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.
For cleaning up examples of Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard, you must use their dedicated threads: Complete Monster Cleanup, Magnificent Bastard Cleanup.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 18th 2023 at 11:42:55 AM
I've tended to do entries as "fanon was inconsistent but canon did this". Though my latest one was a "Canon is inconsistent" since two official translations did two different things
There is no Planet B
From Enemy Eats Your Lunch:
- Lyft in The Stormlight Archive is a young thief who is both a Knight Radiant, and obsessed with food due to old magic that allows her to directly convert food into investiture when she uses her powers to steal it makes her more hungry. She's introduced by breaking into a palace just to steal the food. She has a separate novella featuring her going to a new city just to steal the festival pancakes.
This trope is more than just stealing food. It's about stealing and eating someone else's food right in front of them to assert dominance or intimidate one's opponents.
I'd delete this example. Do you agree?
Also, I think we might be missing a sister trope: something like Stealing Food For Fun And Profit. (There was one similar example from The Simpsons about Homer and Bart stealing eggs from Flanders because of the thrill.)
The Draftsman of Doom
Come to think of it, I want to know if this example I made for Enemy Eats Your Lunch is accurate, from Detention:
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Downplayed and Defied. Clapton Davis nonchalantly reaches for the Skittles in a jar on Principal Karl Verge's desk after the latter chews him out for his bad grades. Verge refuses to allow his least favourite student show what he sees as such blatant disrespect, so he grabs Clapton's hand, and denies the latter access to the candy jar.
Verge: I make 40 G's a year plus dental. You may not have a Skittle.
Still looking for an answer to my post on the previous page re: Gender-Inverted Men Can't Keep House.
Another question: On Grenade Spam the trope description says: "Grenade Spam is when more grenades are used than a soldier can conceivably carry, to the point that there are more grenades than bullets used. This can sometimes result in incredible frustration in multiplayer and single player alike, as it is seen as a cheap tactic, especially when the computer infinitely spawns grenades out of thin air."
Does that mean that almost the entire XCOM entry should be removed, since there's a very reasonable number of 1-3 grenades per soldier per mission besides the one mentioning Deep Pockets + Grenadier? Grenade Spam is cited by players as a tactic but it's a squadwide thing and might not fit the trope description.
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- A few months into the game, starting with Mutonsnote , aliens will often carry a grenade. If they can't get a good shot or if your soldiers are clustered together, they'll definitely use them instead of trying to shoot. In higher difficulties, they'll also toss them to destroy your cover so the others can take potshots at your suddenly exposed troops. Cyberdiscs, Heavy Floaters and Muton Elites also have an ability called "Bombard", that lets them throw their grenades up to the edge of their visual range, a lot farther than you might expect.
- The EXALT Operatives and Heavies all carry a frag grenade, or an alien grenade in case of Elites. If you've hacked one of their relays, which disables their primary weapons, they'll throw them in droves unless they're in a bad spot and feel it's better to fall back to reload.
- XCOM also can go for this, and boy howdy are there options for getting aliens to have a talk with Ambassador Pineapple. The only real downside is that, as memetically advised by Dr. Vahlen, enemies killed with them don't drop weapon fragments for research and Foundry projects, which can hurt in the early game where you need fragments to research most things, and very late game when most weaponry projects demand significant amounts of fragments.
- Frag grenades are a standard item for a new soldier. They're a decent choice while you're stuck with rookies with poor aim and ballistic assault rifles that aren't guaranteed to kill in one shot even if they hit, moreso on Classic or Impossible when low-tier aliens like Sectoids and Thin Men have more than 3 health points. Later on, they're also good to weaken aliens non-lethally to stun with the Arc Thrower.
- The stronger alien grenades can be recovered from stunned enemies and used by your troops, with the benefit that they're so damn simple to use you don't even have to do research on them first. Best part is, the Alien Grenade counts as an item with charges like the Medikit or Arc Thrower, so if you have only one and use it on a mission, you'll still have it by the end of it. Later on, the Foundry can let you field infinite alien grenades.
- Normally, grenades have a slight problem hitting groups in range thanks to their small effect radius. Normally that can only be increased by the "Danger Zone" Heavy ability that expands their range, but Enemy Within also introduced the Needle Grenade, a frag made out of Chryssalid chitin with a much larger radius but that doesn't damage an enemy in cover. It still does the frag's 3 damage, however, so alien grenades still are better for raw power.
- "Deep Pockets" gives Supports an extra inventory slot in the core game, so they can carry a grenade alongside their usual Medikit. The Heavy's "Grenadier" ability gives a grenade in the loadout two "charges" and increases their damage by 1, so alien grenades hurt just like regular rockets. Enemy Within changes things a bit with the "Tactical Rigging" Foundry upgrade giving the Deep Pockets effect to all units that can carry items (i.e. not MEC Troopers and S.H.I.V.s), so a Heavy with Grenadier can carry four rocket-like alien grenades that unlike rockets, don't take two action points to use (so they can be lobbed after moving or, if the Heavy has Bullet Swarm, firing) and have no "10%" chance to miss. It gets even more ridiculous if the "Training Roulette" Second Wave option is enabled and a soldier (of any class) gets both Deep Pockets and Grenadier – how does six enhanced bomblets sound to you?
- MEC Troopers may not have inventory slots for grenades, but their MEC suits can get a Grenade Launcher at level 2. If the Trooper is at least a Captain and picked the "Expanded Storage" skill, they can have as much as three grenades in their inventory, and due to the launcher, those can reach much farther distances than hand-lobbed ones. Better yet, the Foundry upgrade that makes alien grenades infinite to you also upgrades MEC grenades to alien ones for extra damage.
- In Enemy Within, after you clear out the Alien Base, you're guaranteed to get your own base assaulted and have to defend it by destroying all the invaders. In the corresponding mission, you get freebie soldiers in the form of XCOM Base Security, essentially rookies with less health and aim, who carry a basic assault rifle and a frag grenade by default – if you have "Tactical Rigging", they'll be carrying two frags. Since they're even worse shots than your usual New Meat, they're put to much better use spamming those frags than trying (and most likely failing) to nail the ayys with their guns.
Notably the trope page is still limited in size so this is like, 20-25% of the page. But other examples are individual soldiers throwing 5+ grenades in a fight.
Edited by Darkaros on Sep 5th 2019 at 10:20:49 AM
Musician/Composer
Regarding a potential entry for Isao Takahata:
- Creator Killer: Takahata's directorial career came to an end with the financial failure of his final film, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. He would later go on to serve as artistic producer for The Red Turtle before dying of lung cancer in 2018.
Thoughts?
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Only the second bullet ("droves") reads like an example. The rest seem to be "a lot of people each carry a grenade or two, so together, that's a lot of grenades".
Goku Black
Is this an example. From Robin Hood in franchise general
- Designated Hero: The concept of "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor," since Robin Hood and his Merry Men basically mugged people who traveled through Sherwood Forest and gave their belongings to those who they thought deserved it more. Of course, in most every story they are asshole victims, and this keeps it sympathetic.
I mean isn't the myth of robin hood really widespread with lots of variations to make an assumption like this. Plus it seems to conclude in the end it's not an example.
Edited by miraculous on Sep 6th 2019 at 1:46:55 AM
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Is this Family Versus Career?
- One Piece: Marine Vice Admiral Garp has this dilemma when he has to attend the execution of his adopted grandson, Ace, and even more when his biological grandson Luffy comes up to save his brother. Garp tried to charge at the incoming Luffy, but the latter easily punched him away; Garp's superior Sengoku notes that Garp wasn't honest in his efforts, implying that he can't bring himself to stop his grandson. After Ace's death, he decided to quit the Marine's active duty.
Characters.Steven Universe Pink Diamond. I don't think this qualifies as O.O.C. Is Serious Business but maybe Out-of-Character Moment?
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Pearl explained that Pink Diamond, for all her flaws, was kind to Gems that were beneath her status. We see this with how the Pebbles adore her and how she was polite to Pearl, who was a Replacement Goldfish for her first Pearl. That Pink abandoned Spinel, who was literally made to entertain her, shows the extreme exception to the rule and that it would have devastating consequences.
I found this on WebcomicTime.Webcomics for Webcomic.El Goonish Shive:
- Even Dan seems to be getting slightly freaked out about it - although we've FINALLY moved on a couple of days (quite rapidly too), both the comic for 18th Aug 2010 and its commentary are part hanging a stadium-size lampshade, part flat out pointing out the time-warp. A scene took place noted as "Last October" (vs the then current in-strip date of "April 7th")... which apparently PRE-DATES — quite significantly — the comic's first storyline... published more than 8 1/2 years earlier. That's a ratio of about 15:1 on AVERAGE...
- And 15:1 is still pretty tame compared to some more extreme examples below.
My only real issue with this is the formatting, I don't want to get into Writers Cannot Do Math, but a 15 to 1 ratio is 15 days = 1 Real Time month.
As it is, basically, I want to ensure the math is correct on that page, so that things mean exactly what is said. (I did a search for ratio on the page in Firefox).
This example makes sense though, explaining it well:
- Schlock Mercenary typically maintains a 12:1 ratio of time, so 1 month in the webcomic is about a year in real life.
Edited by Merseyuser1 on Sep 6th 2019 at 8:37:14 PM
Is Hakuno Kishinami an example of Vanilla Protagonist?
- He’s incredibly plain in both personality, looks, and motivation especially in comparison to everyone around. Everyone else has more grand ambition, personal dreams/wishes, more noticeable appearances/looks. Even after his Character Development, he’s still incredibly plain in comparison to everyone else. The manga have others make fun of him for how plain he is, even by his own Servants. Those around him are as fallows a Child Prodigy, an Old Soldier, a Dead All Along Elegant Gothic Lolita in white, a Monster Clown cannibal, an insane religious zealot that made his own religion by literally combining all already existing ones, an assassin that has somehow killed more people than his own Servant Assassin, a homunculus exhibitionist, an imperfect perfect King, and Rin Tousaka. The next game includes more characters and the latest one has him as the Token Human in a cast entirely made up of legendary historic/fictional heroes/villains.
I apologize for the wall of text but I’ve tried to nominate Hakuno for Vanilla Protagonist on Pantheon, but others weren’t very sure about this trope because of the missuses it’s had.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
you can just ignore that.
Edited by AzureLegacy on Sep 6th 2019 at 8:16:38 AM
He (and, well, she) counts, but I'm not sure about the "Pantheon" part.
There is no Planet B
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Downplayed and Defied. Clapton Davis nonchalantly reaches for the Skittles in a jar on Principal Karl Verge's desk after the latter chews him out for his bad grades. Verge refuses to allow his least favourite student show what he sees as such blatant disrespect, so he grabs Clapton's hand, and denies the latter access to the candy jar.
Verge: I make 40 G's a year plus dental. You may not have a Skittle.
I think it's fine as Defied trope, especially if the candy jar is for the principal only. If it's one of those jars from which anybody can grab one piece, then it's a bit murkier, but I think it would still be okay.
Any comments on the example I posted? Pretty please?
...
Can anyone into this series cite these as accurate? From Values Dissonance:
- My Hero Academia:
- Twice, who is revealed to be 31 in the Volume 24 extras, developing an unrequited crush on Himiko Toga(a teenager) would be considered Squick for American readers, but she is well within Japan's age of consent. This is especially true to a piece of teasing official art where he is measuring her naked body.
- Similar to the age issue above, Yaoyorozu being the main source of Fanservice is a bit of a hot topic of debate among Western fans due to her being still a first year in high schoolnote , while Japanese fans are mostly accepting of it. This is related to the age of consent in Japan.
These two seem to be going on the myth that Japan has an AOC of 13, not 16.
Isn't the AOC for Japan is 13? I looked it up.
The legal age of consent is irrelevant; the point of the entry is that there's a cultural disconnect in which sexualizing such a young character is considered creepy in the West but is accepted in Japan. You could drop the bit about the AOC and it would still stand up as an example.
I'm helping!
Oversimplified version: Japan has a federal AOC of 13, but every individual prefecture has their own AOC which is higher than that.
From TrueCompanions.Western Animation
- Most of the combiner groups in The Transformers and Transformers: Prime, especially the Aerialbots and Team Prime but this trope is subverted for the Combaticons. For a group of villains, the Combaticons have had scenes together that are downright touching and they work well together (particularly when all the world is against them), but they were thrown together purely by circumstance, and Swindle has no loyalty to them at all (he once literally sold the others for scrap!).
The "thrown together purely by circumstance" part seems irrelevant to the trope, and you could just say that the trope applies to the non-Swindle members. I am not familiar with the work, but this sounds like Not a Subversion. But if it's not… is it played straight? Or just not an example?
Logic Girl
The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Mortal Coil" is listed as Twisted Christmas because it aired around Christmas, but there was no mention of it being Christmas In-Universe, so does it count?
For every low there is a high.
The Twisted Christmas description mentions Prixin as the "Taxarian equivalent" and it seems an accurate association; lots of non-Christian countries and people celebrate XMAS as a secular and vague "family holiday", and it makes sense that Star Trek Space-Christmas is similarly vague and inclusive.
Change the wording to "Taxarian equivalent of Christmas" and it'd be clearer.
Edited by Darkaros on Sep 7th 2019 at 7:45:17 AM
Found this on Characters.Iconoclasts:
- Freudian Excuse: Her hatred of Elro is derived from him murdering her friend/possible lover Grey. In front of her, no less. It doesn't get any better.
This doesn't sound like a Freudian Excuse to me. Somebody murdering someone that you care about seems like a perfectly valid reason to hate them, especially since it couldn't have happened more than a few weeks before the start of the story.
^ This is not an example, because Freudian Excuse deals only with experiences in childhood or youth before a character is fully formed. I'm not familiar with the work, but as I understand it the character in question was an adult, so it might be an excuse, but it is not Freudian. One of the revenge tropes would fit better.
See this thread.
Edited by Asherinka on Sep 8th 2019 at 2:33:51 PM
How is this fanon? It sounds more like Throw It In! (on Trivia.Epic Mickey):
- Ascended Fanon: At a panel, Warren Spector mentioned that he limited the references to other Disney films up to The Jungle Book in order to prevent himself from going overboard. Peter David, on the same panel, mentioned that The Jungle Book was, incidentally, the last film Walt Disney had a direct hand in making, so Warren Spector said that was the official reason from now on.
It doesn't really sound like either. It's an interesting bit of trivia, but I don't know that there's a specific trivia trope that it neatly falls under.
I think I remember that we pretty much had consensus that "canon is consistent but fanon isn't" is misuse, but were divided on whether "canon doesn't have an answer at all and so fanon is inconsistent" qualified.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.