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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
#501: Jan 10th 2014 at 5:43:36 PM

You should use Lost And Found to identify tropes. This is more about getting help with example writing.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Dalillama Since: Jan, 2001
#502: Jan 11th 2014 at 9:40:09 PM

Ah well, I've been directed there already, but the title of this thread's not half misleading.

SaburoDaimando Since: Sep, 2013
#503: Jan 23rd 2014 at 11:46:13 AM

This is something I have been thinking of since the Battlefield 4 "Glitch" debacle. If you don't know, there is a glitch going on where the player's save data gets corrupted, in addition to a number of other bugs that causes the game to crash.

Even worse, this result got a lawsuit against EA and DICE by Robbins Geller Rudman and Dowd, with claims that EA violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by not informing investors about the major bugs and glitches the game had.

Would something like this count as an Internet Backlash (Especially in the Your Miles May Vary part of the Battlefield 4 Tropes page) considering how many players flipped out over it? I haven't played the game, but reading of these stories would make this kind of backlash justified in my view.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#504: Jan 23rd 2014 at 11:47:34 AM

It would definitely fall under Game-Breaking Bug. Sounds like a case of Real Life Backlash, although I'm not really sure that is or should be something we document. As for your question, Internet Backlash would seem valid.

edited 23rd Jan '14 11:48:00 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
SaburoDaimando Since: Sep, 2013
#505: Jan 23rd 2014 at 12:47:47 PM

@Fighteer: Ironic how you stated Game-Breaking Bug since I took alook at the Trope itself and it's not even there. Anyone here up for adding it to the entry?

supergod Walking the Earth from the big city Since: Jun, 2012
Walking the Earth
#506: Jan 26th 2014 at 12:27:42 PM

Was directed here. Could somebody take a look at this example from the Acceptable Ethnic Targets page? I didn't delete it because it's been on the page since 2011. Personally, I don't think it makes much sense. If villains are usually WAS Ps, it's because they are the majority. How often are non-WAS Ps portrayed as the leading hero against such a villain? Including things like The Lord of the Rings seems wrong as well.

* In a meta example, almost always the villain, nowadays, of any movie or TV series is going to be white, and especially WASP. Aliens, Avatar, Beauty And The Beast, Blazing Saddles, Die Hard, Commando, Gangs of New York, The Green Mile, The Karate Kid (original), The Next Karate Kid, The Lord of the Rings, Pocahontas, RoboCop, Shinning, Star Wars (at least with the human villains), Willow, and plenty more (feel free to add. There're plenty more examples). Bonus points for the most depraved villains, the rapists and child abusers, being WASP as well. The only aversions tend to be historically based stories wherein it'd be virtually impossible to cast a white villain. Additionally, the only characters portrayed as racist tend to be white, usually of the Neo-Nazi or KKK variety. Rarely, if ever, do heroes (especially not white heroes) battle against the New Black Panthers, Nation Of Islam, Brown Berets, or other non-white racist groups (though a black character kicking the shit out of a Klansman is pure catharsis).

For we shall slay evil with logic...
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#507: Jan 26th 2014 at 12:34:44 PM

WASPs aren't a majority large enough to explain the discrepancy explained in that entry.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#508: Jan 26th 2014 at 12:51:58 PM

It's a generic entry (not "meta"), not an example. Especially since at least half of the movies in the the first list are set in times and places where the most-likely ethnicity of a villain in that situation would be "white".

Cut it.

edited 26th Jan '14 12:54:53 PM by Madrugada

supergod Walking the Earth from the big city Since: Jun, 2012
Walking the Earth
#509: Jan 26th 2014 at 1:00:39 PM

[up][up] I don't think a lot of those examples are specifically WAS Ps, just white.

[up] Thanks

edited 26th Jan '14 1:32:16 PM by supergod

For we shall slay evil with logic...
supergod Walking the Earth from the big city Since: Jun, 2012
Walking the Earth
#510: Jan 28th 2014 at 12:35:31 PM

Sorry to use this again so soon, but I wanted to ask about this example on Butter Face

Not going to give names, but a lot of porn stars could be said to fit in this trope. The people doing the castings must think not many viewers are going to look at their faces.

This isn't a YMMV trope, but the second bit seems a bit too subjective and a bit mean-spirited.

edited 28th Jan '14 12:37:18 PM by supergod

For we shall slay evil with logic...
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#511: Jan 28th 2014 at 12:37:12 PM

If those are actual examples, then they violate the rules two ways: they are making fun of real people, and they are "general" examples rather than specific ones.

We should cut that entire section and NRLEP this. I'll offer it in the thread.

edited 28th Jan '14 12:37:58 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
ShanghaiSlave Giver of Lame Names from YKTTW Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#512: Jan 31st 2014 at 1:28:12 AM

Found this in N-Word Privileges:

—>Toph: [regarding a drawing] It looks just like him to me. —>Sokka: Thank you. I worked really... [Beat]... Why do you feel the need to do that?

this is blatant shoehorning, what's the actual trope for this?

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
ShanghaiSlave Giver of Lame Names from YKTTW Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#514: Feb 1st 2014 at 12:11:49 AM

[up] Well, Toph isn't implying she sucks there. Checked the page and all it's related links are about self-mocking.

It's more that she uses her own blindness to mock other people there.

Kinda like I Would Say If I Could Say, except it's not in any of the formats mentioned in the description.

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?
crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
#515: Feb 1st 2014 at 2:06:49 PM

Put the words in someone else's mouth. If Aang said to Toph, "Sokka's painting looks just like him to you.", would that seem he was insulting Toph? Sokka as well, but also Toph?

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#516: Feb 1st 2014 at 8:29:04 PM

If it's framed as "I'm blind, so it's okay for me to make blind jokes", then it would fall under N-Word Privileges. It's all about the intent.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
ShanghaiSlave Giver of Lame Names from YKTTW Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#517: Feb 2nd 2014 at 8:21:41 PM

[up][up] the pronouns there are rather confusing. but i get your point, "If someone else says it to them, is it now racist?".

[up] So basically, instances of I Would Say If I Could Say that is in that form counts as N-Word Privileges? Okay.

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?
crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
#518: Feb 3rd 2014 at 7:11:43 AM

In the context of disabilities, the term is ableist, but yeah. I don't know what the term for discrimination against blindness is.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Tomodachi Now a lurker. See you at the forums. Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
#519: Feb 7th 2014 at 9:21:06 PM

I wanted to make an example of escapist character, and add something to the Doctor doom part in Rooting for the Empire

  • "Doctor Doom has gotten this in a big way, and partly due to his Memetic Badass status in the fandom, and neither one is all that unjustified; Doom usually is that badass, and Reed Richards has a notorious history of being a total prick rather frequently. Warren Ellis gave Marvel 2099 a grand send-off by letting Doom take over the USA. It worked... right up until the politicians broke out the WM Ds they had previously been too scared to use.
    • Ellis points out that the basis of Doom's megalomania is that he truly believes that the world would be better off under his rule so he could protect and provide for it with the fruits of his genius without interference. And in canon Marvel, Doom has turned Latveria into a Gothic Dubai while Reed Richards Is Useless.

I want to add the fact that, Doctor Doom fits the criteria for an Escapist Character: He is cool, the king of his own country, a super genious, a magician, charismatic, and in many cases have a point. Compared to Mister Fantastic who tends to be quite flat, boring and male chauvinist sometimes. Marvel, while trying to create a relatable superhero team, also created an umbealiable awesome villain which many people would want to be.

edited 7th Feb '14 9:49:56 PM by Tomodachi

To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#520: Feb 7th 2014 at 10:42:35 PM

Doctor Doom should not be listed as an Escapist Character, because there's some authorial intent involved in that trope. However, if what you're intending to do is mention in the Rooting for the Empire entry that he resembles one in many ways, I think that's reasonable enough.

Tomodachi Now a lurker. See you at the forums. Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
#521: Feb 8th 2014 at 12:49:05 AM

I was going for the resemble stuff, since an Escapist Character (the trope at least) is a character created to be escapism, and Doom was not created with that intention. Just saying, he still fits the criteria.

edited 8th Feb '14 12:55:49 AM by Tomodachi

To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#522: Feb 8th 2014 at 5:02:27 PM

Well, then I don't see a problem with that.

Grounder Main Character Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: All is for my lord
Main Character
#523: Feb 13th 2014 at 1:07:35 PM

Dangan Ronpa spoilers:

Is it safe to add Jack the Ripper to Genocider Syo's character entry, given one of her official English release names?

Whitecroc Since: Dec, 2010
#524: Feb 15th 2014 at 11:41:05 AM

Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! has a Real Life section that's basically just a list of people with AD(H)D — more or less a list of Zero Context Examples. Since the trope seems to be about the exaggerated portrayal of the disorder, do they really fit in there? I'm tempted to axe the entire section, but I seem to recall that being something of a faux pas on this wiki.

StFan Since: Jan, 2001
#525: Feb 20th 2014 at 9:03:44 AM

[up]The place to ask about that would be the Real Life section maintenance thread.


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