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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.
    • Wrong: Big Bad: Of the first season.
    • Right: Big Bad: The heroes have to defeat the Mushroom Man lest the entirety of Candy Land's caramel supply be turned into fungus.
  • A character name is not an explanation.


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

Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#12376: Jul 28th 2020 at 9:33:58 PM

I'm doing crosswicking for Trick Moon and I'm wondering if these examples actually fit:

  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Tarot and Buffer are a purple fox and a yellow rabbit respectively, especially notable when compared to the rest of the cast, who have colors accurate or semi-accurate to which animals they are supposed to be.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Despite her young age, Pocket's shirt exposes her navel.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Trickshot and his sister Pocket work together to protect the Moonstone.
  • Cheerful Child: Pocket has a sunny disposition, loves stickers, and is fascinated with shiny things.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Prince endures dealing with his hyper siblings doing their own thing against his well-meaning advice they often ignore, much to his dismay. Naturally, when he does get respect, he squees over-dramatically.

For context on Bare Your Midriff, Pocket is a little kid, and her shirt riding up is meant to emphasize her childish nature.

Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Jul 28th 2020 at 9:43:18 AM

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#12377: Jul 29th 2020 at 2:23:45 AM

Is this example from Dolittle being used correctly?:

  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Cinematography, despite being well-lit, is very lackluster as the camera zooms in when you least expect it and some of the shots even look awkward. Even more so considering that the same cinematographer also shot Pan's Labyrinth and Pacific Rim.

AegisP Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man
#12378: Jul 29th 2020 at 4:03:41 AM

Uhhhh.... no.

As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.
whizzerd Transcender of Gender from Scotland Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Transcender of Gender
#12379: Jul 29th 2020 at 5:10:44 AM

[up][up][up] None of those tropes strike me as out-of-place except for Bare Your Midriff, which is borderline creepy given it's a Fanservice trope and can probably be removed, and Dude, Where's My Respect?, which as-written doesn't seem to describe a situation where a person who does good deeds doesn't get recognition for it.

[up][up] That doesn't fit and is obvious shoehorned complaining. I'd remove it.


In my search for a trope that describes 'hurting the protagonist's best friend in order to anger the protag' I came across Friendly Target, but that's described as a Death Trope. Is it possible for it to apply in non-fatal instances of a loved one being targeted? And Your Little Dog, Too! doesn't seem like it fits, since targeting the best friend isn't a random act, and there is an in-universe reason for it besides just to show how evil the bad guy is.

they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob
Malady (X-Troper)
#12380: Jul 29th 2020 at 7:33:33 AM

How to condense this, and remove editor conversation?

You Didn't Ask:

  • In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and Sam hook up with Gollum to guide them, Frodo asks Gollum to "take us to the Black Gate" of Mordor, which he does. They see how massive and impenetrable the entrance is, and when they are about to make a charge for it anyway, Gollum pulls them back and tells them there is another way in. Sam asks why he didn't mention this before. Well... you didn't ask...
    • This actually makes a kind of sense. Gollum points out that they said "take us to the Black Gate;" they didn't say they wanted to go into Mordor. For all he knew, they could have just been scouting a way to the Black Gate and see what defenses it has.
    • Gollum does suspect they're going into Mordor. He doesn't know why (and doesn't think too hard about it), but he's worried that, whatever the hobbits do, Sauron will find them and take his precious. He uses this trope to justify making them go through the Pass of Cirith Ungol, where he can get Shelob to "help" him get the Ring back. In the movies, this is an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole since Gollum doesn't think of having Her help until they're already well on their way to the Pass of Cirith Ungol — and the Extended Edition makes it particularly egregious since the scene where he thinks of it comes right after a scene with Faramir warning them that the Pass is dangerous.

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#12381: Jul 29th 2020 at 10:03:24 AM

Can Different in Every Episode apply to theater where a certain plot element changes in every performance? I.E. improvising a certain line to be slightly different every night.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 29th 2020 at 1:03:24 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#12382: Jul 29th 2020 at 10:12:26 AM

[up][up][up] Cool, removed them. Thanks!

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Vilui Since: May, 2009
#12383: Jul 29th 2020 at 10:18:00 AM

[up][up][up] You Didn't Ask isn't a "bad" trope and doesn't carry the assumption that the one who didn't ask is at fault. The second-level bullet is justifying something that doesn't need justification. I would simply cut it.

PointMaid Since: Jun, 2014
#12384: Jul 29th 2020 at 10:46:35 AM

Agree with [up], cut the bullet points. It is a case, no need to justify its use. The second bullet is also obvious Arguing On The Page.

Edited by PointMaid on Jul 29th 2020 at 1:47:40 PM

Merseyuser1 Since: Sep, 2011
#12385: Jul 30th 2020 at 3:16:02 AM

I updated Original Flavour on the Fan Fic page and added Overtook the Series, but do my two examples count:

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#12386: Jul 30th 2020 at 9:11:56 AM

Don't we have a specific trope already for "continuation" fanfics?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#12387: Jul 30th 2020 at 9:42:29 AM

Continuation, indeed.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#12388: Jul 30th 2020 at 10:09:32 AM

Overtook the Series is for adaptations that are meant to be retellings, but are forced to make stuff up because they reach the end of the original and still want to keep going. I guess it's a thing that can happen in fanfic, too — The Arithmancer kept going after Voldemort's defeat in Year 7, so that's an example.

(Contrast Overtook the Manga, where... exactly the same thing happens but the original is technically still ongoing? Is this a meaningful difference?)

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Merseyuser1 Since: Sep, 2011
#12389: Jul 30th 2020 at 12:33:12 PM

[up] OK, fair point. I was wondering how flexible the trope was for going on the Fan Fic page which listed tropes about it, or whether it belonged on Fan Fic Tropes.

It was because I'd seen The War of the Masters when wick-checking I added this.

Also, I plan to add this to Status Quo Is God in the main body of the page, but does it make sense:

There are certain genres where this trope is likely to be used:

Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jul 30th 2020 at 9:30:23 AM

indigoJay from The Astral Plane Since: Dec, 2018 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
#12390: Jul 30th 2020 at 4:32:03 PM

I'm unsure whether this example from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 should go under Artistic License – Music or Artistic License – History (although I'm leaning towards the latter):

  • At the Opera, Hélène sits in the front row with Dolokhov and Anatole. In reality, "the queen of society" and her associates would likely be sitting in a private box, as the rich usually cared more about being seen than having a good view of the stage.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Twiddler (On A Trope Odyssey)
SamCurt Since: Jan, 2001
#12392: Jul 30th 2020 at 6:23:48 PM

I noticed the following in Characters.The Demon Girl Next Door. Using a Wall of Text for an example already looked suspect, but I need confirmation since I don't know about the trope in question:

  • Became Their Own Antithesis: Downplayed. As the series progresses and she grows into her role as a demon, her attitudes slowly shift and she starts to warm to the idea of things she would have never considered before her awakening. Many of the aspects of Yuko's demonic awakening really bothered her at first—over time she either stopped caring about them, or even embraced them and ran with it, but she's far from becoming truly villainous.
    • When her mother told Yuko it would be up to her to master her powers of darkness to break the curse on their family, she felt weirded out enough to exclaim, "But doesn't that make me the bad guy?" While she reluctantly starts down the dark path out of a desire to help her family (and not being hungry all the time), it's not long before Yuko is proudly calling herself a villain without reservations. However, deep down she's still a good person at heart. Mostly. She'll never admit it.
    • Her official demon name "Shadow Mistress Yuko" and the nickname it spawned, Shamiko; at first she thought the former was corny, and the latter was a Berserk Button. Now she even signs her schoolwork with the former, and practically everyone calls her by the latter. It's gotten to the point where she barely even recognizes her original name.
    • When Ryoko praised Yuko for taking initiative towards becoming the ruler of the forces of darkness by training to fight Momo, Yuko questioned she'd ever be a leader of anything. By volume 4, she's calling herself the "Queen of Darkness," demonstrates an impressive feat of coordinating her entire network of friends and associates into action on short notice, and is looking for anyone else with useful skills, talents, or connections to bring into her circle.
    • Her Crisis Management form and the Stripperiffic outfit that comes with it initially embarrassed her to no end and she refused to transform in public. By volume 5, Yuko's using it practically anytime it might be helpful: in gym class, while taking tests, climbing multiple flights of stairs, and so on. It still embarrasses her, but not enough to deter her from using it around other people, and she no longer cares much if anyone sees her in it. While she still wishes the outfit wasn't so revealing, her various attempts to change it have all ended in spectacular failures.

Edited by SamCurt on Jul 30th 2020 at 8:25:10 AM

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
Albert3105 Since: Jun, 2013
#12393: Jul 31st 2020 at 1:16:57 PM

Currently drafting an example of The Computer Is a Lying Bastard:

  • The Enemy Scan in Undertale, supposed to tell you the attack and defense stats of an enemy, outright misinforms players on what the stats of any enemy are. Usually, the enemy's actual stats are much lower than what the game tells you. For example, Papyrus is stated to have an attack stat of 20 by the game, while in fact it is only 8. The most egregious example is Asgore, whose attack and defense are stated to be both 80 in-game, while in fact they are 10 and -30 (the negative sign is not a typo!) respectively. Sans seems to be the only enemy character whose stats the game reports correctly.

MichaelKatsuro Since: Apr, 2011
#12394: Aug 1st 2020 at 5:01:53 AM

SamCurt: Seems like a pretty decent example to me, honestly. A bit wordy, but not wrong.

iamconstantine Since: Aug, 2014
#12395: Aug 1st 2020 at 10:15:28 AM

Rachel Amber's entry on this page of Life Is Strange characters has this example for Anything That Moves:

  • Anything That Moves: She's revealed to be a serial cheater who date/slept with Chloe, Frank AND Jefferson, probably all at the same time.

Though the entry is true, I don't recall the games themselves ever portraying Rachel's actions being the result of being willing to bang any other member of her own species. If anything, the game intentionally makes it mysterious whether Rachel genuinely fell for all three of them, if she was only using them for her own benefits, etc. It's also ambiguous if she was technically "cheating" at all, since there's no clarity whether she cut off her preceding relationship before moving into the next.

Apologies if I'm rambling, but I'm doubtful that the example is correct.

Edited by iamconstantine on Aug 1st 2020 at 1:15:59 PM

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#12396: Aug 1st 2020 at 8:43:24 PM

[up] It's a stretch to say three people makes Anything That Moves, unless there's more dialogue or something indicating willingness to sleep with pretty much anyone.

Bootlebat Since: Dec, 2012
#12397: Aug 1st 2020 at 9:12:18 PM

How young does a girl have to be to count as a Little Miss Snarker? Obviously under 18 but are there any hard and fast rules?

wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#12398: Aug 1st 2020 at 9:16:39 PM

Young enough to be a "little girl" in context.

A 15-year-old would count in a cast of mostly 30-year-olds, but not in a cast of mostly 12-year-olds.

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#12399: Aug 1st 2020 at 9:55:48 PM

Baby dragons in Elcenia have a massive chance of suddenly dying of an Incurable Cough of Death in their first month of life. Shrens (complicated, but for the purposes of this question they're dragons with a severe disability) are for some reason immune to this particular malady. Is this a One Curse Limit, or something else?

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Tenebrika she/her (Less Newbie) Relationship Status: Not war
she/her
#12400: Aug 1st 2020 at 11:55:07 PM

Do I get it right that And I Must Scream applies only when the victim is conscious and aware of what's happening to them? I'm looking at an example where the victim is alone and confined for sure but she's in hyper-sleep (or something) and she doesn't seem to suffer much.

Edited by Tenebrika on Aug 3rd 2020 at 1:18:59 AM


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