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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openSkewed Priorities
A character has completely different priorities than what is actually important in the story. My example is a character who, though he knows full well he and someone else are going to die, at the hands of his friend no less...he is far more concerned over finishing a movie script than actually worrying about the problem (despite the other person trying to convince him to do something other than write). This is actually a theme with this particular character- after he discovers script-writing, he completely loses interest in the rest of the world around him.
openImpossible Deflect
How the fuck did he deflect a death ray attack... with a frying pan?!
... Did he just parry an ultra great sword with a twig?
Edited by AndermannopenTalking in the middle of a song
Is there a trope for when, in the middle of a song a singer or singers have a brief moment of spoken dialogue before continuing the song? Like, I know Mid-Vid Skit is a thing, but I'm not sure if there's another trope out there that is more fitting.
openAdaptational hands
Is there a trope that says anything attached to a characters body is considered and serves as their hands? Fins can be hands,wings can be hands,paws can be hands,tentacles can be hands,etc.?also any objects attached to an inanimate character's body?
openFrom the makers of...
A work is advertised as being the work of people who had made a previous and well known work.
openPerson only cares about proving their moral superiority, not actually doing anything good
What would this be? I think Knight Templar
openNotice Anything Different?
A character spontaneously grows a beard, goatee etc. and usually asks if anyone has noticed anything different about them. Or they do the opposite and shave it off, then asks if anyone has noticed it.
Examples include Vegeta, who shaved off his moustache and Charles Boyles, who somehow grew one overnight.
Edited by KingOfStickersopenhero need to do series of Labours
like 12 labors of hercules for example or Rostam's Seven Labours
Edited by BadBoyKasraopenKill them first
Is there a trope for when a character figures out that an underling is angling for a Klingon Promotion and offs them first?
openDumb Character Can't Spell
You have a character who isn't the brightest bulb in the set, so how do you show this to the audience? By having them misspell an easy word, like "ghost" or "beans" (those words happen to be two of the examples I have in-mind right now).
openArtificial Selection
A community, group etc. create a challenge of sorts to weed out the weaklings. Usually a Secret Test of Character so that the weaklings do not even know that they're bring tested in the first place. Those that pass are usually congratulated, while those that don't may suffer from a Cruel and Unusual Death.
Edited by KingOfStickersopenMedieval Misery
Related to (and often accompanies) The Dung Ages and Medieval Morons, where a work portrays the Middle Ages as a borderline Death World, where everyone lives in abject poverty in hovels and yet are taxed with sadistic relish by nobles who seem to prefer punishing peasants and raping brides than making money, famine and plague being the norm, people Reduced to Ratburgers because the nobility forbids peasants from hunting animals, no one to tend the fields because all the menfolk have been levied to fight in a pointless war, war consisting almost solely of starving the enemy out or setting fire to fields, the Corrupt Church is more concerned with increasing its material wealth than spiritual matters, doctors can only prescribe leeches and bloodletting to cure ills, and living to 30 years old is considered a miracle.
Obviously there's some Truth in Television here, and at some points the situation was truly bad, but there were still periods of peace and plenty.
Edited by Chabal2openImpressiveness Failure
There's a possibly apocryphal story that an American soldier was captured by North Korean troops and they tried to get him to turn to their side. The interrogator told the soldier that under their system, he could eat an egg every day, to which the soldier just laughed his head off, saying that in the U.S. he could have a dozen eggs at every meal. The interrogator refused to believe him.
What'd the trope for one character's arguments to be outclassed that way?
openWhat is the name of this trope, if there is any?
I've been searching for what seems like a common trope, but I have no idea what it would be called.
Person A fails to sufficiently impress person B. Then it's revealed person A performed the feat under some considerable restraint, making B realise that this was actually far more impressive than they thought.
One recent example of this would be My Hero Academia, where Deku has to get a seal stamp from Sir Nighteye and jumps all around the room to try to take it from him. When he fails, at first Sir Nighteye is unimpressed, but then he realises Deku did all the high-speed bouncing around the room without stepping on any of the numerous All Might memorabilia that the room is filled with.
For an older example, I can think of Goku shedding his weighted clothes in his match against Tien in Dragonball.
openAdaptation trope for cartoon? Western Animation
I was going to update the Literature.Paddington Bear page, but wasn't sure what trope fits this:
- In the 1997 cartoon, the story "A Sticky Time" from the 1962 book Paddington at Large features a television personality who's largely similar to Iron Chef in Large Ham personality, and is generally Lighter and Softer than the original.
and for the same episode:
- However, the adaptation in the 1997 cartoon of the 1962 story A Sticky Time proved very divisive amongst Paddington's fandom due to the Pragmatic Adaptation Cinar took with the story.
Plus, is this Broad Strokes or not, for the 1997 cartoon, or another trope entirely:
- The 1997 cartoon series The Adventures of Paddington Bear largely follows The Stations of the Canon of the 1960s and 1970s books, broadly, although some elements are changed for Pragmatic Adaptation purposes. Then it goes off in its own direction (sort of), but it's not as In Name Only as some people think.
I'd appreciate it if anyone could check before I add to the work page.
Edited by Merseyuser1openRidiculously Successful Rival
Do we have a Ridiculously Successful Rival? Somebody who our hero is compared to, and they simply have no chance to succeed. The'll always be out-shined. Though they may be pretty successful or worthy people, but they just can't compare.
Examples:
- Tahani's sister Kamilah is the youngest person to ever graduate from Oxford University, world-class painter, sculptor, social activist, iconoclast, Olympic archer and gold medalist, Grammy award-winning musician, youngest person ever inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, BAFTA award-winning documentarian, and person voted "Most Likely to Be Banksy".
- Jane is an average girl, pretty and kind who works as a Private Tutor. Then she meets Blanche who is seemingly perfect. She's from a wealthy family, but also a self-made businesswoman who has her own advertising company. She graduated from Harvard with degree in Business. She advocates equal opportunities for women and funds a scholarship for innovative women. She's a successful top model and a trained dancer, and she guest-starred in a Vampire show. She designed her own line of vodka.
openAging in fits and starts
A character has the ability to access a state where they do not age. However, this state limits them in other ways, forcing them to temporarily become mortal every so often. As such, they are able to emulate being Long-Lived, but will eventually either die or find themselves forced into their limited immortal state forever.
Examples:
- The Winter Soldier in both the original comics and the movie adaptation, who was cryogenically frozen for most of the 20th century, but spent enough time unfrozen to have noticeably aged between World War 2 and the modern day.
- Albert in Discworld, whose aging is arrested as long as he remains in Death's realm, but ages whenever he travels to the Discworld. When he first became immortal, he only had three months of lifespan left.
Edited by phalanxresolved There is nothing we can do
Is there a trope for a character with a dying loved one, and is begging every doctor or wizard nearby to help them to cure them, but everyone tells him that there is no hope left now and that the person will die?
Edited by ElBuenCuate
Does anyone know of the trope where this happens? To give my example, In Re Zero, the character Fourier Lugunica has the Blood of the Lion King, which is super power passed down through the royal family, but he never learns that he has this power because his father and teacher never noticed. As a result he goes through his entire life never finding this out.