Current Events > TV Tropes has no value

(+) Yeah! (+)

It exists solely so that you can scroll through it for an hour and think "oh yeah that was pretty cool" every few minutes.

This thread is a trope.

I've honestly never found it all that interesting

Oh yeah thats pretty cool is a value

I've never been able to figure out what the point of it is.

It's good at screwing with the heads of first time writers.

it used to. now it just sucks. it's all RP and people forming response chains in what should be simple trope lists

Thinking something has no value because it has no value to you is pretty narrow-minded. What's wrong with letting people just have fun?

I like how the site won't let me use it with my VPN on.

So it has entertainment value?

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

I've never been able to figure out what the point of it is.

basically an encylopedia of writing tools

MICHALECOLE posted...

Oh yeah thats pretty cool is a value

It's a strictly worse version of whatever the actually cool thing was.

As opposed to the immense value found here

TimeForAction posted...

As opposed to the immense value found here

Personally I do find value here. If you don't, might I suggest doing something with your time you value? I'm not saying you have to leave if you don't want to, but if you're not deriving any sort of pleasure from posting here, you'd probably be happier doing something you actually want to.

Quezovercoatl posted...

Thinking something has no value because it has no value to you is pretty narrow-minded. What's wrong with letting people just have fun?

What value does it have aside of "oh yeah that was pretty cool"? I'd argue it's an active negative because it's lead a lot of people to think and write in terms of tropes instead of a cohesive story.

I sympathize as I too am the type to gather useless trivia in my head and need a place to get it all down.

EDIT: I mean perhaps "useless" is a bit harsh. Tropes Are Just Tools, after all.

I think it used to be better.

Some of the tropes are really reaching and then the examples often reach even more leaving you wondering if this is actually a thing.

ssjevot posted...

Some of the tropes are really reaching and then the examples often reach even more leaving you wondering if this is actually a thing.

Yeah some of them definitely hit Urban Dictionary levels of believability

"x has no value"
>describes value of x

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


i remember they removed the bad ass gay trope and the bi the way trope

kinda feels homophobic to do that IMO

I think the purging was necessary. There was a period where everyone was trying to fit every and any trope into every single thing. Dude made a sandwich in one episode of a noncombat anime? Iron Chef.

Garioshi posted...

What value does it have aside of "oh yeah that was pretty cool"? I'd argue it's an active negative because it's lead a lot of people to think and write in terms of tropes instead of a cohesive story.

Tropes are a crucial part of writing, though. They are part of what makes a cohesive story for a reader. Understanding tropes and their history can be very beneficial to a writer as they allow them to communicate concepts with an easily understood literary short-hand, and they allow them to subvert them to keep the reader guessing.

Pogo_Marimo posted...

Tropes are a crucial part of writing, though. They are part of what makes a cohesive story for a reader. Understanding tropes and their history can be very beneficial to a writer as they allow them to communicate concepts with an easily understood literary short-hand, and they allow them to subvert them to keep the reader guessing.

well said

Pogo_Marimo posted...

Tropes are a crucial part of writing, though. They are part of what makes a cohesive story for a reader. Understanding tropes and their history can be very beneficial to a writer as they allow them to communicate concepts with an easily understood literary short-hand, and they allow them to subvert them to keep the reader guessing.

We seem to have gotten on just fine for hundreds of years without TV Tropes, and all I've seen come out of it is incredibly annoying writing saying "haha i'm doing the bad cliche! but it's okay because i'm pointing it out", or something on that level.

-mfw people in a past college course used TVTropes as the bulk of citations for a research project
-mfw TVtropes themselves admitted in the past that they're less reputable than wikipedia, which you're already told to avoid citing for research papers and shit
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/15921bab.jpg
I have to wonder what grade those people got on the project.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

hate this so much as i legit found news stories do to stuff like this

They're also changing a bunch of images from nicher works to more mainstream works which is annoying since I used those images to get introduced to new works before too.

I noticed this the last time I visited the site (a while ago by now) and it was really disappointing. That kind of site is ideally powered by niche weirdos and nothing good will come from trying to normie-ize it

Doe posted...

I noticed this the last time I visited the site (a while ago by now) and it was really disappointing. That kind of site is ideally powered by niche weirdos and nothing good will come from trying to normie-ize it

there is a middle ground for this kinda stuff i wish corpos would be able to see

wanting to make TV tropes abit more accessible to more casual dwellers of the net ok i can get that

but it should still be powered by nerds being nerds

maybe Fandom can buy it to fix them

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

one of my fave tropes complete monster is slowly being gutted

i noticed luca blight from suikoden 2 is no longer called a complete monster and i legit have no idea why

I get entertainment value out of it and have found new media because of it (as someone else said).

Wikipedia and TV Tropes are my two biggest rabbit holes.

It's a fun rabbit hole to sink into like wikipedia articles. It's true that some of the tropes are reaching, but to say there's no value out of it is reaching in of itself lol.

AceMos posted...

one of my fave tropes complete monster is slowly being gutted

i noticed luca blight from suikoden 2 is no longer called a complete monster and i legit have no idea why

Assuming I'm remembering right the requirements for Complete Monster got reworked due to a combination of misuse and overuse (which seems to be a recurring thing leading to certain tropes getting "fixed" or remove).

AceMos posted...

one of my fave tropes complete monster is slowly being gutted

This would because people were slapping random asshole characters on there so you had instances of unironically comparing characters like Mr Krabs from SpongeBob to Judge Holden from the Blood Meridian.

Garioshi posted...

It exists solely so that you can scroll through it for an hour and think "oh yeah that was pretty cool" every few minutes.

This is describing a kind of value. So wtf is the point of this topic?

I remember tv tropes was the reason I got an ad blocker because the site would randomly take me to a malware site

Helps me discover new games and movies

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

that is insane

the complete monstertrope should be based on 2 key things

1 how they are viewed in universe for their actions

2 how evil they are within their own universe (in other words no comparing them to other villians from other series)

AceMos posted...

that is insane

the complete monstertrope should be based on 2 key things

1 how they are viewed in universe for their actions

2 how evil they are within their own universe (in other words no comparing them to other villians from other series)

The issue is that it's a fandom reaction thing and as dancing_cactuar pointed out you end up examples that don't really fit despite them being horrible characters in-story.

It introduced me to several niche games and musical artists soooooo

GiggetySplicer posted...

It's not really a fandom reaction thing. It's their own personal arbitrary technicalities. Like pretty much the entire viewerbase would consider that aforementioned mass child murderer example a complete monster and him crying while killing his mother doesn't change that but since their criteria is 0 "genuine" fondness that means he doesn't count. A "made of evil" character doesn't count because they technically have no agency for being evil even if they're meant to be complete monsters (hell, the name "complete monster" itself should cover that) and the rest of the fandom does see it that way.

It's pretty clear most of these are just so they can limit what's put on the site.

Except the examples you mentioned do fall in line with how some people interpret those characters even outside that site, there's a reason it's a YMMV thing.