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.
It's March and Trope Report is roaring into our 27th issue! We have decided to incorporate March winds, St. Patrick's Day, Pi Day, Mario Day, and Women's History Month as our monthly themes.
A recent Wiki Talk discussion
has decided to limit images on upcoming work pages to the initial image uploaded to the page until the work is officially released to the public. The Creating a Work Page for an Upcoming Work policy page and the image changes notifier have been updated to reflect this rule change.
The admins have also done some minor fixes on the site such as fixing the mod page restore tool, giving mods the ability to delete relationship statuses, fixing the "save draft" function on certain forums, and adding missing forum function buttons ("Upload Image", "Preview", and the icon-adders) to the "Start Thread" window.
Other notable changes that have happened over the course of last month are major TRS decisions that have completely overhauled well-established tropes like Acceptable Targets (and its subtropes), Eenie Meenie Miny Moai, Make Me Wanna Shout, and Meddling Parents. More info regarding those changes can be found in our Changelog section.
Happy troping as always!
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Tropes and Works
Trope Spotlight
Obscure Tropes
This section highlights older tropes that need a boost.- March is a month commonly associated with wind, whether it be gusting winds or swirls in the air. You may even have Swirling Dust around you if you focus hard enough. This trope has stood the test of time, having been around since 2006, but with 27 wicks, perhaps it's time to blow some dust around hoping for some more examples.
- Nintendo recently announced that various Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games will be coming to the Nintendo Switch. Given this, it's only natural to start feeling nostalgic for the old games and their graphics. Green Boy Color is a trope about works emulating the green color palette associated with the Game Boy. Though it's been around since 2016, it only has 30 wicks, and could stand to be beefed up.
New Tropes
This section brings attention to recently-launched tropes that could use a little help to really get rolling.- Do your parents hover over you and try pushing you to do things? Do they constantly get themselves involved, even if you are a responsible adult? You may have Helicopter Parents. While this trope has amassed plenty of wicks already after launching from the helipad on February 2, most have come from the ashes of Meddling Parents and could use a good crosswicking escort.
- White is the lightest colour in the visible spectrum, thus any blemishes on it will be clearly visible. With that in mind, it's no surprise that many cultures believe that White Is Pure. As such, white is often used to symbolise purity and other such concepts associated with it like innocence, virtue, cleanliness and virginity. In particular, stains on something white can represent tainted purity and ruined innocence. While a longstanding symbol in many cultures, the trope page was only made on January 29, so feel free to spread it around like White Day chocolates.
- You know the face tropes that you see everywhere? Most of them are pretty old and well known. Recently, a new face trope appeared for the first time in years, that being Symbol Face, which launched on the 27th of January this year. It is when a character's face (or mask or face-covering helmet) is a symbol. Though the concept is simple and very easily spotted, it has been staying at 28 wicks, one of them being the only one attracted after launch.
Work Spotlight
New Work Page Spotlight
This section covers newer work pages that could use a little help.- Melatonin is a 2022 Rhythm Game by Half Asleep Games which acts as a Spiritual Successor to the Rhythm Heaven franchise. It is a collection of rhythm-based mini-games, all focusing on the main character's dreams, which range from trifling matters, such as shopping, to more complex themes, like the future. Boasting a lovely pastel color palette and great music, it's a great homage to one of Nintendo's most underrated franchises, and worth checking out.
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.- π (1998) is a monochrome Psychological Thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky. It's about an intelligent yet troubled math genius named Max Cohen who goes on a journey to find out the meaning of a mysterious 216-digit number that his computer, Euclid, prints out one day.
- The Joe Schmo Show is a reality TV show that aired on Spike TV. The premise is classic — a group of contestants compete against each other in a series of challenges, and one gets eliminated at the end of each episode. There is, however, a twist: all the contestants but one are actors playing classic reality TV archetypes, with the challenges being rigged and the drama being made up. The question then becomes how far the producers can push the prank without the "schmo" realizing it. It ran for three seasons, with the last two taking inspiration from The Bachelor and Dog the Bounty Hunter.
- Ah, The Great Gatsby, a classic within English literature written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and a contender for the Great American Novel. It tells a tale involving the wealthy living lavishly in The Roaring '20s and criticizes them as being emotionally bankrupt alongside demonstrating its cynical views on The American Dream. The novel has received three film adaptations: a long-lost 1926 film starring Warner Baxter, a 1974 film starring Robert Redford, and the 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. While the page for the 2013 adaptation is in decent shape (and it is very unlikely for the 1926 film to have a page due to its status), the page for the 1974 film has quite a short description and only has six tropes on it. Thus, anyone willing to lengthen that page would be appreciated.
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!- Suzume is the latest anime film by Makoto Shinkai, known for such acclaimed and beautifully animated works such as Your Name and Weathering With You. When teenage girl Suzume Iwato meets a mysterious man named Sota Munakata, she is tasked with helping him close magical doors all across Japan, or else strange, otherwordly "worms" will emerge and cause devastating earthquakes in the country. All the while, Suzume ends up entangled in a mystery involving a dream world and a cat. Despite the popularity of Makoto Shinkai's films and its high domestic box office gross, this film has yet to have its own page.
- Horse Destroys The Universe is a strange and surreal novel about horses, neurology experiments, and how their combination leads to chaos that is well displayed in the title. It is also known as being surreal web animator Cyriak's debut novel, and is even linked at the bottom of the creator's page. Despite the fame of the author, no one has galloped to the opportunity of making a page for the novel yet.
- Give Up Yer Aul Sins is an Oscar-nominated animated short by Irish studio Brown Bag Films. Using real-life recordings from Dublin classrooms, the film is about a young girl, Mary, who retells the story of John the Baptist for a documentary crew who came to film the class. The short later spawned a short-lived series, whose episodes follow similar premises. With both St. Patrick's Day and the Academy Awards this month, why not give it a watch?
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.- Welcome to the NHK is a light novel originally written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto with illustrations by Yoshitoshi Abe and first published in 2002. It has been adapted into both a manga and an anime. It tells the story of a hikikomori named Satou who believes a conspiracy called NHK is causing misfortunes in his life. One day, he meets a girl named Misaki who says she'll help him get rid of his "hikikomori ways". Throughout the work, he ends up in wacky situations in attempts to remove his social anxiety. With No Antagonist, a more negative look into the otaku lifestyle, eccentric humor, and a few small positive moments, it offers an interesting perspective and may even change the way you look at life.
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.- Choice of Games is an American video game developer that exclusively creates choice-based Interactive Fiction. Getting its start in 2009 with Choice of the Dragon, the company has stuck around since then, producing over 100 titles. Taking us from a Zombie Apocalypse in Choice of Zombies to a political drama in a world of werewolves in Congresswolf, their games feature sharp writing and strong replay value. If you so choose, you may find them on the company website, mobile devices, and Steam.
- Mark Baker is a British animator, known as one of the creators of Peppa Pig. However, before then, his short films The Hill Farm, The Village and Jolly Roger had netted him three Academy Award nominations. If you want to watch them, you may find them on his official YouTube channel here.
Image of the Month
This section brings you the best selections of the past month from Image Pickin'.
This issue's featured image comes from Superman (Rebirth), and illustrates The Paragon.
This issue's featured image comes from Superman (Rebirth), and illustrates The Paragon.
Superman doesn't overshadow others; he inspires them to look up.
The Paragon is someone who not only helps people, but also teaches them how to help themselves. Since this character archetype is always The Hero, there have naturally been many in the world of superheroes, from Captain America to Spider-Man. But perhaps the most obvious example, being the Trope Codifier for the superhero genre as a whole, is our old friend Superman.
The man behind this artwork is Jorge Jiménez, a Spanish-American artist who has worked on other DC Comics projects such as Super Sons. But despite his years of work for the company, it's this cover in particular that has always meant a lot to him personally, and not just because he makes a cameo in the bottom right corner. He has explained the idea behind it as being "what Superman means to me", focusing on the themes of hope, excitement, future and optimism, and it's not difficult to notice all the intricacies he added in. Between the multiracial cast, the little kids dressing up like superheroes and even the presence of The Real Heroes, this cover does an amazing job at illustrating the different ways the character has served as an inspiration to people both within and outside of the story. Heartwarming and gorgeously detailed, it has not only become a fan-favorite among fans of Superman, but also marks the second time the franchise has been our Image of the Month.
Before wrapping this section up, we'll do a little bonus: did you notice that the image on Playing with a Trope recently received an upgrade? SonicLover came back to update the image over a decade after the last time, making a few new additions and changes, and generally improving the overall quality. Thank you, SonicLover!
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've heard of Crappy Image Pickin'. Now prepare for its spin-off, Crappy Video Examples! It's a forum game, created last month, where you can post YouTube videos for a trope that are either misuse, unsourced, or excessively long. Just remember to keep the thread PG-13, and do note when videos contain spoilers.
- Do you enjoy cooking at home? Are you unsure about what to prepare? Would you be open to sharing your recipes with other people? If any of these apply to you, you might want to make a stop by our Cooking thread on Yack Fest.
- Did you ever believe as a child that cats and dogs were different genders of the same species? Or that babies were born out of the butt? Or anything else truly bizarre? If you did, you are welcome to discuss your strange childhood beliefs at Dumb things you used to believe as a kid.
Trope/Article Changelog
This section covers renames, removals, redefinitions, 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.
- Acceptable Targets was converted from a YMMV item into a super-index for indexes that feature subjects that are targeted in works, such as Take That, Index!. In addition, Acceptable Targets' subject-specific subtropesFull list were redirected to Acceptable Targets, and Once Acceptable Targets was redirected to Values Dissonance, due to redundancy concerns. TRS thread here.
- Adult Fear, which was previously turned into a disambiguation page by TRS, was converted into an index after it was suggested to the mods. It was pointed out that the page was unusually long for a disambiguation page and thus would probably work better as an index.
- All Guitars Are Stratocasters has been merged into Artistic License – Music because the former was deemed a more specific version of the latter that was suffering from misuse. TRS thread here
- Concept Art has been made Trivia and a Definition-Only Page. This is due to a lack of on-page examples, the concept being deemed production trivia, and the concept being better covered by other tropes such as What Could Have Been, Bonus Material, and Concept Art Gallery. TRS thread here.
- Eenie Meenie Miny Moai was disambiguated because the mere existence of Moai was determined to not be a trope on its own, and it was decided to create a Useful Notes page on Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) in its place. TRS thread here.
- Giant Waist Ribbon was cut due to a lack of tropeworthiness, which has affected many appearance tropes like it in the past. TRS thread here.
- Going to Be One of Those Days was redirected to This Is Gonna Suck because of redundancy, a lack of wicks, and the fact that Stock Phrases Are Not Tropes. TRS thread here.
- Ironic Inversion has been merged with Crack Defeat. This is due to a non-indicative name, a lack of wicks, and duplication with the latter. TRS thread here.
- Jerk-to-Nice-Guy Plot was merged with Took a Level in Kindness due to redundancy concerns. TRS thread here.
- Jiggle Show was retooled to limit the definition to the original, off-site usage of what is also called "jiggle television" from the 1970s and 80s, since it was determined that the page was previously misusing the term. TRS thread here.
- Love You and Everybody was merged with Bait-and-Switch Sentiment due to a combination of heavy misuse and the original definition being deemed redundant. TRS thread here.
- Make Me Wanna Shout will be renamed to Super-Scream because Trope Decay caused the definition to drift away from what the initial TLP draft intended (superpowered screams), leading to misuse. The trope was also given a No Real Life Examples, Please! restriction because it's Impossible in Real Life. TRS thread here.
- In the previous edition's changelog, Meddling Parents was set as a redirect to Overprotective Dad. As the cleanup effort went on, it was later decided to make it its own disambiguation, with more tropes that denote how a parent meddles with their child's life.
- Mundane Utility has been redefined to be about any special power being used for mundane tasks, and not just superpowers. This is due to Trope Decay to its previous definition, which led to misuse. TRS thread here.
- Please Trope Responsibly had a new section added regarding when users claim a second person used their account and the various reasons given for such claims, due to such claims coming up often during suspension cases.
- An Administrivia page for the site's Private Message system was created to document the system and the rules for using it.
- Stockholm Syndrome was moved to UsefulNotes.Stockholm Syndrome because the page's subject was determined to be a piece of real life terminology that's covered by other tropes (such as A Match Made in Stockholm and Domestic Abuse) while not being a trope itself, but the information was still determined to be worth documenting in the Useful Notes section. TRS thread here.
- Triang Relations will be redirected to Love Triangle, while the descriptions of various relationship arrangements are being transplanted to Analysis.Love Triangle. This is because the page was determined to be more akin to an Analysis page than a proper trope. TRS thread here.
- The Up for Grabs policy page has been updated to account for how to handle drafts from sponsors whose accounts have either been deleted or permanently banned from TLP.
- Vanity Window was sent back to TLP due to a lack of both wicks and inbounds, and because it was determined that it may be worth renaming and/or broadening the definition. TRS thread here.
- The WikiWord policy page was expanded and clarified, and its namespace was also changed from Main/ to Administrivia/.
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.
- This month is the birthday of Philip Roth, an American author who has written works such as Goodbye, Columbus and American Pastoral. His page only lists a few of his works, and is currently lacking a trope list.
- Baby Boom (1987) is a 1987 Romantic Comedy film starring Diane Keaton as a hard-working businesswoman who ends up with a baby from a deceased relative. She must now care for the baby, eventually moving to Vermont after losing her job and boyfriend and changing her life in the process. It's a sweet movie, but what's not so sweet is the condition its page is in. The description is very short, plus there are few examples and fewer with context. Help in fixing up this page would definitely be appreciated.
- Recruit the Muggles is a trope about ordinary people helping out a superhuman in need. Despite being almost 10 years old, the trope only has 11 wicks and most of the examples on the page haven't been crosswicked.
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.
- Despite the consensus to format voice actor lists on Character pages as "Original VA + Local VA, Other VAs within [note] tag," some Character pages still need to be updated to adhere to the guidelines. Come visit Foreign Voice Actor List Cleanup if you'd like to lend a hand.
- Some of the dead tropes on this site have periodically been reformatted or removed as misuse. Consider joining the Dead Trope Cleanup Thread if you want to help out.
- Concentrated in the index on Chewing the Scenery are our various tropes about HAMMY, DRAMATIC, and OVER-THE-TOP acting, such as Large Ham, Ham and Cheese, and others. Unfortunately, these tropes have attracted numerous Zero-Context Examples, Natter, Bold Inflation, and other problems. If you'd like to help clean these up, come over to the newly created Hammy Acting Tropes Cleanup thread!
Know the Contributors
- FernandoLemon writes for Work Spotlight and Image of the Month. He's not sure what to do for International Women's Day, but he's supportive nonetheless.
- War Jay 77 contributed to the Trope Spotlight. Her birthday is in March, but she never knows how to celebrate it.
- 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.
- plakythebirb, whose smile looks like "°V°", usually writes for Works That Need a Page.
- Excessive-Menace writes for the New Tropes and Works That Need a Page sections. They mainly spend their time lurking and editing the wiki, as well as participating in ATT and writing for the Trope Pantheons project.
- The Mayor of Simpleton wrote for Pages Needing Help, Changelog, and Projects Spotlight this edition. He mostly participates in the Project Threads, TRS, Trope and Wiki Talk, sometimes ATT, and occasionally Image Pickin'.
- callmeamuffin wrote for this month's Forumwatch and Project Spotlight. Outside of Trope Report, you can find him participating in forum games.
- MacronNotes contributed to the description, Obscure Works Spotlight, and Pages Needing Help sections this month. She spends most of her time on Wiki Talk, TRS, and other parts of the site.
- Berrenta assisted with the Changelog section and is the guest contributor for the Trope Spotlight for this edition. She is often found assisting with cleanup threads and wick checks, and watches over TRS.
- GastonRabbit contributes to the Changelog, the latter since he mostly moderates TRS, and adds changes after giving the go-ahead to make them. Despite being Irish-American, he doesn't have anything specific planned for St. Patrick's Day, but did come up with this month's Mario Day-themed sponsor.
- Cutegirl920fire wrote for the Obscure Work Spotlight this month. She can't help but consistently write entries that relate to F. Scott Fitzgerald for Trope Report, so she's now the F. Scott Fitzgerald person of Trope Report it seems.
- Cardboard Bot simply wrote about Symbol Face this issue.
- Twiddler makes sure our grammar is in order.
This edition of Trope Report is brought to you by the Mario Toy Company, makers of the popular Mini-Mario line of toys. It walks! It talks! It says "mamma mia"! Buy them all!
Interested in becoming a contributor, or have suggestions for works or tropes to feature? Pop by the thread and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)
and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)