Where do you go to read the latest about new tropes?
What about old tropes with new names?
How can you find the best but least linked tropes out there?
Worry no more: Trope Report is here.
What about old tropes with new names?
How can you find the best but least linked tropes out there?
Worry no more: Trope Report is here.
Welcome to the third issue of the Trope Report revival!
Trope Report is a monthly newsletter that intends to showcase works and tropes from all corners of this website. It also aims to keep the troper hivemind updated with pertinent trope changes and discussions.
Instead of a theme, we elected to add a little bit of everything this month. If you're looking for new media to consume or pages to peruse, we have a robust selection of Work Spotlight pages in this issue.
As always, happy troping!
~Synchronicity, Chief Trope Report Officer
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Tropes and Works
Trope Spotlight
Obscure Tropes
This section highlights older tropes that need a boost.- There was that time your friend dissed you in front of her family, then ditched you to go to a concert even though the tickets were yours, then stole your car and totaled it, and then fed you to a werewolf. Actually, those occurred in a dream you had. After you've awakened, you're still angry at your friend as if she had actually committed these things, and she's terribly confused. Being Mad at a Dream and acting on that anger towards people for imagined transgressions isn't very rational, but it's an easy source of conflict in a story and says something about one's intelligence and impulsivity. This trope has been around since 2014 but only has 500 inbounds and 40-some wicks.
New Tropes
This section brings attention to recently-launched tropes that could use a little help to really get rolling.- Flowers of Femininity, created by fellow contributor MacronNotes, is all about how flowers have been historically linked to femininity. Whether be it for nurturing, romance or innocence, flowers have represented many female personalities since time immemorial, and is often considered the symbol of femininity to this day. Despite being an old concept, the trope itself is brand new because it originally came about as a result of a cleanup effort to split the prior Flower In Her Hair (which wasn't seen as tropable on its own).
Work Spotlight
New Work Page Spotlight
This section covers newer work pages that could use a little help.- The Tasmanian Devil has been an established character in the Looney Tunes franchise for decades. However, the page for his debut cartoon, Devil May Hare, has only existed since February 11! Let's do some spring cleaning on that page to properly appreciate the birth of that blubbering tornado of destruction.
- If you like Tilesweeper games, check out Hexceed, a hexagon-themed take on the classic Minesweeper with more custom content and thirty original music tracks. The page was only made on February 10th, but the game is quite new and will release more content over the course of 2021. Check out what the game has to offer and keep the page updated as new content comes out.
- The Way We Were is a 1973 film starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford that's been regarded as one of the greatest American romance films. The film was a box office success and Academy Award winner, with even its score making Billboard charts. The page was only made on February 12th, and has a fairly short description, plus several examples that are low on context. Not only would it do much good to add more content to the main page, but a YMMV page to document its reception would be pretty lovely as well.
- 5-Minute Sherlock is a new book series that's exclusive to the audiobook service Audible. It's a twist on the Sherlock Holmes formula starring Sherman Holmes, a delusional man who thinks he's a descendant of the fictional detective. Despite his loose grip on reality, Sherman has a strange ability granting him the mind of a genius for only five minutes at a time. This series only has two books released so far, but plays off several Cops and Detectives tropes. Why not spend at least five minutes cleaning up the page, which was only made on February 12?
- Bondi's Brother is a memoir by Irving and Edward Roth, telling the story of the Roth family (including Irving's brother Bondi) as they survived the Holocaust. The book delves into the horrors of that time, and its work page (created on February 7th) should help pinpoint the narrative devices that the Roths employ to convey the bittersweet trauma of surviving such an event.
Older/Obscure Work Spotlight
This section is intended to highlight works that may no longer be in the zeitgeist — but that doesn't mean they're any less tropable.- Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh is a 1996 Adventure Game by Sierra, an In Name Only sequel to Phantasmagoria. The game follows Curtis Craig, a 26-year-old bisexual introvert who works as a technical writer at Wyntech, lives with his pet rat Blob, and was released from a mental institution just a year earlier. Pretty soon, he starts to experience hallucinations. Then, murders happen at his workplace, and he wonders if he himself committed them. The game has you control Curtis by clicking on things in the room he's currently in or using inventory items on things, which generally starts one of the game's many movie sequences in .duk format. It didn't sell as many copies as its predecessor, nor was it quite as controversial, but it truly shows the pinnacle of Interactive Movie games by Sierra and is a great experience for any fans of psychological/Sci-Fi Horror.
- "I Like Monkeys" is a story originating from e-mails and blogs starting around 1994. A man bought 200 monkeys for five cents apiece, but the consequences of them being so cheap become evident when they all die at once and he has to get rid of them. It's a short, but fascinating, read that can be found Dummied Out in Hot Wheels: Velocity X and The Hobbit.
- Phantasy Star I is a Role-Playing Game originally released on the Sega Master System in 1987. Relatively standard fare for the genre, it was released to compete with Dragon Quest, both of them being Level Grinding-oriented RPGs of the 1980s. Nevertheless, the game's sci-fi elements are cool and Alys is one of the first few female heroines in gaming, especially in a combat role. The SEGA AGES version of the game on Nintendo Switch has FM Sound and several features that make it less grindy and had an update with some bug fixes in January, so whether you're revisiting the game or playing it for the first time, this port is a good way to experience it.
Works That Need a Page
This section takes a page from the List of Shows That Need Summary. It is intended to spotlight works that people have been talking about enough to link around the site, but don't have a page yet. If the work page link turns blue after this, then we know we've done our job!
- U.S. Black History Month may have been February, but that certainly doesn't mean we can't appreciate African-American cultural history. Brer Rabbit is a folklore character in stories passed down among Black communities of the southern United States. Many of these stories originate from African Mythology, such as the tales of Anansi the spider; there is also notable influence from Native American Mythology. The character himself is a Trickster and Rascally Rabbit who outwits his enemies. One of the more famous stories, the tale of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, is the Trope Namer for Briar Patching. The Brer Rabbit stories have been adapted many times over; the more well-known of these adaptations include Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus books from the 19th century, a book series by English children's author Enid Blyton, and Disney's film Song of the South and theme park ride Splash Mountain.
Non-English Work Spotlight
The wiki may be in English, but that doesn't mean non-English media are any less important! This section focuses on works that may have a language barrier to deal with — but are worth it if you do.- Tytus, Romek i A'tomek is a Polish comic book series by Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski, aka Papcio Chmiel. First published in Swiat Mlodych magazine, it started receiving full issues in 1966. There were 31 main issues, with 10 extra ones released after that, as well as three specials. They involve Tytus de Zoo, a talking chimpanzee, and two Boy Scouts named Romek and A'Tomek who are given a mission of "humanising" him by education about human things. They frequently meet Papcio Chmiel, the author who draws the comic and knows them personally, and Professor T'Alent, who makes inventions and vehicles for them. These comics are well known and loved amongst children and adults in Poland, even convincing some of them to join the Boy Scouts, thanks to the humor appealing to just about everyone, fun characters, creative worlds and concepts, and an impressive art style. The comic's creator died in January 2021, may he rest in peace.
- Versus Umbra is an Adobe Flash game by the Danish developer Arkuni. It features four campaigns with a different player character for each one, though the main one has you play as Adrian who must save the world from an invasion. The game's a standard action game — you shoot every enemy on the screen until there's no one standing — but almost every level has a challenge like killing x enemies with a specific weapon or not jumping at any time. There's over a dozen weapons to use, selectable perks upon every level up, and eight relics settings that add humorous stuff to the game. While the repetitive nature may not be everyone's cup of tea, the sheer volume of content which has been made free in 2014 should satisfy anyone who likes these kinds of games.
- Trio the Punch is a 1990 Arcade Game from Japanese developers Data East. It's a Beat 'em Up with three selectable characters: a ninja, a tough guy, and a swordsman. The goal is finding enough hearts dropped by enemies to spawn a boss and beat them. That said, the main draw isn't the gameplay, but the weirdness, as practically every stage has something unusual or nonsensical, like having to fight a Giant Foot of Stomping or being turned into a sheep. With its use of Stylistic Suck, the game is considered to be one of the first kusoge (a game that's So Bad, It's Good, literally "crappy game"). Experiencing all the bizarre and humorous things that turn it into a kusoge is certainly worth your time and surely make it memorable.
Creator Page Spotlight
Works would be nothing without the people who make them. This section highlights authors, artists, actors, musicians, and everyone else responsible for trope creation and proliferation.- Cicely Tyson passed in January after a multi-awarded screen and stage acting career that spanned about seventy years (e.g. Sounder, How to Get Away with Murder). Her acting portfolio is made up of strong African-American female roles — even in time periods that were far less friendly to Black performers — which made her a valuable and celebrated pioneer.
- Takashi Murakami is a postmodern artist from Japan who is best known as the founder of the "superflat" movement that takes Japan's history of "flat"note art and dropkicks it into the modern world with bright colors, animesque stylings, and messages about consumerism and Japanese pop culture. Confused? Isle of the Dead (Takashi Murakami) is an example.
- Gene Luen Yang is one of the most interesting comic book writers in the business. He is also one of the most prominent Asian-American ones, and his Chinese-American background features heavily in his work. It's likely you've heard about some of his work: if not his breakout comic American Born Chinese, you may have read the Avatar: The Last Airbender interquel comics. Yang has had a pretty good 2020, too: in addition to his new graphic novel Dragon Hoops, he's also been working for the Big Twonote , with some Superman stories (including Superman Smashes the Klan) and a new volume of Shang-Chi.
Image/Image Caption of the Month
This section brings you the best of the recent selections from Image Pickin.
This issue's featured image comes from Subnormality, and is for Godwin's Law of Time Travel.
Ah, Godwin's Law, what would we do without you? This hypothesis states that, the longer an internet argument goes on for, the higher the probability that Hitler is brought up. The same principle apparently applies to hypothetical time travel in fiction as well, as works tend to make it so that interfering with the timestream causes a Nazi victory in WW2. The problem with this trope is that illustrating it requires 1) demonstrating time travel has occurred, 2) the past has been interfered with, and 3) said interference caused a Nazi victory. You would think any proper illustration would be unwieldy, but this one manages it in only two panels. It's also really funny in general, having the scientists become German mid-sentence, and a Gag der sich perfekt in die Bildunterschrift übersetzt. Gut gemacht an IP für den Fund!
This issue's featured image comes from Subnormality, and is for Godwin's Law of Time Travel.
"Die Zeitmaschine ist eine Katastrophe."note
Ah, Godwin's Law, what would we do without you? This hypothesis states that, the longer an internet argument goes on for, the higher the probability that Hitler is brought up. The same principle apparently applies to hypothetical time travel in fiction as well, as works tend to make it so that interfering with the timestream causes a Nazi victory in WW2. The problem with this trope is that illustrating it requires 1) demonstrating time travel has occurred, 2) the past has been interfered with, and 3) said interference caused a Nazi victory. You would think any proper illustration would be unwieldy, but this one manages it in only two panels. It's also really funny in general, having the scientists become German mid-sentence, and a Gag der sich perfekt in die Bildunterschrift übersetzt. Gut gemacht an IP für den Fund!
Projects and Discussions
Forumwatch
Hey guys! Welcome back to Forumwatch! In this section, we'll be telling you about what's going on in the forums — interesting discussions that may be going on in Wiki Talk, some fun forum games, or lively debates going on in On-Topic conversations, you name it!
- Do you have an idea for a new trope, but are too worried about its qualifications to propose it to the Launch Pad? Did you attempt to use the Trope Finder, but didn't get a clear enough answer? Then check out the Trope Idea Sounding Board
, where you can state your ideas to others and gain feedback on what works and what doesn't! Now you can be certain about your proposal! - If you are a Pokémon fan, you may or may not be hyped from the new games recently announced. At the very least, you might just want to talk about the virtual Post Malone concert for the 25th anniversary of the franchise. Luckily for you, there's the Pokémon General Thread! Discuss whatever Pokémon related topics you want, and if you are hyped, discuss your hype with others who are hyped. This franchise has been going on for twenty-five years and shows no sign of slowing down!
- The NASA rover, Perseverance, has recently touched down on Mars. Technology for space exploration is always advancing, and the further we advance, the further our knowledge of the universe grows. Topics of NASA and advancements in space exploration can be found in the Space Thread. Let's hope to see some interesting photos from Mars!
- Have you found an amazing or hilarious YouTube comment that you really want to share with other people? Post the comment on Youtube Comments Win to show others your discovery!
Trope/Article Changelog
This section covers renames, removals, hard-splits, merges, and wick cleaning. We'll try to keep you alerted of any major changes to the site, including perpetual projects and Wiki Talk decisions that you may have missed, but if you want to be a part of the process that affects so much of our wiki, then head over to the Trope Repair Shop on the left-hand side of the forum.
- In the Blood has been redefined to be about characters inheriting certain traits like morality, behavior, personality etc. Villainous Lineage has been created to house the "evil runs in the family" concept that used to define In the Blood. Check out the TRS thread here
- One-Mario Limit is now in the Just for Fun namespace. See this TRS thread for more information.
- Reality Ensues has been renamed to Surprisingly Realistic Outcome due to rampant misuse. Check out the TRS thread for more information.
- Theme Tune Cameo has been renamed to Diegetic Soundtrack Usage and has been expanded to cover non-theme tune examples. Check out the TRS thread here.
- A minor Image Pickin rule update: moments pages (Funny/, Heartwarming/, Awesome/, TearJerker/, etc.) should not have multiple images.
Pages Needing Help
This section highlights articles indexed on the Pages Needing Wiki Magic policy page and sub-pages. Such articles are, at best, under-performing and below wiki standards. At worst, these pages are in violation of the wiki's rules against stubs. If you're an editor, try checking out some of these under-performing trope and work articles to see what improvements you can make to the page.
- March's birthday is Louis Sachar, an author who has written a few famous works, but our article on them has very little. There's twice as many wicks to the page as there are from the page, so obviously we can expand it a bit, right? Maybe someone wants to reorganize the list of works into chronological order? Maybe someone wants to mention that they actually wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation? Remember that the Trope Intersect tool can be used to compare Holes and Wayside School, helping to identify common tropes across all of their works.
- Les Sisters is both a comic book series and an animated series from France. The cartoon already has an image, and both have decent descriptions, but somehow we only have four wicks to the comic? But there's over fifty to the cartoon! It shouldn't take much to fix this up; check for ZCEs, crosswick properly written examples, find an image, and maybe a few other indexes (Where's the genre index? The publication year index?) for both of them.
- Because of its status as an Advertising Trope, Just Pennies a Day is pretty lackluster in terms of examples and wicks. We've had it since 2011, which means it is somewhat forgotten by the wiki? Does anyone have an image that could go here? Maybe there's a work or three that mocked it and we can add In-Universe examples of the advertising? If we had been able to add just one new example each month after launching, there'd be 120 by now!
Project Spotlight
Looking for a project to dedicate some time to, but not comfortable jumping into large threads? Here are some smaller projects, or more recent discussions, in need of a few more hands.
- March is also known as Women's History Month. During this month, we want to celebrate the achievements and history of women past and present, and that includes celebrating fictional characters who broke the glass ceiling by contributing to the action. Unfortunately, the trope used to express this, Action Girl, suffers from misuse and overuse, being applied to any female character who fights, regardless of context or meaning. If you'd like to help discuss and cleanup this trope, visit the Badass Cleanup thread today!
- Genre-Killer currently is in the TRS for issues involving misuse and shoehorns, including examples that aren't about genres at all. The discussion currently is looking to determine exactly what does and doesn't qualify as being a genre to help identify future misuse, with cleanup on the horizon. If this discussion interests you, why not stop by?
- The Star Trek pages are going through an extensive cleanup to remove any complaining, First-Person Writing and shipping. If you would like to help, please join this thread.
Know the Contributors
- Synchronicity writes Creator Page Spotlight and oversees this whole shebang. Likes tropes and works about comedy, slice of life, and sci-fi/fantasy. For some reason, also enjoys keeping the wiki tidy.
- Piterpicher is the head honcho of Older/Obscure Work Spotlight and Non-English Work Spotlight. Those are the kinds of works he's interested in, but he's primarily a gamer. When it comes to wiki philosophy, the priorities are making it fun for readers, encompassing, and well-performing in terms of SEO. (Editor's note: he also made our snazzy new logo!)
- crazysamaritan writes for the Pages Needing Help section, keeping an eye out for stubs and crosswicking.
- Kappaclystica writes for the Image of the Month. Hates unillustrative images.
- Satoshi Bakura writes for Forumwatch. Their passive nature and busy college schedule often leaves them watching pages and forums without actually participating unless their interest has been sufficiently piqued.
- Mighty Mewtron writes for the New Work Page spotlight. She probably hasn't seen these works before coming across their pages, but she likes to be involved in the growth of the wiki. Beyond the Trope Report, she's most active in forums, TLP, and the pages for whatever work she's obsessed with this month.
- MacronNotes writes for the Changelog section. She spends most of her time on TRS, Long/Short term projects, and TLP. She is also the herald of the Wiki Talk section on the forums.
- War Jay 77 writes for the Project Spotlight section. She is also the Herald of Projects: Long Term/Perpetual, and spends much of her time refreshing on the forums, ATT and TLP for new things to respond to.
- gjjones writes for the Project Spotlight section. He also frequently spends his time working on projects whenever they are necessary, cleaning up wiki entries and participating in the ATT and Trope Repair Shop threads.
- Divine Flame 100 writes the New Tropes Spotlight section. Just a generic editor who lurks on TLP and the forums on occasion, but mostly focuses on making edits to very niche work pages.
- naturalironist writes for the Obscure Trope Spotlight, and spends a lot of time on the wiki, adding examples and serving as an Entry Pimp.
- 𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 also writes for the Obscure Trope Spotlight.
- ccorb writes for Works That Need a Page, and spends a lot of their time on Image Pickin', Trope Repair Shop, Trope Launch Pad, and the Projects forums, and also Wiki Walks, searching for works and tropes they find interesting. They credit this very wiki for introducing them to anime and manga they had never heard of before but would like to watch/read, such as My Hero Academia, A Silent Voice and Hunter × Hunter.
- Twiddler makes sure our grammar is in order, and wrote this issue's Works That Need a Page.
This edition of Trope Report has been sponsored by Paddy's Irish Pub, where this St. Patrick's day, they're slashing prices so low, you won't need a pot of gold to get sloppy. It's insane!
Interested in becoming a contributor, or have suggestions for works or tropes to feature? Pop by the the thread and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)
and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)