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.
For cleaning up examples of Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard, you must use their dedicated threads: Complete Monster Cleanup, Magnificent Bastard Cleanup.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 18th 2023 at 11:42:55 AM
"In distress", my ass.
Just became aware of Hostile Terraforming, and thought of a possible example, though it's kinda borderline so I thought I'd run it by here first.
The intended entry:
- In Footfall, although not the primary purpose, the titular Colony Drop also alters Earth weather patterns to make the planet more amenable to the alien invaders, though they can live on Earth as it was prior to their arrival.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
That's the one with the two trunked elephant aliens, right? If so, it's been a long time since I read that. Was earth unusual in that they didn't need to alter anything before invading?
"In distress", my ass.
Yes, it's the one with the split-trunk elephants.
As I noted in the proposed example, they could live on an unmodified Earth, but it wasn't comfortable for them.
All your safe space are belong to Trump
Since it was both an unintended side effect and not strictly necessary, I'm inclined to think it's not an example, but it might also count as Downplayed Trope - the line can be kind of fuzzy sometimes.
Red Like Santa
Found this in Token Enemy Minority:
- Black Hawk Down is about 120 US commandos working with the UN in Mogadishu, Somalia, fighting Somali rebels. Nearly every US soldier is European but there is literally just one African named SPC Mike Kurth (Gabriel Casseus). The fact that he's the only African in their force is never mentioned, though it's worth noting that the US's African population is extremely mixed-ethnicity and the slaves originally bought from the West African slaver-kingdoms were, of course, West African (and thus quite distinct from the Somalians).
Somalis and African Americans are very different peoples, with different cultures. They are not the same people at all, any more than Russians and Australians are. Besides, it's not even mentioned that he's black.
edited 7th Jan '16 9:38:15 PM by hamza678
Now known as Cyber Controller
That's mighty big shoehorn that was used on that Black Hawk Down example.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Major shoehorning there... since Blackhawk Down was based on real events, and there actually were only a few black members of the various units involved. I am actually amused that this popped up today, since I just reread the first couple chapters of the book earlier today and the author specifically pointed out that fact.
Is the following averted example in Like Reality, Unless Noted valid?
DC Comics avert this more than Marvel Comics, since in DC not only are most of the stories set in entirely fictional cities, unlike Marvel they are more willing to follow their own history (e.g. In Marvel, in the 2000's George W. Bush was President, as in Real Life; in DC, the President was Lex Luthor, before he was impeached halfway through his first-term on the grounds of trying to kill Superman—or rather, getting caught doing it). Both follow a (rough) history similar to Earth, but DC makes a decision to divert that Marvel does not.
edited 8th Jan '16 7:13:18 AM by MagBas
Lost in Space
That is what we call a 'general' example, which is not allowed. It's also very ungrammatical. For bonus points, for a franchise to follow its own internal history is not an aversion of Like Reality, Unless Noted, because by definition if someone mentions President Luthor, it's "noted". It is nonsensical for an explicitly stated aspect of a universe to be a violation of that trope.
edited 8th Jan '16 7:17:41 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Okay, thanks.
On Idiot Crows page we have
- You would not expect a dark and edgy series like Berserk to use this trope... but it did.◊
And if anyone is familiar with this work
- Kyou Kara Maou has a variation of crow-like birds in the alternate world Yuri often winds up traipsing through screeching "Baaad omeeeen!" whenever trouble is upcoming.
Move it?
"In distress", my ass.
^ That first one is a Zero-Context Example in its current state no matter where it's put. Weblinks Are Not Examples.
All your safe space are belong to Trump
These were both recently added to Ultimate Fantastic Four:
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: A variant with Ben Grimm. He has actually tried killing himself... he's just too tough to succeed.
- Lean and Mean: Compared to his mainstream counterpart, Victor Van Damme is quite skinny. The fact he's a man of living metal rather than stomping around in a huge armored suit justifies it.
Tweaked my Precocious Crush entry a bit.
- Played with in Detective Conan chapters 925 through 927. Ai Haibara takes it badly when she learns her favorite athlete, Ryusuke Higo, is rumored to be dating local idol Yoko Okino. She refuses to listen to Yoko's songs anymore and even hires Kogoro, a fan Yoko's, to investigate the affair. When they all get involved in a murder case, Haibara's interaction with the pair include things like instantly agreeing to whatever Ryusuke says and disagreeing with Yoko, even when she contradicts herself in the process. After everything is resolved, we learn the rumors are fake and Ryusuke personally thanks Haibara for her help in the case. The final panel shows Haibara insisting on playing soccer despite stormy weather and singing Yoko's newest song. The twist that plays with the trope is that Haibara is actually an 18 year old physically regressed to about age six and is typically The Stoic on top of that, yet her behavior throughout these chapters ends up matching almost exactly what one would expect of her grade-schooler appearance.
edited 8th Jan '16 10:53:39 PM by sgamer82
I was dealing with zero context examples on Templar Arizona when I found this:
- I Ate What? Xenophage: Morally Indefensible Fine Dining.
I'm not really sure what to do with this. I'm pretty sure it isn't I Ate WHAT?!, but I'm don't know what trope it is, if any.
Off the top of my head, maybe Foreign Queasine or Cordon Bleugh Chef?
EDIT: A while back I put this entry in Thrilling Adventure Hour as an In Unverse example of a Fix Fic. I realized I'd neglected to crosswick it, but in doing so now I've begun to wonder if Retcon or something else might be more appropriate. Maybe as an attempted Cosmic Retcon? Or does it fall under the "Licensed Examples" section of Fix Fic?
- Fix Fic: "The Skeleton Grief" is an In-Universe attempt at this by a Will o' the Wisp who was dissatisfied with the ending of "The Skeleton Brief." He ends up Hoist by His Own Petard when the Doyles' usual Will o' the Wisp takes the story back and makes him join the fate of the skeletons he had been trying to save.
edited 9th Jan '16 9:15:41 AM by sgamer82
Well I deleted both of them for non-examples.
The Unknown
I'm not totally familiar with the careers of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, but isn't A New Hope their Star-Making Role?
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Harrison Ford yes but not really the other two Carrie Fisher didn't do too much outside of Star Wars and Mark Hamill's car accident ruined his acting career and had to do voice acting.
edited 10th Jan '16 11:52:40 PM by Memers
No, the other one.
They're on the page.
Check out my fanfiction!
The Unknown
I was going off of the movie's trivia page. Going to do some crosswicking.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Conan write-up looks like an example now.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
I think naming it as Playing with a Trope makes the difference. May still tweak the wording a bit, maybe put it in line with the Funny.Detective Conan version of it I added recently.
X11. So.... it's been about three days, and I still haven't gotten a response.
The audience would be aware of Haibara's status. The arc even starts with her and Conan discussing recent Myth arc events.
In-story the only character who knows Haibara isn't a child is Conan, who is in the same boat (and wastes no time snarking at her behavior).
It's more a Dramatic Irony thing as a lot of the arc's comedy is derived from the normally stoic and serious Haibara acting the way she is when only one person in the room knows it's out of character for her. It was for me anyway...
Were she an actual child, that kind of behavior would be a good fit for the trope. Which of where my uncertainty comes in on adding it.
EDIT: Would it be enough to just say that the series plays with the trope?
edited 5th Jan '16 5:55:47 AM by sgamer82