Thank you for taking interest in TV Tropes The TV Show. This page is to help you, the new or returning contributor, to get caught up on the setting, characters, and plot of TV Tropes The TV Show without having to worry about a Continuity Lock-Out due to a Jigsaw Puzzle Plot where mysterious events wouldn't even be addressed for seasons after they happened. Fortunately for you, the number of plot threads has been cut down considerably, and you now have this guide to help you out.

The General Setting

TV Tropes The TV Show takes place in the very near future, beginning in 2013, to be exact. As the show opens, the world is very much like our own...but then came the event that would be later (inaccurately) known as the Convergence. The Fourth Wall separating Reality from Fiction broke open, spilling fictional beings (fictites) into our world. While some places were hit hard (London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York City, to name a few), most of the world was relatively safe, at least in the immediate aftermath. When the story picks up again five months later, there are four types of regions:

The safe zones, where there was either no danger from fictional beings, or a governing body secured the region and got society restored to normal.
The domains of Evil Overlords, which tend to be free of rogue fictites, but also tend towards the dystopian side of things.
The chaos zones, such as Los Angeles and Tokyo, which have a high concentration of dangerous fictites and no central authority.
The frontier zones (most of the world) in which the main danger is from the occasional rogue fictite, resource shortages, and the occasional gang that decides to install itself as the new local authority. Individual communities tend to fend for themselves, but life is (relatively speaking) still pretty good so long as a nobody decides to move in and take over or destroy the place.

If the Convergence had simply deposited several thousand fictites, it would merely be a matter of rounding up all of the dangerous ones. Unfortunately, the Convergence left behind rifts in the Fourth Wall that occasionally deposit more fictites into the world. Beyond that, a gathering of fictites strains the Fourth Wall to the point that another rift may open. In some cases, the rifts are so large that buildings or even small towns have appeared in Reality as a result. Obviously, this is a problem that is only going to get worse, as more rifts mean more fictites, which causes the creation of more rifts. Fortunately, scientists working at CERN are working with the EU and other nations to design and build the Fourthtress, a structure in the space between Reality and Fiction that would serve as a patch of sorts on the rifts so long as they could be redirected to it.

A few notes about the general setting:

The rifts and fictites cause the laws of physics to become a bit...flexible...nearby. In the case of fictites, this allows them to flout the square-cube law, and the like, while also allowing them to do things like perform magic. With rifts, there are things like castles with ever-changing floor-plans, towns that are doomed to repeat the same day over and over, and the occasional building that's bigger on the inside than on the outside.
If there have been multiple depictions of a particular character, the fictite that appears in our world may be a composite version or may be a very specific version.
Fictites can be pulled from any point in their story's timeline, though preference is given to events that occurred "on-screen".
Most fictites believe themselves to be real. The exceptions tend to be characters who could break the fourth wall in their source fiction or who are intelligent enough to put all of the pieces together and figure out what really happened.
Word Of God is that the reason for the Convergence will never be explained.

The remaining sections are under construction.

TV Tropes

On the show, TV Tropes was founded shortly after the Convergence to catalog the behavior of fictional characters from television. Contributors from all over the world added to the Database, the organization's repository of fictite-related knowledge in the Bahamas. After the incredible success of their initial program, the organization expanded to cover all media. Realizing that their information gave them an edge, Fast Eddie and Janitor (the founders and heads) decided to start recruiting people, particularly Empowered, to deal with rogue fictites that were beneath the notice of the larger and more influential organizations.

Though TV Tropes is not a major player in the first season, it is the primary protagonist organization from then on out. There will be frequent cameos (and minor appearances) by actual TV Tropes members (mainly people who help out on the project).

The Main Characters

The story follows a team of vigilantes who get recruited by TV Tropes.

Karalora is the team leader and founder. She has no combat skills to speak of, but she is Empowered to accelerate the natural healing ability of people she touches. At 30, Kara is the oldest of the original lineup of the team and acts like a mother to her younger subordinates.
Ironeye is Karalora's original partner and her right-hand man. He is a somewhat goofy (former) grad student who has become rather devoted to Kara*
^{not like that—he's gay}
after she saved his life in the aftermath of the Convergence. Though seemingly cheerful and scatterbrained, he's rather emotionless and focused when dealing with business. Ironeye is Empowered to transfer between the air around him and far-off locations.
Cody is a young man from Oregon who is Empowered so that people don't notice him when they're not trying to or he isn't trying to get their attention. He's also a crack shot with his rifle and a complete Jerkass to people he thinks are beneath him when he's not trying to get the attention of people in authority. Don't blame him—he has daddy issues.
Matrix is a young Canadian who can shapeshift into a Skitty from his default form of Catgirl Skittyboy. He's the Plucky Comic Relief of the bunch, allergic to pain, and a bit of a stalker towards anyone he finds attractive.
Murky Muse is a nice southern girl...who would have a pretty easy time beating you in a fight even if she didn't have her naginata. So stoic that she scares Ironeye, Murky just wants to find her family, who have been missing ever since their boat was attacked by the Kraken. She's Empowered to have minor water manipulation powers.
arks is a drifter who joined the team shortly before the series begins. He's nigh-invincible in combat do to his skin granting him incredible levels of protection from attacks.
Hikari no Kaze is a Canadian teenager who thinks he's the protagonist of a shonen series...and so far the world hasn't done anything to prove him wrong. His power is to manipulate the wind (including making Razor Wind), but if he uses it too much, the air around him glows as though it were lit by a (heatless) white fire that disintegrates whatever it touches and a Knight Templar alternate personality comes to the fore. Hikari joins the team in the first episode.
Korgmeister is a TV Tropes agent on-loan from the Australian government and an all-around Guile Hero who stays back at the TV Tropes base to act as Mission Control. His power is Murphy's Lens, which allows him to find a critical flaw in any plan, person, or organization. The solutions granted by Murphy's Lens tend to be quick and efficient, but are often not optimal.
Fawriel is a human-animal hybrid who has gained enhanced physical abilities as a result of the changes. He was one of the first TV Tropes agents, recruited in Germany, and has been solving problems all over Western Europe ever since. Due to amnesia and alterations to his mind due to his transformation, he has no conception of social niceties.
Jinxed is an American middle school student who was rescued by Fawriel after she got separated from her family while on vacation in Europe. Bubbly, idealistic, and a little bratty, she tags along with the team because she doesn't want to be away from her Faw-Faw. Jinxed is Empowered to fry electronics when she touches them, and thus generally wears gloves when she indulges in her fondness for messing around with computers.
Gabriel is a fan of the team that joins up in Season 2. Despite not having any powers, he still manages to prove useful with his talents for reading people and McGuyvering things.

The Dark Lodge

The Dark Lodge is an alliance of Evil Overlord types who are trying to collectively take over the world, at which point they all plan to turn on each other to be the one true world leader (assuming they don't stab each other in the pack before then). They are all also Emotion Eaters, feeding primarily on despair. The members are (with associated minions):

The Wicked Witch of the West (Defeated in the Season 1 finale)
- Ganondorf (Becomes a full member of the Lodge to fill the seat held by his former boss)
- Tybalt, Prince of Cats (actually an Empowered human who merely thinks he is Tybalt)
- The Huntsmen of Annuvin
- The Lernaean Hydra
Ganondorf (Joins the Dark Lodge at the end of Season 1; defeated in the Season 2 finale)
The Fairy Godmother (Defeated in Season 3)
The Master (Defeated in Season 3)
Professor Moriarty (Joins the Dark Lodge in Season 3; defeated in Season 4)
Dr. Doom (Actually a Doombot, defeated in Season 4)
Dracula (Defeated in Season 5)

There are also many lesser minions specific to each Lodge member. Under Construction

The Plot

Spoilers abound here, so things will be kept in folders.

Season 1

The first season is effectively the origin story for the team. Rather than going through the events that got them together, we instead begin with the last member joining and continue to the point where they make their first big impression on the world by defeating the Wicked Witch of the West. This season is really where we get to establish the tone, setting, and characters* . The team spends the season traveling in a loop that takes them through Baton Rouge, along the Gulf Coast, inland to Ft. Knox, out to Kansas, and back to Louisiana.

We can have all sorts of US-based villains in this season, but The Big Bad is the Wicked Witch of the West, with Ganondorf as The Dragon and Tybalt a general flunky. Also appearing are the Huntsmen of Annuvin as her Elite Mooks, the occasional flying monkey, The Heartless as both mooks and a source of extra energy, and a hydra bewitched for use in terrorizing towns (lured to Louisiana along the coast from Virginia by the Wicked Witch, defeated by the team in the pilot, and recovered to be regrown).

Some antagonists/subplots that have been brought up:

Dr. Facilier, who has managed to get quite a bit of influence in New Orleans.
Special Agent Carrera, a Knight Templar US Marshal who has been trying to track down Hikari; if she returns for a second episode (or more!), she is a potential ally in the finale.
Several old-school Batman villains all attempt to rob Ft. Knox at the same time; Hilarity Ensues

Occasionally (perhaps once or twice) during the season, the team gets anonymous messages that help them in their journeys. In the finale, they are revealed to be from Korgmeister, who has been aiding them in the hope that they would prove their worth by defeating the Wicked Witch. After their victory, he recruits them to join TV Tropes.

Season 2

The second season opens with the introduction of a few new faces for both the heroes and the villains. The team goes to the TV Tropes HQ in the Bahamas, where Fast Eddie and Janitor welcome them and explain the history of the organization. After the Convergence they decided to start observing cataloging information about fictites (from the source material) in order to aid in fighting with/bargaining with/evading them. They started with Television, later expanding to other media once they realized how successful their project was. With their Database quickly growing due to the contributions of numerous normal people, they decided to use their information to strike back against rogue fictites. Korgmeister was one of a few federal agents unofficially assigned to the organization to help with training, recruitment, and general support; the main characters were his first big catch.

Meanwhile, on the villain side of things, the sinister Dark Lodge (finally revealed in this season premiere) is in disarray over the loss of one of its members. Previously, it had been in a bit of an unstable equilibrium because its membership of five always ensured that any alliance could be squashed by the other three, while any group of three would never be able to stay loyal. The loss of the Wicked Witch disrupted this balance, leaving the Lodge in danger of tearing itself apart. Fortunately (or unfortunately, really), Tybalt arrives an announces the ascension of a new Lodge member: Ganondorf, who replaces his former boss.

Back with our heroes, the team is sent to discover what they can about the dealings of the Wicked Witch in order to identify the other members of the Dark Lodge. Helping them along are three TV Tropes members:

Korg, who works as their Mission Control
Fawriel, one of Eddie's first agents, who has been left in the awkward position of having a partner who is no longer interested in fighting *
^{Jethro cameos and is implied to have slept/be sleeping with Korg}
Jinxed, a young thief and hacker who was picked up by Fawriel in France and who is interested in helping her "daddy" with his work

The team's investigations lead them to Fairy Godmother Industries in California, some painful memories for Ironeye and Kara, and a young man named Gabriel who shows quite a bit of interest in joining their group. Before the team can establish a solid link between the quasi-benevolent Fairy Godmother and the supremely wicked Wicked Witch, they are notified that Ganondorf is going around doing his evil thing, making him the new Big Bad.

Potential season features include:

The death of Ironeye's brother (either in the main timeline or in a flashback)
How Ironeye met Kara (flashback)
Toontown!
Gabriel revealing that he:
- Is a telepath
- Was hired by a young woman named Mynah Murray to spy on the team after they defeated the Wicked Witch
The team setting a trap for Mynah, only for her to escape and leaving the question of who she was working for
Tybalt escaping yet again.
Ganondorf getting defeated

Season 3

With all 11 of the main characters already established, Season 3 focuses quite a bit more on plot. Following the events of Season 2, the Fairy Godmother has taken Ganondorf's remaining Heartless and miscellaneous minions to Europe for an unknown purpose. The team heads off to Europe, where it encounters Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective is on the trail of his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, in France, having been forced to flee England due to the Master's totalitarian rule.

In England, the team finds itself thrust into a war between the Master (also a member of the Dark Lodge) and the fey forces of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. It turns out that the Fairy Godmother has always wanted the Fairytale land of the British Isles to herself, and has thrown her forces behind the rebels against her Lodge ally. Beyond that, the Master has been using Moriarty to prepare to take over the mainland via subterfuge. In the end, the Fairy Godmother and the Master are both defeated, and a much more benevolent ruler is found for the Brits.

Possible features:

While sneaking into London with Holmes, the team is stalked by what is later revealed to be Dracula, who is helping the Master deal with the rebel network in the cities.
The magical forces aligned against the Master have leadership issues: Artemis Fowl, the Fairy Godmother, and Morgan le Fey all have good reason to distrust each other.
Grey and Gray Morality is in full effect for this conflict: while the Master is a dictator, he also protects the people of England from all of the rogue monsters and malevolent magical beings that would endanger them. The fey forces, on the other hand, would free the people from the Master's iron grip, but would also leave everyone vulnerable to aforementioned beasties. Freedom and Magic? Or Order and Technology?

Season 4

The fourth season follows the main team as they take on the next two members of the Dark Lodge: Dr. Doom and Professor Moriarty. Doom (actually a Doombot) plans to up the stakes by killing The World Tree and destroying the Fourthress. Plot-wise, this season isn't planned out much aside from what is listed above, though presumably there will be a lot of other missions in Europe.

The World Tree, it turns out, transcends the Fourth Wall, and thus destroying it will give those two a rift with which to make an army without having to go through Dracula. Given the World Tree's nature, it is rather difficult to kill, so the Tybalt captures Santa Claus so that they can hang him from the Tree and reawaken his Odin persona, which has the knowledge they seek. Fortunately for the world, the team manages to rescue Santa and save the Tree.

The Season 4 finale is the attack on the Fourthress, which fails in part because Doom decides that capturing Jinxed would be a good idea, not realizing that she can fry him. Oops!

Season 5

Season 5 ties up the Dark Lodge story, and would serve as a decent final season if we decide to cut off the project early. Sure, some of the character subplots wouldn't be resolved, and it would never be quite clear just what Tybalt was up to (though it is really easy to just write him off as being that insane—yay!), but the main plot would reach a satisfying conclusion. Anyway, the content:

The fifth season is all about Dracula. After the defeat of all of his rivals in the Dark Lodge, he has consolidated all of the remaining minions under his control and is amassing his power at Castlevania in Transylvania. Fortunately for our heroes, he isn't really doing much in the way of world-conquering at this point, after seeing just how much good an offense did for the Doombot. Rather, he plans to be more subtle about the whole thing, and realizes that he's quite safe in Castlevania. Why? Because Castlevania was produced by a rift in the Fourth Wall (of course) that makes its layout shuffle regularly, making it extremely difficult to capture. Additionally, while the rift is smaller than it once was, the sheer number of fictional beings congregating nearby is making it unstable, making something like bombing the place to smithereens out of the question. Just how are the forces of all that is good (and quite a bit that isn't) going to handle this?

Answer: by sneaking a team into Castlevania to kill the Count and redirect the rift back to the Fourthress, thereby allowing assorted armies to liquefy the place without any danger of the rift getting large enough to swallow up a small country. But wait, you say, how is the team going to manage that? After all, no outsider would ever be able to get through the castle if the layout constantly changes. The answer is Jareth, the Goblin King, master of mazes, he who never gets lost, etc.

Fortunately for our heroes, they ran into Jareth a while back (Season 2, maybe?) when he tried to capture Jinxed. The bad news is that he got tired of ruling a bunch of comic-relief characters, and decided to get into acting.* They track him to a theater that's being menaced by The Phantom of the Opera, who doesn't take kindly to the idea of the leading man leaving. (Cue musical episode.) Everyone (and I do mean everyone—the main character, Tybalt, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, the Phantom, and Jareth) converge at a masquerade ball where Holmes fakes his death, both the Phantom and Tybalt kill people (complicating the mystery), and Dracula shows just how powerful he is.

Fortunately, our heroes escape with Jareth in tow and get his help navigating the labyrinthine corridors of Castlevania. There, the team encounters Death, The Dragon to Dracula. Fortunately for them, Death isn't at all interested in helping the Count and merely serves him because she is bound to him. (Yes, Death is a woman, specifically a perky goth chick who does the whole Grim Reaper shtick because that's what everyone expects, and she's one of the most powerful characters on the show.) Though he bond to Dracula prevents her from working against Dracula, she does give them tips for taking out the Vampire Council, Dracula's dysfunctional Quirky Miniboss Squad of assorted evil vampires who have been menacing the team throughout the season. Fortunately for the team, the Castlevania rift warps the laws of physics around it to match action-horror movies, making everyone into a Badass. Dracula is defeated, Death is freed, the rift is sealed, everyone can go home knowing that the Dark Lodge is no more, and Tybalt is still at large. That last bit is quite important for...Season 6.

Season 6

So, everything is fine and dandy after the defeat of the Dark Lodge, right? Wrong! Right off the bat, the Data Vampires attack the Database (causing the Great Crash), Kara gets poisoned, and it becomes clear that it was an inside job. It turns out that it was Matrix, who had a nice long chat with Tybalt at the end of last season and has become the villainous Darth Matrix (dying his fur accordingly). The team tracks him down and is able to extract information about the poison from him and runs off to China to find the antidote. The question is raised: why use a poison that doesn't kill?

The answer: because Tybalt is planning to attack the Bahamas HQ with the remaining Dark Lodge minions and wants everyone as distracted as possible. Of course, Tybalt's small army isn't enough to defeat TV Tropes, even with many of its key members on missions and demoralized; Tybalt has an ace in the hole: Eddie.

Yes, it turns out that Eddie was an AI programmed for a purpose not immediately known, but later reprogrammed to be the benevolent leader of TV Tropes. The Data Vampires wiped some of Eddie's programming during the attack on the Database, creating a hybridized version that strongly resembles the original. Eddie the Corrupted has been working with Tybalt, and will subvert the base's security system during the attack. Helping Eddie along in this is Ironeye, who in earlier seasons already showed his willingness to take secret orders from multiple superiors.

With Kara cured, the season finale focuses on Tybalt's attack. A lot of the secondary characters come out of the wordwork to take on Tybalt's forces. Ironeye and Janitor, having realized Eddie's treachery, take Jinxed to go fry him, but they are interrupted by Tybalt and Matrix. Jinxed stays behind to try and convert Matrix back to team good while Janitor fights Tybalt and Ironeye pushes on to overheat Eddie's hardware (see: every time the team has fought a robot and Korg has told him to use his power on the heat sinks). Jinxed convinces Matrix that the team does take like him for more than just his comic relief (awwwww!), but Tybalt manages to capture Janitor (booo!).

Season 7

Season 7 opens with the tropes in their trashed HQ now having to face Tybalt's bosses: Org &&& (no, seriously, we don't have a name for this organization yet, so I'll be using the triple @ until we do). Org &&& is an organization of both humans and fictites (including David Xanatos) that has been manipulating events from the start. Subordinates include Dark Lodge agents Revolver Ocelot (who is promptly executed after helping Tybalt attack the troper base—these guys are Genre Savvy enough to realize that he's bad news) and Tybalt, the mysterious Section IV (which recruited Gabriel to spy on the main characters back in Season 2), the Data Vampires, and even the TV Tropes leaders. It turns out that Eddie and Janitor were sent to found TV Tropes as an organization to help Org &&& catalog fictites, but they decided to take advantage of their resources to actually do something about the fictite problem.

Org &&& was actually manipulating the Dark Lodge all along. The plan was to use the Dark Lodge (and similar organizations, none of which are dealt with by this particular team) to secure sections of the world before using other agents to topple the Lodge members and establish puppet governments that would act for the greater good. Yep, Well Intentioned Extremists ahoy! Org &&& tolerated the actions of Janitor and Eddie (and even helped the team out indirectly, particularly against the Doombot) so long as TV Tropes didn't interfere with their plans. Dropping Dracula too early was the last straw, though, so Org &&& used Tybalt and the Data Vampires to bring down Eddie and capture Janitor, not minding the loss of the Database because they had a copy.

As the tropers struggle to put things back together in the aftermath of Season 6, Kara has a breakdown caused by her brush with death in that season. Unable to help her (as opposed to last season, when he could search for the antidote) and still reeling from realization that he wasn't helping the Eddie he knew, Ironeye cuts himself off from everyone else and starts becoming more of a Jerkass. He eventually gives Hikari a "The Reason You Suck" Speech,toys with Hikari in a fight when the latter gives into his rage, and is only stopped by Fawriel and Murky stepping in. Faced with his frustration at the team being crippled (in more ways than one), he joins Org &&& to help them restore order to the world.

Meanwhile, the team tries to bring down Org &&& in a case of Grey and Gray Morality, particularly the Ironeye vs. Kara fight. In the finale, Section IV (and some other Org &&& agents) betray Org &&& and begins the final stage of its plan to take over the world.

Season 8

Season 8 brings the show back to some good old Good versus Evil action. The villains clearly must be stopped, and the heroes now have the support of Org &&& (or, really, what's left of it) as they try to bring down the biggest bads of them all. The villain roster includes:

Martin Murray, head of Section IV, who intends to betray the others so that he can rule the world alone
- Mynah Murray, Martin's kind-hearted sister and Gabriel's former handler, who is trying (and failing miserably) to keep her brother on the path of good. If anything, she's more a prisoner than an opponent.
Tybalt, Prince of Cats, and all around psycho, who just wants to kill things
The Big Bad (as of yet unnamed), who intends to gain the power to bring things across the Fourth Wall at a whim.
Ironeye, who joined Martin in the Season 7 finale to save his own skin, and who is a Double Agent who occasionally slips information to the heroes and fakes a loss of his sanity to avoid too much attention

There are others, of course, but this is so far in the future that the lineup hasn't been decided yet. Later in the season, Hikari, who had been questioning his worldview since his fight with Ironeye, surrenders to his demon, who promptly joins Section IV. The realization that he screwed over Hikari sends Ironeye into a depression, and he resolves to actually take a stand and fix this mess instead of acting like a Depraved Homosexual and doing the minimum needed to convince both sides that he's not on the other team.

This brings us to the series finale. Janitor breaks out, kicks a lot of ass, and reveals that Eddie did in fact have a backup in the event of an emergency like part of his programming being wiped. The team shows up to lay the smackdown on everyone (and does). Ironeye goes to face Hikari, but at the last moment, rather than killing him (thereby ensuring that the demon would also die), he instead drops the gun and starts lecturing Hikari and the demon about how they got entirely the wrong message from his last lecture (be a cynical bastard instead of play the long game). Through a display of Heroic Spirit, Ironeye manages to get to Hikari even after being slashed up by Razor Wind, and gives him a hug (see:every time arks did that to bring Hikari back), which gives Hikari the willpower needed to reassert himself over the demon. Kara shows up in time to heal Ironeye, but his fate is left ambiguous until the denouement. Gabriel saves Mynah, the team lays the smackdown on Section IV, and the world is saved!

What happens to everyone?

Faw and Murky adopt Jinxed and leave to find Murky's parents (revealed as alive back in Season 4 by the world tree)
Gabriel and Mynah go do their thing (not make babies—they're just friends, kids!)
Korg retires back in Australia, where he is handsomely rewarded for his work. He ends up making a radio show about his adventures, which he must publish as fiction due to secrecy issues. They become a hit, and he is stuck alone in a mansion with his mother and everything he ever wanted, which disappoints him greatly because he thought that he surely wasn't going to get a happy ending.
Hikari returns to his parents.
Janitor and Eddie help rebuild TV Tropes.
Kara and Ironeye, with Matrix in tow, return to Los Angeles to help rebuild.
Cody and arks...umm...we don't know.

Of course all of these endings are subject to change even more so than everything else.

TV Tropes The TV Show

Frequently Asked Questions

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The General Setting

TV Tropes

The Main Characters

The Dark Lodge

The Plot

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The General Setting

TV Tropes

The Main Characters

The Dark Lodge

The Plot

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troperville

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tools

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toys