PDA

View Full Version : Favourite Tropes?


Serio
10-11-2010, 10:16 AM
Well, as the topic title stated, what are your favourite tropes? Mine are:

Who Wants To Live Forever - Why? Employed correctly against the Big Bad, it can actually make the reader feel like the victory in the story was greater than it should be. Take the TV series Alias, for example;
It ends with Arvin Sloane, the big bad evil, traitorous bastard getting his long sought immortality. Oh, did I mention his best friend blows himself up to trap him inside the tomb he gained the immortality within? And for a brief moment, his dead daughter, whom he killed, appears before him to taunt him for a bit? Yeah, that's "Who Wants To Live Forever" for you.

Foreshadowing - Why? Singularity, the game, is a perfect example of this Trope, I think:
Throughout the game you find hidden messages. At first they just seem like some mad scientists work, with no apparent coherence. But as you progress they go from random recipes of destruction to warnings such as "He did it." and later "Don't do it." and at last, it begins to sound more panicked as it tries to warn you. It then ends the entire game with you realising that those messages were, in fact, left by you. In fact, if you later replay the game, you can even hear your own voice(the protagonist) shouting "Don't do it!"

Fridge Logic - Why? They're great for some comic relief. Especially if it's noted by characters in the story.

(Here's some help in finding the names: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tropes )

Jason
11-02-2010, 05:25 PM
I love TVTropes, but I find myself getting stuck there, much as in this XKCD comic:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tab_explosion.png

Anyway, some of the tropes I got a wry grin from are:

Cruelty Is The Only Option (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption):

Basically, Kratos is the biggest asshole in the history of the world, with Alex Mercer (Prototype) not far behind.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu)

Essentially where a fairly run-of-the-mill character single-handedly defeats a god or some other hugely powerful being.
Doom is one of the legends in this department. The hero, an ordinary Space Marine, with an arsenal of powerful but in no way supernatural weapons, kills his way through hell, defeating archedemons and such.
It ends with Hell exploding. The Marine does not go in for half measures.