Um, rename?: The Cape

The Cape still gets some misuse for Superheroes Wear Capes. But even then, it's not a helpful name on its own. It's about a type of superhero, unrelated to their outfits.

It might be an established term, it should be shown. If it's not, I propose something like "Superhero In Shining Armor".

I don't know, I like the name. It has a nice contrast with The Cowl, which is the Shadow Archetype to this trope.

If this gets renamed, I think we are going after that one, since the name is all but a snowclone.

...I personally like the name. It refers to the whole classic "superheroes in cape" idea, and the connotations associated with that.

I'm voting for a cleanup and opposing a rename...

I think it's an acceptable name for your basic Superman-style superhero.

It's a widely used term with good stats. No change needed.

What if there was enough misuse? As in I'll start looking at the wicks (following the 50/square root of the wicks rule).

It does conflict with the name of a work (Series.The Cape), but I'm not sure if that matters when the trope came first.

We have the namespaces for stuff like that, and it's a really generic name, so...

If it honestly has that much misuse, then maybe, but I should think that this thread would have been made earlier if that was the case...

When it's brought up doesn't matter, as we can't handle every page at once.

I'd like to see misuse stats.

I'd be disappointed to see this name changed, personally. The Cape and The Cowl are nice, short, "visual" names for these kinds of characters/vocations.

Um, this is what a cowl actually is. Is it supposed to mean something else solely because Batman's outfit is said to have one?

A cowl is a kind of hood. Generally loose, maybe drapes over the eyes, sort of. Has, like, a darker feel to it; hoods are associated with concealment, and stuff. Seems like a perfectly good contrast to me.

If this trope was "A cape" or just "Cape" there would be a problem. However, "The Cape" seems to signify a deeper concept. I can't support a rename without some good misuse stats.

Well I'll start with a few tonight, with more tomorrow.

It might work better to have The Cape and The Cowl on the same page.

Okay, there are less than 2500 wicks, so that means 50 wicks minimum. If I don't check that many here, I'll check the rest later.

Also, I'm skipping indexes, and works I'm not familiar enough with to tell if a use is correct.

• Above The Ruins - Refers to a character, so correct.
• Ace Lightning - Refers to a character, so correct.
• Adaptational Badass - Refers to a character, but it's not a superhero, it's a Final Fantasy character. Does that count as a misuse?
• A Day in the Limelight - Again, not a superhero. It's a freakin' Star Wars character.
• A House Divided - Not enough context to tell.
• Always Save the Girl - Again, not a superhero.
• FanFic.An American Superhero In Japan - Correct
• Quotes.And Another Thing - I think it refers to the series, so I think that's just a namespace flub.
• Characters.Angel - Again, not a superhero.
• AlternativeCharacterInterpretation.Anime - Should any character in Tenchi Muyo count?
• PlayingWith.Anti Hero - Correct
• Anti-Hero - Correct
• PlayingWith.Anti Hero Substitute - Correct
• Anti-Hero Substitute - Correct I guess (not familiar with the character)
• Appointment With FEAR - Correct
• Archenemy - Same issue with Adaptational Badass
• Analysis.A Song Of Ice And Fire - Is correct, since the use is not in the context of this story itself.
• Astro City - Correct I guess (not familiar with the character)
• Characters.Avengers60s Members - Half correct, but still assumes this is about wearing a cape.
• Characters.Avengers70s Members - Correct
• Avengers Assemble - Hard to tell. Major Glory is a spoof of "goodie two shoes" heroes, so it might be correct, but he's often enough of a Jerkass to not count.
• Aztek - Correct
• YMMV.Daitarn 3 - Not sure characters in a Super Robot show count, unless it also has superheroes.
• Dallas - Okay, WTF?
• Darkman - Correct
• Dating Catwoman - Correct
• Characters.DCAU - Correct (you'd have to try really hard to refer to this as Superman as this and make it a misuse)
• WMG.DC Universe - Correct
• Death from Above - Misuse referring to an actual cape
• Deceased Parents Are the Best - Correct
• Enemy Civil War - Namspace flub with the series.
• Entitled Bastard - Correct
• Establishing Character Moment - Correct
• Evil Brit - Confusion with the series
• Evil Versus Evil - Correct
• Evil Weapon - I guess correct
• PlayingWith.Good People Have Good Sex - I guess correct
• Good Scars, Evil Scars - Are the Planescape games about superheroes in any way?
• Grappling-Hook Pistol - Not sure it's correct, as most characters don't need something like this.
• Green Lantern - Correct
• Grey Knights - Not superheroes, and refers to the capes they wear anyway.
• Pantheon.GUAG Combat Division - Misuse. The proper pothole would be Kight In Shining Armor.
• Characters.Guilty Gear - Hard to tell. Would merely being a cop count enough?
• Characters.Gunnm - Hard to tell. Does this involve superheroes.
• High Collar of Doom - Again, that same Final Fantasy character.
• Highly-Visible Ninja - I think this is confusing this for superhero outfits in general.
• Holy Halo - Correct
• Characters.Honorable Hogwarts - Harry Potter is not a superhero, not even in this work.
• Limited Wardrobe - Referring to the capes worn. Misuse.
• Beware the Nice Ones.Literature - Carrot is not a superhero.
• BewareTheNiceOnes.Live Action TV - Correct
• GroinAttack.Live Action TV - Confusion for series
• Fridge.Live Action TV - Confusion for series
• Characters.Ogre Battle - Not a superhero.
• Okami - Would call it misuse even if the guy was a superhero.
• Old-Fashioned Copper - Not sure a cop is enough for this.
• One Outs - This is about baseball, not superheroing.
• Pantheon.Personal Appearance - Since this is personal appearance, and not personality, that would logically mean this is about wearing capes, and thus a misuse.
• Personality Powers - Correct
• WMG.Pet Shop Of Horrors - Correct

So I checked 60 so far (if I counted correctly), but the full extent of the misuse depends on the parameters of this trope. If this doesn't limit itself to superoes, the misuse is pretty low. But it's significant if fantasy heroes aren't examples.

edited 5th Sep '11 1:34:48 AM by DragonQuestZ

I think it is limited to superheroes, but in my view, the issue isn't so much the name as it is another case of "supertrope aversion" - this is currently the only trope we have about the metaphorical Knight in Shining Armor character type, so characters with this personality who aren't literally knights are being sent here.

Of course, confusion with the TV show and literal capes are all down to the name, but those don't seem to be the main issue.

We actually do have a trope that can be used other than Knight in Shining Armor and The Cape. It's called Ideal Hero, the problem is the trope isn't widespread...

You aren't kidding. Probably should work some more on getting that one known about.

edited 5th Sep '11 2:52:37 AM by nrjxll

So, what? We need a "True Hero" supertrope? Heck, I'm not sure I can tell these heroes apart as it is!

Ideal Hero - Might be the supertrope? Knight in Shining Armor - Ideal Hero that's less than Super Weight 2? The Cape - Ideal Hero that's at least Super Weight 2? The Cowl - Ideal anti-hero?! (of any Super Weight)?

edited 5th Sep '11 3:28:21 AM by LordGriffin

Knight in Shining Armor is focused on knights and The Cape is focused on Superman-like heroes. It has nothing to do with Super Weight.

We just need to move examples of Knight in Shining Armor and The Cape that don't fit in either into Ideal Hero and reference this trope as a Super-Trope on the two pages.

So ... what's a "superman-like hero", then? Flying Brick? There's a trope for that. Ideal Hero? That, too. What aspect of The Cape truly differentiates it from NON-super heros if not the power level?

I think we could just move the non-superhero examples to the Ideal Hero trope, although remember that you can have a superhero outside of the superhero genre, in theory. A superhero is both a character type and a genre, is what I'm saying, so we do have to check them to make sure they aren't just a cross-genre character...