Duplicate Image: Deaths Hourglass

An example would be someone having misunderstood the trope (not the image) in the past; hence providing justification for the need of an illustration different from an hourglass.

And you would be correct - the current image is perfectly serviceable. However, there is always room for improvement and an image should and can be changed if a better one surfaces. Hence, the reason threads like this exist.

"Better" is always a subjective issue. And while they may prefer the current over the suggestions, the argument being put forth here is that their reasoning for it isn't the best and is somewhat close minded and needlessly conservative in order to prevent a problem that may or may not exist. Moreover, just because "they" are of that opinion does not mean that is the consensus or majority.

As such, I say that the logical course of action here is to just set up a crowner for this thread. We've had plenty of possibilities proposed. Let's see which is the best; be it the current or one of the new suggestions.

The problem of tropers taking names too literally does definitively exist, sire. And nobody has indicated what the problem with the current image there is, either.

Also, half a dozen people have said we shouldn't change the DH image. The bigger problem with those suggestions is not the literal thing, it's that they aren't better than what's there, which is great.

As several comments on the first page say, ideas for YDAN would be more welcome.

Made the switch, as well as a new thread for Your Days Are Numbered. Please lock this up.

Why switch?! Old image was better and nobody else said they think that's a good idea.

What it was:

What it is now:

]]]]

Simplicity is your friend.

The fewer images you need to use to get an idea across, the better.

edited 27th Apr '15 11:33:39 AM by ThePope

Or...lock the other thread, that works too.

The problem is that now we're having a discussion about a different page and people may come into this thread thinking we're talking about one page when we're actually talking about another.

There was nowhere near enough consensus on what changes to make. As far as I can gather from reading the thread, only like 2 people supported changing to a 1-panel version. Personally, I think the 2-panel version works much better because it adds some context. It's much clearer that it's explicitly counting down somebody's life.

I'm going to switch it to the 2-panel version, for the following reasons:

1. That image was selected by consensus in another thread

2. There's no consensus for changing the image in this thread; the most popular opinion (6 supporters; 7 if I count myself) was to leave this image alone. The image change was premature.

edited 27th Apr '15 1:00:44 PM by JapaneseTeeth

The proposal was whether to use the image on Your Days Are Numbered here or there. Everyone decided here, and so it was.

Few people, if any, said "Keep it two panels".

Like I said, the fewer panels necessary to get an idea across, the better.

Now for this thread to presumably languish for another month in rot.

No, the proposal most people were talking about is which page to change.

Generally I agree that communicating a message with fewer panels tends to be better, but I don't think only one panel expresses the same idea. That was even explicitly pointed out by at least one comment.

The image of the Reaper ticking by an abacus with the caption "Happy birthday" in the ominous font does the job more than well enough. Adding the extra image of the guy celebrating his birthday doesn't add enough to justify having two images.

We can do a crowner of this if we must, but I'd also like to move on to finding an image for the other page.

It shows a kid excited about his birthday but Death counting it as another year closer to his end. The contrast is important IMO, it is part of the trope.

The trope is Death counting the days.

Him at the abacus shows that just fine. And again, the caption helps.

The additional panel adds enough clarity that I think it more than justifies its own existence. While a more concise image is generally better, it's also better if the image can stand on its own without the caption's help.

For the record, I prefer the single panel version.

At first, I was unsure whether I wanted one or two panels. Now, I'm pretty sure I think that the clarity lost is about equal to the conciseness gained, so either is equally good.

I'm helpful, ain't I?

I prefer the 1 panel one, mostly because I find that left panel horribly ugly.

@Pope: Like they said, most of the discussion was of which page to change; whether or not we should use the 1 or 2 panel version was never really discussed, only mentioned briefly.

I personally prefer the 2-panel one, but I think the 1-panel version could work. Crowner?

edited 28th Apr '15 6:07:15 AM by JapaneseTeeth

I guess we could do a crowner between 1 or 2 panels, get this settled, then move on to Your Days Are Numbered.

Between the two, I'd argue for the two-panel as the single-panelled version becomes very unclear as to whose "hourglass" is being counted down. It could be misinterpreted as Death counting down his own death rather than someone else - which would indicate a trope about the mortality of Death instead.

TLDR: Single-panelled version is misleading.

I think that's reaching for it.

You're reading far too much into it. Besides, I don't recall ever seeing a work featuring the grim reaper having to count his own death days, so I don't think most people would immediately come to that conclusion.

So...thread broke, crowner yes?

Nah, the pic's pulled from Death's Hourglass and, to me, fits Your Days Are Numbered better; if someone comes up with a new pic for the former page, we can run a new thread. Locking up.