Complaining: Spotlight Stealing Squad

...argh...reading that page is painful. I need to clean it again.

If the marketing and writing still focus on a character, that would still count.

Should we do anything to this page?

It's a good name as is, but maybe renaming it with a more neutral word than "stealing" would help. And I also don't get why "squad" is in the name; a lot of examples are just one person.

I think it's for alliterative appeal?

the problem with the trope is the title implies its simply about characters taking screen time away. And when characters you like loose screen time things tend to go bad.

The only thing I could think of for a new name for this is far too long.... Character In An Ensemble Cast Gets More Focus Than Others....

another problem with this trope is that it is very similar to the "Out of Focus" trope as when they become out focus it is frequently because of this trope

edited 18th Apr '12 5:43:15 AM by cthulhucalamari

Well, exists the Spotlight Hog redirect.

They dont have to put the others Out of Focus they just got to get more focus than the others.

Like if something is episodic and focuses on one character at a time to lead the show in a 50 episode season Character A and C get a total of 10 ish episodes each focused on them and Character B gets 20 with the other 10 its a group thing where its more focuses on the entire group but its balanced across the entire run.

Nobody is quite Out of Focus, but B is in greater focus. (yes I am thinking of a specific example of this... well and her two expies.) It can be even more noticeable with a Red Oni, Blue Oni setup or a Five-Man Band.

Character Balanced Ensemble would be the way its done right.... so Unbalanced Ensemble?

edited 18th Apr '12 6:09:28 AM by Raso

The description:"In short, when the author gets so incredibly fixated on a single character, family or group that he or she forgets that they have an incredibly diverse and powerful cast, many of whom are more interesting than the focus character (or at least that's what everyone will think when they're not getting screen-time). A handful of characters might have Story Arcs, while everyone else seems to lack any motivation whatsoever or is caught in an infinite loop." Hmm... " while everyone else seems to lack any motivation whatsoever or is caught in an infinite loop." sounds as Out of Focus.

Spotlight Hog would increase the amount of bile we'll have to clean off the page, although maybe the description talking about how the creator is 'fixtated' and 'forgets the rest of the cast' might be why we have so much bile on i.

edited 18th Apr '12 9:51:59 AM by animeg3282

Spotlight Hog sounds like an in-story character trope and might be mistaken for Drama Queen.

Or It's All About Me.

Well right now that's the problem... Right now the description is the problem it is far too harsh and filled with hate.

It should have a better tone and about how a character takes center stage noticeably more often than others in an ensemble (Or get more face time than the MC.), there could be many reasons, more popular, the author likes them more, he has more ideas for that character, the MC was written more of just a POV Character etc. They do not have to throw the all other characters so far out that they go Out of Focus they just more focus. (they could throw one or more characters out of focus but it doesn't have to be.)

edited 18th Apr '12 4:53:07 PM by Raso

The Spotlight-Stealing Squad are a character or group of characters who are more in focus than the titular or main characters for one or more story arcs. There are several reasons for this to occur: the creator may be writing a Myth Arc that centers around the In Focus characters, the creator may be inspired by the new characters and want to continue writing them, the characters may be fan favorites or the original plot may have been resolved and the creator might start writing side characters.

I tried to make a description, but...

The description not implies that it is more focused than "the titular or main characters" specifically.

edited 18th Apr '12 8:08:24 PM by MagBas

btw: should this have a RL section?

Honestly, I don't think there should be Real Life Sections in general for any trope, but that's just me.

I changed the laconic description to better discourage the negative connotation of the trope.

Doesn't matter if you think that. It also pretends we are solely about fiction, when we have loads of non-fiction tropes.

I think the name is fine. It's the description that invited all the negativity. When a trope's description explicitly says "If left unchecked, expect fans to complain" then how is it any surprise that people are complaining?

Yea, would it be ok with everyone if I clipped that sentence? Just a snip...

This really shouldn't have a real life section.

Yello?

bumpo

animeg: Nobody will complain if you improve the description (removing negativity counts as improvement)...