What constitutes a "series-wide trope"?

This has been bugging me for some time: How many examples of a trope does it need to qualify for being a "series-wide" trope that belongs on the main work page?

Assume we have a show with many seasons plus respective recap pages for all episodes and there is a certain plot trope that happens in two episodes. Is this already considered worth listing (actually double-listing since they also appear on the recap pages) on the show's main page or should the two instances remain on the recap pages? What if it were four examples of the trope, or six?

Example: Somebody listed Silence Is Golden with two example on the Rick and Morty page. Is this a justified action?

Edited by eroock on Sep 13th 2021 at 3:32:49 AM

There is no official policy on separating tropes to certain categories. All tropes belong on the main page in alphabetical order regardless of the sub pages. Some people get overzealous curating pages so that there are no duplicates on main page and character pages, but if the example is good there isn't much reason to fret over it.

As far as I understand character pages and recap pages are extensions of the main work page and duplications between them are to be avoided.

Honestly, I think having two or more examples is all that's needed. Once you have an example tree, it becomes a trope that's appeared in the series at least twice, assuming they're from different contexts.

I wouldn't call it "series wide" of course, but just something applicable to multiple installments and/or episodes.

Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 13th 2021 at 2:46:57 PM

I think if the series premise involves a trope, then I suppose it's considered a series wise trope.

For example, Historical Domain Superperson may be considered one for the Fate Series since the said series is based around historical, mythical, and literature characters being summoned as supernatural beings by mages.

"Series Wide" is relative, there are character tropes that form the backbone of the narrative. A trope may be textual in one episode but subtext in others. And even if you can only think of one, someone else may be able to think of four more examples, or the ongoing series may include more examples later down the line. That's why I don't think it's too big a concern with "how many before it goes into x page."

^ By that logic one could duplicate any trope from a recap page onto the work page in hope others will find and add more examples. The Logical Extreme would be a complete duplication of tropes of recap and work page. I feel this defies the purpose of recap pages. Looking for a guideline here.

I have just always assumed the "main-page" guideline is "2-3 examples of a trope".

Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 15th 2021 at 1:15:08 PM

The three core pages for any work is the main page, trivia and ymmv where no tropes should be duplicated. Recap, character, review, analysis, heartwarming/awesome/tearjerker and similar subpages came about because editors were looking for ways to be more specific with the tropes and discussion, and since they invited more engagement (or directed certain commentary off the tropes) it became part of the overall organization tabs, but they were never intended to supplant the core pages. Even still, half the tropes in character pages are not really character tropes as much as "this trope happened to or was done by them" like Humiliation Conga.

To answer the original question, any duplicity of examples is grounds to be considered a "series-wide" trope because they may not go on any single character or recap page.

Personally, I view a trope as series-wide not if there are individual examples of it in multiple episodes, but rather if the context of one specific example isn't limited to one episode.

So, for example... random trope button... A Fête Worse than Death. If there are two separate episodes that happen to have two different Fêtes Worse Than Death, I'd put them both on the recap pages, but not on the main page. But if the fête lasts for two or more episodes, or is part of the show's whole premise, then it would be more of a main trope page thing.

We had this discussion about franchise wide examples in the MCU, and as far as I remember, it was decided that 3 examples are the way to go, unless the trope by nature describes the franchise as a whole (like Loads And Loads Of Characters) — then a single example is enough.

I think the same is true for series vs recap pages.

I think it would be nice to formalize it somehow, similar to how rules for creating Character Specific Pages were formalized recently.

Edited by Asherinka on Sep 16th 2021 at 8:36:38 PM