Unclear Description: Adult Fear

So far, all I know is that Adult Fear as split feels a bit People Sit On Chairs in my opinion as added realism or giving threats a certain tangibility as a driving point for drama is very common to the point of being an Omnipresent Trope. Then there's if such stuff can mix with more supernatural or magical based concepts not to mention the name which skews slightly towards a weird SciFi Ghettoisation of non-realistic elements in a story and implies childishness if they're not "realistic". This one is a tough trope and somewhat in a grey area but I'm still inviting anyone to look over the sandboxed articles and edit them if there's anything to fix.

edited 16th Dec '13 11:22:16 PM by treelo

Second opinion still requested for Sandbox.Adult Fear and Sandbox.Parental Fear, current issues are getting the sandboxed pages into a working order and questions over if Adult Fear is a trope or not.

In order:

1. Adult Fear: It ought to describe the trope in the first sentence.
2. Parental Fear: Assuming that it's not "bad things happen to children/youths", it needs to be clear that it's about "parents worrying".
3. Adult Fear: Already decided by crowner - I dissent with the idea that it is manageable; tropeworthy yes, but manageable?

I didn't fix that because I figured Wiki Magic would help with that once the gruntwork was done. It didn't so I'll go about rewriting the intro but I invite anyone at all to take a swipe at it. One question though, is it becoming a thing to lead a trope page with a one sentence Laconic version?

Parental Fear is primarily about parents worrying about kids in peril and general uselessness to do anything about said kids in peril, like Adult Fear I'll tweak the description so it's clearer.

Is Adult Fear manageable? Don't know, it's got a few troubles that Parental Fear being split from it introduces as Parental Fear is far more definable whereas Adult Fear lacked it to the point it needed that split so yeah, most likely does but need more input really.

The first sentence laconic definition is a personal preference, so that people get the idea of the trope straightaway.

What do you want to leave to Wiki Magic?

Fixing the bits I missed like the description or bad examples and finding a home for the lost ones I couldn't define at the bottom. If Wiki Magic isn't the right term, exchange with wanting the TRS folk to help with the R bit.

Bumping for more attention.

Some nice helping hand stuff while this was fading away. Still need to work out what to do with the uncertain ones at the bottom because if nobody's going to sort them I might just delete them from both.

One problem which is actually a bit too hard to ignore is that a lot of the examples are written in the worst way possible, I can see these moving to Special Projects after this is done just to get rid of the narminess most examples have.

edited 2nd Feb '14 4:37:57 AM by treelo

I say we split the tropes. That would be a lot better.

What sort of adult fear are you guys having in mind besides the harm to their children?

edited 16th Jan '15 9:17:44 AM by eroock

Taxes. Financial problems. Keeping/finding a job. Health. Legal issues. Pollution and/or Global warming. Their parents or other loved ones besides children. Being alone/finding love. Spouse's/Lover's fidelity. Dying. There are scads of things besides "their children" that adults worry about.

edited 16th Jan '15 11:22:12 AM by Madrugada

I have another question... I see this linked in works where there's something that could be adult fear-y, but it's never addressed. For example, one work has this:

• Adult Fear: Your spouse will start cheating on you with an attractive younger person, who will, in turn, start mistreating your children.

Okay, seems legit. Except it never comes up. The spouse does do these things, but the book is entirely from the viewpoint of the child. And wife's "fear" isn't a factor in the slightest.

I guess my point is how much intent is necessary here. Can it be Adult Fear if the author just put a situation that, from a certain perspective is certainly scary, but doesn't actually play that angle?

I would say that example isn't good, because the parent's fear never affects the POV child — that is, the child is not aware of their parent's fear and it has no effect on them within the story.

Let's take a somewhat less-ambiguous example of the same sort: In Little Women, one of the ongoing themes is that the family is financially pinched. The two older daughters are aware of this and it affects them: Jo goes so far as to sell her hair to try to help out. The two younger daughters are not aware of it but not noticeably affected by it. That's an example of an Adult Fear in a work that focuses on non-adults.

edited 16th Jan '15 5:44:24 PM by Madrugada

Why would you bring up the kids' POV here? This trope is all about the adult POV, no?

The adult's pov on the story. If the story comes from the child's pov, by nessessity we need to see if the Adult Fear affects the story from the child's pov. If it doesn't, then the trope is not present in the story.

Bump.

So is the proposed Parental Fear trope a subtrope, or a related one? Because if it's a subtrope, then it would have to be suitably "realistic" (so no "my son is possessed by demons" etc), which will probably see misuse.

I kind of feel like Adult Fear should be a disambig, and maybe the tropes should be Realistic Fear and Parental Fear. Splitting the tropes alone isn't going to stop misuse, I think.

edited 8th Oct '15 1:38:00 PM by Larkmarn

I don't think it should be a subtrope.

It's concerned with the reaction of in-universe parents to their children's endangerment. In-universe, demons and magic can be real — thus, they present a "realistic" fear in-universe.

^I agree.

Locking per New Year Purge.