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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openBreathing costs money
Someone treating air as a commodity they own that other people need to pay to access, either because they're extremely greedy, clean air is genuinely a luxury due to the nature of the setting, or both.
Examples: The Lorax animated adaptation, The Doctor Who episode "Oxygen", the Spongebob episode "Squid on Strike".
openInsult in your favor
What is it when A asks B, "Do you think C did this?" and B responds, "Nah, they're not clever enough".
Edited by IsaacsLaughingopenAnimation Beam
An energy beam or column turns someone from live-action into animation, Ã la Wild Kratts
Edited by CurtisMarauderopenCured by secret identity? Film
Is there such a trope for this?
Bob is a superhero (who is human), a Composite Character Expy of Superman, Steven Universe and Venom. In his civilian identity, a criminal sets Bob on fire with gasoline. Bob turns into his superhero identity temporarily, while still on fire, then when he's back to Bob, he's as normal again, when if he wasn't a superhero, he'd have died or got serious burns.
Is there such a trope for using a superhero identity to cure yourself of something that would kill you in human form?
openYoung character, but with old face? Western Animation
I've seen this in Robotboy with the Evil Knockoff of Tommy, Evil 17, who looks the same as Tommy, yet has stubble like someone in his 40s. Image◊
I also saw it in The Strange Chores, an Australian cartoon, where Van Helsing's descendant de-aged himself to teenage age, yet looked like an old man even when young - image.
Do we have such a trope for this?
openVillainy trope? Live Action TV
I'm wondering if we have a trope for where a character is a completely evil Big Bad in one adaptation, and unlikeable, but in the next adaptation, a Continuity Reboot, he's still unlikeable, still as evil, but an Anti-Villain instead.
Edited by Merseyuser1openSir Punched A Lot
A character who tends to get punched. A lot.
They may be The Gadfly or just a plain ol' Jerkass. Either way, they behave in a manner that tends to result in their being punched or slapped, often. They may take this in their stride, accepting it as a consequence of how they act, because they sure as hell ain't changing.
An obvious example would be Patrick Jane from The Mentalist.
openPermanent Temporary Arrangement
A character who is elected to a position or otherwise given a good deal with the understanding that he won't last long in the position or even stay alive long enough to benefit from it, so the electors/other person making the deal can profit from it. This backfires when it turns out the character turns out to last far longer than expected (sometimes the character played up their apparent frailness so as to ensure this trope).
- In The Accursed Kings, one pope gets himself elected by playing the "old man with a foot in the grave" act, causing the other cardinals to elect him as a stopgap measure so they can get more wealth, followers and influence for the next conclave. He drops the act as soon as his election is confirmed.
- There's a story about a man who negotiates a monetary loan with an incredibly aged and wealthy man, thinking he won't have to pay back the high interest rates once the old man dies, and is rather disheartened when he meets the (now suddenly very spry and active) man later that day.
- Jeanne Calment was the oldest recorded person who'd sold her apartment to a lawyer at age 90 in exchange for a monthly rent until her death. She ended up outliving the lawyer by two years at 122 years old.
openUnknown hero
What is the trope where the hero saves the world, but through some circumstance, being it an unknown threat, Time travel, or reset button shenanigans, no one (or very few) know what they did for the world, and everyone treats them the same.
open*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame* Yep, that's me Film
The "name" of the trope show in the title comes from a internet meme involving a extremely common 70's/80's movie cliche where the movie would start at the end of the end/middle of the plot and the action would suddenly freeze with a record scratch being played at the background, and the main character would start giving a snark narration while telling the viewers that they are probably thinking about how they got into that situation and them the movie suddenly rewinds to the start of the plot.
The question i have, is there a trope for this? I couldn't find anything similar anywhere even though it was practically the norm amongst the movies from these decades, specially comedy-oriented ones.
opentwo people have a relationship that might work out, but it's a LONG shot
For example: I've always thought the lyrics to "Wonderwall" by Oasis was about this.
openWrite Where You Know
We know about Write Who You Know, where you write a character that is an expy of someone you know in real life, but do we have this for locations?
For example, someone religiously goes skiing in Switzerland for years and years at the same place, so he becomes very familiar with the location. Later, He are hired as a scenery designer for Disney or a similar animated film studio. He gets commissioned to create scenery for an animated movie set in the mountains so he designs the whole place after where he stayed in Switzerland, but it goes by a different name.
openOpposite of Villain Respect
Is there a trope opposite to Villain Respect where one of the good guys grudgingly admits the bad guy is admirable in a certain aspect, or should I just use the inverted version?
openConsult Actual Authority First
Bob is an Authority in Name Only (Henpecked Husband / Pointy-Haired Boss / Puppet King...), and this is well-known to his subordinates.
Whenever he announces a decision or gives people orders, they automatically look to Alice, the actual person in power (Bob's wife / Hypercompetent Sidekick / Political Officer) to check whether or not it's an order they're actually supposed to carry out or if they can safely ignore it if she doesn't approve.
Can be done deliberately to anviliciously remind Bob that he's not in charge, or subconsciously to make him even more of a disrespected Butt-Monkey.
Edited by Chabal2openSecretly Insecure
Would be a subtrope of Beneath the Mask, where the character who acts like they don't care what anyone else thinks actually cares a lot, and her hurt when people seem to think badly of them.
The example that comes to mind is the girl in my avatar, Patricia from House of Anubis. She puts on a really tough front, but admits to her friend that she doesn't want people to think she's weak, cowardly, or mean; and any time someone even slightly insults her she gets pissed, more than would be expected for someone who acts like the tough, uncaring rebel. I could use Beneath the Mask, but is there something more fitting? Is this a distinct pattern?
openDraw Extra Cards
For Tabletop Games: Card that allows you to draw extra cards in turn. Examples: Pot of Greed in Yu Gi Oh, Smithy in Dominion.
openmass panic with running around in circles
like that one episode of spongebob that played it for laughs, when Patrick went Ax-Crazy for some reason I can't remember, and there was an announcer on a loudspeaker outright requesting that everyone scream while running around in circles. I know it's not You May Panic Now, as that trope is about sensationalistic journalism, nor is it Freak Out, as that specifically requires a temporary personality change in the one doing the panicking.
openCover identity trope? Film
Not sure if we have this one (other than Mock Millionaire):
Alice is a spy and her cover identity is a millionairess. However, she wins the lottery a few days later (under her cover identity) and actually does become a millionaire.
It's not Becoming the Mask is it, for this, or is it another trope?
Is the a trope for a wall that only works in one direction, i.e you can pass through it as easy as air if you're approaching from one side but it's impassable from the other way. I forget where but I know I've seen something like this in at least one videogame before.