Not Thriving: Richard Woolsey Effect

I'm not sure how old this is, but there's no YKTTW linked from the discussion page, and it has a grand total of one wick—the index! There's only six examples, so cross-wicking isn't likely to help. Plus, it has a confusing, obscure, character-based name. And it admits to being semi-snowcloned from Woolseyism, but it isn't even referring to the same Woolsey!

What an awful, awful name. Underused or not, this would be an unworkable name. Perhaps the worst part is that I actually know who Richard Woolsey is, and I still couldn't begin to Guess That Trope. Renaming it should go without debating.

What does seem worthy of debate is the question as to whether this is a trope at all. Even accounting for the effect of the name, there's not many examples, and I can't think of any others that aren't listed.

I assumed this would be a trope about being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap or something

Correct me if I'm wrong: isn't this just either Custom Uniform or Non-Uniform Uniform (I'm too lazy to check right now)?

This may be the time to resurrect that closed thread on the subject (search it on Google site search if you're interested in seeing what was agreed upon before it fizzled for lack of someone to do the heavy lifting).

No, I guess, it's about someone who's supposed to wear a uniform, but doesn't.

It can't decide what it is. I see several tropes in the description:

1. Character wears the uniform, but looks uncomfortable in it. (tropability is iffy)
2. Character wears the uniform, but looks bad in it. (audience reaction, we really don't need this)
3. Character goes to great lengths not to wear the uniform in order to demonstrate nonconformity. (related to Custom Uniform, but distinct)

I say cut and YKTTW under the third definition.

It's not an audience reaction if characters point it out, and I think people do point it out in Stargate.

Characters also discuss this in Babylon 5.

I suppose "uniform fits badly as metaphor for not quite fitting in" could be a trope, if there are enough examples. Just "uniform looks bad on character" is not a trope.

edited 24th Jul '12 5:28:30 AM by ccoa

Trying to split a trope that only has six examples? We'll definitely need YKTTW for that! Frankly, this seems to have little enough value as it stands, that I almost think it makes more sense just to cut it. Any YKTTWs of related, actual tropes can happen independently of TRS, if anyone feels inclined. But I'm fine either way.

Clocking due to lack of activity.

I think we all agree that this needs fixin', and that at the very least, the name needs to go. Obviously we need a crowner, but there's more than one issue.

Our options seem to be: simply rename (but it might not be a trope); split into actual tropes (but they'll be too small and will need YKTTW), or cut because it's not a trope, and allow people to take any actual tropes that might be lurking here to YKTTW on their own.

Am I leaving out any options? I endorse the last choice as I agree this isn't a trope, and trying to split it seems like more work than this not-a-trope is worth.

Bottom line, though, we really don't want to let this escape from TRS with its current name.

Those options sound about right to me.

I agree. Cut this and people are free to YKTTW the actual tropes.

Ok, page action crowner created here. Yodeling out for a hook.

Yodel-eh-hee-yodel-eh-hee-Crowner-eh-hee-hoo!

Wow, someone voted down rename? Someone actually thinks the current name is good!? I figured that would be the only option that would have no no votes.

I still think cutting is the best option. There just isn't enough here to salvage.

People tend to assume crowner options are mutually exclusive. I think it's less "the current name is good" and more "I don't want rename to win over cut."

At least, I hope that's the case.

But aren't those two mutually exclusive? If you cut you have nothing to rename, and if you rename, cutting makes it moot.

Yes, they are, more or less. Sort of.

You could, in theory, cut the existing trope and still split it into other tropes, which would get new names. So you could "cut" and "rename" the trope.

...It's complicated.

If just cut and rename get consensus, then only the highest wins. But if cut, rename, and redefine or split all get consensus, we can do all three. Or four.

edited 19th Sep '12 7:33:38 AM by ccoa

This crowner may have been a mistake. (I made it, so I'm allowed to say that.)

What I really want is to rank these options in order of preference, but crowners are just a simple yes/no/don't-care system, which doesn't really suit a set of questions like this very well. It's times like this I really wish we had a Concordet or australian-rules voting system. My preferences would be:

1. cut 2. rename and redefine 3. rename, redefine and split 4. No Award (anything below this I consider unacceptably bad) 5. just rename 6. (tie) just redefine 6. (tie) redefine and split 8. do nothing

The order is important, but there's no real way to express that.

(I tried voting cut up, split down, and leaving the others neutral, but that doesn't really capture my views, though it's as close as I could get.)

It might have been better to list all the valid combinations separately, but that still wouldn't really let me rank them. Maybe we should try a series of crowners? "Cut" is exclusive of all other options, so we could decide that question first. Then we'd only have three options left, which would work better with the yes/no/don't-care system. But maybe it's too late.

edited 20th Sep '12 10:52:53 PM by Xtifr

A series of crowners is just a waste of time for a trope with 6 examples. Changing the crowner tech is something for Tech Wishlist to do. I agree it makes more sense than the current ones.

For the record, I downvoted the cut option because the case for "not a trope" is rather weak. And I'd like a better argument than "audience reaction, we really don't need this".

I'd love to hear an argument why we need more off-mission audience reaction pages. They tend to be the most work to keep up and aren't tropes.

Given the lack of natter in the page, I am going to say that it doesn't matter much whether it's an Audience Reaction or not.

Also, by which measure are you saying "off-mission"? And don't tell me "original purpose" - it didn't include work pages or even non-TV stuff.

Well, I see Custom Uniform as when someone uses a different uniform to make a point, such as displaying non-conformity or otherwise deliberately distance themselves from the rest.

This trope seems more like someone wears a different uniform just because they dislike the standard one. Several of them still wear a uniform from their earlier position, so it's not a Custom Uniform; it's just a uniform for the wrong position. It seems like a sister trope, or maybe even a supertrope, to Custom Uniform (but not a subtrope).

I don't see any Audience Reaction in this.

edited 21st Sep '12 9:12:43 AM by AnotherDuck