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:
openOne Cannot Exist without the Other
Is there a trope matching this title?
For example: Purebloods are too narrow-minded to realize that Muggles are a necessity. If they do not marry them, the Wizarding World will go extinct.
Edited by iscreomopenBrand New Awesome Material... That Isn't That Great? Film
In the Captain America: Brave New World, there's the talk behind the adamantium being even better than vibranium. The adamantium was never brought up in MCU before, what's the trope?
And also, what if such brand new thing/material just... Doesn't cut it? In one of the Disney Duckverse stories, I think the american/English one, that was selled as two-parter in magazines, the brand new metal was introduced from some small country in Europe, later showing it's not stable and is disegrating chains on ducks... And also Scrooge's big money house vault.
It doesn't even have to be a material, but just some thing, that is supposed to surpass the new one with the ending and events before showing that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" works into play.
openHated for not being chosen to be killed Literature
Voldemort receives information that based on a prophecy, the one who can kill him will soon be born. Ultimately, 2 babies meet the known criteria: Harry and Neville. Voldemort decides that the prophecy refers to Harry, and kills Harry's mother in his attempt to kill Harry. Snape, who was in love with Harry's mother, hates Neville because if Voldemort had chosen him, Harry's mother would still be alive.
open90s related trope
before I made my account and was scrolling through some tropes, I remembered some 90s related trope about a 90s dumb duo, with beavis and butthead being the image provider, is there a such trope page or am I hallucinating?
openPossible trope
Do we have a trope for where a character's actor/VA agrees with a popular fan theory about them?
openThe real people return Videogame
Is there a trope name for the plotline where the current race of humans learn that they exist to fix the post apocalyptic world before the real people come back. At which point the current human race will be disposed of
Examples: - Nier replicant - Ergo Proxy - Harvestella
Edited by RabrocopenDietary taboos based on the species of one's friends, allies, subordinates, etc.
What is the trope when, in a sci-fi, fantasy, or sci-fantasy setting, a character doesn't want to eat a more or less exotic and/or fictional kinda meat because it from a species that resembles that of a friend, ally, valued subordinate, etc.? Here are a few examples:
1) In Naruto fanfiction, characters are often hesitant to eat meat from a species that resembles their summoned animal ally (Sakura shuns snail dishes, Naruto shuns frog legs, etc.)
2) In Demon Lord 2099, both Veltol and Machina were at first highly uncomfortable with the idea of eating dragon meat because their subordinate resp. colleague, Sihlwald, was a dragon (they were goaded into trying it and liked it a lot).
Edited by FlochForster87openSingularly Uninteresting Sight
What trope is it when an otherwise-normal character regards a specific thing as ordinary that other "normal" characters don't?
E.g.: Alice doesn't think it's weird that her longtime friend Bob regularly uses Stealth Hi/Bye, because "Everybody knows somebody like that, right?" Nobody else agrees aside from Bob. She still reacts normally to other weird stuff like the Creepy Changing Painting.
It isn't an Unusually Uninteresting Sight, because most people notice it and think it's weird, and I don't think Alice is Fantastically Indifferent, an Unfazed Everyman, or a non-horror version of Conditioned to Accept Horror, because she treats everything else the way you'd expect. Is this not actually a trope because it's less common than I think it is?
openWhat is the inversion of Continuity Creep? Web Original
Continuity Creep is basically episodic works that got more continuity as they went on. I'm looking for the opposite trope of that, stuff that had continuity once but got less of it and became more episodic over time. Does it already exist? If so, what's it called?
Edited by TheMageofRacismopenMagic which only allows specific individuals through Literature
In one Harry Potter fanfiction, Snape works as a potion maker for Voldemort. To prevent other death eaters from damaging his work (as Bellatrix has already done), he sets up a special lock that he, and one other death eater he trusts not to harm his potion work, get through without any difficulty, but no one else is able to get in.
openLovers to Enemies?
I know we have Foe Romance Subtext, Dating Catwoman, and Rivalry as Courtship for the enemies to lovers concept, but do we have anything for lovers to enemies? The opposite end of that spectrum?
Edited by BigBadShadow25openDisproportionate Work Ethic
A character has an important job to do in a hierarchy, but seems convinced that it's the most important one and anyone getting in the way of their job is working directly against the organization.
- Alice is the head of the cardiology ward in a major hospital. She does her job well, but year she sumbits a proposal 90% of the hospital's entire budget should go to improvements in the cardiology ward (more rooms, more staff, upgraded equipment, etc.). She doesn't even ask for a raise, perks or for her office to be embellished, she really does think her ward is the single most important one in the hospital and diverting funds from it might as well be flushing money down the toilet.
- In a pre-computer era, Bob's job is to carry messages from people in one part of the building to another. He will break down doors, climbs walls and smash windows to deliver that message as though the fate of the world depended on it, when of course the message is nowhere near that important ("Your wife called while you were out", "the 3PM meeting is moved to 4PM", employee satisfaction surveys, etc.)
In Unseen Academicals, one of the University staff is charged with going around keeping the candles lit, and as a result thinks himself essential to the University's continued operation.
openPunishing the whole group... Live Action TV
What's the trope for the dirty tactic of an authority figure punishing everyone (say, a classroom of students) when one kid is the problem, with the intent of forcing the troublemaker to conform due to the scorn of his peers?
openExistence as a quantity
In some works there comes up a very specific situation: some things are treated/described as being more or less real than others. In otherwords, existence is not a "yes-no" quality, but a "more-less" quantity. In extreme cases we might have something, typically an eldritch abomination, that very much does not exist (as we understand the term), yet can perform actions, have effects on the plot and have motivations of its own, regardless of anyone knowing of it or perceiving it. There is some overlap with Power of the Void, but I don't think it's the same trope.
Some examples would include:
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld is described as being somewhat less real than some other universes, hence (or because of) its magic field. So called 'Dungeon Dimensions' connected to it are even less real, and the inhabitants of those hunger for more existence, even if it's somewhat diluted.
- In Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series, a story dealing with time travel describes a timeline that way after an attempt to Make Wrong What Once Went Right had made it almost improbable.
- In Labyrinths of Echo, the world in which the titular city resides is secretly on the brink of Critical Existence Failure. As its condition worsens, the denizens find themselves ill at ease despite not knowing why. A latter part of the series is set in another not-quite real place, except in that case it is a newborn world that is gaining its reality by 'filling in the gaps'.
openFull name mistake
A young child is generally called "Russ". Most of the neighbors think it's short for Russel, bit in fact the name is Severus.
openChildren are friends, but no one else may find out
Richard Severus Snape (later in life known more on a Middle Name Basis, but not at this stage in his life), a young wizard, is in a school full of muggles (people who are unable to do magic). One day he notices that a girl in his class, Lily Evans, is also capable of magic. This leads to Richard and Lily becoming friends. However, Mr. Evans and Mr. Snape hate each other, so the kids can't allow others to know about this friendship.
openNumbered Noodle Incidents
A Noodle Incident that's only one of many, but is referred to by rank to show that there's more and they're all worse.
- Alice the spy has gotten inside the secure building via a sequence of events that ends with her disheveled, soaking wet, a deflated balloon animal in her hair, a temporary tattoo reading "Morv" on her hand, and holding a bowling ball. She complains to Mission Control that this is easily the 5th-most humiliating infiltration of her career.
- Bob the food critic is trying a trendy restaurant, which involves lots of Foreign Queasine like fish heads with garlic and ice cream. He takes it in stride, saying it's not even the 53rd worst thing he's had to eat this month.
- Carla the defense lawyer is assigned to a man who unspeakable things to animal corpses. He tries to give her a Hannibal-esque Breaking Speech at first, but she tells him she had 4 people who did worse that morning alone with such indifference that he shuts up.
openParadise Exists, But Doesn't Want You
A group of people have made an arduous trek to find a promised land, safe place, door to Paradise, or other quasi-mythical area. They find it, but then find they're not wanted inside.
Not necessarily out of bigotry or racism (though it often is when Humans Are Bastards), it could be that the place simply doesn't have the resources for all these people outside.
For example, survivors of a Zombie Apocalypse finding the last holdout of humanity, only to find it walled off and guarded by the uninfected inside.
openValuable uniform
Is there one about work uniform (or other items) being so valuable, that employees try to steal it, and sell it? For example, actors stealing props or costumes? And because of this, a point is made that they must return all their uniform when they leave?

In Monster Hunter Wilds, the Piragill Leggings were mistaken for Lagiacrus armor by many at first. It then later turned out to be from Piragill, and Lagiacrus was not in the game (at least at launch, and it wouldn't be officially announced in late March.)
The later part where Lagi was indeed coming isn't part of the base YMMV, just the part where "content in an upcoming update/media is mistaken for a returning thing that it's not.)
hypothetical examples:
- New location in a trailer is mistaken for a preexisting Recurring Location.
- Teaser for a new playable character is mistaken for a preexisting character found in a previous installment of the series.
- Teaser for a returning character is mistaken for a different returning character.
Edited by Dromeo