Trope As A Placeholder/Not Thriving/Is this tropable?: Never Trust A Trope

Okay, so the use of "trope" as a placeholder is even worse in this case because it sounds like it's some form of Playing with a Trope. There are very few wicks or inbounds as well, and I'm not even sure if this is tropable. It's pretty much a Stock Phrase, and we don't want any more of those.

What do you think?

I think it's a fair trope in need of a rename.

Never Trust A Demographic? Untrustable Category?

Is this more about the prejudice against certain people being trustworthy?

So, basically this trope is about a character's bigotry, right?

edited 9th Feb '12 7:40:21 PM by Catbert

Yes, this is a way that bigoted characters are portrayed.

So is there a distinction between this trope and just a bigot character?

The name is very bad (I too thought it was something about subversions/playing with a trope).

And I'm unsure about the trope itself. Looking at just a few examples, it seems to be used as a Stock Phrase ("Never trust a _____") rather than to characterise the speaker as a bigot or make any kind of point about the target group

edited 10th Feb '12 1:50:29 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Even knowing it was using "trope" as a placeholder and wasn't a form of Playing with a Trope, the use of "trope" as a placeholder is so broad that I wondered if it was an index for tropes like Never Trust a Trailer. You could have replaced "trope" with anything and it would have made sense.

This is a bad excuse for a trope. Anything remotely salvageable should be sent back to YKTTW.

While I didn't have a thorough read-through of the examples, what I've seen makes me agree with you.

My thoughts from when I started this discussion.

I don't get how this is considered a Stock Aesop and not a Stock Phrase.

The Stock Aesop (index) page says "Never Trust A Trope: Don't be racist; they can't all be that bad, despite their relatives all being evil."

So which is it? Heh.

edited 12th Feb '12 6:27:31 PM by rodneyAnonymous

So maybe this should be something like Bigotry Aesop?

And the examples clearly need work.

I think the idea is that any time a character says the phrase "can't trust a blank" they're bound to end up learning the aesop that they're just like us.

Not defending it, just trying to guess the logic.

I can see that being a trope. However, most the examples seem to be treating it like a Stock Phrase.

That's a valid trope. I suspect this one would have to be sent back to YKTTW, though.

I'm leaning on cutting it. What it seems like to me is a trope about somebody saying, "Don't trust X", which is pretty much People Sit On Chairs.

I was leaning towards cutting too, but now that I think about it, this actually is a trope. It's a Stock Aesop, and basically a stock plot. Character A doesn't like race X. They meet a character from race X, get to know them somehow, maybe it's an Enemy Mine scenario, and then they the character isn't racist anymore.

And yet this page is being used as a stock phrase. Let's just redefine it to be about the "racist guy learns that there are good people in the group of people that they hate" plot.

I think that the plot is much more tropable than the stock phrase.

Interesting note, that is exactly the plot of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. Huck spends some time with Jim and realizes (*gasp*) he's a person.

It is. It's very much a stock plot. I think it's tropable.

It's going to need a rename, even if it's just to use a better placeholder than "trope." It's got some overlap with Not So Different, but that trope seems more about a pair of people, not learning to trust a whole group.

edited 13th Feb '12 11:00:18 PM by abk0100

I find this is definitely tropable, but the name is horrid. I thought it had to do something with the use of tropes, but apparenty, it's a plot trope.

Nees a rename, badly.

edited 14th Feb '12 1:25:09 AM by lu127

Hm that might be kind of a blurry line. In the Huck Finn example, he learns from Jim explicitly but the lesson is implicitly about all black people.