Tropes listed pertain to maturity. Exact counterpart to Immaturity Tropes.
See also Teenage Tropes, Youngsters, Adult Tropes, and Elders for their associated maturity levels, and Aging Tropes.
Compare Intelligence Tropes, as intelligence is another sign of maturity, though not always.
Subcategories:
Tropes:
- Acting Your Intellectual Age: Intelligent children act a lot like adults.
- Affably Evil: Despite being an evildoer, the villain still has a very polite demeanor.
- Age-Stereotypical Food: Maturity indicated by eating "grown up" foods, especially when used for child characters.
- Anti-Villain: A villain who is mature enough to realize what they're doing is wrong, but doing it anyway for noble reasons.
- The Atoner: An antagonist makes up for their mistakes by repaying their victims with kindness.
- Benevolent Boss: A boss who is very well-mannered and treats their employees with respect.
- Big Brother Instinct: A character acts defensive towards an innocent character as though they are their sibling (or are).
- Big Good: The most powerful member of the good guys.
- Bittersweet 17: A 17-year-old who is in their Coming of Age.
- Boring Grown-Up Wheat Flakes: Plain, healthy "grown-up" cereals are perceived as tasteless and boring, especially by children.
- Brutal Honesty: Telling the honest truth with good intentions regardless of its hurtfulness.
- Character Development: The hero gets a change in character as they grow.
- Childish Villain, Mature Hero: The hero is more mature than the villain.
- Closer to Earth: A usually-minority character who is more grounded in reality.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: A mature character who has to keep their not-so-mature partner in line.
- The Comically Serious: A mature character is brought into absurd situations, much to their reluctance.
- Coming of Age Story: Main character matures into adulthood over the course of the story.
- The Conscience: A character who serves as another's moral compass.
- Cool Big Bro: An older character who is admired by a younger one like they are their brother or sister.
- Cool Teacher: Teachers who love their students and go out their way to make learning a good experience for them.
- Designated Parents: A couple of a group who act like adults, bordering on Team Mom and Team Dad.
- The Dog Bites Back: An Extreme Doormat or Butt-Monkey finally stands up for themselves.
- Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: The more competent one is, the more physically adult they are.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Malicious people have limits as to how far they're willing to go.
- The Ever-Calm: A character is depicted as calm and calming, even in dire situations.
- Everyone Has Standards: Someone's flaw has a limit.
- Excellent Judge of Character: A character who can see through people's true intentions through their intellects.
- Forgiveness: Getting on better terms with someone following their mistake.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: Intelligence and maturity go hand-to-hand together.
- Gift for an Outgrown Interest: A gift-giver's idea of what the recipient would like is based on very outdated memories.
- Glasses of Aging: They're Older and Wiser. You can tell because they're wearing glasses now.
- Good Is Not Dumb: A hero who is also intelligent and reasonable, averting Good Is Dumb.
- Good Is Not Soft: A hero saves their wrath for villains, but is otherwise kind and gentle.
- Good Parents: Parents who want what's best for their children, lay down acceptable discipline, and rarely (if ever) dip into abusive or pushover territory.
- Graceful Loser: An antagonist or opponent who is willing to accept defeat.
- Graceful Winner: Losing to this character takes a lot of the sting out of being defeated.
- Grew a Spine: Finally catering to oneself after a long period of doing things for others.
- The Growing Up Speech: Someone, usually a Cool Old Guy, gives a youth a speech about what it means to grow up.
- Grudging "Thank You": Even though one doesn't like another person, they still thank them for doing something that warrants gratitude.
- Harem Nanny: The most mature member of the harem becomes the babysitter.
- Heartfelt Apology: Realizing one's mistake and genuinely apologizing for it is a sign of maturity.
- Heel–Face Turn: A former villain sincerely turns good.
- Heel Realization: A villain realizes how evil they were and becomes regretful as a result.
- Humble Hero: A hero who never brags about themselves or their deeds.
- Humanity Is Infectious: A non-human entity picks up human qualities after spending some time being around humans.
- I Gave My Word: Character staying true to their promises is a sign of maturity.
- I Hate Past Me: When a more experienced character meet their past selves and regrets their previous actions.
- It's All My Fault: A character realizes the error in their ways and starts to grow up and take responsibility for their actions.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: A Naïve Newcomer becomes more aware of the world's cynicism and as a result becomes more experienced.
- Jerkass Realization: Character realizes how much of a jerk they were, now they become wiser.
- Just Ignore It: A character decides to pay no attention to something inconsequential that is just trying to annoy them.
- Mature Younger Sibling: A younger sibling character who is more mature than their older sibling.
- Men Are Better Than Women: As women are wiser, since men try to be smarter or more mature than all women.
- Morality Pet: A villain or Jerkass's only hope.
- Most Writers Are Adults: Fictional kids behaving like adults.
- Nice Guy: A friendly and kind-hearted person who has empathy for others.
- Noble Demon: A villain who greatly values honor in spite of their evil cause(s).
- Not Worth Killing: One finally comes to the conclusion that ending someone else's life wouldn't really make themselves feel better.
- Older and Wiser: An experienced, old adventurer has valuable lessons for the new generation of adventurers.
- Only Sane Man: The character is the only mature person among their immature peers.
- Only Sane by Comparison: A offbeat character in their own right is still more mature than everyone else around them.
- Playboy Has a Daughter: When a daughter begins or marks a former playboy's Character Development.
- Psychologist Teacher: A teacher who solves all of their students' problems.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: An authority figure whose kindness and problem-solving skills makes them admirable.
- The Reliable One: Someone who's always there when their friend needs them.
- Save Our Students: A teacher strives to improve the futures of students who attend a horrible school.
- The Smart Guy: The intellect of the Five-Man Band.
- Spoiled Sweet: Despite living a luxurious life, they're still kind and humble. Can be an Immaturity Trope if it emphasizes their naivety and lack of experience.
- Stern Teacher: A teacher who is mature to the point that they will not stand for their students' immaturity and nonsense.
- Straight Man: A serious man who set up the punchline for its Foil, Plucky Comic Relief.
- The Stoic: Someone who's seen it all and maintains a default calm and indifferent persona.
- Fiery Stoic: When Playing with Fire.
- Team Dad: A surrogate father of the group.
- Team Mom: A surrogate mother of the group.
- This Is Not My Life to Take: Vengeance is not for everyone, especially if they're aware that doing so will only make themselves worse.
- Token Adult: The character is the only adult member of a team of young characters.
- Turn the Other Cheek: It's times like this where it's better to forgive and let go rather than to be obsessively vengeful.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: A character who is more intelligent and rational than expected from someone their age.
- Women Are Wiser: Women are portrayed as more mature than men.
