What Is Your Opinion On TV Tropes?

[DSC]

Personally, I have conflicting views. On one hand, I think its a pretty entertaining place. Lots of stuff and trivia to learn about, and if the writer of the page has a good sense of humor the articles themselves can also be very funny. 

 

But I'll be completely honest: I do also think it had a large negative impact in the world of media criticism on the internet, along with CinemaSins. Its supposed to be a silly website, there's no point in taking it so seriously like some do, as if it was the Bible of storytelling itself. I feel like it has reduced that art to something among the likeness of building blocks and checklists, taking all the nuance out of the picture. I don't really know how to express my thoughts properly, but I hope what I'm trying to say is still understandable enough.

Edited August 28 by DSC

[aloysiusfreeman]

I had a moment where I loved to check out tv tropes. I think it can be fun, but I would agree that it could have a negative impact in criticism. 

 

I don't look at it anymore unless I am curious if there's anything that shares a particular aspect of a piece of media. Idk, I think it's fine if people accept it for what it is and not as a guide towards appreciating and/or critiquing media

[Mr. Freeze]

It sucks. I read it every day. 

[Jayextee]

1 hour ago, DSC said:

I feel like it has reduced that art to something among the likeness of building blocks and checklists, taking all the nuance out of the picture.

 

Exactly this. I couldn't elaborate on it any finer, but IMO the likes of TVTropes has pretty much ruined how people engage with media by and large.

[Mr Masker]

I can't really speak on TVT's usual pages on fiction, since that's not really what I use TV Tropes for. Rather, some game mods and smaller communities for games that I've played mainly use TV Tropes to document loads of different stuff in the mod/game and in its lore, rather than stuff like Fandom.

 

One community that I've noticed much use of TVTropes in is the Hearts of Iron 4 modding community, (a World War Grand Strategy game). Since a lot of these big major mods tend to have loads of nations with loads of potential leaders and progression paths, TV Tropes tends to be used to list them all, alongside the actual Tropes that are listed as well. Some of these mods do have a Fandom Wiki, but they tend to be infrequently updated and suffer with the curse of being a Fandom Wiki.

 

I'm not sure why some communities really depend on TVT, but I guess there is some convenience to it for certain documentation. Plus I can see them as being preferable as a Wiki host compared to the aforementioned Fandom or funding an independent wiki (Although this is improving with stuff like Wiki.gg)

 

Hope I explained all that reasonably well.

[Devalaous]

Its stupidly addictive and if I end up there, I will be reading for hours on end, often spoiling plots of video games ive yet to beat.

[indigotyrian]

one more crime joss whedon will pay for, in this life or the next

[Cammy]

Why does Reddit have the reputation of being the "haha virgin website" when TV Tropes exists?

[maxmanium]

20 minutes ago, Cammy said:

Why does Reddit have the reputation of being the "haha virgin website" when TV Tropes exists?

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell, TV Tropes users don't have their heads up their asses 24/7 about... well, everything.

[esselfortium]

I don't really get the appeal. It's very padded with self-referential nonsense along the lines of "Blue Eyed Main Character: Trope masterfully SUBVERTED!! Main character has green eyes!"

[banjiepixel]

There is nothing wrong documenting common patterns in media. I feel like the site has helped me to gain much better understanding of what good writing looks like. Tropes are supposed to be tools for writers and there is nothing wrong using them. They are natural part of the language of the media we consume. This information does get abused alot these days as false examples of bad writing, but I feel like in these cases it's pretty clear that these people have very limited view and understanding on what even can be good writing.

 

Not mention the fact that alot of "critics" that do abuse tropes as a excuse to call writing of the media bad, often do it these more for political reasons. And rest usually just don't know their stuff and are simply using TV Tropes wrong.

[LadyMistDragon]

4 hours ago, DSC said:

 

 

But I'll be completely honest: I do also think it had a large negative impact in the world of media criticism on the internet, along with CinemaSins. Its supposed to be a silly website, there's no point in taking it so seriously like some do, as if it was the Bible of storytelling itself. I feel like it has reduced that art to something among the likeness of building blocks and checklists, taking all the nuance out of the picture. I don't really know how to express my thoughts properly, but I hope what I'm trying to say is still understandable enough.

 

 

I mean......it's certainly understandable, but I think that's less a product of TV Tropes and more so a result of an internet ecosystem competing with itself for our short attention spans by making things for nerds who just like to pick apart everything. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

Having seen Essel's post though, I can agree that it gets really fluffy and repetitive.

[Shepardus]

I don't have any problem with it; I don't visit it often, but I occasionally learn some trivia from there or find out about something that's similar to something else I like, which is cool. People taking silly things too seriously is not a problem unique to TVTropes.

[MrFlibble]

TVTropes makes for entertaining random reading before it gets repetitive, but I've learned a few interesting things from them as well. Back in 2010 when I first discovered it, it was major fun and a great way to pass the time while on breaks from writing my thesis.

[jazzmaster9]

I frequent it quite a bit, I do appreciate giving names to certain patterns in creative media.

[Xim]

"TV Tropes will ruin your life" so they say. It's definitely a fun website, but it certainly needs to be taken less seriously or you'll find yourself in a weird head space like how I did for a while. 

[dasho]

Wikipedia if every third word was a link to another wikipedia page

[MrFroz]

I certainly love to check the "Nightmare Fuel" sections for horror movies there.

[Sena]

I don't necessarily see how it could be damaging to film criticism, I think they even have a page titled "tropes are tools" or something to the effect, of which the TLDR is "just because a story contains tropes, it doesn't mean it is derivative or cliched". It has some information that you can make use of, it's too bad that people are inclined to take the opinions of anonymous editors as though they are canonical truth. Like some other people who would rather watch an 8 hour video essay on a game and take the author's opinion as their own, instead of just playing the game for themselves.

[Biodegradable]

On 8/29/2023 at 5:11 AM, DSC said:

It's supposed to be a silly website, there's no point in taking it so seriously-

 

Case dismissed.

[hybridial]

I decided to just not bother with it. I have no problem with it existing I suppose, but I don't think it's helpful in the slightest for either telling a story or interpreting one.