Darth Wiki / Crappy Trope Definitions: YMMV

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Since these items are subjective, that means you can use them wherever and however you want!

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A-M

• Accidental Aesop:
  • The author makes a perfectly valid point (e.g. "you can find some perfectly decent people in our jail system") and you make a completely dishonest caricature of it (''All serial killers are angels sent from heaven to redeem our sins"). Yeah, we have pages where you can do that, but this interpretation isn't a joke, but a perfectly valid interpretation that is absolutely not a reach.
  • Now that Family-Unfriendly Aesop has been renamed to Hard Truth Aesop and reclassified as objective, use this instead to complain about works sending problematic messages ("this movie teaches us that robbing a bank, murdering the hypotenuse who happened to be a witness, and lying about it is a great way to win your lover's heart!").
  • A work clearly delivers a particular Aesop, but alternatively it can be interpreted to have a different one. Because it's not like we have a whole other trope specifically for that.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Whenever a character In-Universe accidentally makes an innuendo, and other characters laugh at it. It's not like Accidental Innuendo is an Audience Reaction.
  • Pot Hole to this whenever YOU make an innuendo. Because it totally counts as accidental if you're intentionally drawing attention to it.
  • Any time someone says these following words: come, came, bear, lease, sleep, balls, and shoot. No exceptions.
  • Any time something that can be associated with a fetish happens. Because you don't look like a huge weirdo for saying that any mention of feet, or a child calling a male parental figure "daddy", remind you of something kinky.
• Adaptation Displacement: You didn't know the movie was based on a book.
• Adorkable: A character you like. Alternately, any Moe girl. Having dorky traits is optional.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Gush about characters you like and rant about characters you hate.
  • As soon as a new character is introduced, start speculating about their future role in the plot. It's not like the next few episodes will almost certainly confirm which interpretation is correct.
  • A character is portrayed differently in an adaptation or fan work than they were in the original canon. Don't worry about the YMMV marker; this is totally an in-universe example of this Audience Reaction and definitely not a different concept entirely.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: You personally find something unbelievable in a work, even if it is common knowledge.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Anything that isn't as popular in a foreign country as it is in its home country, even if the thing is well-liked amongst the people in that country who actually are aware of it. Bonus points if the foreign country in question is America; if it is, be sure to use "we" and "us" to refer to Americans, because everyone's American on TV Tropes.
  • The Scrappy, but you can claim that a randomly selected country hates them without citation. A great way to let fewer people question your example.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • Ignore the "Fandom" part of the title and use this to describe the hatedom's reaction to when the show they hate gets canceled, gets reduced airtime, or is otherwise Screwed by the Network.
  • List every bit of news that comes out about a work you're looking forward to, even if it doesn't generate a lot of buzz.
  • Forget this is about pre-release news, and list things about the final product you liked that weren't revealed in any trailers or pre-release announcements or material.
  • Ignore the message above the on-page examples that tells you not to wick or pothole the page onto YMMV subpages of works. Just list the page on those pages as examples, or wick it there.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: You once saw one or two people make a social media post saying they weren't looking forward to a work that you were. It released and had success, so use this to passively-aggressively boast about how you were right.
• Angel/Devil Shipping:
  • Fans ship a character you like with a character you hate, whatever characterization of them be damned.
  • Any ship you don't like.
• Angst Aversion:
  • Complain about works you think are too dark.
  • Complain about people choosing not to watch your favourite depressing and morbid show.
• Angst? What Angst?: A character who had something bad happen to them or their loved ones isn't miserable 100% of the time.
• Animation Age Ghetto: Place averted examples on the YMMV pages of animated works to prove they are sophisticated masterpieces created and enjoyed by geniuses of the highest order because any piece of animation that isn't a full aversion is completely terrible (as are the people who like it or make it). When explaining why the work is an aversion, be sure to exaggerate its nuances and mature themes to make it (and thus you for liking it) sound cooler. All of this is especially true if the YMMV page you put it on is for an artistic animated short film and not an animated TV series or movie made for entertainment, because the latter have absolutely no worth to anyone and only the former deserve respect. Compare to What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? and What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?.
• Anticlimax Boss:
  • Any boss that you didn't enjoy fighting.
  • Complain about villains being killed too easily in other media even if said villain was never established to be a good fighter.
  • A Boss Battle which is not as difficult as the one(s) immediately before or after it. You'll notice this is the exact same definition as Breather Boss, so feel free to use them interchangeably.
• Anvilicious:
  • Complain about works that try to spread a message you disagree with.
  • Gush about works that try to spread a message you agree with. Make sure to use the redirect Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped to distinguish this as a "good" example.
  • A work has a message you happened to notice.
  • It is every troper's duty to habitually use the phrase "mmmkay?" somewhere in their example, lest readers think they are not a needlessly snarky troper. We might take away your Troper's License if you don't.
• Applicability: Any sort of allegory you can make about the message of the work, regardless of what the creators say about fans creating them.
• Arc Fatigue: A story arc lasts longer than three episodes.
• Archive Panic: A work you don't like has a lot of installments or episodes, so use the length as a clever way to say "This Is Gonna Suck!".
• Ass Pull: A plot twist you don't like, even if it was properly foreshadowed.
• Audience-Alienating Ending: An ending you personally dislike. The rule about at least half the fans needing to dislike it as well can just be assumed, even if the fans are generally okay with the ending.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Just complain about installments you don't like in a series. No need to present evidence that it was poorly received by most fans.
• Audience-Alienating Premise:
  • This work doesn't appeal to you, so therefore it appeals to no one else.
    • More generally, any work with a premise you dislike.
  • Any work that doesn't appeal to a mainstream audience, even if it was never targeted towards the general public and is loved by the niche it was aimed at.
  • A work has any kind of even slightly unusual premise. You can go one of two directions from there:
    • Bash the writers for creating such a terrible, nonsensical work no sane person would enjoy.
    • Alternatively, gush about how greatly executed said premise and everything else about the work is and how anybody who dislikes the show is just a close-minded loser who refuses to watch anything that doesn't appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator.
  • List every single reason why someone could possibly dislike a work, even if the work is still massively popular and successful or if the reason is not related to the work's premise (such as behind-the-scenes issues).
  • An upcoming work that doesn't interest you and/or some other people. Because it's impossible for reception to change as release grows closer. People complained about the premise then, and they'll complain when it comes out.
• Award Snub:
  • You liked a work so, so much that you were expecting (read: really wanted) it to get an award. But it didn't. Use this to document your rage, and maybe take potshots at the work that did get the award.
  • A work you hate doesn't win a Medal of Dishonor "award" (such as a Razzy).
  • Add Inverted examples to complain that a work you hate got nominated for an award you don't think it deserves.
• Awesome Music: Just dump a bunch of YouTube links to the entire soundtrack of your favorite work (bonus points if they all come from the same now-deleted channel)! Even a 3-second jingle can be an example. Explaining why you like the song is optional: just the song's name, an excerpt from the lyrics, or an onomatopoeia meant to represent singing a riff from the song ("dun du-DAH!") is enough, but if you want to go above and beyond, all you have to do is add a generic positive descriptor such as "really good" or "just plain gorgeous", because these totally help readers understand why you like the song.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Use this to complain about characters you dislike. Sure, a Base-Breaking Character needs to have equal amounts of fans and detractors, but you can cover the fans by simply adding a token "but some fans like them" before or after your multi-paragraph evisceration of the character to balance it out.
  • If a character you like is listed as The Scrappy, mention them as a Base-Breaking Character too in order to defend them. You're so important that your opinion is worth as much by itself as the combined hatred of the legions of fans who hate the character's guts.
  • The main character of a divisive work, when one thing that makes the work so divisive is its main character. It's not like people who hate the work aren't counted as part of the "base".
  • Just list the entire cast, along with a positive and negative trait of theirs, and leave it at that. For example, "Bob: nice, friendly guy, or boring and cliche?"
  • A character who is mostly hated by the fandom, but there are some fans who don't mind them. Because the feelings of the "I don't mind the character" side are totally strong enough to balance out the "I hate the character" side.
  • Add this the moment a new character is introduced or a character does something even slightly controversial and you saw a few people disagree over it. You don't have to wait to see if said disagreements will last or become widespread enough.
  • If you fit firmly into one side of a fanbase who's split over a character, feel free to use wording like "Some fans think [opinion regarding a character], while others are wrong." This especially applies if you apply the term Fan Dumb to the other side.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: A work contains a character you personally find sexy.
• Better Off Sold: An item that serves no purpose in the game.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Any scene that is even remotely weird, or which contains any sort of Mood Whiplash.
• Bile Fascination: Another "general complaining" audience reaction to put on YMMV pages now that Snark Bait no longer allows examples.
• Breather Boss: A boss which should pose a challenge given the point in the story it's fought at, but is instead rather easy. You'll notice this is the exact same definition as Anti-Climax Boss, so feel free to use them interchangeably.
• Broken Aesop:
  • Complain about works that give "wrong" morals. The "broken" in the title refers to the aesop being bad, not the aesop being contradicted by the narrative.
  • An anti-capitalism message is “broken” because it was made for profit and consumption. This is unheard of for art, so be sure to always point it out.
• Broken Base:
  • A lot of people like something you don't.
  • Any topic of discussions that elicits the slightest degree of diverging opinions from fans like "Does Alice look better with blue pants or a pink skirt?".
  • You saw one person who didn't like something, and one person who did like it. Bonus points if the work/episode in question just finished airing minutes ago and it's impossible to tell how widespread any debates or disagreements over that thing will be.
  • Works that attract debates along the line of "is this show good or bad?" also qualify. Because detractors of the show are clearly part of the "base".
  • Use Broken Base as a way to complain about aspects of the show you dislike. Cover the "pro" side by saying "some fans like it", then go ahead and vent out all of your frustrations! Hell, you don't even need to cover the pro side at all. Just a mention of something being divisive or controversial is enough.
  • Any conflict, no matter how short-lived. Feel free to add examples from recently released or unreleased episodes and works. Of course people will still be fiercely debating over that one scene from the trailer six months after the movie is out!
  • Debates that consist of an "anti" side versus an "I don't care" side also qualify. Because when a fanbase is debating something like "does this flaw completely ruin what would have otherwise been a great movie, or does it just make it slightly less enjoyable?", the apathy of the "I don't care" side can be overpoweringly strong at times.
  • If you want to complain about how something is offensive (or make fun of people who were offended), but aren't allowed to post it as Unfortunate Implications, just add it as "Broken Base: Is X bigoted and offensive, or are people just overreacting?"
  • If you firmly fit into one side of a split fanbase, be sure to write an example with wording like "Some fans think [insert opinion here], while others are wrong." Even better, directly insult the side you disagree with, such as calling them Fan Dumb.
  • Add this if you found one way something can be bad and another different, but equally bad, interpretation exists.
  • You don't even have to acknowledge that there is a "pro" side to an issue! You can use this for one-sided complaining if you can't find anywhere else to complain. The implication that there is no unanimous praise for every aspect of the work is all that matters!
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • You figured out a twist so naturally everyone did. Alternatively, one fan theory among a hundred of others happens to be true.
  • It doesn't have to be a "reveal" for that matters. If you correctly predicted other kind of plot events like the death of a character, you can put it there too.
  • You don't even have to explain what makes the twist obvious. The fact that it was figured out is all that matters.
• The Chris Carter Effect: Complain that a work hasn't given you the answer to a certain question yet. Clearly, the writers must be hacks for keeping some things secret, even if most fans still believe that the answer will be shown eventually.
• Cliché Storm:
  • A work you dislike happens to include a few tropes that are common in its genre.
  • A work with well-known or commonplace tropes that you dislike.
  • Anything that isn't The Tropeless Tale.
• Complete Monster:
  • Any villain who does anything bad. If your show doesn't have one, it sucks. It can apply to any show, even G-rated shows created for toddlers. After all, a school bully or a jerkass is totally comparable to dictators, serial killers, rapists, and child abusers, so just go ahead and add them to the page! No need to go through the approval process to determine whether they qualify.
  • A villain who killed your favorite character.
  • If a character is referred to as an example on another site, there's no need to go through the approval process on TV Tropes. Sure, TV Tropes has no control over other websites' policies, but that doesn't mean that other websites can't tell TV Tropes what to do.
  • A character who crossed the Moral Event Horizon. No other requirements are needed. In fact, they can end up regretting their actions and attempt to redeem themselves (which already breaks the MEH), and it'll still qualify.
  • A character calls somebody a monster. Alternatively; a character calls themselves a monster.
• Condemned by History:
  • When any work starts to receive any amount of hate months or years after its release, even if it was never really popular to begin with or it received plenty of hate when it was first released as well.
  • An old work you dislike, even if most people look back on it fondly.
  • A series that underwent Seasonal Rot or through an Audience-Alienating Era, even if the earlier seasons or installments are still well regarded.
  • A video game whose succeeding installment has enough improvements to make fans consider the previous one obsolete, even if the previous game can still be seen as fine on its own merits.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy, with or without the six-month waiting period. Never mind that CBH requires a five-year waiting period after the work's release, or that the fanbase may still remain active despite the controversies.
• Contested Sequel:
  • Use this to complain about sequels you don't like. Cover the positive side of the reception by saying "some fans like it" before or after listing your gripes with the sequel to balance it out.
  • A sequel generally considered to be bad.
  • A sequel has a strong consensus if it's better than or worse than its predecessor, but there are disagreements about one or two aspects of it.
• Continuity Lock-Out: A work has a few Continuity Nods to an earlier installment.
• Covered Up:
  • You didn't know the song was a cover.
  • Any Cover Version you prefer over the original.
• Crack Pairing: A ship you don't like.
• Crazy Is Cool: What's that? Clearly, you're actually talking about "Crazy Awesome", right? The "crazy" in the title means either "extremely" or "over the top", not "mentally unwell" (and is totally different Success Through Insanity - trust us, you don't need to visit Crazy Awesome to see where it leads). As such, this can mean...
  • A character is awesome. Forget about the crazy part, unless you're using the word figuratively.
  • A work is awesome, due to not caring about making sense and instead just trying to put in as many cool things as possible. That's totally not Rule of Cool.
  • A cooler way of describing a Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot.
  • If you do use the "mentally unwell" definition of "crazy", simply being a Large Ham or Cloudcuckoolander is enough to qualify a character as "crazy".
  • "Awesome" simply means that you like the character. Alternatively, a character who is good at what they do can still count even if their talent doesn't stem directly from their craziness.
  • A work or part of a work is very over-the-top, and that's awesome.
• Creator's Pet:
  • A character with a big role or one that receives a lot of focus you don't like. Be sure to ignore the four requirements on the page when adding your example.
  • A character who a creator says they like. In other words, Creator's Favorite but it goes in YMMV instead of Trivia, so you can list it twice.
  • The Scrappy but more authoritative, official and nasty sounding.
  • Canon Sue but it allows examples.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • Complain about critically acclaimed works you don't like or complain about critics giving a work you like bad reviews, even if there isn't any significant difference in reception between critics and audiences. Bonus points if you use the audience score on a review aggregator site that was review bombed as "evidence" of a dissonance.
  • A work that got good reviews does poorly commercially.
  • A work that got bad reviews does greatly commercially.
• Cry for the Devil:
  • Something bad happened to an evil, mean, or slightly annoying character.
  • If you like a villain or Jerkass, list your headcanon on why they're actually tragic figures, even when the story states otherwise.
• Demographically Inappropriate Humour: Use the following definitions to insert as many examples as possible to make your show seem more clever or inappropriate for its target audience and therefore good:
  • Any dialogue or imagery that could possibly be interpreted as sexual if you make a lot of flimsy connections. A character is seen eating a hot dog? Totally a phallic symbol. A character really likes hot dogs? That's a fetish.
  • A kid-friendly work references a not-so-kid-friendly work or makes a subtle not-so-kid-friendly joke. It doesn't matter if the reference itself contains no objectionable content or kids won't even notice that there is an adult joke there — they could still be exposed to some inappropriate stuff if they go watch the source material or hear someone explain the joke. Keep in mind that you can't use Parental Bonus here — it emphasizes that the work is supposed to be kid-friendly and therefore bad.
  • An adult joke in an adult show. ^note This use to be a pothole to the (removed) radar page of Family Guy. It's a TV-14/TV-MA show, so there is nothing that would be "inapprorpriate" for its audience. It probably had to do with Quagmire's comment on how the kids won't understand what he's doing.
  • Any joke you didn’t get as a kid but understand as an adult.
  • Actually, pretend we didn't say any of the above. This page doesn't exist, and any examples you can think of will fit perfectly in Getting Crap Past the Radar instead.
• Designated Evil:
  • Complain about poorly-executed Moral Event Horizon and Kick the Dog moments.
  • Defend your favorite character whenever they do something evil. Bonus points if the character did it For the Evulz.
• Designated Hero:
  • You don't like one of the main characters.
  • A protagonist intentionally written as morally dubious if not an outright villainous one.
  • A genuinely heroic character has one or two moments where they come across as Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Designated Love Interest:
  • "Designated" means "obligatory", not that the relationship comes across as platonic instead of romantic.
  • Complain about relationships you don't like. Make sure to link to Relationship Sue at least once!
  • The same as Relationship Sue, except examples are allowed.
• Designated Monkey:
  • A Butt-Monkey or Chew Toy that you don't like seeing tormented. Never mind that they always cause it themselves.
  • Any time a morally grey or black character undergoes unprovoked suffering. They may be serial killers or rapists, but it doesn't matter because they didn't do anything bad in the past week.
  • The Butt-Monkey, Chew Toy, or Cosmic Plaything in a show you don't like. You hate the show. The show hates the character. Therefore, the character must be the only good thing about the show.
• Designated Villain:
  • Any villain who opposes a protagonist you don't like. They may be a tyrant who has ruined countless lives For the Evulz, but the fact that they once tried to kill the bland and kinda annoying hero (or even the Nominal Hero just as bad as the villain himself) totally makes up for it.
  • Another name for Anti-Villain, Well-Intentioned Extremist or Hero Antagonist.
  • Any animal that threatens the characters' lives and dies when the characters defend themselves, because natural selection should always trump Plot Armour in a good story.
  • Defend all of the villain's actions, no matter how extreme or objectively evil they may be.
  • Any villain or Jerkass you think was hit with Karmic Overkill, regardless of whether or not they had done anything genuinely evil or dickish.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • If a character is the slightest bit introverted or shy, they must be autistic! If they get nervous sometimes, they must have PTSD or an anxiety disorder! If they're sometimes happy and sometimes sad, it must be bipolar disorder! Cloudcuckoolander? Schizophrenia! Explicitly diagnosed within the text of the work? Why should they solely claim it, the audience was able to deduce it too!
  • Every character you like is secretly autistic, while every character that you hate is diagnosed with sociopathy, bipolar disorder, and/or schizophrenia.
  • If you hate a character, make fun of them by labeling them with the worst disorder that you can think of.
  • Downplay or ignore an evil and/or loathsome character's actions and/or flaws by stating that they have a disorder that doesn't make them fully responsible for their behaviour. Even if you don't seriously believe that the character has a disorder, this can still apply as long as no one catches on.
• Discredited Meme: A meme you dislike or have gotten tired of. Ignore that it's In-Universe Examples Only or creator-acknowledged examples only.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Any work you dislike that has a message. Bonus points if you also complain about the message itself.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • When people sympathize with an Anti-Villain or Jerkass Woobie you didn't find sympathetic.
  • Gush about villains that you like. Having the audience downplay their evilness and/or flaws is optional.
  • Any popular, awesome, and/or attractive villain or Jerkass, regardless if the fandom downplays or ignores their actions and/or flaws.
  • Complain about Adaptational Heroism and/or Adaptational Nice Guy examples that you don't like.
  • List a villain, then write "See Misaimed Fandom." No further input is necessary.
  • Complain about having seen Rule 34 of a villain.
  • This is the perfect spot to let your hatred toward a character filter completely regular and in-character depictions of the character by the fanbase into them uplifting a character that you hate and is therefore bad. How could they be SO BLIND!? Make sure to list every even slightly offensive act they've ever committed in your entry so that people know how awful they are.
  • If being a Complete Monster disqualifies a character from being a Designated Villain, use this and/or Strawman Has a Point instead to downplay and/or defend their villainy.
• Ending Fatigue:
  • A work you don't like goes on for long.
  • A work has an epilogue of any length instead of immediately ending after its climax.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Any character other than the main character who is popular, even if that character plays a major role. Hell, the main character themself can qualify if they're just that cool — it's not like they're fully intended to be popular; it's worth noting if characters designed to be popular are in fact popular.
  • Your favourite character in the show!
  • A character who was just introduced in the newest episode or trailer before we have any knowledge of their importance or role in the story or if they'll remain popular in the long run.
  • Anything you like about the work, even if it isn't a character! This even includes the work itself!
• Epileptic Trees:
  • If you want to talk about a fan theory on the main page, just follow these simple steps: 1: Find a trope relevant to the theory. 2: Write up an example for that trope as though the theory was canon. 3: Slap in a phrase like "one interpretation of" or "some fans think", and pothole it here.
  • Complain about headcanons you don't like.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Complain about endings you don't like. For example:
  • A work is propaganda for something you don't like, and the main character brings about a utopia where said thing is the norm? Make an agenda-driven edit complaining about how such a world would suck while ignoring that for the work's actual target audience, such a world would actually be desirable.
  • A character ends up in an Official Couple that isn't your preferred shipping pairing? Complain that the character is bound to end up in a boring, loveless, and possibly abusive^note Bonus points if the romantic partner being abusive is just something you made up to justify your hate for that pairing relationship.
  • A normal happy ending that you feel was badly written.
  • An intentionally imperfect ending.
  • An ending that makes no sense.
  • An intentionally sad or cynical ending.
  • An ending that is intentionally left up to interpretation.
• Escapist Character: Mary Sue, except you can put it on the YMMV page.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Any non-white character you don't like. Behaving like an offensive racial caricature or being disliked by most fans of the work aren't necessary.
• Even Better Sequel: You just got out of the theatre and thought the sequel was awesome! Go ahead and post this as an example right away. There’s no need to wait and see if the initial hype dies down or opinions become more decisive about it in the long-term.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • An idea that was once innovative is now seen as outdated. Whether the outdatedness comes from differing values is irrelevant.
  • Defend a work you like that has been a victim of Values Dissonance.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Complain about works you don't like by coming up with derogatory names for them. Because detractors of a work are clearly fans of the work, and the Detractor Nickname redirect to this page was never deleted, let alone added to the Permanent Red Link Club.
  • Share that nickname you and your friends made up as an inside joke and nobody else uses. Because we totally care about your personal life.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • List your favorite pairings, even those who are already canon or not that popular. Don't hesitate to list 10 pairings with the same character, either.
  • Alternatively, make a list of every pairing that is - or ever was - popular in the fandom. Ignore that part about it being favoured over an Official Couple. In fact, the work needn't even have any Official Couples, let alone one that conflicts with a popular pairing.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Just because this was renamed from Fandom Berserk Button, it doesn't mean you can't shoehorn in examples anyway.
  • Every single misconception that bugs you, regardless of whether it's common and severe enough to annoy the fanbase in general. That "fandom" in the title is a Red Herring.
  • Any common misconception about the work, even if the fandom is known for taking it in good stride. That "enraging" in the title is a Red Herring.
  • Anything that enrages the fandom, even if it's true. That "misconception" in the title is...
  • Subjective "misconceptions" such as thinking that one shipping pairing is better than another, thinking that a sequel wasn't absolute garbage, or believing that one can be part of two rival fandoms are also fair game for this.
  • Anything that enrages a work's hatedom. Ignore the word "fandom" in the name — that part's optional. The "misconception" part is also optional, so only the "enraging" part matters.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Complain about works you don't like that are competing against or have any sort of similarity to works you like and/or their fandoms, even if the rivalry is one-sided, the two fandoms generally don't mind or get along with each other, or the competing or similar work is generally considered bad and has no fandom to speak of.
  • Rivalries within fandoms over which entries of the series or franchise are the best and/or which are the worst can also qualify. That totally isn't Broken Base or Contested Sequel. You can also use this definition to insert Broken Base entries without having to wait six months.
  • Since Hypocritical Fandom was cut, feel free to move its examples here instead.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Just list everything that's kept even slightly ambiguous in the story. People actually writing fanfiction about it is completely optional; in fact, you can use this to try to get people to write fanfics you want to see (but are too lazy to write yourself).
  • Any work that could be considered appealing to fanfic writers, even if the reason has nothing to do with unsolved mysteries or anything of the sort.
• Fanon: The fact that something from a fan work doesn't have a basis in the source material is objectively a bad thing, so use this to complain about common fanfic elements you don't like. And if someone else has listed a fanfic element you do like, make sure to add a Justifying Edit explaining that it's just a writing convention and not in fact fans being big dumb idiots, even though nobody had claimed otherwise. Maybe sinkhole to Tropes Are Not Bad while you're at it.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Adaptations, continuity reboots, and Alternate Continuity installments you hate even if they're separate continuities from the original material.
  • An installment of a series or franchise you dislike, even if it isn't for story reasons.
  • Since Snark Bait is now Flame Bait, use this as the “bad work” reaction, even if there is no franchise for it to be non-canon towards.
• Fetish Retardant: You don't personally find a kink that exists sexy.
• First Installment Wins:
  • Your favorite installment in a series is the first one.
  • Use this to complain about the second installment not being as good as the first.
  • Use this to complain about later installments in general not being as good as early installments in general.
• Franchise Original Sin: List problems in later installments of a series or franchise that also happened to be in earlier installments, without explaining why the problems were originally ignored or tolerated. You can also go one of two directions from there:
  • Defend the later installments and criticize the earlier ones. Imply that people only prefer the first installments because of Nostalgia Filter.
  • Criticize the entire franchise in order to convince fans that the show has never been good in the first place.
• Fridge Brilliance: Anything that isn't explicitly spelled out for the audience.
• Fridge Horror:
  • If the hero didn't defeat the villain, bad things would have happened.
  • Anything horrifying. That "fridge" word is just there to make a wikiword because everyone's curly bracket keys were broken that day.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Anything that bothers you or doesn't make sense, no matter how obvious.
  • A synonym for Plot Hole.
• Funny Moments:
  • A list of every single attempt at comedy in the work.
  • Also include the worst moments in a work you don't like. Mocking laughter is still laughter.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Complain about a single character, item, skill, or strategy that you've lost to. Doesn't matter that it has loads of counters and is never seen in high-level play, since that would mean you're just too lazy to learn them and you wouldn't want that, do you?
  • Alternatively, brag about how your favorite character, item, skill, or strategy is viable, even if it's not overwhelmingly overpowered or has some counters. Explain only the strengths and downplay the weaknesses, and try to make yourself sound like a genius for using it over the actual game-breakers.
  • A character in non-interactive media whose abilities could potentially solve all problems easily (if good) or cause unstoppable evil (if villainous).
• Genius Bonus: If this is listed on the YMMV page of a work you like, it means you become a genius for liking that work. Add any reference the work makes to facts that require more than a first-grade education to know, and if necessary pull insane leaps of logic to connect minor details to obscure real world facts in a way that clearly wasn't intended by the writers.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • A work is popular in its home country. How it fared in other countries is irrelevant, especially if foreign audiences actually hated it or are indifferent to it, assuming they got it at all.
  • While the Trope Namer is an American's popularity in Germany, everyone's American as far as TV Tropes is concerned, so be sure to use words like "we" and "us" to refer to the United States and its residents. After all, people from other English-speaking countries don't use American-hosted websites, and people who aren't from English-speaking countries don't speak English at all.
  • Work has fans in another country besides its own. Whether or not it's more popular outside its home country than within is irrelevant.
• Glurge: Any sentimental or inspirational story you don't like.
• Growing the Beard:
  • A character who's beardless at the beginning of the series grows one over time. Since facial hair growth occurs objectively, the YMMV banner must be a bug.
  • The part of the work you personally like the most.
• Ham and Cheese: Defend actors you like starring in a movie you don't like.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • We here at TV Tropes are convinced that actors are immortal, and death is an unlikely disaster which isn't something that just eventually happens to everyone. Therefore, this trope applies whenever any actor dies in real life, and also played at least one character who died in-story. There is no need for any resemblance between the actor and character's deaths to qualify. And actually, the character doesn't even have to die.
  • Any time a tall building gets destroyed in a work released before September 11, 2001.
  • Any time the twin towers appear in a work released before September 11, 2001. That is all.
  • A film features a now disgraced actor after being caught in a scandal. Their role doesn't have to bear any resemblance to the scandal, the mere presence of the actor qualifies.
  • A character's actions have some similarities to the actions of a political figure you dislike.
  • A comedic moment is revealed in-story to have a serious and dramatic origin.
  • Germophobia is Played for Laughs in a work made before the COVID-19 Pandemic. Heck, if any work features the words "corona", "lockdown", or "quarantine", tropes like The Virus or The Plague, or anything involving distance, rush to your keyboard and immediately point out that the COVID-19 Pandemic happened, regardless of if anything in the work actually resembles this real-world event in any way. In the case of the word "corona", extra credit will be given if the work has nothing to do with diseases, and is referring to the corona of a star (such as the sun during a solar eclipse) or the word for "crown" in Latin and some of its modern-day descendants (such as in the context of Mexican beer or the final level of Super Mario Sunshine).
  • Any work with a pandemic, full stop. Better yet if it's one of supernatural nature like a zombie plague.
  • Any kind of racism and Police Brutality, especially towards African-Americans, because those didn't exist until the murder of George Floyd!
  • Any song that mentions death by a singer who died. This also includes mentions of death in songs by bands that had a member who was not a singer or even a writer die.
  • Use this to get around Overshadowed by Controversy requiring a six-month waiting period. Just say "The whole work is this because of [insert real life controversy here]."
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Any time someone does something nice or demonstrates basic courtesy towards another person.
  • An example can still count even if the character in question is a Complete Monster who is very obviously only putting on a temporary front of niceness for the sake of Pragmatic Villainy.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
  • Any time anybody dares criticize a work you like. This includes criticisms that most people agree with, and criticisms in an otherwise mostly-positive review.
  • Add averted or subverted examples when you want to praise your favourite fanbase for taking criticism in stride. Alternatively, you can praise the criticism by saying it's so good that even fans of the work think it has a point. It's not like He Panned It, Now He Sucks! cannot be played with just because it's an audience reaction.
  • Add inverted examples when anybody dares praise a work you don't like or merely doesn't bash it hard enough in a mostly negative review.
• He Really Can Act: Praise any good acting regardless if the actor already won multiple awards or if they only do a marginally better job than usual.
• He's Just Hiding: An official work confirms that someone is Not Quite Dead or will eventually be Back from the Dead.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • The strongest character in the game, even if their strength makes them a lot of fun to use and watch.
  • Any character that you have trouble playing against, even if it's just because you can't be bothered to learn how to counter them and most other players don't share your hatred.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Something that happened in Work A has slight similarities to something that later happened in Work B or in real-life. An excellent tool for Fancruft.
  • Any perceived similarly between two works, regardless of which one was made first. You can even list a work's deliberate Shout Outs on its YMMV page under this item, if you like.
  • A character's actions have some similarities to the actions of a political figure you like (or don't like, depending on how they're portrayed).
  • Something Harsher in Hindsight that can be seen as Black Comedy depending on your sense of humor. Add a statement saying "can also be seen as Harsher in Hindsight" at the beginning or end of the example or change the top bullet point to "Harsher in Hindsight/Hilarious in Hindsight".
  • Two actors that worked together in Work A later worked together again in Work B. Actors never cross paths again later in their careers, so be sure to make a note of every time this happens. Every time.
  • An old work referenced something that was slightly obscure back in the day, but is more well-known nowadays, which means the work "predicted" the thing's rise in popularity.
  • When an incredibly obvious joke on a central feature of a long-running series or franchise gets used again in later installments, the older ones are now extra-funny because nobody could ever have predicted that the joke would come up again.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Fans think a character is kind of chubby, but you think they look skinny. Weight being relevant in the story is optional.
• Ho Yay:
  • Two same-gender characters are on friendly terms and spend good time together.
  • If a work is clearly intentionally hinting towards a character being gay, it's an example of Ho Yay. It's not like Ho Yay is an Audience Reaction, and Homoerotic Subtext is where intentional examples go.
  • Actual homosexual relationships are fair game too. Because two guys holding hands, kissing, and engaging in sexual intercourse totally counts as "subtext".
  • Although Les Yay is a redirect to Ho Yay, it should be split into a separate entry on the work's YMMV page.
  • Any general shipping of same-gender characters counts, regardless of whether or not there is sufficient subtext between the characters in the work itself.
• Hype Backlash:
  • Complain about popular works you don't like.
  • When a highly anticipated work or announcement ends up disappointing you or a group of people, even if the work never received much praise to begin with.
  • Use this to complain about a popular work by claiming it received backlash because of problems that supposedly exist in the work. No need to back up your claim by naming the problems; it's on people who like the work to prove you wrong.
• I Knew It!:
  • Any time someone literally says the phrase "I knew it" or any variation for any reason.
  • Someone correctly guesses or calls something before they find out or it happens under any circumstance. It's not like the phrase means something different on this wiki.
• It Was His Sled: You know what happened in this movie/show, and therefore, the entire world knows as well! Don't forget to blank the entire entry just to prove how valid the example is! Bonus points if the work is niche or obscure or was just released.
• Jerkass Dissonance: Complain about people liking a jerkass that you hate.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Something bad happened to a mean character, even if it's thanks to their own actions.
  • Something bad happened to an evil character. Being a jerk is optional.
  • Explain why people shouldn't show sympathy with a mean character because you think Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse.
  • If you like a villain or Jerkass, list your headcanon on why they're actually tragic figures, even when the story states otherwise.
• Jossed: A fan theory you dislike or find highly improbable. No need to wait before it gets entirely disproven so that you won't look dumb in case it happens to be correct. If the theory is later proven to be correct, be sure to add a sentence saying it has been unjossed or double-jossed to show how valid the example was.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • You personally watched a show solely for a certain character or element.
  • Another work has made you aware of this one. There doesn't have to be anything within the work itself to make you want to watch it.
• Karmic Overkill:
  • A hero kills a villain. Because killing a murderer is always wrong, and villains should always be shown mercy — even when they have none themselves.
  • Your favorite jerk/villain/Complete Monster dies.
• Literary Agent Hypothesis: A fictional work is framed as a nonfictional publication by the author or a character; the word "hypothesis" is in the name solely because it sounds cool and scientific. This has definitely always been an objective trope and the idea that it's a fandom interpretation was made up last week as an excuse to suddenly tag it YMMV and create a bunch of busywork.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • If you're some flavor of LGBTQ, you're allowed to add this to the pages of every work you like.
  • Any work that has an attractive man or woman in it. All you have to do is say that lesbians or gay men like the hot ladies/dudes. It's not like Hollywood Beauty Standards mean that practically every single work has attractive characters.
  • Also add this to any page on the LGBT Representation in Media index. The queer community is so starved for representation that they'll latch onto any work that has a tertiary character who isn't cis and straight, after all.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • The weakest character in the game, even if they're not that much weaker than the next-best character and still have plenty of fans.
  • A Difficult, but Awesome character you can't use effectively. If you can't figure out how to make the most of their techniques, it must be the character's fault and not yours.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • An incredibly cool villain. It doesn't matter if they commit atrocities that overshadow their likability or have glaring moments of stupidity/incompetence.
  • A villain outsmarts the heroes once. It doesn't matter if they fail every other time.
  • Ignore the villain aspect and list heroes here. It's not like there's a separate trope for heroes.
  • A character calls somebody a magnificent bastard. Alternatively; a character calls themselves a magnificent bastard.
  • A magnificent bastard (sword), as opposed to a magnificent katana.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Any fighting game character that ranked high in at least one tier list, even if the fandom doesn't make jabs at them for it.
  • Any overpowered character you like.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Any character who was ever Adapted Out, Demoted to Extra, or shafted in any way or was the butt of a few jokes in the fandom, even if it was only a one-time occurrence.
  • The Scrappy, but with fewer restrictions.
  • Any fighting game character that ranked low in at least one tier list, even if the fandom doesn't make jabs at them for it.
  • Any weak character you don't like.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • A memorable line or scene from the episode that just aired. No need to wait to see whether the meme actually undergoes mutation or lasts longer than a week.
  • List common complaints or snarky jabs toward a work and pass them off as memes.
  • A one-off joke or comparison people made from a trailer or episode that was recently released. No need to wait if it actually becomes a meme or not.
  • Any funny comment or Image Macro you found on the internet.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales:
  • Someone posted Ethnic Scrappy about a character on a YMMV page about a work you like, so go ahead and add this to the page with your justification being "some people of this ethnicity are fans of them". You don't even need to be from that ethnicity to post this without evidence; your personal appreciation of the character is all the proof you need to potentially imagine someone from that ethnicity liking them.
  • A enthicity/culture likes a portrayal of them made by another ethnicity/culture. Because if Mexicans do indeed love Speedy Gonzales, it's absolutely a one-to-one comparison when they love Coco as well!
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • The same as Fan Dumb, except it allows examples, so you can use it to describe a portion of the fanbase you don't like.
  • If an individual that you hate happens to like something you also like, use this to insult them. Because a single person is enough to make a "fandom".
  • If even one person disagrees with the writer about something, list it.
  • If you want to accuse a fandom of being hypocritical, use this as a substitute for the since-cut Hypocritical Fandom. For example, complain about how a show about the Power of Friendship has a lot of Flame Wars in its fandom. Because anybody who claims to be a fan of a show but doesn't live by its values 100% of the time is a hypocrite.
  • Any time anybody has any slightly positive opinion about a villain. Thinking that Evil Is Cool means approving of the character's actions.
  • A Periphery Demographic you don't like.
• Misaimed Marketing: Ignore that this was renamed Misaimed Merchandising. Use this to complain about marketing decisions you don't like.
• Moe: A character you like that is conventionally attractive.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • A character accomplishes something, no matter how minor. Be sure to list a play-by-play description of everything the hero does whenever a new episode comes out, because every single blow he lands on the villain is noteworthy, and it's totally not just because it's still fresh in your mind due to being in the newest chapter.
  • Your favorite work does well commercially.
  • A critic you like gives a positive review of the work.
  • A new installment of your favorite series is announced.
  • Ignore the "moment" part of the title and list general facts about the work that you find awesome. If your example is a meta-example that begins with "The mere fact that...", you're doing it right.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The villain does anything bad, from committing mass murder to being a jerk. Bonus points if you use it for real life actions, including petty stuff like your favorite show being canceled or someone changing something about it.
  • Be sure to list every single crime a villain commits. Because it's totally possible to cross the point of no return several times.
  • A heroic character you dislike does something bad, even if they proceed to make amends and are quickly forgiven by both the characters and most of the fanbase.
  • In-universe, a character declares someone beyond redemption. We don't have the This Is Unforgivable! trope for that.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Any time your favorite character speaks.

N-Z

• Narm:
  • Anything in the show that annoys you since Dethroning Moment of Suck is limited to only one example per troper. You can also nitpick about trivial things like a character mispronouncing a word even if the mispronunciation itself isn’t funny.
  • Bad writing, acting, special effects, or animation in general, even if the scene wasn't supposed to be serious.
  • Intentional Bathos and Mood Whiplash.
  • Any awkward scene, even if it wasn't supposed to be serious.
  • Ignore that this is supposed to be for dramatic moments that are unintentionally funny and list entire characters as Narm, including their names.
  • Since subpages display a message saying this is Flame Bait, that means examples aren't actually allowed and should be deleted on sight. Ignore claims that the Flame Bait banner appears due to a particularly odd bug — it's totally intentional, and the actual mistake here is that the main page for Narm, as well as its Crappy Trope Definitions entry, say it's merely YMMV.
  • A character you don't like appears and/or talks in a serious scene.
• Narm Charm: Defend and justify the Narm entries that bother you. For best effect, add this as a sub-bullet to the Narm entry, or change the Narm bullet point to "Narm/Narm Charm"
• Never Live It Down:
  • A character recently did or said something controversial or has been recently the butt of a joke. No need to wait whether or not the controversy is going to wear off.
  • A great tool for agenda-based editing. A character, a real person, or fandom you dislike did something you disapproved of and you don't want people to forget about it.
  • This is also a great tool to get around the mean ol' Overshadowed by Controversy police saying your example is invalid by putting your example here, such as "this work/person will never live down [insert controversy here]". If someone tries to point out this item is for characters' actions only, feel free to ignore them.
  • Complain about how the audience or fandom reacted to what a character did, even if said audience or fandom has since moved on.
  • Any moment in a work that makes you cringe, regardless of whether or not any characters are strongly associated with it. This even includes the work itself.
• Nightmare Fuel: Use these definitions to fit as many examples of this as possible into your show to make it seem Dark and Edgy and therefore good. The more examples there are, the better the work is. You don't even have to feel fear watching the scene, as long as you can envision someone somewhere being afraid. After all, it's Audience Reactions, not Personal Reactions.
  • Any time a character is put in the slightest amount of danger, even if it's a work where Status Quo Is God and the hero dying in a random episode would bring the show to a screeching halt. Bonus points if it's a kid-friendly work where any kind of explicit death would be immensely out of place.
  • Any time a character acts menacing. Even if it's clearly Played for Laughs.
  • Anything related to a work of fiction that makes you very slightly worried, including unintentionally implied events that are not officially part of the story, or behind-the-scenes events that totally don't count as Real Life examples.
  • Anything that is even the least bit startling or unsettling. If you use wording such as "somewhat unnerving" or "mildly creepy", that's fine; it's not like these phrases are synonyms of "not very scary".
  • Moments that only a three-year-old child watching the show might find scary, even if the show is aimed at adults.
  • Come up with some fanon that makes seemingly innocuous moments sinister.
  • Be sure to list every single angry face a character has ever made, too! Add in all sorts of descriptors, such as calling it a Nightmare Face or claiming that it falls into the Uncanny Valley, in order to blatantly exaggerate the very mild unease the facial expression made you feel for a few seconds.
  • Every instance of violence, even in action-based works where fight scenes are commonplace and the combat is played for Rule of Cool rather than horror. And every gory scene, even in gorny works where the audience is expected to enjoy the carnage.
  • A difficult level or powerful enemy in a video game. Because the phrase "nightmarishly difficult" is totally meant to be taken literally.
  • Something that's only scary to people with an extremely specific phobia. Feel free to add something like "there's a duck in the background in scene X, which could be scary to people with anatidaephobia" even though 99.9% of viewers won't give a duck.
  • Forget about it being an Audience Reaction and put instances where characters are being afraid or worried while it's not scary for the audience.
  • Add examples of character designs or animation that you found ugly or feel falls into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley, as a way to sneak in complaints.
  • If all else fails, just describe something without saying why it's scary; for example, you could provide a summary of a scene with no further analysis. Nobody will be able to prove you didn't find it scary, therefore it qualifies.
  • You can also argue against an example on the page by pointing out details that turn it into Nightmare Retardant. Sure, Nightmare Fuel is about things that are scary, but don't let that stop you from mentioning these non-scary things as well.
  • A character has a nightmare in-universe, regardless of whether anything caused it. The word "Fuel" is in the name solely because curly brackets are a pain to type.
  • Something that supernaturally causes fear in-universe, even if it isn't scary to the audience. Bonus points if you call it "Literal Nightmare Fuel".
• Nintendo Hard:
  • Any game more challenging than Kirby's Epic Yarn.
  • A difficulty level that's above "Hard".
  • Any singular part of the game that's difficult, even if it's an obvious outlier to the rest of the game. We definitely don't have pages for those.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Every single Licensed Game ever made must be a case of either this or The Problem with Licensed Games. If the game is considered average or OK, put both of these reactions on its YMMV page, preferably both on the same bullet point or with one of them on a second-level bullet point below the other, with this one explaining the game's good points and the other explaining its flaws.
• Obvious Beta:
  • Any game that has a bug in it.
  • A game you feel is lacking in content, even if it doesn't contain any major bugs or technical problems.
  • Complain about games you don't like and think were shoddily programmed.
  • The same as Idiot Programming, except it isn't restricted to Darth Wiki.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • Complain about old works you don't like.
  • You don't think a classic work is as good as people say it is.
  • A downplayed example of Condemned by History, where you state how the work has been less fairly received over time, even if most of it has nothing to do with its influence or modern expectations. This is considered downplayed because the original entry with the other name was removed.
• Out of the Ghetto: If your averted Animation Age Ghetto, Comedy Ghetto or Sci Fi Ghetto example got deleted for misuse, just move it here and it'll fit perfectly, even if the work is relatively obscure or didn't receive many accolades.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • Any work that has any controversy, however minor, associated with it. Feel free to ignore the fact that most fans outside of the Vocal Minority or your favorite forum are enjoying the work just fine without caring about it.
  • A work causes divided opinions and arguments within the fandom. That totally isn't Broken Base.
  • A work or creator was recently the subject of a controversy. No need to wait if the controversy will end up overshadowing the work's, creator's, or the creator's body of works' merits or not. There's no way the controversy will just die down a few weeks later. Feel free to use this for agenda-based editing the moment a work, creator, or any other kind of real-life person you don't like does or attracts something even slightly controversial so people don't forget about it. Bonus points if said work hasn't even been released yet.
  • The author holds some political views you disagree with, even if they're not too outspoken about their views.
  • Another nifty way to insert Unfortunate Implications onto the YMMV page without even the need for citations, even if said implications aren't actually overshadowing the work.
  • A substitute for So Bad, It's Horrible that can be listed on YMMV pages and with less restrictions, as in "this work is mostly known for being really bad and having an annoying fandom".
  • A place to list every bad thing a creator has ever done.
  • The six-month waiting period only applies to completely new entries. Feel free to add new controversies to existing entries the very second the new controversies happen.
• Parody Displacement:
  • You were exposed to a parody of something before you were exposed to the original work. This is especially true if a children's show parodies something made for adults.
  • Any parody that you, and/or the parodist's fans, like more than the original work. It doesn't matter how much more culturally impactful said original work was — as long as at least one person prefers the parody, it counts.
• Periphery Demographic: Add inverted examples to show how passionate people outside of the work's demographic are about their hatred of a work. No, this isn't just Periphery Hatedom, as this item allows on-page examples.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: You think a game has a bad story.
• Porting Disaster:
  • A port of a game has slightly lower resolution, minor glitches or changes you dislike.
  • Use this to refer to a video game port as So Bad, It's Horrible, except this goes on YMMV pages instead of Darth Wiki.
  • Use this to list any PC port that launches with any issues at all, even if it's a bug only present on a minority of systems. Because the platform is famous for its consistency across all platforms and developers who allow any bugs at all through are clearly just incompetent.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential:
  • A famous musician just passed away? Get your keyboards over to their YMMV page as soon as humanly possible and post how everyone's making loving tributes and heaping praise onto them. After all, what's true within 24 hours of their death is absolutely gonna stay true a year from now.
  • Any time someone's death is reported in the news is an obvious sign that they will gain long-term popularity.
• Praising Shows You Don't Watch: Gush about your favorite show but act like you haven't seen it. Try and frame it in a way that will make people want to watch it! Just make sure that it seems like you haven't watched it.
• Presumed Flop: Defend the honor of a movie you like that people sometimes poke fun at which also happened to do alright at the box office.
• The Problem with Licensed Games:
  • Every single Licensed Game ever made must be a case of either this or No Problem with Licensed Games. If the game is considered average or OK, put both of these reactions on its YMMV page, preferably both on the same bullet point or with one of them on a second-level bullet point below the other, with this one explaining the game's flaws and the other explaining its good points.
  • Use this to refer to a licensed game as So Bad, It's Horrible, except this goes on YMMV pages instead of Darth Wiki.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Complain whenever an actor you dislike plays a role in any work (especially works that you like, although you can also use this to sneak in more complaints about works you don't like). Bonus points if the complaints are about the actor's political views or other personal issues rather than their talent, voice, or appearance.
  • A work you dislike stars an actor you like. Such work was clearly beneath them. They should have known that it would end up sucking, and turned down the thousands or millions of dollars they were offered in favor of preserving their reputation, which has now been tainted forever (you're still going to see their next movie, though).
• Relationship Writing Fumble: "Fumble" means that the relationship was badly written, not that it unintentionally looks like the wrong type of relationship. What do you mean, that's redundant to Strangled by the Red String or Romantic Plot Tumor?
• Romantic Plot Tumor:
  • A pairing you dislike, even if it's a very minor subplot.
  • A badly written romance in a romantic work.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Dislike a character? List your headcanons about how they're actually abusive monsters and the source of all evil in the world.
  • Complain about people not liking an Unintentionally Unsympathetic character you like.
  • Complain about Adaptational Villainy and/or Adaptational Jerkass examples that you don't like.
• Rooting for the Empire: You hate a work, so you want the villains to kill the heroes and force the story to end.
• Salvaged Story: This just has the old definition of Author's Saving Throw: later installments of a series fix criticisms of earlier ones. If your Author's Saving Throw example was removed from the Trivia page for lacking Word of God confirmation, just copy it to the YMMV page under this name.
• The Scrappy:
  • You don't need objective criteria like popularity polls or critic's reviews to define it. Just put any character that you dislike. Bonus point if the character isn't meant to be likeable at all.
  • Ignore that this is meant for fan reaction, and use this to list characters content creators, such as reviewers or let's players personally dislike.
  • Anything you dislike, even if it's not a character, such as annoying obstacles in video games or props in TV shows and movies. For extra fun, list episodes or entire works as The Scrappy. Because Dethroning Moment of Suck and So Bad, It's Horrible have too many pesky rules that are easier to circumvent with The Scrappy.
  • Feel free to add real-life people like artists, writers or actors. It's not a real-life example as long they are related to the work.
  • A video game character who is too strong, too weak, annoying to fight against, or having bad gameplay mechanics.
  • The main character of a work you don't like, when the reason why you don't like the work is because you find the main character annoying.
  • Scrappydom is relative, so if a work's entire cast is well-liked by fans, the one character who is slightly less popular than the rest qualifies.
  • A character who had one disliked appearance, even if they are otherwise well-liked.
  • Complain about people hating someone that you like.
  • A hated character in a hated work.
  • Character is hated in-universe. It's not like Hated by All exists.
  • Character is hated by the creator.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The game mechanic that prevents your favorite strategy, character, or weapon from being a Game-Breaker, or one that prevents you from cheating.
  • A list of practically every mechanic in the game, complemented with the the most common complaint(s) against it.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Complain about your least favorite season of your favorite television show, and explain, in great length, how that season ruined the show for you. Bonus points if its an otherwise So Okay, It's Average season.
  • Ignore that "season" is only used for television shows, and add examples of poorly-received installments of video games, movies, books, etc.
  • Put the currently ongoing season you dislike that still has 10 unaired episodes. Why wait?
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The game has options that make it harder, in case you need a challenge. Don't worry about seeing the YMMV tag for something that is obviously objective; it's new, so it must be a glitch or something else that you can safely ignore.
• Sequelitis:
  • A sequel you disliked, no matter if general opinion on it is positive.
  • A pothole to use in Contested Sequel entries to show that some people disliked the sequel. Then pothole either Even Better Sequel or Surprisingly Improved Sequel during the part where you say some people liked the sequel. This is necessary to define these complex opinions, and is definitely not redundant and misleading.
• Shallow Parody:
  • Complain About Parodies You Don't Like, even if there aren't any blatant inaccuracies compared to the source material.
  • A parody isn't 100% accurate to the source material^note If it is 100% accurate, you can complain about it under Redundant Parody instead, for example, if it:
    • Makes mistakes regarding obscure and/or inconsequential details. If Alice wears a blue shirt instead of a white shirt, it must be because the writers don't care about the source material, even if Alice's shirt color was never brought up or important.
    • Contradicts your interpretation of something that was ambiguous in the source material, because that's totally being inaccurate to Canon. Ditto for contradicting fanon.
    • Contradicts information given after the parody was released. Clearly the writers who made a parody of The Troperiffic Movie and portrayed the minor character Bob as an alcoholic were idiots for failing to guess that The Troperiffic Movie 2: Electric Boogaloo would reveal that he's actually Smug Straight Edge. Bonus points if Bob was an alcoholic in the original, and the sequel Retconned him into someone who's always been Smug Straight Edge.
    • Diverges from the source material in any way, even if it's due to the Rule of Funny rather than a lack of familiarity with it.
    • Mocks a flaw in the source material, which totally counts as an inaccuracy if you can make up a Hand Wave to defend the original work.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Moments that you personally find shocking. For instance, you are surprised that someone's outfit is colored white. Sure, you may be the only one who makes a deal about it, but at least one person's opinion will qualify.
  • Copy and paste examples from Wham Episode, Wham Line, Wham Shot, and other spoiler tropes. Actually being shocked by them is optional.
  • Every single time new information is revealed about an upcoming work. Just add "this trailer reveals that X will be in the work" without explaining why it's shocking. Don't worry, these examples totally won't become dated once the hype wears off.
• Signature Scene:
  • Your favorite scene. You can pick one from the most recent trailer.
  • Every scene you love. Put as many as you want. Ditto for Signature Line, Signature Song, and Signature Series Arc.
  • A scene that demonstrates a flaw in a work you dislike.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: A work doesn't open with an action scene.
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • Just add every complaint you have about a work you don't like. Feel free to list stuff that just makes it boring or unpleasant, as the part about the work being fun because of its flaws is optional. If someone asks... well, the stupid mods can't prove that you (and your friends, in case someone pulls the "This page is not meant to showcase individual Tropers' opinions on works" card) didn't find the absurd amount of dull and pointless padding funny, can they?
  • Any hated work that you like.
• So Okay, It's Average:
  • You and/or a group of detractors didn't enjoy a well-received work as much as other people and merely found it average, or you personally found a work average, even if that isn't the general consensus. Bonus points if the work was only recently released and it's too early to tell the general consensus.
  • Put your thoroughly negative review pointing out every flaw of the work without even explaining why it's average rather than plainly bad. Or just list one good quality of the work and then all of your complaints. For example: "the special effects are kinda neat, but the plot is cliché and boring, the characters are annoying and awful, and the pacing is too slow".
• Spiritual Successor:
  • These two works have this minor or superficial similarity, therefore one is the spiritual successor of the other!
  • Two creators have similarities to each other, therefore one is a spiritual successor to the other. No reincarnation required.
• Squick:
  • Be sure to throw in a pothole to this page whenever you mention something you find disgusting, even on objective work and trope pages. Your personal reaction to that scene is absolutely relevant to the topic and not at all a form of Word Cruft. If your example involves subjects such as incest or pedophilia, this is a must, since not potholing these topics to this trope means you weren't disgusted by them and therefore support them.
  • Any fanservice you don't like, such as male fanservice if you're a straight man or a lesbian.
  • A synonym for Nausea Fuel.
• Strangled by the Red String: A couple became official in canon, and since you personally don't like it, that obviously means it was horribly written in every way, shape, and form. The relationship advancing unrealistically fast is optional.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Always use this to defend the honour of fictional Straw Characters who represent a caricature of an opinion you agree with. It doesn't matter if their argument is Insane Troll Logic that would actually be terrible in real life, and you have to explain at length why the non-strawman version is better.
  • Informed Wrongness, but you have a low opinion on the character in question, so they're 'strawman'.
  • A dumbass, jerkass, hypocrite, or villain gives a valid argument that the author intended to be taken at face value. This goes on the YMMV page instead of the main page, as the author's opinions are subjective.
  • Ignore the fact that real people are not straw characters. Use this to defend a controversial claim made by a controversial person.
  • If being a Complete Monster disqualifies a character from being a Designated Villain, use this and/or Draco in Leather Pants instead to downplay and/or defend their villainy.
• Surprise Difficulty: Any video game that isn't effortlessly easy to beat and has an art style that isn't gritty and realistic. Because any game with graphics that can be described as "cute" should hand everything to you on a silver platter, and any exception is extremely unusual.
• Sweetness Aversion:
  • Gush about how cute, heartwarming, and wholesome a work is. Ignore that this is supposed to be a negative reaction where the cuteness is either so intense that it's distracting, or the only thing the work has going for it.
  • Complain about a cute show you don't like, even if the work has many fans who don't mind or enjoy the saccharine aesthetics.
• Tainted by the Preview: Something in a trailer for an upcoming work or some even vague announcement makes you worried that it's going to suck. Again it doesn't matter if the reception to said trailer or announcement has been overwhelmingly positive.
• Tear Dryer: A potentially sad scene is not because it includes something that is considered Narm.
• Tear Jerker: Use these definitions to pad out your favorite works' Tear Jerker subpages as much as possible. This will make the show appear deep and emotional, and you will look like a romantic, sensitive, artistic soul for liking it rather than like an overemotional wangsty crybaby.
  • Any time a character feels any kind of negative emotion, even if said emotion is clearly Played for Laughs. And any time they feel a positive emotion too, since happiness can make you cry Tears of Joy (it's not like we have Heartwarming Moments for that).
  • The feelings of the villain just before they commit a crime of passion. After all, Honor-Related Abuse is A-OK!
  • If someone involved in a work you like goes through hard times or dies, feel free to mention it. Sure, No Real Life Examples, Please! applies to Tear Jerker, but this specific case is so sad that it's worth making an exception just for them.
  • A work you like does poorly financially, ends, or gets cancelled.
  • Take the time to insult everyone who didn't find the scene as sad as you did by accusing them of having no soul. It's not like Tear Jerker is a highly subjective Audience Reaction or that such comments are specifically warned against on the page itself.
  • A moment, scene, or even an entire premise of a work is sad if you think about its implications for long enough.
• That One Boss:
  • Every boss you couldn't beat on your first or second try. If all bosses were hard, feel free to add all of them. Bonus points if it's the Superboss, Final Boss, or other battle where a significant bump in difficulty would be completely normal.
  • Any boss you didn't enjoy fighting, even if it's due to the boss being boring, tedious, or annoying rather than difficult. It's not like we have Goddamned Boss for those cases.
• That One Level:
  • Any level that you had difficulty clearing. After all, you are such a great gamer that the only way you could struggle at all in a video game was if the developers made a bad and unfair level. If the entire game is "unfair", feel free to add every single level, because it's not like we have another trope for that already.
  • Use the alternate name Scrappy Level to complain about levels you didn't enjoy playing through, even if it's due to the level being tedious or boring rather than difficult. Just because it redirects to That One Level, it doesn't mean it has to have the same definition.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • You don't like something that was changed in a new installment of a series you follow. It doesn't matter if the reaction to the change was generally positive.
  • A comprehensive list of every change made in an adaptation but, rather than being a boring list of Media Adaptation Tropes, your hilarious, snarky commentary is inserted every chance you get.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Any two shows that have even the most remote of similarities goes on this page, even if everything else about the series shows they have absolutely nothing else in common.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Complain that your favorite minor character doesn't get as many episodes as the main characters.
  • Complain that a single hour-and-a-half movie or a work or series with many characters fails to give every single character an equal amount of screentime and Character Development.
  • Complain about a certain character not being portrayed the way you wanted them to, even if said character gets plenty of screentime. Even the main character can qualify.
  • If the work is an adaptation, complain about a character not being 100% canon accurate or being Adapted Out.
  • Complain about a character not showing up at all.
  • A character would have been better had another actor been cast.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A plot point that was poorly executed for reasons other than not getting enough focus.
  • A work you don't like has a premise that could have been interesting if it belonged to a better work. Writing any kind of story for a bad work is clearly a waste.
  • Since Adaptation Decay is In-Universe Examples Only, use this to complain about an adaptation not being like the source material.
  • A list of alternate ways the work could have gone, which you think would have made a more interesting story.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • Applicable as soon bad things happen or if a few characters you liked have died. It doesn't matter if the show is still lighthearted and humorous, the tone is still optimistic or hopeful, or if the heroes still save the day almost every time.
  • A work is dark, period. It doesn't matter if the work has clear good guys who manage to achieve significant, lasting victories to offset some of the bleakness of the setting.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • A character you like dies.
  • A real person you like dies before their time.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Defend any actor you like appearing in a hated work.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • A work is so great and popular that you know any sequels/follow-ups are going to fail before they are even released.
  • Any disappointing sequel to a good work, even if the sequel is terrible on its own right.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Any character that has not been 100% confirmed to be cisgender can go here. It's a valid example as soon as one person headcanons them as trans.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: A subplot you don't like, even if it connects to the rest of the story just fine.
• Uncertain Audience:
  • The place to put all the Audience-Alienating Premise examples you wanted to add, but couldn't because the work isn't released yet or wasn't a big enough commercial flop.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?, but you dislike the work.
  • A work you dislike tries to be for a general audience, so single out any two minor elements that seem to clash when you mention them together and base your diatribe around that.
• Unexpected Character:
  • A few fans doubted that this character would appear in the work. It doesn't matter if the majority thought it was likely to happen.
  • A place to sneak in And the Fandom Rejoiced examples onto the YMMV page, even if the character wasn't all that shocking to appear.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • A recently released work contains one thing that may slightly date it. Heck, upcoming works can qualify too. It's even better if the single supposedly dated thing is something obscure and anecdotal ^note There have been examples about a bridge that was torn down in 1994 being in the background, a store that went out of business being in the background, or a character wearing a dress from a now unpopular brand.
  • Any work that can be narrowed down to its decade, period. If a 60's movie has 60's fashion or a 90's series doesn't have modern smartphones, it's definitely unusual enough to be noted. For that matters, the "unintentional" part is optional.
  • A work is set in the year it was created, meaning it's automatically and immediately dated as soon as January 1 rolls around.
  • Any time a work references or features contemporary technology. Keep in mind that Technology Marches On cannot be used here; that sounds far more neutral, and it's important to emphasize that doing this is bad.
  • A Period Piece released so long ago that less time has passed between the story’s setting and its publication date than between its publication date and the present. Hey, xkcd said it, therefore it’s the correct definition.
  • A handful of off-hand details that have nothing in particular to do with any cultural time period can be used to narrow down when the precise year the work takes place; e.g. two characters with a known difference in age mention their Chinese zodiac signs.
  • A work that deliberately exaggerates that it takes place in the Present Day, especially if it's for comedic effect. Since this is an Audience Reaction, it counts as unintentional as long as you weren't expecting it while consuming the work. This is particularly true for Fish out of Temporal Water stories.
  • Any work in which the World Trade Center appears, even if it's merely in the background and irrelevant to the plot.
  • Any work that features or mentions a real person who died.
  • Any work that features or mentions a real politician who was in office at the time the work was made, especially a President of the United States. Be sure to imply the writers are stupid for thinking the President would be in office forever and call the work irrelevant from the moment the new President takes over, especially is the new President is of the opposing party to the previous one.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Any creepy face.
  • Complain about animation, art styles, and character designs you don't like.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • You really like one character, and you really don't like the other character. So, even if the one you like does something to the other that is completely uncalled for, or even morally reprehensible, do whatever you can to justify their actions by pointing out every remotely flawed thing the character you don't like has ever done.
  • A character with understandable motives or goals is intentionally written to be morally questionable.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • If you abhor a character, go out of your way to vilify them by exaggerating how bad they really are. If necessary, disregard the "unintentionally" part and put instances where the character wasn't portrayed in the right and was called out by other characters.
  • Bash characters or characters' actions you personally found unsympathetic, even if a good portion of the fandom found them sympathetic.
  • "Unsympathetic" is also a synonym of "annoying" therefore you can use it to complain about things you dislike about a character like them angsting too much or being badly played by their actor even if said character never does anything morally wrong.
  • A character with understandable motives or goals is intentionally written to be morally questionable.
• The Un-Twist: Analogous to The Unreveal, this is when a twist is blatantly set up and then never actually happens. Don't worry about why something like that is tagged YMMV, that tag just gets assigned randomly on this wiki and doesn't actually mean anything.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Yet another handy way to sneak Unfortunate Implications examples onto the YMMV page without even the need for citations, even if the work is recent or the offended people come from the same region the work was made.
  • A period piece intentionally portrays outdated morals.
  • Every time the words "Retard", "Retarded" or "Faggot" have ever been used, regardless of their actual usage.
• Values Resonance:
  • You agree with the Aesop of an old work. Also act like twenty years ago was the dark age, therefore it was groundbreaking to say that raping people or killing black people for fun was wrong.
  • Someone posted Values Dissonance on the page of your favorite old work, so use this to come up with something, anything to post as a rebuttal. Such progressive messages as "Stealing is wrong" and "Be kind to your friends" are more than enough to be effective counter-examples against instances of Blackface and Cure Your Gays.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Complain about main characters you find boring. The part about how the protagonist's normalness should improve the work by making the rest of the cast more interesting in comparison is optional.
• Vindicated by History:
  • An unpopular installment of a franchise is slightly less hated because of an even worse newer one. Bonus points if the newer one was only recently released and it's too early to tell how the general reception of the older installment will change as a result.
  • You like an installment you used to hate.
  • People are no longer passionate about their negative opinions on something that was disliked at release. If the consensus seems to be "I barely remember it" or, heck, even "I've never seen it", this is a legitimate example of vindication.
  • Work is still generally considered bad but has more vocal defenders saying it's not as bad as it's made out to be.
  • Praise a work you like in general. If needed, blatantly exaggerate, if not straight-up lie, how unpopular it was upon reception and/or how popular it is nowadays.
  • Any work that critics didn’t give universal acclaim upon release that you personally really enjoy. No exceptions.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: If a video game doesn't have this on its YMMV page, it means that its graphics suck, and by extension, so does the game as a whole. So add this to any game that has passable graphics, even if they're not exceptionally good or stylistically distinct compared to other contemporary games.
• Wangst:
  • Someone expresses their sadness and you find it annoying even if they underwent genuine trauma.
  • Any time a character you dislike is sad, even if they don't express it in an annoying way.
  • Someone cries for whatever reason. This includes when they get dirt in their eyes.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • Put this on the YMMV page of any children's show you like in order to defend and justify your enjoyment of said show; if it's not there, that means the people who make the show are lazy and stupid and liking the show makes you a manchild or a closeted pedophile. Exaggerate the show's darker/heavier qualities (and implications) or focus the example entirely on the couple of episodes that tackle a more serious subject or are darker than usual, and on the occasional Parental Bonus and cases of Demographically Inappropriate Humour, while ignoring that this is only a small portion of the show and that the rest is family-friendly and tame.
  • If your favorite Getting Crap Past the Radar example got deleted because it was misuse, it's because it belongs here instead.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?:
  • Put this on the YMMV page of all adult animation shows you like. This will banish all minors from the fandom, making your status as a fan more exclusive and therefore cooler.
  • Also put this on the page of works that are aimed at people all ages, exaggerating the violence and mature themes to make it sound like it should be rated R. Likewise, this will make you cooler for liking the work.
  • Any work with mildly colorful or stylized art that also has mature content such as blood or fanservice. Obviously, people are going to ignore the dark cover art and big "Rated M 17+" warning and assume the work is suitable for children just because there's an anime girl wearing brightly colored clothes.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • A work's villain has a few vague similarities to a real-life political figure you don't like.
  • A work's Big Good has a few vague similarities to a real-life political figure you like.
  • A work has a blatant political message.
• Win Back the Crowd: You didn't like the first trailer for the work, but the second one looks better. Ignore that this is on No Recent Examples, Please!; this is a trope about how interested fans are pre-release. Even if the final product is bad enough to be a Franchise Killer, it still "won back the crowd" if some people went "Hmm, that trailer looks like it might be okay."
• The Woobie:
  • Any character you like that has ever had something bad happen to them. Feel free to add extremely happy characters who cry in one episode and complete dicks who totally didn't deserve to be punished.
  • Creators who went through or are going through hard times. It doesn't count as a real life example if you list it on a work's page.
  • You feel sorry for a character because they got Demoted to Extra or suffered from Chuck Cunningham Syndrome with no in-universe explanation.
• Woolseyism:
  • A dub you like more than the original version. It's not like we have Superlative Dubbing for that.
  • Complain about translations you don't like. Anyone who says this is an Audience Reaction for good translations is lying, because it totally applies to any time a translation's quality differs from that of the original script.

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