my FAVORITE tropes compiled thanks to some suggestions from others
a character gets a sick burn and doesn’t realize it immediately, at some point later there’s just “HEY WAIT A MINUTE”
the double take. this one’s an oldie but a goodie
the injured character makes the killing shot that saves everyone else in a dangerous situation
a character who isn’t speaking is doing something weird in the background, it’s subtle and never acknowledged it’s just there for those who notice it (pulling another character out of something they got stuck in, making a huge sandwich, etc)
the beleaguered assistant inches away from smacking their boss
“quick act natural”
in that vein, the leader character was just in a shouting match with someone and when they come back the rest of the team scrambles to look like they weren’t listening at the door
never forget: “he’s standing right behind me isn’t he”
When a character mentions a normal past event and someone else mentions an absurd detail (”Don’t you remember what happened last time you went to the dentist?” “Those deaths were nothing to do with me”)
Multiple characters banding together to lie about something
Characters being split up for questioning
Really stoic characters briefly becoming happy, freaking everyone out
“I think that went well!” *Distant explosion*
-“quick act natural” *everyone scrambles to do completely random shit that looks anything but natural*
Always a good one:
- Character A is talking, saying something like “It’s not like anybody would ever be so stupid to do that, right”
*scene changes, Character B is shown doing exactly that stupid thing*
Consider also:
- Character A telling the rest of the cast to “relax, I have a foolproof plan” and then scene immediately changes to show all the cast fleeing for their lives after the failure of the Definitely-Not-A-Plan-Let-Alone-A-Foolproof-One.
- The stoic/sensible character breaking character to do something Completely Reckless and Dumb and then only realizing later that the usually Reckless and Dumb character is rubbing off on them-oh-no-.
