Supernatural (TV series)/Tropes F-O: Difference between revisions

* [[Fake American]]: Israeli Alona Tal as Midwest raised Hunter Jo and her mother Ellen is played by the Canadian Samantha Ferris.

* [[Fan Service]]: The first episode had a ghost with more cleavage than you could shake a stick at. The trend continued. Even the brothers themselves are Fanservice. Heck, in sex scenes the camera looks at them more than their partners, as a rule.

* [[Faking Amnesia]]: Dean fakes a case of [[Death Amnesia]] after being pulled out of hell by Castiel. It's possible it's actually true at first, but by an episode or two later he's blatantly lying.

* [[Fantastic Aesop]]: "After School Special" brings us this: Don't assume that just because somebody acts like a jerk, they don't have problems of their own. And besides, if you do lash out at them, they might get so angry they'll come [[Back From the Dead]] for revenge.

* [[Feud Episode]]: One [[Rashomon Style]] episode deals with the brothers fighting, which, as Sam pointed out, is understandable for two guys who spend all their time cooped up in a car together. Bobby is not amused.

* [[Fighting From the Inside]]: Considering the show uses demonic possession ''a lot'', this trope crops up now and then.

** In season five, {{spoiler|Bobby}} successfully fights off possession by one of {{spoiler|Meg}}'s henchmen long enough to '' {{spoiler|stab and cripple himself with a demon-killing knife}}'' so he didn't kill Dean.

** Deliberately invoking this trope is how {{spoiler|Sam takes down Lucifer}} at the end of season five.

** Dean tortures Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" by pouring a whole bag of salt in his mouth.

** [[Inverted]] in a previous episode when the forced feeding wasn't the torture, but the cure to torture: Dean is writhing in agony on the floor [[Blood From the Mouth|coughing up blood]] due to a hex when {{spoiler|Ruby}} busts down the door and bodily hurls him onto the bed before forcing a potion down his throat, breaking the hex and saving his life.

* [[Foreshadowing]]:

** Dean's guilt in "Faith" being ramped up to 1000 when John dies for him in Season Two, Dean wanting to make a [[Deal with the Devil]] to get his father back in "Crossroad Blues" and actually doing so (except for his brother this time) in "All Hell Breaks Loose", all of Dean's onscreen deaths (7 in total?) leading up to the big one in "No Rest For The Wicked" and Dean's "All things considered" comment about their childhood in "Nightmare" turning out to be unbelievably loaded.

** During Season 5, everyone else thought [[Satan|Lucifer]] just a bratty child who was having a tantrum. It comes to a head when {{spoiler|the demon Crowley}} talks with Castiel in a [[Flash Back]] in "The Man Who Would Be King" and says, "Lucifer was a petulant child with daddy issues," accurately describing Castiel's current [[Character Development]]. With his current status as {{spoiler|[[Rebel Leader]]}}, it looks like he's about to become the next Lucifer.

*** Worse; it foreshadowed {{spoiler|Cas declaring himself the new God}}.

* [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires]]: Lenore and her friends from "Bloodlust."

** Ruby spends most of her screen-time trying to convince everyone that she is a good demon.

* [[Future Me Scares Me]]: In "The End," Dean is disturbed by his [[Jerkass|future self's]] propensity for violence, torture and willing sacrifice of innocents.

* [[Genre Blindness]]: [[Played for Laughs]]. One of the boys, usually Dean, constantly speculates that the events have a mundane explanation in spite of events almost never going that route.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]:

** In "The Devil You Know", Crowley asks "fancy a fag and a chat?". Crowley's British (specifically, from Scotland (despite his more English-sounding accent), as Bobby discovers when digging up dirt on his life before he became a demon), so he "means" a cigarette, but he's a in-canon [[Ho Yay]] figure in an American show devilishly sliding in a hidden reference.

* [[Ghostly Chill]]: Cold spots indicate past or impending ghostly hijinx.

* [[Ghostly Goals]]

{{quote|'''Dean''': [to Samuel]: Big Daddy bloodsucker? I ain't gonna miss that. But this is your deal, I get it. I'll follow your lead. I trust you.

'''Dean''': [outside] I don't trust him. }}

* [[Gotta Catch Em All]]: {{spoiler|The Horsemen's rings. Good thing they already got 2 when they learn that}}.

* [[Grand Theft Me]]: In the episode "Swap Meat", a teenaged boy changes bodies with Sam.

** Lucifer summons [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Death]] himself in Season 5's 'Abandon All Hope'. He is one of the four [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]] and the boss of all reapers. He also claims to be at least as old and as powerful as God, and that in the end, he'll reap Him too.

* [[Guttural Growler]]: Dean has become increasingly gruff over the seasons (seriously, listen to season one compared to season six). Castiel too is fairly growly, although this is on purpose; actor Misha Collins felt that as Castiel's natural voice shatters windows and makes people's ears bleed, his voice in his human vessel should be rather tough-sounding. (He has also confirmed that he and Jensen Ackles 'compete' during their scenes together to see who can sound growlier, although this [[Sarcasm Mode|may not be literally true]].) Bobby could also be considered an offender, as could Crowley...it's pretty much just a cast full of BatVoice.<br /><br />Dean's growly voice was awesomely lampshaded at least twice: once in "The Real Ghostbusters" when a fan was pretending to be Dean, and once in "The French Mistake" when Jensen was [[It Makes Sense in Context|playing Dean playing Jensen playing Dean.]] ("That's how he does it.")

* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: {{spoiler|Jesse}} is half-demon, having been given birth to by a possessed woman. He looks no different from a normal human, but is described by Castiel as being more powerful than either a human or demon (In fact, that is putting it mildly. [[Story-Breaker Power|He was]] ''[[Story-Breaker Power|so]]'' [[Story-Breaker Power|powerful]] that he made even Lucifer, the supposed [[Big Bad]], look like a joke by comparison). ''[[Shout-Out|Two And A Half Men]]'' implies that regular shifters are all the half-human offspring of {{spoiler|the alpha shifter.}}

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: As he seems to have a neon sign on his forehead saying "''self-loathing woobie with [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Daddy Issues]]''", Dean tends to get this done to him a lot. The Crossroads Demon (twice), The Yellow-Eyed Demon (twice), Sam whenever he's under the influence... The list goes on.

** The scene in ''My Bloody Valentine'' when he corners Famine in a diner is one of the most painful examples on the show:

{{quote|'''Famine:''' Have you wondered why that is? How you can even walk in my presence?

** Sam in season 6 finale. He manages to {{spoiler|overcome his "inner demons" and}} drag himself to assist Dean and Bobby in the battle {{spoiler|against Castiel and Crowley despite obviously suffering under the strain of his "hell memories".}}

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Sam and Dean are the clingy, brotherly kind while their [[Real Life]] actors are the fun, touchy-feely and cuddly kind.

** Gordon Walker is the purest example, literally becoming worse than the monsters he hunts taking them out.

** John was this way about everything related to Mary's death, hence the obsession with [[Big Bad|YED]].

** Dean was originally just a [[Badass|tough guy]] who never talked about his feelings and was a [[Really Gets Around|womanizing]], boorish bit of [[Deadpan Snarker|comic relief]], but now, as well as all that, he's a [[Love Martyr]] for his family, the biggest [[Martyr Without a Cause]] on the show and with so little self-worth he's been [[Driven to Suicide]] more times than you can count, and now '''he''' [[I Just Want to Be Normal|is having doubts about continuing hunting.]]

* [[Hiding Behind Religion]]: Castiel eventually decides to go on a rampage against these sorts of people. Among other things, a [[You Are What You Hate|gay homophobic]] reverend is killed in front of his flock, a corrupt right-wing senator is slaughtered along with her campaigners, and racists take such a sound beating that the Kuu Klux Klan is forced to disband.

* [[Hollywood Psych]]: Averted. If it gives them a chance to increase the depression some more, then they're usually very good with psychology.

* [[Homage]]: In Season 5, the pair get captured by {{spoiler|The Archangel Gabriel}}, who puts them through a series of Homages to ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'', ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', and ''[[Knight Rider]]''

** Played straight in "Heart." Sam's one night stand was a werewolf, but they cured her... except not. There's no cure and she'd already killed a few people, so she asks Sam to shoot her instead. Ouch.

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]:

** Runs in the family. Their hunter mother desperately wanted to get out, raise a family and live a normal life.

** Jimmy Novak, Castiel's vessel. [[Genre Blind|He really thought it was over]].

** Subverted humorously on one occasion where Sam is forced to [[Freaky Friday Flip|switch bodies]] with a [[Grand Theft Me|teenager]] via witchcraft. Sam lies to the kid that he'd give anything for his life, then tells Dean, "that kid's life sucked" (which was basically true).

** Also seen in "Swan Song, though it's more of a "I Know You're In There Somewhere" ''beating'', since Dean's not actually fighting...

* [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]]: Sam's girlfriend died the same way Sam and Dean's mother [[Book End|did]]. This gives Sam the incentive to leave his old life behind and hunt demons with Dean. Sam feels responsible for her death because he wasn't there to save her and he saw her die in [[Dreaming of Things to Come|prescient visions]] but didn't believe them.

{{quote|'''[[Archangel Lucifer|Lucifer]]:''' ''[incredulous, rhetorical]'' Did you just [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|molotov my brother]] with holy fire?<br />

'''Castiel:''' ''[knows perfectly well Lucifer saw the whole thing]'' Um... ''no.'' }}

** When Sam comes [[Back From the Dead]] in season six, he ties Dean up so that he won't attack him, then cuts himself with a silver knife and swigs a mouthful of salty holy water to prove he's really himself. Dean had the same set of tests run on him when he got back from Hell.

** In another episode, a parasite has infected one of the characters, but they can't be sure who. They had earlier figured out that electricity was so effective on the parasite that it would be forced to leave the host, so the characters had to take turns shocking themselves to prove they didn't have it.

* [[Informed Ability]]:

** Sometimes their "great" hunting skills, especially in Season One. John Winchester sticks out: touted as pretty much the best hunter ever, yet literally all of his appearances see him screwing up and needing to be rescued by Sam and Dean.

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Sam asks that Dean not call him "Sammy" in the first episode, saying that it's a kid's name. It doesn't stick.

* [[The Insomniac]]: Sam starts staying up all night in the first season when he's having nightmares about Jessica. In a much creepier example, he also stops sleeping entirely in season six, when he's {{spoiler|lost his soul}}. And for several days in season seven, {{spoiler|to the point where he nearly dies, after the hallucination of Lucifer left over from his time in hell becomes unbearable.}}

{{quote|'''Castiel:''' You chose freedom over paradise.}}

* [[Light Is Not Good]]: All but ''two'' of the angels seen so far are manipulative dicks who despise humanity just as much as the demons do. {{spoiler|One of them tries to stop Sam and Dean from being born, in an attempt to stop the Apocalypse. To be fair though, that's implied to be a result of [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil]]. The other eventually goes nuts, and declares himself [[A God Am I|the new God.]]}}

* [[Little Miss Badass]]: In "The Rapture," {{spoiler|Jimmy's (Castiel's vessel's) daughter is possessed by Castiel and proceeds to kick major demon ass}}.

* [[Long-Lost Relative]]: {{spoiler|Adam, Gwen, Christian, Mark and Johnny Campbell.}}

* [[The Lost Lenore]]: Sam and Dean's mother for them and their father, Jess for Sam, Bobby's wife.

* [[Loveable Sex Maniac]]: Dean, natch. Future!Castiel may also qualify, considering his casual attitude towards group sex.

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: In "Sex and Violence," a Siren imitated their victims' ideal lover/friend, driving the deluded saps to kill for the Siren's love.

* [[Love Martyr]]: Poor Dean. Poor, deluded Dean.

* [[Must Make Amends]]: Season five is this for Sam after accidentally starting the Apocalypse {{spoiler|and freeing Lucifer}} and in response to his behavior in season four. The second half of season six starts like this for him after he finds out what he did {{spoiler|while soulless}}.

* [[My Horse Is a Motorbike]]: [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|The Horsemen]] don't ride horses. They ride in style, baby. Except Pestilence, naturally.

{{quote|'''Nick's "wife"''': I'm an angel. My name is Lucifer.}}

* [[Nay Theist]]: Sam and Dean, after a certain point in season 5. You would be too if the angels were, on the whole, [[Light Is Not Good|dicks]] and {{spoiler|it looked like God didn't care about stopping the Apocalypse}}.

** Zachariah sends Dean into a bleak future to convince him he must say yes to Michael. The trip also convinces Dean he has to stick with his brother, which lets Sam talk Dean out of the Michael thing and lets Dean give Sam the strength to {{spoiler|[[Fighting From the Inside|take control of his body]] from Lucifer long enough to [[Heroic Willpower|throw him back into the Cage]].}}

* [[Nigh Invulnerability]]: A number of types of this trope appear in the show:

** ''Divine protection'' mixed with ''Resurrection'': In season 5 Sam and Dean are functionally incapable of staying dead. If they do die then the Angels (and in Sam's case, also Satan) will just resurrect them because they can't be used as Angelic vessels if they're dead.

** ''External Repair'': Dr. Benton is a scientist who somehow gained immortality, but his body kept on decaying. In order to continue functioning he regularly harvests new organs.

* [[No Dead Body Poops]]: Averted in the [[Groundhog Day Loop]] episode.

** Subverted in "Free to Be You and Me" when Dean prevents the angel Castiel from insta-transporting him somewhere: "The last time you did that I didn't poop for a week!"

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: The "douchebag" magician, Jeb Dexter, is pretty much a dead ringer for Criss Angel. In fact, the episode's title is "Criss Angel is a Douche Bag."

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: Castiel delivered one of these to {{spoiler|Dean Winchester}}, when Castiel caught him attempting to {{spoiler|surrender, which the angel considered a betrayal.}}

** In the season 5 finale, Dean puts himself on the receiving end of such a beatdown when he refuses to leave his brother {{spoiler|while Lucifer is possessing Sam.}}

** In 6x13, {{spoiler|a soulless-Sam}} gives one to a cop who's grown suspicious of his cover.

* [[Noodle Incident]]:

** From "Yellow Fever": ""

** [[Oh Crap]] reactions all around, at the end of Season 6:

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Castiel}}'': {{spoiler|I'm your new God, a better one. So you ''will'' bow down, and profess your love, unto me your Lord, or I shall destroy you.}}}}

{{quote|Dean: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}5Wz2KWCixtE&feature{{=}}related What's a slash fan?]}}

* [[Only the Chosen May Wield]]: Dean has to pull a sword from a stone in "Like a Virgin". When it doesn't work, {{spoiler|he just blows it up.}}

* [[Our Angels Are Different]]: As Dean puts it, they're more "dicks with wings" than [[Touched By an Angel|Roma Downey]]. Like demons, they posses (albeit willing) people in order to move about on Earth, and they can relinquish their grace and be reborn as humans.

* [[Our Demons Are Different]]: The souls of the damned who've had their humanity tortured out of them in [[Hell]], they appear as black smoke unless they are possessing someone.

* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: You can sell 'em to demons (or angels!), string 'em up in Hell, and torture them! And when you need to move 'em around, a briefcase is all you'll need (admittedly, this was a Cosmic Power's means of soul transportation, not a mortal's). Humans can apparently survive without them, and simply lack emotions, empathy, and the need to sleep when lacking one. Monsters have them too, while ghosts and demons are respectively trapped and corrupted souls. Angels don't have them. Nor do Leviathans, being far older than the creation of souls.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: They are. This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''Monster Movie'', where they encounter an apparently typical Bram Stoker Dracula and are completely baffled. The really funny part is that the witnesses immediately identify it as a vampire, whereas this would probably not be the case with an actual vampire.