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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openenemies to lovers
openSatire Displaces Genre Literature
Is there a trope for when a work satirizing a genre becomes more famous than the thing its satirizing, to the point where many people’s only knowledge of the genre comes from the satirical work? (Sometimes to the point where the satire is no longer noticed.) Examples are usually historic works.
Examples: - Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was satirizing melodramatic Gothic novels like The Mysteries of Udolpho, but Austen is far more famous now than any of those novels.
- Don Quixote was satirizing a genre of chivalric romance, but nothing from the genre it was satirizing is remotely as well-known as it.
- Romeo and Juliet was apparently satirizing a genre of romance plays but has displaced them in fame so greatly that it’s far from obvious these days that it even was a satire.
Edited by GaladrielopenBlack is the New Orange
A character who was white and red-headed in the source material is portrayed as black in an adaptation. (Starfire in Titans, Jimmy Olsen in Supergirl, Ariel in The Little Mermaid-)
openCopy the enemy's idea
For example, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Malfoy uses his enemy Harry's idea from the previous book of the Room of Requirement for illicit business, and Hermione's idea of the enchanted coins for secret communication.
I don't think this is Stealing the Credit, because Malfoy brazely says he stole the idea, rather than the credit for it.
openAirport runway attendant gag
Is there one about a flying character being directed to land by somebody on the ground with flags, like in an airport? Two examples of this are Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where Hagrid directs the flying carriage to land, and Shrek, where somebody directs the good witches from Sleeping Beauty to land on their broomsticks.
openWork didn't predict the USSF/other services
Is there a trope (or trivia item), akin to Technology Marches On, where an older work set in the future, for example attributes a spacefaring enterprise to the US Air Force, whereas we now have the US Space Force and it is a much more apt fit for such a mission (and yes I'm aware it is still kind of under the purview of the USAF, but likely as time goes on it will be seen as more distinct and specialised)? I guess an alternative which the trope could encompass would be if works made during the early days of aviation presumed that planes would always be associated only with air forces but, quite soon after it became apparent that navies could also field them (and then helicopters too) via aircraft carriers. Or, going further back, at first planes were largely operated as a corps under armies, but these nascent organisations soon rose to become their own service branches.
Edited by FlashStepsopenThe B(etter)-Team
In a work where the main cast are entertainingly dysfunctional assholes (Team A), there's a similar team on the same side made up of far more competent, successful, intelligent etc. people (team B), who are occasionally seen at work, outclassing the main team by a mile (and the main reason the work isn't about the better B-team is that it's funnier to see the assholes screw up or get bitten by karma). If they meet there's potential for overlap with The Resenter / Unknown Rival.
- Exterminatus Now has an Inquisitorial team that mirrors the main characters in terms of appearance and abilities, except they're all highly competent (instead of middlingly skilled and lucky) and actually enjoy each other's company.
- Eight Bit Theater has the real Light Warriors, who have similar classes to the main party but are actually good at their jobs, managing to find epic weapons by raiding dungeons (although they also serve as Butt Monkeys who repeatedly get their stuff stolen by the main cast).
- Any Macho Disaster Expedition plot that shows the men as bungling idiots and the women as competent.◊
openEvidence is a too-early claimed year
The evidence against a person's apparent identity is that he makes a claim, using a year which is too early for this claim to make sense.
- Live action TV
- In Monk episode "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale", Dale's doctor, Christiaan Vezza, claims to be named after Dr. Christiaan Barnard. However, he claims to have been conceived in 1965, and Dr. Barnard wasn't famous until 1967.
- Theater
- In ''The Music Man, Marion was certainly suspicious about "Professor" Harold Hill, but she knew he was lying when he said he's "Gary Conservatory of Music, Gold-Medal Class of Aught-Five" since the Gary Conservatory of Music was only founded in 1906.
openNatural Continuity Lapse
Unlike Revealing Continuity Lapse, where a continuity error is explained with a fantastic and surreal meaning, a continuity error is explained with a more natural, and normal reason.
- Battle for BFDI: In "SOS: (Save Our Show)", the Announcer Speaker Box calls out how Gelatin has never been eliminated in BFDI history, but later in BFDIA's continuation, "Taste the Sweetness", Gelatin actually does get eliminated, so before his departure, he asks for the Puffball Speaker Box to keep his elimination a secret from the Announcer, as he finds him scary.
- SpongeBob SquarePants, In "Krusty Love", Mr. Krabs falls in love with Mrs. Puff and learns she's single despite her prefix.
- Mr. Krabs: Then what happened to Mr. Puff?
(cut to a live-action shot of a hand turning on a blowfish lamp)
SpongeBob: She doesn't like to talk about it.
- In Bob's Burgers, when Tammy first debuted in "Bad Tina," her hair was brown, but in later episodes, her hair is blonde. This is then explained in "Sit Me Baby One More Time" that it reveals that she dyes her hair and that blonde isn't her natural color. As she had to wear a purple headband to hide her "dirty roots" in that episode.
openOddly modern worldview
Do we have a trope for instances where a character in a distant past that has wildly different values expresses oddly tolerant and progressive views on things like sexuality, gender, or race? Think Captain America being plucked out of the 1940's and apparently being totally cool with gay people and having not a hint of racism or sexism about him. Or a protagonist in the 19th century who the work takes great pains to show is a total racial egalitarian.
I figure it might be YMMV, but I can't quite find this.
openWisecracker can't speak
A character who snarks a lot or makes jokes can't speak for an episode.
openI can't think of that many examples for this, but...
A character is given a new name by a different culture, either because they're directly joining that culture or as a show of gratitude, renown, becoming The Dreaded, etc.. See Rusty being renamed to Firepaw in Warriors for an example of the first type. Might also include a person given themselves a new cultural name, such as the real life Muhammad Ali.
I was originally trying to find whether any historical examples of this existed, so real-life terminology would also be helpful.
openThis feels trope-y, but I can't place it
So, there's a scene in a movie I was watching where a character (a teen boy who's been captured by the villain) regrets that he never had a chance to apologize to his uncle (whom he had a spat with at the movie's beginning, before the plot kicked into gear)- and then the scene cuts to the uncle, who is worried about his missing nephew and lamenting that he was too hard on him.
It feels like a trope is in play here, but I can't seem to find anything specific...
resolved Non-Descript City-World
Is there a trope on the phenomenon where the entirety or most of a story takes place within a generic city landscape that is either unnamed or has a very generic name?
openA story references its adaptation and the author's less known works
Not sure if this is the same trope or different ones.
- An adaptation changes some of the original's designs. Then later the original references those designs as easter eggs.
- A story includes characters from the author's other works. One Recurring Extra is the protagonist of another, much more obscure story, and a few more are from an abandoned and unpublished story concept.
openSupernatural Retribution Protection
A character is protected from direct harm on their life by something supernatural.
- In Wulfrik, the simple solution of killing the World's Best Warrior with magic won't work because his curse (to Walk the Earth looking for challenging fights, be tortured for eternity by demons if he loses) will then transfer to the killer, who prefer to be tortured to death than risk that.
- In Baskets Of Guts, the lich doesn't kill Anna because he knows that nature spirits Come Back Strong when killed, and get stronger with every defeat (as in needing armies to put down) until their killer is finally dead.
openPets realize someone isn't to be trusted before their owner.
Is there a trope where a pet or animal senses that someone they just met is evil? And they growl or go on the attack before their owner or friendly human finds out the same thing?
openWhen a door is closing from the top to the bottom and someone slides underneath it at the last secon
And if they run towards the closing door and it actually does close on them before they get through, is it subverting, inverting or averting?
openDescribing an observant character
What is the difference between “Sherlock Scan” , “Eagle-Eye Detection”, and “Hyper-Awareness” ?
((Trying to describe a doctor/nurse character who can accurately diagnose a patient’s illness even without tests/equipment))