Name doesn't match the description.: What The Hell Dad

The trope is more specific than just "bad dad". A better name would be something like Way Too Hands-Off Dad or Doesn't Care Dad. Something that won't get potholed in every example where some character's father does something bad. (disclaimer: i haven't checked to see if this is actually being done at all)

Either that or rewrite the trope to match the name.

edited 14th Jan '11 10:25:23 PM by billybobfred

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

All right, all right, I'll do the research. Numbers:

It was created in August of last year, and I don't know how good those numbers are for that but I want to say they're not good numbers.

Usage:

• Costume Quest: It's a fairly thin description, but it looks fine.
• Degrassi: It just says "this trope is used", so I can't tell.
• Digimon: Again, it just says "this trope is used"...
• Characters.Digimon Tamers: This is definitely a misuse, that's supposed to be Calling the Old Man Out.
• Family Guy: Yet another "this is used"...
• Gigantor: No description at all.
• Katamari Damacy: Nothing.
• Legacy Of The Force: "Just read the Ben parts", it says.
• Characters.Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Clearly used correctly.
• Mr Driller: Nothing.
• South Park: "All of them", no details.
• Supernatural: Vague. If I had ever seen the show, I'd probably know whether this was misuse or not, but I haven't.
• The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian: Nothing but a name.
• The Boondocks: Not familiar with the work, but it appears to be an inferred attribute of a character that doesn't make any actual appearances. But not a misuse, if that's the case.
• The Venture Brothers: No freaking details.

That's 2 definite good uses, 1 definite misuse, and a handful of detail-free ones. Is it a problem if a trope seems to lend itself to being slapped on a page with no explanation as to how it's used in the work?

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

without taking a stance on the validity of the trope, I'd say the South Park entry is correct.

Katamari Damacy is probably okay, but a little iffy. Let me break it down for you based on what the description says.

Description	Katamari Damacy
"Like an equal"	Clearly views his son as an inferior.
"no real need of monitoring"	Definitely true. "Go down to Earth and roll up everything you can find to fix what I broke."
"no need of instruction"	The only instruction he gives is "You can make it bigger."
"or the rest of the whole parenting game"	He's pretty hands-off, all right.

edited 15th Jan '11 6:51:55 AM by BlackWolfe

But soft! What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick! And Juliet is out cold.

\*poke*

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

I think you're absolutely right — the title is misleading in suggesting any bad dad. The text could do with some clarifying expansion. The gender politics could go — but it is gender-specific trope.

Suggested replacement:

• Macho Dad Neglected Son

(BTW what on earth is the bit about Incest Yay doing there? How on earth does this trope lead to that?)

edited 21st Jan '11 2:24:51 AM by Camacan

BTW, how does this differ from When You Coming Home, Dad??

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

• What the Hell, Dad?: Dad views his son as an equal and as such doesn't seem to mentor him much, but that doesn't mean he's not still around.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Dad is a workaholic and is never home.

edited 21st Jan '11 11:27:06 AM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Then the name is really off.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

Doesn't this fall under Calling the Old Man Out?

It actually makes sense; it just clashes really obnoxiously with What the Hell, Hero?. It's not a sentence ("What the hell, Dad? Why did you ruin my childhood?"), it's a noun phrase ("He's a what-the-hell kind of dad.")

132 is the rudest number.

Does that mean it should be What-The-Hell Dad?

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Supernatural is very much not an example of this trope. The dad on that show was depicted as extremely controlling, trying to turn his sons into himself. He did pretty much nothing but instruct them.

Magneto's a bad example too. He was told that his children were stillborn and only found out they were alive when they were already adults, so when is he supposed to have done this bad parenting?

"Dad who doesn't bother teaching his children and just lets them do things that any sane parent would recognize as dangerous" is certainly a valid trope, and if we don't have it somewhere else, then What-The-Hell Dad isn't a bad name. But the page as it stands seems to be just a bunch of random "bad parenting" examples.

Near as I can tell almost none of the examples in the article fit all of the description. Mainly they fail on the bit where they are supposed to view their son as an equal. That part needs to go if this trope is going to even begin to work.

This is still a signature.

I'm not sure how important that part actually is. Or more accurately, I don't think that that's a good way of expressing an important part of the relationship. The father doesn't view the son as an equal, but he does expect the same things from him as he would from a capable adult, regardless of the son's actual age or ability.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

When I first saw the trope name, my first impression that was it was a snowclone of What the Hell, Hero?, which would have made it a duplicate to Calling the Old Man Out. I'm inclined to think it could do with a rename to avoid confusion between it and the similarly-named trope.

How about Free Range Father as a good name? Meshes nicely with the description of Free Range Kids.