Dialog as Title Rename: The Only One I Trust

Title needs to be fixed. It is dooming itself by looking like a line of dialog. Tropes are things that have names, not things that read like dialog.

edited 21st Jun '11 9:07:54 AM by FastEddie

It's not very often Eddie posts a TRS topic ... but how does this measure up on the usual metrics?

[EDIT] Screw the metrics, apparently it's a recently launched YKTTW.

edited 21st Jun '11 10:19:07 AM by Stratadrake

My first thought was The Only Trustworthy One, but that feels kind of unwieldy.

My second thought was The Only Hope (which has the added bonus of giving Star Wars another Trope Namer), but that feels a bit too vague.

Singular Trust, Levels Of Trust, Circle Of Trust . Just throwing a few out there.

Since F.E. Started this one, do we need a Single Prop Crowner? Or do we skip straight to an Alt Title.

edited 21st Jun '11 10:04:53 AM by pokedude10

It's probably safe to skip the SP based on (1) being fresh out of its YKTTW, and (2) Word of Mod.

edited 21st Jun '11 10:18:40 AM by Stratadrake

Well, it IS a recent launch, if the edit history is anything to go by.

^ Um, yeah, that sort of explains the zero counts... time to call Launch Misfire.

Judging from the YKTTW discussion, nobody ever considered to do anything but provide examples. Which is precisely one of the reasons YKTTW got its overhaul discussion months ago.

edited 21st Jun '11 10:21:11 AM by Stratadrake

To me, the name is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. I would never in a million years have mistaken it for Stock Phrase or any such thing.

The current title is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. If you want it to sound less like a stock phrase, dropping the The would actually help. Only One I Trust sounds a bit more like a character.

I... don't see a reason for a change. Names that sound like a line of dialogue work for tropes that are usually accompanied by said line of dialogue. Current name is more or less exactly what it say son the tin, and frankly, I'm not sure a different name would be as clear.

edited 21st Jun '11 9:58:01 PM by Wulf

Also voting against the rename. Yes, it sounds like a line of dialogue, but not one that I can see most tropers using for Natter and/or Word Cruft. The dialogue tropes that have been abused in this way (e.g. If You Know What I Mean or I Am Not Making This Up) have been abused because they sounded more like Stock Phrases to accompany examples that actual tropes, which this doesn't. And like Wulf and shimaspawn said, this name is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and I'm not sure we could find a clearer one.

How many times per year do we have to do this?

Tropes are things that have names, not titles. The name has to fit into a sentence or it will not be used off site. Being used off site is key.

Names that have the word 'I' in them invite natter. Without fail. That, and the examples become long lists of where a phrase is used, rather than the trope.

This name, for these reasons given, sucks.

Final Hope hope could work. At least would be a name, and attract trope examples, rather than a list of lines of dialog.

edited 22nd Jun '11 8:56:50 AM by FastEddie

I agree that tropes that look like Stock Phrases cause problems.

So is this enough to skip the single prop crowner altogether?

edited 22nd Jun '11 9:01:48 AM by JackAlsworth

Final Hope sounds like a weapon or something. Not a person. Only One He Trusts and Only One She Trusts to make it less dialogy? Or even Only One They Trust. I get that you don't want I in there, but the suggestions seriously lack clarity.

The Only Only One Pronoun Trusts is lackluster, and there's simply no good reason why it has to be [some other pronoun] rather than "I". Although third-person-singular ones have an advantage, but then we get into the whole gendering issue and while one could take impersonal "One", it'd get repeated in the title.

Why not just get rid of pronouns altogether, with something like Only One To Be Trusted, or Only Trustable One (I think "trustworthy" is semantically not the right word; if anyone can correct me..)?

edited 22nd Jun '11 9:23:45 AM by SilentReverence

@Silent Reverence: Actually, Only Trustworthy One does work, in this context.

I'm not sure I see the need to rename, personally, but OTO does seem to fit the purpose best if there is to be a rename, as well as being a bit shorter than some of the other alternatives mentioned in this thread (assuming equivalent clarity, wiki guidelines prefer shorter trope names over longer ones, IIRC).

edited 22nd Jun '11 10:46:26 AM by Nohbody

I think Eddie's correct that trope titles which sound like a line of dialogue have a tendency to attract quotations with little to no other explanatory context. Quotations go on the Quotes page.

If being able to use it in a sentence is the problem, then can't we just make The Only One He Trusts and The Only One She Trusts redirects?

If we have to rename, I vote for The Only One He Trusts, but I don't see why gendering it unnecessarily is preferable.

First person makes tropers think that the trope is about them.

Unspoken guideline is not to use use personal pronouns (esp. first person) in trope titles unless it's completely unavoidable.

That's the problem, because the trope is about characters percieving some other character as "the only one they trust". I.e. a character reaction.

"The only one I trust" and "the only one I can trust" are pretty much the Stock Phrase to go with it.

edited 22nd Jun '11 3:28:43 PM by peccantis

^^ Is tropers potentially confusing it for a trope about people they personally trust really a big danger here.

Yes. Very much so, sadly. It's almost embarrassing.

If we really had to change the title, I'd go for The Only One To Be Trusted.