Omnipresent Tropes

"Moe feels like it's always been there. Sure, there was a time when we became more aware of it, and many believe it's a trend that's come and gone, but it hasn't gone anywhere. It's just slipped between the cracks and taken over a huge part of the identity of what anime is today. The influence of moe is in almost every genre of modern anime."

— Gigguk, "The Moe Anime Revolution"^note Ironically, Moe is not an Omnipresent Trope.

The kind of trope which you see all the time. ALL the time.

Some of them are intrinsically vital to storytelling itself; they're so ubiquitous, you don't even think of them as tropes until they're pointed out to you. Some are Acceptable Breaks from Reality—unrealistic tropes that are intrinsic to the escapist appeal of fiction, and would seriously detract from it if they were averted. Then you have the ones which are not necessary by any means, but look like the most natural thing in the world—timeless classics which for centuries have driven stories forward, held audience breaths and become legends. You sit through the work expecting them, even looking forward to them; come the Establishing Shot, the first thing you ask yourself is "Where's The Hero?". If we were to list every single example of these tropes, the pages would go on forever; as a result, several of them only allow examples of the trope being played with and not just used.

If anything, these are the proof that Tropes Are Tools. If these are Cliché then so is nigh on every single work in the history of fiction. Thus Omnipresent Tropes are pretty much immune from becoming Discredited, Dead, Undead or Forgotten.

Not to be confused with Universal Tropes, which are used in all types of media, but need not be ubiquitous.

Contrast Not a Trope and People Sit on Chairs. Compare No Trope Is Too Common. See also: Cut to the Index and Laws and Formulas.

For most of these tropes, listed examples are limited to Aversions and Inversions, or are definition-only, as listing straight examples would be overly numerous. Otherwise, they are likely to also be Overdosed Tropes that you will see linked all over the site.

Tropes that are essential building blocks of almost every story:

• Anthropic Principle^note Certain things must happen in a story, or else there would be no story.
• Characters^note The people in a story.
• The Climax^note The highest point of tension in a story.
• Conflict^note The concept of what opposes what in a story.
• Consistency^note Any rules, events, settings, or characters that have been established within the fictional work continue to exist and function as they did previously, unless otherwise indicated.
• Dénouement^note The events after the climax where the story wraps up.
• Emotional Torque^note The capacity of a story to elicit emotion from its audience.
• Inciting Incident ^note The event in the story that sets the main plot in motion.
• Narrative Beats ^note Any event that changes the emotional direction of a story.
• Plot ^note A series of events that form into the storyline.
• Plot Device^note Any thing that is important to the plot.
• Plot Point^note Any event, character, or piece of information critical in driving the plot forward.
• Point of View^note The perspective in which the events are delivered to the audience.
• The Protagonist^note The principal character of the story.
• Rising Conflict^note The tendency for conflict to escalate over the course of a story.
• Settings^note Where a story takes place.
• Theory of Narrative Causality^note The events in a story happen because the plot said they should.

Tropes that are more avoidable in theory, but are omnipresent in practice:

• The Antagonist^note A character that is the direct opposition of the protagonist.
• Character Death^note A character dies, usually as a way to move the plot.
• Character Development^note A character changes as the narrative moves forward.
• Contrived Coincidence^note An unlikely event happens in the plot but, despite its low chances, it's not acknowledged on because it's necessary for the plot to move forward.
• Dynamic Character^note Characters that undergo development and growth throughout the story.
• Evil Virtues^note For a villain to be effectively evil, they need to possess good qualities as well.
• Fire Is Red^note Fire being red is universally acknowledged shorthand that makes it look more bold.
• Flat Character^note Few minor characters display complex motivations and personalities.
• Fourth Wall^note The implied barrier between the fictional world and the viewing audience.
• The Good Guys Always Win^note Good triumphs over evil is the rule, not the exception.
• Happy Ending^note An ending where nothing bad happens.
• Hero Protagonist^note The hero is the principal character.
• Law of Inverse Recoil ^note Since live-action media uses blanks and flash paper to simulate gunfire (which have very little to no recoil) and other media often copy film and TV conventions, firearm recoil is usually non-existent unless it's being exaggerated for comic effect or the creators have Shown Their Work
• Missing Backblast^note Rocket-propelled projectiles will never cause any damage behind them when used.
• Nobody Poops^note Going to the bathroom usually doesn't happen in fiction.
• Official Couple^note Any romantic pairing established in the canon of a work
• One-Steve Limit^note Characters in the same work will not share names, not even first names.
• Punchline^note The part of a joke at the end where the humor comes from.
• Recurring Character^note Almost every work that is either broken into or has separate parts has characters that regularly reappear.
• Rounded Character^note Characters with complex motivations and personalities.
• Static Character^note Characters that undergo no development nor growth throughout the story.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.^note Used in any work where the Hero Protagonist is the Point of View character.
• Third-Person Flashback^note Flashbacks are not in first-person point of view, as they should logically be, but in third-person to facilitate conveying what's going on.
• Time Marches On^note The passage of time affects how stories are perceived in several ways.
• Villain Antagonist^note The villain is also the main opposition.
• Water Is Blue^note Water is easier to both animate and be seen by the audience when it is tinted blue.

Tropes that are omnipresent in specific mediums or genres:

• Background Music^note Just about any audiovisual work will play instrumental music during most scenes.
• Black Dot Pupils^note Most Comic Strips and Western Animation shows use black dots to represent eyes.
• Closing Credits^note Almost every movie, TV show, or video game has credits at the end.
• Common Time^note Far and away the most common time signature of music.
• Eternally Pearly-White Teeth^note No matter the setting or time period, an actor's teeth will look pristine.
• Fantasy Gun Control^note No matter how advanced a fantasy world is, firearms do not exist in it.
• Final Boss^note Any video game that has some sort of story mode, arcade mode, or any game or mode that follows some sort of chronological structure will almost always feature this trope. After all, it has to end somewhere.
• Game Over^note Any video game with a fail state will feature this trope.
• Hit Spark^note A bright spark mostly used in animated works to highlight an impact.
• Infinite Stock For Sale^note Video game item shops never, ever run out of stock.
• Player Character^note Almost any video game that has characters in it will have characters that the player controls in some way.
• Prop^note Works with live actors typically have physical representations of items they interact with.
• Shot/Reverse Shot^note Filming dialogue between two characters filming each person individually from the other's point of view.