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Context Administrivia / PeopleSitOnChairs

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1%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=s1y5yzte8kpngpjpphiv6p9k
2%% Image kept on page per IP thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1610644989041106200
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5[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheGodfather https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/psoc_godfather.png]]]]
6[[caption-width-right:350:[-'''Tropes''': {{Chiaroscuro}}, SlouchOfVillainy, SharpDressedMan, DarkIsEvil, DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster\
7'''Not a trope''': Sitting on a chair-] ]]
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9%% Caption selected per original IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the Caption Repair thread:
10%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
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12->''"While this has no plot bearing, Nanoha from ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' is left-handed."''
13-->-- '''Example from the now-deleted page [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130110090508/https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EveryoneIsRighthanded "Everyone Is Righthanded"]]'''
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15{{Trope}}s are conventions used in storytelling to convey some sort of information to the audience. But when a character does something as trivial as sit on a chair, that's just something that happens normally or incidentally during the storytelling. Sitting in a chair isn't meant to convey meaning -- it's not a storytelling convention. In short, it's Administrivia/NotATrope.
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17Unfortunately, here at Website/TVTropes, we occasionally get suggestions in the TropeLaunchPad to add a trope along these lines, and we have to tell the suggesting troper "no, you can't add that". This page is a handy and evocative way to do that; it's saying that the proposed trope is no better than pointing out that occasionally, [[TitleDrop people sit on chairs]]. So if someone is calling your idea a "chair"/"chairs" or "PSOC", this is what they mean. They're saying that your idea is, once again, not a trope.
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19Note that the criticism here isn't simply that the idea is "too common" or "too broad" to be a trope. Administrivia/NoTropeIsTooCommon; there are some extremely common {{cliche}}s and OmnipresentTropes that appear very often in fiction -- maybe as often as chairs -- but these are still storytelling devices. For instance, there is TheCouch, which is something characters sit on, but it has a purpose that correlates with [[StandardizedSitcomHousing the visual layout of house floor plans on TV]]. Conversely, an idea can still be "sitting in a chair" even if it [[Administrivia/TooRareToTrope rarely happens at all]]; for example, there may be only three works of fiction in which a person walks down a street called Jameson Street, but unless that name has some relevance to the storytelling beyond just being a street name, it's still a "chair"; there's no meaningful pattern or connection between these works, and the name of the street itself conveys nothing about the work.
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21One good sign of an idea being a "chair" is if, when the trope is played straight, it has no effect on the narrative, has no meaning, and doesn't change how the work is perceived. If you can't imagine that it's being used to [[{{Plots}} create plot developments]], [[CharacterizationTropes flesh out a character]], [[GarnishingTheStory add some flavor to the narrative]], or [[VideogameTropes change how players play a game]], there's a decent chance that what you're thinking of isn't a trope, just something that happens a lot in media.
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23Indeed, people sitting in chairs ''can'' be a trope if there's that added element of a meaningful connection or pattern to recognize. For instance, the chair may be [[CoolChair impossibly awesome]], which gives you an idea of who might be sitting in it. Or the chair might be a more functional SuperWheelchair. Or the first time we encounter the character, their back may be to the audience until they [[ChairReveal swivel around in their chair]]. Or they may be sitting in a chair that's [[ThisIsMyChair claimed by someone else]]. Or the BigBad might be [[SlouchOfVillainy slouching in the chair]] and showing off their badness. Or the chair might be [[EmptyChairMemorial conspicuous by its emptiness]]. These are all real tropes involving a chair and somebody sitting (or not sitting) in it. But what makes them tropes is that there's something ''meaningful'' to the characters in the story using the chair in such a way.
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25The best way to illustrate how "sitting in a chair" is not a trope is to show the situation in which it ''could'' be a trope. This whole time, we've been assuming that ''all'' humans sit on chairs, when this is [[SmallReferencePools not necessarily the case]]; one of the basic anthropological divides of RealLife is between people who sit at ground level (''e.g.'' on a carpet, tatami, cushion, or the ground itself) and people who sit above ground level (''i.e.'' in a chair). If a character in the ground-sitter class doesn't [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand grok]] chairs -- they don't understand what a chair is for, or they use it incorrectly or awkwardly -- that ''may'' be a trope along the lines of "Doesn't Grok Chairs". But you'd have to show ''(a)'' the failure to grok chairs carries some meaning within the story; ''(b)'' this happens often enough in different works for it to be a recognizable pattern; and ''(c)'' it's a meaningful deviation from the ordinarily expected behavior, which is why we notice it. Since everyone is ''expected'' to grok chairs, it's only meaningful when they don't.
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27If you're on the TropeLaunchPad and you're still not sure whether or not your idea amounts to People Sitting on Chairs, try asking, "Administrivia/IsThisTropable"
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29See also {{Consistency}} (for the other aspect of defining a trope) and Administrivia/SquarePegRoundTrope (when something is not an example of an otherwise real trope). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Do not confuse]] with SeatedTropes (a list of legitimate tropes that just happen to involve sitting) or AvertedTrope (there is an actual trope; it just doesn't show up in a particular work).
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31No [[TropesThatWillNeverHappen/TooUniversal examples]] here, please. They're not necessary.[[note]][[JustForFun/PeopleSitOnChairs Psst!]][[/note]]
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35%%Do not add "Contrast with Chairs Sit On People" or its new name Too Rare To Trope. "Contrast" is used when the two items mentioned are opposites. Chairs Sit On People is not the opposite trope to People Sit On Chairs; it just switches the word order. Too Rare to Trope is also not the opposite of this trope because PSOC is not about rarity.
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