Their actual subordinates would be a start. Neither of the other two tropes deal with someone who directly answers to the trope character. Most examples for Reasonable Authority Figure are overlaps with Benevolent Boss.

(Last page). when is a hero not an agent of justice ?

subordinates? that's misuse.

edited 13th Feb '12 5:58:52 PM by crazysamaritan

Huh, Misuse? For Reasonable Authority Figure?

I don't know if that's true or not, but if you think so, make a new thread here for it, I guess.

First line: Heroes like the Ignored Expert have a hard enough time dealing with idiotic peasants, but their deepest problems invariably come from the antagonistic local authorities, who are dead set on ignoring their warnings and running them out of town because it's politically expedient.

Then, basically, says that raf is an aversion of antagonistic local authorities. I'll put it on my to do, since there's 501 threads open.

Yeah, but it also states that the RAF can be a Benevolent Boss. The trope is extremely broad.

Which is why I don't think we need to make Commissioner Gordon quite so broad.

It's a semantic argument, though. The crux of the problem is that we can't define what sort of person of authority qualifies or what sort of crime-stopper does. If it's just the police chief/commissioner, that means that even the Trope Namer doesn't qualify for a good portion of the stories he's in. (He's frequently a Sergeant or Lieutenant.) If it's just cops, then that excludes members of the FBI or the military. If it excludes politicians, then that the Mayors which sometimes play this role don't count either.

Uh no that was clearly about Batman... really feel like a lot more effort is going into thinking about a reply than reading for comprehension... same team, heh... the incredulous hyberbole and general flavor of this is really awful. Three replies with all-caps in them, wtf.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:47:47 PM by rodneyAnonymous

No idea what you're talking about.

It may be worth mentioning that Rent, Thomas the Tank Engine, Half-Life, and Wall Street also have a character named Gordon.

You have Captain Gordon Defender of Earth Flash Gordon etc as well. (and those series had a character that fit this trope iirc.) Hardly a One Mario Limit.

edited 14th Feb '12 7:49:51 AM by Raso

I already did a wick check. Common usage is either (1) as a trope or (2) as a reference to the Batman character in Wiki Word form, regardless of whether or not the trope that the page is intended to be used for is relevant or not.

This page has issues, but other fictional characters named "Gordon" is not one of them.

edited 14th Feb '12 10:59:54 AM by SeanMurrayI

I don't think anyone else has a Commissioner Gordon, but I'm not defending the current name. I'm just trying to make sure we have a definition we can all agree on so that we can come up with a name that matches the defintion and won't contribute to Trope Decay.

edited 14th Feb '12 8:26:26 AM by Catbert

Would just "The Commissioner" work? It's what they usually call Gordon anyway, so it retains the character name, but makes it obviously more broad.

edited 14th Feb '12 2:09:33 PM by abk0100

That is a big part of the problem.

"No idea what you're talking about."

edited 14th Feb '12 3:01:17 PM by rodneyAnonymous

what is?

That I can't make sense of what you're saying is part of the problem? What problem?

For the record, I also couldn't figure out what you were talking about in that post.

edit: but anyway, seems like everyone agrees with a rename. Can we just start a crowner for that? Or do we need more arguing about the definition first?

edited 14th Feb '12 4:22:29 PM by abk0100

I think we do need to discuss the definition a little more. But we may need to have someone summarize the different stances, so that everyone can get on the same page.

edited 14th Feb '12 6:33:07 PM by crazysamaritan

"A Commissioner Gordon is a Reasonable Authority Figure that acts as an ally to the local Super Hero and provides the chief connection between the Super Hero and the official authorities. In other words, he's the one in charge of the Bat Signal. He's often a police detective or commissioner, but mayors, district attorneys, and other government officials can fill role too. Whatever his job, he'll be trying to do good through legal and mundane means, while the hero's methods will be more exotic, or possibly illegal."

That's the current definition, at least according to the opening paragraph. Does anyone want to bring up a change that should be made?

The only thing I would modify is say "Super Hero or Costumed Nonsuper Hero"

Mostly the arguments were over the relation this trope has to Friend on the Force and Inspector Lestrade. My position has changed slightly, I now believe these three are sister tropes.

This trope is when you have a superhero or costumed nonsuper, while the other two are only for Detective characters.

I guess it should really be Super Heroes, Costumed non-super heroes, and non-costumed Super Heroes. What's a good way to phrase it, though?

I think "costumed crimefighter" includes people with super-powers in plainclothes, but maybe that is just me. I realize the technical definition of "costumed" does not.

edited 16th Feb '12 2:17:20 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Bump.

As I brought up in the threads for Zenigata and Javert, I'd pushed for a common naming theme for those, this and Lestrade. In this case, it would've been Personal Ally Inspector (detective, etc.), to contrast with Personal Enemy Inspector (Javert), lawful enemy inspector (Zenigata) and lawful ally inspector (Lestrade), as these characters are defined by their relationships with the hero.

But, those weren't fully supported on those other threads.