Do you have trouble remembering the difference between Deathbringer the Adorable and Fluffy the Terrible?
Do you have trouble recognizing when you've written a Zero-Context Example?
Not sure if you really have a Badass Bookworm or just a guy who likes to read?
Well, this is the thread for you. We're here to help you will all the finer points of example writing. If you have any questions, we can answer them. Don't be afraid. We don't bite. We all just want to make the wiki a better place for everyone.
Useful Tips:
- Make sure that the example makes sense to both people who don't know the work AND don't know the trope.
- Wrong: The Mentor: Kevin is this to Bob in the first episode.
- Right: The Mentor: Kevin takes Bob under his wing in the first episode and teaches him the ropes of being a were-chinchilla.
- Never just put the trope title and leave it at that.
- Wrong: Badass Adorable
- Right: Badass Adorable: Xavier, the group's cute little mascot, defeats three raging elephants with both hands tied behind his back using only an uncooked spaghetti noodle.
- When is normally far less important than How.
- A character name is not an explanation.
- Wrong: Full Moon Silhouette: Diana
- Right: Full Moon Silhouette: At the end of her transformation sequence into Moon Princess Misty, Diana is shown flying across the full moon riding a rutabaga.
Other Resources:
For best results, please include why you think an example is iffy in your first post.
Also, many oft-misused tropes/topics have their own threads, such as Surprisingly Realistic Outcome (here
) and Fan-Preferred Couple (here). Tropers are better able to give feedback on examples you bring up to specific threads.
For cleaning up examples of Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard, you must use their dedicated threads: Complete Monster Cleanup, Magnificent Bastard Cleanup.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 18th 2023 at 11:42:55 AM
Musician/Composer
From Recap.Fairy Tail Alvarez Empire Arc:
- Misplaced Retribution: Brandish initially assumes Layla is involved in her mother Grammi's demise. But as she learns from Aquarius later on, Grammi inadvertently caused Layla's death in the first place before the former was killed by Zoldio.
Does this example fit?
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
Am I a weirdo?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'm not seeing any retribution in that example.
Didn't manage to ask about this in the draft for Pinned to the Ground before it got launched. Thoughts?
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: When Ami first has to treat a cursed wound by cutting off the cursed part, she held down her patient against a table via telekinetic force.
Useful Note
The laconic says "using their body or parts of it holding them in place," so I would say it doesn't count.
Edited by FSharp on Apr 18th 2024 at 8:23:28 AM
Welcome to Corneria!
low-poly Shinri
I found this on YMMV.Persona 3 Reload (under Character Rerailment).
- An unusual example regarding Yukari. Compared to the original English dub, she comes off as a lot nicer in Reload. While this received a bit of a mixed reception from those who played the original, her softer portrayal version is actually more in line with her Japanese version, with her confrontational and sassy personality that many players were familiar with being a product of the original localization as well as Michelle Ruff's voice direction.
Character Rerailment is about a character who is derailed in sequel/spin-offs but gets back on track to their original personality in later instalements. I'm not sure if dubs and localization fit this trope.
She/Her | Currently cleaning Char Clone
I noticed the following in Success as Revenge, but feels it belongs to Best Served Cold because the person involved does use her position to exact revenge (specifically, by price-gouging something that she has a natural monopoly). Which trope does it count?
- Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower: Sophia grew up an albino in a world where people take Albinos Are Freaks to an extreme, typically assuming they're all just reincarnations of Seath the Scaleless, an evil albino dragon. She was completely friendless until she met Katarina as a teenager, and she managed to grow up as a happy, mostly well-adjusted woman. Then she becomes a founding partner of Nightflower Factory, the first fireworks factory in the country, where she is making lots of money from this new fad. She takes manic glee in charging all her old bullies (and everyone else, but especially the bullies) an obscene amount of money. She's especially amused at how quickly the court whispers about her turn from calling her "that scaleless freak" to "that ethereal beauty."
Also note I have another query earlier this week
that wasn't answered.
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
This was on The Antichrist:
And to me it feels like Square Peg, Round Trope. Yes, Sephiroth has some superficial similarities to an Antichrist archetype, but aside from being kind of poorly written, the actual beats of the archetype and Sephiorth as a specific character don't really line up.
the Retromancer
I'm not sure. If you remove the intensifiers, it becomes like this:
- The Antichrist: Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth is the Son of Jenova (a false alien God), being able to herald the Apocalypse (Meteor), and, has an army of Devout Worshippers (the Reunion). The sequel film is even called Advent Children because Sephiroth does a Second Coming in it.
The similarities are pretty clear, so it'd need more clarification what exactly doesn't line up. For starters, I've thought the Reunion isn't a Cult, but just a collection of failed Sephiroth prototypes who are as intelligent as zombies.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
That's one, another is that Jenova, while dangerous isn't really a god or god like figure at all. She's an alien, not the devil. The people who don't know she's an alien just think she's one of a number of Precursors. (Sephiroth's other parent, while an utterly despicable human being, is just a normal human)
Likewhise, Sephiroth's birth had nothing do with her, as opposed to the devil usually being at least a little involved in the creation of the anti-christ. So that removes the Chosen One aspects of the trope, as Sephiroth isn't some divinely ordained being, but rather an unethical lab experiment and a rare case of pre-birth child abuse.
Sephiroth suffered a mental breakdown before he truly became evil, most Antichrist types are more stable, and make conscious decisions towards their endgoal, usually following some preordained scheme or plan.
There's also (though it's not a must for the trope) the idea that most of the time Anti Christs are acting on behalf of a larger evil, sometimes whether they like it or not. While Sephiorth has his issues with Jenova, his goal is to become a god himself.
There's definitely some similarities, but Sephiroth has more of a "fallen angel" vibe than an "anti-christ" one.
But maybe it's just me.
the Retromancer
That makes sense. Sephiroth isn't a real agent of the greater evil, but just a Super-Soldier who gone completely insane and chose himself to side with a greater evil, who in turn in frozen in the lab and had no agency.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
And even when he "sided with" Jenova, his will overrode the...I suppose you'd call them "biological instincts" of her cells.
That's how he manipulated the Black Robes, and it's also why he morphs Jenova's body into his own while he is still in the Northern Crater.
So it was less of a team up, so much as...new management.
the Retromancer
Anyway, there are more rooms to cut the example.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
This entry on Characters.SCP Foundation SC Ps 001 To 999
- Riddle for the Ages: Why does it hate people looking at its face so much?
It make me wonder since the "mystery" never come up in the SCP article itself; they just say the thing will goes berserk if someone look at its face, the narrative never question "why?"
In short, does the "riddle" has to come up in the work itself?
the Retromancer
Yes. SCP is a very sci-fi supernatural work, so why any of thousands SCPs act the way they do is mysterious, but is not "the mystery".
low-poly Shinri
I also found this on YMMV.Delicious In Dungeon
- Fandom Heresy: While not that much of a fandom heresy, not a lot of people like Laios being drawn looking like a bodybuilder.note .
I'm not sure it counts as heresy and seems like a misplaced Fandom-Enraging Misconception entry.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Apr 20th 2024 at 5:48:03 PM
She/Her | Currently cleaning Char Clone
- Given that it's fans disliking something the creator did, not disliking something other fans say, then no, it's not a Fandom-Enraging Misconception?
low-poly Shinri
It was referring to fan art but the wording isn't right on that entry.
She/Her | Currently cleaning Char Clone
So someone added this to Etra chan saw it!:
- Playing Against Type: In this episode, Azami, who usually plays an Obnoxious In-Law, gets the role of the abused daughter-in-law and her usual role goes to Akane. Yuzuriha is also cast as a nerdy girl, which is usually Tsutsuji's role, and Tsutsuji herself gets Yuzuriha's usual role as a Crusading Lawyer.
As far as I know, the trope seems to cover only actors that play against what they're usually cast for, and don't include any in-universe examples. (For context, Etra chan saw it! characters are actors In-Universe).
Damnably Inscrutable
Does it count as a Stealth Insult if the insult within is obvious, but still not directly stated? Eg. from Ride the Cyclone:
The insult (that Noel isn't fun to be around) is easily noticeable, but it's still framed as a compliment. Does it count if the insult is immediately noticeable?
fun fact: pro tip: breaking news: life hack: i can't find a good signature
Does Noel misinterpret the insult? I think Ocean's intentions matter here because if he's saying it in a way where it's obvious that he's insulting Noel, then it can't be a Stealth Insult because one of the key aspects of Stealth Insult is that the person insulting intends that the target misinterpret the insult at first.
Bumping my query
since it's gotten no response yet.
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
Stark Holmes
I’m not that familiar with Final Fantasy either a Wall of Text that could easily be cut down. For one, the Cid example could be moved elsewhere such as to Breaking Old Trends. The examples seem to be just drawing wordy conclusions to every character in the series, and more often than not point out how similar the characters are. Ncotis is probably the only one that would count.
Can Refitted for Sequel be used for music albums not connected by a storyline? Would it still be applicable even without a story, such as a song that was rewritten or re-recorded for a new album. Discombobulate.
low-poly Shinri
Bumping some messages:
- Fandom Heresy: While not that much of a fandom heresy, not a lot of people like Laios being drawn looking like a bodybuilder.note .
In case the wording is wonky, this is referring to people who Laois is an "ultra buff guy" (basically an overly muscular guy rather than the more his more realistically drawn body). I'm not sure it counts as heresy and seems like a misplaced Fandom-Enraging Misconception entry.
YMMV.Persona 3 Reload (under Character Rerailment).
- An unusual example regarding Yukari. Compared to the original English dub, she comes off as a lot nicer in Reload. While this received a bit of a mixed reception from those who played the original, her softer portrayal version is actually more in line with her Japanese version, with her confrontational and sassy personality that many players were familiar with being a product of the original localization as well as Michelle Ruff's voice direction.
Character Rerailment is about a character who is derailed in sequel/spin-offs but gets back on track to their original personality in later instalments. I'm not sure if dubs and localization fit this trope.
A new example I found. From Reestablishing Character Moment (under Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney) and I'm unsure of it:
- Klavier Gavin in the present turns out to be a Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: one of the rare prosecutors in the series to not be an Amoral Attorney but instead a Friendly Enemy. The flashback to Phoenix's disbarment in the final case has him going up against a younger Klavier, who is considerably more cocky and arrogant.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Apr 21st 2024 at 2:06:26 AM
She/Her | Currently cleaning Char Clone
Does this count as Ambiguous Criminal History?
When listing off the criminal record of a group, one guy is simply stated that they needed a ledger to keep track of everything they had done and we are given broad strokes of his crimes like drugs, smuggling, murder, and human trafficking. No specific examples are given and the only crime we see him commit gets him killed before he can leave the room.
To a lesser extent, another member of the group is wanted in a named country for the particularly brutal murder of a woman but we don't get any more context for that. At least with the cannon fodder, we knew why he killed/tried to kill another guy.
Working on The Fallen World
Fallout (2024) is a videogame adaptation and one episode has an entry for Dramatic Irony that refers to players of the game experiencing this trope because of their foreknowledge from having played the game. Can Dramatic Irony be used in such a way?
- Dramatic Irony: Lucy is pleased to find the hospital that leads to a Vault. Any Fallout player knows that if the entrance is a trap, the Vault can't be anything good.
Edited by eroock on Apr 21st 2024 at 8:45:12 PM
Does Contrasting Sequel Main Character only apply to direct sequels? Or does it cover any entry of a franchise v. any other entry of the same franchise? I ask because I saw this large example for Final Fantasy XVI protagonist Clive Rosfield. I'm also not entirely familiar with every FF game, so I can't say whether some of these entries count or not.