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openWhere to link for a work Literature
I want to add an example to The Social Expert for a character from Warhammer 40k. Here's the problem.
- The character is omnipresent in the setting
- The scene that I want to use specifically as an example comes from a book, that we don't have a page specifically for
- The book itself is a combination of game rules and storyline (my example is from the storyline part)
Should I link to Warhammer 40,000 or to the book itself as a redlink? Should the example be under Literature or Tabletop Game?
openUnfinished subpages Literature
Characters.Alex Rider was split into multiple subpages, but the creator of the subpages hardly bothered to move content that used to be in the main character page to their appropriate, respective subpages.
I'd fix it myself, but I'm uncertain which goes where as I haven't actively kept up with the series in a long while.
Subpages:
Edited by Tenma-YuukiopenImmortals Fear Death example? Literature
I have a question regarding whether an scene in Chronicles of Chaos about an army of four different immortal factions are all taken aback when faced with a Army of the Dead and either fled or stopped counts as example of this trope, since it's a rather literal example but the point of the narration seems to be that they find death itself a fearful, unnatural or and incomprehensible concept, the text in the book goes likes this:
- Yet even they, yet even they were held back by one more terrible still: the great lord whom I will not name, the Unseen One, the Lord of the House of Woe, came forth that day in all his horror, opened the hell-gate, and drove his armies of shadow before him; the dead walked, and the Great Fear was at hand: the dreamlords shrieked and fled like mist; the Fallen spirits cowered, aetherial spear and shield a-tremble in their airy hands; and the cold brains of the war-machines of the Lost would not open fire with their planet-destroying weapons without the support of their allies. Even the deathless Titans of your timeless people, the prelapsarians, were astonished, and they paused, even though they could not be made afraid.
So what do you think? I know this usually goes in the discussion pages, and I opened a one, but no one answered.
Edited by Revival_ZeroopenWhat's in a name? (and a blank page) Literature
Hey everyone.
I wanted to create a fan fiction page for a story that I really enjoyed, and I'm thoroughly looking on the How to Create a Works Page. But for the life of me I can't find a good blank page to write on.
I'm not asking anyone to do this job for me, but where can I find one? Or do I create one by myself.
Thanks.
openNo Title Literature
I just came across the page for the book Liar and it is absolutly covered in whitespaced spoiler tags. I've moved all the tags that were around the trope names onto around the text itself, but it is still looking far too tag heavy. I'm not familiar with this work myself, and I understand it has a sizeable twist halfway through, which the author has asked readers not to spoil, so I would be grateful if anyone has an idea on how to rewrite this to work with our spoiler policy. Or maybe we should just declare it spoilers off, and put a warning label at the top?
Anyone got any ideas, please?
openVictoria Literature
So, questions regarding Literature/Victoria have come up several times, but discussion always peters out with no solid conclusion, so I hope to just get an answer once and for all. First, the description states unequivocally that the comparison to The Turner Diaries is unfair. No reason is ever given for this (it claims that it is self-evident by comparing their trope pages, I have and still don't see it). The other point of concern is the Tearjerker page
, which seems really suspect. My main question is why we seem to feel so strongly about maintaining neutrality on this page. I know we claim that as a universal policy, but it clearly isn't. Look at the page for the aforementioned Turner Diaries or Birth Of A Nation or (to move to the opposite end) Mission to Moscow. We would never tolerate any of these being described as merely "controversial", as Victoria is. Hardly a line on these pages goes by without a denouncement of their politics. Even works that are merely widely hated but nowhere near as odious get far less balance, like Fifty Shades of Grey. So why is so much neutrality demanded here?
openWhen can I add my work? Literature
Hello fellow Tropers!
So I have a novel due for publication on 9/4/2018 through a small press and wanted to make a page for it. I've been staying away from any YMMV tropes because it felt a bit narcissistic to try and point out a "Crowning moment of Awesome" or "Tear Jerker" lol. I wondered about two things
1. Is there a way of creating a draft of a page? I wanted to work on it on my downtime but would prefer to not make it visible until the publication date.
2. I mentioned the YMMV tropes being avoided earlier, are there more types of tropes you would recommend I don't add myself as the writer of the book?
Thank you!
open Kid's book about dragon hunting Literature
First off, this is definitely not Dragon Slayer's Academy. I remember this one being a standalone book I read in the 5th grade, I believe? About 11 years ago.
I remember two of the main characters. A boy who was a Paige and bullied by the other Paiges for getting the job of fighting the dragon, with one of them sitting on him. The other was the princess who disguised herself as a boy named Bill to go kill the dragon; I believe this was because her father promised that whoever killed the dragon would get to marry her, but I might just be blending other stories with this one since it's been a while.
openHarry Potter Acceptable Targets Literature
On the Harry Potter Philosopher's Stone YMMV page, there's this entry for Acceptable Targets:
- Overweight boys. Dudley's weight is openly scorned, with the supposed justification of Rowling's implicit association of it with parental indulgence. Years later, Rowling, outraged at the pressure on girls to be thin, called fat insults "strange and sick." Perhaps as an Author's Saving Throw, later books blame Vernon and Petunia for Dudley's weight, with Dumbledore outright calling them out for inflicting a different kind of abuse on their own son. Dudley also picks up boxing, and switches from being morbidly obese to an example of Stout Strength.
And also on the Goblet of Fire YMMV page:
- Overweight boys. Dudley's increased weight, while treated with some seriousness, is still Played for Laughs. Implied association in previous books of his weight with parental indulgence, his comical resentment of his diet, Fred and George's playful hope for a glimpse of the "great bullying git," and Fred slipping him a toffee which magically engorges his tongue seem to dismiss obesity as idleness. Years later, Rowling, outraged at the pressure on girls to be thin, called fat insults "strange and sick."
I don't feel that these are valid examples of Acceptable Targets. I explained my reasoning on the Goblet of Fire discussion page
. But basically, while it's true that Dudley's weight is poked fun of, I don't see how that applies to overweight boys as a whole. I think that's a stretch. Hagrid is another heavy-set character, and a much nicer and more likeable person, and his weight isn't made fun of (as far as I can remember anyway; it's been a while since I read the books). To me, the entries feel like they're more targeted at J.K. Rowling herself to criticize her apparent hypocrisy on the issue, but I don't see how Rowling's comment in itself really has anything to do with Harry Potter. (I do agree with Rowling's later stance; I just feel it's a separate issue.)
But that's just my take on it. I wanted to get some other opinions.
Edited by StardustSoldieropenLiterature/Molesworth Literature
molesworth... The entire page reads like a Self-Demonstrating article. Said self demonstrating includes a ton a grammar and spelling errors. The Fanfic Recs and Trivia pages have the same problem.
openPoorly-written page Literature
I see a lot of bad writing in A Girl Who Brought Down the World, such as misusing the spoiler tags. Are the spoiler tags the only problem that you notice, or does the page itself need a bigger cleanup?
Edited by MitchellProductionsopenBadly-made work page Literature
This page seems very inappropriately made. The issue of self-promotion aside, it contains many instances of This Troper, use of first person and a fair amount of Natter. Anyone familiar with the work care to do some clean-up?
Edited by LogoPopen Hoist by his own petard "indirectly" (Hamlet Spoilers) Literature
[Post writing this out edit: This can basically be summed up as "Does it count as Hoist By His Own Petard if the person who dies only dies as an indirect result of their actions/plotting?" and i'm specifically talking about Hamlet's death.] Would Hamlet's own death count as a case of "Hoist By His Own Petard"? Laertes was driven to murderous intent against hamlet because Hamlet's plotting resulted in the deaths of Laertes father and sister. It was killing ophelia that was the breaking point, and Hamlet had continuously pushed Ophelia towards madness as part of his scheme to feign insanity. Had Hamlet never driven Ophelia to madness he would not have died himself. So does this count as an indirect case of "Hoist By his own petard"? or is does it have to be a direct action that causes the death? (For those curious btw i'm actually writing a paper on this trope and how it applies to both Hamlet's character and the play as a whole) While i'm asking, would polonius's death also count as Hoist by His Own Petard? I'm pretty sure not because he was straight up stabbed, but he was stabbed because he was spying on Hamlet for the king. It's even more of a stretch than whether or not hamlet counts as HBHOP.
openFandomSpecificPlot question Literature
A Christmas Carol has hundreds and hundreds of adaptations, but also fanfics, some of which have specific plots.
I added "* Fandom-Specific Plot: Many fanfics tend to revolve around freeing Jacob Marley of his chains or setting Scrooge up with Belle after his reformation, usually by having her husband die. Other common fics have Scrooge/Marley as a pairing, in life or after death."
to the book's page since it was fandom-specific and many of the ones I've read are based on the book as opposed to a movie. jamespolk then removed it saying it should go on an adaptation page, but many fics are nonspecific about which version they follow so most people assume they're book-based unless said otherwise. Where should it go, if anywhere?
Also apparently Fandom-Specific Plot itself isn't a YMMV trope, but its related page shows it on tons of YMMV pages.
Edited by lalalei2001openOn the page for Zabibah and the King. Literature
Should we recreate this page? The book itself is more like a historical curiosity than a classic in Iraqi literature since it was written by Saddam Hussein (under the not so clever pen name of S. Hussein).
Edited by Albino_Axolotlopenftl-capable alien species female protagonist merging consciousness with whale/ship/alien Literature
ftl-capable Space whale/living ship/alien species female protagonist merging consciousness with whaleshipalien (too long for title)
Sooo I've been through many of your tropes that rang with what I'm looking for. The only one I haven't found (that's in the title) is the merging cousciousness. Looking for the book for a friend, but I'll definitely read it myself when I get the title, because it sounds pretty awesome.
So then the somewhat vague description I have is:
A book about a girl and a strange alien species that are ftl capable. Humans ride the alien species by entering them and merging their consciousness. In the end the girl completely lets go of her consciousness and becomes one with her spacewhale. Yes, so I spoiled it for me too. The human society doesn't know of the transformations pilots undergo and it was found catalogued under juvenile/childrens book in a library.
Well it's vague, but thanks for hearing me out. If you have any clarifying questions, please tell me and I'll pass them on. My friend read the book when she was young, so maybe the answers won't be as clear as you are hoping for.
open How to write a character who was abused? Literature
Okay, I have this character in mind that I want to write. His name is Valentino, and yes, he's Italian. When he was younger, his parents were alcoholics, and they accumulated a lot of debt, so they sold him as a Indentured servant to a wealthy family. There, he meet Johann, the grandson of the wealthy couple, who believes Tino is a girl because he was forced to wear a maids uniform while he worked with his family. Anyway, whenever Valentino was at his parent's house, they mistreated him. Like, a lot. His father sometimes beat him for not being a girl, like his father wanted him to be, and his mother would force him a small closet whenever she had guests over, and told him that if he made a sound, he would be beaten. Johann, who is three years older than Valentino, wrote to him often during the year. (He visited his grandparents during the summers, but stopped when his mother past away when he was twelve.) Valentino never received these letters, because his parents take them and hide them from Valentino until they stopped coming. Valentino never forgot Johann, and is sad because he thinks Johann forgot about him. When Valentino turned eighteen, he joined the navy and served a term (six years). When he revisits his parents, he is forced to clean out the attic, where he finds all of Johann's old letters. Valentino has enough of his parents and mails himself in a crate to his old friend. So, that's his backstory. Anyway, the problem I have is that I intend having Valentino be this innocent, fun-loving person, almost as if he's reliving his childhood, but I don't know if that falls in line with his backstory. I'm not a psychologist.
openIncomplete Work Page Literature
I came across Literature.Rai Kirah today while checking my watchlist updates. It's a recently created page made by indigoazure
.. The issue here is that, at the time of this writing, there's no description for the work whatsoever. All it has is, and I quote, "(Also commonly written as Rai-Kirah). A fantasy series of three books by Carol Berg." and then a list of the three books in the trilogy. There's a few issues with the tropes themselves, the most glaring being three tropes listed on one bullet and whose context was quotations direct from the book itself. I just flat out deleted those and commented out anything else blatantly zero context. (EDIT: The editor has fixed the three on one bullet tropes by putting at least two as their own tropes with context)
I've sent the page creator a PM about fixing the description, specifically linking to How to Create a Work's Page and quoting the relevant portion to make the point. I'm mostly posting here, too, to have everything "on the record" so to speak in case any further action is needed later.
Edited by sgamer82

The trope section of Creator.Andrzej Sapkowski is in large parts dedicated to bashing the author for various grievances that seem mostly to revolve around the author's negative commentary resp. legal battles regarding various adaptations of his works, and the author supposedly generally being an avaricious hypocrite (source: TV Tropes).
While the entire page could certainly need a big clean-up, an almost-Edit War has lately ignited over the following example of Disowned Adaptation:
Recently troper Revolutionary_Jack removed the last sentence of the entry, with the, in my opinion very reasonable, edit reason that
The deletion was restored (with a slight expansion regarding the author's "messy and utterly pointless copyright battle") by Dratewka. I myself got then involved by cutting everything after Sapkowski's statement on the movie, on the grounds of it not actually belonging there in the first place.
Dratewka has again reverted the example, the only change being a further expansion in form of a lengthy note, the point of which seems to be the argument that the author is to be blamed for the movie being bad. Edit reason:
Courtesy link to the edit history
.
I'd be glad for other tropers or a mod to weigh in.
Edited by LordGro