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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

X-FALCONER Since: Jun, 2021
#21926: Aug 26th 2022 at 7:37:57 PM

[up]The fact that sakura said that she can't use the uniform anymore and when she come back she does as one of the fer police work who doesn't use uniform

laserviking42 from End-World Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
#21927: Aug 26th 2022 at 7:57:53 PM

I'm going to leave it to others to weigh in, because in my opinion that is not an example. It seems way too esoteric to even count as a plot point.

I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose me
dragonfire5000 from Where gods fear to tread Since: Jan, 2001
#21929: Aug 26th 2022 at 9:32:52 PM

But you're still trying to shoehorn this example into the Non-Malicious Monster entry ... and it's describing a malicious monster (whether out of maternal instinct or malevolence).

To clarify, I would personally consider the monster to fit the definition of Non-Malicious Monster due it to only being a vicious animal and claims of it being sapient are shaky at best. I'm going by the first part of the Non-Malicious Monster definition for my reasoning:

One step below a typical Anti-Villain (or above, depending on how you're counting): a creature that could be called monstrous, but can't actually be viewed as evil, since it lacks any actual malice or sapience.

The compromised entry that I was asking if it was okay to put in for now is my attempt to rewrite the current entry on the page that got edited by someone else, mostly because I feel like the current entry as is reads a little awkwardly, like someone decided to respond instead of repair, and I wanted to make sure it was okay so as not to cause an edit war.

For reference, the current entry on the page is this:

Zig-zagged courtesy of translation issues. While Narwa exhibits incredibly destructive behavior and is trying to devastate the region around Kamura, this is because she is being driven by maternal instinct. She wants to ensure her offspring can grow up safely once they hatch, and her attempting to wipe out or drive away other living beings in the area is her way of making sure nothing will threaten her children. This is the Japanese version, by the way; the Western translation subverts this trope and paints her with a more vile brush, and even then, upending the ecosystem can hardly be considered ambivalent, let alone benevolent.

And the entry I want to edit it to is this:

Zig-zagged courtesy of translation issues. The original Japanese text, along with background materials released by Capcom, emphasizes that Narwa's destructive behavior is driven by maternal instinct; she wants to ensure nothing will threaten her children once they hatch. The localization, however, leaves this part out, making Narwa's actions come across as more callous and malevolent.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Aug 26th 2022 at 9:51:55 AM

"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."
Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#21930: Aug 26th 2022 at 9:42:33 PM

re: Police Pod

Both examples are hard to read because of grammar.

  • Foreshadowing: Needs to not be one sentence. The trope should be making clear each part of the trope: a minor detail, early in the story, a big plot point, later in the story, a correlation between the two.
  • "with The Power of Friendship" is used twice, which is tautology, and neither time that trope is elaborated. Also doing the opposite of an insult isn't Power Of Hate, it has to explain that a character becomes generally more capable when they're enraged.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
isoycrazy Lord of the Blue Star Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: Abstaining
Lord of the Blue Star
#21931: Aug 27th 2022 at 2:52:40 AM

Repost from here and here as no one answered my inquiries.

Two inquiries for Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

First, does it for "It" Is Dehumanizing if the person refers to the "it" as a creature? When Sullivan, a powerful and old demon, is dealing with a former ally protecting Atori, a demon who has gone "back to origins", who has fully embraced the sociopathic tendencies of demons to a violent and dangerous degree and is a terrorist, Sullivan calls the for his old friend to hand over the "creature." Should that be sufficiently dehumanizing?

Second, during the Heartbreaker Competition, where the teachers of Babyls faced the Misfit Class making them protect first years from Teacher attacks, Sullivan was set up in a tank where the Misfits had to use their mana to seal him off so he doesn't join the fray. They succeed and he is meant to be in there for the remainder of the competition. When Atori cannot hide his blood lust and breaks cover, the teachers aim to capture and stop him (without ending the competition mind you) and when they corner Atori, it is revealed they released Sullivan from the tank and he thrashes Atori with no effort. Should that qualify for Godzilla Threshold when he is only sealed for a competition and not an actual serious matter? Here is the example:

To me, it would be like if Superman was playing freeze tag with some kids and got "frozen." It wouldn't be breaking some threshold if he moved without being unfrozen if some truck came barreling into the playground and threatening the kids.

Libraryseraph uu~ from Canada (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: Raising My Lily Rank With You
uu~
#21932: Aug 27th 2022 at 12:12:11 PM

[up] The second one doesn't sound like an example. The first one maybe, but I'm not sure if we have dehumanizing language tropes that'd fit better

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA
DanteVin The Time Has Come from Somewhere Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Singularity
#21933: Aug 27th 2022 at 4:16:46 PM

This is listed under Open-Door Opening, but I'm not sure if it really counts, or should be cut because it's probably just shoehorned.



Is Open-Door Opening strictly about doors? Or did it become flexible enough to include skylights?

With Great Power, Comes Great Motivation
ChloeJessica Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#21935: Aug 28th 2022 at 2:18:50 AM

A troper removed a large meta section from Awesome.Gen Lock citing this ATT thread. A different troper has promptly rescued that removal and dumped it onto YMMV.Gen Lock instead, under the Moment of Awesome tag (without an edit reason).

My understanding is that YMMV pages shouldn't contain meta either. I've put the section in the folder below so that people can see what the content is. Should it be removed from the YMMV for the same reason it was removed from the Awesome page? The entries also seem to have gushing issues, too, but I'm mostly questioning the role of meta information.

Edited to add: I just realised the troper who put it on the YMMV.Gen Lock page was flagged on the original ATT thread as doing the same thing to One Piece. So, I've added the One Piece meta to this query as well. Should that also be removed from YMMV.One Piece?

    gen:LOCK Meta 
  • Moment of Awesome: This is for things that are considered meta.
    • This is Rooster Teeth's first project approved by the Screen Actors Guild, and with it, they bring one of the weirdest All Star Casts ever committed to film.
    • The fact that Rooster Teeth has included so much diversity and LGBT representation. Casting Asia Kate Dillion as Valentina was amazing, and having Valentina be genderfluid too makes the Actor-Shared Background trope all the more poignant, especially in the entertainment industry where LGBT roles and other minorities are dubbed over by Hollywood with white washing.
    • Monica Rial, whose previous credits have mostly been limited to anime dubs and video games, recorded Colonel Raquel Marin's dialogue for the original teaser fully expecting she would be redubbed later by some Hollywood actor, especially when she learned Michael B. Jordan would be the voice of the lead. "So when I found out that I was cast as Marin I really had like a girly screechy moment."
    • The first episode's rather glorious subversion of Stuffed into the Fridge. As one viewer put it in a text shared online, "I was really worried they were gonna kill off Michael Jordan's girlfriend for his character development, but then they killed off Michael Jordan for Michael Jordan's character development and THAT, that is ballsy."

    One Piece Meta 
  • Moment of Awesome:
    • Eiichiro Oda deserves a little special mention here. He created one of the most awesome manga ever, and upon closer inspection, he separated the Straw Hat Pirates for two years IRL, and separated them for two years in-story. This man is a genius.
    • Gecko Moria is voiced by a guy called Chris Guerrero. Seems tame, until you realize what he's also known by: General Ivan of TeamFourStar. Funimation has a voice from an abridged series doing an official role! And he's amazing.
      • He's not the only TeamFourStar alumni to get an important role. Corinne Sunberg, AKA Megami33 (the voice of Bulma) has been cast as Kozuki Momonosuke, the future Shogun of Wano.
    • Oda and One Piece have earned the Guinness World Record for "most copies printed for a comic book by a single author", having 320,866,000 printed between December 1997 and December 2014.
    • Oda has a massive love for name-dropping things early on in the series and then bringing them up much later in a big way. Because of this, he has generally managed to avoid the dreaded Ass Pull many writers get accused of for simply throwing in things as they go, which come unannounced and way out of left field. In addition, Oda continuously surprises readers with the satisfying payoffs to these floating plot points — some which were waiting for resolution decades in advance. It was also revealed that he has entire volumes of composition notebooks dedicated to keeping notes about his story arcs, so he knows how to keep everything happening in his story straight.
    • One Piece has sold 430 million copies: that is to say it has completely outnumbered every manga to ever exist in sales by a huge margin, the big three is a ridiculous concept when you realize Naruto and Bleach combined don't even compare to One Piece: which has sold more than a hundred million more than both. One Piece is to Manga and Anime what Gone with the Wind is for movies. Even the legendary Dragon Ball is a distant second, with 240 million copies to One Piece's 430 million and counting.note 
    • Regardless of your anime preferences, Funimation deserves a round of applause for their English dub of the anime. They not only kept it true to the original source material unlike what 4Kids did, they went so far as to go back to Episode 01 and redubbed everything, effectively making the 4Kids dub obsolete!
    • After Eiichiro Oda donated 800 million yen ($8 million US) to the Kumamoto prefecture (his birthhome) to help with earthquake relief, the prefecture paid tribute with a Luffy statue. Looks like Luffy finally got that bronze statue he always wanted.
      • More than just Luffy - as thanks for Oda funding relief for Kumamoto prefecture, all 8 of the Pre-Timeskip Straw Hats are getting statues. Five were finished prior to the onser of the COVID-19 Pandemic; the project was finally completed on 22 July 2022, with the extra inclusion of Jimbei.
    • One of the biggest fans of One Piece is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. It's believed his interest in the series has motivated him to lead economic reforms for the country, opening up a large venue of opportunities for Japanese animation. The Crown Prince has even started up his own animation studio to get Saudi Arabia on the world map of animation.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Aug 28th 2022 at 2:37:52 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.
ChloeJessica Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
#21936: Aug 28th 2022 at 2:36:51 AM

[up]they don't belong on the work pages, full stop. they could theoretically be preserved on Awesome.Real Life if someone was inclined to move them there.

RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#21937: Aug 28th 2022 at 7:43:09 AM

Can Love Is a Weakness involve friendship? I'm wondering because of an example I read.

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
#21938: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:30:26 AM

The description doesn't specify romantic love, though it does seem to be an unstated assumption that it is at least the most common form for the trope.

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#21939: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:39:35 AM

This is on Zits:

Were Still Relevant Dammit: Some think that the creators are still able to perfectly capture teenage and parent life without feeling like you're watching a rerun from a really old sitcom, despite the fact that the comic began in 1997 and that the creators haven't raised a teenager in quite a while. Others think the strip is a printed slurry of lazy, decades-old stereotypes and a 60-something man's Oedipal Complex.

I don't think it's an example, but I wanted to make sure before removing it...

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#21940: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:44:58 AM

Wut.

That has literally nothing to do with the trope - it looks like a misplaced Broken Base entry, albeit one of the kind I'd probably advocate for removing - and the random accusation of an Oedipal complex (!) actually made me choke on my drink.

Cut.

Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#21941: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:46:41 AM

Can Love Is a Weakness involve friendship? I'm wondering because of an example I read.

Looking at the draft, it looks like it was conceived as romantic love, but a friendship example was also submitted during draft phase. It also had name issues raised that were never solved (whether the trope needed broadening or narrowing). So... the trope seems to have had an identity crisis from the very beginning.

After looking at the draft, I'd say the intention is that it should be romantic love, but the draft glossed over properly defining what type of affection-based bond counts.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Aug 28th 2022 at 11:53:30 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.
Nouct over the front from an east coast Since: Sep, 2014 Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
over the front
#21942: Aug 28th 2022 at 7:21:41 PM

Virtuou Symphony 14 added this to Trivia.Fate Grand Order under Relationship Voice Actor

  • With so many voice actors involved, it is possible to create parties based on shared works.

This seemed like a case of Examples Are Not General so I was going to remove it, but it was ringing a bell and I checked through the page's history, they made a similar edit in February this year.

** Considering the number of voice actors involved, this is pretty much inevitable. Take a group of VAs and chances are they've worked together before.

I removed that in the same month after asking in this thread, so I just want to double check if it still doesn't count or no.

(also the wording of this example is pinging something akin to 'meta' moments, as in things done solely at the player's discretion within the game or outside the work and not actually inherent to the work being banned from Funny/Heartwarming/Awesome, so I guess this is also a query as to whether that ban should extend to general and trivia since it basically seems like an extension of that?)

Edited by Nouct on Aug 28th 2022 at 7:22:21 AM

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#21943: Aug 28th 2022 at 7:26:35 PM

Relationship Voice Actor is not a trope, IMO, and this kind of thing tends to reinforce that impression.

Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#21944: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:57:04 PM

At the end of A Muppet Family Christmas's original airing, an audio ad plays about the airing next Nightline episode about harvesting organs from doomed babies.

Edited by Amonimus on Aug 31st 2022 at 9:02:51 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#21945: Aug 28th 2022 at 11:59:01 PM

From Know-Nothing Know-It-All:

  • Jack Chick. Beyond his tinfoil hat theories about the Jesuits founding communism as part of a centuries-long plot to get Russian gold, he even manages to get very basic facts wrong. Like claiming that Kaiser Wilhelm II was Catholic. Wilhelm and his ancestors had been Protestant - first Lutherans, then Calvinists, then Altpreussische Union (an amalgamation of the two) - for ca. 400 years.

Entry seems to be talking about the author rather than a character in the work.

ChloeJessica Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
#21946: Aug 29th 2022 at 12:11:22 AM

[up] agree, maybe move to Dan Browned?


from Fallout: Nuka Break:

this isn't Defictionalization, is it? they did make an actual Nuka Breaker prop, but it's still a fictional weapon, taken from a fictional game and used as a prop in a fictional show.

AegisP Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man
#21947: Aug 29th 2022 at 12:16:03 AM

I would just remove the Chick entry, its too bashy and a proper entry would just be a complete rewrite anyway.

As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#21948: Aug 29th 2022 at 2:14:08 AM

It's probably the type of entry that would've gone under Critical Research Failure before it's disambiguated. I don't know where general "factoid failure" due to author's mistake should go now. Dan Browned might be the closest fit, although that requires the author claiming factual accuracy, and I don't know if Chick Tracts does. Anyway, I cut the entry.

Edited by Adept on Aug 29th 2022 at 4:15:27 PM

ChloeJessica Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
#21949: Aug 29th 2022 at 2:23:07 AM

[up]he does claim it's true. Chick tracts are evangelical comic books based on his own worldview, he genuinely believed everything he wrote.

CytoZytokine Since: Jun, 2022
#21950: Aug 29th 2022 at 8:26:28 AM

This was just added to Fast-Killing Radiation:

  • Chernobyl: Zigzagged. The effects of uranium radiation are exaggerated in a few instances for Rule of Drama. For instance, a fireman picks up a piece of graphite that was ejected from the core, then two minutes later is shown with third-degree burns on his hand. While he did sustain major injures, in Real Life it took several hours to appear. On the other hand, it takes most of the victims more than a week to actually die from radiation poisoning, also portraying the walking ghost phase of brief recovery. People who weren't directly exposed to the core, such as Legasov and Shcherbina, still have to deal with health problems years down the line due to all the background radiation from working on the clean-up in Pripyat.

I'm not sure what to make of this. The trope is about radiation in media killing faster than real life, but reading the entry, that's not what's at play here and it seems to be a mostly realistic take on how radiation is deadly. I don't think it's even zigzagged to begin with.

Edited by CytoZytokine on Aug 29th 2022 at 8:27:00 AM


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