Ambiguous Name: An Ice Person

Compared to the other Elemental Power tropes (Playing with Fire, Blow You Away, Shock and Awe, Making a Splash, etc), this one's name seems to indicate more of a character trope than a type of power, that of a character with a focus on ice powers, and its description lends itself to this perception. Furthermore, while this is an aesthetic complaint, the other elemental tropes have names that sound like actions or are puns on common sayings, this one is not, so I think it should have its intro renamed and be renamed in turn to fit the pattern of its brother and sister tropes.

Alternatively, if I'm simply misunderstanding the trope and it's being misused on other pages, then we ought to have a proper trope page for ice powers themselves if this one stays as a page for ice-aligned characters.

edited 11th Apr '12 5:49:28 PM by DrakeClawfang

Oh yeah? Well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Check wicks and prove misuse, otherwise the modmins will lock the thread.

Then clarify for me, is the trope about ice powers, or people with ice powers? If it's the former, it has a misleading name and misleading intro, if the latter it's being misused as a trope.

edited 11th Apr '12 6:02:09 PM by DrakeClawfang

Trope Renaming Guidelines

"If you think a name is unclear, remember that you are required to make substantial arguments and provide substantial evidence that the name is really unclear to actual readers, and that this lack of clarity exists outside your imagination. There are all sorts of ways to do this; you can use a Wick Check, an Inbound Check, Google result analysis or a dictionary, to name a few. Just saying "this is totally unclear" is not an argument in and of itself."

It is your responsibility to demonstrate it is unclear, not someone else's responsibility to demonstrate it's clear.

A trope about ice powers automatically covers "people with ice powers" so there's no misuse.

"It is your responsibility to demonstrate it is unclear" - And I have.

"A trope about ice powers automatically covers "people with ice powers" so there's no misuse." - yes, but compared to the other powers page this one appears to have a different focus, the intro focusing on the types of people who have ice powers instead of the power itself and the name sounding like a type of character.

No, you have said you think it is, not demonstrated it actually is. "Unclear" usually means "causes misuse", but the negative effect it has should be quantified in some other way, if not that. If it has no negative effect, the name is fine. Demonstrate that it is unclear to other people, not that it is unclear to you.

edited 11th Apr '12 6:16:31 PM by rodneyAnonymous

As Sal said, people with ice powers, well, have ice powers, so An Ice Person encompasses both the person and their powers. But as I've explained this is in contrast to the other elemental tropes which focus on the powers themselves.

If no one else finds the name ambiguous than fine, but if there's no objections I'll be rewriting the intro to something more suitable. If the trope isn't about a character type than it shouldn't present itself as one.

edited 11th Apr '12 6:17:17 PM by DrakeClawfang

It seems like you'd just have to change the first couple sentences a little - sounds reasonable.

edited 11th Apr '12 6:24:08 PM by abk0100

Draft, seems a bit short to me so I'm open to ideas for expansion.

The power to control [[color:lightblue:ice]], and create cold and frost at will. May be used as a trinity with Fire and Electricity, hence Fire, Ice, Lightning. Likely to be used as a contrast to fire — if the hero prefers fire, his rival or Arch-Enemy will use ice. Often the domain of evil or undead entities as Evil Is Deathly Cold. Goes hand in hand with Making a Splash, and may be involved with wind powers via cold air and snowstorms. In Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors with fire, one will usually defeat the other, though which one varies. Ice is unlikely to be any stronger or weaker than other elements though for Competitive Balance, and thus Harmless Freezing will be invokved.

May be used by Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti, Snowlems, a Winter Royal Lady or even a Woman In White. People with these powers may also have An Ice Suit and a Freeze Ray, or be subject to Elemental Baggage. See also Human Popsicle.

A common and unfortunate side effect of ice powers is an annoying use of vocabulary. Yuki means "snow" in Japanese, so it also affords itself to Meaningful Names.

edited 11th Apr '12 11:47:18 PM by DrakeClawfang

I can't say I've ever seen this be misused. It's pretty straightforward. A character has ice powers. Pretty hard to misuse that.

If there is no misuse, there is no problem and no need for a name change.

edited 11th Apr '12 7:39:50 PM by KaiserMazoku

The trope originally did have a pun based name: An Ice Person A Nice Person. Pen Island and all that.

Gussy it up however you like Trebek, the question is: does it work?

We should also likely look at the family. An Ice Gun and An Ice Suit being the two that immediately jump to mind.

Ice Gun has already been renamed Freeze Ray.

So, does my intro work for anyone, anyone have ideas to improve it?

I'm cool with it, but I don't think we can put colors on the main wiki anymore. I may be misremembering though.

We should be able too, the current revision has it, along with many other pages. Guess it just doesn't work here because it's forumspace.

I don't have a problem with this name, and I've never seen it misused.

Misuse has not been proven. You need to give evidence based on examples or wicks.

This thread can stay around for tackling the description, but do not argue for a name change unless you can provide substantial evidence.

I guess there might be some confusion whether this means somebody associated with ice, or if they simply happen to have an ice power. But, I don't really know many characters who have that kind of power, but not any sort of association with it.

This trope covers every kind of power that involves freezing, right?

I know of a couple characters with ice powers but no strong association - Terra, Tifa and Lightning in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Iilia in Skyrim all have ice spells but either have other spells or don't focus on ice spells. Terra amd Lightning specifically have a variety of elemental spells, ice is just one of a half dozen or so.

edited 12th Apr '12 12:57:09 PM by DrakeClawfang

Changing intro.

Looks done, locking up.