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
Very first sentence of Merlin Sickness: "Characters with Merlin Sickness live or age backwards in time." This phrasing implies a continuous process.
I thought by repeatedly you meant that they deage on repeated occasions, rather than it being a process.
Anyway, yeah, Merlin Sickness- slow and dramatic process. Fountain of Youth- instant, usually singular use.
Edited by Walkinshadows on Dec 3rd 2021 at 5:56:36 AM
When a slot opens up in TRS, I plan on finally sending in The Hypnotoad, since I think that trope just needs a rename, cleanup (which shouldn't take that long considering it has surprisingly few wicks), and maybe a slight broadening to remove the "This power is the Hypnotoad's primary method of defense, and the Hypnotoad itself has few, if any, other ways to protect itself" since nobody takes that into account anyway. However, I'm blanking on what should be the opening statement.
Things I'd like to mention:
- The correct uses are only a few wicks more than the ZCE/misuse
- There are a good chunk of wicks that just talk about the creature from Futurama
- Even if the examples had adequate context, almost none talked about how the creature fairs without their hypnosis, which the current description requires
- When the page was brought to IP because the old image (which was of course the Hypnotoad) wasn't illustrative, many people tried to keep that image, with one person directly being against a suggestion just because the hypnotic creature wasn't a toad, despite the description saying it could be anything as long as it wasn't humanoid — when I asked how the current was more indicative than the suggestion (which is now the current page image), everyone who voted for the current kept quiet
I added You Make Me Sic to the list of Tropes Needing Wick Checks. I also added an example in case the wording in my first sentence comes off as awkward.
Edited by JHD on Dec 5th 2021 at 4:38:11 AM
Added all 50 required wicks to Hypnotize The Wick Check. Putting it on the “may need further review” list until I know when it’s ready for TRS.
Thinking about starting a Wick Check for You Make Me Sic, for reasons described in the aforementioned list (![]()
). As of writing this, 529 pages on this wiki link to the main page. How many wicks do I need?
Forget if this is where we talk about Tropes Needing TRS or not, so I'll just put it here anyway.
I was considering adding Toy Ship to Tropes Needing TRS for its plethora of issues, but I'm not sure if it should go under the misuse/ZCE folder or the misc folder. This is what the writeup for it would be:
- Toy Ship: Is Fan Speak despite people shipping kids being very, very common in fandoms; in the TRS thread
that split the official examples the trope also hosted into Puppy Love, which was discussed over a few pages, the descension to turn it into fan speak was rushed and not discussed at all. In addition, the wick cleanup for the trope was incredibly sloppy, which many official works pages still listing or linking to Toy Ship instead of Puppy Love and a ludicrous amount of YMMV wicks for what is still currently a fan speak term.
You Make Me Sic Wick Check is now up to 30/50. Am I doing good so far?
If there are correct uses, those go under "Correct", period. Remember, this is a random check. Sometimes a wick check may show little evidence of a problem, and that's fine. This helps us weed out the healthy tropes from the unhealthy ones.
You Make Me Sic Wick Check now has 48/50 wicks done in just a few short hours! How am I doing so far?
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Doing good! Damn, even with the correct wicks, the misuse still dramatically outnumbers the correct use. This trope is really suffering.
TRS is over capacity anyway, so you'd have to wait either way.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
There's now a thread lock. You literally cannot make a thread until a slot frees up. You literally cannot post, even if you try. Hence why I have not taken Moral Dissonance in yet.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Dec 6th 2021 at 9:09:45 AM
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
What likely happened was that 𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 was writing the OP in the "Submit" area, right as another thread was submitted, so the system accidentally made 51 posts rather than 50. That happened to me once a while back as well.
What I said still applies, so be patient. If you would like, I could hold off on Moral Dissonance when another slot opens up so you could bring You Make Me Sic in first.
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

If that’s meant to be the case, Merlin Sickness’s description doesn’t say so. It does say that Fountain of Youth happens instantly and more dramatically, implying Merlin Sickness must be slow and less dramatic.