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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. 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

TrocyteV Chronic lore addict (Petty Master) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Chronic lore addict
#20976: Jul 4th 2022 at 11:41:09 PM

Do dueling perspectives of the same fan work by different fandoms (i.e. like in the case of a crossover combining the respective works of each fandom) count for Values Dissonance if one sees it as harmless and the other outright offensive because of knowledge related to said fandom(s)? Or perhaps in more broader terms, can the groups forming VD simply be internet fandoms/subcultures?

HoloFunk seems to be going through this with the current release's plot that's now being phased out, as while it contains obvious appeals (mostly character interactions and Adaptation Tropes) to FNF-oriented fans that worked for at least one person, hololive-oriented fans noticed uncomfortable levels of Reality Subtext (bordering on full-on allegory and/or dramatization) pointing to a real person's struggles that was done without consent and which is "resolved" by injecting OCs and the FNF cast into their life, with predictable results for reception. But is it actually VD, or another YMMV trope?

Edited by TrocyteV on Jul 4th 2022 at 11:45:50 AM

"If you spent as much time fightin' as ye did hidin', maybe this wouldn't have happened!"
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#20977: Jul 5th 2022 at 6:17:05 AM

This feels like it falls into the same family as Asymmetric Dilemma and Lopsided Dichotomy, but we're not sure which trope, if either, to file it under. Any thoughts?

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Libraryseraph uu~ from Canada (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: Raising My Lily Rank With You
uu~
#20978: Jul 5th 2022 at 6:26:32 AM

[up][up] I think that's Broken Base, since it sounds like two halves of the fanbase are in conflict

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA
gjjones Musician/Composer from South Wales, New York Since: Jul, 2016
Musician/Composer
#20979: Jul 5th 2022 at 5:26:40 PM

Reposting from the previous page.

From Lacus's section in Characters.Mobile Suit Gundam Seed ZAFT:

  • Smarter Than You Look: Whether it's Obfuscating Stupidity or not is somewhat debatable, but Lacus being a pretty teenage Idol Singer with a sweet, quirky and seemingly extremely naive personality then baffles everyone who discovers just how effective and intelligent she really is. It works a little too well on Patrick Zala, who keeps insisting her father Siegel must be to blame for her deeds.

True example?

He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#20980: Jul 5th 2022 at 7:39:01 PM

I think that's closer to Good Is Not Soft or something. AFAIK nobody ever assumes she's stupid just because she's a singer.

BKelly95 Tame Racing Driver (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Tame Racing Driver
#20981: Jul 5th 2022 at 8:40:45 PM

For the purposes of Trailer Joke Decay, would the opening credit sequence of a television series count as a trailer?

In the third season of Reno 911!, Travis Junior appears in the opening credits getting electrocuted while grabbing a microphone and tumbling off of a stage at a school assembly. This doesn't happen until well into the season.

TrendingToon1 Since: Apr, 2015
#20982: Jul 6th 2022 at 10:18:09 AM

Would this be a good example to the Big City Greens S 2 E 1 page?

  • Magic Feather: Invoked with Cricket's hair. He misinterprets Donny's words about him when he says his hair is his "statement piece", leaving him to think he has "kapowie" because of it. Once he accidentally shaves his hair, he worries he lost his kapowie and messes up the shoot, but it's only through Tilly's words does he realize he had his kapowie all along and admits the truth.

Twiddler (On A Trope Odyssey)
#20983: Jul 6th 2022 at 2:34:28 PM

Six: The Musical was added to Feminist Fantasy.

  • Six: The Musical is about the six wives of Henry VIII forming a band and signing about their tragic lives. The final song throws the tragedy aside and instead has each girl sing about the Alternate History events that led them to form a band together, all of which involves them either ditching Henry or otherwise having a happy life;
    • [subbullets about individual characters]

It doesn't appear to be fantasy, but the example does say it's Alternate History, so does it count? The trope description has this:

RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#20984: Jul 6th 2022 at 3:34:27 PM

[up][up][up]I checked the main page and it doesn't seem like that'd count.


[up][up]An Invoked Trope involves a character intentionally setting up a trope. Also, that entry misuses Magic Feather.

Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#20985: Jul 6th 2022 at 4:36:46 PM

This is currently commented out on the Recap.RWBYV 8 E 14 The Final Word page, but it's misusing the trope (the audience knows exactly what Neo's motive is, Ruby doesn't). Neo isn't keeping her agenda secret, Ruby just hasn't had a chance to learn what's driving Neo yet. Can I remove it?

  • Hidden Agenda Villain: In-universe. It's finally brought up this Volume that Ruby has no idea why Neo wants to kill her so badly, though she doesn't particularly care. The audience of course knows the reason is that Cinder lied that Ruby murdered Roman to get Neo to cooperate with her.

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.
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#20986: Jul 6th 2022 at 5:20:09 PM

[up] That might better fit Unknown Rival, but yes, it can be thoroughly removed from Hidden Agenda Villain.


In CookieRun: Kingdom, cookies defeated in battle are flung offscreen instead of collapsing, crumbling, or otherwise showing any visible signs of actual incapacitation due to injury. Is this Non-Lethal K.O., or some other trope?

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#20987: Jul 6th 2022 at 5:27:37 PM

...These are sentient cookies?

Do we ever see those cookies again so we know it's 'non-lethal'? If I threw a cookie onto the ground it would probably crumble.

Shyhero Unmotivated dyslexic writer. from Sofa Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Unmotivated dyslexic writer.
#20988: Jul 6th 2022 at 6:03:56 PM

Crazy Memory One of Grunkle Stan's flashbacks ends with his girlfriend's hot pants changing into Bell bottoms. And then she and the guy she left him for start to fly off with rainbows forming behind them. He admits his memory gets a little "Hoslanty" sometimes.

Malady (X-Troper)
#20989: Jul 6th 2022 at 8:42:47 PM

DeathOfAThousandCuts.Video Games:

  • Assassin's Creed III involves Connor being sent to find an Über-bear that has been terrorizing the locals. A normal bear takes three strikes from the hidden blade to bring down. This one takes six. Of course, combat with dangerous animals boils down to Press X to Not Die.

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
Ferot_Dreadnaught Since: Mar, 2015
#20990: Jul 6th 2022 at 8:53:05 PM

Uncertain Audience:

I believe this is misuse, if not the opposite, of Continuity Lock-Out. CL is when it's impossible newcomers to follow the story/important plot points without familiarity with earlier works. The Movie avoided this, even having a early story pitch turned down possibly over it, having a story that didn't require much familiarity with the series to follow.

The problem was it didn't give non-fans enough to get emotionally vested in the characters/setting which I believe is outside the scope of CL. Is it?

nw09 Since: Apr, 2018
#20991: Jul 6th 2022 at 9:08:35 PM

On BetterToDieThanBeKilled.Real Life:

  • The passengers of one of the hijacked planes attacked the hijackers to regain control of the cockpit. They stopped the terrorists from reaching their (probable) destination of Washington D.C., instead causing it to crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Does this count? They were taking control away from them, and they wouldn't have intentionally crashed it.

MrMediaGuy2 Since: Jun, 2015
#20992: Jul 7th 2022 at 3:48:43 PM

Not sure if this is the right thread, but some of the examples on Trivia.Looney Tunes are really long and wordy. For instance...

  • Creator Backlash
    • Bob Bergen, the current voice of Porky Pig, admitted on the Toonzone Forums (now the Anime Superhero Forums) that he does NOT think highly of the Larry Doyle-produced shorts made in the 2000s and that he had an awful time working on them before being fired and replaced by Billy West as the voice of Porky and Tweety. For one thing, the shorts originally had a LOT of adult humor that didn't belong in a Looney Tunes cartoon - he specifically mentioned a lot of jokes about sex and bodily functions. While Bob is aware that the original Looney Tunes shorts were never intended to be exclusively for children, as he pointed out they were CLASSY, not crude. Thus, he let Larry know that he wasn't comfortable with the adult humor, but it didn't do any good (ironically, the higher-ups at Warner Bros. took out all the adult humor in the shorts after Larry was fired). As if that wasn't enough, Larry wanted Bob to change the way he played Porky - he slowed down a bunch of old Porky shorts to how Mel sounded before they sped him up, then told Bob to "do" Mel, then they would speed him up to the same percentage, despite the fact that Bob does Porky just fine naturally and has done it that way for years. In addition, as Bob pointed out his voice is much higher than Mel's was - and the microphones used in those days were much different than the ones they were using on these shorts... and on top of that, Larry slowed down those original Porky shorts too much. When Bob attempted to do Porky the way Larry wanted and was sped-up, the result sounded like a stuttering Alvin the Chipmunk. Bob finally decided to call up his agent and quit the project - a very difficult decision for him, as he had wanted to voice Porky since he was a child, but if this was the direction that they were going to take the characters in, he wanted no part in it. However, when he told his agent that he wanted off the project, his agent informed him that he had actually just been fired. Fortunately, it didn't take long for him to get the role of Porky back, just not in the Larry Doyle shorts.
  • Same Content, Different Rating: When America first launched its TV rating system in the 1990s, the Looney Tunes cartoons were normally rated TV-Ynote , even though some shorts did feature slapstick and suggestive humor that wasn't censored by the networknote . On Cartoon Network and Boomerang, the Looney Tunes shorts are rated TV-Gnote , despite that most Looney Tunes would be rated TV-PG for outdated racial stereotypes, using Suicide as Comedy, and some scenes featuring Male Gaze Fanservicenote . The Looney Tunes DVD collections (The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Looney Tunes Superstars, etc) are unrated, but do include a warning about the content being considered offensive due to Values Dissonance, while the select shorts that are streaming on HBO Max are either rated TV-Y7 or TV-PG.

wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#20993: Jul 7th 2022 at 4:45:46 PM

re cookies and Non-Lethal K.O.: Yes, they are mobile and unambiguously sapient cookies. (Think The Gingerbread Man.) We know they don't crumble offscreen; they're either hero cookies under the player's control and they always get better between battles or they're villains who come back later to do more villainy like villains always do.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Jul 7th 2022 at 7:46:29 AM

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
AnoneMouseJr Since: Nov, 2010
#20994: Jul 7th 2022 at 6:25:01 PM

I was reading a book series and found what might be an example... the main character operates a bookstore specializing in mysteries, and holds a monthly contest, with the prize being a free book of the winner's choice (with limitations) and free coffee for a month.

The contest is this: every month, the store's owner hangs a set of five watercolor paintings in the store, each depicting a scene from a different mystery book. The first person who can identify all five by the end of the month is the winner.

Would this count for the Battle of Wits trope, or no?

Until next time...

Anon e Mouse Jr.

If you're responding directly to one of my posts, please ping me to make sure I see it.
AlicornGaia Fishy from Mega Man Zero Earth Since: Sep, 2019 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Fishy
#20995: Jul 7th 2022 at 8:52:10 PM

If we know what the series is called, that would be appreciated.

"Come on Zero. Fight me. It feels so good :3"
AnoneMouseJr Since: Nov, 2010
#20996: Jul 7th 2022 at 9:00:59 PM

[up]

Death on Demand Mysteries, a novel series by Carolyn G. Hart (no relation to the 2008 film). And it isn't actually mentioned anywhere else on the site, except on my troper page.

Until next time...

Anon e Mouse Jr.

If you're responding directly to one of my posts, please ping me to make sure I see it.
harryhenry It's either real or it's a dream Since: Jan, 2012
It's either real or it's a dream
#20997: Jul 7th 2022 at 9:16:11 PM

[up][up][up][up][up] The Wall of Text cleanup would be a better fit for that problem.

Edited by harryhenry on Jul 7th 2022 at 9:16:33 AM

RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#20998: Jul 7th 2022 at 9:33:08 PM

[up](4x) I don't think so.


[up](5x) It seems like an example to me. (P.S. I'm considering getting into that series.)
[up](7x) Since it was discussing the passenger, that seems to fit.
[up](8x) It seems correct to me.
[up](9x) I don't think that's an example.
[up](10x) It looks accurate to me.
Can Jerkass Ball count if the character is already a jerk yet they act more jerkish in the scenario in question?

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Jul 7th 2022 at 9:38:07 AM

underCoverSailsman Peeks from Under Rocks from State of Flux Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Peeks from Under Rocks
#21000: Jul 8th 2022 at 12:08:20 AM

[up][up]Need more context. How big a change are we talking here?


Two questionables found during a cleaning project:

Recap.Littlest Pet Shop 2012 S 3 E 25 Its The Pet Fest Part 1

  • Seen It All: Bernard keeps spare pairs of glasses in his jacket, as he's dealt with a lot of incidents with Soul Patches fans in the past that damage the pair worn on his head. For some reason, only the glasses he's currently wearing will break. He starts running low in Act 3.
    Bernard: High-pitched girly squeals is an occupational hazard when you're the manager for the...well, you know who.
    • Heidi carries a pair of earplugs to put on when she detects a Squee about to happen.

Wondering if this is more Crazy-Prepared or similar? - Please ignore the indentation issue for now.

Recap.Little Princess S 1 E 23 Can I Keep It

Little Princess says that Scruff is a Nearly Normal Animal who normally doesn't wear clothes at all, and does normal doggy stuff.


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