dynamicDiscovery / Tropers

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About me

Raised in nice and quiet Suburbia... somewhere.
I love that this site's content is simultaneously personal and objective.
One of my worst regrets in life is that I should have picked a cooler troper name.
Always be ready for someone, somewhere, to get it wrong.
I collected EXPO marker colors for fun.^noteToo bad I may never get a yellow one...
Some guys are cute to me as well!
When I become even more grown up, I want to design games.

Troper Types: Editor/Browser
Pokémon Type: Normal for its versatility and levelmindedness
Favorite Chemical Element: C
Favorite Holiday: April Fools'

I provide examples of the following tropes:

Agent Peacock: I tend to be rather emotionally open, and I enjoy art, volleyball, and well-written romance. I am also a passionate track runner who loves many challenging action games.
Agent Scully: I don't give a darn what ya tell me; the supernatural doesn't exist in Real Life.
The Anti-Nihilist: Life has absolutely no inherent meaning, being a bunch of tiny orbs moving about; and our brains are made of such orbs arranged in a way that creates an illusion of control. It's okay to feel daunted by that, but remember the word inherent — it's also essential to focus on the things in life that are important to you. That would make life much more enjoyable than thinking it has no meaning at all.
Beware the Quiet Ones: I'm not usually too confrontational, but I can stand my ground when needed.
Boring, but Practical: I prefer things that work well to things that look cool (which are prone to stop being fun to me anyway).
Brilliant, but Lazy: I enjoy obtaining new knowledge quickly, but I only work my hardest when I make a positive, tangible influence on the world around me.
Camera Fiend: I enjoy taking pictures of things with my handy-dandy CELL PHONE.
Chaotic Stupid: Thankfully, only during those Wuhu Island flyovers.
Cold Ham: yes.
Cuddle Bug: Trust me, there's nothing better than feeling warm and secure in one another's arms.
Cute Little Fangs: I find the sharp tips of my canine teeth to be endearing.
Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction: I did this to my neighbor once as a kid, leaving cool flowers behind.
Emotions Versus Stoicism: A bit of a False Dichotomy in my eyes, as empathy and logic are my two cornerstones to living a moral life. Weird, don't ya think?
Exact Words: One of my preferred methods of sowing deception and specifying information.
Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: I hate getting bored and there are few things I would stick to for my whole life.
Forgetful Jones: I frequently forget about things I barely pay any attention to.
Friend to Bugs: I find arthropods to be pretty cool-looking, though the comfort of my home makes me act rather... territorial.
Girly Run: I often skip and run around like this when excited.
Good Is Not Soft: I hate those who turn themselves and/or oth ers against their better nature, and I love those who make life a bit brighter. These are by no means opposing qualities.
Has a Type: I like energetic yet emotionally intelligent people who can make me smile and laugh without trying too hard, yet are real chests to sob into.
Hates Small Talk: ...
Homeschooled Kid: Before I went to school, my parents made me this over how quiet I am.
I Just Want to Have Friends: Good friends make me very happy. They never make me feel as if I am walking on eggshells.
Inherently Funny Words: DDD or D3 Foundation
Kindhearted Cat Lover: They're so adorable and hilarious...
Knight in Sour Armor: No matter how much the world frightens me, blending my values and hopes into mundanity grants me self-actualization.
Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Where my loved ones think I get my good looks from. That's all I have to say about it.
Mr. Imagination: I can take ideas, play around with them, and think of lots of things. Lots of things.
Nature Is Not Nice: A staple of my worldview; I wish to help people transcend the dog-eat-dog nature of the wilderness.
Not a Morning Person: It's because I often stay up late.
Old Shame: I deleted my childhood Scratch account and its projects, having cringed at many of them.
Plain Palate: I'm averse to many tastes and textures of food.
Poster Patchup: I covered up a few holes I once kicked in my old bedroom's wall with my hand-colored periodic table and several decorative sticky notes.
The Quiet One: I don't usually like speaking. My voice isn't as cute as it used to be.
Real Dreams are Weirder: Whenever I don't sleep comfortably enough, I have deceptively bizarre dreams with elements taken from Real Life mashed together.
Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: I often re-view works I like, namely certain Peanuts animations, for comfort and amusement.
Secular Hero: I'm not religious, and I don't usually speak about religion or my own beliefs. I still love improving life, even if this mortal plane is all we have.
Shrinking Violet: I can be really shy, except around those I have good reason to be familiar with.
Sock Slide Rink: I sometimes slide around wooden floors in my socks for fun.
Sophisticated as Hell: I sometimes incorporate less polished language into my typical manner of speech.
Spoiler Hound: I often try to get as much information as early as I can out of pure curiosity, but I sometimes try to cut down on it for certain works.
Spoonerism: Rather prone to this, but thankfully in my thoughts more than in my words.
Stairs Are Faster: I prefer taking the stairs if such is an obvious enough option, because I enjoy moving around freely.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: I'm generally quiet, but I have an affectionate and warmhearted side.
Terse Talker: When I speak, I don't usually use large amounts of wording.
The Teetotaler: Thanks, but I enjoy keeping my wits about me.
The Unapologetic: Faked apologies are rather disrespectful.
Unkempt Beauty: My hair is rather bushy. Unfortunately, haircuts I get often restrict this beauty.
Verbal Tic: I was wondering when ya'd catch on to it.
Victory by Endurance: I once defeated most of my middle school friends in inflatable jousting this way.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Loud noises always freaked me out, especially when I was a child.

Favorite and Unfavorite Tropes

Favorite Tropes

Accidental Aesop: It's interesting to see audiences apply morals to half-true tales.
Aggressive Play Incentive: Making players take risks! By making boring things less practical!
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Not everyone perceives existing allegories as authors intend.
Artificial Brilliance: Artificial intelligences fascinate me when they are competent at their jobs. A computer's "mind" differs vastly from a person's, even more than an octopus's mind does.
Author Phobia: The best resource for horror is what scares the author; horror is basically people sharing what they fear.
Beautiful Void
Classical Anti-Hero: Unconventional heroes don't need elements of bad guys. They're just trying their best, despite their flaws.
Competitive Balance: It's amazing how diverse and fun competitive games are when designed with care.
Consistency:
- External consistency, similarity of fiction to real life, makes built worlds easier to relate to.
- Genre consistency, similarity of works to each other, makes multiple built worlds more familiar to get into.
- Internal consistency, similarity of works to the respective selves, is the line between built worlds and surrealism.
Elemental Powers: Classical elements are basically the world's complex building blocks. Stuff like sunlight, plant matter, water, and darkness feel so fundamental, despite none of them being measures of how many protons an atom has.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: It's awesome to see how people who show different emotions synergize with one another.
Gender-Blending Tropes: People deserve freedom of gender expression, and fiction can be a great tool to celebrate it with.
Good Feels Good
Good Is Not Soft
Hanlon's Razor: The overwhelming majority of humans have multiple distinct moral values (commonly listed as care, proportionality, loyalty, authority, sanctity, and liberty). Because most real-life evildoing stems from massive imbalances in these values, improving society and culture changes the course of individuals' moral values — for the better.
Heal the Cutie
Kansas City Shuffle: Granting someone a false sense of security renders them very easy to manipulate. The best way to grant someone a sense of security is to let them escape manipulation.
Leitmotif
Magic A Is Magic A: Consistent rules of magic are like separate laws of physics, which ground them into the setting effectively.
Meager aversions of Never Say "Die": They're all the more individually impactful.
Occam's Razor: I believe ideas without many elements that don't make sense.
Shout-Out: It's interesting to learn what various writers think is cool to mention.
Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!
Stylish Protection Gear: Clothes don't have to trip you over to look fresh!
Swiss-Army Superpower
Take That!: It's interesting to learn what various writers think is uncool.
True Companions
Variable Mix
Wave-Motion Gun: Pure energy, focused into the force of a hundred fire hydrants!

Pet-Peeve Tropes

Dissonant values

Acceptable Hard Luck Targets: It's not nice to reprimand people for circumstances outside their control.
Best Years of Your Life: It's extremely unhealthy to regard "true happiness" as behind you, or something that will eventually be such.
Double Standards
Fighting Back Is Wrong: People should not live in fear of being attacked. But to caution crueler ones from imposing such a threat, you should be able to ensure they harvest what they sow; trusting your animal instinct to fight back when need be is not a bad idea.
Heroic Suicide: I only dislike this trope if one's death in and of itself is portrayed as heroic.
Humans Are Bastards: Strangely, I have fewer problems with Humans Are the Real Monsters, a trope that others my own kind much more; whereas this can fuel paranoia about actual fellow people who are as well-rounded as I am.
Media Scaremongering: It's immoral to distract people from what is truly important to them (themselves and those they can trust).
Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: This supertrope stifles freedom of gender expression, by using it as a tool to distinguish gender identities, often beyond all practicality.
Stereotypes: Too many viewers know that those different from them are still different from each other, more so than any amusement park can communicate.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Considering humans' innate aversion to dying, think about what you're teaching in stories where the good die young.
True Art Is Angsty: Stories only exist to challenge and comfort mindsets — meaningless, dreary drudges are useless to endure, and dangerous to revere.
Tactless depictions of sexual misconduct, depression, and suicide

Poor implementations

Black Hole Sue: My personal interpretation of the "Mary Sue" term; a character's relationship with their world shouldn't break the assumption that they're a plausible part of it.
Canon Defilement: People view derivative works to see more of the worlds they love; such worlds should remain as recognizable as possible.
Deus and Diabolus ex Machina: Plan ahead when writing; don't plot yourself into a corner that only breaking suspension of disbelief can save you from.
Disguised Horror Story: While such a dark Genre Shift makes certain Emotional Torque more shocking, this trope exemplifies my issues with the impact that negative emotions can pose. This is why Dan Salvato made Doki Doki Literature Club! free and, if you poked around the old website, stated that if you're concerned about a story negatively impacting your mental health, you shouldn't be viewing macabre works you don't know a lot about.
Doki Doki Literature Club is a horror game. Please do not take this lightly. Doki Doki Literature Club may not be suitable for you if you are affected by [topics such as; but not limited to; depression, suicide, self-harm, and abuse.] These themes are not merely suggested, but are often portrayed as realistically as possible, and thus may disturb you as if they were real. ... those with extra concern for their mental health [should] avoid playing Doki Doki Literature Club.
Epiphany Therapy
Fake Longevity: Life's too short for unnecessary level grinding and stage repeating!
Traditional Moving Platforms. People play platformers to move a character around, and it's tiring to have to wait for a platform to go to you because you found it on the other side of the pit you want to cross. For platforms that either move through smaller spaces, or only move at the player's command, Celeste has quite a few ideas.
Player Punch: I can tell when stories' external circumstances are designed to weaponize one's internal locus of control to inflict guilt. It's rare to me to find it clever, so it just induces a sense of hopelessness instead.
Play Every Day: Getting someone to treat a game like their line of work easily gets exhausting.
Unstable Equilibrium: If one side gains and then maintains an advantage in a competitive game, their opponent is de facto unable to play the game. This is the teaching point used by the original Monopoly to criticize unfettered capitalism; economic freedom can very well be stolen, granting the winner nearly as much unchecked power as the governing bodies they denounce.
Worst Aid: Not only is inaccurate medicine dangerous in reality; it's also more commonly gross.

Overused oversaturations

Damager, Healer, Tank: This cheaply exploits the fact that many video game enemies are too dumb to target their greatest threats.
Not-So-Innocent Whistle: We all know how suspicious it'd be for someone to whistle if they don't normally do it.
Plot Leveling: What, you think one person should ever get thrust into role of Guardian of All 74,679,823 Omniverses?
Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: We barely know much about quantum physics, I don't think it will ever work like magic, and I don't want misconceptions about it to spread.
Sacred Cow: It's not a good idea to be blind to anything's shortcomings.

Unfortunate enforcements

Bribing Your Way to Victory: This just makes "the rich have it easier" bleed from real life to competitive games.
But Not Too Gay: If you make same-sex romance out to be taboo, the future will perceive it as such.
Joker Immunity: Good doesn't always win. But evil doesn't always return.
Nothing but Hits: Music and other works don't have to be popular to deserve time in the spotlight!
Seasonal Rot and Sequelitis: It ain't easy getting invested in something and watching it change for the worse.

Love-Hate Relationship Tropes

Anvilicious: If you convey An Aesop in a way that it's subtlely woven into the story, keen readers will figure it out and feel as if they learned something. If you ignore this convention^notei.e. write it as bluntly as possible, ALL readers will understand your message.
Boring, but Practical: Sure, it feels good to steamroll opposition with seemingly dull options... but varied environments and/or additional viable options should prevent them from rendering entire experiences dull.
Comeback Mechanic: Like its opposite twin, Unstable Equilibrium, this trope decreases a game's competitive integrity: the likelihood that the winner is whichever side was most competent on that day. It's preferable in that both sides always feel like they have a chance, which is genius for the design of Splatoon's Turf War mode.
Complete Monster: This complex YMMV trope, being partly founded on Emotional Torque due to examples being taken seriously as horrible people, is quite interesting. Whether these kinds of characters fit the respective works (aside from whether the works in question are for me) varies... though my favorite aspect is one putting their wickedest foot forward; the feeling that the villain ain't holding back.
Emotional Torque:
- Rushes of feelings can make one feel renewed and/or intrigued. However, emotions are not indicators of a work's tone; it's moreso the other way around. In reality, emotions are states that the mind imposes on the human body. Thus, experiencing emotionally painful narratives has the risk of undue stress, which directly puts my body in harm's way.
- By the logic of "fiction doesn't affect reality", all uses of this trope are swindles, and many accomplished storytellers are con artists. I'd rather be cheated out of my money or time than be cheated out of my mental wellness.
Fake Difficulty: It can needlessly frustrate players... or help experts relive their past struggles.
Fridge Horror: All I can say is, I can frighten myself more easily than nearly anyone else can.
Lawful Evil: While it's common for villains to use the trappings of law to oppress others, and this alignment describes many dangerous Well-Intentioned Extremists in the real world (not naming any names, though), there is a prominent "curve" within this alignment, in the sense that it is impossible to uphold principles purely for their own rulership whilst also upholding them purely because they help you put others down. Acting in "pure law" and "pure evil" at once makes the least sense to me of the corners of the classic Character Alignment chart. RationalWiki's word on those who support unchecked government power puts it best:invoked

"It is this honoring of power over reason that makes an authoritarian. The authoritarian loves rules and loves to apply them. However, for a true authoritarian, power is more important than rules: the rules themselves aren't the source of power and they don't apply to the powerful."

Lowest Common Denominator: It's nice to appeal to the masses with universal human experiences, but you must be sure to intrigue critical thinkers instead of driving them away.

Contributions

I created TV Tropes work pages for:

Others

I launched Xulgon's self-demonstrating character sheet.

Works I love, as they...

* = non-short works I perceive as flawless

...Are fun games:

...Have stories that granted me insights on life (some morals are marked spoilers!):

Adventures with Anxiety and Celeste: Your fear exists to protect you, though it can slip up like a fleshed-out person can.
Air Pressure: Having no relationship is preferable over having an unhealthy one.
American Born Chinese: One who changes themself to fit the world is adaptable. One who even tries to change to world for their sake is mighty.
Animal Farm: Not only are authoritarian governments exempt from the law, but the laws they impose aren't the real source of their power.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and Friday Night Funkin' Soft: A true friend will protect and encourage you when you need it, whereas a false friend will harm you and discourage you from sticking up for yourself.
BAD END THEATER*: If something you love is crossed away by the stars, never lose hope that the stars will wane away.
Bugsnax: It's a bad sign if soda cans can be swallowed whole.
Dandara: Trust your visions of freedom and change; never give up on them.
Doki Doki Blue Skies: People who are mentally ill still have lives beyond being helped by others.
Doki Doki Rainclouds: Sometimes, people can't be saved. Rest assured that you did the best for your loved ones.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Don't blindly trust the lessons given to you.
Funny Games U.S.: Without the reminders that a fictional misfortune is fabricated to enrich our lives, the audience's limbic systems register the characters' suffering as real, so their lives are worsened.
The Giver: In practice, dulling emotions in life will make it easier, but also worse.
Hollow Knight: When a problem arises, it is usually best to remove the root cause.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): If you deny the mistakes you make, you lose the freedom to avoid them in the future.
Inkopolis Chaos: Fascism is a suicide cult, because any ally can be cast out in the name of narrowing the "gene pool".
The Joy of Creation: Story Mode: You never know what lengths a being would go to just to become our equal.
Katawa Shoujo: Disabled people aren't helpless, nor are they infallible superheroes just because of that fact. While they are affected by their disabilities, they're still very much like the rest of us: beautiful, diverse, witty, and worthy.
The LEGO Movie*: Cooperating with one mind's vision is extremely powerful. While there's nothing like a bad leader, there's also nothing like a good leader.
Megamind: The hottest and sexiest minds carve out interests they love to share with others — they are secure in their positive traits, even when things are bringing them down.
OneShot (Steam remake)*: There's no arbitrary condition that determines if a sentient being is "real". As far as our limbic systems are concerned, caring about a grown, flesh-and-bones human is no different from caring about a computer program that mimics human joy, pain, and growth.
The Outsiders*: People who are poor, or in developing societies of any kind, aren't stupid just because lower needs on Maslow's hierarchy are being failed. Even they are highly intelligent human beings who want food that tastes good, want technology that isn't malfunction-prone, have standards for looks that are pleasing, want relationships that don't break them down.
Poképark 2: Wonders Beyond, Undertale, Wander over Yonder, and Will You Snail?: Even the most unscrupulous and villainous people are still people, with flawed beliefs and motives based on evolved pillars of morality. If you understand why someone is doing something, and you have a clear shot at altering their circumstances so they redeem themself, why not take the chance to make them better?
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: While it's great to live as if life is short, there's a lot you can do to ensure your life doesn't end sooner than it needs to.
Rain World and Receiver II: A dangerous environment is not the same as a cruel one. Because of people's innate ability to solve problems and intelligently peruse their surroundings, they still have the chance to thrive, or even make a difference out there.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020): It's always nice to enjoy the little things in life, even if other people scoff at them.
Splatoon: The good things about your past could be gone for good, and it might feel like you have nothing to lose. But the world is living on, even if you aren't well-off anymore. It's not worth ruining the present for other people.
Star of Providence: If the little things in a story's environment is fun, any decrepit Crapsack World can be salvaged into a joyous pastime.

...Have awe-inspiring worldbuilding:

...Are just plain fluffy:

...Made me laugh, physically:

...Provide useful information to me:

Tropers / dynamicDiscovery

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About me

Favorite and Unfavorite Tropes

Contributions

Works I love, as they...