Do you have trouble remembering the difference between Deathbringer the Adorable and Fluffy the Terrible?
Do you have trouble recognizing when you've written a Zero-Context Example?
Not sure if you really have a Badass Bookworm or just a guy who likes to read?
Well, this is the thread for you. We're here to help you will all the finer points of example writing. If you have any questions, we can answer them. Don't be afraid. We don't bite. We all just want to make the wiki a better place for everyone.
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.
- 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:
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
Um, I wanted to ask you something guys. Can you help me with something. I want to add something to the Dethroning Moment page, but I dont know exactly where to put it. You see, I see something wrong in a remix of the Pokemon- Remixer Glitch X City.
Does the DMOS count as a example, so you guys can help me on it?
edited 27th Feb '13 12:28:25 AM by Tomodachi
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.What is the example and where do you want to put it?
edited 27th Feb '13 1:13:51 AM by SeptimusHeap
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanOk, lets see. Im really not sure where to put it, thats why im asking you.
This is a DMOS for a pokemon remixer,
Tomodachi. Pokemon remixer GlitchXCity. Personally, I simply love her music, making pokemon music even more awesome! But, there an issue with one of her remixes: The Lavender Town one. The music starts low, with a creepy tone, going faster, and when the awesome music starts at the 13 seconds... There is an OVER NINE THOUSAND scream in it. Dont get me wrong, the rest of the song is awesome, but, that part simply dont fit with the mood, in fact, it kill it.
My name is already on it
edited 27th Feb '13 12:04:10 PM by Tomodachi
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.Remixer and remixes.
That example needs your name, by the way.
Also, OVER NINEWHATEVER is an annoying meme. Sure we need to mention it?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanIf there's a Music subpage, it would go there. Otherwise, Web Original.
That's central to the example: it not fitting is the whole reason he's asking about it.
Alright, I found this one on the Never Live It Down page:
- In-story of Mercenaries 2, your merc will be known throughout Venezuela as "the merc that Solano shot in the ass".
My example is this:
- In-story of Mercenaries 2, your merc will be known throughout Venezuela as "the merc that Solano shot in the ass".
- In a meta example, this game will be always know as the one that banned violent videogames in real life Venezuela.
Is this right?
im afraid I dont understand what that meant.
edited 8th Mar '13 10:01:24 PM by Tomodachi
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.One, the Example Indentation is wrong.
Also, as a meta example it looks shoe-horney.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanYou followed the Example Indentation link, right? This would be correct:
- Mercenaries2
- Your merc will be always be known throughout Venezuela as "the merc that Solano shot in the ass".
- This game will be always be known as the one that banned violent videogames in real life Venezuela.
"Shoe-horny" is a figure of speech probably not used in Venezuela. It means "forced in" as in trying to make a foot go into a shoe that is too small. I happen to disagree. Your example fits.
Goal: Clear, Concise and WittyI'd rather give it a cite to Banned in China.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanIts already on it, the game is the only one banned in the Venezuelan part.
Oh well, let's see this one.
- Nicolas Maduro, successor of Hugo Chavez to the presidency of Venezuela (Although he has to face elections) has been: Vicepresident for a year, Minister of Foreign Affairs for six years, and now, for the moment, interim President of Venezuela. But sadly, he mostly know for his past as a bus driver. Even Wikipedia point that out.◊
How about this one for politics? I found a V. president there, decided to bring this one too. Sorry for grammar mistakes.
edited 13th Mar '13 1:07:36 AM by Tomodachi
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.Looks fine for me (didn't check the grammar yet).
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanSo, here's a hard one: Eldritch Abomination. Given that the most recent TRS attempt to find a consensus definition died, I don't feel confident knowing the current parameters of this trope.
In my cleanup of Characters.The Silmarillion and related pages I kept seeing Ungoliant called an Eldritch Abomination. I'm not confident that she fits.
- She looks like an abominable, hideous Giant Spider. She's sentient and can talk. She eats light and vomits supernatural darkness. If you know who Shelob is, Ungoliant is her mother or ancestor. She may or may not have eaten herself to death.
- She seems to be motivated by pretty comprehensible gluttony/hunger, and her behavior and thoughts don't even seem to reach Blue-and-Orange Morality. She seems conventionally evil.
- Her origin and nature are uncertain, she may have crawled out of the Void beyond the World. But that alone doesn't make her more eldritch than Tom Bombadil. She's quite possibly merely a Fallen Angel.
- She was/is very dangerous and almost defeated/devoured The Devil, but there's no reason, IMO, to say that her powers broke the established rules of the setting.
Does this count as an Eldritch Abomination?
edited 14th Mar '13 3:41:55 PM by ArcadesSabboth
Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.For me, she comes off like an animal at best.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanWasn't Eldritch Abomination being threatened to be redefined in manner that Great Cthulhu would no longer qualify?
I recall seeing a YKTTW for a "Bestial Abomination''. I dunno if it launched or if it was a sub-trope because of the TRS discussion.
With the info at hand, Ungoliant is the closest thing to an Eldritch Abomination in the setting. It's motives and form are understandable, but it's power and origins make it so damn alien. It's a world where capital-G God is directly involved with its creation and guiding his servants. The greatest evil known was his creation who fell from grace. Why is Ungoliant here?
There it is. Yeah, I'd say it's an Animalistic Abomination.
edited 14th Mar '13 6:16:06 PM by Rotpar
Animalistic Abomination even specifies it's a subtrope of Eldritch Abomination. And that requires something more than "freaky look".
edited 15th Mar '13 12:13:26 AM by SeptimusHeap
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI'm inclined to agree with this line of reasoning. I think some people on this site are way too rigid in defining what an Eldritch Abomination or its subtropes "should" be. It's really a matter of intent and/or narrative presentation more than anything else.
Posting here as I'm not really sure it's an example of Bizarre Alien Locomotion. I mean, it's a strange way to move around but the alien doesn't actually do the "moving". I don't know if it would go under "Other Ground-movers" or not either.
- Outlaw Star: The potted cactus alien can't move on its own, instead it relies on its Hypnotoad power to make people move it around.
I don't think that would be an example because it's not self-moved.
"This trope is not intended for teleportation, plane shifting, and other means of travel that break the laws of physics."
I would say that telepathy would not qualify.
For those who have seen Highlander, Duncan's character page listing as him listed as The Stoic, I really don't know it it fits him. I'm inclined to say it doesn't because it's a snarker at times, and he's lost his shit multiple ways.
edited 26th Mar '13 4:52:29 PM by Fighteer
I have to ask some very general questions.
- I agree we have to avoid ZCE's in trope and work pages. However, I have an issue about this in Character Sheets; in many cases the "context" writeup will completely overlap what is already written as the lead for the character (several lines above), causing unnecessary repetition. Do I still need to do this, or can I just refer to a need, or another trope entry under the same character? I know some tropers (not me) tend to write detailed leads and make the trope listings as ZC Es.
- The lack of cross-wicking in Anime articles is already desperate (I think I'm one of the few people who actively crosswicks for new anime), so I hope some people can just go do crosswick on those.
Do people talking about tropes count as an example of that trope? IE. articles, videos, or podcasts made by people who's shows analyze fiction. Strictly speaking they are not examples but before I start purging these instances where I see them I want to know if there is a previously established consensus on the issue.
Keep it breezy!Absolutely not. Media references to a trope are not examples of the trope. Now, within a work of fiction, characters referencing the tropes in their own work can be an example of Playing with a Trope, most often Lampshade Hanging, Invoked Trope, and Discussed Trope. Characters talking about tropes in general would be Conversational Troping.
edited 31st Mar '13 7:12:45 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Nocturna guesses right. I just didn't find a non-awkward way to say it.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman