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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openNot in the Original Moment Film
Sometimes in dubbed films, a line of dialogue is very different to the original line or added when it wasn't present in the original. One example is the Russian dub of Kung Fu Panda 2 which features Russian Po saying "Oh nyet" (Oh no) before being thrown onto a conveyor belt leading to lava by Shen.
openClasses in shooter games
When shooters have classes such as
- Standard soldier
- Heavy weapons guy, low damage but typically high fire rate and have abilities that increase their survivability
- Sapper, guy who builds stuff
- Sniper
- Medic
openShorter Than They Feel
Alice is mistaken as taller than she actually is, before Bob realizes that no, she isn't actually tall, she just feels tall.
Examples include Granny Weatherwax from Discworld (Tiffany Aching describes her as such), and Stanley Yelnats's eventual lawyer from Holes.
Edited by AsteroidsOnSteroidsopenDid you miss me? Film
One character, usually a supporting character, hasn't been seen for a while. They're either missing, presumed dead, or otherwise unavailable. Then, usually near the end of the story, they come back to reunite with the other characters, and we often hear them before we see them. They might say something obvious like "Did you miss me?" or something more specific to the context. Crucially, what they say isn't very important, so as not to distract from the dramatic impact of them showing up. In film and TV, this is often emphasized by a rack focus shot toward the character in question. This trope has a lot of overlap with the deus ex machina, but is not necessarily the same thing.
openA play in the song Music
Hey, do we have a trope for when a song is sort of like a little audio play about the characters singing the song? This is especially common in children's music, and especially when it's based on pre-existing franchises.
Like, the characters aren't just singing, they're also saying stuff like "Okay, now it's your turn to sing, Bob!"
Remember how, in "The Chipmunk Song", it starts with Dave telling the chipmunks it's time to sing, and yells at Alvin for being inattentive? And only after that does the song actually start?
(The Pokémon song "Christmas Medley" is the best modern example.)
Is that a trope?
Edited by MisterMusicopenMedia person alter ego
I was wondering if there was a trope in which an otherwise ordinary character secretly works as a journalist/podcast host/gossip columnist/etc...
Examples: Teresa/Tara from Shrinking Violet/Radio Rebel, Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton
openIllegitimate Favorite
A parent has several children, at least one of them illegitimate. However, that's the one they favor, possibly to the point of their legitimate offspring becoming Well Done Son Guys and Gals / The Unfavorite / The Resenter. Often involves Arranged Marriage, since they're more likely to dote on the children they had willingly with their love rather than the Heir And A Spare required by their place in society.
And a variation where the illegitimate one isn't necessarily treated better or worse than the legitimate ones, but are instead much better in some way (physically, mentally, superpowers, etc.) e.g. a king's bastard is free of Royal Inbreeding-caused health issues; a woman in an Arranged Marriage to a Pathetically Weak man has an affair with a much stronger man so the illegitimate son is naturally much stronger, etc.), sparking similar resentment from the legitimate child(ren).
openDromaeosaurs going after large prey
It seems to be a cliche in dinosaur-focused media where pack-hunting dromaeosaurs (think Velociraptor or Deinonychus) go after large prey like hadrosaurs, ceratopsians or sauropods, despite their huge size difference.
Edited by BingChillingopenLiteral Game-Changing Spells
I don't think there's already a trope about spells or abilities that temporarily relax or completely nullify some of the estabilished rules of the setting, especially in games?
Take for example the "Room" Moves from Franchise/Pokémon- for a max of 5 turns, they change the in-battle rules: one Room deactivates all held items, one switches the values of Defense and Special Defense for all mons, and especially Trick Room, which makes slower mons move before faster ones.
Another example that I remember could be a Yu-Gi-Oh! card that allows the user to have more than 6 cards in their hand, I guess it's called "Infinity"?
openI'm Useless
Character feels bad because they feel useless to the group
Example: Quint in the The Last Kids on Earth Season 2, episode 3
openOut of format episode
Is there a trope for an episode of a show with a Strictly Formula that doesn't follow said formula? Not quite Out-of-Genre Experience, but just some changes in the usual proceedings? Or are such episodes supposed to be listed as aversions of Strictly Formula?
openInsult Intentionally Cut Short
A character deliberately interrupts himself before he can finish saying something insulting, while saying enough of it to ensure everyone knows who he's talking about.
e.g. Bob used to work for a Corrupt Politician who employed him for all manner of illegal activities from picking up drugs to bribing officials to silencing witnesses and paternity suit cases. Whenever the subject comes up, Bob always refers to him as "the Republ- *cough* the politician", with no use of names or pronouns, the whole four words and a cough.
openAngered Gestures of Restraint
When a character is enraged enough the point of wanting to choke a the offender, but has to restrain themselves by making strangling cupping gesture with their hands while trying to resist the urge to do so.
openA trope where someone reaches down another person's throat
Trying to see if there is a trope for when one character (let's say Alice) reaches their hand down the throat of another character (let's say Bob), and pull something out. It could be that Alice is pulling something out of Bob's "stomach of holding", or is trying to grab something stuck in his throat, or is feeling malicious and is ripping something out against his will. Is there such a trope for this? It seems like something that would be common in most forms of animation.
openAngelic/divine possession
Inverse of Demonic Possession, this is when a divine being possesses someone in order to closely see the mortal world, or to "talk" to certain people directly, or to assert more influence in the immediate surroundings, etc.
openI can still hear them... Western Animation
A character is presumed dead, but is alive and in danger nearby. The character will yell to a mourner, to which the mourner will say that they can still hear the character, before finally realizing what the person is saying and going off to help. Usually "I can still hear them now" or similar phrases are said.
Edited by DrOlsonopenColors of Darkness
When it comes to usual color schemes for villains, I often see combinations of red and black, black and purple, black and blue, even black with multiple shades of cyan. Either way, they're all color combos that are usually associated with darkness. I'm also sure there are plenty of evil color combos out there that may be listed. What are they?
Edited by TheSuperShinyMegaGengaropenPinball Playfield Prop
AKA a "Toy." This is basically what it says on the tin. Pinball tables with figurines of some description, ranging from a statue/doll to an animatronic.
Examples include:
Physical Pinball Tables:
- Apollo 13 has a Saturn rocket (the titular Apollo 13) and the moon, which has an electromagnet in it to make balls orbit.
- Mary Shellys Frankenstein has a bust (plus both arms) of The Monster, who acts as a Popper for the balls.
- Stern's Starship Troopers has a Brain Bug.
Digital pinball tables:
- Pinball Deluxe:
- Jurassic Links has several; a quartet of dinosaur eggs (that can be hatched with a skillshot, whereupon they react when hit), a bronosaurus figurine, and an animated golf cart being chased by a T-Rex.
- Rydes has a diner in the Town section, a gas pump in the Garage, and a quintet of traffic cones that play a honking car horn SFX.
- Tradewind is studded with various toys (a mine, a windmill, and some pine trees on table 1, and a gem mine and more pine trees on table 2. In the Galactic Trade skin it's changed to a centrifuge and cooling stack, and the trees are kept in biodome sattelites). It is a very quest-heavy table, with various Toys needed to be hit in order to collect and refine various resources.
Sometimes the slightly/moderately changed dialogue created by dubs can be superior to the original lines. For example in The Amazing Digital Circus Pilot there's a funny moment where Bubble cleans Pomni's vomit with his tongue and Caine replies with "Why are you like this". But in Ukrainian it's even better as the line instead is "Evolution has passed you by".