Science Fiction by TvTropes

[Doug]

Each poster add any two tropes from TvTropes to create a plot: one can be any trope you like, the other should be found under the Speculative Fiction or Narrative Tropes categories. Preferably semi-serious, i.e., plausible in a regular SF book or movie. Please link your tropes!

The poster after you ties them together, to form a plot-series-scene-whatever (try to be generic, so as not to limit people's freedom!), and then posts his tropes.

Who knows what could come out of this...

I'll start:

Generation Ships

Zillion Dollar Bill

[HueyLong]

(Okay, I'm confused. Are we supposed to make all of this fit, or just make something fit the two tropes? In any case, here's mine....)

Argent Field

"The galaxy wasn't always this worn out, you know. No, there was a time where the crystal cities of man rose above the grime and dirt of past eras and where man spread out across the stars as one force."

"But now all that remains are slivers of glass, humanity's dreams shattered across the face of every world. All that remains..... Well, maybe not all that remains, if you'd like to hear a tale?"

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Argent Field is a sci-fi television series centered around a team of scavengers and their desperate quest for the titular ship, the Argent Field, a ship from a bygone era said to contain untold amounts of wealth. The team of scavengers begin at first with purely selfish motives but are, through the course of their travels, slowly brought into a more heroic light, with many of them deciding to use the wealth of the Argent Field for "better causes than themselves".

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"The Argent Field is something like El Dorado mixed with post-Barbarian Rome. For the people of the galaxy, it isn't just a treasure city- it is the last piece of their ancient civilization. Of course, neither El Dorado nor Rome quite lived up to expectations..."- Creator interview

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The style of the series falls somewhere between Space Western and Raygun Gothic. Much of the aesthetics of the "ruined civilization" are done in homage to 50s sci-fi, while that of "modern folk" is done in a more rough-and-tumble, frontier style. The series often visits exotic locales- one of the main locales was a futuristic nightclub which the main cast frequented, and which had its own stage built by the end of the series.

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The series came to an end with the discovery of the Argent Field. Many have described the series' end as "disappointing". The ship was found almost by chance (a navigational error), thus causing many to say that the "quest" of the series was pointless, and the three part episode which dealt with the discovery and exploration of the ship presented a reality far different than that which the series' narrative had focused on up until that point.

The Argent Field was revealed to be an outdated, worthless hulk, populated with the poor, malnourished descendants of the original sleeper population. It was not a treasure ship of the old Empire, it was a colony ship, headed for the planet Argent- a planet which was a booming metropolis by the time of the Argent Field's discovery. (A planet which included in its founding myth the grand treasure ship of the Argent Field.)

The final episode had the main cast of scavengers part ways, presumably to tie up their own plotlines- and the screen faded to black as an old man began to tell a young Captain the story of a real treasure ship.....

Fans reacted with disgust, as the ending left many plotlines hanging, especially regarding the plans the characters had to do with their wealth. "Some failures don't need exposition," one writer has said.

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"Misremembered history is the best kind."- Creator quote

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My tropes:

Deadly Decadent Court
Post-Cyber Punk (also called Cyber Prep)

[Doug]

I'm sorry, it's all supposed to tie together...hmm...I like your tale, though.

I was looking for something similar to this (I'll include my previous tropes as well).


* * * *
Twenty years outbound from Earth, an incident of unknown cause occurred amongst the crew of the colony ship Argent Field, causing various factions of the crew to form around the leaders involved in said incident. These factions waged a long and terrible war against each other over a cause now unknown, though rumors believe it was over the legendary Sampo sealed in a great cavern in the midst of the ship that provides food and other useful materials and luxuries to different sections of the ship (via tubes?).

200 years later, the factions have formed semi-feudal societies that war against each other frequently, their leaders united only in the oaths they swear to one another that they will not attempt to take the Sampo for themselves. Huey Long is a researcher for one of these leaders, a high-ranking member of an order that has preserved the knowledge of computing in these semi-barbarous times. After hundreds of years of using their requests from the Sampo to build computers of dizzying power, the order believes that it is on the verge of the impossible: Singularity.

While the researchers get close to achieving Singularity, the ship is gripped by a series of traumatic events. Heralds are sent from the long-isolated Bridge (a faction that keeps to itself and kills all who attempt to enter its boundaries) that the ship is about to reach its destination, causing widespread consternation and fear among the rulers. Huey's ruler, who has no time for the "religious nonsense" of the Singularity, has gained enough power to attempt to break into the Sampo. In the climax...

* * * *
This can be the main narrative, or a side story that a "real" main character gets involved in...you choose!

EDIT: Awww...crap. Forgot the Deadly Decadent Court...the courts of the retainers of each of the descendants of the leaders are quite decadent, that's right...

And my Tropes:

Go Mad From The Revelation
King Bob The Nth