This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Mystyc: Um, so I see that the episode-specific tropes list got re-integrated into the main list. Why? I find that to be a useful division. I'll probably change it back later this week if I don't hear some sort of justification...
KJMackley: I did the integration because the two lists made the example list larger and there was quite a few repeats between the two lists, which is obviously redundant. I see the new list eliminated the repeats, but I've always been more fond of making things simpler. I look at it as the episodes make the show what it is, so why should there be separate lists of tropes? Most other show pages don't have it probably for the same reason, TV Tropes doesn't need details on every episode. TV.com and IMDB.com is what you go to for that stuff.
Mystyc: It should only make the examples section longer by the single line separating the two lists. Repeats are easily fixable, seeing as it is a wiki, so there shouldn't be any real inflation of size. And yes, the episodes are how the show exists, but every episode is not representative of the series as a whole. Would you say Samurai Jack is built on Enemy Without? Then why put it in the same list as Trapped in Another World? Having two lists allows a reader to see what tropes are essential to the show and what tropes are one-offs.
TV Tropes doesn't need details on every episode, but it does look for details on every trope, and that's what the second list gives the people who want to read it. Someone who's just interested in the basics of the series has the first list, now free of one-timers and throwaway gags.
Rogue 7: I'm sorry, but they simply can not make a movie of this. Mako passed away two years ago. There is no other possible choice for Aku. It would destroy everything.
Peteman: Is the Shoot the Shaggy Dog story the one where they try to combine forces to take down Jack only to fail horribly as he takes them down in under 5 seconds?
KJMackley: I reorganized the page because I have never been fond of the way it was designed before. It's certainly one thing to organize it into general tropes and trope based episodes (and the pages for the various Star Trek series do it reasonably well) but here as general series tropes and individual episode tropes it came across as nonsensical. The difference between the two as organized on this page are too easily confused by readers and editors alike and it just seemed primed for editing mistakes and confusion. Storming the Castle happens about every fourth episode, does that make it a series trope or an episode trope? (same with any trope that happens more than once.) Groin Attack happened in one episode, but does that make it the basis of that episode? See how that division of tropes makes things easy to screw up. If you're going to divide the example list the two should be absolutely clear what type of tropes they are focusing on.
Mystyc: This new split is pretty pointless. "Character tropes" isn't really a useful division, since it's based on the trope itself, not its use within this particular program. (What I mean is, a character trope is a character trope regardless of what list it's on or what show it's in, so why have a separate list?) Now we have Personality Chip in the same list as Evil Overlord, when they couldn't be applied more differently. For what it's worth, I've had this article on watch ever since I first made the split, and I have rarely seen the kind of mistakes you claim it was "primed for." I really don't see the confusion - you seem to be the only person who does - but nor do I want to get into an edit war over it.
