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.
Find a Trope:
openWhat Example is this?
- A character calls his friend to see if got home safe before the friend asks where's he at? He tells the friend that he's "about to crash at someone's house," and the friend casually replies, "have fun." The character replies with a smile, "You know I will." The character hangs up and proceeds to crash his car into someone's house as an act of revenge.
openForgot the chips
A party is almost perfect...but something essential was forgotten, such as chips, alcohol, or guests.
openTwo Hours Later...
Is there a trope for when a minor Time Skip occurs within a particular work, accompanied by text that says something like "two hours later"? Spongebob comes to mind, and this also happened in Endgame, among other works.
openBecome better with the betters
A Reformed, but Not Tamed character has an arc where they become a better person, usually with the help of their former enemies.
openRambler
Any trope for a long, rambly, often nonsensical speech/monologue/etc? It takes too long, it contains non-sequiturs and verbal filler, and basically just sounds like a confusing stream-of-consciousness without any real point being made.
openOh Yeah, They Were Evil...
Is there a trope (most likely a YMMV trope), where a character is so well-liked by an audience that they often forget or outright ignore the fact that the character is villainous or, at the very least, has significant villainous traits?
openFake Sibling Gambit
Was hoping to launch this as a TLP under "Fake Sibling Gambit", but I'm just curious if TV Tropes has this one.
"Pretending to be a sibling in order to gain access to something. Bonus points if the sibling's (alleged) family is famous or a Long Lost Relative."
Do We Have This One?
openSwap fic
A genre of Alternate Universe fanfiction where the roles of the characters are swapped around.
openThe problem with alternate timelines
So we have person A and person B. They are good friends.
Then comes some alternate timeline shenanigans, and you get another version of A. From a timeline diverged so much that A never met B.
B has a friendly chat with alternate version of A, but it eventually comes down to "I know you technically know me, but I don't know you."
(Bonus points if the physical appearance of A and alternate A is similar enough that less familiar person would actually have problem telling them apart. Knowing my life, this might be too specific of a trope.)
Edited by PinkCelebiopenEvil Comes From Good
A bad situation stems from a good one or a desire to do good.
For example: cronyism is The Power of Friendship gone wrong, the Beloved Smother just wants to protect her child, the person who was discriminated against causes Intolerable Tolerance, etc.
This article in The Friend Nobody Likes mentions that a lot of antisocial behavior is encouraged by people who've been on the receiving end of social ostracism or mockery and are determined not to put anyone else through it, resulting in tolerating inappropriate behavior (or even thinking it's the norm).
- "Social fallacies are particularly insidious because they tend to be exaggerated versions of notions that are themselves entirely reasonable and unobjectionable. It's difficult to debunk the pathological fallacy without seeming to argue against its reasonable form; therefore, once it establishes itself, a social fallacy is extremely difficult to dislodge."
openClarification
What's the difference between "Shaggy Dog" Story and Trauma Conga Line?
openContradicted by the narration
Is there a trope describing a situation, or rather an example of writing, when a character says something and the narrator immediately contradicts them?
openThe First People and the People From Across the Sea
It's a fantasy universe with a single continent as its primary setting. Long ago, in the age of myth, the First People ruled this continent. Then, the People From Across The Sea came, leaving their mysterious homeland in a great fleet to conquer this continent, driving the First People into isolated places, and creating their own cities and kingdoms.
Nine times out of ten, the "People From Across The Sea" are humans, and the "First People" are elves/dwarves/other magical beings, because Humanity Is Young. This trope might have its origins in a sort of American cultural memory of colonialism and Settling the Frontier, which spread to works outside of the US through the influence of American pop-culture. Also, it's a useful tool if you want a culture to suddenly "appear" out of nowhere, but want to leave their actual origins as a people mysterious or ambiguous. Sometimes the First People go completely extinct and become Precursors, and sometimes they're still around and pissed about being displaced.
Examples:
- The Elder Scrolls, where Tamriel was first inhabited by the Beastfolk, (and possibly the Elves, if you believe that "Aldmeris" is a metaphor.) and later colonized by humans from the continents of Yokuda and Atmora. (and possibly the Elves, if you believe "Aldmeris" was real.)
- A Song of Ice and Fire, where Westeros was first inhabited by the Children of the Forest and the Giants, and later colonized by (in order) the First Men, the Andals, and the Rhoynar, who are all from Essos.
- Dragon Age, where Thedas was first inhabited by the Elves and Dwarves, and later colonized by humans from the mysterious northern lands.
- In the Witcher, where the unnamed continent was first inhabited by the "Elder Races", and later colonized by humans from an alternate universe who arrived during the "Conjunction of the Spheres".
openFriendship-destroying Love Triangle
Two best friends are both have the same Love Interest. This causes the disintegration of the friendship, particularly if one of them is dating the Love Interest and the Love Interest cheats with the other.
openLet Me Show You Who You're Dealing With
- The main character is kidnapped by the villain, who ties him up and forces him to watch old videos of very brutal crimes. The villain is doing this to warn the main character that compared to the villains of the week he had to go against in the past, he's on a whole different level.
openUnderstandably Unsympathetic
The main character observes this in a a good friend in regards to the victims of the villain from the previous season. To be fair to the friend, each and every victim in some way shape or form was tempting fate and the villain having an justified tragic backstory only influences the good friend.
Edited by JC96
Do we have a supertrope for magic potions in general? Consumable items, even? Should we? Edit: Nvm, Power-Up Food seems flexible enough.
Edited by Unsung