Throughout this site, some tropers have a habit of adding in potholes and references to their favorite reviewers in entries, e.g. "Come see (reviewer)'s take on it here!"
Not only is it often unnecessary, but in some cases if the critic in question is a Caustic Critic it can be used to invite complaining, on top of crossing over into Reviews Are the Gospel territory since these tropers often treat these reviewers as if their opinion is fact.
Per this thread in Wiki Talk
, this thread has been created in Long-Term Projects to clean up this kind of thing and Reviews Are the Gospel-type stuff in general.
REMEMBER: This criteria, made by mightymewtron, should be followed for knowing when to keep reviewer potholes:
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Feb 3rd 2021 at 3:28:10 PM
This was added to the top of ProtagonistCenteredMorality.Live Action TV:
Bringing up these examples from On Deadly Ground and it's YMMV page:
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The film contains several drawn-out torture scenes, such as when Forrest's friend Hugh is beaten with a pipe cutter. Not just on the part of the villains though; Forrest has several scenes where he continues to bully people even when he's already beaten them, such as a very lengthy and painful fight in the bar. And, as Film Brain pointed out, Forrest murders Jennings at the end of the movie, even though he was unarmed, outmatched, and totally unable to defend himself.
- Anvilicious: The movie's environmental message, which Roger Ebert disparaged as "sanctimonious". The oil tycoon villain is so mean, he can't even stand the smell of caribou to film one commercial.
- Inferred Holocaust: As Film Brain pointed out, Forrest blowing up an oil rig will cause more environmental damage than letting it run normally. Also doubling as Moral Dissonance.
- Nightmare Fuel: Hugh's torture scene. An old man is bound to a chair and his fingers broken with a whale bone and later a pipe cutter is used on him. Part of this scene, according to Film Brain, is cut from the UK release, and when he says that the scene is better trimmed, he's right, since enough of the scene played out still gives us what we need to hate the characters.
- Not sure the Film Brain reference is necessary if it's just stating an objective fact about the movie.
- Could take or leave the Ebert reference, honestly.
- Probably not necessary to mention Film Brain here.
- Could just remove the second sentence entirely. If it has to be kept, cut it down to "Part of this scene is cut from the UK release."
Bringing up the following examples from One Moment in Time:
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: How Peter brings back Aunt May. (Yes, he treated a gunshot wound with CPR.)
- Hate Fic: Both One More Day and One Moment in Time are essentially responses to "The Wedding!" (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21) which Quesada outright hates. In OMIT, he does it by taking panels from the original and then showing how Peter missed his wedding, which is essentially a blackly comedic slapstick moment where a random thug hits Peter on the head with a brick making him pass out. Mark Ginocchio pointed out why this was bad practice:
"As hyperbolic as this might sound, by inserting original pages from ASM Annual #21 into a new comic that changes the events of those pages, Quesada and Rivera are essentially vandalizing one of the most historic Spider-Man issues of the modern era...Ultimately, the creative decision reads like it’s supposed to punch the reader in the gut — here’s what happened EXACTLY AS YOU REMEMBERED IT, but now we’re going to change it because we think what Shooter did was a mistake."
Bringing up this example from One More Day:
- Idiot Plot: Mephisto is an idiot as well. He gains absolutely nothing by this petty act of vindictiveness. Sure, he's a Prince of Hell, and Evil Is Petty is expected, but this doesn't even cause that much damage; when you consider that he is the premier Satanic Archetype of this world, it's Poke the Poodle territory compared to what he could be doing (he's long had this problem, but this is a career low). Moreover, his claim that trying to buy the soul of a hero who makes a Heroic Sacrifice is a hollow victory (because they "suffer righteously" knowing that their deal did some good), retroactively makes him more of an idiot because a vast number of his schemes have been attempts to do just that.
- This was perfectly summarized by Bob Chipman in one of the first episodes of his show The Big Picture:
Bob Chipman: So, if you think about it, Spider-Man not only made a deal with the Devil, he actually came out of it pretty damn good! He gets his aunt saved, his buddy gets back to life, his identity is secured, he still gets to have a long term relationship with a damned supermodel back then and fool around with kinky sex-addicted cat girls now... Basically all Satan gets is the thrill of blinking some bridal photos out of existence. Aaah... Ouch? I guess? So let that be a lesson, kids! If you screw up and need to make a deal with the devil, make sure it's with the Marvel devil. That guy's no idea of what he's doing!
- This was perfectly summarized by Bob Chipman in one of the first episodes of his show The Big Picture:
Not really a reviewer, but the RPG — Eastern folder in Arbitrary Headcount Limit has a quote from 8-Bit Theater in the Final Fantasy example.
- The early Final Fantasy games have very obvious caps on the enemies you can face at once. Nine in Final Fantasy I (arranged into a square, even), eight in Final Fantasy II, and - in the DS remake - three in Final Fantasy III (except for that one time with the frogs).
Stone Dragon: BLARG! I'M A DRAGON! OR TWELVE!
Red Mage: Impossible! Only a maximum of nine enemies may be onscreen!
Stone Dragon: F**K YOU.
Red Mage: Run.
- The early Final Fantasy games have very obvious caps on the enemies you can face at once. Nine in Final Fantasy I (arranged into a square, even), eight in Final Fantasy II, and - in the DS remake - three in Final Fantasy III (except for that one time with the frogs).
Edited by Nen_desharu on Jan 11th 2022 at 8:27:41 AM
Kirby is awesome.
You could probably split off the 8-Bit Theater quote into a point in the Webcomics folder about how it parodies Final Fantasy's propensity for the Arbitrary Headcount Limit.
Edited by bowserbros on Jan 11th 2022 at 8:47:08 AM
Be kind.
There's already an 8-Bit Theater example in the Webcomics folder, which was ZCE as it only had a link but no other context.
I fixed two problems at once by moving the quote to that example in the Webcomics folder, thereby providing context.
Edited by Nen_desharu on Jan 12th 2022 at 12:13:15 PM
Kirby is awesome.Bringing up this example from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- Base-Breaking Character:
- This incarnation of April O'Neil is pretty divisive. While many are happy that she was reimagined as black, adding diversity to a long-running franchise, some of those in favor of the Race Lift have complained that her character design strays a bit too far from her usual depictions, essentially making her a different character entirely. The Mysterious Mr. Enter outright compared her to The Scrappy's Trope Namer, saying that she always jumps into a situation that she logically shouldn't be able to handle, whether or not this is annoying or endearing is up to the viewer. On the other hand, Enter's review of the series has been accused of Critical Research Failure, as he only watched a few episodes of the series and there were also many instances where April asked for help and went through significant character development as the show went on.
Centering an item that relies on widespread fandom opinion around the opinions of a certain reviewer isn't a great sign. Plus it's a little too focused on the Race Lift and not her other characteristics, though I see other character traits do come up. Anybody familiar with the show able to chime in?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Not up on RotTMNT but considering this is the same guy who clearly only watched the first few episodes and called the animation "lazy" I think it can go.
Came for the tropes, stayed for the cleanup.
Well, the entry is in part about Enter's problematic reasoning. The issue is whether any part of the fanbase agrees with him, whether we think they're justified or not.
Agree with mew on the entry. I loathe Enter as well but we have to focus less on our opinions of the reviewer, and more on whether the entry counts.
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallWell, a Broken Base or Base-Breaking Character entry should have both sides of the argument. The issue here is that Enter's argument apparently doesn't reflect that of the fanbase so it's not a real BBC situation. The fanbase, from what I'm hearing, seems to like April.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.This was added to the top of CoversAlwaysLie.Comic Books:
Cleaning up some of the pages in Pop-Culture Urban Legends, and I found this example in the Live-Action Film section:
- The Wizard of Oz
- There is a legend that the Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon, synchs up with the film's soundtrack. This legend has been vigorously denied by the band, who have pointed out that the audio technology necessary to make the film soundtrack and rock album synch this precisely with each other didn't exist in 1973.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd was inspired by urban legends of The Dark Side of the Moon synching to this film's soundtrack. When Nerd reviewed the video game adaptation, Cinemassacre deliberately synched the album to their episode and placed in a few bits and clues, like a plane, to make the synching work, as described in their blog
.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd was inspired by urban legends of The Dark Side of the Moon synching to this film's soundtrack. When Nerd reviewed the video game adaptation, Cinemassacre deliberately synched the album to their episode and placed in a few bits and clues, like a plane, to make the synching work, as described in their blog
- There is a legend that the Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon, synchs up with the film's soundtrack. This legend has been vigorously denied by the band, who have pointed out that the audio technology necessary to make the film soundtrack and rock album synch this precisely with each other didn't exist in 1973.
While I love that he did this, I don't think it really adds to the example at all? Seems more just an excuse to gush about it.
Edited by harryhenry on Jan 24th 2022 at 6:37:17 AM
Found this in WALL•E:
Spiritual Adaptation: Lindsay Ellis (back when she was The Nostalgia Chick) not only cites this as one of her favorite movies ever, but also called it a far more faithful adaptation of The Lorax than the 2012 movie wound up being.
I'm tempted to straight up remove the whole bullet since calling it a "spiritual adaption" of The Lorax is seriously stretching it (and I can't even find evidence she said that), but I'd like a second opinion to avoid running afoul of removing YMMV.
I think that claim came from the review she did of The Lorax back when she went by The Nostalgia Chick. Not sure if that video is even still up.
Edited by chasemaddigan on Jan 24th 2022 at 1:16:04 PM
I posted this in the Is this an example? thread, but it might be worth discussing here:
From YMMV.Big Hero 6:
- Discredited Meme: Fans of the movie started to grow annoyed with the "That was his mistake" meme, courtesy of Schaffrillas Productions. The line is used to demonstrate why Callaghan was an Unintentionally Unsympathetic villain for being so callous about Tadashi's death, but anybody who has actually paid attention to the story would know that the line was an in-universe Kick the Dog moment, as it was what drove Hiro to his Rage Breaking Point and ordered Baymax to kill him.
Is this a widespread enough reaction to count? It seems to be specific to a particular creator and I haven't seen signs that people are getting sick of it. This seems to be more an issue with how a character is portrayed.

Maybe move it to an In-Universe example on Enter's work page.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.