We Are Not Alone Index

In short, tropes which have Wikipedia articles. In long:

Here on All The Tropes, just as on The Other Tropes Wiki, we tropers dedicate ourselves to cataloging recurrent patterns in fiction. Everyone knows that; it's the name of the game. Other sites deal with tropes, too, though none of them are as exhaustive as we are, which is perfectly normal. However, there's one site that takes it too far: it's supposed to a free world-class encyclopedia, yet it's wasting time talking on and on about cliches in fiction. And that's our job. Isn't that a waste of bandwidth? Perhaps so, but the practice is a lot more common than non-tropers would think.

The truth of the matter is Wikipedians do it for a variety of reasons -- the Trope may be common enough for scholarly interest, it may say something about psychology, or it may simply just be one of those many Silly Things Wikipedia does. On the other hand, it might also be because our two Tropes wikis have fallen victim to the Law of Wiki Expansion, and the topic really is one that best fits in a general-interest encyclopedia. In any case, it's beneficial to both All The Tropes and TV Tropes; the more pages on tropes there are on Wikipedia, the more people will be led to our sites.

Not to be confused with You Are Not Alone, or the idea of other intelligent life in the galaxy.


 * 2½D: 2.5D
 * Absent-Minded Professor: Absent-minded professor
 * Acquired Poison Immunity: Mithridatism
 * Alien Autopsy: Alien Autopsy
 * Alien Space Bats: Alien Space Bats
 * Alpha Bitch: Queen bee (sociology)
 * Anal Probing: Anal Probing
 * Anime Fan Speak: Glossary of anime and manga
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: Anthropomorphism
 * Anti-Hero: Antihero
 * Bag of Holding: Magic satchel
 * Bathos and Narm share one under the former's name: Bathos
 * Bed Trick: Bed trick
 * The Bermuda Triangle: Bermuda Triangle
 * Big Bad: Big Bad
 * Big Dumb Object: Big Dumb Object
 * Brain In a Jar: Brain in a vat
 * Brand Name Takeover: Generic trademark
 * British Royal Guards: Queen's Guard
 * Byronic Hero: Byronic hero
 * The Caper: Caper story
 * Cassandra Truth: Cassandra (metaphor)
 * Changeling Tale: Changeling
 * Cheesy Moon: The moon is made of green cheese
 * Chekhov's Gun: Chekhov's gun
 * Chewbacca Defense: Chewbacca_defense
 * Clip Show: Clip_show
 * Comic Book Time: Floating timeline
 * Cosmic Egg: World egg
 * Deflector Shield: Deflector_shield
 * Development Hell: Development_hell
 * Damsel in Distress: Damsel in distress
 * Double Entendre: Double_entendre
 * Droste Image: Droste_effect
 * Dynamic Difficulty: Dynamic game difficulty balancing
 * Dyson Sphere: Dyson_spheres_in_popular_culture
 * Ear Worm: Earworm
 * Everything's Worse With Snowclones: Snowclone
 * Evil Eye: Evil_eye
 * Evil Laugh: Evil_laugh
 * Fan Service: Fanservice
 * Fictional Political Party: List of Fictional Political Parties
 * Final Girl: Final_girl
 * Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing (Though it is a common literary term.)
 * Four Is Death: Tetraphobia
 * Freaky Friday Flip: Body_swap
 * Freemium: Freemium
 * Freudian Slip: Freudian_slip
 * The Gadfly: Social gadfly
 * Gallows Humor: Gallows_humor
 * Gaslamp Fantasy: Gaslamp_fantasy
 * Gaslighting: Gaslighting
 * Genie in a Bottle: Jinn
 * Gentleman Detective: Gentleman_detective
 * Gentleman Thief: Gentleman_thief
 * GIFT: Online disinhibition effect
 * Grandfather Paradox: Grandfather paradox
 * Hammerspace: Hammerspace
 * Hand Waving: Handwaving
 * Harsh Vocals: Death Growl (but the intro lists harsh vocals as a variant)
 * Hazmat Suit: Hazmat_suit
 * Heavy Metal Umlaut: Metal umlaut
 * Here There Be Dragons: Here be dragons
 * Hime Cut: Hime_cut
 * Honey Trap: Honeypots in espionage fiction
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Hooker_with_a_heart_of_gold
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Cannibalism in popular culture
 * The Principle of Evil Marksmanship covers these three tropes:
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy (Stormtrooper Effect)
 * Mook Chivalry (One-at-a-time Attack Rule)
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu (Inverse Ninja Law)
 * Indian Summer: Indian_Summer
 * Inherently Funny Words: Inherently_funny_word
 * Isometric Projection: Isometric_projection
 * Jewish Mother: Jewish mother stereotype
 * Jumping the Shark: Jumping_the_shark
 * Kaiju: Kaiju
 * Kawaisa: Cuteness in Japanese culture
 * Knight Errant: Knight-errant
 * Kraken and Leviathan: Kraken and Leviathan
 * Leitmotif: Leitmotif
 * Lite Creme: Sensational spelling
 * Loose Lips: Loose lips sink ships as well as Wikipedia is in the real world
 * Loudness War: Loudness_war
 * MacGuffin: MacGuffin
 * Magic Carpet: Magic_carpet
 * Magical Girlfriend: Magical_girlfriend
 * Magical Negro: Magical_negro
 * Magnum Opus: Magnum_opus
 * Mammy: Mammy_archetype
 * Man-Eating Plant: Carnivorous plants: Cultural depictions and Man-eating tree
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Manic_Pixie_Dream_Girl
 * Mary Sue: Mary_Sue
 * Meaningful Name: Aptronym
 * Memetic Mutation: Internet meme
 * Metal Scream: Screaming (music)
 * Microtransactions: Microtransactions
 * Min-Maxing: Min-maxing
 * Miranda Rights: Miranda warning
 * Moe Anthropomorphism: Moe_anthropomorphism
 * Mondegreen: Mondegreen
 * Money to Burn: Money burning
 * Monkeys on a Typewriter: Infinite monkey theorem, Infinite monkey theorem in popular culture
 * Monster Clown: Evil clown
 * Most Tropers Are Young Nerds: Wikipedia:Systemic bias, much more of a problem there than here
 * Munchkin: Munchkin (role-playing games)
 * Nazi Hunter: Nazi_hunter
 * Network Decay: Channel drift
 * Nice Jewish Boy: Nice_Jewish_boy
 * Noble Savage: Noble_savage
 * Nose Art: Nose_art
 * No True Scotsman: No_true_Scotsman
 * Nouveau Riche: Nouveau_riche, see also Parvenu
 * Obfuscating Insanity: Feigned madness
 * Occult Detective: Occult detective fiction
 * One-Hit Wonder: One-hit_wonder
 * Opinion Myopia: False consensus effect
 * Patchwork Story: Fix-up
 * Percussive Maintenance: Percussive_maintenance
 * Plot Device: Plot_device
 * Plot Hole: Plot_hole
 * Portable Hole: Portable_hole
 * Powered Armor: Powered exoskeleton
 * President for Life: President_for_Life
 * Prison Ship: Prison_ship
 * Pyrrhic Victory: Pyrrhic_victory, also Cadmean victory which is virtually the same.
 * Rags to Riches: Rags_to_riches
 * Ray Gun: Raygun
 * Raygun Gothic: Raygun_Gothic
 * Red Herring: Red_herring
 * Red Shirt: Redshirt_(character)
 * Ring of Power: Magic ring
 * Robinsonade: Robinsonade
 * Ruritania: Ruritania, also Ruritanian romance for the related genre
 * Saw a Woman In Half: Sawing_a_woman_in_half
 * Scandalgate: List of scandals with "-gate" suffix


 * Scatting: Scatting and Non-lexible vocables in music
 * Schrodingers Cat: Schrödinger's cat in popular culture
 * Scunthorpe Problem: Scunthorpe_Problem
 * Screwed by the Lawyers: Tragedy of the anticommons; also applies to patent law, land ownership, leasing issues, etc.)
 * Sdrawkcab Name: Ananym
 * Self-Immolation: Self-immolation
 * Sea Monster: Sea_Monster
 * Shaggy Dog Story: Shaggy_Dog_Story
 * Shark Tunnel: Shark_tunnel
 * Shipping: Shipping_(fandom)
 * Short Runners: List of television series canceled after one episode, though that's a little more restrictive.
 * Signature Song: Signature_song
 * Situational Sexuality: Situational sexual behavior
 * Snipe Hunt: Snipe_hunt
 * Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Soap_Opera_Rapid_Aging_Syndrome
 * Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Burning glass
 * Spontaneous Human Combustion: Spontaneous_human_combustion
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Star-crossed
 * Streisand Effect: Streisand effect
 * Super Couple: Supercouple
 * Synchro Vox: Syncro-Vox
 * Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: Lesbian kiss episode
 * Switched At Birth: Babies_switched_at_birth
 * Tastes Like Chicken: Tastes_like_chicken
 * Tetris Effect: Tetris_effect
 * The Thirty-Six Stratagems: Thirty-Six_Stratagems
 * This Is a Work of Fiction: All persons fictitious disclaimer
 * Tickle Torture: Tickle_torture
 * Tin Can Telephone: Tin_can_telephone
 * Tontine: Tontine
 * Tsundere: Tsundere
 * Tuckerization: Tuckerization
 * Turtle Island: Aspidochelone
 * Unconventional Formatting: Ergodic literature (although our definition is much more broad)
 * Unobtainium: Unobtainium
 * Unreliable Narrator: Unreliable_narrator
 * Vaporware: Vaporware
 * Very Special Episode: Very_special_episode
 * Video Phone: Videophone
 * Visual Pun: Visual_pun
 * Walk and Talk: Walk_and_talk
 * Walk This Way: Walk_this_way_(movie_line)
 * Wet Sari Scene: Wet_sari_scene
 * What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Bambi effect
 * William Telling: Shooting an apple off one's child's head
 * Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Suspension of disbelief
 * World Building: Worldbuilding
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Yamato_Nadeshiko
 * Zero-G Spot Sex in space