Ambiguous Name (New Alt Names crowner 10/5/2015): Mac Guffin Girl

Mac Guffin Is Hostage maybe? By the way, we can't have any potholes in page quotes.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

BIG bump. Don't know why I keep forgetting about this damn thread. Crowner for Sandbox.Mac Guffin Hostage. Current options: Mac Guffin Hostage, The Hostage, and Mac Guffin Is Hostage.

Crowner's hooked and the thread title's updated.

Thank you. Summary post: We need names for the tropes at Sandbox.Mac Guffin Hostage, Sandbox.Mundane Mac Guffin Person, and Sandbox.Mac Guffin Super Person. We're at Sandbox.Mac Guffin Hostage right now, and more options would be nice.

Everything is summarized at Sandbox.Living Mac Guffin, the supertrope.

Bump. Only positive is Mac Guffin Hostage at 6 to 0. Little too early to call, I think.

One last bump. Still Mac Guffin Hostage, now at 8 - 0. Still below the ten vote minimum, so I'm not sure if it should be called.

Calling for Mac Guffin Hostage.

Crowner for Sandbox.Mac Guffin Super Person. Remember, this trope is the one where a person is sought after for some supernatural ability they have. The maiden who can mind control people, the priest who can destroy armies of undead. That sort of thing.

More suggestions needed for names.

Hooked and the thread title's adjusted.

Friday bump for votes. MacGuffin Super-Person is in the lead right now at 5-0.

Monday bump. MacGuffin Super-Person still in the lead, now at 7 - 0. We need a minimum of 10 votes before it can be called.

Friday bump, last one. MacGuffin Super-Person still in the lead, now at 8 - 2. Let's just get another couple votes before we call it.

Crowner locked.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

New crowner for Sandbox.Mundane Macguffin Person. Remember, the definition is "A Mac Guffin Person who's sought after for some mundane trait (beauty, wisdom, etc) turned Up To Eleven."

Really need some better title options.

Crowners switched.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Monday bump for votes.

I may be late to the party, but to be frank I don't like the proposed Mundane MacGuffin Person title. The title doesn't seem clear at all. It seems to describe a "MacGuffin person who is mundane" while the trope isn't about that.

I wouldn't call the traits described in the sandbox "mundane" at all. It rather seems to be a random mish-mash of very different traits and roles:

1. Personality traits (wisdom, kindness, "goodness")
2. Passive traits (beauty)
3. Role in the hero's biography (love interest, kicked the hero's dog, relative)
4. Possessing a MacGuffin (e.g. possessing an important information)

also, being royalty is already covered by Mac Guffin Hostage.

I'd suggest to sort all that out before deciding on a name.

Also, why does it say "girls" when referring to sister tropes in the sandbox? That's weirdly gender-specific.

edited 22nd Jul '15 4:05:48 AM by Rjinswand

The girls thing is a holdover from when all the MacGuffin tropes assumed they were female. Fixed.

And if you have better suggestions for names, please, by all means, add them to the crowner.

I don't have a better name suggestion because I don't think it's a trope at all, but rather a mish-mash of different qualifiers that don't fit the other Living MacGuffin subtropes (Mac Guffin Hostage, MacGuffin Super-Person). Basically, "everything that doesn't fit anywhere else", which I'd argue isn't what qualifies a trope.

I would rather suggest splitting it into:

1. "MacGuffin person sought for their specific personality trait(s)",
2. "MacGuffin person sought because of their connection to the hero",
3. and keep what's left tropeless

with the examples for said "what's left" going under the supertrope (Living MacGuffin) itself.

P.S.: Maybe this trope suggestion should be put through YKTTW first? If it already was, my apologies. Would be great to see a list of examples that you think would fit this suggested trope.

edited 23rd Jul '15 7:22:52 AM by Rjinswand

I'm... not sure how you could think this isn't a trope. It's extremely common. Off the top of my head Helen of Troy (beauty), basically any princess (royalty, with some beauty mixed in as well), that sort of thing.

I could get behind splitting it between "mundane trait like beauty or wisdom" and "direct relationship with a hero, like a sister or target for revenge," though I'm on the fence. Some extra opinions would be nice, but I think this was discussed when this was first proposed. I just really don't want to slog through nine pages to find it.

I think that The Hostage would be a much better idea for a trope than necessarily making it need to be Hostage Mc Guffin. I think the trope of The Hostage doesn't change much whether it's a McGuffin or not.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

@Discar: I might've worded it badly. I agree that things like you've mentioned are tropeable. It's just that I think it's not a single trope, but rather several different tropes that were mashed into one.

Royalty is already covered under Mac Guffin Hostage, no?

The "sought for being hero's relative etc." should definitely be a different trope than "sought for beauty, knowledge etc", since it's not a trait, mundane or not — it's a role this character plays in hero's bio.

Why is it relevant whether or not they're supernatural? Because it sounds like an arbitrary restriction to me. Mac Guffin Person but more specific. I don't see the need for a subtrope here at all.

edited 28th Jul '15 11:45:56 AM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

There's a big difference between "We need the only person with the power to open the magic portal to save our people" and "that girl's pretty, let's start a war over her."

Sure, but is it a difference that merits having a supertrope and two subtropes, as opposed to a supertrope and one subtrope? Because I think we could very easily get away with sticking the mundane examples in the supertrope. The only common thread they really have is that they're not the other trope.

edited 28th Jul '15 7:49:22 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."