Is this necessary?: Depressing Tropes

It's an index which exists for no purpose other than for people to list tropes they don't like. At the very least, the descriptions should be cleaned up to be not quite as whiny and ranting. Ideally, I don't really see "list of tropes *

people don't like" as a particularly necessary page, and would be in favour of placing it on the cutlist.

Now Bloggier than ever before!

"Depressing" =/= "don't like." Calling them depressing isn't the same as implying they suck, as the presence of Tear Jerker (just as an example) proves.

Some of the tropes I started on YKTTW and then launched, I listed under Depressing Tropes right away. To me, the index is "these tropes are about depressing stuff", not "I'm depressed that we have these tropes".

I at least thought the thread was going to have something reasonable, like this is already covered by Sadness Tropes.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

Frankly, I do dislike the existence of Tear Jerker, mostly because it's strongly prone to a certain kind of gushing. But I digress.

I've actually been wondering about this myself. Who decides whether a trope is depressing? Some of these seem rather YMMV, and others aren't even technically tropes.

I'm not convinced we need this. I'm not convinced we should cut it either, but I'd like to hear some reasons why it should exist.

edited 8th Apr '11 12:19:34 AM by nrjxll

I think it could be a useful index as a list of tropes that remind you just how horrible life can be. I say we cut down on the fan reaction tropes and the complaining about tropes you don't like and focus only on tropes that are depressing when applied to real life.

For example, Abusive Parents should stay, as nearly everyone can agree that they do exist and it is sad that they do, and can get away with it too. However, Chuck Cunningham Syndrome should go, as it is a fan reaction trope. Although seeing your favorite character just vanish from a show without explanation can be sad, it's not truly depressing. And if you let something like that depress you, then you've got issues. Jumping the Shark should definitely go. Sounds like trope hatred there.

Also, tropes about sadness, but not about how awful the world is should go, such as Comfort Food. Yes, I understand that you eat it when you're sad, but it doesn't make you sad. It should go.

As for the subjective thing, we should leave only the tropes that are universally accepted to be depressing. Things like Kids Are Cruel, with emphasis on bullying, should stay, but Hypocrites, which usually provoke anger in people rather than depression, should go.

So I've decided to redo the Depressing Tropes from a different perspective, seen here, and I'm having a lot more fun with it than I really should be.

edited 9th Apr '11 11:33:48 AM by WackyMeetsPractical

I have seen a lot of Square Peg Round Trope entries on this index in which editors go and justify a trope being depressing while not even getting the trope's real definition and purpose right. Humans Are Bastards, for example, is one page that occasionally gets shoehorned into this index which I had to remove from more than once before.

edited 9th Apr '11 11:56:10 AM by SeanMurrayI

It still reads like Sadness Tropes, but for the audience.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

I'm still less than enthused about it. As the poster above says, it's Sadness Tropes for the audience! And as the poster above him(?) says, there's a lot of general trope misuse going on and some seriously questionable entries.

I'd still like to know why we need this index.

It should be less of an index, and more a Troper Tales thing, the way Pet-Peeve Trope and Favorite Trope are.

EDIT: It could also be seen as this would be to Tear Jerker as Favorite Trope is to Gushing About Shows You Like.

edited 9th Apr '11 3:29:59 PM by DragonQuestZ

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

Wacky Meets Practical's upgrade looks like a nice one IMHO.

The way I tried to handle it was more of a Just for Fun page about tropes that really suck because you know that there's a lot of truth in it. As an index, it's not that useful. But it would be a good place to really bog people down about the real world implications of a lot of these tropes. It is sometimes really easy to look at these tropes as merely tropes, and we hardly ever look at them and go, "Hey! That actually happens. That's really sad."

^I prefer Dragon Quest Z's suggestion for providing that kind of outlet though. I don't think of this page as being a Just for Fun page so much as a YMMV topic with a Troper Tales section.

edited 9th Apr '11 4:23:53 PM by SeanMurrayI

Bumping.

I say prema cut it.

"I at least thought the thread was going to have something reasonable, like this is already covered by Sadness Tropes." - Dragon Quest Z

Sadness Tropes would probably be a subset of Depressing Tropes. A trope can be depressing without being specifically about sadness.

(On a sidenote, a lot of sadness tropes, like My God, What Have I Done?, for example, seem fitting for Tear Jerker as well. May I add them myself, or is that for mods to do?)

edited 14th Apr '11 3:50:51 PM by neoYTPism

No, not a subset: Sadness Tropes are about characters being sad, while Drepressing Tropes is about depressive issues.

How could it be a subset? How characters feel is not a sub trope of how the audience feels.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.

Soory I'm late to the discussion. Anyway, I think there's a need for this page. However, I wouldn't be averse to moving it to Troper Tales or YMMV if that would satisfy everyone.

"But... nobody told me I needed a signature!"

Do we even have such a thing already as an index deemed YMMV?

Indexes are supposed to collect tropes that share a common theme or subject matter. If that common theme is strictly YMMV, then I gotta say that wouldn't make for a good index and would likely give rise to a lot of Square Peg Round Trope entries, much like it does already on Depressing Tropes.

edited 13th May '11 2:02:10 PM by SeanMurrayI

Eddie cut it. And License To Whine.

Well, can't say I'm sorry. Let's lock this now.