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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openReality Sucks
An attempt at giving an in-universe Anti-Escapism Aesop fails because the person being lectured points out that reality frankly sucks, so why even bother when fantasy is a much better place to live?
openPassive aggression backfire
Someone says something passive aggressive to try to manipulate or guilt-trip another person, (e.g. "Oh don't worry about ME. I'll be FINE on my OWN.") and the person they're talking to takes the statement at face value (e.g. responding to the aforementioned comment with "That's good to hear!") either unintentionally because they're Sarcasm-Blind or intentionally because they're fed up with the passive aggressive person.
open"Broken Base" Acknowledgement
The villian is aware that his actions will be mixed among the masses and he's okay with that.
openTwo related tropes about the afterlife
1. An afterlife that everyone ends up in, that is not intended to punish or reward its inhabitants. It's just... where people end up when they die.
2. An afterlife that's not hellish or heavenly, just kind of boring and depressing, in the vein of the Fields of Asphodel or Irkalla. Might overlap with the above scenario, or it might be a "not bad enough for hell, not good enough for heaven" situation.
Edited by phalanxopenWhere I was when x happened
Bob mentions that he remembers where he was and what he was doing when a significant event happened, mostly to signify how important the event was or how personally affected he was. Depending on the generation, commonly mentioned events include the Pearl Harbor attack, the JFK assassination, or the 9/11 attack.
openIrony between parent and child
What trope best describes this?
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Willy Wonka is the creator of the titular chocolate factory, and his business is very successful. His father, however, is a dentist.
openWhat Were You Saying Again?
When a character boasts about a feat they've performed, only for someone to show up and perform the feat even more impressively than they have. The second character generally follows this up by saying "what was that you were saying?" or something to the same effect, to subtly undermine the other.
openSomeone Who Has Many Offspring
Is there a trope for someone with many children? Explosive Breeder is about species that are this way. What about an individual, especially a man, who has a lot of kids?
openLove means sacrifice
Is there a trope for this general mindset? Sort of the opposite of All Take and No Give.
openPlease hurt/hit me
A trope where a good-aligned character has brought harm to their loved ones (either intentionally or not) and asks/begs the latter to hurt/hit them?
Examples (spoilers for The Raven Cycle, The Book Thief and Buffy ahead):
- When Adam Parrish is being possessed by the demon and hurting his friends, and he asks Ronan and then the group at large to hit him/knock him out;
- When Liesel lost the last client of her mom's job and "confessed" it was her fault, even giving her mother the instrument she expected to be spanked with;
- When Buffy begged Tara not to forgive her in season six;
- And in general when a morally ambiguous/anti-hero insults the hero because they want to be hit/as a form of self-destruction.
Please help? Does anyone know this trope?
openComing In at Conclusion of Another Plot Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when the plot line that closes out the episode where a character who had another plot to themselves makes a brief cameo in the other plot right as it comes to an end? They've otherwise had no involvement until that moment. Particularly striking when the character coming in just finished a plot of a romantic nature.
openWorthy Captive
The villain has kidnapped the hero's good friend and while awaiting the hero to show up, he talks it up with the friend. Suddenly, he realizes that he sees a part of himself in the friend. Like him, he had parents worthy of resentment, kids in school taking advantage of his kindness and is understandably embittered . Luckily, the friend has used all of that to become a success and even the villain's happy for him.
openTutorial insults player's intelligence
Is there a trope for when a tutorial insults the player's intelligence by telling them incredibly obvious things (like "shoot enemies to kill them" or "avoid getting damaged"?) I was going to say Viewers Are Morons but it says that's for In-Universe examples only which I'm pretty sure this doesn't count as.
Edited by BootlebatopenFeline Inconvenience
The trope about the fact that cats sit on things that people intend to use. Usually, if the cat's personified as a snarker, it's portrayed as on purpose. A famous example is from cats in Minecraft sitting on chests so they can't be opened, but it's Truth in Television too judging by how often they lie down on people's keyboards in real life. Do we have this?
openWhat Example is This
- Character: Why does a new coach gets rid of players from the previous era, some of them still in their prime?
- Character #2: So, to ensure they're not hit with the "You only won it because of the holdovers and frameworks from the previous coach" excuse. They want 100% credit, no less.
openIntentionally Sterile
The villain got an vasectomy to avoid having kids and he even quips that he did everyone a favor, considering his actions
Edited by JC96openCrime inspired by own work
Is there a trope for when a writer decides to commit a crime and uses a work they wrote as inspiration for how to do it?
openDemagogue acts like the speak for everyone
Is there a trope for some when some kind of demagogue, political or otherwise, acts like the speak for everyone when they state things (such as saying "we don't like X" or even just "The majority of people don't like X") in order to make it sound like they have way more support than they do? It's like Opinion Myopia but done as a deliberate tactic rather than just due to being egocentric.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A trope where someone takes a chair and uses it in combat against another person. Very common in professional wrestling.