A tropes is not necessarily a cliche
Originally posted by
Sarahfeena
I don't know if I can go so far as to say I hate TV Tropes, but I must confess I don't really get it. First of all, I don't really understand the difference between a trope and a cliche. At the very least, I think one is a subset of the other.
A cliche is necessarily a subset of a trope. It's an overused trope to be specific. But a trope need not be a cliche. For example, the trope "Springtime for Hitler" is about someone puts all their efforts into failing at a task, since it is advantageous to them, but somehow they end up succeeding in the task, which in itself is failure. Now, I personally have rarely come across this trope in the works I've seen (limited experience on my end, no doubt) and I can't call this a cliche. It is, however, a trope that has been used in multiple works.
As for the purpose of the tv tropes site...I've found exactly one so far. Say you vaguely remember a show from the past. You don't remember the names of the show or of any of its characters. But you remember a plot element, some detail that stuck out. Well, if you're a troper and know the name of that plot element, just go to its page and find the example. Though, "Yahoo! Answers" or the like might give you better results.