Ambiguous Name: Rogue Elephant

Can you figure out what this trope is from the name alone? Didn't think so.

Quoted from the description: A character in an otherwise typical fantasy game/story whose profession seems at odds with their nature or appearance as assumed by tradition or the audience, like a dwarven ranger or an ogre engineer. It's more broadly applicable than that, as the examples suggest, but the kernel of the trope is that "a character has an occupation at odds with its obvious characteristics or audience expectations."

And the reason for the name? Again, quoting the description: Name is a pun on a phenomenon whereby young male elephants go on violent rampages. And the fact that they wouldn't make very good rogues... So yeah, the name primarily refers to something that isn't even remotely related to the trope.

Might I suggest something along the lines of Square Species Round Job? Or Square Race, Round Class?

It should be Elephant Rogue, not Rogue Elephant. You always go Race Class. (Except for Ninjas. Ninja always comes first. I don't know why, but that's just how it is.)

Name needs to go. Square Race, Round Class is better.

Agree.

I don't suppose we can just swap it with the Elephant Rogue redirect?

& Elephant Rogue isn't any better, aside from soothing D&D-related OCD; it still gives no idea of what the trope is about.

I'd want to call it Ninja Turtle, but...

Elephant Rogue is a lot better. It clearly indicates we're talking about a rogue, and not someone who's gone rogue. It gives the feeling that something is wrong with that combination, which is what the trope is about. The downside is that people may be confused as to how specific the trope is, as the name is more narrow than the trope.

edited 24th Feb '12 7:43:29 PM by Feather7603

It's not good enough.

The entire elephant pun (and I'm barely even willing to call it a pun) needs to go.

Square Race, Round Class sounds fine.

The problem it doesn't describe the trope, especially since "rogue" can mean more than "stealthy thief-type D&D class." It's almost as bad as Super Grape, which became Ascended Extra some time ago.

BTW, I haven't seen anyone put forth evidence that this name is causing problems on the wiki. Isn't that supposed to be required now?

It has weak stats.

But yes, you really should say that in the OP.

24 wicks (19 excluding indexes and a contextless "see also"), 49 inbounds. Named after a real phenomenon that is unrelated except for a goofball pun.

Wick check:

• Ancient Domains Of Mystery - correct
• Arc Angle - I'm gonna say wrong; a monster with an incongruous elemental attack, not a race/class combination
• Fall From Heaven - Potholed in an All Blue Entry such that I have no clue what it means
• Five Races - correct
• Lightning Bruiser - correct
• Martial Arts and Crafts - I'm gonna say wrong; a character is a "sumo ninja" - two jobs, not a race/class combination
• Metaspace Defiance - wrong; a character named Tarrasque is "a nice guy" - not job/class-related
• Metaspace Mooks - dunno, sounds like more of a monster in an incongruous category than a race as such
• Neverwinter Nights - correct
• Pokémon: Generation V Families - correct
• Power Incontinence - wrong; a character with psychic powers is "excellent at sports and stand-up comedy" - not job/class-related
• Schrödinger's Player Character - correct
• Small Name Big Ego - (a sandbox, this example is not on the main page) I'm gonna say wrong; a troop-carrier transformer has a dinosaur form
• The Order of the Stick: The Order of the Stick - correct
• The War Gods - correct
• WorldOfWarcraft.TropesQ-Z - correct
• Characters.Twenty Nine-Ninety One - correct
• WMG.Warcraft - correct
• When Trees Attack - correct

So giving the two questionable examples the benefit of the doubt, 5 misused out of 19.

edited 24th Feb '12 8:24:40 PM by lebrel

So, a 25% misuse (or more if you're strict), which is kind of bad.

The kind of misuse indicate that people don't understand the trope rather than the name being misleading. There aren't any misuses for rampaging elephant, at least.

A more clear name might still help, though. The snowclone name is okay, one of them.

It's also not a lot of use. I imagine it being more used than this. There are 30+ works with examples on the actual page, several with many.

edited 24th Feb '12 8:34:10 PM by Feather7603

There is now a single proposition rename crowner for this trope here. Feel free to tell me if you think it is premature.

edited 25th Feb '12 12:20:16 PM by LouieW

Elephant Rogue is better than Rogue Elephant because of how the English language parses words that could be either a noun or an adjective, of which Rogue is one. When two noun like terms are put together in order, the first is supposed to become the adjective term, and in this case is going to parse as "insane" rather than "class" unless the person is already thinking of classes.

edited 27th Feb '12 8:44:28 PM by Deboss

Rogue Elephant should be renamed just based on the fact that it's a pre-existing term which means something completely different. In fact, that should probably be an actual trope. I can think of a few examples off the top of my head, including rampaging elephant units in Total War games.

Trope Transplant, maybe?

I agree with a trope transplant.

And let's not just switch the words for a rename. That seems to be clever at the expense of clarity.

Elephant Ninja would probably bring out the contrast better.

Elephant Ninja is pretty good.

With the added benefit that Ninja Elephant also works.

That makes it seem like an impossibly stealthy large animal. And with funny animals doing stuff, having "elephant" in the name at all just doesn't work.

Agreed. Something Boring, but Practical like Square Race, Round Class would be better.

I'm just going to note here that elephants and rhinos are fairly stealthy, other than sheer size and visibility. They're rather quiet.

I like Square Race, Round Class

Which means they might make good ninja's and thus would not fit that name in terms of this trope.

edited 27th Feb '12 1:08:46 PM by DragonQuestZ