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Useful Tips:

• Make sure that the example makes sense to both people who don't know the work AND don't know the trope.
  • Wrong: The Mentor: Kevin is this to Bob in the first episode.
  • Right: The Mentor: Kevin takes Bob under his wing in the first episode and teaches him the ropes of being a were-chinchilla.
• Never just put the trope title and leave it at that.
  • Wrong: Badass Adorable
  • Right: Badass Adorable: Xavier, the group's cute little mascot, defeats three raging elephants with both hands tied behind his back using only an uncooked spaghetti noodle.
• When is normally far less important than How.
  • Wrong: Big Bad: Of the first season.
  • Right: Big Bad: The heroes have to defeat the Mushroom Man lest the entirety of Candy Land's caramel supply be turned into fungus.
• A character name is not an explanation.
  • Wrong: Full Moon Silhouette: Diana
  • Right: Full Moon Silhouette: At the end of her transformation sequence into Moon Princess Misty, Diana is shown flying across the full moon riding a rutabaga.

Other Resources:

• Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions
• How to Write an Example
• Zero-Context Example

For best results, please include why you think an example is iffy in your first post.

Also, many oft-misused tropes/topics have their own threads, such as Surprisingly Realistic Outcome (here) and Fan-Preferred Couple (here). Tropers are better able to give feedback on examples you bring up to specific threads.

For cleaning up examples of Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard, you must use their dedicated threads: Complete Monster Cleanup, Magnificent Bastard Cleanup.

Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 18th 2023 at 11:42:55 AM

Does this go in Trope Talk? Anyway, already added it to What Goes Where.

No, it goes here in the same place as get help with English.

These are just general questions, as I don't really plan to write a specific example per say:

If a young character who has white hair but none of the personality traits or associations of White-Haired Pretty Girl or White-Haired Pretty Boy, would be okay to put them on You Gotta Have Blue Hair instead?

I also have another question I want ask; what are key points to mention you think a character is an example of Bi The Way so it won't look like you're just stating that they are bisexual? I'm a little confused how much context is needed since the description states that the character is a bisexual that is neither a Depraved Bisexual or Anything That Moves.

edited 5th Dec '12 7:57:43 PM by Oreochan

1) No. White is a natural hair colour. There are a lot of reasons a young person would have white hair. These include albinism, trauma, and just premature greying. I knew someone who was salt and pepper in high school. It's not common, but it's possible. Thus it doesn't really fit the trope.

2)As for Bi The Way, was a big deal made out of the reveal that the character was bi? Was it just sort of treated as nothing special? Do they date only men in the series? Only women? Both? How is their bisexuality portrayed?

edited 6th Dec '12 12:54:18 AM by shimaspawn

Thank you shima, for your answers! As a somewhat unrelated side note, does Bi The Way may need a clean up?

Anyways, I have another general question: Just how "strange" does a girl have be in order to be an example of Strange Girl?

edited 6th Dec '12 2:18:36 AM by Oreochan

The Zero Context Examples on Bi The Way could certainly use cleaning.

As for Strange Girl, that is a very vague badly defined trope.

Some examples for TVD:

The Cheerleader: Elena was this in season one along with Bonnie and Caroline. However, Elena quit the cheerleading team for personal reasons.

Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Damon always has a sarcastic or witty comeback or phrase to throw at any other character that he interacts with on the show.

Cain and Abel: Damon and Stefan are built from this trope with Damon being the Cain to Stefan's Abel. In regards to the Salvatore brother's dynamics, Damon is seen as the "bad brother" like Cain and Stefan is seen as the "good brother" like Abel. Similar relationships to the Salvatore brother's relationship are Klaus and Elijah's relationship, in which the parallels between the Salvatore brothers and the Mikaelson brothers are evident. The relationship between Damon/Stefan mirrors the relationship between Klaus/Elijah.

The Casanova: Damon fits this trope because he is a womanizer. He is the type to obsessively pursue, love and then eventually leave his love interests. Because of this, Damon seems to have problems with committed romantic relationships. Most of his romances are flings. Damon is also a heartbreaker and his sole motivation behind love is primarily sexual desire, lust and passion. An example is Damon's relationship with Caroline. He attracted her, landed her, used her and then dumped her afterwards, which left Caroline heartbroken.

Doppelgänger: Elena is the doppelganger to Katherine Pierce. The original doppelganger is Tatia Petrova. Because Elena is the doppelganger, she is physically the spitting image of Katherine. The difference between Elena and Katherine is their personalities with Elena being the "good" doppelganger (Light Feminine) to Katherine's "bad" doppelganger (Dark Feminine).

edited 7th Dec '12 10:28:36 PM by Sugarbabe88

I don't know the show you are writing about at all, so this is the impression of someone totally ignorant:

• The Cheerleader: Who is that girl? Why does she fit the archetype? The description of The Cheerleader states that "Cheerleaders are often depicted as outright evil [...]". Is that the case?

• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Could be ok.

• Cain and Abel: You start with Word Cruft ("are build from this trope"). The thing about the description here is that you exhibit several pairs of characters who you state have this dynamic, and that they parallel each other. But I have no idea how these guys are and how they interact, so I can't tell why they fit.

• The Casanova: Looks good to me.

• Doppelgänger: Probably ok, although I don't understand the "the original Doppelgänger" bit (did they get exchanged???).

Elena is not the cheerleader, as she's not the bitchy type you will find in most high school settings. Neither Bonnie nor Caroline really seem to fit.

Cain and Abel: This needs work. How it could possibly go instead:

• Cain and Abel: Damon, as the older brother is the Cain and Stefan is the Abel. The rift between the brothers began when they both fell for Katherine Pierce, who manipulated them both for her purpose. At the present time, Damon is cruel, intent on screwing around with Stefan's life and does not suppress his vampiric urges, whereas Stefan is trying not to hurt humans and live peacefully with Elena. Damon, however, gets more sympathetic as the series progresses.

The rest look okay, though I haven't gone far enough in the series to know about The Doppelganger.

edited 8th Dec '12 12:47:29 AM by lu127

Another example:

Really 700 Years Old: Physically, Klaus may look like he is in his 20's, but he is actually 1,000 years old. He was born during the 10th century. Klaus is immortal, meaning that he will never physically age and grow old. Klaus also has the ability to live forever without dying under regular circumstances.

edited 8th Dec '12 10:32:09 AM by Sugarbabe88

Part of that example should go into an Immortality subtrope.

This part? : "Klaus is immortal, meaning that he will never physically age and grow old. Klaus also has the ability to live forever without dying under regular circumstances."

So, it would be fine if it was:

Really 700 Years Old: Physically, Klaus may look like he is in his 20's, but he is actually 1, 000 years old. He was born during the 10th century.

I think I ask here

Is this another inversion of Your Approval Fills Me with Shame?

Griever and Derek are exchanging banter, Derek insults Griever's mother. Grever's response "That was uncalled for."

Come to think of it, could work for Actually Pretty Funny.

I think the only trope there is Your Mom.

Isn't that just a plain insult?

Oh alright sorry.

Tall, Dark, and Snarky: How does his snark undermine his appeal? How does it drive people away from him? What makes him hate people? Why isn't he interested in any sort of a relationship with people?

edited 10th Dec '12 2:32:22 PM by shimaspawn

I elaborated on the Tall, Dark, and Snarky trope for Damon:

Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Damon is very sarcastic and snarky character. He almost always has a sarcastic, biting, or snarky line, joke or comeback for any character that he interacts with. Because of this, Damon has a habit of irritating and annoying those around him, especially his brother, Stefan. However, it could be assumed that Damon's sarcasm is mainly a facade used to cover up his inner vulnerability. In other words, sarcasm and snarkiness are Damon's defence mechanisms. Damon has been through much in his life and he has faced a lot of trials and tribulations. So, Damon uses sarcasm and snark to hide what he is really feeling, out of fear of people around him seeing how vulnerable he is; how much he wants to be accepted. His sarcasm has a tendency to drive many people away from him because whenever Damon uses sarcasm, it is his way of pushing people away so that they don't get too close in order to see just how vulnerable and emotionally damaged Damon is on the inside. Another reason why Damon uses sarcasm is because he suffers from anti-social characteristics. He doesn't seem to like being around a lot of people (he doesn't seem to like or care about people altogether hence why he is willing to kill humans without any guilt or remorse) and he often prefers the company of only a select few of people that he cares about (such as Stefan, Elena and Alaric, for example). But even with those few select people that Damon does care about and show concern for, he is still rather sarcastic, cutting and snarky with them. Damon's sense of sarcasm also contributes to his inner loneliness and his desire or need to be accepted and loved. Damon is a complicated figure because even though he constantly pushes people away from getting close to him, deep down, he yearns to be accepted and loved. The problem is, Damon doesn't know the right way to approach people, therefore, he uses sarcasm and resorts to the use of snarky, cutting remarks. But Damon's sarcasm only causes people around him to be turned off of him. However, Damon is completely unaware of this because his sense of sarcasm is ingrained in him and it is a hard habit for him to break.

edited 12th Dec '12 3:10:10 PM by Sugarbabe88

That's overkill. It's far too much of a Wall of Text to really understand what's going on. You don't need to recap the whole show. Just summarize the bits most important to the trope. You should be able to manage that in 3-5 sentences.

Actually, both lu and me were ok with the Tall, Dark, and Snarky example you gave in your first post. For the new version, what shima says describes what I think.

Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Damon isa very sarcastic and snarky character. He always has a sarcastic, biting, or snarky line, joke or comeback for any character that he interacts with. Because of this, Damon has a habit of irritating and annoying those around him, especially his brother, Stefan. His sarcasm has a tendency to drive many people away from him because whenever Damon uses sarcasm, it is his way of pushing people away so that they don't get too close in order to see just how vulnerable and emotionally damaged Damon is on the inside. However, Damon is completely unaware of how much his sarcasm turns people off, so much so that he doesn't realize that his sarcasm is what contributes to people around him not accepting him.

Better?

edited 12th Dec '12 4:01:44 PM by Sugarbabe88

You're still repeating yourself a fair bit. This is more what I was thinking:

Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Damon always has a sarcastic, biting, or snarky line, joke or comeback for any character that he interacts with, irritating and annoying those around him, especially his brother, Stefan. It is his way of pushing people away so that they don't see just how vulnerable and emotionally damaged he is on the inside. However, Damon is completely unaware of how much his sarcasm turns people off, thus doesn't realize it contributes to people not accepting him.

edited 12th Dec '12 8:50:53 PM by shimaspawn

For the Teen Wolf page:

Badass Abnormal: After Scott was bitten by a werewolf, he went from being a normal human to a werewolf with superhuman abilities. Scott became much more capable in terms of strength and capability. In regards to what powers he gained after being bitten, he gained super-strength, super-speed, super-reflexes, super-agility, super senses and the ability of shapeshifting at will.

edited 17th Dec '12 7:59:54 PM by Sugarbabe88

For the Teen Wolf page:

Mysterious Animal Senses: When Scott gained his abilities after being bitten, one of the many abilities he gained included his heightened senses as a human when he was not in his werewolf form. Scott is able to smell things from a farther distance, he is able to see things much clearer and he is able to hear things much greater than that of a normal human.

edited 17th Dec '12 9:25:32 PM by Sugarbabe88