Rename?: Mode Lock

Seems to be suffering from a bit of misuse. Had to remove an example on Firefly of a character "being seemingly unable to not be a manipulative bitch" as well as on the Prinny page for "Can't switch weapons if you use this DLC", rather than for what it is- "Shapeshifter is unable to shift out of (or into) a certain form." It's possible that these are just isolated incidents, and I'll need to check the wicks to know for sure if misuse is widespread or not

Mode Lock found in: 353 articles, excluding discussions.

This title has brought 151 people to the wiki from non-search engine links since 20th FEB '09.

35 random wicks from A-M:

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing- incorrect- A character is unable to turn his telepathy off.
• Dragons Winter- Seems to be correct, although incorrectly listed as an inversion.
• The Gamers Alliance- correct.
• Animorphism- Correct
• Avengers 2010 Members- Correct
• Batman Beyond- Correct
• Characters/Ben10- Correct
• Big Ball of Violence- Unsure, don't know enough about Asterix to know if Obelix's "super form" counts as one of these. Looks incorrect.
• A Planet Called Treason- Incorrect- A non-shapeshifting character is stuck as a hermaphrodite due to their extreme Healing Factor .
• Blood And Chocolate- Correct
• Bones Of Faerie- Correct
• Cannot Spit It Out-Incorrect- Lelouch was unable to turn off his geass
• Cerebus Syndrome- Not enough information. Looks correct, but I don't know what Kate's "condition" is, so it could be a Code Geass type example.
• Chasing Time- Correct
• Code Geass- Incorrect
• Colony13- Unsure, Probably Incorrect. The character wasn't a shapeshifter before, so this looks like it should probably be Baleful Polymorph or something.
• Shout-Out/Comics correct
• Crasher-Incorrect, used as making an opponent's car unable to affect or be affected by anything
• Divinity2- Correct
• Dumb Is Good- Incorrect GIR isn't a shapeshifter, so being stuck in Duty Mode isn't technically this, although it's probably the closest we have for it.
• Everything Two- correct
• Eyepatch of Power- Incorrect, another Code Geass example
• Fear Leads To Anger- correct
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome- Correct
• Freudian Excuse- Correct
• Growing the Beard-Correct
• Horror Hunger- Correct
• The Incredible Hulk- Correct
• Invisibility- Incorrect, used for a character being unable to turn off invisibility
• I Was Quite a Looker- Correct
• Lady My Life As A Bitch- 'Incorrect, should be Baleful Polymorph as she can't willingly shapeshift
• Blessed with Suck/Literature- Half and half- the first is another Lady My Life As A Bitch example, the second is correct,
• Lost- Correct
• Made of Evil- Unsure, looks incorrect

Results: 9 incorrect (~25%), 4 more that look incorrect (Would be ~37%). It should be noted that a third of the definitely incorrect ones come from the same series (Code Geass), two more from another.

If we go for a change, I support a minor one to something like Shapeshifter Mode Lock

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

Obelix is not a shapeshifter, so that usage is also incorrect. He doesn't have a different form, and he's fat because he's a glutton (just like e.g. the chief), not because of the potion.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

Huh. So Mode Lock is specifically for shapeshifting, and the one it's being confused for is Power Incontinence. I think I could support a rename for Mode Lock.

MAL || vndb || Blog

"Mode Lock" as we know it is a term coined by the Transformers fandom. It's fairly opaque in that it's only the Transformers who refer to their current form as a 'mode'.

This is a tough one to rank on Google because "mode-locking" is a pre-existing term far removed from a trope and Google keeps popping up coincidental combinations of "mode" and "lock" (even with double-quotes). "Mode lock" transform returns only about 45,000, and outside TV Tropes and one or two Transformers links, all I'm really seeing is real-world technical stuff not the trope. Adding "-tropes" to the search pops up a different #1 but that's about it.

"Mode lock" shapeshift is about as helpful, showing fewer than 2000 for any variant of the term "shapeshifting".

Now as for renames, Shapeshifter Mode Lock is far better in the clarity department — preserves the pre-existing fanterm while adding that it's a Phlebotinum Breakdown unique to shapeshifters.

edited 13th Aug '11 10:24:39 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Shapeshifter Mode Lock would probably get the point across.

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

Shapeshifter Mode Lock gets the bit of the trope that people have been missing across.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

If there's any objections, I have a SP crowner ready and waiting.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/SingleProposition/ModeLock

edited 13th Aug '11 10:35:21 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Your crowner says that it's an existing term from Trans Formers. But actually, it's an existing term from laser physics as well as remote control design. Its common usage outside of T Vtropes has absolutely nothing to do with Trans Formers.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

"Mode lock" is far too general a term to be used for something this specific. I Thought It Meant....

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

... I'm having second thoughts about my giving the URL for the crowner considering nobody has objected to the idea yet.

@Spark: Yeah, my Google searches turned up a lot of that.

edited 14th Aug '11 12:22:10 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Crowner seems to be at 10 to zero to rename, and I believe it's been three days. Granted, most of that time was over a weekend, so it' up to you guys if you want to leave it for another day or so.

EDIT: It appears I'm mistaken, we've got until Tuesday either way.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:41:53 PM by Wulf

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

I never had an issue with the name; I got it immediately. That said, if the proposed new name is Shapeshifter Mode Lock, then I think it's acceptable.

In the meantime, cleaning up wicks that should be for Power Incontinence sounds like a good idea.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Shapeshifter Mode Lock is the one most people seem in favour of. It's just adding an extra word for clarity and helping deter the current misuse.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

This was definitely too early to start a crowner.

That said, I'm willing to rename based on the misuse, although I'm confused as to why we care about some technical physics term. Really? You think people are going to think, "Oh, I thought you meant the trope about synchronized laser oscillation, sorry."

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Yeah, the misuse one is the only one that really matters to me either.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I did a site search for [codegeass modelock] and changed every instance of Mode Lock in a Code Geass context I could find into Power Incontinence. I think I got all of them (23 cases, all in all).

Me too, I should've kept silent on having made it instead of providing a URL for someone to hook.

edited 16th Aug '11 8:28:39 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

At any rate, the crowner's been stable for about 5 days and it's sitting at a 6.25:1 ratio, so I think it's safe to call it. We should throw around some new names unless there's unanimous support for just slapping "Shapeshifter" on the front and being done with it.

edited 18th Aug '11 2:36:11 AM by Wulf

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

Slap "shapeshifter" in front of it and be done with it.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Strong support, no voiced objections, let's do this.

---

Done

• Page moved
• Laconic/ and Playing With/ counterparts moved
• Updated 1 index (Shapeshifting)

Not done

• Discussion/special pages (if any)
• Index search/replace
• Wikilink search/replace

---

edited 18th Aug '11 9:03:08 PM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Instead of "shapeshifter" why not "transformation"? Transformation Lock sounds good.

... We could of debated on a title before just renaming.

edited 18th Aug '11 7:39:57 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Darn it all; where were you last weekend?

I'm slightly against Transformation Lock because of the whole ability-versus-event distinction. Remember when I threw Involuntary Shapeshifting into TRS? It was getting misused specifically because of this distinction — 50 percent of the time.

And the page quote isn't an example, it specifically describes a Baleful Polymorph. Having a bad page quote just adds to confusion.

So, still to do:

• exorcise misuse from wikilinks

edited 18th Aug '11 8:00:49 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Shapeshifter doesn't really capture the whole trope like transformation does as most people would think it's restricted to well Stereotypical shapeshifters and not connect it with other transforming stuff like Transforming Mecha (like the former trope namer) and such.

Also don't really see a reason why this should be restricted to voluntary ones. The trope happens to involuntary ones too.

edited 18th Aug '11 8:08:27 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

No, when someone has been forcibly changed into a shape outside of their will and can't normally turn back on their own, it's not this trope. So it doesn't happen to characters that have been transformed.

Transforming Mecha fall under what we call shapeshifters as they can shift both ways.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Someone getting shot with a Gender Bender ray then asking the person who did it to reverse it only for the gun to run out of juice so he is stuck like that till it recharges (which blows up after it's done charging), sounds this trope.... from To Love RU (it happens often), things happened a lot like Ranma or Gacha Gacha's Mode Lock both of which are kinda involuntary too (former requires water and the latter requires a sneeze.)

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!