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 Discussions on edit reason?
So, on YMMV.Jocat there has been
a back and forth regarding this Offending the Creator's Own entry:
- Offending the Creator's Own: Despite himself being quite left-leaning, the infamous harassment campaign that targeted JoCat due to his "I Like Girls" was partly from far-left/radical feminist people who accused the video of objectifying women and being perverted.
Now I don't know if the entry is true and I have no dog in rather if it is political bias or not, but the thing is that it seems like the tropes particularly this one
are using the edit reason for discussions. Am I correct that is what is happening or am I mistaken.
resolved Misuse of ascended memes for Sonic 3? Film
These were added to the Film.Sonic The Hedgehog 3 page, under Ascended Meme:
- Ascended Meme:
- A minor one; Shadow gets totally interested in La Ultima Passion and roots for the Love Interest to just kill the other legs of the Love Triangle she's stuck in. He just loves Latinas.
- At one point, Sonic calls Shadow "Hot Topic", Shadow's nickname in Snapcube's Real-Time Fandub.
I feel like this is misuse, as Ascended Meme is when the meme itself appears in a work. Neither of these feel like actual references to the memes and are a bit of a stretch to connect them and are Fan Myopia at worst.
Cause hearing Sonic call Shadow "Hot Topic" made me think "okay, reference to edgy stuff zeitgeist in the mid-2000s" and not a reference to Snapcube fandubs (FWIW I haven't watched either).
Similarly, Shadow watching the spanish drama and getting into it feels more like he's The Comically Serious and Not So Above It All, rather than the latinas meme.
Like, I feel an actual ascended meme referring to at least the Jehtt thing is if Shadow actually said "I Love Latinas" in the dialogue of the film.
Edited by taotruthsresolved Potential Edit War Western Animation
Hello, I recently added a fic rec to the Hazbin Hotel section and someone later came back and edited in a “YMMV” about the author, not commenting about the fic itself, making it unnecessary.
It comes off as petty and rude, not to mention false, so I removed it only for it to be added back in a little while later by the same user. I have sent a message to the user but I think a mod should get involved to stop an editing war.
The ones who added the “YMMV” edit back in is Keida.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=FanficRecs.HazbinHotel&page=7
Also I am fairly new to the site so please let me know if I need to provide more information or am putting this in the wrong section.
Thank you.
Edited by TuneGlowresolved Alien: Romulus retcons Alien: Covenant? (Spoilers) Film
The page for Alien: Romulus says that it definitively retcons Ridley Scott's assertion that David-8 created the Xenomorphs in Alien: Covenant by revealing that the Xenomorphs contain the Engineers' black goo.
Fox has seen fit to largely ignore Ridley Scott's assertion that David created the Xenomorphs—at least in regards to the official TTRPG, which was written with the intent of integrating and streamlining all the "canon" material—but I'm not seeing anything in the film itself that contradicts what's shown in Alien: Covenant given that David very expressly used the Engineers' black goo to create the Xenomorphs shown there.
What should be done about those claims?
resolved Is there a point to having a Troper Page?
So, idk if this is a weird question. I'm intrigued by the idea of making a Troper page for myself but, I suppose, don't want to do it "wrong", if that makes sense? Why do people make Troper pages? What should I put on it? Is there a particular advantage to having one? Or is it just like a personal cork board to personalize?
resolved Troper with a string of bad edits
So, lately I’ve been noticing how Ninja Ghost Dragon has been making pretty terrible edits that I frequently have to undo because of how bad they often are. Lemme give some examples:
- Adding a non-canon example to the Dooku page that has nothing to do with the canon works.
Whenever a Legends work is discussed in a Star Wars page, there should be a comparison to the canon works or else they're not necessary there.
- This edit pretty much undoes the trope and the excuses and additions they added in the edits are either subjective or downright incorrect.
Their wrong edit pretty much means the trope can’t be played straight because if there are "whole others" (and there’s not because those those few people mentioned in the example are the only ones Anakin’s kind to) then this trope can’t be played straight.
- Constant grammatical and spelling errors. Lemme give a bunch of examples:
- Just take a look at the number of grammatical and spelling errors they made in this Anakin edit
.
- I undid this but they said might of instead of might have, misspelled destroy, and said "a Jocasta Nu" rather than just Jocasta Nu
.
- They should’ve used self-preservationism and they used the wrong kind of reckless.
- Forgetting to italicize the show name, verbal tic word cruft in the form of "heck", and at the very least they should have put a comma after using heck.
- Removing "where" when it was used properly, using "antagonizes" instead of "antagonizing", not adding a comma after using "also" at the beginning of the sentence.
- Again forgetting to italicize a work’s title
.
- Uses "with rifle" instead of "with a rifle", made a typo with "killedm ore" which I presume is "killed more", unnecessary use of the word along, and misspelling "desperately".
- Disobeying Edit Tip 8 (A trope can't be "partially subverted" any more than a woman can be "a little bit pregnant), using all caps on averted, and being grammatically incorrect in the edit reason to boot.
- Just take a look at the number of grammatical and spelling errors they made in this Anakin edit
And that’s just scratching the surface. If I had more time, I could probably add around 10-20 more examples of them making bad edits.
Edited by MaxyGregoryyyyresolved Using ChatGPT to help answer Headscratcher questions
Is it ok to directly cite answers generated by this program in answer to a question posed on a Headscratchers page? In this case, I had searched the work's wiki pages for relevant information, but it had nothing more to offer than the work itself. Furthermore, as it can be hard to do a granular search using a search engine for a very specific question like the one (for the work) I have in mind, and in the absence of any other troper stepping up (to date) to answer the question, AND as the answer appears to hold up (doesn't show any typical AI-anomalies or peculiar interpretations of the content), I don't think there's any harm to this approach?
Edited by FlashStepsresolved JDF-related Harsher In Hindsight example
On YMMV.Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, IncredibleFulk1 added
this example under Harsher in Hindsight, in light of the at-the-time passing of Jason David Frank, who played Burai's counterpart Tommy Oliver. The example was later deleted
by Anicomicgeek with an edit reason of "As tragic as Frank's passing was, death it-and-of itself doesn't count." However, another example related to Frank's death was added by Donnatemple on May 24th, 2023, under different wording:
- The fact that Tommy Oliver, Burai's occidental counterpart, is Spared By Adaptation and became a Composite Character of five rangers, became this with the death of Jason David Frank.
Unlike the previous example, this one flew under the radar for at least eight months, with no-one questioning if this example should count as being Harsher in Hindsight. Even if it was a case of that trope, it falls flat because neither Burai or JDF's deaths have anything in common (the former had a time limit that would put his life on the line; the latter due to personal and health issues that culminated in his demise via suicide). I would understand if it was Burai's actor, Shiro Izumi, who died and not his Western counterpart, but even then I doubt it would be from living on borrowed times. The only connection I could find is Izumi voicing his condolences to JDF
, but it wasn't related to either show. Any thoughts?
(and yes I don't know much about Zyuranger so I think I might have gotten Burai's death wrong)
Edited by ToonAbbyresolved Does "Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things" cover hatedoms?
About a week ago, Nemlei, the creator of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and other titles, ended their online presence and removed themselves from fandom interactions after some users of an anonymous forum board attempted (and failed) to doxx them.
~EndarkCuli initially added this entry to YMMV.The Coffin Of Andy And Leyley (which was then moved to Trivia.The Coffin Of Andy And Leyley by ~SoyValdo7), which was later edited by ~Konnor to specify it was "outside" of fandom.
- Despite the game itself having overall positive reviews, outside fandom reactions to one of the potential endings of Episode 2 led to the original creator terminating their online presence; while they will be continuing to work on story and art for the full version offline, Kit9 Studio was given ownership of the property and tasked with community management.
Setting aside that the doxxing started on a board that is notable for extreme transphobia and only started under the assumption the creator was transcontent warning The original post refers to Nemlei as "[transphobic slur] behind [the] cannibal incest game", mockingly uses neopronouns for them (when they have never specified such pronouns), users in the thread accuse the devs of being trans and groomers, you get the idea., they're clearly not fans of the work itself.
In my opinion, it doesn't count as Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things. Can I cut this?
Edit: Sorry, I cited the wrong person as adding the entry. SoyValdo7 only moved it to the Trivia subpage.
Final edit: Entry (and page since it was the only Trivia item) has been cut. Locking as resolved.
Edited by lapistierresolved Should I put this into TRS?
I've been reading through Animated Shock Comedy and noticed that many of the examples tend to comment on its quality. Whether if it's gushing about the inclusion of character development, or discussing about negative or divided viewer reactions.
Examples in the page that show this:
- "Sausage Party has plenty of Character Development and a solid plot, but it still sold itself on being the first 3D computer-animated feature to get an R-rating. Viewers are divided on its quality, with some feeling that it tried too hard to shove crude humor into every available place it could find."
- "Hoops, another Netflix cartoon. The main character is a completely unlikable Jerkass, and the humor is very crass, with lots of dick jokes and extreme amounts of F-bombs from its VERY foul-mouthed protagonist. While jerkass protagonists are hardly rare in this genre, this one's sheer obnoxiousness garnered the show many negative reviews, and likely led to its swift cancellation."
- "A lot of the humor in Rick and Morty is extremely sophomoric, with phallic imagery, burp/fart jokes, pop culture references and violence galore; however, much like Bojack Horseman, it plays the consequences of a lot of these jokes completely straight for the sake of furthering the story and developing the characters, who even at their flattest are much more fleshed out and three-dimensional than a good deal of the show's contemporaries..."
Basically, I think the trope tends to attract both complaining and gushing that I think examples should be rewritten to be less YMMV.
What do you think?
Edited by RuckusHeartsresolved 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 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 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 Re-added Hilarious In Hindsight shoehorn in spite of cleanup Web Original
Near the end of April on the Hilarious in Hindsight page for Zero Punctuation, rundownforge50 added this sub-bullet
to an example that just happened to offhandedly mention Garry's Mod. I figured this seemed like a shoehorn since it didn't strike me as something which later context has made all that much more amusing or entirely relevant to the context given in the parent bullet, so I raised it to the Hindsight Cleanup thread
and was cleared to cut the example
.
Fast forward to today and I check the page's history since it's in my pinned pages list, and I notice that the same troper had added the same example back
the day before, with superficially altered wording that really doesn't help the example's case for being an example of Hilarious in Hindsight.
Speaking to the substance of the example itself, perhaps it would have been an example of Hilarious in Hindsight if the player model was one that Yahtzee himself created and/or frequently used, but a quick glance at the linked workshop page tells me that it isn't. So as far as I'm concerned, the example still seems like a shoehorn.
I won't say one way or another if the readding of the example is a breach of the Edit War policy, if only because the passage of time between the deletion and readding makes it unclear from my perspective. But I'm assuming, given the linked approval from the hindsight cleanup thread, that I'm still clear to cut the example?
Edited by Akriloth2160resolved Moving removed Talking to Himself examples to Acting For Two
Before Talking To Himself was made a disambiguation, I added some examples of it to Trivia.The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee. When dewicking the trope started, it was removed here
. Would it be considered an edit war if I added those examples under Acting for Two?
resolved Should this be cut?
First, I found Awesome.Other Friendship Is Magic Fan Vids during a round of meta moment hunting and sent it to Cut List since all of the examples are from fan works or other derivative works (like DEATH BATTLE!). I were on phone and so didn't dig deeper then.
Now, I check it again and realized that the only inbound link is a circular link to itself. The main work page, WebAnimation.Other Friendship Is Magic Fan Vids, seems to be misuse since it look like Fanfic Recommendations but with poor troping (most, if not all, examples are ZCE) and long list of external link without recommendation. It also has other subpages, all are of poor quality.
Edited by Kuruniresolved Which name to use for this character Literature
In The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong, the protagonist, originally named Shen Yuan, transmigrates into a character named Shen Qingqiu, and from then on is referred to as Shen Qingqiu, including in his own thoughts. So in the story, he's called Shen Qingqiu like 99% of the time. I've noticed that the article for The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong uses both names, but Shen Yuan more often than Shen Qingqiu. I feel like it would be better to use Shen Qingqiu by default and only use Shen Yuan when referring to his past life as the novel does. Would it be okay for me to make these changes?
resolved Edit war
Reginald Ogron 5 introduced following edit to Hearts of Iron:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=YMMV.HeartsOfIron#edit34958967
I slashed it, along with citing my reasons for that (and a quarter of all entries from that specific YMMV page are going to support those reasons). Except a few days later, the troper in question put it back without a single alternation
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=YMMV.HeartsOfIron#edit34998908
So it's a double whammy: not only did he repost the same entry, but the entry itself claims things that aren't true, where stuff listed as supposed praises are widely considered to be Scrappy Mechanic within the playerbase.

I've a question about the page for the comic book miniseries The Cape
. My question comes from the fact that long time ago, Eric Chase from the series was approved as a CM by the troper Ravok and since the page was created long after his approval, it is not on the YMMY page (in fact, there is no YMMY page abouyt the comic). Here's the entry:
Eric Chase is a lazy and selfish sociopath who discovers that his childhood cape grants him the ability of flight, and chooses to use this power to stroke his own ego. First brutally murdering his girlfriend after he becomes paranoid she is cheating on him, Eric, as detailed in the interquel Fallen, is struck by a crisis of conscience that he ultimately ignores, embracing his inner vileness as he massacres an entire group of LAR Pers he was hanging out with. Later using his own mother as a hostage in an attempt to burn his hated brother alive, Eric murders several police officers investigating him — a pair of them by dropping a live bear on top of their car — before downing an entire airplane his mother is on, killing her and hundreds of people at once. Though once a sweet child desperate for his father's approval, Eric knowingly and willingly becomes a monster in adulthood, refusing to take guilt or responsibility for his life and instead blaming everyone around him for his faults, and deciding that the punishment for them all should be death.
My question is if I can add the entry and the YMMY page myself, if I should mention it here, or if a thread for the matter exists.