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
From O.C. Stand-in's page description:
So, yes.
Reposting a query from a previous page
:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Tatsu is a former mob boss known as the Immortal Dragon. Yet he seems to have settled into a quiet life as a homemaker, with no one giving him trouble for being a former crook. Nope; it turns out that everyone in the area knows who he is, and it's an Open Secret that he's former yakuza. His wife recalls that she found him bleeding and injured from a job, saying he's much better now than he was. Meanwhile, every yakuza gang member, current or reformed, looks at his face and goes Oh, Crap!! before reaching for a weapon. A vignette reveals the police are keeping tabs on him, convinced that he's a Falsely Reformed Villain, and waiting to catch him in the act of a crime.
- Likewise, he is a Shell-Shocked Veteran from his time as a mob boss. It's mostly played for laughs, but he has trouble driving and treats homemaking as Serious Business.
- While walking and talking with his middle-aged housewife friends at the gym, Tatsu accidentally follows them into the women's changing rooms. Rather than enter Pervert Revenge Mode, they all understand it was an accident and wave off his apologies.
With the exception of the third bullet point, I'm not sure these entries count as a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. "A former villain tries to reform his life, but is haunted by his criminal past" is a pretty common plot.
Edited by Adept on Jun 3rd 2021 at 10:40:55 PM
Does Elemental Embodiment apply to beings made of an element that are never explicitly identified as being elementals?
Cave Johnson, we're done here.Reposting from a previous page
:
Towards the end of the eighth volume of RWBY, Ironwood kills Jacques, who frequently antagonized him throughout mosey of his appearances. Do you think this fits under the Kick The Son Of A Bitch trope or under a different trope (i.e. Karmic Death, etc.)?
Also, would Jacques' arrest in the seventh volume count as an example of Put on a Prison Bus?
Edited by gjjones on Jun 3rd 2021 at 5:32:20 AM
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.Is Permadeath in effect in a card game when a creature is sent to the Graveyard?
This was on UsefulNotes.Magic The Gathering (note: the potholes currently point to Final Death):
- Persist and Undying:
- When a creature with Persist dies in its natural state, it comes back, albeit slightly weaker. Specifically, the rules are, "If this creature dies and does not have a -1/-1 counter on it, return it to play with a -1/-1 counter on it." (By default, if it dies the second time, it's a Final Death.)
- Undying: The polar opposite of the above — when a creature with Undying dies, it comes back stronger, with a +1/+1 counter on it. (But the second Death still sticks.)
My first thought is that this seems like a shoehorn, but apart from that, we wouldn't say a monster/creature card that gets sent to the graveyard and doesn't have these abilities experiences Permadeath, right? They're possible to revive.
I'd say that's probably Out of Continues, if such can be applied to a card. Do these cards actually represent characters?
This example in Recap.Sponge Bob Square Pants S 2 E 19 Jellyfish Hunter The Fry Cook Games:
This seems too much like the typical "character's only bothered by something once" misuse, but I want to make sure.
We will possibly have to open up a cleanup forum for My Real Daddy. To my understanding, the trope is about situations where a property became more known or iconic due to a different writer than the original. Some of the entries are about complaining about a current team.
For example:
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Most of the credit for the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog goes to Yuji Naka, who stayed on with the franchise the longest (finally leaving during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)), However, it is actually best divided between him as the programmer of the original game, Naoto Oshima, the true creator and designer of the hedgehog, and Hirokazu Yasuhara, the designer of the first game's stages.
- This entry at least make some sense.
- While no one will doubt Sonic Team as the creator and shaper of the Sonic series, the success and critical acclaim of Sonic Mania in comparison to the mixed and lukewarm reception of Sonic Forces that same year (and many other Sonic Team-developed installments in prior years), have led many to view Mania developers Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and Pagoda West Games to be superior caretakers of the franchise compared to the Sonic Team of that time. This actually caused problems when Sonic 1 and 2 were ported to Nintendo Switch by M2 as part of their SEGA AGES series of ports; while M2 has repeatedly been shown to be masters of Polished Ports in their own right, fans complained because these ports didn't have the W-H-P partnership involved and because these ports, while still solid by all accounts, aren't as feature-rich as the trio's smartphone and PC ports of the same.
- This, however, doesn't. The Mania team may be better than Sonic Team, but they didn't create anything nor their work has being as impactful.
I want to suggest deleting the second entry, or at least reword it.
I want to add this entry to the trope:
- While the character of Knuckles the Echidna was created for Sonic 3 & Knuckles in 1994 by developer Takashi Yuda, his lore, background and personality weren't defined until Sonic Adventure, written by Akinori Nishiyama. While the debut of the character is iconic, more of what we know about Knuckles comes from Adventure's despiction.
Hey, guys. I'm wondering if you can put some more context in this entry for Fate: The Winx Saga?
- The Fair Folk: The fairies in the series appear to be based more off this than Japanese magical girls as in the cartoon.
I don't really understand why, though?
From Western Animation:
- In "Owl's Well That Ends Well", Twilight lectures Spike about all the trouble he's been causing because he's jealous of Owlowiscious, telling him "This is not the Spike I know and love!" A dejected Spike interprets this as meaning Twilight doesn't love him anymore, and prompts him to run away from home.
- Closer to Dramatically Missing the Point considering this was a huge Tear Jerker as Twilight is the closest thing Spike has to family.
- In "Owl's Well That Ends Well", Twilight lectures Spike about all the trouble he's been causing because he's jealous of Owlowiscious, telling him "This is not the Spike I know and love!" A dejected Spike interprets this as meaning Twilight doesn't love him anymore, and prompts him to run away from home.
I'm not familiar with the work to know which is correct.
I believe it should indeed be moved to Dramatically Missing the Point. It's played as a sad moment.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
x4: the first doesn't really seem like an example either, they are the original co-creators. No idea how the second one relates to My Real Daddy. Your proposed example fits.
x3: Are you asking why you need to add context, or how? Someone might know the work here but for the most part we can only evaluate if something fits based on the provided context. In that case, you have to list the traits they have in common with The Fair Folk.
x2: Agreed, that sounds like it's meant to be sad. Perhaps the first poster found it narmy.
Edited by Synchronicity on Jun 4th 2021 at 3:19:49 AM
x4: Well, someone here might not know why the Winx girls in Fate: The Winx Saga are more in common with The Fair Folk than Magical Girl Warriors. I was asking if you guys can list the reasons for more context.
Edited by K4713-7R0P3R on Jun 4th 2021 at 8:58:05 AM
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Just at a cursory glance of the descriptions, I take it because the cartoon Winx Club was likely inspired by Japanese magical girl series like Sailor Moon and the live-action series is meant to be a darker take on the cartoon. Not having watched the live-action series though, and having little knowledge of the cartoon from several years ago I can't provide much other thought, so if no one else has familiarity, I'd just comment out that trope and let someone else who knows the series better provide context.
Edited by YourIdeas on Jun 4th 2021 at 8:20:35 AM
I've seen Official Couple used as "any time two characters hook up"—even if they eventually break up afterwards. That seems incorrect. I can remove them right?
Official Couple is on Tropes Needing TRS for reasons of being so broad as to lack meaning entirely... but even then, some things are definitely not examples, and couples that break up in the end are definitely not examples.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.Is Leon an Audience Surrogate?
If you've played ''Video Game/Pokémon Swordand Shield'', you're familiar with the Galar region's Champion Leon. He became Champion of the region's league at age ten, then kept the title for 15 years until finally being dethroned by the player character. During his journey, he learned and grew both in terms of Pokémon battling and personal development. As the champion, his responsibilities amount to not only defending his title, but also maintaining the status if the Gym Challenge and the League it allows access to, staying on top of any troubles in the region, and, most importantly, helping out and paving the way for new trainers. His journey to the top reflects that of many Pokémon players who have been playing since the earliest days if the franchise; not only have these players dramatically improved their Pokémon battling skills, but now in their late 20s and early 30s, they have undergone nearly the full extent of their character development and many have careers and titles where they share at least one responsibility with Leon. And of course, some love to help new Pokémon players/trainers get accustomed to the games. So therefore, I believe that Leon is an Audience Surrogate to the veteran Pokémon players that are still actively involved in the franchise at the time of Sword and Shield's release.
Pencil/Pen scribbling sounds*From AdoredByTheNetwork.Disney:
- The American Disney Junior block also has a case of Adored Episodes like the network it shares time with. Here are just a few examples:
- The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally special airs every Memorial Day. As for normal episodes, "Donald Hatches an Egg" seems to play every three weeks and the pilot episode "Daisy Bo Peep" is shown at least twice a week.
- For Doc McStuffins, it's "Ooey Gablooey Springs A Leak/There's A Knight In Your Tummy".
- Jake And The Neverland Pirates' most repeated episode is "Smee-erella!".
- Sofia the First has "Scrambled Pets", "Minimus is Missing" and "The Secret Library". The Pilot Movie also seemed to air every month or so.
- Those who watched Miles from Tommorowland on the Disney Junior on Disney Channel block every weekend would most likely see either "Game On/How I Saved My Summer Vacation" or "To The Goldilocks Zone/Hiccup in the Plan".
- The Lion Guard's most played episodes are "Can't Wait To Be Queen", "Bunga and the King" and "Paintings And Predictions".
- On the 24/7 channel, the Little Einsteins episode "Little Elephant's Big Parade" usually played every week. Sometimes, it was shown twice a week.
- Before the channel reduced their selection of them, the network's original shorts also suffered from overplayed episodes. In 2016, the most played Nina Needs to Go! episode was "Traffic", Big Block Sing Song had "Monkey" and "Hair" note , Can You Teach My Alligator Manners? had "Birthday Manners", Tasty Time With ZeFronk had "Ze Pancakes!" and "Ze Indian Mango Lassi" note and Choo Choo Soul had "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah".
Can individual episodes really be Adored by the Network? And if so, can this many be?
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallI think individual episodes might be able to count if they're disproportionately aired compared to the rest of the schedule, especially if the series itself is adored, but "the most often played episodes of a series" feels like it could be its own subtrope. Plus some of these may be a consequence of the series being new and not having lots of episodes yet. Also not all of those entries explain how often the episode is played — they just claim that it is played a lot.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 5th 2021 at 10:12:31 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.![]()
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I think there's an argument to be made about Leon connecting to an adult Pokémon fan, but I'd hesitate to call it text. Pokémon is primarily marketed to children, so it'd be unusual for them to include a character representing the adult long-time fan, and Leon's journey doesn't feel super unique or very specific in its ties to the adult audience. It's an interesting interpretation, but I wouldn't trope it like it was intended.
Edited by 8BrickMario on Jun 5th 2021 at 7:14:32 AM
I do not think Leon is meant to be an Audience Surrogate, because while he does have traits that some people can empathize with, the game never really presents him as someone the players are supposed to see themselves as when they play Sword and Shield.
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."The Leon entry also assumes a lot about the mindset of the players and their relationship to the franchise...
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallAlso I'm pretty sure the Audience Surrogate here would be the blank slate Player Character who is literally designed to be a player self-insert.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 5th 2021 at 12:50:15 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Do fan portrayals of customizable blank-slate protagonists like the Warrior of Light fit into O.C. Stand-in, or would y'all say this is a different trope?
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.