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 the Trope Launch Pad.
Find a Trope:
openSatanist relative Literature
Hello, I would like to know if there is a trope for a relative of the protagonist who is a Satanist or infernal occultist of some kind. I see this in a lot of Victorian horror stories but it’s also present in movies like Hereditary and Hack-O-Lantern. I suppose it’s usually a twist reveal but could be explicitly stated as well? Or just suspected? Either way the protagonist oftentimes plays a pivotal role in their machinations and the familial relationship can add to the feeling of cruelty and/or serves as a perverse mirroring of the Christlike sacrifice (Satanic human sacrifice type stuff from Hollywood Satanism)
openIntentional bad use of term Literature
The term "land flowing of milk and honey" is God's term for what would later be known as the land of Israel, except in one case: Datan and Aviram, while challenging Moses, use this term to refer to Egypt.
openIncorrect Poison Victim Literature
Bob wants to poison Lenny, so he puts poison in Lenny's drink. Instead of Lenny drinking that drink, Alice drinks it and promptly dies.
openRevenge Literature
An assassin sent to kill a man kills the man's daughter and wounds the man
openOne number less rounded than its equivalents Literature
In the Book of Numbers, the Israelites are counted by tribe. In each case, all but one are rounded to a multiple of 100; however, in the first count the tribe of Gad has 45,650, and in the second count the tribe of Reuben has 43,730.
open"Nice muscles" said the cannibal Literature
A compliment on your body which sounds sincere but comes from someone who is just evaluating you for parts.
e.g. someone who makes books of human hide admiring your soft, smooth skin, or someone who uses human hand bones in their art praising your delicate fingers.
openRomantasy Literature
I work with a lot of authors off of Tv Tropes, and one thing I've learned that the most popular, and most profitable, genre is romance, and that fantasy romances (or "Romantasy") is gigantic... but we don't have a trope for it? Fantastic Romance isn't this, and I thought it was, but... I'm just a bit perplexed as to why we don't have this trope. Paranormal Romance is related, but also not the genre I'm looking for.
Edited by PhyrexianAjani95openCausation is backwards from what you think Literature
In the Book of Numbers, Balak says to Balaam "because I heard that he who you bless is blessed and he who you curse is cursed". However, careful reading of the subsequent story seems to show that Balaam merely expresses the blesses and curses God already placed on people.
Edited by Someone1981openDysfunctional family Literature
The scapegoat daughter who is ostracized from her family she always tried to believe that she was going to be something someday and like prove them wrong but she keeps failing cuz her trauma isn't taken care of her childhood trauma because she's dealt with like emotional neglect her family's campaign of denigration her character annihilation she's now drinking too much and so maybe like she's getting into an abusive relationships and so then she lost in this world of complete loneliness and confusion and isolation and then the next one would be the abuser who knows what she needs and so he completely love bombed her and played into her emotions and then when he got her right where he could of isolation control abuse he started to show his true colors was that he was just complete abuser and so then there's the mother the grandmother who is like always was jealous of her daughter and like try to get on the grandchild turned into her daughter like a redo and then started to fill the granddaughter's head up with a bunch of lies and manipulation and coercion and the father left when the daughter was young and then he would only come back occasionally and just completely forget that he hasn't been in the child's life and would dismiss any of the emotions of the daughter he's like a narcissistic malignant the mom is more of a borderline the brothers are obviously ones The Golden Child then there's the Lost Child who just stick to himself who doesn't want to rock the boat and then a daughter that was our child that's struggling with the loss of a sibling and in an accident or something you know the death of a sibling and now being blamed by her family for the death even though she's not responsible and so it's like this chaotic family of dysfunction and you got the enabling family and the naive and global Citizens the family that doesn't want to let the secrets out
openNo need to put in too much effort for one more conviction Literature
A Serial Killer is suspected of committing 9 murders; he only gets convicted of 6 because, given that he will be executed anyway, there is little value in putting in the effort for more convictions.
openTrope for love Literature
one where the character cannot love, in the sense that he cannot feel affection for others and can only feel other emotions (in the case of a mother or father, it could be respect, in the case of a brother, companionship, in the case of a friend, just a sense of interaction, or in the case of a girlfriend/wife, love is confused with something that causes excitment).
Edited by tetradimensionalopenThe "Victory" brand in 1984 Literature
On Nineteen Eighty-Four, it says:
- The Dreaded: Anything bearing the "Victory" brand. Victory Coffee is undrinkable swill; Victory Gin smells bad, tastes much worse, and hits like a club to the head; Victory Cigarettes are so badly made that the tobacco falls out half the time; and Victory Mansions are decades-old apartment buildings coming apart at the seams.
open"Chicago is a hellscape in cyberpunk" Literature
I was speaking to a friend about the new Cyberpunk game that got announced set in a Chicago turned post-apocalypse and it reminded me that in Shadowrun the city of Chicago is under quarantine-or-a-nuke because of bug spirits.
Is this common enough to be a trope, or is this just a coincidence? Is Chicago uniquely terrible in Cyberpunk fiction?
openJane Austin redacted Literature
In Jane Austin and similar, some place names and sometimes personal names are replaced with a dash (- - - - shire). What is this called, why did they do it, when did writers stop doing it?
openRacism stops when hated race saves one's child Literature
Parents are racist. One day, their child nearly dies, and is saved by the hated race. Parents stop being racist as a result.
openLittle kid imitates parents' profession Literature
Young Hermione Granger, whose parents are dentists, plays dentist on her teddy bear
openCanon-matching through cross-timeline coincidece Literature
An alternate timeline in the Harry Potter works, in which:
- While the Harry/Neville friendship has some reasonable likelihood in this timeline, the connection with the Weasleys and Hermione, years before the golden trio starts at Hogwarts, is an odd coincidence.
- The Malfoy family giving Tom Riddle's diary to a Weasley child in the child's first year at Hogwarts, although in this timeline it's Narcissa and Draco on Percy, not Lucius on Ginny.
- Harry getting the Marauder's Map, years before he does in the books and from a different source.

The Book of Judges says that the grandson of Moses (the original form of the name being Mosheh, in a language where non-final vowels are usually not written) was a priest to an idol. To protect the honor of Moses, a letter is added (written in a way that makes it clear it's added) to change the name to Menasheh.