TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Is this an example?

Go To

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.


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

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.
#29926: Nov 22nd 2023 at 8:26:10 AM

Another thought: In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a plot point is an in-universe movie being canceled mid-production. Would this be Harsher in Hindsight, given that Coyote Vs Acme was (briefly) shelved a week before the release and both productions have Will Forte as a major character?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Nov 22nd 2023 at 11:26:23 AM

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
Mrph1 he/him from Mercia (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: This is not my beautiful wife!
he/him
#29927: Nov 22nd 2023 at 8:42:15 AM

[up] There's a dedicated Hindsight thread, which has some further guidance in the pinned post and may be better placed for that question.

BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
Nejiiuyn Kaiser der Anonymität from The Mysterious Beyond Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Kaiser der Anonymität
#29929: Nov 22nd 2023 at 10:06:53 AM

Would this count as an example of Grandfather Clause:

During the early 2000s, DC and Warner Bros implemented a policy of "Character Embargos". This policy stated that a character could not appear in one show if said character was a major character in another show. As a result, several characters were either removed from a show or were not allowed to appear in the first place. Aquaman wasn't allowed to appear in Justice League following the first season of Unlimited because of a pilot that was being produced at the time for an Aquaman TV series. None of the characters from the Batman mythos were allowed to appear in Justice League either because of the airing of The Batman, and Robin wasn't allowed to appear on The Batman because he was already a main character in Teen Titans (2003). The only one exempt from this was Batman. Since he was already a main character in Justice League prior to DC and Warner adopting the policy, he was allowed to remain a main character despite also being the main character of The Batman.

My treasure? If you want it, you can have it! Search for it! I left in that place!
CompletelyNormalGuy Am I a weirdo? from a place where folks put cream cheese on hot dogs (Oldest One in the Book)
Am I a weirdo?
#29930: Nov 22nd 2023 at 2:18:16 PM

[up]While that absolutely matches the way Grandfather Clause is used off-site, it doesn't fit our definition, which is about older works getting a pass to use tropes or concepts that would come across as discredited in a newer work.

Bigotry will NEVER be welcome on TV Tropes.
JustNormalMusicLover Just one media nerd (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Abstaining
Just one media nerd
#29931: Nov 22nd 2023 at 9:07:32 PM

While I might want to consider add more character tropes for the character pages in BanG Dream!, I considered about adding Blue Is Calm and Mellow Fellow to Tae Hanazono, but how she seems to be expected to fill the criteria for the trope seems a bit hard to put with.

While she is a Cloudcuckoolander, she has more relatively subtle emotional expressions amongst the cast. She looks like she has most of her cool whenever she's in the scene (aside from ocassional Not So Stoic moments, in most depictions. For reference, this YouTube video could help, highlighting Tae as a airhead... who's relatively quiet (both Kasumi and Arisa are more noisy than herself).

Maybe you can say the Blue Is Calm is downplayed a bit since she can do get expressive (she's definitely not the most quiet of the cast overall in a sense), but it's still relatively subtle when compared to Kasumi (the... you know, the Genki Girl Stock Shoujo Heroine who's definitely more of an extrovert), also in some sense of fitting their Red Oni, Blue Oni pairing (according to the trope list in the main work page). I would like explanations though, if she's can be considered as an aversion/subversion of the trope, on the other hand.

Nothing solves a day of depression better than a warm smile.
dArtagnanMusic Since: Oct, 2022
#29932: Nov 23rd 2023 at 2:33:00 AM

Bumping my post from a couple pages back:

I feel like Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond or Not So Invincible After All don't apply, because Black is still one of the twenty (or fewer) most powerful demons in-setting and massively more powerful than any of the main protagonists.
it's not Power Creep either, because it doesn't change anything gameplay-wise, only narratively.
It's not Those Were Only Their Scouts, because all those super-powerful demons aren't unified, only tolerating each others at best.
I'm doubtful on Serial Escalation because all those others demons aren't really antagonistic towards humanity either, being more or less All Powerful Bystanders, and Black (and other villains related to him and his actions, like his underlings) remain the protagonists' most persistent enemies.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#29933: Nov 23rd 2023 at 9:04:20 AM

Need help to figure out if this example's a Continuity Nod or Mythology Gag in video games:


In Elevator Action Returns, the game material from the OST mentions the good guy group named DEF. In Chaos Heat, DEF is mentioned as a good guy group. Although in EAR, it's an anti-terrorist unit and in CH, it's a special forces unit called in to take out monsters.

Should this be treated (for the latter) as a Continuity Nod or Mythology Gag? Both seem to work.

FYI, EAR came out in 1995 and CH came out in 1998.

Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#29934: Nov 23rd 2023 at 9:46:20 AM

[up] Would need more calrification.

Elevator Action has a stage soundtrack called "D.E.F", but I've found no indication that's how the heroes are called.

In Chaos Heat the heroes are called "D.E.F" agents.

Aside both games being made by Taito and having this acronym somewhere, I don't know if games have anything in common, they're not even in the same genre. So I'm not convinced anything related to continuity applies.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#29935: Nov 23rd 2023 at 9:53:26 AM

It’s in the Elevator Action Returns OST in the track “Rush Action”. The narrator mentions DEF by name.

The tracklist is here for reference.

https://vgmdb.net/album/1254

Edited by Ominae on Nov 23rd 2023 at 9:54:51 AM

Luisdalas Since: Sep, 2023
#29936: Nov 23rd 2023 at 10:59:54 AM

[up]*4 I agree, that he does not qualify as Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond.

A God Tier or High Tier character is weaker than other God Tiers =/= Normal Fish.

In any case, I would say that he would be a subversion of World's Strongest Man, or World's Best Warrior.


Speaking of World's Strongest Man.

Is Mcu: Loki Laufeyson (Variant L1130), an example.?

Edited by Luisdalas on Nov 23rd 2023 at 11:08:57 AM

Bullman Enid Sinclair Since: Jun, 2018 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
Enid Sinclair
#29937: Nov 23rd 2023 at 11:27:16 AM

I found this Informed Wrongness entry on YMMV.Velma:

  • Also the show treats the police not finding Diya as an example of their incompetence and Velma rags on the fact they haven't done anything to try to find her harder. However, realistically even in real life tons of people go missing and more competent police have a hard time deciding where they could have gone. So while the police department lack any skill, they also are justified in why they haven't found Diya at all and Velma is expecting too much because she's someone who highly demands impossible things.

Isn't this trope about a character being presented in the wrong morally but isn't really when you think about it and not just "character is treated as incompetent when it is the same in real life". Also, I am not going to defend this show or character, but should the fact that in real life this happens to matter to a fictional story?

Edited by Bullman on Nov 23rd 2023 at 1:27:50 PM

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
Shadeblade11 (Troper Journeyman)
#29938: Nov 23rd 2023 at 11:23:24 PM

So there's this example from Characters.Like A Dragon Kazuma Kiryu

  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Kazuma Kiryu is perhaps one of the most tragic and personally unintended form of this, having a combination of both terrifying skill and massive strength. Yes, Kiryu is World's Strongest Man and World's Best Warrior with plenty Genius Bruiser skills but it's his very incredible ability in both fighting and solving problems that makes him a class of his own and an irreplacably unique warrior. It's made worse with how he's also experienced perhaps the most tragedies out of the heroes and it’s those very tragedies that let him hone his prodigious talents to the level that they are now. No matter how many victories he secures over the bad guys, the bad guys nearly always gets their own share of victory by either killing or nearly killing one of his loved ones. This is made worse by how Kiryu most of the time could have done something but he was either burdened by protecting someone else or was too busy doing what he does best, and to add further salt into injury, he gets very little time to make peace with his losses. Very few are able to even get anywhere near his level, be it in terms of skill, smarts or misery. While he is able to associate himself with his fellow valiant fighters to deal with the problem at hand, it's clear that repeatedly while the friendship is genuine, there exists a certain amount of distance between him and the others as they are either plain inferior to him or are able to rival him in skill but fall short of understanding just how tragic of a hero he really is, meaning they can’t offer him much emotional solace despite their best efforts. The one time one person alone reaches him, it’s Taiga Saejima, the only guy who can match him and is even older than him and has seen his fair share of horrors. Finally, and most heartbreakingly, no amount of skill can keep his beloved orphanage children that aren't fighters safe, and while he tries to avoid fighting, he knows that he can never truly stop as the call will always find him and he can never bring himself to turn it down, and his presence among the orphanage children alone places them in danger. It's ultimately this that ends his saga with Kiryu giving up any chance of happiness or friendship with anyone who isn't good enough to fight alongside him and resolving to just do what he does best. Notably, in the next game where his time is past and a new protagonist is in the spotlight, Kiryu is shown to have in a way earned a happy ending of sorts by associating himself with other battle-hardened individuals but staying out unless absolutely necessary.

Besides the fact that this is an entire paragraph, it feels out of scope for this trope.

Zarina Since: Aug, 2014
#29939: Nov 24th 2023 at 3:20:54 PM

[up] Yeah, I don't think that wall of text actually manages to describe the trope at all. I'd say cut.

FirstAidRules He/Him from House (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Singularity
He/Him
#29941: Nov 24th 2023 at 6:02:23 PM

On the YMMV/Gremlins page, I deleted the Bob Hope thing because he wasn't the guy who did the Hoops & Yoyo cards. The Bob Hope who did the Gremlins was the guy who did The Great Grape Ape and was the first voice of Cop-Tur.

Hi!
rjd1922 Best robot boy | he/him | Image Pickin' regular, from the United States Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Love is for the living, Sal
Best robot boy | he/him | Image Pickin' regular,
#29942: Nov 24th 2023 at 8:17:52 PM

Can Fiery Redhead be used for red animals/living vehicles because Tropes Are Flexible, or is that Square Peg, Round Trope?

  • Despite being a scarlet parrot, Iago from Aladdin counts, thanks to his fiery red feathers.
  • Cars: Lightning McQueen has a red paintjob to match his personality. Frank is also colored red to match his irritable personality of a bull.
  • Hank in Finding Dory is a red octopus or "septopus" with Hair-Trigger Temper, despite the fact that he (like real octopuses) has three hearts as Dory stated. But the octopus is also fittingly good-hearted.
    Dory: You know something, for a guy with three hearts you're not very nice.

Keet cleanup
AudioSpeaks2 Since: Apr, 2022
#29943: Nov 24th 2023 at 8:22:10 PM

[up] I think they can count, but cut Frank and Hank. The latter two have no hair at all.

Iago counts though, so keep him.

thecarolinabull01 from North Carolina Since: Jun, 2014
#29944: Nov 25th 2023 at 3:22:46 AM

Yesterday, I came across this recent addition to the YMMV page of Still Standing:

  • Values Dissonance: In "Still Reading," when comparing Judy's book club selection to an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Bill unintentionally mispronounces the "Schwarzenegger" as the unthinkable - with no one in the show proper commenting on it as Deliberate Values Dissonance. It should be noted this was the first episode filmed after the show's pilot and Mark Addy was still settling into his fake American accent. Contemporarily, however, it's very unlikely that the take would have been used, and if they had used it that it would have attracted backlash in the post-Black Lives Matter era (whereas the slip-up attracted almost no attention upon its first airing and only started to even get noticed when episodes were made available on YouTube).

To me this just comes across as someone trying to start something. I've heard quite a few English people pronounce the last part of Arnold Schwarzenegger's name similarly to the N word since that's just their accent. I didn't notice or care when I saw the episode lately and I don't think a whole lot of other people do either save for radicals or immature 13-year-olds, which probably make up a large section of YouTube comment sections anyway. And since this trooper never provided any links to specific videos, it's hard to judge.

I think this should be removed, if only for being a misuse, but I'll let other people decide.

Edited by thecarolinabull01 on Nov 25th 2023 at 9:06:57 AM

miraculous Goku Black (Apprentice)
Goku Black
#29945: Nov 25th 2023 at 7:10:43 AM

Is the historical villain /Hero upgrade kosher for the Pawnee/Sioux in Dances with Wolves. That seems out of line to Call a whole ethnic group either.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
AnotherWanderingGhost (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
#29946: Nov 25th 2023 at 7:19:32 AM

[up][up] Yeah, if the slur wasn't intentionally referenced (and the writeup itself supports that it wasn't), there were no "values" involved.

Edited by AnotherWanderingGhost on Nov 25th 2023 at 10:19:42 AM

NitroIndigo ♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves from West Midlands region, England Since: Jun, 2021 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves
#29947: Nov 25th 2023 at 10:29:40 AM

[up][up][up] Agree with cutting it.


Does Rusty in Thomas & Friends count as a Non-Human Non-Binary? For context, he was always male in The Railway Series, but was made "gender-neutral" when he first appeared in the show as a response to criticisms that it was too male-dominated; he wasn't referred to by any gendered terms until it was bought out by another company. Also, he's a train. Since Ambiguous Gender =/= non-binary, though, I'm not sure.

Either way, I don't think examples of Non-Human Non-Binary from works where there are no prominent human characters count. I already removed a My Little Pony example on that principle, and I think the Angry Birds example should go as well.

Edited by NitroIndigo on Nov 25th 2023 at 6:34:18 PM

sudrictoon Any pronouns from Sodor/Crystal Tokyo Since: Feb, 2021 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
Any pronouns
#29948: Nov 25th 2023 at 11:32:43 AM

[up] I would say yes. Rusty doesn't fall under Ambiguous Gender since I don't think the writers were deliberately trying to confuse the audience (even though Hit tried to make Rusty into a girl at first). And since Rusty is a train, 90s audiences were more likely to buy a train being gender-neutral rather than a human. Rusty could also be a downplayed example of Non-Human Non-Binary, since the engines have a clear gender binary.

Sinners are TRASH / And they are A**HOLES
FirstAidRules He/Him from House (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: Singularity
He/Him
#29949: Nov 25th 2023 at 11:36:22 AM

Last night, I removed the Retroactive Recognition from Gremlins for Bob Holt because it was saying the Bob Holt in the film who did voices was the one who made the Hoops&Yoyo cards. However, the Bob Holt who did voices for the film was the voice actor who did the Great Grape Ape and was the first voice of Cop-Tur on ''Challenge of the GoBots]].

Hi!
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#29950: Nov 25th 2023 at 11:37:47 AM

I don't think Non-Human Non-Binary applies if their gender is incidental to their species, as opposed to tied to it.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Total posts: 36,649
Top