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Ask the Tropers:
openNamespacing Quest Threads
So, I've been on-again-off-again working on the TLP Forum Quest
, which some of you might know better as a "Quest Thread" (if you don't know what one of those is, read the TLP). Considering how many Quests are being given trope pages, they really could use a definition + index page (which is what the TLP is trying to do), but there's another problem with Quests on this site that I'm not sure how to resolve: there's no consistent policy for namespacing them. Currently, they seem to be split between the Roleplay and Fanfic namespaces depending largely on author whim (and whether it's a derivative or original work), and the ones with accompanying artwork are often labelled as an Interactive Comic and accordingly placed in the Webcomic namespace. I'm completely convinced that Quests should be classified as Roleplay rather than Fanfic, but the distinction between Interactive Comic and Forum Quest is actually quite murky, given that the two formats are both descended from the same Ur-Example, Ruby Quest. I'm not sure exactly where the line ought to be drawn (as I said on the forum post, the idea that something is "not roleplay" just for having images doesn't quite sit right with me), nor what would need doing if a decision is reached. I tried asking on the TLP itself and didn't really get anywhere, and got no replies when I tried what looked like the relevant thread on the forums
. So now I'm here, where perhaps I ought to have gone first, to see what you guys think.
openCowboy Bebop At His Computer
Chris DV seems to be misunderstanding the trope Cowboy BeBop at His Computer as he's claiming that because Sophia Bush thought a plotline that was filmed but not used made it into the final version of a One Tree Hill episode that it qualifies for this trope. I explained that this trope is meant for examples of people outside a fictional work itself getting details wrong about it, not actors slightly misremembering things about it(and he claimed it was "misinformation" when it wasn't) I didn't see any examples like his on the trope page itself under Live-Action TV or anywhere else so I removed the bit on the OTH YMMV page about Sophia but kept in the bit about the show's fan-wiki being inaccurate(as i'm unsure if fan-wikis being inaccurate would be an example of this trope or not, that seems like more of a grey area but I left it in just in case).
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=Trivia.OneTreeHill&page=8
resolved Can Hypocrite apply to the author of a work or just its characters? Web Original
For instance, say the author of a work clearly in an author's note expresses contempt for a certain trope or story beat, but then in the work itself they use that same trope or story beat straight without irony or deconstruction when necessary to suit the narrative.
EDIT: If not, is there a more appropriate trope to use?
Edited by RaxisopenDogwhistle on Memetic Mutation Videogame
So i was reading the YMMV page for the cancelled Video Game/Hyenas, and i came across the following example of memetic mutation:
- JOIN THE ACK- explanation At the end of the announcement trailer for the game, the slogan "JOIN THE PACK" is supposed to be displayed. However, due to the fact that You Tube puts the thumbnail of the next recommended video on the screen at the end of every video, said thumbnail ends up covering the word "PACK" and turning it into "ACK"—a common exclamation for sudden dismay or frustration—making it seem like the writer of the slogan got into some unfortunate incident and couldn't finish writing it. The abrupt cancellation of the game itself just adds to it.
The part "common exclamation for sudden dismay or frustration—making it seem like the writer of the slogan got into some unfortunate incident and couldn't finish writing it. " really bugged me, this whole sentence felt really weird. That feels terribly specific and it's overall just a clunky piece of writing.
So i decided to investigate on google for "hyenas "join the ack" " and my suspicious were validated, all of the results containing the phrase where from Kiwi Farms and 4chan, with true context of this "Ack" that the troper pretends it's a "common exclamation for sudden dismay or frustration—making" was actually a mockery of the suicide of transgender individuals, one other example of "join the ack" that i found was an steam user making a community post with this as the title and going full transphobe.
Now, the point i'm trying to make is that based on my research, there is absolutely no way KB Zheng 123 didn't know what the context of that was about, which means they intentionally and knowingly added a transphobic joke to the site and tried to pass off as a regular joke, and that requires action by the moderators, as there should be zero tolerance for transphobia and transphobic users in this site.
openComments As Moments on Webvideo pages Web Original
I've noticed that there are a few moments pages for youtube series (mostly funny moments) where some of the moments listed are comments on one of their videos instead of anything from the video itself. Wouldn't those technically count as meta moments, or at least not count as actual content from the show itself?
Edited by AfterwordopenNot-Edit War but still should move here
Hey so, I edited Not a Subversion to replace the line
- (in fact, it might even be better for aversions to simply be called "avoidances", were it not for the enormous hassle such a change would be for this site).
- (in fact, it might even be better for aversions to simply be called "absent tropes", were it not for the enormous hassle such a change would be for this site).
My logic was that the Averted Trope page itself classified a Defied Trope as a trope "acknowledged and avoided by the characters" and saw "absent tropes" as a more clear way to communicate the idea of an Averted Trope.
I then looked at the history, and noticed a similar edit has happened before, where someone edited the line to be
- in fact, it might even be better for aversions to simply be called "avoidances," were it not for the enormous hassle such a change would be for this site and the fact that it would instead be confused with Defied Trope, in which a character actively avoids the trope).
this change was reverted by a moderator. That makes me think the current line is actively wanted.
I am of the opinion "avoidances" is a misleading term as well, and that line should be changed in the article. But think that should be discussed here first (obviously I reverted my edit).
edit: I'd also argue this usage of the word avoid doesn't accurately cover the meaning of aversion. Like when a trope is absent because it doesn't exist in the culture that made the story, it isn't "avoiding" the trope. And I also think it's too easy to mistake for the concept of "defying" regardless of the explanation of the author "avoiding" the trope (which as mentioned, doesn't actually describe the meaning of aversion).
Edited by IronAnimationresolved Potential edit war? Web Original
On this page of this RWBY episode:
- Super N 9999 added a "Nice Job Fixing It Villain!" entry about Neo
.
- gjjones deemed it as potential misuse, so they took it down
.
- SuperN9999 re-adds it back, with the justification of the entry being present in Neo's character page
, despite reiterating that it was previously removed due to misuse.
Do we have a concrete Edit War here?
Edited by skan123openShould spoiler tags be used in Late-Arrival Spoiler examples?
I know that the trope page says the examples are unmarked, due to the nature of the trope itself. But does it apply only to that trope page? Or does it apply to the rest of the trope's examples on this entire wiki as well?
Specifically if the Late-Arrival Spoiler trope is used/added/crosswicked in the work pages, should the trope example(s) have a spoiler markup or not? It seems like there are some inconsistencies, for example:
- Page(s) with hidden spoilers for the trope: The Expendables 3
- Page(s) with unhidden spoilers for the trope: Bayonetta 2, Deadpool 2, God of War (PS4), Batman: Arkham Knight
- Pages(s) with both hidden and unhidden spoilers for the trope: Spider-Man: Far From Home, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
resolved Internet Backdraft/Marvel Cinematic Universe has a stupid entry Film
On Marvel Cinematic Universe there's this entry:
- A theory has been springing up that Marvel are sabotaging the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises in order to weaken Fox's success with their films, noting their reduced presence in the comicsnote which isn't true; the X-Men are currently one of the biggest lines they're producing, with more spin-offs than ever, Wolverine and Deadpool dying note which is no different than any other 'big shocking deaths', and is being used to launch several miniseries attracting tons of publicity to the X-Men line as it is, the Fantastic Four comic being cancellednote which has been underselling for a while, and while not the worst seller, it's still been pretty bad and doesn't have the cult following that their other books have, lack of merchandise produced for X-Men: Days of Future Pastnote which wasn't true; there weren't any children's toys produced, which is largely down to licensing issues; they still sold Hot Toys collectibles for them though, are still selling toys for the franchise in general, and sold toys for the film before that, their reduced appearances in recent animated seriesnote ignoring that Wolverine did get an animated movie and has appeared in their other cartoons, and a memo apparently sent out asking for artists to not send them Fantastic Four artworknote the validity of this memo is questionable at best. The theory itself makes little sense, but hasn't stopped people buying into it, including Rob Liefeld note Liefeld's creations are tied with Fox's licenses, so of course he'd be on their side over this.
- Disney's acquisition of Fox. Beyond the "Yay, X-Men and the Fantastic Four can be in the MCU!" cheering, fans were concerned about how Disney continued to acquire a huge amount of popular IPs to the point of becoming a near monopoly.
The first one is iffy in its own right, but the second bullet is my concern today. A couple of things:
1. This isn't about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's about Disney. The only connection the MCU really has to this is that Marvel Studios, the guys who oversee it, are owned by Disney. Unless the entry is alleging that Disney spent $71.3 billion acquiring the Fox film assets primarily to get the film rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, in which case... yeah, I totally believe that. TOTALLY.
2. In all seriousness, Disney didn't do this because they thought Marvel Studios needed two more franchises. They did it because they want to bulk up their collective film library in preparation for going into the streaming market. Remember, Disney+ launches later this year, and Disney wants to leverage their majority control of Hulu to push for an international release around the same time, with the stated goal of being a place to put their adult-leaning content. That's why this happened.
3. For the record, this entry is heavily biased, mentioning the backlash to the decision to greenlight the acquisition while dismissing ANY praise or excitement as just people being excited for certain franchises; call me crazy but I don't think it's as bad as this entry makes it out to be.
4. This is a minor complaint compared to the preceding three, but it's also an example of bad indentation. It's got nothing to do with the preceding entry other than that they both involve Fox. I mean, seriously?
Look, my vote is to just delete it, but I wanted to at least make sure I consulted the community to see if that's the only workable solution, because I get the feeling that SOMEONE is going to want to talk about it on the wiki SOMEWHERE and it's worth figuring out where, if anywhere, is an appropriate place to do so.
Edited by MinisterOfSinisterresolved A goof in the Mr. Robot page Live Action TV
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/MrRobot
There is a goof in the Disposing of a Body section:
Someone wrote that Mr. Robot and Elliot found Tyrell's dead body after he was shot and burned it with the white Dark Army van. That never happened. Tyrell walked away after he was shot and the last we see of him was looking at the blue light. The body that they burnt with the van was of the dead DA soldier who killed himself. We don't know till this day what happened to Tyrell.
openJay Garrick: The Flash Print Comic
For some reason, edits to Jay Garrick: The Flash aren't being reflected on my "Followed Pages" list, even though I'm following the page and even though I just made an edit to the page a few minutes ago. In theory, it should be at the top of my "Followed Pages" list, but it's on the second page, and according to the list, its most recent edit was November 23rd. I've checked the work page itself and the its edit history, and those are both up-to-date. Is this a known bug?
openHelp me make a page for Off Book: The Improvised Musical Radio
I recently started listening to Off Book: The Improvised Musical, a podcast run by Jess McKenna and Zach Reino (also known from Welcome to Mountport, which their podcast inspired) where every episode is full-length, totally improvised musical. I’ve made a page before (SpongeBob SquigglePants), but I just started this very long podcast, so I don’t have enough information to add all the tropes, and I don’t wanna spoil it for myself. It would make the most sense to have a recap page so every episode’s tropes could be listed separately. I could start the page, but I’d have to update it very slowly overtime. If anyone here has listened to most/all of Off Book and would like to volunteer to start/contribute to the page, it would be appreciated. This podcast is too awesome and trope-filled to lack a page entirely (especially since Welcome to Mountport already has one).
Edited by HopHoppipopenLinks for Awesome Music
I'm aware that for Awesome Music, we ask to link official uploads of tracks. However, do we have any preferences regarding platforms? I'm asking such because I was planning on adding an entry to YMMV.Celeste, only to notice this commented-out note:
I checked the page history, and discovered that this was added
back in 2021. What I find odd, however, is that the user who added the note swapped out Youtube links for Bandcamp ones—even though the Youtube links sent you to official uploads from the composer's Youtube channel
.
So, do we have a preference regarding links to websites? I personally find Youtube to be a bit more convenient myself, but I figured it was worth asking about here.
Edited by jandn2014openWhat do?
I messaged a troper a few days ago because they put some trivia examples on a YMMV page. Though they promised to move them to the right page, that hasn't happened yet. I'd do it myself, but that feels almost rude, if only because I don't know if they actually do intend to get around to it or not. And sending a second PM feels like it would be picking a fight.
openInstagram posts
https://www.instagram.com/p/C17MFwcrRli/?igsh=MzY1NDJmNzMyNQ==
This is an Instagram post of a real-life polygamous family who played around with a "turn yourself into a vampire" AI filter and posted the pictures. Is there any space for this on the page Vampire's Harem? I'm guessing this probably falls outside our scope here, but I just thought it was funny and I might as well ask.

Back in June 2023, I removed the What Happened to the Mouse? entry from Gluto's section in the Characters.Power Rangers Time Force page (history is here
). V-Nerd re-added it nearly a month ago here
.
In many stories, some characters enter the story, serve their role, and move on without any fanfare. If they have served their purpose and exit the story, then it's not a What Happened to the Mouse? situation just because there isn't some final "where are they now" information given. The trope is for cases where a character simply disappears without reason or acknowledgment by the rest of the cast. Plus, it's also a plot point. In this instance, Gluto slipping away during the final battle between Frax and the Rangers by freezing himself is a reasonable explanation for him leaving the story.
Rather than get involved in an Edit War, I'm bringing this up here. That said, any thoughts on what should be done?
Edited by gjjones