Description-title disconnect.: For Halloween I Am Going As Myself

The title makes it seem like the trope is about anyone who goes "as themselves" for Halloween instead of using a costume... but the description makes it seem like it's about paranormal characters whose appearances are mistaken for costumes, and not exclusively in the context of Halloween either.

First things first, we need some better clarification as to what this trope is or isn't. Once that's done, perhaps we can discuss whether or not it needs a rename.

edited 20th Jan '12 2:03:23 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

I got the trope quite right with the current name, I think you're overreacting about it. It seems healthy, does it have misuse, or something else that requires action about it?

I could guess the meaning of the trope as well. Unless there's quite a bit of misuse, I see no reason to rename.

Can we see a misuse check before we start taking any actions here?

edited 20th Jan '12 2:33:41 PM by troacctid

All tropes evolve a little bit from original inception. The basic idea was always about someone who has to hide themselves in someway and the situation allows them to blend in while still being them. The specific "paranormal" part of the description (like a grotesque demon) is talking about the extremes but the sight of say Bruce Wayne walking around in a cheap Batman costume at a Halloween party is the same basic trope.

Sure, let me. Complete A thru E range:

Correct

• (18 of 42 pages in this range)

Misuse?

• American Splendor: "A non-supernatural example. The movie begins with Harvey as a child, trick-or-treating as himself in contrast with other kids dressing as superheroes. This is a fictional event invented by the screenwriters."
• Becoming the Costume: "On the Darkwing Duck episode "Slaves to Fashion", Tuskernini, the villainous walrus filmmaker, creates a gas that causes people to take on the personality of whatever costumed character they dressed up as. Hilarity Ensues. The gas doesn't actually affect our hero, though, because he came to the party as himself."
  • Clothes Make the Superman, same context
• Bedsheet Ghost: "American Dragon Jake Long has the episode "Halloween Bash", a For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself episode with a Muggle / Magical Being party. Two Normals show up, dressed as Bedsheet Ghosts, and are annoyed to see how many of the other "costumes" are so much better than theirs."
• Burn Notice: "Michael and Fiona once infiltrated a villain's organization as themselves, figuring the guy already had the connections to know who they were."
• Captain Flamingo: "Played straight for the most part in both Halloween episodes. But in Copycat Flamingo, one of the Halloween episodes, the Warrior Monkey poses as him to sabotage Halloween for the kids. He counters this by dressing up as the Warrior Monkey, being kind and friendly to other kids and ruining his plan. Near the end of the episode, Owen Only dresses up as Lizbeth right down to her Belly Dancer costume."
• Death On Demand: "Brad's outfit is a baseball cap and a shirt with 'Costume' printed on it."

Unclear

• Film.Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein: "When Dracula joins the costume party where our protagonists have gone, he is dressed as a Classical Movie Vampire."
• FanFic.A Day Indoors: "In Ch. XXX, Kotaro rises to the challenge of playing the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood by secretly transforming into his Wolfman form"
• All You Need Is Love: "When Matsuda has the Taskforce reenacting their story in Soap Opera form, Matsuda worries that Light is getting Lost in Character. He's supposed to be playing "Hikaru", not the Boogeyman. "
• American Psycho: "Patrick goes to a Halloween party dressed as a mass murderer, complete with real human blood on his suit."
• Batman Returns: "An inversion, Bruce and Selina meet at a party as "regular people" and end up discovering each other's Secret Identity. ("Ingenious costume. Let me guess: trust-fund goody-goody?") Of course, in their minds, "Batman" and "Catwoman" are their true identities, with "Bruce Wayne" and "Selina Kyle" being the real costumes."
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "For vaguely defined reasons, apparently because they think it is just corny, Vampires and demons do not cause problems on Halloween, and instead stay in their respective lairs and wait for the night to end. Spike is disgusted when a couple of teenaged Vampires try to cause trouble and explains that there are rules for this sort of thing, and explains that he is a rebel, whereas they are just idiots."
• Chronicles Of Vladimir Tod: "For Halloween in Eight Grade Bites, Vlad wears plastic fangs and a black cape."
• DC Showcase Catwoman: "Catwoman briefly pretends to be an exotic dancer in order to get closer to Rough Cut."
• Characters.Digimon Adventure: "Like a few members of Myotismon's crew, Wizardmon was able to walk in broad daylight without drawing attention to himself. He poses as a street magician, producing baloons and doves with sleight of hand."
• Empowered: "It's her part-time job - making public appearances with other lookalikes as herself. The "Southern" accent she affects might be an effort to stop the disguise from being too realistic."

Zero Context Example

• American Dragon Jake Long: "Halloween Bash"
  • Characters.American Dragon Jake Long
• Blood Books: "Henry, of course."
• Bruno The Bandit
• Chick Tracts: "A demon in this tract."
• Cyanide And Happiness: "The purple shirted eye-stabber."
• Fanfic.Engagement: "Gill and Dr. Facilier."

edited 20th Jan '12 8:16:05 PM by Stratadrake

Of the works named that I'm familiar with, I'd say the American Splendor example would be correct (out of a group of kids dressed as comic characters, young Harvey Pekar is dressed as himself, and with Harvey actually being a comic character, that's sort of the whole point).

And the point being made about the American Psycho example is that Patrick Bateman really is a crazed murderer Or is he? and is even using real blood and human bone fragments to make his costume.

edited 20th Jan '12 8:48:33 PM by SeanMurrayI

And about American Dragon, Jake Long goes "disguised" in his dragon form, so it would also be correct.

Then those two just need clearer phrasing.

edited 21st Jan '12 9:18:26 AM by Stratadrake

The trope summed up is "when everybody is disguised (For Halloween) supernatural creatures and heroes can act like if they were disguised too (I Am Going As Myself)", so most of the examples are correct and the title is not counterintuitive or unexplicative.

Maybe we should just tweak the description a bit to make this more clear, but there is no significant misuse or anything else that needs action about it, at least that I can see.

Bump. I don't think this needs any help, just maybe some tweaking in the description, but is otherwise alright (there is no misuse, the description covers that too). Any opinions, or can we close the thread?

The description already makes it clear that it isn't just for Halloween so clarifying that it isn't only the paranormal is the only thing the description needs to clear up.

Some examples like for Burn Notice may require a little more context to understand. Burn Notice is all about the characters taking on new names and personalities to infiltrate the bad guys inner circle. Having them not change their names or personalities for a job because of the circumstances while still trying to infiltrate the bad guys inner circle is in the same spirit of the trope.

Maybe a good name change would be "Dressing as my alter ego"?

No, no it wouldn't. It doesn't cover the meaning because unnatural creatures don't go as "their alter ego". They go as themselves. The same thing superheroes do, they go as themselves (public identity, superhero identity, they are still the same person). And since there are no reasons to rename I'd prefer not to keep talking about it. Just how to fix the definition to make it more clear, but that's all.

I think I'll give it a try later.

Agree, the trope seems to work.

There really isn't that big of a problem with the trope to begin with, some examples are stretching the definition but that doesn't equal rampant misuse. I'll go ahead and clarify the description.

It has a new image also, which may help.

Are we done here?

"Some examples like for Burn Notice may require a little more context to understand. Burn Notice is all about the characters taking on new names and personalities to infiltrate the bad guys inner circle. Having them not change their names or personalities for a job because of the circumstances while still trying to infiltrate the bad guys inner circle is in the same spirit of the trope."

— no, that's misuse. There's two tropes going on here. One is where an alter identity, or supernatural creature is going about in public, and it's assumed to be fake. No one believes it's really Batman, or really a dragon. The second trope, the primary misuse, is where a character doesn't bother to disguise themself. The bad guys don't think Michael and Fiona are faking their identity, they just know who Mike is.

Maybe we could just cut the second type examples?

If nobody objects, I'm going to holler for a mod to close the thread.