This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Amethyst: Okay. I'm done for now. (I'll try to go in and fill-in the series information while I can, although feel free to do it yourselves in the meantime.)
Lale: This is a GREAT idea. But kind of confusing. Are the only tropes included on each page ones Hollywood uses in films/shows that take place during that period, or that were popular in real literature/media created during that actual period?
Amethyst: It's just a list of the shorthand system that Hollywood likes to use to define historical eras. Some of these eras will overlap with other tropes, and I try to note that when I can. I hope it's a useful tool for anyone who wants to note a historical setting for a show but who didn't have any options for doing so before.
Should some of this go under Settings?
Solandra: *boggles at the long list of eras* Cripes, that's a lot of entries. But kudos to the person who took time to create this section. I'll see what i can add to them.
Amethyst: Okay, fixed The French Revolution
Tanto: Ugh, this seems way too formidible for me. Maybe if you'd posted them one at a time for a month, but now it just seems daunting.
I have to admit that the first time I saw this page in its current form I though "Yes! Finally, a way to break up The Oldest Ones in the Book into something vaguely resembling coherency!" But now that I've thought on it a little more, I can't think of a way to make that work — it doesn't really fit with the entry's current purpose. Sigh.
Ununnilium: I keep tellin' ya, Wiki Word things that can be Wiki Word-ed! Otherwise, it'll screw up the indexes, like so.
Fast Eddie: Genius entry. Witness the posts. Witness the genius.
Tulling: 20 Minutes into the Future and The Future surely aren't historical periods.
Fast Eddie: History only happens in the past? Catch up, Tully. It ain't like that.
Paul A: We need a ruling before things get completely bifurcated — is the "common tropes from this period" list for Tropes Appearing In Works Using This Setting, or for Tropes Originating In The Actual Historical Period This Setting Is Based On?
I agree - compare the Wedding Singer which looks and feels like some over-the-top fluffy '80s nostalgia magazine with something like Pretty in Pink which was made in the actual '80s. UnknownTroper
Robert: The first, Paul A. It's all about how we today view the past, as summed up in the snarky paragraphs at the head of each entry. We've already got a page for categorising tropes by date of origin - The Oldest Ones in the Book.
The Editor: A lot of the "decade" entries talk about stuff made in that decade (i.e. Wall Street and The Karate Kid for The '80s) though
Robert: Stuff made in recent decades is a major influence on popular perceptions of those decades, so that's fine. Stuff written in the 1380's, on the other hand, is not a major influence on people's perceptions of that time - few could name even one story from then.
Sticking to Tropes Appearing In Works Using This Setting fits better with the discussion leading to this page's creation, and keeps it distinct from The Oldest Ones in the Book.
Ununnilium: Hmmmmmmmm, indeed.
Amethyst: Welp, everyone seems to be having fun with this. I'm glad. ^_^ And good point, Robin Good Fellow.
Harpie Siren: Took that out, because it dosen't belong here, it belongs in the World War II entry... Remember to just link to depictions of eras here.
Unknown Troper: What about The '40s to cover the whole decade, not just the war half.
Amethyst: Because in Hollywood History, World War II was a big enough event to eclipse everything else that happened during that decade. Ask people to come up with a shorthand description of "what happened in the 5 years after WW 2 and before 1950", and they—if they're like me— will draw a big huge blank. (Not to say it wasn't an important time in history, tho...)
Ununnilium: Plus, that whole area, tropewise, fits neatly into either World War II or The '50s. As well, evocative names are more useful than generic ones.
Susan Davis: Likewise, I assert that we don't need The '30s, because everything between The Roaring '20s and World War II is remembered in Hollywood History as The Great Depression.
Dark Sasami: Agreed, and I wish this hadn't gone the wrong way—The '30s should be ditched for The Great Depression.
Unknown Trooper: If you wanted to be funny you could always use the Sound of Music's "the Golden Thirties" (what was so golden about it :) )
Susan Davis: "Ancient", in Hollywood terms, means "before the fall of Rome", so I found slightly more descriptive names for "AncientWherever" except for the three civilizations from the actual ancient world.
Susan Davis: Likewise, although "the Romantic era" correctly casts a wider net over the early 19th Century, as far as Hollywood is concerned, English history skipped directly from the Regency to the late Victorian period.
Amethyst: Okay. I went in and simplified the whole Dark Age thru Middle Ages sections, because I felt they were getting too held up in pedantism. (This is Hollywood history after all. What does it have to do with accuracy anyway?) I figure two eras (Dark Age Europe and The Middle Ages ) ought to cover everything from that period.
priopaxis: What about Atlantis ?
Mister Six: I think you mean pedantry. :)
Night Stalker: Does the Edwardian era appear often enough in British productions to be worth it's own entry? For that matter, does it ever show up in anything out of Hollywood?
Eh, pedantic or not, some kind of dates were needed. The main thing now is, what about the horrible muddle between Dark Age Europe and The Low Middle Ages ? My own feeling is that the two should be bundled together under the title The Dark Ages, which is what everybody calls them any way. (And let's face it - to the Hollywood mind, the Dark Ages and the (entire) Middle Ages are synonymous anyway, so one may as well make the former a sub-category of the latter.)
