Moar Tropes!!

What about animal companions as a kind of bonus to the Five Man Band collection?

So, I find myself rewatching the original Voltron and just... the sheer number of tropes beyond the obvious ones it literally birthed. Like Princesses with animal friends, sweet vaguely sweedish or Norwegian nanny, big Olga type... plus of course all the ones named for it even If they predate... Anyway, was just refreshing my memory on the og before I finally give the Netflix reboot a chance...

I've always been a big fan of "crouching moron, hidden badass" (Trigun, Rurouni Kenshin, Iroh from atla, etc) ❤️

maybe some of the "did you just punch god/satan/chuluthu/ in the face?" topics would be fun.

So, this thread is probably dead and not monitored anymore, but I've got one more. The hazards of a "Downer Ending." I was watching a video on End of Evangelion recently and it showed a quote about how one of the writers talked up giving the series a sad ending because so few pieces of media do this. And it struck me how that kind of explains the problem with the ending of the original series. End of Evangelion is a very memorable and impactful finale to a renowned series, but it is also unsatisfying, both because it has a downer ending. It's the problem that occurs when you chase the prestigious downer ending without really considering the result of it. Namely, downer endings often result in everything the audience had experienced being pointless. Evangelion is an especially bad example of this because it is a giant monster of the week series that is just as much about the characters trying to move past the trauma that the premise created in their lives. But at the end, none of them did or they died. Which would be a decent, impactful ending if this was a short piece of fiction that only took like half-an-hour to complete, but this was 26 episodes and a movie. As a rule, most longer forms of media don't have a downer ending, because the longer it is, typically the more invested the audience is, and they'll feel cheated if the ending says all the characters didn't really learn anything or progress as characters. There are ways a downer ending can work for longer media. "Kill Em All" Tomino does this with a number of his series where he earns the nickname. Ideon for example, which is the series Evangelion is taking some inspiration from (remove the head from both robots and Evas and Ideon basically have the same shape). The difference is Tomino mostly makes war stories where the death of his entire cast or the extinction of all life in the setting is a satisfying payoff because the central focus is on the concept of war (particularly inspired by the Cold War where such an outcome was possible), unlike a series like EVangelion where the central focus was on characters. Of course, this leads into tragedies like Shakespeare's and how they're very character focused downer endings work. I also feel "Thursday the 12th" needs to be brought up when discussing Downer Endings. This is a term I used in my old writing class when discussing stories with a downer ending that basically just presented the events as part of a cycle of just another day in the life of those who will never escape the awful situation they're end. It's an expansion of the question "If the events in the story are not significant or note worthy, why are we reading it?" As you can guess the name "Thursday the 12th" is a play on the "Friday the 13th" franchise. Basically, I use the term because stories with this kind of downer ending are like watching a slasher movie with no final girl or defeat of the slasher, meaning we just watched a slasher kill a bunch of people, which is something they do all the time, so why were we supposed to be invested in this time? And I as seen horror movies end like this as it's a genre that, theoretically, lends itself to downer endings more than others.

Enemies/Rivals to lovers. I'm a real sucker for it and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Really, any trope having to do with sliding around on the good/evil alignment axis. Redemption, falling from grace, moral greyness, etc, I love it all.

I know it's not technically a trope, but going back through a bunch of favorite Disney movies I realized GREED is a surprisingly popular villain motivation. Scar, Ursula, lots of Shakespeare antagonists/villains, Palpatine: they all suffer from some version of "I want". Why is this such a compelling motivation? It is what drives the Macguffin plot and the El Dorado myth. And so many cultures warn against it. Avarice is defined as "the root of all evil." But it doesn't have to be money greed; power hunger is arguably more popular. And the climatic battle in this fanfiction spells out just how stupid it is: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18827680 ... Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I needed to purge. Keep up the awesome work!!

The Puppy Kicker Trope? I feel like it gets a lot of use in more recent media and I’m interested to hear more on it

Is it too late for commenting? I'd like, if possible, a video on "the center of the mind"? Journeys, Battles etc.

One of my favorite tropes is none other than 'Near Villain Victory'! I would absolutely love to see you folks at Overly Sarcastic Productions talk about that, as the trope itself has a huge fondness to my ideas. ;)

Big fan of the 'Mugging the Monster' and 'Bullying the Dragon' tropes. When an author invents reasons for characters to be aggressive towards someone they are significantly weaker than... whether they know it or not.

DND. Characters meets the 5 man band? Slash using tropes in “real stories”

Anthropomorphic animals. Lots to explore; long history.

I don't know what it's called, but the subversion of how every season villain gets tougher (city killer, planet killer, galaxy killer...) and then there's the really low powered serial killer who knows the hero's Mum's address, so while they can't end the world, they feel far worse than a world breaker

Alright, I know I already made a post with a few ideas, but I really need to propose ONE MORE that I think Red would like: the "Team Normal" trope, where a crew of fantastical characters has exactly one member who has nothing fantastical about them (or at least, 'nothing' compared to the rest of the team). Am I proposing this because Falst from Red's comic Aurora is a textbook example of this? Yes, absolutely. Am I also proposing it because it's one of my favorite tropes to see done well, and least favorite to see done badly? ALSO yes!

Not a Trope Talk, but a Literary Classic topic that would generate a lot of interesting discussion: C S Lewis's Space Trilogy (or at the very least Out of the Silent Planet). Yeah, before writing Narnia, C S Lewis wrote a sci-fi trilogy and it's weird. If you want a bridge between Dante's Paradiso and the science-fiction that would grow in the 50s, here you go. It's worth a read just to see how an author who, today, is seen as having a lot of conservative views in our time (and is certainly used by conservatives of our time) was shockingly progressive and liberal for his time. The series was specifically written as a rejection of the era's love of colonialism, eugenics, the white man's burden, genocide (the first book was written as the Nazis rose to power, so this wasn't seen as a universally bad thing yet), Utopianism, and the facade of science used to justify philosophies of power, indifference to others, and inherent superiority. Even his takes that seem to have not aged well were more progressive for their time. The third book comes off as very anti-transhumanist, but it's built against the dehumanizing ideology that only same how to make humans work better, not happier or smarter, and only same people as cogs in the machine. His first book seems to be anti-evolution, but Lewis didn't see evolution as conflicting with biblical teachings. But he did take umbrage with some people's belief that they could steer evolution and that the inner characters and morals of humanity was something that was optional on the process. Most of his villains in the books are academics and scientist, but Lewis said he did this because he worked in academia and only really new people in proximity to the field and didn't want to insult people by trying to write about professions he didn't know about. In this book series, C S Lewis says that not only can gender be divorced from biological sex, he says there are Seven genders.

Another sci-fi one: "Precursor Civilization." An ancient civilization that was space faring long before any of the present species were, but disappear for some reason before anyone else lift their native systems. Often (though not always) their leftover tech is how the rest of the civilizations got faster than light travel and why everyone's technology is roughly even with one another. Also a common explanation if their are species that look similar to humans or other species that the audience can wrap their heads around. It's a very common trope in sci-fi nowadays with a lot of uses beyond just making aliens easier to write. Provides a nice mystery if the characters find themselves on or near a piece of Precursor tech or if it's just scattered around the galaxy. Once again I go back to Macross where all the very similar human-like species were specifically made to serve a purpose for the Protoculture (like organic robots) before they themselves just disappeared.

I feel like Shapeshifters and the associated tropes are such a unique breed of chaos that would be good for a trope talk. There's a ton of cliches with it for sure but there's also a ton of cool and interesting ways that it's done really well (like in Journey to the West with the Six Eared Macque being a literal carbon copy of Monkey where literally no one could tell the difference)

Ooh, this is a great one. It's one of those terms that get thrown around a lot in pop culture discourse, but mostly by people with a very vague idea of what it means, much like the "Mary Sue" trope! So a Trope Talk explaining the history and context would be a TRUE SERVICE TO THE WORLD.

Got one that isn't sci-fi exclusive: Women are Wiser.

Animal companions would be fun! They seem to fill other trope roles in unique ways, but often also somewhat mirror the role of the character they're more attached to. Scooby and Shaggy sometimes are filling a space the other can't, sometimes they're interchangeable, and other times they require each other; the Scooby franchise turns into a new beast when Scooby isn't there though

This is one that has become my least favorite trope since I've started writing and critiquing writing: "Redemption Equals Death." The idea being that a villain or morally dubious character either redeems themself through self-sacrifice or dies soon after becoming a good person and joining the hero's side. The reason it's become my least favorite trope is because it feels too lazy and convenient a lot of time. Like, Darth Vader couldn't really just walk away scot-free at the end of Return of the Jedi after all he did, and the audience of the time wouldn't accept it; I get that. But then you have characters like Hrathen from Elantris who has this whole arc where he comes to terms with the negative aspects of his religion and the evil things he's done in service for it. Then he helps the heroes at the end and dies for it for no reason other than "Well his story is over, put a cap on it." It annoys me because there was a story that could have been suggested to happen if he lived, of this once evil priest navigating a world where his religion has been used to conquer and oppress other people. It could have been a fantasy Martin Luther story. Then you have Scarlemagne who dies at the end of Kipo after a season where he eventually came to her side of things and came to terms with the awful things that happened to him and how he returned it back to the world in a classic cycle of violence. It's annoying because the trope just pushes to the side the implications of what these characters would do after the present crisis has passed. How would they make up for the evil they did to the world? How would they try to seek redemption with all the people they hurt? (Redemption Equals Death usually only has them redeeming themselves to one person or a small group with their sacrifice.) Would the world at large even accept them? Or would they eventually be killed by the world they wrong as punishment for their crimes? Ironically, Star Wars made a "What If" comic about Darth Vader (A character who's crimes were so massive, Redemption Equals Death is justifiably invoked) where he survives and travels the galaxy as a Jedi, trying to make up for the evil he did.

So I know I’m a little late to the party (hey I only just got here) but I’d love to see the bunny eared lawyer trope, specifically why do we assume that anyone who is supremely relented in one field has glaring deficincies elsewhere as opposed to the ubermensch

Been hanging out for a "Heroic/Redemptive Self-Sacrifice" trope talk. Why is it always such an effective gut punch to see someone go out in a way that lets others live to fight another day?

We never did learn what Blue meant by "Chekov's Seafood Buffet", did we?

I love the technician vs performer trope when used well, it's a versatile conflict starter, makes for lots of interesting dynamics, and putting the technician on equal footing with the performer is an induction of realism I can get behind. Also, an example listed on the tvtropes page of Alinua and Erin arguing is how I got hooked on Aurora, so that's neat.

My favorite tropes are: fire-forged friends, refuge in audacity, and "And then what" especially when applied to characters like Lord Shen in Kung fu Panda 2. Done beautifully in the Princess Bride with Inigo Montoya in a sweet heartwarming way. I also just recently watched the 2016 Assassin's Creed movie and could see "Nice job fixing it, villain" coming line runaway train through a mountain tunnel.

Damn it Red! You've got me back into reading TV Tropes pages, there was stuff I'd have liked to have actually accomplished in the last couple days. Anyways, Insufficiently Advanced Aliens would make a pretty good Trope Talk. It's where a species have an oddly unequal level of technology, often having FTL-space travel but lacking some other form of technology that should be relatively simple in comparison. Sometimes this can be something reasonable, like having less advanced weapons than humans because they're not warlike. Other times, it can be odd, like them being amazed at a thermos or not having long range communication. Sometimes writers justify this by just giving the aliens a culture or home world that would lead the aliens away from technology we would find common place and towards technology that fits their needs. Other times they make it a cultural-preference thing, like a proud warrior society that prefers melee combat because of honor or instinct. Other times they have it where the aliens didn't actually make the tech themselves but were given it by another species (see the Zentradi from Robotech/Macross and the Saiyans from Dragonball). Amusingly, the MCU has all three of these justifications, plus magic. In Guardians of the Galaxy it's shown that way points exist that don't even need a sip's computer to use (the TV trope page notes that the MCU barrier for entry on space travel is hot air balloon).

"From Nobody to Nightmare" where someone/thing modest or unassuming grows to be a terrifying force of evil, often as a reaction to some evil done to them. I would also vouch for the kind of heroic counterpart, "Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds" where a sad, sympathetic character that life seems to hate, is also capable of incredible power, which does nothing to alleviate their misery.

I would love for you to talk about genres. As in, are there tropes that only appear in romance but never in horror? How do we define genre itself and how many tropes can it subvert and still be of that genre?

I would personally go crazy for a magic schools trope talk <3

So I've been thinking about this for a while actually: Transformations You could talk about transformation in regards to power ups, "this isn't even my final form" the differences in culture for "one Winged angels" versus the "bishonen line" wherein the power increases based on how monstrous v. Pretty your transformation is; you can talk about baleful polymorphs as well, and how many old stories had both one-true heirs being turned into frogs, or evil hags appearing as beautiful maidens, or good fairies/witches/enchantresses appearing as ugly old crones for secret tests of character Shape shifting is a wide umbrella that reaches over a lot of themes and media

Touched by vorlons would be an interesting follow up to the chosen one.

Please, I desperately want to see you cover Crapsacharine World. It's such a rich well of discussion and it pairs well with your other topics.

I figure it'd be neat to see your take on "Refuge in Audacity" if you think there's enough substance to make a video about it! Also known for one of its applications, the Bavarian Fire Drill. The especially fun part is that it works in real life a lot more often than it should, too.

Would be interesting so see something covering "Punk-punk" (Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Dieselpunk, etc). Not sure if each genre has enough specifics for an individual video, but you could cover the meta-genre as a whole.

Would love to see your take on Climate-fiction (Cli-fi) and SolarPunk. Maybe some analysis of character-driven stories vs. plot-driven stories vs. multi-generational multiple perspective stories, although this may be more up Tim's ally.

Death of Magic - or "Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology”. Overlap with the Magic Goes Away - the world no longer needs magic, so it fades to leave (our) mundane world. I.e. Tolkien’s central theme of decline, Spice and Wolf, most of the Ghibli’s.

Oh man so many that would be interesting! Afrofuturism would be great, especially since the new Black Panther movie came out recently...Found Family is one where I'm honestly shocked you haven't done it yet, it clearly fits well with your tastes in media...Bloodlines and Inherited Superpowers is one that's always fascinated me, and I'd love to hear your take on it...and the last one I'll propose (for now) is Lost Cities, since I recently read Annalee Newitz's book on actual historical lost cities and it got me thinking about the fictional tropes surrounding them.

Im not sure if its a full trope but good is not soft, so good characters that you DO NOT want to piss off cause they will kick your but into the next week

I lied I do have another trope, since you did sequels, why not remakes/ reboots

Tropes on popular animals. Cats, dogs and, to lesser degrees rats/mice, foxes, and rabbits have entire indexes of tropes associated with them. Pick one animal and go through a bunch of the tropes associated with them and what it says about our perception of those individual animals.

I have no more tropes I just wanted to say how crazy it is that this is the 170th comment on here, that's a lotta trope suggestions

there is one that ive seen be called "The Killmonger". its the character who is completely justified in their beliefs but also randomly murders so we know that they are the bad guys of the story. the ones i can yhink of right now are the revolutionary from Falcon and the winter soldier and killmonger from black panther. im sure there are others.

I'm not sure if has an official name or anything but: humanity in question. Sometimes its resource that can be spent or taken. Its sometimes bumped up against transhumanism in sci fi with cyborgs and such sure. It also can be in things like cosmic horror or fantasy with being corrupted or demons or super powered evil sides. Other times it comes up in the form of a revelation that a character that thought they were just a regular human turns out has hidden bloodlines which triggers the character to start questioning stuff. I think it can have some interesting moral and philosophical questions that come up from it. The other trope that comes to mind that I believe theres grounds to explore is fusions. Sometimes its a sentient being and an inanimate object, sometimes its two people. Sometimes it goes in reverse plot wise where there was a thing at the start of the story which was whole and then gets split up then the plot happens. It comes up an awful lot in stories, and depending on how its being presented can be as wide ranging as apotheosis to romance to body horror.

Color Coded for your Convenience, if only to see how different brands of media try to dictate different things using visuals alone

So here's one that would have to be a series of Trope Talks or one really long one: Transformation Tropes. There's a lot of them from Gender Bender, to animal, to furry, to age, monstrous, inanimate, voluntary, involuntary, curse, blessing--I can keep going on. And there is an interesting history and progression to the topic. In olden days it was a curse of some kind, typically done by a witch or the devil. You covered a bit of it on werewolf. But in fairy tales in the like, a transformation was always a negative. But nowadays, there are dozens of web comics and anime that involve transformation, some times as a source of angst about body and identity issues, while others have it as a source of goofy fun. There is a discussion to be had about how more modern media portrays transformations and how often the transformation sticks at the end. It should also be noted how often more modern transformation fiction tends to be very friendly to LBGTQ+ communities. Even if they don't start out being, the fiction either gets a fan base with the community or the author start bringing in more nonbinary themes as the author figures things out about themselves (Looking at you EL Goonish Shive). And, of course, a discussion about transformation themed stories wouldn't be complete without bringing up one of science-fiction's weird uncles--Jack Chalker! Who made a career writing weird novels where all his characters end up changing bodies, sex, age, species or all the above. Yes, I'm taking this opportunity to recommend another one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Start with Midnight at the Well of Souls.

A new yet similar series: Trope Subversion. Damsel in distress is flipped where she escapes or helps the hero find a way to save her (like Princess Peach). Another example I’ve seen is from an Isekai anime where the mc is not from the modern world like usual and is from the distant past. All of the Trope Talk that has been done so far has a reverse side to them and they make very surprising changes to the status quo.

»Split personalities« You know, the ones that are just fun, the weird ones that make no sense at all, the ones that kind of match the real dissociative identity disorder according to DSM-5 and ICD-11. The list goes on and on, but opportunities and pitfalls for writers transcend the many, many subcategories.

That trope where all the minions drop dead after a single bad guy is destroyed/killed. Like all the aliens in Avengers. Or the little ships when the mothership in ID4 was taken out.

A Trope you should have broken down: Koi to Dragon. Wherein an unassuming character obtains ultimate power through sheer force of will and perseverance. It's named after a fable by the same name. A couple examples of this that I can think of is probably Goku and Saitama.

Enemies to lovers I wouldn't say I like it but you could get away with it in February

"Musical Episode", with triple bonus points for singing your presentation.

The "misheard conversation" is one I'd be interested in hearing discussed. This is when one character overhears part of a conversation about themselves and they hear the part where the person talking is saying negative things about them, so our protagonist gets upset and leaves. We later learn that if they had stayed around for a few more seconds, they would have heard that the person talking about them really cares about them. Gravity Falls and Owl House both have episodes where this happens, and I know it happens other places too.

Fourth Wall shenanigans. From outright breaks to subtle nods. The most common and well known types are played for comedy, but it's absolutely possible for fourth wall stuff to be played for drama, so there's a lot of ground to cover

I’d love to see Love Wins. Either this trip is newish or just new again, but it’s starting to show up in various places even while having existed for years. Like in Encanto where the magic is saved by replacing a foundation of works and “earning” the magic, with a foundation of love, and so love is the answer that wins the day. Or in Thor: Love & Thunder where at the end, Thor chooses love, and I’m seeing true and real love, the villain also chooses love. Maybe even Naruto Shippuden in how Naruto absolutely refuses to give up on Sauske (or Gara) because no matter what, no matter how many times Naruto almost dies, he loves that guy and he’s never going to stop hoping for him (Ep 48). The Love Wins is soooo good and I’d love to see it covered.

Lethal chef might be interesting

Back to back badasses is a favorite of mine.

Disasters / Acts of God. Think movies like Twister, Armageddon, San Andreas, Don’t Look Up, Pompeii, 2020, Day After Tomorrow, etc.

Last one from me: psychopomps. A character or entity that guides a character to the afterlife. This sort of blends over with a mythic-type video (I'm thinking like the one you did on the Wild Hunt), but I would love to see you dive into the inspirations, folklore, and storytelling purposes of a spiritual guide (even if it's broadened to all spirit guides).

I know you did a livestream about this, but I'd love to see a more formal video with a grab bag of smaller, maybe semi-related tropes - things that don't get much attention. One thought would be appearance and clothing based tropes, like bald of evil/bald of awesome, beard of sorrow, badass longcoat, etc. - tied together as how these appearance tropes work on a meta level to clue the audience in immediately about some fact or facet of the character, before we even learn anything else.

Mh, maybe a trope talk about reboot/remake/reimaginings, as a companion video to the Sequels Trope Talk. Another idea that may need to be subdivided in several Trope Talks is anthropomorphism, or why humans want to give human traits to non human stuff

Okay, I desperately want to hear your trope talk on fanservice - both the sexy and non-sexy kinds. I want to hear your take on why shows aimed at kids feel the need to include eye candy (I recall an interview with someone who worked on Pokemon indicating that Ash always needs a female companion for that reason, and thought it was creepy and made worse by saying it outright). I also want to hear your thoughts on things like Star Wars throwing out meaningless, in your face easter eggs and callbacks, or the Spiderman: No Way Home applause breaks, and how that can help or hurt what the author/creator is trying to do. I think that would be a fascinating dive into pandering, exploring the reality of an audience's base desires, and whether art should rise above that.

Henchmen (not the same as minions) the faceless masses of cronies that do the bad guy’s bidding. There is a really good Invisibles issue about a henchmen killed in a previous issue and his wife and family that got me thinking about them.

Gentlemen Thief. You could talk about the origins in Robin Hood and Arsene Lupin, and go to modern examples like Sly Cooper Lupin the Third and Neal from White Collar.

"Go-Karting with Bowser" perhaps?

Legacy Characters

Sidekicks! Sometimes incompetent, often obnoxious, halfway between a teammate and a damsel in distress, sometimes a love interest (whether the author meant that or not), often the audience stand-in. They're great and they're awful. Deserves discussion! (Note that we're not just talking about Robin and Jimmy Olsen and Bucky Barnes, here. It's also Watson, Jaskier, and Navi...)

Oh, how about Put on a bus, and other roster-shuffling tropes?

is "who do you (not) save?" a trope, or just a plot question?

Knight of Cerebus and Cerebus Syndrome! They both involve a shift in the narrative to a more dramatic direction. Like, Knight of Cerebus is a specific person whose appearance in a show or movie causes the narrative to shift to a more dramatic direction and cerebus syndrome is somewhat similar to Knight of Cerebus, except that it's not one person whose appearance causes a shift in the tone of the narrative, but rather the tone of the narrative shifts on a specific event.

I don’t know if it has a name, but I’d really like to know about the origins of the trope where something hyped up to be horrifying and badass turns out to be super friendly, cause I’m pretty sure that’s a relatively modern one (or only got popular in modernity, maybe).

How about the Deadpan Snarker? It’s such a great trope.

Well I'm going to get lost on the massive string of suggestions here, but have you ever considered tackling the "Death of the Author" phenomena? I am aware that it's not exactly a trope per se, but it occurs in writing (And other forms of art for that matter) a lot these days. The idea that an author's intentions gets lost from reader/fan interpretation, or even reinterpretation in some cases. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the intentions, the work itself, and even whoever is analyzing the work. All of this is to say that Rhetoric is VERY hard to tackle, but is no less something that happens all the time... to an extent.

Good Is Not Nice is one I've always been fond of, because I think it offers a lot of really morally interesting characters. I'm also always a sucker for a lot of sibling-related tropes, like Big Brother Instinct or Promotion to Parent, and I'd love to see your take on why they can make for such compelling character dynamics!

For when you need a feel-good: Doing it for the art! (or variations thereof)

So you've completed the five-man band, but what about the non-hero leader? The Big Good. This is, well the image used on TV Tropes is Optimus Prime, and it's hard to explain it better than that. The opposite of the Big Bad who usually stands above the band as the symbol of hope and stability that is leading them against chaos and oppression. The Big Good can only really be the leader and main character if the cast is big enough and events so diverse to need one figure for the plot overall to revolve around.

Maybe checkoff's gun

I like "Oft evil will shall evil mar" or to quote my college English professor (who I'm sure was quoting someone else): Evil often accomplishes for good that which good can not accomplish on its own. And maybe note the counter example of 1984. I've always considered that the most horrifying aspect of 1984-- that the evil has learned how to not destroy itself.

Fake Ultimate/Accidental Heroes. Their brilliant tactical sense has saved the army from ambush countless times, they’ve performed a daring infiltration to rescue the princess, their bravery is undoubtedly after seeking out and single-handedly defeating the enemy champion. Or at least that’s their reputation. In truth they were trying to find a nice quiet spot away from the fighting when they stumbled over enemy troops, or were looking to raid the wine cellar when they took a wrong turn and ended yo in the dungeons, or got knocked around in the scrum and flailed at whoever was in front of them with their terrified shrieking being taken as a manly war cry. I’m talking characters like Rincewind from Discworld, Ciaphas Cain from his titular series, or Prince Jalan from Red Queen’s War.

If you want to do a criminally under utilized trope: Mobile-Suit Human. It's a giant robot that is only giant to its tiny inhabitants. Is usually a comedy thing where a small alien is trying to disguise itself as human or make itself more imposing. But image this trope where the tiny operators of the robot use it like how giant robots are used in other fiction. All the tropes of a super robot fight but just the size of a dude. Honestly, I'm asking for this because, since reading the page last week, I've had this image of a bunch of mice building a human-sized Gundam to fight cat Zeon, and I don't have the artistic talent to materialize this mental image.

Found family trope!

You've mentioned before in your podcast that you aren't a fan of apocalypse/end of the world stories due to there being a lack of hope in those worlds. Maybe this is just me being a debater, but I always saw them as a "even when everything sucks, we have this candle of hope" that could be a video.

What about "a normal life"? From superman/clark kent dynamic, the superpowerd teen caring about highschool sports. At times it seems unatural, like the stories is showing us wonders but no you should be glad to have your boring life. Or it speaks to the challenges of unstables lives.

I’d be down for a trope talk on Monster of the Week, or maybe the Law of Chromatic Superiority.

Twisted Future Self - Either an evil future version like the Justice Lords from JLU or Darkwarrior Duck from Darkwing Duck, or ones that have become anti-heroes which would give you the chance to talk about Enzo/Matrix from Reboot! Throwing out a lesser known one: Black Zero from 90s Superboy! An alternate reality version of Kon-El that was raised to full maturity instead of breaking free as a teen. He was the main villain of the Hypertension arc that teemed 90s Superboy with Silver Age Superboy

This isn't a Trope Talk, but could you do an episode of E E Smith. I keep seeing videos where people talk about the "Fathers of Science Fiction" and he always gets left out because nobody seems to have read any Sci-Fi from before 1960! Doc Smith wrote a metric load starting in 1916, but most of his stuff was published between 1945 and 1960. He's credited as the father of the Space Opera, and if you read up on his Lensman and Skylark series, you'll realize he's not just a "Father of Science-Ficiton" but he's the builder of the house that the other Fathers grew up in. But I never hear anyone talk about him despite Star Trek's Federation supposedly being based on the Civilization in Lensman, the Green Lanterns being based on the same group (though the original creators denies this), and the half of Dune that isn't ripped off from Asimov being ripped off from Lensman. I want more people to talk about him, because right now, it's like people talking about high-fantasy novels but not mentioning anything that was written before 1977.

admittedly it's more of a fuzzy overtrope for a genre rather than a specific subtrope but I think it'd be awesome to maybe take a look into Grimdark's coutnerpart in storytelling which is starting to see some traction here and there. could we talk about Hope-punk and the ideas of Radical Kindness? it's early days yet but the idea that we're starting to see some stories and fiction actively reject the "gritty" nature of a lot of our story telling as of late is worth a poke and maybe some encouragement for us to see more of it. (I would maybe suggest authors like Becky Chambers, Katherine Addison, N. K. Jemisin as some good touchpoints? Captain Carrot as a great character example along with Waymond Wang from everything everywhere all at once?)

I don't know if it's a trope or whether something like this has already been done but the following is surprisingly accurate. Beat for beat there is almost no difference between many romantic comedy and "buddy cop" story besides the implied sex. 1. The main characters start off hating each other because they are supposedly significantly different people. 2. Both people are forced to work together. 3. By being forced to work together, they begin to understand each other. 4. At some point it's obvious that they work well together. Both of them hate this idea. 5. Eventually something happens and they're no longer forced to be/work together. But one or possibly both realize that they don't want to work with anybody else, or be with anybody else whatever... 6. There's some kind of mad dash to reunite and win the tournament, catch the bad guy, whatever the subplot is that brought them together. In a buddy cop movie there'd be a handshake or maybe a hug between the two characters. In romance film there'd be a kiss. That's shockingly little difference between these two ostensibly different story types. But, from a heteronormative perspective, nobody really equates these. The thing is, when you're part of the LGBTQ community, you don't assume heteronormativity and so it's not a stretch for the buddy cop storyline to end in romance. The most recent time I can remember this happening was with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but It goes back incredibly far even to something at the birth of television like The Odd Couple. Anyway, not sure this counts or even what you'd call it.

A mindswap/bodyswap trope talk could be enlightening. I would also suggest one on how to write cults but that might be difficult territory.

I’m putting in yet another vote for Unreliable Narrators (to request Lore Olympus be touched on), but also asking if subverting expectations counts as trope? It’s kind of like plot twists, but more like examining when a story is said to go X way but then Y ends up happening

How about a "hidden parentage" trope? Like when "Oh my god turns out the chosen hero is also the long lost son/ brother of the king. Who would've thought" or when they turn out to be a demigod or something idk.

Magic animals and magic monsters, together or separate

This may be a bit off center for a Trope Talk, but I'd like to see a discussion on how world building for science-fiction differs from fantasy. There a lot more room for nuance than one just has magic and the other has ray-guns. I've always defined fantasy as when a concept exist to explore a world, while Sci-fi is when a world exist to explore a concept. I enjoy this definition because it means Star Wars is MORE of a science-fiction setting when the Force is more prominent and more a fantasy when it's less of a focus.

Have you done fighting it out? Where two friends or would be allies have an argument, or literall fight to settle their differences, before they can go on to join forces?

Just to show what kind of mark I am, more giant robot discussion. I'd love an episode on the "Real Robot" trope, which may require "Super Robots" to be covered first since the way the giant robot genre of anime was going resulted in the more grounded "Real Robots" style of giant robots to be created. Honestly, I'd like some more sci-fi centered tropes in general.

Weird little dudes why is it that story tellers and animators will put weird little background characters in that steal the scene?

(I was also thinking Freaky Friday Flip)

Hmm... How about Weird West?

A suggestion I have would be taking overpowered and underpowered protagonists and then comparing them. Also known as under dogs for under powered protagonists.

What about the long lost/secret heir trope? Like, oh you thought you were just a random person from a village? Nope! You’re the long lost heir to the amazing kingdom!

One of my favorite tropes is "sick episode". I like seeing how interpersonal dynamics change between characters when one of them is sick/hurt. Like, what happens when the "tough guy" gets sick and can't punch problems really hard? What happens when the "loner" gets hurt and tries to hide it from everyone? Is someone going to come to the sick character's aid with soup and tea or does the sick character have to tough it out? Will someone realize that they actually have deep platonic and/or romantic feelings for the hurt character and be compelled to care for them? Will the sickness spread and strike down more than one character? Interpersonal drama!!!! I also like how this trope can be warm and fluffy or angsty and serious depending on the severity/circumstances of the illness/injury.

PS: Count me as another vote for "Unreliable Narrator" as worthy of a great Red episode!

Second idea concerns what TV Tropes calls "the crowning moment of awesome" and the different ways popular works either set that up or -- as in the case of Game of Thrones -- get justifiably lambasted for not providing the crowning moment.

Two ideas: one would be the construct of good vs. evil and lawful vs. chaos as a useful construct in understanding heroes and villains. You've seen the 3x3 matrix of different Batmans, but the concept exists broadly in popular culture. Translate this into the real world and it gets really interesting. Everyone in the US who knows history knows that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin count as "Lawful Evil" because of the millions they killed, but how can that be extended to think about more recent events? When Google's motto is "Don't do evil," what does that mean?

I would love to see your take on Nightmare Fuel Unleaded, since it's one of the few tropes that isn't intentional on the writer's part. How do things become unexpectedly scary? How can one avoid it? Is it worthwhile to even try to avoid it?

You could do one on demons, since you did one on dragons

Maybe you a blue could do a team up episode of something like the cycle of empires trope or if not that what about we used to be friends one

As a fellow ace, I'd love to see a roast... I mean, analysis... of how often romantic/sexual tension gets included in a story when it has NO plot value. (I mean, I've seen good media where the love story is truly integral -- Erin Morgenstern's stuff comes to mind -- but also have seen an "and suddenly his smile did something new to her and all the world was bright" tacked on in the last few paragraphs of a fractured fairy tale written for kids as young as 8!) So often it feels like romance gets included because no matter if your A plot is "saving the entire frickin' universe," somehow that's not enough unless two people also want to hook up. As more people spend more of their lives single, whether they're aro/ace or not, that motif is getting old. Idea 2: That checklist that most movies fail that goes something like "a story features A) two or more women who B) talk to each other C) about something other than men." I can never remember the name of it, sorry. But it would be neat to know if stories have actually gotten better at it over time, or if some media are better at it than others...

The cavalry (or as I referred to it before I knew the official TV tropes name for it, “Rohan has come”) Also what about retellings? Like West Side Story? Lots of Shakespeare/fairy tale stuff these days, not exactly a trope but you did do a video on sequels so maybe. I recommend Chloe Gong’s books

Putting in another vote for Treasure Maps/Hunts, plus The Unreliable Narrator!

I think there’s some underrated potential in peeling back the curtain on the mecha/“Super Robot” genre. Like the kaiju genre, it’s something tied very closely to Japanese pop culture, and also very closely to WMDs, yet unlike the kaiju genre, mecha are almost always used by the heroes. Feels like there might be some stuff to unpack there.

All Myths are True would be... hefty, but potentially useful to look at how people approach (or avoid) reconciling differing belief systems in a setting - especially the 'real world'

Also, I'm a huge fan of AI movies - there's a lot of variety in how AI is depicted: 2001, Artificial Intelligence, Robot and Frank (!! one of my favourites, feels the most realistic), Her, Ex Machina, Chappie, Blade Runner, Robocop, The Iron Giant, Metropolis...

After Time travel and Time skips, why not Time Loops? I recently finished reading "The seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" and now you ask this, can't be a coincidence

Monologues (villainous and otherwise)

'Humans Through Alien Eyes' trope would be pretty interesting to hear Red discus

Interesting characters. Whenever people explain how to make characters interesting, I think "what do you mean"? Like... I don't even know what examples to give. I feel like Red in the Romantic Subplots video

Why adaptations going from one form of media to another fail/succeed?

Following up on Doomed Heroes, maybe Kill Em All / Everybody Dies Ending, since that's so unusual in the west (Rogue One?), but somewhat more common elsewhere (waves at Yoshiyuki Tomino). OK, OK, waving at Shakespeare too, if he can see me over the piles of bodies at the end of Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, etc.

I have seen many cartoons/anime where plot revolves around the main character(s) swapping bodies, whether with themselves, random people, or a gender swap. I think it would be interesting to here you discuss that trope and how it's used mostly to teach a lesson about other people lives.

Necesary or Unecessary Sacrifices, whether they be mecessary to progress or jumpstart the action for the story line for the main caracter or the main group. Or maybe the this town will be destroyed unless you sacrifice the ones you love.

I don't think Time Travel has been done yet. Lots of source material: The Girl Who Leapt through Time, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Stein's Gate, Arrival, Interstellar, The Day after Tomorrow, Back to the Future, Terminator, Bill and Ted, Primer, Groundhog Day, Tenet(?)

Deal wit the devil.

You might have covered this in your character death video, but the dead mother trope comes to mind. Mostly how a parent, usually the mom but not always, is dead or nowhere to be seen at the start of the story or her death starts off the plot.

Character Alignments, please.

Magic/power Crystals! The batteries of the magical world.

Psycho Rangers/ evil five-man band.

The Con-Man/Deal with the Devil.

-Hero hesitating to kill the big bad after massacring untold number of henchmen en route -Comically unorganized shop keepers -Author self insert characters

more villain tropes, stuff related to villain motivations. or stuff talking about side characters and how to make them matter in a story. also discussing stake raising and if it should be done or not in sequels.

Has Darkest Hour already been touched on?

I know you did a mini-trope talk on it in one of the streams, but maybe blue and orange morality?

I think TV Tropes calls it "Bullying a Dragon", but basically whenever someone looks at something biggee and stronger than themselves and goes, 'yeah, that's the one, let's mess with that one'

I don't know the actual name of this trope, but I'm going to call it The Medbay's on Fire, as it happens a lot in Star Trek. Basically, this is when the audience is told about something bad that's happening, often due to a fight or decision the lead characters made, used to ramp up tension. However, this damage is never shown or relevant to the plot. The medbays on fire, the castles been damaged, there are hundreds dead, etc. It's a lot like the macguffin, in that a lot of things seem to fit this trope, but don't. If the characters have to acknowledge and deal with these things beyond a moment of silence, its not part of this trope.

Seeing as we have character deaths and fates worse than death, perhaps Death Personified? Gets a lot of coverage in media, and has a wide range of characters to choose like Terry Pratchet’s Death, to the Wolf in the new Puss in Boots

Oh cool! Here's a few I always wanted you to do a video on: The Leader (rounding out the Five Man Band vids), Human Weapons, Clones, Villain Protagonists, Affibly Evil, and Villains with Loved ones.

This might be a mini trope but the “friends who share one brain cell.” And this might be more from fanfiction but the idea of perspective changes. Telling a story from the protagonist’s perspective and then going back and retelling it from the antagonist or the deuteragonist’s perspective. Also the “It’s a Wonderful Life” trope of what if the main character wasn’t there, what would happen to everyone.

I don’t think you have done force of nature villains!

I'd love to see one on Rashomon-style stories

The underdog?

Your Terrorists are Our Freedom Fighters Personality Types (Myers Briggs, etc) Lovable Rogue Knight in Sour Armor

Doing small evil to advance the greater good

Sibling rivalry or evil twin/clone

Animal Buddies. I'm honestly surprised that you haven't done an episode about them yet.

Bury your gays, perhaps some more LGBTQ+ related tropes? Not expecting them to be fun, but certainly informative. The QCV talk was very interesting and I've recommended it to a lot of people.

Sell your soul for X skill / Faustian Bargains

How about Comic Relief?

Bunny-Ears Lawyer is one of my favorite tropes

Pantheons!

Deal with the devil, freudian excuse and sociopaths.