Great example, problematic with trope description: Absurdly Sharp Blade

Aren't actual examples preferable over non-examples?

The red outline of the sword kind of makes it look magical (which apparently it is).

Current is good. The pulled one should be at Image Links if it's not already.

The current image is an example (as far as we can be sure).

The red outline makes the sword match the way Coyote himself is drawn in that comic. Most things have black outlines, but Coyote always has a red-blue outline and the sword, being a tooth pulled from his mouth, has it too. It's more the little lines coming off of that outline that could imply a "laser aura."

I doubt there'll ever be a precise explanation what makes that thing sharp. Coyote is a coyote, and a god, and his teeth are teeth and rocks and apparently swords, simultaneously. And he's a master of illusion. And the cosmic principle that operates on such cases is literally "it just does."

edited 2nd Dec '11 8:49:19 AM by ArcadesSabboth

The blade basically can be summed upto A Wizard Did It I guess.

Sooooooo...

Its from the tooth of a coyote god and is as sharp as it is because its the tooth of a coyote god? Doesn't fall under "magical" then and thus technically not an example?

A Wizard Did It.

It's a magical blade, but it doesn't have a magical aura of sharpness that would make it a laser blade, not an absurdly sharp blade. Magical blades are allowed as examples of absurdly sharp blades, as long as it's not outright stated that their cutting ability ISN'T a result of the sharpness of the blade. Does that clarify things for you?

edited 3rd Dec '11 10:54:50 AM by Katrika

Magical blades aren't allowed,The third line of text in the description says so, and if A Wizard Did It then it's still magical.

I don't want to be a Rules Lawyer here, but if the sword is sharp because its from the tooth of a god, it is Not An Example of the trope.

Edit: Okay, So I bothered looking at the source material. Its made from the tooth of a thing, presumably a god, it laughs, and can cut immaterial things like a shadow. On top of that, this picture was added without a discussion in the first place very close to when it first appeared on the webcomic, despite the fact that its validity is ambiguous, leaning more towards being invalid. Seems like Fan Myopia to me.

edited 3rd Dec '11 12:15:05 PM by StubbyPenguin

Actually, it didn't cut the shadow, so I dunno where you're getting that from. It cut the FLOOR, but not the shadow. That implies it's just very sharp, not that it can magically cut anything.

Seems like you just want to argue to me.

EDIT: Nevermind.

edited 3rd Dec '11 3:23:11 PM by FinalStarman

Okay, I looked at it again its shown being able to lift an immaterial object, this isn't helping your case.

Its sharp, its really sharp, but its sharp because its magical, its Not This Trope.

Oh, and no, I don't want to argue with you or anyone for that matter, its just that a really long TRS of this trope only recently finished and insisting that this is an example completely undermines that whole discussion.

AAAANNNND someone edited the trope description,Real classy people.

edited 3rd Dec '11 3:52:01 PM by StubbyPenguin

The "shadow" is a material object, despite his appearance.

But WE DON'T KNOW THAT IT'S SHARP BECAUSE IT'S MAGICAL. It's likely that it's PHYSICALLY very sharp and Coyote threw in a bunch of magical goodies, like his laugh, because it's COYOTE. Moreover, the image itself is a lot more demonstrative of this trope than a picture of a surgical knife etc would be. If you can find an image that's as demonstrative as the current one AND unquestionably an example, we'll switch it out. As it is, this is the best page image proposed.

I do agree that if we found a quite demonstrative picture of a blade with no magic at all attached, it'd make a better page image, but I don't agree that we should remove the (quite good) current page image just because it MIGHT not be an example, if it sums up the core of the trope beautifully.

edited 3rd Dec '11 4:05:42 PM by Katrika

I don't care what the blade is made of and it says nowhere in the image what it is made of. The one part about the image that could possibly hint at it being magical is the red outline, and that just doesn't do it for me. The image is perfectly fine as it is.

Maybe I just have Not A Fan Myopia, since I find the image adequate because I have not read the comic.

I'll accept that, but the whole Coyote is a Reality Warper thing that someone mentioned doesn't help.

In any case, I undid that edit, you do not redefine a trope that much without discussing it. And I don't mean you, I know who did, it says so.

edited 3rd Dec '11 4:15:28 PM by StubbyPenguin

That being said, I can suggest a POSSIBLE replacement if it comes to that.

That would work, but the blood is kind of in the way, it looks like a regular slash wound.

I'm still saying don't use it if we can't agree what the sword's sharpness is derived from because right now we don't know, Word of God is non-existent and seems to read right now simply as A Wizard Did It. Way too contentious to even consider a single prop crowner for it, it'll be back here again because it's a boomerang image.

edited 3rd Dec '11 4:37:10 PM by treelo

I still say the current is best, because the material it's made from is not mentioned anywhere in the image and there is no suggestion that it might not be ordinary. The suggested is worse as explained, but if putting it up will put an end to this discussion, then please do so.

Yup, I know it's a great image but if the reasoning to keep it was that simple, there wouldn't be this conversation. Changing my mind, opting now for Keep Until Better is Found (if better can be found).

edited 3rd Dec '11 5:42:50 PM by treelo

When I said "A Wizard Did It", check what I was linking to.

I knew I'd be opening a can of worms with this one. *sigh*

I just opened up a TRS thread for this trope, which has relevance to whether the current pic would count.

Nothing in the image says that the blade is magical. It just looks like an ordinary, really sharp blade to me. It's irrelevant whether the trope only covers non-magical examples, because the image does not give a clue as to the blade being out of the ordinary.