This wiki is about tropes, which are conventions and tools in storytelling. But not everything we record is a trope, nor is everything in storytelling a trope. Some things that aren't tropes may still be notable enough to get their own pages on the wiki, but others may not.
Compare Not a Subversion. Contrast Omnipresent Tropes, Missing Supertrope, Paratext, and No Trope Is Too Common.
Not tropes and not page worthy
These have no reason to have their own pages here:
- Complaining About Shows You Don't Like and their creator equivalents: We are not a wiki for bashing things, and nothing meaningful or interesting can come from ranting here.
- Memes: Memes are at best fan reactions, to be listed under Memetic Mutation or its variants. Otherwise, they add very little to the wiki and should be referenced sparingly. Memes may use tropes, but they're not tropes in themselves. Occasionally, a meme can have enough storytelling tropes to get its own page, but those count as works rather than tropes (e.g. the Hitler Rants).
- People Sit on Chairs: Meaningless things that occur incidentally are not tropes.
- Stock Phrases: Most of them are not tropes because there's no pattern to when they're in use. Those that meet this requirement exist on our Stock Phrase index; we've exhausted pretty much all of them, which is why our current policy is No New Stock Phrases.
- Things Too Rare to Trope: Something very rare or very complex is much more likely to be coincidence than convention.
Not worth their own tropes
These might be tropes, but they're better covered by another trope that already exists:
- Playing with a Trope: Tropes can undergo a lot of different variations, like a subversion, aversion, or deconstruction. All those examples go under the same page; we've even got a sub-wiki for how this can work for any given trope. An Inverted Trope, however, can qualify as a separate trope if it's common enough.
- Ridiculously Similar Trope examples: Tropes Are Flexible, so if two tropes have a Distinction Without a Difference, they are in fact the same trope.
- The Same, but More: A trope that's exaggerated, downplayed, or even parodied is still the same trope.
- The Same, but More Specific: If the additional distinction doesn't confer some new meaning, it's not enough to make a Sub-Trope of a current trope. This is especially true for a trope done well or done badly because the "new meaning" is just some Audience Reactions.
Not tropes, but still notable
While these might not be tropes (unless they're In-Universe examples), they're still interesting facets of storytelling and worth noting here:
- Audience Reactions: The audience's emotional reaction, even though it's subjective, is a big part of storytelling and can affect the work in a big way because creators tend to aim for an Intended Audience Reaction. (They don't always hit the mark.)
- Creators: While creators are obviously not tropes, they utilize tropes in their stories and performances so are absolutely noteworthy. However, their pages should be about their works (or Trivia related to their works), their personal lives aren't really of interest to us unless it had a provable impact on their creative process (such as Write What You Know).
- Fan Speak: Definitions of common terminology among storytellers and fans. Not necessarily tropes, but they're definitely related to them.
- Genres: Groups of works that are worth identifying, particularly because they use tropes themselves. Some tropes are also genre-specific.
- Gushing About Shows You Like: It's not ideal, but it's a heck of a lot better than complaining, if only because creators tend to want the audience to like the work. Please be sparing and keep it to Sugar Wiki.
- Indexes: Or "indices", if you prefer, but either way, these are collections of pages within a similar theme or topic, and are not themselves tropes, so there's no such thing as an "example" of them. Note that some supertropes also have an indexing function but are okay to list as tropes if their page type isn't set to index, though listing a subtrope is still preferable in those cases.
- Just for Fun: Every wiki's gotta have something that doesn't fit but gets to stay because it's amusing (or awesome, or just plain fun). These include whimsical lists, parody articles, and other frivolous nonsense. As with many wikis, much of this is a holdover from our early days when we could get away with a lot more.
- Media Notes: Background information and history on media. How it is made, things that are involved in creating them, as well as accolades that can be given them.
- Platforms: Software (programs, apps, websites), hardware (video game consoles, tablets, mobile phones, other devices), or locations (theaters, concert halls, other public venues) that are made to experience various media like films, video games, or comics.
- Trivia: Interesting little facts about stories, or common behind-the-scenes conventions, that don't show up in the story itself but are worth noting because they do have an effect on the end product.
- Useful Notes: Background information about a whole variety of things that pop up in stories. Sometimes they help you where a story incorrectly assumes you're familiar with something; other times, they help to debunk common media misconceptions.
