Not Tropeworthy: Bested At Bowling

I found this trope today in a pothole. I expected the pothole to lead to I Was Beaten by a Girl, but instead, led me to the trope at issue. And the basic concepts were mostly the same, only that this trope was about bowling. This trope is essentially I Was Beaten by a Girl At Bowling with such a short description and poor stats, with little links to other related tropes.

I propose a merge with I Was Beaten by a Girl. The examples are few and could add to the examples of IWBBG, which also doesn't have a lot of examples for such a common trope.

edited 12th Jun '13 7:16:32 AM by MikuruFan

Sounds good to me.

Sounds OK to me, really.

(Although we may consider a new name for both, as the other is dialogue-y...)

Beaten By A Girl is a redirect.

Beaten By A Girl is a much better title than I Was Beaten by a Girl. I don't really mind dialog titles, but it just flows a lot better without the "I Was."

Definitely needs to be merged with Beaten By A Girl.

Merge.

Wait a minute here. This seems like a distinct subtrope, and the complaint about there not being enough examples seems ridiculous. It should probably be rewritten and perhaps renamed to apply to other games besides bowling; the wife/girlfriend aspect is what makes this distinct.

There are examples of I Was Beaten by a Girl that are about girlfriends, tho'. Are we sure the distinction is tropeworthy by itself? The other examples don't look like that.

I concur with merging.

Can we discuss renaming I Was Beaten by a Girl to just Beaten By A Girl here, or should I make a new topic? It's the one thing I think Bested at Bowling does better than I Was Beaten by a Girl.

edited 12th Jun '13 12:32:08 PM by Larkmarn

Let's first decide on the merger. Then we can tackle the other thing.

Works for me.

"Are we sure the distinction is tropeworthy by itself? The other examples don't look like that."

What makes you so sure the distinction isn't tropeworthy? Not knowing what you mean by "other examples," I can only point out that many of the Beaten By A Girl examples do not fit on Bested at Bowling, e.g. Half Magic, The Bible, Doctor Who, Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, Makai Kingdom, Lollipop Chainsaw, etc. (There's also a lot of overlap between these examples and Samus Is a Girl, but that's definitely a distinct trope.)

Agree that the Tropes as written do not have much to distinguish them.

That is not to say that there are not two separate Tropes in play, however. I know, Type Labels Are Not Examples, but this is how it comes across to me:

• Type I happens at the end of the plotline and usually results in an "Everybody Laughs" Ending (unless it's a villain being beaten by a woman, in which the woman gets a whole bunch of respect from the guys (maybe).) This Trope could also cross with Dark Horse Victory and/or We Win, Because You Didn't
• Type II happens in the first act leading to the second act focusing on the Masculine character trying to salvage his ego.^note "Masculine Character" used to allow for same-sex stories, as well as the occasional inversion Can never be crossed with We Win, Because You Didn't.

My counter-proposal is to overhaul both tropes, so that each one describes a particular case. To use the form from the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions:

A girl beats a guy in a physical contest.

• Beaten By A Girl: This is the climax and the Aesop is "don't underestimate based on biological gender." Beaten By A Kid is a Sister Trope (perhaps an Internal one).
• Bested at Bowling (which would still need a rename): The Aesop is "Just because a woman/kid beats you doesn't make you any less of a man/adult." or "Don't base your emotional stability on assumptions based on gender/size." The climax is the masculine/physically stronger character either accepting these morals or demonstrating his failure to do so.

EDIT: Laconic Form:

• Type I: Defeat as Resolution (Defeat resolves the plot)
• Type II: Defeat as Confrontation (Defeat sets up the plot)

edited 12th Jun '13 7:19:30 PM by DonaldthePotholer

I could perhaps make a distinction between fighting and sports/games. Bowling in itself doesn't feel like a good limitation, as it doesn't differ at all from other sports. It's not a different type of sport.

That's excluding that there are non-bowling examples on that page, and one bowling example on the other, as I don't think that's significant.

That might be another way to separate them.

edited 12th Jun '13 7:26:04 PM by AnotherDuck

The name is I Was Beaten by a Girl not Beaten By A Girl, by the way.

Actually Bested at Bowling is more of a Stock Plot than a trope like I Was Beaten by a Girl, it's notable in part because of a Tropes in Aggregate (one show has them bowling it's not notable, the majority of sitcoms having an episode on bowling is). The reason why it is a popular stock plot is because bowling is a fairly simple sport that doesn't require taking the cast and crew to a large court or field and can be built on a soundstage with stock footage showing the actual ball strikes.

A merge doesn't feel right to me, but a rename to something like Bowling Episode might be in order even though I think the current name is fine.

edited 13th Jun '13 12:31:29 AM by KJMackley

That's Bowling for Ratings, which is a different trope.

Bowling Episode / Bowling for Ratings is different, but is relatively likely to contain Beaten By Someone You Think Is Inferior, much due to the lack of gender differences in average abilities. I find it about as much of a trope as Beach Episode, Festival Episode, or whatever you can find on Episodes.

Speaking of that, should Bowling for Ratings be on Episodes?

edited 13th Jun '13 1:00:32 AM by AnotherDuck

Bowling for Ratings lists episodes and is used as an episode trope, so yes.

I'm not sure that "list of shows that contain bowling" is a trope, though.

It's because the sets are easy to build and little training is needed for the actors to portray it, so there is a reason for it.

So we just have to adjust the descriptions of the tropes?

Hm?

Can we focus on the tropes Bested at Bowling and I Was Beaten by a Girl for now? Bowling for Ratings could be discussed later.