or conflict that ensues because both parties are trying to do something nice for the other; for example, the premise of iCarly's episode "iDon't Want To Fight" is that Carly and Sam were both trying to make the other happy and it backfired so badly they ended up fighting over who was in the right, even though each of them did something selfless for the other; meanwhile, in The Suite Life on Deck's "Bermuda Triangle" episode, Zack and Cody end the episode by arguing over what to spend their birthday check on- with Zack wanting to buy Cody's telescope, and Cody wanting to buy Zack's game console.
Edited by WarJay77openCharacter should not survive injury?
What two tropes fit this scenario:
- In a setting similar to The Witcher (2019), Alice and Bob witness a wizard who looks like a Wizard Classic getting trodden upon by a large elephant, and then grizzled by a bear, but he survives. Alice remarks:
- In-Universe, everyone assumes the wizard is human and no-one In-Universe in the location knows he's Ambiguously Human, but Word of God states he's Ambiguously Human. The Fanon is proven correct.
What tropes fit for:
1. Assuming someone's human even though they look it?
2. In-Universe, no-one knows a character is Ambiguously Human, but the fans seem to know it (from out-of-universe perspective).
openLast Scene Action Pose Film
Is there a trope for the last scene in a movie (or show, comic, game, whatever) with the character(s) making a badass pose, often carrying a gun, or doing a martial arts stance? Found in many a Sequel Hook.
The most glaring examples that come to mind are the Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros movies.
openSentimental Value
Is there a trope for someone valuing something because of the giver? The item itself may or may not be very valuable, but the person values it because it was given to them by someone they care about.
openNames Humanize (NaruHinaFan)
I was wondering if there is trope where giving someone a name will cause them to change. Best example is from Stargate SG-1, the Ori Big Bad Adria when she looked like a little girl, said "You think that by naming me you will humanize me. Make me more like you. More sympathetic to your point of view."
openThe Rejected Get Together
Two characters who both Did Not Get the Girl/Guy that they wanted at first end up with each other instead.
openLosing something in your hands
A character, often portrayed as bumbling or eccentric, loses something that's in their hands, on their head, in their pocket, ect... basically, they're so nutty they overlooked the obvious and forgot their keys were in the hands.
openThe Flinch Fakeout
A shot of a character's face as they flinch expecting something bad to happen only to realize it is not going to happen. Usually, the trope has the face character being held at weapon-point, usually a firearm, though I have seen variations where the weapon is not a firearm. There are typically two variants I see.
The first typically involves the shot being held for a beat after the character flinches, the character then open their eyes trying to figure-out why the negative event is not occurring (often because the weapon-holder is hesitating or was just silently incapacitated by The Cavalry).
The second variation almost always involves a weapon and an expectation the expecting it to be used on them, the sound of the weapon being used occurs but the character opens their eyes realizing the weapon was not used on them. Typically comes in several different subvariants depending upon what the weapon-wielder did. The first is the weapon nearly misses, the weapon-holder revealed to have nearly hit the flinching character but having restrained themselves from giving-in to the temptation of doing so. The second variation involves the weapon being used but clearly in another direction, often followed by the weapon-wielder telling the flinching character to get to safety and the weapon-wielder proceeding to misinform their ostensible allies about what happened to ensure the flinching character's safety). The third variant has sound of a weapon being used only for it to have been revealed the weapon-wielder has been killed. The fourth variation is similar to the third, but involves the weapon-wielder having an ally accompanying them, the sound of a weapon happens only to reveal involves the weapon-wielder or an ostensible ally of the weapon-wielder accompanying them having betrayed the other in that moment, saving the flinching character's life.
openPersonality & appearance
Do we have a trope where someone's personality is described as being the opposite of what their appearance would suggest?
openIs this Chekhov's Gunman?
Okay... So what's the trope describing Character A being mentioned multiple times in the story by other characters, and Character A eventually shows up in the story's final act to help the protagonists?
I have a feeling that might be at least partially Chekhov's Gunman, but I have my doubts, as I'll explain.
Character A would be introduced into the continuity in Story B, which takes place before his appearance in Story A, AKA the story he'd be mentioned multiple times in before making his appearance.
Edited by ItalianGamer97openThe not noodle incident Videogame
"As a boy, I was chased around the palace by a goose. I had stolen it's egg, you see. Once I returned it, the goose and I became firm friends!"
This story is being told by a sane man. I'm serious, he's not a Cloudcuckoolander, which makes it even funnier. It would trope this as a noodle incident, but since he explains what happened I don't think it applies. What could be a fitting trope?
Edited by Lyefyre
I'm trying to make a page for the Garfield story Garfield's Judgement Day. In this book, Arlene is revealed to be a stray cat, a fact she hides from everyone out of shame. Do we have any tropes for this scenario?
Actually, is there any trope for the concept of the Biblical Judgement Day, in general?
Edited by WarJay77