Speculative Troping Cleanup

Even in the games, it varies on them being an Official Couple, so I'd leave it at there being Ship Tease, which is already present in the movie.

From Madagascar.

• Translation Convention: Whenever Alex talks to a human, all they hear is roaring. Nana, however, may be an exception, since she responds to Melman's chant "He's got him!" with "I've got something for you!" and hits him with her purse.

Given that there's no evidence of Nana being able to understand the animals in the franchise outside of that one gag, should the second sentence be cut?

Yes, it should be cut.

I originally posted this on the Is This An Example? thread a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get feedback. This does look like a speculative troping issue, however, and I forgot this thread existed.

Fanfic Fuel is supposed to be when under-explained or unexplained elements in a work are a popular target for fandoms to explore in fanfic. However, the following entries look like misuse to just say that some element in the work is interesting or a cliffhanger (rather than something's been left unexplained or under-explained) so that it might trigger fanfiction stories rather than it definitely has.

• Within hours of Volume 8's final episode airing for sponsors, the fandom was already brainstorming fanfic ideas due to the show setting up the heroes to fall into other realms, allowing fanfic authors to use a canon hook to justify all sorts of alternate universe and crossover stories.

This is just discussing what a season cliffhanger (March 2021) might inspire. Looking at fanfic sites like AO3, there was no take-off of crossover stories that coincided with the end of Volume 8. One complication is that an official official RWBY/Justice League crossover comic was first published at the same time, but that doesn't seem to have kicked off a trend either. I did find a sudden up-tick in RWBY crossover and AU stories in 2017-18 that has been sustained ever since, but there doesn't doesn't appear to be a single cause for that (lots of anime, video-game and comic book crossovers), and there seems to be a general uptick in "multiverse" and multi-crossover stories across a lot of fandoms around this time.

• Volume 9's finale has a three-for-one special: Volume 9 aired between Feb-Apr 23, finishing just over a month ago; it might be too early for discussing fanfic trends.
  • Team RWBY and Jaune end the volume by entering a magic portal, that will specifically take them when they are needed most. The potential for time-travel and/or Peggy Sue fics practically list themselves. This is just speculating that people somewhere might do this. I can't see any massive uptick in fanfic about it yet.
  • Somewhat and Juniper take off to have their own adventures in the Ever After. It is very unlikely that the show is ever going to cover this, so it really could be good fanfiction fodder... but a bit too early to say? I'm not seeing anything much manifesting in fanfictions about this subject yet.
  • And of course, what Neo might become after she chose to Ascend. As with this previous bullet-point, this could be fanfiction fodder in the long run but it doesn't seem to have generated many stories yet. Again, it might be a bit early to tell.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Jun 8th 2023 at 6:38:17 PM

Along those lines, in FandomSpecificPlot.RWBY:

• In stories where Salem, for whatever reason, doesn't recruit Cinder, May Marigold is often made Fall Maiden and responsible for the fall of Beacon instead. In these stories, Salem often manipulates May by offering gender affirmation or means of transitioning.

I'm acquainted with the fanfic side of the FNDM, and I've never seen this play out as written. I haven't searched specifically for May-centric fanfics, so it could exist without me knowing.

Yeah, that entire page looks like a list of any fanfic storyline people have come across regardless of how widespread it is, when it's supposed a specific type of plot line that is extremely common to that fandom for some reason connected to the nature of the work. The entire page might need looking at.

(x3) For the Volume 9 examples, I agree the first one doesn't count since it's just speculation. I think the other two at least lack context but I'm otherwise unsure if they count.

Okay, I've removed the first one. I still can't find much fanfic connected to the V9 examples, so it still comes across as speculating about what might happen. I haven't removed them pending further feedback on what people think should happen to them (if anything).

Any views on this one? From YMMV.The Amazing Spider Man 2022 -

• Critic-Proof: Despite the negative backlash the run has received from fans and critics for certain narrative and characterization decisions, Zeb Wells' run has been very successful sales-wise and has performed better on the charts than Nick Spencer's run had. Likely because of the controversy it has garnered in contrast to Spencer's comparatively safe run.

From TearJerker.The Loud House:

• When Lincoln gets to the couch, thinking he's gotten all his sisters out of the way, he's startled by Lucy who's gotten there first. When he remarks that he always forgets about Lucy, her response is "Story of my life". If her siblings forget about her all the time, then maybe that's why she's always startling people. She's not sneaking up on them, they always forget she's there.

That seems more like a theory to me. It's Fridge Sadness at best IMO.

I agree that the last sentence is just speculation. I agree the example is otherwise valid though.

That sounds like WMG and maybe Fridge Sadness to me.

Speculation about the work itself, rather than events within it. From Trivia.Captain Marvel 2023, for the as yet unreleased Captain Marvel (2023) comic:

• Milestone Celebration: While launching in late 2023, this year is also still the 55th anniversary of Carol's debut in 1968.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: It's really not hard to imagine that Carol's book is being relaunched with a new creative team and jumping on point just in time for the premiere of The Marvels (2023) the following month.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 13th 2023 at 8:14:25 PM

Those both look speculative to me. Cut.

55 years isn't an oft-celebrated milestone. Unless there's an official announcement it's being treated as such, it's misuse.

Edited by bwburke94 on Jul 14th 2023 at 7:14:32 AM

&

Thanks! Those were the only two examples on the page, so sending it to cut list.

Is this entry a bit speculative on the age bit or is it just me?

From Characters.Trails Series Erebonia Military (Matteus Vander)

• Old Soldier: His exact age wasn't stated, but considering his younger brother was a contemporary of Osborne(who was 52 by the beginning of the series) and that his oldest son is 33 as of Reverie, he's likely in his mid-50's at the least and still is a very capable and deadly warrior.

Edited by Ayumi-chan on Aug 10th 2023 at 12:24:59 AM

Yeah. I'm not familiar with the work or character but I assume the entry can be rewritten to avoid the speculation.

I think "he's old enough to have a son in his thirties" is not speculative, but I think the entry needs a little rewrite.

Any suggestions?

From Trivia.Dark Ages Marvel Comics:

• Troubled Production: After reading issue #6, many fans believed that the series was rushed due to the fact that Tom Taylor had become an exclusive writer at DC Comics as well as taking up Nightwing (Infinite Frontier) and Superman: Son of Kal-El

"Many fans believed" feels awfully speculative. "He had another job lined up and didn't stick the landing" is a familiar refrain about creators.

Cut?

(Only trope on the page, so it'll be cutlist if we do)

Characters.Pizza Tower's "The True Mastermind"'s Ambiguous Situation example mentions "assuming the interpretations of his character in the examples below are nothing more than simple conjecture". Aside illegal reference to other examples, this implies the folder is full of conjectures.

In general Film.Coyote Vs Acme has been made way too early in advance with no trailers or posters or anything of the like. Should it be nuked until we get some form of promotional material?

I think it should be if it's unreleased, though I'll admit, I'm not the expert on unreleased works. Here's some examples from Recap.Martha Speaks S 1 E 5 Martha Takes The Cake:

• Easily Condemned: Martha is first quickly accused of hurting Nelson by the humans and put in the garage after Helen refuses to hear her out. Then she gets further accused by Ronald for eating Alice's cake, due to his dislike of her.
• Stink Snub: Ronald accuses dogs of stinking. Of course, this is because he hates Martha with a passion.

While Ronald does make several anti-dog comments throughout the whole series, I don't think it's ever stated that he hates Martha specifically. He might just hate dogs as a whole, or, knowing that he's The Bully, he might just be pretending to hate dogs to get a rise out of the kids. If we don't know why he makes these comments, I feel it's wrong to just say it's because he hates Martha in particular.

Found this on Game Engine (Unity section)

We still have no idea just how much damage was done following the announcement and how much Unity has lost. So should I cut it?

Edited by Ayumi-chan on Sep 26th 2023 at 8:39:49 PM

Yeah. It's far too soon to tell the long-term impact.