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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.

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

wingedcatgirl I'm helping! from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
I'm helping!
#20176: May 15th 2022 at 7:55:47 PM

From The Ditherer:

  • Go to this trope's discussion page. Look at the YKTTW archive. Notice the time between the suggestion and the launch..? Or that the troper that suggested it and the one who actually launched it are two different tropers? Hmm...

If you do check out the "YKTTW" archive for the page, you will see it took a "whopping" one month to launch. As such, we're calling bullshit.

(Then again, reading the archive... "hats are a guideline, not a law", ahaha oh dear this is so 2011.)

Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#20177: May 15th 2022 at 8:16:52 PM

Yeah, by 2011 standards that draft lagged [lol]

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
dmcreif from Novi Grad, Sokovia Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: Robosexual
#20178: May 16th 2022 at 8:26:41 AM

I'm trying to determine if the following two examples from Peacemaker would count as "Impersonating an Officer":

  • Caspar Locke poses as an Evergreen police captain so as to infiltrate the police department and stop Detectives Song and Fitzgibbon from further investigating the Sturphausen murder. He keeps up the act right up until he's killed by the Butterflies as they kill the rest of the police department and use their bodies as hosts.

  • In the climax, Peacemaker kills one of the Butterfly-possessed police officers and has Economos wear the cop's uniform to sneak Peacemaker's sonic boom helmet into the Butterflies' compound.

The Locke example feels complicated considering that he's not wearing a cop uniform as a disguise, but is wearing one to play a role.

The cold never bothered me anyway
Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#20179: May 16th 2022 at 8:29:12 AM

considering that he's not wearing a cop uniform as a disguise, but is wearing one to play a role

Not seeing a meaningful difference here.

Both read like examples.

Edited by Synchronicity on May 16th 2022 at 10:29:28 AM

MasterHero Since: Aug, 2014
#20180: May 16th 2022 at 8:38:19 AM

Ah, Civil War II, the comic book that reignited the old discussions about who is the hero and who is the villain in Marvel's Civil War. I really want to figure out, once and for all, who is the real Designated Hero of the story.

    Civil War II's YMMV page 
The YMMV page of Civil War II has the following entries: "Regardless of which side is meant to be the 'correct' one, both sides act in a ridiculously villainous manner that makes them a lot harder to root for. This might be intentional to add moral ambiguity, but all it does is make the conflict difficult to care about."
  • "Carol Danvers. When shown proof of how Ulysses' powers actually work, she ignores it and continues her campaign of fighting the future by arresting a woman with the only proof being his vision of her and an empty suitcase. She recruits Kamala to aid her in her venture and essentially tells her to deal with it when the poor girl is having completely major second-thoughts over the entire thing. Later on as she ramped up, several characters call her out on her increasingly totalitarian behavior. Magneto outright compares her to the Nazis after a few mishaps between her and the X-Man, causing her to compare Magneto (who, keep in mind, is a Holocaust survivor) to an internet troll invoking Godwin's Law. Notably, Carol seems to be repeating the same pitfalls that Tony went through in the original Civil War (whose side had a point but invalidated it by acting in a villainous manner), but exaggerated ten-fold. As trying to save people from attacks and crisis that would cause a huge loss of life (which Carol and the Ultimates had been doing and was Carol's initial plan for Ulysses) would be unquestionably a good thing, it comes off as Marvel deliberately trying to make her more villainous to add more moral ambiguity to avoid Tony being the clear-cut bad guy."
  • "Tony Stark. After finding out about Ulysses' power, he instantly distrusts it for little to no reason, starting an argument with his friends over essentially nothing. He follows this by, when Ulysses's vision gets Rhodey killed, but successfully prevents the deaths that Thanos would have caused, attacking the Inhumans and kidnapping Ulysses, proceeding to begin experimenting on him to determine how his powers work in order to find any flaw to justify his irrational distrust of him. When he goes about recruiting people to his cause, he does so through bribery (such as trying to buy Sam Wilson's support by playing off of his financial troubles), among other issues. While Carol is Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Tony seems to start the event being an unsympathetic asshole, even before Carol's extremism comes into play."
  • "The Inhumans. At first, they are right to be angry that Tony kidnapped Ulysses. However, Medusa destroyed his company, took his money and ruined his reputation. Even worse, Triton and Maximus blew up his company tower because they felt that she didn't go far enough. When they were with the other heroes confronting Banner, Tony pointed out that Banner hasn't done anything, to which Medusa responded with "Yet." Add to the fact that they don't want to really help save the mutants from being killed off by their mists, and it's pretty hard to see them as heroic. Now it's debatable whether some of the writers themselves consider them heroes considering what Magneto asked Rachel Grey in Civil War II: X-Men #3: "Tell me... in the world you came from... your future... do you recall an Inhuman lifting a finger to help our people?" This instantly caused her to join Magneto. They had basically abandoned Carol when she turned to them for help after Miles went home to deal with the vision of himself killing Captain America."

Civil War II gives us Captain Marvel, following in the footsteps of Iron Man in the first Civil War and who went a little crazy with her methods while using a Inhuman precog, Ulysses, to combat crimes. She went around trying to arrest her allies and others for things that haven't happened yet, and ignored people when they tried to tell her that the precog wasn't really seeing the future, at least not with 100% accuracy. Having indirectly caused the deaths of War Machine and Bruce Banner, she grew more stubborn in her beliefs and went on to imprison an innocent woman, tried to arrest Miles for a crime he may not commit, and put Iron Man in coma when he opposed her. This was explained in Ultimates 2015 partly as having her Go Mad from the Revelation of the Marvel Universe's floating timeline thanks to Galactus showing her. While some fans still love the character, others are unsure that she should be the female face of Marvel.

  • Several years on, thanks to a successful film and appearance in another, a number of negative consequences for Carol and a fair amount of self-hatred on her part, plus a general desire by Marvel to forget that Civil War II ever happened (unlike the first Civil War, which had extended consequences right up to and after Siege), which was helped by how it was a forgettable event to begin with, and Ulysses himself hasn't been seen since - means that it's simmered down to the occasional mention.

    Designated Heroes in the Marvel Universe 
The Marvel Universe's section in Designated Hero is the only one to actually criticize Carol during the whole fiasco with this entry: "Civil War II gives us Captain Marvel, following in the footsteps of Iron Man in the first Civil War and who went a little crazy with her methods while using a Inhuman precog, Ulysses, to combat crimes. She went around trying to arrest her allies and others for things that haven't happened yet, and ignored people when they tried to tell her that the precog wasn't really seeing the future, at least not with 100% accuracy. Having indirectly caused the deaths of War Machine and Bruce Banner, she grew more stubborn in her beliefs and went on to imprison an innocent woman, tried to arrest Miles for a crime he may not commit, and put Iron Man in coma when he opposed her. This was explained in Ultimates 2015 partly as having her Go Mad from the Revelation of the Marvel Universe's floating timeline thanks to Galactus showing her. While some fans still love the character, others are unsure that she should be the female face of Marvel.
  • Several years on, thanks to a successful film and appearance in another, a number of negative consequences for Carol and a fair amount of self-hatred on her part, plus a general desire by Marvel to forget that Civil War II ever happened (unlike the first Civil War, which had extended consequences right up to and after Siege), which was helped by how it was a forgettable event to begin with, and Ulysses himself hasn't been seen since - means that it's simmered down to the occasional mention."

The actions of either Tony or the Inhumans during Civil War II are not mentioned in the page, but they do have entires, albeit for different reasons.

    Gamera 85's defense for Carol 
Gamera 85 (I tried to contact him but he didn't answer) defended Carol with the following argument: "So here's the issue here. Beyond blaming Carol for deaths she did not commit, not even indirectly as Thanos and Hawkeye killed Rhodey and Bruce respectively, as well as ignoring the fact the "innocent" woman she accused turned out to be a superhero hating extremist all along and the wider context of the crime Miles was predicted to commit (And how pursuing an investigation for it could've stopped a certain Hydra Double Agent), and even ignoring the fact that precognition is not a theory in the Marvel Universe, but scientific fact as evidenced by time travel, psychics and machines that can even predict the future, let' focus on a key detail. Tony Stark ATTACKED Carol in a suit that looked like her dead boyfriend. He fired lethal weapons at her. Repeatedly refused to stand down when asked to by Carol. He had earlier committed Terrorism by attack the Triskelion. He has assaulted Carol twice now and is clearly trying to kill her... and she's in the wrong for defending herself? Really? That makes her the designated hero example?"

"I guess we're ignoring the fact Tony kidnapped a man and tortured him, all to get those experiment results which are tainted as a result of said torture. And he assaulted a head of state to do it by tresspassing on their sovereign territory. But the Inhumans are jerks I guess, so they deserved it huh? Yeah, I have a bone to pick with the Inhumans vs X-Men entry too, as it ignores the fact the Inhumans are trying to find a cure for the X-Men, trying to keep them from being harmed by the cloud and the mutants do not explain that they're already out of time to find a cure and just attack them outright with no provocation. The entry even ignores how the crossover ends, with Medusa herself learning that the cloud is about to saturate the atmosphere and kill all mutants... and then she instantly kills the cloud herself because that's the only solution obviously, basically revealing this entire war could've been avoided if the X-Men just told the Inhumans the truth."

"But hey, better to find an easy person to blame in both cases, right? And both events do suck, a fact I won't argue, so who cares if we leave out other details that kinda show that this tropes more easily applies to the other side of the fighting. Frankly, I haven't heard one solid defense for what Carol should've done when Tony attacked her. And if we're using alt. Universes to justify the Mutants actions in Iv X, then fine! In another universe, as detailed in the lead up to Infinity Warps, Carol broke off her engagement with Tony to free Miles from his prison bubble thing... and took what appears to be a mortal blow from Tony's Carolbuster suit in the process."

"Tony. Was Trying. To Kill. Carol Danvers. Period. I find this continued attempt to blame Carol for putting the guy who ASSAULTED HER into a coma very "Victim Blaming" of its proponents. Like if a wife puts an abusive husband into a coma, suddenly she's a criminal too I guess? Next woman who knocks out her rapist and gives him brain damage, charge them with attempted murder, right? And sure, Tony didn't do anything nearly as bad as that... but he did commit Kidnapping, Torture and Terrorism in a short span of time. Yet he does not pay for a single one of his crimes and the comics community forgives him just as easily it seems."

"Tony deserves to be called what he is in the story, as the comic is clearly on his side and even ends with Carol throwing herself onto her sword in anguish over her mistakes while Tony's "death" is lamented as a tragedy. It's not, he attacked her, he got what was coming to him. He's the designated hero of CW 2, not Carol. Carol was presented as the misguided antagonist at best while Tony was allowed to run rough shod over her and scream on his soap box. She never got a chance to present her case! EVER! And we keep blaming her for things that other people did! It's ridiculous!"

"The entry should be switched around, the comic clearly sides with Tony Stark. By definition of trope, the author isn't trying to excuse Carol's actions, they are trying to excuse Tony. He suffers no real lasting consequences for his actions, while Carol has to repeatedly blame herself for things she didn't do! And the same goes for Iv X, as that comic is very clearly on the mutant's side. Neither entry fits the trope and is just someone complaining about characters not being perfect. And the implication that Carol should've let Tony punch her face into the pavement and not defend herself, while ignoring everything he did, SCREAMS sexist bias in my opinion."

"Those are my criticisms, feel free to discuss."

So, what do we do here?

By the way, I already asked this question at the Designated Hero clean-up thread to get a proper consensus.

Edited by MasterHero on May 16th 2022 at 8:50:04 AM

Mrratman2 Man in the Yellow Hat Since: Aug, 2021
Man in the Yellow Hat
#20181: May 16th 2022 at 8:43:01 AM

Super Boy: In issue #131, The Space Canine Patrol Agents were quadrupedal and wore only collars. By the next issue, however, they shifted to walking on two legs and became Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals. Reversed in Krypto The Super Dog (in which they were renamed to The Dog Star Patrol) where they go back to being quadrupedal.

Is this an example of Anthropomorphic Shift?

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#20182: May 16th 2022 at 8:44:56 AM

^If Krypto the Super-Dog is in the same continuity, you might be looking at Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag.

Edited by Synchronicity on May 16th 2022 at 10:45:17 AM

dsneybuf Since: Jul, 2009
#20183: May 16th 2022 at 8:42:39 PM

From Film.The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent:

  • Broken Heel:
    • While an acid-tripping Nick and Javi outrun some suspicious onlookers, a passing car abruptly knocks down Javi, requiring him to complete the run while suffering from pain in his left leg.
    • When another pack of enemies chases Nick and Javi through a forest, Nick starts complaining that the loafers Javi gave him lack proper ankle support for running. The duo ends up needing to take a short break, but they ultimately make it back to Javi's truck.

I feel <100% sure that the top one counts; if it doesn't, which Trope would it fit better?

laserviking42 from End-World Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
#20184: May 16th 2022 at 8:51:09 PM

[up]I'd question the top one only because it isn't clear they are being chased. It might be one of the more paranoia oriented tropes instead. Second bullet seems fine to me.

I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose me
CSS1 Since: Mar, 2021
#20185: May 16th 2022 at 9:09:48 PM

Can I use the Fictionalized Death Account trope for Watchmen (2019) ? The character who dies, Fred, is arguably meant to be Fred Trump, and died far earlier than the actual Fred Trump did.

wingedcatgirl I'm helping! from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
I'm helping!
#20186: May 16th 2022 at 9:25:06 PM

>arguably

We're inclined to vote no based on this one word alone.

Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
MyFinalEdits Officially intimidated from Parts Unknown (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Officially intimidated
#20187: May 16th 2022 at 10:45:47 PM

Yeah, an example has to give a guarantee that it fits the trope. See also Square Peg, Round Trope.

135 - 169 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the Retromancer
#20188: May 17th 2022 at 2:07:45 AM

Is Minigame applicable for printed media (spot the difference between two images, count objects, solve a maze, Where's Wally? clones...)?

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
CSS1 Since: Mar, 2021
#20189: May 17th 2022 at 6:10:26 AM

Would Low Culture, High Tech apply in a case where the high tech is limited to a single character? I get the sense that it has to be widely available in order to count.

Fivey I ramble about old animation from Your worst Nightmare Since: Sep, 2021 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
I ramble about old animation
#20190: May 17th 2022 at 6:58:40 AM

Edited by Fivey on May 17th 2022 at 3:22:29 PM

This account is now inactive because the actual Fivey (my sheep who I loved dearly) passed away and it feels wrong to use her name anymore.
Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#20191: May 17th 2022 at 7:40:47 AM

[up][up][up]What makes it 'mini' and not just 'game'?

[up][up]Yeah, that's societal. Consider Schizo Tech for one-offs.

Chytus Very Fine Dodger from South Texas Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Very Fine Dodger
#20192: May 17th 2022 at 2:25:49 PM

This post on Video Games rubs me the wrong way.

  • The True Ending of Persona 5 Royal involves the Phantom Thieves noticing the cops following Joker so the rest Phantom Thieves serve as a decoy, sending Joker home as isolated as when he first arrived in Tokyo. In comparison, in the vanilla game's Ture Ending, the Phantom Thieves also noticed the cops but decided it didn't matter if they were being followed. As a result, many accused Royal's True Ending of greatly diminishing the game's message about corrupt society and breaking free of it goes from a group of kids, all victimized by society, no longer giving it power over them, to giving in to society's expectations.

Thing is, it is not like Joker is just as isolated at the end as he was at the beginning. He leaves on the knowledge that he has friends that he can always talk to. Also, when the group decide to act as a decoy, they leave Joker on a taxi driven by Dr. Maruki, a character who is befriended during Royal, so it is not like they left Joker completely alone without friendly faces the entire way back.

Also, when I looked up the ending cutscenes on YouTube to refresh my memory, I noticed that the reactions on the Royal "True" ending are mixed leaning positive, with the people liking the ending believing it fits in with Royal's theme that things will not always end perfectly. Of course, the fact that it is not as optimistic as the original True ending means it is that many people's favorite ending

Afterword Moon Queen and Wanderer from At the end of all things Since: May, 2017 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Moon Queen and Wanderer
#20193: May 17th 2022 at 4:52:11 PM

Sole Survivor doesn't apply if there were multiple survivors, right? The White Vault has a couple of entries for characters who were one of several people to survive an incident.

A smile better suits a hero
jandn2014 Very Spooky from somewhere in Connecticut Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Hiding
Very Spooky
#20194: May 17th 2022 at 6:49:25 PM

Can Beam Me Up, Scotty! cover instances in which a quote is used in a work, but is commonly misattributed to another character? Was thinking about adding this to Trivia.Spongebob Squarepants, but wanted to check first:

  • One popular image macro features a screenshot from "Dying for Pie" of Squidward and Mr. Krabs looking at SpongeBob, with the latter saying "How do we tell him?" While said line is in the episode, it's Squidward who says it. At the moment shown in the image, Krabs instead says "The lad deserves to enjoy his final hours".

back lol
laserviking42 from End-World Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
#20195: May 17th 2022 at 7:35:54 PM

[up][up][up]I thought Broken Aesop was YMMV, but apparently, it isn't. Given that, I read and re-read that example and still am not sure what the aesop is supposed to be and how exactly it is broken. As written, not an example.


[up][up]Correct, you cannot have multiple sole survivors.


[up]That image macro doesn't really specify who is saying the line, it is certainly suggestive, but not at Beam Me Up, Scotty! level.

I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose me
AegisP Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
#20196: May 17th 2022 at 7:48:14 PM

Is an "Affiliate To The Rescue" a worthy example of Network to the Rescue? Because I have a very interesting story about how WNEW saved Battle Of The Planets.

Discord: Waido X 255#1372 If you cant contact me on TV Tropes do it here.
NKgamer Since: Jan, 2001
#20197: May 17th 2022 at 8:10:04 PM

Would this strip be an example of a Berserk Button? I spotted it and it seemed that way to me but then again I might've jumped the gun so I need a second opinion. https://www.egscomics.com/

harryhenry It's either real or it's a dream Since: Jan, 2012
It's either real or it's a dream
#20198: May 17th 2022 at 8:41:47 PM

This was just added to iCarly at this subpage, oddly separated from the other examples:

  • End of an Age: The series finale iGoodbye, which premiered in November 2012, seemed to kickstart the end of classic golden age era Schneider's Bakery Nickelodeon sitcoms. During 2013, the series finale of Victorious, Victori-Yes and the series finale of non-Schneider fellow Nickelodeon sitcom Big Time Rush, Big Time Dreams both premiered and the year also saw Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice retire from TV and begin careers into movie actreeses and also, Nickelodeon began premiering new sitcoms such as The Thundermans, Henry Danger, Game Shakers and various other long-running sitcoms which lasted for the remainder of the 2010s.

Poor grammar and spelling aside, the example itself doesn't seem to hold up under scrutiny: It sounds more like a beginning of the end instead of a true end that the trope is all about.

underCoverSailsman Peeks from Under Rocks from State of Flux Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Peeks from Under Rocks
#20199: May 17th 2022 at 8:54:55 PM

[up][up]Don't know the characters. Does he always react that way to technology?

[up]Their only other recent edit was to add an entry that makes pretty much the same argument (without the focus on iCarly starting the trend) to End of an Age.Live Action TV

Can't comment on the veracity. (I don't keep up with network TV) However, that second sentence is an absolutely horrific run-on. I had to read it twice to parse it properly.

underCoverSailsman Peeks from Under Rocks from State of Flux Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Peeks from Under Rocks
#20200: May 17th 2022 at 9:43:39 PM

Found on Series.Muppets Tonight:

Aside from the rule-breaking custom trope titling, is this really an example of Chaste Toons, or is it more appropriately Nephewism? (stated on both trope pages to be the "Live action version")


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