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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openReckless Attack
A attack that does massive damage to enemy as well as oneself due to the sheer power of the attack and Newton's third law.
A good analogy will be punching someone so hard you broke your arm.
Edited by AndermannopenDefinition of Hormone Addled Teenager
I'm a little confused by the definition of the trope Hormone-Addled Teenager. First off, is it exclusively about teenagers being perverted sex fiends, or can it also be used if they're incredibly boy-crazy/interested in romance but devoid of sexual intentions? I ask because there's a few examples of romance-obsessed teens I'm thinking about adding but I'm not sure if they'd qualify because they're from kids shows, and most of the examples of this trope come from shows targeted to adolescents and adults, making it really awkward for me to comprehend.
openG rated rape
Is the a trope for a scene that's not sexual (not overtly anyway) and (relatively) kid friendly but obviously meant to be similar to rape? Example: on the Dark Crystal when Chamberlain loses the Trial By Stone and the other Skesis tear all his clothes off while he squaks in terror. Re-watching as an adult it's pretty hard not to see the gang-rape subtext there.
openThere is no end to perfecting
A kind of theme (could also be An Aesop) that says "perfection is unreachable" - demonstrated by how someone thinks they've achieved perfection in what they're pursuing, only to either notice a flaw or think what they make could be better. Rinse and repeat.
Do we have something like this?
openBoss compromises his ethic for their (favourite) subordinate
I've seen this in at least two law enforcement series. A good cop/agent desperately wants to save somebody but has to compromise his ethic and he will entangle himself/herself in something ugly. The boss advises against it, but then the boss makes the move and saves his subordinates.
- The X-Files: Mulder desperately tries to save Scully. The Cigarette Smoking Man offers him a deal: he helps him, but has to become his mole in the FBI and work for him and the conspiracy. Mulder and Scully's superior A.D. Skinner advises Mulder against accepting this offer, but soon viewers find out that Skinner begins to collaborate with CSM in order to help both Mulder and Scully. (I'm a bit hazy whether this was during Scully's abduction arc or her cancer arc.)
- Brooklyn 99: A mafia boss offers a deal to detective Amy Santiago: he will give her a tip to bust a dirty cop who framed detectives Peralta (Amy's boyfriend) and Diaz. In return, she will owe him a favour. Captain Holt advises her against taking the deal because of her immaculate service record and how dangerous it is. Later we find he himself took the deal and now it is Holt who "owes" the mafia boss.
Do we have this?
openService in the afterlife
A religious belief where the dead have servants in the afterlife, usually their servants/spouses in life, but sometimes from slain enemies among Proud Warrior Races. Others replace them with effigies, but this is less likely to cause drama (such as when the servants don't particularly 'want'' to be killed and are rescued by the heroes). In some games, this manifests as the dead rising as zombies or skeletons to defend their master's tomb.
Seen in many funeral customs around the world (where the dead man's favorite pets and servants were put to death and buried beside him so they can serve).
In Judge Dee, the head of a conspiracy is discovered and takes poison to avoid death by torture. He does, however, give the list of his underlings and co-conspirators, stating that they'll serve him in death.
In Pagan Vengeance, one of the reasons Juvage's army is so bloodthirsty is that they believe their victims will be their slaves in death, so each tries to amass as big a killcount as possible to ensure their happy afterlife.
Edited by Chabal2openFind and put blanket over
Finding someone has fallen asleep downstairs and putting a blanket over them and/or carrying them to bed.
openMajor disaster causes minor problem
A situation where some major disaster happens, and the only complaint a person has is comparatively trivial.
Below is a short clip from a project of mine, in which two characters are discussing repairs that are being done to their spaceship, when they slip into a tangent regarding the abilities of the repair crew:
- Kelly: [T]he last time I worked with them directly, which was admittedly a few decades ago, they did manage to recreate a mini version of one of the engines.
- Mike: How’d that go?
- Kelly: The resulting anomaly ate half the room. And my slushie! (She crosses her arms and pouts for a moment.)
openQuestions about specific romantic couple tropes
This is probably a bit unusual for Trope Finder questions, but I don't really know where else to ask aside from making new TL Ps about them and potentially get embarrassing amounts of bombs.
Basically, I have two kinds of romantic couple tropes that I can identify a few pairs from Milo Murphy's Law with, and I want to know if these deserve its own, brand new Tropes, or if they are rather to be associated with older ones.
First we have Milanda (Milo/Amanda). This one's obviously an Opposites Attract kind of situation, but with Milo being The Jinx and Amanda having Super OCD, this kind of romance concerns a balance between order and chaos. Now, I cannot find any trope concerning a couple with this dynamic aside from Odd Couple, which is explicitly stated in its page to be (usually) NOT a romance trope. So I wonder if romantic examples can be split off to something like Organized Chaos.
Moreover, I wonder if such an order/chaos romantic couples trope is perhaps Too Rare to Trope.
Second, Zalissa (Zack/Melissa). Since Milo, Zack and Melissa form a Three Amigos dynamic with Milo as the hero, Zalissa would be a sidekicks couple, and while Zalissa is not per se "canon" yet, I do reckon that this kind of couple appears often enough to even be referenced on the Three Amigos page (and of course Hermoine/Ron from Harry Potter comes to mind)... yet not a single trope about this dynamic exists. The closest I can find is Beta Couple, but I personally find it a bit of a stretch, especially since the Beta Couple page rather lists Harry/Ginny as the Beta Couple instead. Sounds like sidekick coupling could be its own trope, e.g. Pair The Sidekicks.
So overall, I'm unsure whether the oder/chaos couple and sidekicks couple deserve its own tropes, should rather stick to the other aforementioned tropes respectively, or I'm extremely dumb and we already have these tropes lying somewhere else.
Edited by ArendopenClocks not working = serious business?
What's the trope for when a clock stops, goes backwards, shows the wrong time, or otherwise doesn't work, it means something significant and usually ominous? May be because something unusual happened to time or something.
openUnexpected Mercy
Character A just captured Character B and Character B is expecting their death—usually saying things like "Well, are you going to kill me?"—only for A to reveal that they don't intend to kill B, resulting in B's surprise (because according to their logic there's no reason for someone not to kill an opponent if they already have them incapacitated).
Sort of like Milholland Relationship Moment except it's generally with enemies. I'm pretty sure we have this, just I don't know the name of the trope.
Edited by unfortunatezoruaopenMorality trope? Live Action TV
I'm trying to find a Shades of Conflict / morality trope for The Catch page as regards this:
- The protagonists of The Catch aren't jerks (they're mostly Nice Girl / Nice Guy) characters but they're certainly not outright evil but we root for them, yet the antagonists / Villain of the Week aren't at the level of Black Vs Black, but their morality isn't quite sympathise with them at Anti-Villain level. Sure, the protagonists screw up, but they're not My God, What Have I Done?.
How could I classify the morality for the show?
Also, for Vikings, the morality is complex - I'm trying to find a suitable trope that doesn't show them all as bloodthirsty Horny Vikings stereotypes and indicates that "the protagonists aren't always good, but only sometimes evil, but the antagonists aren't always evil and sometimes sympathetic. I used Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness but can't decide which trope to use for the work page of Vikings.
Edited by Merseyuser1openTropes for a 'golden boy'?
Just a guy that's got a lot of responsibility and big shoes to fill.
openIdentity trope? Live Action TV
Is there a trope for where an Identical Stranger is accidentally forced into the other's role for a day - for example, from my own Fan Fic I'm working on:
- Julia, a lookalike of the Thirteenth Doctor from Doctor Who gets mistaken for The Doctor and is accused by the Doctor's companion Yasmin Khan of having amnesia and tries to get Julia to do things the Doctor does, to get her back to being the Doctor?
Also, what trope would fit about the mistaken for having amnesia part?
openThat looks dangerous, let's get closer
For whatever reason, civilians always gather around something that looks dangerous so they can take a better look, until that thing starts slaughtering them, of course. That's when they choose to run away.
openNeed Clarification Anime
I'm still working on the Hybrid X Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia page and need clarification on the The Mirror Shows Your True Self trope.
According to the description, it seems to be strictly about mirrors only, but I've seen variants where magic caves and astral projection also reveal the true self. Hybrid x Heart's take on it uses the "Love Room" (their version of a holodeck) to reveal each girl's inner kink.
So my question is: Does The Mirror Shows Your True Self allow for such variations, or is there another trope like it that does?
Like how Nintendo brought back the 2D Mario formula with New Super Mario Bros, or Segas many Sonic games based on the original Genesis series. It wouldn't be a Video Game exclusive trope, though I can't think of any non-game examples atm.
Edited by FGHIK