Better title needed: Bloody Biometric

Biometric is the word for it. When there is an accepted word for something, that's great. Means we don't have to resort to phrases (which are often longer and clunkier.)

The downside to the trope name clean up is that we've had to back off from having too much fun with titles. Supercritical levels of fun lead to unacceptably opaque titles. Alliteration is not necessarily like that. It's a little bit of wordplay that need not obscure anything, and I can't see any meaning being lost here. *

Bloody Biometic Bypass is nice: it sums it up neatly.

edited 30th Aug '11 9:54:57 PM by Camacan

Also, in favor of the term "bypass" in the newly proposed name for this trope -

It very much is a bypass. Our would-be intruder is trying to get into an area that he has been locked out of by his very genetics. He wishes to get around this - he wants to bypass the lock's safeguards against him. So he does so by the removal of limbs (handprint scanners), eyes (retina scanners), or other parts (man, not looking forward to seeing someone bypass a tongue lock).

It might not be the first definition of the term "bypass" would think of (Dungeon Bypass probably is), but it still fits.

Calling the crowner: alternative names crowner swapped in by request.

Does this mean that there is a Super-Trope wherein you just stick a live hand from an unconscious or coerced guard up to the scanner? (As was done in National Treasure, IIRC)

No, this covers that too. Villains tend to hack off the bit they need, heroes tend to take along the whole (usually) unconscious but still-alive body. And it wouldn't be a supertrope, anyway, it would be a sibling trope. The supertrope would be Getting Through Locks That Are Supposed To Keep You Out.

While I would agree that the distinction is not enough to justify a split between the more violent and less violent methods, the description itself seems to disagree:

This implied distinction may very well be the root cause of the lack of wicks: the description is overly specific and discourages the alternative whereby the body is kept in one piece. Keeping "Bloody" in the Trope name isn't going to help matters in this respect. Hence, I'd recommend just plain Biometric Bypass. (EDIT: Whether this counts as a "second" would depend on how long "firsts" are valid for.)

Also, I would recommend changing the last two paragraphs of the description in such a way that the less bloody method of cheating out the biometric scanners is implied to also be part of the Trope. (While also making it clear that methods such as DNA Copying and false fingerprints aren't part of the Trope; an actual body part from someone with authorization is required.)

edited 20th Oct '11 9:11:53 PM by DonaldthePotholer

I can live with that. How about Borrowed Biometric Bypass?

edited 20th Oct '11 9:05:54 PM by Madrugada

Seconded. After all, in the more violent case, the villain would, at some point, discard (or otherwise render unusable) the stump key.

And if they run up against another such barrier, well, there are always more "keys"...

EDIT: Here is my replacement for the last two paragraphs:

The "above concerns" being that "good" biometric scanners would not accept a "dead" fingerprint or eyeball.

edited 20th Oct '11 9:45:07 PM by DonaldthePotholer

I vote a split. There's a pretty major difference between knocking out the mook and dragging him to the palm reader and cutting off his hand.

I vote lump. It's just The Same But More.

Seconded. We can soft-split if need be, right?

I vote lump since they are very closely related in plot or game mechanic terms, but tell you something about character or the work's tone depending on the variant. This same-but-nuanced set-up is better handled on a single page.

(I'm not so sure a soft-split is required: should be self-evident that they are borrowing the whole guard, not the guard's eyeball, in a well-written example.)

edited 21st Oct '11 12:58:48 AM by Camacan

I agree to lump. There's also the middle version of killing a mook, not cutting him but just dragging his still-warm body over to the sensor.

What about when a shapeshifter just fakes being the person that they met? How broad do we want to make this? Any variation of Biometric Hacking? Or just ones that involve others?

edited 21st Oct '11 7:30:03 AM by shimaspawn

Shapeshifters aren't in this. This is using a body part of another person to get through a biometric lock. Not looking like someone else to get past a guard or checkpoint.

How exactly a shapeshifter can even fool a biometric lock in the first place (e.g. exact retinal patterns, fingerprints, etc.) is a matter of Fridge Logic.

Depends — sometimes it's justified if the shapeshifter can control even those traits that are a expression of genetic variability. Face Dancers in Dune are an example of this. Since shapeshifting is already impossible in Real Life, it's kind of difficult to Fridge Logic reasons why it would or would not work in a particular way — you're already throwing logic out the door by accepting the possibility in the first place.

It's not for nothing that we have the trope Shapeshifter Baggage.

edited 21st Oct '11 8:32:59 AM by Fighteer

But it's still not this trope. This trope is using someone else's actual body part (still attatched or removed) to bypass the biometrics, hence the "bloody" in the original name.

edited 21st Oct '11 8:42:24 AM by Madrugada

@Fighteer: The Fridge Logic still applies; even given a shapeshifter who can consciously control their biometric identifiers, how do they know exactly which combination represents an authorized personnel? It's like trying to brute-force a login password, and without the benefit of password psychology.

edited 21st Oct '11 8:00:13 PM by Stratadrake

Borrowed Biometric Bypass is now the main page while Bloody Biometric is now a redirect. The old laconic page is on the cutlist with a newly edited one in its place *

Feel free to check my work and see if I made any mistakes in the rename process.

edited 30th Oct '11 12:55:33 PM by LouieW