''All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
— Jaques, As You Like It Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166
Ah! What avails the classic bent
And what the cultured word,
Against the undoctored incident
That actually occurred?
And what is Art whereto we press
Through paint and prose and rhyme—
When Nature in her nakedness
Defeats us every time?
— Rudyard Kipling The Benefactors
"The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense."
"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of p*rnography if you're lucky."
"Life doesn't have plots and subplots and denouements. It's just a big collection of loose ends and dangling threads that never get explained."
— Grant Morrison, Animal Man
"Welcome to the real world, she said to me.
Condescendingly.
Take a seat.
Take your life.
Plot it out in black and white."
— John Mayer, No Such Thing
"Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?"
— Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four
"Life isn't bliss.
Life is just this:
It's living.
You gotta go on living.
So one of us is living."
— Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More, With Feeling"
"Reality is a cruel and unintuitive place with frustrating gameplay mechanics.
(Press X to thanklessly toil your life away)"
"Life. Loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it."
— Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"I don't like the real world. I have to live there, and it sucks. It's drab, it's dingy, quality control is a f*cking joke, A-cups are far too prevalent, nobody can fly and all the dinosaurs are dead!"
"Life is the crummiest book I ever read."
— Bad Religion, "Stranger than Fiction"
T-Rex: You know what happens in movies that doesn't happen nearly enough to me, here in the movie Reality, Featuring Me: The 13.7-Billion-Year-Long Motion Picture Event You Won't Want To Miss?
(Though Whether Or Not You Miss It Is Not Really Up To You, Actually)
"Starts out with a bang, exposing us to a high-octane explosion of thrills, chills, and rapidly expanding space"—The Filmic Spectator
Dromiceiomimus: "In the end, the 7 billion simultaneous characters were far too many for me to even begin to keep track of"—The Globe Review
T-Rex: Some very nice images pepper this film, though most are very similar shots of empty space"—Movie Reviewz 4 Youz
Utahraptor: Earlier there was a movie thing that you wished was in reality?
T-Rex: YES! Yes. Just—just let me do one more review.
"Some bold storytelling is on display here, although following a fully interconnected narrative through billions of years (and lives!) leads to a distinct sense of loss for the roads not taken."—Screenplay Magazine
Okay. Okay. I'm done now.
Utahraptor: Great. So what did you wa—
T-Rex: "Rated NC-17 for some impressively-varied scenes of explicit content, but haha, good luck finding them in all that empty space!!"
Tee hee!
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
"You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart? They're both ridiculous."
—The Doctor, "Last Christmas"
FAQs
Villainous figures who are pure evil is one of the oldest tropes out there. The oldest listed example is the God of Evil Apep/Apophis from Egyptian Mythology, who was worshiped against since the days of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC – c. 1077 BC).
Is TV tropes a good source? ›
The site is described in Reference Reviews as "an excellent example of linked data", but pointedly "lacks accountability as a reliable resource" due to its standards on notability.
What is the point of TV tropes? ›
TVTropes is EXCELLENT to explore for ideas. It shows how many ways a concept can be twisted and manipulated.
What is the rule of creepy TV tropes? ›
The limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its creepiness. Some tropes are often used for the purpose of making a character unlikable by making them come across as creepy.
What is the most overused trope? ›
1. The Chosen One. Here we are, the number one most overused trope in fantasy, “The chosen one.” The protagonist is born with a mark or sign and foretold by an ancient prophecy, which designates them as the world's savior.
What trope is Yuri? ›
Yuri (Japanese: 百合, lit. "lily"), also known by the wasei-eigo construction girls' love (ガールズラブ, gāruzu rabu), is a genre of Japanese media focusing on intimate relationships between female characters.
What is the most popular trope? ›
Happy Ending – The most popular and important romance trope on the list! The Love Triangle – Three characters, one choice, and some unavoidable hurt feelings. Love triangles make for plenty of tension. Forced Proximity – Two characters who find love when they're forced to spend time together.
Why are they called tropes? ›
The word trope (pronounced “trohp”) comes from the Greek word tropos, meaning a turn or change of direction—a trope, in the original sense of the word, is a turning of language to a new use for purposes of persuasion or inspiration. In literature, many tropes use figures of speech—nonliteral language.
Are tropes copyrighted? ›
Copyright law for fictional tropes will only protect the particular expression of the trope to the extent the expression is original under copyright law.
Can you cite TV Tropes? ›
Regardless of anything said above, any text directly quoted from TV Tropes must cite TV Tropes as the source. Failing to do so is considered plagiarism. Our Creative Commons license contains additional information about your rights with respect to using, reusing, or creating derivative works from TV Tropes' content.
A trope is a theme or device used in storytelling. They are usually common or overused. We can think of them like clichés, but on a greater scale. A lot of tv shows use tropes to help guide the audience through their story in a way that feels familiar and digestible.
Are tropes good or bad? ›
(Plot Twist Ideas and Prompts for Writers.) Tropes are sometimes given a bad name, because they can be mistaken for a cliche. However, tropes are important building blocks of storytelling, especially in genre fiction, because they help set and/or fulfill expectations readers have.
What is the hidden hour TV tropes? ›
The Hidden Hour frequently occurs When the Clock Strikes Twelve, due to the association between midnight and magic. However, this is not about magic simply being at its strongest around midnight, nor is it about planets whose day-night cycles are naturally longer than 24 Earth hours.
What is the most common trope in horror movies? ›
7 Classic Horror Tropes
- Cat Jump Scare. The Jump Scare goes back to the earliest days of the horror film. ...
- You Go That Way. Characters in horror films rarely stick together, which frequently gets them picked off one by one. ...
- Do It and Die. ...
- Mr. or Mrs. ...
- It's the Only Way! ...
- The Final Girl. ...
- One Last Scare.
Three Factors That Attract the Audience to Horror
First, filmmakers and producers create elements of mystery, suspense, gore, terror, and shock into their film, which creates tension. Different mise-en-scene, including lighting, costume, and incongruous sounds, creates the suspense leading to a big reveal.
When were tropes created? ›
Medieval music
From the 9th century onward, trope refers to additions of new music to pre-existing chants in use in the Western Christian Church.
What is a classic trope? ›
In cinema, a trope is what The Art Direction Handbook for Film defines as "a universally identified image imbued with several layers of contextual meaning creating a new visual metaphor". A "Mexican standoff" is a common film trope. A common thematic trope is the rise and fall of a mobster in a classic gangster film.
What is the origin of the trope? ›
The first records of the term trope come from around 1525. It ultimately comes from the Greek trópos, meaning “turn, manner, style, figure of speech.” In rhetoric, a trope is another term for a figure of speech. The use of trope to mean a “recurring theme” is a more modern usage.
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