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Tabs MOD Since: Jan, 2001
2022-01-17 12:47:01

We are not. We document tropes found within the work, and trivia is side information. If removing the Word of God part from the entry leaves insufficient information to describe the trope/work, it's a zero-context example.

Asherinka Since: Jan, 2018
2022-01-17 12:52:49

If you mean "using a direct quote only and not adding anything else", I've been under impression that examles consisting solely of quotes are considered ZCE.

If you mean "relying on what the author said about their work when writing an example" (instead of, say, popular fans' interpretations that contradict said Word of God), it is totally ok, because tropes we list on works' pages are narrative techniques or patterns intentionally used by the author to invoke certain responses from the audience. Who knows better what they intended to do than the author themselves? Fans' interpretations that were not intended go to the YMMV tabs.

If you mean "adding tropes that are not in the work at all based on what the author said" (for instance, explaining the backstory in an interview), I believe those examples should go to the Trivia tabs, as part of respective Word of God entries.

See also What Goes Where on the Wiki.

Edit: Ninjad :-)

Edited by Asherinka Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous.
Arawn999 Since: Dec, 2013
2022-01-17 15:29:56

We document tropes found within the work, and trivia is side information.
What about examples on character pages, rather than work pages?

Edited by Arawn999
homogenized Since: Oct, 2009
2022-01-17 15:42:42

^ "What about examples on character pages, rather than work pages?"

Character pages are extensions of the work pages they're attached to, so all the same rules apply.

Arawn999 Since: Dec, 2013
2022-01-17 15:43:57

Character pages are extensions of the work pages they're attached to, so all the same rules apply.

I see. In that case a lot of anime, manga, visual novel, and video-game-related pages will need to be significantly rewritten. Half the details of how series like Naruto and the Nasuverse (Fate/stay night, Tsukihime, etc.), for instance, works are clarified in either released as part of supplementary databooks or on their own. One of the more recent examples I can think of is an interview Kinoko Nasu conducted that was included in the release of one of the Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel movies, which clarified the nature of the villain Aŋra Mainiiu — that it was transforming into a "Beast of Retribution" and would've destroyed half the world had it done so — which is hinted at in Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] and Fate/Grand Order but isn't outright stated in any of the media. Would the fact that the interview was released as a special feature of the film's media release make it "part of the work" a la All There in the Manual (which also sometimes include interviews and supplementary statements made by the writers)?

If you mean "relying on what the author said about their work when writing an example" [...] "adding tropes that are not in the work at all based on what the author said"
What about instances where the author/developer elaborates on something that was in the work but wasn't named or clearly explained? I.E. a character in, say, a manga/anime undergoes a transformation or uses a power, but how that transformation/power works or what it's called goes unexplained until the creator clarifies things in a Q&A, interview, databook, etc.

For example, the Aether power in the The Legend of Spyro games goes unnamed in the games itself, and its name was only revealed by one of the developers years after the game came out. And the finale of Bleach didn't explain that Yachiru is Kenpachi Zaraki's Zanpakuto Spirit or how Ichigo Kurosaki's final bankai worked, with the writer only clarifying these things years later in an online Q&A.

Edited by Arawn999
Arawn999 Since: Dec, 2013
2022-01-17 17:22:41

We document tropes found within the work, and trivia is side information.
For that matter, where does All There in the Manual fall, since that often contains "side information" elaborating on the setting, characters, etc. that is either unclear or goes unstated in the work itself, but unlike Word of God isn't considered a Trivia trope. Futhermore, a lot of databooks, handbooks, artbooks, a DVD release's Special Features, etc. — blur the line between All There in the Manual and Word of God by containing interviews with or commentary by the creators that — especially in the case of director commentary or other Special Features — could be extrapolated as being "part of the work".

Edited by Arawn999
Synchronicity MOD (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
2022-01-17 19:11:10

I think there's tiers to that stuff. Officially sanctioned guidebooks, artbooks, and merchandise (ie. "manuals"), I would count as part of the work like we do trailers. Offhand comment by creator to The Hollywood Reporter, entirely Word of God.

Edited by Synchronicity
Arawn999 Since: Dec, 2013
2022-01-17 19:36:20

OK... so to use some of my examples, stuff like Nasu's comment about Aŋra Mainiiu becoming the "Beast of Retribution" are free game to be included on the works pages due to being included as part of the Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel III. spring song DVD's Special Features, but the The Legend of Spyro series' lead artist's clarifications on DeviantArt — which is where he revealed the Aether power's name and properties — and Tite Kubo's revelations about Yachiru Kusajishi's true nature and how Ichigo's true bankai works are not?

What should the Aether power be called, then? And what should Yachiru's character folder say?

Edited by Arawn999
Synchronicity MOD (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
2022-01-17 19:49:44

I don't know if you misinterpreted my TRS reply to you, Arawn, but I meant this convo is better for the Trope Talk subforum: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/conversations.php?topic=0000000000000000000000vy

Arawn999 Since: Dec, 2013
2022-01-17 19:51:17

Oh. You didn't link directly to the subforum, so I wasn't sure what you meant. Thanks for clarifying. I've taken my inquiry here.

Edited by Arawn999
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