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 You Know That Show and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
False advertising
A person sees an advertisement for Los Angeles, California. The tourist brochure shows a beach and a sun beaming in the sky and the headline is "Land of Eternal Sunshine". They arrive in Los Angeles by train while a rainstorm of Biblical proportions is underway. What trope is this?
Art as a way to cope
A character creates a work of art (draws a painting, writes a book) as a means to cope with their internal issues. I'm thinking about In-Universe examples, though it is obviously Truth in Television.
Not Weak Just Outmatched
When a character only seems weak because they constantly end up fighting someone stronger or someone they're weak against, otherwise they're pretty competent in their own rights.
Like Alice is a knight and a skilled swordsman, who can defeats a band of common thugs or one or two elite warriors alone, but she constantly have finds herself fighting legendary fighters that can destory an entire army or monsters that require an entire team of professional hunters to take down.
Edited by Andermann
HEY... SHUT UP!
When a character shout to get someone's attention, but haven't think of anything clever to say afterward, so they just resort to some childish insult instead.
When a characters enters then immediately leaves
Is there a trope where a character will show up at a location or encounter an event, then immediately turn back the other way? Like the scene from The Simpsons where Grandpa enters the restaurant, whistles, then leaves?
Edited by NewBlockontheKid
Using evil powers for heroic deeds
A person with powers that are normally considered evil, but are used in a heroic manner, which may or may not be accompanied by a Heel–Face Turn. Or the villain could still be a villain afterwards, they're just doing it because it conflicts with their ideals.
For example: A person with Vampiric Draining using their powers to suck the "life" out of a house fire to make the rescuers' jobs easier (or to do the rescuing themselves). Another way to see it is the final section of
Little Nightmares, but with the gluttonous giants replaced by a raging inferno.
Bigger And Bigger Gun
That thing when a character pull out a small gun, expect that gun is actually a bigger gun, amd it just keep gradually transform and getting bigger until somehow it become 7 gatling guns, 5 rocket launchers, 12 laser guns, 3 railguns and a whole lot more on a single pistol grip(However does that work).
Edited by Andermann
Which specific 'Frenemy' link?
Which frenemy trope(s) can be summarized with "You may be an insufferable jerk, but you're MY insufferable jerk."?
Long story short, the redirect for 'Frenemy' ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FrenemyTropes ) has too many links for me too look though, so I'm hoping someone more versed in tropes can help me at least make my list to look though smaller.
NOT a tsundere, because the trope I'm looking for is about legitimate "hatred".
Edited by DJShy3
spoiler synopsis
the synopsis has a spoiler for the episode/movie
The Four Fundamental Fears
I have this crystal clear memory of this one particular page on here but I just can't find it, and I'm starting to wonder if I just dreamt it up.
It's a page about fears, specifically primal fears, but the 'primal fears' page isn't the one I mean. It talks about the four most basic fears/type of fears (it might have been five or three or whatever, I can't quite remember). I'm pretty sure one of them was 'Nothing is Scarier', and another was 'Body Horror', and 'eaten alive' (though that probably came under body horror). It was less of a trope I think, and more of a supertrope, talking about the basic human fears, and how they stem from evolution, etc.
I feel so stupid, maybe I'm just searching for it wrongly?? :P Who knows.
Clear your own fall guy
Bob commits a crime and arranges for it to look like Alice is guilty. But he's not a complete asshole, so he arranges for Alice's innocence to be made obvious (while remaining beneath suspicion himself), or for her alibi to be proved true, or chooses a fall guy who's obviously unable to commit the crime, etc.
A hero that is popular with his peers?
A pretty common trope, but that I can't fully remember the name off. This is an unimportant hero that is popular with his peers, but he is a small fish in the larger scheme of things? For example, let's imagine that in a world where Bob an Ellen are the most important heroes and beloved or feared by all, Marty is a minor hero that is well liked by the small crowd.
Attacking when the enemy is asleep
Do we have a trope for when soldiers attack at night?
Name As Speices
Alice found a strange creature and decides to name it Bob, later she finds a lot of creatures of the same species as Bob, and she goes: "Wow, I didn't know there were so many Bobs here."
Edited by Andermann
May or may not be same character?
A trope for when what appears to be two characters look and sound similar and might even act similar, and they're not outright said to be the same character or different characters. Example: In Sesame Street, it's unknown if "Alistair Cookie" is a relative of Cookie Monster's or just Cookie Monster with a fake name.
Kids Show late 80s Film
It was educational I think, I mostly remember the intro. It involves a puppet bedroom at night where the child would wake up and move over tonhis wooden rocking horse where he would procees to ride it up and out his bedroom windows. I think it may have been a DIC program but its been driving me nuts for years.
LGBT Sex Worker
Do we have a trope for LGBT people who work as strippers, prostitutes, etc? They can't find "normal" jobs so they work in more adult careers.
Art as Coping Mechanism
Do we have a trope for characters who use their artistic expression to cope with loss and trauma?
Sorry, come again?
Bob: "Hey, Alice... so ummm, I was thinking how about we go on a date this weekend?"
Alice: "Sure."
Bob: "Sorry, I knew I shouldn't have asked, I know you're busy, and why would you ever go out w... wait, what?"
Alice: "Sure, that sounds fun."
Sane Boss, Psycho Henchmen
My friend and I were talking about this and I was wondering if there was a trope that existed for when a relatively level-headed boss has mainly Psychos for Hire as employees? I'm not talking about one Psycho for Hire, I mean when the boss employs only psychos or just has mostly psychos under their command. Has anyone noticed any specific instances of such a trope?
Mutually Exclusive Standards
Two people have an Even Evil Has Standards / Even Nerds Have Standards reaction towards each other. The action being reproached is bad in both cases, but determining which one is objectively worse is not as clear-cut.
- Bob: Yeah I've tortured people, but I never killed anyone!Dave: Yeah I've killed people, but I never tortured anyone!
Or:
- Bob: Yeah, I write erotic self-insert fanfic, but at least I don't ship myself with fictional characters!Dave: Yeah, I write erotic self-insert fanfic, but at least I don't ship myself with real people!
Making blades erupt from the ground
Do we have a trope for a character with the power to make sharp blades erupt from the ground to stab people? Could be actual sword blades, or blades made of natural materials like obsidian or stone. Basically the exact opposite of a Sword Plant.
Unusually calm reaction
A character learns something that should shock them but for some reason have a calm reaction.
Chameleon voice? Western Animation
An actor has a voice that sounds very different depending on who they're playing (i.e., all of Alex Hirsch's characters in Gravity Falls)