While browsing around looking at various content I stumbled upon a number of ‘normal’ tv tropes compiled by the website of that namesake. I stumbled upon one – Badass Normal – and thought ‘oh yeah that’s awesome I’ll blog that!’ before realizing that of course there are multiple (like, alot) of ‘normal’ tropes. I’ve rounded up all the normal-title ones – click any title to visit TVTropes to read more about that trope, or just to explore other tropes!
Normal People
The various “everyman” characters in media. Since a large portion of the audience is probably like this they are also the No. 1. candidates to become the Audience Surrogate you are expected to identify with.
Badass Normal
In a World… with supernatural dealings or superpowers, this character is the one who is able to keep being useful through intellect, martial arts abilities, general ruthlessness, or just being Crazy-Prepared.
They notably have none of the fantastic enhancements, magic or special powers that others do. It might even be a sore point for them, but that just makes us encourage them more. Female versions are usually Action Girls with a Girl Posse or Lovely Angels.
It’s become increasingly common for the Badass Normal to be a protagonist, as he is easier to relate to for us ordinary muggles in contrast to the often-unrealistic ideal lead. If they are in The Team, then they are usually The Leader, or at least the brains of the outfit, to compensate.
Empowered Badass Normal
Your average Badass Normal can take on monsters, supervillains, and cosmic horrors with nothing but intense training and sheer determination. But that other guy can blow things up with his mind. And so can the villains. How could that puny human possibly compete with that? In short, despite his amazing capabilities, the Badass Normal just doesn’t seem to be badass enough. Time for a convenient power upgrade.
The Team Normal
In a nutshell, any team of superpowered people will often have members without powers.
Brought Down to Normal
A character who has some kind of highly developed or superhuman ability loses it for an episode, and has to experience life as an average Joe. Often, the character actually enjoys the experience of being “normal”. Otherwise, he will hate it and understand how hard it is to have no superpowers to help you, becoming Useless Without Powers. May result from being a Broken Angel.
Invisible to Normals
There are just some things that normal people don’t seem to notice. In some settings it’s because they just don’t seem to want to see it. In some it’s because it’s just not their problem. But then there are the settings where they don’t notice because they literally can’t: The supernatural creatures just can’t be seen in the first place without having some supernatural power of your own. Whether it’s psychics being able to see ghosts or wizards being able to see magical creatures, the one thing that stays the same is that the normal people just can’t see what’s really going on.
I Just Want to Be Normal
They didn’t want these powers, this magic, this curse, or whatever it is that was foisted upon them. The responsibility to save the world? Forget it! All those exciting adventures and the ability to potentially do anything?
Take it away. They want nothing to do with it.Needing to be normal often comes in waves. Often, it hits critical levels, and the character threatens to quit, or even does so temporarily.
Give Him a Normal Life
Your hero has just become a mommy or a daddy — wow! Either they weren’t planning on it, and they managed to admirably rise to the challenge of parenthood, or this is something they’ve always wanted, and having a baby is making many of their dreams come true. (Sometimes, it can be a mixture of both)
