Per Ask The Tropers, this thread will be used to reduce the number of old, poorly written drafts on the Trope Launch Pad
. We don't want to discuss on the drafts themselves because that will bump them and mix them with active proposals.
Sandbox for the project: Trope Launch Pad Discard Project
Sandbox for discarded drafts but viable ideas: Trope Idea Salvage Yard
The first sandbox page above contains drafts proposed in the thread that are still pending and drafts that we've decided to leave alone, either with no action or a bump.
The second sandbox page is for awful drafts but viable ideas. According to moderators, badly written but interesting/tropeworthy drafts
should remain on the TLP. Rather than allow low-effort drafts to clog TLP, though, the salvage yard was opened to keep just the ideas behind them, in one place.
On this thread, we will mention which drafts we think are unworkable, add enough bombs, and discard (nuke) them. Discarding requires at least 5 bombs. Among the features of "unworkable" drafts:
- There have been no edits for a very long time, or at all
- The draft is low-effort, containing atrocious spelling and grammar and/or little to no examples, e.g. NEVER saw THAT coming (!)
, Nut-Chuks
- The draft was seemingly created so the sponsor could complain
- The topic is People Sit on Chairs, Too Rare to Trope, a search query created by mistake, etc. and therefore not tropeworthy
- The topic is already sufficiently covered by one or more tropes or is a duplicate of a better-written TLP draft
- The draft is problematic in other ways, such being closely tied to a page that has been historically problematic, e.g. Fetish Fuel, Complete Monster
- There's no discussion currently occurring in the comments to improve the proposal
If we decide to discard a draft after discussion via this thread, whoever does so must provide the discard reason in the comment section of the draft, for transparency's sake. Those looking at the discards section won't think it was nuked for no reason.
Also, check out the sister project, Trope Adoption Drive
, where good drafts put Up for Grabs or abandoned can be grabbed, given a bit more improvement, and launched.
Edited by Tabs on Mar 24th 2022 at 12:02:43 PM
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Ascended Super Mode
is a one-line wonder that's just "Super Mode, but more!" -
Can't mooch on rich friends
is covered by Never Lend to a Friend, as admitted by the sponsor. -
Competence Only By Plot
has no examples and several tropes listed in the comments that it's covered by. And as a bonus, the sponsor wrote it in all lowercase letters for no apparent reason. - Dramatic Quiet Wake-Up
could be yarded, but this draft is garbage: no examples, immediately abandoned, and it's worded like a trope finder query.
-
Embarassing Declaration of Love
says its description is under construction. Guess how many times it's been edited. -
Gavel Meeting
: I could see "Gavel of Gravitas", as discussed in the comments, become a thing, but this is just a trope finder query. -
Inescapable Song Hit
is a one-line wonder. -
Pragmatic Corporate Executive
has a bunch of TLP tags instead of examples. -
Reworked Britain
is "Alternate History that affects the structure of the United Kingdom", which the sponsor acknowledged in the comments and doesn't see the problem. The examples are fairly low on context, and the description says nothing about the actual trope. -
sexy, but not explicit
is a very low effort draft with no examples. -
Stoic Shell Shock
is covered by Heroic BSoD. - Time Doesn't Affect Gravity
is a specific type of Artistic License – Physics that is effectively omnipresent whenever time is slowed down in fiction. If anything is done with this idea, I feel like it could just be put in the description of ALP and Time Travel.
Edited by Serac on Aug 31st 2020 at 3:01:57 AM
Deeper and Wiser One-line wonder with no examples, gush magnet.
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Show Within A Show Index
This has to be some atavistic relic of long ago...because otherwise, isn't this the same goddamn thing as Show Within a Show?
Never Told the Rules "Character is ignorant of sports rules." PSOC and/or variant of Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure.
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Boredom Simulator Complainy complaint magnet. "Level grinding but boring."
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Ending on a running gag Trope Finder inquiry that at least partly intersects with Brick Joke and/or The Stinger.
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Teenagers are Cooler Abandoned stub with no examples, no edits, no nothing, questionable tropeworthiness.
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Caps make the trope No examples, written like it's in love with the smell of its own farts.
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Getting strangled while you monologue Shut Up and Save Me!.
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Nausea of Pregnancy Morning Sickness, both literally and tropewise.
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Simpleton Face: Zero effort.
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Protagonist As Narrator: "Character Narrator but limited to the protagonist." We already have First-Person Peripheral Narrator (first-person narrator that is not the protagonist), so Character Narrator covers this by exclusion. Only two examples and one is porn.
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Incredibly Thorough GUI Design This is Contrived Coincidence / New Powers as the Plot Demands specific to computers and/or Hollywood Hacking, with one example that everyone says doesn't fit.
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Oppression Hurts Everyone The idea could be Yarded as a Stock Aesop, but this draft is a very low-effort, ZCE-plagued, soapbox statement masquerading as a trope. Was apparently deleted at one point so no idea why it's here.
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The Dramatic This is Large Ham and/or Drama Queen with a stated interest in theater. Not really a valuable distinction, and it's a one-line wonder Trope Finder query.
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The Political Cartoon Dynamic: You know how we have a bunch of Strawman tropes? This is most, if not all, of them.
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Near-Parallel Earth Fictional Earth, All Planets Are Earth-Like, others.
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No Blood, No Bruise, No Pain: Covered largely by Made of Iron, Nigh-Invulnerability, Feel No Pain, and No-Sell. Draft is also awful.
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Being Superficial is OK if you are Ugly: Unbelievably complainy draft about a Double Standard that makes no effort to discuss the double standard.
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Edited by HeavyMetalHermitCrab on Sep 1st 2020 at 7:52:37 AM
Show Within a Show Index is supposed to be a sub-index of Just for Fun about pages like The Ugly Barnacle that are shows within shows we have trope pages for. But considering there's a folder on the main JFF page specifically for work pages, I don't think we need it.
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"Caps make the trope" is also Capital Letters Are Magic.
From my previous post, Chekhov's Wizard
needs one more bomb.
-
Big Good Ensemble
: Abandoned, unformatted stub. -
The Call Got a Wrong Number
: Missed the Call. -
Challenge Character
: As written, insufficiently distinct from Joke Character. -
Cute And Hot Ladies In A Roster
: The draft itself isn't bad, but how will this not just descend into arguing over which female characters are "cute" versus "hot"? -
Damned by a Villain's Praise
: Abandoned, unformatted, covered pretty well by the tropes mentioned in the comments. -
Disappointing Finale (YMMV)
: Abandoned one-line wonder with no examples. -
The Election
: Election Day Episode, which does in fact cover non-serial works. -
Fake Arrest Gambit
: Covered by the better-formatted draft Fake Arrest Ploy
. -
Gender Determined Character
: Abandoned with no description. -
Is Somebody There
: Abandoned stub with no examples in the draft. Could be Yardable? -
Jaded Looper
: Abandoned stub, covered by "Groundhog Day" Loop. -
Movement Puzzle
: Abandoned with no examples in the draft. The comments section can't decide what the trope wants to be. -
Nuclear Nerf
: Abandoned stub, no examples, complaint magnet. -
Oppression Of Conformity
: This also can't decide what it wants to be. Is it Fantastic Caste System? Real-life societies that expect members to conform to certain standards? A trope for characters who rebel against society? Nobody in the comments knows. -
Same Title Different Game
: Reformulated Game. -
Sanitized Content, Harsh Rating
: Abandoned stub with no examples in the draft. -
Town Out of Time
: An proposed split of Mass Teleportation, abandoned with a poor description.
Edited by MonaNaito on Aug 31st 2020 at 2:15:06 PM
Damn is that a lot of 4-bombers. Whoever comes after me has a lot of nukes to drop.
Took down:
- "The Election"
- "Same Title Different Game"
Edited by Malady on Aug 30th 2020 at 12:53:46 PM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Watching Palm Springs made me think Jaded Looper is a worthy subtrope of "Groundhog Day" Loop (characterization vs plot). It's been nuked but I may restart it.
Edited by Synchronicity on Aug 31st 2020 at 1:16:23 PM
Everyones happy in childrens media: One line wonder and ZC Es ahoy. It's also more of a Dead Unicorn Trope than an actual trope.
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Thud thud thud thud Everything is wrong with this one, so take your pick.
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CGI Window of Wonderful View Epic Tracking Shot.
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A Brainwashed Joke You'd have to be brainwashed to think this is worth saving.
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Leading cause of Death This is a very specific joke covered by Gallows Humor.
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Earth is Yellow It's about one step away from being blank.
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Conservation of Curriculum: This is The Law of Conservation of Detail and Traveling at the Speed of Plot applied specifically to school settings. We already have those two tropes, as well as Chekhov's Classroom, so there's no real need for this stub draft with no examples.
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Three Minute Class The same basic idea as the draft immidately above, but at least it has examples. All of them are zero-effort ZC Es, but they're examples!
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Google Is Your Friend: The laconic implies "TV Never Lies, only Internet" but the description and examples are purely "Character looks something up on the Internet." This is PSOC all the way.
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Information is Power This is admittedly an effort draft, but it's covered by Awesomeness by Analysis and pretty much any other "Brains over Brawn" trope.
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Attempted Destruction Actually Delivery
No, I didn't make a typo on the title. It's not a bad idea if we don't have this trope, but this draft reads like it was run back and forth through Google Translate five or six times before posting.
Kill God Free Man: This is distinct from Kill the God in only the most hairsplitting of ways, which is to say not at all. There's no description save the laconic, and the supposed "distinction" is inherent in the act of, y'know, killing a god.
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Case By Case Punishment: Zero-effort draft that's so vague and broad that it's hard to tell what it's really troping, or if we have it or not.
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Bathtub Seduction Scene "Shower of Love but a bathtub". Meaningless distinction and the only proposed examples are subversions (one doesn't even mention the fucking bathtub).
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Warhol Shoutout Picture Pastiche but specific to Warhol's work. It's common enough, but I'm just so damn bored with everyone trying to make a separate trope for every single individual Expy or Shout-Out in existence.
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Forever Flipped ""Freaky Friday" Flip, only permanent." Abandoned stub with no on-draft examples.
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Edited by HeavyMetalHermitCrab on Sep 1st 2020 at 1:20:51 AM
^^ - Whoops. It doesn't. Wrong folder! Sorry!
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Been a while since I've brought some offerings to the table:
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Talent Show Comedian: One zce example, described with YMMV items.
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The Beast: One tropenamersyndrome-y and not properly formatted example, abandoned.
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Mach Punch
: Serious super punch is perhaps a worthwhile distinction from Megaton Punch, but it has no examples and a sloppy description. - Here for a Reason
: This one confuses me. It's part Law of Conservation of Detail, part Chekhov's Gunman, part literally wondering about one's purpose. It's also abandoned.
- Replacement Bob
: Temporary Scrappy?
-
Hater Playing
: Irony as She Is Cast, but for bigotry and prejudiced groups. -
Slackening Grip of Death
: Abandoned, zce, stub, etc., also Dead-Hand Shot covers this well I think.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 1st 2020 at 10:47:41 AM
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AntiClimax Tropes
: Abandoned index with significant overlap with Writer Cop Out. -
BlurbCould go to the Yard?
: Abandoned stub, no examples. -
Death TetherYarded.
: This is an abandoned stub with a wealth of good examples in the comments. Discard and Yard. -
Exit/Return Quality Quotient
: This abandoned draft and its examples are copied wholesale from the article linked therein. -
Fighting Style of Choice
: Do we think this is distinct from Tell Me How You Fight? I'm unsure. -
Frankenstein Fallacy
: Abandoned with no examples. -
The Heaven After Hell
and The Heaven After Hell
: Duplicate drafts of an abandoned, unformatted stub. -
Iconic Game Song
: Signature Song. -
"I Hate" Coffee Mug
: Abandoned stub, no in-draft examples. -
Protagonist Power Reserve
: Overdrive. -
Publicity Stunt Heroism
: Engineered Heroics. -
Recon Battle
: Abandoned stub, no examples. -
Remix Series
: Abandoned with no examples, very unclear as to what examples would count and how it would be distinct from existing tropes. -
School of No Studying
: School of No Studying was eventually launched.
Edited by MonaNaito on Sep 2nd 2020 at 9:18:05 AM
The Remix Series draft had the best laconic I've ever seen, and nobody can tell me otherwise. "A Work Of Fiction" is just... -chef's kiss- beautifully vague and meaningless.
Anyway, here's some new bomb fodder:
- Geographical Profiling
sounds potentially interesting. Too bad it's an example-less stub written by a sponsor who admitted to not having seen it before. Yard?
-
Target Shift
is a one-line wonder likely covered by other things. - Gaydar Kiss
might be tropeworthy, but it might be able to be merged into the far more developed Gay Test
draft.
- The unsupported assumption
has poor formatting and is an abandoned wall of text, but maybe it has a yardworthy idea?
-
Humorous World Generation Process
might be tropeworthy, but is supposedly covered by "the funny loading screen" trope, a trope I couldn't find when searching. -
Living Inanimate Object Psyche
is description-less and abandoned immediately upon creation. -
Embracing The Horror
might be Then Let Me Be Evil. -
Invisible Soundproof Bubbles
is, I think, covered by an existing trope. Can anyone confirm? Even if it isn't, it's still a stub. - Evasion of Responsibility
is probably yard-worthy, but the draft was abandoned and has no comments.
Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 3rd 2020 at 3:39:07 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall"Funny loading screen" seems to be an internalized Loading Screen Sub-Trope, if its status as its only redirect is any indication.
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576Nuked Anticlimax Index.
Here's some more things to nuke.
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Convenient Plot Device
: Too similar to Hammerspace -
Forbidden Hangout
: "Eldritch Location falls into Badass Decay." -
Don't Have Time for This
: Stock phrase title, unclear, short description (could be yarded, though). -
The Kids Are Out of the House
: Sounds a bit similar to some other tropes I've found, can't remember which ones. -
Boss Etiquette Punishment
: Sounds like Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors or Contractual Boss Immunity. - Void of Despair
: A bit too similar to Corner of Woe, but could be yarded.
-
The Warning Battle
: Sounds too similar to Final Boss Preview or Hopeless Boss Fight. - Montage Monologue
: Unclear scope.
Edited by ccorb on Sep 2nd 2020 at 6:22:28 AM
Rock'n'roll never dies!"Blurb" is an actual term for those quotes on movie posters, or on the DVD/game/book/whatever box. It's less a trope than a piece of jargon. It'd only work if examples were forbidden, and the description was a definition and maybe a little commentary. Since a single book can have 10+ blurbs there's no way to feasibly allow examples.
Invisible Soundproof Bubbles is just a more fanciful way of saying Stage Whisper and/or Pose of Silence. They're both theater terms, but they apply to film and TV as well.
Geographical Profiling would work if you could find examples. I've seen it before but never paid enough attention to remember where.
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"Geographic Profiling" crops up every second or third episode of Criminal Minds. It's definitely a thing. The only question is whether it should be an internal subtrope of Connect the Deaths (which currently includes "find the center" examples, but only for supernatural cases) or made its own page.
IMO, the "Gaydar Kiss" draft seems like a distinct enough subtrope of "Gay Test".
"Embracing The Horror"'s three examples are all over the place: one is Then Let Me Be Evil, one is about being resigned to the apocalypse happening, and one is...a character who gets too into Halloween?
Please give this unformatted stub
one more bomb and a nuke before someone points out I've bumped a five-year-old draft.
I swear we have Boss Etiquette Punishment already.
Edited by Tabs on Sep 1st 2020 at 6:26:32 AM
^ - Nuked that.
Woo! 400 pages by week's end! Maybe even sub-400!
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576-
30 Student High School
is a specific type of Law of Conservation of Detail that's probably covered by Two-Teacher School. -
Copy Protection Puzzle
is an abandoned (and in my opinion, unnecessary) effort to split Copy Protection. None of the examples were copied to the draft, and it doesn't even have a laconic. - Courage Improves Your Health
is a zero-effort draft that was immediately put up for grabs.
-
Doomed Authority Figure
is covered by The Plot Reaper, to say nothing of all the zero-context examples. -
Game Mechanics Verse
is covered by its "subtrope" RPG Mechanics 'Verse. Its zero-effort status certainly doesn't help to distinguish it. -
Hidden Morality Switch
is a complaint against the trope. -
Infant Envy
is a trope finder query. -
Made In a Villain's Image
: Motion to yard, as it has a ton of examples, so it's definitely a thing, but it doesn't have a description at all beyond just repeating the laconic. -
Marble Boulder Valley
is a chairsy one-line wonder. -
Missing-the-Bin Montage
is Wastebasket Ball. -
Multiple Personas
is Split Personality. -
Nocturnal CGI
is a trope finder query. - Real Creator Fake Work
has no examples and was immediately abandoned.
- Sanding Under the Drawers
is covered by Narrative Filigree.
-
Stalker (character)
: Bad title, worded like a trope finder query, immediately abandoned, covered by Disaster Scavengers. -
Subtext Becomes Text
is a trope finder query. -
Written On One's Back
is "Human Notepad, but only for women", and it's a zero-effort draft on top of that.
Edited by Serac on Sep 4th 2020 at 9:42:35 AM
Some more to nuke:
-
Power Off Equals Power Lost
: Could be yarded. -
Canon Citizen's Foreigner Prototype
: Adaptation Expansion, but for characterization. -
Special Effects Switch Up
: Could be yarded as a Dead Horse Trope or Forgotten Trope. -
Panic Run Mode
: We have Advancing Boss of Doom and a few other tropes where I think this is covered.
Edited by ccorb on Sep 4th 2020 at 11:43:25 AM
Rock'n'roll never dies!

Nuked Standard Pop Songwriting Format. Geez that was a doozy.
Hey how you doing well I'm doing just fine I lied I'm dying inside