This thread is for tropers who have trouble with English and would like some help with the crazy grammar of this crazy language.
Write down what you wish to edit on the wiki. If you have been suspended from editing, another troper might be kind enough to edit for you after your suggestions have been corrected.
The thread is for help and feedback on your own suggested edits.
If you want help correcting other people's edits (e.g., if you find a page which seems to have grammar problems but want a second opinion, or you don't feel able to fix it by yourself) then that's off-topic here, but we have a separate Grammar Police cleanup thread
that can provide assistance.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 16th 2023 at 5:37:57 PM
- Artistic License – Medicine:
- The main characters often perform surgeries that don't involve their specialty, and many specialties don't appear at all. For example, abdominal aneurysms are treated by vascular surgeons, while thyroid/parathyroid/pituitary tumors are treated by endocrinology surgeons. However, even though there are many cases of these conditions, they are treated by the main characters, while vascular and endocrine surgeons never appear.
- In one episode, Cristina and Teddy are assigned to perform an appendectomy, but once they begin, they realize that they have both forgotten how to perform a step in the procedure. The question is, why were two cardiothoracic surgeons assigned to perform a general surgery procedure?
- Even worse, sometimes they deal with patients who are not surgical at all.
- In one episode, Alex has a patient with c-diff, a young woman. They treat her with a fecal transplant, to restore the bacterial culture in her stomach. Her case would not have been not only treated, but would not have even managed this way. Let's start with the fact that a fecal transplant in such a young and otherwise healthy patient is totally unnecessary (the patients who need it are pluripathological and/or elderly), but apart from that, a patient who comes to the hospital with abdominal pain would have been become a surgical patient only after the problem had been determined. It seems that the moment patients arrive at the hospital, they're immediately visited by surgeons who then determine whether they're surgical patients or not. In real life, this process is usually reversed, especially in front of a patient with a common symptom such as abdominal pain.
- CPR and defibrillation.
- CPR is portrayed as a procedure that returns patients to the condition they were in before coding. In reality, CPR is a violent procedure with significant risk of breaking the patient's ribs. People who are elderly and/or have several underlying diseases are already unlikely to survive and, those who do survive, have a high chance that their brain function may be severely impaired. In one episode of the show there is an elderly lady who goes into cardiac arrest over and over again, each time easily resuscitated with CPR and defibrillation, never with adverse effects. The likelihood of this happening in real life is... slim.
- It is also common on the show for doctors to defibrillate patients several times in succession, without performing CPR between each time. It is necessary to perform CPR between defibrillations, otherwise it does not work.
- Defibrillation is used only in cases of fibrillation (doesn't the name suggest it?), i.e., when the heart, due to defective electrical activity, beats but in a disorganized and therefore nonfunctional way. The EKG of a fibrillating heart is not flat. Defibrillation interrupts this wrong electrical activity so the heart, that is functional, could restart with a correct and organized one. An asystolic heart, i.e., one that has no electrical activity, and therefore does not beat at all and does have a flat line on the EKG, is not shockable; as long as there's no electrical activity, what is required in case of asystole is CPR!
- The main characters often perform surgeries that don't involve their specialty, and many specialties don't appear at all. For example, abdominal aneurysms are treated by vascular surgeons, while thyroid/parathyroid/pituitary tumors are treated by endocrinology surgeons. However, even though there are many cases of these conditions, they are treated by the main characters, while vascular and endocrine surgeons never appear.
Edited by NURJIN915 on Aug 20th 2023 at 2:01:12 PM
- In the "Brigmore Witches" DLC of Dishonored, three guards are being tried by a court-martial in the execution yard for helping Corvo to escape and Daud can interviene to save them from execution, getting useful information about the prison and Lizzy Stride from one of the guards.
Somethings I want to add to the Recap page for Rockos Modern Life S 4 E 3 Pranksters From Here To Maternity ...
- Dramatic Unmask: Near the end, as Rocko attempts to untie Heffer from the rocket, he asks his Granny for help. But Granny Rocko starts cackling dementedly for a while, accompanied by the sound of a Screaming Woman. Then "she" grabs the sides of her face and begins ripping off her skin in a disturbing manner, revealing she is actually Filburt in a Full-Body Disguise.
- Shout-Out: Filburt disguising as Granny Rocko is reminiscent of Mrs. Doubtfire, where Robin Williams's character dons a convincing Full-Body Disguise of an old woman. The difference is that "Mrs. Doubtfire" was working as a housekeeper so he could see his kids again, while "Granny Rocko" was just out for revenge for Heffer's earlier prank.
Thanks
The Superteacher Project is a 2023 work of Middle Grade Literature by Gordon Korman, and follows the students and teachers of a middle school with an eccentric but oddly talented teacher who turns out to be a Ridiculously Human Robot being tested by the government. Complications ensue, as do What Measure Is a Non-Human? debates.
Tropes in this work include:
- Did Not Think This Through: The principal and teachers are initially honored that their school is being chosen to test the superteacher project (and that Mr. Aidact is doing all of the work they don't want to) before eventually realizing that the success of one robot teacher could get all of them replaced eventually.
- Graceful Loser: Mr. Perkins (the roboticist monitoring Mr. Aidact) can be a rather cold fish. Still, when Mr. Aidact escapes being deactivated, Perkins is impressed about just how much his creation Grew Beyond Their Programming and is happy to learn that Mr. Aidact has the necessary tools to repair himself.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Mr. Aidact is a robot designed to develop human emotions, know everything instantly, and become the best teacher possible. His bonding with his students and learning their behavior makes him too immature for the Department of Education's purposes. However, when they try to shut him down, he decides that there is still more for him to learn and more kids he can help, prompting him to escape.
- Woman Scorned: Rosalie's divorced mother becomes infatuated with Mr. Aidact and becomes frustrated and vengeful when he seemingly blows her off during a date. The discovery that she's falling in love with a robot doesn't improve her temperament.
@ * The Hypnotists: The Hypnotists is a Middle Grade Literature trilogy by Gordon Korman, following Jax Opus, a boy who discovers he has mind control powers. There are many other people like him, but Jax has unusually potent powers due to both of his parents having hypnotist ancestors. Scientist and hypnotist Dr. Mako recruits Jax to join a program to learn more about his powers, which he does while reassessing his life at school and dealing with unusual peers in the hypnotist community. Then he learns that Mako is seeking to use hypnotism to influence a presidential election, and Jax ends up fighting to do the right thing as his loved ones are threatened. He spends the next 2 1/2 books constantly uprooting his life and going through traumatizing losses and ordeals. There are three books": The Hypnotists, Memory Maze, and The Dragonfly Effect, published from 2013-2015.
Tropes in this trilogy include:
- Everyone Has Standards: In The Dragonfly Effect, the military has some shady goals for the hypnotists but shelve a plan to hypnotize everyone in enemy cities through TV screens and the Internet into standing still after realizing it would kill hundreds of civilians and cause billions in property damage per city in the best case scenario due to traffic collisions, unfought fires, and such.
- Historical Rap Sheet: Dozens of famous historical events, both good and bad, have been caused by hypnotists (often Jax's ancestors) doing things like making Christopher Columbus make a wrong turn so he'd reach America or mesmerizing Napoleon into losing the Battle of Waterloo.
- Invented Individual: Jax spends part of Memory Maze looking for his long-lost brother Liam, only to learn there is no Liam and he was hypnotized into thinking otherwise so Liam would be bait for a trap.
- My Greatest Failure: Avery Quackenbush, a dying billionaire who hires Jax to help his medical team in Memory Maze, has a lot of deep-seated trauma that traces back to being unable to save his brother from drowning during a boating accident, a memory which he's worked hard to repress by imagining his brother participating in all of his successes.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Sandman's Guild of hypnotists have an AA-like group and seek to avoid using their powers for personal gain. They include people like a homely woman who hypnotized beauty competition judges, a panhandler, a bank teller, and a ninety-pound arm wrestler. Jax's parents compare them to the cantina denizens from A New Hope.
- Shoo the Dog: Each of the first two books ends with Jax hypnotizing his best friend in his current school into forgetting about most of their friendship and shared secrets due to being involved with dangerous forces, although Tommy from the first book comes Back for the Finale.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- One member of the Sandman's Guild, Ivan, is an ex-salesman who hypnotized customers into buying TVs they didn't want or need. But since hypnotism is generally temporary, the customers kept returning the unwanted TVs soon after buying them, which cost Ivan his job.
- Jax's father is a Muggle Born of Mages with no hypnotic powers, unlike his ancestors, and he is terrified of being around anyone with hypnosis (although it's stronger with memories of his parents than with his son). Spending every day around people who can control your thoughts without you remembering it may have its perks at times, but it can lead to Paranoia Fuel about whether anything you do that remotely pleases a hypnotist is done under your own free will or not.
- Jax spends the middle portion of the series Un Personing himself to go into hiding from Dr. Mako. Once he's finally able to return to his old life, all the missing records mean that he lacks the necessary seventh grade exams to enter eighth grade, forcing him to hypnotize his principal to get around that.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Dr. Mako wants to use hypnotism to take over the world, but due to his hypnotic talents, the whole country thinks he is a selfless, trustworthy guy.
- Hero of Another Story: Benjamin's private investigator parents occasionally reference being involved in interesting cases unrelated to the magical war between good and evil that dominates the plot (although this also causes them to neglect their son at times). In Midnight for Charlie Bone, Mrs. Brown mentions how an investigation into the disappearance of a window washer who later turned up in a cave in Scotland.
@ Justice League vs. The Fatal Five
- Pursued Protagonist: The first scene shows Star-Boy running in the opposite direction from three shadowy members of the Fatal Five as he finds himself outmatched while trying to stop them from stealing a time machine.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The last mentions of Dr. Setin, a fairly helpful and kindly alien expert in Beyond the Frontier, have him hovering somewhere between being a Wide-Eyed Idealist and a Straw Civilian after experiencing disillusionment from the violent conflict with the Kicks and the Dancers (the first peaceful aliens the fleet finds) not communicating with him. Having his weakened relationship with Geary either strengthen or further deteriorate during the fleet's further dealings with the Dancers or the mission in Outlands that results in contact with other (more communicative) benevolent aliens could have been interesting reading, especially given his role as an observer of the earlier alien encounters. Instead, Serin vanishes from the story rather abruptly after Guardian and has yet to be mentioned again.
Edited by Alpinist on Aug 21st 2023 at 8:36:05 AM
I found some more words that needs some checking.
Nightmare Fuel: The Dark Knight
- In most incarnations, the Joker is somewhere on the scale between comedic violence (Nicholson) and violent comedy (Romero and Hamill). What made Heath Ledger's Joker so scary is that Nolan removed the comedic aspect, but Ledger still played him as if he was doing everything because it amused him.
- The Joker's makeup. Not only is his permanent Glasgow Grin already terrifying enough, but the huge amount of eyeshadow he wears means that in many scenes (especially the interrogation scene) it looks like he doesn't even have eyes. The sight of those two black husks staring at the camera is enough to cause nightmares even before he does anything.
- When the Joker pulls a knife towards Gambol's mouth, he delivers a disturbing monologue:
Joker: "Do you wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker... and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not. One. Bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her; laughing while he does it. He turns to me, and he says, "Why so serious?" He comes at me with the knife. "Why so serious?" He sticks the blade in my mouth. "Let's put a smile on that face!". And... why so serious?"
- When the Joker finishes his story, he glances at one of Gambol's cronies and asks him "why so serious?" before brutally slashing and (presumably) murdering Gambol.
Nightmare Fuel: Gintama
Despite Gintama being a comedy manga and anime series, the genre doesn't stop it having some nightmarish moments, especially in serious arcs and certain antagonists who have no comedic traits and are serious threats.
- Utsuro. He is without a doubt one of the most terrifying villains in the entire series of Gintama. Of all the darker villains the series threw at us, Utsuro is the one person who could make the entire series go even more darker and serious than ever. And that's the simple truth since he's played deadly serious and has no comedic traits on him whatsoever. When it comes to nightmare fuel in Gintama, He's the pure living embodiment of it.
- Chapter 527: Having just become Shogun, Nobunobu begins to exercise his power to kill whoever he likes, such as ordering two innocent hostesses killed for reminding him Shigeshige enjoyed their cabaret club. When Otae calls him out on his actions, he has restrained by his guards and then pulls out a sword to slowly cut through Tae's throat with a freakish smile on his face.
- Fan-Preferred Cut Content: While the "Gelato Trouble
" scene was cut and greatly simplified to a quick gag in the final film due to its pacing, many fans wish it had been kept in the final film, namely because they found the scene to be a hilarious homage to Spaghetti Westerns, and it shows off more of the Aragosta sisters.
- Common Knowledge:
- One of the largest misconceptions related to the film is that Luca and Alberto are canonically a gay couple, to the point that many have interpreted Luca as a Coming-of-Age Queer Romance and have accused Pixar of "queerbaiting" thanks to the lack of explicit romance between them, despite the "hints" between them. Ho Yay and Rainbow Lens aside, Luca and Alberto are officially just best friends, and there is no romance in the film.
- Concetta and Pinuccia are often interpreted as an elderly lesbian couple by fans. However, not only are there no indications of them being a couple, but the two are stated to be sisters according to the film's credits and Word of God, making any romance between them unlikely.
Edited by Tylerbear12 on Aug 21st 2023 at 9:44:39 AM
Les Tuniques Bleues
- The Artifact: Since they are fictionnal characters, Blutch and Chesterfield tend to have rather unimportant roles in the plots of comics taking place during historical events. But they are still here as spectators of the events and serves as sources of comedic relief. Since they are the protagonists, it would be weird to drop them in some specific books.
- Bloodless Carnage: Zigzaged. There are scenes where we see wounded and dead soldiers with no visible traces of blood, but there are also moment where there is visible blood, notably in scenes taking place in the medic's shack.
- Demoted to Extra: Bryan and Tripps are part of the main characters in the early short stories and first two full-story comics, but they are separated from Blutch and Chesterfield between the second and third comics and only appear again in rare stories taking place at the desert camp.
- Doorstop Baby: Blutch was abandonned at the doorstep of a doctor as a baby.
- Napoleon Delusion: In the episode taking place in a mental asylum, there are two people claiming to be Abraham Lincoln and one background character thinking he's Napoléon Bonaparte.
- Only One Name: Blutch only has one name. The reason being that he was abandoned as a baby on a doctor's doorstep and the doctor didn't officialy adopt Blutch despite taking care of him.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Any time Blutch finds a way to leave the army, be it by desertion or by legitimate means, fate finds a way to force him back into the ranks.
LISA: Trivia
- Refitted for Sequel:
- The Painful contain a sprite for a unused Joy Mutant form for Peter Smoove. The Joyful uses a recolor of this sprite for Dice Mahone.
- The original The Painful has a unused sprite for Olan turned into a Joy Mutant. In the Definitive Edition, Olan can actually turn into a Joy Mutant and uses a slightly edited version of the formerly unused sprite.
Knuckleheads
- Coin-Targeting Trickshot: Wong's training of Jack Curtis and Santana involves shooting coins in the air among other well-aimed shots.
For Live-Action Films:
- Barbie (2023): Despite the fact that Gloria is married, most fans ship her with Barbie instead, due to the chemistry between their actresses, Barbie being Gloria's doll, and the fact that Gloria's husband is only in two scenes and doesn't even get a name.
Any corrections?
Edited by Bullman on Aug 21st 2023 at 7:27:06 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup threadTwo of the examples ("In one episode, Cristina and Teddy..." and "In one episode, Alex...") are by themselves at the third level of indentation, which violates Example Indentation in Trope Lists.
...each time being easily resuscitated with CPR and defibrillation, never with adverse effects.
@Alpinist
There are many other people like him, but Jax has unusually potent powers...Jax ends up fighting to do the right thing as his loved ones are threatened. <- period and He spends...There are three books: <- colon The Hypnotists, Memory Maze, and The Dragonfly Effect, published from 2013-2015.
...through TV screens and the Internet into...
...being unable to save his brother from drowningduring a boating accident...
...have an AA-like group and seek to avoid using their powers for personal gain.
Having his weakened relationship with Geary either strengthen or further deteriorate during...
Thanks
- Underdogs Never Lose: The Brightling Bobcats have a long losing streak and not many applicants at the start of the book, but being coached by a super-analytical robot with a contagious sense of investment in the team turns them into champions.
Edited by Alpinist on Aug 21st 2023 at 6:33:11 AM
Not only is his permanent Glasgow Grin already terrifying enough...
When the Joker pulls a knife and moves it towards Gambol's mouth...
...he glances at one of Gambol's cronies and asks him "Why so serious?"...
...especially in serious arcs and against certain antagonists...
...in the entire series of Gintama. ...go even more dark and serious than ever. And that's the simple truth, <- comma since he's played deadly serious and has no comedic traits on him whatsoever. When it comes to nightmare fuel in Gintama, he's the pure living embodiment of it.
Edited by Arivne on Aug 21st 2023 at 7:06:11 AM
...many fans wish it had been kept in the final film, namely because they found the scene to be a hilarious homage to Spaghetti Westerns, and...
@jOSEFdelaville
But they are still here as spectators of the events and serve as sources of comedic relief.
...but there are also moments where there is visible blood...
Blutch was abandoned at the doorstep of a doctor as a baby.
Blutch only has one name, <- comma the reason being that he was abandoned as a baby on a doctor's doorstep and the doctor didn't officially adopt him despite taking care of him.
...involves shooting coins in the air, <- comma among other well-aimed shots.
Thanks @ The Lost Fleet: Alliance Fleet
- Ascended Extra: He spends eight books only getting the very occasional line during fleet conferences until Implacable, where he gets a name and is thrust into a prominent position by unexpectedly being selected to be the captain of the first human ship to visit the Wooareek home world.
- A Father to His Men: When General Julian suggests that he may order Boudreaux to attack the Wooareeek, Boudreaux half-seriously replies that he'd rather kill himself than follow that order, as attacking the Wooareek would be suicidal and at least that way, he wouldn't take his crew with him.
- Hero-Worshipper: In Invincible, he declares that anything Geary says is honorable is honorable in his book after the heroic feats Geary has done.
- The Dragon: He serves as General Ripper Julian's loyal right-hand man.
- A Father to His Men: He may be willing to use violence against sailors on other ships who oppose him, but he is horrified when Trigger-Happy conspirators murder several members of his crew, with Rogov later making it clear that he would have never authorized that and surrendering after realizing that's what his crew wants.
- Never My Fault: Downplayed. After surrendering his ship in the aftermath of several of his sailors being killed, it is mentioned that he blames Geary for causing that conflict by not complying with the insane and probably forged orders Rogov presented and forcing a standoff between their fleets instead. However, it is suggested that, deep down, Rogov at least partially accepts his guilt, given how he later commits suicide.
- Villainous Valor: Even when his entire fleet sides with Geary's fleet (which already outnumbered them greatly), Rogov takes a long time to surrender due to being willing to risk his life for the conviction of his jingoistic beliefs.
@ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Dobby alluding to how much house elves suffered during and before the reign of Voldemort receives chilling elaboration with Kreacher's story about his encounter with Voldemort in the seventh book, and how the House of Black has the stuffed heads of servants that Sirius's evil ancestors killed for being too old to carry tea trays.
- Fair for Its Day: While there is some Values Dissonance in Hondo's contempt for the rules and abiding by the blue wall of silence, the film is surprisingly nuanced for a 2003 Cowboy Cop movie. Street may not cooperate with the investigation into Gamble's recklessness, but the film makes it clear that Gamble deserved punishment for his recklessness and that he should have been fired long before that point, with Street showing some regret for covering for Gamble and accepting his demotion. While SWAT tactics get an Elites Are More Glamorous portrayal, Hondo and his team focus on saving lives rather than ending them throughout the film (even extending this attitude toward a non-career criminal hostage taker). The applicant who Hondo rejects for not using force is subjected to some ridicule from Hondo, but he also demonstrates that non-confrontational policing is sometimes feasible in a Boring, but Practical way. Even Fuller, Da Chief, is a nuanced and often logical character rather than being portrayed as a strawman just for hating Cowboy Cops.
@ Justice League vs. The Fatal Five
- In Batman's first scene, Bloodsport takes a TV station hostage for a Conspiracy Theorist rant demanding that John F. Kennedy admit he faked his death and come out of hiding. Several of Kennedy's younger siblings had already died of old age by the time of the movie's release and presumed setting, making Bloodsport's whole mission a likely "Shaggy Dog" Story even in the unlikely event his conspiracy theory is true.
- Green Lantern Salaak goes from reciting a By-the-Book Cop announcement that the Fatal Five are under arrest for trying to break One-Man Army Mano out of prison to having a Sophisticated as Hell This Is Gonna Suck reaction once he sees that Mano is already free and is about to attack him.
- The Mole for The Cartel in Gator-a-Go dies rather than participate in one final atrocity.
Edited by Alpinist on Aug 22nd 2023 at 10:35:21 AM
Corrections:
- In the "Brigmore Witches" DLC of Dishonored, three guards are being tried by a court-martial in the execution yard for helping Corvo to escape and Daud can intervene to save them from execution, getting useful information about the prison and Lizzy Stride from one of the guards.

Thanks, @Arivne; I wasn't sure if a comma was needed or not after Pokey's unusually calm "Look out."