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
Spin to Deflect Stuff or Orbiting Particle Shield or something else?
- Characters.Mega Man Battle Network 2: KnightMan's Signature Move: Royal Wrecking Ball is Knightman's signature offensive move, in which he swings his giant morning star around his body.
Dramatic Irony? Something else?
Roll likes the quiet of Yumland, but that's because everyone died.
Edited by Malady on Feb 27th 2025 at 5:00:43 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Is this correct for Sofia the First?
- Genius Bonus: Sofia pronouncing Cedric's name as "See-dric" throughout Season 1 is an alternate pronunciation of the name used by the English in the 15th century. Sofia is technically right.
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Regarding the Royal Wrecking Ball: Probably neither, as the example is listed as an Offensive move. No context to claim otherwise.
Dramatic Irony? That one's a total ZCE.
Ayumi-chan re: post 34122 Pants-Pulling Prank: Yeah, that's pantsing. (Are their trousers Made of Explodium? They just kind of vaporise.) Use your own judgement on if it's also Prank Punishment - I didn't watch the whole scene, but it kind of feels that way.
Edited by underCoverSailsman on Feb 27th 2025 at 8:33:03 AM
Whoops, had context, was checking my facts, but didn't update.
- Mega Man Battle Network 2: If Roll is talked to in Yumland 2 before Lan boards the plane back to Electopia, she mentions how Yumland is "nice and quiet... I love it here!". Given that Yumland was "known for having the largest population of Navis", the quiet is probably due to the recent massacre that changed that fact, making the quiet more haunting than "nice" to those in the know, like the audience.
Edited by Malady on Feb 27th 2025 at 7:06:24 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Something that I plan on adding to Kendrick Lamar:
- [trope]: Parodied in the video for "Not Like Us". During the scene where Lamar beats up an owl piñata, text at the bottom of the screen says "DISCLAIMER: No OVHoes were harmed during the making of this video."
Is the proper trope for this No Animals Were Harmed, No Celebrities Were Harmed (since "OVHoe" is a diss directed at Drake lampshading his music label OVO Sound and his use of owl imagery in his marketing), or just Content Warnings?
Edited by Willbyr on Feb 28th 2025 at 6:10:43 AM
Would the following count as a Hostile Show Take Over, Dark Reprise, or both?
For the first two seasons of ReBoot the following Opening Narration is given by The Hero Bob:
To reflect Bon getting Put on a Bus to Hell in the Season 2 finale the intro is instead delivered by Megabyte for the start of Season 3:
Inconsistent Dub seems like it's things changing names from line to line, instead of voiceover / text mismatch?
- Inconsistent Dub: In that subtitles and spoken dialogue often come out very different, due to the voice actors ad-libbing their lines sometimes. Though it's rare, sometimes the two just don't match up.
Cid (dialogue): Alas, the hour of your return is late.
Cid (subtitle): Alas, your return is too late.
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Sounds more like a Hostile Show Takeover, since Dark Reprise is more song related if I’m correct
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Dubs and subs barely mismatching lines is not Inconsistent Dub. This can be removed.
- The Academy of Magic: The blue-haired Aura is aloof and closed-off, and has a tendency to be very blunt. She is initially very put off by Faith's attempts to befriend her, finding her enthusiasm grating.
Can that trope be stretched to introversion in general?
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
X6 I know. It was a snarky side comment. The animation made the pants pop like an animated balloon. Not at all relevant to the trope in question.
I found this in The Big Bang Theory
:
Besides the zero-context, can this trope have such a skewed proportion? We are comparing one woman to three men.
x4: the Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy article stipulates that it be about a pair of characters, so you're correct.
To be a Base-Breaking Character do they need to be polarizing EVERY region or can divide come from between regions? I know Americans Hate Tingle exists but I don’t know if they’re allowed to overlap
For example The Shaymin in the 11th Pokémon movie is hated in English speaking territories
Or how about Cameron from the Unova Anume ? He’s divisive in Japan but more or less universally reviled in several other territories
If a character breaks the base in one region, they can qualify for Base-Breaking Character.
2025: the year it all ends?This entry under Continuity Snarl for Cheers:
- Frasier's mother visits him during his engagement to Diane, and is almost psychotic at the thought of her son marrying a mere barmaid. This doesn't fit in well with Frasier's claims to be an orphan, or her posthumous characterization in Frasier, and raises the question of when, exactly, she died.
Question: can a Springtime for Hitler situation qualify for In-Universe Creator's Apathy? I was going to add an In-Universe example for the former's Trope Namer to the latter but I'm not sure if it fits — I believe Creator's Apathy is about uncaring directors, not directors who made an intentionally bad product.
Is my understanding correct?
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
That's going to depend on their motivation. I'd say that The Producers does not crossover. They care about their results. A Lot. On the other hand, I pulled this one off of the SFH Real Life page:
- According to crime novelist Val McDermid, the author of Wire in the Blood, this is basically what happened when she wrote her children's picture book My Granny is a Pirate. For a while there was a trend of celebrities writing children's books, and McDermid's publisher wanted her to write one too, and refused to listen when she said that this was a particular skill she didn't possess, so she sent her a poem she had made up for her son when he was younger.
McDermid: But eventually, she just kept going on and on and on, and the only way I thought to shut her up, was to send her something. [...] So I had written this, well, I had made up really, I hadn't even written it down to begin with, this poem about my granny being a pirate. You know: "My granny is a pirate! She sailed the seven seas. She's captured many pirate ships, but was always home for tea." And I sent this off to my publisher thinking; at least she'll shut up and leave me alone now, but no. No no no. She called me and said, "Darling, we love it! We want to publish it, darling!" And I'm like, Oh, for Christ's sake...
And that, I'd think, would fairly cross over with CA.

There are some examples in Reality Subtext that sound like other tropes. Or maybe it's just me, hence why I ask you here. As a starter, the page quote about the game font sounds like a production gag or some kind of a memento.
The one above sounds like Write Who You Know or Based on a True Story or even Roman à Clef
And that one sounds like Inspiration for the Work or Catharsis Factor
And those two examples (the latter from the live-action film section) sound like Real Life Writes the Plot or Serendipity Writes the Plot