Misused: On One Condition

This is a bonified member of Will and Inheritance Tropes.

It is not about the Stock Phrase by itself.

I do have a 100%^note (as of May 2012, that is; total 66 then-articles) Wick Check waiting and ready - feel free to fix or debate the following:

Correct usage ratio

• (36 of 66 articles checked)
• (lists and indexes counted as correct)

Stock Phrase and/or definitely misuse (12)

• Characters.Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers: "Goose was only allowed to join the Rangers On One Condition..."
• Author's Saving Throw: "Zilpha Keatley Snyder agreed to allow Spinnaker to make a game based on the Green Sky Trilogy...On One Condition."
• Class Act: "In order for Blade to get out of jail, he had to graduate high school."
• Film.Cleopatra: "Octavian is willing to leave the Egyptians alone, but requires a small token of faith that Cleopatra delivers him Antony's head."
• Deadly To Behold: "Orpheus went to the Underworld to get his wife back from death. Hades let him do it On One Condition..."
• Freaky Stories: "One episode featured a wealthy man who wasn't on speaking terms with any friend or relative and made a will leaving his fortune to anyone who bothered to attend the funeral."
• Hanaukyo Maid Tai: "Imposed on Ryuuka by her grandfather. She must marry Taro in order to become the new head of her family."
• Married With Children: "Stymie Bundy, the only male Bundy to be a success, left five hundred thousand dollars to the first male Bundy to have a child born in wedlock named after him."
• Menage A 3: "Amber offers a threesome with Gary...with the third person being Dillon, making Gary nervous."
• Characters.Sesame Street: "Telly is allowed to sit in on Gordon's science class in one episode as long as he is quiet."
• The Hudsucker Proxy: "...the first person to be named as the company's CEO after his death."
• Sidney Sheldon: "Samuel Roffe, the founder of pharmaceutical company Roffe & Sons in Bloodline, didn't like the idea of his company ever being owned by strangers, so he made bylaws to make sure nobody other than people born or married into his family could own shares, join the Board of Directors or become CEO and that his heirs could never sell their shares."

Ambiguous cases, may or not be misuse (9)

• Series.Amen: "An elderly parishioner dies and leaves her successful restaurant to the church. They can use some of the profits for church projects, if they keep the restaurant open. Hilarity Ensues."
• Arabian Nights: "The law that the Sultan has to remarry or give up the throne."
• Dance Till Tomorrow: "Suekichi needs to 1: Finish college, 2: Get Married, and 3: Establish a career."
• Doorways In The Sand: "Fred remains a student because his uncle died and left a substantial fund to provide for his education; when he graduates, the remainder of the fund will be donated to the Irish Republican Army."
• Hollywood Hijinks: "You have one night to complete a Scavenger Hunt for old movie props in the house to prove you're worthy to be their heir."
• Ratatouille: "Had Linguini not claimed the inheritance his father left him within the first two years after Gusteau's death, Skinner would have inherited the restaurant."
• Secret Test of Character: "In Brewsters Millions, when Montgomery Brewster told his bride about the seven-million-dollar inheritance his uncle left him, she had initially believed he was testing her love when he proposed to her before telling about the inheritance but he explained he wasn't allowed to tell about it until he reached the age of 26."
• Top Cat: "A rich person's disappeared cat had a deadline to reappear or else the butler would get the inheritance...."
• Umineko No Naku Koro Ni: "If you find the gold before midnight of the second night, you win! If not, 'The witch shall be revived. None shall survive.'"

Little to Zero Context (9)

• Chou Kuse Ni Narisou
• House On Haunted Hill
• Mickey Mouse Comic Universe
• Scooby Doo
• Tale Spin
• The Cat And The Canary
• The Flintstones
• The Getalong Gang: "Zipper was once given a deadline to claim inheritance."
• The Twilight Zone: "The Masks", "Still Valley".

edited 23rd Jul '12 10:31:37 PM by Stratadrake

I'll look into cleaning up the examples tonight. Should we decide to rename, how about "Will with a condition"?

Edit: Cleaned up some of the wicks (Sidney Sheldon, Characters.Sesame Street, Film.The Hudsucker Proxy, Series.Married With Children, Webcomic.Menage A 3, WesternAnimation.Freaky Stories). It seems we are missing two tropes here, one about the literal interpretation of On One Condition (though some cases could be If You Are So Evil Kill This Kitten or the like), and one about wills with a condition in general (e.g., the Hanaukyō Maid Tai example).

edited 23rd Jul '12 1:18:29 PM by jkbeta

How about simply Will With A Catch?

I agree that the current name is the most likely cause of the misuse, and this should be renamed.

eta: I'm not yet convinced we need two will-related tropes here.

edited 23rd Jul '12 1:42:01 PM by Xtifr

Apparently this has been called the "Jewish Clause"

I like the renaming idea. It should resolve the problem.

Rename and broaden could solve the problem. The current trope description references a specific plot (will with a catch and the lengths a character has to go to as to satisfy these conditions), while the examples tend to go for the plot device (will with a catch). If we redefine this as the plot device, the old examples stay correct.

Putting The Test In Testament?

Legacy With A Catch is the term Ethan Mordden used in his survey of 1920s musicals, where it was a fairly common premise (though the best-known theatrical example from that era is the non-musical The Cat and the Canary).

Legacy with a Catch sounds good.

Hehe, this gives me amusing memories about the Rule Against Perpetuities.

"Legacy" has too many meanings. This is specifically about wills.

Conditional Inheritance?

If "legacy" has too many meanings, so do most words used in trope names. (A dictionary I just checked gives it three definitions, of which the first one is pertinent to this trope.)

Merriam-Webster gave two definitions. Maybe I read too much fantasy^note (which would be ironic since I don't read in the first place) but I always hear "legacy" used in MW's definition number two: The metaphorical sense rather than legal will. Heck, three of MW's four examples demonstrate that definition as well.

edited 25th Jul '12 11:36:06 PM by Stratadrake

Clocking due to lack of activity.

Locking.