Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
|
|
|
redirected from Main.JeanGreyEscalation
alt title(s): Jean Grey Escalation You see that church over there? I built it with my bare hands but do they call me O'Reilly the church builder? Nooo!
You see that school over there? I taught there for 30 years but do they call me O'Reilly the educator? Nooo!
Although most of the situations mentioned here don't come to near the degree of the first quote, it seems some people like to take some characters and narrowly define those characters based on one trait or event, often to the exclusion of other, often more important, parts of that character.
Often, this is perfectly understandable, if that trait or event is stands out more than anything else the character did. But just as often it doesn't, and it can seem as some people just aren't paying attention to what else that character did.
Let's take a hypothetical show Bob Loves Alice. There is a fan favorite episode where Bob gets caught up in a game of darts. He isn't that good, and he never really tries darts again.
A bunch of fans like that episode enough in loads of Fan Fiction, Bob sucking at darts, is his defining characteristic and it's what everyone knows him for, when in actual Canon, it's never really mentioned.
In short, it's like Flanderization, but instead of actually making the character like that, everyone just thinks the character is like that.
Sounds silly, but it's all too real.
This can also turn even worse when those fans start Running The Asylum in that show's later seasons, and now everyone on the show talks about how Bob sucks at darts, while ignoring all the other things Bob has done since then. But you never see Bob playing darts, because surely we've seen enough of that.
No, we haven't. We've seen it once. And since this is placing all of Bob's more prominent traits and events behind this minor one, it even risks taking away a dimension of Character Depth.
But this is human nature, and if done in fiction, it can make for great tragedy or comedy.
Die For Our Ship victims are a subset of this, best remembered for being the ones that got in the way of a lot of people's OTPs.
Compare Flanderization, Did Not Do The Research, Dead Unicorn Trope, Ink Stain Adaptation, Plot Tumor.
Examples:
Literature
- Hamlet is well-known for being indecisive and angsty, spending scenes contemplating his navel instead of doing something. It's gotten to the point where "he's a Hamlet" means "he's indecisive." But in the actual play, Hamlet acts stupidly rash just as often as he acts stupidly timid. Which means...
- Almost every Don Quixote fan knows that Cervantes created the character to mock chivalry, by creating an idealistic fool whose ideals don't work in a cold, gray world without hope — to the point where a huge Misaimed Fandom sees Quixote as sympathetic, or even as someone to admire and imitate. Quixote is not just an idealistic fool, but also a bully who uses his "knighthood" as an excuse to avoid paying for things and boss people around (even though he never succeeds at it). He also doesn't believe that knighthood is its own reward, saying many times that a knight eventually gets a princess and a small kingdom. Quixote's bullying was toned down in the stage version Man Of La Mancha, which is probably why it isn't remembered well.
- Most people only go on about sparkly vampires when they snark about Twilight, which is sad as there are many reasons to snark them; like rainbow sparkly vampires.
Comic Books
- Jean Grey is probably the most unfortunate victim of this. How many times did she genuinely come Back From The Dead? Once. No Seriously. If you don't count fake-outs, which are just par for the course with all superhero Cliff Hangers, and if you don't count clones, androids, and shape shifters, which is only slightly less common with all superheroes, she came back only once. After she comes back from Joe Quesada's anti-redhead tirade, she'll have come back twice. This puts her on the low end of comic book resurrections. Anyone who claims she comes back all the time, that coming back is the only thing of note she does (aside from going mad as Dark Phoenix), and/or that coming back this time would just be another in a tired line of resurrections is either lying or Did Not Do The Research.
- And she wasn't even really thought of this way until fans of early eighties Marvel started Running The Asylum, and that's when they shoehorned her into this role, ignoring the 20 years of genuine Character Development she had since she came back. So this insistence on her not coming back this time is trying to avert something that wasn't true in the first place. Naturally fans who actually followed her since the mid eighties are not exactly pleased.
- She used to be the Trope Namer for this very trope, but tropers kept proving the point of the trope by assuming it meant she actually comes back all the time, not that she's been painted this way.
- She has been killed and come back to life more than once genuinely though. Near the end of Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men, in the arc "Planet X", Wolverine kills her while they are on Asteroid M hurtling towards the sun, and she gets "reborn". And in the mini-series Phoenix: Endsong, Wolverine (again) kills her many times, each time she comes back to life with a little more control over herself than the Phoenix has. Both of these occasions are in cannon and are certainly not fake outs.
- Surprisingly, the '90s cartoon didn't do this to Jean, instead passing this off to Angel; even in the comics, he's most recognized for his stint as Archangel, and as such, that's the only aspect of his characterization that we see in the cartoon. In fact, there isn't a single episode in the series that he's in that doesn't have Apocalypse in it, or have a reminder of his stint as the villain's herald.
- One of Lucy's personality-cementing moments in Peanuts is the famous trick of pulling a football away from Charlie Brown optimistically trying to kick it. The actual frequency of this gag has more to do with the sheer length of the strip; Schultz specifically commented he only did these strips once a year at most to make sure the joke stayed fresh and keep Lucy from appearing too nasty.
- John Jameson is most well known for becoming the Man-Wolf, although he was cured in the '70s. Also, he hasn't been an astronaut for years.
- Occurred with the many-monikered Professor Hank Pym of The Avengers, who once hit his wife during a Face Heel Turn which also included him killing old enemies in cold blood, and releasing murderous robots on New York just so he could look like a hero when he stopped them. Writers have explored the issue with various levels of grace after he turned face again, although more than once him hitting Wasp has devolved into a crude running gag which still colors newer depictions of him. Perhaps the most extreme form came in Marvel Zombies, when he bit her head off - to his disgust (zombies hate the taste of zombies) and to little effect (zombie, anyone?). On the other hand, even worse might be the version in The Ultimates, who beats her up, sprays her with bug spray when she tries to get away, and has his ants attack her.
- On the other hand, no one ever brings up that the Wasp used Hank's clear mental illness as a means to get him to the altar.
- Likewise, the frequency with which Hank Pym has changed identities (from Ant-Man to Giant-Man to Goliath to Yellowjacket) has become a running gag as well.
- Tony Stark / Iron Man's alcoholism has generally been worked into his story with both respect and ridicule. Of course, at this point, if that's what he's remembered for, he's lucky...
- Roy Harper, a.k.a Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow, has narrowly skirted the edges of this trope. His most memorable moment was his 1971 battle with heroin addiction
 ◊. While he hasn't lapsed back into addiction, the fact that he's a former junkie is a significant part of his backstory, and comes up regularly — almost to the point of being a Disability Superpower ("That was tough, but nothing compared to giving up drugs!").
- The second Speedy, Mia Dearden, is almost exclusively known for being a former prostitute and HIV positive.
- It's worth noting that Roy's battle with drugs only lasted two issues. Compare to Iron Man's alcoholism, which lasted much longer and was portrayed more realistically.
- Hal Jordan, macked a teenager.
- Guy Gardner, "One Punch!", and his '80s "complete pig" behavior tend to overshadow his current Toblerone status.
- Captain Marvel (the alien one of Marvel Comics, not DC's Shazam one) is best known for dying of cancer - something he didn't like finding out when he "came back" (read: arrived in the present day via Timey Wimey Ball). Though we ultimately find out that he's not the real Captain Marvel and there was no Timey Wimey Ball.
- DC Comics supervillain Doctor Light was a largely unused character who gained some relevance when it was revealed that he had raped the wife of a superhero. Since then, the fact that he's a rapist has become such an integral part of his character that he could very well be renamed Doctor Rape.
- Green Arrow and Black Canary had a twenty-year-long romantic relationship, during which time GA was raped (once) and kissed another woman (once). Somehow, both writers and fans take from this that Arrow is a total slut who was constantly sleeping around on the long-suffering Canary.
Western Animation
- Haru from Avatar The Last Airbender showed up in a recent episode with
a dumb looking an ultra-sexy mustache, and the fandom still hadn't stopped making up jokes concerning it. This is partially because a certain internet parody series played him as a self-absorbed Camp Gay pretty boy several weeks before he reappeared.
- Cartoon example, played for laughs: Grandpa Max from Ben 10 and his myriad strange and stomach-turning concoctions. It started with an obscure herbal remedy for the common cold, then as a believable survivalist-skill sort of thing including the eating of grubworms that happen to be there, but quickly found its way into the kitchen, resulting in a very Iron Chef meets Fear Factor sort of meal when he cooks.
- Actually, this was there from day (and episode) one. The very first meal Grandpa serves Ben and Gwen on the summer vacation trip where the vast majority of their adventures take place is a huge bowl of worms. The obscure herbal remedy was probably one of the tamest of his established attempts.
Film
- Darth Vader has the You Have Failed Me trope as his Never Live It Down, despite only doing it twice in the movies.
- Alternatively, his now-famous Luke I Am Your Father moment.
- Vader was going to do it a third time (or chronologically speaking, a first), but was convinced not to by Tarkin. The general fear among his subordinates (and the fact that nobody seems shocked by his summary executions) also made it clear long before there was an Expanded Universe that Vader did this kind of thing fairly regularly outside the movies.
Live Action TV
Anime
- Bright Noa the only character to be a main character in Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Chars Counterattack is best known not for being a main character in so many series, but for hitting his crew members. Fandom loves to cite how much Bright slaps people for very little reason, when the only time he did that a lot was Zeta Gundam, in the others he only hit people when they did something stupid and that was done rarely.
- On the other hand, his
"Correction Slap" and "Correction Punch" Brightslaps are generally well received by the fandom, who tend to credit him for turning whiners into badasses.
- Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto has pretty good reasons to be angsty and brooding, but fandom practically can't let go of him being angsty, angry and nasty, to the point that some fans hate him for how his angst defines him completely to the point of making him a traitor just for the sake of revenge. The people that dislike him also seem to think he was a total Jerk Ass, instead of just aloof and somewhat rude.
- Also from Naruto is Sai. He asked Naruto once when they first met if he(Naruto) had male genetalia, as an insult no less. But from the way to fans talk you'd think every other word out of Sai's mouth is penis, even as he runs around brandishing a measuring tape.
- Another one with a penchant for dying was Shiryu, the Dragon Saint from Saint Seiya. He also has blinded himself a couple of times, not counting the OV As. This is not so noticeable in the USA, but the south american larger fandom frequently jokes about it.
- The title character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has a tendency to take Defeat Means Friendship to ridiculous levels of excess, and many fans act as if she's truly looking for excuses to blow people up. However, the reason she's so quick to attack is because her weapons are incapable of killing people.
- Gundam Wing. Just Gundam Wing. Every member of the primary cast of the show has at least one minor trait or famous moment that ended up being their standard fanfic portrayal. Heero's subdued emotions and early self-loathing have made people think he's an emotionless Emo, Wu Fei's arrogance and single instance of calling a woman he didn't know "Woman" make him a psychopathic misogynist...the worst part of it, in This Troper's opinion, is that the people espousing these portrayals consider themselves true fans of the series.
Video Games
- Just like the Jean Grey example itself, Zero from Mega Man X is known in the fandom for dying and resurrecting at the drop of a hat, which isn't exactly fair. He's only died canonically, what,
4/5 3 times? And he's not revived the last time. Scratch that, he came back as a biometal. In the words of Sigma: "ZELLO! JUZDIE!" Perhaps this is because Zero is The Obi Wan and the writers thought he was too Bad Ass to keep dead.
- According to the creator, Zero was originally supposed to stay dead the first time. It didn't work out.
- Kain's susceptibility to being brainwashed in Final Fantasy IV. Kain is in the party at the beginning of the game. He leaves after the Mist disaster and is under Golbez's control until the Tower of Zot, whereupon he breaks out and rejoins the party. He then leaves again about an hour of playtime later when Golbez reestablishes his control, and does not leave the party after rejoining some time later (whereupon, on Edge protesting his return, Kain asks that Edge kill him if he gets brainwashed again). As you can see, it only happens twice. Fans have exaggerated this to a Heel Face Revolving Door.
- Despite resolving the majority of his issues and becoming a confident leader by the end of the game, Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife will always be known as an angsty, navel-gazing introvert. Likewise, Aerith has been painted so heavily with The Messiah and Yamato Nadeshiko brushes that most people forget that she was a spunky, energetic young woman who fell in love with an Expy of her dead first boyfriend and frequently caused problems by running off on her own. Square Enix haven't exactly been discouraging these viewpoints, either.
- Samus Aran of Metroid fame has a reputation for having any planet or space station she steps on destroyed by the time she leaves. The actual truth of this has varied over the years, but here are the facts:
- In Metroid, she visits Zebes (or Zebeth). Technical limitations make it really unclear the extent of the Load Bearing Boss's destruction, but later games make it clear it survived.
- Metroid II takes place on SR-388, which survives.
- The ending to Metroid II does imply that SR 388 is destroying itself — that, in fact, as Samus kills the evolved Metroids, their deaths cause the planet to destroy itself. It isn't until Metroid Fusion that it is clarified that the cataclysm was on a much smaller scale.
- Super Metroid starts out on a space station which gets destroyed (through no fault of her own). Samus then goes back to Zebes, and blows it up via Load Bearing Boss.
- Metroid Fusion takes place on a space station orbiting SR-388. She ends up having to Colony Drop the space station into SR-388 to stop the X parasites, destroying both. This is the only point were this association was literately 100% true, though Metroid Prime below was released almost concurrently with Fusion.
- Metroid Prime starts on an enemy space station which crashes into Tallon IV below. (You later go through the station's wreck underwater.) Tallon IV survives, thanks to Samus' intervention.
- It's a spaceship turned space station, and Samus is not responsible for its falling to the planet.
- She destroyed its Load Bearing Boss, loss of power caused it to de-orbit.
- Zero Mission is a remake/update of Metroid 1, replacing it in Canon without changing anything relevant here.
- Although she does explore a Space Pirate mothership, which later explodes due to Load Bearing Boss yet again.
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is set on Aether, which has a recently formed Dark World that Samus destroys, saving the regular planet.
- Metroid Prime: Hunters has four planets and/or space stations, none of which are destroyed, despite the fact that you have to escape from the planets for no reason other than that there's an escape timer. The Can of the Sealed Evil In A Can does explode after the Sealed Evil is destroyed, however.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption also has multiple planets and space stations which survive. The thing that gets blown up is Phaaze, which is some sort of evil radioactive planet spaceship thing .
- The conclusion is that Samus is present when a lot of worlds explode (Zebes, Phaaze, SR-388, a couple of space stations), but she's only been responsible for three (SR-388 and the BSL space station in Fusion, and Phaaze in Corruption). So, it's not so much her fault as shoddy design.
- In Fire Emblem 7, Erk makes a few small comments to Priscilla about the stress of being Serra's escort. Somehow, this equals him bashing Serra to everyone who will listen every time he opens his mouth. Also, Legault's flirtations with Heath in their supports result in a lot of fangirls forgetting the other, more plot-driven aspects of his character.
- Silent Hill 2's Pyramid Head is shown to be raping a fellow monster once and otherwise just stalks James (albeit in a fairly aggressive manner); Fanon characterizes him as a rapist-murderer on par with the Reavers.
Real Life
- Joel Schumacher directed Falling Down, The Lost Boys, A Time To Kill, St. Elmo's Fire, and Flatliners, along with quite a few other movies, but most people seem to think that his entire career consisted of giving Batman batnipples.
- In the early 80s, Austalian footballer John Burke pushed over an umpire and attacked a spectator. He was given a ten year suspension, effectively ending his career, but the footage has been circulating ever since. Commentator "Slug" Jordan's "He's done well, the boy" in response to the incident hasn't helped.
|
|
