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friedshrimp said:
Lindsay was the one that started it all, I think. She used terms like "Big Lipped Alligator Moments" and "Woobie" before anyone.
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Ohhh she was the one who came up with Woobie? Even back when I read the site I didn't care for the name, because, like a lot of tropes, the name doesn't convey anything so you won't know what it is unless you read extensively on it. And that's not getting into the dozen variations like Iron Woobie.

The fact that Lindsay coined it and that it's another TGWTG reference kinda makes it worse.
 
friedshrimp said:
Lindsay was the one that started it all, I think. She used terms like "Big Lipped Alligator Moments" and "Woobie" before anyone.
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Isn't a Woobie a military issue poncho liner? Why would she have mentioned that in the first place?

An "iron woobie" just sounds heavy and uncomfortable.
 
Pointless Pedant said:
Isn't a Woobie a military issue poncho liner? Why would she have mentioned that in the first place?

An "iron woobie" just sounds heavy and uncomfortable.
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At TV Tropes, a Woobie is someone you feel bad for. And an Iron Woobie is someone you feel sorry for but they're really tough people despite it all.

I don't know the original context, but seeing as that trope shows up everywhere on the site, it's kinda weird to find out not only it's another fucking TGWTG reference but it's also not what the word means in real life at all.
 
Baldur's Gait said:
At TV Tropes, a Woobie is someone you feel bad for. And an Iron Woobie is someone you feel sorry for but they're really tough people despite it all.

I don't know the original context, but seeing as that trope shows up everywhere on the site, it's kinda weird to find out not only it's another fucking TGWTG reference but it's also not what the word means in real life at all.
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Tropers are too autistic to say "sympathetic character" without resorting to their own CWC-ism.
 
8waifoofever8 said:
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Stavun Onaryvarse.
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"the gems are female and lesbians when it's convenient to us!"
"the gems are genderless when it's convenient to us!"

pick one, SU fandom.
 
Pointless Pedant said:
Tropers are too autistic to say "sympathetic character" without resorting to their own CWC-ism.
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The genesis of most of TVT's weird vocabulary comes from its roots as a fansite for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Many of the characters in that show talk in a distinct way and use a lot of terms like "big bad" in normal conversation. This is why I give some trope names a pass because Buffy is a pretty popular show and fans made the website.

However by this point most of the users never watched Buffy and the site is more geared towards bronies and weabs and that shows in their vocabulary.
 
Replicant Sasquatch said:
The genesis of most of TVT's weird vocabulary comes from its roots as a fansite for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Many of the characters in that show talk in a distinct way and use a lot of terms like "big bad" in normal conversation. This is why I give some trope names a pass because Buffy is a pretty popular show and fans made the website.

However by this point most of the users never watched Buffy and the site is more geared towards bronies and weabs and that shows in their vocabulary.
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"Big Bad" isn't a particularly bad name anyway, since it's pretty clear it refers to a character who's big and bad. An "Iron Woobie", on the other hand, doesn't suggest the trope at all unless someone's explained it.

I don't think any trope names have come from MLP, though I can't say I've scoured the site for them. They mostly come from TGWTG and assorted video games, comics, and cartoons. I've never actually noticed a particularly strong fandom for Buffy on the site, but then I wasn't around in the early days. It seems to be mostly geared towards cartoons, MLP most of all, and people who review them.
 
Pointless Pedant said:
"Big Bad" isn't a particularly bad name anyway, since it's pretty clear it refers to a character who's big and bad. An "Iron Woobie", on the other hand, doesn't suggest the trope at all unless someone's explained it.

I don't think any trope names have come from MLP, though I can't say I've scoured the site for them. They mostly come from TGWTG and assorted video games, comics, and cartoons. I've never actually noticed a particularly strong fandom for Buffy on the site, but then I wasn't around in the early days. It seems to be mostly geared towards cartoons, MLP most of all, and people who review them.
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The naming nomenclature of TV Tropes has generally gone through these phases in my experience:

The Buffy Phase: Mostly when it was a Buffy fansite. Lasted a very short time.

The TGWTG phase: Waxes and wanes, but was in high gear during the early years of the site.

The Weeaboo phase: Was strongest around the later 2000's and early 2010's, has waned since.

The Sane phase: When most of the names made a lot more sense, this phase started as a backlash to the Weeaboo phase, currently still ongoing for the most part.

Edit: I'm gonna rate myself :optimistic: on that last one.
 
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Pointless Pedant said:
"Big Bad" isn't a particularly bad name anyway, since it's pretty clear it refers to a character who's big and bad. An "Iron Woobie", on the other hand, doesn't suggest the trope at all unless someone's explained it.

I don't think any trope names have come from MLP, though I can't say I've scoured the site for them. They mostly come from TGWTG and assorted video games, comics, and cartoons. I've never actually noticed a particularly strong fandom for Buffy on the site, but then I wasn't around in the early days. It seems to be mostly geared towards cartoons, MLP most of all, and people who review them.
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I don't remember a specific usage of the term, but "woobie" does actually sound like something a character in Buffy would say. "Iron Woobie" is a pretty obvious mutation of it once you know what the original trope means. It's one of those I give a pass to because even though the term itself is obtuse once you actually read its page it sounds appropriate for that kind of character. "Woobie" does actually sound like a cutesie nickname for some down-and-out loser who manages a good deal of sympathy from the audience. TVTropes is just liberal (as always) with applying it. There are a lot of similar tropes like this, like "The Lancer" or "The Starscream".

I'm not opposed to trope names on the site having some kind of joking theme. That was the original idea. You should have to read the site to understand some of the jargon because the point of the site in the first place is having that jargon. But the jargon should still make sense. A normal, intelligent, non-autistic person can read an article like "The Woobie" and see why a word like that works. You're never gonna appreciate "Nakama" unless you unironically enjoy anime, which ultimately means you're too stupid to truly appreciate genre fiction in the first place.
 
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Replicant Sasquatch said:
I don't remember a specific usage of the term, but "woobie" does actually sound like something a character in Buffy would say. "Iron Woobie" is a pretty obvious mutation of it once you know what the original trope means. It's one of those I give a pass to because even though the term itself is obtuse once you actually read its page it sounds appropriate for that kind of character. "Woobie" does actually sound like a cutesie nickname for some down-and-out loser who manages a good deal of sympathy from the audience. TVTropes is just liberal (as always) with applying it. There are a lot of similar tropes like this, like "The Lancer" or "The Starscream".

I'm not opposed to trope names on the site having some kind of joking theme. That was the original point of the site. You should have to read the site to understand some of the jargon because the point of the site in the first place is having that jargon. But the jargon should still make sense. A normal, intelligent, non-autistic person can read an article like "The Woobie" and see why a word like that works. You're never gonna appreciate "Nakama" unless you unironically enjoy anime, which ultimately means you're too stupid to truly appreciate genre fiction in the first place.
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Nakama is just Japanese for friend. If you knew what it meant you'd ask why the hell they didn't write it in English, but it's far from the most obscure jargon on the site.

It's more likely someone coming fresh to the site who didn't watch Japanese cartoons would know what the word "nakama" meant than get a TGWTG reference from years ago. Granted, that's still not a high chance.
 
GethN7 said:
You're probably right. I forgot how SJWism has creeped into the site rather hard of late, so it's probably not going to last much longer, if it hasn't already been in decline already.
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Mansplaining and manspreading will be tropes some day.
 
GethN7 said:
The naming nomenclature of TV Tropes has generally gone through these phases in my experience:

The Buffy Phase: Mostly when it was a Buffy fansite. Lasted a very short time.

The TGWTG phase: Waxes and wanes, but was in high gear during the early years of the site.

The Weeaboo phase: Was strongest around the later 2000's and early 2010's, has waned since.

The Sane phase: When most of the names made a lot more sense, this phase started as a backlash to the Weeaboo phase, currently still ongoing for the most part.

Edit: I'm gonna rate myself :optimistic: on that last one.
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and if you include images used in thumbnails, you'd have the pony phase where every other picture had a pony in it.
 
GethN7 said:
The naming nomenclature of TV Tropes has generally gone through these phases in my experience:

The Buffy Phase: Mostly when it was a Buffy fansite. Lasted a very short time.

The TGWTG phase: Waxes and wanes, but was in high gear during the early years of the site.

The Weeaboo phase: Was strongest around the later 2000's and early 2010's, has waned since.

The Sane phase: When most of the names made a lot more sense, this phase started as a backlash to the Weeaboo phase, currently still ongoing for the most part.

Edit: I'm gonna rate myself :optimistic: on that last one.
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I vaguely remember an "everybody is a time lord" phase when superwholock was a big thing, and now an "everybody is autistic genderspecial" phase because far-left internet feminazis took over the site. the former had some overlap with the weeaboos because that brand of nerds seemed content to share, but a big portion of the weeaboos were driven out when Something Awful took notice and started fucking with tvtropes (around 2012 i think) - either way there was never a sane phase, the vacuum got filled very quickly and the insanity just went a different direction.

btw All The Tropes wikia has a very highly detailed Kodomo No Jikan article. you should be ashamed.
 
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It's fun to go through your favorite series, but god, I hate the notion that they have of "everything" in some capacity being a trope, and if it isn't, then it just creates another.
 
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