Rename (New Crowner 2.14): Dies Wide Shut

Suggest renaming "Dies Wide Shut" to "Dies Wide Open" for the simple reason that the trope name appears to be exactly incorrect: the trope is about people dying with their eyes wide OPEN as a sign that they are Killed Off for Real. This is in the first sentence of the introduction. I can't think of any reason "Dies Wide Shut" is the name other than to connect with a Stanley Kubrick film that doesn't even feature the trope.

I agree that it needs a rename. Dies Eyes Open?

How about something along the lines of Dead Stare? Stare of Death? Dead Eyes? I agree, the current name is confusing.

I agree.

Or go along the lines of Dead Man's Float and name it Dead Mans Stare.

edited 8th Feb '12 1:51:00 PM by Blissey1

Agree with a rename.

I like Dies Wide Open or Dead Stare.

Is there misuse or lack of use regarding this trope?

I think the way this trope is being used makes it kind of tough to check misuse (i.e., many of the examples are just [character name]), but here is my attempt at doing that.

Little Context (22)

• Acquiescence
• Akira
• All Fall Down
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Angel
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Battlefield 3
• Black Robe
• Black Swan
• Blood Angels
• Body Motifs
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer Recurring And Minor Characters
• Burn Notice
• Died Standing Up
• Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog
• El Cafe du Watchog
• Eureka Seven
• Fairy Tail Three
• Ginga Densetsu Weed
• Gunnerkrigg Court
• Happy Town
• Heta Oni

Subversion (1)

• Back To The Future

Dies With Eyes Open (23)

• Basara
• Battle in the Rain
• Battle Royale
• Big Sleep
• Blank White Eyes
• Bloody Jack
• Brutal Series
• City Slickers
• Clue
• Contagion
• Darker than Black
• Death Note – Main Characters
• Downton Abbey
• Downton Abbey
• Due to the Dead
• Emerging
• Eyepatch of Power
• Family-Unfriendly Death
• Frenzy
• Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)
• Go Out with a Smile
• Halo
• He's Dead, Jim

Indexes (2)

• Death Tropes
• Eye Tropes

Eyes that "look dead" (1)

• Degrassi

Eyes closing completely being a sign of death (1)

• Heroic Second Wind

It is probably worth noting that based on how the little context examples were used, it seems pretty likely that they were meant "character dies with eyes open" since it seems unlikely that people would act like it was an unusual occurrence to have a character die with his or her eyes closed. I could be wrong about that though, so feel free to check my work here.

As for potential underuse, here are the trope's usage stats.

edited 8th Feb '12 4:58:46 PM by LouieW

Still, that indicates very little misuse. On the other hand, there's not a lot of use, as I think the trope is far more common than the use reflects.

I'm not sure how often it's misused, but the name as is, is exactly the opposite of the trope it describes. I like "Stare of Death" as suggested above.

edited 8th Feb '12 9:44:24 PM by Vidor

I'd vote for all these suggestions over the current one. Dies Wide Open is my favorite.

I think Dead Stare is a good name.

I liked Stare Of Death at first, but the problem with it is that it could potentially be mistaken for a stare that kills people.

Dead Stare works. Can possibly be confused with Blank White Eyes or Dull Eyes of Unhappiness.

So what do we do next? Hold a vote on what name to adopt?

Usually we start by running a crowner to decide if we want to rename the trope. If we agree on a rename we will run a second crowner deciding for a name

It seems most people are in favor of a change. So, how does a Crowner get started?

Here is a summary of the most important steps [1]

edited 9th Feb '12 3:59:13 PM by Osmium

Crowner made.

After two days, no one's objecting to this using a rename. We call it, or is it too soon?

edited 12th Feb '12 9:25:12 AM by Tahaneira

Seems like we could call it now, yes, and move on to voting about the various proposed names above.

Policy requires crowners stay up for at least three days.

I support the rename because the current name is actively misleading. It should be Dies Wide Open.

Support rename to Dies Wide Open

I REALLY have to wonder how this got launched with a name that was the exact opposite of what the trope is

Because someone thought that references to films were witty.