"According to some, a comprehensive knowledge of TV Tropes (which I won't link to, saving you all time, money, and time) is a reasonable substitute for a degree in English Lit, years of training in the field of psychoanalysis and, in extreme cases, a medical license."
— Comment from Critical Miss
So, you're spending a long time reading TV Tropes. You remember exactly every Trope of Legend and know by heart the whole Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions. But still, even if it might "ruin" your life, TV Tropes might also make it better in many areas. Besides, who needs a social life that has no nerds in it?
Compare Perfectly Safe For Work.
Those ways are:
- Vocabulary! You never know what bizarre word a troper will use (especially if you're not native English) and you need to understand it! Then, whoa, you remember and start using it. Congratulations, your Vocabulary just got a +1 bonus!
- Examples: Laconic, any one of the four temperaments, and double meanings no one who has never been to this site will ever get!
- And let's not forget Egregious!
- Examples: Laconic, any one of the four temperaments, and double meanings no one who has never been to this site will ever get!
- Grammar! Even if you literally know nothing about it, there's always a Grammar Nazi around to correct you, making you acknowledge the error and learn by fun, 'cause TV Tropes is fun.
- Series
! So, you read a trope or something, and there it is—a TV show, or maybe a comic, that sounds good. You'd never know about its existence without TV Tropes.
- School!
- TV Tropes is helpful for literature classes because you start thinking about literary works in the context of analysis, which is the entire point of most literature classes. (Well, that and the whole Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory thing.) You just need to remember not to tell your college professor that the Ariadne myth hung a lampshade on the whole philandering-gods thing...
- It's also amazing for AP Language and Comp, where the terms Laconic, anarchism, and Deus ex Machina are REAL!
- It even helps with Sociology! Show your professor a page like Eagleland Osmosis, and they make note of your research.
- TV Tropes is also great for history if you have a teacher who likes film and books—for example, the History of Manga.
- Try being a communication or media studies major and having notebooks FILLED with TV Tropes references.
- One teaching method is to teach someone about particular concepts, and then present them with a story employing those concepts so that they can see them in action, or be challenged to find them themselves and explain the implications thereof.
- Reality Is Unrealistic will show you how much more interesting your world can be.
- TV Tropes also helps with Film Studies due to listing conventions.
- In fact, TV Tropes is a surprisingly effective way of learning about all sorts of factual topics, such as science, technology, and history. Whenever a work of art has a mistake, TV Tropes is likely to correct it, and state how it actually goes in reality. You are much more likely to learn these things here than by reading a phone-book-sized dry textbook.
- Critical thinking! First, because carefully analyzing a work and breaking it down into its component tropes teaches you to carefully watch TV with a judging mind instead of just passively accepting the show. Second, because there's a reason you've become so acquainted with negative tropes, such as Author Tract, as well as potentially negative tropes like Faux Symbolism: because they give you a solid base to justify why a show is bad!
- Spruce up your critical thinking in general by getting to know the Logical Fallacies that we helpfully list! Learn to spot weak or fallacious logic in the surrounding media. Then, you can re-examine or strengthen your own understanding, and poke holes in your enemies' arguments, to boot!
- Tropes don't just help you criticize a work that's bad, but can help analyze a work that's good. Maybe a work plays with a trope in an interesting way. Perhaps they managed to play it straight, but it just works so well in the story. Maybe they finally made you enjoy your Pet-Peeve Trope because they didn't do something that annoys you in every other work with that trope, proving that there's hope for every trope yet. Maybe they combined tropes that you'd never think would go together but resulted in a super original and entertaining story. Maybe a work just has a lot of tropes you like, and you want to explain just why those tropes work for you.
- Writing! TV Tropes can tell you all about a possibly negative trope in your work that you didn't even know existed. Now there are all sorts of stories which have been improved thanks to this wonderful website!
- But don't forget that Tropes Are Not Bad! You can discover fresh tropes that would never have occurred to you and use them in your writing. Or you can take old Discredited Tropes and subvert or deconstruct them in exciting new ways.
- Homeschoolers? Learn this site. Love it. There's nothing better than free information when you're homeschooling.
- Some learning disabilities (dyscalculia is one) work REALLY well with this site. You'll wonder how you tried to write without it.
- Adding to tropes, or even posting in the forums, is a good exercise in thinking analytically and expressing yourself clearly. Practice it every day, and you'll improve your writing skills!
- Humour! If comedy is your style, the site's informal yet witty manner can help you become a generally smarter, funnier and more approachable person. entries about Dude, Not Funny! can help you avoid cracking jokes likely to offend people.
- Useful Notes is, in a nutshell, Wikipedia if Wikipedia were a lot more practical and informal.
- Friends! Out with someone, and they suddenly make a reference to Parental Bonus? Instant BFF!
- Bored of your favorite shows, movies, or book series? You will be able to enjoy your favorite things once more because all the Wild Mass Guessing combined with finding new content and the overall descriptions the tropes provide. Not only you can find new content to try out, but you have a new way of seeing your old shows and books as if you are reading them for the first time.
- Although TV Tropes has its downs, it's still a really great place. It helps you learn about awesome media and cool tropes to use! It's funny, it's heartwarming, it's awesome, and it's everything you wanted!
- What if a storyline component suddenly reminds you of a trope you know next to nothing about? Seriously, who knew you could catch a Genghis Gambit as soon as you learned about the event? Congrats, you've just been enriched!
- Just think while you've been getting down and out about the liars and the dirty dirty cheats of the world, you could have been getting down to THESE. SICK. TROPES.
- TV Tropes made me Genre Savvy.
- TV Tropes helped me learn about some of the interesting ways a trope can be played with, deconstructed, or reconstructed. This has helped me immensely in my writing!
- Feeling down? Go peruse some tropes like You Are Not Alone, Heartwarming Moments, W.A.F.F., or Sweet Dreams Fuel. Or go click around on Funny Moments. Pretty much guaranteed to put a smile back on your face.
- The Sugar Wiki as a whole: We like the good qualities of our favorite works so much, we can't stop gushing about them even though we know perfectly well it's just our totally subjective opinions. Proof that Sweet Exists! See also TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life, TV Tropes Ruined Your Life, TV Tropes as a Gateway Drug and TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary, though. If TV Tropes already has enhanced your life, let us know!
- TV Tropes is the perfect weight loss program.
- TV Tropes helped me social-distance.
- TV Tropes is the #1 method I use to find engaging fanfiction.
- The process of making TV Tropes pages helps me develop critical thinking skills towards pop culture I am exposed to.
- TV Tropes helped me, and possibly you discover my love for William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
- TV Tropes is a great place to store and mine quotes for future use.
- TV Tropes "ruined" a life that needed "ruining".
- TV Tropes is ruining my life, and I am here for it.
- TV Tropes allowed me to make friends and feel like part of a community for the first time. - NajaNerd66, a young and very proud Troper.
- Tv Tropes made me see this comment, which made my day, even if there only about six hours left in it. - Gluteus Maximus The First, formerly Frying Pan of Doom
- TV Tropes introduced me to songs such as Star 69 by R.E.M.. - Dylanmc6
- TV Tropes can actually help you how to write stories. Remember, Tropes Are Tools, so first teach yourself how to construct a story using logical combination of tropes and when you gain more experience, you can then deconstruct, subvert, exaggerate any trope you want, you can then even make more bizarre trope combinations, so let your imagination and hard work guide you. If you try hard enough, you might even invent a new trope, making your work a Trope Maker.
- TV Tropes pitched the New Deal to FDR.
- TV Tropes led the strike team that killed Osama Bin Laden.
- TV Tropes is hilarious!
- TV Tropes is the reason I started shipping a ship I was on the fence about
