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openProposed trope: Subverted bees and the flowers Western Animation
I'm testing the waters for a new trope where either a character or the plot itself sets up to explain where babies come from. A straight example would have the story include actual elements related to child birth and occasionally bizzare explanations Rashomon-style but then subverts Once More, with Clarity by having the final explanation turning out to be just as nonsensical as the rest.
Compare Ikea Erotica, The Talk and Not Actually the Ultimate Question
Examples so far:
- Codename: Kids Next Door: 'Operation D.I.A.P.E.R' takes place in a birthing center where Sector V abducts babies because Numbuh 1 is under the delusion that babies come from eggs much to the bewilderment of Numbuh 5 who's convinced she knows the truth.
Numbuh One: (completely and utterly speechless, mouth hanging open)Numbuh Two: (same reaction, until he starts gagging, falling out of his chair in the process)Numbuh Three: (running in circles, hands over her ears) Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!Numbuh Four: (same as 1 + 2, except his face/hair have been blasted backward)Numbuh Five: (nodding in seriousness)Numbuh One: ...wait a second! That's preposterous! Babies don't come from New Jersey! They come from Philadelphia.
- Cow and Chicken: Cow spends the whole episode 'The Day I Was Born' asking everyone around her about the day she was born only to repeatedly get ridiculous origin stories. Finally Cow meets the Red Guy who reveals that he is her midwife, but even his story amounts to just the Red Guy pushing baby Cow out of the delivery room on a table.
openFrom a previous Generation Western Animation
What is it called when you see an item in the background that had importance in a previous generation of the show? As in the item being from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic being seen in My Little Pony Make Your Mark?
Easter Egg? Call-Back? Mythology Gag? Or something else?
openAdaptation defines future works in a franchise Western Animation
Is there a trope like this? For instance, in Batman: The Animated Series, Mr. Freeze's backstory proved so impactful that it's been made his default backstory in most adaptations, and even made its way into the comics, or how the spyglasses from A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) made its way into the Netflix show, or how after the now-defunct DC Universe from Man of Steel had Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, works where the character was black became more common.
Edited by PhyrexianAjani95openBlood from the Lip Western Animation
I know we’ve seen examples of Blood from the Mouth, but has anyone ever covered a somewhat different trope? Namely a character agitated to the point where they bite down on their lip so hard as to let blood trickle down their chin?
E.G.
- The head of a paranormal agency witnesses a video call from an invading vampire who’s ransacking her own headquarters with an army of ghouls, has killed most of her men, and is now making the call just to taunt her and the rest of the leadership board. ( Anime&Manga/Hellsing )
- An overlord of Hell is about to broadcast a television message dissing one of his main rivals, managing to sing of his vendetta even as his lip bleeds ( Hazbin Hotel “Stayed Gone” )
- A briefer example, but the King of Hell himself has a bit of blood on his chin during a music showdown with one of his daughter’s co-workers- who just happens to be the aforementioned rival in the previous example ( Hazbin Hotel “Hell’s Greatest Dad”)
I’ve only seen it in those two shows thus far, but I’m interested to see if it’s cropped up anywhere else.
openQuestion about "Adam and/or Eve" Western Animation
The description and laconic for Adam and/or Eve state that it involves the use of Adam and Eve's names from the biblical characters. Does this somehow also cover unorthodox depictions of the actual Adam and Eve bible figures in fiction (say, Adam from Hazbin Hotel) as long as there's some symbolic or ironic value to their naming?
openCharacter's beak/muzzle sticking through a hole Western Animation
I recall looking for this trope once or twice, to no avail. Two examples I can think off the top of my head are: An episode of Puppy Dog Pals (namely: A New Pup in Town) where is it used to introduce Keia, and an episode of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (namely: Tails in Charge) where Scratch exclaims that Grounder's as dumb as a rock.
openRunning away leaving only dust and smoke Western Animation
Character suddenly runs away leaving behind dust where they were standing or a dusty slihouette.
openPhysical equator line Western Animation
A map feature, that could be presumed artificial, is encountered and physically interacted with for the Rule of Fun, more often on naval than land journeys. The most likely candidate is the red line to signify the equator, but a compass rose, text inscriptions or illustrations can work too.
openXtremely Kool Foodz Western Animation
Is there a trope for certain foods being portrayed as a Totally Radical kid, teenager or young adult's favorites? The biggest example would be the party dude Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their love of pizza.
Usually something unhealthy, which is both counter-cultural and self-destructive, and is a better fit for someone young enough to have a fast metabolism. Processed convenience food is also popular since it doesn't really need to be prepared, which is good for impulsive characters, is cheap, which is good for characters who aren't spoiled, and can be eaten on the go, which is good for loners.
Spicy and eugeroic food is also popular, since you gotta be cool to handle the spice, and the buzz goes hand in hand with an adventurous lifestyle.
Examples of Totally Radical food include pizza, burgers, bacon, hot dogs (or Sonic the Hedgehog chilli dogs), cola, Mountain Dew, chips, nachos, bubble gum (to blow bubbles in defiance of authority), and a lot of snacks with Totally Radical mascots.
openCoincidental Release Date trivia trope Western Animation
Hi tropers, this is R2-D21138. I made an edit a few months back on the trivia page for The Casagrandes Movie by adding two Meaningful Release Date examples. I typed that it came out on the month of the birthday of Izabella Alvarez (Ronnie Anne), and that the trailer came out on the birthday of Leah Mei Gold (Sid). About five days ago, these examples were removed from the page due to being random actor trivia and not dates set by the distributors. I have two questions Is there an alternate trivia trope for coincidental release dates and can this be put on that trivia page? If this belongs to actor pages, I won't be able to do that as Creator pages for Izabella Alvarez and Leah Mei Gold do not exist yet.
openCharacters Acknowledge Running Gag Western Animation
What is the trope for when characters recognize and predict a running gag of the show? For example, in American Dad! when one character realizes that his teacher at clown school is going to turn out to be another character due to the running gag of them adopting multiple personas of different teachers
open"I don't care about X, I care that you lied" Western Animation
I've noticed that a lot of western cartoons, both for children and adults, like to do a plotline where character A believes that character B won't like them, due to some perceived character flaw, and so covers it up to make character B like them. By the end of the episode, character B finds out about the deception, and reveals that they don't actually care that character A has said character flaw, but they do care that they lied about it, and then character A is left alone. In particular, Family Guy is very fond of this, doing it in episodes such as "The Blind Side", "Take a Letter", and "The New Adventures of Old Tom". Interestingly, 2 of these examples are Brian lying to a girl so that she will like him, and in The New Adventures of Old Tom specifically, it really feels like they phoned in the "I care that you lied" part.
I realize that this sounds similar to The Liar Revealed, but the main difference here is the fact that the liar only lied because they thought the other person wouldn't like them, and that the other person reveals that they don't care about their flaw, just that they lied about it. So for example, A Bug's Life contains a liar revealed plot, but it wouldn't be an "I don't care about X, I care that you lied" plot because they DO care that the circus animals aren't really warriors, and never would have gone along with the plan in the first place if Flick hadn't lied. Him having lied to them INCREASES their anger, but it's not the sole cause of it.
openIs there something between fan service and fan disservice? Western Animation
In the animated version of The Peasants, main character Jagna is stripped of her clothes and banished from her town, her body is a mess (Fan Disservice), some moments later the rain falls on her, and she decides the rain to allow her to clear her wounds and mud... she stands there as rain washes away her mud and sins... but while naked and clean is not yet a source of fan service.. how we can call that?
openCreator's actions causing backlash? Western Animation
Looking for a YMMV trope about fans of a show being upset/put off due to how a creator's personal actions and beliefs reflects on the media.
Is there some trope for the message of a media or the enjoyment of it being undermined because of what is revealed about the creator?
openCartoon Robotic Hands Western Animation
What I'm thinking of is times where there's a robotic arm with a cartoon glove at the end of it that does basically anything you'd expect a hand to be able to do. To be clear, I don't mean characters with robotic arms. I mean arms that come out of some kind of machine, the floor, the ceiling, or seemingly nowhere at all. The only non-illustration example I can think of right now is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but I feel like I've seen them in other cartoons as well.
openOne Design For A Whole Species Western Animation
Is there a trope that's like Inexplicably Identical Individuals but applied to a species of animal, so that any time an animal of a species is shown, they all look exactly alike, almost like they've been copied and pasted. They may even have the same voice and mannerisms. For instance, in Phineas and Ferb, whenever a platypus that isn't Perry is show, it will have the same design and voice as Perry. And in the theatrical Tom and Jerry, if a baby duck is shown along Little Quacker, whether they be his siblings or random ducks in a park, they will have the exact same design and voice as Little Quacker.
I think this is mostly an animation trope, since in live action they can just use different animals, they may only look alike to humans because it's hard for humans to tell different animals apart, though differences are there. And in video games, I figure it'd be so common cause they're just use the same sprite to represent the same animal that it isn't even significant as a trope.
openinstant frame-by-frame movement gags Western Animation
This is something I usually see in Garry’s Mod videos and other youtube animations, where a character is animated with a decent frame rate suddenly goes from one pose to another with few to zero frames in between, like someone standing proudly upright followed instantly by them lying dead on the ground. It’s usually done on purpose by the animator either to save time or as an absurd gag. I’ve seen this sort of gag before and I often find them hilarious but I cannot for the life of me figure out what its proper name would be, if it even has one. It’s sort of a cross between Stylistic Suck, a Jump Cut, and Limited Animation, but it feels like it should be its own trope.
openCrowd of identical characters except for one with minor visual differences. Western Animation
When there's a crowd of indistinguishable individuals, but there's a single (or sometimes two) one with minor differences, such as a color swap or accessory added. This separate one is often the representative for the crowd.
Examples:
In Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Norbot makes an army of robots identical to itself, save for being green instead of red.
In the Moomin series, Little My's siblings act as a mostly undefined crowd of little siblings only differentiated by gender, she resembles her sisters, and often acts like their leader when they're around.

When a movie is really good but then it spawns several trashy direct-to-video sequels?