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
Bumping
from the last page. I also found another example that I'm unsure of.
From Friend on the Force
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero: This is omnipresent throughout the game as the Player Party are police officers. The player gets rewarded for keeping contacts and investigating thoroughly with Detective Points that count towards promotion. Some of the best sources work in bars, like the Camp Gay gang leader Wazy Hemisphere.
Correct it I'm wrong but the trope is about someone who is friends with an officer, not just about friendly officers.
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/Ahttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13543987200A54420100&page=1203#comment-30074
Would like to thank Ferot_Dreadnaught for responding to my inquiry.
Bumping
Made a fanfic page for the Jak and Daxter story Torque (Jak and Daxter), there are a few examples I'm not sure if they count.
- Irony: While taking care of the Kid, Keira and Daxter figure they have to call him something. They go through a list before seeing his neckless being the seal of the House of Mar. So, they decided to come him Mar, not knowing that is his actual name.
- Stable Time Loop: An interesting example, there is a lot of indication in the story that things should have been playing out like they did in canon, being an actual case of a stable time loop. Why they haven’t in this story is unknown at this time. The Oracle does tell Keira that she must complete the loop.
- Uncanny Valley: Kor, a seemingly harmless old man, has this effect on Keria right away. Their first meeting is just passing each other but the way he looks at Keira sends shivers down her spine.
I was considering adding a Real Men Hate Sugar entry for Overwatch, but I'm wondering if it counts if the person hating the sugar is a woman (a tough Olympic athlete-turned-soldier), or if it is strictly a "real men" sort of thing? For context, it's based on this dialogue exchange between her and Mauga (who is male, similarly gigantic, but ascribes to Real Men Wear Pink):
- Mauga: You look like a vanilla protein powder kind of girl.
Zarya: Wrong. I take unflavored, with water.
Mauga: You know you can be tough and still have taste, right?
On YMMV.The Simpsons S 18 E 3 Please Homer Dont Hammer Em, there's an entry for Demographically Inappropriate Humour that I'm leaning on cutting. However, I'm uneasy about it because the entry has been there for over a year, implying that nobody else who saw the page had a problem with it.
Any thoughts?
He/they | Mostly here on my free daysYeah, I highly doubt the show hasn't implied worse profanity before, and even then, it's not demographically inappropriate because it's an adult show.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.This was recently added to Characters.Trails Series Imperial Liberation Front and I'm unsure of it:
- Crippling Overspecialization: All of his offensive crafts are focused on inflicting a Mark on the enemy. However, it is Awesome, but Impractical as they only guarantee a Critical Hit when Swin hits them next. By contrast, his other teammates' Crafts all inflict much more varied and useful effects.
I think that counts as Crippling Overspecialization if I'm reading it right, that his specialty is applying debuffs only he can take advantage of.
The Friend on the Force example doesn't count, not just because it doesn't just mean "friendly cops" but also because the protags themselves are cops. Friend on the Force is about an inside contact for a non-cop character
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIAI found out that Film.Serenity have a specific section for averted tropes:
This was added in 2016
, for some reason. Is this okay? The examples also lack context.
Thoughts?
Edited by SoyValdo7 on Dec 13th 2023 at 9:32:24 AM
ValdoIs it the The Illuminati if they only control one government?
I'm trying to trope this statement about an authority beyond government:
- [PROTOTYPE]: Jeffery Campbell said that his projects were ultimately a result of commands given from people "Probably so high up, that to see the office of the President, you had to look down."
Edited by Malady on Dec 14th 2023 at 7:58:40 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576![]()
Delete it.
Probably not, though you could look through Secret Societies to see if there's another trope that fits better.
Can a trope that appears in a work be reused on a fanfic's page if it reappears in the fic? This example was suggested on my TLP draft Planet X
:
- The Dark Lords of Nerima: In The Dark Lords Ascendant, the Sailor Senshi and Nerima Wrecking Crew find themselves battling Kazuo Tanizaki, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who is bent on seizing Sailor moon's power for himself. In the final chapter, Ranma realizes that in the original timeline, where Crystal Tokyo was created after the Great Freeze, Tanizaki had escaped and gone off to find some other world to seize power from, in this case Nemesis, the mysterious tenth planet. Said power eventually turns him into one of the Sailor Senshi's old enemies, Death Phantom.
Said tenth planet, however, appears in the original manga and anime adaptations (I'll add it as an example eventually...). Should it be reiterated on a fanfic's page or not?
Edited by jandn2014 on Dec 14th 2023 at 7:03:31 AM
- Yes, if a trope appears in both source and fanfic, the fanfic should say that it uses it. Because sometimes such worldbuilding tropes won't appear. Like a work with a Mage Species that has a fanfic that doesn't involve them at all, wouldn't have Mage Species on the fanfic page.
Is this Limited Lyrics Song? It calls itself a sub-trope of Epic Rocking, and this song only has 2 instances of lyrics out of 1:30 seconds, but not sure it's rocking:
Edited by Malady on Dec 14th 2023 at 7:53:25 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Found these on Contagion (2011):
- Accidental Aesop: Don't have an affair or you'll become infected...with a deadly virus that could kill the entire world.
- Also, don't consume pork meat.
For context, a woman in the film goes on a trip, cheats on her husband and is exposed to infected pork meat in the process, becoming patient zero of an epidemic. The examples rely on such insane logic they are pretty much a joke. Is this what this trope is about?
Sounds more like Warp That Aesop. Cut it.
I found this entry from Trivia.The Addams Family:
- Disowned Adaptation: Though he visited the set a few times, Charles Addams considered the original series a travesty. One must wonder how he would've felt about the film adaptations had he lived long enough to see them (he died in 1988).
Edited by gjjones on Dec 15th 2023 at 11:46:06 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
I see. Thanks.
Edited by gjjones on Dec 15th 2023 at 11:50:53 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.Cruel Twist Ending examples in Inside No. 9 need to be checked because the examples are mostly "This character doesn't deserve this" and there's no explanation of how. Its Recap episodes' versions of these examples aren't better either. Whoever wrote this is either new or doesn't understand this trope.
- Cruel Twist Ending:
- "Sardines". Certainly one of the people in the wardrobe deserves what's about to happen, and arguably a few others, but most of them don't.
- "The Harrowing." Unlike other episodes in the series, Katy does nothing to deserve her fate; she's chosen as Castiel's host because Hector and Tabitha feel that her strength of character will help to keep the demon contained.
- "Cold Comfort" has two cruel twists in the ending, and Andy doesn't deserve anything that happens to him either.
- "The Devil of Christmas". Kathy in the movie certainly deserves a nasty death, but the actress playing her probably didn't.
- "Misdirection". Gabriel avenged his grandfather's murder by killing Neville's wife Jenny and framing Neville. Right at the end, we find out just what the detectives saw in the safe...a razor blade covered in Jenny's blood. While Neville certainly was a douchebag, Jenny is an innocent party.
- "Mr King". Alan winds up as a ritualistic sacrifice, just like his predecessor, through no fault of his own.
- "Paraskevidekatriaphobia". Gareth's wife is run over by a car literally the day after he overcomes his phobia.
- "Love is a Stranger". Jai, a man with a severe facial deformity, uses a mouse emoji to hide his face and lies that his (non-existent) kids were messing around with his phone. Vicky tells him to show his face and he gives her his number before the chat ends. He comes to her house for a date...and not only does the date go horribly wrong when Jai tries to kiss Vicky, but he finds out the hard way that she is the Lonely Hearts Killer when she murders him with a hammer.
What are your thoughts?
"CHICKEN JOCKEY!"If Everything Was Like Among Us:
In the video "If Among Us Had a Mini Impostor" (watch here)
, Jocelyn, the after mentioned Mini Impostor and also conveniently tiny because she's a toddler, is capable of single-handedly throwing out others (to put in comparison, she's like more than just a head shorter than Shiloh). She threw out Mary, Shiloh, Sebastian, and Sarina, all by herself (the other impostor, Judah, only threw out one crewmate, at the end of the video).
Also when Sebastian is thrown out, he lampshades this, saying "Wow, that baby is incredibly strong".
This is a suspected case of Pint-Sized Powerhouse, but we do not see any actual process of throwing out though due to how the video works - instead it just cuts out to the brief scene of the victim being thrown out complete with a scream/gasp. Also it's definitely not realistic for a little toddler like Jocelyn to even throw out a grown-up by herself, albeit the video still plays along like and pretend she can, anyway.
Edited by JustNormalMusicLover on Dec 16th 2023 at 6:00:48 PM
Nothing solves a day of depression better than a warm smile.Hello. I was told to post my question about With Catlike Tread here, in case I'm misunderstanding it. My understanding of it is "Exceptionally noisy/noticable attempts at stealth". But the examples listed on the videogames page seem to count "noticable to the player in real life" as "exceptionally noisy/noticable" even though it's not portrayed as such in-universe. Here are some examples of this.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Riki is prone to screaming "Riki sneaky!" when activating his "Sneaky" skill, a special attack that deals more damage when hitting enemies from behind. This doesn't actually affect enemies' perception of him, though.
- A major design element of Overwatch is that every hero (except Zenyatta, who floats) can be heard through walls; it can be very easy to hear Reaper (who wears big heavy boots) or Winston (a giant gorilla) attempting to sneak around you.
- Somehow, The Legend of Zelda's Link can always stay unnoticed as long as he's out of sight no matter how loudly he grunts and screams.
So my question is, is it misuse if it's just obvious to the real life player?
The thing that prompted me to ask this is that I removed the entry for this trope from the Patapon page thinking it was misuse and another troper added it back with the edit reason saying that it is indeed the correct meaning
, despite it being obvious only to the real life player and not anyone in-universe. Also, no character's stealth plan was ruined as a result of this.

@dArtagnanMusic: The troper who added the entry left the site for 8 years, and the only other contributor yo that page (not counting clean up) is the creator himself (I found the page while cleaning up his Auto-Erotic Troping).
Hmmm, I found an active troper who contributed to Trivia page. I hope they can clarify if it's Fan Nickname or not.