Misused: Stun Guns

After eroock pointed out the example scope of Stun Guns is a mess, we both did a wick check and found that people are using this in place of specific subtropes.

Opening.

Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 2nd 2022 at 11:25:21 AM

My first thought would be to change Stun Guns into a disambig between Static Stun Gun, Sonic Stunner, The Paralyzer, and Tranquillizer Dart.

Or maybe just redirect to The Paralyzer, which already covers technology that paralyzes. In other words, we have too many pages covering more-or-less the same concept.

I am in favor of a disambig of 's tropes for now.

Disambig.

disambig for now

I am good with disambiguating.

Disambiguate.

Aye let's Disambig.

Disambiguate

Sure, disambig.

Set to stun disambig

Disambig

I'm honestly not sure a disambig is necessary. If it's what the thread decides upon, I won't stand in the way, but I think we may have other options.

Such as?

We could officially define Stun Guns to mean anything not covered by other tropes (such as rubber ammo) and move examples and wicks of sonic and electric stun weapons elsewhere.

Edited by ImperialMajestyXO on Feb 3rd 2022 at 12:23:35 PM

If Stun Guns is turned into a disambiguation page, where would we put "a phaser set on stun" from Star Trek: The Original Series or "a blaster set on stun" (used on Princess Leia in Star Wars: A New Hope)? Those are both pretty famous examples of "Stun [Ray] Guns", but neither seem to be Static Stun Guns (they don't have any lightning-like effects and aren't clearly stated to be electrical); they aren't Sonic Stunners; they don't seem to fit The Paralyzer as that trope is described; and they obviously aren't Tranquilizer Darts.

The "blaster to stun" is As Lethal as It Needs to Be. Star Trek's "phaser to stun" seems to fall under The Paralyzer.

Ah. I thought As Lethal as It Needs to Be was only for Bad Writing, given how it potholes MST3K Mantra for the whole of one line. Hm. Makes sense. Sorta like a Swiss-Army Weapon except it's a Swiss Army Wielder-ish.

I'd say The Paralyzer is at least as messy as Stun Guns in encompassing a variety of things that are only loosely united (including "Vulcan Nerve Pinches", but not currently including "phasers set for stun").

The description for As Lethal as It Needs to Be currently includes:

In Star Wars, one of the stormtroopers clearly says "There's one! Set for stun", and the blaster effects are noticeably different from the "normal" blaster effects (a blue ring instead of a red "bolt", and a different sound effect). So the princess being stunned instead of killed arguably has as much "explanation" as any other bit of tech in Star Wars.

Supertrope would allow examples that don't neatly fit into subtropes. Disambig would cut them.

Several of the "unknown" examples in the wick check can be sorted under a supertrope until the correct subtrope is found (or just stay there if there's no fitting subtrope).

If there are multiple examples that don’t go anywhere but Stun Guns, then it might be best to keep it as a super trope and just clean up the wicks.

If there are examples that don't go into subtropes then save it as a supertrope, otherwise just disambig.