Misused: Arab Oil Sheikh

Many of the examples on this page don't have any investment in oil. The scale of misuse is so enormous that sending it back through YKTTW might be worthwhile.

Please do a wick check or this thread shall be locked.

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

Wick check:

• Series.Aguila Roja: "Minus the oil part, obviously." No context otherwise.
• VideoGame.Alpha Protocol: No context here.
• Characters.Alpha Protocol: Seems legit but not explained very well.
• UsefulNotes.Arab Israeli Conflict: Potholed in media example.
• Series.Are You Being Served: Wikilinked in example of other trope.
• National Stereotypes.Asia: Another definition of the trope.
• TruthInTelevision.A To C: ...OK.
• Literature.Ben Hur: "...if you replace oil with gold. Or horse races."
• Anime.Brain Powerd: Zero context, "assumedly."
• VideoGame.Casino Empire: "Played completely and utterly straight" without context.
• VideoGame.Choice Of Games: Legit, well-written example.
• Literature.City Trilogy: Wikilinked in example of other trope.
• VideoGame.Civilization: Potholed in example of other trope.
• Characters.Civilization: Seemingly legit example.
• Film.Condorman: Invoked, but still legit.
• Cosmopolitan Council: Wikilinked in description and one example.
• Cyclic National Fascination: Potholed, but very legit.
• Decadent Court: Potholed to define "decadence of the Saudi court."
• Door Judo: Wikilinked in example.
• Characters.Dragon Quest III: "The male Merchant looks vaguely Arab." (What?)
• Dug Too Deep: Pothole for "stereotypical rich local"; no idea where from.
• Creatures.Dungeons And Dragons: Chained pothole.
• Wrestling.Ed Farhat: No context whatsoever.
• English Premier League: Potholed in image caption. (Which Quraci royal family? This is a Real Life institution, not a trope.)
• Ermine Cape Effect: Potholed for "Gulf Arab monarchies." (OK by me.)
• Flight: Potholed for "Arabia" in Arabian Nights example. (Obvious misuse.)
• Funny Foreigner: Wikilinked in trope example.
• VideoGame.Game Dev Story: Context, but no oil in sight. (Probably just badly written.)
• German Humour: Wikilinked, very legit.
• Characters.Grand Theft Auto IV Maisonette 9: Stretching the trope a little, but mostly OK.
• WesternAnimation.Heathcliff And The Catillac Cats: No context.
• Hollywood Cuisine: Potholed to "Saudi/Gulf" inappropriately.
• Manga.Honey Honey No Suteki Na Bouken: No real context. (Probably just badly written.)
• TabletopGame.Illuminati New World Order: ...probably legit.
• VideoGame.Interstate 76: Potholed to "OPEC."

I think I see the problem here: a romance-novel trope of considerably older origin and rather different character has been conflated with Arab Oil Sheikh in the description and example list, though not so much in the wicks.

edited 1st Jul '15 8:04:24 PM by Prfnoff

Clean out the bad examples.

I think the general stereotype is more important than being explicitly about oil, most importantly that it's an exotic foreigner with money to spend.

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I'd suggest broadening the trope a bit: the Arab Oil Sheikh should always be filthy rich, but not necessarily from oil.

Could you please elaborate? What is that other trope about?

See the second-to-last paragraph of the description. The problem is that this really isn't the same trope at all, aside from having the title of "Sheikh."

"Exotic foreigner with money to spend" is a bit broader than what this should be. "Exotic" and "foreigner" are themselves a bit wishy-washy as words go.

edited 4th Jul '15 6:16:28 AM by Prfnoff

Sure, if you take that out of context and assume it's a literal and complete description of the trope.

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Take the word "Oil" out of the title. Tweak definition to make clear that it's rich Arab sheiks of all stripes. Call it good.

Ah, I see, thanks.

I think that "romantic Sheikh" type may actually be a part of a broader romance novel character trope; I don't know whether we already have it or not.

As for this trope, I support freesefan's suggestion of just renaming it to Arab Sheikh or maybe something more descriptive like Rich Arab Sheikh.

edited 6th Jul '15 7:52:41 AM by Rjinswand

The problem is that's a bit much like Arab Sheikhs Sit On Chairs, much like trying to make a trope out of "rich European princes of any stripe" would be.

A lot of the old romance examples aren't even "from Arabia," geographically speaking. (They might be from "Araby," but that's really a Hollywood Atlas name. trope I might write that setting trope up someday; distinguishing it from Qurac is part of what's holding me back.)

edited 7th Jul '15 10:27:37 AM by Prfnoff

Well, they should come from that general area, whether it's a real country or a fictional equivalent, but the exact nationality doesn't matter.

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I feel like even if they're not explicitly rich from oil, this is usually implicitly the case especially if they're New Money investors.

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If it's set in present day, real world, it's oil. Things that are historical or fantasy it can be jewels, spices, silks, anything that seems a bit exotic.

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

@Prfnoff: I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure if I agree. "Filthy rich Arab guys" seem to be a common type in media. They aren't always revealed to be oil magnates, but they're easily recognizable nevertheless. The trope's example list also mentions a couple non-Arab characters disguising themselves as rich Arab men, so it looks like the stereotype is pretty well-known if it's used like that.

As for "Araby", I think that's a good trope idea. You could try YKTT Wing it, so that other tropers could offer their advice on its exact definition. By the way, the current description of Qurac lists what you call "Araby" as one of the distinct "types" of Qurac, so it could just be split from there.

edited 10th Jul '15 1:08:56 PM by Rjinswand

If we were to rename this, perhaps we could go with something like "Billionaire Arab" since most examples are not explicitly about oil?

Do we need a rename to go with that definition, though? Seems to attract enough examples that don't follow the name literally anyway. (Not broken; don't fix.)

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I don't know if we need a rename, but the definition very much needs the tweak.

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

It looks like we have consensus to tweak the definition (although this could probably be finished in the "trope description and improvement thread" instead of TRS).

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Locking as part of New Years Purge

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