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 don't think the knowledge about Catwoman's race is common enough, whether true or false. It's just not a significant part of her character. A lot of people know it's not consistent, at any rate, so I don't think the example holds up.
Check out my fanfiction!In Volume 2 of Lord Marksman And Vanadis, the Tatra Fortress' entrance consists of oak planks in between sheets of metal, which can be easily destroyed by a combined attack and leave it open for enemy forces to attack, as what Tigre and Elen did to have their forces invade it during their battle in Olmütz. Would that count as a Failsafe Failure?
Edited by gjjones on Nov 8th 2018 at 1:01:19 PM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.![]()
Maybe it's too subjective a thing to be posted on the page. Different people think different things so it's too mixed to be Common Knowledge.
I've seen many people that were young when the 60s show came out that they don't even remember a Catwoman on the show besides Eartha; she was the second Darrin but I'd say she's more recognizable than her predecessors. It could be an age thing.
Yeah, I agree it's too mixed, and the trope isn't, "some people have the facts wrong".
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I don't think it's a failsafe as much as a plain barrier. A failsafe is a kind of protection in case something goes wrong with a device. This if anything is just the device. A failsafe would be something that activates if that entrance fails its purpose.
The only version of Catwoman that I'm familiar with is the Catwoman featuring Halle Berry. As a non-comics fan, I would assume based on this and the Eartha Kitt thing that Catwoman is in fact Black. But isn't this the sort of thing that changes Depending on the Writer (and thus isn't consistent enough for violations to be Common Knowledge)?
"It's just a show; I should really just relax"Parental Abandonment can apply to someone at any age, right?
Or does it have to occur before adulthood?
'Cause I have an example where they're said to have "they decided to suddenly and mysteriously disappear from your life", or went "missing".
But I'm not sure at the age where that occurred.
I suppose it's trying to use Parental Abandonment even if it isn't the typical example of such?
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Quotes.Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk has a Real Life section despite being No Real Life Examples, Please! I'm gonna delete those referring to RL individuals unless anyone objects.
Quotes.Jerk With A Heart Of Gold has no real life, so I see no justification for keeping.
On YMMV.Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, would the Surprisingly Improved Sequel entry still look valid if it turned out the RT score only rose because of critics who hated Mamma Mia! so much, they didn't bother reviewing Here We Go Again?
Is this Advice Backfire?
In Leverage the Big Bad of season 4 has killed Nate's father. When Nate has the man at his mercy, the villain pleads, noting Nate didn't kill the man responsible for denying medical care to his son and who died as a result. Nate pauses and notes his son would never forgive him for becoming a murderer; his father, a career criminal, on the other hand would buy him an ice cream.
- Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: The games second act notoriously suffers from this—even taking into account that he was intentionally written to be unheroic, Ratchet is so needlessly nasty and unlikable throughout the middle half of the game that the only way to make him seem sympathetic (prior to his Heel Realization at Gemlik Base) is the fact that Drek and Qwark are even worse than he is.
This is a lighthearted game overal and it has an explicict happy ending where the heroes successfullly defeat the villain and save everyone else. I don't think that this trope applies just because Ratchet is initially a jerk but - as the above entry acknowleges - he gets a Heel Realization.
Do these still count under Ambiguous Gender Identity?
- Steven Universe:
- The Gems all look and sound female, all refer to themselves with female pronouns (even the ones who have never visited Earth), and are treated as women. Word of God is that they don't actually consider themselves female but don't object to it either, and use "she/her" pronouns for convenience's sake. Furthermore, none have objected to wearing male clothing (when seven gems attended a wedding, only two wore dresses) and Amethyst has frequently turned into male forms.
- Stevonnie is an androgynous fusion of a male and female character, is refer to as "they"* (when most fusions are referred to with female pronouns), and shows little concern with gender norms without explicitly addressing them (in the comic, they wear a dress/suit combo to a dance). The staff have directly referred to Stevonnie as nonbinary.
Word of God seems to be their gender is nonbinary, so they ''do' have canon genders then. But (at least in the Crystal Gems case) it's not mentioned in-series.
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All Gems are identified as females and many do look female so there isnt any true confusion of transgender. Stevonnie is a fusion of a male and female and they have both traits. They are more of a case of Ambiguous Gender since its unknown if they are male or female. I believe they are a hermaphrodite.
In YMMV.MY Little Pony Equestria Girls Legend Of Everfree:
- Values Dissonance: While certain cultures wouldn't mind the romance between Human Twilight and Timber Spruce, it's safe to say that American viewers aren't as lax about a teenager and an authority figure coupling, even though the attraction is mutual and they're close in age.
Would this still count when the product in produced in North American for North American viewers?
>I believe they are a hermaphrodite.
That's... definitely not correct.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Found this on Voldemort Origins Of The Heir:
- Irony: Despite the movie's title and numerous promotions stating that the film would focus on Voldemort and his transition from Tom Riddle into Voldemort, the majority of the film does not feature Voldemort himself, but rather centers around Grisha McLaggen and her flashbacks.
As written, this sounds more like Never Trust a Title or Secondary Character Title.
Yes, Irony should be in-universe. Move it to one of those.
Trivia.Pokemon Detective Pikachu
- Dueling Works: With Sonic The Hedgehog 2019, also based on a massively popular Japanese video game franchise.
Pikachu releases May 10th, 2019, Sonic November 2019. If they aren't in theaters at the same time, can they be called Dueling? How close together do they have to release to count? Months? Same year?

Batman's very mainstream, and Catwoman's hardly an obscure character. Eartha Kitt's portrayal was fifty years ago, and she wasn't even the only woman to portray Catwoman on that show. I'm sure there are some people that think this, but it's hardly Common Knowledge.
It's different from, say, Nick Fury. Unless you were already a Marvel Comics fan, you almost certainly didn't know who Nick Fury was until the MCU, so it's entirely reasonable for most people to think he's always been black.
Edited by Primis on Nov 8th 2018 at 4:21:12 AM