Needs Rename: I Let Gwen Stacy Die

I'm not familiar with comics, and the first time I ever heard of Gwen Stacy was here. From the Laconic "When a hero feels responsible for a loved one's death". I understand what this trope is about, now, but every time I have used it, I need to change of Gwen Stacy with the character name, by using [[ ]] (for example I Let Alice Die). So what I'm saying needs a name that's self-explanatory, understandable by everyone, and easy to edit.

This used to be just "The Gwen Stacy" - the current name was a compromise deal.

I Let Het Die? Angst Inducing Girlfriend Death? She Died Because Of Me?

I Let Gwen Stacy Die found in: 239 articles, excluding discussions.

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Sorry. That's a big change.

If it helps, Main/Dead Because Of Me is already a redirect.

^ And those inbounds are post rename, too.

I have never understood how this isn't just Stuffed into the Fridge But Not Bad.

The important parts are that the survivor blames himself for the death and it's part of their charcter motivation. (And really, if the objection is that one trope is the same but bad, the suspicion should fall on the "but bad" trope).

I wasn't objecting to this trope exactly - I've just always seen it and Stuffed into the Fridge as almost identical, except that Stuffed into the Fridge is considered "bad" while this isn't.

I'm okay with this name. It's supposed to be My Greatest Failure but with a specific characters death right? If so, the name itself isn't important.

The name works because you can substitute almost any name in there and you still get "I let Character X die." When the trope name is structured like that there isn't a problem with Character Named Tropes, since it doesn't require knowledge of the character or series to understand it. Any trope name that gives you a strong idea of what it means without having to read the page is a good name.

I'm fairly certain that this trope has several distinctions from Stuffed in the Fridge.

One, as noted, this trope involves the hero specifically blaming themselves for the death, even though they did what they could. It also doesn't have to be a murder - this trope could result from a failure during a rescue from an accident/natural disaster. Stuffed In The Fridge involves a brutal murder by default, and the hero completely blames the murderer for it.

There's also the fact that anyone can be in the victim role in this trope, while the victim placeed in the fridge is always female. Stuffed In The Fridge also notes the disposable nature of non-powered females in comics.

If Stuffed In The Fridge is bad, it's specifically due to us recognizing the Unfortunate Implications involved.

I might be persuaded to vote for a rename if there's significant misuse, but it doesn't seem likely.

Okay, works as a distinction for me.

I agree that Character Named Tropes with this structure tend to work fine.

The similarities to Stuffed in the Fridge have certainly been noted before; cutting the trope entirely and spreading the examples to other tropes as necessary was a royally annihilated but nonetheless present option on the crowner.

The real issue last time was that the old name was of The Character Name format, which gives no context whatsoever. As is, it could be literally any name and make sense. It could be called I Let Jemi Britcher Die and even though only myself and my editor know who the character is at present, the trope itself isn't made unclear by the person's name.

Those inbounds are rather impressive too; can't have been more than a year or so we did the rename last time?

edited 28th Aug '11 5:38:51 PM by CaissasDeathAngel

Agreed. The character name, in this case, does not mislead. Also, the wicks and inbounds point to a healthy trope

Anything else to do here, or should we lock this?

I think we can call it done.