The pawn is actually the super trope to all of those. The Pawn need not be unwitting or unknowing, but can often simply be uncaring, or unable to get free of the villain.
The Pawn at its simplest is this:
A character whose actions are entirely controlled by another.
The problem is that the definition here has gotten explanation tumors where people try to list every possible way this could happen and the description just ends up an incoherent mess as a result.
edited 21st Feb '16 8:51:54 AM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
^ I have some reservations about the tropability of that definition, which sounds rather vague. It sounds like you're proposing sort of the inverse of the Manipulative Bastard (the target, in other words). However, because that trope implies that the target be manipulated by someone else without their knowing (after all, if people knew the Manipulative Bastard's true nature s/he wouldn't be very effective), it encompasses basically every example except for a small minority who are knowingly forced to do something against their will, some of which already fits into Trapped in Villainy.
Reading through the page, it looks like none of the examples on the page fit the rewrite you're suggesting, with the exception of The Lion in Winter. The rest all describe a situation where the character is an Unwitting Pawn.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
That's in part why I want to cut out all the detritus from the supertrope. Yes, it's not super specific, but it is a supertrope to Unwitting Pawn and a lot of other tropes about being manipulated. The problem is, people put examples on there that match the examples that are already there. We need to point people at the correct sub tropes here and find all of them.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Cut, move examples to Unwitting Pawn where appropriate.
This is still the supertrope. It just needs love as a supertrope.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Chair Man
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
maybe through ykttw?
I dunno, aren't pawns by definition unwitting (i.e never knowing that they're pawn until it's too late)? Is there such a thing as "witting" pawn?
We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.
World's Toughest Milkman
There definitely are. Sometimes pawns know they're being manipulated, but don't mind because they believe the end result will benefit them too.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
A character whose actions are entirely controlled by another.
Clock is ticking.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Here's my take on this.
I do not believe The Pawn is the supertrope for Unwitting Pawn because one is a character while the other is an action.
- The Pawn is a character who's sole purpose for existing is to serve someone else's goals. It could be mind control, a Batman Gambit, Xanatos Gambit, or anything else that means the character has always acted to serve someone else. This may or may not be villainous, but the character is not necessarily unwitting.note
- Unwitting Pawn is an action or situation that happens when a character unknowingly serves another parties goals. This is not a part of their inherent character, they are being "moved" like a pawn. Once I am no longer "played" like a pawn, I stop "acting" as a pawn. This also may or may not be villainous, but the core criteria is that the character does not know they are being played (hence the "unwitting").
I think we could rewrite the description of The Pawn to reflect how this is an underlying character trope.
As for the Missing Supertrope feel that Samaritan mentioned, I think there is a separate trope instead of The Pawn. Maybe we can simplify "A character whose actions are entirely controlled by another" into "When a character's major decisions are decided by another character". Something like that would be the larger scope supertrope for Mind Control, The Pawn, The Chosen One, prophesy, fate, employees, kids, soldiers, etc.
By the "supertrope concept", you're talking about tropes about "subordination", right? Or "submission"?
That's a good question, I'm not sure where the difference is split. Theoretically, it would be both. Either way, the character follows a choice made by another party.
edited 7th Feb '17 4:28:25 PM by pokedude10
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
The line you draw between "pawnhood" being an action versus character helps, but I'm still not in the right mindset to define The Pawn clearly.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
pokedude10, how does your definition of The Pawn and Sycophantic Servant relate to another?
I'm not seeing the distinction made by pokedude10. Both The Pawn and Unwitting Pawn have "pawn" in the name, which would make them characters. Is The Pawn simply a longer-term version of Unwitting Pawn?
edited 10th Feb '17 6:58:18 AM by Gosicrystal
Theoretically, it looks like they are related. Both are character tropes defined by complete subordination to another. However, I think that the Sycophantic Servant is not inherently The Pawn if the other party has no plan or use for them.
Yes, they both have "pawn" in their names. I mean, sure The Pawn could be defined as a longer-term Unwitting Pawn, but that wouldn't really be a separate enough trope. Right now both the examples and description of The Pawn focus on characters whose entire reason for existing is to act as the pawn. Many of the examples describe a Tomato in the Mirror scenario.
Honestly, taking a second look through Unwitting Pawn, it feels very vague as to what being a pawn entails and who a pawn may be (The many zce's don't help). I'm not sure what to do here. Unwitting Pawn is so broad that any usage of "unknowingly furthering another party's goals" could theoretically fall under it. That's why I still stick by my character v. action distinction.
On a side note, I'm interested to hear Samaritan's definition.
edited 12th Feb '17 6:15:02 PM by pokedude10
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
I don't know what it is, but your posts are giving me inspiration. Can you post three examples (rewritten, please) of your interpretation? I still think that both can be character tropes, but the more I hear from your perspective, the clearer my concept becomes.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Unwitting Pawn was used to be named "something-something Sucker". Basically a "sucker" to someone else's plans without necessarily being a "dedicated" pawn (so a one-time help counts in that page too).
Thus calling the trope with "pawn" is wrong, I guess?
We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.
That... would explain why the examples seem to be everywhere. Hmm. I wouldn't be against doing something to give Unwitting Pawn more focus. A rename or rewrite might help.
Let's see, pulling the best few examples I could from the pages... I'll leave notes on each second bullet.
- Zootopia: On her first case, Judy Hopps was manipulated by Assistant Mayor Bellweather to create a fear of predators by "exposing" the mayor's research on the feral outbreak. While Bellweather engineered the outbreaks, Judy discovered the outbreak, released the news, and created the climate of fear all according to plan.
- Any officer might have fit into this plan, Judy was just the first to follow the case. She was a pawn while she started to follow the case, but stopped being one once she resigned.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: In the first half of the game, Link ventures across Hyrule, gathering the three Spiritual Stones which will allow him access to the Master Sword and the Sacred Realm. However, once he does so, Ganondorf reaps the fruits of link's labor to enter the opening and grab the triforce.
- Theoretically, Ganondorf could collect the stones himself, but allows Link to be the MacGuffin Delivery Service (which even uses Unwitting Pawn in the description).
- Bioshock: The main character of the first game was part of a master plan by Frank Fontaine to overthrow Andrew Ryan's hold on Rapture. As the illegitimate son of Ryan, he could access the utilities of Rapture such as the bathysphere and Vita-Chamber. A trigger phrase "would you kindly" allowed Fontain to fully control the main character's actions, even after becoming aware of the phrase.
- The entire character acts as the pawn for Fontaine, from conception, to genetic modification, to the trigger phrase. There is a Tomato in the Mirror moment where his entire existence is revealed.
- Star Wars Rogue One: Our main character Jyn is The Pawn for the rebellion. After her father defects from The Empire and is recaptured when she is still a young girl, her father sends her to live with Saw Gerrera, an extremist rebel. Years later, after separating from Saw, she is captured/rescued by the rebellion directly. They want her to return to Saw and extract vital information for the resistance because Saw trusts her. She only goes under threat to be released back to The Empire, and later willingly helps The Rebellion after seeing a message from her father.
- Jyn did not live a normal life. Her father sent her to be raised by a rebel, and later in life the rebel forces used her to gain information on the empire. Blackmail and deception was involved. She only willingly helped the rebellion after seeing the message from her father.
- Pokémon Black and White: N, the leader of Team Plasma, was raised from a child by Ghetsis as a pawn in his plan to Take Over the World. N sincerely believes in the mission of Team Plasma to promote the well-being of pokemon, and thinks Team Plasma and controlling legendary pokemon is the way to achieve that. He only rebels after learning about the greater plan in the climax.
- N was The Pawn as part of his character. He had free agency, but believed in the cause and that Ghetsis had noble intentions and plans.
I tried to include both witting and unwitting examples for The Pawn. Does this help?
On a side note, would anyone mind me throwing up a sandbox for Unwitting Pawn? There are so many ZCE's and varying definitions I want to see if I can make any sense of it. I think there are multiple tropes jammed in there, but it's such a mess it's hard to tell.
Edit: Edited example as per request and added another.
edited 13th Feb '17 8:12:19 PM by pokedude10
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Yes, I had meant three examples of each. I'm getting a clearer picture, of brainwashing and obedience contrasting gambits and betrayal. I'll post my thoughts tomorrow morning, regardless of additional posts here.
Go ahead with Sandbox.Unwitting Pawn; I should probably post at Sandbox.The Pawn myself. The greatest amount of misuse was viewing the two pages as the same trope. If you can, fix up the Rogue One example? I haven't seen the work, so the rebel vs Rebellion vs traitor (against which faction?) is making it difficult for me to parse.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Edited example for clarity and added another for The Pawn. Looking forward to your writeup.
So I made Sandbox.Unwitting Pawn. Reading though the examples was painful. I went ahead and split off the ZCE's I saw on the first pass. There's a lot of confusion as to what constitutes the trope. Unless I'm wrong, a basic example needs the character played, the person who played them, and what happened by being played. A good chunk of the examples only had the first one. Some of the examples look long, but they tell a reader nothing at all.
I'll take a quick pass at reworking the sandbox definition tomorrow.
I think complexity is part of the problem. Right now Unwitting Pawn is defined as a character trope, but it requires two characters and an action to apply.
edited 13th Feb '17 8:22:04 PM by pokedude10
In short, Unwitting Pawn is actually a plot trope.
We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.
Exactly. That's the distinction I was trying to make.The focus of Unwitting Pawn is the plot created by the pawn and the player, not about the pawn.
So many of the ZCE's I marked on the sandbox simply talked about how a character was easily played, or how the protagonist/organization/villains/etc. are constantly pawns. That isn't meaningful, and if it is that would be a separate trope altogether (susceptibility, etc). You hit it on the head, Unwitting Pawn is a plot trope disguised as a character trope.
So... while still waiting for Samaritan's explanation, let's at least try to move forward on the thread. It doesn't look like we have consensus one way or another, not enough for a crowner at least.
I'll leave the link to Sandbox.Unwitting Pawn. I already marked a first pass of ZCE's. What else could be done to the examples/description to help clarify the issue?
The Pawn has a rather messy description. Specifically, it defines itself as "a character who finds out that their goals have been crafted from whole cloth — by the villain. Everything they've done for the greater good has been meant to suit the villain's good." It also requires some sort of identity crisis after a horrible reveal to be involved.
However, this trope is redundant to Tomato in the Mirror, Unwitting Pawn, or even Tyke Bomb. No YKTTW for this one either. The name is also incredibly vague, suggesting it to be the trope we have listed as Unwitting Pawn.
Since this only has 80 wicks, I grabbed every second one to check usage.
Use as Trope Namer (1/40)
Use as Unwitting Pawn (26/40)
Zero context example (12/40)
? (1/40)
I would suggest to cut this trope, but redirect it to Unwitting Pawn to keep inbounds and wicks.
edited 19th Feb '16 7:32:41 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"