Rename: Sailor Earth

The title isn't very indictative of the actual trope, and won't make sense to anyone outside the Sailor Moon fandom, such as myself.

^ When you put the trope name in the title,you need to make it a wikiword, or the linker won't link it and tag the page.

What is the trope, anyway? I read the page three times, and still can't figure out what it is. The page seems to be about different ways to add a character to a ranked-hierarchy-cast work, but what, specifically is the trope?

And if the definition is knowing who sailor Earth is, then it's a bad name.

The trope, as I understand it, is "there's a group of characters with some sort of theme, but an obvious omission that people fill with original characters."

edited 1st Aug '11 2:17:50 PM by INUH

The page currently lists media where it's easy/popular to add an Original Character Sixth Ranger. Like being another mutant in X Men or a wizard in Harry Potter or a Sailor Scout in Sailor Moon or a shinobi in Naruto or a new companion for The Doctor in Doctor Who.

Just an "add-on" to the main cast, with similar themes and origins. For instance, a new Original Character companion in Doctor Who might just be a middle class human who lives with her totally unfair parents and is whisked away be uber-sexy David Tennant. In this case, this OC comes into existence in a similar way as many of the other companions—they aren't like some godlike impossible introduction to the series. Adding, say, a part-angel, part-cat, part-Snuffleupagus wizard to the Harry Potter universe doesn't count.

I don't know if I'm making myself clear. There's a trope here, it makes sense, it's just hard to describe. It's a character which, for all intents and purposes, doesn't not make sense in context of the series, or, at the very least, has a similar origin as the other characters. For instance, the "Tenth Walker" for Lord Of The Rings shouldn't exist, because there were nine to match the nine Nazgul—but in all other respects, she makes sense in the context of the universe. A Sailor Earth character wouldn't exist because the thing that powers the Sailor Scouts already exists within the main character's male non-Sailor Scout Love Interest...and yet, there's a theme and there are powers and they are missing a planet.

The character still "fits", even though some amount of smudging canon might be required.

edited 1st Aug '11 2:45:46 PM by helterskelter

Still, it's named after a specific instance of the trope, rather than a description of the trope itself.

Certainly. I agree with a rename.

This trope describes the phenomena of people wanting to become part of the fantasy setting they enjoy.

It certainly needs a rename the current name doesn't do it justice.

edited 1st Aug '11 2:57:42 PM by FallenLegend

The Sixth Ranger is also named for a specific instance of a trope. We still use that as a name.

This is actually what it's called outside of the Sailor Moon fandom. Don't ask me why. I think it's just the place where people really started noticing the phenomena, but we didn't make up the name.

I'm not arguing for or against rename. Just giving some background information.

No, sorry Fallen. That's not the trope.

edited 1st Aug '11 2:59:44 PM by shimaspawn

So it's "Fanfic OC's that don't require a major retcon in order to fit?"

This came up here not too terribly long ago and at the time there was consensus to keep; it's a fanfic trope, and within the fanfic community at least, Sailor Earth was the poster child for this sort of character. It could do for a round of redirect farming, and if people are having trouble with the definition that can be tweaked.

The actual "doesn't need a major retcon" varies. For example, it seems perfectly logical to many Sailor Moon fanfic writers to have a Sailor Earth join the team, but canonically the guardian role is taken by Endymion as the prince of Earth.

edited 1st Aug '11 3:10:52 PM by Elle

This trope is The Sixth Ranger where The Sixth Ranger is an OC in fanfiction.

for the reasons already given, against a rename but some broadly accurate redirects couldn't hurt.

Right, that—exactly. I tried explaining it without using The Sixth Ranger trope, but that's far more intuitive than what I said.

Should this be an Audience Reaction then?

This is a trope in Fan Fiction. Which we count as a media. Audience Reactions are not the same as Fan Fiction.

edited 1st Aug '11 3:11:34 PM by shimaspawn

Other than seeing a few episodes on TV, I'm not really a Sailor Moon fan and I was able to guess the trope after seeing the name.

The Seventh Ranger would be more accurate, fans see a pattern of adding a Sixth Ranger in a show and continue to expand or make up Zeroth Ranger that doesn't go over the number cap.

I thought of a name: OC New Squad Member, or something less cumbersome and less unbelievably awful.

Its a fanfiction trope, not an audience reaction.

I vaguely recall a set of things done with this.

1) There's a theme group, but the there's an obvious part to the theme missing (in this case it was Sailor Earth).

2) Fanfics add an Original Character to fill this gap.

3) The gap was actually filled beforehand, but due to a different name (the original example was some dude or something).

I've got no clue how that works.

It's not that specific. It's just an OC Sixth Ranger.

k

Would this be a subtrope of Sixth Ranger then?

Yes, this is a fanwork specific subtrope of Sixth Ranger.

Alright, I added Sailor Earth line to the Sixth Ranger page.

Changed it to Fan Work instead of Fan Fiction because they often show up in Fan Art and the like as well as prose.