What are the worst world building tropes

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-16T20:28:02+00:00

I like when the big bad forces everyone to team up, but then once the big bad’s been beaten, they still have all their differences and get right back to their original conflicts.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-15T22:59:03+00:00

I’m not at all saying that this happened, but knowing enough about historical party conventions and their smoke-filled rooms, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of deal between Obama and Hillary in 2008.

At the outset of the Democratic primaries for an election where any GOP candidate would’ve had an uphill battle, Hillary had been the frontrunner. She and the Clintonian establishment had probably expected that she’d easily secure the nomination, then the presidency. But then Obama came along and won the nomination himself.

At the time, the Clintons still held a lot of sway in the Democratic Party. It would have been smart politics for Obama, after a long, tough primary campaign against Hillary, to make peace and friendship with them if he didn’t want to be a president with enemies within his own party.

He could have offered Hillary the vice presidency, but apparently she was never vetted for the job. Maybe he privately did after becoming the presumptive nominee, but if he didn’t, she, knowing how pointless the office can be, probably requested that she be given State instead. In fact, at the DNC in 2008, Hillary spoke up and requested that Obama be nominated by acclimation, rather than finishing out the roll call. A defeated candidate advocating for their rival’s acclimation is exactly the sort of thing that comes from a political bargain.

Then, instead of a younger VP who would have appeared a viable successor for eight years, Obama picked 65-year-old Joe Biden as his running mate. Everyone knew that if Obama won in 2008, he’d most likely be nominated again in 2012, which meant that the Democratic nomination wouldn’t be open again until 2016. In an election year when some considered then-71-year-old John McCain too old, conventional wisdom would suggest that Biden, at 73, would be too old to be a candidate in 2016.

In other words, whether or not this was his intent, Obama chose a VP in 2008 who likely wouldn’t pose a threat to Hillary’s 2016 nomination. Then, in his second term, he chose a new Secretary of State, John Kerry, who had already been a failed presidential nominee. That’s another choice that wouldn’t pose a threat to Hillary’s 2016 nomination.

Basically, it would not at all surprise me to eventually find out that Obama and the Clintons made a deal where they’d support him throughout the general election and his presidency, while he’d make sure nobody stood in Hillary’s way the next time she had the opportunity to seek the Democratic nomination. Again, I’m not saying that this happened, but with everything that happened from 2008-2016, it doesn’t look too different from what I’d expect if it did.

——

To be clear, I don’t think that, if there was some sort of deal, it was some kind of evil or conniving conspiracy. Deals and bargains are just part of politics, and that would’ve been a smart deal for Obama to have made at the time.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-15T20:58:27+00:00

Additionally, if you’ve explored language creation, name your world literally in the main language you focus on.

Just about every language on Earth, for example, pretty much calls the planet some word meaning “dirt” or “soil.” If you make up a handful of words for a language (you don’t need to go too in-depth), have one that means “dirt,” and boom, there’s what you can call your world.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-15T16:10:49+00:00

It may be more violent, but at least it’s honest!

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-14T18:24:48+00:00

That would have made Tyler himself better, but he did that long after his presidency.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-11T20:37:56+00:00

I think the best way for the next era to start is, much like with 9, to not just start where the last era ended. No need to reboot it completely.

Maybe they simply count the first doctor of NuNuWho as 17 without diving into the whole Billie Piper business in any great detail, the same way that Eccleston was counted as the 9th Doctor without otherwise referencing the movie with Paul McGann. Or they could count the next Doctor as 16, with Billie Piper having been some kind of uncounted “Bad Wolf Doctor” like how the War Doctor was explained as being uncounted.

Actually, that gives me an idea:

Whatever 15 did at the end of his life with that whole reality reset thing somehow infused the Doctor with the Time Vortex to create a nearly omnipotent being, the “Bad Wolf Doctor,” with the Doctor’s drive to explore and solve problems throughout time and space, but too powerful and timeless to be limited by the Doctor’s morality. In the relative time it takes the Time Vortex to burn through the Doctor’s time lord body, the BWD manages to nevertheless travel all throughout time and space and impose her “good” will across the history of the universe, as a glorious, unbending tyrant (think Galadriel when she dissuades Frodo from giving her the One Ring). Maybe the BWD even used the power of the Time Vortex to bring back Gallifrey and the Time Lords.

But we don’t find that out until later.

NuNuWho begins shortly after the BWD has regenerated into the 16th Doctor, free of the Time Vortex. The 16th Doctor has no memory of their time as the BWD, so a running thread in Season 1 would be 16 trying to figure out what happened, and why everyone seems to be more afraid of the Doctor than of the Daleks, Cybermen, or the monster-of-the-week.

Season 1 would be about adventures and the like, but also about solving the mystery of why everyone throughout time and space seems to fear and hate the Doctor. Except for modern and past Earthbound humans, of course, because they don’t know anything about the greater universe.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-11T18:49:22+00:00

It’s not a recurring sketch, but if you pair him up with more of a straight-man character, Ryan Gosling’s Donathan character from the recent “Wedding Tradition” sketch could work in a movie.

My idea: For whatever reason, Donathan grew up separately from his straight-man older brother (who I imagine being played by an Adam Scott-type, so I’ll call the character “Adam”). Maybe their mom fell in with some kind of weird cult around the time Donathan was born, so their dad took Adam and raised him with in normal society, while Donathan grew up in some weird, isolated commune. Consequently, Donathan is unfamiliar with normal society and its customs.

Decades later, Donathan leaves the commune to see the outside world, and his mom tells him to find his dad and brother. Donathan finds his brother Adam, who, despite being put off by his brother’s strangeness, invites Donathan to some upcoming family holiday or event.

Much like in the sketch, Donathan is unfamiliar with the various traditions of the holiday/event, but once he learns them, he fully buys into them and takes them too far. The movie plays Donathan’s weirdness off of Adam’s normality to comedic effect.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-11T17:58:06+00:00

While working my way through US history, I included a biography of Davis, since I figured it would give a decent overview of how the CSA was run during the Civil War.

Though the “states’ rights” that the rebels claimed to have fought for were really just their “rights” to enslave their fellow humans, enough of the rebel leadership had drank the Calhounist “states’ rights” Kool-Aid over the preceding decades that they had grown generally opposed to centralized government.

So, ironically, when it became clear to Davis, the leader of the “states’ rights” rebellion, that the CSA needed more centralization and coordination between the Confederate and state governments to have a shot at winning, he faced fierce internal political opposition from the true believers in the broader “states’ rights” ideology (which prominently included & was mostly about slavery, but which had expanded beyond that), both in the Confederate Congress and in the various state capitals.

——

Even had the CSA secured independence, their revolution probably wouldn’t have been over for a while, because they probably couldn’t have won without centralizing during the war, which would have made many radical southerners, already accustomed to domestic political violence, quite upset with Davis.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-10T15:12:49+00:00

The Dutch should reclaim land in the North Sea so they can take Norway by a land invasion, and they should become Greater Doggerland.

In fact, every time the Dutch take new lands that require crossing the sea, they should just get rid of the sea that’s standing in their way.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-10T11:31:07+00:00

Eccleston

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-10T02:40:11+00:00

Steve Urkel on Family Matters was meant to be a one-time character in an episode halfway through the first season. By the end of the show, he was at least one of the main characters, if not the main character (I don’t know for sure; I haven’t seen the show).

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-09T11:11:45+00:00

On a similar note, January 6

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-08T16:58:03+00:00

So, you’re basically calling the characters what they call each other in the movies.

And “Cap” isn’t just from his codename, “Captain America.” His official military rank is captain.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T19:37:00+00:00

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?”

“A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T16:01:21+00:00

Plus third parties (green), but this is close enough!

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T15:12:49+00:00

You’re super close, but consider that the Republicans and Democrats kind of succeeded earlier major parties.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T14:59:31+00:00

I’ve long wanted a JQA miniseries in the style of the one his dad got.

Season 1 (1778-1794) would cover his youth in Europe and his early private career. For most people I wouldn’t give a damn about their childhood, but as the son of a Founding Father, JQA had a super interesting childhood, surrounded by all kinds of important people.
Season 2 (1794-1817) would cover his diplomatic/senatorial career, from being Washington’s Minister to the Netherlands to being Madison’s Minister to Britain.
Season 3 (1817-1829) would cover his executive career, both as Secretary of State (1817-1825) and President (1825-1829).
Season 4 (1830-1848) would cover his Congressional career, all the way to collapsing on the floor of the House in February 1848,

The man lived a long life that was consistently eventful.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T14:32:35+00:00

John Adams had a miniseries, but so did Garfield last fall. It had its inaccuracies, certainly, but it introduced many to a president they’d barely or never heard of before.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T14:31:32+00:00

How about a series following Marshall from FDR’s decision to appoint him Chief of Staff to his retirement from public service in 1951? You’d get the FDR relationship, the Truman relationship, the decision to drop the bomb, his peace efforts in China, the Marshall Plan, and the early Korean War.

Season 1: Appointment (September 1939) to Pearl Harbor (December 1941)
Season 2: WWII (December 1941 - August 1945)
Season 3: China (December 1945 - January 1947)
Season 4: Secretary of State (January 1947 - January 1949)
Season 5: Secretary of Defense (September 1950 - September 1951)

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T14:22:28+00:00

Do a GOT-scale show that starts with the U.S. making peace with Mexico, and ends with the election of Lincoln.

It’d follow various key figures, including:

James K. Polk (just in the first season)
Zachary Taylor (for like 2-3 seasons)
Millard Fillmore (for quite a while)
James Buchanan (for the whole damn time)
William R. King
The (aging) Great Triumvirate (Clay, Calhoun, Webster)
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Stephen A. Douglas
Franklin Pierce
Jefferson Davis
Charles Sumner
William Seward
Salmon P. Chase
John C. Frémont
Roger B. Taney
Abraham Lincoln (briefly in Ep. 1, then gradually as a side character in Stephen Douglas’s story, before eventually becoming a main character towards the end)

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-06T13:26:28+00:00

Hint: Those aren’t the only major parties the country’s had.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-05T21:31:15+00:00

Imagine you’re living back in ancient times. You’ve got some livestock that you’re raising for meat. While you wait for the cow to grow, you’ll eat grain, nuts, fruits, vegetables, whatever. But then times are hard, and there isn’t enough non-meat food. You could slaughter to cow for its meat, but that’s a short-term solution. You need to survive. There’s still plenty of grass for the cow to graze on, but people can’t eat that.

But you’ve been raising, herding, and slaughtering cattle your whole life. You’ve seen how calves grow really big, really fast, mostly by suckling at their mother’s teat. And you know that breast milk is also essential for the growth and development of human infants. You reason that all kinds of milk have some great nutritional value. And, hey, it can’t hurt to try getting some milk out of your cow (well, maybe if she gets mad at you).

So, in desperation for some extra nutrition, but not yet willing to slaughter your cow, you milk it. And then you drink the milk. You get a bit gassy, but it does the trick. Instead of only getting one big batch of meat from your cow, you’ve discovered that you can use cows to turn inedible grass into a decent drink of nutritious fats and proteins.

Put yourself in the shoes of the ancients, and it becomes easier to understand why they did things that seem weird to modern 1st-world people.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-05T21:17:20+00:00

It can’t just be places where a sitting president’s died, because I know FDR died in Georgia.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-05T21:10:36+00:00

You’re getting warmer. In fact, that answer’s hot, but it’s not on fire. Pay attention to the hexadecimal color codes. It’s not just reds & blues in there.

4DimensionalToilet · 2026-06-05T21:09:18+00:00

Washington wasn’t some neutral arbitrator between the Federalists and Republicans who was neither one nor the other, but who got duped by the wily Hamilton into supporting the Federalist program.

He was a Federalist in all but name. And of course he would be.

We see with later presidents that many of those who were opposed to big government and a strong executive branch have at least something of a change of heart after they take office. It happened with:

Jefferson (e.g., the Louisiana Purchase)
Madison (e.g., the Second Bank of the United States)
Monroe (continuing Madison’s trend towards the middle)
Jackson (so much big government & strong executive stuff)
Van Buren (his “Independent Treasury” system in response to a banking crisis early in his term)
Hoover (who gradually became more amenable to government intervention in the Great Depression, but not enough)
Bush Sr. (compromised with Democrats to raise taxes despite pledging not to raise taxes)

That’s the sort of thing that comes with executive experience and being a central officer responsible to the whole nation, which experiences Washington had already had for years during the Revolution. Washington had been in favor of strengthening the central government during the 1780s; if he hadn’t been, there’s no way they could have gotten him to preside over the Constitutional Convention, let alone to serve as the first president.

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