Just a Face and a Caption: While Rome Burns

The trope is about when everything around you is crumbling or being destroyed and pretty much everyone around you is freaking out, but instead of worrying there's a character who is calm or has some other form of Dissonant Serenity.

The current image depicts a bunch of people who look like Romans standing around calmly while some guy in a funny hat plays the lyre. None of the chaos that's required in the trope is depicted in the image.

Some suggestions:

• Nero: [1]◊, [2]◊
• Futurama: [3]
• "This is Fine" comic: [4]

The current definitely doesn't get anything across. The second Nero pic and the first two panels of the "I'm Fine" cartoon work for me pending other ideas.

1.2

First two panels nothing, top-right definitely gets it across on its own.

Any combination of panels 2, 3, and 4 of This Is Fine would be good.

I was intentionally not voting in the OP, but here's my vote, given the lack of more suggestions:

1.1 = 1.4 (panels 1 + 2) > 1.4 (panels 2+3+4) > 1.2 > 1.4 (panel 2 only) > 1.3

The reason I like 1.1 the most is that it shows other people freaking out. And 1.4 needs some context more than just the second panel, imo.

1.1 for the reasons stated above.

I'd prefer an image that doesn't come from the Trope Namer. Otherwise it's possible people think the trope is narrower than it is. The "This is fine" comic is, well, fine; and about how many panels it needs, I say the first two.

edited 13th Aug '17 10:59:14 AM by Gosicrystal

That reminds me... does the person have to be in a direct personal danger himself to qualify for the trope? Because if they do, Nero is kinda not an example of the trope. He's observing the fire in a relative safety from his villa.

Also, images of Nero ring close to the one on The Caligula.

I love the "This is Fine" comic, but it's also technically a meme and a bit too easy of a choice.

It doesn't really show the "everyone else around you is freaking out" part but it does show the dissonant serenity, seeing how Jones' toga looking like thing is on fire and she doesn't even care.

(Granted, there's no reason for her to care in universe since she's not exactly in danger or anything but still)

http://gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1106

edited 22nd Aug '17 12:27:20 AM by Inediblecake

What works, works. We're not trying to take the most difficult option or choose the most obscure pic.

And on second thought, I think it would help quite a bit to have an image of something other than a fire, because the trope includes any form of big destruction.

edited 22nd Aug '17 5:43:01 AM by Gosicrystal

Crowner's hooked.

Votes bump; three in the green.

The option from post 12 is 3 points in the lead, but it hardly even looks like an example out of context. You can't see the character's facial expression, so it could be anything from Dissonant Serenity to a Face Death with Dignity moment, rather than necessarily this trope.

Also, does the trope itself require that the individual in question also be in danger? I thought the whole point of the story of Nero was that he played the lyre while Rome was in danger because he was safe from the danger himself.

edited 11th Sep '17 10:33:35 AM by neoYTPism

Both Dissonant Serenity and Face Death with Dignity are included in the description of the trope.

But one isn't supposed to just be a combination of the others. If it were, 4 tropes could become 6, 7 tropes could become 10, etc...

It is.

This one's way past the point of needing a bump; doing so now as the leaders are very close.

To break the tie, we'll need a clearer idea what separates this from being just "Face Death with Dignity meets Dissonant Serenity."

I've only read a few of the examples mentioned a couple posts up, but they hardly seem to just be the combination of tropes jokingly implied. If so, you'd think they'd constitute The Same But More Specific, preventing them from even making it past the YKTTW stage to become tropes.

The distinction doesn't help because both suggestions illustrate While Rome Burns rather than Face Death with Dignity. One is about when everything around you is crumbling and everyone is dying or freaking out, but instead of worrying you're calm or under a Heroic BSoD or you have some other form of Dissonant Serenity. The other trope is about when you're about to be killed, you know you're about to die, but you actually accept your impending death.

That said, the one with Nero at least shows other people in the background who are freaking out, while the other image just shows the one character.

edited 23rd Sep '17 4:48:38 PM by WaterBlap

Well, the two leaders are almost tied for votes, but 1.1's ratio is better, so if we don't get a big shift in the next day or two I'm good to call it.

Bump. The votes haven't seemed to change since Willbyr's last post.

1.1 it is, then.