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.
- A character name is not an explanation.
- Wrong: Full Moon Silhouette: Diana
- Right: Full Moon Silhouette: At the end of her transformation sequence into Moon Princess Misty, Diana is shown flying across the full moon riding a rutabaga.
Other Resources:
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
I found one example of Bowdlerise from Darna where I think it's misused for another trope.
- Bowdlerise: Just like in more recent ABS-CBN teleseryes, the NLEA from the 2022 series is based on the real-life PNP.
Is there's any trope that match to the examples other than Bowdlerize?
Edited by Bubblepig on Feb 12th 2023 at 9:35:56 AM
"Now it's starting to feel like a game!"Found this example in ByronicHero.Video Games.
- Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia. A nicer guy than some of the examples on this page, but also a cynical, sarcastic Vigilante Man, and a clear departure from the Idiot Hero common in Tales games.
As someone familiar with the game/series: he very much does. The most the entry seems to allude to it as currently written is the contextless spoilered Vigilante Man link, but in short: he's strongly opposed to the corruption of the empire he lives in and especially the way particularly powerful and evil figures within it use their position to avoid justice, and ultimately decides to start 'dispensing his own justice' by killing them outright, leading to a major clash of ideals with his best friend, Internal Reformist Flynn.
Honestly, as the entry actually does mention, the thing that gives me pause is more that I tend to think of Byronic Heroes as less easygoing than Yuri generally is (and the other Tales characters on the subpage tend to bear that out) but I do think he probably qualifies.
Trivia.Tokyo Xanadu has this, and I’m very unsure of it
- Channel Hop: While the publishing rights to Cold Steel and Ys games were in the hands of XSeed at the time, the rights to this game went to Aksys Games instead. Could count as Foreshadowing, as following this, the rights to future Trails and Ys games hopped to NIS America.
I think fits under the other name Studio Hop, and I’m not sure if the mention of the jump to NIS is necessary. Any thoughts?
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Feb 13th 2023 at 8:44:23 PM
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A
I don't feel it counts because Channel Hop/Studio Hop seems to involve a show.
Does Fire-Forged Friends count if two characters that are not friendly at first become friends during the adventure instead of after it?
I'm mainly a fan of underrated media.![]()
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Looking at the Channel Hop page, it does have a dedicated video game folder. But I'm still unsure if the example counts, especially the foreshadowing part.
So something that's been noted by more than a few viewers of Western Animation/Velma is how a lot of the meta jokes and references don't seem to accurately reflect what they are referencing.
For example, in the opening scene, Velma says something about how most origin stories are about "Tall Handsome Guys being gifted with the burden of too much power" or "Why'd this hot chick go crazy" except neither fits the label of most Suphero Origin stories. Sure in the case of the former, you have examples like Green Lantern and Superman but there have been plenty of superheroes who were not tall and handsome prior to getting powers(Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, etc) or were tall and handsome but had something actually terrible and traumatic happen to them(Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, Bruce Wayne etc) and the latter blatantly ignores several female Superheroes who didn't go crazy in their origins.
And another example would be Norville saying that 'In Teen movies whenever a girl needs money a guy sells something and blackmails the girl into dating him for it" but I'm struggling to think of any Teen Movie like this.
You think these would fall under Shallow Parody?
I think "tall handsome guys" is honestly a generalization that works. While there are obvious exceptions, it applies to a significant enough majority. Batman having trauma doesn't rebut that because he is still a super handsome gazillionaire.
I can't think of any teen comedies that do blackmail dating off the top of my head, though.
I found this entry under Mythology Gag on WesternAnimation.Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur 2023:
- When she realizes Syphonator has an alien symbiote, Moon Girl mentions that alien symbiotes are weak against sonic attacks - which is exactly how it works for the Venom symbiote and its spawn.
Like… I’m not so sure that’s a mythology gag? That’s just a thing of the characters’ and the creators keeping it in the show. I really don’t think it counts.
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.![]()
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"Blackmail dating" would be examples of Captive Date, FWIW. But on examination, I don't think these are examples of Shallow Parody; I think we need to look under The War on Straw if we want to trope that spiel.
Iji has the same ending listed as both a Bittersweet Ending and a Downer Ending. Pretty sure these are contradictory and it can't be both. Here are the two example texts; which one should we keep?
- Bittersweet Ending: As of 1.7, the ending where you do not meet Ansaksie and Iosa survives as a result. Tor is beaten and decides not to go through with the Alpha Strike, humankind survives and the remaining Tasen live on Earth alongside them, but Iosa kills Iji and Tor after the final battle.
- Downer Ending: If after killing almost nobody in the game, you go wildly out of your way to make sure Iosa isn't killed including by Ansaksie, then after defeating Tor, Iosa enters, delivers a “The Reason You Suck” Speech to Iji, then immediately does a One-Hit Kill on you. She then tries to extort Tor into destroying Earth, but is thwarted by Kiron and demoted. Iosa kills her husband in rage and then the fleet leaves, leaving Dan (provided he is even still alive) standing over his sister's body.
hi again, i tried rewriting that one Sensory Abuse example that i brought up earlier. how does this look?
- This is a regular occurrence in Profound Moments In Left 4 Dead 2. The cast regularly scream into their microphones, often to the point of producing microphone-cracking feedback.
Would an inaccurate depiction of mythology go under Artistic License – History or Artistic License – Religion?
"Squid has to go to market. He's had to go to market for as long as he's sucked water."
(x3) That Sensory Abuse example looks good to me
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Besides
, maybe In-Universe Factoid Failure if it's a character in-universe making an inaccuracy about mythology.
From Trivia.Girls Bravo:
- Role Reprise: Ayako Kawasumi was the only drama CD cast member to reprise her role as Miharu for the anime adaptation.
Since the manga's drama CDs were released back in 2002 and the anime's first season premiered in 2004, does this example count?
Edited by gjjones on Feb 13th 2023 at 9:26:38 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.

If it's using the same characters and the same basic premise it seems like it's the same franchise, just changed names. So yeah, it probably doesn't count.