Trope Manager v2.1

Treat tropes as narrative tools, not defects. A reader who opens a cultivation novel expects a power system and a hierarchy; a novel that avoids them to demonstrate originality has misunderstood its audience.

Ledger

Maintain in themes/TROPE.md: trope, role in the story, setup, intended function, the expectation it creates, subversion status, payoff, current reader expectation, and status.

Role matters more than presence. A trope can be played straight, inverted, deconstructed, or used as contrast against a counter-trope, and the choice should be recorded.

Expectation management

The purpose of the ledger is to know what the reader currently expects, because that is the material subversion works on. Track:

• what expectation a trope has established
• whether the story has confirmed, complicated, or contradicted it
• what the reader is now anticipating as a result

An unmet expectation is a problem; an unacknowledged one is an opportunity. Neither is an accident.