When the protagonist’s plot fails at the last minute, but just when it seems that all hope is lost, it turns out that the failure of this plot was all part of the PLOTTIER PLOT OF SECONDARY CHARACTER, who knew all along that they couldn’t succeed unless Protagonist’s plan failed, or that this failure would open up an opportunity for an even greater success that they’d been cleverly working towards the entire time.

Often seen in heists and thrillers, but a surprising number of fantasy novels too, and even romances. I’m such a sucker for the secret mastermind reveal.

What about you, what’s your favorite trope?

  • McFeely_Smackup@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I just finished “A Shadow of All Night Falling” book 1 of “The Dread Empire”, so I discovered my new favorite trope

    At the end of the book, within the space of a few pages, all the main characters are killed. Not at the same time, just in a series of increasingly unlikely events.

    Then a character who hasn’t previously appeared in the story shows up suddenly and performs a resurrection spell and brings them all back to life for no particular reason.

    So my favorite trope now is the massively unearned deus ex machina. Like the bigger the F-U to the reader, the better. If at the same time the heroes are saved, the ultimately powerful antagonists are also killed trivially, like in this book, Im satisfied

    I’m calling it the “Deus ex Maxima”