Trope Misuse Cleanup In General

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Both YMMV.The Machine Bride Of Pinbot and Trivia.The Machine Bride Of Pinbot have one example each, both misused:

• Game-Breaker: The Billionaire Shot is seen as this to some players.
  • Averted, due to the inclusion of a separate "Billionaires' Club" listing for those who made the shot.

For context - this is a pinball game that (under very specific circumstances) allows the player to obtain 1 billion points in a single shot. As the (incorrectly indented) second bullet argues, the game prevents lopsided high scores by keeping the list of players who accomplish this separate from the regular high score list. Naturally, this means that it isn't an example and shouldn't be listed.

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• Recycled Set: Natch. The various wedges on the wheels correspond to various modes.

In addition to stretching the definition of "set", it's also not recycled across multiple works.

Any arguments against cut listing them?

Pinball cleanup thread

Yeah, delete both of those. If anything, the billionaires' club is an Obvious Rule Patch.

Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.

Alright, I went ahead and cutlisted them.

Pinball cleanup thread

Recycled Set also thinks that word cruft is an acceptable substitute for real context. Definitely cut that page.

Fatal Method Acting: This is a very long page, but not quite Overly Long. In 2015, the image was removed because the image was low-quality and having a non-In-Universe example was too creepy. Aside from those concerns, it was questioned whether sports qualify for the Trivia. Opinions?

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I believe we sometimes include sports as works since they're often spectacle performances. Wrestling obviously counts as there's some narrative involved. So I'd say we can include sports examples here if they died during their games, which are a performance in a sense.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

I just found out that some of the examples of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming (where most or all episodes of a series use the same naming convention) actually might be examples of Cross-Referenced Titles (where only a couple episodes which may or may not be similar have similar titles).

Examples

• Family Guy was supposed to have this. Each episode was supposed to have a Film Noir-ish death-themed title that had nothing to do with the plot of the episode. The practice was quickly abandoned when it became difficult to tell which episode was which during the production process. The first four episodes retain these names: "Death Has a Shadow", "I Never Met the Dead Man" (both of which were originally titles for episodes of the classic '40s Radio Drama Suspense), "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", and "Mind Over Murder."
  • More recent trends include titles ending with "Guy" such as "German Guy," "Amish Guy," "Business Guy," and "Ratings Guy" and Self-Deprecation on part of the series' name as typified by the duo of "Family Gay" and "Family Goy" which perhaps non-coincidentally rank as two of the most controversial episodes in the show's history.
  • There's also the "Road to X" episodes which all involve Brian and Stewie embarking on some kind of crazy adventure. The naming scheme is a shout out to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's series of Road to... comedy films.
• John Doe: Most of the episodes have unique names. A few, though, try to reference the title of the show as much as possible, usually involving wordplay. Examples: "Doe Re: Me", "John Deux", "John D.O.A.", "Doe or Die".
• Maude: About half the episode titles began with "X's Y", with X being a character and Y being something they deal with in the episode. ^note This one originally said all episodes had Maude's name in the title, but I corrected it because that wasn't true
• The Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic have titles ending with the word "Mark", starting with "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". More generally, the show tends to have Pun Based or Double Meaning Titles related to An Aesop in the episode, e.g. "Dragonshy" is about Fluttershy overcoming her fear of dragons. ^note This one is fine but the one about the CMC is definitely Cross-Referenced Titles
• NCIS: Any episode with Gibbs, Fornell, and their mutual ex-wife Diane is "Devil's Tri-".
• Revolution:^note This one just feels like a long Shout-Out entry.
  • Created by Eric Kripke, this show uses Led Zeppelin songs as episode titles. These would be the episodes "No Quarter" (which could also be referring to the trope Leave No Survivors), "Nobody's Fault But Mine", "Kashmir" (which even featured the titular song, a rarity due to the fact that Zeppelin charges extremely high licensing fees.), and "The Song Remains the Same".
  • The episode "Pilot" clearly indicates that it's a...Pilot.
  • The episodes "Ties That Bind" and "Ghosts" are apparently just Stock Episode Titles.
  • "Chained Heat" apparently refers to the 1983 exploitation film of the same name, as well as the trope Chained Heat.
  • "The Plague Dogs" is clearly referring to The Plague Dogs.
  • "Soul Train" seems to refer to Soul Train.
  • "Sex and Drugs" apparently hints at Drexel engaging in sex and drugs.
  • "The Children's Crusade" refers to a historical event that supposedly happened in 1212, in which children marched to the Holy Land.
  • "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is apparently a reference to the Vicki Lawrence song "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia".
  • "Home" is quite similar to the book Home. Either that, or it's a Stock Episode Title.
  • "The Love Boat" refers to the series The Love Boat.
  • "The Longest Day" is certainly referring to the book and film The Longest Day.
  • "Clue" is apparently referring to the tabletop game Clue.
  • "Children of Men" seems to refer to the film Children of Men.
  • This show is produced by J. J. Abrams, who is a big fan of Stephen King. In fact, the episodes "The Stand" and "The Dark Tower" have to be referring to King's books The Stand and The Dark Tower.
• NewsRadio: The last few episodes of this show's second season were named after Led Zeppelin albums, such as Presence and Coda. Just in case you missed the joke, the second and third seasons had episodes titled Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin Boxed Set. Though this wasn't done for idiosyncratic reasons as much as laziness on the part of the writers. (And just in case you were curious, none of the episode titles have anything to do with the episode's contents.)
• The Simpsons name a lot of episodes like "X vs Y". "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", "Bart vs Thanksgiving", "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment", "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", "Bart vs. Australia", "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", "The City of New York vs. Homer", etc, etc.
  • There's also a large number of "X the Y", ranging from "Homer the Smithers" and "Homer the Moe" to "Lisa the Iconoclast" and "Bart the Lover".
  • There are also lots of titles built around puns on Homer's catchphrase, both in its standard form ("D'oh-in in the Wind") and the way it's designated in the show's scripts ("I, [Annoyed Grunt]-Bot"). The current count is D'oh: 8, (Annoyed Grunt): 4.
  • Also notable are "Bart Gets an F", "Bart's Dog Gets an F", "Lisa Gets an A", "Bart Gets a Z".
  • For some reason the writers are fond of titles punning on the Mona Lisa: "Moaning Lisa", "Moe 'n' a Lisa", "Mona Leaves-a"...
  • As well as titles punning on The Old Man and the Sea: "The Old Man and the Lisa," "The Old Man and the C Student," "The Old Man and the Key"...
  • There was also a short lived "X in 'Y'" theme, as seen with "Homer Simpson in 'Kidney Trouble'" and "Marge Simpson in 'Screaming Yellow Honkers'".
• Originally every episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in which Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy made an appearance was entitled "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy," followed by a Roman numeral (even when the characters only appeared for about a minute as in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III"). This theme naming ended with "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture" and episodes starring the two characters now have more original titles. ^note This might just be a case of Numbered Sequels
• The Zack Files: 13 of the 26 episodes of Season Two include Zack's name in the title. "Run Zack Run" is the only such episode of Season One.

What should I do about these?

I'd say cut anything that's not describing a consistent naming convention across at least a season. The Family Guy "death" title can stay because it's a subversion since they planned to do this and it didn't stick, but anything that's just "a few episode titles are kind of similar" isn't it. Many of those fit Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title as well. I saw similar misuse on The Golden Girls even though not all of those episodes are based on the same pun.

Edited by mightymewtron on Dec 27th 2020 at 4:17:01 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Bumping this to ask about Recycled Set's on-page examples. The bulk of the pinball folder lists examples where one game's playfield layout is reused for another game with a different theme, such as these:

• Williams Electronics' Jack*Bot uses a redecorated version of the playfield from its predecessor, Pin Bot.
• NASCAR was re-themed and re-released as both Grand Prix and Dale Jr. While the audio/visual aspects were changed, the table layout and rules were the same,
• The playfield for Stern Pinball's NBA is an updated version of the one used for Sega Pinball's Space Jam.

Similarly, there are a few video game examples concerning specialized arcade cabinets that were reused across different games:

• Bishi Bashi Channel reuses the MÚSECA cabinet, due to the latter's online service (and use of online-requiring DRM) being terminated, although operators could order an offline kit to keep MÚSECA. Bishi Bashi makes several modifications to the base cabinet: the screen is oriented horizontally instead of vertically, the control panel now has four sets of buttons, one for each player, the spinners from MÚSECA are reused as the players' buttons, and the pedal is removed. Looking under the control panel, you can still see the funnel symbol that's used in MÚSECA.
• The original Darius comes in a dedicated cabinet with three screens side by side, and Darius II was initially released in another dedicated cabinet, but with two screens. Taito later released conversion kits to allow operators to reuse Darius cabinets for Darius II, with the latter game modified for three screens.
• Attack of the Zolgear was released as a conversion kit for existing Galaxian^3 cabinets.

Is this too far removed from a "set" to fit the trope (or trivia item)?

In addition, there are a few other video game examples that seem to fit Copy-and-Paste Environments better:

• World of Warcraft reuses the same layout for most of their caves. Several cave designs have been introduced, but essentially all caves with ogres in them use a single layout, and a second layout with multiple levels accounts for most of the rest of the caves.
• Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap: A lot of rooms, especially in dungeons, have the exact same layout with different props and enemies.
• Super Mario Bros. used many of its level designs twice, with tougher enemies and obstacles the second time around, due to the limited cartridge space of the time. The arcade version replaced the duplicates with all-new levels, whose designs were in turn reused for Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

Pinball cleanup thread

There's several examples on Parallel Porn Titles that aren't actually punny titles, but just the title of the work with "XXX" slapped onto it. Can we remove them for not actually fitting the trope?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

This entry in YMMV.Bambi II might be misuse, as it seems to justify Bambi's reaction instead of calling it excessive:

• Wangst: Bambi has this moment in Bambi II when he discovers his father was planning to send him off to live with another doe. And this is after they actually began to develop a bond with each other! And why? All because it's "what a prince would do." It actually gets Bambi so upset that he tells his dad:
  Bambi: I wish Mother was here instead of YOU!

What should we do with it?

What's the difference between this thread and the "Is this an example" thread? They seem to serve roughly the same purpose.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

I think this thread is supposed to be for cleaning up tropes with several cases of misuse (at least those that don't have their own thread) while "Is this an example" is for single examples that have yet to be added (usually to a work page) but the troper wants to make sure if they're valid.
Admittedly, I didn't know the difference for a few months before I found out "Is this an example" existed

Thanks for directing me, I just took my entry there.

Edited by BigJimbo on May 30th 2021 at 10:48:07 AM

From More Popular Spin-Off:

Beast Wars will never be as famous as its predecessor, The Transformers, but fans of the franchise generally agree it's the best written/produced of them all.

I have a feel this is misuse since the example admits Beast Wars is not as popular as G1.

"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”

- So, if I want help with removing Protagonist Title entries from Character Title, I ask here?

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

I've noticed Ascended Meme gets a lot of misuse (it's about a work referencing a meme it spawned, not just referencing any meme or something vaguely similar to a meme).

• Joker (2019):
  • On a Medical level. The "Pseudobulbar Effect" causes a patient to experience fits of uncontrollable laughter. It has often been referred to as "Joker Syndrome", since it mimics both the clown and the effects of his poison gas. In the film, Arthur has it. Or at least, his mother convinced him that he does. He writes in his journal that the worst part of having a mental illness is being expected to act like you don't have one. Then after digging up his and his mother's hospital records, he says that he never had any condition, that the laughter at inappropriate which his mother told him was a condition is actually just part of him. He then goes on to explain to Murray Franklin the subjectivity of comedy and that he's sick of pretending something isn't funny when he does actually find it funny. All of this seems to explicitly point to him not actually having this condition but simply having a strange sense of humor that his mother convinced him was an illness. Batman did not invent Pseudobulbar Effect. Not sure if this is even an example, since it's a character known for laughing being described as having a condition. Also it turns into a wall of text summarising the film and how he doesn't have the condition at all
  • During his Motive Rant at the end of the film, Arthur blames "a society" for his downfall, echoing the "we live in a society" memes associated with the Joker. The line was slightly ad-libbed by Joaquin Phoenix, so it's not clear if he was doing this deliberately. Entry admits it was an adlib and is unsure if it was even deliberate (I've read he simply misremembered the original line of "a system")
    • This later became further ascended when both the trailer of Zack Snyder's Justice League had the Joker literally say the words "We live in a society..." verbatim. The line is not present the film, but is part of an alternate take. This seems like a clear valid example, however it should be listed on The Snyder Cut, as that is the installment referencing the meme

Brunging up a recently-created subpage: AdultFear.Dream SMP

To quote the trope's laconic, Adult Fear is about "Threats and fears that most adults would worry about in real life." From the looks of things, some stuff might be a little too out-there. I haven't followed anything dream-related since a few of his controversies, but here's how I kinda see things:

• Final Control Room trap: while the main page does bring up Death of a Child and betrayal as valid things, I feel like there's some context missing, like "why are a bunch of teenagers in a control room? There's something about a war mentioned; does that have anything to do with it?"

• Schlatt's inauguration: True, a similar thing has happened earlier this year, but the way things are mentioned here makes it sound a little too unbelievable.

• Wilbur's mental spiral: I'd say it qualifies.

• Manburg:
  • Niki: Dream SMP is a Western work, and stuff like that doesn't really impact the average audience viewing the work that much. I have never heard of any cases of people being overly-taxed for criticising their government.

  • Cabinet: Sounds acceptable on the adult front, but I feel like there's some "fear" missing; what makes him scary rather than just bad?

  • Tubbo: His status as a spy and the whole "planning his own public execution" bit makes this seem a little more outlandish.

  • Quackity: I'd say this qualifies too.

• Phil: Sounds reasonable until "threatens to blow up an entire town", which just feels a little too extreme to stay in the realm of realism
  • Subbullet: This also feels a little too large-scale for the average American adult to worry about.

I'd definitely like to hear some more input on this, particularly from people who are familiar with the work in question.

Edited by GoldenCityBird on Aug 5th 2021 at 7:11:59 PM

TRS Wick Cleaning

The meaning of Updated Re-release seems a bit unclear. The page is split into folders per console, and in each folder you get both examples stating "Game X got an updated rerelease on this console" and "Game X, which was originally released on this console, got an updated rerelease on other consoles".

The best character is always the one-shot disguise.

I think they should be sorted by console of the original game to avoid duplication in cross-platform examples.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

There are a few examples under Western Animation that are clearly out of place. More precisely, the ones about The Powerpuff Girls (2016), Teen Titans and X Men plus the first one about Teen Titans Go! are about things that were removed or made Lighter and Softer compared to their original sources. Should they be cut?

Edited by PhantomDusclops92 on Oct 31st 2021 at 6:58:03 PM

The best character is always the one-shot disguise.

I noticed the Flanderisation trope was misused in regard to Arcane by Riley Gron Lund Super Mario. I removed their edits from both the YMMV page of Arcane, as well as the Flanderisation page for Western Animation in general, but I felt like I should bring up what happened here, in case they've done something similar before or will try something similar again.

Here are their edits (which have now been removed).

Arcane

• Flanderisation: Powder started off as a nice girl but after episode 3, her character started to get worse and she lost those nice personality traits. Thanks, Vi.

Flanderization/Western Animation

• Arcane: Thanks to Vi's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Nice Girl Powder undergoes Character Derailment starting from the third episode as she becomes the Cute and Psycho Mad Bomber Jinx]].

Both of these entries came across as the troper missing the entire point of Powder/Jinx's character arc, as well as just wanting to bash Vi's character

Edited by WiryAiluropodine on Mar 7th 2022 at 10:25:04 PM

Per discussion in the P5 cleanup thread, I've added a bunch of tropes to F.A.T.A.L. to make it not be an example-less stub page. However, there's two trivia tropes in the list that need to be evaluated:

• Faux Symbolism: While Christianity itself is absent from the game, there are many spells such as "Walk on Water", "waves be still", and "multiplication of loaves and fish".
• Parody Retcon: Inverted. The second revision of the rules cleaned up some of the "controversial humor" (such as removing some of the magical enchantments based on racist caricatures) and making some of the terminology less juvenile (the Maim Master being renamed the "Aedile" for example). The revision of the original acronym was part of this change. The conversion was imperfect, to say the least.

I feel like the first one could fit some other trope, while the second could just be straightaway put on a Trivia subpage if it doesn't fit another trope. Thoughts?

EDIT: If there's a more specific cleanup thread for this question, LMK and I'll move the post there.

Edited by Willbyr on Apr 10th 2022 at 10:07:27 AM

Added Alliterative Appeal to Alliterative Name, please.

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Perhaps Shout-Out to the Bible for the first one? Which apparently isn't one of the Stock Shout-Outs.

Walk on Water is a trope we have, btw.

Edited by Malady on Apr 10th 2022 at 9:00:43 AM

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576