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Ask the Tropers:
open Where did the 'Leather pants' come from in 'Draco's leather Pants'?
I understand the meaning of the trope itself. I'm just curious about how it got it's name.
How exactly does re-writing a villain to make them more sympathetic translate to them wearing leather pants?
resolved Stub report
Webcomic.Cindy Lee doesn't have a single trope and also lacks a link to the work since it is supposed to be a webcomic. Despite this, it has a character subpage (Characters.Cindy Lee).
Checking both pages' history shows that they were created by a troper named Sochimbuchi, who has only edited these two pages
and nothing else since January of this year. It turns out that Sochimbuchi is the author of this webcomic (mentioned here
), which seems to have opted to delete all tropes and the link to the work
at the end of last year. The webcomic itself also seems to have been deleted from webtoons for unknown reasons (the link
that was originally added no longer works and doesn't appear on the author's webtoons profile page; it hasn't been saved to the wayback machine either).
Can I delete this page?
Edited by SoyValdo7openHandling Fanfic Recs Who Break The "No Self-Recommendations"-rule Web Original
I was told to come here for this question, so I hope it's not a dumb one:
How is the breaking of the "No Self-Recommendations" rule handled in Fanfic Recommendations? Like, if somebody posts a fanfic rec of their own fic, is the entry in question just cut with a provided reason for the entry being cut, or does the user in question also get a warning?
I figure that it's probably just the former, or maybe even cut without having to provide a reason(?) because a self-recommend isn't a big deal in comparison to active policy violations, but I figure that it's better to ask anyway. I just want to know if I can just go ahead and cut such an entry or if there's more of a procedure to it.
Edited by MagmaTeaMerryopenIs Majora's Mask Low Fantasy Videogame
So Majora’s Mask is listed as Low Fantasy, but as a huge Majora’s Mask fan myself, I really think it doesn’t in any way fis Low Fantasy. I’m sure it was deleted in the past, but it looks like it was added back.
The entry claims Magic is less present than other Zelda games and that the plot of Majora's mask is more grounded with realistic things.
To list how magic is ‘’extremely’’ prominent as well as how the plot and the setting are not realistic.
- Far from using basic magic, Link can:
- Time Travel
- Slow down time as well as fast forward through time.
- Shapeshift into other people via healing their ghosts. One of these transformations (Fierce Deity), is even a creature, created by the memories of all the people of the land that Link befriended.
- Teleport
- Create decoys of himself.
- Summon a living Scarecrow.
- See and talk to ghosts, sometimes turning them into magical masks.
- Transform into a 50 foot tall giant.
- Turn his arrows into beams of Fire, Ice and Light.
- There’s many Fantastic monsters and creatures even by the standards of the Zelda series, whom are all treated as normal by regular citizens, including:
- Plant people that shoot bubbles or nuts and can fly with magical flowers.
- Rock people that can roll into balls and move at superhuman speeds.
- Fish people that run a rockband using sea animals as instruments.
- Fairies that are common knowledge and the citizens of town regularly visit.
- An entire valley and city composed of undead like Ghosts, Mummies, Skeletons and Zombies.
- Snowlems just outside town.
- Alien ghosts!
- Locations are extremely weird like a dungeon that you repeatedly have to change gravity in.
- Time Travel and shapeshifting via magical masks are central elements in general.
- The Big Bad is a demonic Evil Mask possessing an Undead Child and commanding a gigantic army of very strange monsters. He was also friends with the Giants that literally created the world he lives in.
- There’s a living scarecrow just walking around town that is treated as normal.
- Many ordinary citizens possess Masks of Power, they even explain to you bestow magical abilities upon their wearer.
- Gonk-ish witches are regular merchants.
- Other fantastic things include Talking Animals as well as Funny Animals, including a possibly Cybernetic beaver
- The Magic effects of the milk from the milkbar is well known and even a point of advertisement.
And I can’t find it at this moment, but in an interview, with one of the game’s writers, possibly Aonuma, he stated he added in whimsical and dream like elements into the game to offset another writer when he added scary stuff.
Make no mistake, I love Majora’s Mask, but it doesn’t seem to fit the trope at all.
Even in the Zelda series, I feel The Legend Of Zelda 1 is more Low Fantasy, though I don’t think it fits the trope either.
Edited by MonsundopenSpoilers off Videogame
A while ago I made a page for a short horror videogame called candypink. I would like to make it a spoilers-off page and remove all the spoiler tags, since the game itself is so short it can be finished in two minutes. Is this allowed?
resolved Removing a re-added MemeticLoser entry
I’ve already brought this to the ‘Memetic X Cleanup’ thread, but since that thread hasn’t seen much use in the past month, I’ve decided to also bring this here in the hopes that this can get resolved quicker.
Yesterday I found this Memetic Loser entry on the YMMV Mortal Kombat 1 page:
- Kotal continues this trend too. His sole mention in the game's story mode is a line where he lost to Raiden offscreen.
I had previously removed this entry as, while he may have been a Memetic Loser in the previous game, not only was Kotal not the only character Raiden defeated offscreen (two other characters, Sheeva and Motaro, were also listed among those that Raiden had defeated offscreen and even then it’s stated that Raiden had also defeated many others besides them, those three were just the only ones to get name-dropped) but the fanbase itself has not singled out Kotal’s loss specifically, in fact this throwaway line has barely even been talked about by the fanbase at all thus far.
However I saw that someone has recently re-added and reworded the entry without an edit reason. As the person who removed it initially, I obviously think that the entry should be removed again for the reasons that I’ve described, especially since no reason was given for adding it back.
Edited by CorvusIXopen How to add numbers and special characters to a page's title (but not the URL)?
Hello there. I'm hoping someone can answer my question, but moreso that I can articulate my question clearly.
Basically, I want to create a Let's Play page for Youtuber 8-BitRyan. I have gone through his entire Youtube playlist to figure out which games he's played and which ones have their own Tropes page, and I can add to the tropes that apply to Ryan's channel as I go. The problem I have is that I have to create the page as "EightBitRyan" since I can't have numbers in the URL...which is understandable.
However, what I'd like to know is how to title the page as "8-BitRyan" instead of "Eight Bit Ryan". I've seen a few trope pages over the years where the URL has the numbers typed out and special characters omitted, but the title of the page itself includes them. I'd like to know how to achieve this before I start creating the page.
Edited by danunplannedresolved Would this count as an EditWar? Web Original
On Sep 5th 2021
, I removed the Trope Informed Wrongness from the YMMV page of the fifth episode of Helluva Boss, due to said entry being Trope Misuse as a result of misconstruing the events of the episode.
On Dec 30th 2022
, jOSEFdelaville added Informed Wrongness to the page again, but with a different entry. I believe this is also an example of misuse that misconstrues the events of the episode, as Millie wasn't the one who brought up the fact Moxxie had a gun, Moxxie himself did. Millie only said he didn't need to prove he was stronger physically after he lamented not being strong enough, saying basically to stick to his strengths when facing him this time. Moxxie was the one who said "I probably should have used this earlier, huh?" after remembering he had a gun on him, Millie's reaction being more exasperation when she sees him remember and make the comment. "I love ya hon, but for fucks sake."
Would it count as an Edit War if I removed the trope since I had already removed Informed Wrongness once before, even if it was a different entry?
Edited by RebelFalconresolved "Stage Directions" When Quoting Text
When quoting a text work, is it acceptable to use the Bolded Name: + [bracketed actions] format when quoting text if it'd be cleaner or clearer than quoting the text in full? Or is it better to just leave the would-be bracketed part out altogether?
E.g., in the middle of a conversation:
The second one feels weird because "there" doesn't have a referent. It just feels incomplete. In some cases, it may also make it unclear that Bob is pointing towards Charlie. (The rules are, however, plenty clear that this is the correct format when you're solely quoting dialogue.)
The third one solves both of these problems, plus a third one: if including all the narration would be unnecessary, it lets you only mention the important parts (such as, potentially, just that he was pointing behind himself or just that he was pointing at Charlie). The (possible) problem that it's using a format that the rules imply is for visual media.
Edited by Kestrelguyresolved Rewriting Walkthrough Mode Page Videogame
Here's the summary of Walkthrough Mode:
For example, let's say Alice adds the Puppy Stomper 3000 to That One Boss. Bob follows this up by stating, "Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z." Then Clara comes by and adds, "To be fair, you need Sven in your party to use the Ring of Puppy Protection. It's easier to use the Stick of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to bring the Ring of Puppy Protection to the Ring Transumation Fairy in Scary Town."
Using the example from the above paragraph, here's what it looks like on a page.
- That One Boss: Puppy Stomper 3000 is hard because of blah blah.
- Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z.
- To be fair, you need Sven in your party to use the Ring of Puppy Protection. It's easier to use the Stick of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to bring the Ring of Puppy Protection to the Ring Transumation Fairy in Scary Town.
- Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z.
The first two paragraphs basically describe a videogame mechanics-themed version of Thread Mode, which... editors shouldn't do either, but if all the page has to say is "don't thread mode about game mechanics", it probably doesn't need to exist — just point to Thread Mode instead.
To my understanding, what Walkthrough Mode should tell readers is that they should avoid cluttering examples with numbers, niche mechanics, and long-winded guides that are only tangentially relevant to how there is an example of a trope — this is suggested to me by that last paragraph. Here's a version I think could work, which emphasizes that:
For example, let's say Alice lists the Puppy Stompertron as an example of That One Boss, engaging in Walkthrough Mode to do so:
- That One Boss: The Puppy Stompertron appears at the end of the Puppy Factory and presents a massive roadblock to the player. It's got a massive 70,000 HP health bar (by the end of the factory, you'll be dealing 300 DPS at best), has immunity to Bleed, Stun, Dizzy, Confuse, and Love, and all of its attacks are That One Attack. Puppy Squishing deals 10,000 damage and can only be survived with the Anti-Ten Thousand Medal from the Numbers Swamp, Puppy Flamethrowing is supposed to deal only 40 damage to the player once but a bug with the level geometry can cause the flames to deal 400 damage if the player's standing on the many hills around the arena, and the Dog Food Ingester will heal it back to full unless the player has done the sidequest to obtain Dog Food Poison, which is easily missable at the start of the game. The only thing that can make this easy is the Puppy Stompertron Control Device to cut its HP in half, which is only available to builds that use the Dagger of Air Vent Entry, a 37 Charisma build to take it from the Puppy Factory Foreman (you can't go with any other level of Charisma, he starts liking you too much if you do), or a glitched maximum Speed character to clip through the northeast locked door and access the room where it's stored.
As you can see, this entry is hard to read because it's loaded with tangents on whole-game strategies and numbers that mean nothing to an outsider, when all that's needed is to explain how the Puppy Stompertron boss is harder than the rest of the game. Let's see an example that does just that:
- That One Boss: The Puppy Stompertron appears at the end of the Puppy Factory and presents a massive roadblock to the player. It has massive HP for that point at the game, immunity to many of the useful status effects, and all of its attacks are That One Attack — dealing massive damage or healing itself to full. The only ways to get past it painlessly involve highly-specific strategies and/or exploiting glitches, neither of which are available to every character class.
This entry is much more succinct in stating why the Puppy Stompertron is an example of That One Boss: it has high stats, immunity to statuses, powerful attacks, and the mechanics to make it easier aren't universally applicable. By cutting out details, the example becomes easier to read and digestible, yet the non-Walkthrough Mode entry still manages to communicate key points on why the Puppy Stompertron is this trope.
As a side bonus, when talking about games that are receiving post-launch updates, avoiding exact numbers gives a degree of futureproofing. In many games, if a change needs to be made, the numbers are usually first to be adjusted, so if the Puppy Stompertron ever has its HP or damage values changed this way, the example doesn't suddenly need an update to correct those parts.
While it is understandable why Walkthrough Mode happens, wiki articles are not walkthroughs for how to beat That One Boss or That One Level. Trope examples should be generic enough that those who aren't familiar with the game can understand them, and shouldn't be cluttered with something like the exact attack strength of a weapon or helpful asides about which two of the three Superbosses can be affected by the Game-Breaker. This isn't to say that you shouldn't list your example with little to no information, which is the opposite problem; you just need to explain why your example is that of the trope in question in a way that's digestible to the average reader.
See also Word Cruft, another writing element that makes examples bloated and indigestible by adding too many unnecessary words.
Does this look good to use on the page?
Edited by PyhrrousopenKarma Houdini
If a character dies getting what they exactly wanted are they still a Karma Houdini?
Say, Junko letting herself executed, Ragyo and Nui's death etc.
Edited by Mr-ex777open Someone deleted one of my edits and called it "sociopathic".
So, on BrokenAesop.Western Animation, I added an entry for The Loud House episode "Butterfly Effect" that basically boiled down to "The moral is to tell the truth, however, none of what Lincoln imagines was the result of his dishonesty, but rather the accident itself that he considered lying about".
But someone deleted it saying, "Wow, this line of thinking is just... self-centered at best, sociopathic more apt. There's no way to phrase it more nicely."
I'm honestly disturbed that someone would call me sociopathic.
Just so you know, I didn't use any italics, full caps, bold, or emotionally-charged words. I phrased it the way Spock would.
openConsent to remove redundancy on What an Idiot!.Saw
Among the additions Ansongc2000 had recently done on the "Jigsaw" folder from What an Idiot!.Saw was this excerpt.
- Listening to a tape and finding three syringes with numbers on them, they realize that they'll all be hanged unless one of them, Carly, injects herself with the correct of three needles. One of the other two needles will kill her, one will do nothing.
As part of a grammar cleanup on the additions, I changed the bolded part into the following:
- Listening to a tape and finding three syringes with numbers on them, they realize that they'll all be hanged unless one of them, Carly, injects herself with the correct syringe; said needle will do nothing to her, while the other two will kill her.
Later on, Ansongc2000 corrected a mentioned aspect they and I missed on the film, with the edit reason "it's stated that one syringe holds acid, one holds a saline solution. A saline solution is generally harmless when injected." The bolded part, however, ended up becoming rather redundant when compared to how the left the rest of the text.
- Listening to a tape and finding three syringes with numbers on them, they realize that they'll all be hanged unless one of them, Carly, injects herself with the correct syringe; said needle will do nothing to her, while one will do nothing and one will kill her.
Currently, I'd like to change the bolded part to the following so as to remove redundancy on the entry the excerpt is on:
- Listening to a tape and finding three syringes with numbers on them, they realize that they'll all be hanged unless one of them, Carly, injects herself with the correct syringe; said needle and another with a saline solution will do nothing to her, while the third one will kill her.
Can I have permission to do this while citing this query, or does anyone have other ideas?
Edited by Inky100openCould this be considered an edit war or not?
Recently, MaLady had launched the trope Memory Trigger. For the page, I suggested them several examples from the Saw series, structured in a way not too different to the structuring of multiple entries, but Malady edited it to include more bullets while removing some information that was relevant to certain examples (mostly in the general "main trials" example). We had a discussion on it until Malady said that the example writing is mostly "semi-personal" beyond the basics of bulleting, but I'm still not a fan of their edited version of my examples.
- Used in several Saw films to set up flashbacks, usually involving the characters that are remembering.
- The main trials of Saw IV, Saw VI and Saw 3D have numerous clues left to the protagonists involved regarding past events in their life, either to make them figure where to continue with the game (e.g. one of the letter messages Rigg reads in Saw IV) or to simply remind them of what they did to be tested (the written text on William's skin under the bombs strapped to him in Saw VI, the environmental props and text Bobby comes across in Saw 3D).
- Also in Saw VI:
- Hoffman telling Jill that he'll no longer see her once he's finished with all the tasks listed in the envelopes Jill left him makes the latter reminisce of the time John tried to show her that his "method of rehabilitation" works by showing Amanda (who had recently come out from her test back in the first movie) to her.
- Hoffman himself gets a Memory Trigger when he enters the surveillance room for William's game and finds a blackmail letter he had sent to Amanda back in Saw III, with the ensuing flashback montage revealing the sequence when Hoffman wrote it and Amanda read it using footage between Saw III and IV, with some additional scenes establishing the circumstances. Said letter was left by Jill (who had previously received the letter from Pamela, and was infuriated when she discovered that Hoffman was the one who wrote it) in the surveillance room as part of her sneak attack on him.
- Used in several Saw films to set up flashbacks:
- One of the letter messages Rigg reads in Saw IV helps him remember how to progress in the game.
- Reminders of what they did to be tested:
- Saw VI:
- Hoffman telling Jill that he'll no longer see her once he's finished with all the tasks listed in the envelopes Jill left him makes the latter reminisce of the time John tried to show her that his "method of rehabilitation" works by showing Amanda (who had recently come out from her test back in the first movie) to her.
- Hoffman himself gets reminded when he finds a blackmail letter he had sent to Amanda back in Saw III, in the surveillance room for William's game. The ensuing flashback montage reveals the sequence when Hoffman wrote it and Amanda read it, using footage between Saw III and IV, with some additional scenes establishing the circumstances. Said letter was left by Jill (after Pamela previously found it and gave it to her) in the surveillance room as part of her sneak attack on him, who was infuriated by the letter when she discovered that Hoffman was the one who wrote it.
Thing is, I'd now like to edit the examples back to my original writing because it's more concise and easier to read, but I want to ask if this could be considered an act of starting an Edit War. Edited by Inky100
resolved American Girl - Ban Evader Literature
It looks like a recent editor, Peachy2023, was found to be a ban evader for another account and their edits were reverted on multiple pages they added to. However, I edited two American Girl character pages they added to to remove or correct some of these edits, thinking it was a new editor making the same mistakes: the Historical Character Page at American Girls Collection Historical Characters and Girls of the Year page at American Girls Collection - Girls of the Year. Does someone else need to come in and revert these edits from the evader, or can I remove the other remaining examples myself?
(edit because the name made a red link and linking the affected pages. )
Edited by NethiliaopenActor Allusion clarification Film
SOLVED: Production Throwback
Can Actor Allusion be also applied to the director or is it strictly for actors?
In Conspiracy Theory, one of the scenes has the characters hide in a crowded cinema, where they are screening Ladyhawke. Both were directed by Richard Donner and he picked the screened movie himself as a joke.
Edited by Tropiarzresolved Spotted a non-YMMV trope in YMMV section in Project Zomboid
Okay, I just found this on the YMMV page of Project Zomboid:
- Do Not Go Gentle: A common outcome if one discovers a bite or begins suffering signs of the Knox infection.
Checked this on the YMMV home page and the trope page itself. Both don't have them listed on each another.
What to do with this?
openSole item disambiguation/misuse
YMMV.Healin Good Pretty Cure E 43
- Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: You have a right to live a happy, healthy life, and you don’t need to sacrifice yourself in order to help someone who has abused you. Especially when said abuser has NO intention of changing and intends to continue abusing you.
SANTBD is no longer a thing. It is now a redirect to Anvilicious which is just about being heavy handed which doesn't apply to this example so misuse. I'll cut the page unless I hear anything.
Also, do I need to run cutting pages by ATT if the sole item is misuse?

So I recently tried to create new folders for the Kombat Kast for Mortal Kombat's reboot timeline, using precedent such as Soul Series, since virtually every character has a radically different history and/or personality to the point that their old character folders are incompatible
Futhermore these new incarnations of the characters are regarded by the lore of the story itself as being distinct entities (For example: original timeline Kitana has no continuity with New Era Kitana, instead existing as Titan Kitana who's a completely different character; all of Liu Kang's prior relationship with Kitana is only present when interacting with Titan Kitana)
I don't think there's a feasible alternative to creating new folders for all the characters on the New Era's character page. Trying to just slot them into their old folders is just a recipe for confusion and clutter. And the only other alternative is to create individual character pages for all the characters so we can put multiple folders on their pages for all their different incarnations, which is just needlessly messy and still confusing since we have situations like New Era Scorpion being Kuai Liang instead of Hanzo Hisashi
Plus I'm under the impression that TV tropes wants to avoid creating individual character pages where possible
Unfortunately someone reverted my attempt to create new folders on the Mortal Kombat 1 character page and I don't want to get into an edit war, so I'm bringing it to the ATT thread
I also brought up the matter on the Mortal Kombat Discussion thread, and the limited replies so far have been in agreement that the New Era should have it's own character folders as well
Edited by CrimsonOddball