Not Tropeworthy (titles crowner 6/12/14): Cop Boyfriend

Romantic Cop Leads

Romantic Cop Arrests

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Those don't say anything about the main character being a non-cop detective. They'd be misused for "any cop character who has a love interest"

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

"Main character" isn't part of the definition, but I'll take your point that my suggestions are not being clear enough....

• Romantic Cop Shares Leads
• Lover Apprehends Suspect
• Cop And Sleuth Couple
• Public And Private Detectives
• Public And Private Detective Team

edited 2nd Jun '14 11:50:36 AM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

• Romantic Cop Shares Leads

This sounds like a love-struck cop sharing information on the case is the important part. It not only ins't, but they may not do it at all.

• Lover Apprehends Suspect

This one doesn't indicate anything about the main character being a non-cop detective, or about the cop being the AD's love interest.

• Cop And Sleuth Couple

Sounds like a Wunza Plot.

• Public And Private Detectives

Sounds like a Useful Note on the difference.

• Public And Private Detective Team

Again, they don't have to be and aren't usually a team. The cop is the love interest, not their detecting partner, and may try to actively discourage the other one from getting involved in cases.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

. Now hold on, if they don't share leads of anything like that, then it isn't this trope. They are not a Friend on the Force if their interaction with the sleuth is the same if they were a painter or construction worker. They must first of all be a Friend on the Force.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

No, the cop love interest doesn't not have to share leads or even encourage the non-cop partner. They may, but it's just as likely that they won't do so willingly, or won't do so at all and will try to discourage the non-cop from getting involved at all.

And no, They do not have to be a Friend on the Force. Read the description: They often do not want the sleuth getting involved. They may not help her. This isn't Friend On The Force But More Romantic.

edited 2nd Jun '14 6:38:59 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Your original definition:

• ("female Amateur Sleuth whose Friend On The Force is also her Love Interest")

After the crowner, we have expanded the definition, and removed none of it:

• ("non-government investigator whose Friend on the Force is also their Love Interest")

Friend on the Force is part of the definition, the supertrope, and there's been no votes to change that.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Quoting the way that one Troper inaccurately summarized it in a forum discussion doesn't count. The actual definition never said it was the same as a Friend on the Force, and in fact contained and still contains notable differences.

Also, the crowner does not contain the wording you are saying that we changed it too.

edited 3rd Jun '14 2:28:29 AM by Catbert

The definition on Cop Boyfriend says that non-romantic attachments are covered by Friend on the Force. Friend on the Force says that Cop Boyfriend is a subtrope.

Maddy had stated the first definition, and is now arguing it isn't part of the definition. That is inconsistent. The second definition is what I wrote by merging the crowner and the first definition. The crowner changed who the cop had a relationship with, not the type of relationship.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

I quoted the first definition when I suggested we start with a clean-up of the misuse "Character's boyfriend is a cop". The closest I came to stating a definition was when I made this distinction: "A Friend on the Force works with the investigator. A Cop Boyfriend is usually not happy about the investigator's job/hobby, and tries to discourage them from getting involved. " and that's not very close.

edited 2nd Jun '14 8:59:35 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

It would be more accurate to state that Cop Boyfriend and Friend on the Force are related tropes, not that all of the first are an example of the second. The trope mention of the trope on Friend on the Force is clumsily written and I would consider it an example of how Cop Boyfriend has been misused, not as something that binds us to strictly follow today.

By the way, the current definition on the trope page has not yet been rewritten to fit the crowner decision, because it still specifies that it applies only to females that are an Amatuer Sleuth.

"Expand definition to be gender-neutral and include professional Private Detectives and Bounty Hunters who have romantic relationships with a Cop Boyfriend, so that not only Amateur Sleuths but any non-government investigator can qualify for having a Cop Boyfriend. Also rename to discourage misuse, with new name to be determined."

Okay. So the bases we need to cover in a name are:

1) Gender-neutral 2) Non-government investigator 3) In romantic relationship with member of a police force

Bonus points:

1) The non-government investigator often uses the relationship to their advantage in their sleuthing 2) The police officer romantic interest often disapproves of the sleuth's activities 3) These relationships often experience tension for the above reasons

Engaging scattershot brainstorming:

Sleuth Dates A Cop, Useful Cop Love Interest, Sleuth Cop Romance, Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits, Sleuth Cop Working Relationship, Date Them For The Badge, Unresolved Sleuthing Tension, Private Eyes Private Lives,

That's all I've got, and I don't think any of them are it. This is a tough one to crack, because there's so much that needs to be gotten across without implying other things. It's impossible to be clever or succinct when you need to get a paragraph's worth of extremely specific information across in a few words, especially when so many of the common terms we might use suggest something that this trope isn't due to its narrowness.

Might I suggest we broaden the trope a little bit more? Friend on the Force is so simple because it covers a huge range of working relationships, and it doesn't rely on a very specific person as the subject.

EDIT: Aaand the formatting broke all of my line breaks. So that's great.

edited 3rd Jun '14 2:35:15 PM by Shrikesnest

"Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight, but Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right." - Hillaire Belloc, The Pacifist

I like Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits honestly. Something about it sounds right for the trope.

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

hmm, sounds pretty good to me as well.

:ROFL: I missed that in the list! :D XD

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Heh. Well, that's my favorite of the ones I suggested as well. Any other thoughts? Crowner? Anything?

"Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight, but Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right." - Hillaire Belloc, The Pacifist

Gotta admit, I get a chuckle out of Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits.

Eh, feels a bit lengthy and unwieldy to me, but who knows if we'll find anything better. Heaven knows the combination of "clear" and "witty" is rare enough without throwing "concise" in there too.

Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits sounds like it's just Friend on the Force, though. "Friends with benefits" is where two people aren't in a romantic relationship, but still have sex together. Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits sounds like it's that, except that instead of sex, they share classified information. Since this trope's supposed to describe characters who are in a romantic relationship, that seems misleading.

Personally, I'd just go with Lover On The Force (or maybe Love Interest On The Force; that'd be clearer but less concise).

edited 10th Jun '14 2:45:44 AM by RavenWilder

Lover On The Force loses all the bits about them sharing evidence though. It has the exact same issues as Cop Boyfriend.

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

I thought the issue with Cop Boyfriend was that it was gender specific?

As I understand this trope, it's basically Friend on the Force, except the cop and the Amateur Sleuth are in a romantic relationship, with all the added complications that brings. This seems like a case where snowcloning is our friend.

No, this issue with Cop Boyfriend has nothing to do with gender specificity. It's issue is that it's being misused for anyone who dates a cop.

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

She Is Not My Girlfriend and Friends with Benefits both claim not to be in a romantic relationship....

That aside, the sharing of classified information is the same as Friend on the Force. That's the most important aspect of the trope. Friends with Benefits implies sex. Snowcloning that term (creating Friends With Evidence Locker Benefits) implies a similar relationship (great for when there's an on-again-off-again dynamic)

edited 11th Jun '14 9:53:14 AM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Sounds like we need an alt names crowner

edit: and here it is

edited 11th Jun '14 7:41:21 PM by tryrar

Is Friend on the Force misused to mean any character who is both a) another character's friend, and b) a cop? If not, I don't see why Lover On The Force would have that problem.