Don’t go to TVTropes.org if you have any upcoming deadlines. It’ll take the time you have in the rest of your life and cut it in half instantly; you’re really in the actual rabbit hole territory now. I’ve mentioned TV Tropes before and for good reason. The site is designed to make you click one more link, explore one more article, go one more night without sleep. You’ve been warned.
Anyway, TV Tropes is one of the best, most interesting sites on the Interwebs. Set up much like the juggernaut of rabbit holes, Wikipedia, Tropes’s main job is to explain, catalog and critique situations, themes and generally often occurring things that appear in popular media. Think you’ve seen the same idea explored more than once across two different shows? TV Tropes probably makes mention of it.
For example, Doctor Who fans will probably be familiar with the concept of the Timey-Wimey Ball. TV Tropes will give you an insane amount of times that same concept has appeared outside of Doctor Who. so if you like suspending your disbelief and going with the flow when it comes to time travel, hit up that link.
One of my favorite tropes is the Law of Conservation of Detail. This one gets at a cliché used by almost any piece of media that involves a mystery to be figured out. Basically, “every detail given is important.” Watching any Sherlock Holmes-esque show will give you a practical graduate degree in the Law of Conservation of Detail; just scroll to the bottom of the page to see where it has been used in pop culture.
If you’re looking to dive in to some great articles, check out Rule of Cool, Guns Are Worthless and the Tome of Eldritch Lore. Should you ever get bored, remember that at the top of the pages, there’s a big blue button that says “Random Trope.” But be careful, you don’t want to end up like the mice that found themselves in a button-pushing experiment.
So check out TV Tropes, but remember to take a shower every day and get some sleep at night – it will be there in the morning.
