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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.


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

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#276: Sep 17th 2013 at 12:18:59 PM

That sort of question is best asked in Lost And Found. This thread is for asking if something is an example of a particular trope.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#278: Sep 17th 2013 at 7:06:13 PM

Hello. I didn't get an answer in #258. Somebody please respond to me.

Thanks.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#279: Sep 18th 2013 at 7:08:07 AM

Apologies, Craver, I'll take a crack at those.

  • Cowboy Cop: Valid example but it's so badly written that it needs a grammar de-mangler to sort it out. Take it to the Help with English thread.

  • Plethora of Mistakes: It could use a bit more elaboration. Also, the "Show is this" bit is Word Cruft. Just use "Show:" followed by the description.

  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Seems like a valid example, but too much of it is spoilered. Only the last sentence needs the tag.

  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: That does not look like an example, partly because it doesn't make it clear who is the "unwitting instigator" and partly because the character in question was not "unwitting"; any reasonable person could have foreseen tragic consequences from that action.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#280: Sep 21st 2013 at 7:37:37 AM

[up] @Fighteer: Okay. I just need to elaborate and discuss about the examples first.

Cowboy Cop: I just finished talking on the Help with English thread. So there.

  • Vic Mackey from The Shield is a Deconstruction. He begins as a well-intentioned Dirty Cop whose tactics are of good consequences and is acknowledged as a necessary officer for The Barn. However, as the series progresses, he becomes more of a Rabid Cop whose behavior becomes more of a liability to the precinct. The Plethora of Mistakes he and his Strike Team commits over the course of the show becomes increasingly worse and they have to start making deals with the criminals to leave them alone, to the point they can no longer do their jobs.

Plethora of Mistakes: Elaborated the example.

  • The entirety of The Shield involves Vic Mackey and his Strike Team committing a lot of police corruption in order to enrich themselves and to cover up their own crimes. Their eventual downfall can be traced back to two particular crimes that is the cause of their excess of mistakes; the murder of Terry Crowley in Season 1 and the Armenian Money Train Heist in Season 2.

A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The example itself is fine. Although I would spoiler out the last two sentences referring to Shane Vendrell.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: There are two characters I'm talking about here in the first part of my example; Jon Kavanaugh and David Aceveda. Kavanaugh tell Aceveda to lie to Vic about Lem agreeing turn against the Strike Team in exchange for a plea bargain. Aceveda agrees to help Kavanaugh, but he did not expect the situation to end in disaster. If the example doesn't sounds appropriate enough, then either I rewrite it, or just drop it together.

edited 21st Sep '13 7:38:14 AM by Craver357

MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#281: Sep 21st 2013 at 10:40:02 PM

Would playing dead in order to escape danger count as an example of Playing Possum or is that trope only for when it is used as a combat tactic?

Macron's notes
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#282: Sep 22nd 2013 at 1:25:54 AM

I do not really see why it ought to be limited, unless there is already a trope for the rest.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#283: Sep 23rd 2013 at 9:57:03 AM

Somebody added this to the Manga.B Gata H Kei page:

  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: not in the sense that it encourages bad behavior (indeed, it's an important lesson to learn and almost unquestionably a good one), but in that it's one rarely taught to young children: ultimately, most members of the opposite gender feel just as awkward about their sexuality (and have just as much sexual desire) as you do, and talking about it honestly and openly is the best way to resolves those problematic situations.

Leaving aside the fact that Family-Unfriendly Aesop should be on YMMV, is this an example of the trope? It's an example of something, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#284: Sep 23rd 2013 at 10:01:14 AM

That would be something like Reluctant Aesop.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#285: Sep 24th 2013 at 7:28:06 PM

Hello again. I'm back on this forum.

Dead Star Walking:

  • Kevin Spacey gets top billing in L.A. Confidential, which leads the audience to believe that his Sgt. Jack Vincennes character is actually one of the main characters. He is killed off by Capt. Dudley Smith about one and a half hour into the film, leaving Officer Bud White and Lt. Ed Exley as the actual main characters.

Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist:

YMMV.Star Wars:

  • Counterpart Comparison: Ever since the release of the prequels, fans have noted similarities between Anakin and Naruto's Sasuke Uchiha. On the other hand, the circumstances of how they lose their loved ones and turn evil are fairly different.

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#286: Sep 24th 2013 at 8:26:31 PM

[up]Dying one-and-a-half hours into a film really doesn't seem like it qualifies for Dead Star Walking.

The second one seems like it fits.

I don't really understand what Counterpart Comparison is supposed to be, so I'm not sure about the third one, but I think it's supposed to entail more than "some people think these characters are kind of similar".

Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#287: Sep 24th 2013 at 11:53:14 PM

[up] @nrjxll: I don't understand. Why does dying one-and-a-half hours or pre-climax into a film don't count as Dead Star Walking?

edited 25th Sep '13 4:06:13 AM by Craver357

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#288: Sep 25th 2013 at 12:06:35 AM

I have some difficulty at reading Dead Star Walking - I don't know about whether your example would fit.

edited 25th Sep '13 12:07:29 AM by SeptimusHeap

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#289: Sep 25th 2013 at 1:27:52 AM

Actually, now that I look at the description of Dead Star Walking again, it shouldn't have any film examples.

Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#290: Sep 25th 2013 at 5:20:58 AM

[up] Actually, yes. The trope itself can refer to when actors who are thought to be the main character, have their characters killed off soon into the film.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#291: Sep 25th 2013 at 8:20:24 AM

That's true and the description should be moified to be less TV -centric.

But at any rate, L.A. Confidential is not an example, if the character lasts 1.5 hours into the movie, because the movie is only about 2.25 hours long total. That means he is not "killed off soon into the film" — he makes it about 3/4 of the way through.

Lasting almost halfway through is pushing it really hard. If the character lives for more of the work than they're dead it's not an example at all.

edited 25th Sep '13 8:27:17 AM by Madrugada

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#292: Sep 25th 2013 at 2:18:39 PM

Isn't that definition just Decoy Protagonist with a big-name star, though?

My understanding was always that the trope was a subversion of Contractual Immortality where a character is treated in the advertising and credits (if applicable) as a main character, only to be quickly killed. It seems like that requires a serial work.

edited 25th Sep '13 2:20:47 PM by nrjxll

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#293: Sep 25th 2013 at 2:22:13 PM

I don't think that requires a serial work.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#294: Sep 25th 2013 at 2:33:23 PM

It doesn't require a serial work. It can easily be done with a movie. Big-name star, front and center on the posters, and he's killed in the first thirty minutes of a 2-hour movie? Dead Star Walking.

A Decoy Protagonist doesn't have to be a big-name star, or heavily-hyped in the marketing, or quickly killed. For that one, it just has to turn out that the protagonist is not who it originally seems to be. To quote the definition: "Some books, films, or games like to mix things up and throw viewers for a loop by revealing that the Standardized Leader isn't The Hero. ... What happens next is the guy we perceive of as The Lancer, Side Kick, or even a fringe loner takes center stage as the real protagonist. ...Note that this does not necessarily involve the death of the initial protagonist..."

edited 25th Sep '13 2:33:45 PM by Madrugada

Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#295: Sep 25th 2013 at 7:41:28 PM

[up] Speaking about the L.A. Confidential example though, do you mean that it is not an example of Dead Star Walking and instead, it fits under Decoy Protagonist?

edited 25th Sep '13 7:41:36 PM by Craver357

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#296: Sep 25th 2013 at 7:55:25 PM

I don't know if he's a Decoy Protagonist or not. I do know he's not Dead Star Walking.

Nohbody "In distress", my ass. from Somewhere in Dixie Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
"In distress", my ass.
#297: Sep 27th 2013 at 5:53:48 AM

On the latest page for The Whiteboard (here; I have to link the image because there's no permanent URL for current pages), the guy who's been hassling Pirta to go on a date with him even knowing that she already has a boyfriend (she told him) is asked if the positions were reversed would he go out on the date if he already had a girlfriend, and in replying "yes" he accidentally lets slip that he does already have a girlfriend.

Would that count for Accidental Public Confession? Reading the trope description, none of the three types seem to fit the scenario in question, but it's still closer than all the other related tropes mentioned on that page.

All your safe space are belong to Trump
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#298: Sep 27th 2013 at 7:18:07 AM

I think it might fit best on Open Mouth, Insert Foot: "A character with a big mouth says something stupid or, better yet, self-incriminating."

Nohbody "In distress", my ass. from Somewhere in Dixie Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
"In distress", my ass.
#299: Sep 27th 2013 at 10:33:11 AM

Yeah, that does look like it fits better. Thanks. smile

All your safe space are belong to Trump
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#300: Sep 28th 2013 at 12:59:41 PM

I'm coming up with some iffy stuff in From Nobody to Nightmare

First: Light Yagami, Death Note. He was the son of a respected police detective and known as a bit of a genius who had helped on police matters before. Pretty sure he's not a nobody, even if he obviously is nowhere near as prominent as he became as Kira.

Second: Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece. The son of Monkey D. Dragon, tops on the government's most wanted list. He, personally, was not well known, but he made no real secret of his parentage, so i suppose it's a borderline case. For Blackbeard, however, before he gained true infamy, he was a well-placed member of the Whitebeard pirates, so again, by no means a nobody. Buggy was also a member of Gold Roger's actual crew, though this was not widely known. Another edge case.

I'll add more if i find them...


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