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
On the Zootopia example, I've read several times that deleted scenes can't be listed as tropes. They're What Could Have Been and count as Trivia. They can only be troped under the specific tropes, like Cut Song.
Edit:
From YMMV.Too Cute:
- Squick Even in a series focused on cuteness, this can still pop up. Most notable in the earlier seasons though, since they would actually show scenes from the kittens/puppies' births note and the moments after, when the kittens/puppies still have their umbilical cords attached. Thankfully, it was a procedure that was quickly dropped a few episodes afterwards, with later episodes usually showing the mother moments before the birth of her children, then immediately skipping to when the puppies/kittens have been cleaned up.
Squick is subjective, but is birth really icky enough to be posted under it?
Also, does Frozen need four bullet points under Sleeper Hit? Does any Disney film count as a Sleeper Hit? I found an ATT thread about this from 2016/2017 and the consensus was "No, no Disney film is a Sleeper Hit".
I remember Frozen was expected to "bomb" according to most Disney fans. "Bomb", however, as in "Atlantis or Treasure Planet' level numbers", which is still a box office success, but not up to par for Disney.
Edited by Pichu-kun on Aug 16th 2019 at 3:27:13 AM
I also wonder why Atlantis The Lost Empire is on BoxOfficeBomb.Numbers Through B, as it made a profit if you go by worldwide gross.
I was saying it did make more than its production costs if you count how much it made internationally.
Edited by rjd1922 on Aug 17th 2019 at 2:11:59 PM
Keet cleanupI can't post the specific stuff because I am on mobile, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness
has two separated Discworld examples in Literature. How can they become one?
Is the following example from YMMV.Dumbledores Army And The Year Of Darkness being used correctly?:
- Vindicated by History: This books portrayal of Snape was initially considered to be a blatant case of Flanderization, in the years since then, there has been a growing number of readers (Dominic Noble being a noteworthy example.
) who see Snape as an iredeemably abusive and sadistic incel who tormented children and was willing to subject a man to a Fate Worse than Death because his childhood crush never chose him, with JKR being criticised for trying to whitewash Snape's abuses and treating his stalker like behaviour as "love". So for those readers, this book's portrayal comes across as less "Ron the Death Eater" and more "What would happen if Snape's pattern of abuse was followed to it's logical conclusion and not swept under the rug last minute for the sake of a plot twist?"
Should note that the troper who added the example also added a third-level bulletpoint natter to the Ron the Death Eater Example:
- Severus Snape, who in the books was a very, very effective Reverse Mole who through all his sadist teaching legitimately tried to protect as many students as possible from the Death Eaters, is here shown to thoroughly enjoy his position as Death Eater-appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts; he attempts to assassinate Neville, hires the former Dragon to Grindelwald as school disciplinarian, and when a Slytherin student defects to the good guys it's strongly implied he has the boy's entire family killed. He still turns out to be a mole here, but this is simply treated as the final insult; that someone so horrible could still be remembered as a hero simply for nominally siding against someone even worse. This essay
by the author interpreting him as an unrepentant sociopath looking for an excuse to murder and torture students. Even considering that he's a rather unpleasant Sadist Teacher in the books, the logic taken to reach this conclusion is... somewhat debatable given the textual evidence. Especially since Word of God from Rowling indicates that Snape often shielded students from more severe punishment at the hands of the Carrows.
- That said, this portrayal of Snape has become far more popular in recent years. See Vindicated by History below
- Severus Snape, who in the books was a very, very effective Reverse Mole who through all his sadist teaching legitimately tried to protect as many students as possible from the Death Eaters, is here shown to thoroughly enjoy his position as Death Eater-appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts; he attempts to assassinate Neville, hires the former Dragon to Grindelwald as school disciplinarian, and when a Slytherin student defects to the good guys it's strongly implied he has the boy's entire family killed. He still turns out to be a mole here, but this is simply treated as the final insult; that someone so horrible could still be remembered as a hero simply for nominally siding against someone even worse. This essay
~XFllo deleted Spoiled Sweet from Mason's entry on Toy Story - Human Characters, saying it was misuse (she also started this TRS thread
about it), but Mason is still listed as Spoiled Sweet on Toy Story That Time Forgot. Should that be removed?
I dunno why, but this example rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'm just being overly critical since TTG is a common bash target.
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart:
- Take That!: When Mao Mao is trying for a new look, one outfit he wears is similar to Robin from Teen Titans Go. Snugglemagne rejects it, saying "I see that one all the time."
Ugly Cute In-Universe for this? Characters.Death Vigil:
I guess "your hair suits you", is like a downplayed Cute or something?
- Ugly Cute: She's typically just cute period, but much fun is had on Sejic's DeviantArt page making her more monstrous aspects look utterly adorable, like [[https://www.deviantart.com/nebezial/art/death-vigil-mia-and-allistor-are-different-430364311
a one-off gag]] with James about her hair being replaced by tentacles after feeding.
Edited by Malady on Aug 18th 2019 at 7:24:39 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576I was going to add this to Videogame.Caesar but does this make sense:
- Video Game Time: An enforced trope here, as it actually shows the date you start the campaign in the header.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The video game manuals across the franchise explicitly refer to "game-months", which means this is enforced. There is a day/night cycle on Caesar IV, which is intended to reflect In-Universe time flow.
I was also going to add this to Video Game.Tropico:
- Video Game Time: Pretty much an enforced trope due to the Wide Open Sandboz genre. Tropico is a city-building sim where this is common.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The game runs on this, with 3 years passing in 1 hour (or a 1:26,280 ratio). In general, because it's a Wide-Open Sandbox game, the concept of time running on a 1:1 ratio isn't common to this city-building sim genre, and the game's manuals explicitly refer to "game-months", so a few hours Real Time play (as demonstrated by streamers) equates to a long time In-Universe, but short time in Real Time.
I want to ensure I've got usage of these tropes correct and avoid ZCE's.
Video Game Time is about the dissonance between the advancement of the calendar and the on-screen performance of actions — e.g, if you watch a woodcutter chop down a tree, it looks like he did it in a normal human amount of time, but the In-Universe Game Clock says it took three weeks.
While I'm sure both games are examples, neither of the texts you've provided show this. They also don't explain how they're an Enforced Trope, if they even are.
Year Inside, Hour Outside is a plain misuse.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.From Cowardly Lion's Live Action TV subpage. It doesn't seem to fit the Lion part of the trope.
- Like a lot of real life people with chronic pain, House tries to avoid emotional pain as much as possible. It never works out well for him; Don't You Dare Pity Me! is firmly in place when letting people in could actually help, going back to the Vicodin because he was afraid is the final straw for Cuddy being with him and he's near passing out from the flames in the finale when he has a "Eureka!" Moment that he can stop being afraid and self sabotaging, and actually change.
~rjd1922
~X Fllo deleted Spoiled Sweet from Mason's entry on Toy Story - Human Characters, saying it was misuse (she also started this TRS thread about it), but Mason is still listed as Spoiled Sweet on Toy Story That Time Forgot. Should that be removed?
Thanks for the ping. I didn't realize he would be listed on both the character sheet and the main work page (or other subpage). I'm convinced he's not an example and should indeed be removed.
Spoiled Sweet is a subtrope of Idle Rich. Small kids and especially small boys don't fit the trope's definition.
Spoiled Sweet: "Rich, sheltered, naive, optimistic and genuinely nice to everyone.
Where does it say in the trope definition that a male cannot fit the criteria?
Edit: Never mind, I know what you mean now.
Edited by SkyCat32 on Aug 19th 2019 at 5:11:26 AM
TRS thread is here
, FWIW.
Edit: I lied, it's here
Edited by WarJay77 on Aug 20th 2019 at 1:00:48 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallThe page quote from They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
Unless anyone objects, intend to remove it since it's misuse. It's about unutilized plots, not poorly handled ones like this.
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That's not the TRS thread, that's just the trope.
So, since no one said anything about my Ugly Cute question, I guess it counts?
Gonna hold off for now.
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576![]()
Whoops, copied the wrong link. Hold on a tick, I'll edit it.
I don't have time right now to look at the example myself, but I can offer one thing that might help:
The time stamps on posts are also links directly to that post. So you can send someone straight there
rather than use double digit arrows and make things easier for all involved.
Edited by sgamer82 on Aug 20th 2019 at 10:46:25 AM
I added this to BizarroEpisode.Live Action TV because I knew a bit about the source material, but are these examples or not:
- Police, Camera, Action!, despite being a documentary still had episodes that qualified as this:
- "International", which aired in November 1995, featured Automated Automobiles in Las Vegas, although there was a mundane explanation - the vehicle had slipped into reverse, and also how drivers in Scandinavia had over-the-top ways of carrying their loads. But what really cemented it in being this trope was the now-infamous clip from 25 September 1985 in Copenhagen, Denmark of a nude woman (who was a naturist, according to the show) walking the streets - in this case, it was Fan Disservice, but treated on the show as National Geographic Nudity. Although, for Rigspolitichefen (the Danish national police), it was very definitely a case of Please Put Some Clothes On. However, this was not the only time nudity featured in the show...
- "The Man Who Shot OJ Programme 2", the second part of a Multi-Part Episode focusing on Zoey Tur, had a few Real Life examples of this, including a German groom who kept throwing himself into the sea, and a cameo by Madonna of her wedding, noted for Madonna Flipping the Bird at the media in 1986! Then again, the setting was Los Angeles, which has had a City Of Weirdos and Unusually Uninteresting Sight representation in the media.
- "The Wild Side" - which aired in January 1998 - is a downplayed example of this. Focusing mainly on wildlife and the dangers they pose to motorists, after the commercial break. it got straight into this trope, by having a pursuit of a £60,000 Mercedes-Benz SL in North London in 1996 that got pretty dangerous, and then a mock hostage situation which Alastair Stewart the presenter took part in with the Dyfed-Powys Police in Powys, Wales in July 1997.
- "Highway of Tomorrow". An episode that was an Out-of-Genre Experience for the show when it aired in 2000, with the police part Out of Focus for much of the episode, this had technology featured that was very Zeerust, making it an Unintentional Period Piece. The inclusion of a The Jetsons-esque flying car in Davis, California, and a Volvo being thrown off the roof, with Soundtrack Dissonance of angelic singing classical music, adds to the odd feel of the episode. As it is, it's firmly within the continuity of the show and makes some continuity nods even though some of the show's fandom considered it a Non-Serial Movie.
Edited by Merseyuser1 on Aug 21st 2019 at 8:20:14 PM

Article seems fine, those examples can just go in the trash.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall