Belated 5,000th Edit Special: Tropes Listing 2

Introduction

Another four months, another 1,000 edits. This milestone blog is a bit late—I actually hit 5000 edits just before we started using our new calendars—but I had to wait to avoid spoiling LTDI’s Third Night chapter for readers who weren’t able to get to it right away. More on this below.

The most noteworthy thing to happen to me between 4,000 and 5,000 edits is that, as of mid-November, my DW is officially more popular than me, based on the size of our Friends lists. (Wifey’s Friends count is now pushing 40, and she’s been here less than 5 months.) It took me 10 months to reach 20 Friends. It took my DW four days, but that can happen if you spend a lot of time on chat and have someone’s coattails to ride.

My Friends list now stands at 34, including a fair number who are no longer active here. Many people who have this many Friends take down their lists and just say that they consider everyone here their friends, but I’ve kept my list because I actually use it sometimes. In certain situations, it can be the easiest way to get to someone’s talk page.

This will probably by my last X,000 Edit milestone blog. The reasons are that (a) it’s getting hard to come up with special things to do every four months, and (b) my edit count has got to the point where a thousand edits isn’t what it used to be. I’ll continue to make milestone blogs, they just won’t be as frequent.

My next edit count milestone blog will probably be at 7,500 unless I decide to do something numerology-based. I’m guessing that it will probably take 9 or 10 months to get to 7,500 edits. In the meantime, look for my Second Wikiversary blog on or about 8 February.

5,000th Edit Special: Tropes II: Return of the Trope Army

For my 3,000th Edit special back in May, I listed the known tropes (using the trope names from the TV Tropes website) for all of my stories except my two Fake Souls vignettes. That listing included 30 tropes from Legacy, 22 from CatVoD, nine from TDI-G&S (which had so few because it doesn’t have an original plot, so most of its tropes also appear in the canon TDI), and a whopping 200 for LTDI. These lists are incorporated here by reference.

I knew that LTDI, in particular, would have many more tropes than I had identified for the earlier listing, because it’s a long (estimated finished length 250-300K words) that’s still in progress. In the course of wasting huge chunks of my life on the TV Tropes site that I’ll never get back, though, I also found additional tropes for several other stories.

All told, I have an additional 170 tropes for LTDI, 15 for Legacy, and four for CatVod. Desperate Measures, the Izzy-centric chapter I wrote for the Fake Souls anthology, also has a list now, with seven identified tropes.

Because all of these (except for LTDI, of course) are long-finished stories, the following lists include examples of the various tropes in action. Some of these may contain spoilers for people who haven’t yet read the story. Such people, if such be here, may want to read the stories first.

Legacy Tropes

1. Armor-Piercing Question: When Courtney says that she should have been kept on instead of Gwen, Noah replies, "She would be here. Alive. And you?"
2. Author catchphrase: Beginning sentences with "So it was" or "So it was that X"
3. Creator Thumbprint: G&S reference, "shown their work" for a younger generation, "death and renewal" theme
4. Description Porn: Most notably in describing the changes that time has wrought, and Gwen's wound
5. Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Chef Hatchet leaves Duncan and LeShawna to guard the (currently docile) serial killer, with a stern warning to not taunt him
6. Dramatic...Ellipsis
7. Empty Chair Memorial: One of the seats at the site of the elimination ceremony is draped in Gwen's nightgown, and is not used for the rest of the competition
8. In Medias Res: Chapter 1 is set after chapters 2&3
9. Irony: Heather is planning to name her baby after the late Gwen, whom she couldn't stand when the latter was alive. Heather appreciates the irony of her decision, and comments on it.
10. Paper Cutting: Subverted in that the killer tries to do this to Gwen, but is interrupted at precisely the wrong moment
11. Plot Bunny: The story idea spontaneously fleshed itself out and became so distracting that the project which inspired it had to be set aside so this story could be written
12. Shotgun Wedding: Lindsay and Tyler had begun to discuss marriage when an unplanned pregnancy forced the issue
13. Signature Style: Description-rich and dialogue-light, with a faintly neo-Victorian flavor. (This is a trope that covers most of a creator's oeuvre.)
14. Take That: Heather's reaction after winning the grand prize. She thinks, and may even have said, the exact words
15. The Jimmy Hart Version: Trent tweaks a tune for his tribute song, albeit not to get around copyright

Courtney and the Violin of Despair Tropes

1. Author catchphrase: Beginning sentences with "So it was that X"
2. Creator Thumbprint: G&S reference, "shown their work"
3. Prequel: Most of the story is set at earlier dates than the show
4. Signature Style

Desperate Measures Tropes

1. Author catchphrase: Beginning sentences with "So it was that X"
2. Creator Thumbprint: "shown their work" for a younger generation, "death and renewal" theme
3. Dye Or Die: Becky/Izzy changes her hair color as part of assuming a new identity
4. Faking the Dead: The last stage of Becky/Izzy's plan involves faking her death
5. No Dialogue Episode
6. Pyromaniac: Reconstructed - Becky/Izzy makes meticulous plans to isolate herself for the safety of others
7. Signature Style:

The Legend of Total Drama Island Tropes

For reasons that I trust are obvious, the following listing does not include tropes that “come with the territory” in competition stories or elimination games generally, nor does it include tropes pertaining to canon characterizations. Likewise, this listing omits tropes applying to similar incidents in the canon TDI. Canon TDI tropes that appear in different (or additional) incidents in LTDI, however, are fair game. Note: Because of the spoiler potential, I obviously can’t give you specific examples for many of these tropes. Indeed, in many cases I can’t even tell you which of the following tropes I will play straight and which I will play with via subversion, discussion, lampshading, etc. The tropes in this list that do have examples are generally those pertaining to the story’s structure or to the portions I have posted to date (including previews). Because LTDI is a work in process, it is possible that a few of these tropes won’t make it into the finished product, but you can expect the vast majority to be present.

Spoiler Alert: The examples in the following list include some from the recently-posted Third Night chapter. Indeed, the reason I delayed this blog post was that I wanted to include these examples and wanted to give people time to read the chapter first. You have been warned. Some examples also offer peeks at later chapters, albeit with much less spoiler potential.

Spoiler Alert! This article contains information that may be considered spoilers for an unfinished/recently released chapter or story. Read at your own risk.

1. Added Alliterative Appeal: Quite a bit, including a full-fledged alliteration "duel" between Noah and Izzy (with Chris even getting into the act as he interrupts it)
2. Ain't Too Proud To Beg
3. All There In The Manual: The Notes (aka Trivia) section includes hyperlinks to supplemental information on ancillary topics, mostly related to allusions that appear in the story
4. Almighty Janitor: Alejandro is really more of a "wise janitor", but there isn't a separate trope for that
5. Anime Hair: During the first challenge, Chris refuses Sadie's demand to let her and Katie be on the same team, so Katie and Sadie inflict a form of this upon him
6. Armor-Piercing Question: Beth defuses an impending No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when she asks, "Hasn't there been enough blood today?"
7. Arrested for Heroism
8. Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
9. As You Know: Chris invokes this when granting the campers amnesty to surrender forbidden electronic gadgets
10. Aside Comment: The Storyteller occasionally makes comments during a tale that are ostensibly directed at her son, but are in fact also directed at the reader
11. Author catchphrase: Beginning a sentence with "So it was" or "So it was that X"
12. Barely-There Swimwear: Lindsay wears a bikini of this type in one episode
13. Battle Royale With Cheese: The million-dollar treasure hunt (canon TDDDDI) following the competition proper is a team challenge, with the eliminated campers under the command of the finalists
14. Bawdy Song: The camping challenge will feature at least one of these
15. Beat Them at Their Own Game
16. Becoming The Mask
17. Better as Friends
18. Big Guy Fatality Syndrome
19. Bigger on the Inside
20. Boldly Coming: This happened (sort of) in one of the previewed scenes
21. Canis Latinicus: The “two-legged wolf” gets a faux Latin “scientific name”
22. Character Exaggeration: Katie and Sadie's pseudo hive mind is more pronounced and explicit than in the original, as is Lindsay's difficulty with names
23. Chewing The Scenery: Chris does this at the final bonfire ceremony
24. Comforting the Widow
25. Comically Missing the Point: Lindsay in the pomegranate scene. Additional examples in later chapters
26. Conflicting Loyalty: Someone ends up in two incompatible alliances
27. Cool and Unusual Punishment
28. Creator Thumbprint: G&S reference, "shown their work", "death and renewal" theme
29. Curiosity Killed The Cast
30. Death by Sex
31. Death Glare: Quite a few, with Courtney probably being the leading practitioner
32. Description Porn: Things like taking 600 words to describe how the campers make Harold’s “grave” site marker
33. Development Gag: Alejandro the intern once competed on a show called Camp TV, which got cancelled partly because of its bland name
34. Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?
35. Didn't See That Coming
36. Dinner and a Show
37. Disproportionate Retribution: LeShawna almost kills Heather (albeit accidentally) during their argument on the diving cliff
38. Dissonant Serenity
39. Dog Food Diet: Played with in the first meal. The sloppy joe meat looks suspiciously like dog food.
40. Door Stopper: Estimated finished length is 250-300 thousand words
41. Drama Bomb: The first two chapters are generally light and comic. Then, at the start of the third, Harold never comes up from his dive and is presumed dead.
42. Dramatic...Ellipsis: These appear with some regularity
43. Dropping The Bombshell
44. Dumb Blonde: Lampshaded - "You can take out the blonde, but you can't take out the dumb"
45. Eaten Alive: Harold's fate in the first challenge.
46. Elimination Catchphrase: Expands on the canon version by adding, "and make the Voyage of the Damned"
47. Ending Memorial Service
48. Et Tu, Brute?
49. Even The Rats Won't Touch It
50. Everyone Gets Their Turn: Several conversation have this, mainly so certain contestants (especially early outs) don't become too minor
51. Everythings Better With Bunnies: Inverted when DJ's finding of a bunny in the camping challenge triggers an important conflict storyline
52. Exposition Cut: The Storyteller does this with the line, "But nothing would be gained by repeating it here"
53. Eye Am Watching You: Several girls make this sign to Ezekiel after Eva owns him during the first challenge
54. Eye Take: Noah's reaction to Katie and Sadie's method of persuading Chris to let them be on the same team. Numerous other cases, often accompanied by jaw drops, in keeping with the heavy use of facial dialogue.
55. Facial Dialogue: The Storyteller often remarks on the campers' facial expression, especially their eyes
56. False Friend: Heather, to LeShawna. LeShawna does not see Heather's true colors until the Diary Incident. (Contrast to the canon version, where Heather's false friendship is never mentioned again after her initial reconciliation with LeShawna.)
57. Famed in Story: When the Eagles are messing with Beth's mind on the diving cliff, implying that she will die if she dives, Trent promises to write a song in her memory
58. Famous Last Words: "Make me" - Heather. It nearly gets her killed.
59. Fartillery: Owen. (Did you really have to ask?)
60. Farts On Fire: As above
61. Finish Dialogue In Unison: Katie & Sadie do this a couple of times, including their intro
62. Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Katie & Sadie do this as well
63. Food And Animal Attraction: This led to an incident that is the cause of Beth's phobia
64. Forced To Watch
65. Forgotten Fallen Friend: Inverted with Harold. Although the other campers barely knew him when he got eaten by a shark, he is occasionally mentioned throughout the story.
66. Friendship Moment
67. Futile Hand Reach: LeShawna does this after accidentally driving Heather off the diving cliff
68. Graceful Loser
69. Gratuitous French
70. Ground Pound: This is how Owen opens the crates during the first challenge
71. Half-Human Hybrid
72. Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: The story has a fair amount of sexual innuendo--reportedly enough to put off some readers--but it's mostly just kids talking big
73. Hero of Another Story: Alejandro the intern was the Villain Protagonist of an earlier TDI-like show, Camp TV
74. Heroic BSOD: Tyler has one when Courtney fails to find Harold
75. Hive Mind: The Storyteller sometimes describes Katie and Sadie as this
76. Holier Than Thou: Notably averted with Ezekiel. Despite being overtly religious, he does not push a moral agenda
77. Hot Amazon
78. How We Got Here: Played quite literally in Brett's case
79. I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Bridgette - "I hate to side with the walking rap sheet"
80. I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship
81. I'm a Humanitarian
82. Inner Monologue: Numerous situations where a character's thoughts are contrasted to his/her speech. The unspoken thought is invariably less diplomatic, expressing things ranging from exasperation to uncertainty to sexual arousal.
83. It Only Works Once: Katie attacks Chris. Additional examples in later chapters
84. It's Always Sunny at Funerals
85. Jacob Marley Apparel
86. Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ezekiel does this during the dodgeball match when he makes a reference to fanfic pairings involving him. The Storyteller also does this with some of her rhetorical questions.
87. Leitmotif: When Chris has a life-threatening challenge planned, he uses the "Dies Irae" ("Judgement Day") from Verdi's Requiem as a wake-up call
88. Let Me Get This Straight
89. Let's Get Dangerous
90. Lewd Lust, Chaste Sex
91. Literal Cliffhanger
92. Literal-Minded: Lindsay, at times, because she's not intelligent enough to consistently understand figures of speech
93. Loud of War: For the first morning's wakeup call, Chris plays the "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem "at cabin-shaking volume"
94. Love Is In The Air
95. Manipulative Editing: Several incidents, mostly geared to suggesting that the campers don't get along as well as they actually do. For the sake of drama, you know.
96. Mating Dance
97. Mauve Shirt: Alejandro is the only intern to be dignified with a name, and the only one to have actual scenes
98. Memetic Sex God: In-universe, Heather suggests that this will be Cody's fate. (Of course, this is just shameless buttering up on Heather's part.)
99. Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal
100. Motive Rant: D.J. has one of these
101. Must Make Amends
102. My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
103. No Periods, Period: During the diving challenge, the sharks go into a frenzy after smelling traces of Katie and Sadie's menstrual blood
104. Odd Friendship
105. Ominous Latin Chanting: The first elimination ceremony features this as Chris prepares to dispense the final marshmallow
106. Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Heather does this at the reunion. Believe it or not, she actually cares.
107. Orchestral Bombing: Music during the bicycle race re-enacting The Charge of the Light Brigade
108. Our Ghosts Are Different
109. Our Vampires Are Different: Giant man-eating lampreys. Is that different enough for you?
110. Out Damned Spot
111. Out with a Bang
112. Out-of-Character Moment: Beth's outburst on the lakeshore during the first challenge. Additional cases in later chapters
113. Paper Cutting
114. Parting From Consciousness Words
115. Pass the Popcorn: Noah refers to this, and Gwen invokes the "selling tickets" variant whilst watching Katie and Sadie convince Chris to let them be on the same team. Additional examples in later chapters
116. Playing Cyrano
117. Playing the Victim Card: When Katie and Sadie are assigned to opposite teams, Sadie tries this on Chris in an attempt to guilt him into letting her and Katie be on the same team. The trope is subverted when Villain With Good Publicity Chris not only calls Sadie on it, but threatens to kick her out of the game on the spot if she ever tries it again.
118. Politeness Judo: One of the challenges is won this way
119. Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe, the Storyteller uses one of these this for a bit of alliteration
120. Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder
121. Post-Kiss Catatonia
122. Product Placement: In-universe, the (real) Café Santropol, a Montreal restaurant and the (fictional) Harks Hotels. The former ties into the reason why the LTDI LeShawna comes from Montreal, and the latter sets the stage for a possible cross-continuity cameo.
123. Prophetic Names: A result of Lindsay’s name butchery
124. Punch Clock Villain
125. Put Off Their Food
126. Read The Fine Print: When Chris tries to pull this on lawyer-to-be Courtney, she replies, "Don't give me that crap about fine print! I read the fine print!"
127. Reality Ensues
128. Rodents of Unusual Size: The Storyteller uses this phrase for the giant beavers of Boney Island
129. Rule of Three: There are several examples of this
130. Say My Name: LeShawna to Heather when LeShawna accidentally drives Heather off the cliff during the first challenge
131. Scheherezade Gambit: A couple of instances
132. Sexy Coat Flashing
133. Shipper On Deck: Widespread. Nobody spends a lot of time on it, but several campers get into the act. Shippers include Cody, Courtney, Geoff, Heather, Izzy, LeShawna, Katie, Lindsay and Sadie. Shippees include Beth, Cody, Courtney, Ezekiel, Gwen, Harold, Katie and Noah, as well as a “secret couple”.
134. Shotgun Wedding
135. Shrine To The Fallen
136. Signature Style
137. Skinny Dipping
138. Something Else Also Rises
139. Spanner in the Works
140. Take That
141. Taking You with Me
142. Tampering with Food and Drink: When the campers first meet Chef Hatchet, Courtney asks rhetorically why he looks like an escaped serial killer. This trope is the reason why she takes care to speak too softly for him to hear.
143. That Came Out Wrong: Alejandro narrowly averts a horrendous example with Beth, then promptly lampshades it. Additional examples in later chapters.
144. That's What She Said: Cody gives a G-rated version of this, in a case where "she" really did say it. Played straight in a later incident.
145. The Bus Came Back: Several eliminated campers make guest appearances to help with one challenge or another
146. The Cavalry Arrives Late
147. The Matchmaker: Played straight in one instance, and subverted in another
148. The Mole
149. The Napoleon: The Storyteller explicitly casts Courtney in this light
150. The Runnerup Takes It All
151. The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Played with in one scene
152. Thinking Out Loud: During the orientation, Courtney makes the mistake of doing this in Lindsay's presence, and learns that Lindsay doesn't understand the concept of rhetorical questions
153. This Is Your Premise On Drugs: In-universe, Owen describes lampreys as "like leeches on steroids"
154. Throwing The Fight
155. Tickle Torture: This is how Katie and Sadie persuade Chris to let them be on the same team
156. Time-Compression Montage: The events surrounding Harold's funeral. Also, when a challenge spawns a side duel, Chris suggests that the duel will "make a great montage"
157. True Companions: Because the campers believe their lives are genuinely at risk after what happened to Harold, they will cross team and alliance lines for each other if it looks like someone is in serious trouble. This is also why the campers insist on properly memorializing Harold, approaching Hatchet when Chris refuses.
158. Unexpected Inheritance
159. Unishment: When Chef Hatchet stands in for Chris in an elimination ceremony, he makes elimination sound more like escape
160. Villain Sue: Whilst escorting Beth off the diving cliff, Alejandro tells her about the elimination game he used to be on, and says that he was so dominant that the audience would probably have regarded him as this had his show been a scripted story instead of a reality show. This lampshades the fact that Alejandro's canon counterpart was widely regarded as a Villain Stu.
161. We Hardly Knew Ye: Harold was on the island less than 24 hours
162. Webcomic Time: Chapters are published at intervals of weeks or months, but some chapters covers only a few hours' worth of events
163. Wham Episode: Third Night, which is where the campers realize what they’re in for. Additional examples later in the story
164. Whole Plot Reference: The bicycle racing challenge is explicitly based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
165. Why Can't You Say Good Night?
166. Woman Scorned: A variation occurs when, after Chris refuses to let Katie and Sadie be on the same team, they ruthlessly bend him to their will
167. Worthy Opponent: The finalists treat each other thusly, partly to spite Chris
168. You Do NOT Want To Know
169. You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In one scene, Hatchet jokingly suggests to Chris that eliminated campers could be killed for a ratings "blood boost", because they would no longer have any other use
170. You Have Researched Breathing: After the beetle scene, Geoff expresses tongue-in-cheek surprise that Lindsay has reached this level of expertise