one of my favorite tropes is when a character is talking in the foreground and something happens in the background that directly contradicts what they’re saying
foreground: character is talking about how they pride themselves on being a good parent
background: character’s 3 year old son starts a car and speeds off
character being all “you expect me to do X?” Gilligan Cut to character doing X
the squad gets captured and interrogated separately, and they’re all telling equally terrible, completely contradictory lies
people completely missing the completely unsubtle, very visible dangerous thing in the room with them
alternatively, people absolutely seeing the completely unsubtle, very visible dangerous thing in the room with them and just not giving a shit
bonus points if it’s a beleaguered minimum wage employee who just goes about their business like “yep same shit as always”
someone pretending they don’t know another character is eavesdropping, only to casually reveal at the end of the scene that they know (*leaving* “tell tom that he can come out now” *tom drops from the ceiling in spy gear, irritated*)
choosing to deal with the villain by just leaving them alone in a room with another character
the “hands go down” trope
example: “any questions?” *everyone’s hands go up* “…that AREN’T sarcastic?” *everyone’s hands go down*
how could all y'all forget “ACT NATURAL!”
These are all great but let’s not forget two characters giving extremely biased flashbacks to the same event that each paint the other as an incompetent loon
i would like to respectfully add: scenes where a character walks into a room, sees something scary, and turns around and walks out with no reaction or change of expression
a high-stakes zany action scene forced to come to a complete halt while some characters take a very, very long elevator ride
Character realizes they’re about to experience something really, REALLY terrible and the eyebrows just POP and you can see the lightbulb of sudden realization going off at that moment in their shocked eyes
The character who’s always composed and level headed just SNAPPING either because of extreme anger or grief or both
The one extremely specific plan that requires 30 very extreamly specific conditions to be met, yet they all decide to do said plan and it works for the first 29 very specific criteria yet the 30th criteria is like the treasure is left completely unguarded but instead it’s got some rediculously overpowered guard who is not only rediculously physically strong but also has some bs ability to speak to wolves or some shit
