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
Reposting from the previous page:
I'd like to bring up these examples from The Dom Reviews:
First does this example look extreme to qualify as Internet Backdraft?:
- Internet Backdraft: Not all of his fans were happy when he reviewed Power Rangers, and suggested that Zordon was irresponsible for making autistic kid Billy pilot the Megazord.
Secondly given how often Narm is misused on this website, could I get some clarification as to whether this example is being used correctly?:
- Narm: The recap at the beginning of Part 2 of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's LIA has The Dom in character as Terrence mime the words he was saying at the end of Part 1 to the audio from it. The problem is that his mouth doesn't always sync up and it makes you wonder why he didn't just rerecord himself saying that in front of the camera with the same delivery when he did just that to finish the sentence Terrence was originally going to say before being shot by The Dom directly after that, or just record himself as Terrence saying the lines the first time.
Reposting from two pages back:
Are these really examples of What An Idiot?
- Steven Universe:
- Gems are Nigh-Invulnerable humanoid rock creatures from outer space. Rose Quartz led a rebellion to protect humans and all organic life on Earth from being wiped out, since a Gem colony destroys planets from the inside out.
You'd Expect: Given Rose's love for humans that she and the surviving Crystal Gems would learn all about them, namely that humans believe in autonomy if they aren't captured and conditioned over five thousand years to live in a zoo, and that they are relatively fragile compared to Gems.
Instead: The Gems isolate themselves from humanity after the war and don't bother to learn more than cursory facts about them. Despite the fact that Rose is protecting humans and the Earth, she knows little to nothing about them. Pearl mentions that Rose has had human lovers, but Rose didn't know that humans grew from babies for a while, for example, or that tiny humans are "fragile and soft".
As A Result: Rose accidentally endangers baby Sour Cream's life by leaving him unoccupied on a Ferris wheel, and later on when Rose "dies" to have Steven, a Gem-human hybrid, the Gems have to work with her lover Greg to figure out how to rear a baby and help him grow. - After Steven is born, the Gems and Greg alternate in caring for him. He lives with his dad at the van and It's A Wash until the Gems and Greg build a house extension of the temple suited for raising a child. Greg makes sure Steven is well cared for, and has educated him a fair amount about the Earth.
You'd Expect: The Gems to educate Steven about their culture to the fullest extent of their ability, despite their guilt, as he gets older. There is a whole planet fathoms away with different music, language, writing, and history. There's also the fact that Steven doesn't go to regular school, so he should at least get more of an education.
Instead: More often than not, Steven is Locked Out of the Loop. The Gems operate on a need-to-know basis, especially since Steven is a goodhearted Friend to All Living Things. In Season One, much of what he learns comes from missions where his guardians dismantle dangerous technology or Corrupted Gems, and it gets to the point where he nearly has an anxiety attack on learning what his mother did to Pink Diamond. Even after this, it takes great effort for the Gems to communicate with Steven.
As a Result: Steven kicks off multiple arcs due to his ignorance (such as freeing Lapis from the mirror, alerting enemy Homeworld Gems to the Crystal Gems' location) and his mounting annoyance on not being told anything (and subsequently trying to find the answers himself) is the prime cause of the Zoo arc. - Garnet has Future Vision. This allows her to see multiple futures at the same time, often at a dizzying rate.
You'd Expect: She would use this more often than she does, especially in dangerous situations. For example, when Peridot is coming to Earth with an unknown ally and upgraded technology.
Instead: She doesn't, especially to see things that could threaten the Gems' lives. Granted, Steven has tried her powers and knows that sometimes there is no happy outcome, and there are some things her Future Vision cannot predict, but still. - Meanwhile, the Diamond Authority has conquered countless planets. In fact, Earth is the only colony we see that was an utter failure thanks to Rose Quartz. Yellow Diamond reveals she has no regard for organic life, the way Rose does.
You'd Expect: They would keep tabs on sentient life forms, organic or otherwise, especially since humans are chaotic beings. A Peridot who is trained to keep reports would be good at the job, for example. With the humans, it's revealed that Pink Diamond kept a human zoo which reveals a relatively small sample size, for example.
Instead: Diamonds and Gems in general treat humans and other organic as pets at best and nuisances at most. In addition, they don't bother learning more than cursory facts they observe; Peridot makes her first report on humans based on Steven telling her the names of his friends, and she assumes they are different types of humans, the way there are different types of Gems. Blue Diamond in season four, after she talks to Greg, decides to take him without his consent to the people zoo to "save" him from the Cluster. Yellow Diamond then tries to cheer up Blue Diamond by having an Aquamarine and Topaz kidnap Steven's friends, to bring them to the zoo. If not for the duo being a Knight of Cerebus pair, they would have been found and busted immediately by the townsfolk and the Crystal Gems.
The Result: Homeworld is completely unequipped to deal with a rebellious human like Lars, who comes back from the dead and can No-Sell most of the detectors because he lacks a Gem. He ends up busting out with refugee Off-Color Gems, stealing the fastest Gem ship in Homeworld, and making their soldiers look ridiculous. It also means they have less effective means of dealing with Steven, a Gem-human hybrid, who flees a courtroom on realizing that the Diamonds won't spare Lars, who was captured for the zoo and is used as evidence of Rose Quartz's guilt.
- Gems are Nigh-Invulnerable humanoid rock creatures from outer space. Rose Quartz led a rebellion to protect humans and all organic life on Earth from being wiped out, since a Gem colony destroys planets from the inside out.
In the case of Garnet's Future Vision, it's been shown that she can't see/doesn't explore futures that she would never see as something that could actually happen. For example, Peridot coming to Earth? Garnet didn't even want to think about the possibility of Homeworld returning in Season 1.
And for the Diamonds'/Homeworld's perception of humans and other organic beings, they think of us like we think of flies; tiny, insignificant nuisances that you don't even give a second thought towards. Why would they spend precious time and energy researching these easily killable creatures when they could put their resources into something more productive?
Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Jan 14th 2019 at 11:51:25 AM
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢Done. How about this one? For the record, what happened with Jasper literally occurred a few minutes prior, and Peridot, who witnessed it first hand, still had trouble grasping what Corruption was two episodes later. The shapeshifting thing is also very much in Amethyst's character.
- "Back to the Moon"
- The Rubies return, still seeking Jasper. Steven, Peridot and Amethyst worked together to fight and poof Jasper, who has become corrupted. Jasper is now in the Temple in a bubble.
You'd Expect: Honesty would be the best policy. Steven and Peridot could explain that they lied because they know that a Corrupted Gem would likely become shattered by the Diamond Authority. The Rubies could decide if they want to risk Jasper being shattered on returning her to Homeworld, or to return and explain that Jasper has "died", for all intents and purposes.
Instead: Amethyst impulsively tries to deceive them by posing as Jasper, before Steven can even consider telling the truth. It goes terribly south when the Rubies catch her in the act of shapeshifting at the moon base.
As A Result: The Rubies and Steven get stranded in space, with the former getting stuck out there for quite a while.
- The Rubies return, still seeking Jasper. Steven, Peridot and Amethyst worked together to fight and poof Jasper, who has become corrupted. Jasper is now in the Temple in a bubble.
Cut. We learned that the Ruby are cant be reason with. With the Ruby that got stuck with Steven willingly to poof him even though it be a bad idea since they are stuck in space. Also, in general Homeworld Gems are hard to reason with Peridot taking a long while to make a Heel–Face Turn.
Edited by WhirlRX on Jan 15th 2019 at 6:48:24 AM
Alright. This one?
- "Kindergarten Kid"
- Peridot laughs when the Crystal Gems fail to capture a feisty, flighty Gem Monster. When an annoyed Amethyst suggests Let's See YOU Do Better!, Peridot ready takes to the task. There is just one problem: while her wiring up old Gem tech would work on normal monsters, this monster happens to be Smarter Than You Look and doesn't fall for any of the Peri-Plans.
You'd Expect: Peridot to eventually realize the creature is intelligent after so many failed attempts.
Instead: She doesn't. Her final plan, to push a rock down it, requires that the Monster would be "dumb" enough to stand in the right spot. Steven has to tell her bluntly that the Monster is smarter than Peridot thinks, after both suffer Amusing Injuries. - Peri-Plan 1: Peridot tries to make an injector wedged into a cliff fall on the Monster. The injector doesn't budge an inch, however, even after she makes all of its legs fall.
You'd Expect: Peridot would be careful after her plan fails.
Instead: She goes directly under the ejector and starts kicking the cliff to make it fall. Steven warns her and she moves away, but she's still in the line of fire when it crushes her right after she gets flattened by boulders. - Peri-Plan 2: Peridot rewires an injector to become a rudimentary cannon, using boulders as ammo. She uses one boulder to demonstrate.
You'd Expect: Peridot would reload when she sees the monster again.
Instead: Peridot tries to shoot the unloaded cannon at the Gem Monster. The backlash knocks her against a cliff, which leads to more rocks falling on her. - Peri-Plan 3: Peridot decides to shove a boulder down the cliff, from a great height, when the monster walks below. Steven immediately sees the problem: how will they get the monster to stand directly in the path of the boulder? Then the monster shows up behind them. It scares them off the cliff and pushes the boulder down after them.
You'd Expect: Steven to quickly bubble the two of them while they're falling. He can float, but Peridot can't.
Instead: Steven floats down while Peridot crashes. Then the boulder falls on her.
- Peridot laughs when the Crystal Gems fail to capture a feisty, flighty Gem Monster. When an annoyed Amethyst suggests Let's See YOU Do Better!, Peridot ready takes to the task. There is just one problem: while her wiring up old Gem tech would work on normal monsters, this monster happens to be Smarter Than You Look and doesn't fall for any of the Peri-Plans.
Peridot is stubborn, gets agitated easily, and like I said in my previous post, doesn't quite understand Corruption or Corrupted Gems. In the cases of Peri Plans 2 and 3, things actually happened too fast for them to do the suggested "You'd Expect"s.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢This is the current post on the Dresden Files White Council page about Ebenezer McCoy.
- Artifact of Doom/Artifact of Death: The Blackstaff is described as such. Harry even gets the feeling it relishes Mc Coy using it to kill hundreds of mooks. The reason why the Council wetworker gets to break the laws of magic is because the Blackstaff sucks out the corruption.
I don't think it fits. The Blackstaff, when Harry witnesses it, is described as wanting to be used to cause death and destruction. That is its purpose and relishes in it. It also consumes the corruption of Black Magic from within the human user, sparing them the harsher consequences, which negates the Doom aspect, as Artifacts of Doom purposefully corrupt the user. It isn't said to cause the death of the user in a quicker fashion, which means one cannot call it an Artifact of Death.
I would call it an Evil Weapon for its awareness and desire to cause death and destruction. It will just sit passively when not in use. Or Eb just resists its calls.
This entry from the real life section of Dragged Into Drag
“Not necessarily dragged since she volunteered to do it, but Anna Popplewell, who portrays Susan Pevensie in that film and its sequels, did one shot for the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the role of Edmund Pevensie when both Skandar Keynes and his regular double were unavailable for that shot, which the producers wanted to get in before the end of the day.”
This doesn’t seem to fit to me. Not only do they explicitly say she WASN’T dragged, isn’t that trope supposed to be Always Male anyway? The description certainly seems to suggest so.
I'm not sure what the example is even trying to say, but yes, she wasn't dragged into it, so it's not an example.
The "Kindergarten Kid" example has been deleted. Here's another one from "Steven's Dream".
- In "Steven's Dream", Garnet has a vision of Steven going to Korea and encountering Blue Diamond. Steven is becoming increasingly agitated about being left out of the loop and wants to go look for answers on his own.
You'd Expect: Garnet to be upfront and tell Steven that a massive alien overlord is at the place he's going to wind up at, and it could have massive repercussions. Garnet explains later that she saw futures where explaining didn't work, but that doesn't mean that explaining would definitely be pointless.
Alternatively: Garnet could give Steven a bit of her Future Vision to show him the potential consequences.
Instead: Garnet does nothing except ask Steven not to go, saying that he'll only want to go more if she tells him why he shouldn't go, which Steven disobeys.
As a Result: Greg gets kidnapped by Blue Diamond. Steven and the Crystal Gems have to risk capture once again to save him, and Steven nearly gets himself killed on the way there.
This seems more like a case of emotions getting in the way of things. Up to that point, Garnet was terrified of Blue Diamond and what she would do if she found them. The example itself also mentions that Garnet saw futures where explaining didn't work anyway.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢I’m reposting this again from the previous pages:
Do the following tropes regarding Vanessa and the Witch Queen from Black Clover fit?
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Vanessa tells the powerful Witch Queen that the latter's not her mother anymore to her face and unleashes the Red String of Fate. The queen uses Blood Control on her but is quickly taken out.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After Vanessa finally unlocks her Red String of Fate, she uses it to defeat the Witch Queen, who is powerful than her.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: The Witch Queen manipulating Asta to try killing Noelle and taunting Vanessa over how she would return to the forest one day allows the latter to awaken her Red String of Fate and finish the Witch Queen off.
- Death Note: While Light Yagami possibly avoids this treatment by falling under the Rooting for the Empire and Evil Is Cool categories, the same cannot be said of these characters:
- Light Yagami, especially near the end of the series. He's a narcissistic, pretentious Knight Templar that constantly gloats about his victories in the most unlikable way possible. It's no wonder a large portion of the audience cheered when he met his end.
This is arguing with itself. There was an order entry that justifies this (explaining he lost his cool, likable traits). What to do? How many more times must this come up before Hate Sink warrants TRS or some other cleanup?
I've started a cleanup page on the Hate Sink trope here
.
- Snoke from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is the Supreme Leader of the First Order and a powerful Force-user who had turned Kylo Ren to the Dark Side, uses the First Order to take over the galaxy, and fears Luke Skywalker. Beyond that, he doesn't have that much characterization. Very little is known about his backstory or motives, and the personality that he does show is almost indistinguishable from Emperor Palpatine. Why he wants to conquers the galaxy, how he rose to power within the First Order, how he corrupted Kylo Ren, and why he idolizes Darth Vader are never explained. And just before Snoke could even answer any of that, he is suddenly killed off by Kylo Ren, who cements himself as the real villain of the Sequel Trilogy with Snoke being nothing more than a Diabolus ex Nihilo for the now decimated New Republic and the Skywalkers in general.
Is this valid or complaining?
I agree that Snoke isn't a GDV.
From Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Ambiguous Situation: Producer Kevin Feige was very vague for a long time on whether this movie takes place after Avengers: Endgame or before Avengers: Infinity War after the announcement, most likely to avoid spoiling any outcome of the former. Sony later opted to make it clear that the film is set after Endgame.
If Sony and the film itself make clear that it's after Endgame, then it's not an example right?
That's ... ugh. Shoehorning at its finest. Murder it with fire.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Re: 7252
Internet Backdraft — I dunno. The YMMV definition says anything can cause it, but the example is not worded as strongly. I'm not familiar with that fandom at all, so no idea how much of a shitstorm that really was... I'd probably cut it.
Narm — Cut. Clear misuse to me.
Edited by XFllo on Jan 16th 2019 at 8:43:57 PM

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Jan 14th 2019 at 7:32:52 AM