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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openSurprisingly Cynical Moment
Alice and Bob live in a Sugar Bowl of happiness and healing. The sun is always shining, there's never a bad word, all the villains can be reformed, and with effort, hope and friendship can overcome all. Bob says life is just fine!
Alice stops smiling and turns to the camera. Life's not fine at all, she intones. There's several wars going on with no end in sight, powered by a tribalistic human desire to cause suffering to the other tribe. Political divisions are at an all-time high because greedy Mega Corps drive extremist viewpoints for profit. Your ability to focus has been shattered by consumable, forgettable pop culture. And for the kids in the audience, Growing Up Sucks. You're going to watch your parents die when you get old. Kids are going to bully you just because. You're going to be stuck working a job you hate just to keep a roof over your head, wishing desperately to be anywhere else as your dreams of being an astronaut or a movie start disappear completely. And even if you somehow find happiness, you're probably going to get cancer and die out of the blue someday.
Bob is sobbing. Suddenly, Alice is all smiles. She's just kidding! Back to your regularly scheduled happiness!
TL;DR: A really cynical moment in an otherwise very lighthearted work, especially one that goes against the show's themes — Humans Are Bastards in a work where the only bad guys were simply trying to save their family, how no one will miss you when you're dead in a work that emphasises The Power of Friendship, romantic love always being doomed to fail in a work that preaches being kind.
Examples include the Spongebob joke about "life on the outside" being no different from prison or The Powerpuff Girls episode where they move to a crime-ridden Urban Hellscape where everything they do either hurts someone or invites vicious mockery from asshole kids.
Related: Black Comedy Burst, Author Tract, Out-of-Character Moment, Hard Truth Aesop, Parental Bonus, Deconstruction
Edited by MsOranjeDiscoDanceropenAquaman Unavailable For The Job
Instead of "highly-specific scenario happens to give specialized character time to shine", it's "for dramatic / Cringe Comedy reasons, the scenario happens to the least-suited character".
e.g. the heroes need to Bring News Back, but all of them are in some way incapacitated, and so it falls to the scrawny, asthmatic, nerdy guy to run through two forests and a mountain without getting lost. Or The Big Guy is stuck trying to fend off a Media Scrum that The Face could have handled in his sleep; the guy who Cannot Talk to Women needs to persuade The Baroness to give up the cause of evil instead of The Casanova; the Shrinking Violet needs to cosplay a Genki Girl, etc.
Usually they succeed.
Edited by Chabal2openEgregious Unfolding
An object or weapon includes a function which allows it to compact down to a size that would be impossible in real life. This goes the other way as well, providing an explanation for why a character can carry around something absurdly large without utilizing Hammerspace.
openPathetic Prostitute Patron
Men who hire prostitutes are shown to be pathetic, and not just in the Lousy Lovers Are Losers way.
Often tiny (in all aspects) or fat/schlubby, tend to be Henpecked Husbands whining about how their wives don't respect them (all the while giving plenty of evidence as to why they aren't worthy of respect) or Salarymen using the prostitute as an impromptu therapist to complain about their bosses/coworkers/family, lacking in charisma or physical attractiveness, have bizarre and disgusting fetishes, etc.
The prostitute herself is often shown sitting there looking bored by his talking or clearly waiting for him to finish already with no change in expression.
Edited by Chabal2openGlamorizing an awful job
Is there a trope for when a work depicts an occupation as glamorous and easy that in the real world is known to be dangerous (whether due to violence, frequent accidents, or exposure to toxins or diseases), physically intensive, poor-paying, or otherwise all-around terrible? I've seen tropes for specific jobs (Unproblematic Prostitution, for example), but nothing for this in general. Tropes for in-universe depictions work as well (like if in-universe propaganda promotes War Is Glorious when the setting is very much War Is Hell).
openExpected Tolerance, Got Ignorance
Basically, when someone thinks someone else did something good for them because they share their beliefs (or out of the gooodness of their heart), but really, the person did something good on accident due to lack of knowledge about whatever it is the first person is in trouble for.
Example:
At the beginning of Riku's visit to La Cité des Cloches in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Esmeralda runs past Riku. A moment later, Phoebus, hot on her trail, approaches him and asks if he's seen a Romani woman. Riku tells him he hasn't, and Phoebus leaves.
Afterwards, Esmeralda appears and thanks Riku for standing up for her, seemingly believing Riku covered for her on purpose. Riku responds with, "It's not like I know what a [Romani] is."
He didn't tell Phoebus about a Romani because he doesn't know what a Romani is, and therefore could not recognize such a person, not because he isn't prejudiced against them.
The closest tropes I've found are False Reassurance, and maybe Bait-and-Switch Sentiment?
Edited by viva_la_pastaresolved The emperor has no clothes
Everyone can see that something isn't true, but they all act like they believe it because everyone else says it's true, and they don't want to look stupid by being the dissenter.
openIrrelevant Conversation
Two characters carry on a ridiculous conversation whose subject matter is completely irrelevant to the story. The only reason it matters is because there is an ongoing conversation, either so they have something to do before something important happens or possibly to provide a reason for why they might be distracted.
open"you should go away very quickly for no reason"
A character is part of a plan to kill some people, using a method that must be set in motion in advance. (e.g. poisoning a vat of wine, or hiding a time bomb under a table.) Unfortunately, after they set the plan in motion but before people start dying, either a person they don't want to kill shows up and unknowingly puts themselves in the line of fire, or they have a change of heart about one of the people they want to kill.
The aspiring murderer now has to try and convince the person they don't want dead to leave without explaining the real reason why. Often, they fail to do so, and are forced to choose between letting the person die to save their plan, or revealing their plan to everyone to save the person.
one famous example would be Hamlet, where Claudius tries to poison Hamlet via his drink, but Gertrude ends up with his glass accidentally; Claudius tries to tell her not to drink from it, but does not tell her why, so she ignores him and is fatally poisoned.
openTrope about attacking with Toys
I know there are tropes about equipping remote-controlled toys with real weapons, but is there one specifically about using toys (of any kind) to attack people? Maybe a toy gun that shoots real bullets or stuffed animals with real claws?
openUse of extras in ways that lead to plot-hole territory
In the TV show "Herman's Head" there are other people who work in the office, but they are never shown interacting with the cast. It's to the point where it doesn't even make sense to have them there. Why would the boss call staff meetings and never invite the "other people in the office."
Cheers might also qualify since the bargoers outside of Norm, Cliff, and Frasier rarely are remembered or frequently noted by the bartenders.
Additionally, there have always been questions in Glee about the backup band. If there guys are a small band of outcasts, is the band lesser outcasts? How come they aren't even part of the social clique?
openRomantic Comedy - Sincere advice from Comic Relief Film
Is there a trope for when a comic relief character in a Romantic Comedy, maybe one of the protagonist's Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, stops being Played for Laughs and gives the protagonist an earnest bit of insight/advice about romantic love that's relevant to their relationship with their love interest. Like in Friends with Benefits where Mila Kunis' mom stops joking about not being able to remember the identity of Mila's father and says that her dad was the only man she ever truly loved?
openExpy, Shout Out, or something else? Web Original
It seems that the Little Misters from the SCP Foundation are a reference to the Mr. Men and Little Misses. (Heck, one of the Little Misters (SCP-909) shares the same name with an existing Mr. Men! (Both are called Mr. Forgetful.)) If a whole group of characters are a reference to another work / that work's characters, does that count as Expy, Shout-Out, or something else?
Edited by moxedenopenWhat to describe these magic potions?
Potion-crafting: Hair loss, sleep/knock out, and disfigurement.
Edited by Anchor173resolved Ask and you shall receive?
Is there a trope for when a character wants something and gets it simply by asking nicely?
Politeness Judo is the closest one I've found. Is there a more appropriate trope?
openSome differences between source novels and an adaptation in a videogame Videogame
- Baldur's Gate changed some tropes for drow and Rashemen people compared to source material (novels, manuals etc.). The drow originally had brownish to black skin, while the game popularized them having striking noticeable blue skin, ranging from graysh to silver blue and dark blue.
- Rashemen was a country essentially based on Eastern Europe, but with prominents elements from Tatar, Turkish, Sami, and Ugric culture. The game introduced the idea of an expy of Russia through Minsc, which was later brought again in Neverwinter Nights 2.
- Minsc in particular is notable because he is characteristically bald, while in the lore baldness was virtually non-existant in the culture of Rashemen, as the Rashemi people took great pride in their long hair (interestingly, the reviled novels are based on very early drafts of the game, where Minsc was described as long haired).
- Another change is in the "witches of Rashemen" that lead the country. In the lore, the wychlaran always wear masks, and are strictly chosen from the free tribes of Rashemen that directly descend from the Raumviran ethnic group, which was strictly related to the Sossrim, which were northerners with pale skin said to be related with the Frost People. The game introduced Dynaheir, a black woman (meaning she was either the daughter of immigrants, adopted from foreigners, or a freed slave, all concepts that were not characteristical of Rashemen and its witches), as the first wychlaran for many players. Masks are never mentioned.
- Then we have the red wizards of Thay, who always shave their heads if they are not naturally bald. The game introduces Edwin, who has thick hair. As if he and Minsc swapped the supposed fashion.
Which tropes do you think would best fit those topics?
openColored lights during a song Film
During musical movies, during a song, all of a sudden lights are turning different colors as if it were a real musical. Think of Changing Lives or It's Not About Me from "The Prom". Blue and purple dietetic lights appear.
In Blade of the Moon Princess, we learn that an old branch of the family was exiled due to the evil actions of their heirs a long time ago. While the royal line is supposed to only produce girls, who have a certain level of control over their magic, the gene does not pass to male heirs. So when two twin boys were born, they had zero control over their powers and were both seen as bloodthirsty monsters who murdered their wives on their wedding day.
What I'm looking for is something, or perhaps multiple things, that can cover this scenario.