Stopping trope decay: Color Character

For years, this trope sat as just a trope for a superhero naming convention, and it was fine.

Recently though there's been a rash of people adding in any character name that happens to have a colour in it whether it actually fits the trope or not. There's a lot of characters that aren't superheroes and even more of them

The problem is, a lot of the times these names don't fit any trope whatsoever. The colour is incidental to the name and doesn't actually give any information about the character. Grey as a last name seems to be a common one to add regardless of if the character has any ties to the colour or not.

I don't want this trope to just decay into People Sit On Chairs so I could use some help.

All I see on the page indicating that it's unique to superheroes is the first line saying that it's commonly used to name them. Should that change?

The description doesn't give the readers much to go on, so it be expanded on.

edited 10th Feb '11 10:49:16 PM by SpellBlade

Well, as the trope description is all of one sentence, the fact that sentence is about superheroes should be a give away. Let me tweak the arrangement to see if that helps.

edited 10th Feb '11 10:50:49 PM by shimaspawn

That should help the page.

Thanks for the advice, Spell.

You're welcome. I'm happy to see that people are trying to prevent Trope Decay.

So just to be clear: Where would normal color names go? Is Sirius Black just a name, with no trope attached to it? The only thing I can think of is Generic Name, but that's slightly different (specifically names that are ridiculously generic).

Sirius Black is just a name. It has nothing to do with colors. He doesn't wear black, or have black motifs, or anything like that. It's just his name, not a trope.

Not all names are tropes. Some names are just names. I really think the naming tropes in general need to be cleaned up. I take care of this one, but there are a lot of them that are just messes where anything tangentially related is thrown in.

I'm guessing in his first appearance the name Black was intended to make him sound more menacing / dark, as him not being the actual villain was the twist.

Less of a color motif name, more of a "color as misleadingly symbolic of personality/alignment" name.

edited 12th Feb '11 5:41:31 PM by KnownUnknown

I think this trope should be not narrowed to names of "superheroes," but include code names, as in The Scarlet Pimpernel and other such characters in the "masked hero" genre.

To add: Perhaps the primary definition should make this about code names or real names constructed like code names, which would disallow Violet Parr as an example since it's her civilian name.

To add further: Well, I don't really know The Incredibles. Perhaps it's because I'm just not a fan of superheroes.

edited 12th Feb '11 6:06:42 PM by Prfnoff

Violet Parr is disallowed. It's her name name. The Scarlet Pimpernel would count for the same reason Batman would count. He's a superhero. He's just older than the term is so most people don't think of him as such, but if he was created now, he'd be considered a superhero.

edited 16th Feb '11 12:25:56 PM by shimaspawn

I added a note that masked heroes count though. I still think they fit under superheroes.

That said, I'm still getting more bad examples shoe horned in.

Well, it needs a better explanation of why it's a trope. Right now, it's just "color as part of their name." How is that a device? what makes it a trope? Add the information that the color also has some sort of relevance to the character either related to their powers, their appearance, their costume, whatever it is. It's decaying because there's no definition to it.

I added in some more detail to it.

It is hard to see the description as anything other than "character with a color in their name".

Here's the description as it is at the moment.

''Color Character A common superhero, and masked hero naming convention where the hero has a colour as part of their name.

Generally this colour is incorporated into their powers, their appearance, or their costume in some way. Expect it to be pointed out if it isn't. Most names of this type take the form of Colour Noun.

A Sister Trope to Something Person, where the hero or villain has his prominent costume colour as part of his code name.''

The second & third sentences say to me that it doesn't really matter if the color is part of their power appearance or costume. So is it important or not?

Also what about some of the reasons for why characters had colors in their name? Such as an easy way to differentiate between characters from different companies? Or even just Trademarking purposes?

I mean, Centaur Comics had a hero called The Arrow, so DC Comics called their archer Green Arrow & Fawcett Comics called theirs Golden Arrow.

Other characters such as Shrinking Violet were named after an expression (and for that matter, I believe the violet in that expression refers to the flower, not the color).

So if the trope is not just "character with a color in their name" what is it exactly?

edited 21st Feb '11 5:26:15 AM by SuperScrounge

It's when a superhero (or masked hero) use a colour in their code name.

The actual reason for this trope? It's kind of tradition. It dates back to the Golden Age of comic books, but no one can really say why it started. Just that it's one of easy ways to make a superhero name sound like a superhero name.

There was more of a description at one time. It was cut because people were misusing the trope and it was deemed better to make the trope definition clearer and a bit more laconic as a "A common superhero, and masked hero naming convention where the hero has a colour as part of their name." And that by making it shorter, people would understand that it was just about superheroes.

Apparently though, whether it's long or short, people will ignore words in the trope description to shoe horn in whatever they like. You can flat out tell someone that something is a trope about superheroes, but they'll just completely ignore you.

edited 21st Feb '11 8:58:19 AM by shimaspawn

The only part of the trope description people are guaranteed (well, not guaranteed, but near enough) to read is the name, hence why tropes with a very clear and concise description, but non-indicative name, will be misused. The name Color Character does not sound like it's inherently about superheroes, so people misuse it.

I have to agree there. If I'd been the one who named it, I'd have chosen something different. Should we rename it? It currently doesn't have any bad examples or bad wiks but, well, that's because I purge them.

This thread has shown that the trope's being misused, so that could work.

The title should should have "superhero" or something that makes the distinction clear.

So it is just "character with a color in their name", but restricted to superheroes & masked heroes? *shrug* Okayyyyy.

shimaspawn - "The actual reason for this trope? It's kind of tradition. It dates back to the Golden Age of comic books, but no one can really say why it started."

1. Older than that. Earlier you mentioned The Scarlet Pimpernel (although technically he was named after a flower which had a color in it's name). While not a hero The Yellow Kid used the Color Noun naming convention (with IIRC a comic strip, musical, & magazine bearing the name). Pulp Magazines had Color Noun characters earlier. The Crimson Clown in 1927. The Green Ghost in 1934. The first Black Bat appeared in 1933, (the second appeared in 1939).

2. No one can say why??? Didn't I just list some reasons in my previous post?

• One reason is to make the character distinctive & more easily trademarkable.

Green Arrow is different from The Arrow, as well as Golden Arrow & Scarlet Arrow (all golden age archers for different companies.)

• Another reason is that the name is taken from something else, a popular saying or the name of something.

A black cat is is supposedly unlucky to cross, so what a better name for a heroine who causes bad luck for villains?

A hero named the Blue Blaze was doubtless inspired by the expression blue blazes. Blue Streak was probably inspired by the phrase blue streak.

It is known that Green Lantern was named after a green train lantern.

• Some colors may be chosen for a meaning behind the color. Either some kind of symbolism (fear, blood, goodness, etc.) or just a Captain Ethnic.

• Also some names may be a combination of reasons.

Marvel's Black Panther was named after both the animal & his skin color.

Code Names IMO should count such as Train Heartnet the Black Cat in Black Cat anime series.

I think you've got a pretty good handle on it. Can you draft something here to flesh out the description some on the page itself? Structured like it is right now in your post, it's a bit fractured for a page description.

That said, I think if we expand it more, it's going to just end up names again, or names I thought are cool. It won't help the trope decay.

Yeah I see your point although Code Names are sometimes just as good as Superhero names... in Black Cat his code name is feared around the world because anyone becoming his target was unlucky... he never fails to kill his target (till he got out of the killing business his targets were still unlucky.)

I am tempted to YKTTW a Black Cat Motif trope though that specific thing appears a hell of alot.

edited 23rd Feb '11 7:28:00 AM by Raso

Sometimes, but not generally. A lot of times they're more namey than superhero names. The name Steve Black for example is just a name even if it is a code name for someone else. At that point we're going to get in just plain aliases and then the trope might as well just be names. If doesn't matter how well known in media the name is. That's not really a part of the trope.

edited 23rd Feb '11 8:51:31 AM by shimaspawn