These Tropes Should Help

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An index of tropes about characters helping or giving advice to each other.

Compare Healing and Curing Tropes, Hero Tropes and Index to the Rescue. Contrast This Index Is Useless. See also Tropes to Cope.

Tropes:

• Actually, That's My Assistant: An assistant looks more distinguished and important than the guy he helps.
• After-Action Patch-Up: After a fight, one character treats another's minor injuries.
• Amateur Therapist: A friend or relative lets you talk out your emotions, and gives surprisingly good advice.
• Androcles' Lion: If you help out a creature, then it'll help you.
• Assist Character: A video game character who only appears to help the player.
• Beleaguered Assistant: One who'd rather not be there, but has to help out anyway.
• Blaming the Advisor: A character blames someone who gave them advice for the consequences of following or ignoring the advice.
• The Caretaker: A character who helps those who cannot help themselves.
• Caretaker Reversal: After taking care of the patient, the caretaker gets sick and now the patient must take care of them.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Some heroes have a reflexive compulsion to help.
• Comfort the Dying: Making a character feel better in their last moments.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: A character tries to get through to a messed-up kid who's used as a weapon.
• Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do: You should behave yourself by following someone else's restraints.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: The hero stops to help bystanders, potentially interfering with his mission.
• Encouraged Regifting: A character helps someone else find the right gift by giving them a present for someone else.
• Enemy Mine: Mortal enemies help one another achieve a common goal.
• "Everybody Helps Out" Denouement: All the characters in the story come together at the end to help people out.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Unlikely allies are called upon to aid the heroes.
• Good Samaritan: A person who helps whenever they see someone needing it.
• Handy Helper: A character helps a disabled character.
• Hapless Self-Help: A self-help guru who doesn't practice what they preach.
• Helping Another Save Face: Someone helps save another person from embarrassment
• Honest Advisor: One who gives honest advice.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: A fanfic where the main plot is one character being hurt and another comforting them.
• Incorrect Instruction Order: To survive, do step 1, then step 3, but first make sure you do step 2.
• Intimate Healing: Sometimes "help" requires a, *ahem*, personal touch.
• Intimate Lotion Application: Applying lotion on another character as a way to create sexual tension, romantic intimacy, awkwardness, or humor.
• The Jeeves: A valet or butler to another character who frequently helps them with daily activities.
• Lovely Assistant: An attractive young woman who assists the performer.
• Mr. Exposition: They're always there when you need an explanation.
• Native Guide: A local who serves as a guide for outsiders.
• Opponent Instruction: Someone gives advice on how to defeat them.
• Parody Assistance: The original creator helps in the creation of a parody.
• Post-Nightmare Comfort: A character awakens from a nightmare, and is given comfort from a friend or loved one.
• Prankster's Partner: Someone who assists The Prankster in their pranks.
• Quiet Cry for Help: Subtly asking somebody for help.
• Quitting to Become a Caregiver: Putting one's job or education on hold to take on the role of caregiver.
• Random Passerby Advice: A random passerby offers advice.
• Staying with the Suffering: A character stays with another who is recovering from a physical, mental, or emotional trauma.
• Summoned by Sobbing: A character's crying (after being physically or emotionally hurt) catches the attention of someone who can help them.
• Supernaturally-Aided Escape: Someone is taken from a bad situation (be it a dangerous scenario, an unsafe environment, a toxic relationship, etc) by some supernatural force.
• Supporting the Monster Loved One: A character helps their monstrous loved-one, often out of compassion.
• Tampon Run: Girl is busy and needs her tampons, so she asks a guy to go get some, with comedic results.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: A helpful character who gives advice via earpiece to the main character related to whatever they're doing.
• We Help the Helpless: The heroes are tasked with helping others.
• Wounded Hero, Weaker Helper: A normal character helps a Badass in Distress.

Sometimes the character being helped is better off without it, or the help is given with malicious intent...

• Advice Backfire: Trying to help someone with advice only makes things worse.
• Advice Recollection Snark: Remarking bitterly after following someone's advice goes horribly wrong.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: The character helping you play the game starts to get annoying.
• Anti-Advice: It's best to do the opposite of what this person tells you to do.
• Bad Samaritan: It turns out that the person helping you has ulterior motives.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: Helping somebody would deprive them from a learning opportunity.
• Involuntary Cheating: A character helps someone else cheat without their knowledge.
• Treacherous Advisor: The hero's source of advice and support turns out to be evil.
• Unwanted Assistance: Attempts to help only make things worse.
• Villainous Advice Song: A song the villain sings to trick others into helping him out.
• Virtual Assistant Blunder: You try to get help from your smart device, but it doesn't quite work out.