From the outset, I’ll admit that I’m a fan of TV Tropes. I’m impressed with the sheer amount of writing tropes these people have been able to log and categorize. The one downside of the place, aside from the fact that TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life and Your Vocabulary, is that it’s very easy to get sucked into reading this stuff for long stretches of time.
For me, this site is valuable because, in addition to noting how the writing conventions works, it helps me notice what is a trope or a cliche. Note that I’m not saying run away from tropes, exactly… “After Last Season” was a drearily awful film of epic proportions and it doesn’t have very many tropes to speak of. On the other hand, there are many good stories that play tropes straight. For me, the trick to using tropes is to be conscious of the tropes you’re employing, as well as how to use them to interest the audience.
Just on a lark, I’ve looked back on my own work to see what tropes I’ve actually been using. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve played some of them straight (okay, sometimes painfully straight). I may, every so often, post examples of tropes that I’ve used in the Blitzverse for the sheer fun of it.
This is one of those occasions. I’ll try to stick to tropes that are fairly clear from the stuff I’ve already posted here, and leave out anything that comes across as spoilerish. This is only a partial list, mind, and it’s not in a particular order. Enjoy. 
The Blitzverse illustrates these following tropes…
Alliterative Name: Miranda Mason. I intentionally played this one straight. Won’t be the last time I’ll pull this one either, as you’ll eventually see.
The Cape: Meta Man, who Blitz readers will meet later on in “Borrowed Time”.
Comes Great Responsibility: Blitz, of course. But really, what series centered on a young superhero doesn’t invoke this to some extent?
Cool Big Sis: Miranda tries to be this, with varying degrees of success.
The Cowl: The Wraith is very admittedly a twist on this. This is probably one of my favorite archetypes, and this is coming from a guy who didn’t used to be much of a Batman fan.
Deus Ex Machina: If I’ve done my job right, heavily averted. This is one of my most hated tropes of all time, and it annoys me to no end whenever I see it. I firmly believe that my heroes should solve their own problems without relying on something else to come in and save them at the last minute.
Fiery Redhead: Amy. And then some. Especially when she’s in a nasty mood.
Foil: I designed the core cast members to be this to each other.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Amy and Night Spider. More than once.
I Just Want To Be Normal: Badly averted. Amy loves having her powers. Her sister Miranda, on the other hand…
Personality Powers: To some extent. Blitz is the impulsive speedster who wants the world to go faster. Miranda is the reporter who wants to shine a light of truth in the dark corners of the city. Surprisingly, I didn’t plan it like that, but hey, it fits.
Reckless Sidekick: Miranda believes Amy to be this. She’s wrong. (In fact, Amy is a twist on this trope.)
Red Headed Heroine: Amy Mason, aka Blitz. I mainly established her as a redhead to contrast Amy from the rest of my cast visually.
Super Hero Origin: What “Borrowed Time” is intended to be.
Super Registration Act: Believe it or not, a few years ago I had toyed with the idea of Licensed super-heroes, and even introduced it briefly in a Blitz story. My idea was that Licensing should be voluntary, because I knew that an actual government mandate would take the Blitzverse too far from the illusion of the real world. I mistakenly thought the Big Two would never do this because it would make their world unrelatable. Was I ever wrong. Naturally, I’ve distanced myself from this concept since to avoid comparisons with Civil War (and not just because I hated it, though that by itself would be a good reason).
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Played straight with Blitz and her supporting cast, but definitely averted with The Wraith and the Masked Marshal. I like my heroes to be heroes, but every once in a while it’s fun to write the occasional anti-hero…
I’ll leave this here for the time being. Maybe I’ll do more rounds of Troping With Blitz in future installments. I know there are quite a few I could mention that I missed before, so we’ll see.
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