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openMass "similar characters" misuse? Western Animation
I've been planning on doing a general clean-up on both the main and character pages for Ghost Force, and there's a particularly big issue I noticed that I wanted a second opinion on. Specifically, I noticed a lot of usage of "character X is similar to character Y" tropes (Expy, Suspiciously Similar Substitute, Corrupted Character Copy, etc.) on the page that feels incredibly misused. Most if not all of them seem to be under the assumption that, since the same company produced both, all the Ghost Force characters are copies of Miraculous Ladybug characters to some extent just because they share appearances and/or character traits. I'm pretty sure that the tropes are being misused, but I wanted to double check here before removing them.
openRestoring a Deleted Entry Western Animation
When I found out a character in The Dragon Prince was inspired by C-3PO, I added an Expy entry to their folder which was deleted soon after by another troper.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=Characters.TheDragonPrinceXadia#edit33992672
I messaged them with a link to the interview
that states C-3PO was an influence but they haven't replied or reversed the edit themselves. What should be done? Do I just restore it myself, or should another, since I'm unsure if that might qualify as an edit war?
openShould it be mentioned that Mermaid Man is an Aquaman-design parody? Western Animation
This is something I've been wondering about the SpongeBob SquarePants: Recurring Characters page.
Someone erased the Expy wicks for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's entries, which list them as parodies of Aquaman and Aqualad. I understand why this edit was made as the person who erased it gave a solid reason why it doesn't belong in the Expy category (saying they're parodies of superhero tropes in general), but I still feel like Aquaman should be mentioned for design influence at least. Maybe as a Shout-Out instead?
I don't want to get into an edit war, so I think it would be best to discuss how it could be added back in, or even if it should be done in the first place.
openExpy misuse Western Animation
Over on Characters.Amphibia Main Characters, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/JoJoker
placed this entry:
- Expy: Of the Chaos Emeralds. While there are three gems instead of seven, they still have similar properties: They are capable of inter dimensional travel, can empower people with forms that cause hair to change color and stand upright, be used to power machines, their power can be depleted, but can be restored at temples, are sought out by the heroes and villains, and were abused by an ancient civilization.
resolved Expy subtrope character limit Question Western Animation
I know that Expy is limited to only be of one character. My question is does this limit also apply to expy subtropes, mainly the more specific subtropes like Superman Substitute and Spider-Man Send-Up.
A good example would be Western Animation/Invincible, where the titular character has a mixture of both tropes. Although hes more Superboy than Superman, he is still a Flying Brick with an origin as a human/alien hyrbid and The Paragon characteristics. But he also has similarities to Spidey, in having secret identity problems specifically romance problems, juggling hero life and normal teenage life, as well as the whole With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
So is there is a limit to the subtropes similar to the main Expy trope and if yes then which trope would take priority in an example like this?
Edited by NejiiuynopenDisputing recent deletion (Invincible 2021: Spoilers) Western Animation
I had recently added the following example to the YMMV page of Invincible (2021):
- What An Idiot: Despite being shown to be a very competent team of heroes, several members of the Guardians of the Globe grab the Idiot Ball hard during their fight with Omni-Man.
- [[spoiler: The first thing Red Rush does when the fight starts is shove Immortal out of the way of Omni-Man’s sneak attack, saving Immortal’s life. Then when Omni-Man continues to attack, Red Rush counters Omni-Man’s speed by moving his teammates out of the way at the last second, frustrating Omni-Man.
- [[spoiler: Darkwing functions as the team’s Batman Expy, using stealth, gadgets, skill and intelligence to take out his opponents. He’s also just seen Omni-Man murder Red Rush.
These additions were deleted with the following justification:
My Little Xero: Simply doesn't fit, as we barely know anything about the character before their deaths, claiming that they're holding the Idiot Ball is simply inaccurate as we need to know their typical behavior to call it as such, in addition as we see when the Guardians fight the Mauler Twins, the tactics used the by the characters to fight Omni-Man are pretty much the same so this
Naturally, I disagree. For one thing, the part of editing reason is inaccurate, as the tactics used by the mentioned characters in a previous fight are different from the ones they used vs Omni-Man. Against the Mauler Twins (who are much weaker than Omni-Man), Darkwing actually maintained distance, uses his weapons effectively and did not try to drop kick either of them. Likewise, Red Rush only engages the Mauler Twins (who are both much slower than Omni-Man) in melee when Green Ghost immobilizes them. So in both instances, the heroes tactics were different in their fight with Omni-Man than they were with the Mauler Twins.
Beyond them simply not being as effective as before, the tactics in both cases are suicidally stupid. Literally so since it gets them both killed (along with other members of their team), and I feel What an Idiot was made for moments of that kind of stupidity, regardless of how little we might know about the characters in general.
Furthermore, a lack of knowledge of a character does not invalidate the use of What An Idiot listings. Taken directly from the What An Idiot page:
"Because most viewers have basic common sense, one would usually expect the same from characters on TV shows. Any negative deviation from such usually prompts a Face Palm and the comment "What an idiot!" or similar, hence the entry name."
The page also mentions that some characters are supposed to be idiots, but goes on to say how that does not invalidate including them in What An Idiot entries. It merely asks that you summarize such moments rather than list them all.
If it's specifically the inclusion of the Idiot Ball trope that makes this inaccurate, I can remove it. I have ZERO intentions of getting into any kind of an editing war, so I'd like other opinions on the matter, to make sure I'm not in the wrong or anything before I take any additional steps.
Edited by Ares101openNo Title Western Animation
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.
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
openNo Title Western Animation
On Expy.Western Animation, Alternative Cola readded a bad example
.
It was pulled a month ago with the reason "i questioned in the "is this an example" thread. This was the answer." and... well, knowing Naruto and Avatar it's just an awful example.

yamiblade added the following entry to the folder for the main villain in Characters.Ghost Force:
While there's obviously some editing that needs to be done to it, the Ghost Force pages have suffered from repeated misuse of expy and related tropes that basically amounted to "this show was made by the same people who did Miraculous Ladybug, so every character has to be a copy of an ML character somehow". As such, my first instinct is to delete the entry outright and ping it for misuse, but I wanted to double-check here first before I decided what to do with it (especially since checking the page for Contrasting Sequel Antagonist has only made me more confused).