A 2 mana black creature from the expansion ''Ravnica, City of Guilds'', Dark Confidant (also known colloquially as 'Bob'), is generally considered the best 2 drop creature ever printed. With the ability to draw additional cards at the cost of life and a respectable 2/1 body, Dark Confidant has the ability to bury its opponents in a stream of card advantage.

Oh wait. You were interested in reading about the user Dark Confidant, not the card.

That, my friends, is more difficult. A 20 year old student from the middle of Flyover Country, Dark Confidant is an aspiring economics major incoming Ph.D. student in economics and (with a bit of luck), high-caliber Magic: The Gathering player. I'm sure I can find plenty of tropes and such to describe myself.

Maybe I can add some more things. Although I'm not at all sure what you want to know. It's difficult to balance being interesting and giving myself enough privacy to feel comfortable. I can say a few things. One, despite using female avatars (for the most part), I'm most definitely a male. -looks down to be sure-. I'm in no way attempting to come off otherwise. I'm also straight, and wholly so. That apparently puts me in a small minority here. Or maybe it's just that the straight people here are far less inclined to identify themselves as straight. Completely understandable. On the other hand, nothing I said/say/write is meant to be rude or offensive to the LGBT community, and if stating this comes off as offensive to someone, please do let me know and I will gladly rework this to make it not so.

I do play video games sometimes. However, the wonders of college life and lots of homework mean that I don't have a lot of time. Nor do I have money to buy a current generation console. I'll sadface now. [sad]. Being broke stinks. :( Of course, due to being in college, playing Magic: The Gathering, and TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life, I don't really play them much anymore. I could get a better console now, but I just don't see a good reason to do so.

I'll be in the forum games section for the most part, although I do make occasional forays into the Magic-related threads in Tabletop Games and On-Topic Conversations, where I spread that famous liberal bias you just can't find anywhere else. That, and economics-related stuff, since I'm one of a handful of people with a substantial educational background in the discipline. I'm sure I'll add more later. (Don't you believe it.)

I suppose I should probably update this at some point, in contrast with the immediately preceding sentence. The thing is, I'm not quite sure what you want to know. -looks around about adding a couple of things, but sees that they're already there- I've been around since August 2011, which either makes me a total n00b or a longtime veteran, depending on your point of view. Usually feels n00bish though. Trying to become more active on the wiki-side of the site, although in a strange inversion to the typical troper, prefers to stick to the forums moreso than not. If you've not stopped by, you should do so and say hello. I'd like to think that it's a pleasant place to be. (Just don't become the latest addition to the Troll Post Crusher. I hear that's an unpleasant way to go.)

Has done some work with the badge shop, with namespacing a handful of works, and trying to make the wiki a bit better than it was when I got here. As for whether I've succeeded, well, we have a whole page on that. Trying to become one of the forum heralds. We'll see if I'm selected for the honor, but I'd like to think I'd do a good job with that. Although you'll still see me in the forum games section, I've largely moved to Yack Fest and the Wiki and Forums section of the forums. Looking for that big thing to be noted for on this site, No Such Thing as Notability be darned.

I wouldn't mind the occasional vandal. (read: I strongly encourage and welcome vandalism) But please, don't mess up anything above the ominous solid line... of doom! It's my page, after all, and while your comments are welcome, there's a time and place for them. If you're just looking to talk, there's the PM system for that. Do note that if you vandalize my page, I generally respond and return the favor, so if you'd prefer I didn't, it would be a good idea to point that out. You can use the comment markup to do so - use double-percent signs "%%" and the rest of the line will be commented out, visible on the source code but not the main page.

• If you want to italicize something, use two single quotations around what you want to italicize:
  • ''This is italicized'' becomes This is italicized.
• You can make something bold with a triple single quotation.
  • '''This is bold''' becomes This is bold.
• I can make something really stand out by making it both italicized and bolded. I need five single quotations to do this.
  • '''''Doesn't this really stand out?''''' becomes Doesn't this really stand out?
• If you want to make something a different color, the markup is: [colorname:text to be colored].
  • So, [[red:This text is red]] becomes This text is red. Note that this particular markup is forum-exclusive.
• You can use the [[folder: Folder Name]] [[/folder]] markup to create folders for compact viewing. The results are visible on my page. The [[foldercontrol]] markup creates a place to open all folders. That's visible just above this folder. On the forums, the folder command makes a big bold box around what's inside the folder.

• One dash "-" is a hyphen.
• Two dashes "--" is a long dash: —
• Four dashes "----" is a solid line across the page. You can see some of those below.

Perhaps the most important markup is to create a link to another page on this site. You have two options. The first is usable only for multi-word titles, or those containing letters and numbers. You can make a Wiki Word by writing the entire title as a jumbled-up mess, known as CamelCase. Without the markup, it should look like WikiWord and CamelCase. If you've got a one-word title, you'll want to use double braces, so {{Hello}} becomes Hello.

By now, you're probably wondering how I'm able to avoid the markup. There's a command known as markup-escape, which can be utilized by a single bracket followed by an equal-sign: [=It looks something like this.=]. In order to show the markup escape command, I used two sets of markup escape bars, so in source code, it looks like this: [=[=Stuff=]=]. (That has a triple escape, to show the double escape on the viewing page.)

If you want small text, the markup is [-Small Text Ahoy-], which becomes Small Text Ahoy.

You can use more than one equal-sign to make text smaller. Smaller Text Incoming and Some really small text use two and three minus signs, respectively.

Something I've done previously is to make bulleted lists. Use a single asterisk * at the start of a line to make a bullet. Use two asterisks to make a subpoint. **. If you use three or more asterisks ***, you get a sub-subpoint. These are frowned upon - See Example Indentation for more information.

Now, we get to talk about potholes, whereby I can link to a page without the page I link to being visible in the text on the page. The two potholes I made are actually Sinkholes. Those are bad. [[{{Pothole}} The markup]] is [[WikiWordLink text to be linked]]. Thus, I get "This is a pothole". ***

Since Pothole is a single word, you need to use brace mode

Use these judiciously. Overuse leads to one of these. Those are not good. Do note that you cannot have quotation marks inside a pothole. Put them on the outside. Same with bold and italics - put the markup for such things outside the brackets comprising the pothole.

A cool thing you can do to not have to pothole is to fix the tense of a wiki page to make it match the syntax of the sentence. You need to use the brace form of a wiki word to do so. Suppose I want to pothole Lampshade Hanging to the word Lampshaded. The obvious thing to do is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], which works, but is a bit verbose. Try this instead: Lampshaded.

This markup is as follows: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d. The vertical line stops the rest of the Wiki Word from being visible, and the letters on the end get added in to the wiki word as it is visible on the rest of the page.

So, that's the basics of formatting on this wiki. There are a few more things you can do when you're ready to graduate to advanced markup techniques. One involves external links. You replace a Wiki Word in the pothole markup with a URL address. This link takes you to MSN's homepage. Follow external links cautiously - there are all sorts of nasty things out there!

There is a forum-only markup to embed a YouTube video. That markup is [[youtube:"videoID"]], which is the twelve or so symbols that appear after the equal sign in a YouTube URL. If you want to try this out, you should go to the forum sandbox to play around. This one has a unique escape syntax though. Let's view it here: [=[[youtube:"videoID"]]=]. Note that you need to put separate escape markups about each set of double brackets. There are other markups that require something similar.

Next, we need to discuss namespaces. A namespace is a partition of the wiki that houses a certain type of page. Tropes, Disambiguations (I need to be able to tell the difference between the H.G. Wells novel, the Ralph Ellison Novel, and about actual invisibility, all of which might be referenced by Invisible Man.), and Redirects go in the Main/ namespace. Contributor pages (like the one you're reading) go in Tropers/. For works pages, we have different namespaces, including VideoGame/, LetsPlay/, Manga/, and Film/. So, I would have to put a video game on the Video Game namespace, like so:
''VideoGame/LegendOfLegaia'' goes to Legend Of Legaia.

If I wanted to see the namespace being shown (say I need something moved to a particular namespace and I want to be absolutely clear about it, I replace the slash with a period ".". So, ''VideoGame.LegendOfLegaia'' becomes VideoGame.Legend Of Legaia.

Next, we have numbered lists, which involve use of the # pound sign.

1. This is a numbered list.
2. This is item number two.

Finally, we have headers. If I want a big header, I go with a single ! exclamation point.

Example Header

Subheaders use two exclamation points:

Example Subheader

The next lesson is on notes and tips. First, I will go over the simpler hottip markup. The markup is [[hottip:What you want to have people click on:What text you want to reveal]] Thus, [[hottip:***:Some text goes here]] becomes ***

Some text goes here

. However, due to the simple nature of the markup, you cannot Pot Hole inside a hottip. ^Explanation Because the hottip markup does not have a unique closing syntax, ending in only a single double bracket, the system's text parser cannot distinguish between the end of a pothole and the end of the hottip..

Because of this, The Fast One coded a new way to make notes that allow for potholes and Wiki Words. The formatting for this is called a labelnote, and my explanation about hottips uses the labelnote markup. Let's see the labelnote in action. Like the YouTube markup, you need to put escape markup around every set of double brackets to escape a labelnote. [[labelnote:WhatYouSee]]Isn't always what you get[[/labelnote]] becomes ^{What You See}  Isn't always what you get. Note that there are no Wiki Words or markup permissible inside the "What you see" part of a labelnote. You can use markup freely inside the "What you get" part.

^{Wiki Word markup doesn't work here} But you can Wiki Word and Pothole or Sinkhole here without a problem. Don't sinkhole though - that's still not cool.

Well, that's about all I have for today. If you want to see some other fun things you can do, there's a whole page for it here at Text Formatting Rules, which covers not only the 'how' on markup use, but also the when to do certain things, and why it's done that way.

Tropes applied to Dark Confidant

• Flyover Country - Born and Raised in Oklahoma, USA.
• Brilliant but Lazy - Who isn't?
• Adult Genius - Although chances are, if you're reading this, I'm 20 and too lazy to edit. >.>
• Heroes want Redheads - Not sure if I count as a 'hero', but close enough
• TV Tropes will Enhance your Life - Girl Genius (the webcomic - one such thing I was introduced to), among others.
• Chaotic Neutral - Live and let live, or something like that.
• Atheist - Strong-form Agnostic, weak-form Atheist.
• Dark is not Evil - At least, I don't go out of my way to be evil, though I do enjoy darkness/nighttime/etc.
• Rated G for Gangsta - Due to personal preference, I eschew cuss words altogether.
• Knight in Sour Armor - A former Wide-Eyed Idealist corrupted and tainted by too many GIFT's.
• Abbey Road Crossing - June 6, 2011.

• Casting a Shadow/An Ice Person - At least, in personality. Then again...
  • Dark is not evil. I'm still a confidant, right?
• I just want to be normal I'd rather not talk about it.
• Viewer Gender Confusion - as noted above, since I use a lot of female avatars, I get this sometimes. It doesn't completely bother me, to be honest, although I find it rather weird.

Tropes Dark Confidant is noted for averting

• Writers Cannot do Math - At least, I think I'm a decent enough writer. Time will tell.
• Artistic License - Economics - I did get a degree in economics, so I might know what I'm talking about. Then again, I don't subscribe to a lot of the tenants of neoclassical theory, so I might still 'fail' nonetheless.
• Hollywood Atheist - No, I don't believe in God. But as long as your thump your Bible somewhere else, I'm content to keep my loud mouth to itself.

• Magic the Gathering - Like you couldn't have figured that one out.

Anime

• CLANNAD - In all its heartwarming, tear-jerking glory.
• Dragon Ball - Yeah, I watched it growing up. And I enjoyed it. Hatedom can go someplace else.

Film

• Lord of the Rings - especially the last two movies.

Live Action Television

• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide - Your personal results may vary.

Video Games

• Legend of Legaia - Give the underrated game some more love, please?
  • Fan Fic - currently in the process of writing one. Expect to finish around the beginning of 2012? Stay tuned for details.
    • Update: Finished chapter 3... This may take longer than I thought.
• Star Ocean - Even though I've only played 2 and 3. I suffer from not having a PSP or PS3/360, so I can't play 1 and 4. Curse you, stinginess!
• Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (and the sequels / spinoffs)
• Golden Sun - Sooner or later, I'll find a copy of The Lost Age, so I can figure out what happened between the original and Dark Dawn.
• Final Fantasy - 3, 4, 10, 10-2, and 12. With the exception of 10-2, all excellent games. Not that 10-2 is bad or anything, but it's not nearly as good. Would like to find a copy of 6 though.
• Wild ARMs 3 - Again, I haven't been able to find 4 or 5. Darn.
• Paper Mario - And The Thousand Year Door''. I played through Super Paper Mario, but it's just... kind of Bleck!
• The Legend of Zelda - Will gush for Majora's Mask, which is a bit underrated, which is saying something for a T Lo Z game.
• Super Mario Bros. - including the original, SMB 3, SMW, SM 64, SMS, and SMG. I'll probably get Galaxy 2 someday, but not so far.
• Advance Wars - Even though I've only played Dual Strike and Days of Ruin (or Dark Conflict, for those living across the pond).
• StarTropics - too bad no one has ever heard of it. Give it more <3.

Webcomics

• Girl Genius
• Misfile
• The Order of the Stick

Western Animation

• Avatar the Last Airbender - definitely a great show.
• Phineas and Ferb - What do you mean its for kids (in the lighter and softer sense)
• The Fairly Odd Parents - What? Can't I still have a little bit of an inner child?
• Danny Phantom - Continuing the tradition of nick-toons that were too good to last.

Expect me to gush about the above works frequently should you encounter me on the forums. Especially the ones that need more love.

• Namespaced (Includes works where substantial numbers [>100] of wicks were moved to the proper space.)
  • Invincible
  • Without A Trace
  • Cold Case
  • Legend Of Legaia
  • Chrono Trigger
  • Rayman (in progress)
• Created
  • Teaser Equipment
  • Rock of Limitless Water (in YKTTW currently)
• Substantially Fixed or Corrected
  • Outside-The-Box Tactic (a.k.a Non Obvious Weakness) (via TRS)
  • You Must Be This Tall To Ride (transplant per TRS)

• Day 1 (May 24) Barren Fields of Mist, Legend Of Legaia
• Day 2 (May 25) Corridors of Time, Chrono Trigger
• Day 3 (May 26) Marx Soul Theme, Kirby Super Star (KSS Ultra)
• Day 4 (May 27) Cecil's Theme, Red Wings, Final Fantasy IV
• Day 5 (May 28) Theme of Expel, Star Ocean The Second Story
• Day 6 (May 29) Sol Sanctum Theme, Golden Sun

• Happy to Oblige! LET THERE BE LIGHT! raigakuren
• Badass: Have the potential to be a pro-level magic player, which makes you this in the book of other Magic players.
• Jackass Genie for ruining my first wish on Corrupt-A-Wish. But you're still really cool...just if you're really a genie, I gotta be careful. Darkclaw
  • That's for me to know and you to worry about.
• ...And Then There Were None... raigakuren
• I Just Want to Have Friends — Liberated Liberater
  • So much...
• Lovable Traitor: Dark Confident reminds me of a traitorous right-hand man, but you're nice and I'm sure, very loveable. ~theindefiniteone
• Mad Magic Deckbuilder
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: You give off these vibes. ~theindefiniteone
  • That's... odd. I'm about as far from that as humanly possible. Starting with being male.
  • Oh... Wow. Sorry. I really didn't know you were male. But I don't care. The trope stays. And so does the assumption.
• Moe Moe = Commander Obvious
  • If you say so. I'm not seeing it.
• Mediafire downloads and a rar extracter. That's all you need to know... ~raigakuren
  • And this has to do with tropes how? Please direct your random vandalism to the appropriate section.
• Nice Guy: You don't speak much (I think) but you really seems to be a nice person. ~Dhana Ragnarok
  • I'd like to hope so.
• Pretty Cool Guy ~Dracosketch
• Ridiculously Average Guy -Balmung
  • Or The Nondescript. Your call.
• Serious Business: Card games. At least, from what little I understand of that description. -Rivux
• Sure, Why Not?: Everyone has their reasons. This is just a common one that we all share. :P ~theindefiniteone
  • Very true.
• Anti-Hero: Type I or Type II, I guess? — Liberated Liberater
  • I personally see myself as an Anti-Villain: Type IV, occasionally Type III.

• First!! - lilylilium
• BAM~! — Liberated Liberater
• Boff! Or something, I dunno. Anyway, hi there. -Phoenixor
• DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL!
  • Nah, I gave that up years ago.
• The faeries like the Ravnica series. >:} a black and blue faerie
  • But they loved Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block~
• I like you, you're good to have around. Also, CAKE - Shichibukai
  • Is it a lie?
• Dude, I like you. I don't know why, but I find you rather cool. You have this... thing about you. I dunno. I'm probs insane. Inhopelessguy
  • Who knows. Maybe insanity attracts itself?
• You get a smattering of vandalism for yourself! Congrats! - The Vending Machine
  • Dang it! I was hoping for cake that isn't a lie!
• What? I can't change stuff above the solid line? I totally wasn't planning on it, don't worry. ~Thiefoftime
  • Seems suspicious. I feel the need to watch more closely.
• Since I have the chance to vandalize, let me say you seem pretty awesome. ^_^ ~ boyob13
  • Maybe I am. Maybe I just put on a convincing facade. I don't know.
• There's no 1s²2s²2p⁴ in here. There won't be any combustion today. — Liberated Liberater
  • Thank goodness. I was afraid someone was going to melt me. But I'm safe from fire in an anaerobic environment.
• I still have trouble reconciling that you use both "Heir to Destruction" and "Spreading the <3" as signatures. I'm getting some mixed signals about your intentions, sir. — Aldheim
  • Love is a battlefield. People get hurt. But sometimes, you have to go for it anyway.
• Aiko Heiwa wuz here
• A wild Jimmmyman10 appears! The Jimmmyman10 uses Bible Thump! What do you do?
  • I choose you, Richard Dawkins! Use common sense!
    • It's Super effective!
    • Richard Dawkins gained 666 XP!... Richard Dawkins is now level 42!
• S'up? Inhopeless Guy
  • Not much. Just writing. Or more accurately, procrastinating on my writing.
• Bon-jorn-oh! - Mort08
  • Hmm. Must've ended up in Italy. I need to recalibrate the transporter... :/
• Got your nose... ~raigakuren
  • But I still have my toes!
• YAHOO! ~Dracosketch
  • Here we go!
• Comment allez vous mon bon monsieur ? ~Dhana Ragnarok
  • It's French, but I can't make anything out. Something about everyone commenting, sir, or something.
• Catch the raindrops that are falling from the sky! ~theindefiniteone
  • I'll freeze them in an instant!
• NIIIICE one. ~SabrinaDiamond
  • Thanks?
• Rivux used Vandalize instead of Sleep! Rivux will probably oversleep tomorrow!
  • I wish I could oversleep. But I have to teach at 8 in the morning.
• Simply by vandalizing, this troper page has achieved the level of awesomeness for Dark Confidant. What do you think of that, everyone? = Commander Obvious
  • I think you overstate your importance. But in any case, I would hardly consider this an awesome page. :/
• So you rip monsters to shreds with love eh? ~raigakuren
• And over here be more Vandals —Sean Murray I
• Ailedhoo was not here. This is not vandalism. It is a duck. Ailedhoo
• [1] is here! Wassup!
• Well, it's about time I vandalized your page...Anyways, I hope your fanfic is coming along nicely! It was an awesome read, btw. And no, I won't set your page on fire like I do everyone else, cuz you're An Ice Person. :P -Nekoalexa
  • Surprising as it may be, but I made an update to the fic yesterday. :P
• Salutations and good day, Darko! :D C'eci n'est pas une vandalism. ~Noaqiyeum
  • Good day to you. Can't respond to the French though, since I no speak no French.
• The faeries are distributing flayings and vandalism. And we're all out of flayings. :P - Stolen By Faeries
  • That's awfully convenient. It just so happens that I don't need to harvest any pixie dust anytime soon.
• Greatness, at any cost! — Icarael
  • Power, at any price - my book.
• Due to this single act of vandalism, property values on your page dropped 43%. - Completely Normal Guy
• What Time Is It? Adventure Time !!!!!!! - JR Pictures
• Eternal Noob here. And here to say hi
  • Fixed to correct namespace. No more Red Link for you.
• Dude. You like StarTropics? :D That game always kicks my ass. :P Fuzy 2 K
  • Aye. It's a nice way to burn three hours on a lazy afternoon.
• Greetings. All mathematicians/physicists are de facto awesome. Libris Dedita
  • I hope that this lowly economist-in-training qualifies too...
• Where'd I put that damn spray paint.... - Superkim111 (I'm too lazy to link so you can just google me if you want. Or whatever the TV Tropes version of that it.)
  • Alternately, I could create the link, then take the direct route. :P
• If there is one usually thing from College Algebra, it's matrices. ~phoenixdaughterAM
  • Ugh. I don't like matrices either. :( Dark Confidant