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
Lost in Space
That is blatant misuse and should be removed, precisely for the reasons you gave.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
So, in an effort to restrain my quotey nature...
How's this for The Ditz?
- The Ditz: Candi of the Sugarplum Fairies, who speaks in all lowercase letters, and text emoticons compared to the other two Sugarplum Fairies, Demerara and Marzipan. Candi is Comically Missing the Point repeatedly, not understanding when the other fairies are trying to get BEL/S's True Name, and mentioning dental cavities when talking about the effects of dreams:
@BEL/S: What are you doing?
@Candi: We're being nice! :D
[...]
@Candi: so we're here with old people who can't eat candy
@Candi: we give them dreams about candy! :D
@Marzipan: AND of childhood wonder and unearthly delights.
@Candi: yah
@Candi: ((but mostly candy ;) ))
@BEL/S: Will this harm them?
@Demerara: No, not a bit.
@Marzipan: It will perhaps leave them wistful tomorrow, for these things, only touched in dreams.
@Marzipan: But all delights are like that.
@Candi: no cavities. :3
... Quote still seems crazy long... Don't wanna put the lines together as that's not how the game does it, and showing contrast between her and Marzipan and Demerara is important?
I guess even without the quote, I've provided enough info that anyone who wants to confirm can go do it?
Also wanna note how Candi is a distortion of "Candy", while the other fairies are the proper name of the foods, but not sure how to put that in...
Edited by Malady on Nov 13th 2019 at 9:52:19 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
Musician/Composer
Reposting from the previous page:
So, in Shin Sakura Wars, Masaharu Sato voices Yattansai Mochizuki, who is not only Azamiโs foster father and mentor, but is also the head of the Mochizuki clan. This is not the first time heโs played a Mentor Archetype before, as he's been the voice of Master Roshi (Gokuโs first mentor and the head of the Turtle Hermit School) from the Dragon Ball franchise since 2009.
Does this count as an Actor Allusion or a Casting Gag?
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}
No, that's just an actor having a type.
- In the Young Amelia Bedelia books, Amelia Bedelia's dog is named "Finally" because she was so excited to finally get her after waiting so long to have a dog.
I would like some thoughts on my The Ditz entry above, whether I should trim it down or not...
Edited by Malady on Nov 14th 2019 at 2:53:01 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
He-Who-Must-Be-Named
Der Fuehrer's Face. Not sure how to fix this. It has a (What is it called when they have to tropes combined like that?), which is not allowed; And then they have a Zero Context Example right after it, which can't be removed without changing the other entries.
- Harsher in Hindsight/"Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
- The entire thing.
- Special mention goes to the racist Japanese stereotyping.
- And the third chorus mentioning people "working into their graves". Two years later, the world finds that hundreds of thousands, if not a million Jews, prisoners of war, and other 'undesirables' were used as slave laborers, many suffering that very fate, to say nothing of the millions simply killed outright.
Edited by pikachu17 on Nov 14th 2019 at 1:19:34 AM
17 pikachus all in a row.
The third bullet has enough context for "Funny Aneurysm" Moment (unless it wasn't meant to be funny), so cut everything but that.
I'm helping!
I don't think it has a formal name, but I've seen it called "trope slashing", which gets the point across.
Found this on Yu Gi Oh The Darkside Of Dimensions and it seems like shoehorning to me, though I'm not entirely sure.
"*Ambiguously Gay: If one pays close enough attention after the graduation rehearsal, they'll see there's a brief moment where a female student grabs another female student by the arm and they both walk off-screen. While their intentions are unknown, it's implied that may be lesbians."
The Protomen enhanced my life.
I'm helping!
I say this as a lesbian who never actually takes the gay goggles off: Straight girls walk around arm-in-arm all the time, this is just gay goggles, pull it.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
Would the following be an example of Required Secondary Powers? Or would it not count since there aren't actually superpowers involved?
- Red Panda Adventures: A frequently used tool in the Red Panda's and Flying Squirrel's crimefighting arsenal are gas grenades used to knock out criminals. It's noted as early as their first use that the pair are immune to the gas themselves, and a later episode explains that this was achieved by the use of treatments done by a university lab that owed them a favor.
It's not Required Secondary Powers, but it may be Exploited Immunity, depending on how they deploy the gas.
Does After the End count for post-post-apocalyptic worlds? There was a total apocalypse (literally everyone died) so far in the backstory that everyone in the modern world is completely unaware of it, but the world is still reeling from the effects even though they don't realize it.
I can give a more detailed example write-up, but it's a huge spoiler so I didn't want to do that if the answer is an easy "no, that's not even close to right."
It's usually small grenades/bombs they use as either a surprise attack or on large groups as crowd control. But they do frequently use them when they would otherwise get caught in them, so it is taking advantage of their immunity.
There is some debate as to whether the following Warhammer: Age of Sigmar entry is actually an example of Blessedwith Suck:
Blessed With Suck: Auric Runemasters used to allow the enemy to pick one unit that could re-roll wound rolls of one at the cost of the Fyreslayers facing that unit getting extra attacks against it, to represent that unit having some ur-gold on them. Since the enemy player got to pick which unit, it was often abused quite heavily on things such as artillery. Thankfully this is averted with the new version of the rule in their second Battletome, which reworks it to be a dice check on the Fyreslayer player\'s part to find out if the enemy unit has ur-gold, and having it doesn\'t give the enemy unit any bonus.
My argument is that as it requires the opponent to be unsporting and the unit does get the intended bonus it doesn't count as the trope. Annoying yes (possible Scrappy Mechanic but I don't truly understand the Scrappy tropes so I am not sure) but not this trope.
There is no Planet B
Re: The Ditz: It seems okay. Could someone else confirm this as well though?
The quote does seem excessively long... but that doesn't bother me all that much, only a little. :-)
It's only two lines of dialogue?
Edit: Oh, that. That's fine.
Edited by Tabs on Nov 15th 2019 at 10:21:48 AM
There is no Planet B
No? I think it's all of them, i.e. 12 lines. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13543987200A54420100&page=416#comment-10378
So, you're both fine with 12 lines of quotes? Okay...
Gonna add that tomorrow then...
...
ObviousRulePatch.Tabletop Games, what's the Above, mentioned here for Dn D 3.5:
- You can't sunder armor in 3.5. You can break weapons, shields, even items they're wearing like pendants. Just not armor. It would be easier to just break the fallen paladin's armor and then stab him, leading to silly situations such as the above.
I'm helping!
I think "the above" is the previous part of the example? It doesn't make a lot of sense.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
Need a bit of clarification if this entry which troper Napoleon_Blownapart keeps adding to Hazbin Hotel in one form or another really counts as an example of Historical Villain Upgrade.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Played with. A little-known fact about the real Jeffery Dahmer is that he actually always despised himself for having the monstrous urges he did, and made every attempt to save his soul after he went to prison. Even if Hell worked such that he wound up there anyway, starting up a cannibal cooking show is one of the last things he'd do, and would be one of the first in line for services like what Charlie is offering.
As a sidenote, Jeffery doesn't actually make an in-person appearance in the pilot. He's just depicted on a background poster and merely serves as the basis of a Black Comedy Cannibalism joke.
Asking for some clarification since it was removed twice by other tropers. The first time apparently because it was originally written as a random note without the Historical Villain Upgrade identifier that was stuck onto a Historical Domain Character entry. The second time with the reason, "The man was a child abuser and a liar. Nothing in that entry is even close to being true."
Troper Napoleon_Blownapart added it back citing a passage from Jeffery's Wikipedia page as a reason.
Edited by Elfkaiser on Nov 16th 2019 at 2:55:47 AM
Should also be brought up in Ask The Tropers as it's an Edit War.
Is this a valid After the End example?
- RWBY: In the distant past, the gods lived among humans, until a woman named Salem tried to trick them into resurrecting her lost love Ozma. As punishment, they gave her Complete Immortality, which she then used to raise an army to attack them. They responded by wiping out the entire human race and abandoning the planet, leaving Salem to wander alone. Eventually, humanity returned with only a semblance of their power and a remnant of their civilization. Now, thousands of years later, humanity is unaware that they are trapped in a Forever War between Salem and Ozma, as Ozma tries to unite humanity so that he can summon back the gods and restore the world, while Salem fights against him out of spite vengeance.
An edit war apparently ensued with troper Tropers/three_of_Six removing the entry again and claiming "Very much YMMV. He might have claimed to want redemption but his actions did not reflect that." and citing another passage in the Jeffrey's Wikipedia page.
As a result, Napoleon_Blownapart decided to move the entry over to the YMMV page.
Spoiled Sweet question.
It's clear misuse to me and normally I would delete it right away but I checked several Star Wars character sheets, and it looks like either there is an Edit War or perhaps an honest mistake, because the pages have been split multiple times and it's harder to check the history in full. I don't think it was discussed.
The entry from the character sheet Characters.Star Wars Leia Organa:
Previous writeup:
She misses some of the key things: kinda naive, always kindly and sweet even to people who don't deserve it, probably a bit shallow. Neither does the write-up explain the pampered part. Not all princesses are coddled and spoiled by their loving parents and servants.
She strikes me as someone who can take care of herself and others, and she's far from having a sweet Idle Rich life. She's probably a wonderful person and a responsible princess and leader who takes care of her people but that doesn't make her a Spoiled Sweet.
I believe Royals Who Actually Do Something is the fitting trope, or Comes Great Responsibility.
Link to my cleanup thread.
Edited by XFllo on Nov 13th 2019 at 11:33:22 AM