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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openMystery Magnet
Is this a variation of Weirdness Magnet?
Basically, a mystery-solving character will always run into mysteries they need to solve, simply because that's the concept of the work; Scooby-Doo is the best example, because wherever Mystery Inc. go, there's a mystery to solve, no matter how improbable it is.
openBadass Tropes
A pair of tropes i just came up with off the top of my head. The first two folders are the two tropes, while the third is both tropes combined into one example, due to how well they synergize.
openDiagetic Character Creation Videogame
I'm genuinely not sure this trope exists, despite having found several references to it. The idea is that instead of creating your character through a menu system, you are presented with questions from in the game world where your answers shape your character.
Examples include: System Shock 2 - at the start of the game, you arrive at the carreers office which offers you several batches of choices. each choice is followed by an explaination of what happened as a result of that choice, and gives your character experience in a certain area
Final Fantasy XV: Comrades - While you get to choose your appearance through acenstories, the character creation takes the form of remembering your past. as you progress through the game, you are given choices where your responces shape your character and attributes.
Unvowed - so much of this game changes based on what you respond at the start of the game. from being asked if you are man, woman, or demon, to how your respond to being asked what you do changes your flashbacks and your relationships to other characters.
Always Sometimes Monsters - I know that your choices are diagetic in this, but not actually played it.
Before I go to the Trope Launch Pad, I do want to see if anything exists like this already. Closest i could find was the TTRPG Traveller having "Death by Origin Story"
openReplacing macguffin with bomb or tracker
A character replaces something another character are trying to take / steal from him some kind of bomb or tracker
openReared In Prison
A character was raised as a child, maybe even outright born in prison. Examples include Emporio Alnino, Bane and Megamind
openAccidental creation of an inescapable scenario
Any situation where a character unintentionally creates a horrible situation for themselves that isn’t easily escapable. I was thinking that this would be a type of Self-Inflicted Hell, but apparently that’s more focused on the afterlife. Is there a trope for this and I just can’t find it?
openShameful flaw
A character, usually (though not always) an antagonist, has some sort of physical flaw regarded as embarrassing and/or shameful and goes to great lengths to conceal it.
open"Feels like I'm arguing with an inanimate object!"
What's the trope for when someone is complaining that an argument feels one-sided, and they compare it to arguing with a specific inanimate object?
openFake exit/level ending Videogame
What would the trope be for a fake Level Goal? Example, in the original Doom the level "Halls Of The Damned" has a fake exit that looks just like a real one, once you try to open the door however a bunch of walls slide open and you get ambushed. Would this count as a Hope Spot?
openDo we have this insult trope?
An insult trope of the format: "You're so stupid/ugly/something else you..." I know we have Your Mom, Volleying Insults, You Fight Like a Cow, but none of these really describe this trope, I think. Can I make one in the TLP?
openLoose continuity
A work has enough self-contained episodes that they can be watched in any order, but some episodes have references to past episodes, or, within the context of a past episode, are obviously supposed to take place after it.
Edited by Crossover-EnthusiastopenConditional Invisibility Videogame
A video game allows you to become invisible, but there a catch: you can't interact with any objects or seeing you weapon or anything or the invisibility immediately wears off.
openThe Catchphrase That's Never Said
A catchphrase becomes associated with a character, particularly in tie-in video games and merchandise, but they don't actually say it often; usually it's just in reference to the fact that it is their catchphrase.
Abandoned Catchphrase is when the character used to say it a lot but doesn't anymore, not when they didn't say it much in the first place. Only other thing I can think of is Common Knowledge, but that might be too vague.
openAttacking people but then trying to be nice once they prove tougher than expected.
The following example was under an inappropriate trope and while I feel it is an example of something, I cannot think what. Can anyone help pinpoint what it is?
- Despite being unarmed, imprisoned and starved, Mannfred still tries to attack and mock the armed and numerous Stormcast Eternals when they find him. One hammer in the gut later and he's talking civilly to them, and when they threaten to leave him behind he's suddenly helpful and co-operative.
For Context: Mannfred is a powerful vampire who would usually be able to kill all but the highest ranked of Stormcast Eternals (the warriors of the Big Good created from the souls of dead and dying heroes) had he not been weakened by his imprisonment.
openPoverty Reveal
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 WarJay77openAuthor 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 Merseyuser1
Alice is trying to manipulate Bob. It backfires when Bob has already figured out what's happening and proves it to her.
In this case, Alice (a cop) suspects that Bob is actually a wanted criminal under a false identity. She hands him a small photo, asking him if he knows the person. The person on the photo is irrelevant, the actual plan is that Bob take the glossy photo between thumb and forefinger, leaving at least a partial fingerprint Alice can then use to identify Bob.
Bob, however, is perfectly aware of what she's trying to do, and already falsified his own records so someone else's fingerprints are on his file. So he takes the photo and firmly applies his thumb to it so his fingerprint is perfectly visible before smugly handing it back to a mortified Alice.