Dictionary of Fiction

This page is UnTrash Wiki's dictionary of terms from all areas throughout fiction. Like a real dictionary, it will give descriptions of those terms and provide example sentences. This is to compact all possible definition list pages into one and save on every imaginable resource. Origin tags (like VG. and Mov.) will be used to denote where a tag comes from if it cannot be used universally. A guide to these tags and more is at the bottom of the page.

#
-- (B., Com., VG.) - A double-hyphen. Written to signal a character's dialogue being cut off more suddenly than an ellipsis.

"And if we could just -- " "Quit the talking! Now's the time for action!"

... - "..." has more than one sense:

1) (B., Com., VG.) Indication that a character says nothing.

~" ... "

2) Placed before and after interrupted text, such as between speech bubbles, dialogue boxes, or scenes.

"It'll be kind of hard to properly explain this without using images ... / ...but you might get it better if we said that slash represents a break in text."

3) Written after text to convey a character in thought, who extends the last syllable of the last word of a sentence, or whose dialogue is cut off by an interjection like another character speaking.

"We could burst into the lab flailing like maniacs, or ... " "Or?" "We could use a real strategy."

A
Act - "Act" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A segment a story has been cut into.

~"The first act of this play is the shortest of the seven."

2) (v.) To perform in or for a story, especially by physically assuming a role of a character in costume.

~"I acted as the main character's childhood friend."

|| Actor (fem. actress) - Someone who plays a role in a story.

~"My favorite actor from that movie was Guy Greene. He nailed the role and really made his own character feel alive."

Voice — - Someone who provides the voice of a character.

~"She's a very talented voice actress who can put on a variety of distinct personalities." ||

Ad-lib - Making onstage material up on the spot.

~"Though the director prefers scripted lines, she was impressed with her cast's ad-libbing ."

Antagonist - Any character who stands in the way of the protagonists.

~"Poorly-written antagonists tend to be more clichéd and mindless than those that do what's wrong with sophisticated motives that personally matter to the protagonists and audience."

Arc - A continuous story or chain of related events.

"The antagonists' character arcs were much better than whatever crap the Good Guys tried to pull."

Attack pattern (VG.) - A kind of attack used by a computer enemy.

~"Low-level enemies in this game are pretty pathetic. All they do is spam these predictable attack patterns that are somehow expected to hit you."

Audience - The group of people experiencing a work of fiction.

~"One of your highest priorities as a storyteller should always be to please the audience . This means doing anything from avoiding annoying roles to writing an unpredictable plot."

Author (B.) - A person who writes books.

"My favorite author as a kid was Emily S. Day. She wrote many bedtime books my parents would read me."

B
Backdrop - A cloth that acts as a background on a set.

~"We have a backdrop for many typical scenes of European countries."

Backstory - The origins and history of a character, place, or object.

~"His backstory was that he was a small-time thief before he joined the Good Guys."

Box office (Mov.) - The whole amount of money audiences paid to watch a movie.

~"The box office for our latest film is among the strongest in our history. It grossed at $54 million in just two months."

C
Camping - Staying in one place or a restricted area.

~" Camping with a rifle is a pseudo-strat used by only the lowliest and most gutless players available. I hope you get tauntkilled till you rage quit."

Canon - The official set of facts and events relating to a franchise.

~"This franchise's canon is pretty deep and almost suffered because of it."

|| Cast - The team of actors taking up roles for a story.

~"They're a very functional cast : they all have years of experience, everyone knows each other, and they work well together."

Principal — - The foremost actors in a project.

~"The principal cast of a show are likely the most recurrent crew members the audience sees." ||

Cameo - A normally brief appearance made by a celebrity or in-universe character.

~"These celebrity cameos are gradually becoming more forced and less related to the plot of the episodes."

Camera - "Camera" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) (Tele., Mov.) A device used to capture film.

~"A camera can zoom, pan, rotate, or tilt to adjust its view."

2) (n.) (VG.) The field of view that allows the player to see what's happening in the game.

~"Any game can be ruined by a poorly-made camera that jitters, zooms on its own, or otherwise handles like crap."

Catchphrase - A short saying someone repeatedly utters that becomes recognized and possibly part of their character.

~"Chase's early catchphrase that never caught on was 'Didja neeeed me?'."

Chapter - A manageable segment a story (most often a book) is broken into.

~"Despite having four more chapters, 'Chasing Jessica' is shorter than 'The World's Failing Again'."

|| Character - "Character" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A thing — alive, dead, or undead — that makes an appearance in a franchise and is (treated like) a person.

~"All the characters in this show are girls except one. I know where this is going."

2) (n.) The persona an actor assumes.

~"It's hard to stay in character when the other actors on the set are screwing around."

— arc - The series of events during which a character changes.

~"I love the main character's character arc . She goes from being a whiny little brat to an upright young woman just like anyone in real life." ||

Cheese (VG.) - "Cheese" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A cheap, easy-win technique that often requires little effort on the player's end to complete a challenge.

~"Although I otherwise discourage trash gameplay, I'm partial to cheese when I'm fighting someone who's cheesing me off."

2) (v.) To win a part of the game with little difficulty using the above-described cheese.

~"These dumb, torturous, overly hard missions are begging you to cheese them."

Cheesy - Clichéd, sappy, or otherwise unoriginal, especially in a way that annoys.

~"The film was neat up until that cheesy ending where the man and woman got back together after no kind of emotional buildup."

Chick flick - A movie mostly targeting a female audience.

~"It was such a chick flick with all that kissing and loving. I mean, who wants to watch any of that?"

Cliché or cliche - An overdone element in fiction that typically causes annoyance in audience members.

~"That movie bombed after people bashed it for being loaded with more clichés than any one person could count."

Cliffhanger - A moment that sets up for a later dramatic continuation.

~"That cliffhanger to Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Part 6 left me wondering if he'd break into NASA's headquarters without getting caught."

Climax - The peak of action or suspense previous scenes were building up to.

~"The audience hungers for the climax, but it can't happen before introducing the characters involved to make the viewers care if something goes wrong."

Clutching (VG.) - To win after nearly losing.

~"If you have to clutch nearly half of your wins, you know it's time to restrat."

Co-op (VG.) - Cooperative gameplay in which two or more players work towards one goal.

"So many releases this year have been noisy and flashy single-players from big-dog companies. It's good to see indies are coming out with pleasant, simple co-ops I can play with my friends."

Comedy - The storytelling essence that aims to get the audience laughing.

~"Though Alan Camry's worldbuilding and character depth skills are his main strong suits, his basic and overplayed comedy leaves much to be desired."

Counter (VG.) - "Counter" has more than once sense:

1) Strategically counteract. This term is used especially when talking about characters or their weapons in combat games such as fighters and shooters.

~"Because of their ability to counter any real players and their actual strats, rifles are heavily looked down on. I said it before and I'll say it again: camping is not a strategy."

2) A counterattack, such as one in a fighting game.

~"Her melee counter can reach pretty far, but the beauty of it is how it still doesn't make her OP."

Crackfic - An otherworldly fanfic that got its name from crack cocaine.

~"My friend wrote a crackfic about Guy from UnTrash Wiki and SpongeBob from SpongeBob committing crime with time travel AND space travel and also there are giant robots who launch animals and smoke weed for some reason."

Credits (Mov., Tele., VG.) - A listing of the people involved in a project.

~"Because of the way he treated the cast members, his name was pulled from the credits even though he was the producer."

Crossover - An installation that involves characters from at least two different franchises interacting.

~"A crossover between Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon and Criminal Hugo would be a pretty cool watch."

Cut (Mov., Tele., VG.) - An instance of the view switching from one camera to another.

~" Cuts are useful for seamlessly changing the audience's perspective, but if it's overused, it could cause irritation."

D
Dark humor - Humor that relies on grim topics like death, murder, or suicide.

~" Dark humor has its moments and places, but if you constantly fall back on it like a mattress in place of other comedy, you aren't being funny."

|| Developer (VG.) - A person who works on video games.

~"The developers behind this game have lots of experience built from years of producing and publishing."

Dev (VG.) - Short for "developer", seen directly above. ||

Dialogue - An instance of at least two characters talking to each other.

~"The dialogue in this film was a far cry from its greatest strength. Most of the characters were spouting nonsense throughout the whole duration."

Director (Mov.) - The person in charge of the creative production of the film who guides the rest of the crew throughout its making.

~"The director's name is Rinkus Dinkus. He worked on such films as 'Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Episode I' and 'Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Episode XXV'."

Drama - The storytelling essence that attempts to shift the audience's emotions as to becoming sad (most frequently), angry, or concerned.

~"Rinkus Dinkus is a master of audiencal emotional manipulation. His drama just about always hits the mark and gets everyone to feel how he wants them to."

E
Easter egg - A hidden feature that the developers hid as a fun surprise for the audience to discover.

~"An upcoming Easter egg in Nexus's work is the Anomaly Man. He disappears just as suddenly as he appears."

Edge - The quality of being offensive and/or dark in content.

~"The Edge on UnTrash got their name from this definition of edge . Not the exact definition, but... y'know... uhh..."

Ellipsis (pl. ellipses) - Name for "..." (seen above).

~"Like with many punctuations, the ellipsis is innocent if used sparingly and not wielded like a common household tool."

Ending - The way or point at which the story is considered over.

~"Happy Ending is perhaps the most common ending in fiction. However, cleverer and more innovative writers are coming up with less predictable ways to finish their works."

Entertainment value - Whatever makes and keeps a franchise interesting.

~"This game I bought has such little entertainment value . There are hardly any side quests, the characters are all flat and forgettable, and the graphics. Oh, GOD, the graphics."

Episode (Tele., Web.) - A lone installation to a TV or web show or series.

~"An episode from Dudes around the World that always bothered me is Chris is Still Alive."

Exploit (VG.) - A technique that takes advantage of a glitch. Often considered illegitimate gameplay.

~"There's an exploit so infamous that attempting it will bring up dialogue box sharing the dev's thoughts on your behavior. Some call it an Easter egg, I call it getting pissed."

|| Exposition - The act of explaining to the audience what is going on, what happened before, or what will happen through the characters.

~" Exposition can be done well if the characters don't blab to each other about it."

— dump - Slowing the story down with telling the audience what's happening in the story.

~"But the writers of this train wreck didn't care and still had their main characters fly into a full-on exposition dump for seven minutes." ||

F
|| Fan - A person who enjoys a franchise and is a part of its regular audience.

~"If you like a comic strip, you can consider yourself a fan ."

—base - The entirety of a franchise's regular audience.

~"The movie's fanbase is pretty small, but they still respect it very much."

—boy - A male fan.

~"Those Criminal Hugo fanboys all have the hots for one of its female leads."

—dom - "Fandom" has more than one sense:

1) A section of a fanbase made of like-minded individuals. This is often confused for "fanbase" and is what leads to people to use the two terms interchangeably.

~"Many anime fandoms make their favorite franchises look absolutely disgusting to outsiders."

2) The state of being a fan.

~"My fandom of this one webseries I follow has been dwindling lately. The artist behind it isn't uploading videos like how she used to."

—fic - Short for "fan fiction", seen below.

~"I revisited a fanfic I wrote when I was 14. It was unfiltered pain."

—girl - "Fangirl" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A female fan.

~"My sister is a Summertime with Ava fangirl ."

2) (v.) To mindlessly gush about a franchise or character, often annoying others who disagree or are outside of the fandom.

~"She won't stop fangirling over this buff lifeguard Ava also has a crush on."

— favorite - An aspect, often a character, that the overall audience most heavily enjoys.

~"It's because of people like her the lifeguard is a fan favorite ."

— fiction - A non-canonical story written by a fan that takes place in an established franchise. Although not all are, fanfics are best known for having characters be in sexual situations. Also shortened to "fanfic".

~"My sister shamefully writes fan fiction between Ava and the lifeguard."

— service - Deliberate action by the creations that pleases the audience, most often involving making a female character more attractive. We have a page about this.

~"Many look down on fan service as a cheap and manipulative way to warp the audience's perspective of their franchise. Then again, it's normally very effective at this end, even if handled clumsily." ||

Farming (VG.) - To repeat at least one action, typically kill enemies, in hopes of obtaining a significant amount of money or a certain enemy drop. Comparable to grinding (seen below).

~" Farming is no fun. While you're sitting there defeating the same boss a thousand times, you could be playing the game for what you came for."

Fiction - The medium in which stories that never happened are told.

~"This entire website right now is about fiction ."

Filler - Content designed to kill time or fill a time block.

" Filler is a good way to Annoy The Audience with meaningless nonsense. It might not even contribute to the canon."

Flat - Lacking intriguing characteristics.

~"A character who brings nothing to the table is very easily forgotten and commonly slammed by the audience for being flat ."

Foil - A character who contrasts another in personality and whose interactions may fuel several conflicts between the two.

~"Guy and Ava started out as foils in the earliest seasons. Whereas Guy was the responsible yet inactive one, Ava would charge into her ideas without planning beforehand."

Franchise - An individual entity in which installments, characters, plots, and event are contained.

~"Somebody said it isn't a franchise if it only has one installation. Nope."

Friendfic - A fanfic in which two characters who aren't canonically friends are such.

~"Wouldn't it be a cute friendfic if Guy and Jessica could be together for even one day?"

G
Graphics (VG.) - The overall appearance of the game.

"Players are increasingly associating realistic graphics with incomplete and glitch-ridden games."

Grawlix (pl. grawlixes) (Com.) - Symbols that replaces profanities.

~" Grawlixes often consist of keyboard-friendly symbols like a dollar sign, but they can also be scribbles or planets."

Grinding (VG.) - The unattractive, slow-paced, tedious act of gaining goods through repeating a task that rewards the player. Comparable to farming (seen above).

"After I threw away four hours at grinding to buy a sword worse than my starter crossbow, I promptly reevaluated every decision ever made in my life."

H
Hack (VG.) - "Hack" has more than one sense:

1) (v.) Editing the game's code. If a player does it to give themselves an advantage, it's often considered a form of cheating.

~"Is it wrong to hack a game whose favorite pastime is pissing you off?"

2) (n.) A line of code used to change the game in some way.

~"I entered a hack that makes enemies' attacks always do less than 0 damage."

3) (n.) An altered version of one game that can be played separately from the original software.

~"My buddy recently did a hack of CyberCreeps: Girls Unleashed. ...I don't want to talk about what he did to it."

Hatedom - A group of people united to hate something, typically a character, in a franchise.

~"There's been a hatedom built in Chris's name ever since he betrayed his friends for Jessica."

I
Indie - "Indie" has more than one sense:

1) A person who produces content independently from a company or big studio.

~"She's a well-respected indie who produced many games from the 2000s people remember fondly."

2) The work of such a creator.

~"Her indies have been considered classics of the Internet for their popularity in their day."

Insane (VG.) - Unreal, impressive, or unbelievable.

"The crit on this thing is insane . You think the mods might nerf it?"

Installment - An individual addition to the franchise such as one book, movie, TV episode, or game.

~"Everybody keeps talking about how that game's last installment was trash."

Item (VG.) - Any object the player can collect and place in their inventory.

~"Healing items vary in effectiveness, from restoring nearly all your health to bullshit."

J
Jank (VG.) - A part of the game that looks wrong in some way, usually caused by a glitch.

~"The dialogue in this game can be funny at times, but its sheer abundance of jank is where the real comedy's at."

Juke (VG.) - A maneuver performed by a chased player that involves abruptly moving in another direction that throws the chaser off.

~"I was really on this guy until he juked me and shook me off his tail."

L
Lampshading - Referencing an UnTrash with the purpose of either shaming it for being a bad one or to justify playing it.

~"I was right there with Ava when she lampshaded All Just A Dream."

Lead - See protagonist below.

Line - A single word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph spoken by a character.

~"Hugo drops a famous line in 'Chase at the Bat'. I don't remember how it goes."

M
Magnum opus - The peak of a creator's work that may often be considered a masterpiece.

~"'Guy Visits the Moon' is widely regarded as Rinkus Dinkus's magnum opus ."

Map (VG.) - A playing area in a 3D game, especially if it's a large and/or open world.

~"The map has fun little details strewn throughout its areas that the player has to go out and search for. My favorites are the bite-size furniture figurines."

Mecha - "Mecha" has more than one sense:

1) A genre of anime and manga that focuses on often large mechanical suits or armored machines engineered for battle.

~"My friend is into mecha shows. He says they have the coolest fights of any genre in the medium."

2) A suit or machine from such a franchise.

~"The mecha have pretty rad designs that make them look so badass when they fight."

Mod - "Mod" has more than one sense:

1) (VG., Web.) Short for "moderator". A person who is in charge of an online community or multiplayer game.

~"People were really steamed after the mods heavily nerfed nearly half of the cast last year."

2) (VG.) Short for "modification". A fan-made edit to a game (e.g by adding new features or changing the physics of the game) that other players can download and apply to their own copies of that game.

~"I work with a team that works on mods for many PC games. People always tell us how we keep their games fresh."

Monster - A creature that is separate from any main species present unless it is one itself. Usually is very similar to animals or has animalistic attributes such as horns, claws, and wings.

~" Monsters in this world are often aggressive, but they can also be cuddly and non-threatening."

Multiverse - A realm that consists of more than one universe.

~"Hey! Hey! HEY! I'm making a multiverse of my own! It's so cool! First, you have the..."

N
Nerf - The worsening of an element in a game (such as an attack or weapon) to balance it and prevent it from being OP. This is the opposite of buffing.

~"Sadly, not enough players realize that nerfs are healthy for a game. Could you imagine if everyone could run wild one-shotting anybody with the same one hammer?"

O
Off - Not in character.

~"It's strange seeing the clowns off but still in their costumes."

On - "On" has more than one sense:

1) (adj.) In character; performing.

~"He's been working as a comedian for so long that jokes naturally come out of him, even when he's not on ."

2) (adj.) Currently playing.

~"Everyone shut up — my show's on now."

One-liner - A short joke that fits into a single line.

~"The best moment in the film was Chase's one-liner about Guy being a loser."

OP (VG.) - Short for "overpowered". When something or someone has so much power that it ruins the balance of the game.

~"Dweebs who cry 'OP' are often the ones who are too lazy to farm, scrub, strat, or otherwise better themselves so they don't get wrecked by anybody who happens to not be that way."

Original - The first installment of a franchise.

~"Everyone loves the original while treating the sequels like they don't exist. Probably because they wish they didn't."

Outplaying (VG.) - To play a game more strategically or generally better than another player.

~" Outplaying 13-year-olds in PvP is nothing interesting, but there are still insecure losers who boast about it."

OVA - Abbreviation of "original voice actor" (fem. original voice actress).

~"The OVA for Hugo is Cal Way. He voices many other characters in the show like Chase, Gil, and... Chris."

P
Panel (Com.) - A normally rectangular figure characters, settings, speech bubbles, an onomatopoeia are placed.

" Panels were once innocent. They used to be perfect squares. I will not tolerate another goddamn rectangle in my life."

Parody - "Parody" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A work that references a franchise such as a movie or video game on any level of obviousness, commonly to mock that franchise, and sometimes directly using its characters and settings as opposed to spoofs.

~"Guile Green is known for his unapologetic parodies of many of today's most popular TV shows."

2) (v.) To produce such a work.

~"Mr. Green has also parodied shows from the late 20th century, instead praising them for what he says is their unaffected entertainment value."

Part - "Part" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) Synonymous with "role", seen below.

2) (n.) A segment an episode plot is broken into.

~" Part one is where the story starts and part two is where it ends. If else, cancel the show."

Payoff - The climax of an arc or subplot.

~"Giving a B plot payoff that merges into the main storyline prevents it from feeling aimless."

Permadeath (VG.) - When the player dies forever. In the game, in the game.

"Very few games punish you with permadeath these days, but when they do, it hurts."

Pilot (Tele.) - The first episode of a TV show or series.

~"The pilot of last night's show is pretty promising. We might get something new for once."

|| Player (VG.) - The real-life person who plays a video game.

~"This game loves to taunt the player after they die."

—base - The collective of all everyone who plays a game.

~"The game is said to have a massive playerbase, but analysts never count for how a massive chunk of them (84%) haven't picked it up in the past decade."

— character - The in-game character who represents the player.

~"This game lets you customize your player character, from their name to their eye and hair color."

—name - The name a player chooses for themselves.

~"My playername will most likely be squishmin, but if my slate doesn't provide enough space, I'll go with squish or FUGO." ||

Plot device - An often physical feature in a story that helps advance it by being an important and recurring topic.

~"The time-halting pocket watch Hugo inherited from his grandfather was the film's central plot device . ...Get it?"

|| Pop culture - An atmosphere of fiction comprised of the most famous franchises and individuals in the world. Officially "popular culture".

~"If I had to tell the truth, I'd tell you pop culture these days simply can't compare to what we had back then. When's "back then"? ..."

— reference - See reference below. ||

PR (VG.) - Short for "personal record". Often refers to a speedrunner's best time.

~"I have a spreadsheet of my PRs best race times. My pride immediately vanishes when I see anyone else's records."

Prequel - The continuation of a story that happens before the original installment.

~"The prequel to Dudes around the World was just an excuse to babify Guy and his friends."

Producer (Mov.) - The person who oversees the progress of and secures funding for the creative project.

~"The producer of a movie does more than that, UnTrash. They also hire workers, manage all parts of production, and more."

Protagonist - A character who takes the focus of a story.

~"Even though they are in most cases, protagonists aren't always supposed to be thought of as good by the audience."

Program (Tele.) - See show below.

Q
Quote - An instance of a character's line, likely to emphasize on how true it is even when applied to another context.

~"There are a few quotes from the last movie that people typically use when talking about art."

R
Reboot - The continuation of a franchise that has the same characters (possibly with significant changes) in a different setting after the original is concluded.

~"Not even the creators were comfortable with the reboot after it got trashed by everyone on planet Earth."

Reference - Short for "pop culture reference". Also known as a ref.

~"The movie made many references to the director's favorite shows as a kid."

Replayability (VG.) - See replay value directly below.

Replay value (VG.) - A game's ability to continuously entertain the player after being completed once.

~"If a game plays out very similarly on any one playthrough, it may be bashed for having low replay value ."

Role - "Role" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) The character someone plays in a story.

~"She plays the role of the overlooked artist who becomes fed up with the outside world and only creates for herself."

2) (n.) The personality and condition a character takes up.

~"The Hero is an adventurous franchise role, whereas the Main is for non-adventurous franchises."

RNG (VG.) - Short for "random number generation". Used in contexts relating to randomly-determined events such as an attack's power or the likelihood of a player's action succeeding.

"The allure of RNG here is getting a sweet kill on a guy even though you only had a 7% chance to land huge damage."

S
Salt (VG.) - Anger often deriving from what the player believes is unfair, usually coming from competitive gameplay.

~"Trolling the stupid little kids who play online into spilling their salt all over voice chat is an excellent usage of real players' time."

Satire - Mocking humor that pokes fun at the flaws, weaknesses, or past mistakes of its subject.

~"Back in the day, satire was a solemn seen element in a TV show. Nowadays, it's more common than actual quality of those shows."

Script - A document that outlines the plot, characters, their lines, and events in the plot.

~"There were script issues from day 1. The characters sounded like morons."

|| Season - "Season" has more than one sense:

1) (Tele.) A group of episodes with a normally one-year break in between each other. Commonly used to measure a show's age.

~"The end of season 6 of Dudes around the World is widely thought of as the time when the show stopped being good."

2) (VG.) A collection of DLC or other content.

~" Season 2 of Player Versus Everything is scheduled to bring new weapons, characters, and maps."

— finale (Tele.) - The last episode of a show's season.

~"The season finale to 4 was a pretty special episode that showed Guy and Ava finally getting back together." ||

Self-insert - When a creator puts themselves in their own work in some way.

~"My friend has a general dislike for self-inserts — he thinks they're disgusting and pathetic."

Sequel - The continuation of a story that happens later in the universe's time.

~"The sequel seems to never be as good as the original."

|| Series - See show below.

— finale (Tele.) - The episode that marks the end of a show.

~"Everyone dreaded the day the series finale would arrive, but they all agreed it was better than having the show go on for too long." ||

Set - The area where characters, their interactions, props, and backgrounds are placed and occur.

~"Everyone was doing so well until a dog from outside ran onto the set and distracted the whole cast."

Ship - "Ship" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) The man-made, fan-made, non-canonical relationship between two characters, typically a romantic or sexual one. May have a dedicated name blend of the people involved.

~"The Guy x Jessica ship was not as good of an idea as I thought."

2) (v.) To forcefully pair two characters in such a relationship.

~"Many of the fandom's members like to ship any two characters from their franchise. Any. Two."

Shovelware (VG.) - A low-to-no-quality game that only exists to make the world a worse place. Also refers to installments to more successful franchises that are barely official and generally pointless.

"The 90s were a shameful era in video game history. You had these terrible excuses for shovelware crap latching onto whatever popular consoles they could to slurp up even the slightest drop of relevance."

Show (Tele.) - Refers to a TV show.

~"The show lasted for a good eight seasons, but the creators felt burned out on it by 6."

Simp (Web.) - "Simp" has more than one sense.

1) (v.) To fall in love with a person to the point of being willing to do degrading tasks or nearly worship them for recognition.

~"It's fine to simp to a fictional person so as long as you aren't completely obnoxious and public about it."

2) (n.) A person who feels this way about another, let it be fictional or otherwise, but often fictional.

~"Eugh. That fandom's filed to the brim with shameless simps . Never touch their online communities."

Skin (VG.) - How players, enemies, items, and the environment look.

"If you don't like the game's default skin, you can always download new ones from the online store. They can radically alter the feel of the game without changing the gameplay itself."

Softlocking (VG.) - When a game enters a state in which it is still technically functional, but it becomes unplayable (e.g by placing the player in an impossible area they cannot move around in).

"Funny glitches are funny until they softlock you by throwing you into a 50-inch concrete wall from which you will never be freed."

Speech bubble (Com.) - A separate area of a scene in which dialogue is placed denoted by a usually white, rounded container.

~"Eventually, the speech bubbles grow to enormous sizes and crush the panels they're in."

Spin-off - An installation to a franchise separate from what could be considered its main line of installations or that sees at least one character from the Main Cast in a new setting.

~" 'Dudes around the World Unloaded' is a spin-off of 'Dudes around the World' that puts everyone in the future."

Spoof - A less obvious form of parody where elements are loosely taken from preexisting mediums.

~"There's this spoof character I created called Heemoar Zempzin and you'll never guess who he's supposed to be."

Stat (VG.) - Short for "statistic". Not to be visibly confused with strats. Stats are the factors of a character like their strength and speed that can be raised or lowered through certain kinds of interactions or item usages often seen in RPGs.

~"If your weapons have ugly stats, keep selling them until you can get something that isn't worthless."

Strat (VG.) - Short for "strategy". Not to be visibly confused with stats. This is a repeated way of gameplay experienced players will form to easily conquer parts of the game that would have otherwise been more challenging.

"Devising even simple strats can take a load off when you enter the tougher parts of the game."

Stock character - A person who has an archetypical role that consequentially renders them a predictable cast member.

~"She's highly picky about the types of roles she bases her stories around. She won't be satisfied if her ideas include stock characters in any way."

Surreal humor - Comedy that plays with strange or impossible events to get the audience to laugh.

~"I like using surreal humor because it gives me an excuse for putting my stupid ideas in my work."

T
Taunt (VG.) - A dance or dance-like gesture done by a victorious player to enrage defeated ones. This can also come in the form of insults or smartassery lines.

~"Our community made it dishonorable to taunt an opponent unless they deserved it. For the better, honestly."

Tearjerker - An installation that tends to or is said to be capable of making its audience cry.

~" 'Choo-Choo Goes Home' is a real tearjerker . It got me beaten up by real men by the end."

Trilogy - A set of three installations.

"The trilogy was written because the story was too long to fit in one book."

Trope - A recurring theme or element that has been recognized throughout fiction. We call these UnTrashes.

~" Tropes are more widespread than most people acknowledge. That's what we're here for, isn't it?"

Tsundere - Describes a character who treats somebody they have a crush on with a callous attitude (and gradually transitions to a sweeter treatment of their love interest). Orig. Japanese media.

~"You can tell if someone's being tsundere if she's being excessively rude to him for no reason. Repeatedly insulting innocent people is not okay."

U
Universe - The entirety of the world in which a franchise occurs.

~"The Dudes around the World universe is pretty small, only focusing on one planet and one society."

V
VO - Short for "voiceover", seen directly below.

Voiceover - An unseen person who speaks over media such as commercials and advertisements.

~"The voiceover felt a bit lifeless, like they didn't really care about the Advertised Product."

W
|| World - "World" has more than one sense:

1) (VG.) (n.) The entirety of an area where the player, NPCs, items, and more can be found. Mainly used to refer to truly large maps such as whole cities.

~"Vast worlds that lack side missions for the player to take feel vacant and lifeless."

2) (VG.) (n.) The collection of related levels in one area.

~"The game's world has seven smaller worlds in it, each being a unique biome. Confused yet?"

3) (n.) The whole of a franchise's realm where its characters and events are.

~"One story can have multiple worlds if separate inhabited planets are involved. This opens the creator up to more possibilities with their franchise."

—building - The addition of characters, locations, backstories, and other details to a world to make it feel more lifelike.

" Worldbuilding can really transform a franchise's central location. It can take any flat, generic American town and make it a place you wish you could visit." ||

Writer - A person who organizes a story or plot's events and dialogue.

~"I worked as a writer on the team behind 'Dudes around the World' for four years. People kept complaining about how my stories made no sense."

Y
Yandere - Describes a character who shows typical signs of love to their crush until those feelings get mentally extreme. Orig. Japanese media.

~"I knew this guy who said he wouldn't mind if a girl was yandere to him. I couldn't tell if he was joking even when he told me he was."

X
x (Web.) - "x" has more than one sense:

1) (interj.) Put between the names of two characters in a classic fanfic.

~"Come on. UnTrash Wiki x BOFSE. Let's DO IT."

2) (interj.) Indicates the collaboration of at least and usually two entities, such as franchises or companies.

~"Wait, no. This is where I wanted that other x example sentence. Stop thinking about it."

Z
Zoom (Mov., Tele.) - An instance of the camera's focus getting closer or farther from its subject.

~"Different zooms in cinema may have varied meanings. If used correctly, they can add to the drama of a scene and make its emotional impact stick."

Guide
Origin tags, their keys, and more elements of this dictionary are listed below.

Trivia

 * If this page was called the Dic of Fic or Dictionary of Fictionary, it'd be funnier.