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openZero-Sum Relationship
A relationship between two characters (not necessarily romantic) where what one character wants/likes is opposite to the other (and vice-versa), and they "keep even" by exchanging one activity for the other.
e.g.
- Alice hates action movies, but sits through them with Bob as it's the only way he'll sit through romance movies with her.
- Alice and Barbara are assigned to do a presentation. Alice is an extroverted Dumb Blonde, Barbara an introverted Brainy Brunette, Barbara agrees to do most of the work if Alice does most of the presentation.
- Al and Bob are roommates, Al is vegetarian, Bob isn't but is in charge of cooking, so for every vegetarian meal Bob makes Al orders him a huge all-meat pizza.
openShort Fuse
Characters associated with bombs tend to have anger issues. This is distinct from Mad Bomber in which bomb-related characters are Axe-Crazy.
openTwist Reveal that a Character Only Appears to One Person
Is there a trope for when there's a twist that a character the audience has been watching all along (and assumes is a regular person) is actually only appearing to one of the other characters? Usually this is because the character doesn't actually exist and is just an alternate personality of the other character, or because they're a ghost that most people can't see. Famous examples would be The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, or The Other (1972).
If there isn't one, I think it might be worth creating one.
Edited by Luanna255openCaptain Estraz for a setting
Is there are page for settings that are based on another work's setting?
Examples
- Abiotic Factor is a Survival Sandbox set in a faculty based of Black Mesa from Half-Life
- GURPS Reign of Steel is the future of the The Terminator films with a few more skynets for variety
- Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing for Whats Old Is New is based of world of Alien
resolved Dev Leaving stuff in for Datamines Videogame
Okay, I KNOW this is a trope, but I forget the name: what's it called when a developer leaves little things in the files that would otherwise not be found for dataminers?
openA race's member is "born" within a single location only
Is there a trope for a certain location where members of a specific race are born and resurrected?
Example: In the gacha game Eversoul, the titular Souls are a magical humanoid race that are Made of Magic, and as such do not reproduce or experience mortality like humans. They're all "born" or "reawaken" near the World Tree found within the Fayren Union, one of the world's seven nations, making them a bonafide Truce Zone that no country, powerful or otherwise, can ever intrude upon or antagonize.
openRapid-Fire Contradictory Orders
Someone keeps giving orders in response to a situation, but because the situation changes so rapidly they end up giving orders opposite to the previous ones in quick succession (often exploited by their opponent due to how much time gets wasted going from one extreme to the other). Sometimes leads to Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat! .
- In the Disney Cinderella movie, the Grand Duke orders the castle gates closed to stop Cinderella from escaping, then opened to send horsemen after her.
- The "open the gate a little" meme, which goes "Open the gate", "close the gate", "open the gate a little" in response to an event perceived as positive, negative, and not all bad.
- One Lucky Luke comic has Luke and a cavalry officer argue about what to do about an Indian raid, which has them repeatedly yelling at the men to mount up or stand down, until the men ask if they could sort it out once and for all.
openUnited by Uncommon Purpose
The party comes together because they want the same thing but for very different reasons.
Example im thinking of; The princess has been kidnapped and the hero comes together to save her. One because she's their friend, one because the country needs good governance, one because earning the princess' favour would be beneficial, and one because she wants to be friends
openIncidental Immunity
Someone is immune to the current danger of the week, not permanently but due to it coinciding with some other condition or situation.
e.g.
- The Big Bad broadcasts a hypnosis wave that causes everyone to fall asleep -> Alice was taking a nap and so the wave didn't affect her, when she wakes up she's able to deal with the situation.
- A succubus is trying to seduce Bob -> He doesn't have his glasses and can't see her, so he's Not Distracted by the Sexy.
- The villain uses mind-control pheromones -> Carla has a bad cold and can't smell anything/breathe through her nose.
openBetter go to prison in the US than in Syria Live Action TV
A person on the witness stand is asked, on cross examination, about an incident several years earlier; he then basically claims all his prior testimony was a lie. It later turns out that the incident in question was a crime he comitted before becoming a US citizen; a conviction for that past crime would cause him to lose his US citizenship and be deported to Syria, while the worst he could get for changing his testimony is being sent to prison in the US where he is still guaranteed certain rights.
openFake kidnapping Live Action TV
A person steals cell phones from people going into a movie theater (no one out side will see them for a couple hours). He then uses the cell phone to call the victim's family, claiming that the victim was kidnapped, and orders that the ransom be paid very soon (it must be paid before the cell phone's owner comes out of the theater, revealing the kidnapping to be fake).
resolved Real life is a StoryWithinAStory
Is there such a trope for stories in which real life, or some event that happens in our world, exists as a fictional story by the characters? It's basically Story Within a Story, except that the "story within a story" layer and the "real life" layer are the same.
openKorean manhwa awakened hunter setting/genre?
The increasingly common setting in korean Manhwa and webtoons/webcomics where in a modern day setting there was a big event invariably called something along the lines of the great cataclysm where lots of rifts/gates full of monsters started appearing and some people end up becoming awakened hunters to fight it and overtime most end up working for for-profit guilds or the government to "clear" the gates/rifts in order to stop the monsters inside from spilling out. Its just an oddly specific trope I've seen a lot in Korean media but haven't noticed that setting/genre anywhere else.
openTrope acknowledges downer qualities it has.
A couple of weeks ago I found a trope where a media has a trope in it but acknowledges it's downer qualities as well and the image for it had a comic of "Tom and Jerry" and it featured Jerry hitting Tom in the head with a hammer and then getting arrested for it. Can someone please tell me what it is?
openImmediately wasting rations/supplies
A character or group of characters, after preparing for an adventure and stocking up on supplies, wastes or uses an important resource like food or water almost as soon as the adventure starts. Usually comedic in nature, e.g. ten minutes after leaving the Big Eater has already polished off several weeks of food to the group's chagrin.
resolved Mafia TV show, long episodes 10-20 years ago
Can you please find a show for me here is its plot 2 kids lost their mom, mafia killed her and want to kill these kids as well cuz they saw too much one random woman is running away at the start when she took the kids they ran away with a boat from one harbor with them to somewhere else this woman does not know much about them but knows their mom got killedshe is trying to save them by contacting police firstly but unfortunately, a high ranking police detective or smth like that is corrupted and trying to get these 2 kids only for the mafiaso she became wanted and marked as kidnapper of themcuz she cannot rely on the police, she trying to get to the paris for a help some ppl finds out she is that wanted one in the train while she was trying to escapeshe came to the one house where was her partner or smth like that and old man who owns that big house, but later mafia arrives there, trying to get info on where are these kids and that woman, then mafia kills both cuz they dont wanna cooperate anyways one of the kids saw that, and that corrupted cop saw him as well, and makes gestures so that kid can leavethat corrupted cop starting disliking his cooperation with that mafia and their actions, so he would like to change the sides, but ofc he cannot do that so quickly and simply, otherwise he might die kids were like 12-13 that woman was mature, brown hair ig, was not very skinny there was also one scene which happened after the train incident, where she tried to disguise herself one the girl was sick so she tried to get her help one doctor contacted them and invited them to his house he acted like does not know them but he knew that doctor just recognised them from the TV where it was showing her being WANTED but they escaped the episodes are long and it was released about 10-20 years ago
Edited by MaiLuxopenSpear counterpart of Absurdly Elderly Mother
Is there a Spear Counterpart of Absurdly Elderly Mother, or is it just Not a Trope?
Edited by AlfexopenTrigger Question
Compared to a Trigger Phrase, and Contrast to an Armor-Piercing Question that would leave a person insecure and nervous, a Trigger Question would rather enrage a person, causing them to reach their breaking point, and comeback at them with an aggressive answer.
Edited by Stouca
I'm re-watching BSG currently. Even though I knew it wass coming, I again got crazy frustrated by some of the characters who start out as competent and then lose 10 IQ points per episode, ending up as whiny idiots who shift their loyalties every five minutes. I found similar decay of characters in The Expanse, ST:Disco, Fringe, etc (degrees may vary). No clear motivation/drive, just doing a random, detrimental thing, shouting, regretting, apologizing, then immediately doing this all over again, only faster and more stupid.
In a sitcom I think its okay to turn your main cast into caricatures (Joey from Friends as prime example), but in a drama IMO its just an easy out to suddenly create tension.
Am I alone on this, and if not, is there a name for it?