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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A character sees something, and points to it, saying "look". The other character or characters look, but by this time the thing has gone. The other characters think the first character was imagining it.
Example: In the film Prince Caspian, Lucy sees Aslan, but the other children don't, and don't believe her.
Variant of the above: The other character (in this variant there is only one other character) says "what?" but doesn't look straight away. After a few seconds they look, but by then the thing or person has gone. They then say "there's nothing there".
I remember an episode of Starsky and Hutch with this.
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In an SF show, a mentally-retarded minor character is introduced. Phlebotinum causes this person to become mentally supercharged.
This trope differs from "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome in that, with the latter, the focus is exploring the effect of the change upon the character. With this trope, the character's purpose is to demonstrate the effect of the phlebotinum.
I have two examples, both from Doctor Who: Tommy in "Planet of the Spiders" and Ms Evangelista in "Silence in the Library"/"Forests of the Dead".
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Is there a trope for situations where it appears that a flashback is being shown, but afterward it is revealed by another character that events did not happen that way at all? Sort of a subtrope of Unreliable Narrator?
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"So, we've lost all power, the monsters are burrowing in, and Justin turned out to be one of the bad guys!"
A lot of shows seem to have a line of dialogue in just that form, listing everything bad that's going on. What's it called?
It's also often done in Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking form, eg, "… and my hair looks awful!"
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It seems like Steven Moffat does this a lot, where someone will realize something and the phrase it as a question. It's like "If you're here, and I'm here, who's watching the kid?" I remember a specific instance in "Forest of the Dead," where someone says something about there being five people to save, and then someone says "if there are five people to save, why are there six people in here?" And then everyone turns around to see the disguised monster. My sister and I have been calling it "if x then why," so I might be having trouble locating it under another name, if it exists.
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Is there a trope for the gag, used in comedy and horror, where a shower spews out something other than water, having been sabotaged, possessed, or just plain broken? Sometimes it covers the showering person with paint or goo as a comedy prank; other times, it'll spray blood or other nastiness as a gross-out in a horror film. Either way, the person who's taking the shower curiously fails to let the water run for a while before stepping under it, even though most people do so in Real Life to make sure the temperature has stabilized, first.
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Unstopable martial arts techniques. Do we have this one? I'm thinking of any move, whether in swordplay, martial arts or whatever, that is meant to be an ultimate, unblockable, unstopable technique. Someone who masters is becomes the perfect warrior, basically. Naturally, this is impossible in real life, but I've seen it referred to a few times in fiction.
- Hero (2002 film): The nameless Hero is supposed to have an unstopable technique that can strike with great speed and accuracy. - Highlander: Engame: Duncan is taught a supposedly unstopable fencing techique that there is no way to counter, but it actually doesn't work when he uses it on Kell, the Big Bad.
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"This X will be your grave."
This seems to be a stock line villains like to say. Things like "This fortress will be your tomb" or "This cave will be your grave". It was first brought to my attention by the Penny Arcade strip that contained the wonderful line, "This tomb will be your grave".
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Is there something for cutting a hole to make your own door? Like Bullethole Door, but with a sword/lightsaber/set of claws/etc. And where would the use of laser-eyes go under?
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Is there a trope that something along the lines of "screwing the boss's wife"? tried to look for it but can't find it. i'm only thinking of this cuz i JUST realized that J.D. from the Scrubs show has done this in the first season since Jordan is the ex-wife of Dr. Cox who is pretty much J.D.'s boss(technically wife because we found out later that their divorce wasn't offical) as well as Christa Miller who is Jordan's actress being the real-life wife of the creator of scrubs. I think there should be so maybe i missed it. if this trope hasn't been made i'd be somewhat disappointed
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Alright, this is when the Trope Namer doesn't use the trope itself... I know it's not Beam Me Up, Scotty!, but I can't find a link to it anywhere.
Is there a trope for characters that are very unstable in their romantic feelings, and may even develop several crushes at once?