Trope Description Improvement Drive

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So I came across Cue Card because I had 2 examples in mind, but in both of them, the cards are cues for the audience (in-universe) to react, not obscured from the audience for the (in-universe) actors to take cues from. The (brief) trope description links to Wikipedia's page Cue Card, which only mentions the literal cue card usage (hidden from audience, seen by performers).

The description does say "A character holds up a cue card for another character to read, usually while hidden." so it's not inherently restricted to that meaning, but it does link to the Wikipedia article in that sentence. That being said, one of the examples (cue card for audience) that I had in mind is already in the example list:

The other example (if my memory serves me right) is from the One Piece (2023) episode "The Man in The Straw Hat", where Buggy's Captive Audience are forced to react on cue, usually to laugh at his jokes.

Should the description say that the reverse scenario can happen, or would that be suitable for a trope page of its own?

Edited by BlackFaithStar on Feb 24th 2024 at 1:48:41 AM

Creepypasta cleanup got two major pages for JTK and Slender

The ideal would be two separate articles with clear titles, but that would need TRS. I think trying to split the examples (again) would be the easiest, or if there are enough audience-cue-cards examples, putting it on TLP.

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.

Got it, I'll just note down (in like a sandbox) the "audience cue card" examples where I can find them for the time being and see if there are enough. Thanks!

Edited by BlackFaithStar on Feb 24th 2024 at 11:32:01 PM

Creepypasta cleanup got two major pages for JTK and Slender

The Regional Bonus description starts with the following statement:

That's been there since 2012, but "digital media" is far more ubiquitous than it was back then, and this trope is specific to video games.

We're seeing a few examples where it gets mixed up with Better Export for You because of misunderstandings on this. The differences are made clear further down the description, but not everyone is reading that far.

Any concerns if we remove that initial "Digital media" and specifically say "Video games", rewriting the rest of the para to reflect that?

Hey, I thought I' like to rework Tattooed Crook a bit.

What I'm thinking is, have a bulleted list for the variants/subtropes I've noticed in my tenure of being a person who notices this trope. There's:

• Visible tattoos as shorthand: wherther it's drawing a skull on the arm of a cartoon character, or casting someone with a lot of tattoos as an extra, the presence of tattoos itself is meant to communicate that the character is up on the wrong side of the law.
  • Tattoo Taboo: in some cultures tattooes are viewed as inherently criminal or suspicious, most notably in Japan, where public display of tattoos is even banned in many places.
• Prison Souviner a character, often now living on the straight and narrow, has a tattoo that reveals they have been in prison, either directly by appearance or quality, or when someone asks them about it.
  • Stock Prison Tattoos teardrops, spider webs, "Fuck The World" etc.
• Marked for Membership a tattoo that signifies a membership in a criminal organization. Can range from a subtle symbol in a hiden spot, to very literally in your face, like members of MS-13 covering their whole face with a black 13 as sin in Sin Nombre. Can be subject to a painful Insignia Rip-Off Ritual if someone gets an unauthorized tattoo, or loses good stading among the gang.
  • Mob Merit Badge tattoos that signify specific ranks and achievements in an organization. Demonstrated in Eastern Promises where the protagonist undergoes a ceremony where he gains his compass star tattoos on his chest and knees, signifying rising in rank.
• Mark of a Delinquant as opposed to a tattoo signalling membership in organized crime, a tattoo that signifies an outsider status. As McCauley says in Heat "do you see me knocking over convienience stores with 'Born To Lose' tattooed on my neck?"
• Subdermal Scoreboard similar to the merit badge, someone uses tattoos to keep tally or commemorate specific crimes, usually a body count. Can sometimes cross over to self-incrimination.

I have been thinkig of also trying to launch Merit Badge Tattoo or Subdermal Scoreboard as its own trope.

the statement above is false

I think that's a good idea.

A couple of spell checks, though: it should be "souvenir" and "delinquent".

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird

Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking has a large paragraph describing Jaywalking.

In the US and Canada, "jaywalking" means crossing the road in a dangerous manner, particularly ignoring the crosswalks when crossing city streets. In many other countries, not only are there almost no restrictions on where you can cross, but the idea of someone being fined for crossing the road is alien. In places where jaywalking is illegal, including France and Poland for example, it's usually an infraction (i.e. like a parking ticket) rather than a proper criminal offense, and some cities don't even bother to enforce it.

EDIT: I am going to change it to this:

In the US and Canada, "jaywalking" means crossing the road in a dangerous manner, particularly ignoring the crosswalks when crossing city streets. In places where jaywalking is illegal, it's usually an infraction (i.e. like a parking ticket) rather than a proper criminal offense.

Edited by randomtroper89 on Feb 29th 2024 at 12:37:04 PM

I think it's fine.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Go for it.

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird

Sumo Wrestling features the following paragraph:

This Trope is almost Always Male. Traditional and religious customs prevent women from participating in Real Life sumo, and a fictitious Distaff Counterpart would likely look pretty silly. This has been challenged occasionally in modern times by some like Governor Fusae Ohta of Okinawa, but is unlikely to change in the near future, though amateur women's sumo also exists in Japan and some Western countries.

Can we remove the "and a fictitious Distaff Counterpart would likely look pretty silly" line? As the paragraph acknowledges, (amateur) women's sumo is very much a real thing. It feels disrespectful to call it silly looking.

I propose replacing it with a mention that depictions of women's sumo in media are still quite rare since amateur women's sumo is pretty niche.

Misogynistic implications and a self-contradiction? Yup, remove that line.

Edited by Riolugirl on Mar 1st 2024 at 3:55:52 PM

"As long as I have my comrades with me, I can do anything!" (She/Her) (Current Focus: Cleaning Hell Is That Noise misuse)

Flippin' heck. Please remove.

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird

Monster Mash has a list of monsters that commonly appear in examples of the trope. Unfortunately, people keep adding more and more monsters to it, and it’s gotten really long. This has happened at least once before, and the previous solution of cutting down the list didn’t stop it from happening again.

Does anyone have any ideas for a solution? I thought of replacing the list with a short paragraph, but that might get bloated over time as well.

I don't really think the list is necessary at all. The page quote, first paragraph, and image all already convey the concept of the trope well enough, and feel sufficient to me in terms of general examples. The list is just bloat.

I hadn’t thought about that, but yeah, you’re right. The rest of the description gets the idea across without the list.

Any other thoughts? This feels like a big enough change that it needs more than two people’s opinions before it’s made.

I agree that the list serves little purpose other than bloat. Cutting seems like the best option here; I'm concerned it would lead to a too-long page warning if it got any longer...

"As long as I have my comrades with me, I can do anything!" (She/Her) (Current Focus: Cleaning Hell Is That Noise misuse)

There's no chance the page will get too-long with a few or even a few hundreds of monsters in a list.

The list, is, however, unnecessary, at it lists practically every monster ever.

Edited by Amonimus on Mar 4th 2024 at 4:11:35 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

I have discovered on My Hero Academia recap page that “Villain Hunt” arc and “Deku vs Class 1A” arc are listed as two separate arcs, while actually they are parts of one arc. Who can fix that and fuse them into one page

I took the list of monsters off of the Monster Mash description.

If anything I think the list should go on a analyses page or otherwise be handled differently then being on main.

I think Eternal Prohibition's description is badly in need of a rework. The trope seems to be about works set in the future having the same drug laws as in the time the work is created. I find the tropeworthiness of this questionable, but regardless of that, the description is really bad.

First, the whole description seems to imply that drug laws should be getting more lenient in the future, but in fiction it does not seems like the way. It completely ignores that in real life drug laws have become stricter rather than more lenient since the beginning of the 20th century^note opium having been more widely used in the past, smoking becoming less cool, even prescription drugs are much more heavily regulated; the increased tolerance towards marijuana is the exception rather than the norm. Then it mentions that recently regulations are becoming stricter with regardless to unhealthy food items, and does it in a complainy and opinionated way unfitting to a trope description.

Other than that, there are phrases that are vague or overly narrow. For example:

It fails to elaborate on what stims is.

This is completely unrelated to the trope. The other parts of the description is about unchanging drug laws, and this paragraph talks about only having a few types of drug in fiction, which is unrelated. Besides, I'm not sure that mentioning concrete examples in the description itself is kosher.

I don't know how to fix it, but I'd definitely remove/rewrite the complainy part. Instead, it should mention that in real life drug laws can change in both directions, possibly coming up with examples of both happening.

If the page should be kept anyway. It has 38 wicks, which is not much.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

The mention of "stims" in the description can be cut as it constitutes Fan Myopia.

Kirby is awesome.

What about my article?

Ten Little Murder Victims has quite a lot long of possible outcomes

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

Took a Level in Kindness states that Defrosting Ice Queen is when the level in kindness is caused specifically by a Love Interest, but the actual page for Defrosting Ice Queen says it doesn't have to be a love interest it can be a platonic relationship. Could I change it to "a specific other character, usually a Love Interest"?