Where do you go to read the latest about new tropes?
What about old tropes with new names?
How can you find the best but least linked tropes out there?
Worry no more: Trope Report is here.
What about old tropes with new names?
How can you find the best but least linked tropes out there?
Worry no more: Trope Report is here.
Trope Report is a monthly newsletter that intends to showcase works and tropes from all corners of this website. It also aims to keep the troper hivemind updated with pertinent trope changes and discussions.
November has arrived. While some will be feasting on turkey, many authors will be hard at work writing for National Novel Writing Month. It's also the time of year that stores get a head start on Christmas merchandise, if they haven't already started.
On the wiki, No Real Life Examples, Please! has been revamped. Previously, tropes were sorted based on why real-life examples are forbidden, whether it was due to attracting gossip, being too common or impossible, being a narrative element, or being too controversial. Naturally, some tropes would be listed for multiple reasons. Now, the tropes are sorted alphabetically, making things a lot neater. The Trope Repair Shop has also performed overhauls on well-established tropes such as Canada Eh and Bokukko, as well as further updates on Guttural Growler and Catchphrase.
Happy troping!
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Tropes and Works
Trope Spotlight
Obscure Tropes
This section highlights older tropes that need a boost.- Families gather near and far to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. For some, this involves a long car trip, often with riders with different music tastes. When it goes out of hand for the unprepared, you have yourself a Car Radio Dispute, as the riders will disagree on what types of songs to play on the way there. The page went on air in 2015, but as of this month, only 37 pages are tuned in.
- Imagine you arrive somewhere and find that whoever you were looking for is gone — but they've left behind a steaming cup of tea and a pizza in the oven, indicating that they only just left. This is what's known as a Fresh Clue, and it can help characters solve all kinds of mysteries. 83 uses of this trope have been identified so far — but fresh new examples are piping hot and ready to be discovered the next time you go and investigate some media.
- November 19 is World Toilet Day, an official United Nations observance day that encourages people to take action to improve global sanitation. Unfortunately, as of writing, 4.2 billion people still have no access to such global sanitation. In fiction, characters in poverty might have to make do with a Toilet Paper Substitute, when other objects are used in place of toilet paper. That said, the trope can be used in other scenarios, such as rich people being punished for their greed, and can be used for other reasons, such as the person liking the object in question for being softer than the toilet paper. Despite being launched in 2016, this trope currently has only 37 wicks.
New Tropes
This section brings attention to recently-launched tropes that could use a little help to really get rolling.- Imagine that you are a member of a species nearing extinction. You may feel unnerved, rushing to score a potential mate. You may try to hold out to ensure your species' survival. What's this? An article about preserving your species? Time to...cause havoc and get away with it? You just did a Last One's Ploy, a trope centering around a Last of His Kind exploiting mandated protections for what they're worth. This trope was discovered on October 20, so any efforts to populate it will be appreciated.
Work Spotlight
New Work Page Spotlight
This section covers newer work pages that could use a little help.- Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the newest installment in Nintendo's classic franchise, and its first traditional 2D platformer since New Super Mario Bros. U, which released almost 11 years ago. This time, Mario and friends are paying a visit to the Flower Kingdom when Bowser attacks and uses the powers of the Wonder Flower to merge himself with Prince Florian's castle. Now it's up to them to save the day! The game received a lot of attention even before release thanks to its art style and innovating mechanics. As such, due to the frequent edits, the page could use a look-over.
Older/Obscure Work Spotlight
This section is intended to highlight works that may no longer be in the zeitgeist — but that doesn't mean they're any less tropable.- item asylum is "a meme and reference-filled randomizer fighting experience" — a fighting game where you duke it out with a melee weapon, an ranged item, and a miscellaneous item to use against others, ranging from a simple stick to a bulky bobm (yes, that's how it's spelled in-game). There are various game modes available, alongside a variety of emotes and titles to show off to other players. Currently, the game is having a Halloween update, which adds in more items and more bosses. As denoted by the tagline of the game, there are so many references to other Roblox games and other media that we are having trouble finding the references from certain items, so help would be appreciated finding them.
Works That Need a Page
This section takes a page from the List of Shows That Need Summary. It is intended to spotlight works that people have been talking about enough to link around the site, but don't have a page yet. If the work page link turns blue after this, then we know we've done our job!- Virche Evermore -ERROR: Salvation- note is a title from Otomate's ever expanding catalogue of Otome games for the Nintendo Switch, with an English release this month by Aksys Games. The story takes place in an island called Arpéchéle where a curse causes the people living there to only live until they are 23. In an attempt to live much longer, they developed a memory download system where once they die, they can be revived through memory. The protagonist is an 18-year old woman simply named "Death", as she brings death to anyone before the curse can consume them. She later joins a "Watchman of Death", as she and a few others investigate the mysteries of the island. With a beautifully haunting art style and star-studded cast of Japanese voice actors (such as Soma Saito, Daisuke Hirakawa and Yoshimasa Hosoya), this visual novel is one to check out for those into romance and/or macabre themes.
- Sodikken is a musician who, despite having only started actively posting a couple years ago, has become fairly popular, with their most popular video on YouTube having over 5 million views. The reason for this popularity can be seen from their creative musical works and inventive character designs. Despite this, no one seems to have taken the time to make their page.
Non-English Work Spotlight
The wiki may be in English, but that doesn't mean non-English media are any less important! This section focuses on works that may have a language barrier to deal with — but are worth it if you do.- Familijny CD Romek was a Polish series of CD-ROM games for children, created in 1999 by Longsoft Multimedia. Aside from being packed with puzzles and other activities, each disc within the series included a 2D-animated film adaptation of a story or fairy tale, such as Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, or Snow White, set to CGI backdrops. If you live outside of Poland or Czechia, you might recognize these films as the ones ported onto the PlayStation 2 by Phoenix Games, translated and dubbed. However, some of these films were never ported or dubbed, and some have also become lost media, but if you are fluent in Polish, the page can still be improved with more tropes. Additionally, tropes and audience reactions for these games on Phoenix Games' page should be moved to Familijny CD Romek.
- Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is a direct sequel to the classic RPG Star Ocean: The Second Story and was released on June 28, 2001 for the Game Boy Color. After the two heroes of the game, Claude and Rena, are left stranded on a planet, the rest of the crew, led by Precis, have to go and rescue them. The game did not receive an English release, but director and producer Yuichiro Kitao has stated he would love to export it if there's fan support behind it. With the release of The Second Story R this month, you can help add more tropes to the page and give it some much needed love.
Creator Page Spotlight
Works would be nothing without the people who make them. This section highlights authors, artists, actors, musicians, and everyone else responsible for trope creation and proliferation.- Crush 40 is a Hard Rock duo founded in 1998 by Sega composer Jun Senoue and Hardline frontman Johnny Gioeli. The duo's first composition, "Open Your Heart", served as the theme to Sonic Adventure, and they later gained prominence for "Live and Learn", the theme to Sonic Adventure 2. They later created more songs for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, including games like Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic and the Black Knight, as well as several original songs such as "2 Nights 2 Remember" and "Is It You?".
Image of the Month
This section brings you the best selections of the past month from Image Pickin'.
This issue's featured image comes from K009 Comics, and illustrates Dead Fic.
This issue's featured image comes from K009 Comics, and illustrates Dead Fic.
And it was just starting to get good too!
Classic scenario: you just fell in love with an old work at Archive of Our Own that your friend recommended to you and your eyes are glued to the digital pages. The writing is impeccable, and as a nice bonus it focuses on your favorite ship. Having read 13 chapters already, you decide to do one more before going to bed...
...only to realize there's no more left. You panic. "Maybe it'll be updated soon", you think to yourself in vain, but this turns out not to be so—the fic last updated in 2009. You rage. Now you'll never know if Alice and Bob get together, or if they even manage to get out of that death trap alive. Welcome to the world of Dead Fics, the bane of fanfic readers everywhere.
The pic
for this trope was by one K009 on Tumblr, whose work unfortunately doesn't have a page on the wiki yet. Most of said work is four-panel strips based on some of the author's favorite works, such as Batman, Persona, Pokémon and Haikyuu!!, yet there are also some original ones in there as well, such as this one. The reason why this pic is our Image of the Month is because, despite our overly dramatic joking, this situation really is something that most of us have gone through at some point or another.
Anyway, this bit will be updated later to add a real conclusion. Or maybe it won't! Who knows?
Projects and Discussions
Forumwatch
Hey guys! Welcome back to Forumwatch! In this section, we'll be telling you about what's going on in the forums — interesting discussions that may be going on in Wiki Talk, some fun forum games, or lively debates going on in On-Topic Conversations, you name it!
- November may be the month where everyone rushes to finish a novel, but you may not be the kind to enjoy Writing by the Seat of Your Pants. You may want to come up with a plan first, such as how your alien soldiers should best attack the swamp planet of the nearby galaxy. If that's the sort of thing you're wondering about, hop on over to the Sci-Fi Military Tactics and Strategy thread in the World Building subforum today.
Trope/Article Changelog
This section covers renames, removals, redefinitions, hard-splits, merges, and wick cleaning. We'll try to keep you alerted to any major changes to the site, including perpetual projects and Wiki Talk decisions that you may have missed, but if you want to be a part of the process that affects so much of our wiki, then head over to the Trope Repair Shop on the left-hand side of the forum.
- Bokukko was turned into a definition-only page, since it's just a characteristic of a tomboy that was likely not tropeworthy on its own. TRS thread here.
- Canada Eh, a trope for stereotyped portrayals of Canada, will be renamed to Moose and Maple Syrup because its easily potholed name saw too much misuse for any mention of Canada. The concept of stereotypically polite Canadians has also been split off into a TLP draft. TRS thread here.
- Catchphrase was turned into an index in a TRS decision last month. Now it's renamed Index of Catchphrases to discourage linking to it. TRS thread here.
- Elemental Ignorance has been cut, as it was not thriving and its usage overlapped with healthier tropes. TRS thread here.
- Guttural Growler was disambiguated (with Raspy And Tough kept as a redirect) since the trope for raspy voice = tough character has not been able to launch at TLP. TRS thread here.
- Juggalo was determined to be "Juggalos exist" and the page merged with the existing Useful Notes page on Juggalos. TRS thread here.
- Indexing for No Real Life Examples, Please! has been revamped, and tropes are now alphabetized rather than categorized by reason for forbidding real life examples. Discussions start here and here.
- Straw Angst was cut, as a confusing description kept it from thriving. TRS thread here.
- Tax Deductions was merged with Taxman Takes the Winnings, as it wasn't thriving. Additionally, since the name was misusing a preexisting term, the page itself was cut, with the proper meaning yarded. TRS thread here
- Those Two Animals was deemed not tropeworthy and cut. TRS thread here.
- Toy Commercial was cut because it was not thriving, even by the reduced standards for advertising tropes. TRS thread here.
Pages Needing Help
This section highlights articles indexed on the Pages Needing Wiki Magic policy page and sub-pages. Such articles are, at best, under-performing and below wiki standards. At worst, these pages are in violation of the wiki's rules against stubs. If you're an editor, try checking out some of these under-performing trope and work articles to see what improvements you can make to the page.
- This month's birthday is Cherry Jones, an award-winning Broadway performer who also appeared in film and television. With such an extensive acting career, she could use a full list of roles to cover them all, along with a more refined description. Tropes about her roles are welcome as well.
- Brown Paperbag is an Indian Gag Per Day Webcomic, made with the idea to depict funny little ironies in urban Indian life. This month welcomes the Hindu festival of lights, Deepavali, which symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and the like. In its current state, the webcomic's work page only just stays afloat of the dark confines of the cutlist, and could use the much needed light of a more fleshed-out description, examples with context, and crosswicking.
- "Say My Name" Trailer is a trailer-based trope that calls out the titular character by name, sometimes in a montage. It serves to ensure viewers remember the work's title. Unfortunately, it needs callouts of its own, due to having only 21 wicks. A majority of the on-page examples also have no context.
Project Spotlight
Looking for a project to dedicate some time to, but not comfortable jumping into large threads? Here are some smaller projects, or more recent discussions, in need of a few more hands.
- Our pages for Dream SMP deserve a huge cleanup, as they have attracted Natter, Word Cruft, trope misuse, factual errors, and Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement-violating edits, which began to appear when the servers were still ongoing. If you would like to aid in keeping the page free from any issues, come join the Dream SMP Cleanup thread.
- On several character pages, there are some extensive descriptions which include stats, favorite things or birthdays. As stated on How to Create a Character Page, "A short summary that familiarizes the reader with the character's basic premise will suffice." If you want to help clean up and trim said descriptions, you can join the Cleaning Up Lengthy Character Descriptions thread.
Know the Contributors
- FernandoLemon writes for Work Spotlight and Image of the Month. He's trying his best.
- War Jay 77 wrote for Forumwatch, Trope Spotlight, and this month's sponsor. This November, she's working frantically on her next novel and cooking the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving.
- gjjones writes for the Project Spotlight section. He also frequently spends his time working on projects whenever they are necessary, cleaning up wiki entries and participating in the ATT and Trope Repair Shop threads.
- 𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 wrote for the Changelog this month.
- Halloween 2 celebrator plakythebirb writes for Works That Need a Page.
- callmeamuffin wrote for this month's Trope Spotlight, Work Spotlight, and Project Spotlight. Outside of Trope Report, you can find him in the Forum Games forum.
- Berrenta wrote for Trope Spotlight and Pages Needing Help, while also covering for the Changelog and description. She usually goes for the turkey leg during Thanksgiving time.
- Cardboard Bot used to draw art for Trope Report and designed the mascot, along with the default image.
- Twiddler makes sure our grammar is in order.
- Cutegirl920fire has fallen into a food coma from her Thanksgiving dinner and was unable to contribute this month.
- Black Faith Star wrote for Pages Needing Help this month. When she is online, she tends to her own cleanup and work page projects, and can sometimes be found in cleanup or Forum Games threads.
- Ayumi-chan dived into the waters of the Trope Report, wrote for the Work Spotlight, and managed to get to shore in time for All Saints Day.
- Siegfried1337 wrote for the Older/Obscure Work Spotlight.
- Trope Reporter (real name Taylor Von Trope) is the mascot for Trope Report whose TV head is used as this edition's image.
This edition of Trope Report is brought to you by Mann Corp. Tank Mann may be missing, but Trool Day celebrations are still on. Pick up some lemon muffins or browse their selection of battle machines to keep you safe during the long warr.
Interested in becoming a contributor, or have suggestions for works or tropes to feature? Pop by the thread and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)
and let us know! We don't bite. (Much.)