What is tropeworthy about Mixed Ancestry?

Courtesy: Mixed Ancestry

Currently it's a list of mixed-race and mixed-species characters. Is this actually a tropeworthy concept by itself? Or is it more along the lines of Bi The Way?

I think it's like Bi The Way, yeah, but maybe more tropeworthy. Being mixed race is rare to see in fiction.

Doesn't make it a trope, but it's slightly more of a trope because their ancestry might be relevant in some way.

It already has a healthy list of subtropes where the ancestry is more relevant, however.

Well, the fact that they're even subtropes at all does sort of prove that the concept can be tropeworthy, and by extension so is the supertrope...sorta kinda maybe if you squint.

Yeah, it reads as Chairs to me, since its just... 'mixed-race character exists'.

Is it though? You can argue that Straight Gay, Camp Gay, Gayngst and similar pages are "sub-tropes" to "Gay", that doesn't mean that "Gay" is a trope in and of itself.

And I'm pretty sure I've seen more Mixed Ancestry characters than bisexual characters.

Edited by Adept on Sep 30th 2021 at 11:13:03 PM

Hehe, yeahhhh, your post brought back some... flashbacks, to a certain draft that shall not be named. If "Gay" could be a trope, that draft would've been launched by now.

But yeah, I'm on the side of "this isn't really tropeworthy", I was trying to play devil's advocate and find a case for how it could be.

Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 30th 2021 at 12:17:20 PM

Yeah I don’t think this is tropeworthy as it’s just used as “this character is biracial” but I think it makes for a good index.

oh then I guess it’s redundant then.

Edited by MacronNotes on Oct 1st 2021 at 7:44:46 AM

We already have Interracial and Interspecies Love Index, which lists many of the same tropes.

I’ll get a wick check going.

And done at Sandbox.Mixed Ancestry Wick Check. I think there's a pretty solid case for Not Tropeworthy here, but I'd appreciate some extra eyes on the example sorting, particularly in the third category ("Example says character is multiracial with some other significance") if said other significance actually means anything or if there's an existing trope for them I missed.

It's a massively story significant phenomenon, and many many stories are about mixed-race characters, especially if there's any kind of conflict between their groups, but is probably not a trope in and of itself, so much as a feature of many other tropes. Like how princesses aren't a trope, but there are a lot of princess tropes.

Could be cut, with the Interracial and Interspecies Love Index having offspring specifically mentioned in the description (they're in the index, just not the description).

At the same time, it's significant enough that I'm hesitant to mess with it, and it might be safer to just leave it, since it's not like it'll metastasize if left unchecked.

Edited by RLH4 on Oct 3rd 2021 at 11:19:54 AM

I think it should be cut and or combined with the index. I actually think not tropeworthy tropes being left alone is not something we should let slide. Lots of people suggest new tropes based on what they've seen or come across on the site, so keeping it might lead to the propagation of similar "important info about a character but not really a trope" tropes. Kind of a slippery slope argument, but that has happened with appearance tropes which is why there's the massive ongoing clean up effort.

There's a TRS thread now.

Simply having mixed ancestry is chairs. I agree that it should be more specific about the effects it has on the plot and characters or should be an index.

Please comment such in the TRS thread