I decided this would be a good post while trying to fall asleep. Judge accordingly.

Today I would like to talk to you about TV Tropes. The first thing I would like to offer is an apology to anyone who loves to analyze fiction and has a tendency to overload their browser with tabs, because you may become addicted.

But introductions may be in order. TV Tropes is a site dedicated to cataloging recurrent themes in all sorts of fiction. It's like Wikipedia, but it doesn't believe in notoriety. This leads it to being a lot more entertaining than Wikipedia, because you can say what you want to and without having to worry about dredging up a citation.

For years now I will hop on TV Tropes anytime I finish reading a book, watching a movie, or catching up on a TV series. I like to see if the tropes I spotted in the work are on its page and if there were any tropes I somehow missed, either completely on the website or just passed me by while engrossed in the fiction.

TV Tropes changes the way you read and watch. For example, it gave me an easy way to explain why Avatar was a terrible movie. It recycles a billion tropes without a fresh take, hoping that its (admittedly awesome) effects will mask it. It's no Citizen Kane (which took a relatively standard story and used modern, artful film making to make it amazing), but people treat it like it. But I will not go into an Author Filibuster, so let me get back to the point.

By changing the way you absorb fiction, it changes the way you talk about it. This creates a sense of community between tropers. I cannot describe my joy when I stumble upon someone else who can conversationally trope. For the most part, constantly having tropes running through my head makes me feel a little separated from others (it's like I'm speaking a different language, no matter how clear I think the trope names are), but when someone else knows what I'm talking about it's like... our brains are high fiving each other.

So yes, this is a slightly evil attempt to create more tropers I can interact with. So please check it out. If you are a certain kind of person, it is the perfect website for you. And if you like anime, you'll probably love it more than I do, since I spend a decent amount of time scrolling past the anime sections to get to things I'm actually interested in.

Edited to include a couple more crucial points that I forgot because I'm silly:

TV Tropes will introduce you to new stuff. I have found so many things I love just by browsing through the website. Hell, this is the site that introduced me to Cracked, which is equally addicting. I've found a ton of books, music, TV shows, and movies that I have gotten supreme enjoyment out of, that I never would've known about were I not a troper.

And of course, if you enjoy writing fiction at all, this is a great guide for you. Tropes are not bad, but they can be applied poorly. Spending way too much time on the site can make you a better writer, or at least a more thoughtful one.