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 this on the Live-Action TV subpage for Dying Clue:
- Walker, Texas Ranger:
- The episode "Legends" counts as both Type 1 and Type 5. The Big Bad of the episode, Michael Viscardi, strangles his middle man, Dean Scaggs, to death when the latter ends up being followed to the former's office by Gage and Sydney, who had a warrant for his arrest. Gage and Sydney search the office to find Scaggs's lifeless corpse and the message written with Scaggs's blood reading "D.A. Walk", which signifies that in Michael's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against those who convicted his father, his final target is the prosecuting attorney, Alex. Alex's surname is incomplete when it is found written in blood, which makes it Type 1, but it counts as Type 5 for Alex and Walker to be named Michael's final targets after the he kills Scaggs.
Since the message was written by Viscardi and there's no indication that they thought it was written by Scaggs, wouldn't that disqualify it from Dying Clue?
There are other issues as well, but the question of it being an example is most relevant to this thread.
I should also note that Dying Clue is under discussion in Soft Split Cleanup.
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For me, that doesn't "stretch Willing Suspension of Disbelief" as the trope requires. It could be a lampshaded example of Symbolism instead of Rule of Symbolism.
In the El Goonish Shive strip from last Friday
, Hope remarks that Jay reminds her of how she (or rather, her previous incarnation Pandora) was when she first met her late husband Blaike. This leads to a Jaw Drop moment because this cranks her Ship Tease with Susan up through the roof by comparing them to a married couple, but Hope misunderstands and believes they're shocked at the revelation that she even had a husband to begin with (as confirmed in The Rant of today's strip). Is this an example of Comically Missing the Point? Her character page lists this as an example of No Social Skills, possibly because (as The Rant mentions) her reaction seemed to be easily misunderstood, although that trope might still count to some degree.
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Yes, Fandom-Specific Plot is better.
Is it an Adaptation Name Change is the original name is expanded upon? For example, the adaptation adds a middle name that wasn't there in the source material.
Edited by Lermis on Feb 25th 2025 at 3:39:56 PM
SpaceBattles.com fanworks (now oficial) index in my Sandbox.Just watch X-Men: Apocalypse and I think that Magneto counts as a Tragic Bigot.
This part from The Wrong Trousers:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Although the Techno-Trousers's wall and ceiling walking functions are impressive, the heist Feathers McGraw conducts with them goes wrong since the museum's ceiling consists of old tiles only held in with fixative, which causes the heavy Techno-Trousers to nearly fall down after tearing one off and subsequently triggers the alarm.
I think it's fine. At the very least, it doesn't sound like Spanner in the Works to me at all.
Edited by petersohn on Feb 25th 2025 at 9:50:38 PM
Fjón þvæ ég af mér fjanda minna rán og reiði ríkra manna.A few examples of Turn the Other Cheek (which were moved from Easily Forgiven since that is now a YMMV trope) but they don't seem to explain the "forgiveness and kindness" part of the trope. For a few examples:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky:
- Turn the Other Cheek: The worst any of the people involved in the coup in FC get hit with is a few months of prison time followed by dismissal from government service. If Olivier is in the party when they first encounter Duke Dunan in SC, he'll tell the man to stop whining about his luxurious house arrest - if he'd tried that stunt in Erebonia, he'd have already been executed.
Characters.Trails Series Erebonia Thors Class VII New
- Turn the Other Cheek:
- Rean, Elise, and Alfin don't hold her kidnapping of the latter two during the Civil War against her too much. Juna, likewise never brings up her role in assisting in Crossbell's annexation against her, in contrast with Rean who she gave the cold shoulder towards at first.
- Chapter 1 of Rean's route in Reverie has her apologizing to Teo and Lucia Schwarzer for kidnapping their daughter and Princess Alfin during the Civil War. Like their children, the couple hold no ill will towards her as they recognize that she had only been a child that was Just Following Orders.
The examples of Fake Brit:
From the One Day trivia page:
- Fake Brit: Anne Hathaway is American, playing the Yorkshire native Emma Morley. She was criticised heavily for her attempt at the accent. Patricia Clarkson, who plays Dexter's mother, fares a little better.
From the Frasier trivia page:
- Jane Leeves is British but cannot do a Manchester accent for toffee (she hails from London/Home Counties: born in Ilford in East London and raised in East Grinstead in West Sussex (about 30 miles south of London). God help the woman if she ever needed directions to the Trafford Centre. Word of God is that they wanted Daphne's accent to be working class and understandable to Americans
so Jane Leeves adopted that particular accent.
From the creator page for Cillian Murphy:
- His Birmingham accent in Peaky Blinders was shaky during the first season, but spot-on in season two.
Edited by king15 on Feb 26th 2025 at 5:53:57 PM
I personally think that Fake Brit should be brought to the Repair Shop; that aside, you could cut them for now, to fit with its strangely-narrow description.
Is there a romantic equivalent of Friendship Trinket, or can it also be used for romantic couples?
Still waiting for someone to break him free...Would in-game scratch cards count for Betting Mini-Game? It's usually considered gambling, I'm pretty sure it's regulated as such in some places
Ey, migi vuru?Regarding the Pants Pulling example
: here's the part in question
. Also I misread and I thought you meant the longer one, since you were unsure whether the first part was ok.
Also bumping
.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Feb 28th 2025 at 4:49:18 AM
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/AI have a clear case for these examples from DownerEnding.Video Games being misuse — both sound more akin to Alas, Poor Villain.
- The end of Kirby's Dream Land sees Dedede flung from his castle and falling to the ground. You're then shown the code for the "Extra Game". Completing that shows Dedede thrown to land on his head. He then runs around the screen crying in pain before collapsing. It's a wonder he ever "plays" with Kirby ever again.
- Similarlynote , after clearing the Revenge of the King game in Kirby Super Star Ultra, instead of showing Kirby's victory, the ending cinematic shows a defeated, depressed King Dedede walking a lonely road. At least his Waddle Dee friends come one by one to walk beside him. Yes, the game actually makes you feel guilty for winning, although seeing a Downer Ending for your opponent might be satisfying.
This entry from This Index Is Not an Example seems misplaced, just because Homer's temptation is the focus of the episode does not mean that is what the trope namer is talking about.
- Hail to the Cheat — A high-ranking political figure cheats on their significant other. The Trope Namer is The Simpsons episode "The Last Temptation of Homer" which has a news report discussing the (alleged) affairs that the U.S. presidents carried on and named after the "Hail to The Chief" phrase/song, it was just seen as a Your Television Hates You joke towards Homer, who was developing a crush on his new coworker, Mindy. Furthermore, Homer is neither a political figure (at least not in this episode) nor did he cheat on Marge.
That's been there since the beginning of the TLP so yes it is the trope namer; the sponsor themselves wrote that.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall

Pinball Scoring:
Edited by Malady on Feb 24th 2025 at 7:37:06 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576