If in a long running title/story/show/whatever that has had multiple writers over the years each portraying a character a certain way only for a single writer in a single story or short stint to take a radically different take on that character do any tropes for that apply only in that one story apply as tropes?

Example, Joe is portrayed as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold anti-hero. He is mean to most people, but in quiet moments or rare moments it is shown he truly does care, but for whatever reason cannot or does not show it. He is portrayed like this for years by several writers. Then another writer comes along and portrays Joe as a Jerk with the Heart of a Jerk who hates everyone. The next writer then goes back to the previous, more consistent portrayal.

How would tropes used by the writer who took a radically different take be handled? Since the are only used once would the be mentioned on Joe's character page or because they are one-offs would they not be mentioned at all? Would they be mentioned, but with a note that is was only in a single story and contrary to all other characterizations? Is there a specific name for a trope like this or is it covered by Depending on the Writer, Seasonal Rot and Out of Character?

Thank you

edited 22nd Jun '14 3:55:30 PM by seekquaze1

You'll want to use Lost And Found for this type of inquiry, as it says above.

I've reopened this thread. The OP isn't asking "do we have a trope for...", it's asking "do the tropes that only apply for a short time (for instance, while one particular person was writing the character) still go on the work's/character's page?"

Depending on the Writer: name the writer(s) and what they change.

Personally, I would go with putting it under Depending on the Writer, with the explanation of the trope listing which episode(s) or arc(s) or (parts of a) season the difference occurs in, who the writer who made the change is, and what the change was.

So your Joe example would be something like:

• Depending on the Writer: In Season 4, ep 7, written by Quentin Tarantino, Joe is changed from a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to an unrelieved Jerkass. The change lasted only that one episode; in episode 8 he was back to his previous characterization.

Doing it this way means that if later it happens again with another one-off writer, it's easy enough to simply re-indent the fist one to a two-bullet point and add the second, like so:

• Depending on the Writer:
  • In Season 4, ep 7, "Reservoir Fiction", written by Quentin Tarantino, Joe is changed from a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to an unrelieved Jerkass. The change lasted only that one episode; in episode 8 he was back to his previous characterization.
  • In Season 8, the two-part episode "The West Winger" (S8, Ep 10-11) was written by Aaron Sorkin. In it, Joe, who is usually The Quiet One, is a Motor Mouth Deadpan Snarker.

edited 23rd Jun '14 6:12:14 AM by Madrugada

Ok, thinking about it some more, if the one-off writer made a lot of significant changes to the character, I would consider making a separate subsection on the character sheet for them, something like this:

Joe

• Trope A
• trope B
• trope C
• trope D
• Trope E

Season 8, Episode 10 and 11 (two-part episode), "The West Winger"

For these two episodes, guest-writer Aaron Sorkin changed Joe's characterization considerably. Joe was back to normal in episode 9 and these changes were never mentioned again.

• Trope F instead of Trope A
• Trope G instead of Trope B
• Trope H instead of Trope A
• Trope I instead of Tropes C and E
• Trope J instead of Trope D
• Trope K

edited 23rd Jun '14 1:32:17 PM by Madrugada

Or kept in just the Recap/ page, instead of the more general franchise of character pages.

That works, too, if the work has recap pages. In fact, I think it might work better than my suggestion if there's a recap page for the episode.

It is probably best to add the context that this is about the Thor character Odin.

Seekquaze1 wanted to add that he is generally portrayed as a Big Good, which I am fine with, but during the comics storyline Fear Itself, he stated that he views humanity as dung worms and himself as the Sun, and was willling to emthusiastically commit genocide on billions of innocent bystanders in gruesome fashions without an ounce of regret, and was stated to have wiped out humanity once previously. It should be noted that Seekquaze1 thinks that it was a Sadistic Choice, due to humanity's fear empowering the antagonist of the story, but since Thor was able to stop the villain at its strongest, I think that Odin, who is enormously more powerful, could also have beaten it without wiping out humanity. There was some talk about that to defeat the antagonist somebody had to sacrifice their own life, and if that was the case, Odin seemed unwilling to sacrifice his.

We have been trying to find a compromise, but how do you think that we should insert this rather complex thematic without the text turning too long? Here is the current version: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/TheMightyThor

edited 27th Jun '14 3:21:46 AM by CodenameBravo

To summarize my suggestion, and make it more directly applicable to your concern, the first step would be to make a work page for the Fear Itself storyline. Then you'd have a page to list the "new" traits for Odin.

On the main Characters page, you'd put

• Depending on the Writer (or Character Derailment, depending on which applies better): During the [Fear Itself] storyline, Odin's character was inconsistent with respect to his usual behaviour. Such as being [trope x] instead of [trope y].

On the work page, you'd include the atypical character tropes, and any prominent typical tropes.

Okay. I think that Character Derailment would make Seekquaze1 happier. I do not know how to create a work page, but do you and others think that the current version that I linked to seems acceptable? I tried to keep it brief this time.

Edit: I moved the trope to YMMV: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheMightyThor

edited 27th Jun '14 5:51:52 AM by CodenameBravo

Good entry, except for the third sentence. That one looks like a Justifying Edit. Character Derailment is YMMV, so it should be obvious that not everyone agrees there was a change in personality. Remember your Cross Wicking: post it on the Character Derailment page, too.

CamelCase means you could type YMMV.TheMightyThor to create YMMV.The Mighty Thor or ''YMMV/TheMightyThor'' for The Mighty Thor.