Inspired by this thread
, I've noticed that this wiki doesn't have a dedicated cleanup thread for negativity.
As we all know, Complaining About Shows You Don't Like, Creator Bashing and other negativity isn't desired on the wiki, except in a few selected areas like reviews and several Darth Wiki pages (and even then, with limitations). And yet, it's one of the most common sins wiki contributors can make.
So, if you find a page, TLP or discussion whose content seems like a straight-up insult or any other bitching - including complainy soapboxing -, you might ask here for help with removing said content.
The sandbox for this project is located at Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining.
Edited by MacronNotes on Apr 27th 2022 at 5:36:47 AM
Here's some additional complaining, snark, whining and bashing from various pages for Dino Squad. They've been folderized due to the large amounts of it.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: A 90s-esque Totally Radical Recruit Teenagers with Attitude cartoon played completely straight...and it was released in 2007.
- Evil Is Cool: It's practically unanimous that the villain is the only interesting character.
- Padding: The reverse transformation sequences, which are literally the normal sequences played in reverse. There's really no reason for them to be there other than to artificially increase the run-time of the episodes they appear in without having to make any new animation...
- So Bad, It's Good: Due to failing on pretty much every level.
- Space Whale Aesop: One episode talks about how spreading rumors is wrong. The catch is that they acted like photoshopping a pop star's head onto a dinosaur is on the same level as lying about them scamming charities. And yes, it's played dead straight, with Buzz being chewed out by all his friends, feeling overwhelming guilt after selling the photoshop job to the paparazzi and apologizing profusely to the pop star face to face.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Liam from the first episode of season 2, "The World According to Liam". Despite his autism setting him back a degree, he proves fundamental to solving the episode's mutant bee problem, and even learns the group's secret. Yet even though they sit together for lunch at episode's end, he never shows up or gets mentioned again that season. Had he did, he would have no doubt proven further useful in solving various episodes' problems in the future, and in addition, his debut episode's Aesop would have been better reinforced via consistency, and Liam himself would not have had the unfortunate fate of coming off as a mere Aesop plot device (and the show could have used more recurring characters aside from Fiona's sister). Not to mention he was made to be such an extreme exaggeration of autism that he wound up more irritating (especially with his robotic monotone voice) than endearing.
- An even better example is Peter. We see him in the first episode, joining Veloci's company willingly and getting an an injection of what's implied to be the same liquid that gave the Dino Squad their powers. His eyes turn into dinosaur eyes. . . and then the scene cuts to the protagonists, and he's never seen again. It would have been interesting to keep him around, not just because it would have given Veloci a henchman who wasn't a faceless goon, but also because it would have given the series a villain with the same powers as the heroes.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Teenagers turning into dinosaurs to fight evil? Cool! Wait, where's the fighting dinosaur action? And why are they talking about recycling?
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Toyetic CG vehicles stand out a lot from the low-brow traditional animation of the rest of the show.
- Artistic License – Biology: Several. Particularly one episode which had a baby gorilla with a tail. Another claimed that cold-blooded animals can stay warm by keeping active and keeping their blood pumping.
- Artistic License – Geography: The episodes are usually set in actual cities and towns, probably to avoid Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe, but the travel times involved are usually awfully brief.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Suffice to say, everything. In general the show's research on dinosaurs seems to have consisted of watching other dinosaur cartoons.
- Does This Remind You of Anything??: In one episode, Fiona comes out to her family as a spinosaurus (you read that right), who accept her, after everything, Ms. Moynihan comments on how Fiona is so lucky to have such an accepting family. Complete with a, "Mom, Dad, I'm-"
- Edutainment Show: It qualifies as this thanks to the social, moral, and environmental Aesops that are included in every episode. The science? Not so much.
- Informed Species: All over the place. In addition to the expected issue of the scaly, oversized Velociraptors, there's also Rodger's Styracosaurus form, which isn't readily recognizable as such thanks to its three horns, which make it look more like a Triceratops. There was also a "mutant Megalodon" that was clearly supposed to be a mosasaur, and a baby gorilla that looked more like a monkey, complete with a tail.
- Spinosaurus Versus T. rex: Averted, which is surprising given that the show otherwise shamelessly uses every dinosaur cliche imaginable. Max, who turns into a T. rex, and Fiona, who turns into a Spinosaurus, are good friends.
- Two Decades Behind: The whole show. It would have fit right in with early-90's action cartoons like Street Sharks and Biker Mice from Mars, with its cheesy theme song, overused transformation sequences, heavy-handed Aesops and Buzz's neon mohawk. Yet it came out in 2007, long after such shows had become widely considered passé. The Halloween episode even has a reference to the Funky Chicken dance. Whether or not this is because of the creators trying too hard to bring that type of cartoon to a new generation or the show being in development in the 90's is anyone's guess.
What should we do with all of this? Which can be re-written to be more neutral, and which can be cut?
To add to that, the Haikus page is almost entirely complaining. Should it be wiped?
Edited by DongwaChan on Mar 11th 2023 at 5:50:27 AM
For one, I think the They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot needs a rewrite as the way it's written now seems rather complainy.
Found this in Gratuitous Japanese's Western Animation folder:
This last sentence (from New Media Are Evil) is complaining, yes? Has been on the entry from the pre-page history times.
- The Dick Tracy newspaper comic did a story arc where they essentially shilled for the RIAA, portraying people who pirate movies and music as not only being literal thieves (they beat up guards and steal stuff out of warehouses so they can... make bootleg copies of it), but equivalent to drug dealers, including making ridiculous, over-the-top new villain characters in the style of characters like Babyface to represent internet piracy. It even included panic-mongering in the form of notes to parents that "If your kids download music, you can pay the price!" with an image of a cop car zooming up to a house with its siren running, presumably so the cops can kick in the door and slam the parents to the floor, handcuffing them and hauling them right to jail because their daughter downloaded "Slave 4 U". (Of course, all indications are that the guy writing these comics is completely and totally insane at this point, but being the RIAA's henchgoon is just a new twist.)
Edited by FernandoLemon on Mar 12th 2023 at 8:21:07 AM
Yes and if you are a comic strip that's very old and not named Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes, chances are your page is filled to the brim with bashing and complaining. Especially For Better Or For Worse.
Edited by AegisP on Mar 12th 2023 at 4:35:08 AM
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.The https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Webcomic/IWillSurvive
page is so messed up I dont even. Do we need that "particularly infamous" thing there?
And ironically this entry that criticizes the fanservice in the comic ALSO details in almost loving detail every single thing that's sexualized about Judy.
Ironically I cant show you the entry because I cant access the Edit page so I can copy paste it. That's usually how I bring edits for discussion.
Edited by AegisP on Mar 13th 2023 at 3:48:00 AM
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.Is the sentence regarding Dunsparce's evolution in this entry on Tsuchinoko complaining? Either way, I don't feel it's needed as Dunsparce's evolution being more of the same doesn't have much to do with the trope.
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 13th 2023 at 11:19:20 AM
Macron's notesIt might be tongue-in-cheek, as from what I can tell a fair amount of people consider Dudunsparce the best kind of Ugly Cute and couldn't be more pleased with the troll. But if you think the tone is off, feel free to delete it.
Yeah, I think it's an affectionate usage of the word "troll." It's still audience-reaction-y but it was definitely an intended reaction, and most people found it Actually Pretty Funny.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.This bit from Comic Books has been sticking in my craw for a while:
- A constant problem in DC and Marvel Comics of the last few years, especially in series about second- or third-division characters, as character or plot arcs are constantly derailed by massive crossover events. A lampshade was hung on it in the penultimate issue of Dan Slott's She-Hulk run, in which the characters were forced under threat of death to give the reader a high speed run-through of how all the arcs were intended to have worked out, before being interrupted by the Civil War and World War Hulk crossover events.
First, Examples Are Not Recent, so the "last few years" shouldn't be there. Second, the examples are no longer recent to begin with - Slott's She-Hulk is nearly twenty years old now! Finally, the She-Hulk storyline isn't even an example anymore, as Slott gave it a Fully Absorbed Finale in his Fantastic Four run last year.
What should be done with this?
It's valid to say that shared universes can derail arcs with Crisis Crossover events, but I'm sure we can say it in a more neutral way.

No, cut it.
Valdo