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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There's two types of people. They may be different species, or subspecies, or whatever, but the point is they have different physical capabilities. A member of one of them does something that the other can't do, and the second race commends that person for their skill and bravery, etc... only what the first person did has nothing to do with them personally, it's a side-effect of their race.
Maybe an example would help: In World of Warcraft, you, a tiny fleshy being, are working with giant rock people. One of them sends you to these caves where you fight one of their most dangerous enemies: rock-eating worms. The guy is amazed by your ability to kill the worms, as they would eat through him in a few seconds. He tells you how brave you are, how skilled of a fighter, but your victory over the worms had more to do with the fact that they couldn't hurt you nearly as much as they could someone made of stone, not from any personal skill (although it played a part).
There was another thing like this in the Fairly Odd Parents, where the Yugopotamians revered Timmy for his ability to not be burned by flowers, chocolate, hugs, and niceness in general, but that was more Rule of Funny.
So is this a trope? Could it be?
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Is there a trope for the overriding feeling in some works that the world is a crazy comedy? Not in the sense that it's necessarily hilarious (although it is) or absurd (although it is) but the notion that the world and the universe deliberately set up amusing ironies. This is the spirit behind works (IMHO) like, say, Third Rock From the Sun, most comedy sketch shows, Fry & Laurie, Stella. I'm talking about the spirit behind H.L. Mencken's "The liberation of the human mind has ... been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries." (Gay in this here of course refers to happy) Maybe what I'm looking for is that the feeling that "It's a Mad World," but mad more in the sense of "amusing, eccentric" and not the "crazed, irrational, terrifying" sense. It's *not* the sense that "Hey, these are eccentric characters in a normal world" or "Hey, these are bad characters in a good or indifferent world" (see "It's Always Sunny"), but "These are weird characters in a world that is weird in itself." The lighter side of "Twin Peaks" is like this. I know this a bit abstract, but there's gotta be a trope for this...
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Is there a trope for when people always get interrupted whenever they start to say someone's name, and as a result that name is never revealed to the audience? (example: "Combustion Man"'s real name in Avatar The Last Airbender)
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A character demonstrates his/her knowledge of another character by spouting out a long list of completely irrelevant facts.
—-
Kaffee: You don't even know me. Ordinarily it takes someone hours to discover I'm not fit to handle a defense.
Galloway: I do know you. Daniel Alli Stair Kaffee, born June 8th, 1964 at Boston Mercy Hospital. Your father's Lionel Kaffee, former Navy Judge Advocate and Attorney General, of the United States, died 1985. You went to Harvard Law on a Navy scholarship, probably because that's what your father wanted you to do, and now you're just treading water for the three years you've gotta serve in the JAG Corps, just kinda layin' low til you can get out and get a real job.
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What's the trope where a character is misinformed about the exact circumstances of an event, thus drastically changing their perception of what happened?
For instance, in Spider-Man 3: Peter finds out that Sandman killed Uncle Ben, and hates him for it. It's only later that he finds out that it was accidental.
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What's the trope for that old and simple joke that basically goes like this:
- Bob: Now call me crazy—Alice: You're crazy.
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I was looking at phone tropes https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PhoneTropes and "Single Sided Phone Call" wasn't there.
What do we call that over here? I know it has to be here. Everyone has it. Every show does it at some point.
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What's the trope used for single lens glasses (Space Monocles?) which occur almost entirely in sci-fi, which have computers integrated into them? An example from Homestuck is here: and here: , but I've seen them elsewhere, and the US Army had a research programme called Land Warrior which tried to develop an IRL equivalent.
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Does anyone know the trope where a character is trying to get a hold of an item, but said item keeps getting kicked around in all the commotion surrounding him? An example of this would be in the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when Indy's trying to get his hands on the antidote he needs.
It's not quite Hot Potato, because that involves a group of people trying to get the item, and this is just one person.
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I'm wondering if there is a trope for this scenario that I often see in investigative shows: It's an arbitrary connection between a smell and a suspect.
Investigator arrives at the scene. Assistant: I like that cologne/perfume you're wearing. Investigator: I'm not wearing any cologne/perfume. (Later, in interrogation, the Investigator says with a dawning look of realization) I recognize the cologne/ perfume you are wearing, YOU killed so-and-so!
I've seen it played three different ways: 1. A character complements the cologne an investigator is NOT wearing at the scene of the crime. 2. A character is sensitive/allergic to a certain key smell, which turns out to be the smoking gun if the suspect has it on him/her. 3. A main or side character suddenly has the same condition as the suspect, leading the investigators to determine who the suspect is. ex: Character A: I recognise that fruity smell... Character B: Oh, yeah. I'm suddenly diabetic, that smell is me being diabetic. At no other time in the episode or series will I continue to be diabetic, this will never be mentioned again. Ever. Character A: (look of realization) The suspect must be diabetic!
It drives me nuts, and I've seen it in everything from Monk to NCIS.
Never once do the characters consider that more than a single bottle of a cologne brand is made, and more than one person could be wearing said brand, or the fact that the suspect no longer wears said brand (it's probably been weeks since crime scene discovery and interrogation).
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What is the name of the trope describing a scene where a bunch of people are after an item of some sort (usually the MacGuffin, sometimes just a gun) and the item just keeps getting kicked around, tossed around back and forth like a football, slips through people's fingers, etc. but no one can quite get a hold of it?
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As an Older Than Print story is adapted over time, important characters are left out and gradually forgotten, to the point that their existance conflicts with current canon. Is there a character-specific trope for this?
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You know how in certain anime and manga, when introducing two new characters, likely an evil duo, there will be one serving as the brute (the taller member), and one serving as the brains (the shorter member). However, when pressed, it seems that the shorter one is the far more powerful/skilled one.
So far I can recall three examples:
1) Dragon Ball: Vegeta and Nappa 2) Naruto: Itachi and Kisame 3) Prince of Tennis: Atobe and that guy whose name escapes me at the moment
Does anyone have a trope name?
Edited by av12971
Alright, this is one that's bothering me. What do you call the trope when the hero and the villain have to die, but it was't predetermined? For example...
Bob is the hero, John is the villain. John tied Bob to him at the beginning of the story, so if John dies, Bob dies, but if Bob dies, John doesn't have to die. At the end of the story, Bob lets John be killed, and is killed himself.
It's a sort of Heroic Sacrifice, obviously, but I searched through them and I couldn't find the one I'm looking for. =/ Help?