Redefine or Rename: Wonder Dog

It is named after Wonder Dog in Super Friends, however it...

• Is a character named trope fails the "One Mario Limit": Rex The Wonder Dog predates this by over half a century yet supposedly is not an example (even though he is incorrectly listed and used as the picture), because he is not added to a property that you would not expect to have a dog companion, but is the main character of his own series. Several other real and fictional dogs also have the appellation of "Wonder Dog".
• The Trope Namer is better know as an Animal Superhero and a Heroic Dog than what we are using it for.
• Uses a pre-existing term in a way that is much more narrow than the Real Life use. "Wonder Dog" is used for in for heroic or amazingly talented dogs, not what we are defining it as.
• The defintion, "an animal sidekick into a property that normally wouldn't be expected to have one" is a YMMV defintion. Expected by who? Not everyone has the same expectations.

Proposal:

• Merge with Animal Superhero, which is what the Trope Namer is better known for.

Or

• Merge with Heroic Dog, which currently uses "Rex the Wonder Dog" as its illustration.

Or

• Rename to something indicating the trope defintion, and possibly make a YMMV trope.

Or

• Modify the current defintion to something objective, and rename.

edited 5th Jan '12 2:47:05 PM by Auxdarastrix

Merge with Heroic Dog.

What about broadening it to something like Animal Sidekick? Or, perhaps, Pet Sidekick to avoid confusion with Nonhuman Sidekick.

I don't think the definition is especially YMMV, but if you like, it could be redefined as "belated" or "not inherent to the concept" or somesuch without losing much.

The basic idea is an animal sidekick added to an existing property, often for no particular reason. The trope's more about the oddity of the addition than about the animal itself. IMO, "an animal sidekick into a property that normally wouldn't be expected to have one" is just a slightly more elegant way of expressing the above.

I think it needs a rename, but the trope itself is sound.

Bumping for more discussion.

This could be a trope (as in a "trope" trope, not a YMMV thing), but it needs a rename incredibly badly.

The usage is pretty feeble, but I'll go ahead and check the wicks later on. Even if they're mostly correct, this is still a mind-bogglingly obtuse name, though.

Almost all the use is potholing the names of the dogs that are listed on the trope page example section. A few are animals that seem to be listed only because they have a The Wonder X style appellation.

Bump. Anyone actually care about this enough to move on to a crowner, or should I just request that the mods close this thread?

"Team Pet added to a well-established franchise that lacked one before" is tropable. Could definitely use a rename, though — justified by failure to thrive, if nothing else.

I'll certainly support renaming, since Wonder Dog is an existing term for a different trope.

I'd like a rename.

Crowner here

I can't argue with the OP. They're right.

While I doubt it really matters with the way the crowner is running, I went ahead and did that wick check. All misuse not otherwise labeled was as Heroic Dog.

Correct (5)

• Band Toon
• Heroic Dog (doesn't really count as it's a compare/contrast, though)
• Pandaing To The Audience
• Team Pet (although one of the references says it's limited to an Animated Adaptation of a live-action show, which seems incorrect)
• The Brady Kids

Misuse (5)

• Defenders Of Dynatron City
• Hee Haw (slightly unclear, but the fact that the dog "did nothing but sleep" is called an inversion suggests misuse)
• Mr. Driller
• Tales Of The Gold Monkey
• Weapon Brown

Zero Or Insufficient Context (15)

• Additional Evil Overlord List Cellblock C (probably incorrect)
• A.I. Roulette
• Angry Guard Dog (potholed to "Bat-Hound", which could go either way)
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Continuity Cameo
• For The Man Who Has Everything
• Five-Man Band
• Krypto The Superdog
• Mark Prindle
• Mork & Mindy (although the context implies this one is correct)
• Pixar Shorts
• Shrinking Violet
• The Dark Age Of Animation
• Through New Media (apparently potholed to mean "Dog"!)
• Watchmen

Sinkholes Specifically To The Words "Wonder Dog" (7)

(almost all of these are probably wrong, as none of the characters in question are this trope)

• Intellectual Animal
• Intellectual Animal (duplicate of the above)
• Parody Sue
• Shadowpact
• Superfriends
• Super-Soldier
• Tropey the Wonder Dog

Indexes (5)

• Es/Animales
• Animal Tropes
• Cartoon Characters
• Saturday-Morning Cartoon
• Superhero Tropes (probable misuse)

edited 8th Jan '12 5:21:23 PM by nrjxll

Calling the crowner; overwhelmingly pro-rename with 13 yeas and no nays.

There is now an alternative titles crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add names as you see fit.

Swapped 'em.

I believe the word we are looking for here is "Gratuitous", not "Shoehorned".

I agree, "gratuitous" sounds a lot better.

Both "Gratuitous" and "Shoehorned" are far too negative of names.

I'm only seeing one example in the green. I think this can be callled.

Calling the crowner Gratuitous Animal Sidekick. Locking the crowner

Work is done. Hollering to close this.

We probably could close this thread, but does anyone else think it might be worth it to make the Wonder Dog name a redirect for Heroic Dog?

Considering the trope was a getting a fair amount of misuse for Heroic Dog under its old name and the fact that Rex The Wonder Dog is actually an example of a Heroic Dog, I think that would make some sense.

Of course, in that scenario, Gratuitous Animal Sidekick would not be affected, just that redirect.

edited 21st Feb '12 7:45:46 PM by LouieW

Locking.