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:
openJust in case anyone talks about an edit war Film
I'm only setting up this ATT query to let anyone know (in case they're suspicious) that my revert to the page stinger in Saw X was done with permission from the troper who first changed it (Wayward Typhoon 7) in the General Page Quote Discussion Thread
, so I'm sure it shouldn't count as an Edit War.
For any mod who sees this query, feel free to lock it.
Edited by Inky100openEdit War: Dial Of Destiny Trivia page Film
Recently, I deleted a Recycled Script entry from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny that read as follows:
" Recycled Script: Once the plot leaves the US and until the very climax, it's bit-by-bit Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: chase in Tangiers, diving around Greek shore for clues, Nazis always breathing on the back of Indy, Sun Disc, penetrating half-sunk complex, following tracks of a Greek philosopher, improvised flight sequence... the list really goes on."
After checking the trope description, it seems that Recycled Script is when a script is literally recycled word-for-word, not when two stories have similar plot elements. That's the other thing, that a lot of this entry is just pointing out things that are similar between the two stories without providing evidence that the script was recycled, in addition to most of the things being described occurring in a typical Indiana Jones story. Not no mention that this entry(at least to me) feels like disguised complaining in the form of It's the Same, So It Sucks on the Trivia page. Therefore, i removed the entry with a short explanation.
A day or so later, Tropiarz, the original adder of the entry, re-added it as such:
"* Recycled Script: Once the plot leaves the US and until the very climax, it's bit-by-bit Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. We've got, among other things:
- Solving the greater mystery requires following the tracks of a Greek philosopher (Plato vs. Archimedes).
- Chase through the streets of Algiers/Tangiers.
- Diving around the Greek shore for clues regarding greater mystery.
- Found in Greece Sun Disc/Graphikos with clues to follow and puzzles to solve with it. And they both look very similar.
- A half-sunk, maze-like complex to penetrate, all while dodging Nazis (ruins of Atlantis vs. Archimedes' tomb).
- An untrained pilot having to first commandeer a vessel and then perform a daring flight (Indy vs. Teddy)
- And of course, Nazis are always breathing on the back of Indy, often inexplicably showing up at the scene, using him to solve the puzzles for them."
Not only is this edit warring and do the same problems persist with the entry, but details have been added that disprove their own point! The scene in Fate Of Atlantis takes place in Algiers, which is the capital of Algeria and thousands of miles away from Morocco(and by extension Tangier). The Sun Disc is a MacGuffin with a different role in the story to the Graphikos, which is a Faux Guffin. Archimedes was not a philosopher, he was an inventor, meaning there is no comparison between him and Plato to be made. Worst of all, "Nazis are always breathing on the back of Indy, often inexplicably showing up at the scene, using him to solve the puzzles for them" literally happens in Raiders, Last Crusade and is also done by the Commies in Crystal Skull. This is literally just a thing the villains do in Indiana Jones stories.
Am I correct in my reasoning that Dial Of Destiny isn't a Recycled Script?
Edited by ReginaldOgron5openHow do I propose an amendment? Film
In the trope 'Sweet Polly Oliver', I'd like to add reference to the movie YOUNG EINSTEIN, wherein Marie Curie dresses as Einstein's father in order to gain access to the asylum and convince him to escape. She is "discovered" when she rips off the fake beard, and (I think / I'll have to double-check) Brian Aspirin announces in shock, "He's a woman!"
openRe-added ZCE: ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' Film
So, a while ago, I commented out a ZCE on the Dial of Destiny page under Deadpan Snarker, which merely read "Helena, as typical for a character played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge". I explained in the edit reason that simply stating the name of the actress doesn't count as context. Very recently, someone uncommented the trope and put this as the description:
"Helena in particular. Indy still has a bit of this as in prior films. Even Marion when she answers that she's there to put away groceries. just like old times."
Now, am I hallucinating or is this an equally contextless example? Wouldn't the correct thing to do be to provide specific instances for each character and explain how it's snarky in relation to the scene, sub-bulleted instead of all on the same line, and without pointless natter on the end? If I am correct, can I re-comment out the trope with an explanation and avoid an edit war?
Edited by ReginaldOgron5openEdit war - YMMV.Barbie2023 Film
Following on from this ATT
, dvorak has just
:
- Reinstated the Alternate Aesop Interpretation example they originally added
, which was cut
by Ferot_Dreadnaught as per consensus on the previous ATT (i.e. dvorak has just started an edit war)
- Deleted the comment linking to the new Barbie cleanup thread
- Reinstated the "Gloria divorce her husband so " grammatical error that Tuckerscreator had just fixed. Not sure who first added that one.
(Put this in a new ATT with an edit war subject line, as the previous one wasn't marked as an edit war)
Edited by Mrph1openPage stinger question to avoid an edit war Film
A couple days ago, Wayward Typhoon 27 extended the page quote on Saw X the include more of the speech involved, which I understand, but they also changed the stinger from this (which followed on the quote):
To this (based on The Hollies' "The Air that I Breathe" being used in the film's trailer):
I'm not really a fan of this change as a lyrical excerpt of a song featured in the trailer doesn't really illustrate the film in my opinion, on top of disrupting with the page quote. Not to mention, the song could be exclusively used for the trailer and not appear in the actual film at all.
Can I revert the change?
Edited by Inky100openRedlinks on Film.SkyHigh2005 Film
Hey, there. Yesterday (August 5), the red links for the creators in the lead section of Film.Sky High 2005 were removed (edit history is here
. However, as per the relevant information on Red Link:
Given I restored the red links back in April and I don't want to get involved in an Edit War, what's the best possible solution?
Edited by gjjonesopenExtremely rude deletion reason Film
Howdy,
I was just looking over the Editing History of this page
by pure chance, when I saw a troper deleting a folder with an extremely hostile
edit reason.
Granted, the folder might have had it's issues (to put it lightly), but that's still not a reason to be this rude, me thinks.
openEdit war - YMMV/Barbie2023 Film
Three days ago (Aug 03), bullman added Fandom-Specific Plot to the page (here
).
Yesterday, Ken26 deleted two examples, including the FandomSpecificPlot one (here
), without leaving an edit reason.
bullman has now added both tropes back today (here
), with edit reason "These were removed without edit reason.".
The examples might be justified, but the restoration seems to be unilateral - there's no link to a thread or ATT.
Edited by Mrph1openJokes have no consequences... Rule of Funny outside comedies. Film
I noticed this maybe trope. The thing is, I can only think of the one example. I know there are others, but I am wracking my brain, and I just can't think of any others.
So, in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, Captain Kirk and Dr. Mc Coy are imprisoned at a Klingon penal colony. The Enterprise crew are attempting to sneak into Klingon space to rescue them when they're confronted by a Klingon scout ship. We then see the crew flicking frantically through Klingon phrasebooks, before Uhura tries to bluff past them with a mixture of archaic and grammatically broken Klingonese.
The Klingons laugh, and she laughs back awkwardly, pretending to be in on whatever they're laughing about.
Originally the script had Uhura successfully bluffing past them by speaking Klingonese, but the director felt the film needed more comedy, so the whole scene is a joke.
It's funny, but it doesn't make any sense. Surely the Klingons would've guessed that something was up. But if they'd been captured, then the scene wouldn't have been so funny. We'd also have had to question Uhura's competence. Even though her language was bad enough to make the Klingons laugh, they let them pass, everyone just moves on.
So the trope is that if a scene is played for laughs, then there are no consequences. Comedies are practically made from this trope from beginning to end. So I can think of plenty of examples from comedies. But it really stands out in a movie like Star Trek VI, where serious scenes naturally have consequences, but the funny one doesn't.
Edit: I did post this to Trope Finder (thank you), and someone quickly pointed out that it's the Rule of Funny. I shoulda got that, but I missed the connection, because I'm focussed on non-comedies.
So here's a question for the Tropers... Can you think of any other examples, like Star Trek VI, where the Rule of Funny applies briefly for a comedic moment in a non-comedy, but where normal logical rules apply everywhere else?
Edited by MTA-PopenHow do I dewick a page Film
I wanna delete a page I accidentally misspelled.
I turned this The Dairy Of A Teenage Girl into this The Diary of a Teenage Girl where I spelled it correctly. I accidentally spelled "diary" as "dairy"
Does anyone know how I can delete the old page?
openShould Fantastic Voyage have separate or combined works pages? Film
Film.Fantastic Voyage currently describes tropes that apply to the film, its novelization, and the differences between them. Main.Fantastic Voyage lists a red-link to the novelization. I have the book and could edit the trope page for it, but the plots of the book and the movie are very similar, so there would be a lot of overlap between the pages even without considering the examples from the Film page that apply to the book.
Should I edit the Literature page and remove the book examples from the Film page? Alternatively, is there a way to redirect the Literature page to the Film page (and then I could adjust the Film page text to make it clear the page is meant for both the book and the film)?
None of this discussion applies to the Western Animation page, as the Fantastic Voyage TV series has distinct enough characters and plots that it could definitely have its own works page filled someday.
openHeaders on MCU pages Film
Troper Lapsem has recently added a header with all the movies/series of each MCU phase on top of every MCU work.
For Eternals, troper rmctagg09 removed it with "Unnecessary header." as an edit reason.
Now, I don't particularly care for these headers personally — they're not indispensable, but they don't hurt the pages either. However, it is clear they should be kept everywhere or removed everywhere, not just deleted from one work.
What does the hive mind think of those headers? Keep them and restore the one on Eternals? Or clean them up entirely?
openWeird reorganization on What an Idiot!.Saw Film
Recently, Ansongc2000 has done a reorganization process for What an Idiot!.Saw that I find rather weird. To wit, not long beforehand, I had created folders for each film to concur with the first "In General" entry added to the page, especially as some of the film sections were already quite long by then. Then Ansongc walked in and added a decent bunch of new examples (while also removing or rearranging a few existing ones without much explanation other than them being "bad") for the first seven films, while also grouping them in a single folder and leaving Jigsaw and Spiral with their respective folders; they also removed the "Series-wide" and "By movie" headers I added to split the "In General" folder and the movie-specific ones in their own parts. In fact, they relegated the "By movie" name to the new folder for the first seven movies, even though it doesn't make sense when put alongside the Jigsaw and Spiral folders with their respective films' titles.
Even if grouping the movies by major storyline can be reasoned because of Jigsaw and Spiral having time gaps with both the first seven consecutive films and each other, it leaves a somewhat disproportioned and confusing structure for me, especially as plenty of the first seven movies' sections are now as long as the ones that used to be the longest before Ansongc's edits (not to mention to aforementioned issue with the "By movie" name). Even though I did the previous structure myself, I honestly prefer that structure for a movie series' What an Idiot! page over the page's current one.
By the way, I informed Ansongc about this query via private message.
Edited by Inky100open about revenge for the death of a guy, a game of cat and mouse Film
I didn't watch this movie, but my mom did, so the description is from her words.
I think it's thriller from about 1990 to 2010 (mom said she watched this movie on the TV when i was little child, i was born in 2000, so the film could have been made earlier).
The plot is something like this: a guy catches his wife cheating (perhaps at work). he gets out of there by car and gets into an accident where he dies. his father (but this is not certain, maybe a friend) begins to take revenge on his cheating wife for the death of this guy. he sets up various traps to kill this wife, plays cat and mouse with her. he eventually succeeds and she dies in the bath/shower.
Edited by TabsopenCharacter Appearances when they appear in a different franchise Film
Hello, recently Doctor Sleep edited out the appearances of the Christopher Reeve and George Reeves Supermen except for The Flash (2023) from the DCEU: Superman page. They removed them because both have links to their respective shows/film franchise which includes these prior appearances. Personally I think they should be included simply because these are the same versions of the characters, not AU versions based on those previous versions, and these are their previous appearances in other media. What does everyone else think?
openIssue over what can go in YMMV Film
There is a debate going on in the discussions and history of of the YMMV of Barbie (2023).
I and others want to include: Broken Aesop, Designated Hero, Designated Villain, Tragic Villain, Unintentionally Unsympathetic. The submissions are removed with the reason that they are not YMMV tropes, if a reason is given at all, and others just disagree with the points made.
It was my understanding that YMMV was a place for subjective opinions within reason, so are there any rules, written or unwritten, to what does go in YMMV and doesn't and why?
openQuestion about Character page entry for Barbie 2023 Film
I had added an entry to the characters page concerning motifs in a character mentioned in an interview, but the entry was removed for being "better suited for trivia". This
is the entry in question (along with the deletion notice
), and this
is the interview that trait was mentioned.
Is the entry better suited for Trivia, the Characters page, or something along the YMMV lines?
openI think I might have screwed the Headscratchers page up somewhere Film
Sorry, I screwed up the headscratchers page for The Next Generation film: First Contact.
It was a complete accident and I don't know how to undo

Does anyone remember a BBC documentary showing what would happen to our cities if the human race disappeared overnight? I've Googled but all I got was the U.S. version, Life After People, which was rubbish.