They Wasted A Perfectly Good Opportunity: What Could Have Been

Hey there! Remember when Offscreen Moment of Awesome was called Missed Moment Of Awesome, and so people misused it to talk about scenes they thought would have seemed cool if they happened? Well, I've seen people do the same to this phrase a number of times. I've even seen people mistake this for a YMMV trope as a result. I went and fixed some of those times, but what shall we do to prevent future misuse?

edited 16th Jan '12 6:39:45 AM by dsneybuf

I sort of see where you're coming from, but can you give some examples of how it's being used wrong? Is it being used as shorthand for "my fanfic is much Better Than Canon"?

Well, the examples I found and corrected include these:

• YMMV.Julie And Julia: Someone saying the movie should have just been about Julia Child, and another person saying it would have been cool if Julie Powell and Julia Child met in person during the movie. I put this under They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
• YMMV.Max Fleischers Gullivers Travels: Someone saying the movie should have been about Popeye instead. Since the directors originally wanted the movie to be about Popeye, I moved this to the Trivia page, though I wish someone did that earlier.
• YMMV.The Star Wars Holiday Special: Someone saying Maude should have joined the Empire after the special's events. I just deleted this one.
• Swamp Thing: Someone found a correct piece of What Could Have Been on the work's main page, and decided to add an incorrect piece by saying Alec should have teamed up with Poison Ivy from Batman. I changed the second point to They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot and moved it to YMMV.Swamp Thing.

edited 16th Jan '12 8:49:38 AM by dsneybuf

Hmm... could try a boldface warning at the bottom of the description. Something like "Attention: This is for official Word of God about stuff that wasn't used, not your personal idea for a better plot or complaining that your ship got sunk."

Don't know if it would help with people misusing it on works pages, though.

edited 16th Jan '12 9:29:59 AM by DracMonster

I agree that the name "What Could Have Been" sound too much like Missed Moment of Awesome. It's supposed to be things that were confirmed planned but specifically cut out during the production process. Like deleted-scene storyboard ideas.

I just came to the page for a different kind of...I don't know if you call it "misuse", but...The West Wing uses What Could Have Been with an in-universe example. I don't know if there's a separate trope for in-universe WCHB's, but I'm sure there should be...