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openCan I cut these child paragraphs from LoK's entry on FictionalCounterpart?
I understand that Fictional Counterpart isn't solely for products, but almost every example is a product or company.
The Legend of Korra example starts fine, with a paragraph demonstrating how Hiroshi Sato is an Expy of Henry Ford.
But then there's 3 child paragraphs that are essentially just "this is a history analogue." Such as:
"Since the series is set in the Avatar universe's equivalent of The Roaring '20s, the Equalists represent the fears of communism that existed at the time in the US and Europe- a fearsome movement spreading among the underclass who planned to subvert and destroy the established order and enforce total equality."
It ends up just cluttering the examples with 3 paragraphs that are much better suited to another trope, like Does This Remind You of Anything?.
At the end of the day, only Hiroshi Sato/his company is an explicite expy of a historical figure/company. The rest are just vague historical analogues.
Might as well add every single shopping center that has appeared in fiction as a Wal-Mart parody.
openTroper Karl 01.
This troper Karl 01 has been editing The Boys (2019): The Seven and The Boys (2019): Supes, adding very weird and incorrect Expy entries. He also seems to have terrible grammar as far as I can see on his history of edits.
I tried to revert his edits on The Boys's pages but I need help from people with more expertise for further actions.
Edited by GoodGamer14open Name of a trope
What's the trope name for when a work has a Show Within a Show that's an expy of a real life existing work?
open Acceptable Targets question
- Acceptable Political Targets:
- As with before, the Warners aren't afraid to take potshots at American politicians. Donald Trump in particular is depicted as a cyclops in "Warners Unbound".
- The Russian government, non-stop. Anima-Nyet was about a Russian version of Animaniacs used as Putin propaganda.
- They even manage to make a potshot at both the Russian government and Trump in one fell swoop at the end of the segment:
Russian guide: I apologize for my countrymen. Russians are good people. We just have egotistical idiot in power.Yakko: We know the feeling, comrade.
- In the same episode there's also a jab at Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
- They even manage to make a potshot at both the Russian government and Trump in one fell swoop at the end of the segment:
- They even make fun of Fox News, calling it both "Faux News" and “Fake News” in two different sketches. "That's Not the Issue" features an expy of Tucker Carlson arguing with the Warners.
Acceptable Targets and it's subtropes are now Administrivia.In Universe Examples Only and NoRealLife.Too Controversial. Does that mean such examples should be moved to the main page of the work (that's how the in-universe characters /the work treat them as opposed to audiences) or what?
Edited by Ferot_DreadnaughtopenDo Expies have to be deliberate? Web Original
I noticed this entry under CriticalRole:
Expy: The Call of Cthulhu one-shot has all the player characters line up roughly with the characters of Cluedo - Alexandra Elise O'Neill is the mature and worldly-wise Mrs Peacock; Hanako Hayashi is the younger Proper Lady like Miss Scarlett; Dr Mason Pocket is obviously Professor Plum; Cpt Bentley Badger is Colonel Mustard; Septimus Goodfellow is a non-Christian take on Reverend Green; and Ida Codswell is actually a recent addition, Dr Orchid, intended as a replacement for Mrs White.
The thing is, I can't find any evidence that this was done deliberately (there is an article from Taliesin Jaffe about the process of creating the characters, and it doesn't mention Clue at all), and honestly it seems like a stretch to me (especially Septimus, given that Mr. Green hasn't been Rev. Green in the American version of the game for a while, and the players are all American). I wanted to remove this for speculation, but I guess it's fine if Expies don't have to be deliberate on the part of the creator.
Edited by AfterwordopenIs Two Worlds really fan fiction?
I noticed that Two Worlds is considered fan fiction, but the description states that the characters are expies of characters from other shows. If the characters are only expies and not from other works, then doesn't it count as original fiction? Things get confusing as the original work seems to have been taken down.
openMisuse of King Koopa Copy
I originally posted a thread about the misuse of King Koopa Copy in the Trope Repair Shop, but I now realize that's a forum for when there's something wrong with the trope leading to it's misuse, instead of the fact that tropers happen to misuse it.
This trope seems to be misused to describe any character who is even vaguely similar to Bowser; a lot of characters are listed simply because they are dragonlike, have some sort of Playing with Fire abilities, or are video game bosses.
- Though more an expy of the original Donkey Kong, Wreck-It Ralph fits into this category, being the stout and short-tempered bad guy from the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. This example outright states that Ralph isn't really an example because he's a Donkey Kong Expy. The only traits he really shares with Bowser are the temper, antagonist role, and stocky build.
- Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie is a rare female example. In addition to having green skin, she also shoots fireballs during the final battle of the first game. Subverted with Captain Blackeye, who was to be the Final Boss of Dream (the game that eventually became Banjo-Kazooie). In Banjo-Tooie, you can find him drowning his sorrows in Jolly Roger's Lagoon lamenting that "a bear and bird stole his glory". Gruntilda only shares her color palette(?) and fire powers with Bowser; Captain Blackeye is a Zero Context Example and the anecdote with his entry has nothing to do with the trope.
- Junkrat and Roadhog from Overwatch could be considered Decomposite Characters of this trope. Junkrat has a similar hairstyle and Evil Eyebrows, his explosives can meet the fire criteria, and the spiky tire on his back resembles Bowser's spiky shell. Roadhog is a brute of a man with an incredibly deep voice and Stout Strength. Both are vicious criminals who smash and destroy with glee. Junkrat and Roadhog are not final bosses, reptiles, or even antagonists in Overwatch unless you're specifically playing against them. They also don't have armies of minions the way Bowser does, and the physical resemblance seems to be Square Peg Round Trope.
- Zavok from Sonic Lost World has huge fangs, spiky shoulders, Evil Eyebrows, and menacing claws. He's also the leader and the strongest member of the Deadly Six. However, despite being the weakest member of the group, Zazz has even more traits of this, such as his mohawk. Even his wild, brutish personality is more in line with this trope than Zavok's calm, ominous demeanor. This gets more ironic when you see both of them appear in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. It sounds like these character mostly share aspects of their appearance with Bowser, and one has an attitude like him. But they don't sound like they fulfill the role that Bowser does.
- Satan from South Park counts as this trope too. He is a large red bull-like demon with a yellow pupils with red eyes. He lives in an area full of fire and is the evil ruler of Hell. However, ironically, Satan is not as evil as Bowser. Satan is a Big Red Devil, which is where the fire, bulky build, and villain role come from. Unless he acts as a major antagonist or is framed like Bowser in the narrative, he doesn't seem to be an example in the slightest.
- Galvatron becomes this in The Transformers following the movie. Having lost most of IQ points due to brain damage, he trades in Megatron's tendency towards evil plotting for raw, uncoordinated beserker rage. Brash and boisterous, he acts more the mad king than military leader. His sleek, functional look gives way to a more imposing, armored design and the Decepticons are relocated to the castle ruins of the lava planet, Chaar. In response, much of the season focuses on new threats like the Quintessons and the Autobot-Decepticon War is presented in a much more one-sided manner. This sounds more like an example of Sanity Slippage and Mad With Power, but that could be because the entry focuses on his behavior and not his appearance, role in the narrative, and whether he has any minions or rivals in the way Bowser does.
Would it be okay to nuke these examples? I'm asking instead of just doing it, because I'm not sure if deleting a whole bunch of examples from a page without saying anything at all first would be kosher with the community or mods.
Edited by raspberryred99openExamples deleted with no reason
On this page, on August 25, user Marluigio deleted the Expy and Personality Powers examples I wrote for Mimic without giving any reason. I messaged them about it two days ago (when I noticed this) and still haven't gotten a response.
openInfamous 2 Broken Aesop Entry Main Page Videogame
Infamous 2
has an entry for Broken Aesop with the majority of its text spoilered on its main page under the "main game" folder that I reposted (very awkwardly) below - I'm not sure if it's supposed to be here, since I'm used to seeing this on the YMMV page despite Broken Aesop not technically being listed on the YMMV subpage. Is this a valid entry? (It seems very weirdly done/argued as an entry and seems to work from a specific point of view only.
Broken Aesop: If you pick the ‘good’ path, you die, screw over ALL the power users, both good and bad, and the sequels leave the door open for the Beast / plague coming back into existence. Lastly, Zeke, your expy for regular humanity is hardly sympathetic. If you pick the ‘bad’ option, yeah, the number of deaths increase, but they were already high under the ‘good’ option anyways. The plague / Beast threats persist, but the surviving humans will be proactively immune to it. Lucy is way more sympathetic than Zeke. Humanity gets the doors thrown wide open for future possibilities. Its essentially a new age for humanity.
Edited by shroudstalkerdetectiveopenSpoilers Off pages and references to other works
Things like Shout-Out, Expy, Whole-Plot Reference, etc can contain references to important plot details in other works, even ones not really related to the one the page belongs to. Should they be spoilertagged regardless?
openTrollz edits reaching it? Western Animation
youfeelingluckypunk27 has been adding examples for Trollz that I feel are kinda...reaching it.
"* Expy: Alabaster is one of Double D from Ed, Edd n Eddy, who is also voiced by Sam Vincent."
For that example it's 'they're both nerdy and voiced by Sam Vincent, one must be based off the other!'
"** Snarf is mostly named after the Thundercats character."
this one is 'They have the same name, it can't be a coincidence!' XD; I also had to correct their assumption that the character Mica wasn't named after a gem/rock like the rest of the cast, as mica is a mineral in the same classification as spinel. I don't think there are any notifiers sufficient for these kinds of edits, so can someone help?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=WesternAnimation.Trollz
openCleaning up O.C. Stand-in
Per prior ATT
, I intent to clean up O.C. Stand-in examples like the following.
Friendship Is Magic: Mane Family Members
- O.C. Stand-in: Basing their personalities on their character designs, fans have depicted Marble Pie as a shy or melancholic pony named "Inkie Pie" with an amethyst geode cutie mark, while Limestone Pie is named "Blinkie Pie" and has a gold ore cutie mark. Alternatively, several fans saw Marble as background pony Octavia Melody, due to a similar (but not exact) color scheme and the way she reacts to Pinkie on stage in "The Best Night Ever" as if she's used to her sort of behavior. This was effectively ended when "Hearthbreakers" gave them actual personalities.
- O.C. Stand-in: Granny Pie is depicted by fans as a white-maned elderly pony with a lighter shade of pink coat due how she seems dear to Pinkie and, based on her song, seems different from the rest of her more reserved family. Sometimes she's also depicted as an elderly version of Surprise from G1, whom Pinkie Pie was based on.
How they are portrayed in fan works isn't relevant to how they are portrayed in canon and should go instead under the works using them as a Stand In. Any objections?
Edited by Ferot_DreadnaughtopenMacho Man expy
So, I notice a new trope is being built around Hulk Hogan expies seen in various media, but I'm wondering if we also have a trope for another larger than life wrestler who was equally popular and tends to show up a lot in media as well; Macho Man Randy Savage. The fact that no few of his character knock-offs were actually voiced by him should make it trope worthy as well. Such examples exist as:
Wrasslor from Dexter's Laboratory episode of the same name.
Beowulf from Skullgirls
And Heather Swanson from South Park
openTroper with consistent indentation issues:
tvtropesZeroSeven
has shown a complete disregard for indentation rules in most of their edits (among the most recent cases are here
and here
), on top of misusing Expy and various other tropes that are subject to forum scrutiny.
open Rei Ayanami Expy
Why is Rei Ayanami Expy a trope of its own and not just a subpage or a folder on Expy?
Edited by BlackMage43openExample removal Videogame
Somebody has removed all the Expy entries from the Persona 5 character pages. While some examples have been moved to the new Foil page, many are still missing. Same goes for the Composite Character entries. I can't find the edit that deleted them all. What should I do?
EDIT: I just found the edits and it claimed that "you can't be an expy of multiple characters".
EDIT 2: Apparently both Expy and Foil are subjects of rampant misuse in serious need of cleaning up and we may need TLP for that.
Edited by LermisopenExpies
So granted the condition of being an expy as written on the trope page is to be "a clearly deliberate reference on the part of the author"
But does this mean that the character has to be directly stated by Word of God to qualify? Like does a very obvious Batman Parody complete with his costume and abilities, but never stated as being based off Batman qualify as an expy?
openA Big Chunk of Expy Misuse Videogame
I posted this in the Expy Cleanup Thread
a week ago and got no response. Since the "Is this an example?" has enough going on already and this seems pretty cut and dry, I thought I'd just post here and get a quick second opinion before I act:
I was looking at Characters.Primal Rage and deleted a really blatant misuse of Expy, comparing Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage (a martial arts movie star turned Champion of Earthrealm) to the PR character Sauron (a yellow dinosaur who's primary attribute is an insatiable appetite) because they both have shadow attacks.
Looking closer, I realized that every game character has such an entry comparing them to a Mortal Kombat 1 character.
I'm pretty sure that's all misuse but I wanted to check before going on a deletion spree so that, if nothing else, I can point somewhere to show I'm not doing this unilaterally.

nsommer659
created Expy.Invincible 2021.
However as the examples were Zero-Context Examples according to the Expy clean-up thread, so I commented them out and added the "Zero-Context Example entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them." to the top of the page.
Nsommer659 has since then uncommented all the examples without expanding on them.