Basic Trope: An African country is portrayed as an uncivilized Crapsack World.
- Straight: Tropeland is full of jungles, natives, and torn apart by civil war.
- Exaggerated: Tropeland is a Wretched Hive, full of fights over natural resources, rape, war, extreme poverty, disease, and just general lawlessness.
- Downplayed:
- Tropeland may be less civilized than the other regions, but still a pretty decent place for the natives to live.
- Tropeland has a combination of high and low tech, such as people using tablets and smartphones in their mud huts.
- Parts of Tropeland are developed and "civilized" but its more remote and rural areas are still fairly primitive and undeveloped.
- Justified:
- Tropeland is a Third-World country still governed by tribalism.
- Tropeland is a failed state, with little or no government or infrastructure.
- Inverted: Tropeland is a wonderful, peaceful place full of natural beauty, and has a rich culture.
- Subverted: The people of Tropeland fight until eventually it becomes a stable place to live.
- Double Subverted: Until a disagreement erupts, resulting in war and everything bad that goes with it again.
- Parodied: The sunlight never reaches Tropeland.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Tropeland is poor but peaceful; it is neither Hell nor Paradise.
- Every other region we see outside of Tropeland is equally a hellscape to live in. If not, even worse.
- Enforced:
- "We need to portray Africa in a way familiar to Westerners".
- The writer is discussing a place in Africa that really has suffered.
- Lampshaded: "Finish your Spinach Surprise! There are starving children in Bulungi who would be grateful to have even one bite of it!"
- Invoked: War erupts in a rural area of Tropeland, and authorities are powerless to stop it because it happens in such a remote area.
- Exploited: Bob goes on a vacation to Tropeland to go on a killing spree. Nobody will care anyway while they're busy with international problems.
- Defied:
- Tropeland has a good government, and is very proud of its rich culture and history.
- Alice and Bob try to make Tropeland a better place to live and make peace.
- Tropeland has its good and bad, such as showing Bob going from a populated and rather well off town into the more wild, uncivilized area.
- Discussed: "That whole continent is full of barbarians."
- Conversed: "This is the fifth show I've seen with such an uncivilized African country!"
- Implied: During a short scene, Bob is being chased by barbarians. Later, when asked where he was, he responds "You know where. The worst continent ever!"
- Played For Laughs: The natives are portrayed as backwards idiots.
- Played For Drama: The suffering Africans are the main characters or otherwise sympathetic.
Back to Darkest Africa
