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:
openno title
So it's a bit complicated...
A character finds a huge document, and a large section of it is dedicated to someone who's supposed to be dead. The dead person turns out not to be dead and appears in the story immedietely afterwards after a scene cut. Finding this document was completely coincidental.
What tropes apply here?
openCharacter taking action to change lives after event changes their mindset
Basically, Character A decides to step up and make a change to the world after seeing someone close to them lose hope.
Example: In the gacha game Eversoul, there is a character named Prim who performs stage magic and other stunts in order to entertain. In one of her bond stories, she reveals to the Player Character that she was once a "normal" Soul who was satisfied with the boring status quo she lived her life in, until one of her friends went missing and was found in an underground cave months later, sleeping the time away. After talking to her friend a to why she did it, Prim is then hit with a sad reality: Souls are beings who live forever so they can never die of natural causes, but they can be so bored to death that they'd rather be in a state of near-death than go on with their monotonous lifestyle forever. That's when she decided to step up and become a great entertainer, in order to "save the Souls from boredom".
openPilot-Exclusive Setting Western Animation
A setting which is only used for one episode (and exclusively the first one, often the first setting the audience ever sees). It may be revisited through flashbacks or the end of the show.
This is typically the setting that the protagonists are trying to return home to. It can also be the setting variant of One-Shot Character.
Examples:
Futurama: The first episode takes place in 1999, but every other episode is taking place over a thousand years later, and the only time the 20th century is revisited is through flashbacks, time travel, and revisiting Fry's memories.
Infinity Train: The first episode opens with Tulip at home, once she boards the Infinity Train after running away, the only times we ever see her home again is through flashbacks and the end of the season.
Edited by Devan2002openHeaven Is Empty
It's discovered that the afterlife is real and there is a Heaven, but no one is good enough to be let in. Usually happens alongside God Is Evil / God and Satan Are Both Jerks.
Edited by Chabal2openCatchphrase, Verbal Tic, or something else?
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby frequently calls people "Old Sport" (usually a term of endearment) and is the character mainly associated with that phrase in the novel.
So is it a Catchphrase cause he frequently says that line, Verbal Tic as he says it often or something else?
Edited by Cutegirl920fireopenYou Woke Me Up For This?
Character A wakes up Character B frantically. Character B asks if there’s an emergency, only to find out that Character A just wants to ask them a silly question. Character B probably gets angry.
Edited by SnowskyopenUndignified escape
A character escapes from danger in an undignified way, be it Played for Laughs due to their discomfort or Played for Drama to show how much they have fallen from grace due to the threat, such as going down a sewer or hiding from the antagonist in a messy place.
Edited by good-morningresolved Preview genre fakeout Webcomic
The initial previews/shown premise for a webcomic presents it as one genre, like a family dramedy, by only describing a vague summary or the first few chapters, leaving out the rest of the premise.
Then when its officially released, it gives us the full synopsis. Giving away the comic’s actual genre. For example, a sci-fi adventure.
openThird-Person Nickname
Is it Third-Person Person when someone uses the (nick)name someone else gave them? For instance, Alice asking her young grandkids "Who wants to go to the beach with Grandma?" or similar.
openRed is sensuous
Example in question involves a couple renting an apartment to have an affair in. The apartment is decorated in red.
openCounterparts in black
A university's basketball team plays against the rival university's basketball team. The members of the other team are exact copies of the first team (played by the same actors), but they are all dressed in black, and the only blond-haired guy's counterpart even has black hair.
openImmiediate Extreme Poverty
Once the director of the TV channel bans all commercials, his flat loses all furniture, his girlfriend and he start eating tree branches instead of actual food. When the girlfriend visits her ex, she ravenously eats all apples on his table, even though those are fake apples made of wax.
openArchery is more graceful/glamorous.
Ever noticed that in many action-based works (and even some which aren't focused on action that much) archery is depicted or at least implied to be more graceful than other means of combat, be it ranged or melee?
It's hard to really describe, but the most prominent examples would either be elven archery or when the archer is female. Usually the archers tend to be more agile/faster, more precise, always hit the target and never cause any unnecessary collateral damage. But there's more to it. In such works, these archers tend to possess some kind of aura, which makes them seem almost angelic.
Compared to it, other means of fighting are depicted as blunt and barbaric.
I hope I didn't confuse you. Is there a trope like that?
Edited by sohibilopenBad guys never run out of ammo.
Whenever a battle situation involving firearms or other ranged weaponry occurs, the bad guys can fire their weapons ad infinitum and never worry about running out of ammunition. On the other hand the heroes are someties required to ponder using every single bullet. Is there a trope like that?
openUnwarranted redemption Live Action TV
I’m looking for a trope that basically describes a character getting a redemption arc that really didn’t deserve or warrant it.
It’s most likely a YMMV trope but I’m curious if it exists.
openPerfectly coiffed
In In the Mood for Love, Chan wears an endless parade of beautiful qipaos and always has a perfectly coiffed updo. Chow's hair is always gelled, and he's always wearing a suit.
I kept expecting a scene where they break from this — like late at night, right before bed? Early in the morning before they're all put together? I was expecting a moment with the vulnerability of being seen without their carefully crafted, done-up appearances. It never happened. (Maybe the half-undressed vulnerability is the real trope here, and this is the aversion?)
openDiegetic role play
The only trope that I can find about diegetic role-play is Comic Role Play. What then should I call what happens in In the Mood for Love? It's dramatic, melancholy role-play, not comedic—although it is admittedly pretty funny in moments.
openBullet outline
When someone shoots around another person to form an outline with the bullets' holes.
Edited by Usterman