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:
resolved Commented-out image note
If I'm making an Image Pickin' thread for a TLP draft, can I just add the commented-out "Page image selected by IP thread" to the draft myself, or does a mod need to add it?
I've already hollered for a mod to lock the thread after an image was agreed on (here
, for reference), but I'm unsure if there was anything else I should've done first.
resolved Concerning lewdness issues in Trope Pantheons forum
The user M1gami Tensei has posted a draft profile for the character Yuzuki from Call Girl in Another World, which we're getting concerned is toeing the line into fetishism. Their third draft of them
has a full 30 paragraphs (which isn't neccesarily a bad thing, but in this case keep in mind most profiles have just around 10-20), many of which describe the character in question prostituting themselves to other deities or other deities attempting to do "stuff" I'd rather not describe here to her, often in eerily descriptive writing. It was even worse in the first and
second drafts
, which notably feature Melkor getting into very uncomfortable and OOC situations with her and outright stating that Frollo "wanted to suck on her titties", though those two issues were removed in the later drafts after pushback from other members of the thread.
From what I've heard, stuff like this does happen in Yuzuki's Manga from time to time, but I find that weak justification to go all in against the "no lewdness" rule. It doesn't help the character herself looks uncomfortably young. While much of the excessive stuff described here was cut out in the most recent draft posted today
, I find the fact that it was written at all and it took us 3 tries to convince him to cut it out very concerning, so I'm making this ATT to see if further action is needed against this user.
resolved Troper with persistent complaining problems, possible wonk(s)
Sponge Bat 1 has been, over a long period of time, adding numerous entries to pages that contain complaining, sometimes with rude edit reasons, and also appears to have a weird wonk over Glitch Productions (which they clearly seem to despise) and Helluva Boss (ditto). Some examples:
- Here
they added complaining about Knights of Guinevere, alleging that the show was made out of spite for Disney's mistreatment of The Owl House, along with further complaining about other shows they deemed to have been treated worse by Disney.
- Here
they used a really aggressive edit reason to complain about the Helluva Boss fandom.
- Here
they added a Designated Hero entry for Helluva Boss character Stolas with similar wording to the above edit reason.
- Another rude edit reason
related to Stolas
- Here
they added a complain-y entry (granted, it's Darth, but still) alleging that Windows 11 is incapable of running games that use Unreal Engine 4. A previous ATT I started on the matter
, along with independent research, additionally could not verify the claim.
- Complaining general example
about Windows computers
- This edit
, while not very complain-y in and of itself, continues the Glitch and Helluva wonk by adding a negative Genre Turning Point example alleging both were responsible for indie animation going upmarket and shutting out lower-budget projects.
- This edit
complains about the AI opponents and difficulty in Diddy Kong Racing
- This edit
complains about the underlying message of Steven Universe, with an edit reason enforcing as such
- This edit
baselessly alleges, on the WMG page for The Amazing Digital Circus, that the series was stealth insulting the entire animation industry
And so on. Note that most of these edits were on page 1.
Now, I know Sponge Bat 1 has been an active participant in cleanup threads, and has done some good work. However, I'm concerned about the propensity with which this is happening. I have not sent any complaining notifiers, but I did send a "general example" notifier for the The Alleged Computer example that I never got a response on (along with a PM on the Unreal claims I also got no response on), so I don't think a notifier would be listened to anyway.
Edited by themayorofsimpletonresolved Troper with character wonks Anime
cotton-cloud22 appears to have this wonk regarding Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba of defending Zenitsu and bashing Obanai.
- Added a Draco in Leather Pants entry
for Obanai that, while not in itself wrong, used all caps to call him “WORSE” than Zenitsu AND a Misaimed Fandom entry complaining about the fandom not realizing Obanai is worse than Zenitsu. I have since moved the entry to Ron the Death Eater to focus more on Zenitsu’s demonization in the fandom and removed mentions of Obanai.
- This Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry on Obanai
isn’t too bad in isolation, but worth mentioning for their wonk against him and how it seems to take his gags too seriously.
- Speaking of taking gags too seriously, after I removed a Karmic Overkill entry for Yoshiteru (Zenitsu’s descendant) that bashed how Obanai’s reincarnation treated him since I felt it was misuse as a gag moment, they re-added it
.
- Complainy ship-to-ship combat entries
(I’ve since reworded them to sound more neutral).
- All their edits on the Fandom-Enraging misconception
subpage feel less like straightforward examples and more of rants against people who dislike Zenitsu. Also includes another all caps claiming Obanai is “WORSE” regarding jealousy which just feels like a shoehorn. (On a side note I think the Fandom-Enraging Misconception subpage for Demon Slayer as a whole needs a clean-up, it’s pretty messy).
resolved Do moments from trailers/advertising count as shocking moments?
On the Shocking Moments page and various YMMV pages, there are numerous examples for Shocking Moments related to moments from the marketing / trailers (e.g., the reveal of an Unexpected Character or plot beat that took fans off guard), but on the former page itself, it says that:
Keep in mind that meta examples aren't allowed in moments pages. Moments are for things that happen within a work. Things pertaining to the creators, the work's development or the work's critical and commercial reception, while you may think are shocking and we might agree, are outside the scope of this audience reaction. [sic]
So my question is, do moments from trailers/advertising fall into the "within a work" status or are they considered meta examples, since they're from the work's marketing rather than within the actual work itself?
Edited by Tylerbear12resolved Mistakenly Cut Recap Page
The Recap page for The Venture Bros. episode "The Venture Bros S 2 E 9 Guess Whos Coming To State Dinner" was cut mistakenly. The reason given is "The only entry on the page doesn't belong on a YMMV, but a trivia page." However, the Recap page itself was cut, not the YMMV page (which still exists).
Can someone please correct this by restoring the Recap page and correctly cutting the YMMV page?
resolved Ban evader? Web Original
Longing Buffalo 400 has just started editing today, and I noticed some pretty suspicious patterns:
- Their username has a similar structure to that of Ikea Alien 209 (random words + 3-digit numbers)
- Some of their
entries have
grammatical mistakes
not too far off from what Ikea used to do.
resolved Potential edit war and unneeded “word cruft” cleaning in TabletopGame/SLAIndustries
A troper named mcghie68 (apologies if that didn’t format right) has been constantly undoing edits under the reason of “word cruft”, but in the process removing the actual information in the edits as opposed to simply cleaning grammar. Now, initially I thought this was an abundance of caution given SLA Industries and its notoriously convoluted canon history and leaks, but now it is affecting edits I know were okayed by Word of God as officially published books that are still available and still canon, like Threat Analysis: Collateral or the skirmish game Cannibal Sector 1.
Edit for clarification: I noted a brewing Edit War in my last edit, but have not notified them yet, as given said canon issues, I wanted to make sure myself (a lot of edits were removed based on them being in a backer beta, not a yet-published book).
Edited by Leliel
Previously Toko WH
resolved Are Steam Community Market tips allowed in Boring But Practical? Videogame
I was thinking of adding some of the general advise traders use to Boring, but Practical but I'm not sure if that's allowed since it deals with real world money. Also not entirely sure where it would be put. I'm not sure if video games fit considering Steam itself isn't really a video game.
resolved Useful Notes - AI Boom? Web Original
Just stumbled across this new page and feel like it could use some discussion. It seems to have been quietly launched a little over a week ago, in more or less its current form.
For one thing, I see a few suspicious signs that the text might be AI-generated itself; notice the em dashes, the lists of three items, "from x to y", the vague adjectives.... plus it's pretty poorly organized.
Be that as it may, it takes a weirdly hyped tone, almost self-congratulatory, and only glancingly touches on some of the huge controversies in the creative world around AI and LLMs. Obviously it's a hot-button topic that evokes strong feelings for many, including being a central point of contention in the most recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes... but there I go. Point being, the page as it is seems like one person's opinion that doesn't do a good enough job at taking multiple perspectives into account. It lacks a lot of specifics about the technology and the discussions around it as it exists.
That's assuming we even want/need such a page, honestly I fear Flame Bait in its future.
What do we think should be done with it: Cutlist it, expand it, find some more contributors and entry pimps to balance it out?
Edited by Jeduthunresolved Was there a consensus for this edit? Western Animation
This was added in The Owl House - Emperor Belos:
- Seven Deadly Sins: Fittingly for a Satanic Archetype and ironically for a heavily implied devout Puritan, Belos is actually guilty of all seven of them.
- Wrath: He's not loud about it, but his murder of Caleb and of his grimwalker clones all stem from his anger towards Caleb for "leaving" him for a witch and refusing to repent and, for the girmwalkers, betraying him as he believes Caleb did.
- Lust: Despite showing no interest in anyone, Belos does have a lust for fame and glory as a great Witch Hunter General. This on top of his implied lust for attention given that he in part murdered Caleb for "abandoning" him for Evelyn.
- Pride: Perhaps the most fitting, he truly believes himself to be the great Witch Hunter General he's dreamed of being since childhood and it was Caleb spending time with his witch lover instead of him that would eventually motivate Philip to murder him. Tying into the above lust for glory, being the Witch Hunter General would also offer him no shortage of adulation and attention, per the Sin of Pride's meaning.
- Sloth: Insofar as Belos is morally apathetic as he certainly not slothful in pursuing his goals. He does not care in the least that what he's doing is wrong, even though on some level he's realized it is. All he cares about at this point is succeeding because otherwise all his other sins and atrocities will have been for nothing.
- Greed: Not so much for material wealth, not that he lacks that as Emperor, but Belos is an innately selfish person who intends to enjoy whatever spoils of his victory may come by himself seeing as he plans on killing off all of his Witch and Demon allies as part of his plan. The only possible exception being Luz if she would take his offer to join her.
- Gluttony: This one is more induced, but he needs to consume more and more Palismen to stay alive long enough to complete his plans and he has no qualms with over indulging if it means he lives just a little longer.
- Envy: In a more platonic sense than usual, but envy is the disire for something someone else possesses. In this case, Philip was a Green-Eyed Monster towards Evelyn for taking Caleb away from him and projected that envy and hatred towards the Boiling Isles as a whole. And as is so often the case, his sin of Envy lead to him commiting all the others.
- And on a certain level, Belos has even commited the lesser known eighth sin from Orthodox Christianity: Despair. Despite having realized, on some level, after centuries of atrocities and sin that he's in the wrong Belos refuses any and all offers to change or even simply give up and instead convinces himself that no matter how wrong it is, he has to destory the Boiling Isles and everyone on it if for no other reason that to make all his sins worth it.
Even though the hidden comment stated this.
- Seven Deadly Sins Do not add back without consensus.
That comment was deleted in a later edit, but there doesn't seemed to be a link showcasing the consensus and feels like the comment was deliberately ignored.
Local Odd Squad Connoisseur
resolved Question about troping upcoming material
So recently the Instagram account of one of the actors on Odd Squad UK posted a filming wrapup video that includes a few spoilers for an upcoming Season 2. It's public so it wouldn't fall under Content Leak, but I just want to confirm if the stuff in that video is okay to trope or not — the season itself was publicly announced to be in production a while back but there's no release window or date set for it yet.
Edited by ilovewildkratts1resolved Assistance with Example/Crosswick Anime
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ColdTouchSurprise
Someone added a video to Cold Touch Surprise. Now, the video fits the trope well, as far as I'm concerned. However, whoever added it didn't do an example write up for the series it depicts, and I myself am not familiar enough with the work to be sure I get all the respective details correct.
Would anyone familiar with the series please add the write up and crosswick it?
Edited by QPCwBresolved DisillusionedCheetah100 spiraling Western Animation
Hi. I hope this is not the wrong place to report this but Disillusioned Cheetah 100 has been lashing out at people who tried to help him in his obscure Dr. Rabbit and Toon definition threads. He says he doesn't like people "correcting" or "helping" him and says they just want him to think and behave like them, while also saying people use "moronic excuses" and lie about wanting to help him.
He's doing the same spamming that resulted in his previous suspension wrapped up in a persecution complex and saying he wishes he could delete his threads (then when people say he just needs to holler a mod he doubles down on insulting himself and saying people hate him or are annoyed by him.) I am honestly worried about this guy's mental health based on his forum behavior.
resolved Removal of references to autism and Aspergers
Hi folks. Recently I've noticed that Trial Purple Cube has been going through tropes and removing any examples that pertain to autism or Aspergers, claiming it's "cleaning up word cruft." I agree that some of the entries could stand to be looked at, but these are entire deletions without reason (including an entry that discusses Dr. Asperger himself).
I've sent several notifiers, and normally would just revert and move on, but this is a hot button issue so wanted to get community consensus first. It seems to be a Single-Issue Wonk for this user as well, as it makes up all but two entries of their six-month account history.
Edited by Faelwynresolved How do I link Metamorphosis as trope on another page?
When I try to add Metamorphosis as an example of a trope for a certain work it doesn't hyperlink to the main page. I put the asterisk, a space, then Metamorphosis with a colon after (see below), but it doesn't turn blue or hyperlink to trope itself.
- Metamorphosis:
resolved Discussion pages spam complaining about Sinfest images
burglesnur has made a total of 57 comments
today alone on the discussion pages of tropes/one index with a Sinfest panel as the image, with the post each time being:
Issues with Sinfest itself aside, surely this violates Rule 1, right? If it was just a single post it would be one thing, but this is...well, a lot more than that. I don't know if it could be considered a Single-Issue Wonk since they've made unrelated discussion posts and their edits seem to be fine, but at any rate it's not okay.
Edited by Coachpillresolved Questions about a problematic Nightmare Fuel page Videogame
NightmareFuel.Little Big Planet is currently only a one paragraph long page with incorrect grammar and citing user-made content as its nightmare fuel. I have a few questions about this.
- Just to be sure, can this page be cut for being a stub? I'm not sure how page length limits apply to Moments subpages. If so, I'll sent a notifier to the page creator and send the page to the cutlist if they don't respond or edit the page in a few days.
- Can user-generated content be used as examples on the main pages for the games they come from? LittleBigPlanet itself is a game that is heavily focued around its level editor, but it has its own story and levels outside of that, making it a game rather than a platform like Roblox.
resolved Soft Reboot Misuse
A few years ago I added Sonic Adventure to the Soft Reboot page. Fast forward to today and it somehow bloated to the point of absurdity that every 3D entry in the Sonic series is a Soft Reboot. Here's my assessment:
- While the Adventure games defined the tone of the franchise for several years, a period lengthened by a successful transition to Nintendo hardware, Sega then decided to go Multi-Platform with Sonic Heroes, a game that expanded on the playable roster (from six "main" characters in each of the Adventure games to a whopping twelve), emphasizing straightforward and lighthearted storytelling (as opposed to the more somber elements of death and destruction in the Adventure games), and ignoring most of the existing lore. No, it's a direct continuation of the Adventure duology. It didn't "ignore the existing lore". An expanded cast, a shift in tone, and a new gameplay gimmick doesn't differentiate it enough from past games.
- Sega then decided to exploit its then hottest character and gave him the leading role in Shadow the Hedgehog, but this proved to be such a commercial and popular failure that the next big console release — Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) — was openly described as a reboot in articles and press releases leading-up to its release (note that "2006" is not in the game's actual title, which is simply Sonic the Hedgehog, as though it were the first in the series). This game featured a massive Tone Shift away from a Doom-esque hellscape to a highly wrought and exotic setting typical of Final Fantasy, revisited Adventure-style narrative tropes like ancient evils and decades-old intrigue, removed any cartoony design elements (save for Funny Animals like Sonic and friends) — it even had a realistic Eggman. Maybe this can stay. I'm a bit iffy on this one since it still takes place in the Adventure continuity. My main hang-up is "thin Eggman" and Yuji Naka stating in interviews that he wanted to reinvent the franchise to be more like Batman (yes, really). Honestly the title alone gives the impression that this was a supposed to be a reboot
- With the failure of '06, Sega decided to rework its approach once again. After three games featuring Sonic's substantial list of playable characters, Sega began a more experimental period in two parts focused almost exclusively on Sonic himself. The Sonic Storybook Series featured Sonic in solo on-rails adventures in fantasy worlds derived from real-life legend, while Sonic Unleashed compromised between this approach and the Sonic Adventure approach to narrative and game design, with another ancient evil plot and experimental Beat 'em Up gameplay. Another notable element of this era was the reduction of Sonic's portrayal as a goody two-shoes, which had dominated his characterization from Heroes to '06, in favor of restoring his Mascot with Attitude personality. I feel like Unleashed can stay because it discarded the Adventure storyline, introduced the Boost mechanic that would go on to define the HD era of Sonic, and made Sonic the main focus of the series from this point forward as opposed to the Loads And Loads Of Characters of past 3D Sonic games.
- None of these games proved to be an especially successful new direction, prompting Sega to go back to even further basics with Sonic Colors: a pure contest of wills between Sonic and Eggman to rescue distressed critters (and in that sense a plot no more complicated than the very first Sonic the Hedgehog 1), with Tails on the sidelines to give Sonic somebody to chat with. Colors also notably employed a simple and lighthearted tone not seen since Sonic Heroes, but also an irreverent and tightly written comedic tone not seen since Sonic's early American cartoons. Colors was a hit, prompting Sega to borrow most of the gameplay and expand on its approach to the Classic era Sonic with Sonic Generations, and then providing a direct sequel to Colors with Sonic Lost World, which expanded on the outer space setting of Colors by employing design elements from Super Mario Galaxy. I don't think Colors differentiates itself enough from Unleashed to count, and I wouldn't call Lost World a "direct sequel" to Colors.
- With the failure of Lost World, however, Sega embarked on a new project entirely in Sonic Boom, an era of the franchise spanning several years' worth of video games, a cartoon, and comic books. Boom was a spinoff that reimagined the core Sonic cast from the ground up and engaged them with adventure archaeology and mad science more in the vein of Crash Bandicoot than of Sonic's historic high-speed platforming (no doubt thanks to the creators of Boom having been involved with Crash years before). Sonic Boom was never intended to replace the mainline continuity of the Sonic franchise, it was always meant to be a spinoff, so this can go.
- Sonic Forces, the first major core series title since Boom began, references previous titles while at the same time leaving out a lot of things from previous games. Most blatantly, there are no humans besides Eggman (there aren't even minor human NPCs anywhere), and though there's a world war going on, G.U.N. is nowhere in sight. Instead, for the first time in the games, we have Funny Animal minor characters appearing. The game also doesn't include some previous areas such as Station Square and instead takes place near a nondescript "City." However... There were no humans since Colors either, and no mention of G.U.N. since '06 because Unleashed basically did away with the Adventure continuity.
- Tepid reaction to Forces (and certain assertations about series lore during this time) ensured that Sega once again would backtrack from this new direction beginning with Sonic Frontiers, which notably introduced an "Open Zone" structure to the gameplay formula. Frontiers and supplemental works such as TailsTube would also begin "clarifying" more controversial Word of God statements made during the Forces era so as to no longer conflict with pre-existing canon while also Canon Welding the games to other media like the IDW comics and Sonic Prime and having a stronger, more serious focus on continuity over the more self-referential and often self-deprecating humor of the 2010s (often dubbed the "Meta Era" as a result). This could probably count, since the "boost to win" formula and self-deprecating snark from Unleashed and onward were finally abandoned in favor of open-world gameplay and a script that takes itself much more seriously.

So this issue occurred regarding the page Characters.Our Avatars Are Posting On A Forum Thread Deadly Espresso.
The page in question is a personal one for me, given that it's about avatars I use on TV Tropes' "Our Avatars Are Posting On A Forum Thread" roleplay. There's been a recent dispute regarding the way images were used on the thread, with Animuacid thinking some were of bad quality or were not useful for the article. However, rather than Animuacid personally suggesting me to clean up the article for images that weren't useful, they instead took it to the Image Pickin' threads and made other users suggest some of the images be taken down without my consent. As expected for someone who had made my Characters page into a personal project of mine, I got fed up like someone finally being to clean up their damn room and took cleaning up the page into my own hands, because I thought if I want something about my own content being done right, I better do it myself. However, the Image Pickin' thread wasn't closed after my attempt at cleanup, and even after notifying Animuacid about the cleanup, they haven't closed the Image Pickin' thread.
Was Animuacid's approach to getting my page cleaned up improper and should've just been a private talk with me, or am I just being unnecessarily bitchy about someone making unwanted modifications to an article that's become a passion project of mine? Any sort of compromise to get the page in better shape would be ideal.