TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Duplicate tropes discussion thread

Go To

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.


    Original OP 

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

Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#4001: Mar 28th 2025 at 3:56:37 PM

[up][up] Descriptions could imply that one is an attitude change and the other is a secret appearance, but I feel how they're written now is interchangeable.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
CompletelyNormalGuy Am I a weirdo? from a place where folks put cream cheese on hot dogs (Oldest One in the Book)
Am I a weirdo?
#4002: Mar 28th 2025 at 4:11:55 PM

Unless I'm missing something, So What Do We Do Now? seems to just be Victory Is Boring, but at the end. At least in terms of the description. The actual usage is all over the place.

Bigotry will NEVER be welcome on TV Tropes.
Kestrelguy Since: May, 2020
#4003: Mar 28th 2025 at 4:17:53 PM

Is there any difference between Heel Realization and Villainous BSoD aside from the latter being more crushing?

MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#4004: Mar 28th 2025 at 11:58:42 PM

@3999: From TropeDistinctions.A To C:

  • Beautiful All Along refers to when a character previously thought to be homely is suddenly shown in such a light as to make it apparent that she is actually quite attractive.
  • With She Cleans Up Nicely, it is not necessary that the character be thought of as homely; it simply refers to when a character who is usually depicted in a normal fashion is suddenly made to appear as glamorous as possible.
That kinda sounds like it could be The Same, but More Specific, though. You can also look at SCUN's original YKTTW and see if that helps grok the distinction, as well as how Beautiful All Along looked at the time.

eroock Since: Sep, 2012
#4005: Mar 29th 2025 at 4:50:48 AM

[up] Another way to look at these tropes is that in Beautiful All Along the character is unaware of their own beauty and needs it revealed to them, often by others, whereas She Cleans Up Nicely involves a conscious choice to downplay their appearance, opting for a rough or unpolished look, until they deliberately decide to shine for a specific moment or opportunity.

Willbyr Hi (Y2K) Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Hi
#4006: Mar 29th 2025 at 5:09:39 AM

[up] That's my interpretation.

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (3,795/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (3,795/50,000)
#4009: Mar 29th 2025 at 11:42:17 PM

Boulder Bludgeon is specific to rocks and rock-like objects, while Debris Attack encompasses anything you can find on the ground (like broken objects). Also, Boulder Bludgeon comes with a "desperate or brutish" personality aspect.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Ner0014reN Since: Aug, 2023
#4010: Mar 30th 2025 at 12:54:10 AM

[up] I'm still not seeing them as significantly different; who's to say using any debris other than rocks as a weapon to be somehow "less brutish"?

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (3,795/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (3,795/50,000)
#4011: Mar 30th 2025 at 12:57:42 AM

IDK. But when I was creating Boulder Bludgeon, I specifically required this aspect of it. And either way, Debris Attack is broader.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
eroock Since: Sep, 2012
#4012: Mar 30th 2025 at 3:34:41 AM

[up][up] Can you think of a hypothetical example you have trouble placing?

Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Amateur Veteran
#4013: Mar 30th 2025 at 9:54:16 PM

I didn't get a reply the other time, so I'd like to ask this question again.

I'm still not clear on the distinction of Prehistoric Animal Analogue from Fantastic Fauna Counterpart, Whateversaurus, and Medieval Prehistory, since all of the examples on its page seem like they could be transported to either of the three without modification (and in some cases are already duplicated on them).

Edited by Theriocephalus on Mar 30th 2025 at 11:55:00 AM

FSharp Resisting a rest Since: Jan, 2019 Relationship Status: I wanna know what love is
#4014: Mar 30th 2025 at 11:08:29 PM

From reading the descriptions, this seems to be the distinction:

Edited by FSharp on Mar 30th 2025 at 2:08:57 PM

I don't just Wiki Talk the talk. I Wiki Walk the walk.
Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Amateur Veteran
#4015: Apr 1st 2025 at 1:56:41 PM

Right, but my concern was mostly rooted in how distinct the examples are or aren't, since PAA in particular has a very heterogeneous mixture of things.

taotruths Live Jet Reaction (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: I sleep in a big bed with my wife.
Live Jet Reaction
#4016: Apr 1st 2025 at 9:09:43 PM

Is Power Stable a wrestling-specific Badass Crew? Can it be used in non-wrestling related works?

DanteVin The Time Has Come from Somewhere Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Singularity
#4017: Apr 2nd 2025 at 10:41:09 AM

Difference between Play-Along Meme and Never Live It Down? Both are about memes, the former's page mentions "fans latching onto a particular line or scene and spreading it like wildfire", but it seems the latter page also covers that audience reaction?

With Great Power, Comes Great Motivation
jandn2014 SMILE! from somewhere in Connecticut Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Hiding
SMILE!
#4018: Apr 2nd 2025 at 11:30:53 AM

[up][up] Power Stable doesn’t seem to mention the crew necessarily being badass; it’s just about teams of wrestlers, and comes off as more of an index than a traditional trope in spite of its off-page usage. I’m not familiar with pro wrestling, so I can’t offer much insight otherwise. It definitely doesn’t seem like it can be used for non-wrestling-related works, however.

[up] The two are completely different. Play-Along Meme is about fans jokingly taking something said in a work at face value no matter how ridiculous it is (ex. a character makes an blatantly absurd claim in a work, and fans pretend that what they said is true); Never Live It Down is about fans defining an entire character by an event that they were involved in once. The line in the former’s description about “fans latching onto a particular line or scene and spreading it like wildfire” is irrelevant to the actual definition, which comes shortly after:

Not all memes are the same. Some of them come from the fans latching onto a particular line or scene and spreading it like wildfire, while others are tongue-in-cheek reinterpretations and exaggerations. And, in this case, some memes are born from fans jokingly going along with what the work says, no matter how blatantly false it is.

DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4019: Apr 2nd 2025 at 4:25:30 PM

[up][up]Never Live It Down isn't necessarily about memes (in the internet sense). It's about fans latching on to a particular trait of a character and essentially flanderising the character to it.

For example, in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, there's the entire lore that the fandom built up around "Derpy": that she's a ditz, or even mentally disabled, because she's cross-eyed, and that she's obsessed with muffins, even though she wasn't necessarily the pony who said "muffins!" in her establishing scene.

Play-Along Meme is fans jokingly pretending that something in the show is true, even when it objectively isn't. For example, comments on Octodad videos will often pretend that Octodad (an octopus pretending to be human) is "a perfectly normal man."

EDIT: Ninja'd.

Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash on Apr 2nd 2025 at 4:25:56 AM

DanteVin The Time Has Come from Somewhere Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Singularity
AwkbutTVT Nyan-Binary (The picture, not me) from Gaia, in no current need of help Since: Sep, 2023
Nyan-Binary (The picture, not me)
#4021: Apr 6th 2025 at 9:21:11 AM

Regarding #4008, Boulder Bludgeon is about grabbing a rock and using it like, well a bludgeon, while Debris Attack is about throwing, well, debris, usually with the idea that it's not the main weapon, but a mixup meant to throw off the opponent, like a character who fights normally with an axe instead kicking a rock into the air and using their axe to hit it towards you

Ey, migi vuru?
Allisterarch Water-Breathing Human from Ridiculous Procrastination zone (Striking Back) Relationship Status: love is a deadly lazer
#4022: Apr 6th 2025 at 11:10:57 AM

Clothing Combat and Arsenal Attire?

I am sure this was asked a while ago by someone else, but I don't remember an answer. These are both supertropes but they seem redundant with each other as they seem to encompass the same subtropes, and neither acknowledges the existence of each other.

If Aquaman is "Nobody's favorite superhero", then I am Odysseus. (They/Them) (Troper Wall)
AwkbutTVT Nyan-Binary (The picture, not me) from Gaia, in no current need of help Since: Sep, 2023
Nyan-Binary (The picture, not me)
#4023: Apr 6th 2025 at 2:18:48 PM

^ One seems to be "using clothes as a weapon" while the other is "weapons built into your clothes"

Ey, migi vuru?
RadioContactLine Not The Kind of Worm You Wanna Meet from the land of Mormons and Swig (Utah, U.S.A) (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: love is a deadly lazer
Not The Kind of Worm You Wanna Meet
#4024: Apr 6th 2025 at 7:35:27 PM

[up] Though how meaningful of a distinction is that, really?

Ready to rock?
FSharp Resisting a rest Since: Jan, 2019 Relationship Status: I wanna know what love is
#4025: Apr 6th 2025 at 7:43:53 PM

Clothing Combat says it's specifically for Improvised Weapons. If the weapons are built into your clothes, that's not really improvised.

I don't just Wiki Talk the talk. I Wiki Walk the walk.

Total posts: 4,264
Top