A thread discussing similar tropes. If thread 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.
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 Tabs on Nov 1st 2022 at 10:57:37 AM
Self-Fanservice describes a trend in fanwork to make characters more conventionally attractive than in canon. Author Appeal refers to an author's tendency to insert stuff that they like into their works regardless.
Healing Potion means just that, a potion to heal people, whereas Heal Thyself refers to a character's ability to easily heal themself (doesn't necessarily involve the use of potions).
edited 8th Apr '18 10:19:03 PM by LegitimateIdiot
This account is dead. I’ve said a lot of dumb things in the past and I wish to forget them. I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt anyone.I would describe Self-Fanservice as a subtrope to Author Appeal, but the former doesn't actually require the content to be the appeal of the author, so it doesn't hold up like that.
Check out my fanfiction!Well, took Heal Thyself description changes to the Trope Description Improvement Drive.
Suicide Attack seems incorrect on what Action Bomb is, and i'm not sure what the difference is... Suicide Attack is the action itself, while Action Bomb is a character trope and subtrope, where its only attack is a Suicide Attack?
Action Bomb might just be what the Laconic says, which is a "living explosive", matching the Bom-omb picture?
Suicide Attack's description of Action Bomb:
An Action Bomb is the straight-up heroic version, who blows himself up to make absolutely certain that his explosive is killing the Big Bad or one of his most dangerous subordinates, or outright destroying the Big Bad's lair/superweapon/plans/army/evil stuff. Furthermore, the Action Bomb resorts to this after considering all other options and deciding that they just won't do enough damage to the enemy in a timely enough fashion, or more commonly, when circumstances such as being under attack or captured by the bad guys prevent the formulation or execution of a less risky plan. Finally, the Action Bomb sometimes survives his attack, while the Suicide Attack is in virtually all cases Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Action Bomb itself is saying:
A Suicide Attack doesn't need to involve explosives. It's about any attack that will likely cause the death of the attacker.
An Action Bomb has self-explosion as an attack. It's not actually a subtrope, since the explosion can be a result of the death, not what's causing it to begin with, which means it's not suicidal.
Suicide Attack is wrong to define Action Bomb. Definitions should be done on their own pages. Whether it's "heroic" doesn't really matter, since the tropes are morally neutral. I also think Suicide Attack is wrong about which is more likely to survive.
Can also add Taking You with Me as a similar trope, which like Suicide Attack can be about any kind of death, but like Action Bomb it's not necessarily suicidal, such as if the death is already inevitable.
Check out my fanfiction!Is the distinction between Important Haircut and Expository Hairstyle Change that significant? One deals with a symbolic haircut (the word here being 'cut', as in hair length gets shorter) and the other deals with a change of hairstyle symbolizing a change in character (but cannot symbolize something else). They both seem to read as "A change of hair symbolizes something", but Important Haircut generalizes the symbolism and makes the hair change specific, where Expository Hairstyle Change makes the type of symbolism specific but generalizes the hair change.
edited 18th Apr '18 4:55:52 PM by YourIdeas
IH happens on-screen and EHC is off-screen?
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576I don't find that it happens off-screen to be important to the trope. It's just the way it tends to work out, since it often signifies a change over time rather than a specific moment.
What I wonder is if there's any version of Important Haircut that doesn't fit under Expository Hairstyle Change, since they seem to be sub/supertropes. I don't think the latter has to be about any kind of passage of time, though. It's just that that's a very common use of the trope.
Check out my fanfiction!What's the difference between Un Entendre and Innocent Innuendo?
"It's just a show; I should really just relax"They're fairly similar, but not quite the same.
Un Entendre is about a character mistaking something as innuendo when it's not meant to be any kind of innuendo. It's explicitly the character's mistake, and the line doesn't have to look like any kind of innuendo at all.
Innocent Innuendo is about something that's set up (by the narrative) to seem like innuendo, but isn't. Essentially the verbal version of Not What It Looks Like. This is meant to look like it is innuendo, but that's subverted when the full context is revealed. It can be both for the audience and for the characters.
Accidental Innuendo, which is also related, is pretty much Un Entendre, but for the audience.
edited 21st Apr '18 10:35:39 AM by AnotherDuck
Check out my fanfiction!Is there any difference between Save Token and that type of save in Save-Game Limits?
Other than one being the item and the other's the mechanic, but are they so intertwined as to be the same?
Similar question with Animate Dead and Necromancer.
edited 8th May '18 8:24:39 PM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Save Token is a subtrope of Save-Game Limits. It's a specific way to limit how much you can save. That goes even for when you can get an unlimited amount of save tokens, since you're still limited by actually having to use them.
Check out my fanfiction!Oh, so all those token examples in Save-Game Limits should be moved?
And someone (likely me?) should put each of those other subtropes, indicated by the bullets, into TLP...
Unless they actually have pages and I've just not seen? ...
Hub / Specific Location saves are Save Point?
edited 9th May '18 4:46:49 AM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Save areas are probably related to Save Point, but I don't see any evidence of Save Point that it includes wider areas rather than specific points.
Save-Game Limits might need a bit of a rewrite to specify which tropes are subtropes, and which are related in other ways.
Check out my fanfiction!The Animate Dead is similar to necromancer, however it seems not to mean a type of magician. It only implies that the ability to reanimate exists in that area. It need not be a habitual 'Magictype-mancy' form.
Though they involve a similar trope, one is a complete role. 'Necromancer' is a common type for characters, so merging it might risk diluting that.
"Hello. Casually, tell her that she's died."- Animate Dead seems to be an ability, not just the effect.
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Classically Necromancer refers to divination that involves dead people, i.e talking to the souls of the dead. How it got expanded into resurrecting the dead is beyond me.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza- Because Necromancers talk to those spirits by summoning them, which changed into summoning demons which just act like the deceased, and then zombies were connected to the concept by having those demons possess dead bodies, I assume.
edited 9th May '18 4:46:25 PM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Me's a Crowd and Self-Duplication—don't those two tropes look identical?
Given the picture, Me's a Crowd might be a plot that's about copies of selves...
Self-Duplication is the superpower? So, not a directly related to Me's a Crowd?
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576In Me's a Crowd, the body doubles can be done through any means (some kind of copying machine, etc) instead of just a personal superpower.
The examples are problematic though. Me's a Crowd is about hijinks that happen when there are more than 1 of you, yet many of its examples are Self-Duplication.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenzaI already tried asking this in a different thread but didn't get any response, but is there a difference between Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and Comic-Book Limbo?
- Limbo might be "We don't talk about them anymore" while Syndrome is is subtrope for when they're retconned out, like Un-person?
Is Minidress of Power basically Dangerously Short Skirt, given how the page quote and most examples are about the skirts??
edited 19th Jun '18 11:18:01 AM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Human All Along and Was Once a Man seem to be both about a revelation about someone being used to be a human.
If there's any difference, I'm not seeing it.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenzaWhat's the difference between Red Baron and The Magnificent?
Both of them seem to refer to titles given to knights... like "Siegfried, The Dragonslayer"
With Great Power, Comes Great Motivation
Self-Fanservice, which seems to be Fans making their Fan Work of characters have more Fanservice...
It just seems like a mostly sexual version of Author Appeal, but for fan work creators...
Is there an appreciable difference between fan creators and original creators here?
And, we've never figured out what Heal Thyself is? And how it differs from Healing Potion? Although, now I'm leaning on the former being for user-only...
edited 8th Apr '18 7:32:58 PM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576