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Impostor Drama / Protagonist In Over Head Drama
The viewpoint character is pretending to be someone/something he isn't, and much of the drama comes from his having to prevent people from finding it out and losing their trust or from doing too much damage (for example, fraudulently claiming to be a doctor and suddenly being asked to administer first aid).
- In Overlord 2012, Ainz is considered an Evil Genius by both subordinates and enemies, and tries to act the part despite being in completely over his head. His repeatedly telling his subordinates he's not as intelligent as they claim him to be doesn't work, and he comes up with ordering the actual Evil Genius to recap the situation to avoid being Locked Out of the Loop.
- The hero King in One Punch Man is lauded by everyone as a superpowered savior. In fact he has no powers whatsoever, all his "victories" are actually Saitama's, and at first he said nothing because it seemed to give people hope, and now he can't back out. We see him confronted by a monster and it's all he can do not to break down crying in public.
- Chrono Trigger: A little boy is identified as a legendary hero and given all the help the kingdom can give to defeat a monster. In fact the kid is just a kid, and runs away from danger once out of everyone's sight.
Exonerating evidence is more embarrassing than admitting to the crime
Similar to Confess to a Lesser Crime, but I don't think that quite covers it.
Example: Guy could prove he didn't commit a murder by submitting his PC's browser history. But it would prove he was streaming My Little Pony, so he refuses.
Looking for the specific refusal, not the trope(s) covering how stupid this is: (Be as Unhelpful as Possible, Skewed Priorities, A Fool for a Client, etc)
Virtual Reality Videogame
Checking my understanding; Cyberspace is the trope for fictional examples of Virtual Reality games in addition to virtual reality as an interface?
Doom approves
There is a team up between a hero and a villain against a common enemy. Desperate and with limited options, the hero proposes something. The villain says something that basically means "That plan is completely evil. I approve it!". Is it a subverted What the Hell, Hero?
Nightmare of friends dying
Is there a trope for when a character has a nightmare/vision of all their friends dead. He or she might find one of them taking their last breaths and being powerless to stop their passing. Bonus points if combined with Kill the Cutie. Think of Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
All Boss Fights Videogame
I know this trope exists but I can't remember the name.
It's when video games are entirely boss battles. Like shadow of the collosus.
Ends on a wedding
I couldn't find it under Wedding and Engagement Tropes. Do we have a trope for when works end on a wedding?
Start Being Stereotypical
A trope where a character doesn't conform to a stereotype and is criticized for it (and not necessarily by someone of the same "type" as the character).
For example, Alice is the one girl among a bunch of guys, who participates in their Alcohol-Induced Idiocy. When they get punished, Alice gets singled out specifically because she's averting Women Are Wiser.
Or Bob is an Asian student who keeps getting offered money to do other kids' homework, but this ends when it turns out he subverts the "Asian students are all geniuses" stereotype.
Never had to deal with emergency
Is there a trope for a person who doesn't know how to handle an emergency because they've never had to? The character of Mr Peanutbutter on Bojack Horseman has led a life where everything comes easy to him, and as a result, he's completely incapable of handling situations where the solution doesn't come easy (such as when his house falls into a recently-dug oil well).
For a real life example, there's the captain of the Titanic. The White Star company chose him because he'd never been in an accident, so he must be "lucky". Unfortunately, this meant that when the Titanic hit an iceberg, he had no idea what to do and simply went into Heroic BSOD while his subordinates handled things.
Edited by AccidentalTroper
Oh, no, the original is back!
In the begining, a character behaved in some X way, and now it behaves in some Y way. If I got it right, it's Character Development if done right, and Character Derailment if not.
And now, the changes are removed and the character is back to its X old habits. If the original change was disliked, this is a welcomed Character Rerailment. But what if the audience was fine with the original change, and it's the regression the one that is disliked? Is it still character rerailment, or is it something else?
For Art?
Do we have a characterization-based equivalent of Doing It for the Art other than Mad Artist or For Science!?
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an entry in a franchise that is unlike every entry that came before it
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lecture style format
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gets straight to the point
Adults Should be Serious?
What's the trope for when adults are expected to be serious, kids perceive them as serious, and an adult acting goofy or having fun is seen as childish?
Crossover Mechanic Problem
I'm certain we have/had a trope for crossovers where the mechanics of one verse don't mesh with the other's, I just don't remember the name.
For example, a character from a system that uses turn-based combat is put into a system that uses real-time combat and fights a bunch of mooks. He wonders why the RTC enemy keeps moving around when it's not their turn, they wonder why the TBC guy seems to zone out when not attacking and only takes damage from one enemy weapon at a time.
In Captain SNES, the hero of Chrono Trigger fights a bunch of Final Fantasy mooks. FF uses separate screens for the overworld and for battles while CT uses the same map, so he's able to attack the mooks with complete impunity.
Disregarding the Detector
Sort of like Cassandra Truth, a detector keeps going off. The user decides that it's malfunctioning or the readings are Within Parameters. It soon becomes clear that the detector was working fine the whole time.
A recent example of this happens in Cells at Work!, with White Blood Cell's "receptor". Another example is in Danny Phantom, with how Danny's parents' ghost-hunting equipment constantly targets Danny, and they always chalk it up to faulty calibration.
Edited by DoomTay
Villain Has a Point But They Actually Don't
Example: Ghetsis (and some of the Team Plasma members) in Pokémon Black and White.
They start off having a reasonable philosophy for doing what they do, showing intriguing Grey and Grey Morality, but in the end it turns out to be Black and White Morality as they're completely objectively evil, usually in a split second.
Some form of wordplay Music
In "Soul Suckin' Jerk" by Beck there's a couple of lines that go "'Too bad, better bite the bullet hard son'/I didn't have no teeth so I stole his gun". I think there's a specific term for it but I'm not sure if there's a trope for it.
Boombox serenade Film
Bob stands outside his love interest (Alice)'s window playing a romantic song (sometimes the couple's song) on a boombox held high over his head. Often comes at a dramatic moment near the climax when Bob has a Love Epiphany or Alice is about to run off with the Romantic False Lead and he has to win her back before it's too late. Often an allusion to the famous Balcony Scene, and may involve throwing pebbles at the window.
Edited by naturalironist
Keep me out of this
Alice and Bob are arguing. Alice brings up Charlie as an example ("Charlie would never do what you did!", "It happened to Charlie, and he's not complaining!"), but is told (by Charlie) to keep him out of the argument.
The hand brushing over wheat/grass/etc. Film
Do we have this? This is a very specific type of shot apparently pioneered by Terrence Malick, but used most obviously in Gladiator (2000). A shot of a hand brushing along the tops of wheat stalks, tall grass, or the like. The camera and the tops of the plants are more or less at waist level. Been used to death lately, even in commercials. A trailer for the film Christopher Robin has Pooh's hand doing it!
Slipping on Pearls / gumballs / other round objects
Protag is being chased by some goons, and need to make a quick getaway, he spots a gumball machine, vendor selling necklaces, etc, and after one quick shake there's round objects scattered all over the floor.
no matter how scattered the objects are at least one or all the goons will slip on them for a prat-fall allowing the protag to escape.
Excessive resuscitation
What's the one where (usually on a medical show) a doctor (or other medical professional) continues trying to resuscitate a character everyone else around has already concluded is dead. This goes on until someone else (usually another doctor or a nurse) says something like "John, he's gone".