News 2023-04 - TV Tropes

Obscure Troops

This section highlights older troops that need a boost.

• Isn't it just a pain when your dog grows extra heads? Cerberus Syndrome covers just that, but hasn't gotten much attention.
• They say if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, and if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. However, if you are in certain countries on April 1st and you Give a Man a Fish..., you are partaking in Poisson d'Avril! This trope that plays on the old phrase has been around since 2010, but with 31 wicks, perhaps you can help reel in some more.
• We at Troop Report may be above such petty things as April Fool's Day jokes, but that doesn't mean the media we trope aren't still full of pranks. One such prank, the Unscrewed Salt Shaker, is a classic way to ruin a friend's food, and waste salt as well. Launched in 2010, this prank has only been committed 27 times on the wiki, so why not season your work pages with this one if you can?

New Troops

This section brings attention to recently-launched troops that could use a little help to really get rolling.

• "So Timmy, what did you bring for show-and-tell today?" "Well Ms. Jones, I have a brand new trope called Show-and-Tell Antics with me today! I got it on February!" "That's very interesting! What is it about?" "It's about the many crazy things that can happen in show-and-tells like this! Maybe someone brings in something cool, but they get ignored when someone else shows something even cooler! Or they think it's cool, but the others don't think so! Or maybe they break the super important thing they bring over! Ooh... maybe they even bring over a pet that starts running around and starts a lot of trouble in class!" "Well Timmy, that's a very nice thing you've brought over to show-and-tell." "Thanks Ms. Jones! I hope you guys like it too! If you wanna talk about it to others, that would be cool too."
• When you're looking for a new trope, what's better than something New and Improved? This shiny new trope is better than the original, now using All-Natural Snake Oil and including a Free Prize at the Bottom. Check out this brand new trope and have your life improved tenfold after just five easy transactions of $69.99. Offer Void in Nebraska.
• "All right, I managed to unlock a super-secret ending! This wasn't even listed in the walkthrough for some reason... wait, did the main character just turn out to be a monkey in a human suit? And now everything is exploding? And now the heroes are being abducted by aliens, and they’re breaking out into a dance number, and they're even Breaking the Fourth Wall? Looks like this must be the Joke Ending. Fitting how it launched March 31st, the day just before this letter was sent out on Fools of April day, and could really use some examples."

New Work Page Spotlight

This section covers newer work pages that could use a little help.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh is the hottest new work of Middle Eastern literature, and it's already sold a billion copies worldwide. It tells the story of a king (the eponymous Gilgamesh) who learns that seeking immortality is foolish and one should instead seek to leave a great legacy.
• Metamorphosis is a hentai manga by ShindoL about a lonely teen girl who wants to have friends. With a spiffy new makeover, she gets plenty of attention from her classmates... and the wrong kind of people as well. The work has attracted plenty of infamy on the internet for its incredibly bleak, yet frighteningly plausible story. There are places to check the work out... but that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. (Edit Dec 13, 2024: This work page has been cut for violating The Content Policy.)

Older/Obscure Work Spotlight

This section is intended to highlight works that may no longer be in the zeitgeist — but that doesn't mean they're any less tropable.

• MY ANUS IS BLEEDING! Rejected is an Academy Award-nominated animated short from 2000 by Don Hertzfeldt which features a combination of Black Comedy and Non Sequitur-based humor. The Framing Device for the film is about Don being contacted by some companies to make animated promo segments and ads, only for them to be rejected due to the end result being simultaneously horrifying and incomprehensible. It can be watched here.

Works That Need a Page

This section takes a page from the List of Shows That Need Summary. It is intended to spotlight works that people have been talking about enough to link around the site, but don't have a page yet. If the work page link turns blue after this, then we know we've done our job!

• Joshua Pieters and Archie Manners, known jointly as Josh And Archie, are a duo of YouTubers known for their high-profile pranks. Among their biggest successes are tricking inflammatory politician Katie Hopkins into accepting a fake, insulting award and getting reality TV star Gemma Collins nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Since April Fools' Day is all about pranks, isn't now the perfect time to give these two a page?
• Nihongo o renshu suru shigoto ga hitsuyodesu ka? Hoka no aimaina sakuhin ni motodzuita aimaina sakuhin ga sukidesu ka? Sorenara, UTAU CARD gemu: Vu~oisu OF VALKYRIE wa anata no tamedesu! Kado no sentaku ni samazamana Utau kyarakuta o shiyo suru kono aimaide kanari tanmei no gemu wa, subete no hito ni totte mirikitekide wanai kamo shiremasenga, sono sonzai o shitte iru hito wa, sono peji o sakusei suru doryoku ni sanka dekimasu. ^English
• Hmm, we got ourselves a Roaring '20s story that doesn't have a page on this wiki yet. It's called Murder for the Modern Girl and it's about some mind-reading Flapper gal who moonlights as a vigilante who poisons douchebag men who treat women as lesser. There's also a shape-shifting dude who works at a morgue and had caught onto her murders and uh oh, the gal's falling in love with him. Then they gotta deal with a conspiracy deep within the workings of Chicago. Will they bring justice? This novel is pretty good and is written by none other than… Wait, it's not an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel? WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? IT'S A NOVEL THAT TAKES PLACE IN THE 1920S! (Disclaimer: the actual author is Kendall Kulper and the novel was published in 2022)

Non-English Work Spotlight

The wiki may be in English, but that doesn't mean non-English media are any less important! This section focuses on works that may have a language barrier to deal with — but are worth it if you do.

• Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby is a Japanese Flash game where you play as the eponymous bear trying to bat as many home runs as possible against the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. It's a very cute, relaxing game that your children will adore playing, and not at all difficult and rage-inducing, we promise. Please don't click this link.

Creator Page Spotlight

Works would be nothing without the people who make them. This section highlights authors, artists, actors, musicians, and everyone else responsible for troop creation and proliferation.

• Jed was a wolfdog known for his leading roles in The Thing (1982), The Journey of Natty Gann and Walt Disney Pictures' White Fang and its sequel. One of Hollywood's best dog actors, he received high acclaim from the likes of John Carpenter for his professionalism, and is the first non-human to receive a creator page on the wiki.
• Greg Weisman is an American writer and producer. Having worked in the TV industry since the late '80s, he's known for some highly praised shows such as Young Justice and Gargoyles, the latter of which recently received a comic book continuation by Dynamite Comics. His page could use some general cleanup.

This section brings you the best selections of the past month from Image Pickin'.

This issue's featured image comes from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and illustrates Island of Mystery.

Hey guys! Welcome back to Forumwatch! In this section, we'll be telling you about what's going on in the forums — interesting discussions that may be going on in Wiki Talk, some fun forum games, or lively debates going on in On-Topic Conversations, you name it!

• Several Useful Notes pages have raised the question of whether they fit the scope of the category, so the Useful Notes and the two contrasting ways we use it thread was created to hash out how to handle this.
• Have you ever seen a trope and thought "this doesn't seem like a trope", but weren't sure? Is there a trope or YMMV/trivia item on the wiki that doesn't seem to affect the plot or characterization and just seems like something that happens to exist in a work? Do you want a second opinion on your suspicion, or want to bring a possible People Sit on Chairs violation to community attention? Check out the Is this tropeworthy/Chairs? thread, and you can get the help you need with these issues.
• So, you got some super weird questions for your story but you don't wanna Google it because you don't want your FBI agent to judge your browser history? Well, come on over to the Random Questions Thread! The folks there are willing to try answering any question you have, regardless of how absurd it is, and give you tips and stuff for your trusty story to work out kinks. Go on, ask them!
• We have forum rules in place in order to encourage maturity and protect people. The problem is that... rules are so draconian. That's why a new thread was created in order to break those rules. ITT: We Break the Forum Rules was only created a century ago, and it's already a good place to advocate for hate groups, import drama, complain and write some absurd meta-posts. Come join!

This section covers renames, removals and bans, redefinitions, hard-splits, merges, and wick cleaning. We'll try to keep you alerted to any major changes to the site, including perpetual projects and Wiki Talk decisions that you may have missed, but if you want to be a part of the process that affects so much of our wiki, then head over to the Troop Recruit Station on the left-hand side of the forum, and help us hammer out the new rules of our troops.

• One Million BC was renamed to Hollywood Prehistory due to misuse. TRS thread here.
• The pages for Animutation and YouTube Poop were moved from the WebAnimation/ namespace to Main/ because they are genres and not works. TRS thread here.
• Anything That Moves and Extreme Omnisexual were merged under the name Extreme Omnisexual. TRS thread here.
• Asian Airhead's definition was broadened to remove the Alpha Bitch aspects of the trope and focus solely on the dumb/scatterbrained traits. TRS thread here.
• Asian Store-Owner was broadened to cover stereotypical Asian store owners even if they aren't violently protective, with examples of racist store owners being moved to Profiling. TRS thread here.
• Bare Your Midriff was disambiguated between other tropes that involve the navel being exposed because it was determined that navel-baring clothing was not a trope on its own. TRS thread here.
• Better Than Canon was moved to Sugar Wiki after it was determined that it was being used to gush about fanfics. In addition, on-page examples are no longer forbidden. TRS thread here.
• Blank Face Of Shame was disambiguated due to redundancy with other tropes and a lack of wicks. TRS thread here.
• But Not Too Black was redefined as an In-Universe Examples Only trope about characters who are discriminated against due to their dark skin. TRS thread here.
• The Conspiracy Theories Useful Notes pages have been cut and sent to the Permanent Red Link Club due to Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment violations. The decision to cut them was made in the Troping Works That Promote Bigotry thread.
• A Date With Rosie Palms was retooled into an index and renamed to This Index Touches Itself because it was determined that masturbation is not a trope on its own. TRS thread here.
• Dismissed Gender was cut due to a lack of wicks and redundancy with other tropes, particularly gender-related Double Standard tropes. TRS thread here.
• East Indies was redirected to UsefulNotes.Asia, Hula and Luaus was redefined to focus on stereotypical depictions of Hawai'i, and Welcome to the Caribbean, Mon! was redirected to UsefulNotes.The Caribbean, in all cases because of misuse. TRS thread here.
• Example as a Thesis was moved to Administrivia because it's a meta concept about trope pages rather than being a trope itself. Discussed here in the Outdated Administrivia Pages thread.
• From Clones to Genre was merged with Follow the Leader due to concerns that the former was redundant with the latter. TRS thread here.
• Gag Boobs was renamed to Boob-Based Gag due to misuse for large breasts in general, despite the definition being about breasts being Played for Laughs regardless of size. TRS thread here.
• Girl In A Box was disambiguated between other tropes because of misuse, and it was determined that tropeworthy concepts would need to be started from scratch via TLP. TRS thread here.
• Gone Horribly Wrong was expanded to include any plan or transformation of the like that is considered to have "gone horribly wrong" instead of just science experiments. TRS thread here.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch was disambiguated due to a combination of the name being an unclear snowclone of Kick the Dog, leading to misuse, and the correct usage being deemed redundant with tropes like Asshole Victim and Karmic Death. TRS thread here.
• Koosh Bomb was cut and sent to the Trope Idea Salvage Yard due to its low wick count, with the existing wicks lacking sufficient context. TRS thread here.
• The LARP/ namespace was merged with the Roleplay/ namespace due to lacking pages and being seen as redundant with the latter. Wiki Talk thread here.
• Lucky Translation has been renamed to Incidental Multilingual Wordplay (due to misuse) and reclassified as Trivia (due to external factors outside the translators' control—in this case, traits of the languages involved). TRS thread here.
• Matzo Fever was renamed to Gentile Jew-Chaser because the trope is about non-Jewish characters finding Jewish characters attractive because they're Jewish, but it was misused to refer to characters finding Jewish characters attractive for reasons unrelated to the actual definition. TRS thread here.
• The No On-Page Examples index was cleaned up. Some tropes were removed because it was determined that there wouldn't be any problem with listing on-page examples, indexes were removed because they're not tropes and thus don't allow any examples, and pages that only exist to define terms were moved to Definition-Only Pages. TRS thread here.
• Obvious Beta had its definition expanded to cover games that are particularly glitchy without being completely unplayable; previously, games had to be completely unplayable to qualify. In addition, it was classified as YMMV. TRS thread here.
• Previously, Precision F-Strike was renamed to Breaking Point Swearing because of misuse, particularly for any instance of the word "fuck" (whether in-universe or as a Pothole Magnet). However, it was determined that the new name was misleading and made the definition sound narrower than it actually is, and that the misuse wasn't necessarily due to the name. As a result, the name was changed back and cleanup was moved to a cleanup thread for profanity tropes while clarity issues with the description were determined to be a job for the Trope Description Improvement Drive. TRS thread here.
• Quote Swear Unquote was redirected to the These Tropes Should Watch Their Language index due to redundancy concerns. TRS thread here.
• Reading In was cut due to a lack of wicks. TRS thread here.
• Since the Relationship Status profile feature already has a lot of options, the mod team decided to limit the amount of future additions by only adding to the list once per year, before Valentine's Day. Wiki Talk thread here.
• Retro Gaming was turned into a Definition-Only Page because it was determined to be Fan Speak and not a trope. TRS thread here.
• Shana Clone was disambiguated between other tropes due to a combination of misuse and redundancy. TRS thread here.
• Stock Shticks was merged with Stock Jokes due to redundancy concerns. TRS thread here.
• To The Bat Noun was merged with Hyperaffixation due to concerns that the former is a meaningless stock phrase that's redundant with the latter. TRS thread here.
• Due to concerns that several Useful Notes pages fall outside the category's scope, two new namespaces have been created to hold pages that have been determined to be worth keeping in some form, but don't fit the mission of Useful Notes: the Platform/ namespace for media platforms (game consoles, operating systems, etc.), and a MediaNotes/ namespace for meta information about media. Wiki Talk thread here.
• Video Source was declared redundant with VideoExamples/, which auto-indexes. Its subpages were cut and the page now links to the list of VideoExamples/ subpages. TRS thread here.
• SugarWiki.Watchmen was moved to JustForFun.Saturday Morning Watchmen because it's a joke page. While a Saturday Morning Watchmen parody web cartoon does exist, it was determined that it would need to be made from scratch because the TV Tropes page was troping made-up aspects instead of the original video. TRS thread here.
• Wing Pull was merged with New Powers as the Plot Demands due to redundancy concerns and a Snowclone name (of Ass Pull) causing confusion. TRS thread here.
• Your Worst Nightmare was disambiguated because it was heavily misused, and the correct usage it had was determined to be redundant with other tropes. TRS thread here.
• We are currently recruiting new soldiers for our army. See TV Troops for more details. Discussed here.
• Thanks to a brand new update, video examples are now only allowed on Christmas Tropes. Learn more here.

This section highlights articles indexed on the Pages Needing Wiki Magic policy page and sub-pages. Such articles are, at best, under-performing and below wiki standards. At worst, these pages are in violation of the wiki's rules against stubs. If you're an editor, try checking out some of these under-performing troop and work articles to see what improvements you can make to the page.

• Happy birthday to Gabriela Mistral, a poet from Chile who also worked in education. Her poems normally carry a tragic mindset, though she also wrote some uplifting ones. Her page could use some more tropes and trivia about her works.
• Zodiac Academy is a novel that follows two changeling sisters who attend a special school for The Fair Folk. The page could use a lot of wiki magic itself, however: the description is lacking, the wicks are absent, and it's not even indexed. It could use some more tropes as well.
• Cute Clumsy Creature is a trope about an adorable creature who is prone to accidentally breaking things or causing messes. Despite being over a decade old, the page only has 11 wicks and 9 non-real life examples.

Looking for a project to dedicate some time to, but not comfortable jumping into large threads? Here are some smaller projects, or more recent discussions, in need of a few more hands.

• Precision F-Strike just said damn? WOAH! These tropes should watch their language! Or more precisely, their example context. Tropes about profanity, like Precision F-Strike, N-Word Privileges and This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!, often attract Zero-Context Examples and examples where characters just say a swear word. If you would like to clean out those kinds of examples, come visit This Thread Should Watch Its Language.
• There are many articles for reality TV shows on TV Troops, since many works in the genre are tropable. However, because these shows usually involve real people, they can often fall victim to Real Life Troping, especially when negative tropes and YMMV items are used. If you would like to gain consensus on rewriting or removing such examples, come visit the Reality Tv-Shows Cleanup.
• MEN! We have ascended far and high with this army, to the point of having a 0% loss rate so far^note ! So, our advanced AI which is totally not a heap of metal held together by cardboard and duct tape incapable of translating binary into human language has directed us to create our own PANTHEON! We shall find the best, most fitting of characters for troops, those who exemplify them the best, and give them the privilege of becoming gods! Just discuss with fellow troopers in this thread about who you think is the best for a troop, and then prepare their temple and interactions! There are other matters too, such as the great weapons that shall be used and the houses the gods shall stay at! The Troop Pantheons shall eventually be used to fight off enemy armies... using the higher powers!
• Misuse of tropes has been going around this site for quite a while. Please check out the misuse cleanup thread if you have concerns about potential trope misuse.
• Have you ever seen a hilariously bad image on the wiki? Maybe it's Just a Face and a Caption or it's taking the trope name too literally? Well, now you don't have to suffer in silence. Check out this project thread that's dedicated to bad images!

• Sgt. FernandoLemon is a decorated war veteran who acts as the face of this whole operation. He's also fluent in four different languages.
• War Jay 77 wasn't meant to be here, but she hacked into the mainframe to contribute illegally. Please don't inform the mods.
• gjjones writes for the Project Spotlight section. He also frequently spends his time working on projects whenever they are necessary, cleaning up wiki entries and participating in the ATT and Trope Repair Shop threads.
• 𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 writes for the Obscure Trope Spotlight and Changelog sections.
• The Advertisement Server is both a winner and a loser.
• plakythebirb wa, guguru de hon'yaku sa reta chaban geki ni tsuite shazai shite imasuga, tsujo wa aimaina sakuhin ni tsuite kaite imasu. ^English
• Excessive-Menace does not exist.
• The Mayor of Simpleton is submitting his resignation as mayor, and it has nothing to do with any recent bribery-related scandals and was done totally of his own accord.
• callmeamuffin was a muffin all along, and therefore did not contribute for this issue. ^Psst...
• MacronNotes: Not to be confused with notes on macarons, macaroons, or President Macron.
• Hastily Made Sock Puppet could be anyone.
• Berrenta is currently investigating fraud accusations against an owl in regards to a certain lollipop. If you have any information regarding this case, please contact her office.
• Iggy Pop contributes to the Changelog, since he mostly moderates TRS, and adds changes after giving the go-ahead to make them. He also contributed to Forumwatch this month. His 34th birthday is on April 21.
• GastonRabbit is the Godfather of Punk, the Passenger, the World's Forgotten Boy and a mainstay in rock and roll since 1969. His 76th birthday is on April 21.
• system is everywhere, doing everything.
• Holy crap, Cutegirl920fire didn't write an entry that had something to do with F. Scott Fitzgerald for Troop Report. What kind of heresy is this?
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• Twiddler Twiddler Bo-Biddler Banana-Fana Fo-Fiddler Fee Fi Mo-Middler ♪~Twiddler~♪ makes sure our grammar is in order.
• request requested a listing in the credits.
• Master N added Joke Ending, thus ending this list with a Joke Ending. Laugh or I report you to High Command.

This edition of Troop Report is brought to you by Morshu's Mega Emporium. Lamp oil? Rope? Bombs? You want it? It's yours, my friend, as long as you have enough rupees.