Needs Help: Shifting Spotlight

This trope was launched prematurally with only one hat.

A sign of that is that it currently have only three examples. Therefore, it needs more examples.

Proof of premature launch: [1]

edited 6th Oct '12 4:47:21 AM by KarjamP

Yes, and with no indexes, no wicks and an "arguable" example.

Also, called the launcher in.

edited 6th Oct '12 6:37:55 AM by SeptimusHeap

"One Hat" is not actually a valid argument for anything in particular, and three examples is technically supposed to be enough for a launch. Still, I think that launching with only three examples is generally a bad idea, unless you've got a very distinct-but-rare trope. It almost guarantees that Wiki Magic will never happen. I have no hesitation in calling this a premature launch and suggesting it be sent back to YKTTW for more work.

I think this trope is redundant with Rotating Protagonist, which has the same definition and all but one of the same examples.

edited 7th Oct '12 6:33:13 PM by PaulA

Hmm, I think you're right. That does seem to simplify matters. Merge and redirect. (The new name makes a perfectly acceptable redirect.)

Shifting Spotlight seems a better name than Rotating Protagonist. Sometimes, the work give one different character a focus every chapter/arc/whatever, but keep the same protagonist for the overarching story.

Higurashi, The 4400 and Lost do that, for example.

edited 7th Oct '12 9:33:18 PM by Heatth

I'm inclined to agree with Heatth - the less specific name is probably better here, especially since there's little or no meaningful difference between "the protagonist changes between plot segments" and "the Character Focus changes between plot segments".

That may well be, but what you're effectively asking for is a rename simply because someone accidentally launched a duplicate. That's not how renaming works. To justify a rename, you need to demonstrate misuse or underuse. We don't rename established tropes just because someone came along with something that may be a somewhat better name.

I'd like to point out that A) I realize now that this is a duplicate of Rotating Protagonist, this sort of thing tends to happen when there aren't any links to that trope on any of the pages. That said I think people are missing the point of Rotating Protagonist, about half the examples don't follow the trope. But that's another discussion altogether. B) if 5 hats and 7 examples are going to be enforced, they probably shouldn't be referred to as recommended. "5 hats means 5 tropers think your work is ready to be published". <- that doesn't specify that it needs 5 hats to be published, nor that it needs 7 examples. Evidently, judging by the existence of this discussion, it doesn't.

Someone should legit just erase it. If it's a duplicate then it's not needed. If the name's better than rename the other one; if it's not then don't. If the Wiki Magic I assumed would happen didn't, then it probably won't. Simple.

I was told that in the other post that I made that "one hat" isn't enough for an argument.

I guess I made this for concern that the trope may contain errors when it launched.

It's a good name. It'll be a good redirect for cases when it's not the protagonist shifting. Locking this.