What is a trope?
A storytelling convention readers recognize and expect, neutral raw material, neither good nor bad on its own.
How to spot it: A pattern you've seen before and can name: the chosen one, the heel turn, the locked room.
Often confused with cliché: A trope becomes a cliché only when overuse drains it of effect.
14 tropes in the vocabulary
The chosen one
A convention in which a single character is singled out by prophecy, birth, or destiny to fulfill a great task.
5 works
The heel turn
A convention in which a trusted or heroic character abruptly betrays their side and becomes a villain.
Robot uprising
The convention of created machines or artificial beings rebelling against and turning on their human makers.
8 works
The mad scientist
The convention of an obsessive, morally unbound scientist whose experiments cross ethical or natural limits.
5 works
The reluctant hero
A convention in which an ordinary, unwilling character is drawn into a great struggle they did not seek.
2 works
The alien vista
The convention of establishing a strange world through a striking wide shot of an unfamiliar sky, landscape, or skyline.
The generation ship
The convention of a slower-than-light starship on which generations are born, live, and die during the voyage.
1 work
The sentient computer
The convention of a central, self-aware computer or AI that helps, controls, or threatens the human characters.
6 works
The last human
The convention of a lone survivor believed to be the last person alive after a catastrophe.
4 works
The utopia with a dark secret
The convention of a seemingly perfect society whose harmony rests on a hidden and terrible cost.
3 works
The android who longs to be human
The convention of an artificial being that yearns for emotion, mortality, or acceptance as a person.
12 works
The portal to another world
The convention of a gateway, wormhole, or threshold that transports characters into a strange new realm.
3 works
The empire and the rebellion
The convention of a small band of rebels resisting a vast, oppressive galactic or imperial power.
6 works
Body snatchers
The convention of an outside force replacing or possessing people while imitating their outward appearance.
3 works