Confusion for place made of sweets: Sugar Bowl

To this moment we have arguments going on about Sugar Bowl. The page quote and half the examples still seem to make it sound like it's about worlds made out of sugar. The Pretty Cure example on the page misuses it as such and there are numerous references to Candy Land. Music examples include the Good Ship Lollipop. This is a trope that's being misused on it's own page.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Saccharine Land?

I was reading the Grumpy Bear complaint and saw this trope and... Yeah... The older page quote (from a delusional episode) actually better shows the trope than the current one, which implies Level Ate.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

This name never made sense to me. I think a name like "Idealistically Cute Setting" would be better.

So basically you are saying this is being confused with Level Ate. Could list some examples of misuse?

Skimming through the examples, I think "half" is an exaggeration...there's a handful of bad ones, but most of them seem okay to me. There are a significant amount that are the Candy Land thing, true, but the tropes often overlap, and it doesn't seem disproportionate.

On the other hand, there's certainly a pattern to the ones that are false positives, and that's clearly because of the name.

It's definitely cause for concern. We should zap that page quote with extreme prejudice, for starters.

edited 12th Feb '12 5:21:54 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

The quote makes little to no sense and doesn't help understanding the trope.

Now, It's been a long time since I played Candy Land, but even totally ignoring the Level Ate thing, wouldn't Candy Land still be an example? All I remember from it is colorful and fun and everyone being happy.

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

Nah, the licorice guy was creepy and had Red and Black and Evil All Over and the swamp monster fudge thing wasn't really all that great either.

edited 12th Feb '12 5:41:32 PM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I can see someone familiar enough with candyland changing the description to show why its not an example.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Having a creepy villain or two does not disqualify a show from the trope.

She Vile Villain, Saccharine Show

I would agree with zapping both picture and quote. They both refer more to Level Ate than Sugar Bowl. While they're still potentially examples, if we have problems with misuse, they need to go.

edited 12th Feb '12 7:00:20 PM by Feather7603

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

As I said in #3, the older page quote does better:

"Be very quiet, Mr. Scruffy! If we make any noise, the magical Cart Fairy might not take us on the enchanted trip to Happy Fun Sunshine Land!" —Belkar of Order of the Stick

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

That was the character's fevered, delirious ranting, not an actual Sugar Bowl.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

I know the context: still better than the current one, which sounds like normal characters encountering Level Ate.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Belkar's quote from 578 might be better: "Goodbye, Happy Fun Sunshine Land! Thanks for Everything! I'll miss you most of all, scarecrows!" But even so, it's obviously Not An Example.

Maybe a quote from some Barney-esque kids' show? The description seems fine, so finding a new image should alleviate most of the confusion.

Bright, Colorful, Happy and/or Idyllic World/Atmosphere (37)

• Always Murder
• American Mcgees Grimm
• Aquaman and Friends Action Hour
• Asfour (an ideal happy world)
• Bakemonogatari (show is halfway towards being a Sugar Bowl)
• Blip
• Coalition Of Ponyist States
• Cupcakes
• Fisher Kingdom
• Grumpy Bear
• Harvest Moon
• Hey You Pikachu
• Hopla
• Let's Play
• MÄR
• Mental Picture Projector
• Mid-Battle Tea Break
• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Future Stories
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E5 "Sisterhooves Social"
• Naughty Bear
• Parody Sue
• Pet Society
• Psycho Waluigi
• Reality Warper
• Rule of Cute
• RunMan: Race Around the World
• Scenery Porn
• Serendipity the Pink Dragon
• Stepford Suburbia
• The Adventures Of Mark Twain
• Town with a Dark Secret: the town seems like a Sugar Bowl but really is more sinister.
• Trickster Online: the setting seems like a Sugar Bowl but really is worse.
• Unicorn
• Unintentionally Sympathetic
• Video Games
• Video Games
• Video Games

Other Misuse (4)

• Adam And The Couch Potatoes: talking about a kid-friendly band.
• Cassandra Truth: person has a Sugar Bowl worldview.
• Monkey Dust: discussing Sugar Bowl voiceovers for kid-friendly shows.
• TV Tropes Ruined Your Life: used to refer to nice things in general.

Misuse for Place Made Of Sweets (1)

• Music Video Overshadowing

Unclear or No Context (8)

• Croc
• Elf: Talks about an almost literal Sugar Bowl in the context of there being a lot of candy there.
• Lyrical Shoehorn: "Might have been a play on the word "law," if not for its appearance in the Sugar Bowl clashing with its predecessors."
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Describes the Sugar Bowl as shiny.
• The Noozles: Potholed under "your average cute cartoon about a girl and her koala buddy."
• The Wall Around the World: Talks about a Sugar Bowl without the sugar (i.e., talking animals that fight)
• Touhou: a Glimmer of an Outside World
• Weaksauce Weakness: Talks about a "real" Sugar Bowl.

Unless I made a serious error in this wick check*

, there does not actually seem to be much misuse for this trope and even most of what I classified as misuse here is not mistaking the trope for something like Level Ate. I suppose I could use a bigger sample size than 50 if this does not seem convincing enough.

I guess there is also the possibility that the lack of clear misuse is due to the existence of Sugar Wiki and similar pages and that even if an outsider might confuse Sugar Bowl with Level Ate, there is not much misuse because people who edit TV Tropes tend to be familiar with what people here tend to mean by "sugar."

edited 13th Feb '12 6:11:03 PM by LouieW

"irhgT nm0w tehre might b ea lotof th1nmgs i dont udarstannd, ubt oim ujst goinjg to keepfollowing this pazth i belieove iN !!!!!1 d

The quote itself referred to edible scenery instead of pleasant people. There's very little in the definition itself to determine how to tell when this trope is in effect. An example on that page is super mario world. But the example specifies that instead of being made from sugar, they are made from fungus. Which implies the requirements of Level Ate.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Honestly, I'm more worried about the fact that it's being misused on the page. I'm not recommending a rename. I just think that the page needs some work. A new quote and some clean up and maybe a bigger note pointing to Level Ate.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I can live without a name change, but we need to clarify what a Sugar Bowl is like.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

That too. The description needs work. The examples need clean up. The quote is bad. There are other things that can be wrong besides just a name.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I tried to take out some of the examples of misuse on the page, but it might be a good idea to check my work there. I am not sure what to do about the description.

As for what Sugar Bowl means, my impression is that it is an idyllic and generally pleasant setting that tends to lack threatening villains (unless it is a case of Vile Villain, Saccharine Show) or much of any sense of danger. Sugar Bowl settings seem to appear disproportionally in works geared toward young children as well.

I am not sure if stuff like bright colors and Talking Animals need to appear for a setting to be a Sugar Bowl. I honestly feel like it would be better to keep it a bit broad.

edited 13th Feb '12 6:58:48 PM by LouieW

"irhgT nm0w tehre might b ea lotof th1nmgs i dont udarstannd, ubt oim ujst goinjg to keepfollowing this pazth i belieove iN !!!!!1 d

then there's the whole assimilation thing, which doesn't seem to show up in too many examples.

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

Now, see, I see Vile Villain, Saccharine Show to be a character trope; the trope describes the character, and Sugar Bowl describes the setting. So if a villain shows up there, their show would have to show up here.

That's my reading of the definition.

edited 13th Feb '12 7:58:33 PM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Just to point out, the pic was chosen from an an IP thread. So that should probably be discussed in another thread.