TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Random Questions Thread

Go To

Hello, fellow writers! Got any question that you can't find answer from Google or Wikipedia, but you don't think it needs a separate thread for? You came to the right place!

Don't be shy, and just ask away. The nice folks here, writers and non-writers, experts and non-experts, will do their best to help you.

The folder below contains links for special interest threads, mostly at OTC, but also from Yack Fest and Troper Coven.

    Special Interest Threads 

Also take a look at Useful Notes on various topics. They can be pretty useful.

Now, bring on the questions, baby!

edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29751: Dec 11th 2024 at 11:01:15 AM

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 13th 2024 at 8:05:43 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Nukeli Since: Aug, 2018
#29752: Dec 11th 2024 at 11:42:02 AM

What text emojis is this list missing?

:) — XD — :( — :| — :/ — :'( — :') — ;) — :3 — >:( — >:) — 8D — O_O — o.o — O.o

I'm trying to come up with all the basic text emojis, so i can invent nonhuman-headed/faced robot versions of them, also using only roman alphabet keyboads because that's what the robots have.

I don't really use emojis a lot myself, especially not text emojis, and i'm sure i'm forgetting the existence of some.

Edited by Nukeli on Dec 11th 2024 at 9:43:56 PM

~*bleh*~
Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#29753: Dec 11th 2024 at 12:00:12 PM

Not much off an emoji/emoticon user, but...

  • OwO (catlike curiosity)
  • tU_Ut (flipping the bird)
  • T_T (crying)
  • X_X (dead)
  • >_< (stress)
  • >_> <_< (looking to the side)
  • \(^o^)/ (excitement)
  • <3 (heart)
  • 8===D (... happy guy with long nose and goggles...)

Probably more, but these are pretty simple, and the excited one was the first one I thought of.

Edited by Marchen on Dec 11th 2024 at 9:00:58 PM

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29754: Dec 11th 2024 at 12:21:41 PM

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 13th 2024 at 8:35:50 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Nukeli Since: Aug, 2018
#29755: Dec 14th 2024 at 3:33:57 AM

Does anybody know what exactly does "Down" mean in place names? "(Something) Down"?

Edited by Nukeli on Dec 14th 2024 at 1:34:59 PM

~*bleh*~
Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#29756: Dec 14th 2024 at 3:38:15 AM

If wikipedia is trustworthy...

Down is used in the name of geographical features or locations that are downland or close to downland

Edit: Downland being a specific type geographical feature common to England characterized by chalk hills and probably more stuff as well.

Edited by Marchen on Dec 14th 2024 at 12:40:01 PM

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
LoneCourier0 The Wandering Geek from A Diverse Land (Unitroper) Relationship Status: How YOU doin'?
The Wandering Geek
#29757: Dec 14th 2024 at 9:31:38 AM

How hard hitting does this quote sound?

"Saying it's not your problem is the perfect recipe for it to become yours."

"Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try."
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29758: Dec 14th 2024 at 10:42:09 AM

[up] @ Lone Courier 0

Actually it's a perfect one, a short and snappy distillation of the sentiment expressed in the famous "When they came for..." poem.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Demetrios Lucky Seven from Des Plaines, Illinois (unfortunately) Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Nukeli Since: Aug, 2018
#29760: Dec 14th 2024 at 11:19:10 PM

How could i justify a terrestrial alien creature having tentacles (and no legs or arms)?

There's propably some reason only aquatic animals have them on Earth.

~*bleh*~
Florien The They who said it from statistically, slightly right behind you. Since: Aug, 2019
The They who said it
#29761: Dec 15th 2024 at 4:11:03 AM

What is an elephant's trunk if not a tentacle?

More to the point the main reason we don't see tentacles on land animals typically is because tentacles are what happens when something without bones on or in its limbs needs to grab something. Essentially everything on land either has bones in grabbing limbs (arthropods included, they just have them outside) or is competing against things that do grabbing better because they have those bones, and so never get around to evolving them.

In water the situation is different, because there is an advantage to being able to both swim and grab, but bony limbs are fairly bad for swimming, thus having prehensile tentacles is a good strategy (as are stinging tentacles which trail and increase potential surface area to catch prey with, something you can't really do on land.)

I'm assuming this is about prehensile ones, though, so as I said, the elephant has a tentacle. The main thing standing in the way of land creatures doing that more is that there's usually better grabbing tools to use, limbs with bones are generally better. Elephants are profoundly unusual about this, and it's primarily because they're large that they can use a tentacle, because their feet cannot grab (due to elephants being too big to have dexterous feet) and they got lucky enough to be in a niche where a long flexible nose was selected for before they got that big, and also don't have modular body plans like most arthropods where they could just gain another set of limbs through random mutation which could change purpose over time.

So one way to justify it is scale, a large herbivore or omnivore without a modular body could evolve one (not sure how they'd get more than one, maybe they get a bifrucated nose or something to get two? There's not a lot of other non-modular structures I can think of that could become tentacles, Bilateral Symmetry is widespread among large mobile animals for a reason, and if they have a modular plan they're going to just use a bunch of pairs of legs instead, so I don't know how to super-realistically get more.) Then again most people probably won't care where the aliens got their tentacles evolutionarily speaking.

I don't think you can realistically give a land creature only tentacles though.

Edited by Florien on Dec 15th 2024 at 4:12:04 AM

Nukeli Since: Aug, 2018
#29762: Dec 15th 2024 at 4:48:04 AM

[up]

What if their ancestors came from the sea?

Not sure if it'd be plausible for the tentacles to not become something else in the time it would propably take to get from sharp rocks to nuclear weapons though.

~*bleh*~
Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#29763: Dec 15th 2024 at 4:55:09 AM

[up] I mean, on earth every animal and plant has ancestors that came from the sea. It seems to me that Speculative Biologists tend to go with that particular interpretation of life as well. From a cursory glance, it seems that going from a fully aquatic lifestyle to a fully... landlocked one is pretty difficult, and I'm not sure any animal has done that twice (such as a whale that re-adapted for life on land), which is how I'm actually interpreting your "ancestors from the sea" thing.

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
Allisterarch Water-Breathing Human from Ridiculous Procrastination zone (Striking Back) Relationship Status: love is a deadly lazer
#29764: Dec 15th 2024 at 5:58:10 AM

The reason land vertebrates evolved thick bones is, simply put, gravity. Same reason trees evolved thick barks. Sea creatures have buoyance on their favor, and bones are a bit of a resource sink as well as too heavy—this is why marine mammals shrank theirs.note  The abundance of UVB rays means the ancestors of the tetrapoda lineage were favorally selected due to finding a way of naturally producing vitamin D (very important for the fixation of calcium in our bones). Bony fish can't produce their own vitamin D, and cartilaginous fish are a whole 'nother beast.

Perhaps this fictional world has conditions that favors cephalopods evolving a land-dwelling lineage. Elephant trunks as well as octopus tentacles or—wait for it—our tongues are muscular hydrostats, a muscular structure with no skeleton. They'd be of course primarily crawlers.

A land creature with tentacles would be essentially a crawling Flower Tongue with a life on its own. (My apologies for the image that probably spawned in your head.)

Edited by Allisterarch on Dec 15th 2024 at 11:17:31 AM

If Aquaman is "Nobody's favorite superhero", then I am Odysseus. (They/Them) (Troper Wall)
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29765: Dec 15th 2024 at 6:15:57 AM

I'm wondering when (if ever) a group of characters will realize the monster they're dealing with is a werewolf, especially since it does not follow a lot of the "traditional" rules/appearance of one.

To explain:

I'm thinking of writing several stories within the universe of my current project, mostly ones set prior to the events of the main story. One of them is a story in which either a lone hiker or a group of hikers encounter a werewolf in the remote wilderness of Canada "blank spots".

This is not a normal werewolf, but one of the rare "feral" types that have completely lost their humanity and sense of self and exist as mindless destructive predators permanently trapped in their wolf form.

There are a number of reasons I wonder if they'd immediately think "werewolf" and one of them is the thing's appearance—-werewolves in this story do not look like the stereotypical half man/half wolf types but are instead look like massive wolves the size of horses or even larger. There's more (and I'm willing to elaborate) but I wonder if it would be realistic/understandable to have them remain ignorant of its true nature, even when it begins doing things like talking and regenerates from injuries they inflict on it.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
C105 Too old for this from France Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Too old for this
#29766: Dec 16th 2024 at 3:25:15 AM

[up] If the characters have no knowledge of the supernatural and no specific inclination to believe in it, they could simply rationalise everything they saw. Especially if the conditions are not very good (night, etc), so that they could honestly come to believe they faced a particularly tough wild beast.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29767: Dec 16th 2024 at 5:38:48 AM

[up] @ C105:

Thanks for the input. I wonder if this might change things a little, since I didn't really go into a lot of detail, which is kind of on me. The characters don't have any working knowledge of the supernatural, at least not outside the usual horror movies and books.

The encounter with the feral werewolf takes place over the span of a several days and nights, with them engaging in a kind of "cat and mouse" game with it as it hunts them. So, they definitely get a good look at it in daylight at certain points. Also, as I mentioned above, it starts doing extremely bizarre things like speaking actual human words (although they are somewhat nonsensical, and they don't have context).

To kind of conclude...

The reason it's so important that the hikers realize it is a werewolf is because the way they eventually drive it off (not kill it) is through the use of whatever silver they have in their possession, which of course requires them to understand the nature of the monster.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 16th 2024 at 5:43:20 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Nukeli Since: Aug, 2018
#29768: Dec 16th 2024 at 6:46:45 AM

[up]

They could also just accidentally discover it's weak to/afraid of silver without knowing it's a werewolf.

~*bleh*~
C105 Too old for this from France Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Too old for this
#29769: Dec 16th 2024 at 6:53:07 AM

[up][up] Oh, OK. I thought the purpose was for them not to realise what they were up against. Well, with that context, I guess it is not too much of stretch for one character to eventually try using silver as a weapon (as in "ok guys since it seems we are dealing with a horror movie monster, let's try using holy symbols and silver").

Edited by C105 on Dec 16th 2024 at 3:53:16 PM

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#29770: Dec 16th 2024 at 6:55:04 AM

[up][up][up] Not sure if it's exactly "logical" to deduce that the freaky wolf is a werewolf, but considering that they likely have no idea what's happening it's not inconceivable that they'll run out of options and guess that the weird wolf is some kind of werewolf and try using silver. That's how I see it, at least.

Edited by Marchen on Dec 16th 2024 at 3:55:13 PM

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29771: Dec 16th 2024 at 7:04:03 AM

[up][up] @ Nukeli:

I guess I could do that. The werewolves in this story suffer ill-effects just from the mere presence of silver (although of course nothing compared to it actually touching/piercing them). I suppose they could see this and just use it out of pure desperation and a sense of "well, this works, so why not".


[up] @ C105:

Oh, OK. I thought the purpose was for them not to realise what they were up against.

Yes, again my apologies, I can see how I made it look that way. The purpose was for them to spend the majority of the time not understanding what this thing is and only realizing it after it's picked off several of the group horror-movie style. The survivors come away with a realization that werewolves are real (along with a ton of trauma).

I guess it is not too much of stretch for one character to eventually try using silver as a weapon

The idea I had in mind was that at some point they realize the monster is afraid of/warded off by some colloidal silver spray one of them used on a scratch or bug bite and they decide to coat a makeshift weapon with the stuff to inflict a lasting injury.

I just hoped that the conclusion would be a believable line of thinking, and it looks like it is.


[up] @ Marchen:

Sorry, I got [nja]'d.

considering that they likely have no idea what's happening it's not inconceivable that they'll run out of options and guess that the weird wolf is some kind of werewolf and try using silver.

Yes, they're definitely pushed into a corner and terrified out of their minds by the time they resort to using silver, since none of their efforts keep it down for long (including using a gun). I guess it's intended to be a kind of desperate, This is so outside the realm of ordinary, anything is possible. It may be a werewolf so let's try this type of thing.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 16th 2024 at 7:07:38 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#29772: Dec 16th 2024 at 11:24:01 PM

WRT tentacles I wonder if aliens coming from a planet with very low gravity would have some, since they presumably did not need skeletons and thus didn't evolve any. 'course, they might have problems in an Earth-like gravity system, then.

Or they are actually aquatic/liquid-dwelling. Octopi can "walk" over land for some distance.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29773: Dec 17th 2024 at 8:36:54 AM

So, this is related to my earlier question regarding a group of hikers stalked by a feral werewolf. I'm curious if the actions of two characters count as Too Dumb to Live or if they are understandable and tragic.

The monster came into existence when the human associate of a "local" werewolf pack found out that his daughter was terminally ill. The father and his daughter worked out a plan to engineer an Emergency Transformation and he stole the means to change her into a werewolf to save her life. He infected her and they then went out deep into the woods for her first transformation on the full moon.

Unfortunately, neither of them knew that there is a "two-step" process to becoming a werewolf, and so she turned into a mindless and immortal beast whose first action was to eat her father and then run wild in the isolated wilderness for decades until coming across the hikers.

What I wonder is if this backstory shows complete stupidity—especially due to the father's close proximity to a werewolf pack and their ways—or is can be shown as an example of tragic desperation.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 17th 2024 at 8:38:06 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
C105 Too old for this from France Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Too old for this
#29774: Dec 17th 2024 at 8:42:49 AM

[up] How well-known is this second step that is required for the transformation? Is it something that any werewolf is expected to know or a subtlety that only a few elders are aware about?

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#29775: Dec 17th 2024 at 8:52:24 AM

[up] @ C105:

All werewolves know about the second step (more specifically all of them know that all first transformations must be within a certain range of the pack's leader so he or she can help the new werewolf regain their human consciousness). The issue is that werewolf packs can be cagey about how much information they share with their human associates, no matter how close they are.

For example, my main character's father is in good standing with his town's werewolf pack and knows all about how their abilities work. But in this particular pack's case, they shared very little with their human associates. So, the unfortunate father knew that werewolf saliva had to enter a human's bloodstream in order to infect them but that was all. So he just "stole" some, injected his daughter with it, and hid out in the woods for the full moon, with disastrous consequences.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Dec 17th 2024 at 8:54:13 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

Total posts: 31,256
Top