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
Unintentional Period Piece have many dubious examples.
- Pokémon X and Y: Fedoras note are purchasable ingame. This game came out in 2013, where it was cool to wear one. Not long afterwards, it became associated with many negative connotations, including misogyny and Jerkasses. Doubly Hilarious in Hindsight given how the shop's vendor says it can "make you look really mature," as Pop-Cultural Osmosis has given the hats the opposite reputation.
Is a single old-fashioned accessory enough to qualify the game as an Unintentional Period Piece?
- If there were clearer indications that it was intended as a reference, instead of just another kind of hat, that needed Flavor Text then yes, one object could be enough.
But, IIRC, UPP works have to be 10yrs old, before we add it?
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576I thought Unintentional Period Piece was about works that are loaded with dated references rather than just having one.
I don't think one object is enough. There could be an exception if it's something major that objectively dates it to a certain point and has a significant impact on the story, but something as minor as a fashion detail, no. Fashions are also local trends that don't apply to all regions, age groups, or contexts. Not to mentioned highly subjective.
Check out my fanfiction!I found this on Idiot Programming, and I can't decipher most of it. What do we do with it?
- The Final Fantasy series is known for its polished production values, but was often coded in bizarre, idiotic ways.
- There were several issues in the original Final Fantasy:
- The intelligence stat doesn't work, running from battles
, instead of basing it on Luck and Level, is controlled Luck, and the status of the 3rd and 4th player character slots, whoever attacks 3rd, and the health of the 4th character slot, most equipment buffs don't even work, and most spell debuffs don't work. The only one that seems to be an Ascended Glitch due to it not being fixed in subsequent re-releases is that the critical hit rate is tied to the weapon's index in the database.
- The intelligence stat doesn't work, running from battles
- There were several issues in the original Final Fantasy:
Would you consider giant devil rays to be the Unpleasant Animal Counterpart to cownose rays as the former rays have a bad reputation and cownose rays are docile and used in touch tanks?
Would you consider Gila monsters to be the Unpleasant Animal Counterpart to collared lizards as Gila monsters look scary, are venomous, and have a bad reputation while collared lizards are docile and appear friendly?
Adam El-YoussephUnintentional Period Piece is one of my pet peeves because people add it for literally anything so long as "the work's period can be narrowed down in any way."
So yeah. As we've seen in the past two pages "probably took place before a certain year" is common, but my favorite is one work that had UPP because there was a bridge in the background that only stood for 40 years, therefore it can be gleaned that it took place during those 40 years.
Probably not, they're really not used like that in fiction at all.
edited 29th May '18 8:30:10 AM by Larkmarn
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.Unintentional Period Piece is not "can be dated to this period because of this". It's "the entire work feels dated because there are so many details that makes it impossible to see the work as belonging in any other period, and moving it to a different period would require extensive rewriting". It's not about the number of objects. It's about their prominence.
Work based on historical events are by definition excluded. They're intentionally set at a specific date.
edited 29th May '18 11:22:09 AM by AnotherDuck
Check out my fanfiction!Those rays aren't used as counterparts much. And considering how rare they are in fiction, they're often portrayed more accurately.
Check out my fanfiction!Bats, any kind or similar creatures, are mostly always used as creepy animals, so I don't think that distinction holds up particularly well.
Check out my fanfiction!Yeah Unintentional Period Piece probably deserves a short term cleanup or something. I recently removed the Twitter joke from Moana because A) It's a single line in a 107 minutes long movie. B) Twitter has been popular for a decade and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.
On YMMV.The Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes, I don't know if the last sentence of this entry really sounds Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Bizarro Episode: "Emperor Stark". Apparently 30 days is all it takes to turn Earth into a dystopian future, and undoing it all by next week takes even less time. In all fairness though, they were able to work in the themes behind Civil War into the story, which is now Hilarious in Hindsight in the wake of plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take on this immense storyline in Captain America: Civil War.
In a work I'm writing up, there's a scene where two straight characters are pretending to be a gay couple. One of the guys wants it to be very clear that he "goes on top", and brings this up several times when it's sort of inappropriate.
Would this be an example of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?? Since the subtext is that the character views topping as more masculine/"straight", and is insecure about being viewed as gay?
"It's just a show; I should really just relax"That's quite the shoehorn. Someone insisting that they're "the top" in a gay relationship is not putting on a show of being straight, only masculine.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Question about this entry for the recap page for the Reverie arc in One Piece:
- Too Dumb to Live: The pirate crew that decides to kidnap a princess that's bound for the Reverie, and later sets their sights on kidnapping Viola as well. Never mind that Viola is fully capable of kicking ass (and would have literally seen them coming from miles away via her Devil Fruit), all of the royal families that are gathering at Mariejois have Marine escorts. Cue Coby foiling their brilliant plan and rescuing the princess. To further add insult to injury (literally), the kidnapped princess started attacking the pirate crew that kidnapped her out of revenge.
As far as I know, Too Dumb to Live is a Death Trope; if they didn't die, they aren't obviously too dumb to live. Would that count as an example or would a different trope apply such as Mugging the Monster?
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.Are voles a Seldom-Seen Species or are they well-known in Europe? I only first heard of them through Warrior Cats, but they're a European animal so maybe they're well-known over seas.
My Zora question from the last page wasn't answered. To clarify, Zora are a semi-aquatic species of humanoid from The Legend of Zelda series. They act in a humanoid manner and can apparently interbreed with humans, so are they too anthropomorphic for Animal Religion?

Are these entries under narm for new The New 52 Futures End, fine.
edited 27th May '18 3:20:40 PM by miraculous
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."