Projects => The F Plus => Topic started by: Lemon on August 23, 2014, 06:53:43 pm
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Lemon on August 23, 2014, 06:53:43 pm
with Jimmyfranks, Acierocolotl, Kumquatxop, Adam Bozarth, and Lemon. Content for this episode was compiled by Cheapskate1 Edited by Lemon. The community of contributors to tvtropes.org are clearly experts in consuming mass media. They've honed their skills in identifying devices, contrivances, holes and structure in various plots, so much so that they may have distilled fiction as a whole into simple, repeatable formulas. Does that make them good writers? Let's find out! This week, The F Plus gets 241's at the Angsty Wang.
MUSIC USED Cibo Matto - Lint of Love Future of the Left - Notes On Achieving Orbit
1: Cheapskate did this doc, not Montrith, Lemon you idiot
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: count_actuala on August 23, 2014, 07:27:58 pm
Oh my god my dreams have come true. I've been wanting another awful writing episode for ages.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 23, 2014, 08:09:09 pm
Thank you! Tv tropes was my first episode and will forever be a top three contender. My prayers have been answered.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: advancedclass on August 23, 2014, 11:19:50 pm
Thanks to either Jimmyfranks or Kumquatxop - whoever reminded everyone else that Gilligan's Planet was a thing that happened. Because god help me, I was wondering the same thing.
Bravo to Cheapskate, too, for finding a bunch of tvtropes writing garbage that wasn't saturated in rape. Give yourself a gold star, man.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Sion on August 23, 2014, 11:20:50 pm
"HELP!"
"HEEEELP!"
"SOMEBODY HELP!"
That was the best segue.
Thanks to Spacebat for making me realize my typo. Segway.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Cleretic on August 24, 2014, 03:15:35 am
Something that I remember got brought up a lot in the SA mock threads about TVTropes is that a significant majority of people on TVTropes have absolutely no writing education. Most of them are either still in school for non-writing subjects, engineers, work with computers, and the occasional military guy. Generally speaking, the more math-y sorts of jobs.
I think this is very important, because it sheds light on why they write, and talk about writing, like they do. These people aren't writers, have no idea what writing entails, and in fact probably haven't even read a book since school (I remember one troper said the last book he read was Animorphs). Their entire experience with creative pursuits is the media they consume, which is obviously why their ideas are all garbage, but their areas of knowledge shed light on why their actual writing is like it is. They're approaching writing in the way they've been taught to approach things in their own, more quantitative and measurable way. It's all very formulaic, and overly focused on the technical components. This is how they think it works, based on an outward view and no proper expertise. They focus on the wrong things, and produce 'stories' out of the dismantled components that are technically stable by their own definitions, but have absolutely nothing to them because they never learned how to actually do character arcs, subtext, language use, and all that good stuff.
TVTropes is a bunch of engineers, failing at reverse-engineering the process of creative writing. Everything they write is terrible, because they have no clue whatsoever how to write.
I think my personal favorite troper with an issue was the guy writing a story who realized that his hero couldn't win the fight at the end of the chapter, because he didn't have enough healing potions. His question was if his hero should go back into the dungeon and grind for more healing potions.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Lemon on August 24, 2014, 10:49:03 am
I'm glad you enjoyed that, because I really had to sweeten it in editing. It was funny in my head, but messy in the recording, so I was able to edit it back to the way I thought it was supposed to go. I always end up my own jokes in my edit.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: montrith on August 24, 2014, 01:43:57 pm
Considering about 1/3 of all Fplus submissions currently in your In folder are from me, I think we can forgive the Freudian slip you had there Lemon.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Lemon on August 24, 2014, 02:49:14 pm
Considering about 1/3 of all Fplus submissions currently in your In folder are from me, I think we can forgive the Freudian slip you had there Lemon. montrith, August 24, 2014, 01:43:57 pm
I don't know about Freudian... Unless, wait, are you an ethical slut?
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 24, 2014, 03:07:52 pm
the devil mafia was the rap group juicy jay got his start in.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: KingKalamari on August 24, 2014, 05:06:49 pm
It came up briefly in the episode but it needs to be explained for the uninitiated that on TVTropes a "deconstruction"isn't a method of philosophical and literary monster cockysis but is instead, in their own words:
When applied to tropes, or other aspects of fiction, deconstruction means to take apart a trope so as to better understand its meaning and relevance to us in Real Life. This often means pursuing a trope's inherent contradictions and the difference between how the trope appears in this one work and how it compares to other relevant tropes or ideas both in fiction and Real Life.
However, because tropers are morons who really really really want to cram as many examples of tropes into things even this definition is very lax and has sort of devolved to the point where it's basically "A thing that uses a trope in a way I'm not familiar with". And that's how you end up with a list like this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeconstructorFleet) which is supposed to be a collection of works that utterly dismantle the genres they portray. Let's see what we've got here...
Digimon Tamers Dragonball Naruto Ouran High School Host Club Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Frozen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Discworld Dresden Files Animorphs Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Colbert Report Doctor Who Mystery Science Theater 3000 The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Invader Zim
Jacques Derrida's ghost is angry somewhere and doesn't know why.
Also I think TVTropes is a pretty good piece of evidence to support my theory that overexposure to Joss Whedon causes brain damage
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Isfahan on August 24, 2014, 06:16:18 pm
"Bottomless clip" for a "six-chambered revolver?"
Revolvers don't use clips, asshole. But I guess he had to use that term because it's the name of a trope and God help you if you don't fucking invoke trope names all throughout your posts on TVTropes.
And yes, Acierocolotl, I'm reading this.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Mister Smalls on August 24, 2014, 06:23:09 pm
No, Isfahan, clearly you're wrong because I played a whole bunch of Borderlands 2 today and I have an upgrade that specifically says "increases revolver clip size", so that means I know exactly as much about guns as that TV Tropes user, and, by extension, more about guns than you.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Haydon on August 24, 2014, 06:41:56 pm
As an aside, the guy Haggis McCrablice who popped up to expound on fart noises has an interesting history behind him. He got an entire "This Troper" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOVa5UvSC_A&list=UUas6oE6dBhtl3pCD4i5JupA) dedicated to him back in the day, wherein you can check out more of his opinions on farting as well as his grotesque facial hair. He's also the proprietor of a very 1990s website (http://www.freewebs.com/welcometolemora2/) , where he tries to sell physical(!) copies of his comic - refusing to make a terrible webcomic out of it like folk with less integrity than him would. The comic, as far as I can work out, is like something David Stiefel would produce if he drew stuff - dated, unfunny "comedy" combined with hard-right political messages.
He also talks about his real life a lot - in short, he's this real Ignatius J Reilly type character, living with his mother and doing menial jobs while patiently waiting for his comics to bring him fame and fortune. He quit university after he was fired from the university newspaper for plagiarising a Saturday Night Live sketch in his column. This was about fifteen years ago and he is still extremely upset about it. His main ambition, after becoming a successful comic person, is to go back to university, force an apology out of the relevant people, and then have sex with co-eds all the time.
At the risk of sounding slightly stalkerish, all this stuff is publicly available, and I once tried to put a document together, but it's more interesting than readably funny, I think. But there you go.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: EYE OF ZA on August 24, 2014, 07:43:16 pm
TVTropes is a bunch of engineers, failing at reverse-engineering the process of creative writing. Everything they write is terrible, because they have no clue whatsoever how to write.
I think my personal favorite troper with an issue was the guy writing a story who realized that his hero couldn't win the fight at the end of the chapter, because he didn't have enough healing potions. His question was if his hero should go back into the dungeon and grind for more healing potions. Cleretic, August 24, 2014, 03:15:35 am
The engineer mindset is totally part of it, but tropers are also the sort of people who went and read about the Monomyth or the Hero's Journey and, instead of treating them as descriptive, saying 'these are how a bunch of stories are written', instead they treat them as prescriptive, saying 'this is how you write a story'. If you end up falling into that trap, then TVT is incredibly alluring because it's a whole site full of that. A lot of this episode was tropers talking about their writing, but I've read a good deal of troper writing itself and it comes off entirely like someone who's stitched together a simulacrum of creative thought from scraps of all the most recent pop culture they've taken in.
Anyway, my favorite troper is the one who was explicitly incapable of having creative thoughts. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/Twentington)
Tropers: Twentington Describe Twentington here.
Um, sorry, I can't, I don't know who I am.
In all seriousness, I'm usually known as TenPoundHammer on places such as Wikipedia. I went by Twentington here because the login screen confused me.
Funfact: TenPoundHammer is in the top 100 users on Wikipedia, ranked by number of edits. But, tropers!
I don't know where mine come from, honestly. Most of the time when I read a book or comic, watch a movie, etc., the ideas never seem to inspire me to base something off them. And I do so little in Real Life that's worth writing about, or if it is, I don't feel like writing about it because I'm not comfortable with deep emotional shit. Quote from
I don't really have the means to live beyond "27 and still living with mom" because I have no MONEY and can't get any. (Which is why I tried out for Wheel of Fortune. No, really. Still waiting on the call, but I'm sure I'll get it.) Quote from
I think part of it is that I have no point of reference for a lot of things. How would my character react if they got into a fight with a drunk guy? Well, I don't know — what do people do when drunk? I've literally never seen one in my life. Character #2 runs a hotel? Hell if I know what they do — I've never known anyone who owned a business of any kind. Do any of them eat lobster? Hell if I know, I've never eaten lobster. Do any of them wear fancy clothes? I dunno; my "fancy" is when I buy clothes that haven't previously belonged to someone else.Quote from
Friend: Just do it how you want.
Me: Okay… what do I want?
or
Me: Is X a good way to do this, or should I go with Y or Z instead?
Friend: X could be good if you want A, but if you're looking for B, then Y or Z would be better.
Me: Okay. Do I want A or B?
Friend: That's YOUR decision.
Me: …
or
Me: Now how does X work in this setting?
Friend: Okay, you know what Y is? It's kinda like that.
Me: …the hell is Y?
Friend: Y is A, B, and C.
Me: …the hell is C?
Friend: C is D, E, and F.
Me: …the hell is F?
or
Friend: Here, watch this show/watch this movie/read this book. It'll help you get a better understanding of X.
Me: I had to give up 15 minutes in. I couldn't understand A, B, C, D, or E, and I didn't see anything pertaining to X. Quote from
I think part of what is getting to me is handling the mundanities. Not every moment in the life of a businesswoman, mail carrier, sporting goods store owner, or male escort is going to be entertaining, I get that. But…
Businesswoman probably got to the top by way of the boring office-drone stuff, but that's the key word: boring. Isn't it a fact that nothing exciting ever happens in the office world? And the last thing the world needs is another work cribbing from Dilbert, a work I absolutely loathe.
The mail carriers I've seen almost never interact with anyone — they just drive their little trucks, put envelopes in the mailbox and/or packages on the doorstep, repeat. Again, boring. Sporting goods store owner? I'm extremely non-athletic and would rather run a potato peeler across my eyeballs then own a treadmill. BORING.
Do any of them drink their coffee black? Do any of them collect comic books? Do any of them wear thong underwear? Do any of them like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain? I don't care, that part's boring. Skip to the part where everyone has sex. Quote from
I think I found part of the problem.
They say Write What You Know. But I know so little. I still live with my mom at 26, I've never held a "real" job, and I mostly just sit on my ass and do nothing. And most of what I do know, I either don't think is worth writing about (Small Town Boredom), would be too personal and cut too closely for me to want to use (my struggles with Asperger Syndrome), or both (my being a church organist and how it intersects with my beliefs). No one wants to hear about the things I do know, like which hymnals have "Amazing Grace" in F major and which have it in G major, or the previous occupants of my town's Goodwill.
So for that, a friend has suggested I expose myself to more media, to get an idea for what's out there and experience things by proxy. Read more, watch more. But so far, nothing I've tried has clicked.
My webcomic has a workplace setting, so he's suggested I try a couple workplace comedies. Clerks? It was boring as all-get-out to me, and 30 minutes in, I felt like nothing had happened, so I turned it off. Office Space? It probably came closest, since I had an "aha" moment about 25 minutes in that made me go from "this is boring" to "okay, I see where this is going now" — and though I was entertained and fully aware of what the movie was doing, I still had no takeaway from it.
My furry slice-of-life story setting is sci-fi-ish, so he's suggested sci-fi shows. Firefly? I was hopelessly lost 10 seconds in, and gave up after 5 minutes. Warehouse Thirteen? Hopelessly lost 10 seconds in, but at least made it to the end of the episode. That said, I still didn't understand a word of what was going on in the pilot, even with a plot synopsis in front of me. Quote from
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 24, 2014, 08:39:35 pm
as hiphop as it gets
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Mister Smalls on August 24, 2014, 09:44:18 pm
Anyway, my favorite troper is the one who was explicitly incapable of having creative thoughts. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/Twentington) EYE OF ZA, August 24, 2014, 07:43:16 pm
This is probably the single most broken human being I've ever seen, and I'm not saying that in a mean or mocking way, because I legitimately can't bring myself to laugh at this. This is a person who needs serious help.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Runic on August 24, 2014, 09:47:45 pm
Yep, that sure is a profligate Wikipedia contributor. Yes it is.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Acierocolotl on August 24, 2014, 09:53:21 pm
"Bottomless clip" for a "six-chambered revolver?"
Revolvers don't use clips, asshole. But I guess he had to use that term because it's the name of a trope and God help you if you don't fucking invoke trope names all throughout your posts on TVTropes.
You should really refer to it as a specter, not a ghost.
(Damn it, I paid enough for this Ph.D. that I'm going to wring as much use out of it as possible.)
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Fatty Bo Batty on August 24, 2014, 10:56:21 pm
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: chai tea latte on August 25, 2014, 02:15:53 am
I actually had to restrain myself at this part:
No one wants to hear about the things I do know, like which hymnals have "Amazing Grace" in F major and which have it in G major, or the previous occupants of my town's Goodwill.
People totally might be interested in these things! If you literally can't describe yourself but you can fucking expound on The Life Of A Church Organist (oh man, half our congregation was singing in a different key!) then, jesus, do that, aaaagggghhh what an unfortunate dude
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Bobalay on August 25, 2014, 02:55:58 am
One of the things aside from an overly methodical approach to writing, though related to it in a way, is the same problem the subjects have in pretty much any F+ episode about creative outlets: a total lack of vulnerability. So many of them want to get patted on the back for writing, but none of them understand that writing or painting or cooking or making decorative cell phone holders out of wool means that you're going to have to expose yourself, but they're so totally insecure and terrified of criticism. For them, writing is just a way to fit into a role. They (attempt to) start writing because, hey! I like TV and stuff! I like the people who write this TV show! I should write TV and stuff so I can be like people who write TV! instead of starting because they actually have anything they want to express. They may certainly have a fantastic story hiding inside themselves, but they never even consider writing about it because they want to write about people in trench coats to look cool.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Digamma on August 26, 2014, 01:00:17 pm
Honestly, tropers are so afraid of criticism that criticism is barely even allowed. If a troper posts their work and you dare say anything "negative" you'll get ganged up on for being mean. And yes, constructive criticism counts as negative for a lot of them. The hugbox mentality is a complete detriment and their motto is pretty much There Is No Such Thing As Notability. Every work is notable, every word posted is awesome, every writer is special (and yes we are all writers because we think about writing a lot and that's totally the same as actually writing a lot).
Annoying as it is, it is pretty entertaining. They have a thread where they post their favorite lines from their work and it's the funniest goddamn thing.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: EYE OF ZA on August 26, 2014, 01:56:40 pm
"Crowdsourcing Dozerfleet" is an interesting way to put it, because I don't know if you knew this, but Dozerfleet is a troper. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/el.php?findfor=BulldozerBegins)
Of course he's a troper.
Unfortunately not quite a DeadHorseTrope yet, the basic idea of this one is that all homosexuals (especially gay men) have a sexual interest in children and will molest them if they get a chance. The occasional news story of a gay male adopting a child, and then turning right around and involving the child in pedophilia-related activities (think Frank Lombard, formerly of Duke University) will only rekindle and reinforce these fears. Questionable bills sometimes enter the US Congress that want to legalize sodomy instruction for kindergarten classrooms, an unfortunate reality which only reinforces the primary fear that ''all'' gays are trying to "recruit" children as part of the ''"Gay agenda"'' (related to RapeAndSwitch). Somebody ThinkOfTheChildren!
From the 70s onward, Hollywood has grown less sympathetic towards portrayals of the DepravedHomosexual (although examples do occasionally pop up.) Most examples below of "AllGaysArePedophiles" which are from the 70's to today are subversions, playing on people's fears only to reveal that the gays (in the given examples at least) aren't pedophiles after all. Often, the person making the claim is portrayed as a bigot whom the audience is supposed to side against from the start. Pedophiles exist of either orientation in RealLife, and a great many of them are heterosexual or even [[DepravedBisexual bisexual]].Quote from
Someone reverted that, so then he rewrote it.
The basic idea of this one is that ''all'' homosexuals (especially gay men) have a sexual interest in children; and will molest them if they get a chance. The primary fear being propagated here is that ''all'' gays are trying to "recruit" children as part of the ''"Gay agenda"'', the way that the DC Lesbian Avengers proudly claim to on their T-shirts. (Related to RapeAndSwitch). Somebody ThinkOfTheChildren! While disturbing links between a small handful of gay activist organizations and pedophile activist organizations do exist (think GLASS in California actively encouraging child sex, OUT in Maine having key member Adam Landers convicted for child molestation, and 33% surveyed in one study admitted to sex with minors (http://www.sodahead.com/living/33-of-homosexuals-admit-to-minoradult-sex/question-1573081/), etc.,) many gays will readily pounce on anyone who dares suggest that this is a ''majority'' characteristic.
It's been reverted again, but it's still got the "many gays will readily pounce on anyone" line. He also made some edits to the 'heteronormative crusader' trope saying that heteronormative crusaders are just trying to help their friends stay safe and not be gay, and he changed a link that said "studies have shown that homophobes are more likely to be gay" to "one study suggested that it's possible for homophobes to have same-sex attractions."
The author of ''StationeryVoyagers'', all the way back in 2004, described one of the many enemies the Voyagers would face in their third season being a [[{{Gayngster}} gay terrorism]] group called the Crooked Rainbow, which would target with violence literally anyone that they could not successfully recruit to gay political causes. This included molotoving buses and individuals, kidnappings, and blackmailing politicians and church leaders, even 14-year-old girls, with death threats left on answering machines. Most who sided with more politically correct views readily dismissed the author's "[[StrawCharacter strawman]]." Until (http://www.examiner.com/article/pro-life-catholic-school-bus-allegedly-firebombed-illinois-media-silent) similar things (http://pryordailytimes.com/statenews/x1938318216/Edmond-pastor-reports-death-threat-after-comments) started happening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJx1tpqe5W8) in (http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/girl-14-gets-death-threats-for-defending-marriage/) real life (http://americansfortruth.com/uploads/2011/11/Fairview-BaptistHate-calls11-16-11-Abbreviated.mp3). When the Voyagers ''tried'' to remain neutral, they were soon met with JoinOrDie. And faced constant attempts on their lives when they finally did choose the opposing side. The author began to worry that his publicized production notes might be giving some troublemakers ideas.
On another page, he claims that Don't Ask Don't Tell being repealed has caused a rise in zoophilia.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: AlbieQuirky on August 26, 2014, 04:57:19 pm
Morwen Eledhwen has been working on that same shitty book for at least 10 years; when I encountered it, she was posting about it on a writers' board for pro, semi-pro, and aspiring writers. At that time, it was set in Honduras rather than Cuba, it was dieselpunk rather than steampunk, and Che was a black sugarcane cutter rather than a robot. I had even less patience for it than Lemon did.
And, shit, Haggis McCrablice is Iconoclast? Holy crap. The CWCki (http://cwckiforums.com/threads/iconoclast.860/) delved into his craziness a while back.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: KingKalamari on August 26, 2014, 06:53:45 pm
Honestly, tropers are so afraid of criticism that criticism is barely even allowed. If a troper posts their work and you dare say anything "negative" you'll get ganged up on for being mean. And yes, constructive criticism counts as negative for a lot of them. The hugbox mentality is a complete detriment and their motto is pretty much There Is No Such Thing As Notability. Every work is notable, every word posted is awesome, every writer is special (and yes we are all writers because we think about writing a lot and that's totally the same as actually writing a lot).
Annoying as it is, it is pretty entertaining. They have a thread where they post their favorite lines from their work and it's the funniest goddamn thing. Digamma, August 26, 2014, 01:00:17 pm
This is also how you get an entire section of the site dedicated to applying tropes to Online roleplaying games (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForumRoleplays)
...Wait, scratch that. While trying to find that link I discovered it's even stupider than I thought because they have separate categories for Online Roleplays that are specific to Livejournal (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JournalRoleplay) and another specifically for Play by Post games (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlayByPostGames)
Also also I stumbled on this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/WhateleyUniverse) while looking through the web originals section for the above links. I've seen it referenced on pretty much every goddamned page of the wiki and had no idea what the fuck it was supposed to be until recently. Let's see what the page has to say...
The Whateley Universe is a Web Original prose Shared Universe in a Superhero School scenario with elements of the Cthulhu Mythos added into it. It was inspired by an X-Men fanfic written by one of Whateley's many authors.
...Okay? I don't know why this is added to every trope page ever but...
In one of many twists, between a sixth to a third of the students have a subconscious image of the form that their body ought to take, known as their Body Image Template (BIT). Mutants with a BIT generally gain either a physical or mental package of powers, frequently both. The physical package includes both beauty and brawn, the mental package includes major intelligence boosts as well as memory, etc. A BIT may change any aspect of a person's body, including their sex. In some cases the transformation may turn them into inhuman whatevers right out of a horror movie.
Oh for fuck's sake.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 26, 2014, 07:05:05 pm
Whateley universe could easily be its own ep
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Cleretic on August 27, 2014, 01:14:44 am
I was going to include Whateley Universe in the 'superhero roleplaying' episode, when I thought 'well, maybe Cryptic's MMOs aren't goig to provide quite enough, maybe I should get something more substantial'. I couldn't find where to start with Whateley, though, and City of Heroes overprovided.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Nemo2342 on August 27, 2014, 02:42:50 am
Encountering the Whateley universe in every single trope page was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for me, back when I would still browse TV tropes for amusement.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: 🍆 on August 27, 2014, 05:58:56 am
The Whateley Universe is a Web Original prose Shared Universe in a Superhero School scenario with elements of the Cthulhu Mythos added into it. It was inspired by an X-Men fanfic written by one of Whateley's many authors.
...Okay? I don't know why this is added to every trope page ever but...
In one of many twists, between a sixth to a third of the students have a subconscious image of the form that their body ought to take, known as their Body Image Template (BIT). Mutants with a BIT generally gain either a physical or mental package of powers, frequently both. The physical package includes both beauty and brawn, the mental package includes major intelligence boosts as well as memory, etc. A BIT may change any aspect of a person's body, including their sex. In some cases the transformation may turn them into inhuman whatevers right out of a horror movie.
Okay but when do they get into alternate dimension not-peeing battles? Or do these mutants not have cool superpowers.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: applecake on September 07, 2014, 01:39:10 am
I laughed harder at this episode than anything else in the past few weeks. I don't know what it is about it, since TVTropes doesn't interest me much, but...damn. It was great.
Adam trying to look up the definition of a Mary Sue gets me into face-hurting silent giggling every time I go back to it.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Mister Smalls on September 07, 2014, 02:24:47 pm
I put off listening to this episode for so long because this kind of thing is, for me, the most horrifically uncomfortable material that the F Plus reads. Every episode about nerds who try to become the next Neil Gaiman by regurgitating previously consumed pieces of pop culture mashed up into unreadable messes makes me cringe so hard that my face feels like it's going to turn inside out.
For people who seem to love steampunk and science fiction so much, they don't seem to have any actual idea of what makes it appealing. What does it add to Evita to put robots in it? Why would I want to read a Firefly ripoff with cyborgs and pedophilia? Who would ever want to read this, apart from the people who made it?
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Isfahan on September 07, 2014, 07:22:18 pm
Also the "questions" are, for the most part, just flimsy pretenses to run the plot outlines by people and reap some praise. Just like some of the Is It Normal and Yahoo Answers people, they're more interested in talking about themselves/their writing than actually asking a meaningful question, but they recognize that they'll get more exposure in a place where people are looking to answer questions and (theoretically) be helpful.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: chai tea latte on September 07, 2014, 08:12:22 pm
Also the "questions" are, for the most part, just flimsy pretenses to run the plot outlines by people and reap some praise. Just like some of the Is It Normal and Yahoo Answers people, they're more interested in talking about themselves/their writing than actually asking a meaningful question, but they recognize that they'll get more exposure in a place where people are looking to answer questions and (theoretically) be helpful. Isfahan, September 07, 2014, 07:22:18 pm
raised by swat team??
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: KingKalamari on September 07, 2014, 08:24:54 pm
I put off listening to this episode for so long because this kind of thing is, for me, the most horrifically uncomfortable material that the F Plus reads. Every episode about nerds who try to become the next Neil Gaiman by regurgitating previously consumed pieces of pop culture mashed up into unreadable messes makes me cringe so hard that my face feels like it's going to turn inside out.
For people who seem to love steampunk and science fiction so much, they don't seem to have any actual idea of what makes it appealing. What does it add to Evita to put robots in it? Why would I want to read a Firefly ripoff with cyborgs and pedophilia? Who would ever want to read this, apart from the people who made it? Mister Smalls, September 07, 2014, 02:24:47 pm
The population of TVTropes tends to not actually care for the craft of writing so much as just the idea of being a ~writer~. It's also fairly obvious reading through a bunch of their stuff that they don't really want to write prose so much as they want to make animes or tv shows but lack the skill, drive and resources to do so and settle for trying to write novels because it's "easier".
Of course as anyone who has attempted to actually, seriously write will tell you it is not, in fact easier.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Mister Smalls on September 07, 2014, 10:55:18 pm
It seems like the same thing I was complaining about in the topic for the Patreon episode.
The fact that you like a form of media does not mean you need to start trying to make that form of media. You are probably far too lazy and unqualified to even begin to try to make these things.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: goombapolice on September 08, 2014, 08:16:10 am
I love the episodes where you guys react very negatively to posts made solely to garner positive affirmation/attention.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Bodark on June 01, 2016, 08:24:24 pm
While I'm at it, the "super soldiers disabled by the Gilligan's Island theme song" shit is entirely ripped off of the third Lilo & Stitch movie, Leroy & Stitch, in which the clones of a new and improved versions of Stitch are disabled by Elvis Presley's rendition of "Aloha 'Oe."
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Zekka on June 01, 2016, 09:47:21 pm
While I'm at it, the "super soldiers disabled by the Gilligan's Island theme song" shit is entirely ripped off of the third Lilo & Stitch movie, Leroy & Stitch, in which the clones of a new and improved versions of Stitch are disabled by Elvis Presley's rendition of "Aloha 'Oe." Bodark, June 01, 2016, 08:24:24 pm
IS NOTHING SACRED
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: Sherman Tank on June 02, 2016, 09:52:57 am
Lemon's utter seething hatred of Joss Whedon never fails to cheer me up, because it's nice to know I'm not alone.
Title: Episode 148: Exclusive Unoriginal Content
Post by: SHAMBA~1.SBB on March 15, 2022, 12:07:49 pm
Haven't listened to this episode in years but suddenly and vividly remembered the jello car that kills its driver if it hits a pedestrian.