Yeah, something like Detective Trenchcoat would work better. Especially since they're almost always trenchcoats in specific, and they aren't always bad quality. They're also associated with the Coat, Hat, Mask type of detective heroes.
edited 30th Mar '11 10:04:05 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Zzzzzzzzzz
I'd prefer something like Crappy Longcoat rather than tying it so strongly to the detective character. But I'm not really sure that it's a costume trope in itself, as much as it's a case of "This guy's coat doesn't fit in any of the other longcoat/trenchcoat tropes."
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Yeah, that's the issue with just it being a crappy long coat. The detective version is demonstrably a trope. The coat looking bad just sounds like complaining.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Anyone else want to chime in?
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Zzzzzzzzzz
On rereading it, I'm thinking Detectives Wear Trenchcoats, or something like that, is a decent trope and should be YKTTW'd but I think this page should be cut.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Crappy Longcoat might invite complaining, but what about Shabby Longcoat? That puts the emphasis on the physical appearance of the coat rather than on its supposed inferiority. Ragged, Tattered, and Battered all come to mind as other possible adjectives.
Edited to add: the crappy trenchcoat is also associated, in media, with flashers, scary homeless guys, and other potentially skeevy characters, but we might not want to touch that trope with a ten foot stick.
edited 14th Sep '11 7:47:29 AM by TTurtle
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Good point. That makes Crappy Tenchcoat (or Nasty Longcoat or Crappy Longcoat) and Detectives Wear Trenchcoats two different tropes.
I don't think saying that detectives wear shabby trenchcoats is really a trope. They simply don't wear badass trenchcoats.
edited 14th Sep '11 8:55:12 AM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Depends on the detective. If the detective is more the sort of superhero variety it might be badass, but it's not common. Those are two different tropes though. Detectives Wear Trechcoats is very much a trope, and I've definitely seen the kind of skeezy Beat Up Trenchcoat that Turtle is talking about as well.
I think I like Beat Up Trenchcoat because often times when a coat has seen that much abuse it's not because it's a bad coat but because it's been through so much history with the character. It's less inherently negative than many of the others.
edited 14th Sep '11 9:02:22 AM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Zzzzzzzzzz
I like that. Beat Up Longcoat. Yeah.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
The Showrunner of Dzwiedz 24
And with a "Beat Up Longcoat" or "Beat Up Trenchcoat", we... avoid the confusion.
"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis
I came across this page recently, and there's some real problems with it- not sure whether it went through YKTTW. It's kind of about the trenchcoats that detectives wear, which makes it pretty non indicative naming, but it's also kind of about aversions/subversions of Badass Longcoat, which I'd think would just go on the Badass Longcoat page.
Hodor