What I’m thinking of is moments in fiction where, even though you’ve seen it before and know exactly what’s going to happen, you still hope - or fear - things will go another way.
For example, when I was a kid *The Jungle Book *was my favourite film, at the end the villain Shere Khan fights Baloo and I was always scared that Khan would kill him, even though I’d seen it dozens of times and knew he wouldn’t.
Or in The Great Escape, I always hope that on the bus that he won’t reply ‘thank you’ when the German wishes him good luck in English, even though I know he will.
Anyone know a more concise way to say what I’m on about? ‘Continued suspense’, maybe?
Tropes are something a writer uses, consciously or unconsciously, in constructing a story. You seem to be talking about a way that some audience members - certainly not all, and probably not most - might emotionally respond to certain story elements (and, let’s face it, it is mostly going to just be children). Fearing that it might go differently, or wanting it to, isn’t a trope, it is a response. (That said, I do not think the TVTropes is all that scrupulous about definitions, so they may possibly still have a page covering this sort of thing.)
Every time I see a production of*** Death of a Salesman***, I keep hoping that THIS time Willy Loman will accept Charlie’s job offer.
Willy didn’t HAVE to die. He could have swallowed his pride, gotten a real, paying job, and lived out his life comfortably. But he would have had to let go of his dreams, and he just couldn’t do that.
No, they are, but they categorize audience reactions anyways. On the works in question, they go on the YMMV tab, which is separate from the main tab.
As for whether they discuss this particular not!Trope, I’d suggest the OP ask on their “Lost and Found” page. That’s what it’s for, and they know their own pages better than we do.