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 Defictionalized Recipes
I was thinking of putting something into the TLP that involved taking food from fictional media and making it real, sharing recipes of said food. I'd either mark it as either just for fun or ymmv as the intent is to share recipes for fictional dishes so that they can be made for real.
I don't exactly have any recipes I made up myself, and I am sure adding recipes from other sites and even cookbooks would be nothing more than plagiarism. I am also trying to determine the best way to format recipes. As such, how should I go about this?
resolved Is there an Administrivia about "see above" and "see below"
I'm noticing quite a bit on Tv Tropes examples saying "see above" rather than explaining something for itself. Is there an Administrivia about how examples like this should be handled? Should they be edited to actually clarify rather than assume one would scroll "above" or "below"?
resolved That One Boss natter? Videogame
I tried to bring this up in the cleanup thread
, but to no avail.
This was recently added under Sillydillo's entry in ThatOneBoss.Kirby:
- In a June 2022 interview with Nintendo Dream, Shinya Kumazaki admitted that members of the development team often raised complaints about Sillydillo's difficulty... including Kumazaki himself. You know a boss deserves to be on this list when the people who made the game wound up finding him too tough!
Seems like natter to me, but should I remove it?
resolved Troper page with heavy self-deprecation and even suicidal indentation
Smolidk's troper page is...rather worrying. It opens with "Kill me", and includes entries about the troper in question like Abusive Parents, Angst? What Angst?, Asshole Victim, an inverted case of Beautiful Sexual Assault Victim where they call themselves "absolutely hideous", and more (with one standout entry being "Death Seeker: Kill me pls").
Wasn't there a recently-passed rule that this sort of thing wasn't allowed on people's troper pages anymore because we here at TVT are not trained mental health professionals (which was also discussed here
)?
resolved Spotted a non-YMMV trope in YMMV section in Project Zomboid
Okay, I just found this on the YMMV page of Project Zomboid:
- Do Not Go Gentle: A common outcome if one discovers a bite or begins suffering signs of the Knox infection.
Checked this on the YMMV home page and the trope page itself. Both don't have them listed on each another.
What to do with this?
resolved American Girl - Ban Evader Literature
It looks like a recent editor, Peachy2023, was found to be a ban evader for another account and their edits were reverted on multiple pages they added to. However, I edited two American Girl character pages they added to to remove or correct some of these edits, thinking it was a new editor making the same mistakes: the Historical Character Page at American Girls Collection Historical Characters and Girls of the Year page at American Girls Collection - Girls of the Year. Does someone else need to come in and revert these edits from the evader, or can I remove the other remaining examples myself?
(edit because the name made a red link and linking the affected pages. )
Edited by Nethiliaresolved Removing a re-added MemeticLoser entry
I’ve already brought this to the ‘Memetic X Cleanup’ thread, but since that thread hasn’t seen much use in the past month, I’ve decided to also bring this here in the hopes that this can get resolved quicker.
Yesterday I found this Memetic Loser entry on the YMMV Mortal Kombat 1 page:
- Kotal continues this trend too. His sole mention in the game's story mode is a line where he lost to Raiden offscreen.
I had previously removed this entry as, while he may have been a Memetic Loser in the previous game, not only was Kotal not the only character Raiden defeated offscreen (two other characters, Sheeva and Motaro, were also listed among those that Raiden had defeated offscreen and even then it’s stated that Raiden had also defeated many others besides them, those three were just the only ones to get name-dropped) but the fanbase itself has not singled out Kotal’s loss specifically, in fact this throwaway line has barely even been talked about by the fanbase at all thus far.
However I saw that someone has recently re-added and reworded the entry without an edit reason. As the person who removed it initially, I obviously think that the entry should be removed again for the reasons that I’ve described, especially since no reason was given for adding it back.
Edited by CorvusIXresolved Rewriting Walkthrough Mode Page Videogame
Here's the summary of Walkthrough Mode:
For example, let's say Alice adds the Puppy Stomper 3000 to That One Boss. Bob follows this up by stating, "Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z." Then Clara comes by and adds, "To be fair, you need Sven in your party to use the Ring of Puppy Protection. It's easier to use the Stick of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to bring the Ring of Puppy Protection to the Ring Transumation Fairy in Scary Town."
Using the example from the above paragraph, here's what it looks like on a page.
- That One Boss: Puppy Stomper 3000 is hard because of blah blah.
- Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z.
- To be fair, you need Sven in your party to use the Ring of Puppy Protection. It's easier to use the Stick of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to bring the Ring of Puppy Protection to the Ring Transumation Fairy in Scary Town.
- Actually, the Puppy Stomper isn't tough if you have the Ring of Puppy Protection, which only requires you to do X, Y and Z.
The first two paragraphs basically describe a videogame mechanics-themed version of Thread Mode, which... editors shouldn't do either, but if all the page has to say is "don't thread mode about game mechanics", it probably doesn't need to exist — just point to Thread Mode instead.
To my understanding, what Walkthrough Mode should tell readers is that they should avoid cluttering examples with numbers, niche mechanics, and long-winded guides that are only tangentially relevant to how there is an example of a trope — this is suggested to me by that last paragraph. Here's a version I think could work, which emphasizes that:
For example, let's say Alice lists the Puppy Stompertron as an example of That One Boss, engaging in Walkthrough Mode to do so:
- That One Boss: The Puppy Stompertron appears at the end of the Puppy Factory and presents a massive roadblock to the player. It's got a massive 70,000 HP health bar (by the end of the factory, you'll be dealing 300 DPS at best), has immunity to Bleed, Stun, Dizzy, Confuse, and Love, and all of its attacks are That One Attack. Puppy Squishing deals 10,000 damage and can only be survived with the Anti-Ten Thousand Medal from the Numbers Swamp, Puppy Flamethrowing is supposed to deal only 40 damage to the player once but a bug with the level geometry can cause the flames to deal 400 damage if the player's standing on the many hills around the arena, and the Dog Food Ingester will heal it back to full unless the player has done the sidequest to obtain Dog Food Poison, which is easily missable at the start of the game. The only thing that can make this easy is the Puppy Stompertron Control Device to cut its HP in half, which is only available to builds that use the Dagger of Air Vent Entry, a 37 Charisma build to take it from the Puppy Factory Foreman (you can't go with any other level of Charisma, he starts liking you too much if you do), or a glitched maximum Speed character to clip through the northeast locked door and access the room where it's stored.
As you can see, this entry is hard to read because it's loaded with tangents on whole-game strategies and numbers that mean nothing to an outsider, when all that's needed is to explain how the Puppy Stompertron boss is harder than the rest of the game. Let's see an example that does just that:
- That One Boss: The Puppy Stompertron appears at the end of the Puppy Factory and presents a massive roadblock to the player. It has massive HP for that point at the game, immunity to many of the useful status effects, and all of its attacks are That One Attack — dealing massive damage or healing itself to full. The only ways to get past it painlessly involve highly-specific strategies and/or exploiting glitches, neither of which are available to every character class.
This entry is much more succinct in stating why the Puppy Stompertron is an example of That One Boss: it has high stats, immunity to statuses, powerful attacks, and the mechanics to make it easier aren't universally applicable. By cutting out details, the example becomes easier to read and digestible, yet the non-Walkthrough Mode entry still manages to communicate key points on why the Puppy Stompertron is this trope.
As a side bonus, when talking about games that are receiving post-launch updates, avoiding exact numbers gives a degree of futureproofing. In many games, if a change needs to be made, the numbers are usually first to be adjusted, so if the Puppy Stompertron ever has its HP or damage values changed this way, the example doesn't suddenly need an update to correct those parts.
While it is understandable why Walkthrough Mode happens, wiki articles are not walkthroughs for how to beat That One Boss or That One Level. Trope examples should be generic enough that those who aren't familiar with the game can understand them, and shouldn't be cluttered with something like the exact attack strength of a weapon or helpful asides about which two of the three Superbosses can be affected by the Game-Breaker. This isn't to say that you shouldn't list your example with little to no information, which is the opposite problem; you just need to explain why your example is that of the trope in question in a way that's digestible to the average reader.
See also Word Cruft, another writing element that makes examples bloated and indigestible by adding too many unnecessary words.
Does this look good to use on the page?
Edited by Pyhrrousresolved Would this count as an EditWar? Web Original
On Sep 5th 2021
, I removed the Trope Informed Wrongness from the YMMV page of the fifth episode of Helluva Boss, due to said entry being Trope Misuse as a result of misconstruing the events of the episode.
On Dec 30th 2022
, jOSEFdelaville added Informed Wrongness to the page again, but with a different entry. I believe this is also an example of misuse that misconstrues the events of the episode, as Millie wasn't the one who brought up the fact Moxxie had a gun, Moxxie himself did. Millie only said he didn't need to prove he was stronger physically after he lamented not being strong enough, saying basically to stick to his strengths when facing him this time. Moxxie was the one who said "I probably should have used this earlier, huh?" after remembering he had a gun on him, Millie's reaction being more exasperation when she sees him remember and make the comment. "I love ya hon, but for fucks sake."
Would it count as an Edit War if I removed the trope since I had already removed Informed Wrongness once before, even if it was a different entry?
Edited by RebelFalconresolved "Stage Directions" When Quoting Text
When quoting a text work, is it acceptable to use the Bolded Name: + [bracketed actions] format when quoting text if it'd be cleaner or clearer than quoting the text in full? Or is it better to just leave the would-be bracketed part out altogether?
E.g., in the middle of a conversation:
The second one feels weird because "there" doesn't have a referent. It just feels incomplete. In some cases, it may also make it unclear that Bob is pointing towards Charlie. (The rules are, however, plenty clear that this is the correct format when you're solely quoting dialogue.)
The third one solves both of these problems, plus a third one: if including all the narration would be unnecessary, it lets you only mention the important parts (such as, potentially, just that he was pointing behind himself or just that he was pointing at Charlie). The (possible) problem that it's using a format that the rules imply is for visual media.
Edited by Kestrelguyresolved Stub report
Webcomic.Cindy Lee doesn't have a single trope and also lacks a link to the work since it is supposed to be a webcomic. Despite this, it has a character subpage (Characters.Cindy Lee).
Checking both pages' history shows that they were created by a troper named Sochimbuchi, who has only edited these two pages
and nothing else since January of this year. It turns out that Sochimbuchi is the author of this webcomic (mentioned here
), which seems to have opted to delete all tropes and the link to the work
at the end of last year. The webcomic itself also seems to have been deleted from webtoons for unknown reasons (the link
that was originally added no longer works and doesn't appear on the author's webtoons profile page; it hasn't been saved to the wayback machine either).
Can I delete this page?
Edited by SoyValdo7resolved Odd grammatical perhaps-corrections Videogame
Mr Derpy Kid 2 changed "themselves" into "themself" on Characters.Armored Core VI Main Characters and Characters.Armored Core VI Corporations. I've never seen it used this way before, and all my googling showed was "some people might be using it, IDK spidey lol".
Do I correct this (and send a notifier)? Is this even the sort of change that needs correcting?
resolved Which book of Dragaera is an ontological mystery?
It was in the "ontological mystery" trope. Here's what it says:
Issola: A couple of people our protagonist considered completely indestructible have gone missing. Not even Sethra Lavode, who very much deserves her Shrouded in Myth status, can find them by herself. She knows how to get Vlad there, and he arrives to find his two friends stuck in unbreakable, seamless chains in an empty room with no exits that appears to be on another planet. The plot hinges on figuring out how the hell the bad guys managed it, and why.
resolved Invisible Ask
I marked an ask here as Private and I myself can’t see it. Is that normal or did something go wrong and I have to resubmit that ask?
resolved Linking a fanfic that has its own page on fanfic recs
I was browsing FanficRecs.The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel’s history where user Alciel 9 linked the page to one recs (Fanfic.Isekaid To A Jrpg As A Harem Member) which has its own page here. This got me wondering; if one the fanfic manage to get its own page, do we link the page or the work itself?
resolved question on "Up For Grabs" TLP
If a draft is Up For Grabs, and you want to contribute an example without adopting the draft, should you still respect not editing the draft directly yourself to add the example to it? Is the expectation the person who eventually adopts the draft will go through all the past comments to update the draft?
basically, does editing courtesy change at all if a draft is "Up For Grabs"?
Edited by IronAnimationresolved Dethroning Moment About Rae Mills
From DethroningMoment.Web Original:
- JEFFWONTLEAVE: I personally think that commentary videos get a bad rep nowadays. They have drastically improved from what they were back in 2011 with much more insight and humor. One prime example of this is Rae Mills, considered by many to be the best one out there. Which makes her DMOS, Response to Mr Enter
even more painful. The video itself could have been better if it was worked into a main commentary on her channel or People who did the B.O.P commentary on Mr.Enter's troll video did the response, but instead it's just a lazy response that come's across as filler for a Massive Multiplayer Crossover channel. But the main issue I had with this video that turned it From Bad to Worse was the last 3 minutes where she tries to come across as The Last DJ who is trying to help save the poor misinformed fans of this horrible person who made a video she hated on youtube instead turned the entire response to a very mean-spirited, arrogant and completely uncalled for rant about Mr.enter. For someone who is well known for being very well reasonable and yet still blunt and to the point, this seemed completely out of character for her and added nothing of value to the commentary. As a person who hated that troll video as much as, if not more so then her, I was completely furious with this video and was considering just giving up on the commentary community all over again, but I decided to give her one more shot and she did win me back. But I'm still not forgiving her for that train wreck any time soon.
For those unaware, Rae has been the subject of quite the bit of controversy since this entry was written (I'd rather not get into it myself). For that reason, I'm wondering what, if anything, should be done with this entry, or if nothing about it should be done. What do you guys think?
Edited by JHD0919resolved Problematic troper
They made SCP Chronicles and its subpages. The work page itself is stub with only two good tropes (albeit with three examples for one trope), the other are either ZCE or general example. The Characters/ and Recap/ also suffer similar problem (the have more trope examples than the main work page however, even if everything on the work page are duplicated on these subpages) plus several empty folders.
I fixed these pages per our standard procedures (commenting out ZCE, removing misuse, removing spoiler tag above examples, removing empty folders, etc.) and sent them 4 notifiers for stub, spoiler, misuse, and ZCE (the last one is from different article here
.
Sadly, they don't seems to get it
. They do fix some ZCE, but also uncommenting other ZCE and restore empty folders).
I suspect Auto-Erotic Troping. And I don't know if it's wrong, but Laconic.SCP Chronicles is word-by-word copied from Laconic.SCP Animated Tales From The Foundation.
Edited by Kuruniresolved Non-YMMV trope in YMMV page: Final Fantasy Legend II Videogame
...And I thought it wouldn't ever happen again, but it does:
In the page YMMV.Final Fantasy Legend II, Nintendo Hard is listed there. Speaking of which, Video Games difficulty might be subjective between players, but if a lot of players see the Video Game with trope page in this site is seen as hard, it would been listed in the main page, rather than the YMMV.
Oddly enough, the trope has been there from the creation of the YMMV page, which is relatively new compared to the main Video Game page itself, and created in January 2021, likely to make out a separate YMMV page for Final Fantasy Legend II).
What will I do?
EDIT: As of this TRS thread
, apparently the decision of Nintendo Hard being subjective has resulted it in being moved to YMMV trope. So I guess it's fine to move it back to YMMV. And this is after I self-locked the query by marking it as Resolved! Dang it.

The Bleach series is no stranger to the official localization changing over time, such as the Soul Reapers' swords variously being called "Soul Cutters", "Zanpak-to", and "Zanpakutou" over the years; or Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō being variously spelled with or without a space.
According to the official Masked and UnMasked artbooks, written by Tite Kubo himself, the Captain of Squad 2's name is supposed to be the Chinese "Suì-Fēng", which is pronounced "Soifon" in Japanese. However, VIZ Media's English localization has phonetically transcribed her name as "Soi Fon" and continues to do so even in media released after the artbooks came out — such as Bleach: Brave Souls and the Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War Arc. However, the TV Tropes pages all refer to her as Suì-Fēng.
What seems to be the case is that the Bleach wiki has prioritized Kubo's spellings (or ones that make sense in the language the different groups use) above VIZ's official English localizations — hence them using diacritics, and spelling "Visored" instead of "Vizard" and "Vollständig" instead of "Vollsterndich" or "Voll Stern Dich"; and the Bleach TV Tropes pages seem to — intentionally or not — have followed suit. But IIRC TV Tropes' policy is to prioritize the official English localization above all others, even if it turns out that localization is incorrect — as in the case of Berserk's Band of the Hawk being properly named "Band of the Falcon" but the English localization continuing to use the incorrect translation, with TV Tropes following suit.
What should be done in this case?