A thread discussing similar tropes.
Note that two tropes being distinct in theory does that mean they are distinct in practice. If participants agree that two (or more) tropes really don't seem distinct enough to be separate, one can start a thread in the Trope Repair Shop for further discussion. A a wick check demonstrating redundancy will likely be required, though.
Before asking "What's the difference between these tropes?", check the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions and Laconical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions lists. They may contain the answer. Feel free to contribute to them, too.
I've decided to start a new cleanup thread dealing with trope similarities. This thread is for discussing tropes that appear to be a duplicate of another trope, and if it's agreed upon that the two tropes talked about are similar enough, one should start a thread about it in the Trope Repair Shop.
I'll start with my issue...
Asian Hooker Stereotype and Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow are pretty much the same trope—they both involve a white man and an Asian woman.
Edited by Synchronicity on Aug 8th 2024 at 5:29:57 AM
Psychotic Smirk isn't actually for craziness, though, supposedly. The description is of the smile made by a villain or traitor when everything is going according to plan (for the benefit of the audience to know they're up to something). That sounds like smugness; a Smug Smiler is just someone wearing such a smile at all times, which appears to be represented by the page image for Perpetual Smiler.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOSmug Smiler is an asshole who is always smiling with a sense of inflated self-superiority. It is used to characterize.
A Psychotic Smirk is more of a one-time thing. It is used to establish that they're feeling very evilly superior in that moment.
Do we really need Boy Meets Ghoul and You Sexy Beast as separate tropes? Boy Meets Ghoul just seems like You Sexy Beast but specifically for creatures like vampires and ghosts that are undead in some way. Then there's also Romantic Vampire Boy which is specifically for vampires.
Also are there actually any cases of Captain Geographic that are not also Captain Patriotic? I don't see why a superhero would theme themselves after a country without being patriotic about it.
And what is the difference between Ocean Punk and Ocean of Adventure?
What is the difference between I Am Not Your Father and Oblivious Adoption?
I am confused about the difference between a lot of corrupt city tropes. Urban Hellscape says it differs from Wretched Hive in that the criminals are in charge in Wretched Hive but there is just a corrupt government in charge in Urban Hellscape, but the description for Wretched Hive says that it can also be cities where the government is corrupt. And then how does City Noir differ from those two and Vice City exactly?
Also
What the Romans Have Done for Us is characters acknowledging that The Empire improved people's quality of life in some ways, regardless of whether they had a utilitarian motive or it was just Pragmatic Villainy, while Totalitarian Utilitarian is about a villain's motive being utilitarian and doesn't require that they actually be perceived by others as succeeding in improving the world, everyone but the Totalitarian Utilitarian themselves could agree they are making things worse, it also doesn't require the villain to be a conquering foreign power.
Edited by molokai198 on Jul 17th 2023 at 4:07:49 AM
The former is the trope version of the latter, which is Fan Speak. It was spun out after “fridged” was found to be used for any time a loved one died regardless of significance, which is how it is used offsite.
Edited by Synchronicity on Jul 19th 2023 at 1:24:17 PM
I also think being "Fridged" has a more negative connotation in terms of sexist handling of female characters, while TTHTH is a more neutral and encompassing trope for the villain's motive and less about the loss of the character.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallOcean Punk is more about the aesthetic of a work mixing a nautical theme with sci-fi (it's a Punk Punk trope, like Steampunk and Clock Punk), while Ocean of Adventure is a setting about a vast ocean being used as the backdrop for a story. a work can take place in an ocean of adventure without being ocean punk in aesthetic, and vice versa.
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That makes it sound like Stuffed in the Fridge is just "Targeted to Hurt the Hero but negative/complainy". Based on the description for Stuffed in the Fridge, despite one paragraph confusingly defining it as a villain intentionally killing/harming the fridged character the rest of the description seems to define it in a more meta way - the narrative rather than a specific villain kills a character for the sole purpose of how it affects the character arc of another character they are close to, with the dead character's arc or other story elements not being a factor in the decision to kill off the character.
This does raise the question of how important a character is to the plot, though, which doesn't get discussed in the trope entry at all. Because a bit character emotionally close to another character just existing to die for that other character's arc (which is somewhat covered alongside its typical variants in tropes like Death by Origin Story, Parental Abandonment / Missing Mom / Disappeared Dad, The Lost Lenore) seems like a different thing to me than a fairly important character who, despite having the setup to have a character arc and a role in the story of their own, dies or has something otherwise horrible happen to them just for the effect on another character with an apparent lack of consideration for their own arc or the rest of the story. While I've seen people complain about both and call both Stuffed in the Fridge, from my perspective they are quite different, the latter is complained about because it's ignoring the character's potential for the rest of the story in favor of propping up another character's arc (often with sexist implications in that advancing a male character's story is seen as more important than a female character's story), while in the former case the character was never much of a character who could have been written differently to begin with and was always intended to die.
Of course, that would raise the question of how one defines a character's death only being there to affect another character, which could get very YMMV. What if the character's death has a primary narrative purpose of affecting more than one other character, for example? Does a Heroic Sacrifice automatically not count because the character accomplished something in their death, unless said sacrifice was specifically to save the character they were fridged for and only that character?
Edited by molokai198 on Jul 20th 2023 at 1:33:20 PM
It may not be "inherently negative", no, but the term was coined by Gail Simone reacting to a sexist trend in comics at the time and it's generally considered a bad writing tactic. Trope descriptions cannot be overly negative about the concepts they're discussing, but the general concept of "Fridging" someone is seen in a negative light, especially because it's used more to make the hero suffer than it is to further anyone's arcs or characterization.
The rest of the post isn't really something I can debate about, given that it's getting into the weeds and explains exactly why the trope had become def-only Fan Speak.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 20th 2023 at 1:36:18 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallWhat’s the difference between Dirty Coward and Screw This, I'm Out of Here!? They seem to be a bit too similar, since they both involve a character leaving a situation that they don’t want to be a part of.
A Dirty Coward is a character flaw that means a character is ditching others to save their own skin. Screw This, I'm Outta Here! is any time a character decides to up and leave, regardless of how heroic or dirty it may be, and regardless of the reason why.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wallas an example, see the image for Sorry to Interrupt, which is a Screw This, I'm Outta Here! moment that isn't related to being a coward
What’s the difference between Affably Evil and Noble Demon? Both of them involve a genuinely kind person who just happens to have evil ambitions.
What's the difference between Demonic Spiders and Goddamned Bats ?
- Spiders are actually threatening instead of just being annoying bats, as Bats says?
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the difference is in power — both are common and annoying, but Goddamned Bats are very weak and pose little threat while Demonic Spiders are powerful and take effort to beat (
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honestly i'm incredibly shaky on the definition and scope of Affably Evil, but my best guess is that Noble Demon is a villain who is obviously evil but has a code of honor, while Affably Evil is just a polite average joe who happens to be evil as well
Edited by NoUsername on Jul 22nd 2023 at 6:27:11 AM
Noble Demon means your desired outcome is evil, but you adhere to a strict moral code that is more or less "good". You will evacuate buildings prior to bombing them to minimize civilian casualties, will treat your underlings with genuine care and love, won't use any underhanded tricks in a fight, etc.
Affably Evil is an evil character who is simply sociable and friendly. They'll crack jokes, be polite, and have no qualms killing an entire village with a smile on their face. They'll ignore rules, break laws, cheat, sacrifice whoever, etc. They just do all of that while being jovial to you.
Edited by amathieu13 on Jul 22nd 2023 at 9:50:38 AM
Apparently The Gadfly is more benign in their intentions than the Troll, who acts out of malice. That's what I'm getting anyway and that might not be all that meaningful a distinction.
BTW, is there a meaningful difference between Like an Old Married Couple and Vitriolic Best Buds?
Reading through the description, the laconic, and some of the examples, I don't see much of a difference between the two, tbh.
Seeing as it was created at first as a Stock Phrase trope
, I'm not surprised. Seems like over time, people have tried to make it into something more than just "character comments that two other characters seem like an old married couple," but the trope version of that idea is already Vitriolic Best Buds.
I've always thought of Like an Old Married Couple as a form of Ship Tease through Belligerent Sexual Tension, but it sounds like that's not how it's used and maybe not how it's defined either, and it might be redundant either way.


Death by Mocking covers the monster metatextually punishing mockery regardless of whether it was targeted at the monster, similar to Sex Signals Death (formerly Death By Sex).
Smug Smiler vs either Psychotic Smirk or Perpetual Smiler? There are a lot of smile tropes with some very thin lines between them, but depending on whether Smug Smiler is about the smile or the character doing it, it seems redundant to one or the other of these.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO