Here's the wick check data.

Wicks check: 65/65.

• Quick wick analysis:
  • 14/65 Correct use — "an invention/experiment goes wrong," or 22%.
  • 45/65 Misuse — "anything that's not an invention/experiment going awry," or 69%.
  • 7/65 Zero-context, vague potholes, and unclear examples, or 11%.

• Detailed wick analysis:

Gone Horribly Wrong is a Stock Phrase for when a science-related thing turns out fucked up that's often used as a pothole, which makes it a Pothole Magnet. There's some correct use, but misuse is much more common. Tropers use the trope for literally anything that goes awry including characters too (which is covered by Epic Fail, Face–Heel Turn, Used to Be a Sweet Kid, etc.).

• Solutions:
  • Redefine the trope to be more than just a "stock phrase" and be more about science-related things themselves going wrong.
    • Rename it to "Invention Gone Horribly Wrong" or "Science Gone Horribly Wrong" (with or without the horribly part) or something else that reflects the trope's scope and sounds better if redefined.
  • Cleanup misuse and move them to Epic Fail if they fit.
  • Or expand the trope to include plans and transformations going wrong, mutually exclusive with option 1.
    • If expanded, rename it to a more indicative name, though nothing comes to my mind currently.

What should be done?

• Characters.Big Hero 6 Civilians: Under Lenore's folder, spoilered out, Her experiment on building an infinite source of energy backfired horribly, accidentally a star that collapsed on itself and caused The Great Catastrophe (San Fransokyo's equivalent of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake). It devasted the city and killed a lot of people in the process. Shimamoto deeply regretted her actions, probably to her last breath.
• Characters.Captain America Supporting Characters: Under Dr. Abraham's folder, The reason Captain America is one of a kind in the Marvel Universe is because he, the only person who knew the formula for the Super-Soldier Serum, got shot right after administering it to Cap. Furthermore, for security reasons, he kept no notes of the full treatment, relying on his memory. Attempts at reproducing it haven't gone so well. Pothole
• Characters.Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: Under Flint's folder and the same goes for the machine's folder, The main protagonist. A scientist whose inventions have a habit of not working as intended. Wanting to help his town of Swallow Falls, he invents a machine that can convert water into food and manages to launch it into the air. It seems to work fine at first but it doesn't take long for things to go south and he has to fix his mistake. Pothole
• Characters.Codex Equus Fourth Age Villains: Under Father Deer's folder, His creation. The Clovenists forsook the Bogolenya deities out of distrust towards their benevolent intentions, and blamed them for not getting rid of the corrupt Roedinian monarchies sooner, so they tried creating a god that's wholly devoted to Clovenism so they could have a divine weapon and propaganda tool. The result was... this. Seems to fit here
• Characters.Dark Matter 2525: Under Yahweh's folder:
  • Brain Uploading: In the first episode, he is uploaded to a simulation he has control over to test if he can have power without it corrupting him. In episode 9 he uses this to take over the world with all the systems and robots under his control, though this is subverted as part of a Batman Gambit to trick Jeffrey. Pothole
• Characters.Death Battle Season Two Part 2: Under Beast VS Goliath's folder, Tried to use his Ph D in Mutant Genetics to find a cure for his mutation ... instead his "cure" caused his mutation to accelerate turning him into the blue Beast Man he is today. Seems correct
• Characters.Drive Dave Kellett: Under The Vinn's folder:
  • The Virus: The Vinn aren't actually a single species but at least 14 species all infected with a common parasite that bonds to the nervous system and restructures the brain, resulting in an entirely new, unique mind. Most, possibly all, Vinn are trying to spread across the galaxy in an attempt to find their "gods", who developed the parasite as a misguided cure for an unknown affliction, although it's described as a "cancerous malady". Pothole
• Characters.Iron Man Rogues Gallery: Under Scylla's folder, Project: Scylla set out to create a mutant which could brace the ocean depths but Scylla went insane after the mutation and killed the crew on-board the HYDRA vessel.
• Characters.MCU Stark Family: Under Howard's folder:
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Agent Carter, his inventions end up causing mass death and destruction once Leviathan finally gets their hands on them. In many cases, his inventions were actually not weapons and were intended to be used as defensive equipment for soldiers, but severely flawed prototypes meant that they could end up accidentally causing a great deal of death. Much more vile characters then make use of these "weapons". Even Jarvis called his inventions "Mr. Stark's bloody inventions" while losing most of his usual Servile Snarker tone in his voice, indicating even he's horrified with his boss' work. Pothole
• Characters.The Hero Laughs While Walking The Path Of Vengeance A Second Time: Under Nonorik's folder, He is the first, and only, survivor of the Grond Trading Company Super Soldier program, is a very highly skilled and powerful combatant, but is utterly batshit insane, uncontrollable, violent, and there's absolutely no hope of recovery or a normal life for him.
• Characters.The X Files: Under Eve's folder:
  • Ax-Crazy: Cindy, Teena, and the Adams and Eves from the original Litchfield experiment. Eve 7, however, subverts it, as she was apparently raised by one of the scientists from the project, who helped her learn how to control her behavior. Cindy and Teena are even more Ax-Crazy than their predecessors, due to Eve 7's attempted genetic tinkering Gone Horribly Wrong. Seems to fit
• Characters.Undertale Main Characters: Under Alphys' folder, Her experiments with Determination are mostly this, as they caused the monsters she was experimenting upon to not only come back to life — which was the opposite of what she wanted — but it caused their bodies to melt and fuse with one another, creating the amalgamations.
• CloningBlues.Film:
  • Judge Dredd. Rico is the product of a cloning experiment that Goes Horribly Wrong in the Back Story: he becomes a mass murderer instead of the ultimate Judge. Joseph Dredd is his clone brother. Pothole
• ComicBook.Adventure Time: The mind-controlling bubblegum monster turns out to be another of PB's attempts to create a successor. Could use a little more context, but still fits here

• Brainwashing for the Greater Good.Literature: In the fifth Captain Underpants book, the kids do this to: Sadist Teacher Ms. Ribble/Wedgie Woman. Note that the first time it went horribly wrong, so the second time they had to be very careful about their wording. When Harold wonders at the end if it was right to hypnotize her into becoming nice, George responds, "Why not? She's happier now. She'll probably live longer!" Pothole
• BrokenBase.My Hero Academia: Supporters also point out that rescue work is complicated, and simply rushing into the fray, especially with powers you may not have trained to master, can lead to compounding disasters. Restricting hero work only to people who have completed the course — that is, been trained over years to know how to properly assess all the risks, keep their cool under pressure, know basic emergency medicine, and understand the full potential of their powers — is thus no different to having firefighters, emergency service personnel or police. The backstory of would-be Gentleman Thief Gentle Criminal is even rooted in the fact his impulsive attempt to save somebody with his powers only led to the victim and the hero already rushing in to save the victim both being hurt. Pothole
• CentralTheme.Five Nights At Freddys Fazbear Frights: Friendly Face: Hasty decisions having horrible consequences. Edward's desperation to get some semblance of Faraday back causes him to not check whether the hair he is sending to Fazbear Entertainment is actually cat hair; this results in the resultant Friendly Face being a grotesque combination of a cat's body and Jack's face, which horrifies and torments him. Mott, seeing an opportunity to get rid of the Sea Bonnies that have been tormenting him, flushes them down the toilet at the first chance he gets; however, this just gives them the opportunity to infest his body. Jessica and Brittany, driven by an Irrational Hatred of Cindy and Mindy, impulsively decide to lock them inside the Rosie animatronic; however, a glitch in their programming leads to them both being springlocked inside, still conscious but unable to make themselves known. Pothole
• Characters.Adventure Time Minor: Under The Secret Society folder, Their plan to gain additional powers by awakening Bella Noche did not go as planned. A plan goes wrong
• Characters.Aggretsuko Main Characters: Under Haida's folder, When he can't take more any of Anai's threats to Retsuko, he decides to take matters into his own hands by confronting Anai about it, since Anai is at least willing to listen to Haida. This only causes Anai to target Haida as well.
• Characters.Animator Vs Animation: Under King's folder, After his son was killed in a Minecraft simulator Gone Horribly Wrong, King would stop at nothing to destroy Minecraft itself in revenge.
• Characters.BTS Universe: Under Jin's folder, Under pressure from the school's principal, he directed the principal to the group's hideout, thinking no one would be there at that moment. There was. This led directly to Yoongi getting expelled.
• Characters.Buffyverse Scooby Gang: Under the In General folder:
  • Dysfunction Junction: Giles has a very Dark and Troubled Past involving teen rebellion gone wrong and black magic, earning him the nickname Ripper, which he now tries desperately to move past (to the point of going a little too far the other way).
• Characters.Calvin And Hobbes: Under Snow Goons's folder, Calvin and Hobbes try to kill the first Snow Goon by pelting him with snowballs. Not only does this not work, it also gives it the idea to add more snow to itself to increase its mass. Pothole
• Characters.Chainsaw Man Devils And Fiends: Under Gun Devil's folder, Seeing as how a majority of Devils aren't Immune to Bullets, there was a spike in gun production for the purposes of Devil hunting and civilian defense. Regulation could not keep up with the influx of firearms, allowing for a massive surge in gun-related crimes which wound up creating the Gun Devil. Even worse, its humongous international kill count increased the fear in Devils overall, making every single one of them stronger.
• Characters.Attack On Titan Gabi Braun: When the Marleyans launch an assault on Shinganshina, Gabi shoots Eren, beheading him. One second later, the Wall Titans awaken, Eren transforms into the all-powerful Founding Titan and commands the Wall Titans to destroy all nations.
• Characters.Black Clover Nacht Faust: His Devil-Binding Ritual summoned the high-ranking devil Lucifugus... but without its magical power suppressed. This caused the devil to attack people aside from the ritual caster, killing Nacht's parents and other cultists. Morgen destroying the relic to stop the ritual led to his death to Nacht's immense grief.
• Characters.Brave: Under Mor'du's folder,
  • Evil Counterpart: And to Elinor. Both are humans turned into bears by the same spell, but Elinor was transformed by her daughter in a Gone Horribly Wrong move whereas Mor'du transformed himself for power. Elinor loves her family and fights tooth and nail to defend her daughter, whereas Mor'du murdered his kin during his Redemption Rejection. Mor'du, reduced to a savage monster after his transformation became permanent, also serves as a Jacob Marley Warning of what Elinor would likely become if she wasn't changed back in time due to The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body. Transformation gone awry
• Characters.Bungo Stray Dogs Port Mafia: Under Ougai Mori and Elise's folder, He unleashes Q to use him as the strongest card of Port Mafia to use against the Armed Detective Agency and The Guild. What ends up happening? The Guild captures Q and they make many citizens insane by using Q's ability. Port Mafia suffers a lot of casualties during the resulting disaster.
• Characters.Danganronpa 3 Future Arc: Under Juzo's folder:
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: Back in Side:Despair, his actions were meant to be this, as he was trying to protect Hinata from getting killed by the nefarious school committee. Unfortunately, the facade was way too strong, he came off like a Jerk Jock instead, and his attempt to protect Hinata ended up Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Characters.Dumb And Dumber: Under Nicholas' entry:
  • I Have Your Husband: Kicks off the plot with this. It goes slightly awry thanks to the dimwitted duo. Pothole
• Characters.Game Of Thrones House Baratheon Of Kings Landing: Under King Tommen's folder, Tywin's first lesson to Tommen about being king is wisdom, specifically the wisdom to know when someone else knows more than you do. This is a not-so-subtle attempt by Tywin to set himself up as the power behind the throne. However, Tywin dies not long after, so the indecisive Tommen is left with people who only want to manipulate him for their own gain including Margaery, making him an even bigger Puppet King than his brother. As a result of the machinations of the High Sparrow and his Stupid Evil mother, King's Landing is well on its way to becoming a theocracy, with Tommen having been easily conned into enabling it because no one has taught him to stand up for himself.
• Characters.For Him To Be Blamed For Them To Fix: Under Ane Conel's folder:
  • Self-Made Orphan: Kills his father in a stress-induced trance after an operation Gone Horribly Wrong. He had it coming. Lacks context but doesn't seem like it would count either way
• Characters.Emma: Under Emma's folder:
  • Shipper on Deck: She takes credit for helping Mr Weston to court Miss Taylor, though how involved she actually was in the whole matter is unclear (the story opens on the Westons' wedding day). Later she's trying to set up Harriet with Mr Elton. This match doesn't end well. Later still, she passively supports Frank Churchill and Harriet, though by that time she has learned not to actively meddle. Pothole
• Characters.Discworld Wizards: Under Hex's folder, During Hogfather, Death orders Hex to believe in the Hogfather. Hex does so, then points out that under this logic it is entitled to ask the Hogfather for presents.
• Characters.Harry Potter Marauders: Under James' folder:
  • Honour Before Reason: According to Remus Lupin, James would never stoop to suspecting any of his friends of treachery. This is shown in his choice of Sirius Black as Secret-Keeper rather than Dumbledore himself. Although Sirius was loyal, this ultimately goes horribly wrong for everyone since no one suspected Pettigrew of being a traitor. Pothole
• Characters.Falling In Love With The Villainess: Under Charlotte' folder, She conspired to have the engagement between Crown Prince Arnold and Ariel Windhill annulled both because she wanted a crack at him and because Ariel hated the arrangement. The marriage got annulled alright, when Ariel and Vincent were falsely convicted of high-treason, resulting in Vincent getting executed and Ariel being sold off into slavery.
• Characters.Kaguya Sama Love Is War Second Years: Uner Karen's folder, Not only was she the one responsible for having Kashiwagi ask Tsubasa if he had a girlfriend, she was the one who suggested that Tsubasa go to Shirogane for love advice. All this while trying to hook him up with Maki.
• Characters.Lego Batman Heroes: Under Swamp Thing's folder, Turns out that giving someone a love potion might be just a bit too much to handle.
• Shin Hyakuji High School: Under Erin's entry in the First Year Students' folder:
  • Took a Level in Badass: What Erin desired when she began idolizing Chizu, trying to train herself to become more like the person she worships. Then came the Orange Materia and everything goes wrong. Horribly wrong. After the resulting storm from the aftermath of inVERsion calmed down, she eventually comes to accept that this path wasn't quite meant for her after all. Pothole
• Characters.The Kings Avatar Professional Teams: Under Tao's folder, Tao Xuan initially planned to bring Excellent Era back to its championship status again after forcing Ye Xiu to retire. Instead, Ye Xiu becomes a thorn in their side, indirectly causing their relegation at the end of the eighth season. He doesn't account for his quiet attempt at creating a mutiny to further feed the enmity of several players on Excellent Era's team against Ye Xiu and cause them to make rash decisions that has negative repercussions on their professional performance. As a result, the team plummets much faster than he had accounted for.
• Characters.The Seven Deadly Sins Liones: Under Twigo's folder, His body couldn't handle the demonic transformation and blew itself apart. Transformation gone awry
• Characters.The Vampire Diaries Universe Petrova Family: Under Amara's folder, Like Silas, when Amara consumed the immortality elixir and made herself truly immortal, therefore, unkillable, nature created a loophole by creating a doppelgänger bloodline which would be passed down to her descendants. Tatia, Katherine and Elena are all doppelgängers of Amara due to the doppelgänger "gene" being passed down Amara's family bloodline.
• Characters.Toy Story Main Toy Characters: Under Woody's folder:
  • Pride: One of his main character flaws. He is Andy's favorite toy and is perfectly aware of this fact; when Buzz comes into the picture and becomes Andy's new favorite, Woody becomes jealous of him and inadvertently gets both himself and Buzz lost when his plan to get rid of Buzz backfires horribly. A plan goes wrong + Pothole
• Characters.Total Drama Letterz: Under Max in TDL3, as an Intern, The Freeze of Shame that was used on Wawanakwa Island. It severely damaged Irene's psyche, and led to Eleanor's kidnapping.
• Characters.Warrior 2019: Under Mai Ling's folder, she concocts a plan to give Jacob up to the authorities in the hopes that it'll draw the attention away from Chinatown. The result is an angry mob of Irish workers descending on Chinatown and all but tearing the place to shreds before the combined forces of the Hop Wei and the Long Zii manage to drive them off. A plan goes wrong
• Characters.What The Fuck Is Wrong With You: Under John's entry in the Primary Characters' folder, He and Tara met while making fun of Navikin online. Nash was flagged, while Tara was pulled aside by the mods and asked not to encourage him. That worked splendidly.
• Characters.Wreck It Ralph Main Characters: Under Ralph's folder:
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He also causes several incidents in Ralph Breaks the Internet. Creating a new track in Sugar Rush and accidentally raising the auction price of a new arcade steering wheel causes unnecessary problems for both Ralph and Vanellope. And when he's faced with the prospect of Vanellope wanting to stay in the Internet game Slaughter Race, Ralph's plan to use a virus to force her out starts a chain reaction that threatens the entire Internet. A plan goes awry + Pothole
• Characters.Yu Gi Oh Duel Terminal: Under Gishki's folder,
  • Natalia and Noellia summoned the Steelswarm to fight the Fabled, but that backfired as Natalia lost her life.
  • When Avance tried to revive Emilia using the power of Photomirror/Soulmirror, his unstable mental state caused the power of the mirror to rebound onto himself, causing him to absorb Emilia's soul and transform into the mindless beast Levianima.
• Characters.With This Ring Earth Negative 14: Under Slade's folder, Wilson's harsh policy against supervillains was successful, if brutal, when limited to a single state. When he tried to do it on a national scale, it backfired hard.
• ComicBook.Heroes In Crisis:
  • Lost Aesop: The thing that is triggering this Crisis Crossover is an attempt at defying There Are No Therapists within the superhero community (and thus comics) Gone Horribly Wrong, but it's difficult to say if this story actually does or doesn't do that. There are no actual therapists at Sanctuary, and the ending has more heroes going to Sanctuary than ever before, despite most of the events in the series giving them every logical reason to not even consider it.
• ComicBook.Vote Loki: Nisa's one plan to thwart Loki that actually works results in a wave of violence directed at his supporters and occasionally perpetrated by his supporters. Both Nisa and Loki are horrified by this. A plan goes wrong
• CriminalMinds.Tropes A To D:
  • Artistic License – History: In "I Love You, Tommy Brown", the titular underage student in a Teacher/Student Romance Gone Horribly Wrong (well, more wrong) is starting to have doubts (after the teacher in question shoots his classmate/neighbor), and she tries to calm him down and justify their love by saying that in medieval times, 12-year-olds marrying their elders was not unusual (this was only true of the aristocracy, and still wasn't very common); that when Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon she was a much older woman (she was only 5 years his senior); and that Romeo and Juliet were 13 (true of the play, not of the original story; also, the point of the play is that they are too young and their love is childish; also, it's a play). Possibly justified since the teacher is a manipulative, Ax-Crazy sociopath trying to control a not-very-smart teenage boy, and she doesn't have to know a lot about history or English literature anyway.
• All-American Girl: The "Foalnapping Incident" and Equestria's two week silence before making a statement afterward turned First Contact into one of the biggest (if not the biggest) PR disasters in human history.
• Fanfic.Little Uzumaki:
  • Kick the Dog: Literal with Other!Tobi as kicking puppies is the safest evil thing he could do, but that has a 50/50 chance of going horribly wrong. Pothole
• DarthWiki.Hypecastr: Under the open to view folder, Both of the games go horribly wrong as characters change sessions, die, and otherwise complicate the game. It reaches its peak with the destruction of Prospit and near-initiation of the scratch.
• DramaticIrony.Live Action TV: The Cannonball Chemistry episode of MythBusters makes use of this, since (as the Build Team mentions at the beginning), it was during the filming of that episode that a mishap at the Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range sent a cannonball through a person's house. Later, we see the setup for the cannon tests, and listen to The Narrator carefully describe all the safety measures the MythBusters are using to keep things from going wrong... while everyone watching knows that won't be enough. Pothole
• WesternAnimation.Plasmo: Coredor showing off his own "body-warping" tricks in episode four unwittingly convinces Professor Sashimi that he's convulsing and may be infected with some horrible alien virus, causing her to put him into quarantine.
• Trivia.For Life:
  • Screwed by the Network: The show never had much confidence by ABC to begin with; they slotted it in a time slot filled with rival dramas that ate into For Life's target audience, resulting in ratings going from solid to avalanche pretty quickly. ABC was planning to cancel it after its sole season, but the murder of George Floyd and a summer defined by social unrest in response led to ABC renewing it out of respect. By next season, ABC thought the show would make for great counter-programming against Chicago P.D. and SWAT. Not only were they proven dead wrong about that, but the events of the prior year had faded from the public consciousness just enough that ABC had no reason to go beyond season two. Pothole
• YMMV.The Bikini Bottom Horror:
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Did SpongeBob truly orchestrate the Torturned One's rampage to gain control of Bikini Bottom? Or did he just do something well-meaning but foolish right off the heels of learning an Awful Truth, not realizing it would go so very, very wrong? The way that he looked at Sandy as she was leaving also speaks volumes: is he feeling genuine sadness that he lost one of his best friends because of his actions, or is SpongeBob merely disappointed that Sandy didn't share his vision? Notably, the creator refuses to answer questions regarding SpongeBob's morality or actions at this time as the answers would play into how a possible future installment would pan out. Pothole + Sinkhole

• Characters.Kamen Rider Double Antagonists: Under Shroud's folder, Giving Isaka the Weather Memory, although her warped sense of perspective means she's initially upset about it for all the wrong reasons.
• Characters.Trollge: Under The Stiltman's folder, Accidentally locked himself in his friend's attic, and a strange chain of events leads to him becoming a tall monster. Vague on the "strange chain of events" part, so it's a ZCE
• Characters.Villainous Cartoon Network: Under 5.0.5.'s folder, According to Black Hat, that is. ?

• Literature.The Stupidest Angel: The angel Raziel is sent down to Earth to grant the wish of a child during Christmas. As sickeningly sweet as this sounds, the best laid plans of mice and angels aft gang agly. Unclear pothole
• WebOriginal.Mystery Flesh Pit National Park: Mystery Flesh Pit National Park is an Analog Horror series created by Trevor "StrangeVehicles" Roberts. It revolves around the titular Mystery Flesh Pit (Immanis colosseus, aka the Permian Basin Superorganism), an ancient and indescribably gigantic organism living underneath the Permian Basin region of West Texas, and a lucrative tourist attraction sanctioned by the American government... until 2007, that is. Vague pothole
• Film.Kamen Rider Ghost The 100 Eyecons And Ghosts Fateful Moment:
  • Ambition Is Evil: Argos will do anything to achieve his goal to transform the Earth into the world filled with ghosts. As revealed in the first promotional miniseries, he deliberately converted Napoléon Bonaparte into his Eyecon collection with force. It is no surprise that Sennin/Edith, the one who gives him Kamen Rider powers just like he does to Takeru, considers him as a dangerous person. Vague pothole
• WesternAnimation.Ernest Le Vampire: Whenever Ernest attempts something, chances are it will end this way.