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Do you have trouble remembering the difference between Deathbringer the Adorable and Fluffy the Terrible?

Do you have trouble recognizing when you've written a Zero-Context Example?

Not sure if you really have a Badass Bookworm or just a guy who likes to read?

Well, this is the thread for you. We're here to help you will all the finer points of example writing. If you have any questions, we can answer them. Don't be afraid. We don't bite. We all just want to make the wiki a better place for everyone.


Useful Tips:

  • Make sure that the example makes sense to both people who don't know the work AND don't know the trope.
    • Wrong: The Mentor: Kevin is this to Bob in the first episode.
    • Right: The Mentor: Kevin takes Bob under his wing in the first episode and teaches him the ropes of being a were-chinchilla.
  • Never just put the trope title and leave it at that.
    • Wrong: Badass Adorable
    • Right: Badass Adorable: Xavier, the group's cute little mascot, defeats three raging elephants with both hands tied behind his back using only an uncooked spaghetti noodle.
  • When is normally far less important than How.
    • Wrong: Big Bad: Of the first season.
    • Right: Big Bad: The heroes have to defeat the Mushroom Man lest the entirety of Candy Land's caramel supply be turned into fungus.
  • A character name is not an explanation.


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For best results, please include why you think an example is iffy in your first post.

Also, many oft-misused tropes/topics have their own threads, such as Surprisingly Realistic Outcome (here) and Fan-Preferred Couple (here). Tropers are better able to give feedback on examples you bring up to specific threads. We don't discuss Complete Monster or Magnificent Bastard examples; please don't bring them up.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Jul 17th 2025 at 8:59:01 PM

ANonagon9 (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Fidor Since: Aug, 2022
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#25678: Feb 4th 2023 at 11:52:09 AM

Er...

Well, for one, Mary Sue is Flame Bait, never to be linked for a character, and is an extremely vague concept that everyone defines differently based on their own opinions on character writing.

Ideal Hero is just a regular hero archetype.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#25680: Feb 4th 2023 at 2:58:08 PM

This example in VideoGame.Fire Emblem Engage doesn't feel right but I wanted other opinions:

Edited by rmctagg09 on Feb 4th 2023 at 11:38:10 AM

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#25681: Feb 4th 2023 at 3:00:21 PM

I'm a bit confused as to what makes Disabled Love Interest a trope and not just chairs anyway, but for a specific case, I'm curious what would count as disability, or rather Fictional Disability.

Specifically Leela from Futurama, because usually her cyclops mutation is treated as akin to Fantastic Racism, but other episodes show her to be disabled from it or at least lean into an ableism metaphor (i.e. no depth perception, condescended and convinced to "fix" her appearance for others' sakes) and at least one of those episodes does play up her status as Fry's love interest and emphasize that he has no problem with her mutation.

So basically, is the analogy enough to play into Disabled Love Interest, since I assume the crux of the trope is the protagonist's acceptance of the love interest's disability?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#25682: Feb 4th 2023 at 3:03:59 PM

In my opinion it would count as a subversion of the Damage Over Time trope. It might also qualify for Breaking Old Trends, since Poison in this franchise traditionally does cause damage-over-time as you'd expect it to.

selkies TOO serious! from Guess, guess, guess Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: Star-crossed
TOO serious!
#25683: Feb 4th 2023 at 3:27:35 PM

Continuing this ask here. Does Battle Aura cover cases where a character has a purple or black aura surrounding them when they're angry or depressed, and it's always Played for Laughs, and it's never caused by any powers or doesn't involve fighting? If it does, the description doesn't back this up/mention this.

Uncanny Valley Hot Babes in Your Area Are Looking To Know YOU! Click Here to Sign Up for FREE! | Not quite back tbh. Don't expect much.
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#25684: Feb 4th 2023 at 4:57:59 PM

There's nothing about the word "poison" that intrinsically means Damage Over Time and not Damage-Increasing Debuff, so Non-Indicative Name doesn't work. Breaking Old Trends seems fine.

(It is also, strictly speaking, only a Subverted Trope if this game first leads you to expect that poison will be a DOT before revealing that it isn't.)

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Feb 4th 2023 at 8:01:03 AM

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#25685: Feb 4th 2023 at 6:21:54 PM

Gonna as this again, since I never got my answer last night: In the new season of Western Animation.The Proud Family Louder And Prouder, Wizard Kelly, a wealthy black man, is mentioned to have scoffed at the idea of reparations and not shown much care about the town being founded by a slave owner, justifying it by saying slavery was centuries ago. It feels like he’s a bit of a Take That! at Kanye West, who has had similar (if not more extreme) views. Anyone agree, or is there a more fitting trope?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 4th 2023 at 9:23:54 AM

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
Libraryseraph uu~ from Canada (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: Raising My Lily Rank With You
uu~
#25686: Feb 4th 2023 at 6:33:41 PM

Does he have anything to do with Kanye beyond that?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA
Cutegirl920fire Player 222 from the Squid Games (Five Long Years) Relationship Status: Paris holds the key to my heart
Player 222
#25687: Feb 4th 2023 at 6:40:47 PM

I'll go deal with the Deltan Escape example I pointed out like two pages ago as I go ask about another one:

Does this example from Aren't You Going to Ravish Me? count as that trope?

A similar situation possibly occurs in Tender Is the Night. Nicole was sexually abused by her father when she was young, and is mentally troubled as a result, but her sister was not, and yet she also has some fairly serious issues. Whether these are directly connected to her mixed feelings about why her father abused Nicole rather than her is unclear; the family was pretty dysfunctional anyway, so it could just be that.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Feb 4th 2023 at 6:41:00 AM

CG for short
BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#25688: Feb 4th 2023 at 6:49:24 PM

[up][up]Honestly no. The character existed way before Kanye got famous, but this incarnation’s blasé attitude towards slavery reminded me of Kanye’s claim that “slavery was a choice” and I sort of made a connection.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 4th 2023 at 9:49:54 AM

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#25689: Feb 4th 2023 at 7:19:56 PM

That just sounds to me like the Black Republican trope in general.

BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#25690: Feb 4th 2023 at 7:27:50 PM

[up]Okay. I can use that. Thanks.

One other thing. The season finale of Louder and Prouder season two had the characters protesting a statue of a slave owner and getting attacked by police in riot gear and getting jailed. Wizard Kelly (who sics the police on them) even instructs the audience not to film it. Given the similarities to real world events… Ripped from the Headlines?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 4th 2023 at 10:30:24 AM

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
Khoshekh6 Since: May, 2022
#25691: Feb 4th 2023 at 7:35:36 PM

From The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild section

  • The game's Wide-Open Sandbox nature trips up Zelda fans who realize that they can go anywhere they want once they leave the Great Plateau — only to go west instead of east and run into a lot of Guardians, Lynels, and harsh weather conditions. The game does suggest that you go east to Kakariko Village, but Zelda fans are expecting it to railroad you.
  • Several places have lanterns that you can light with a blue flame. Zelda veterans were convinced that you would get something for lighting them all at the same time, but you don't. Many people only found this out by looking it up ("where is the last lantern?" was one of the most-searched phrases when the game came out).

These don't seem like examples to me.

For the first one, the game does tell you where to go to progress the plot, the rest is just optional open world exploration.

For the second, consulting a guide to solve a puzzle that never even existed doesn't sound like what Guide Dang It! is meant to be to me.

Khoshekh6 Since: May, 2022
#25692: Feb 4th 2023 at 7:36:26 PM

[up][up] that does sound ripped from the headlines to me

BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#25693: Feb 4th 2023 at 7:38:45 PM

[up]Awesome. Sounds good to me.

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
JohnRore Since: Apr, 2021
#25694: Feb 4th 2023 at 8:20:20 PM

Does it count as a Bilingual Bonus if it involves a loanword? e.g., in the Indian language in the Welcome to Chippendales third episode, Steve invites his mother to live in Los Angeles in his "guest house" those are the words he uses, but it gets subtitled as "guest room."

I don't know a word of that language, but I can always pick out the loanwords...

Malady (X-Troper)
#25695: Feb 4th 2023 at 8:55:45 PM

Is this a Long List, or just a List? Also looking for the repeated "urinating"-s, but that's something else.

  • Sunset Overdrive: The last bit of fine print on the http://www.overchargedrink.com website used to promote the game, is this list of OverCharge Delirium XT symptoms:
    Fizzco is also not responsible for any illnesses or problems that may occur from drinking OverCharge Delirium XT, including, but not limited to: urinary tract infections, tummy aches, gross burping, water intoxication, acid reflux, heart attack, depression, tripping embarrassingly, urinating, urinating a lot, urinating way too much, gastrointestinal reaction, brain aneurisms, disturbing fantasies, assault and battery, poor judgment, pregnancy, itching, aggression, uncoordinated dancing, and death. Drink at your own risk. Love at your own risk.

Edited by Malady on Feb 4th 2023 at 8:55:58 AM

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
TrendingToon1 Since: Apr, 2015
#25696: Feb 4th 2023 at 9:45:47 PM

Is this a case of Plot Hole?

  • SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Say Awww!", Plankton invents a robot. Q.T.-π, who is programmed to eat anyone who says "aww" to it, but when SpongeBob first saw the robot and said "aww", the robot does not eat him.

RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#25697: Feb 4th 2023 at 10:03:36 PM

[up]Plot Hole is now a definition-only page actually.

[up][up]That looks long enough to count as Long List to me.

EDIT:[up](x3) In that case, I feel it's a no because Bilingual Bonus involves a hidden message.

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Feb 4th 2023 at 10:13:28 AM

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#25698: Feb 4th 2023 at 10:26:40 PM

So I'm thinking of an example which may or may not count as a kind of Expy Coexistence (it can't in the most literal sense for copyright reasons, but I'm thinking it's close enough).

Back in 1999 the developer who would become Monolith Soft released the game Xenogears for Square, featuring the character Citan Uzuki. Citan proved to be so popular both with audiences and internally that when they left Square to work for Namco, their Creator-Driven Successor series Xenosaga featured an extremely transparent Citan Expy named Jin Uzuki who was almost a 1:1 copy, but with some slight modifications.

They were eventually acquired by Nintendo, for whom they released the game Xenoblade Chronicles 1 featuring the character Dunban, who is also a thinly-veiled Expy of Jin Uzuki (which, given the above, also makes him an Expy of Citan by proxy, though closer to Jin since all the changes to make Jin different were also present in Dunban).

Naturally, when Xenoblade 1 had its own sequel Xenoblade Chronicles 2, of course that game too had a thinly-veiled Expy of Dunban named Morag. Notably, once again incorporated traits from Dunban that weren't present in Jin or Citan, and thus at this point enough divergence has happened that while she retains some of Citan's traits, the similarities to her conceptual ancestor are no longer obvious (some of this may be due to the fact that during development another character was intended to be the direct Citan Expy until he was retooled into being a copy of a different character from Xenogears).

Come Xenoblade Chronicles 3 which is a particularly blatant alternate-company version of Xenogears. But instead of a singular Expy of Morag you have a much more complicated situation that can be described as a kind of Expy free-for-all. That game features obvious Expies of Dunban and Morag, but they are side characters who coexist in the same space as the game's actual intended Citan Expy (or two, or three; it's complicated this time as you have arguably one main Citan Expy and a bunch of other characters who possess major traits from the original Citan).

For obvious copyright reasons they could never have had Citan himself be in the game. But assuming Citan is at point A, Jin at B, Dunban at C, and Morag is at D, 3 has an E character based off Morag (who is based off Dunban), a D character based off Dunban who is NOT Morag, plus a B character who is directly inspired by Citan (and thus the closest the game can get to having him without violating copyright) as well.

I'm wondering if the coexistence of character B with D and E could qualify as a flexible version of Expy Coexistence or not. The other closest trope I can think of is Fountain of Expies but IIRC that is an index and not a trope.

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#25699: Feb 5th 2023 at 3:19:55 AM

I kinda feel like that's a broader question than this thread can answer. The entire Expy family of tropes needs a serious discussion regarding the very different kinds of meaning "inspiration" and "derivation" can have, as well as the issues of authorial intent and so forth, and I feel like the existing Fountain of Expies cleanup thread is not the place as it mostly seems intent on cutting things as overly specific rather than considering the broader issues. There is definitely something tropable in the very broad concept, especially in cases like these where it's the same underlying creator(s) at work so it's not just fan myopia, but I'm not sure how well our current Expy definition is suited to that concept (and don't get me started on Captain Ersatz).

(In particular I'm immediately struck by the fact that - while Xenogears is the only game in the Xeno 'franchise' I'm not familiar with - I have at least a passing familiarity with Jin Uzuki, Dunban, and Morag and cannot figure out who the "most important" character in XB3 that's resembles them is, which makes me think just the two of us alone are working on very different definitions of 'based on' here.)

Edited by nrjxll on Feb 5th 2023 at 5:20:20 AM

Mariofan99 Since: Jun, 2021 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#25700: Feb 5th 2023 at 6:34:57 AM

These entries for Audience-Alienating Ending were deleted in the past as a result of not fitting the old definition of this trope which was in essence endings that caused long-lasting damage to the franchise. But now that the trope is simply for endings that caused massive amounts of dislike overshadowing fan reception I was wondering if these should be re-added

  • Pokémon the Series: A common criticism lobbied towards the anime is Ash's inability to win a Pokémon League. As each individual series builds up to the Pokémon League throughout its run, some fans walk away feeling like they wasted their time watching and retroactively makes the series worse. While considered tolerable in earlier series due to Ash's lack of experience and immaturity, by the time Ash lost his FOURTH League many were crying foul, due to Ash's immense growth in Sinnoh. This trend would persist with the next two generations where Ash's losses would be lambasted for a variety of reasons. Possibly in response to these criticisms, Gen VII would FINALLY allow Ash to finally win a league. However, this would prove to be controversial as the Alola League lacked any of the build-up or prerequisites prior series had, causing the legitimacy of the League and the validity of Ash's win to become a heated topic.
  • Pokémon Adventures: The last chapter of the Black & White arc has the hero Black sealed away in the Light Stone alongside Reshiram thanks to a Last Breath Bullet from Ghetsis who then proceeds to escape and the Light Stone vanishes with Black inside. This caused many people to turn on the arc for the Cruel Twist Ending. While the intention was for the cliffhanger to be resolved in the Black & White 2 adaptation, that arc fell under the infamous Schedule Slip as a result of newer Pokémon games being given priority for publishing. What was supposed to be a small arc that started in 2013 didn't reach its conclusion till 2020. That meant for SEVEN YEARS one of the most liked protagonists of the series was suffering a Fate Worse than Death and the villain who caused it was unpunished.


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