Sandbox / Moving Experience Time To Move Wick Check

The Moving Experience wick check:

• 92 wicks
• Intended target of 50 wicks (except I did one extra by accident)
• Current laconic: "Bob thinks Alice is moving to another city, but she's only moving across the street."

Time to Move wick check:

• 29 wicks
• Intended target of 29 wicks
• Current definition: "The man of the house decides to sell his family's home, but ends up meeting stiff resistance from the other members of his family. By the end of the episode, though, the move is cancelled."

The Moving Experience is for a specific plotline where a character thinks another character is moving very far away, but the character turns out to not be moving at all, or they're only moving a short distance away. However, some examples use this as equal to the trope Time to Move, where a character is planning to move but ends up not moving by the end of it. The latter trope is only barely used. In both cases, due to the vague names, the tropes may be misused for a character actually moving away, which could work as its own trope. In the case of Time to Move, there's another issue where it's limited to an adult deciding to move without the approval of other family members, particularly kids. This puts examples where a character decides to move without conflict from other family members into a weird place.

In short: The Moving Experience = mistakenly thinking someone is moving far away when they're not (or at least they're close enough to visit), Time to Move = someone genuinely plans to move away but changes the plans last minute. In neither scenario does the character actually get to move away.

Wick checks (potholes are bolded, and multiple on-page examples are only counted once per category, but all misuse on the page will be noted for context):

The Moving Experience (51 total)

Correct (26/51)

1. Series.Coop And Cami Ask The World: Coop thinks his friend Peyton is moving to Canada. Turns out her family sold their house and moved a few blocks away to Canada Street.
2. Recap.The Wonder Years S 03 E 23 Moving: At first Kevin thinks the family is moving, then he learns that Winnie is actually moving away instead. It's a subversion, but fits the "character thinks someone is moving when they're not" version of the trope.
3. WesternAnimation.Jakers The Adventures Of Piggley Winks: In one episode the gang is led to believe that Don Toro is preparing to move back to Spain when he and Ferny are only going away to Dublin for the weekend.
4. Series.Johnny And The Sprites: "Aloha, Johnny" in which some overheard information leads the Sprites to believe that Johnny is moving to Hawaii, when he's actually only going on vacation there to visit his older sister for a week.
5. TearJerker.The Magic Roundabout: Nigel Planer's re-narration of the 1971 episode, "Business Trip" (a.k.a. "Holidays") is rather melancholy, involving a Moving Experience plot with Mr. Rusty, Florence, and Dougal thinking that Brian is leaving the Garden forever.
6. Making Room for Baby: In Bobby's World, when Martha is pregnant with the twins, the family decides they need to move to a bigger house, much to Bobby's discomfort. In the end, they only move into a house across the street from their old one, so it's not as big of a deal as Bobby originally thinks. The fact they aren't actually moving far is what puts this here and not just Time to Move. The other on-page example is a "See also" pothole so I'm not bothered by it either way.
7. Recap.New Girl S 3 E 6: At the end, Schmidt resolves to move out, and it's treated as a sad moment for all involved...until we learn he's just moving across the hall.
8. WesternAnimation.Butterbeans Cafe: In "Cricket's Forever Friend," Cricket learns that her friend Dottie Hudson is moving away. Both are very sad about it, and Cricket even more so when they get into a fight because she didn't want to share her icing bag with her and Dottie leaves in a huff. Fortunately, it turns out that she and her family only moved around the corner, and she and Cricket are able to make up.
9. Literature.Little Critter: This is used in We are Moving. Little Critter and Little Sister are both very upset, but it turns out that they're just moving a short distance away, to a home nearby their elementary school. This is one of the few that actually tries to hide that the move isn't a big deal.
10. Series.Joe Pera Talks With You: In the first episode, a For Sale sign is placed in front of Joe's house accidentally. When a family visits and wants to look inside his home, Joe feels he has to honor their request. He then starts thinking that even though he didn't put the sign there, he still needs to sell his home, and begs the family not to buy his house.
11. VideoGame.Atelier Meruru The Apprentice Of Arland: Totori is called away for a brief visit to Arland. Meruru thinks that she's leaving Arls for good and gets very upset and runs off to sulk by herself. Totori returns after three days, having only supposed to have been gone for one day, but her sister Ceci wouldn't let her leave that soon. Meruru says that she should have told her the truth about the trip, but Totori points out that she never gave her the chance. Rufus points out "How could I tell a princess who refused to show herself?"
12. WesternAnimation.Recess: The episode "Bachelor Gus" has Gus getting afraid of having to move again after overhearing a conversation with his parents. It turns out they were only moving his bedroom to his dad's map room.
13. Series.Llanargollen: Mia Pia overhears Mrs. Tomos say "Enough is enough. I'm off," and interprets it as if she's moving away from Llan-ar-goll-en. Mia then sets off to tell Radli and Tara that Mrs. Tomos is leaving. To make matters worse, Mrs. Tomos then calls Tara and tells her that she's cancelled her hair appointment, and later she also tells Radli that she's getting her post. At the end of the episode, Mrs. Tomos clears up that she was just leaving the village to buy more polish in the supermarket, and that she wasn't leaving forever.
14. Anime.Smile Precure: Yayoi decides to play an April Fool's joke by saying that she was moving away. However, the person she told it to, Miyuki, believed it wholesale and went to tell everyone. Yayoi's unable to reveal the truth until Akaoni does it for her and the team is quite upset at this... until they realize that they only believed it because Miyuki believed it. It was a deliberate prank, but it still counts as a misunderstanding.
15. Characters.Big City Greens Allies: Just as she and Cricket start to bond, she reveals to him she has to leave for Montreal the same day. He thought she was moving there and will never see her again, but to his relief, she's just there for a vacation with her family. She reveals the truth shortly after they become a couple. Under Gabriella Espinosa's folder.
16. Secret Diary: In The Weekenders, Carter peeks at Tish's diary and finds out that she's moving away. It turns out, though, that it wasn't her diary he found—it was her novel, "Diary."
17. Surprise Party: In "Franklin's Party Plans" on the Animated Adaptation, Franklin and his friends throw Skunk a party because of a The Moving Experience situation - they think she's moving out of town and want to give her a good-bye party. It turns out she's only moving out of her old home in Woodland, but she appreciates the party nevertheless, as she was truly sad about moving, despite the fact that she wasn't leaving town.
18. Manga.Ah My Goddess: One chapter of the manga had Sentaro announce that his family was moving to another prefecture, forcing Skuld to confront her feelings for him before he leaves. Then it turned out that Nekomi is right on the prefecture border, and his new home is right on the other side of the same border, so he's still close enough that he can bike over and visit on occasion.
19. Series.Adventures In Wonderland: In the episode "Welcome Back Hatter," the Hatter wins a "castle" in a contest and everyone thinks he'll be moving away from Wonderland to live in it, but in the end it turns out that the castle is a tiny toy.
20. Recap.Craig Of The Creek S 2 E 01 Memories Of Bobby: The Creek Kids mourn Bobby moving away, acting as if he was dying. Then it turns out Bobby was just moving a few blocks away and is still at the creek.
21. Literature.Elephant And Piggie: "I Am Going!" features Piggie declaring just that, and Gerald taking it to mean that she's moving away and start panicking. Who will he skip with, play Ping-Pong with and wear silly hats with? When Piggie is finally able to get a word in edgewise, she explains that she's just going to lunch.
22. WesternAnimation.Ella The Elephant: "Tiki's Moving Day" - Ella overhears Tiki talking about having to move and how different things are going to be, so she and friends put on a parade, get her a butterfly house she's always wanted as well as books for her own library, all to try to get her to stay. It turns out Tiki's monkey is moving to another room in her house.
23. Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: The Moving Experience can often happen because of this. The usage in the description of this trope is related to the main point of importance: the misunderstanding.
24. Feud Episode: In "Cricket's Forever Friend" from Butterbean's Cafe, Cricket and her best friend Dottie Hudson are both highly upset after learning that Dottie is apparently moving away. They decide to have one last big day of fun together. At first, things seem to be going well, but then everything goes wrong when they get into a spat because Cricket doesn't want to share her icing bag. Dottie runs off in a huff and Cricket is sad that she'll never see her again, but Butterbean suggests making her a card to make up with her. She does so and they go to her house to deliver it, only to find that she's apparently already moved away. Luckily, it turns out that she had only moved around the corner of her old house. Dottie returns to the cafe with a card that she had made for Cricket, and they make up.
25. Recap.All In The Family S 1 E 8 Lionel Moves Into The Neighborhood: Lionel teases to Mike and Gloria that his family is moving ... then in the dramatic reveal tells that the address is 702 Hauser Street, the house right next door to the Bunkers!
26. Literature.Little Princess: In "I Don't Want to Leave Home," Little Princess overhears the King and Queen saying that she needs to "leave home," becomes convinced she's moving away for good. So when they send her on a trip to her great auntie's, she packs a huge suitcase and makes a huge production, and is in tears when Scruff and Puss are discovered in her luggage and kicked out.
    King: Oh, poppet. Back tomorrow, eh?
    Princess: What?! Tomorrow!?

Actually Time To Move (3/51)

1. Film.Max Keebles Big Move: Variation, as Max's family really is moving away, but [[folder:his dad decides to quit his job, so they end up not moving after all.]]
2. WesternAnimation.Peter Rabbit: In one episode, Dr. Bobtail considers moving to get Lily away from her friends' bad influences. To try and convince them otherwise, Peter and Benjamin try holding a picnic and being on their best behavior... while trying to keep the predators from crashing it.
3. Series.Andi Mack: In mid-Season 2, Buffy has to move to Phoenix when her mom gets a job there, but at the last minute, the job changes because of government cuts and she only moves one hour away. There's no misunderstanding, just a last minute change of plans, which better fits a downplayed Time to Move.

Character actually moves away / moves in (13/51)

1. Characters.World Trigger B Class Agents: Apparently, she is about to leave Mikado City. It happens in chapter 199, right after the end of the B-Rank Rank Wars Season.
2. Fanfic.Triptych Continuum: Somewhat distorted in 100% Move = 50% Fire, which is set near the end of Season #1. The move is very real, but the purpose is to complete Twilight's transition into Ponyville by clearing out the last of her things from her rooms at the Canterlot Archives.
3. Characters.Naruto Novels Only: She and Shigezane move from Suna to live with the Nara clan in Konoha. Under Hakuto's entry.
4. ComicBook.Hilda: A variation of this trope is in play when the plot has Hilda, her mom, and Twig adjusting to moving into their new home at Trolberg after their first house got wrecked in The Midnight Giant.
5. WebVideo.Yandere High School: Two examples, both are misuse.
   1. After a lawsuit from Doritos and being evicted from their first house, Sam and Taurtis are forced to move to another town. They still go to the same school, but they have to take more time to get there.
   2. Sam, Taurtis, Grian and Dom are all forced to move to Tokyo in Tokyo Soul where they go to a different school.
6. WesternAnimation.Sofia The First: "All The Sprite Moves" focuses on Vivian's family moving to a new castle. Vivian wants to stay in their old castle, and recruits the Wee Sprites to make it seem like the new castle is haunted. However, she soon realises that there's a lot about the castle that she likes, so she changes her mind, and accepts the move.
7. Clarence.Tropes A To M: In "Sumo Goes West", Sumo is getting transferred to West Aberdale Elementary and Clarence tries to find some way to get him to stay at Aberdale Elementary. By the end, Sumo ends up transferred to West Aberdale and the episode ends with him still there. Seems to be a variant about transferring schools, which could possibly be its own trope.
8. Series.The New Normal: Goldie has come to LA all the way from Ohio with her daughter Shania, in order to give them both a better life.
9. Halfway Plot Switch: Madeline in London at first revolves around Pepito's unhappiness at having to move to London and leave Madeline and the other girls behind. But when Madeline and friends come to visit him for his birthday, the rest of the plot involves their misadventures with the horse they buy as a present for him.
10. Series.Still Game: The very first episode deals with Jack moving into Osprey Heights, next door to Victor.
11. Literature.The Berenstain Bears: The book Moving Day flashbacks to before Sister Bear was born and the Bear family lived in a cave, before deciding to move to their split-level tree house in Bear Country. When the book was adapted into a TV episode (in the PBS/Nelvana series), the story was appropriately told in flashback and book-ended with Brother and Sister being distraught that two of their friends from school will be moving away.
12. ComicBook.Jan Jans En De Kinderen: Used twice, both during the earlier years of the series. The first move had the family move from their apartment to a regular house, and the second one from said house (revealed to be located in Rotterdam) to a farm in Drenthe (a more rural area of the Netherlands).
13. ComicBook.El Deafo: Cece moves to another state after Kindergarten and leaves her first best friend,Emma,behind.

Other misuse (2/51)

1. Recap.Odd Squad S 1 E 40 O Is Not For Over: The episode has shades of this — the precinct that Olive is moving to is in the next town over and isn't far; Otto knows this, but Odd Todd convinces him that if Olive moves away, he'll never see her again, and attempts to convince Otto to join him in order to hold Olive back from moving. Otto does, but it's revealed near the climax that Otto has come to terms with Olive moving away and him joining Odd Todd was done to permanently get rid of him. By the end of the episode, he gets to be a Co-Director alongside Olive in the same precinct. There's no misunderstanding involved here.
2. The Moving Experience: While listed as aversions, both of these examples seem to use the definition as "character moves," and both examples in the first bullet point better fit Time to Move.
   1. Twice. Both instances very close to being averted. The first time this happens, in "Farewell Bijou!", ended with Maria's parents deciding to not move after all. The second time is in the Japan-only episode "Tottoko o Wakare! Chika Hausu", which it has Hamtaro as the one who is moving away, but, again, the Haruna family decided against moving at last minute, as well.
   2. However, it is unfortunately averted with Travis, who really ended up moving in the Japan-only episode "Tottoko Tabidachi! Haru no Kaze". Poor Laura...

ZCE/Unclear (7/51)

1. Series.Beverly Hills 90210: Under Time to Move: Subverted in season 5, when Jim and Cindy Walsh did leave for Hong Kong, thus becoming The Moving Experience...on a different continent. They intended to sell the house, which led to their son Brandon (daughter Brenda having left for London a year earlier) deciding to have a destructive rave at the home, as the new potential owners were intending to destroy the house after the sale was made. However, the real estate agent came during the rave, and informed Brandon that the house fell out of escrow, thus the Walshes were still the owners of the house. This led to Brandon and his friends having to clean up the mess after the rave ended. Brandon and numerous of his friends (Steve, Valerie, David, etc.) lived in the house through the remainder of the show, even after Brandon himself left for Washington D.C. in early season 9, which meant that none of the owners or related family members lived in the house in the final two seasons. It may be a valid example of Time to Move, but it's hard to tell if it's The Moving Experience given all this information.
2. Characters.Wrestle Angels Special: Unusually, she happens to enjoy it, and the feeling of "moving" all over the place is one of the perks of being a wrestler she loves most. This is so low on context that I can't tell if this is about actually moving houses or just moving her body.
3. Series.Liv And Maddie: "Move-A-Rooney."
4. Recap.Big Hero 6 The Series S 3 E 01 The Hyper Potamus Pizza Party Torium: Fred and Hiro worry that with Wasabi, Honey Lemon and GoGo graduating and looking for jobs, they might end up moving away, leaving only half a team. It's unclear if this is a misunderstanding of the situation, paranoia, or a reasonable understanding of the situation.
5. WesternAnimation.The Angry Beavers: "Pack Your Dags"
6. Characters.Free: Friendless Background: Ikuya had no friends (other than his brother) before joining the swim club. After Haru, Makoto, and Asahi quit the swim team, he starts questioning if they were ever friends in the first place and starts disconnecting with people. Pothole in spoiler, not enough context given.
7. ComicStrip.Little Lulu: The Trope Namer is a Little Lulu cartoon that had this premise.

Results:

• Correct: 51%
• Used as Time to Move: 6%
• Character actually moves: 25%
• Other misuse: 4%
• ZCE/unclear: 14%

Time to Move (29 total)

Correct (13/29)

1. Plots: The man of the house decides it's time to move and the rest of the family attempts to stop this.
2. DarthWiki.My Beautiful Soul: Emily finds a nearby apartment with cheaper rent, and all of them prepare to move... until Luis, who has made himself comfortable where he is and dislikes the idea of moving, sabatoges the new apartment to make it look like it's run by a slum lord.
3. Film.Loveling: Claus would like to sell the family's holiday home to fund his new busines project. Irene is reluctant because this house means a lot to her. Subverted: in the end, the move happens. While the character does actually move, it's marked as a subversion, which leads me to believe the trope is used correctly here based on the described setup leading into the move.
4. Film.Meet Me In St Louis: This is the primary conflict of the film. At Halloween, Mr. Smith announces that they're moving to New York, because he's being transferred there for his work. Of course, as per the definition of the trope, he calls it off in the end.
5. Recap.Family Guy S 11 E 20 Farmer Guy: The Griffins move to a farm to in order to escape the high crime rate of Quahog, though they end up moving back at the end of the episode after the farm is destroyed in an explosion. '''They technically do go through with the move, but the "not actually moving permanently" / Status Quo Is God aspect of the trope is retained.
6. Recap.Family Guy S 14 E 7 Hot Pocket Dial: Quagmire decides to move to another place after his conflict with Peter regarding his feelings towards Lois because his house is right next to Peter's and that living next to Peter will cause more tension between the two. He moves back to his old house by the end of the episode. Same as above.
7. Recap.Sydney To The Max S 1 E 14 As Bad As She Gets: Leo plans to move back to Portland to be with Max, but LJ refuses to move and insists Sydney and Olive to help him sabotage the plans.
8. Recap.The Powerpuff Girls S 3 E 2 Town And Out Child Fearing: The professor moves himself and the girls from Townsville to Citiesville at the start of the episode, but after they all grow to hate their new home, they move back.
9. Recap.The Sopranos S 6 E 10 Moe N Joe: Subverted. Ginny doesn't want to leave the house when Johnny Sack sells it. But she's utterly powerless to stop the deal when Mafia interests are also at stake. Again, it's noted as a subversion, implying the trope is used correctly.
10. Series.Beverly Hills 90210: The first season finale of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 featured Jim Walsh getting a promotion back to Minnesota, and was met with resistance from Brenda, Brandon, and surprisingly, Cindy, all of whom grew accustomed to life in Beverly Hills. It went as far as a going-away party thrown by Brenda and Brandon's friends before Jim changed his mind, thus allowing the family to stay in Cali.
11. Series.The Partridge Family: "For Sale by Owner" starts out as an inversion - the kids want to move, while Shirley wants to stay. Eventually the kids come around to Shirley's point of view, but by that point Reuben has already made a deal to sell the house. The kids spend the rest of the episode trying to get out of the contract. This seems like a sensible inversion.
12. VideoGame.Patty And Mr Miles: Part of the story is trying to convince Daryll out of moving away from the village.
13. WesternAnimation.Caspers Scare School: The main plot of the episode "Ghost Bust a Move", in which Casper, Ra, Mantha and Wolfie try to help Jimmy from having to move away from Deedstown to a small desert town.

Actually The Moving Experience (1/29)

1. Recap.The Wonder Years S 03 E 23 Moving: Kevin is unhappy when he thinks Jack wants to sell the house, but after Jack sets him straight on things, he learns that Winnie will be moving two miles away.

Character successfully moves away / moves in (5/29)

1. Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: In Madeline In London, Pepito is so unhappy about having to move to London and leave his Paris friends behind that he just picks at his food and loses weight until he looks like a stick. This is what makes his parents invite Miss Clavel and the girls to London for a visit.
2. Characters.Girls Of The Wild: They are being forced to move out of the neighborhood due to another company renovating their property.
3. ComicBook.Jan Jans En De Kinderen: Used 3 times so far. The family first moved from their old home to another home in an unnamed city, then to a farm in the Dutch countryside in the province of Drenthe, and in 2021 they moved again after Jan lost his job due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
4. Literature.The Vast Fields Of Ordinary: Except Dade's dad succeeds in moving. Also a ZCE.
5. Webcomic.Forest Hill: Plot arcs have included moving to the eponymous city...

Other misuse (2/29)

1. ComicBook.Hot Stuff The Little Devil: There is a story about Hot Stuff being really unhappy living in his cave and he moves several times in the story, just to realize his old cave was better than he thought. The description implies this trope requires an adult making the decision and resistance from the others in the family. This is a character making the decision independently, seemingly without backlash from anybody but himself.
2. Adult Tropes: The age of majority approaches and so does the time one has to move out of their parents' house. Despite being on an index, this is not the given definition of the trope. The current definition has the parents force the whole family to move.

ZCE/Unclear (8/29)

1. Series.What I Like About You: Played straight in "Tyler v. World", subverted in "The Loft" & "I Want My Baby Back".
2. HeyArnold.Tropes Q To Z: "Casa Paradiso" had Grandpa Phil try to move out of the boarding house along with Arnold and Gertie. While it does fit the definition according to the episode summary, the example lacks the context to clarify that they don't actually move.
3. Recap.Amphibia S 2 E 36 True Colors: Marcy reveals that on Anne's birthday, her dad got a new job out of state and her whole family is moving away; the reason she used the Calamity Box to teleport the girls to Amphibia was so they'd never have to be apart. Not sure if if running away before the move counts as a variant?
4. Recap.Antique Bakery Ep 12 The Unending Nightmare: Since Keiichiro no longer needs him, Chikage decides it's time for him to move into his own place. Not enough details on whether this is successful or not.
5. Recap.Odd Squad S 1 E 35 The Curious Case Of Pirateitis Oscar The Couch: Parodied with Otto and Olive moving the couch along a narrow hallway. Naturally, Hilarity Ensues when both agents complain about it, even more so when Otto manages to create what is implied to be a big rip in the couch.
   Otto: Are you even lifting at your end?
   Olive: Of course I am!
6. Recap.The Sopranos S 3 E 3 Fortunate Son: Completely inverted. Tony can't stand having Janice around, so he convinces Svetlana to move out of Livia's house, and thereafter obliges Janice to move into it. Is this really an inversion?
7. Series.Beverly Hills 90210: Subverted in season 5, when Jim and Cindy Walsh did leave for Hong Kong, thus becoming The Moving Experience...on a different continent. They intended to sell the house, which led to their son Brandon (daughter Brenda having left for London a year earlier) deciding to have a destructive rave at the home, as the new potential owners were intending to destroy the house after the sale was made. However, the real estate agent came during the rave, and informed Brandon that the house fell out of escrow, thus the Walshes were still the owners of the house. This led to Brandon and his friends having to clean up the mess after the rave ended. Brandon and numerous of his friends (Steve, Valerie, David, etc.) lived in the house through the remainder of the show, even after Brandon himself left for Washington D.C. in early season 9, which meant that none of the owners or related family members lived in the house in the final two seasons. Like the other wick check, this entry's so detailed that I can't quite tell if they ever actually moved or not.
8. Series.Vegas 2012: Done with a Savoy Casino/Hotel maid, averted since the family didn't object to go to Florida with expenses paid up thanks to the Chicago mob to ensure that she won't be able to be in a court.