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What are your favorite tropes?



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Sun Nov 25, 2018 8:50 pm
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Vervain says...



Wikipedia: Trope (literature) wrote:[Trope] has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.


Long has TV Tropes stood as the determiner of those devices and motifs used in creative works. Not confined to television, TV Tropes delves into fanfiction such as the Draco Trilogy, novels and series such as the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and His Dark Materials, films, comics, anime, manga—if it exists, there are tropes that apply to it.

Tropes aren't bad things, either! Though literary tropes have come to mean, to be frank, "clichés" of a sort, they're useful for creating a living, breathing world and realistic characters who experience compelling character arcs.

Does your Big Bad undergo a Heel-Face Turn? Is your world Colour-Coded For Your Convenience? What about a classic Chekhov's Boomerang?

Or do you have your own names for the tropes you use, like your anti-villain who believes they're doing the best thing for the world, or the protagonist who accidentally wrecks everything? What about the tech you've introduced to the audience, or the other fun stuff in your writing?

What are your favorite tropes?
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Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:13 pm
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Starve says...



This
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... tThatTrope
and others that can be used for comedic purposes.
Also Escanor is a great character so this
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomeEgo
  





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Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:30 am
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PrincessInk says...



Here are my favorites:

-Friends to lovers. I'm a huge fan of how a romance can slowly, naturally unfold between friends who already like each other, know each other well. To me, this feels like this romance is one that could last for a very long time. I'm also beginning to find the "enemies to lovers" trope pretty fun because of the banter lol.

-A special destiny for an ordinary MC. It always lets me imagine that perhaps - perhaps I may have a special destiny hovering over my head, waiting for the right moment to swoop in and change my life. Of course, it'd require a lot of bravery and I have yet to see if I can have the pluck that characterizes Harry or Bilbo...

-Tragic villain backstory. I'm a fan of complex villains, and well, if tragic backstories are becoming cliched or something - at the same time, I'm a firm believer that circumstance (lucky or unlucky) can shape who you end up into.
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Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:54 am
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alliyah says...



With it being nearly December, my mind of course immediately goes to Christmas Hallmark Movies -

My Favorite Hallmark Christmas Movie Tropes are:

The I met my love on an airplane trope - this comes up so much in movies and I always thought it was incredibly unrealistic and far-fetched... until a guy gave me his phone-number in the airport and my life started to be this trope for a second. Still love this trope though, especially because I just think airplanes provide for a lot of awkward/tense dialogue anyways, so more drama!

The all my in-laws are crazy trope - a favorite of Hallmark movies as well as literature, in real life though I don't think this happens as frequently or as extremely? I think this trope also has the option for awkwardness and humor - which is my favorite part of hallmark movies apparently.

and of course, no Hallmark movie or Christmas film would be complete without The mysterious old man is really "santa clause" in disguise trope! While in more religious films the mysterious old man might be a symbol for Jesus or God instead, it seems like in modern films, the miracle/wish-giver has turned into Santa. I often get annoyed with "God figures" in films because I end up scrutinizing the bad theology too much to enjoy the movie, so I actually prefer when Hallmark just blatantly makes it secular with the mysterious guy being Santa Clause - because then we can just cut to the magical realism without contemplating the theological issues.

As far as my own writing, I'm not sure I write enough prose to have any tropes that come to mind.

I'm curious if people ever actually consider re-occurring symbols in poetry to be "tropes" even, or if they need to be like a prose sequence or character type? I haven't ever thought of tropes as just like re-ocurring symbols or "rhetorical devices" because those seem too small... - but the definition given above seems to be encompassing of both. If symbols and images can be tropes - then I definitely have a collection of those in my poetry writing (stars, water, sand, trees, birds, coffee, colors, footnotes, dust etc...)

The only poetic trope that I can think of at the moment that I enjoy reading is the bugs reveal the meaning of human life trope - although again I'm not sure if that counts as a trope or just a form! ("Departmental" by Robert Frost, and "The Moth" by Don Marquis both fit this form/trope).
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Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:35 pm
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Tenyo says...



Gender swaps, prince/pauper switches, noble in disguise... I love anything that involves switching identities or having to pretend to be someone else.

Forbidden romances too, especially ones that are divided by class or obligation.

Travel and long journeys because for-some-inexplicable-reason there is no other way to get from A to B except the really, really long way, is also one of my favourites, especially in a fantasy or historical setting.

What are yours?
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Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:20 am
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PrincessInk says...



Ha, I agree with you @Tenyo! Those tropes are awesome, especially the disguises one, if done well :)
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