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 Interchangeable Asian Cultures, there are a few examples listed as inversions, like this one:
- Inverted in Hetalia: Axis Powers; at least twice, England is mistaken for an American. Germany and Prussia also sneak into America disguising themselves as Americans.
Random man: Hmm...you look kinda German to me, you couldn't be...Germany: Hahaha! Well that's because I'm German-American! I'm just crazy for hamburgers! *American smile*
Admittedly, the Playing With page does list something something similar as an inversion, but it sort of seems like inverted examples should just go on the Mistaken Nationality page. Thoughts?
Yeah, surely Interchangeable Asian Cultures needs to be... Asian. The inverted example is a little iffy. Mistaken Nationality should be fine.
This is on Arthur:
From Entertainment to Education: The song "In My Africa" from the episode of the same name has been used to teach the names of all 54 countries in Africa.
Arthur is already edutainment, so I have difficulty believing it qualifies.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Reposting from the previous page
, so it doesn't get lost:
Is the following example from Doctor Who 2021 NYS "Revolution of the Daleks" being misused, considering I think Trivia items needs to be intentional and not accidental?:
- Distanced from Current Events: An accidental example; the plot is set in 2020 but the episode itself was filmed during 2019, long before the real-life events of 2020 took place.
Are the following examples from It Comes at Night being used correctly or have enough context?:
- Common Knowledge: Nothing ever comes at night... except for Will trying to break into the house in the first act. And Stanley the dog that eventually returns after running away - sick.
- Ending Aversion: Though most audiences probably weren't expecting a happy ending, the actual ending was Shoot the Shaggy Dog levels of depressing.
YMMV for The Battle for Middle-earth
- Scrappy Mechanic: Resource buildings in the second game except for the Lumber Mill now have a sphere around them that determines the effectiveness of said building, with a small percent sign indicating how powerful it will be. If a resource building is green, it means the building is in a good spot to build, whereas anything else is a bad spot. Unfortunately this means the player will need to expand to be at effective as possible because building things close to each other causes other buildings to lose effectiveness, unless the buildings are designed to combo together. This means the player effectively has to now waste time and resources to make sure their base can be as effective as possible. This change is not very well liked due to how odd it is to weaken a player simply because they build too close to another building. The only factions this isn't an issue with is for Dwarves and Goblins because they can use their resource generators to travel distances, but doing so can be risky.
But there is a problem: expanding beyond the small area where you start the game (and being able to protect it all, until you start launching attacks on the enemy) is a usual thing you need to do in Real-Time Strategy games. Unless you cheat, of course. This "scrappy mechanic" is actually something that comes in the package of the genre. We should remove it.
Ultimate Secret Wars![]()
That's not at all what Distanced from Current Events mean because the content wasn't altered. You can change it.
From YMMV.Danganronpa.
- Self-Fanservice: The original sources really seem to hide and/or exorcise a character's detailed background, and what really occurs before the Killing Games happen, like Hope's Peak Academy's attendance, and everyone's relationship with each other. As a result, the most scared, shameless followers of the series are given their widest opportunities to extend the timeline they already know of to what they believe a character or story outside of what they've already observed would be like. Manga adaptions of the series seem to answer quite a lot in relation to what the player doesn't see themselves.
I'm pretty sure Self-Fanservice only applies to people making characters really hot in their own fanart. This...isn't that. Where does it better fit - Fanfic Fuel, maybe?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.I have some serious qualms about considering the following as a valid example of Portal Slam:
- Rogue One has a non-magical variation involving hyperspace. The Rebel fleet starts evacuating from Scarif's orbit once they've received the Death Star plans, but only a few ships make the jump before Darth Vader's personal flagship, the Star Destroyer Devastator, jumps into the system from the direction they're attempting to escape in, causing several Rebel ships to destroy themselves by smashing into it.
Can Vindicated by History apply to parts of a work? Like they were overlooked in favor of everything else in it but got more appreciation years down the line.
Thomas fans needed! Come join me in the the show's cleanup thread!Hello, I have a question regarding trope entries on the character pages that present how certain characters have altered designs in a new season/series that make them look different from their appearances in a previous work or season. When creating an entry about how a character looks different in a new season or series, should we use the trope Art-Shifted Sequel or Art Evolution? The reason why I am asking is due to the fact that the Art Evolution page has several entries that present how the characters and/or the animation of a series changes overtime and discuss how they look different. There is also the fact that the Art-Shifted Sequel focuses on the differences between the art styles of a series and their sequel/new season. Regardless, it appears that certain character pages like some of the ones associated with Star Wars (some examples being these particular character pages) use Art-Shifted Sequel instead of Art Evolution to describe how certain characters look different in The Clone Wars and Rebels, while other character pages (such as the ones associated with the DC Animated Universe, especially these particular pages) use Art Evolution to describe how the characters look different throughout the works in the franchise. As a result, I feel confused about the trope that I should include to describe how a character changes in their appearance. I also personally do not believe that Rebels' art style is an evolution of The Clone Wars' art style as a result of it being more cartoonish and simplistic compared to The Clone Wars' own, which only adds to my confusion. Are the differences in appearances for the characters in The Clone Wars that guest-starred in Rebels examples of Art Evolution or Art-Shifted Sequel?
Edited by Thetropemaster101 on Jan 9th 2021 at 7:13:04 AM
Agree that Art-Shifted Sequel can apply to Clone Wars and Rebels as the two are different shows entirely and have distinct art styles.
This was added to the Character folder of the Minecraft Enderdragon.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: A lot of first time players tend to mistake her as a male dragon, considering she doesn't have any Tertiary Sexual Characteristics this is somewhat justified on the players' behalf.
Isn’t this just Viewer Gender Confusion? I don’t think there is anything that would suggest that the Ender Dragon is male other than mere assumption.
Yeah, I think Viewer Gender Confusion is for when only viewers make that mistake.
Not sure if this counts as Non-Serial Movie:
- The Raccoons had four TV Movie specials:
- The Christmas Raccoons: Officially, the First Appearance of Bert Raccoon and his family, and although it's treated as the pilot episode, it seems to contradict the actual series by having the humans (Julie and Tommy) meet the Raccoons, although this is taken in Broad Strokes for the show itself.
- The Raccoons On Ice: A Christmas Episode, and it's Loose Canon if anything as characterization of the major characters is very close to the series itself.
- The Raccoons And The Lost Star: Again, of uncertain canonicity but possibly outside the show's core timeline, yet doesn't seem to contradict anything outright.
- The Raccoons: Let's Dance! is a Lighter and Softer Musical Episode that was Direct-to-Video, much like an OVA, yet did get some TV airings.
I added this, but should this be on another trope page or not?
Reposting from the previous page:
Is the following Warhammer: Age of Sigmar trope an actual example of Mechanically Unusual Class?
- Mechanically Unusual Class: One of the most unusual factions in the game, rules-wise. They outright ignore Battleshock, their Endless Spells can't be moved by other players but also make casting other spells more difficult for whoever summoned them while they're on the field and automatically unsummon if their caster dies, and they don't get Command Points at all. They use a separate system called Relentless Discipline which allows even basic infantry units to use pseudo-command-abilities.
While the faction does have more unique features than the others, the description of the trope says that examples should be outside usual role spectrum whereas these just make them better Tanks (I also don't think they would fit Mechanically Unusual Fighter as they would still be relatively good Tanks without these rules)
Several examples in the Video Games section of Total Party Kill imply that a total party kill will only happen if you don't have enough HP to survive the offending attack. That's not what the trope is, right?
Total Party Kill is when the entire party gets killed. No particular restrictions on how it happens.
... Not sure to what extent that constitutes a trope. Might need TRS.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Yeah, I agree it's quite bizarre. With that logic, literally anything in a game that damages the entire party could be considered a Total Party Kill if everyone is at 1 HP.
This example was just added to the main page for Gaia:
Astro Turfing: In order to get more exposure for the comic, Novil offered to pay anyone who could improve the comic's TV Tropes page as well as mentioning the comic under associated trope pages.
To start with, this feels a bit like a stretch. Astro Turfing is about faking a popular movement with meatpuppets. And while it may be a bit less than kosher to pay people for working on the wiki, the author is asking people to do actual work, not to be paid meatpuppets. So I'm wondering if this is really an example.
Also, I'm wondering if this doesn't rather belong on the trivia page than on the main page (if it is indeed an example). It's not part of the work, it's something the author did IRL. The trope is not marked as Trivia, but this usage seems like trivia to me.
Edited by GnomeTitan on Jan 11th 2021 at 10:37:48 AM
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I've only heard the term Total Party Kill used in the context of GM-led RPGs with human players (no NPCs in the party), and then it doesn't really matter how they were killed; it's considered an "achievement" for the party to get wiped out like that, and sometimes for the GM to have caused it.
In a computer game, it seems less notable, if nothing else because computer games tend to be much deadlier (because it's much easier to re-roll and restart in a computer game, if you can't just restore from a save file).
Edited by GnomeTitan on Jan 11th 2021 at 10:42:35 AM
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If it's not part of the work, it shouldn't be listed as part of the work.

In terms of the example, it's set to be for Pinkfong:
Ear Notch: Or rather, fin notches. Daddy Shark's later design gave him notches in his tail in dorsal fin to not only further differentiate his design, but also create a "tougher" one as well. Ironically, most iterations of him with a personality have ones that are actively against fighting and violence.
I wasn't sure if it was stretching the trope too much before I added it.