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
Is it still a Tragic Keepsake if the character keeps the item because it reminds them of a loved one who didn't die, but rather disappeared unexpectedly with their fate unknown? If so, would it be a Played With example?
The character in question doesn't believe their loved one died, but is still worried about where they've gone.
Edited by TroperNo9001 on Apr 24th 2021 at 2:28:54 AM
"YOU ARE KAIND. MERSIFULL. AND, MOAST OF ALL... YOU DOAN'T KNOW HOW TO CLAIMB."I'd call that a straight example, particularly if the character keeping the thing believes the missing character to be dead.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.This is on The Phantom Tollbooth:
- "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: Quick! Tell me you haven't heard this before... a kid from the modern world finds a doorway to another world and finds himself saving it. Sounds like almost every other escapist fantasy book out there, huh? Not so much in the sixties. Even in the face of books like The Chronicles of Narnia, the premise can come off as somewhat stale and antiquated.
There was a bit of an Edit War between some tropers over whether the RWBY Volume (Season) 8 finale classifes as a Downer Ending or "Ray of Hope" Ending. The Recap discussion page
didn't generate many responses. An ATT discussion
also didn't generate many responses, so it was suggested I bring the two examples here and see if people have an opinion on which one is the most appropriate trope.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Atlas and Mantle are permanently destroyed, Salem gains two of the relics, Penny and Vine sacrifice themselves, and Team RWBY fall into the abyss alongside Jaune and Neo. However, most of the kingdom's inhabitants have been evacuated, the heroes believe that a kingdom is its people, not its infrastructure, implying a new kingdom can be built at a later date, and the Winter Maiden's power remains with the heroes. Thus, Winter rescues the refugees from the sandstorm and Grimm horde in Vacuo while The Stinger implies that the named characters, as well as the refugees that fell when Cinder first attacked, are trapped in the Void Between the Worlds rather than dead.
- Downer Ending: The season ends with the villains gaining both Relics, Penny mercy killed (permanently this time) to protect the Maiden power, and both Mantle and Atlas are destroyed. The refugees are dumped on Vacuo's doorstep without warning, and Team RWBY, Jaune, and Neo fall into the abyss below, leaving Salem and Cinder free to continue bringing ruin to Remnant unopposed. And to put the cherry on top, everything the heroes and Ironwood did was for nothing. The only consolations are that most of the kingdom's inhabitants have been evacuated, with the heroes believing that a kingdom is its people, not its infrastructure, implying a new kingdom can be built at a later date, and the Winter Maiden's power remains with the remaining heroes (with Winter rescues the refugees from the sandstorm and Grimm horde in Vacuo). The last shot of the season is Ruby's Crescent Rose buried in the sand
Edited by Wyldchyld on Apr 23rd 2021 at 9:34:24 AM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.Do the following examples from Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow look like they're being used correctly?:
- Relationship Writing Fumble: A few lines are thrown in to make it clear that James and Torunn see each other as siblings; however, it would be very easy to read some of their interaction as romantic. (Indeed, that's how Francis seems to see it.)
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Thor, who was pretty much forced to sit out the entire film for no better reason than he didn't have a big movie in 2008 while Iron Man and the Hulk did.
The second example has Word Cruft, which makes its validity unlikely.
135 -> 180 -> 273 -> 191 -> 188 -> 230 -> 300 -> 311How, uh, non-evil does a character need to be to qualify as Minion with an F in Evil?
San/Kevin (Ghidorah's left head) from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) has been described as such, both in the trope page and in the character page, but while he is more curious than the other heads, rather than go immediately on a "kill everything on sight" mode, he's far from nice (which is apparently a requirement for Minion with an F in Evil), and is willing to eat/kill humans just like the others.
Edited by Adept on Apr 29th 2021 at 1:32:46 AM
that'd be Non-Malicious Monster; that is, even when it's killing or eating people it's acting purely on instinct, rather than being actively "evil" like the other two heads. ghidorah is already listed on that trope as an aversion, but i think it might be better to have it listed a subversion. the left is curious and only acting on instinct, while the other two heads are definitely out for blood
Edited by NoUsername on Apr 23rd 2021 at 11:24:17 AM
From YMMV.Trolls World Tour:
- Crosses the Line Twice:
- Barb believes Poppy does this to her as the Pop Troll's letter a) sneaks a pop tune into her father's mind and b) insults Barb's so-called friendship status.
- The "2 Many Hits Mashup" scene where Poppy, Branch and Biggie try to lift the spirits of the Country trolls after "Born to Die", by singing "all the best songs" and putting on a sing & dance performance with music unfamiliar to the Country trolls and acting like a bunch of idiots which mortifies the citizens.
These entries don't explain how these scenes are so offensive that they come back to being funny again. I don't think either of them fit the item as described, especially not the first one.
EDIT: The page also lists the "rock vs pop" debate under What Do You Mean, It's Not Political? but I think that's stretching our definition of "political."
Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 23rd 2021 at 11:46:48 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.From YMMV.Pinocchio.
- Older Than They Think: Disney in The New '10s gets a lot of flak for including too many Evil All Along characters. Those people have probably forgotten that Stromboli, Disney's first Evil All Along character, is from a movie released in 1940.
Hi, I need some advice regarding this entry under They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot from the Samurai Warriors YMMV page.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- While there have been non-Japanese Samurai historically (such as Miura Anjin/William Adams
), it was thought that Koei Tecmo didn't include them in order to avoid Unfortunate Implications, but Yasuke being a part of the Samurai Warriors 5 roster has dispelled such a notion.
- While there have been non-Japanese Samurai historically (such as Miura Anjin/William Adams
Since Yasuke (who is African) has been added for the upcoming game, that entry is considered averted, right? Unless there's another appropriate trope for this.
Edited by sayaleviathan on Apr 24th 2021 at 4:43:01 PM
From Characters.My Hero Academia Izuku Midoriya:
- Expy:
- Of Superboy (primarily Conner Kent) since All Might is a an expy of Superman and Midoriya has all his powers and is a teenager. He later gains Shimura's Quirk:Float which allows him to somewhat fly similar to Superboy.
- Of Spider-Man, Daigoro's Quirk: Blackwhip, essentially acts like Spidey's webbing since Midoriya priamrily uses it for capturing and moving around, he also gains Shinomori's Quirk: Danger Sense, making him even more like Spidey.
- Midoriya also has similar personality traits to the two of them, being very friendly, playful, and at times charismatic to those around him. Similarly, he also struggles with the responsibility of being a Hero, and having to manage normal teenage issues, in addition to also having difficulty controlling his powers similar to Spidey and Superboy in their early days.
Is this a valid example, or should it be removed?
Edited by gjjones on Apr 24th 2021 at 7:09:10 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
x3 I think it needs more context beyond "this villain happened to be evil before it was a popular trend."
x2 That seems more Author's Saving Throw or They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character imo, since Yasuke was added.
I'm not sure I would describe Deku as a straight expy of either of them, and the Superboy comparison seems really off beyond "they're both Flying Bricks and teenagers."
If anyone in MHA is based on Spider-Man, it's that tape-arm guy whose name I forgot.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallTwo examples from my weird recent fixation on the Press Your Luck pages.
- Can Revisiting the Roots be done if it's not calling back to the original version, but the version most people think of as the "first"? Specifically, the 2019 revival of Press Your Luck is aesthetically identical to the 1983 show as opposed to the last revival, Whammy, which used a lot more computer-generated aesthetics, but technically the first version of Press is Second Chance and I don't know if it's really much like Second Chance at all. But Second seems to suffer from Adaptation Displacement anyway (as in I literally only know about it because of this wiki).
- Precious Puppies only covers gratuitous cute dogs, right? Because the page lists the Whammy's dog Fang as Precious Puppies, but Fang more often appears as a threat or nuisance (i.e. attacking the contestant's winnings), which feels more akin to something like Right-Hand Attack Dog.
Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 24th 2021 at 2:54:32 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.yes and yes, i think; Press Your Luck is an obvious case of Sequel Displacement so Revisiting the Roots meaning going back to the most famous series' style makes sense, and likewise Precious Puppy specifically indicates a cute and harmless dog through the name
This is more of a general question for a trope page, but looking through Overtook the Series there's a fair few that look quite brief, such as:
- Dragon Ball GT is an anime-only continuation of the series after Akira Toriyama ended the Dragon Ball manga.
- The Handmaid's Tale series' first season ends where the book ended but will continue Offred's story, with author Margaret Atwood as a consultant.
but are they borderline zero-context examples?
On that same page, this entry is possibly Overtook the Manga unless I'm wrong:
- Series 1-2 and 4 (and half of 3) of Thomas the Tank Engine were based on the Railway Series books, but the other half of Series 3 and Series 5 onwards have been original. Ironically, not every story in the Railway Series has been adapted to television, but since the books and TV series are now completely different from each other there is little chance of these stories making it to the screen. However, Season 20 adapted the book Small Railway Engines. Yes, 25 years later, more stories were adapted.
So i found these on Actor-Shared Background from The Boys (2019).
- Kimiko turns out to be Japanese (well, her first name was kind of a giveaway already to anyone familiar with Japanese names). Karen Fukuhara is Japanese-American, born to Japanese parents in California.
- Elena, Maeve's ex-girlfriend, is Latina. Nicola Correia Damude, who portrays her, is also Latina (Guyanese from her mother).
I don't think being a race count as a actor background.
Edited by WhirlRX on Apr 25th 2021 at 11:08:22 AM
Can I Hate You, Vampire Dad apply to the actual biological child of a vampire?

I found this entry on Clueless Aesop, but need to add more to the Supergirl entry for three more episodes yet is this OK as it currently is:
Edited by Merseyuser1 on Apr 23rd 2021 at 3:59:36 PM