All The Tropes

Establishing Character Moment/Literature: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Establishing Character Moment/Literature (view source)

Revision as of 21:59, 5 January 2023

1 byte removed ,  1 year ago
no edit summary
VisualWikitext
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.2)
No edit summary
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]s in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
 
* In the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[[The Dead Zone]]'', Greg Stillson (the villain) is introduced as a traveling salesman who is tired of the pathetic existence he's been reduced to. After trying unsuccessfully for a couple of minutes to knock on a prospective buyer's door, he ends up kicking to death a defenseless dog that was barking at him, foreshadowing his true motivations later on in the novel.
* In ''[[The Green Mile]]'', John Coffey's moment is asking if they keep the lights on after bedtime (the book and movie both play with the "[[Scary Black Man|huge black man]]" stereotype). In the same scene, Percy Wetmore's incessant yelling of "[[Dead Man Walking]]!" tells us his [[Smug Snake|archetype]].
Line 35 ⟶ 37:
* In her first scene, [[Kate Daniels]] is drinking alcohol alone in her dark kitchen in the middle of the day, only to whip around and throw a knife into the throat of the vampire sneaking up on her. Her status as a [[Badass]] fighter and her hatred of vampires are constant throughout the series, and her loneliness, depression and alcoholism are all [[Character Development]] arcs she struggles with.
* In the ''[[Night Huntress]]'' series, Cat's first scene shows her getting pulled over the cops with a vampire's corpse in the back of her truck (and since they're under the [[Masquerade]], the cops won't know a vamp corpse from a human). She keeps her cool throughout, and her politeness never wavers as she says goodbye to the helpful police officer and drives off. Later in the book she proves to be quite calm and businesslike in familiar situations, and quite casual about non-human deaths.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** The second scene of ''[[Discworld/Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'' introduces us to Susan Sto Helit, when her headmistress informs her that her parents have died. The headmistress then prompts her that maybe she'd like to cry or something, and Susan responds "[[Emotionless Girl|Would that help?]]" This leads into to another interview with Miss Butts, which establishes her [[Psychic Powers|psychic invisibility]], and tendency to use this to avoid anything she doesn't want to do. (Which, in turn, tells us that she likes [[The Spock|Logic and Maths]], but not Language and History, because those are the classes she's visible for.)
** Tiffany Aching gets her in [[Discworld/The Wee Free Men|The Wee Free Men]] inside Miss Tick's tent. After being informed that the Queen of Elves is planning to invade the Chalk, Tiffany immediately asks "Can I stop it?", whereas most nine-year-olds would say "Can anyone stop it?" or "Can we stop it?". Miss Tick is very observant of this.
** We first meet Lord Vetinari in [[Discworld/The Colour of Magic|The Color of Magic]]. While talking to Rincewind, he makes it quite clear that not only does he know about the wizzard's attempt to duck out of the guide job Twoflower hired him for, he also makes it clear that if something ''does'' happen to Twoflower and the Agatean Empire's armies attack Ankh-Morpork because of said something, he will make sure Rincewind is the first thing their navy ships meet. Though it doesn't demonstrate the levels of excellence he shows in later novels, Our first encounter with the Partician shows us he's not a man to cross, but he does care about his city.
* ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'' opens with Scarlett O'Hara flirting with not one, but two beaux at the same time. Naturally, both men are spellbound by her.
** Rhett's skepticism when it comes to the South winning the war.
Line 64 ⟶ 67:
* ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'': Touma is introduced running away from delinquents, in a manner specifically intended to make them tire themselves out (showing he's smarter than he looks). It turns out that they're chasing him because he told them off for harassing a middle school girl. But then it turns out that he was actually trying to protect the delinquents from [[Person of Mass Destruction|her]]. Finally, the girl catches up, challenges him to a fight and shoots lightning at him, which he easily blocks with his [[Anti-Magic|right hand]].
 
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Establishing Character Moment]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1997266"