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Misused: Freakiness Shame

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Khantalas ... Since: Jan, 2001
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#1: Mar 10th 2015 at 2:48:05 AM

Freakiness Shame has a few issues with several of its wicks (as well as a couple examples on the page). At first glance, I thought it was merely a result of the name change from But Your Wings Are Beautiful, where the wicks weren't evaluated for how the name change might screw up the context the wicks are in, but after being asked to do a wick check, it's slightly more complicated than that.

Currently, Freakiness Shame has three main components that I can identify: 1) a character has a physical abnormality, 2) they are ashamed by it, and 3) another character finds it at least not unappealing. The former name, But Your Wings Are Beautiful, emphasized the third part, while the current name emphasizes one and two. As a result, there are two main issues I see.

1) The wick is used in a context that fits the previous name, but doesn't really work with the current one.

2) The wick uses one part (character has abnormality) or two parts (character finds it shameful or another character finds it attractive, without the other). If the example actually fits, the wick is not in a context that makes it clear all three parts are there.

After a randomized wick check, I have found the following problematic examples (as well as several borderline examples that I couldn't judge so I left out for the moment):

  • Tabletop Games: (about races that have penalties to Charisma because of Impossibly Beautiful Race) "In both cases, expect actual real-life people to react with a Freakiness Shame, or at least mock the blatant attempts at letting players play a So Beautiful, It's a Curse character, while still Min-Maxing for low Charisma." Character has physical abnormality, but the abnormality is "being too pretty", and it's not clear whether the shame or the "you are beautiful" components exist.
  • Villains Never Lie: "[...] and that their girlfriend will never love them (which is not true, since the girlfriend in question has already found out about his status as a Tomato in the Mirror, and perhaps for any other person this would be true, but the girlfriend loves this about him )." This places the Freakiness Shame on the party feeling attraction, rather than party feeling shame.
  • Nozomu Nozomi: "Nozomu hides his Gender Bender for a full year—even from his sister, who knows he's a crossdresser—afraid of what everyone might think." The physical abnormality and the shame are there, but the attraction or admiration from another party is not shown.
  • Mawaru-Penguindrum: "She was the first person who told Yuri that she was beautiful, even with all of the scars that her father's abuse left on her." The trope fits, but Freakiness Shame is listed under the character feeling admiration, rather than the character feeling shame.
  • Koi Neko: "When Inaho starts to turn Shinta into a fox and he sprouts whiskers and pointy ears, Nao finds it very sexy and offers him a place in the cat world, prompting Inaho to offer to turn him into a cat instead." Physical abnormality and attraction are shown, but the shame component is absent from the description.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: "A small minority of the audience for Black Swan is Just There For The Wingfic." Again, no shame involved in the description (this seems to be a common problem, where a couple of other instances of wingfic or the like are potholed to Freakiness Shame).
  • Inheritance Trilogy: The character Nahadoth has an entry for Mr. Fanservice, with several Zero Context Examples, including Freakiness Shame, given under it. I'm not sure whether the shame exists, or if the attraction to abnormality is just an audience reaction or not.
  • I Have No Son!: "When the party inadvertently breaks into the Wyndian royal castle in Breath of Fire 2, the king and queen completely ignore Nina's presence as they have the group ejected, even silencing their other daughter when she attempts to identify her older sister. They know perfectly well who she is, and actually do this out of kindness. Nina was born with black wings - and any child with black wings is supposed to be put to death, since they're prophesied to bring tragedy to Wyndia. The royal family covered up the truth and disowned her so at least she'd have a chance to live. Nina understandably has a complex about this, but doesn't blame her parents for it." The abnormality and shame is there, but the attraction is absent.
  • I Am Not Pretty: "In A Brothers Price, Cira has a prominent scar on her face, and under her clothing she is Covered with Scars. She doesn't find herself attractive, and mentions a lover who had lost interest in her after she acquired those scars. Jerin thinks she would be plain and unremarkable unscarred, but the scars add character and boldness to her appearance." The trope fits, but the wick is in the wrong context, emphasizing the attraction or admiration instead of the shame.
  • Eureka Seven: "After Eureka begins to show more and more Coralian features that physically start to change her body, she becomes afraid of what Renton and the kids would think of her. Instead of being frightened, however, Renton compliments Eureka's newly formed wings by telling her that she looks beautiful with them. Cue Eureka giving Renton a huge hug." Again, while the trope fits, the wick is in context of admiration instead of shame.
  • Chronicles of the Kencyrath: "Jame's claws, which are a major source of shame for her and most Highborn." The abnormality and the shame both exist, but the admiration component is missing.
  • Boardwalk Empire Darmody Family And Associates: Listed without context under Richard Harrow, who is described as "[a] shy, socially stunted former World War One sniper who lost half his face in the battlefield and carries a tin prosthetic mask to hide what is missing." The physical abnormality exists, and the shame is implicit, but the admiration is not shown.
  • Fantastic Arousal: "Mahou Sensei Negima!!: Winged Humanoid Setsuna gets flustered when Asuna starts stroking her wings." Might possibly fit, but considering neither Setsuna's shame nor Asuna's opinion on the wings outside of the Fantastic Arousal context is shown, it is still a poorly placed wick.

I'm not sure what the best fix for the problems would be. The description is currently unproblematic, and the name still covers the trope better than the old one, but a name that includes the admiration component would be more preferable from my point of view, and the examples that do not show all three components either need clarification, or removal (if judged unfit by someone with better knowledge of the examples).

((Sorry for any issues, this is my first repair shop attempt.))

"..."
shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#2: Aug 24th 2015 at 8:22:46 AM

Looks like this one is a result of people mechanically chancing wicks rather than reading what they were sticking the links into. Especially since it seems like they didn't get rid of misuse.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#3: Aug 25th 2015 at 8:41:35 PM

[up][up]I don't know... some of those wick examples you posted are pretty legit examples. You even mentioned yourself that a lot of the tropes fit, but is overly emphasizing on one aspect rather than the other, which I don't think is a "misuse".

AnotherDuck No, the other one. from Stockholm Since: Jul, 2012 Relationship Status: Mu
No, the other one.
#4: Aug 26th 2015 at 1:53:31 AM

I also think the new wording of the trope name makes it sound weird, but it's really just a proper noun, not a descriptive phrase. Take it for what it actually means, rather than what it sounds like it means.

Check out my fanfiction!
shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#5: Jan 1st 2016 at 1:26:46 PM

Locking as part of New Years Purge.

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