too restrictive?: Textual Celebrity Resemblance

The article has this notice:

I see no reason to make the bolded restriction; whether the narrator says "Bob looked like Robert Redford", another character says "Bob, you look like Robert Redford", or Bob looks in the mirror and thinks "Gee, I look like Robert Redford", the effect is to plant the idea in the audience's head that Bob looks like Robert Redford (if they know him) or to have no effect on their envisioning (if they don't). Certainly the narrator is likely to be more reliable than a character, but that's by no means absolute (and a lot of the time, characters' descriptions of each other are taken as reliable).

Also:

I think broadening the trope would make it easier to Entry Pimp, which it badly needs at the moment.

Restricting it to non-visual media makes sense, since describing someone as looking like Robert Redford has a very different effect if we can see for ourselves that she looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar. Restricting it to narration just seems like overkill.

edited 30th Jul '11 11:50:56 AM by Micah

The only reason I can think of for the bolded part is that it's covered by another trope... which it does seem to be, at least sorta. Celebrity Resemblance, though that combines both In-Universe and Real Life examples, rather awkwardly.

Hmm... it looks to me like almost everything on Celebrity Resemblance is "celebrity #1 looks like celebrity #2" (sometimes with a quote or lampshading, but usually not). The only "fictional character looks like celebrity" examples are the Community ones at the very top of the page.

ETA: Wait, that's not quite true, there are also a couple Memetic Mutation-type things about characters (e.g., Palpatine looks like Pope Benedict). Still nothing In-Universe involving characters, though...

edited 30th Jul '11 3:41:59 PM by Micah

I created this article because it's a very specific trope, and Celebrity Resemblance is pretty much reserved for dialog and celebrities looking like other celebrities only. This trope is for a very specific thing that happens in literature sometimes. I think right now it's limited mainly because it's new, and most people here cover other media besides books.

If they're to be merged, I think that article would need to be rewritten into multiple categories.