Melodrama: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
A type of theater, film, and television that focuses on heightening the emotions of the audience. The word "melodrama" derives from "melody [in] drama" (like opera); '''melodrama''' at its finest aspires to have the tone and the repetitive, building emotion of an opera or a symphony.
It's usually associated with [[World of Ham|everyone acting like a]] [[Large Ham]], but it's actually about specific emphasis on any dramatic situation. This is done by amping up the perceived scale and emotional response on everything. Basically, every little hurdle becomes a mountain, every setback a [[Tragedy]] of Greek proportions, and the official couple will be [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] over the tiniest things, usually thanks to outside interference and [[Poor Communication Kills]].
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Note that this isn't the same as stage actors [[No Indoor Voice|speaking loudly]] and [[Milking the Giant Cow|making broad movements]]. That's just a necessity of stage acting. This is when the actors portray the characters (or the characters are written as) being akin to teenager with a very small, [[Soap Opera]] scale world. Every success, kiss, and snub will carry the sting of a legendary story. Essentially, what to us would be a pinprick gains the pathos of a rending wound.
Also note that [[Tropes Are Not Bad|this can be done right]]. Melodrama can quite easily hook viewers into becoming emotionally invested in the characters, something every story needs to survive. It helps if the stories are such as would produce large
A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Rule of Drama]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Many Anime/Anime Characters and Manga/Manga Characters has lots of
* The anime version of ''Heidi'' fall easily into this.
* A lot of [[Shojo]] series, from the 70's to today, have these in spades. In fact, it would be easier to list those [[Shojo]] anime/manga titles in which melodrama ''isn't'' a central element of it. Some examples:
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* [[Soap Opera
* [[Lifetime Movie of the Week|Lifetime Movies of the Week]] are these in spades.
** There was one, called ''Her Married Lover'', which is actually a [[Deconstruction]] of those melodramatic movies.
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* ''[[Scrubs]]'' exists to invert and subvert this trope. The show is about low-ranking, everyday doctors who realistically acknowledge that one third of their patients are old farts about to die and most of their day is spent disimpacting people's bowels. This is in direct contrast to medical dramas such as ''[[House (TV series)|House]], [[ER]]'' and ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'' where every single patient leads the cast on a roller-coaster of emotional torment and soul-searching. Although it should be noted that the doctors on ''[[Scrubs]]'' have, on occasion, been put on a rollercoaster of emotional torment and soul-searching (by their patients or otherwise) anyway.
* A commercial for mail-order eye contacts had an "overly-dramatic recreation" ("But Mary, our eyes are ''different!''").
* [[Korean Drama]]. Oh my god. The ones labelled
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' Series, and many other [[JRPG
* One of ''[[Metal Gear]]'''s claims to fame/notoriety (along with the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|weird bosses]], [[Painting the Fourth Wall|playing with]] [[No Fourth Wall|the fourth wall]], [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|beef]][[Even the Guys Want Him|cake]], [[Ho Yay|homoeroticism]], [[Mind Screw|the creator's desire to mess with players' heads]] and [[Exposition Break|lots of]] [[Final Speech|talking]]). The first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' alone features several tragic death scenes, conversations about the nature of love, and a [[Big Bad]] who turns out to be a vengeful, hitherto unknown relative of the protagonist.
* A significant number of [[Visual Novel|visual novels]] appear to have no purpose other than to make the player (reader?) [[Tear Jerker|cry uncontrollably]]. See [[Utsuge]] for details.
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