Most tropes are obviously either present or absent in a work, and can be added to a work page immediately after the work is released. Others, particularly Audience Reactions, tropes that involve the passage of real-world time, and those that span a large number of installments, can take a little bit to be sure that they apply. See also: Speculative Troping.
The following is a list of tropes and Audience Reactions that, for one reason or another, have a formal, mandatory waiting period before examples may be added to work pages, YMMV pages, or the main trope page.
Even where no formal mandatory waiting period is in place, before adding an example of an Audience Reaction, it's a good rule of thumb to ask oneself: "Will this still be relevant in a year? In a month? In a week?" If the answer is "no" or even, "I'm not sure," maybe hold off a little while and see what happens. Fan reaction can often be knee-jerk. It takes time for fan and critical consensus to form. Controversies that burn brightly often burn out quickly. Attempting to catalog every flash-in-pan Audience Reaction often results in pages that are cluttered and/or overly complain-y.
Not to be confused with Examples Are Not Recent, which is about why examples and descriptions should not have the word "recent" in reference to episodes, events, etc.
Note: Entries on this list have been agreed upon by consensus in this thread
. Do not add or delete them without first reaching consensus there.
If not mentioned otherwise, the time listed is the mandatory waiting time after the work (or the relevant part(s) of the work) has been released. For Real Life events, it's the waiting time after the event in question occurs or ends.
Pages with a mandatory waiting period:
- Acclaimed Flop (After the work has finished its initial run): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Adaptation Displacement (6 months from release of the adaptation): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Ambiguity tropes for sexuality and gender (end of season for episodic works, 3 months for episodic works without seasons. No waiting period for non-episodic works): To allow the work time to develop characters and resolve initial ambiguity.
- Apparently Powerless Puppetmaster (No Real Life examples until 20 years after the person leaves office): To avoid ROCEJ problems over current or recent politicians.
- Audience-Alienating Ending (6 months after the work ends): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Audience-Alienating Era (5 years after the era began): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Base-Breaking Character (6 months after the character is introduced or becomes controversial, whichever comes later): Due to the trope being a magnet for knee-jerk reactions whenever a character is disliked by any portion of the fanbase. Cleanup thread here.
- Box Office Bomb (After the film has finished its initial theatrical run): It's impossible to tell whether a film can qualify while it's still in theaters, since some movies take longer to recoup their budgets than others.
- Breakaway Pop Hit (5 years after the work featuring the song falls into obscurity): To make sure that the song's popularity lasts beyond the work it originally promoted.
- Broken Base (6 months after release or the issue becomes divisive, whichever comes later): Due to being misused for any disagreement within a fanbase, no matter how minor or short-lived. Cleanup thread here.
- Career Resurrection (5 years): To make sure the resurrection actually sticks.
- Character Perception Evolution (5 years): Due to it being a Subtrope of both Condemned by History and Vindicated by History.
- Complete Monster (2 weeks): Since all examples require group consensus, this allows more people to experience the work so that consensus may be reached on newer examples. Cleanup thread here.
- Condemned by History (5 years): Enacted per TRS discussion. We cannot determine whether or not something from recent times will go from being loved to being reviled.
- Contested Sequel (6 months): Due to it being a Subtrope of Broken Base.
- Creator Killer (10 years or, for studios or production companies, official confirmation): In order to prevent knee jerk reactions.
- Creator's Pet (6 months after the character is introduced or becomes hated, whichever comes later): inherited from The Scrappy, as all examples must also qualify for that trope.
- Critical Dissonance (1 month or the end of the season/theatrical run, whichever is later): Due to it being a magnet for shoehorned early reactions, often based on pre-release hype.
- Critic-Proof (1 month after release, 1 month after end of season for episodic works, 4 months after release for episodic works without seasons): To avoid knee-jerk reactions and allow time for reviews to impact the work's reception.
- Cruel and Unusual Death (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- Dead Fic (2 years after the previous update, unless confirmed by Word of God or author mortality): Per our rules on Fanfic Recommendations, and to match its sister trope Quietly Cancelled. This restriction long predated the NREP thread.
- Dead Man's Chest (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- Eaten Alive (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- EndOfAnAge.Real Life (5 years): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Ensemble Dark Horse (1 month after the character is introduced): To prevent knee jerk reactions and to also see if a character remains popular in the long run.
- Ethnic Scrappy (6 months after the character is introduced or becomes hated, whichever comes later): inherited from The Scrappy, as all examples must also qualify for that trope.
- Even Better Sequel (6 months): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Fair for Its Day (15 years): An extended period of time is required for culture to change enough for this to be possible.
- Fandom-Specific Plot (1 month): To prevent knee-jerk reactions and allow time for fanfic to be written.
- Fan-Preferred Couple (1 month after the work releases/season ends): The romantic landscape and fan preference for a work can change drastically in a relatively short time, which can lead to a fanon ship either falling out of favor with the audience or becoming canon.
- Fed to the Beast (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- First Installment Wins (6 months): To prevent knee-jerk reactions. This also applies when removing existing examples that may be disqualified by a new installment.
- Flaying Alive (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- Fold-Spindle Mutilation (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- Franchise Killer (5 years, unless officially confirmed): An extended period of inactivity is required to prove the franchise "dead".
- Full-Circle Revolution (50-100 years for real-life examples): To avoid any knee-jerk reactions for current regimes and allow time for historians to assess revolutions accurately.
- Genre-Killer: (10 years): Per TRS decision. Done in order to avoid knee-jerk reactions to recently failed pieces of media.
- Genre Turning Point (10 years): To avoid knee-jerk reactions and allow time to prove that the genre has indeed changed.
- Hanging Judge (100 years for Real Life examples): To avoid ROCEJ problems with more recent events.
- Hindsight Tropes (When the event causing hindsight is over): In order to avoid knee-jerk reactions about events that are still ongoing. Cleanup thread here.
- It Was His Sled (5 years after release, unless the spoiler becomes a Late-Arrival Spoiler): To give the Plot Twist enough time to become known to the general public.
- Later-Installment Weirdness (No examples until after the work has ended): Recent changes in the formula that are seen as weird in the moment can become the new standard over time. Troping after the work has concluded ensures that the late episodes stay as an anomaly.
- Long Runner tropes: To ensure that the work or franchise endures the test of time and remains in production. If there's a significant break in the run, the time required to qualify will be longer than the minimum listed here.
- Long-Runners (10 years)
- Long-Running Book Series (10 years)
- Print Long-Runners (20 years)
- Webcomics Long-Runners (10 years)
- Video Game Long-Runners (10 years)
- Magnificent Bastard (2 weeks): Since all examples require group consensus, this allows more people to experience the work so that consensus may be reached on newer examples. Cleanup thread here.
- Mainstream Obscurity (20 years): To ensure that a well-known work really does fade into obscurity.
- A Molten Date with Death (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- More Popular Replacement (6 months): To prevent knee jerk reactions.
- More Popular Spin-Off: (6 months): To prevent knee jerk reactions.
- Multiple Demographic Appeal (1 month): To prevent knee jerk reactions.
- Murder by Cremation (150 years for Real Life examples): To avoid gore and gossip about recent examples.
- Never Live It Down (6 months after the moment happens): What can be seen as a major embarrassment in the moment can die down quickly after its release. We ask that you wait and see if the character's reputation still stands in the long-run. Cleanup thread here.
- Nintendo Hard (1 month): To prevent knee-jerk reactions and give the audience enough time to judge how hard the game is.
- Once Original, Now Common (10 years): To provide a time barrier to give a proper analysis of its cultural impact rather than just observing brief trends, and to curb its use as thinly-veiled gushing for a work.
- One-Hit Wonder (5 years, unless the artist retires/disbands): To prevent knee-jerk reactions for a succeeding work flopping.
- Oppressive States of America (No Real-Life entries past the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s): Due to concerns around the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment.
- Overshadowed by Controversy (6 months after the work is released or becomes controversial, whichever comes later): Controversies often burn bright and then flare out, meaning that controversies that seemed important at the time can be forgotten soon after. Cleanup thread here.
- OvershadowedByControversy.Real Life (For heads of state and politicians - 10 years after leaving office): Due to the subject matter being more contentious than others, political examples need more time to allow passions to die down enough to properly judge their legacy.
- Porting Disaster (6 months): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Posthumous Popularity Potential (6 months after the creator dies): To avoid knee-jerk reactions.
- Propaganda Machine (50 years for Real Life examples): To avoid ROCEJ problems with more recent events.
- Questionable Casting (1 week after the release of the work or the actor's first appearance as the character, whichever comes later): To prevent knee-jerk reactions and allow time to consider the actor's performance in the work.
- Quietly Cancelled (2 years after the final entry in the series, unless confirmed by Word of God): To avoid knee-jerk reactions if a season takes a little while to premiere (most seasons usually have a 1-2 year gap between them, anyways). If a "gap" is longer than two years, then the network likely doesn't want another season.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap (The Scrappy's 6-month waiting period + 3 months for audience attitudes to shift, 1 month for gaming characters who were a High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown): to avoid knee-jerk reactions to the character's initial status (The Scrappy also has a waiting period) and their subsequent rescue.
- La Résistance (50 years for Real Life examples, measured from the end of the resistance campaign): To avoid ROCEJ problems with more recent events.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor (2 weeks after a controversy negatively affects an artist's role): To ensure the termination of the role sticks. TRS discussion.
- The Scrappy (6 months after the character is introduced or becomes hated, whichever comes later): Introduced due to constant misuse and character-bashing. Cleanup thread here.
- Seasonal Rot (6 months after the show ends or one year after the season has ended, whichever comes first): To prevent knee-jerk reactions to recently released seasons.
- Sequel Displacement (6 months from release of sequel): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Sequelitis (6 months after the relevant sequel's release): To prevent knee-jerk reactions. This rule also applies when updating existing examples due to a new sequel.
- "So X, It's Y" tropes (1 month after initial release): To prevent knee-jerk reactions based on pre-release information.
- Star-Derailing Role (a minimum of 5 years until their career recovers, if it recovers. No waiting period if the star directly announces their retirement during this time): To ensure the role has a lasting impact and avoid knee-jerk reactions.
- Star-Making Role (6 months from release of relevant work, or first appearance of character): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Stillborn Franchise (5 years, unless officially confirmed): To ensure that the work will (likely) only have one installment.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel (6 months): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Trend Killer (5 years after the work's release): To avoid knee-jerk reactions.
- Truce Trickery (Real Life examples no more recent than 50 years ago): To avoid controversial examples.
- Two-Hit Wonder (5 years after the second "hit", unless the artist retires/disbands): Due to knee-jerk reactions to a succeeding work flopping.
- Uncertain Audience (1 month): To prevent knee jerk reactions.
- Unintentional Period Piece (10 years): Most entries need at least ten years to determine what the dated hallmarks of a given time period are. In rare cases, works released before the ten-year limit is up can be added if there are exceptional circumstances that make a work dated. Cleanup thread here.
- Unpopular Popular Character (3 months after the character is introduced): To avoid knee-jerk reactions.
- Values Tropes (For time period dissonances - 20 years after a work's initial release): In order to ensure that the values of the times are different enough to be noticeable. Cultural dissonances do not require a waiting period. Cleanup thread here.
- Vindicated by History (5 years): In order to ensure that history has judged the work more favorably.
- Vote Early, Vote Often: (30 years for Real Life political examples): In order to avoid knee-jerk Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment-violating reactions.
- Win Back the Crowd (6 months): To prevent knee-jerk reactions.
- Witch Hunt (50 years for Real Life examples, measured from the end of the witch hunt). To avoid ROCEJ problems with more recent events.
- Won the War, Lost the Peace (No Real Life entries until 20 years after the war's end): To prevent people from adding examples about recent events.
- WrittenByTheWinners.Real Life (200 years): To minimize the potential of political edit warring. Note that this restriction was already in place for years before it was officially required by the NREP thread.
Other pages with a required time gap between two events:
- The Bus Came Back: If a character wasn't explicitly written out, this needs an absence of one season for episodic works with seasons, one year for episodic works without seasons, or two sequels for non-episodic works. There's no such waiting period for characters who were explicitly Put on a Bus.
- Dueling Works (released no more than a year apart, or overlapping runs in the case of series): To ensure that the listed works are in fact competing with each other. TRS discussion.
- Role Reprise (5 years between appearances, based on release date): To ensure the actor's spent significant time away from the role. No such waiting period if playing the same Public Domain Character or Historical Domain Character in two unrelated productions. Voice acting during the gap doesn't disqualify a live action reprise of a previous live action role.
- Sequel Gap (5 years between releases): To ensure a long gap between the previous instalment and the sequel itself.
