Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help.
It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread
for ongoing cleanup projects.
Ask the Tropers is for:
- General questions about the wiki, how it works, and how to do things.
- Reports of problems with wiki articles, or requests for help with wiki articles.
- Reports of misbehavior or abuse by other tropers.
Ask the Tropers is not for:
- Help identifying a trope. See TropeFinder.
- Help identifying a work. See MediaFinder.
- Asking if a trope example is valid. See the Trope Talk forum.
- Proposing new tropes. See TropeLaunchPad.
- Making bug reports. See QueryBugs.
- Asking for new wiki features. See QueryWishlist.
- Chatting with other tropers. See our forums.
- Reporting problems with advertisements. See this forum topic.
- Reporting issues on the forums. Send a Holler instead.
Ask the Tropers:
open Trying to find a tv show i watched Live Action TV
It's about a teen I think he's from Australia or newzealand and he's working for these bad guys and I think he's trying to find hes missing dad or find out who killed him he becomes friends with some one from he's school who is a genius and they team up the first episode he's breaking into a house to steal a necklace he climbs the building with ease and he opens a safe and finds jewly and he rides a skateboard not sure if the dad is dead and he could probably be trying to find out what happend to him the guys hes working with could be responsible he also has a older sister who is trying to keep him out-of trouble he's hair is kinda long i think it's curly in one episode I think he finds he's dad car and it's not conspiracy 365 the teen isnt white
Edited by Peterdhillonopen 80s Horror/possession TV (mini?) series/film Live Action TV
Right! A little obscure here. 80's British TV show/mini-series/film about a possessed teenage girl. Set in a pretty normal urban British household. Myself and my sister both remember so I know I didn't dream it 😁. I only really remember one scene, the mother comes into the bedroom and the daughter is twisted into a weird pose with a scissors stuck in her shoulder/chest/clavicle. It's wrecking our heads for years here as all both of us can remember is that scene. I've tried many different Google searches and come up with nothing.
I know it's not: Hammer House of Horror/Mystery, Tales of the Unexpected, Dramarama, Ghostwatch, Moondial, Dead of Night.
Cheers
resolved Inappropriate Ad Placement Live Action TV
When I visited Trivia.The Book Of Boba Fett, ad space
◊ broke up the first sentence of the Production Posse section. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? Both of my attempts didn't work.
openAward Judge Dissonance Live Action TV
Could Critical Dissonance apply to an instance of a TV show earning an Emmy nomination that most viewers don't think it deserves, considering we can't invert Award Snub?
openTroping real life - Gordon Ramsay / Masterchef Live Action TV
Back here because I'm really struggling to get a consensus on the wider issue on the forums, so might be simpler to tackle it case-by-case here...
Gordon Ramsay is a real-life Michelin-starred chef. He's also a TV chef and judge on shows like MasterChef, famous for his sweary, take-no-nonsense style.
- Creator.Gordon Ramsay covers him as a creator and TV personality
- Characters.Masterchef tropes him as a fictional character. It tropes the other chefs judging the show in the same way.
Masterchef is a Reality TV show, so contestants potentially fall under a specific Real Life Troping exception: "using casting decisions and selective editing to create narratives that may not be true to real life".
But Ramsay is a TV host and judge, not a contestant who's being edited by others to shape a contest's narrative. And it also says:
Way back, on the RL troping thread, the mod steer from Fighteer ( from here
) regarding VTubers was this, and I'd argue it applies to TV hosts who may have an exaggerated stage presence as well:
Can I cut Ramsay and the other judges (all RL chefs) from the 'Characters' page on that basis?
Edited by Mrph1openweird wonky edit Live Action TV
On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2E09 "Subspace Rhapsody", NOYB for some bizarre reason decided to change all instances of "K-Pop", including wicks to K-Pop, to "K-pop" with edit reason "spelling from Wikipedia".
open B99, s6 ep3. Live Action TV
In 'The Tattler' episode, we meet Mike Joseph, a musician wannabee.
(The rest is my opinion, based on body language.)
Initially, he is friendly with Jake, but when Jake shares how active & fulfilling his life is, Mike seems to become bitter because how his carrier isn't going anywhere.
He quickly shifts tones by insisting on talking about Jake's high-school experience as a rejected classmate & he somehow seems amused about the subject, at Jake's expense.
I've read the TVT page of the episode, but I don't feel like there is the trope I am looking for.
So, my question, after giving the context, is, What Is This Trope?
When someone you'd assume to be your friend, doesn't hesitate to lower your self-esteem by digging up all of your insecurities or flaws, just to feel less small about themselves?
And, even in contexts where their reputation isn't in danger, they just don't hesitate to bring into conversations what their 'friend' isn't comfortable with?
Edited by PassionFloweropenReal Life troping - hosts and judges on reality shows Live Action TV
Bringing this to ATT following the mods' suggestion that we should gather more opinions before taking action...
For Reality Show contestants, our policy is that the shows build an artificial narrative (via manipulative editing etc.), which means that we can trope contestants as if they were fictional characters.
(Some exceptions may still apply, but that's a different conversation
)
However... pages like the main Characters.Ru Pauls Drag Race page aren't troping contestants. They're troping the show's hosts, judges and onstage assistants (e.g. the Drag Race "Pit Crew").
For Drag Race, some of them are drag queens, but none are explicitly "in character" while presenting or judging - or, at least, no more than any other gameshow host (judges like Alan Carr and Graham Norton on RuPaul's Drag Race UK are talkshow hosts as well, and we can't trope them as 'characters' for presenting their own shows, so why can we for judging something like Drag Race?).
With that in mind, the proposal is that:
- We cut "Characters" entries for any real person who's not a contestant
- NRLEP trope examples for cut individuals get deleted, whereas any other examples for them move to the main series page.
- This sets a precedent for judges, hosts, etc. on other Reality Show franchises, confirming that only contestants can be troped as characters (unless someone is explicitly adopting a fictional persona while hosting etc).
Please comment here
openBad one-off edit Live Action TV
Tropers.imajakov's first and so far only edit, from about a month ago, was to add an entry to Series.House for the nonexistent trope "Genius Level Intellect." The entry itself didn't have any grammar issues and did accurately describe the show and title character, but, well... that isn't a real trope. They also wrote it out un-wikiworded as "Genius Level intellect" (complete with capitalization error)
Edited by Dirtyblue929open Can Father Brown's Mrs. Devine be added to the Damsel Scrappy category? Live Action TV
Hi! I'm not sure how long a character has to be on a show before qualifying, for Mrs. Devine was introduced this past January. As well, FB hasn't been cancelled yet. But she's definitely a Creator's Pet, in that we're constantly told how quirky-delightful and promising-sleuth she is...but she's not either of those. She's racked up three major investigative, utterly unnecessary mistakes already that could have gotten her and other characters killed or worse. (Her ridiculous "undercover work" in the season finale alone squarely puts her in the "Too Dumb To Live" department.) And if this season is any indication, she's going to be carrying even more of a dramatic load in S11 that's she's not even up to meeting. As well, any number of IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, and Facebook reviewers have noted her ineptitude/lack of credibility is one of the main reasons for the show's precipitous decline. So with a track record like that, does she qualify? (Heck, I can think of at least three other categories alone she fits in. 🤣)Thanks!
Edited by Decker24open Recap in folders Live Action TV
Is it usual for a recap page's recap to be hidden in a folder if it's long enough?
Just seen it here: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2E07 "Those Old Scientists" but haven't seen it before. The prior Lower Deck episodes are very long and detailed but aren't in a folder.
openCan we make a NightmareFuel page for LiveActionSeries/TomorrowsPioneers Live Action TV
I believe that Tomorrow's Pioneers is supposed to have a Nightmare Fuel page. I mean, it's a show that essentialy tries to make Child Soldiers,and It's also surprisingly gory
openSapphire and Steel Word of God Invoked Live Action TV
Paul A removed the "[invoked]" from the Distress Ball example where Word of God was mentioned on Sapphire and Steel, mistakenly thinking it was related to Invoked Tropes and not realizing it was to prevent the unsightly marker from appearing on the main page. I sent them a message explaining it, but they haven't responded and may not realize they had to re-add it themself. Can a mod please re-insert it, as if I did it myself I'd be edit warring?
Edited by NOYBopenTroper removing Creator namespaces from TV networks Live Action TV
On TroubledProduction.Live Action TV, Buttbuttinate edited two
examples
to remove the Creator namespace from CNN and Al Jazeera. Was this ever discussed or approved?
openEdit War of Sorts Live Action TV
In the character section for House of the Dragon, people have been adding Hate Sink under Criston's folder even though it has been agreed he doesn't fit. Or at least, I think it was agreed. The only reason I haven't reverted this is because I can’t actually remember if it was agreed that he wasn't a Hate Sink. This appears to be a ping-pong thing between Tropers, so I’m not sure any one suspension would work here.
openAdding a quote Live Action TV
Is there a formal process for adding a quote to a trope page that doesn’t have one yet?
openEdit war on secret invasion 2023 Live Action TV
Troper Hawkatana
is doing an rather strange Edit War on Secret Invasion (2023).
- On June 29th
. They added a Tainted by the Preview for stuff in the first episode. Which isn't allowed as that trope is for prerelease'
- It than got removed
.
- On July 1st
. They readded the entire text and moved it to Overshadowed by Controversy which requires a six month after air date in Order to count.
It's definitely strange. That they've ignored the trope description of both of these
Edited by miraculousopenWrong Recap Title Live Action TV
Hi all. Not really sure where this goes, but this recap page title RiverdaleS05E10Chapter86ThePincushionmen is wrong and should be RiverdaleS05E10Chapter86ThePincushionMan. Where should I report this? Thanks!
Edited by BrendaDylan

How can I propose a new trope?
This is a fairly new and conditional Sitcom/Character trope.
In a core cast of 5+ "lead" characters (each present in a minimum of 95% of all episodes), one can be clearly identified as "the musical friend."
While this character isn't solely defined by their musical talents, and other characters may occasionally join in with their own displays of musical talent, audience and fellow cast-characters alike can identify them as "the musical friend."
Examples: • FULL HOUSE (1987): Uncle Jesse Katsopolis (singing / bandleader) • FRASIER (1993): Frasier Crane (singing) & Niles Crane (piano) • FRIENDS (1994): Phoebe Buffay (songwriting / guitar) • SCRUBS (2001): Dr. Christopher Turk (singing / dancing) • HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (2005): Marshall Eriksen (songwriting / piano) • THE BIG BANG THEORY (2007): Howard Wolowitz (keyboard) • COMMUNITY (2009): Abed Nadir (vocal percussion) & Troy Barnes (raps) • THE NEW GIRL (2011): Jess Day (songwriting / ukulele) • BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (2013): Jake Peralta (whatever he does; I haven't seen it) • SCHITT'S CREEK (2015): Patrick Brewer (singing / guitar)
What other examples can you think of?
Honorable mentions (because they don't quite fit the conditions provided above): • THE OFFICE (2005): Andy Bernard (~80% of episodes) • CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND (2015): Rebecca Bunch (cast-characters wouldn't identify her as "the musical friend" because the song-and-dance numbers are all in her head)
Are there enough to qualify it as a trope, or does it remain in the category of "coincidental casting / character choices"?