So this is a place for people who are interested in helping out, or getting help with, wick checks. Maybe you just want people to double-check your work before you submit it to the TRS, or maybe you have a big project in mind and can't tackle it on your own. Either way, you've come to the right place!
Remember to check out How to Do a Wick Check for a run down. For the list of current and completed projects, see Wick Check Project.
Edited by Berrenta on Oct 2nd 2025 at 9:41:48 AM
It wouldn't be necessary in all cases (not thriving tropes being the primary example), and I think if there's enough history of people discussing issues with the trope (cleanup threads, ATT, trope talk, etc) that's evidence in and of itself... but for normal tropes that don't get talked about ever, if you'd need a wick check to actually start a TRS thread, I'd agree that a wick check should probably done before said trope is added to the page. The amount of threads that have been posted to TRS lately without wick checks only serves to tell me that, even now, a lot of people either don't know how they work / what they're for, or don't realize how absolutely necessary they are.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI was about to ask if we had already done a wick check for Bald Of Awesome, but then I remembered that was for Bald Woman instead. Probably has all the same issues, though.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢Oh, and yeah, I agree with a Bald Of Awesome check. Not to sound biased, but the only example I can think of that isn't "bald character" is one I myself added, and it's an inverted example where someone's baldness marked them as being no longer cool in-universe. I won't say that the work is so that if it shows up on the check it'll be by pure happenstance.
I feel like I've also seen a lot of Happily Married examples that are zero-context examples along the lines of "To/with X". But given how many wicks there are, I am not doing that one. At least not by myself.
There are some tropes I don't understand why people make so many ZCE's for. Happily Married is not very complicated just explain that they are married to someone and they are happy with them along with a few examples.
It almost always is the easier tropes to explain, because people think they're self explanatory.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallIt's most common with the appearance tropes (as my recent check for Hand Hiding Sleeves would prove) unless they are ridiculously specific, and it ticks me off to no end. Was considering torturing myself by doing Cat Smile at some point considering the ZCE bonfire that's bound to be.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢I'm starting to loathe appearance tropes. See these three examples I just found:
- Bald Of Awesome: He's a circus strongman, and he's bald.
- Bald of Evil: He's one of the villain's henchmen, and he's bald.
- Beard of Evil: He's one of the villain's henchmen, and he has a full beard.
This is terrible.
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To be fair, those at least all have the minimum amount of context. Just needs more spice.
Edited by mightymewtron on Dec 3rd 2021 at 3:05:56 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
I know, that's why I left them. They're still not great. If you can write about three different tropes in almost identical sentences, that's not good. (Actually, it was four. I removed a Badass Beard wick.)
I think the problem is that it’s difficult to explain how the two traits actually connect. IMO, examples for appearance-personality trait tropes such as Bald Of Awesome and Beard of Evil should explain to some extent how there’s a clear connection between the two traits and that it’s not just a coincidence.
Yeah, that's the issue. For every example that actually does have a solid connection to write about, there's at least five other examples that don't, but the line is so blurry at times (how do you distinguish a character whose baldness signifies their badassery from a badass who just so happens to be bald?) that context is sometimes impossible.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallThinking of starting a wick check for Adaptational Abomination: it's supposed to specifically be for characters that are turned into Eldritch Abominations in adaptions, but the way I've seen it used around the wiki is for any character that was made monstrous/more grotesque, but not necessarily Eldritch.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢There might be some overlap/misuse issues between Merlin Sickness and Fountain of Youth. I don’t think it’s an inherent problem: if there’s an issue, it may just need some cleanup.
Edited by Walkinshadows on Dec 3rd 2021 at 2:25:51 PM
Merlin Sickness is supposed to be the character repeatedly aging backwards while Fountain of Youth can be a one-time deal, right?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Should a wick check be required before added something there? Would that help?
ETA: I got distracted, but I came here to say I might do a wick check on Bald Of Awesome at some point to check for ZCE issues. Keep seeing "character is bald" a lot.
Edited by Walkinshadows on Dec 2nd 2021 at 1:07:34 PM