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
It's also kind of a ZCE. It doesn't really explain how it's offensive.
Reposting from the
previous
four
pages
, so it doesn't get lost:
Is the following example from the Film section of Trivia.Artemis Fowl being used correctly as it seems closer to Detractor Nickname than Fan Nickname which I believe we don't allow because it's just an excuse for complaining:
- Fan Nickname: Much like Percy Jackson, fans of the books refuse to associate with an In Name Only adaptation, giving the movie, and by extension the titular character, bootleg-esque nicknames, the most popular being "Apollo Bird", though "Apollo Poultry" also pops up sometimes.
And along the same lines is this example from the Film section of YMMV.Artemis Fowl being used correctly?:
- Friendly Fandoms: Fans who were disappointed by this movie tend to get friendly with other fans who were disappointed by previous film adaptations of IPs from their childhood such as Eragon, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Re: the What Measure Is a Mook? entry from the previous page - I feel like it's a bit of a stretch. IMO, the trope really needs more than just "no sympathy".
(Also, IIRC there was a scene where "Wrong Hordak" attempted to proselytize to his fellow clones after his Mook–Face Turn, although it was played for laughs).
Easy Impersonation is not this, but some other trope, because they do look similar?
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when the Scoobies mistake the Buffybot for Buffy she gets very angry that they can not tell the difference. To be fair, the 'Bot does really look like her....until it opens its mouth, of course.
Does Non-Human Sidekick apply if it's a humanoid character with an explicitly non-human sidekick?
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢Does this look worth adding to the "Breaking Out of the Ghetto" section of Minority Show Ghetto, or should the folder only list works in which POC portray humans from Earth?
- The Mandalorian seems like the most racially-diverse live-action Star Wars property, with plenty of POC in both the cast (headlined by Pedro Pascal in the title role) and the crew (five of the first season's eight chapters boasted nonwhite directors). Among Star Wars fans, the first season became the best-received live-action product of the Disney/Lucasfilm merger, while its warm reception among the general public turned it into an early hit for the Disney+ steaming service.
Edited by dsneybuf on Jun 26th 2020 at 8:04:23 AM
This is on Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After Big Bird is locked in a cage, he asks two kids to call Sesame Street and tell somebody where he is. Too bad he didn't think of this sooner. It's somewhat justified in that he initially thought it would only be a three hour walk, but as soon as he learned it would more likely be three weeks, he should have called somebody. Even if it's an issue of needing to stay put somewhere while waiting (over a day at least), he could have done this during the time he spent with the kids.
This is on The Last of Us under Abby's folder.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Whereas Ellie loses everything in her ultimately failed quest for revenge, Abby not only gets hers but walks away in the end, free to start a new life with Lev. However, Abby also loses all her closest WLF friends (some at the hands of Ellie and Tommy) and doesn't feel any better for having killed Joel.
My understanding of Karma Houdini is that it's supposed to be for when characters dodging karma completely, and this entry reads more like "The character wasn't punished enough." Is my understanding of Karma Houdini correct?
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."Barry Allen has earned himself quite the lengthy entry at the comic book section of Designated Hero. It reads:
"Barry Allen, the Silver Age incarnation of the character, has largely became this upon being brought back and pushed as the main Flash.
- Upon returning, he created the Flashpoint incident while trying to undo the meddling of his arch-enemy, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, who had altered Barry's past to give him an angstier backstory involving his mother getting murdered. However, rather than work with other heroes who are experts on this kind of thing, like Booster Gold or even his own former protege and Superior Successor Wally West (who unlike Barry, could run through time-and-space unaided and understood their powers on a much greater level), he did this by himself, resulting in a distorted Darker and Edgier timeline. While his motivations were sympathetic, the sheer idiocy of his blunder and how easily it could have been avoided, especially as he was warned prior during the Prelude to Flashpoint about what was going to happen and did it anyway.
- When he realised what he did and undid it, the result still didn't fix his mistake, resulting in a new timeline that was still Darker and Edgier, only everyone was also Younger and Hipper on top; while Barry's life in this new timeline wasn't bad, his friends were made miserable with both marriages and people erased, including Wally West, Wally's kids, and also Jay Garrick, Jesse Chambers, and the rest of the Flash Family. Though all of this was because Executive Meddling was in play (co-publisher Dan DiDio wanted the rest of the Flash family erased due to his personal dislike of Wally West and his belief that the franchise should be simpler, as well as his preference for Darker and Edgier stories and belief that True Art Is Angsty), it essentially meant that in-universe, Barry was personally responsible for erasing his nephew and family from existence, essentially killing them, while making everyone else he knew miserable and lonely. Meanwhile, Barry in this new timeline? He was a young, happy single with a cute Adorkable girlfriend, largely beloved by his city, with nobody knowing or remembering what he did.
- The Rebirth era didn't help with this matter, even after Wally West returns. During a team-up with Batman, he discovered Wally wasn't the only forgotten speedster when he meets Jay Garrick in the Speed Force. Rather than working tirelessly to save Jay, as you would expect a hero like Barry to do, he seemingly forgets about it to instead focus on other stuff. Then, Wally has his memory of his kids restored to him, and he calls Barry out on not even informing him about other trapped speedsters; he claims he was working with Batman to investigate it off-panel, but they were clearly not sparing much time looking into this, which could have been resolved by informing Wally, who not only wasn't busy with anything thanks to having his life erased, and also understands the Speed Force to a much greater extent than Barry and would be better suited into looking into it. Then, after the two are manipulated by Hunter Zolomon, Wally has a breakdown over the memory of his kids, so Barry sends him to a mental health facility where he never visits him, trusting instead that the facility can help him. It doesn't. Meanwhile, after sending Wally away, Barry could take this as an indication he should put more focus into finding the lost speedsters, but instead, he starts a different investigation into the "Other Forces", something he could have left up to his new ally, Commander Cold while he continued searching for Jay, Jesse, and Max. While his lack of focus on this could be chalked up to not remembering the other speedsters, it still looks callous of him to know people are suffering and to do nothing, even when told these people are his family."
Okay, I gotta ask: is this valid? I know that some people still have grievances towards Barry even after the end of Comic Book/Flashpoint and I do admit that I don't have the best knowledge on Barry's history, but this entry is so long and descriptive that it comes off as opinionated writing. What do we do with this?
The Unintentionally Unsympathetic in Lilo & Stitch (2002) seems to be arguing with itself, with both bullet points listing citations from a number reviewers about why the main characters are not sympathetic, and counter arguments against their points. I'm pretty sure entries aren't supposed to be written like this, but I'm not sure how to fix this:
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- At least Cracked and CinemaSins have both deemed Nani this because of her inability to properly take care of Lilo and the (admittedly, at times serious) mistakes she makes in the film, with the latter deeming her unworthy of any redemption. Both have received counter-criticism in their comment sections for this because many people felt their arguments were rooted in poverty shaming and classism. (Also counts as Dude, Not Funny! because of that and the fact that they're both comedy/satire-focused.)
- In April
2020,
former
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animator Hailey Lain wrote an in-depth critique
on one of her Tumblr blogs in response to someone's question as to why she thought Lilo & Stitch was a bad movie, claiming that it's because—in her point of view—Lilo is an "ungrateful brat" towards Nani who enforces a supposed message of (as paraphased by Insider) "family must take care of each other despite any level of abuse". The post was also supported by fellow artist Jessica Kalei Sheffield, who discussed the film and agreed with Lain, writing her own take as to why they also believe Lilo & Stitch features a "poor" representation of Hawaiian culture. This led to a wave (no pun intended) of counter-criticism on Tumblr and Twitter (where it even trended) with people pointing out flaws in Lain's take on Lilo, essentially viewing it as Lain expecting a child of color who underwent major emotional trauma and doesn't know how to deal with such emotions (like with any other child in a similar situation) to stop misbehaving. Some people also exposed an apparent unrelated post Lain previously reblogged on her personal Tumblr blog before deleting it
about Latin American asylum seekers that we will not discuss on this page. Even AniMat—who himself got backlash for viewing Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch as one of Disney's worst sequels—compared Lain to Lilo's bullying rival Mertle Edmonds
(as with some other people). The backlash was so immense that Lain later updated the post to write an apology (although still disliking the film), then deleted the post and set both her blogs to private.note
Edited by Adept on Jun 27th 2020 at 6:16:57 PM
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Thanks for the input. Someone else had originally added a Karma Houdini entry to Abby that I removed for that very reason, but then some other troper added the entry back (though worded differently). I've sent that troper a notifier about their misuse.
I added these to WesternAnimation.Cupcake And Dino General Services but would like someone to check these fit the tropes:
- Ambiguously Human: Vicky and Hugo, and the news reporter appear to be the Token Humans of the show, but it's never confirmed outright if they're human or not, leaving it ambiguous as to whether they're a Token Human or Human Alien.
- Harmless Villain: Peetree the Third poses no real threat to the protagonists, often being the victim of his own schemes and being more driven by ego than any grand plan. At best, he falls into Poke the Poodle territory when he does antagonize the protagonists.
- Hate Sink: Peetree the Third, a Southern-accented rooster, is a Jerkass with virtually no redeeming features, and not even a Pet the Dog moment. He's not evil, but he's hated In-Universe and out as well. He's treated more as a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis than a true villain, though.
I especially want to make sure the last entry makes sense for this, as I'm slowly giving this a full rewrite on tropes.
I do realize Unintentionally Unsympathetic is YMMV, but those both seem to be going out of their way to present the examples as "this blogger who said a character is unsympathetic is wrong wrong wrong and a fool!!"
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Hey! Was told to come here from an ATT post I made so I’m copying my stuff from that.
So I want to add an example for Self-Destruct Mechanism from a You Tube series I’m really into at the moment, and I just want to make sure it’s a-okay before adding it.
The Final Minutes - Zombie Plague: The Path’s compound locations are fitted with a Magno Loop, an underground ring that acts as the compounds’ defense system. It’s also fitted with Complete Destruction mode, which causes the loop to cycle through all of its defense modes before detonating and vaporizing anything in a 25 kilometer radius.
Here’s the part that the info comes from
, the self destruct mode gets more detail at the 37:13 mark. Fair warning, though- the video is LONG.
Does this look good?
Edited by GalacticDriftwood on Jun 27th 2020 at 10:37:33 AM
flag edit: nonbinary flag but LuigiIf that's not a Self-Destruct Mechanism, I don't know what is.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Hey is this right for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods?
- Been There, Shaped History: As a Running Gag, Beerus off-handedly mentions having played major roles in multiple areas of the manga's backstory behind the scenes. He was the monster that sealed Elder Kai in the Z-Sword, he caused King Kai's planet to be the tiny ball we know it as, he approved Frieza's destruction of Planet Vegeta, and he caused the near-extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth.
Edited by VulgarBee on Jun 27th 2020 at 7:21:47 AM
Me again. I added on a little more to my Self-Destruct Mechanism example and wanted to make sure it was given the greenlight before adding.
The Final Minutes - Zombie Plague: The Path’s compound locations are fitted with a Magno Loop, an underground ring that acts as the compounds’ defense system. It’s also fitted with Complete Destruction mode, which causes the loop to cycle through all of its defense modes before detonating and vaporizing anything in a 25 kilometer radius and even expose the Earth's mantle. This is ultimately what happens near the end, as the Tokyo Confederacy and the Commonwealth of United Territories not only reject The Path's airborne virus cure, but betray each other and start fighting.
(Sorry if this comes off as rambly. I love the Final Minutes series so much.)
flag edit: nonbinary flag but LuigiThis is on Inside Out:
- Designated Hero: Joy, she is shown to be the one to make Riley happy, but she acts like she's the only one Riley needs to be functional and to stay happy only and not any other emotion can take over but her and she comes across as really selfish, but in the end, she learns she's not always the center of attention

How to rewrite the "recent"-ness of "so far"?
Unfortunate Implications - Advertising:
Edited by Malady on Jun 25th 2020 at 12:17:56 PM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576