r/tvtropes

What's the trope called where alternate universes exist, but it's extremely limited in scope.

E.g. the bit in Futurama where they see an alternate universe where everyone wears cowboy hats, and Fry goes "wow, so there's an infinite number of parallel worlds?"

"No, just the one".

Or, in the solid jj bit where Madame Web gathers "every Spiderman from every reality", and it's like 5 of them, and it turns out there's only like 15 alternate worlds, and the only difference in 5 of them is that McDonald's is spelled with an A instead.

Is there a specific name for this trope???

Or, characters that often have very understated emotional reactions to things? Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, for instance, or Captain Holt from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

I recently went back and started watching Psyche, never got around to finishing it about a decade ago when I started watching it. Anyways, I noticed that he's very much the playboy archetype. It got me thinking, it's been a while since I've seen a series where the main character is a playboy. It used to be commonplace; Dean from Supernatural, Barney from How I Met Your Mother, Joey from Friends, Shawn from Psyche, etc. Is it the fact it was deemed too misogynistic?

Most famous example the Monkey's Paw.

Im aware they've been around since the goldenage of animation like looney tunes. But the the 2000s really dominated the trope. Shows like Garfield and friends, Ren and stimpy, Chowder, and the Grim adventures of Billy and mandy were obsessed with it. To the point were fourthwall breaks just became cliche and unfunny.

So say take a kid who grew up on reading about war and watching war movies and thinks it's awesome. Says I'm gonna go enlist and go fight, only to find it isn't as glamorous as its made out to be?

Just curious to see if there is a term for when a third installment of a gaming franchise takes such as drastic approach by having a different storyline as it’s hard to explain, but it’s when a sequel feels so different in tone it barely feels anything like the last entry.

Some examples are Max Payne 3 and Parasite Eve: The Third Birthday as fans of both franchises have said that the third installment of both series felt so different that it was hard to tell they were connected to their respective franchises as Max Payne 3 for instance has such a different feel in atmosphere that it doesn’t feel it’s a Max Payne game.

Is there a defined trope in which fans refer to an event, place, or idea within the writer's text or media that otherwise was not named or referred to something different by the author, by then which the author assumes the name in the following work?

I cant really think of an example off the dome but I do know there are fandoms that refer to moments in televisions shows by their own inside nomenclature only for it be folded into the lore or running narrative of the story.

I'm watching the Adrian Mole series, and in The Secret Diary of... his mother, Pauline, is played by Julie Walters, but in The Growing Pains of... she's played by Lulu.

I had a thought that given the wry comedy of it all, it would have worked perfectly if Adrian commented that she looked different. Maybe a lead in to something like "it must be a new haircut".

Are there any real examples of this? Like, characters acknowledging, but not addressing, a cast change?

I'm not sure what you'd call this trope, if it exists so don't know where to even begin looking it up. I like the idea of it though, and would like to dig deeper.

Some tropes that are in there used to be impossible, in real life, but have now become a reality, like AI Is a Crapshoot.

I'm talking about Gajeel having a whole death speech that made me cry, then being brought back later that passed me off. Rick Grimes in his entirety. Reiner Braun.

Something I noticed is how some sci fi shows have a 3 girl ensemble where 3 girls work together to fight international conflicts.

Like some examples are Charlie’s Angels and Totally Spies as I was wondering if there was a trope name for spy fiction that uses a 3 girl team since I noticed that trope is apparently common in some spy shows.

To me, the 'Voice of the Legion' trope is so badass and a good addition to one's character, especially when it shows how nightmarish or powerful someone is. For example, a demon typically speaks in a normal voice, but when they get angry, want to intimidate someone, or unleash their full power, a dual-layered voice emerges (looking at you Black Hat and Alastor). I never knew the name for it until now. Any other examples.

I mean a moment early on that lets you know a character that's generally really moral and heroic isn't a complete goody two-shoes (as opposed to a moment that lets you know a villainous character isn't a complete and total ass). The example I'm thinking of is from a pretty obscure movie where it's implied early on the otherwise upstanding protagonist might have cheated a bit on his taxes.

Whenever I see an evil corporation in a movie or book, they have tons of employees, and I just wonder—how did they get that many people to work for them? If they were forced to work for them, that's understandable. However, if they are employed rather than enslaved, several questions arise. Did everyone really just decide, 'Honestly, forget people, I'm just going to be bad'? If so, that'd actually be hilarious. It struck me while watching Superman (2026) just how casually Lex Luthor’s employees went about trying to destroy Superman—nobody had a single moral issue with it.

In fiction if a character has fire, heat, light or solar/stae based powers. They typically project it as a long ranged attack through their hands. Maybe their feet too (if they are martial artists or flying) and in cases like Superman substitutes or Cyclops likes. They have heat vision or optic hard light beams.

But if theres a character who can spit or breathe out fire like a flamethrower expect that character to be less human and more animal like or that their firebreathing come across as more feral, violent or angry by comparison.

I feel superheroes with firey powers dont tend to breathe fire and while villains may not you do get it sometimes like Killian breathing fire in ironman 3 gices off some dragon like imagery, Azula does it where losing her mind making her seem very feral. Bizarro in Superman and lois roars his fire breath animalistically and burns down his barn after an argument with his wife leads her to leave him taking their sons too. Broly is more of a Qi/Ki example but he comes across more brutish or rage driven when he spits out lasers from his mouth whilst howling in anger as opposed to most super saiyan blasting through their hands.

In Pokemon almost all fire types breathe out fire as their default attack regardless. Though the more animal-like ones almost do all their fire attack through their mouths. The more humanoid ones are at least just as likely to punch or kick with fire. Many dont shoot flames from their hands.

And then again fire breathing in myths and religions is usually associated with feral violent Dragon in Europe who are no more intelleigent than a svaage animal. Whilst the more intelligent or deity like counterparts in Asia are typically water, sky or electric associated rather than fire.

The biggest exception to this rule is Dhalsim in street fighter. But I wanna see if anyone here can comment on whether Fire Breathing in media is more associsted with Ferality or animalistic characters or when their mindset drops to that level.

Entitled to Have You is usually one sided, but what if both halves feel that way? Will cause disfunction, and if so what kind of disfunction?