Needs Help: Just Partners

Link to the draft.

Alternatively, Strictly Professional Relationship would be a missing supertrope.

Should we extend the definition of Just Partners and move the examples that the draft collected?

Link to the draft.

edited 1st Jul '13 7:45:25 AM by XFllo

Sounds like Just Partners's the same as that draft. But your description and example list look better to me than this.

I started it because I needed something with broader concept and people at Lost and Found suggested it is a missing supertrope. I figured why not. Of course, I forgot that Tropes Are Flexible.

I'd do this: I'd move some part of my description from the draft and move the examples.

The name is a problem, though. Just Partners is really catchy and Strictly Professional Relationship was just a bland working title.

Just Partners is really catchy? 16 inbounds disagree with you.

The current description ought not to start off with a media reference. These always mislead people into believing the trope is media specific.

I could swear when I saw that page last time, it was bigger and with examples from all types of media. Memory is a really weird thing. Ok, let's wait if somebody will come up with a Clear Concise And Witty name.

Just Partners says "This is a male-female relationship, and the duo is usually, but not always, in a law enforcement profession," so business partners or colleagues could count. Teacher/student relationships are already under Teacher/Student Romance.

The title Strictly Professional Relationship sounds faulty to me. Just Partners sounds like they're both trying hard to deny it but the story is teasing at a romantic relationship like Just Friends. Just Friends isn't called "strictly platonic relationship" because the romantic feelings make it not platonic, but they refuse to take it to the next level, so they're only friends.

But the thing is you cannot say for let's say an editor or a writer they are Just Partners. That is too specific. The concept is the same.

What sounds faulty to you? The concept? Or just the name?

Just the name.

The name is bad. The concept sounds like a supertrope to Just Partners and Teacher/Student Romance.

As I said, it was just a bland working title. However, I have seen it used quite a few times, I think even on this wiki. Those two characters insist that it's just a strictly professional relationship. However, Romance Ensues. And the like. I'd be grateful for creative ideas. I have nothing.

So far you are the only one who thinks it's a supertrope. Others seem to favour merging with Just Partners (Septimus and tropers from ykttw). I'm myself more inclined to the merge, but it's not 100% certainty.

edited 5th Mar '13 3:10:51 PM by XFllo

My personal two cents would be that both the literal Strictly Professional Relationship and what X Fllo just described are tropeworthy, and neither should have a cop show focus in the description.

Bumping.

One suggestion from comments at the ykttw draft. lexicon suggests name Business Or Pleasure. This name doesn't sound quite right to me as I associate it with travelling.

However, there is no other progress either here or there. That makes me feel sad.

I personally do not like Business Or Pleasure as it sounds more like a non-serious vs. serious contradiction.

One idea I have would be to merge the YKTTW with the current trope under Just Partners.

I like the name Just Partners, but the problem with that is that tropers tend to take titles literally. Nocturna mentioned it once and I realized that it's very true. So I think it might not thrive because people would be adding only literal partners from crime procedurals.

I somehow forgot to react on nrjxll's post.

Both the literal Strictly Professional Relationship and what X Fllo just described are tropeworthy, and neither should have a cop show focus.

OK, so if I understand you correctly, Strictly Professional Relationship literally taken would be something like No Hugging, No Kissing but from characters' point of view, and they really mean it. There is no attraction, no deep friendship, no extreme sympathies. Just a good and smooth professional relationship and a relationship that is a bit better than a mere acquaintance. Do we have it? I do not remember seeing it anywhere. No Hugging, No Kissing is written more like a shipping trope and what writers' take on it is. We need something which has in-universe treatment.

What I am describing so far in that draft is when characters try to deny that there is more to it and they are in fact attracted to each other. For this dynamic we need a new name, or perhaps Just Partners could do just fine.

edited 12th Mar '13 11:06:15 AM by XFllo

Yes, although I should note that the distinction from No Hugging, No Kissing is less about the shipping stuff and more that the latter is a series trope, where this would apply only to a single specific relationship (per use of the trope).

We probably need some brainstorming to get idea for the name. If nothing pops up, then we could stick with Just Partners.

nrjxll, would you propose the trope in ykttw? I promise I will contribute in the discussion. However, I don't recollect any examples of this from fiction, though I am sure there must be many.

edited 15th Mar '13 9:32:31 AM by XFllo

I kind of like this proposal that appeared in the ykttw draft:

I personally like the name Strictly Professional Relationship for the supertrope better. Witty is nice, but that's pretty much a pre-existing term in the real world for what the supertrope covers. That's why it pops up in the wiki to describe it even though it's not an 'official' trope name.

I strongly object to Mostly Professional Relationship. That implies that there is more to it, not that there might be.

edited 19th Mar '13 10:25:22 AM by Madrugada

The trope Just Partners covers two characters that work together, and nothing more. They probably like each other, but their superiors forbid getting snugly, or their job is too dangerous to have such distractions. It could be nothing more than the writer being comfortable with writing drama, and being uncomfortable writing romance.

At the other end, there is the trope Office Romance, where the two co-workers are very close, being quite touchy-feely at work, and possibly living near one another, or even being roommates. A work with this trope played straight tends to focus on the inter-character relationship as much or more as on their workplace assignments.

What troper X Filo is proposing seems to cover the dicey space between those two previous tropes. The characters are partners, and like Just Partners, haven't the luxury to be close and cuddly. However, there does exist an undercurrent of attraction, which can often function as a Character Exposition device. In this case, the romance takes a back seat to the assignments.

Under these circumstances, there can't be a supertrope, except "Colleagues And Coworkers." That would be too all-encompassing. I proposed "Mostly Professional Relationship" to indicate that the romance barrier isn't absolute, as "Strictly" implies. Thus, we have the Three Workplace Tropes: the Absolute "Just Partners," the Pliable "Mostly Professional Relationship," and the Mushy "Office Romance."

So I guess I could set up the crowner. First just to see what is preferred - if merging or creating the supertrope. Or do nothing, just slightly re-write the description. (I thought this was going to be an easy and quick fix. Oh well.)

Might want to hold off on crownering - we are currently having technical difficulties with crowners.

From the ykttw draft:

We may do the improvised voting thing with and .

• Current options to consider:
  • Make a supertrope
  • Merge the draft with Just Partners

Am I missing any other option(s)? Except for do nothing, which I think we don't want?

I start to feel lost among those unresolved love tropes. Sigh.

to Merging The Drafts.