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The Grand Unified Appearance Trope Clean-up:

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On TV Tropes, it's very common for editors to misuse appearance tropes, as well as tropes whose names make them sound like they could be appearance tropes.

Meaningful Appearance tropes are often misused in ways that overlook the "Meaningful" aspect, resulting in Zero Context Examples and misuse in the form of examples that have no meaning even if the tropes themselves are not People Sit on Chairs.

The Appearance Tropes Cleanup sandbox covers tropes with potential issues. Tropes that simply require cleanup will go through this thread, while tropes that require more significant action will have to go through the Trope Repair Shop.

April 2, 2023 update: This thread is no longer for making changes to tropes, and was brought back from the Projects Morgue solely for cleanup. Making changes to tropes is still a job for the Trope Repair Shop.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 2nd 2023 at 9:18:26 AM

ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#351: Jan 29th 2013 at 3:38:34 PM

Well usually ZCE either get commented out, moved to discussion, or just deleted.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#352: Jan 29th 2013 at 6:14:02 PM

I think troacctid has the right idea with Duality Motif—there's no reason eyes are special in regard to the underlying idea. That leaves us with:

  • Duality Motif
  • Mismatched Eyes Of Madness
  • [Mismatched Eyes Means Something's Different About Them] — Probably write this up such that The Reveal about the differences is important—obviously cybernetic eyes wouldn't count unless there's some big story about why the eye is missing.
    • Possibly split this between "and that's the story of how I lost this eye"/[eyes being used as markers for injury] and "There Is Something Weird About That Eye".
  • [An Unusual Trait Marks You As Special]
  • [A Shared Unusual Trait Marks You As Connected To Someone Else]
  • Examples that should just be on Red Right Hand
  • Some trope vaguely inspired by Windows To The Soul about how eyes are markers for magic

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
troacctid "µ." from California Since: Apr, 2010
#353: Jan 29th 2013 at 8:43:03 PM

Just pointing out we do have Mad Eye, if that's relevant. I don't think the chaos/madness version is really a trope anyway. I know a couple of those examples and they're definitely not legit. We can scrap that section.

Eyes as markers for magic is probably Evil Eye in most cases. The cybernetic version is Electronic Eye.

edited 29th Jan '13 8:46:00 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#354: Jan 30th 2013 at 12:04:11 AM

That would certainly account for many of the odd eye out examples. The remainder significance in that category would be along the lines of Conservation of Detail: the eye looks odd, and thus there's a story behind it. Not tropeable, I think. And, yes, while madness was supported in the description, the example support never really materialized.

So, updating the to-do list (all placeholder names, of course):

Looks like Mismatched Eyes aren't special after all.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
Noaqiyeum Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they) from the gentle and welcoming dark (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Lophotrochozoa Since: May, 2012
#356: Feb 9th 2013 at 10:31:01 AM

The suggestion to split Mismatched Eyes should be added to the crowner.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#357: Feb 9th 2013 at 10:35:34 AM

No, because it's a Single Proposition crowner.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Nocturna Since: May, 2011
#358: Feb 9th 2013 at 11:21:03 AM

I think we might need a new crowner.

shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#359: Feb 11th 2013 at 9:45:56 AM

Make up a new crowner and I'll hook it.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#360: Feb 11th 2013 at 11:00:37 AM

A YKTTW for this thread's attention.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#361: Feb 13th 2013 at 11:15:31 AM

As a result of this trope talk thread, I would like to request that Evil Albino and Heroic Albino be given a look at. Primary issues are:

  1. The Appearance criteria, or whether or not the tropes have to be restricted to explicit examples of the real-life medical condition of albinism. For the record, almost every so-called "albino" character that I know or heard of is — even ones that are explicitly called as such — not a true albino by the real-life definition, but rather simply a combination of white or pale-colored hair, light-colored or even visibly pale skin, and very-distinctively-red eyes note ; if we limit ourselves to the real-life definition, then we might gut the two tropes so severely that it would be probably more efficient to just cut the tropes altogether.
    • Now that I think about it, this popular-but-unrealistic depiction of what an albino looks like sounds like a trope to me (I'll be calling this appearance combo Fictional Albino from now on, if you don't mind) — more specifically, a Missing Supertrope to Evil Albino and Heroic Albino (assuming that we don't end up cutting them outright, that is). What do you think? Fictional Albino could be drawing upon the combined effect of the "s/he is special" connotation of White Hair, the "s/he is evil/sinister/dangerous" implication of Red Eyes, and of course the obvious effect of unnaturally pale skin (or whatever connotations simple white/light skin have when specifically chosen over other skin tones).
  2. The Characterization criteria:
    • For Evil Albino: Does a character count as an Evil Albino if s/he is a member of a Fictional Albino-looking race/subspecies/group, and just happens to be evil among the many other non-evil (though not necessarily good) members of his race that show up? Do Evil Makeovers that give the character a Fictional Albino look count?
    • For Heroic Albino: Does being a hero/good guy and a Fictional Albino count, or does the character have to be initially percieved by other characters as an Evil Albino or at least shunned for the creepy/unsettling nature of his Fictional Albino appearance, before later proving those misconceptions false?

edited 13th Feb '13 11:16:44 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
InsanityPrelude Since: Aug, 2009
#362: Feb 13th 2013 at 3:43:41 PM

Evil Albino is recognized outside of TVTropes, so I'd hesitate to cut it altogether/gut it to the point of example sectionectomy.

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#363: Feb 13th 2013 at 3:49:32 PM

I do hope that it doesn't come down to either of those possibilities, either.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#364: Feb 16th 2013 at 2:46:04 PM

Alright, let's finish up this Mismatched Eyes business so we can move on to other things. As I see it, there are two categories of examples to deal with: those that match up with existing tropes and those that match up with new concepts.

  1. [Trope]...with mismatched eyes
  2. [Untroped Concept]...with mismatched eyes
    • Duality Motif
    • Unusual Trait Marks As Special
    • Connecting Oddity
There are two actions we can take for all six types: The second category also has the option of splitting off the examples into a subtrope (e.g. Mismatched Eyes Of Duality).

Does anyone have a reason why someone would pick different options within each of the two categories (e.g. leave the Red Right Hand examples on Mismatched Eyes but move the Evil Eye examples to Evil Eye, or moving the duality examples to a subtrope while moving the familial connection examples to a trope that is not specific to eyes)? If not, we can save ourselves a ton of crowner space and time by just dealing with the two categories instead of the six groupings.

Whatever we end up doing there, the final fate of the Mismatched Eyes page will be decided after we see what's happening with the examples.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
troacctid "µ." from California Since: Apr, 2010
#365: Feb 16th 2013 at 2:59:24 PM

I favor merging everything.

Rhymes with "Protracted."
Nocturna Since: May, 2011
#366: Feb 16th 2013 at 4:27:06 PM

[up][up] I don't see any reason why we'd need to deal with the concepts within the groups differently.

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#367: Feb 17th 2013 at 6:15:13 AM

It just occured to me that we might be missing a high-level Meaningful Eye Color supertrope for all those eye-color tropes (which I would suggest to treat like Applied Phlebotinum and Ice Queen — make it exampleless).

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#368: Feb 17th 2013 at 6:56:52 AM

It's Windows of the Soul, and it's bad.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#369: Feb 17th 2013 at 7:11:40 AM

It could a subtrope of that one, since Windows of the Soul covers things other than eye color.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#370: Feb 17th 2013 at 8:40:36 AM

I think Septimus meant Windows To The Soul, not Windows of the Soul. The names are quite confusing.

Macron's notes
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#371: Feb 17th 2013 at 8:43:55 AM

Yes. That will need a rename, at least.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#373: Feb 20th 2013 at 1:03:04 AM

Crowner hooked for Mismatched Eyes. Let's finish this.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#374: Feb 20th 2013 at 5:11:59 PM

Not even 24 hours and we've got runaway leads. We'll let this run the mandated 72 hours, but we can start planning ahead for the likely result.

What do we want to do with Mismatched Eyes now that all of the examples are likely being removed? I think there's grounds for a Useful Notes page on Heterochromia.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
troacctid "µ." from California Since: Apr, 2010
#375: Feb 20th 2013 at 8:40:18 PM

If someone wants to write one, we can redirect it there. Otherwise, I vote to redirect it to the supertrope, Technicolor Eyes. It has enough inbounds that I don't want to cut it.

edited 20th Feb '13 8:41:40 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

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