Opposite Tropes

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Here is a place to note the tropes which are opposites of one another.

See also the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions, and Trope Grid (which covers when there's more then one possible Opposite Trope).

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Opposite tropes

• Acrofatic vs. Glacier Waif: A big guy you'd expect to be the Mighty Glacier (or Stone Wall) is actually the Fragile Speedster (or a Lightning Bruiser) vs. a small girl you'd expect to be the Fragile Speedster (or Glass Cannon) is actually the Mighty Glacier (or Stone Wall).
• A-Cup Angst vs Petite Pride: grief vs. pride about having small breasts.
• Adaptation Expansion vs Compressed Adaptation: Adaptation Expansion takes a short work (e.g. a poem) and fleshes it out in to a larger piece (e.g. a movie). Compressed Adaptation takes a work with a lot of history and/or development and condensed down to fill a specific amount of time (e.g. an adaptation of a 50+ year old comic book in to a two and a half hour movie).
• Adults Are Useless vs Reasonable Authority Figure
• Affably Evil vs. Good Is Not Nice: Evil character who's nice vs. good character who isn't.
  • Affably Evil vs Faux Affably Evil: Evil character who's nice vs. an evil character who's only pretending to be nice.
• After Boss Recovery vs Suspicious Videogame Generosity: With an After Boss Recovery, upon winning (or, if the boss is a Hopeless Boss Fight) you get a ton of recovery items. With Suspicious Videogame Generosity, the game starts throwing very powerful and/or useful items at you (potion that will heal you or a teammate completely, items that resore magic points); it's the game's (and game developer's) way of warning you that there is a horrifically bad boss or challenging area close by, so you'd better save and make sure you use all the items being given to you.
• Agent Mulder vs Agent Scully: Believer vs. skeptic.
• All-American Face vs Evil Foreigner
• All Girls Want Bad Boys vs. Single Woman Seeks Good Man
• All Part of the Show vs. You Just Ruined the Shot
• Almost-Dead Guy vs Not Quite Dead (or Only Mostly Dead)
• Exclusively Evil vs Always Lawful Good
• Ancient Conspiracy vs Ancient Tradition (However, they might overlap.)
• And the Fandom Rejoiced vs. Tainted by the Preview: Optimism vs. pessimism over an upcoming work after any pre-release announcement.
• And Then John Was a Zombie vs. Tomato in the Mirror: And Then John Was a Zombie is when a character is turned into something bad at then end. Tomato in the Mirror is when the character turns out to have been the bad thing all along.
• Anti-Hero vs Anti-Villain
• Anyone Can Die vs Red Shirt: Important character gets killed off vs. only nameless extras get killed off.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape vs In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves
• Arbitrary Skepticism vs All Myths Are True
• Arrogant Kung Fu Guy vs Martial Pacifist
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking vs Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Mundane item in a list of horrible ones vs. horrible item in a list of mundane ones.
• Artificial Stupidity vs Artificial Brilliance: The extremes of videogame AI.
• As Long as There Is Evil vs As Long as There Is One Man
• Ascended Demon vs Fallen Angel
• Ascended Fanon vs Jossed: A fan theory that later gets confirmed by the Word of God ... or not.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever vs Incredible Shrinking Man
• Author's Saving Throw vs Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Attempting to fix/get rid of a perceived problem or The Scrappy vs. retooling the offending element to make it better.
• Awesome but Impractical vs Boring but Practical
• Awesome McCoolname vs Fail O'Suckyname
• Badass Beard vs Beard of Sorrow (Might overlap.)
• Badass Normal vs Badass Abnormal
• Bad Guy Bar vs. Good Guy Bar
• Bad Liar vs Consummate Liar
• Badass Decay vs Took a Level in Badass: Originally Badass character becomes less so over time vs. originally non-badass character becoming more so over time.
• Because Destiny Says So vs Screw Destiny: Fate vs. free will.
• Be Careful What You Wish For vs Wish Fulfillment : Dream turning into a nightmare vs. dream coming true.
• Best Beer Ever vs. A Tankard of Moose Urine: Really good beer vs. really bad beer.
• Big Bad vs Big Good
• Birds of a Feather vs Opposites Attract: Partners are extremely similar vs. partners aren't similar at all.
• Big No vs Big Yes
  • Big No vs Little No
• Black Like Me vs White Like Me
• Blessed with Suck vs Cursed with Awesome
• Bloodless Carnage vs High-Pressure Blood
• Bonus Space vs Whammy: A good space on a game show's game board vs. a bad space on a game show's game board (usually one that takes away all of your money).
• Breakable Weapons vs Unbreakable Weapons
• Breather Boss vs That One Boss
• Buffy-Speak vs Spock Speak
• But Now I Must Go vs I Choose to Stay
• Butt Monkey vs. Mary Sue: A character who fails at pretty much everything versus a character who succeeds at pretty much everything. The opposite-ness can be explored further: People hate the Mary Sue played straight, but love to laugh at the Butt Monkey played straight. Inversely, people love to laugh at an exaggerated Mary Sue (Parody Sue or Thirty-Sue Pileup) but hates yanking the dog's chain that comes about when you exaggerate the Butt Monkey.
• Cain and Abel vs. Sibling Team
• Camp Gay vs Manly Gay
• Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions vs Opposite Tropes
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin' vs. Can't Get in Trouble For Nuthin'
• Capulet Counterpart vs Foe Yay
• Card-Carrying Villain vs Knight Templar
• Casanova Wannabe vs Kavorka Man (or Even the Guys Want Him)
• Cassandra Truth vs Sarcastic Confession
• Chewing the Scenery vs. Dull Surprise: Overacting vs. underacting.
• City of Adventure vs Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here
• City Noir vs. Shining City: Both in terms of visuals and character, one city is horrible to live in while the other is clean and awesome (think, Gotham City vs. Metropolis).
• Civilian Villain vs. Reformed but Rejected
• Clarke's Third Law vs Magic Versus Science
• Climax Boss vs Anticlimax Boss
• Cluster F-Bomb vs Precision F-Strike (or Gosh Dang It to Heck)
• Comes Great Responsibility vs Muggle Power
• Com Mons vs Olympus Mons: wimpy summon monsters vs. godlike summon monsters
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong vs Peer Pressure Makes You Evil (or Blithe Spirit)
• Complete Monster vs The Messiah: The ultimate ends of the morality scale.
• Contractual Genre Blindness vs Dangerously Genre Savvy
• Contractual Immortality vs Anyone Can Die (or Red Shirt)
• Corrupt Church vs Saintly Church
• Corrupt Corporate Executive vs Uncle Pennybags
• Corruption of a Minor vs Corruption by a Minor
• Country Mouse vs City Mouse
• Crack Fic vs Original Flavour
• Crapsack World vs Mary Suetopia: In the Crapsack World, life is pointless and everything sucks. In Mary Suetopia, everything and everyone is perfect.
• Creator's Pet vs. Take That, Scrappy!: The creators of a work fluffing up a hated character vs. them making fun of him/her/it.
• Creature of Habit vs Allergic to Routine
• Creepy Child vs Cheerful Child
• Creepy Child vs Psychopathic Manchild: Child who acts adult-like in an unsettling way vs. adult who acts child-like in an unsettling way.
• Crippling Overspecialization vs Master of None
• Crowning Moment of Awesome vs Dethroning Moment of Suck: series' high point vs. series' low point
• Crutch Character vs Magikarp Power
• Cute Ghost Girl vs Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
• Cutscene Power to the Max vs Cutscene Incompetence
• Darker and Edgier vs Lighter and Softer
• Dark Is Not Evil vs Light Is Not Good
  • Dark Is Not Evil vs Dark Is Evil
  • Light Is Not Good vs Light Is Good
• Dark Magical Girl vs Magical Girl
• Deconstruction vs Reconstruction (or Affectionate Parody)
• Description Cut vs I Resemble That Remark
• Designated Hero vs Designated Villain
• Deus Ex Machina vs Diabolus Ex Machina: Out-of-nowhere win for the good guys vs. out-of-nowhere win for the bad guys.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat vs Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help
• Did Not Do the Research vs Shown Their Work
• Dirty Coward vs Lovable Coward
• Disproportionate Retribution vs Disproportionate Reward
• Distracted by the Sexy vs Not Distracted by the Sexy or Ignore the Fanservice
• Damsel in Distress vs Action Girl (or Dark Action Girl)
  • Damsel in Distress vs Dude in Distress
  • Damsel in Distress vs Badass in Distress
• Down the Rabbit Hole vs Up the Real Rabbit Hole
• Downer Ending vs Happy Ending
• Draco in Leather Pants vs Ron the Death Eater: Both are character interpretation tropes. Draco in Leather Pants occurs when a character's flaws are downplayed and their virtues are promoted by a fan to make a character more appealing to them. Ron the Death Eater downplays a character's good traits, often exposing and exaggerating their flaws to pave the way for the fan's One True Pairing.
• Dragged Off to Hell vs Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
• Dude, Not Funny vs Narm
• Dumb Is Good/Good Is Dumb vs Good Is Not Dumb
• Dying Like Animals vs Fighting for Survival
• Easily Forgiven vs Reformed but Rejected
• Emotionless Girl vs Genki Girl
• Encounter Bait vs Encounter Repellant: Increasing vs. decreasing the frequency of Random Encounters in a Role-Playing Game with an item or spell.
• Ensemble Darkhorse vs The Scrappy or Creator's Pet: The Ensemble Darkhorse is a character who gains an unexpected amount of popularity with an audience despite having a not-so-big role. The Scrappy is a character who is rejected by the fandom, for being considered annoying and/or unlikeable. If The Scrappy becomes prominent in a story and the audience still doesn't embrace the character, then that character is a Creator's Pet.
  • Creator's Pet vs. Unpopular Popular Character: Character only the author seems to like vs. character only the fans seem to like.
  • Breakout Character vs Shoo Out the New Guy: The Ensemble Darkhorse gets a bigger role due to fan reaction vs. Creator's Pet gets a smaller role due to fan reaction.
• Escalating War vs Zany Scheme Chicken
• Everybody Lives vs Kill'Em All: In an Everybody Lives scenario, all of the main characters survive to the very end. In a Kill'Em All scenario, a large portion of the cast is killed off.
• Evil Chancellor vs The Good Chancellor
• Evil Is Cool vs This Is Your Brain on Evil
• Evil Is Deathly Cold vs Evil Is Burning Hot
• Evil Is Sexy vs Beauty Equals Goodness Not always opposites in a technical sense, and in fact is usually played at the same time. Often, the attractiveness of a Good person is usually in a modest, almost innocent and "classy" way, while an attractive Evil person is in a more primal, overt, and lustful way.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin vs Word Salad Title (or Non-Indicative Name)
• Executive Meddling vs Protection From Editors: Executives giving (often unwanted) input in a work vs. only the author deciding the direction of the story.
• Expanded States of America vs Divided States of America
• Express Delivery vs Longest Pregnancy Ever: A unusually short (full-term) pregnancy vs. an unusually long one.
• Face Heel Turn vs Heel Face Turn: A Face Heel Turn is when something happens to an established "good" character that makes them turn to the side of evil. A Heel Face Turn is when something happens to an established "evil" character that makes them turn to the side of good. When used more than once, it can lead to the Heel Face Revolving Door.
• Fallen Princess vs Alpha Bitch
• "Falling in Love" Montage vs Lost Love Montage
• False Dichotomy vs Golden Mean Fallacy: strawman argument where only one of two choices is right vs. one where both choices are wrong and the only "correct" answer is somewhere in the middle.
• False Reassurance vs Suspiciously Specific Denial
• Family-Friendly Firearms vs Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better
• Fandom vs. Hatedom
  • Also, Fan Dumb vs. Hate Dumb
• Fanon vs Canon (or Word of God)
• Fat Bastard (or Villainous Glutton) vs. Lean and Mean: Fat villain vs. skinny villain.
• A Father to His Men vs. The Neidermeyer: A well-respected vs. a much despised commanding officer.
• Faux Affably Evil vs Noble Demon: Evil character with a nice, friendly façade vs good character with a mean or "evil" façade.
• First Girl Wins vs. Last Girl Wins
• First Kiss vs Last Kiss
• Five-Man Band vs Five-Bad Band
  • The Hero vs The Big Bad
  • The Lancer vs The Dragon
  • The Big Guy vs The Brute
  • The Smart Guy vs Evil Genius
  • The Chick vs The Dark Chick
  • Sixth Ranger vs Sixth Column
• Flash Back vs. Flash Forward
• Flat What vs. Big "What?"
• Flawed Prototype vs. Super Prototype
• Flowers for Algernon Syndrome vs Brought Down to Normal
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven vs Fire and Brimstone Hell
• Fluffy the Terrible vs Deathbringer the Adorable: Vicious monster with cute name vs. cute monster with vicious-sounding name.
• For the Evulz vs. For Great Justice: Doing something because you know it's evil vs. doing something because you know it's good/just.
• For Want of a Nail vs In Spite of a Nail
• Freaky Is Cool vs What Measure Is a Non-Cute?
• Fridge Logic vs Fridge Brilliance: You suddenly realize something that happened doesn't make sense vs. you suddenly realize something that happened makes perfect sense.
• Friend to All Living Things vs Walking Wasteland (or Enemy to All Living Things)
• From Clones to Genre vs. Genre Killer: A game that spawns a genre vs. a game that destroys one.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment or Harsher in Hindsight vs. Hilarious in Hindsight
• Future Loser vs Future Badass
• Gag Penis vs Teeny Weenie
• Game Breaker vs Joke Character (or Joke Item)
• Gargle Blaster (gets you instantly, insanely drunk) vs Klatchian Coffee (gets you instantly, insanely sober)
• Geek vs Book Dumb
• Genius Ditz vs Modern Major-General: A ditz who is really good at one thing vs. a genius who's really bad at one thing.
  • Genius Ditz vs. Ditzy Genius
• Genre Blindness vs Genre Savvy
• Gentle Giant vs The Napoleon: A Gentle Giant is a character who looks big and menacing, but actually has a kind and softer side. The Napoleon looks small and non-threatening, but is very dangerous, especially if you should make fun of his/her height.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff vs Americans Hate Tingle: Love vs. hate of a fictional character outside his/her/its series' country of origin.
• Get Back Here Boss vs. Advancing Boss of Doom: you chase after the boss vs. boss chases after you
• Get It Over With vs Scheherazade Gambit
• Ghibli Hills vs Mordor: Lush, colorful landscape vs. dark, frightening landscape. See also Scenery Porn vs. Scenery Gorn.
• Girls Have Cooties vs Toy Ship
• A God Am I vs A God I Am Not: A mortal believes they're god out of madness, vs. a god-like being refusing the label of god to stay sane.
• God Guise vs God in Human Form
• God Is Evil vs Satan Is Good
• Good Is Dumb vs Good Is Not Dumb
• Good Thing You Can Heal vs Could Have Been Messy
• Good Times Montage vs Sad Times Montage
• Gory Discretion Shot vs Sexy Discretion Shot (You dont want to see it versus you want to see it.)
• Gosh Dang It to Heck vs Cluster F-Bomb: Mild curse words that aren't actual curses vs. profanity-laden dialogue.
  • Also, Cluster F-Bomb vs. Precision F-Strike: Many curse words vs. one curse word out of nowhere.
• Grimmification vs Disneyfication: see Darker and Edgier vs. Lighter and Softer
• Gratuitous English vs Surprisingly Good English
• Hair of Gold vs. Blondes Are Evil (or sometimes Blond Guys Are Evil)
• Happiness Tropes vs Sadness Tropes
• Have a Gay Old Time vs Get Thee to a Nunnery: Innocent dialogue that actually has innuendo vs. innuendo-laden dialogue that is actually innocent (in some connotations)
• The Hero vs Anti-Hero
• High Fantasy vs Low Fantasy
• Historical Hero Upgrade vs Historical Villain Upgrade
• Hollywood Homely vs Informed Attractiveness:
  • Hollywood Homely: Character isn't as unattractive as the show would have you believe.
  • Informed Attractiveness: Character isn't as attractive as the show would have you believe.
• Hopeless Boss Fight vs. Zero Effort Boss: boss fight you can't win vs. boss fight you can't lose
• Hot Amazon vs No Guy Wants an Amazon
• Home, Sweet Home vs In Harm's Way
• Humans Are Special vs Humans Are the Real Monsters
• Hype Aversion vs Bile Fascination: Hype Aversion is intentionally avoiding a product because everyone and their mother loves to talk about how great it is. Bile Fascination, on the other hand, is a peculiar attraction to a really bad work because of all of the negative buzz surrounding it.
• Hyper Awareness vs Failed a Spot Check: A character with Hyper Awareness can see even the smallest details without even trying. A character who Failed a Spot Check is oblivious to something that just about everyone else can see.
• I Am a Humanitarian vs Vegan
• I Always Wanted to Say That vs You Just Had to Say It
• I Need a Freaking Drink vs No More for Me
• Idiot Ball vs. Smart Ball: Unnatural act of idiocy vs. unnatural act of competence
• Idiot Programming vs. Genius Programming
• Idle Rich vs. Non-Idle Rich: Rich people who don't do anything vs. rich people who actually do things
• If I Can't Have You vs. I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• If Jesus, Then Aliens vs. No Such Thing as Space Jesus
• I Just Want to Be Normal vs I Just Want to Be Special
• I Just Want to Have Friends vs I Work Alone
• Impossibly Cool Clothes vs Rummage Sale Reject
• Improbable Aiming Skills vs Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: With Improbable Aiming Skills, a character can hit just about anything with a firearm in ways that shouldn't be humanly possible. At the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, a character (usually a bad guy) is incapable of hitting the broad side of a barn...at point blank range.
• Inadequate Inheritor vs Turn Out Like His Father: failure to turn out like your father despite all pressure to do so vs. failure to not turn out like your father despite all pressure to do so
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness vs Complete Monster
• In the Blood vs Freudian Excuse: being a villain because It Runs in The Family (nature) vs. being a villain because of some traumatic event (nurture)
• Innocent Aliens vs. Aliens Are Bastards
• Innocent Innuendo vs Accidental Innuendo
  • Innocent Innuendo vs Getting Crap Past the Radar
• Instant Death Bullet vs Only a Flesh Wound
• Insult Backfire vs. Compliment Backfire
• In-Universe Game Clock vs. Take Your Time Game time flows constantly vs. game time flows only when the plot requires it.
• Invincible Hero vs. Failure Hero: A hero who always wins, killing all tension vs. a hero who never wins, killing all tension.
• I Was Just Joking vs. My God, You Are Serious
• I Was Quite a Looker vs Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: I Was Quite a Looker applies to elderly characters who were once more attractive than they are currently. Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have! applies to characters who retain their outer beauty well into their old age.
• It Will Never Catch On vs. This Is Going to Be Huge: something expected to fail succeeds like crazy vs. something expected to be a smash-hit turns out to be a flop. Hilarious in Hindsight applies to both tropes.
• Jerkass vs. Nice Guy
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold vs Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nice guy behind Jerkass Facade vs. major Jerkass behind nice guy facade
• Jumped At the Call vs Refusal of the Call
• Jumping the Gender Barrier vs Unsettling Gender Reveal
• Jumping the Shark vs Growing the Beard: Jumping the Shark is a moment when a particular show or series has hit a new low, and everything is perceived to get worse from then on. Growing the Beard implies a point where everything gets better.
• Karma Houdini vs. Laser-Guided Karma or Karmic Death: Little to no punishment for bad deeds vs. apropos punishment.
  • Karma Houdini vs. Cosmic Plaything or The Chew Toy or Butt Monkey
• Kick the Dog vs. What You Are in the Dark
• Killed Off for Real vs Back from the Dead
• Knight in Shining Armor vs The Evil Prince
• Krav Maga vs Le Parkour: A martial art based solely on disarming and defeating your opponent, and a martial art based solely on avoiding/escaping conflict in the first place.
• Law of Inverse Recoil vs Blown Across the Room: Gunshots with no recoil vs. gunshots with way too much recoil
• Let's Get Dangerous vs. Not So Harmless: low-key hero becoming powerful vs. low-key villain becoming powerful.
• Let's Split Up, Gang! vs Never Split the Party
• Limited Wardrobe vs Unlimited Wardrobe
• Literal Ass-Kicking vs. Ass Kicks You: Attacking the buttocks vs. attacking with the buttocks
• Love Is in the Air vs Hate Plague
• Luke, I Am Your Father vs Luke, You Are My Father
• Macekre vs Woolseyism: A Macekre is a loose translation of a work that barely resembles its source material. A Woolseyism is a translation of a work that maintains the spirit of the original work, while still making it palatable for its intended audience.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service vs Keep-Away
• Made of Iron vs Made of Plasticine
• Magic Knight vs Squishy Wizard
• Magic Skirt vs Panty Shot
  • Magic Skirt vs Marilyn Maneuver
• Magnificent Bastard vs Smug Snake: While a Magnificent Bastard can sometimes pull off ridiculously complicated plans and get people to do what he/she wants and still come out smelling like a rose, the Smug Snake only thinks they can, often coming across as a deluded Jerkass.
• Mechanical Lifeforms vs Organic Technology
• Mighty Whitey vs Token White
• Miles Gloriosus vs Cowardly Lion (or The So-Called Coward): Apparent hero, actual coward vs. apparent coward, actual hero.
• Mind Rape vs Care Bear Stare
• Minimalist Run vs 100% Completion: win the game by collecting nothing vs. win the game by collecting everything.
• Mook Chivalry vs Zerg Rush: Mooks attacking one at a time vs. mooks attacking all at once
• More Hero Than Thou vs. Who Will Bell the Cat?: Characters strive to do the dangerous deed vs. characters retreat on learning that they might personally have to do the deed.
• Most Wonderful Sound vs. Most Annoying Sound or Hell Is That Noise
• Murder the Hypotenuse vs I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast vs Names to Trust Immediately
• Nerd Glasses vs. Cool Shades or Meganekko
• Never My Fault vs It's All My Fault
• Never Tell Me the Odds vs. I Like Those Odds
• The Night That Never Ends vs. Endless Daytime
• Nietzsche Wannabe vs. Existentialism/ The Anti-Nihilist: "Life has no meaning!" vs. "Life has no meaning...because it's up to us to give it one."
• Nightmare Fuel vs. Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Something that's terrifying vs something that's touching.
• Nightmare Retardant vs Accidental Nightmare Fuel: Meant to be scary but isn't vs. not meant to be scary but is.
• No Bisexuals vs Everyone Is Bi
• No Blood Ties vs. Thicker Than Water
• No One Gets Left Behind vs. The Uriah Gambit
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom vs Wide Open Sandbox: video game where you're railroaded down a single path vs. one where you're allowed to do almost anything (within technical limits)
• Not Allowed to Grow Up vs Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: If a character remains the same age for a good portion of a series (especially if it's a Long Runner), then he/she is Not Allowed to Grow Up. Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome denotes quick aging changes, where a character can be aged up a few years without explanation.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now vs Nothing Can Save Us Now
• Obfuscating Stupidity vs Feigning Intelligence
• Official Couple vs One True Pairing (or Fan-Preferred Couple)
• One Steve Limit vs Planet of Steves: Only one character has a particular name to avoid confusion vs. a large group of people all have the same name.
• One Stat to Rule Them All vs Dump Stat
• Only Six Faces vs Cast of Snowflakes: Everyone looks similar vs. everyone looks distinct
• Only Smart People May Pass vs Only Idiots May Pass
• Opposites Attract vs Birds of a Feather
• Overcrank vs Under Crank: Slow motion vs. fast motion.
• Patchwork Map vs Single Biome Planet: Several biomes compressed into tiny area vs. an entire planet covered in a single biome.
• Perma-Shave vs Perma-Stubble
• Perpetual Poverty vs Infinite Supplies
• Pet the Dog vs Kick the Dog: Showing that a bad guy isn't all that bad vs. showing that a bad guy is
• Poisonous Friend vs Psycho Sidekick: Friend who commits chaotic/evil deeds without the hero's knowledge vs. friend who commits chaotic/evil deeds and the hero fully knows about it
• The Pollyanna vs The Eeyore: The Pollyanna is eternally optimistic about their circumstances in life, while The Eeyore always sees the proverbial glass half-empty.
• Poorly-Disguised Pilot vs Fully-Absorbed Finale
• Porting Disaster vs Polished Port: Transitioning a game from one system to another makes the end result worse vs. a transition where the new game is better than the original
• Power Born of Madness vs With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: superpower that relies on the user being insane vs. superpower that slowly drives the user insane
• "Previously On..." vs "On the Next..."
• Prolonged Prologue vs. Lost in Medias Res: Too much exposition at expence of action in the beginning, vs too little exposition in the beginning.
• Psychopathic Manchild vs Heroic Comedic Sociopath
• Quality by Popular Vote vs It's Popular, Now It Sucks
• The Quiet One vs. Motor Mouth
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits vs. Dream Team
• Rank Inflation vs. F Minus Minus
• Rated "M" for Money vs Avoid the Dreaded G Rating
• Redemption Demotion vs. Redemption Promotion: Character works better as a villain than a hero vs. character works better as a hero than a villain.
• Redemption Earns Life vs. Redemption Equals Death
• Redemption in the Rain vs Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death vs Cue the Sun
• Redheaded Hero vs Evil Redhead
• Refusal of the Call vs. Adventure Rebuff
• Religion Is Magic vs. No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus
• Remembered I Could Fly vs. Forgot I Couldn't Swim
• Road Cone vs. Third Option Adaptation
• Rousseau Was Right vs. Black and Gray Morality: Rousseau Was Right is a situation in a fictional work where there are no clear-cut bad guys. A Black and Gray Morality situation is one where there are no obvious good guys.
• Sarcasm Mode vs. Sincerity Mode
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money vs. Screw the Money, I Have Rules
• Screwed by the Network vs. Network to the Rescue or Adored by the Network
• Second Place Is for Losers vs. The Runner Up Takes It All
• Secret-Chaser vs Secret Keeper
• Sequelitis vs. Surprisingly Improved Sequel or Even Better Sequel
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong vs. Make Wrong What Once Went Right
• Seven Deadly Sins vs Seven Heavenly Virtues
• She Cleans Up Nicely vs. Unkempt Beauty: character is dolled up to look sexy vs. character looking sexy even without fancy clothes.
• Shocking Swerve vs. The Untwist: A Shocking Swerve is a plot twist that the audience could never possibly have seen coming and appears to have been done for no purpose other than to shock. The Untwist is when a plot twist is shocking because the audience had dismissed it as being too obvious.
• Shout-Out vs. Take That: A positive reference to another work vs. a negative reference to another work.
• A Simple Plan vs. Zany Scheme
• Single-Minded Twins vs Different As Night and Day
• Slap Slap Kiss vs Kiss Kiss Slap: "I hate you! ... I love you!" vs. "I love you! ... I hate you!"
• Small Name, Big Ego vs. Jaded Washout
• The Smurfette Principle vs Fundamentally Female Cast (or simply The One Guy)
• The Snark Knight vs Stepford Smiler
• So Bad It's Good vs So Bad Its Horrible
  • So Cool Its Awesome vs So Bad Its Horrible
• Something They Would Never Say vs Something Only They Would Say
• So Proud of You vs. Why Couldn't You Be Different?
• Special Effect Failure vs Visual Effects of Awesome
• Split Personality vs Hive Mind
• The Spock vs. The McCoy (logic vs. emotions)
• Spoiler Opening vs Bait and Switch Credits
• Squee vs Squick: reaction to something favorable vs. reaction to something repulsive
• Star-Making Role vs. Star-Derailing Role
  • Star-Derailing Role vs. Career Resurrection
• Status Quo Is God vs Nothing Is the Same Anymore
• Stockholm Syndrome vs Lima Syndrome: Prisoner develops feelings for captor vs. captor develops feelings for prisoner
• Stone Soup vs Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup
• Straw Vulcan vs. Strawman Emotional
• Straw Vulcan and Strawman Emotional vs. Emotions vs. Stoicism: Strawmanning Logic or emotion vs. looking realistically at the pros and cons of both.
• Sympathetic Sue vs. Iron Woobie
• Tastes Like Chicken vs Tastes Like Feet
• Temporal Paradox vs Stable Time Loop
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks vs It's the Same, Now It Sucks
• This Is Reality vs No Fourth Wall
• This Trope Name References Itself (or Index of Exact Trope Titles) vs This Index Is Not an Example
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl vs Huge Guy, Tiny Girl
• Too Good to Last vs Long Runners
• Took a Level in Jerkass vs Took a Level In Kindness
• Toy Ship vs December–December Romance
• Trademark Favorite Food vs Does Not Like Spam
• Trapped in TV Land vs Refugee From TV Land
• Tsundere vs Yandere: A Tsundere is a (usually female) character who acts cranky and standoffish on the outside, but sometimes shows signs of genuine tenderness. A Yandere is someone who tries to act nice, but really is unpleasant underneath...sometimes coupled with mental instability.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue vs One Scene, Two Monologues
• Unwitting Pawn vs Spanner in the Works
• Upper Class Twit vs Lower Class Lout
• Very-High-Velocity Rounds vs Painfully-Slow Projectile: speedybullets vs. slooooooowwww buuuulllletsss
• Viewers are Morons vs Viewers Are Geniuses
• Villain Ball vs Hero Ball: villain does something dumb vs. hero does something dumb
• Villain Decay vs Not So Harmless
• Villains Act, Heroes React vs Heroes Act Villains Hinder
• Villain with Good Publicity vs 0% Approval Rating: Everyone loves the bad guy vs. everyone hates the bad guy.
  • Villain with Good Publicity vs Hero with Bad Publicity
• Violence Is the Only Option vs. Sheathe Your Sword or Talking the Monster to Death: Defeating an opponent with violence vs. defeating that same opponent through pacifism or a Rousing Speech.
• Virgin Power vs Deus Sex Machina: A Virgin Power is some sort of ability of Applied Phlebotinum that relies on the user abstaining from sexual intercourse. A Deus Sex Machina is a power that requires you-know-what to be triggered.
• Vomit Discretion Shot vs Vomit Indiscretion Shot
• WAFF vs Dark Fic
• Wangst vs. Angst? What Angst?: Character whines too much vs. character whines a lot less than you think they should.
  • Wangst or Emo vs. Stoic Woobie
• Warmup Boss vs. "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Surprisingly easy early boss vs. surprisingly hard early boss
• Weak but Skilled vs. Unskilled but Strong
• Well-Intentioned Extremist vs Necessarily Evil
• Wham! Episode vs Breather Episode (TROPER GENERAL'S WARNING: putting these back-to-back can induce Mood Whiplash)
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids? vs What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: People thinking something isn't for kids when it in fact is vs. people thinking something is for kids when it in fact is not.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? vs Unusually Uninteresting Sight
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? vs Heart Is an Awesome Power
• What Is Going On? vs Let Me Get This Straight...
• When You Coming Home, Dad? vs. My Beloved Smother: Parents that never have time for their children vs. parents that do nothing but control their children.
• Wholesome Crossdresser vs Villainous Crossdresser
• Wide-Eyed Idealist vs Grumpy Bear: Idealist in a cynical setting vs. cynic in an idealistic setting.
• Who Wants to Live Forever? vs Living Forever Is Awesome
• A Wizard Did It vs Doing In the Wizard
• The Woobie vs The Chew Toy (or Butt Monkey): Seeing him suffer makes you go "aww" vs. seeing him suffer makes you laugh.
• Yamato Nadeshiko vs The Ladette (Full of feminine grace versus lack of feminine grace.)
• Year Inside, Hour Outside vs. Year Outside, Hour Inside
• You Can't Make an Omelette vs. Never Hurt an Innocent
• You Look Familiar vs The Other Darrin

Examples of "opposite number" series:

• The Chronicles of Narnia vs His Dark Materials
• Neon Genesis Evangelion vs Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (made by the same studio!) (Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism in Humongous Mecha)
  • or Evangelion vs GaoGaiGar
• Lord of the Rings vs A Song of Ice and Fire (Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism in Heroic Fantasy)
• Cardcaptor Sakura vs Puella Magi Madoka Magica (the main characters even wear similar pink outfit) (Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism in Magical Girl)
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is sometimes said to be somewhere in the middle of the two.
• The Fairy Tale of Lost Time vs Momo: "Never, ever waste your precious time" vs. "'Wasted' time is not always wasted and 'spared' time is never actually spared".
• (The Customer is) Not Always Right/ F My Life vs. Gives Me Hope: Personal anecdotes that may just make you lose all faith in humanity vs. personal anecdotes that will rebuild that faith.