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:
openSomeone removed a bunch of examples without explanation
I just noticed that on the 29th of March, helo1939 removed
the Alternate Continuity, Contrasting Sequel Setting, Expy, Franchise Codifier, and Genre Shift entries from My Little Pony Tales, as well as a chunk of the description describing how it differed from My Little Pony 'n Friends, without an edit reason. Weirdly, they haven't removed the corresponding examples from Contrasting Sequel Setting and Franchise Codifier's pages, though I haven't checked the others. Do they have a weirdly specific agenda where they want to pretend the original cartoons don't exist or something?
EDIT: They also removed all references to other MLP cartoons from the subpages.
Edited by NitroIndigoopenTroper with incredibly poor grammar
Justin Not Seen has some pretty bad grammar issues in their examples. For example, their latest entry on this
page:
- Expy: All new four main female characters seam to be base on orginal Mane six : Izzy clearly having a lot of similiar character trades as Pinkie Pie, while the rest seams to be light version of other characters (Sunny -Twilight, Zipp - Rainbow Dash and Pipp Rairty).
Edit history here
.
openExamples 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.
openNo 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.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
openExpy limit
I SWEAR I remember seeing somewhere that a character can only be an Expy of one other character, and if they're listed as being an expy of multiple other characters, the example is misuse. This led me to delete an example on Characters.My Hero Academia Izuku Midoriya which broke this rule.
This morning, I woke up to a PM from Nejiiuyn saying that I was wrong and that there's no such rule. Looking at the Expy page again, it is indeed never said that one character can't be an expy of two other characters.
Am I going crazy, or was the restriction removed recently?
Edit: I see this rule in the Expy cleanup thread
, but again, it's not on the trope page itself.
openConfusing sentences + Wrong indentation + Expy misuse
Zero Sword 0 has been on this wiki for quite a while and, although they do not edit often, their entries have some problems. Here are a few from their latest editing spree across multiple Mega Man pages:
- Listing a trope that does not exist
("Bad Guys Win". Also, the character in question is not even "bad" to begin with).
- Sentences that don't seem to make any sense: See here
and [[here
.
- The above, plus Speculative Troping: Here
.
- Shoehorned Expy example that compares two characters simply because they are of similar heights. It's also incorrectly indented
.
- Wall of Text with Word Cruft, First-Person Writing, and bad grammar: Here
.
openEdit War
On Characters.Resident Evil Chris Redfield, Troper FudgetMuppet
added an Expy entry here
. Troper ultrafan
then deleted it
with no edit reason, only for Fudget to add it back in
- and incorrectly formatted, at that.
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.
openEdit War on SuperMarioBros movie
Troper Doctor Sleep originally added the following Deconstructed Character Archetype for Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
"Bowser's violent tendencies and delusion that Peach would be into him are deconstructions of video game protagonists like Mario. He gains rewards by destroying anyone and anything that's different to himself and looting their kingdoms for treasure all so he can impress a princess that he sees as little more than another trophy."
This was later deleted with the reasoning that Mario's archetype (in most games) is as a working class hero who rescues a princess—without expectation of a relationship in return—from a villain, which has nothing to do with Bowser being a bully and feeling entitled to Peach.
Doctor Sleep later readded
this entry under Corrupted Character Copy, with some wording alterations (notably still insisting that Bowser is a deconstruction of Mario.) Setting aside the fact that this is misuse because Bowser is not an expy of Mario, is this an edit war?
For the record I think to suggest Bowser in the movie is a "deconstruction of protagonists like Mario" at all is incorrect. Mario as a protagonist does not attack all things different from him, he defends peaceful creatures from harmful ones. He does not do all of this to impress Peach, he usually does it for the motivation that it is simply the right thing to do. And Bowser in the movie does not rove around looting other worlds (he loots just one, because it specifically had something he wanted, and then he heads straight to the mushroom kingdom for Peach.) He is not motivated to attack things because they are "different from him", he attacks things because he is an ill-tempered bully. His entitlement to Peach is not based on him seeing himself as a "hero" to impress her, it is based on wanting to conquer everyone as husband and wife. In the movie, as in the games, he is simply the bad role model to Mario's good one, not an evil version of Mario.
openQuestion about something being listed on a franchise page.
So on Sherlock Holmes, there are these listed in the Live Action TV folder that I question being there:
- House (or House M.D.) owes quite a bit to Holmes. Besides the acknowledged parallels — Greg House/Sherlock Holmes and James Wilson/John Watson — there are a number of references and running jokes that pay homage to Sherlock Holmes, such as House's address being 221B (Baker Street), the name of the man in "No Reason" who shoots House, named as "Moriarty" (although never onscreen), a book by Dr. Bell, the inspiration for Holmes, being given to House as a gift, an episode where House writes the phrase "The game is a itchy foot" on an envelope, and the fact that the very first patient that he treats in the pilot episode is a woman named "Adler". On that note, one episode had Wilson tell another character about a woman named Irene Adler, who he described as being essentially the same as the original Irene Adler—then subverting it by admitting that he made it up. Finally, in the series finale House fakes his death, just like Holmes did via the Reichenbach Falls incident.
- Psych features an amateur detective with phenomenal powers of observation and his less-able, though still clever, partner, who are retained as consultants by a skeptical police department. If it's not officially a Holmes adaptation, it may as well be.
Do these really belong? They seem more like Sherlock Homage than actual adaptations. At the very least the Psych one flat out admits it's not this. However, since this is public domain I could be wrong and they belong there the same way a parody film like They Might Be Giants does.
Sorry if this is not the place to take this but I didn't know where else to ask this?
Edited by BullmanopenTrollz 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
openNightshade 96
Nightshade 96
has been on a mass page-spitting/index-creating spree as pointed out in this previous query
. Said troper was contacted and informed that they should probably get some kind of consensus before making such large page changes.
Despite this they appear to still be continuing with what they are doing, despite the numerous problems they are creating:
For example sometimes they're creating pages with so few examples, it can be hard to see why they were moved in the first place, such as MythologyGag.Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 (as noted here
) which had only 7 examples when it was created (on a related note on the page they were moved from another troper
has undone the removal and restored the examples
— despite the sub-page still existing, and then more recently Nightshade has deleted the examples again).
They also aren't checking to make sure that all the examples from the main trope page are being moved to the sub-pages and not just the examples from the work pages. For example they created AdaptationExplanationExtrication.Harry Potter by taking examples
from Film.Harry Potter, later another troper
deleted all the Harry Potter examples
from Adaptational Explanation Extrication because there was now already a separate page. The problem was there were more examples on the main page, than there were on the newly created sub-page, so if I hadn't thought to go to the history page and copy the examples over they would probably been ignored and then lost.
Nightshade also doesn't appear to be correcting any errors that might be in the examples, e.g. several pages contain a lot of Example Indentation, Natter and Word Cruft which was carried over from when the examples were part of a work page, and in the case of Narm.Spiderman 3 Nightshade has actually added Example Indentation. Nightshade also isn't removing any see example or see X'snote which is discouraged on the wiki as trope example should be able to stand on their own and not require looking at a completely different trope for context, and doesn't make any more since it's referring to something on a page it's no longer a part of bits when they transferred to their own pages (such as the "See Freeze-Frame Bonus" on MythologyGag.Superman The Animated Series).
They also aren't checking to see whether the examples themselves are being used correctly before being moved. To give an illustration they created an Expy sub-page for The Heroes of Olympus, which then has to be cut as it was determined in the Expy Clean-Up Thread that none of the examples were being used correctly
. This is especially problematic considering several of the sub-pages they've created have been for tropes like Broken Base and Narm which are infamous for the amount of misuse they attract on this wiki (at least two Broken Base pages Nightshades created have even been contested by the clean-up thread as both movies they are for have yet to be released
.
openExpy vs. Suspiciously Similar Substitute
Characters.My Little Pony A New Generation had Expy examples added I question If they would fit Suspiciously Similar Substitute better.
It is as Distant Sequel to Friendship is Magic such it's considered ancient history and the original cast are presumed long gone.
My impression is SSS was used over Expy if it was the same continuity which is the case here. But does SSS also require it be the same series and point in the timeline such they theoretically could interact at present?
openMisuse?
I got into a issue about not taking an issue to ATT and I'm sorry about that. As such, I would normally delete these examples as misuse but want to run them by first.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force under Broken Base:
- The main issue with the game is not that it's a bad game (indeed it's MUCH MUCH better than Other M). The issue is it was a case of right game, wrong time. Late 2016 was simply the worst time possible to release a spinoff game (the series having been neglected for 6 years with the last game being terrible and the last good game being 9 years earlier). If this game had come out after Samus Returns (and the announcement of Metroid Prime 4), it would've been much better received.
I'm certain that this is a misuse as Broken Base is about two or more decanting opinions, not just one. This point is also covered elsewhere on the page with less aggressive opinionation.
Friendship Is Magic: One-Shots:
- Expy: He has been described in more than a few places as a ponified Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
People viewing similarities is Counterpart Comparison, Expy is when it's undeniably intentional. I don't think it's an example as is, unless the decorations include official sources?
Thoughts?
openAvoiding warring
At Danganronpa — Monokuma I've noticed this example. (added
by Phediuk)
- Evil Counterpart: On a meta-level, to Doraemon, who is a seemingly-omnipotent robot who helps children. They even share the same Japanese voice actress.
Soon afterwards, IkeaHan has restored it
but as Corrupted Character Copy.
While Corrupted Character Copy would allow cross-franchise comparisons, it still doesn't address the ZCE (As Expy subtrope, it would need quite a lot of context), which I've brought up here
and Synchronicity agreed.
Would need consensus because I can't hide/remove it again. I don't know much about Doraemon to tell if there's anything besides "animal robot with same voice actor" for the comparison.
Edited by Amonimusopen ReginaldOgron5 deleting en-mass Expy entries on Elden Ring page once again Videogame
The users being attempting to do this for a long time.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=135443&type=att
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=132994&type=att
As an example, the Fire Prelate is supposed to clearly be invocative of Smough. They even share some of the same attacks.
Likewise, the Bloodborne Witch's and the Celebrants have a very similar design, and even have a similar dance animation.
The slimes are pretty the SAME enemy from Demon's Souls.
Edited by smogmonsteropenWhy people are so mean ?
Like I just asked that more tropes were dedicated to Buffy. Thank you, I'm aware of how the site got created but that doesn't mean it's doing it justice. What I mean is that no expy is done on Buffy characters when they (Buffy herself in particular) influenced a whole lot of characters. Kim Possible and Veronica Mars were confirmed to be inspired by Buffy, however none of them has Buffy written on their Expy. It bothers and I have a right to speak. What is wrong with you people ? At what point did I express a love (or even mentions) the name of Joss Whedon ? Never so why people are bringing that up. At what point did I speak badly or insult anybody ? None, so thank you to be polite. Like, what is this ? Twitter ?
openDisputing 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 Ares101openTroper 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 GoodGamer14

Ninja275
Few day ago, they uncommented ZCE
without adding context, including many "to [X]." examples.
I sent notifier, and they do it again today
.
I usually wait for three strikes of the same issue, but since this is blatant ignorance, I decided to made this report.
Prior to this, I sent them two misused notifiers, one is more of misplayed, and the other is applting Expy to scenario
. And another one for chained sinkholes
. All were sent in '25.