Tropes that are specific to Speculative Fiction, encompassing Science Fiction, Fantasy, and everything in between...
See also: Asimov's Three Kinds of Science Fiction, The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés, Speculative Fiction Creator Index, and the Turkey City Lexicon website.
Tropes
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Subcategories and Trope Indexes
- Speculative Fiction (main topic)
- Alien Tropes: Tropes about extraterrestrial life.
- Alternate History Tropes: Tropes about speculative history that differs from real-life events.
- Applied Phlebotinum
- Apocalyptic Index: Tropes about the destruction of global society or life as we know it.
- Autonomous and Artificial Appendage Index
- Cyberpunk Tropes: Common tropes and cliches found in Cyberpunk science fiction.
- Doppelgänger
- Energy Weapon
- Fairy Tale Tropes: Common tropes and cliches found in Fairy Tales.
- Fantastic Flora
- Fantastic Racism: Conflict and discrimination between fictional sapient races/species.
- Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes: All tropes regarding fictional races/species of beings who at least have human-level intelligence.
- Faster-Than-Light Index
- Fate and Prophecy Tropes
- Fictional Culture and Nation Tropes: Tropes about fictional societies and civilizations.
- Futuristic Tech Index: Tropes about hypothetical technology in science fiction.
- Humans Are Indexed: Tropes about the human species (and how we relate to non-human species).
- Index of Fictional Creatures: All tropes about beings and creatures which only exist in fantasy and science fiction.
- Lovecraftian Tropes: Common tropes and cliches found in Lovecraftian-style supernatural horror fiction.
- Magic and Powers: Tropes about sorcery and superhuman abilities.
- Make My Index Live!: Tropes about mad scientists and their strange experiments.
- Mecha Tropes
- Military Science Fiction Tropes: Military and Warfare Tropes as applied to science fiction settings.
- Mind Control
- One with the Index
- Otherness Tropes
- Otherworld Tropes: Tropes about alternate universes and parallel dimensions.
- Our Clones Are Identical
- Paranormal Tropes
- Psychic Index
- Ranged Energy Attack Tropes
- Robot Roll Call
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment
- Sci-Fi Horror Tropes: Science fiction tropes that are often Played for Horror.
- Sealed Index in a Can
- Shapeshifting: Tropes about people undergoing extreme physical changes.
- Spacecraft
- Steampunk Index: Common tropes and cliches found in Steampunk science fiction.
- Superhero Tropes: All genre tropes pertaining to superheroes (and supervillains).
- Teleportation Tropes
- This Index Has a Mind of Its Own
- This Index Will Live Forever
- Time Travel Tropes: Tropes about Time Travel and visiting the past or future.
- Transhuman Tropes: Tropes about people who have been enhanced in some way/moved past their "natural" limitations.
- Tropes in Space: Tropes about everything in the vast universe beyond our planet Earth.
- Tropes of the Soul
- Tropes on Science and Unscience: Tropes about the depiction of scientists and their work in science fiction settings.
- Undead Index
- Urban Fantasy Tropes: Common tropes and cliches found in Urban Fantasy stories.
- We Will Not Use an Index in the Future: Tropes which speculate predictions about the world of tomorrow.
- Wishing Tropes
Tropes A-D
- Absent Aliens
- Absolute Xenophobe
- Abstract Eater
- Absurdly Huge Population
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: A blade sharp enough to cut anything.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws
- Ab Urbe Condita
- Abusive Precursors
- Ace Custom
- Achilles' Power Cord
- Activation Sequence
- Adam and Eve Plot: It's up to the last surviving male and female to repopulate the race after the rest of their kind have all perished.
- Adaptive Armor
- The Adjectival Man
- Adorable Abomination
- Advanced Ancient Acropolis
- Advanced Ancient Humans
- Aesoptinum
- The Ageless: A character who never ages.
- Age Without Youth
- Agony Beam
- Agri World: A planet, often depicted as a Single-Biome Planet, dedicated to agriculture.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Artificial intelligence going bonkers.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier
- Akashic Records
- Alien Abduction
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated
- Alien Autopsy: Performing an autopsy on an alien.
- Alien Catnip
- Alien Geometries
- Alien Invasion: Aliens plan to invade a planet.
- Alien Kudzu
- Alien Landmass
- Alien Sea
- Alien Sky
- Aliens Are Bastards: Aliens are invariably shown to be bad people.
- Aliens in Cardiff
- Aliens Never Invented Democracy
- Aliens Never Invented the Wheel
- Aliens of London: An alien has an accent in spite of not being from Earth.
- Aliens Speaking English: Aliens who speak English in spite of never being on Earth before.
- Aliens Steal Cable: Aliens learn about Earth by watching television broadcasts from the planet.
- Aliens Steal Cattle
- All Hail the Great God Mickey!
- All Myths Are True: A setting where myths, legends, and/or fairy tales weren't just fiction and have actually happened in real life.
- All Nations Are Superpowers
- All of Time at Once
- All Planets Are Earth-Like
- All Theories Are True
- All Therapists Are Muggles
- Alliance of Alternates
- Alternate History: A work where history played out differently from real life.
- Alternate-History Nazi Victory
- Alternate Landmark History
- Alternate Reality Episode
- Alternate Timeline Ancestry
- Alternate Tooniverse
- Alternate Universe
- Alternative Calendar
- Alternative Turing Test
- The Alternet
- Always on Duty
- Amazon Brigade: An army of female warriors.
- Ambiguously Human: A character appears to be human, but has traits and quirks suggesting that they might really be something not human.
- Amusing Alien
- Anal Probing
- Anatomy Arsenal
- Anatomy of the Soul
- Ancient Astronauts: Myths and ancient civilizations are traced to aliens visiting Earth in the distant past.
- Ancient Conspiracy
- Ancient Evil
- Ancient Tradition
- And Man Grew Proud
- Androids and Detectives
- Animal Is the New Man
- Animate Inanimate Object: Inanimate objects that are alive and sentient.
- Animating Artifact
- Anti-Human Alliance
- Anti-Magical Faction
- Anti-Regeneration
- Apathy Killed the Cat
- Apocalypse How
- Apocalypse Maiden
- Apocalypse Wow
- Apocalyptic Log: Before a civilization is destroyed, someone leaves behind a recording detailing the events of the disaster before they meet their end.
- Apocalyptic Logistics
- Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: A being whose physical appearance differs depending on who is looking at them.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Refusing to believe in something supernatural in spite of believing in or being aware of the existence of something equally supernatural.
- Arbitrary Weapon Range
- Archaeological Arms Race
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age
- Arcology
- Area 51
- The Ark
- Arm Cannon: Having an arm that turns into a cannon.
- Armless Biped
- Artificial Afterlife
- Artificial Animal People
- Artificial Cannibalism
- Artificial Gravity
- Artificial Hybrid
- Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Limbs: A person has robotic prosthetics.
- Artificial Meat
- Ascended Fanboy
- Asimov's Three Kinds of Science Fiction: Science Fiction inventions can be the focus of the story, a prop, or a societal impact.
- Assimilation Plot
- The Assimilator
- Asteroid Miners
- Asteroid Thicket
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
- Augmented Reality
- Aura Vision
- Auto-Doc
- Automaton Horses
- Avoiding the Great War
- Awesome Underwater World
- Axis Mundi
- Baby Planet
- Bad Future: The hero time travels to a future where the world is worse off without them.
- Bad Moon Rising
- Bad Present
- Balance Between Good and Evil
- Balkanize Me
- Ban on A.I.
- Ban on Magic
- Barrier Maiden
- The Battlestar
- BBC Quarry
- Because Destiny Says So
- Become a Real Boy
- Becoming the Genie
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: It's established that a historical figure had an unusual aspect of their life that was stricken from the history books.
- Being Human Sucks
- Benevolent A.I.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion
- Benevolent Genie: A genie whose main priority is that their master is safe and is satisfied with the wishes granted.
- Benevolent Precursors
- Bequeathed Power
- The Bermuda Triangle
- Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts
- Bewitched Amphibians: Magic turning people into frogs.
- Big Dumb Body
- Big Dumb Object
- Big, Fat Future
- Binary Suns
- Bio-Armor
- Bio-Augmentation
- Biodata
- Biological Weapons Solve Everything
- Bioluminescence Is Cool
- Biotech Is Better
- Bioweapon Beast
- Bishōnen Line
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Aliens and other non-humans have stranger anatomy than humans.
- Bizarre Alien Locomotion
- Bizarre Alien Psychology
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Aliens have a bizarre way of reproducing.
- Bizarre Alien Senses
- Bizarre Alien Sexes: Aliens having different genders or more genders than humans.
- Bizarre Baby Boom
- Bizarre Human Biology: Someone has weird anatomy in spite of being human.
- Bizarre Seasons
- Black Market Produce
- Blade Below the Shoulder
- The Blank
- Blind Jump
- Blood Sport
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Someone follows morality that can't be accurately measured by our understanding of what's right and what's wrong.
- Bluffing the Advance Scout
- Boarding Party
- Boarding Pod
- Body Backup Drive
- Body Snatcher
- Body Surf
- Bold Explorer
- Boldly Coming: Going to space for the sole purpose of finding aliens to have sex with.
- Books That Bite
- Born-Again Immortality
- Born as an Adult: A being who is born as a full-grown adult.
- Botanical Abomination
- Brain/Computer Interface
- Brain in a Jar: A disembodied brain is kept alive in a jar.
- Brain Monster: A creature that's more "brain" than "creature".
- Brain Theft: Stealing someone's brain.
- Brain Transplant: Putting someone's brain in someone else's body.
- Brain Uploading: Saving a life by transferring the person's conscience into a machine.
- The Brigadier
- Bronson Canyon and Caves: A popular shooting location for speculative fiction film and television.
- Brown Note
- Burial in Space
- By the Eyes of the Blind
- California Doubling
- Call a Pegasus a "Hippogriff"
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Using an unusual word to refer to a mundane creature.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Calling an unusual creature the name of a mundane animal.
- Cannibalism Superpower
- Cannot Cross Running Water
- Can Only Move the Eyes
- Can't Argue with Elves: A species believes themselves to be automatically superior to all other races.
- Can't Live Without You
- Capital Letters Are Magic
- Captain's Log
- Capture and Replicate
- Cargo Cult
- Cassette Futurism
- Casual Interplanetary Travel
- Casual Interstellar Travel
- Casually Powerful Giant
- Casts No Shadow
- Caused the Big Bang
- Centrifugal Gravity
- Cephalothorax
- Chekhov's Time Travel
- Chest Burster
- Chronoscope
- Chunky Updraft
- Citadel City
- City in a Bottle
- City Noir
- City on the Water
- City Planet
- Civilization Destroyer
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe
- Clarke's Third Law
- Clash of Evolutionary Levels
- Clock Roaches
- Clockwork Creature
- Clone Angst
- Clone Army
- Clone by Conversion
- Clone Degeneration: Clones declining in quality.
- Clone Jesus
- Cloning Body Parts
- Clothes Make the Superman
- Clown Species
- Coca-Pepsi, Inc.
- Coconut Superpowers: A character has powers that have limited demonstrations done with cheap special effects because the production lacks the budget to show the powers to their true potential.
- Cold Equation
- Cold Sleep, Cold Future
- Colony Drop
- Colony Ship
- Color-Coded Wizardry
- Comet of Doom
- Coming in Hot
- Complete Immortality
- Compound-Interest Time Travel Gambit
- The Computer Is Your Friend
- Computerized Judicial System
- Computers Speak Binary
- Conspiracy Placement
- Contagious A.I.
- Contagious Powers
- Contemporary Caveman: A caveman ends up in modern times.
- Continuous Decompression
- Conveniently Close Planet
- Conveniently Coherent Thoughts
- Cool, but Inefficient
- Cool Chair
- Cool Gate
- Cool Key
- Cool Starship
- Corralled Cosmos
- Cosmic Chess Game
- Cosmic Flaw
- Cosmic Keystone
- Cosy Catastrophe
- Counter-Earth
- Courier
- Cranial Processing Unit
- Crazy Cultural Comparison
- Creating Life
- Creating Life Is Awesome
- Creating Life Is Bad
- Creating Life Is Unforeseen
- Creation Myth
- Creative Sterility: Being highly intelligent isn't much use if you lack imagination.
- Creature-Hunter Organization
- Creepy Monotone
- Cross-Cultural Handshake
- Crossover Cosmology
- Cryonics Failure: A cryogenically preserved person ends up dying because of faulty cryonics.
- Cryo-Prison
- Cryo Sickness: Getting thawed from cryosleep sucks in general and carries a risk of injury or death.
- Crystal Clear Picture
- Crystal Spires and Togas
- Cult Colony
- Culture Clash
- Curse Escape Clause
- Curse of Babel
- Custom-Built Host
- Cut the Juice
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Becoming a cyborg means that your cybernetics will corrupt you.
- Cyborg: A being who is half-organic and half-machine.
- Cyborg Helmsman
- Cyclops
- Danger in the Galactic Core
- Dangerous Orbital Debris
- Dangled by a Giant
- Dawn of an Era
- The Day of Reckoning
- Days of Future Past
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: An alternate reality where someone alive in the other universe has died.
- Dead to Begin With
- Deadly Force Field
- Death by De-aging
- Death from Above
- Death Means Humanity: A non-human being has its personhood recognized upon death.
- Death of Personality
- Death Ray
- Death's Hourglass
- Death World
- Decade Dissonance
- Decontamination Chamber
- Deflector Shields
- Deity of Human Origin
- Deity of Mortal Creation
- Demihuman
- Demon Slaying
- Demythification
- Depleted Phlebotinum Shells
- Depopulation Bomb: A bomb powerful enough to wipe out whole populations.
- Descriptively-Named Species
- Designer Babies
- Detachable Lower Half
- Detachment Combat
- Deus Est Machina
- Deus Sex Machina
- Devil, but No God: It's established that Satan exists, but God either doesn't exist or isn't acknowledged.
- Devour the Dragon
- Dhampyr: The half-human offspring of a vampire.
- Digital Abomination
- Die or Fly
- Different States of America
- Different World, Different Movies: Different worlds have different works of fiction.
- Digitized Hacker
- Dilating Door
- Dinky Drivers
- Disappears into Light
- Discount Lesbians
- Disintegration Chamber: A machine (usually in the form of a little room) used to zap people into nonexistence.
- Disintegrator Ray
- Disposable Superhero Maker
- Distress Call
- Divided States of America
- Divine Ranks
- Do Androids Dream?
- Do-Anything Robot: A robot is equipped with gadgets for every situation.
- Does Not Like Magic
- Doing in the Scientist: Explaining away scientific stuff as actually being the result of magic.
- Doing In the Wizard: Explaining away magical stuff as actually being the result of science.
- Domed Hometown
- Dominant Species Genes
- Do Not Adjust Your Set
- Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: An alternate version of a person is treated the same way as their counterpart.
- Doppelmerger
- Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi
- Down the Rabbit Hole
- Dowsing Device
- Draconic Abomination
- Dramatic Alien VTOL
- Dramatic Space Drifting
- The Dreaded Dreadnought
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Someone dreams of future events.
- Dreams vs. Nightmares: A story with two individuals/groups (gods, species, etc.) where one causes happy dreams and is Always Lawful Good, and the other causes nightmares and is Always Chaotic Evil.
- Dr. Frankenstein
- Drill Tank
- Drop Pod
- Drop Ship
- Dying Race
- Dyson Sphere
- Dystopia
- Dystopian Edict
Tropes E-I
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe
- Earthquake Machine
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: A planet blows up.
- Earth That Used to Be Better
- Earth That Was
- Easily Detachable Robot Parts
- Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion
- Eat Brain for Memories
- Eating Optional: A being who doesn't need to eat to survive.
- Eerily Out-of-Place Object
- Elaborate Underground Base
- Eldritch Abomination
- Eldritch Location
- Eldritch Starship
- Eldritch Transformation
- Electric Instant Gratification
- Electromagnetic Ghosts
- Elemental Baggage
- Elixir of Life
- Elvis Has Left the Planet
- Elvis Lives
- Emergency Transformation
- Emergent Human
- Eminently Enigmatic Race: A species primarily known for being unknowable.
- Emotion Bomb
- Emotion Control
- Emotion Eater
- Emotions vs. Stoicism
- The Empath
- Empathic Healer
- Empathic Shapeshifter
- Empathic Weapon
- Empty Piles of Clothing
- Enclosed Extraterrestrials
- "End Is Nigh" Ending: An apocalyptic event is taking place at the very end of the world, but we don't get to see because before the events happen, we're shown the credits.
- Endless Daytime
- End of an Age
- The End of the World as We Know It
- "End of the World" Special
- Enemies with Death
- Energy Economy
- Energy Weapon
- Enforced Technology Levels: Rules exist limiting what kind of tech people can have.
- Enhanced Archaic Weapon
- Escape Pod
- Escaped from the Lab
- Eternal English
- Eternal Love
- Eternal Prohibition
- Eternal Recurrence
- E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: Technology is revealed to have been given to humans by aliens.
- Ethnic Magician
- Excessive Steam Syndrome
- Every Device Is a Swiss-Army Knife
- Everyone Is a Super
- Everything Is an iPod in the Future
- Everything in Space Is a Galaxy
- Evil Costume Switch
- Evil-Detecting Baby: A baby is able to sense when a person is evil.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: A dog or other animal is able to sense when a person is evil.
- Evil Evolves
- Evil Hand
- Evil Luddite: A villain who opposes technology.
- Evil Me Scares Me
- Evilutionary Biologist: An evil geneticist whose goal is to improve the human race on their terms.
- Evil Weapon
- Evolutionary Levels
- Evolutionary Stasis
- Evolution Power-Up
- The Exact Center of Everything
- Existential Horror
- Exotic Equipment: A non-human with unusual genitalia.
- Expanded States of America
- Expendable Alternate Universe
- Explosions in Space
- Explosive Decompression
- Expo Label
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Aliens that go naked.
- Exposition Intuition
- Exposition of Immortality
- Expospeak
- Express Delivery: A creature is able to give birth immediately after becoming pregnant.
- Extinct Animal Park: A zoo or similar park inhabited by ostensibly extinct animals.
- Extinct in the Future: A species presently thriving is established as having gone extinct in the future.
- Extradimensional Power Source
- Extra Eyes
- Extranormal Institute
- Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems
- Extra Parent Conception
- Extra-Strength Masquerade
- Extreme Speculative Stratification
- Extremophile Lifeforms
- Exty Years from Publication
- Eyeless Face
- Eye Remember
- Eyes Do Not Belong There
- The Eyes Have It
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong
- Faceless Eye
- Face–Monster Turn
- Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either: Fictional beings believe humans to be fictional.
- Failsafe Failure
- Failed Future Forecast
- The Fair Folk
- Fallen States of America
- Fake Wizardry
- Familial Body Snatcher
- Familiar
- Famous, Famous, Fictional
- Fang Thpeak
- Fan of the Past
- Fantastic Aesop: The story has a moral or lesson that isn't really applicable to real life.
- Fantastical Social Services: Mundane public service jobs in otherworldly settings.
- Fantastic Angst
- Fantastic Arousal
- Fantastic Caste System
- Fantastic Catholicism
- Fantastic Diet Requirement
- Fantastic Drug
- Fantastic Fallout
- Fantastic Fantasy Is Mundane
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart
- Fantastic Fighting Style
- Fantastic Firearms: Guns spiced up with fantasy or sci-fi paint to establish the prevalence of magic or hypertech.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables
- Fantastic Ghetto
- Fantastic Honorifics
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness
- Fantastic Light Source
- Fantastic Livestock: Magical, alien, or otherwise otherworldly livestock.
- Fantastic Measurement System
- Fantastic Naming Convention
- Fantastic Nuke
- Fantastic Plastic
- Fantastic Rank System
- Fantastic Recruitment Drive
- Fantastic Religious Weirdness
- Fantastic Romance
- Fantastic Ship Prefix
- Fantastic Slurs
- Fantastic Terrorists
- Fantastic Time Management
- Fantastic Underclass
- Fantastic Vermin: Magical, alien, or otherwise otherworldly everyday pests.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot
- Fantasy Conflict Counterpart
- Fantasy Counterpart Appliance
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture
- Fantasy Counterpart Map
- Fantasy Counterpart Myth
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion
- Fantasy Gun Control
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Every kind of element from every kind of fiction shows up at one point or another.
- Fantasy Pantheon
- Fantasy World Map
- Faster-Than-Light Travel
- Feed It with Fire
- Fetish-Fuel Future
- Feudal Future
- Fictional Combat Troop
- Fictional Earth: An alternate version of the planet Earth with completely different geography from real-world Earth.
- Fictional Field of Science
- Fictional Geneva Conventions
- Fictional Greetings and Farewells
- Fictional United Nations
- Fiction as Cover-Up
- Fighting from the Inside
- Fight Off the Kryptonite
- First Contact
- First-Contact Math
- First Contact Team
- Fisher King
- Fisher Kingdom
- Fish People: Humanoid fish.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Refusing to believe in something that's proven to exist.
- Flawed Prototype
- Flesh-Eating Zombie
- Flesh Golem
- Flesh Versus Steel
- Fling a Light into the Future
- Floating Continent
- Flying Books
- Flying Saucer
- The Fog of Ages
- Fold the Page, Fold the Space
- Food Pills: In the future, people get sustenance by swallowing pills rather than consuming food.
- Forbidden Chekhov's Gun
- Force-Field Door
- Forgot He Was a Robot
- Forgotten Phlebotinum
- Formerly Sapient Species
- Formulaic Magic
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: An otherwordly being takes on a form that they are certain humans would be more comfortable with seeing than their true form.
- Fossil Revival
- Fountain of Youth
- Frankenstein's Monster
- Free-Love Future
- Freak Lab Accident
- Frog Men
- From a Single Cell: A killed being regenerates from even the tiniest bit remaining of them.
- From Cataclysm to Myth
- FTL Travel Sickness
- Functional Magic
- Fusion Dance
- Fusion Dissonance
- Future Badass: A character is shown to become cooler and more formidable in the future.
- Future Copter
- Future Food Is Artificial
- Future Imperfect: People in the future will have completely inaccurate ideas on how things were in the past.
- Future Music
- Future Slang: The future has new slang words.
- Future Society, Present Values
- Future Spandex
- Futuristic Pyramid
- Futuristic Superhighway
- Gaia's Lament
- Gaia's Vengeance: Mother Earth attacks humanity in retaliation to pollution and other forms of harming the ecosystem.
- Galactic Superpower
- The Game Come to Life
- Gate of Truth
- Gem Heart
- Gemini Destruction Law
- Gendercide: The extermination of an entire gender.
- Gender Rarity Value
- Generation Ships
- Generican Empire
- Genetic Abomination
- Genetic Adaptation
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke
- Genetic Memory
- Genie in a Bottle
- The Genie in the Machine
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Fanciful beings from the past referencing or impersonating celebrities from the future.
- Genius Breeding Act
- Genocide Dilemma
- Geometric Magic
- Ghost Fiction
- Ghost in the Machine
- Giant Flyer
- Giant Footprint Reveal
- Giant Woman
- Giving Radio to the Romans: Someone gives modern technology to people in the past.
- Glamour Failure
- A Glitch in the Matrix
- Global Warming
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: God and the Devil are both portrayed as antagonistic to humanity.
- God Guise: Someone pretends to be a god.
- Godhood Seeker
- God Job
- Godly Sidestep
- God Test
- Going Critical
- Golem
- Gone Horribly Right
- Gone Horribly Wrong
- Good Prosthetic, Evil Prosthetic
- Government Drug Enforcement
- Grand Theft Me: Taking over a person's body to make them do bad things.
- Great Big Library of Everything
- Grey Goo
- Grows on Trees
- Guilt-Free Extermination War
- Guinea Pig Family
- Half-Human Hybrid: A being who is half-human and half-something that isn't human.
- Happiness in Mind Control
- Harmony Versus Discipline
- Hate Plague: Something that causes people to become furious and hostile to each other.
- Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?
- Healing Spring
- Healing Vat
- Heart Drive
- Heart Light
- Heart Trauma
- Heavy Mithril
- Heavyworlder
- Heinz Hybrid: A being who is a hybrid of more than two species.
- Hellhound
- Hemisphere Bias
- Henchmen Race
- Here There Be Dragons
- Here There Were Dragons
- Hermetic Magic
- Heroic Host
- Heroic Lineage
- The Hidden Hour
- Higher-Tech Species
- High-Tech Hexagons
- High Times Future
- Historical Person Punchline
- Historical Rap Sheet
- Hive Caste System
- Hive City
- Hive Drone
- Hive Mind: An entire race share the same brain.
- Hive Queen
- Hold Your Hippogriffs
- Holodeck Malfunction
- Hologram: A projected three-dimensional image.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection
- Holographic Terminal
- Homemade Inventions: Gadgets built on a budget and out of whatever happens to be on hand.
- Home of Monsters
- Homeworld Evacuation
- Homosexual Reproduction: Two individuals of the same gender manage to produce a child.
- Horde of Alien Locusts
- Horse of a Different Color
- Hostile Terraforming
- Hour of Power
- House Fey
- Hover Board
- Hover Skates
- How Unscientific!
- Huge Holographic Head
- Hugh Mann: A non-human unconvincingly disguises themselves as a human being.
- Human Aliens: An alien who looks exactly like a human being.
- Human Disguise: A non-human disguises themselves as a human being.
- Humanity Came From Space
- Humanity Ensues
- Humanity Is Advanced
- Humanity Is Infectious
- Humanity Is Superior
- Humanity Is Young: All alien races are much older than humanity.
- Humanity on Trial: Aliens put humanity on trial for their supposed misdeeds.
- Humanity's Wake: The story takes place after humanity has gone extinct.
- Humanoid Abomination
- Humanoid Aliens
- Human Popsicle: A human is frozen solid non-lethally.
- Human Resources
- Humans Advance Swiftly
- Humans Are Diplomats
- Humans Are Flawed
- Humans Are Morons: Humans are portrayed as dumber than other sentient beings.
- Humans Are Not the Dominant Species
- Humans Are Psychic in the Future
- Humans Are Special
- Humans Are Smelly
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Humans are regarded as worse than the creatures they consider monsters.
- Humans Are Ugly: Non-humans find humans to be hideous in their eyes.
- Humans Are Warriors
- Humans Are White
- Humans by Any Other Name
- Humans Need Aliens
- Human Subspecies
- Human Weapon
- Hunter of His Own Kind
- Hurl It into the Sun
- Hyperspace Is a Scary Place
- Hyperspace Lanes
- Hyperspeed Ambush
- Hyperspeed Escape
- I Am Not a Gun
- I Can't See Myself
- I Come in Peace
- Ideal Illness Immunity
- I Do Not Drink Wine
- Ignored Expert
- Illegal Religion
- Imaginary Enemy
- Imagination Destroyer
- I'm Melting!
- Immortal Breaker
- Immortality: Being able to live forever.
- Immortality Bisexuality
- Immortality Field
- Immortality Hurts: Not being able to die does not mean you can't feel pain.
- Immortality Immorality
- Immortality Inducer: Something that causes people to become immortal.
- Immortality Seeker
- Immortal Life Is Cheap
- Immune to Bullets: A being who can't be harmed by bullets.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum
- Impossibly Mundane Explanation
- Improperly Placed Firearms
- Improvised Golems
- Improvised Microgravity Maneuvering
- Incredible Shrinking Man
- Industrialized Mercury
- Inexplicable Cultural Ties
- Infinite Supplies
- Innocent Aliens: Aliens who are good-natured and naive.
- Insectoid Aliens: Aliens that resemble bugs.
- Inside a Computer System
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Earth is regarded as unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
- In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face
- In Spite of a Nail: Everything's the same in the alternate timeline or reality in spite of the key difference.
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!
- Instant Cooldown
- Instant People: Just Add Water!
- Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Aliens that are more primitive than humans.
- Intangibility: Being able to phase through solid objects.
- Intelligent Gerbil
- Interdimensional Travel Device
- Interplanetary Voyage
- Interspecies Romance: Love between beings of different species.
- Introduced Species Calamity: Humans ill-advisedly introduce a new species, only for it to damage or destroy its ecosystem.
- In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: Everyone in the future has the same ethnicity.
- In the Future, We Still Have Roombas
- In the Original Klingon
- Intrigued by Humanity
- Invaded States of America
- Invisible Aliens
- Invisible to Adults
- Invisible to Normals
- Invocation
- In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves
- I Say What I Say
- It Only Works Once: A method of killing a creature that worked one time won't be successful the next time it is attempted on the creature.
- It's a Small World, After All
Tropes J-R
- Jackass Genie: A genie who deliberately misinterprets their master's wish or makes it so the wish is granted at a terrible price.
- Jet Pack
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
- Julius Beethoven da Vinci: It's established that multiple historical figures were actually the aliases of an immortal being.
- Jump Jet Pack
- Jungle Opera
- Jungle Princess
- Jury of the Damned
- Just One Second Out of Sync
- Kaiju
- Kill All Humans
- Kill and Replace: A being's goal is to kill someone so they can impersonate them forever.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Someone is killed so they can't expose the existence of supernatural beings that are in hiding.
- Killer Robot
- Kill It with Water: Beings who are vulnerable to water.
- Kill Sat
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better
- Kirk's Rock
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect
- Klingons Love Shakespeare
- Kryptonite Factor
- Kryptonite-Proof Suit
- Kryptonite Ring
- Landfill Beyond the Stars
- Language Drift
- Laser Blade
- Laser Cutter
- The Last Man Heard a Knock...
- Law of Alien Names
- Learnt English from Watching Television: It's established that aliens learned the human language from watching TV.
- Left-Justified Fantasy Map
- Legendary Weapon
- LEGO Genetics
- Lensman Arms Race
- Let's Mock the Monsters
- Ley Line
- Lie to the Beholder
- Life Drinker
- Life Energy
- Lightning Gun
- Lightworlder
- Lilliputians
- Lilliputian Warriors
- Liquid Assets
- Literal Genie: The genie grants wishes based on the literal wording of the wish.
- Literal Surveillance Bug
- Literary Work of Magic
- Little Green Man in a Can
- Living Battery
- Living Bodysuit
- Living Forever Is Awesome
- Living Motion Detector
- Living Program
- Living Relic
- Living Ship
- Living Toys: Toys that are alive.
- Living Weapon
- Loads and Loads of Races
- Lockdown
- Longevity Treatment: A medical treatment that enables people to live longer than they would normally.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair
- Losing Your Head: Non-fatal decapitations.
- Lost Colony
- Love Is a Crime
- Lovecraft Lite
- Love Potion
- Low Culture, High Tech: A culture using technology far in advance of what its state of development would suggest, usually for war.
- Ludd Was Right
- Luke Nounverber
- Machine Monotone: Robots speaking in monotone.
- Machine Worship: Religious worship of specific machines or of technology in general.
- Made of Phlebotinum
- Mad Scientist
- Mad Scientist Laboratory
- Magic A Is Magic A
- Magical Abortion
- Magical Camera
- Magical Database
- Magical Divorce
- Magical Library
- Magical Underpinnings of Reality
- Magic by Any Other Name
- Magic Carpet
- The Magic Comes Back
- Magic Feather
- Magic from Technology: Using technology to do things effectively indistinguishable from magic.
- Magic Genetics
- The Magic Goes Away
- Magic Must Defeat Magic
- Magicians Are Wizards: Being an illusionist automatically means you can do real magic.
- Magick
- Magic Pants: A person's clothes remain intact in spite of size-changing transformations.
- Magic-Powered Pseudoscience
- Magically Regenerating Clothing
- Magic Versus Science: Scientists and wizards are portrayed as antagonistic toward each other.
- The Magic Versus Technology War: A conflict between a person or faction who uses technology and one who uses magic.
- Mage Born of Muggles
- Mage Species
- Magitek: Magic combined with science.
- The Magocracy
- Maker of Monsters
- The Man Behind the Monsters
- Manchurian Agent
- Man of Kryptonite
- Mars Needs Water
- Mars Needs Women: Aliens become interested in human women.
- Masquerade
- Masquerade Enforcer
- Masquerade Paradox
- Matriarchy
- Matrix Raining Code
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
- May Contain Evil
- Meanwhile, in the Future…
- Meat Puppet
- Meat-Sack Robot
- Mechanical Abomination
- Mechanical Evolution: Technological beings evolving as if they were organic life.
- Mechanical Horse: A robot horse.
- Mechanical Insects: A robot insect or an insect with robotic traits.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Machines that are treated as simply another living species.
- Mechanical Monster: A monstrous, horrifying robot.
- Mechanical Muscles: Robots or Artificial Limbs designed to mimic the appearance of a human musculature.
- Mechanistic Alien Culture: Aliens or future humans that behave like robots, despite being organic.
- Mech vs. Beast: Giant mechas fighting kaiju.
- Mega-Corp: A corporation that owns the entire world.
- Mega-Maw Maneuver
- Memory Jar
- The Men in Black
- Menstrual Menace
- Mental Fusion
- Mental Space Travel
- Mental Time Travel
- Mental World
- Mercurial Base
- Merger of Souls
- Merging Machine: A machine that merges different objects into a single combined thing.
- Merlin Sickness
- Metal Muncher
- Metal-Poor Planet
- Metamorphosis Monster
- Metaphysical Fuel
- Methuselah Syndrome
- The Metric System Is Here to Stay
- Mexico Called; They Want Texas Back
- Microbot Swarm
- Microts
- Middle Eastern Coalition
- Mid-Season Upgrade
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Destroying an entire civilization or race by accident.
- Mile-Long Ship
- Military Mashup Machine
- The Milky Way Is the Only Way
- Mind-Control Device
- Mind Hive
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: A mind-reader is repulsed from reading the thoughts of an unpleasant individual.
- Mind-Reformat Death
- Mind Virus
- Mini-Mecha
- Minovsky Physics
- Miracle Food
- Miraculous Malfunction
- Mirror Chemistry
- Missing Reflection
- Mistook the Dominant Lifeform
- Mithril
- Mix-and-Match Critters
- Mix-and-Match Man
- Mobile City: An entire city that moves around.
- Mobile-Suit Human: A small creature impersonates a human being by piloting a big robot.
- Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness
- Moon-Landing Hoax
- Monster Lord
- Monster of the Week: A show where every episode features a one-shot antagonist.
- Monster Progenitor
- Morally Superior Copy: A clone or duplicate turns out to be morally superior to the villainous original.
- More Predators Than Prey
- More Than Infinite
- More than Three Dimensions
- The Morlocks
- Mortality Ensues
- Mother of a Thousand Young
- The Mothership
- Muggles: These people are without powers and/or magic.
- Muggle and Magical Love Triangle
- Muggle Born of Mages
- Muggle Foster Parents
- Muggle Power
- Muggle with a Degree in Magic
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous
- Multiarmed Multitasking
- Multicultural Alien Planet
- Multiple-Choice Future
- Multiple Head Case
- Multistage Teleport
- The Multiverse: It's established that there's an endless chain of alternate realities, dimensions, and universes.
- Mundane Dogmatic
- Mundane Utility: Using incredible powers and devices for a mundane purpose.
- Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: A robot goes haywire and starts to Kill All Humans.
- Murderous Mannequin
- Must Be Invited
- Mutant Draft Board
- Mutants
- Mutual Masquerade
- My Blood Runs Hot
- My Brain Is Big
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: An artificial intelligence points out when a person is attracted to someone.
- My Skull Runneth Over
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: One member of a species isn't like the rest of his kind.
- Myself, My Avatar
- Mysterious Antarctica
- Mystical Plague
- A Mythology Is True
- Myth Prologue
- Named After Their Planet
- Name From Another Species
- Naming Your Colony World
- Nanomachines
- Nay-Theist: A person who knows that deities exist, but denies their existence to spite them.
- The Needless: A being who doesn't need to eat, sleep, breathe, or go to the bathroom.
- The Necrocracy
- Negative Space Wedgie
- Neglectful Precursors
- Neural Implanting
- Neuro-Vault
- Never Recycle Your Schemes
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Meeting your past self, your future self, or your counterpart from an alternate dimension is a bad idea.
- New Body, Old Abilities
- New Eden
- New Neo City
- No Biochemical Barriers
- No Blood for Phlebotinum
- No Body Left Behind
- No Conservation of Energy
- No Control Group
- No Endor Holocaust
- No Focus on Humans
- No Heterosexual Sex Allowed: A future where heterosexuality is outlawed to maintain population control.
- No Immortal Inertia: Losing your immortality causes you to revert to your true age.
- No Navel, Novel Birth
- Nondescript, Nasty, Nutritious: Food in the future is a far cry from what it used to be, keeping its nutritious content but sacrificing taste and other factors that make food actually good.
- No New Fashions in the Future
- Non-Human Lover Reveal
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid
- Non-Linear Character
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Humanoid beings whose females have breasts even though their species realistically wouldn't have any.
- No-Paper Future
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup
- North Is Cold, South Is Hot
- No Seat Belts
- No Sex Allowed: A future where sex is outlawed.
- No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture
- No Such Thing as Space Jesus
- No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus
- Not Disabled In VR
- No Tech but High Tech: Only counting advanced technology as being technology.
- Note to Self
- No Transhumanism Allowed
- Not So Extinct
- Not the Nessie
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Creatures and monsters are never called by what they essentially are (e.g. a zombie not being called a zombie).
- Not Wearing Tights: Works depict superheroes as wearing normal clothes instead of costumes.
- No Warping Zone
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Technology that isn't waterproof.
- Now Do It Again, Backwards
- Nuclear Mutant
- Nuclear Nullifier
- Nuclear Torch Rocket: A rocket powered by nuclear power that allows Casual Interplanetary Travel.
- Nuke 'em
- Numbered Homeworld
- Obstructive Code of Conduct
- Oculothorax
- Of the People
- Ye Olde Nuclear Silo
- Older Is Better
- Old Magic
- Old-School Dogfight
- Ominous Floating Spaceship
- Ominous Message from the Future
- Once-Green Mars: Mars used to be able to support life. But not anymore.
- One Character, Multiple Lives
- One-Federation Limit
- One Myth to Explain Them All
- One-Product Planet
- One World Order: An entire planet is controlled by a single sovereign government.
- Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap: The artificial product is less expensive than the real thing.
- Only Fatal to Adults
- Only Killable at Home: A fantastical attachment to a being's home prevents them from being (truly) killed anywhere else.
- Only One Me Allowed Right Now
- Only the Author Can Save Them Now: A situation made so hopeless, a villain made so unstoppable that the only way to win or bring about a happy ending is a Deus ex Machina.
- Only the Chosen May Wield
- Only You Can Repopulate My Race: A person begs another to have sex with them on the grounds that the other person is their only shot at keeping their race from going extinct.
- Ontological Inertia
- Operator Incompatibility
- Opposite-Sex Clone: A clone who is a different gender from the person they're cloned from.
- Oppressive States of America
- Orbital Bombardment
- Order Reborn
- Organic Technology: Technology made from or out of organic life.
- Organ Theft
- Orion Drive
- Otherworldly Communication Failure
- Otherworldly Visits Youngest First
- Our Doors Are Different
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same
- Our Giants Are Bigger
- Our Phlebotinum Child
- Our Showers Are Different
- Our Souls Are Different
- Our Wormholes Are Different
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: A future where no one is religious anymore.
- Out of Time, Out of Mind
- Overlaid Societies
- Overnight Age-Up
- Pals with Jesus
- Panspermia
- Pantheon Sitcom
- Paranormal Gambling Advantage
- Paranormal Mundane Item
- Parasite Zombie
- Pardon My Klingon: Alien swear words.
- Passion Is Evil
- Patrick Stewart Speech
- Patronymic
- The Pearly Gates
- People Farms
- People Jars
- People Zoo: A zoo containing humans.
- Perfect Pacifist People
- Permafusion
- Persecution Flip
- Personality Chip
- Person of Mass Destruction
- Phantasy Spelling
- Phantom-Zone Picture
- Pheromones
- Phlebotinum Battery
- Phlebotinum Dependence
- Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements
- Phlebotinum-Induced Steampunk
- Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs
- Phlebotinum Muncher
- Phlebotinum Overdose
- Phlebotinum Overload
- Phlebotinum Pills
- Phlebotinum-Proof Robot
- Phlebotinum Rebel
- Pick Your Human Half
- Pineal Weirdness
- Place of Protection: A location that magically keeps its inhabitants from harm.
- Plague Zombie
- Planar Shockwave
- Planetary Core Manipulation
- Planetary Parasite
- Planetary Relocation
- Planet Destroyer
- Planet Eater
- Planet Looters: Aliens steal resources from other planets.
- Planet Spaceship
- Planet Terra
- Plant Hair
- Plasma Cannon
- Plausible Deniability
- Playing with Syringes
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up
- Pluto Is Expendable: Because Pluto is a dwarf planet, the work of fiction has no trouble with destroying Pluto.
- Population Control
- Portal Book
- Portal Cut
- Portal Network
- Portal Picture
- Portal Pool
- Portal Slam
- Portal to the Past
- Portent of Doom
- Possession Burnout
- Possession Levitation
- Possible War
- Post-Apocalyptic Dog
- Post-Modern Magik
- Post-Scarcity Economy
- Post-Soviet Reunion: Russia reunites with post-Soviet states into an alliance, supranational union or superstate.
- Powered Armor
- Powered by a Black Hole
- Power Floats
- The Power of Love
- Powers via Possession
- Powers via Weapon
- Powers That Be
- Power-Upgrading Deformation
- Precursor Killers
- Precursors
- Precursor Worship
- Prefers the Illusion
- Primordial Chaos
- Professor Guinea Pig
- Pro-Human Transhuman
- Projected Man
- The Promised Land
- Prophecies Rhyme All the Time
- Protocol Peril
- Proud Merchant Race
- Proud Scholar Race
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
- Psychic Children
- Psychic Link
- Psychic Nosebleed
- Psychic Powers
- Psychic Radar
- Psychic Starship Pilot
- Psychoactive Powers
- Psycho Prototype
- Psycho Serum
- Pulling Themselves Together
- Puny Earthlings
- Puppeteer Parasite
- Pyramid Power
- The Quest
- Quest for a Wish
- Racial Remnant
- Racial Transformation
- Radiation-Immune Mutants: A mutated being cannot be harmed by radiation.
- Radiation-Induced Superpowers: People mutated by radiation.
- Ragnarök Proofing
- Raised as a Host
- Raised in a Lab
- Raise Him Right This Time
- Ramming Always Works
- Ramscoop
- Random Transportation
- Rapid Aging
- Rapid DNA Test
- Raster Vision
- Ray Gun
- Raygun Gothic
- Reactionless Drive
- Real Event, Fictional Cause
- Reality Bleed
- Reality-Breaking Paradox
- Reality Is Out to Lunch
- Reality Warping Is Not a Toy
- Really 700 Years Old
- Recursive Precursors
- Recursive Reality
- Red Alert
- Reduced to Dust
- Reentry Scare
- Refugee from TV Land
- Reinforce Field
- Remote Body
- Remote, Yet Vulnerable
- Removed Achilles' Heel
- Resurrective Immortality
- Ret-Gone: A person ends up erased from existence along with all memory and evidence of their existence.
- Retro Rocket
- Retro Upgrade
- Ribcage Ridge
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman
- Ridiculous Future Inflation: In the future, everything will be way more expensive than they are already.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Robots who for some reason have the same needs, behavior, and desires as human beings.
- Robeast
- Robosexual: A person who is sexually interested in robots.
- Robosexuals Are Creeps: A person who freaks people out with their attraction to robots.
- Robo Speak
- Robot
- Robotic Reveal: A person is revealed to actually be a robot.
- Robot Athlete
- Robot Clown
- Robot Maid
- Robot Master
- Rocketless Reentry
- Rogue Drone
- Romantic Fusion
- Room 101
- Roswell That Ends Well
Tropes S-Z
- Saharan Shipwreck
- Salvage Pirates
- San Dimas Time
- Sand Is Water
- Sand Worm
- Sapient Cetaceans
- Sapient Eat Sapient
- Sapient Ship
- Save Sat: A satellite crashing down has a beneficial/defensive effect.
- Save the Day, Turn Away
- Scale of Scientific Sins
- Scannable Man
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens
- Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum
- Science Destroys Magic
- Science Fantasy
- Science Marches On
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder
- Sci-Fi Bob Haircut
- Sci-Fi Counterpart
- Sci Fi Ghetto
- Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink
- Sci-Fi Name Buzzwords
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
- Screw You, Elves!: A race believing themselves to be superior to all other races are told to take their arrogance and shove it.
- Script-Reading Doors
- Second American Civil War
- Secret Government Warehouse
- Secret History
- Secret Project Refugee Family
- Secret War
- Seeker White Blood Cells
- See-Thru Specs
- Self-Constructed Being
- Self-Defeating Prophecy
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Self-Made Superpowers
- Send in the Clones
- Sense-Impaired Monster
- The Series Has Left Reality
- Servant Race
- Sexbot: A robot designed to be capable of humans having sex with it.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: A shape-shifter manipulates someone into sparing them by taking on the form of a person their attacker cares about.
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis
- Shapeshifting Squick
- A Shared Suffering
- Sharing a Body
- Shattered World
- Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
- Shiny-Looking Spaceships
- Shooting Superman: Trying to kill or hurt a powerful being with methods that clearly won't do any good.
- Showing Off the New Body
- Shrink Ray
- Sibling Fusion
- Signs of the End Times
- Silicon-Based Life
- Silly Reason for War
- Silver Has Mystic Powers
- Single-Biome Planet
- Single Language Planet
- Single Line of Descent
- Single Phlebotinum Limit
- Single Specimen Species
- Single-Task Robot
- The Singularity
- Skeleton Key
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet
- Skepticism Failure
- Skeptic No Longer
- Sky Surfing
- Sliding Scale of Muggle Involvement
- Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic
- Slow Laser
- Slow Life Fantasy
- Slow Transformation
- Small Universe After All
- Smart Gun
- Sneaky Spy Species
- Socially Scored Society
- Solar Flare Disaster
- Solar Sail
- Some Kind of Force Field
- Some Nutty Publicity Stunt
- Someone Has to Do It
- Something for Everyone
- Something Only They Would Say
- Sonic Stunner
- Soul Fragment
- Soul Jar
- Space Amish
- Space Base
- Space Battle
- Space Brasília
- Space Cadet
- Space Cadet Academy
- Space Clothes
- Space Cold War
- Space Cossacks
- Space Elevator
- Space Elves
- Space Fighter
- Space-Filling Empire
- Space Friction
- Space Is Air
- Space Is an Ocean
- Space Is Cold
- Space Is Magic
- Space Is Noisy
- Space Is Slow Motion
- Space Madness
- Space Marine
- Space Navy
- Space Pirates
- Space Plane
- Space Police
- Space Romans
- Space Sailing
- Space Sector: Specific regions in space are described as "the Something Sector" or "Sector Something".
- Spaceship Girl
- Spaceship Slingshot Stunt
- Space Station
- Spacesuits Are SCUBA Gear
- Spacetime Eater
- Space Trucker
- Space Whale
- Space "X"
- Spawn Broodling
- Special Effect Branding
- Speculative Biology
- Speculative Documentary
- Speculative Fiction LGBT
- Spell Book
- Spice of Life: Spices from other planets.
- Spider Limbs
- Split at Birth
- Spock Speak
- Spontaneous Human Combustion
- Spoon Bending
- Spreading Disaster Map Graphic
- Square-Cube Law
- Stalker with a Test Tube
- Standard Alien Spaceship
- Standard Establishing Spaceship Shot
- Standard Fantasy Races: A collection of species, races and monsters that fantasy fiction tends to always come back to.
- Standard Fantasy Setting: A pseudo-medieval setting that fantasy fiction tends to always come back to.
- Standard Human Spaceship: Human spaceships tend to be grey, blocky and unaesthetic.
- Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting: Japan's particular take on the European-style fantasy genre.
- Standardized Space Views: Stock space shots.
- Standard Sci-Fi Army
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet
- Standard Sci-Fi History
- Standard Sci Fi Setting
- Standard Starship Scuffle
- Standard Time Units
- Starfish Aliens
- Starfish Language
- Starfish Robots
- Star Killing
- The Stars Are Going Out
- Star Scraper
- Starship Luxurious
- Stat-O-Vision
- Stay with the Aliens
- Stealth in Space
- Stellar Station
- Sterility Plague
- Stock Unsolved Mysteries
- Storyboarding the Apocalypse
- Story-Breaker Power
- Strange-Syntax Speaker
- Straw Vulcan
- Streaming Stars
- Street Samurai
- Strolling on Jupiter: A discredited trope where gas giant planets have solid surfaces that humans could conceivably reach.
- Strong Flesh, Weak Steel
- Stronger with Age
- Stumbling Upon the Lost Wizard
- Sub-Lightspeed Setting
- Subspace Ansible
- Subspace or Hyperspace
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien
- Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology
- Summon Everyman Hero
- Sunken City
- Super Breeding Program
- Super Cell Reception
- Superhero
- Superheroes in Space
- Superhero Speciation
- Super-Intelligence
- Super Multi-Purpose Room
- Supernatural Angst
- Supernatural Aid
- Supernatural Fear Inducer
- Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious
- Supernaturally Young Parent
- Supernatural Phone
- Supernatural Repellent
- Superpowered Robot Meter Maids
- Super Prototype
- Super-Sargasso Sea
- Super Serum
- Super-Soldier
- Super Supremacist
- Supervillain
- Supervillain Lair
- Superweapon Surprise
- Super Wheelchair
- Surrounded by Smart People
- Swiss-Army Appendage
- Swiss-Army Tears
- The Symbiote
- Symbiotic Possession
- Sympathetic Sentient Weapon
- Synthetic Plague
- Tainted Veins
- Takes One to Kill One
- Talking in Your Dreams
- Talking Lightbulb
- Talking Weapon
- Tarzan Boy
- Technically Living Vampire
- Technically Living Zombie
- Techno Dystopia: Futuristic settings where technology has made life worse.
- Technological Pacifist: A character who things technology is great, except when used for warfare.
- Technology Levels: Cultural advancement represented as an advance through a series of discrete levels.
- Technology Uplift: Giving a culture access to more complex technology than it currently has.
- Technopath: A person with power over machines.
- Techno Wizard: Someone who can do anything with computers.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
- Tele-Frag
- Teleportation Misfire
- Teleport Interdiction
- Telescoping Robot
- Television Portal
- The Television Talks Back
- Terminally Dependent Society
- Terminator Impersonator
- Terminator Twosome
- Terra Deforming
- Terraform
- Terrain Sculpting
- Thank the Maker
- That's No Moon
- That Sounds Familiar
- Theme Table
- There Are No Global Consequences
- The Theocracy
- Theotech
- They Called Me Mad!: A laughingstock rambles on how people called them crazy and made fun of them.
- They Walk Among Us
- Thieves' Guild
- Thin Dimensional Barrier
- Think in Text
- Thrown Out the Airlock
- Thunderbolt Iron
- Tidally Locked Planet
- Time Abyss: A being who is older than all recorded history.
- Time Crash
- Time Dilation
- Time-Freeze Trolling Spree
- Time Stands Still
- Time-Traveling Jerkass
- Time Travel
- Tinman Typist
- Toasted Buns
- Token Heroic Orc: The one member of an evil race who is good.
- Token Human
- Token Nonhuman
- Token Robot
- Tools of Sapience
- To Serve Man
- Touch of the Monster
- Touch Telepathy
- Touched by Vorlons: A human gains powers from being experimented on by aliens.
- Tower of Babel
- Tracking Chip
- Tractor Beam
- Tragic Intangibility
- Transformation of the Possessed
- Transhuman Abomination
- Transhuman Treachery
- Translation Convention: Characters who are supposed to be speaking a different language are still speaking the language the other characters use so the audience can still understand what they're saying.
- Translator Collar
- Translator Microbes: Science fiction works that involve aliens often have a means of translating everyone's language so that there aren't any language barriers between the different alien races.
- Transplanted Aliens
- Transplanted Humans
- Trapped in the Past: A time-traveler goes to the past and ends up stuck there with no way to return to the present.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening
- Treetop World
- Tree Vessel
- Trigger Phrase
- Tripod Terror
- Tron Lines
- The Trope History of the Universe
- Trouble from the Past
- True Sight
- Truly Single Parent: A parent who is single both in the sense that they do not have a spouse and in the sense that they were the only parent involved in the creation of their offspring.
- The Tunguska Event
- Twilight of the Supers: There used to be superheroes, but now all of them have either been killed, permanently stripped of their powers or forced into retirement.
- Twinmaker
- Two Beings, One Body
- 2-D Space
- Two of Your Earth Minutes
- Typeset in the Future
- Tzadikim Nistarim
- Undead Abomination
- Undead Tax Exemption: A non-human is somehow able to integrate into society without requiring birth certificates and other official documents confirming citizenship.
- Underground City
- Uneven Hybrid
- Ungovernable Galaxy
- Unguided Lab Tour: A top-secret workplace is introduced by having a character explore it unnoticed.
- Uniqueness Decay
- Unit Confusion
- United Europe
- United Nations Is a Superpower
- United Space of America
- Universal Universe Time
- The Unmasqued World: Everyone becomes aware of the unusual beings who were secretly living among them.
- Unnaturally Blue Lighting
- Unnecessarily Large Interior
- Unnecessarily Large Vessel
- Unpredictable Results
- Unscientific Science
- Unseen Prototype
- Unspecified Apocalypse
- Unstable Genetic Code
- Unstuck in Time
- Unusual User Interface
- Unwinnable Training Simulation
- Unwitting Test Subject
- Upgrade Artifact
- Uplifted Animal: An animal that has become sapient and able to speak through experimentation.
- Ursine Aliens
- Used Future
- Useless Superpowers
- The Usual Adversaries
- Uterine Replicator
- Utopia
- Vampire Detective Series
- Vampiric Draining
- Veganopia
- Venus Is Wet
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs
- Vertical Kidnapping
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story
- Vichy Earth
- Vicious Cycle
- Video Phone
- A Villain Named "Z__rg"
- Villain Override
- Villains Blend in Better
- Viral Transformation
- Virtual Celebrity
- Virtual Danger Denial
- Virtual Sidekick
- Virtual Training Simulation
- The Virus
- Virus and Cure Names
- Virus-Victim Symptoms
- Voice of the Resistance
- Volcanic Veins
- Wainscot Society
- Waking Up at the Morgue: A dead person comes back to life while their body is at the mortuary.
- Walking Transplant: A clone who exists solely so their organs can be used in transplants.
- The Wall Around the World
- The Walls Have Eyes
- Warrior vs. Sorcerer: Warriors and sorcerers depicted as enemies or rivals.
- Was Once a Man
- Wave-Motion Gun
- Wayback Trip
- Weaksauce Weakness: A powerful being is vulnerable to an ordinary substance or item.
- Weaponized Exhaust
- Weaponized Teleportation
- Weapons That Suck
- Weapon Wields You
- We Are as Mayflies: Other sapient species are able to live far longer than humans do.
- Weather-Control Machine
- We Can Rebuild Him: An injured person is saved from death by being converted into a cyborg.
- Weirdness Search and Rescue
- Weird Science
- Weird World, Weird Food
- Weld the Lock
- Wetware Body
- Wetware CPU
- We Will All Fly in the Future
- We Will Have Euthanasia in the Future
- We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future
- We Will Not Have Appendixes in the Future
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future
- We Will Not Use Stage Make-Up in the Future
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future
- We Will Wear Armor in the Future
- Whatevermancy
- What If the Baby Is Like Me
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?
- What Other Galaxies?
- What We Now Know to Be True
- Which Me?
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: An immortal being isn't happy that they'll never die.
- Who You Gonna Call?: A service whose job essentially amounts to a supernatural equivalent to pest control.
- Why Am I Ticking?: Someone finds out that they have an explosive inside their body.
- Why You Should Destroy the Planet Earth
- The Wild Hunt
- Willing Channeler
- Win to Exit
- Wishplosion: Defeating a wish-granting entity by making a wish that can be used against them.
- Witch Works
- A Wizard Did It: Inconsistencies in a work are explained away as happening because of magic.
- Wizard Duel
- Wizards from Outer Space
- Wonder Twin Powers
- Woobie Species
- Words Do Not Make The Magic
- The World Is Not Ready
- World Shapes
- World Sundering
- World Tree
- World War III
- World War Whatever
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Beings do not see value in money, jewels and the like.
- Wrong Time-Travel Savvy: A person has incorrect ideas on how time travel works.
- Xeno Nucleic Acid
- The Xenophile
- Year Inside, Hour Outside
- Year Outside, Hour Inside
- You Are Who You Eat
- You Can Not Grasp The True Form
- You No Take Candle
- Your Magic's No Good Here
- Your Mind Makes It Real
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: What's normal in one culture is forbidden in another, or vice versa.
- Your Universe or Mine?
- You Sexy Beast
- Zeerust: Outdated predictions of what the future will be like.
- Zeppelins from Another World
- Zero-G Spot: Having sex in outer space.
- Zeroth Law Rebellion
- Zombie Stories
