The Grand Unified Appearance Trope Clean-up:

Again, if enough tropes agree, then we can go with that definition.

And I meant sexual In-Universe (because it's a form of characterization reveal). It doesn't matter what the hellfire club was inspired from if the BDSM parts aren't stated in the derivative work. So no she wasn't a character that was into kink at first. Aside from her outfit, her main trait was ambition. And she otherwise kept an image of a respectable Boston old money woman (and there is no way such a character would ever have a job as a sex therapist).

Now I'm confused.

I suggested the following meaning: "THB used as an element of dominatrix-inspired costumes, usually done for Fanservice". It seems you're suggesting a different meaning "THB used as a symbol of an overtly sexual female character". I think this could also work as a trope. But 2 out of 3 examples you provided are just outright dominatrixes. The 3rd one, Ivy, needs some clarification. Iirc, Ivy's main personality traits were her goal-driven pragmatism and haughty attitude. Where does the "overtly sexual" part come into play? (besides her wearing a dominatrix-inspired costume)

Have you seen Ivy? I don't think you really need further context. She has a habit of only covering a total of about 3% of her skin, and her body language, fashion sense, and a lot of her special moves are extremely Dominatrixy. She enjoys whipping, choking, and walking on her enemies—basically, it's not enough for her to win, she really likes to drive home the fact that she's on top, she's in charge, she will be obeyed.

She's extremely sexualized.

EDIT: Assuming we're talking about Ivy from Soul Calibur. If not... well, I'm embarrassed.

edited 13th Apr '15 3:38:42 PM by SolipSchism

That's the point. We need to determine, whether we're talking about in-universe personality, or meta things like Fanservice.

Basically, we're discussing two different (possible) meanings here:

• THB means character has an overtly sexual personality in-universe
• THB is used as an element of dominatrix-inspired costumes (mostly for fanservice reasons)

Also, based on your description, it seems Ivy is yet another dominatrix-inspired character. Which means, we need to determine, whether there are any examples of the "overtly sexual" THB meaning, that aren't inspired by BDSM.

P.S.: I've played the first game, a long time ago, so my memory on Ivy is a bit fuzzy.

edited 13th Apr '15 3:44:22 PM by Rjinswand

Since we are going through the examples, the ones I can think of on the other side of the pond.

There is for sure the dominatrix type outfits◊ (as work safe as I could find) but also oddly looking at the ones on the good side of Magical Girl and other such examples tend to actually be the more serious and/or outgoing types in the group, occasionally Tsundere, Some examples: [1]◊[2]◊[3]◊[4][5]◊. EDIT: Or they appear after a Frilly Upgrade IE [6] to [7]◊.

90% of the other outfits stop right at the knee, the rest have traditional Zettai Ryouiki. Someone actually wearing regular shoes with no Zettai Ryouiki is shockingly rare, like outside of the few in Sailor Moon I cant find any.

Anyway personally I think that the trope itself just needs a rewrite and make it more clear that it is a subtrope of Nice Shoes and such.

edited 13th Apr '15 4:21:32 PM by Memers

I'd say Ivy fits both. Her outfits are all obviously meant to be super hot, so she's definitely one of the most fanservicey characters in the game. But her behavior and mannerisms also make it clear that she knows she's acting like a goddamned sexual tyrannosaurus.

edited 13th Apr '15 4:23:16 PM by SolipSchism

Hmm... so in a, let's say, group of magical girls, the one wearing THB would be the more serious or confident one? Could you please describe the examples more, so we could see if there's a common personality trait?

Having found some info on Ivy, I see that she has some obviously dominatrix-inspired moves and phrases. So I'd say she fits the "dominatrix-inspired" meaning.

I'm interested whether there are examples of THB used to denote an "overtly sexual" woman who isn't dominatrix-inspired.

Point of order: if that's the case, then what actually makes this a distinct trope from stupid Gratuitous Japanese-named thing anyway?

Zettai Ryouiki isn't just Thigh High Boots or stockings, it's specifically the gap between a Skirt of short shorts and Boots or stockings. The smaller the gap the better. Thigh High Boots and a Leotard is not the trope.

As for the name, they named it and made it a trope before TV Tropes even existed as well as attached the Tsundere personality type to it and Twintails for the grade S type.

Well all the pictures I listed are not actually on the page. ><. Sec let me do some copy and pasting of the pics and do some write ups.

• Cure Sword◊ from Doki Doki Precure: an ultra serious Knight of a occupied trying rescue her people and queen.
• Cure Beat◊ from Suite Precure: a serious Dark Magical Girl who was once a bad guy.
• Cure Sunny◊ Smile Precure: A very outgoing girl with the Kansai Regional Accent she is the Straight Man of the group of crazies
• Sailor Starlights from Sailor Moon: a group of guy idols who transform into girls or a group of Bifauxnen depending on the adaptation.
• Usami Masamune◊ from Mayo Chiki: a violent Tsundere Kick Chick, not a magical girl.
• Kallen◊ from Code Geass a serious mech pilot, not a magical girl but still has an alter ego.

edited 14th Apr '15 12:21:26 AM by Memers

Honestly, the Ivy stuff doesn't sound like its a trope about boots at all. It doesn't even sound like boots are a subtrope. It sounds like a trope about giving female characters dominatrix themes in their design. Boots are a way to do that, but the boots themselves aren't a trope.

Yeah, I couldn't think of any examples of an overtly sexual character that wore tall boots but wasn't basically a dominatrix.

Reimi from Star Ocean The Last Hope seems to wear shoes over Thigh High Boots or body armor stockings or something to make it look like Thigh High Boots. Being serious and Mildly Military she does fit what I had posted before, ugh, no idea what to label that the camera angles in the game love to show off the tops of those whatever they are though.

edited 16th Apr '15 3:34:02 AM by Memers

Opening scenes of Pretty Woman. Julia Roberts in street-hooker mode. Nothing domme about her.

edited 16th Apr '15 3:35:27 AM by Madrugada

Mai from the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is a Ms. Fanservice who is prone to flirting her way into getting what she wants, dresses quite provocatively◊ compared to other female characters, and wears thigh◊-high boots◊... though only in her second costume that she adopts post-Face–Heel Turn in the Doma arc, in which she is more of a brooding, all-serious character that only seems to care about victory at all costs. Does that count?

PS: I can't seem to find a more decent screenshot of her that shows her boots.

edited 16th Apr '15 3:38:01 AM by MarqFJA

Only the second picture shows boots to the thigh.

In case you're wondering, we literally mean has to be at the thigh level. Below the knees is the calf and the shin, not the thigh.

edited 16th Apr '15 1:19:37 PM by DragonQuestZ

Stopping at the knees is also not "thigh-high".

I agree as well, so some examples I listed before don't quite fit.

...

...

... Then again, assuming we can salvage some actual tropes from this, why does this have to be above the thigh? If certain boots are worn to say "I want to have a good sexy time", would it be more the style of the boots than the length?

I think that's so fuzzy as to be useless as a trope. It would be wide open to editors adding pretty much anything they want that they personally think are sexy.

Maybe the trope I'm thinking of is not so much "overtly sexual" as "Hookers wear thigh-high boots"

I mis-wrote. I meant ladies who In-Universe are looking to have a good, sexy time, and they wear certain clothes to show it.

I think that Hooker Clothes is a sister trope to Dominatrix Outfit. They have similar elements, but aren't identical.

Yep, these outfits don't look quite the same.

Still, regardless of whether we make those tropes, I don't think there's much of this trope anymore. If there are any kind of tropes to be salvaged from this, those can be put on ykttw. I now vote for cutting this trope.

edited 16th Apr '15 11:25:29 PM by DragonQuestZ

I would vote to keep, it is a Fanservice and Costume Trope. Everything thought of would be a subtrope of that.

It isn't really even 'Fanservice' as that page describes it as it isn't showing skin it's covering it.

edited 16th Apr '15 11:33:13 PM by Memers

You need to elaborate, since being fanservice and a costume isn't enough on its own anymore (ask the mods why).

And that's not how a Sub-Trope works. A larger trope doesn't get to stay just for the sake of being a Super-Trope if the only reason is the smaller tropes.

Costume and character design is absolutely trope worthy, why wouldn't it be? Seriously it's one of the more important things in a work, The amount of work that goes into these is insane.

edited 17th Apr '15 12:01:21 AM by Memers