I agree. This is very unclear.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"A type of animal mascot/sidekick/familiar character with a weasely personality and/or looking like one? I don't really see a personality connection in the examples, but while many of them are just named and not described, those who are seem to be similar animals.
Check out my fanfiction!So far, the closest I'm getting is "weasels and other mustelids who aren't Wicked Weasel", and I don't think that in and of itself is a trope.
What I'm getting from the description is that this trope is an Animal Sidekick that happen to be weasels and have an occasional touch of All Animals Are Dogs (or cats) thrown in.
Basically it seemed to be an excuse trope to shoehorn examples into.
Most examples are about weasels with no context, period. Seems like it's not a trope as currently used.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanBump. Anyone calling Not A Trope here? So far the examples suggest nothing more than "mustelid character".
If anything we might broaden it to Weasly Mascot. Or Mishcievious animal mascot and just put in the description that it usually goes to weasel or mustelid like animals.
To me it says a Team Pet or animal mascot that instead of being passive-aggressive like a cat or playful and dopey like a dog, its marked by being generally laid back but with a penchant for mischief and curiosity.
We already have Wicked Weasel though which is kind of the same thing.
No, that's more outright evil.
Check out my fanfiction!Clock is set.
edited 25th Jun '14 4:14:27 AM by Willbyr
Part of the problem is that this trope is very old, possibly even predating YKTTW, and as such was never very well defined. This is especially the case since it originally defined two other tropes and included their examples, with the end result of originally being much broader than the name, so the actual trope it purported to describe was never able to establish its own identity.
I still say cut it because "weasel character" in and of itself is Not A Trope. We already have Wicked Weasel for the most common "weasel" trope.
Bump. Any suggestions here?
The inbounds that I can check are about the usage of weasels for animal sidekicks.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanClock is set.
Maybe we could rename the trope Wacky Weasel (or possibly Fun-Loving Ferret) and have it focus on mustelid characters as comic relief.
"But... nobody told me I needed a signature!"This isn't going anywhere. Locking up.
In the Image Pickin' discussion, someone said:
The part of the description that sticks out most is "nonetheless looks out mainly for himself and can be very critical of people around him. He's nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is, and swears up and down he doesn't have to be fussed over. Until he wants to be, and frankly he's not about to turn down free food or attention if it's offered." Few to none seem to fit that part, but it's hard to tell since most of the examples are so vague.
Is it just "Weasel that isn't Wicked Weasel"? Is there more? What is this even trying to be?