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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openNo Title Literature
openCharacter Minus Development
Bob has been on the show for a while, going through considerable Character Development (becoming Fire-Forged Friends with an enemy, becoming an Honorary Uncle to a child, saving someone's life, etc.), but dies. He is later brought back, but without the development that made him likable in the first place, making it a Player Punch for the cast and the audience.
openHero Villain Switch Film
Just wondering if we have something like this. Basically, a story that starts out with an ostensible hero and villain, but over the course of the story the villain becomes more sympathetic and the hero less so — to the point where it becomes clear we've had their alignments wrong from the start. Our supposed hero is a Villain Protagonist or a villain outright, while the villain turns out to be a hero.
To be clear, this is not a Face–Heel Turn or anything of the sort during the story; the characters don't change, only our perception of them as we gather more information.
I'd list examples I know, but the problem is they're all spoilers.
openThe Guy Who Got Everyone Killed
The bad guys were going to do some bad stuff, all without killing anyone or leaving evidences, just go in, and got out, clean job, clean hand, but some guy just have to do some "heroic shit" and get everyone killed.
Edited by AndermannopenA breakdown when facing death
An instance where I character has a complete emotional breakdown on their deathbed. A particular tearjerker moment, it is usually about the dying character lamenting their life or life choices. Also extra tragic if the person was the stoic or stoic woobie
openSome universes coalesce into one
- Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite: the plot of the game centers on "the Covergence", an event where the Marvel universe and the Capcom worlds, well, converge into one courtesy of Ultron-Sigma's actions. This is shown by the multiple settings from both worlds merging into one, such as Xgard (X's home city and Asgard), Valkanda (Val Habar from Monster Hunter and Wakanda), etc.
Does this fit Merged Reality or When Dimensions Collide?
By the way, where would the "Amalgam Universe" of Marvel/DC crossover fall into?
openWe don't have a trope for "Manually Applied EXP", right?
We don't have a trope for "Manually Applied EXP", right?
VideoGame.Eternal Senia Hydrangea After The Rain has crystals that serve as Senia's Experience Points, but aren't applied immediately after being acquired, but are stored and have to be applied by pushing / holding a button.
The reason being that Crystals are also used to upgrade weapons, so the player must be able to choose how to use them.
Same for VideoGame.Magic The Gathering Puzzle Quest, with its Mana Runes, except the alternate use is a currency for buying additional card deck slots.
Edited by MaladyopenTiny villain, huge henchman
Do we have the trope where a villain is really tiny, and they have a gigantic minion who does most of the work for them?
The closest I can think of is Giant Mook, but that doesn't completely fit what I'm thinking of, so I'm thinking of launching it in TLP if no one else is going to.
openThree Tropes
Note: All three tropes go together as a single example, so you might need to read the all three for the latter one(s) to make sense.
- In this one, a security guard is, well, doing his job, when suddenly the alarm goes off, with the computer indicating that a thermal sensor had been triggered, but when he tries to look at the area with a traditional (IE: visual) camera, the camera is offline, as if it had been disconnected, with the thermal one failing as well soon after. Then, more alarms start going off, and just like before, as the thermal sensors go off, the systems as a whole start failing. Eventually, after the alarms start going off in a manner that suggests a small army was trying to break in, he gets fed up, calls every guard he can muster, and tells them to check it out, revealing that that entire section of the building is on fire, and the reason why the security systems were failing is that the heat was melting them.
- ...And while all this is happening, the Classy Cat-Burglar is on the other side of the building, stealing everything she can get her paws on with no impediment, since all of the guards are on the side of the building with the fire, and are either trying to put it out, or are simply evacuating. With any triggered alarms being written off as just "more fire", and the lack of any visible flames simply means it hasn't yet gotten big enough to warrant any attention when compared to the inferno on the other side.
- ...But, she can only make off with about half the loot before she's chased off by the fire suppression system, and has to flee to prevent her unexpected soaking from becoming a real problem.
openDirections that are outright wrong Videogame
What's the trope for when the in-game directions in a video game are flat out incorrect?
For example, in Red Dead Redemption 2, if you can't harvest all the parts of an animal you've killed, an in-game tip appears prompting you to throw out unwanted stuff from your inventory to make room. The problem is that you don't have an inventory that's limited to a set amount that can be mixed and matched, you're limited to a certain amount of each type of item. You can only carry five units of Animal Fat and five units of Plump Bird, and throwing out a unit of Plump Bird won't allow you to pick up another unit of Animal Fat even though the game tells you it can.
openJoke turns out to be true
A possibility is mentioned as a joke, or as a plan that everyone agree would never work, which then turns out to be true.
openEmbarrassing photos?
What's it called when someone snaps an embarrassing photo of someone?
openVillain’t So Bad
When the supposed villains actually do more good than harm.
Example: After monsters invaded the moral plane, demons soon followed.
Demons completely obliterated human army and occupied human settlements.
But humans soon find out that although they will kill anyone who try to stand up against them, they don’t harm anyone or care about what humans do otherwise, and because they hunt monsters for food, they actually keep human settlements monster-free and relatively safer, because no raiders or bandits dare to go near there and no army will invade.
Sure, they accidentally crush a few humans ever now and then since they literally don’t care about humans, but hey, what can you do?
Edited by AndermannopenAtheist and Religious Duo
Do we have a trope for atheistic and heavily religious characters contrasting one another?
openDying/ breakdown tropes?
Im hoping you guys could help dissect a part of my plot line and character development and tell me the tropes involved. Here is a short summary:
So, Alice is the chosen one, bound to commit a heroic sacrifice. However, in a shocking twist after she has accepted her death, it turns out that Bob was biologically engineered to be the same as the chosen. He completes the sacrifice in her place, and as he is dying, he weeps and laments his life. It might be angst or angst dissonance, but it involves my otherwise stoic and cynic character crying for the first time, and utterly regretting not only their actions, but the life they were born into. As he does, he confesses some of his greatest secrets, and calms down to face his death with dignity.
So yeah, that’s a lot, but if you could tell me the tropes involved, I would appreciate it. I know that “not so stoic”, “more hero than thou”, “and heroic sacrifice” apply, and well as a subversion of “the unchosen one”.
I’m just curious as to what tropes apply to his death
openCPR or Kiss
Alice gives CPR to Bob, and then at least one person (Alice, Bob, a friend, etc.) insists that it counts as a kiss. Is there a trope for this?
openLiking people despite their flaws
Is there a trope that describes someone who often gets annoyed by his/her friends or harem but still loves them regardless and feels sad when their gone.
openEx Wife's New Man Live Action TV
A character is divorced, and the ex is dating a new guy he can't stand. The new boyfriend/husband is usually effeminate and understanding, to contrast with the bitter Jaded Washout.