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.
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.
How time flies – August is upon us, and with it our eighth issue of Trope Report! If you've stuck around this long, thank you; if this is your first time reading, welcome!
Have you guys noticed the new feature that lets you upload images directly to a forum post? If you haven't, maybe test it out in one of our Forumwatch-featured threads. We've also got some interesting newly launched tropes that you might find useful to add, especially for those who like fantastic depictions of historical figures. And if you are thinking of lending a helping hand, why not check out some Projects or turn our redlinked Work That Needs A Page into a bluelink?
Stay hydrated, enjoy the rest of the summer, and 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.- You're watching a new episode of a crime drama, and near the end, when the guilty party is revealed, the scene flashes back to the scene of the crime: the perpetrators are shown, and their implements and procedure are plainly visible. This is the Necro Cam. Rather than just explain how the crime occurred, the show gives a visual rundown of the events. It's a pretty common trope in mystery shows, but it has only 46 wicks and 302 inbounds despite existing before TV Tropes had page histories.
New Tropes
This section brings attention to recently-launched tropes that could use a little help to really get rolling.- There may be times where a classic Period Piece is exactly what you're looking for, but there are others where you just need that little extra flair—something to throw the plot into a new direction and keep your attention for a while longer. The answer is simple: take your historical characters and give them superpowers! The Historical Domain Superperson, launched on July 26th, is exactly what you need, with all those Historical Domain Characters getting that super-boost they need to capture our attention and keep us hooked.
- Adaptations are no stranger to large changes—for some people, changes are part of the appeal. However, there are very few changes as strong as taking a character designed to be hated and turning that on its head, making the audience feel better about them than before. Adaptational Sympathy, launched on June 29th, covers these moments, in which a character is fleshed out beyond what they used to be to ensure we feel a degree of care we never would have felt for their original version. It's one of the boldest choices a creator can make and thus must always be treated with caution.
Work Spotlight
New Work Page Spotlight
This section covers newer work pages that could use a little help.- On this wiki, we talk a lot about fandoms, from the fanfiction they write to the vast amount of shipping they discuss. ColeyDoesThings is an independent YouTube channel that parodies fandom culture, whether it's capturing the feeling of entering a chaotic new fandom or ranking the different Fanfic Tropes. The page was only created on July 10th, but there are still many tropes and Audience Reactions that Coley has parodied and discussed that have yet to be listed on her page.
- Droners is a 2020 French cartoon, with its page created on July 20 of this year. Set in a world of archipelagos resulting from massive natural disasters and wars, it follows three kids who race drones in a bid to work alongside Wyatt Whale, owner of an environmentally-friendly technology company. While the show is still young, it utilizes several tropes and has a variety of characters, and could use more love on its main page and Characters page, as well as a YMMV and Trivia page.
- Interested in Dinosaur Media? What about a teammate between dinosaurs and another fearsome creature... insects? Of Ants and Dinosaurs, with a page created on July 20, is an allegorical take on the late Cretaceous period where dinosaurs and ants develop a symbiotic relationship that begins harmoniously, but takes a turn for the adversarial as the centuries pass and technological developments become more deadly. When big and small collide, a lot can happen, so let's work together to beef up the page.
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.- The Ultimate Stuntman is an Unlicensed Game by Codemasters released in 1990. You play as the titular Ultimate Stuntman, who has to save Jenny Aykroyd from Dr. Evil. This is accomplished by going through eight stages divided into four levels, usually with a vehicle chase (like a car, a hang glider, or a boat) in the first level, a Run-and-Gun in the second, climbing a building while shooting down foes in the third, followed up by a fight against one of Dr. Evil's androids and a bomb disposal minigame in the fourth. With gameplay that keeps things fresh, high difficulty, and a groovy soundtrack by Gavin Rabeurn, TUS is a far out game for all action fans!
- The Old Man and the Sea is a 1952 novel by Ernest Hemingway. It tells the story of the eponymous old man from Cuba named Santiago who has gone eighty-four days without catching a single fish. He's The Mentor to a young boy named Manolin and likes to talk about baseball with him. On the eighty-fifth day, he goes out to sea, where despite his deteriorated health, he battles a marlin, which he has great respect towards — even referring to it as a brother — as well as sharks. It has brilliant use of symbolism and shows how determination helps achieve your goal, even if he ultimately fails to keep the marlin.
- Spanish for Everyone! is a 2007 Edutainment Game developed by Humagade and published by Activision. Shawn loses his DS when his friend Miguel drives away without giving it back. Luckily, his aunt Gina Vasquez offers to drive him to Tijuana and teach him Spanish. Later on he meets other characters and gets involved in something which is not going to be spoiled here. The game has three minigames which have to be beaten repeatedly to earn enough points to do a test and proceed to the next location. While the gameplay is ultimately nothing special, and it's not likely to really help you learn Spanish, the ridiculous premise and things shown in cutscenes are perfect for a laugh.
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!- Pussy Riot is a feminist punk rock group, internationally famous for their music, their activism as dissidents in Russia, and their jail time there, but with no page on TV Tropes. If you would like to give them a page, go right ahead and create it!
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.- Numan Athletics is an Arcade Game by Namco. Each player is assigned one of the four Numans — Sharon L'Halles from France, Harry Boffin from The United States, Masaemon Nakamura from Japan and Bongo Tembo from Kenya — and has to take part in eight events. To pass, at least one player must earn enough points — otherwise they have to pay a quarter to try again with lower requirements. After each round, the players' scores are given depending on their placement, and at the end of the game, the player with the most points (or simply the single player who finishes it) is deemed the winner. The characters are very charming with different animations for winning, losing, or getting a record, and you can have fun competing with your friends or use it to get in mood for the Olympics.
- The Yellow Bag is a Brazilian Magic Realism novel by Lygia Bojunga Nunes. The plot centers on Raquel, a young girl whose tribulations in life have caused her to develop three big wishes: being an adult, being male, and being a writer. However, her life is quickly turned upside-down when she receives the titular item as a gift. From there, she meets a colorful cast of characters, including a talking rooster from a novel she wrote, a safety pin and a female umbrella, and the events that ensue teach her how to deal with her issues. The book, although not too long, features likeable characters and an engaging story, and despite it never being published in English, it's available in a myriad of other languages. Check it — and our recently-launched page for it — out.
- Grupa Operacyjna is a Polish music group that is mostly known for the two main members — Mieszko Sybilski/Fox, the main rapper, and Ziemowit Brodzikowski, the main producer who has an occasional role. They specialise in hip-hop and rap with a comedic edge, often making jokes about and parodies of Polish celebrities, other things from Poland, or the harsh reality of life, which has not gone without controversy. While they have ceased activity in 2012 and the videos have been removed from their channel in 2020 for an unknown reason, and Mieszko has clearly moved on with his life in a different field of work, most of the songs are still of stellar quality and can be found elsewhere to reminisce on the 2000s Polish rap scene, which is cool even today.
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.- Do you know how the Olympic Games relate to Tarzan? Johnny Weissmuller, the second man to play the character in a film (and the first one to do so with sound), was also an all-star Olympian, winning five swimming golds over the course of two Summer Games (1924 and 1928). He wouldn't be the last Olympian to play Tarzan, but he codified much of what we know of the famous jungle man — the Vine Swing, the yell, and the loincloth are all heavily associated with Weissmuller's depiction. That wasn't his only nature hero role either; he played the lead role in no less than sixteen Jungle Jim films.
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 MAD, and illustrates Helium Speech.
Helium Speech: one of the most recognizable comedic gags out there. Just inhale a little bit of that sweet noble gas, and boom! Instant high-pitchedness of the voice.
As well-known as it may be, it's actually quite hard to depict this trope visually, as it relies entirely on hearing the sudden change to the speaker's voice. Leave it to John Caldwell, a recurring artist for good ol' MAD Magazine, to come up with probably the most brilliant way to illustrate this trope. How, you may ask? Why, by inflating the Speech Balloon with the helium, of course! Follow that up with a punchline that does a similar gag with Instant Soprano, which you may find on that trope's page, and we've got ourselves an image that's as memorable as it is clever, and worthy of winning this issue's spot for Image of the Month.
This issue's featured image comes from MAD, and illustrates Helium Speech.
Helium Speech: one of the most recognizable comedic gags out there. Just inhale a little bit of that sweet noble gas, and boom! Instant high-pitchedness of the voice.
As well-known as it may be, it's actually quite hard to depict this trope visually, as it relies entirely on hearing the sudden change to the speaker's voice. Leave it to John Caldwell, a recurring artist for good ol' MAD Magazine, to come up with probably the most brilliant way to illustrate this trope. How, you may ask? Why, by inflating the Speech Balloon with the helium, of course! Follow that up with a punchline that does a similar gag with Instant Soprano, which you may find on that trope's page, and we've got ourselves an image that's as memorable as it is clever, and worthy of winning this issue's spot for Image of the Month.
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!
- You know, this site seems to suffer a lot of confusion with well known comic book characters. Namely, there has been a history of troping these characters in the Comic Book namespace rather than the Characters namespace. This in turn creates a lot of confusion and delay. Because of this, Tropers have been working out criteria by which to sort tropes and series into Comic Book and Characters namespaces. If you are willing to help us out with this continuous work, come to the The ComicBook/ Namespace, and the lack of requirements to qualify
thread. Trust me, we could always use more help. - Technology in Science Fiction is cool. Spaceships, laser beams, holograms, you name it! But sometimes, we wonder what kind of equipment we would have. What weapons would the military forces use? What kind of vehicles, either military or civilian, would we use for transportation? What practical benefits do we gain from achieving higher technologies? To pitch your own ideas or see other people's pitches, visit the Sci-fi Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment thread and share your ideas for the future!
- In the past year, Virtual YouTubers have risen in popularity and have practically exploded all over the internet. Legions of fans gather to see anime sprites of Let's Players on Twitch play video games while making a wide range of expressions. Not only that, there are a lot of V-Tubers out there, each with a healthy amount of fans. To keep up with all of V-Tubers, visit the General V-Tuber thread and learn what the hottest news is in the V-Tubing scene!
- One of the greatest battles of all existence is that of Order vs. Chaos. Which do you prefer: everything running in a cohesive system or the world being batshit crazy? Show your side with the Order vs. Chaos thread! With your post, add or subtract 1 from the number in the post above yours. Adding 1 pushes the number closer to the side of order while subtracting 1 pushes it toward chaos. Only you can decide the outcome of this epic battle of the ages. So again, which side you will choose?
Trope/Article Changelog
This section covers renames, removals, hard-splits, merges, and wick cleaning. We'll try to keep you alerted to 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.
- Two old articles, Bellisario's Maxim and MST3K Mantra, are now definition-only Fan Speak pages, since discussion determined the two are nearly interchangeable in definition but are too popular and ingrained in TV Tropes culture to eliminate.
- Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater have been retooled to be about general fandom perceptions of a character, rather than require specific examples of fanfiction (which would be indistinguishable from the Adaptational X tropes).
- Transgender is now a disambiguation between UsefulNotes.Transgender and Transgender Tropes. Check out the TRS thread here for more information.
- Cinderella Circumstances has been turned into a disambig between Cinderella Plot, Glass Slipper, Princess for a Day, Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling, She Cleans Up Nicely, When the Clock Strikes Twelve, Wicked Stepmother, and the Franchise.Cinderella index.
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.
- We're going a little off-script this month; we don't have an August birthday. Instead, the creator page we're describing is for Ryo Kamiya, creator of several Pen-and-Paper RPGs, such as Maid The Role Playing Game. We only have a one-sentence description of them, they aren't even linked on all three pages for the works they're credited for, half of the works on their page don't even have a Red Link, and they don't have a trope list. Now that pandemic restrictions are lifting and people are starting to meet up again, why not pick up a few RPG books, especially from indie developers, and add examples of tropes from those systems to the wiki?
- This month's work is a throwback to the RPGs of the 1970s and '80s; Boot Hill by the late Gary Gygax. The page was created four years ago with almost no edits since then. Surely we have a few grognard role-players here that want to explore some of TSR's classic products, right? What sort of mechanics does the system have? Does it use alignments? Classes? Levels?
- Shiny Sense is a trope for video games, often used in an RPG format to indicate "hey, notice this!", but despite the 19 wicks, nobody has added any of them to the trope page. If improvements aren't made to this article soon, we're going to have to "notice" this on the Cut List.
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.
- The Simpsons is one of the most famous and influential animated series of all time. Unfortunately, the show's subpages attract a massive amount of complaining on them, about everything from characters to perceived Seasonal Rot. If you would like to help clean up all of this and other issues on the pages, head on over!
- SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most famous kids' cartoons of all time, and is easily the biggest hit Nickelodeon has ever had. Unfortunately, the show's pages are in bad shape, full of complaining, trope misuse, and outdated information, among other things. Luckily, a cleanup thread exists to help clean out these problems and more. If you would like to help, head on over!
- Image Links Cleanup and Maintenance is a fairly new cleanup thread that seeks to establish some form of quality control over the Image Links namespace by clearing out bad images, broken links, and duplicates. If you're looking for a newer project to get involved in, why not this one?
- The Recap/ namespace is a common source of issues, from inconsistent formatting to chronic context issues to index pages listing nothing but red links. If you want to help fix these issues, check out the Recap Cleanup thread.
- The Super Sentai franchise is a popular Japanese tokusatsu series and was a direct inspiration for Power Rangers. Unfortunately, the pages are a Signal-to-Noise Train Wreck and are in need of a major cleanup. If you would like to participate, 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.
- FernandoLemon writes for the Image of the Month, and sometimes on Work Spotlight. You can most commonly find him in the Image Pickin' forums, and occasionally at the Trope Repair Shop.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 the forums, TLP, and the pages for whatever work she's obsessed with this month.
- 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.
- 𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 writes for the Obscure Trope Spotlight and Changelog sections.
- ccorb writes for Works That Need a Page, and spends a lot of her 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. She credits this very wiki for introducing them to anime and manga they had never heard of before but now watch/read (or would like to), such as My Hero Academia, A Silent Voice and especially Hunter × Hunter.
- STARCRUSHER99 writes for the New Tropes spotlight, taking advantage of his time lurking in the TLP. Outside of Trope Report, he enjoys participating in the CM/MB threads, lurking on ATT and TLP, and editing whichever piece of fiction that he happens to be obsessed with that day, official or fan-made.
- Twiddler makes sure our grammar is in order.
- The Mayor of Simpleton is participating as a guest editor. Today, he wrote for the Projects Spotlight and Works That Need A Page. He mostly participates in Projects and TRS, and occasionally Image Pickin'.
- naturalironist sometimes writes for the Obscure Trope Spotlight sections. They can be found editing the wiki and on the Trope Launch Pad and Repair Shop.
This edition of Trope Report is brought to you by Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, which is testing out its brand new Tropeinator this summer. Feel free to stop by for inquiries, but no platypi are allowed in.
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.)