This doesn't look like a trope: Mid Season Wham Episode

The trope Mid Season Wham Episode needs some rewriting, in my opinion.

Seriously, my avatar comes from the embodiment of the So Bad, It's Good trope.

If it's a valid trope, the description needs rewriting. A plot twist halfway into a series isn't necessarily a Late-Arrival Spoiler, and if it's halfway in, it's not early (it seems to be going for First-Episode Spoiler as opposed to Late-Arrival Spoiler). Even a quarter of the way in is questionable.

All references to episode seven need to be obliterated or clarified; even the difference between the seventh episodes of a 13-episode series and a 26-episode series is significant, let alone series which have a different number of episodes.

edited 20th Mar '11 5:02:23 AM by halfmillennium

If there is anything to be salvaged the name needs to be changed because a Wham Episode can already be and usually is "mid-season," which at first glance makes it The Same But More Specific. The only thing I can really see of value in the trope is an idea more comparable to Growing the Beard, just as we are getting used to a certain formula they give us a twist that leads into a stronger Myth Arc.

For the most part that's what the trope is describing: Angel's reveal as a vampire in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Gundam Wing pilots gathering together after several episodes working entirely solo, Aang and the rest learning about Sozin's Comet in Avatar The Last Airbender, etc.

I think the right way to think about this is "the piece of the premise that gets introduced late, to give people a chance to get used to the formula before shaking it up". In that context, the seven-episode thing is actually kind of relevant (because it takes about that long to establish a formula), but it only makes sense to list things that come in the first season of a show — something like the Angel episode is just a standard Wham Episode, not this trope.

132 is the rudest number.

Shift The Plot Into Gear?

edited 20th Mar '11 5:36:52 PM by Elle

Something like that could work.

In a Thirteen Episode Anime the first 6-7 episodes are almost always the setup and character intro episodes then in ep 7-8 the main plot kicks into high gear. (Nanoha S1 the biggest example of it I can think of.)

Sequel series though its usually 3 episodes to introduce new characters and get back into gear.

Twenty Six Episode Anime s though its usually around episode 10 that the plot kicks off.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Plot Shift?

Fight smart, not fair.

This one still needs clean up and a rename to differentiate it from Wham Episode.

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

See also 7th Episode Twist, which might be related.

edited 14th Sep '11 8:03:52 AM by TTurtle

EDIT: Wait, 7th Episode Twist has the exact same description as Mid Season Wham Episode.

Am I having computer troubles or anything?

edited 14th Sep '11 8:43:04 AM by MangaManiac

It really does look like this trope but written better and with a better name.

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

7th Episode Twist is only six months old, I think? Anyway, I don't remember who sponsored it, but if my memory serves me, when it was in YKTTW, no one ever realized that it overlapped with Mid Season Wham Episode. In fact, there was some dispute in the comments about whether it should be specifically labeled "seventh episode," because the twist often happens later in a longer season.

There's more than that, they literally have the exact same description, except in 7th Episode Twist the "Plot" has a capital P for some reason, boldened/italicised spoiler warning, and Mid Season Wham Episode has a comma between "about" and "as" in the third paragraph.

The examples are the same too (or at least the first ones). Since 7th Episode Twist dates back to February, and MSWE dates back to March,*

I think we should redirect the latter to the former for now or come up with a difference between them.

EDIT: No one noticed? They've got the same bloody description. Someone must've been able to tell there was another one, if only to copy from it.

edited 14th Sep '11 8:54:05 AM by MangaManiac

Looks like MSWE was the one that was copied, then. When 7th Episode Twist was being YKTTW'd, some people WANTED to turn it into a "mid-season twist" trope, on the grounds that the twist wasn't always the seventh episode in a longer series. SET was launched before there was substantial agreement on the title. Maybe someone was annoyed enough to create a separate "mid-season" trope? (If so, that's messed up.)

edited 14th Sep '11 8:58:51 AM by TTurtle

Found the location for the YKTTW.

From the last few comments, it doesn't seem that malicious. Looks more like they didn't know Trope Repair Shop existed and thought that the other agreement was enough.

You're right, that's a much more charitable explanation than what I was assuming!

I guess the only potential difference between the tropes is that 7th Episode Twist puts the emphasis on the twist coming just a few episodes in, after you've been introduced to the characters, but MSWE puts the emphasis on the twist coming in the middle, whenever that is. Theoretically, a longer series could have both a 7th Episode Twist AND a MSWE, but in a shorter series (12-14 eps), they'd be the same.

This is not to say that we should keep them separate, though. I'm just saying that's the only difference I see.

edited 14th Sep '11 9:56:41 AM by TTurtle

We could just tweak that to "Part way through" and not make a commitment to anything other than not the beginning or the end.

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

I think the important thing is that the show first starts up a formula and introduces the characters, and then suddenly does a shift that lasts for the significant remainder of the series/season.

That kind of turn can be done in any season/series,*

not just the first one, but is more often done in the first one.

Whether it's exactly in the middle isn't important. IMO, that's the trouble with the name Mid Season Wham Episode. By being less specific than 7th Episode Twist, it oddly also sounds more definitive and less flexible.

edited 14th Sep '11 11:47:21 AM by MangaManiac

How about something like Series Focus Shift? Or Series Formula Shift (as in, shifts from a Monster of the Week formula to a Myth Arc formula).

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I kind of liked Plot Shift (suggested somewhere up thread), because it's short and simple, but something like Series Formula Shift might better describe what's going on. Or maybe something like Plot Kicks In, on the grounds that it's often when the real story starts?

Plot Shift is too vague. It sounds like it could be all sorts of things. Plot Kicks In sounds like a movie or novel that starts slow, and has no apparent plot at first (not uncommon, esp. with novels). 7th Episode Twist sounds like a one-off event more than like an overall shift, and a glance at the on-page examples shows a lot of actual seventh episodes getting mentioned.

I think the word "series" is important, and I think "shift" is better than "twist". So the simplest suggestion I can offer is Series Shift, if that's not too vague.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

Its not that at all really, For a Twelve Epsiode Anime its 6-7 episodes of setup once everything is setup and characters are established the dominos start falling and Plot Kicks In. (I like the name) there is not Genre Shift or shift anything. (Sequels get 3 episodes or so). A Twenty Six Episode Anime its around episode 10.

A 12-Episode Anime is very unlikely to follow a Monster of the Week Format. 50 episode series its more likely and the Monster of the Week to Myth Arc happens at episode 40ish.

edited 15th Sep '11 11:15:48 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

" 7th Episode Twist sounds like a one-off event more than like an overall shift, and a glance at the on-page examples shows a lot of actual seventh episodes getting mentioned."

My impression was that 7th Episode Twist was something like "after a lot of set-up, the plot begins in earnest." That is, up until then you're being introduced to the setting, the characters, and the assumptions of the show. Then suddenly the real action starts, and it often involves a revelation of sorts.

You're right that Plot Kicks In sounds like it could apply to a movie or novel, so it may not be specific enough, but (as far as I can tell) that was what the trope was supposed to describe: the revelation or event that suddenly takes things up a notch and kicks off the real story. If I understand it rightly, a 7th Episode Twist can ONLY happen in a series with a Myth Arc or ongoing plot where the Myth Arc isn't fully introduced right away.

I also thought of Plot Introducing Episode as a possible title. Unfortunately all of my other title ideas were profoundly silly.

On further thought, maybe the problem is that the trope is trying to cover more than one kind of twist. I have seen longer series where the first ten episodes or so seem very Monster of the Week, with only a loose connection to the overall plot, and then suddenly around ten or eleven it shifts into a more-arc driven story for most of the rest of the series. But the more I think about it, the more I'm not sure if that's the same kind of shift as a series that uses the first six episodes for expostion and then introduces a startling reveal. Maybe part of the problem is that not all of these shifts fit into one trope. I don't know.

edited 15th Sep '11 2:11:09 PM by TTurtle

@Raso: I took that straight from the trope description itself. "You tune in expecting another Monster of the Week when all of a sudden the writers pull a fast one."

A lot of examples fit, too. G Gundam starts out as "Gundam Fight of the week" before shifting into a Myth Arc that dominates the rest of the series. Bleach starts out as "Hollow of the week" before jumping into a Rescue Arc. Avatar The Last Airbender shifts from Walking the Earth to Saving the World. Etc.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

The problem with that is it's too restrictive IMO many times in twelve episode series you will have a Debut Queue and then kick off the actual plot really kicks at episode 7 ish whatever it may be (Example: Infinite Stratos gets done on episode 7)

The numbers vary wildly depending on how long the series is everyone is so hung up on 7. (17 to 22 for a 26 episode, and 35-42 for a 50 episode series.) generally it's 2/3rds of the series.

The Gundam Wing example on the page is not monster of the week but at episode 42 it picks up a continuous format in which the final battle builds, Star Trek DS 9 did the last 9 episodes like this.

Now IMO it should be just when the plot kicks in gear (usually final battle build up) in general which all follow those numbers. Does it have to go episodic to arc transition? IMO no but thats a big tell, other big tells are Monster of the Week to Fight the Big Bad, and the end of a Debut Queue.

edited 15th Sep '11 7:17:39 PM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!