Split: Crazy Awesome

We would need a really good distinction between Insanity Has Advantages and Power Born of Madness to make a split work properly.

Power Born of Madness is for supernatural power. Like someone goes insane and now they have magic (because they stared into the crack between dimensions or because now they understand the language of demons or whatever). Insanity Has Advantages is just being crazy has...well, advantages. Monk would go under here. His Super OCD gives him an invaluable attention to detail.

That would be one way to mark the divide, but you'd have to change the current definition of Power Born of Madness. Right now it includes people like Deadpool, The Joker and Watchmen's Rorschach — of which only Deadpool has actual superpowers, and that's a case of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, rather than Power Born of Madness by your proposed definition.

The current description of Power Born of Madness works just fine - it specifically refers to superpowers granted through insanity. All we have to do is move the more mundane, incidental examples to Insanity Has Advantages.

As for With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, that's when superpowers make you nuts. The madness itself has no tangible benefits there. Deadpool is miscategorised, I think.

edited 21st May '11 4:45:44 PM by Iaculus

I would say that those examples are shoehorned into Power Born of Madness only because Insanity Has Advantages doesn't exist yet. On that note, should we bother doing an alt-titles crowner, or is Insanity Has Advantages universally accepted?

I also support banishing the current Crazy Awesome page to the Sugar Wiki. It's 90% pure gushing anyway.

Bump?

Looking at the page quote (from Jack Sparrow), I have a slightly different proposed definition for Crazy Awesome: Someone who is so crazy they get Plot Armor. It's closest to the original intent of the trope, the name sounds right for it, and remains distinct from Insanity Has Advantages and Power Born of Madness.

Which works with a comparison I made earlier, that a Crazy Awesome has a Weirdness Coupon from God.

This is a totally random thing to say, but the words "Batshit Insane" have really developed into fandom-phrase exclusively to refer to people who are absolutely crazy and absolutely awesome because or dispute that craziness. So can this be mentioned on the page if it ends up having that definition, and/or be a redirect? I just find it notable because I've really only ever heard the phrase abnormally often in anime/manga fanfic circles.

Well, in the political blogs I frequent (mostly as a drive-by occasional reader), it's always used as a pejorative against the opposing side of the aisle.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen it used to compliment anyone/anything, myself; just insult.

Eh, well for instance, You can't hardly read a Naruto fanfic without someone referring to Jounin's as batshit insane at least once. I assume someone used it once in a fic and people liked the term so much everyone started to use it. It seems to imply that they are dangerous, off-their-rocker-insane and probably about to beat your ass. I woudldn't say it's insulting, but it isn't necessarily complimentary, either. Just a statement born of fear.

I'd be happy with something as small as "In some fan circles, the phrase 'batshit insane' seems to refer to this" near the end. that is if the definition ends up being related. If not then don't worry about it.

edited 5th Jun '11 2:16:43 AM by NoirGrimoir

I've also noticed that it seems to be weirdly overused by some fandoms - but I've never seen it used in a complimentary sense either. From what I've seen, I think the analogous trope wouldn't be this, it would be Ax-Crazy.

I'm infavor ot Insanity Has Its Advantages as well. But perhaps Being Crazy Has Its Advantages could work as well. Though also, does this mean the person HAS to be insane or simply be doing things that are insane and awesome at the same time?

edited 30th Jun '11 7:17:15 PM by Godzillawolf

I like Insanity/Craziness Has Its Advantages. That's what the original trope was about: A characters is somehow odd and this oddness makes them effective at what they do.

Whatever we do, 'awesome' and anything like it should stay out of the objective trope. Words like that are bound to be subjective.

Looks like we have consensus that Insanity Has Advantages is a good idea. Now we just need to decide what we want to do with the old trope to give the new one some breathing room.

edited 7th Jul '11 12:41:20 AM by Iaculus

Sorry to be Late to the Party, but I fear that Insanity Has Advantages is too similar-sounding to Power Born Of Insanity. The problem being that, with "Advantages" and "Power" having overlap in usage, it would give leverage to Trope-Abusers confusing the two. Might I suggest a tweak (that I think someone suggested before, but I can't be arsed to check), such as Success Through Insanity ?

It's Power Born of Madness. The two are related, but not quite the same, so similar names is to be expected.

My bad. That said, I think that some extra uniqueness to the trope names may be helpful. But if I'm just being an 11th hour nag, let me know and I'll shut up.

If this is still being discussed, how about Effectively Insane as the name. I don't think that would mistaken for anything else and sounds like something someone might say at some point.

I could get behind that name. Though I still like Insanities Has Advantages.

Okay, so we are splitting this. Now what?

Well unfortunately, it seems we can't figure out what to name this trope...maybe we should get a crowner...

Actually Nuclear Neo 577, Sugar Wiki tropes are allowed in YMMV tabs (Except Most Triumphant Example, which is apparently too subjective for the main wiki), it's just Darth Wiki or Flame Bait tropes that aren't.

edited 3rd Aug '11 6:03:14 AM by ading

Insanity Has Its Perks?

A crowner is a good idea. We have

Insanity Has Its Perks

Insanity Has Its Advantages

Effectively Insane.

have I missed any?

edited 5th Aug '11 2:59:13 PM by ChaoticNovelist