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Ambiguous Name: Not Good With People

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To-do list:

  • Not Good With People was renamed to Better with Non-Human Company. Keep examples that refer to the proper definition (people who are better with non-human beings/organisms than they are with other people), move examples that belong under No Social Skills accordingly, and remove examples that don't fit elsewhere.
    • Clean up on-page examples.
    • Clean up wicks.

    Original post 
I had long suspected this trope suffered from misuse because of the name since I've misused it myself a few times and had to correct it after double checking the page.

What the trope is: A person who is so socially awkward / anti-social that they get along better with plants and animals than with people.

What the trope isn't: Just a socially awkward / anti-social / standoffish person.

Wick check confirms the misuse. Out of 51 examples, only 27% were correct and 49% were misused to describe just a socially awkward/anti-social person. the rest of the examples were ZCE (14%) or too ambiguous to call either way (10%).

Suggestion: Rename to make it clearer what the trope is about.

Wick check:

Definition: A socially awkward person shows more of an affinity with plants and animals than with people

Wicks Checked: 51

  • Correct - 14 (27%)
  • Just socially awkward/anti-social - 25 (49%)
  • Unclear - 5 (10%)
  • ZCE - 7 (14%)

Note: potholes will have the trope name in parentheses and the text it potholed highlighted in green.


     Correct 
  • Comic Book/Marsupilami - Friend to All Living Things: Noé, the clown/animal tamer. While he is Not Good With People, he gets along famously with any and all animals.
  • Except It Abide in the Vine: Barnes is pretty asocial, for Winter Soldier trauma-related reasons, but he is devoted to his dog.
  • Heart To Heart: With Pokemon, Zoe is confident and sweet and caring. But put a new person in front of her, and Zoe is immediately flustered, tripping over her own tongue and blushing and just an absolute mess. Law finds it both adorable and frustrating.
  • Xandri Corelel: Xandri is great at reading aliens' body language and establishing a connection with previously uncontacted races, but she finds her own species to be by far the most confusing. She's reluctant to work with the Anmerilli partly because they look too human for her to be comfortable with them.
  • Aggretsuko – Carrier Man Trading Company - Resasuke: He is impressively talented when it come to taking care of plants, but his social skills are somewhat lacking to say the least. He doesn't just misread situations, he outright misses them, as seen on his date with Retsuko.
  • Hates Being Alone - Description: ...expect them to cling to any of their friends (including (Not Good With People) pets/plants/inanimate objects) like a lifeline in order to escape their feelings of desolation.
  • Why Not Janice? - Crazy Cat Lady: A sympathetic, sometimes reasonable example. Part of her Not Good With People character traits. Generally expressed in a "I love cats more than people !"
  • Crocodile Hunter: An extremely mild example. Steve had no trouble making friends everywhere he went, but he always tended to be most comfortable in the bush with animals, and he had an uncommon intuition with wildlife and the wilderness that was showcased in his documentary work. Steve and Me shows that he was on the shy side whenever he wasn't out in the wilderness or working with animals, but he began to show the "grumpy" side of this trope near the end of his life after several bouts of negative media attention.
    "Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first."
  • The Simpsons S 31 E 22 Way Of The Dog: The dog psychiatrist, Elaine Wolff, treats dogs with kindness and understanding, but is nothing but rude to their owners. She also keeps spurning a suitor's attempts to propose to her because she's too busy with her canine clients.
  • Friend to All Living Things - Deconstructed: Because Alice has got such a good bond with animals, (Not Good With People) she has trouble making human friends.
  • Three Leaves, Three Colors: Teru is basically a misanthrope who is a Friend to All Living Things.
  • The Try Guys - Eugene: Eugene is generally grouchy and averse to affection. However, around animals, he's an absolute sweetheart and is very affectionate. He's said that the reason he prefers animals to people is because animals don't judge him because of his race.
  • The Lorax (2012) - The Once-ler: He ironically seems to be more comfortable around the animals than other people.
  • The End Times: Vermintide - Victor: Very Downplayed - Lohner's Pricking Thumbs journal has him apparently having gotten a cat, though Lohner notes he still seems as uncomfortable with petting it and therefore showing affection as one would expect Victor would be. It's also the only cat that can apparently stand him smiling too, so calling Saltzpyre good with animals would remain a stretch. He's also healing up a rat that his cat hurt.

     misuse - Just socially awkward/anti-social 
  • Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis - Vayne: His bio states his dislikes as "People in general". Unfortunately for him, Flay and the others don't really give him a choice about hanging out with them and...well, see Extreme Doormat above.
  • Pact: Jacob's Bell Powers - Rose: She doesn't really have much practice making or keeping friends, even though she's not bad with the concept of dealing with people (she did get training in being a Manipulative Bitch). She's not horrible at friendship, either; just very unsure about the whole process and constantly on eggshells, for all she finds it a remarkable experience once she actually does get some. There turns out to be a very good reason for all that: Blake got all the experience and memories of ever having had any friends. Including within the family. Rose was robbed of this section of their life: all that envy was probably realising this on some level.]
  • RWBY: Ruby Rose: By her own admission, she prefers to let her weapons speak for her. Yang does try her best to help Ruby grow out of it by forcing her to make friends, but it only starts happening when she's made team leader. She grows out of it by Volume 4.
  • Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains - Russel: To Danielle, a fellow former finalist, on the jury:
    Russell: "I'm not going to sit here and tell you what you want to hear; I'm going to tell you the truth."
  • Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist: Zoey's very much an introvert who prefers code to people. This becomes exceptionally uncomfortable when her ability forces her to engage with people on a deep emotional level. In fact, one episode lampshades that she often can't tell what other people are feeling unless they're putting on a literal song and dance about it in front of her, and has her working to overcome that and pay more attention outside of heart songs.
  • According to Greta: Only makes one friend over the whole period being in New Jersey. She lampshades it with saying she always says the wrong thing.
  • Justice League (2017) - Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Being Not Good With People, Batman is not the best person to get everyone working together. Cyborg and Aquaman have their own issues and concerns. Lucky for him Wonder Woman is already on his side and Flash Jumped at the Call.
  • The Happening - Cloud Cuckoolander: Mrs. Jones is (supposed to be) a non-comedic example. She has obviously lived in isolation for many years, and displays misanthropic behavior and (Not Good With People) truly terrible social skills (she even accuses Elliot of planning to murder her in her sleep for no reason at all). She even flips out at Elliot trying to examine the doll on her bed (which presumably represents her younger self, given she alleges it's her face, and she was apparently hiding nearby to see if Elliot approached it) and orders him to leave at once. Clearly she has some serious mental problems.
  • The Overstory - Determined Defeatist: Everyone, but especially Patricia, who becomes convinced that humanity won't be able to save the trees. but devotes herself to trying anyways. Despite her Not Good With People tendencies, she deeply admires humanity because of this trope.
  • Goodnight Punpun: Every major character in the story has some issues with people or dealing with others. Punpun and Aiko, in particular, are the greatest examples of this.
  • Otaku no Musume-san: Kimiko is a rather extreme case, to the point where she abandoned her own daughter, Taeko. She does, however, have an excuse for this.
  • Live-Action TV - Sherlock: The main character himself. Although handsome, intelligent and insufferable about it and the world's greatest detective, he's (Not Good With People) no good at dealing with other people, even his friends, at times. However, he awkwardly (and genuinely) acknowledges his friend's bravery after the whole bomb vest thing.
  • Miraculous Ladybug S02E13 "Zombizou" - Never My Fault: Chloé spends the entire episode refusing to admit ever doing anything wrong (even when nearly the whole class gangs up on her for her actions), lashing out at the people around her over every foible and embarrassment. She eventually does apologize to Miss Bustier at the end of the episode (Not Good With People) when she thinks all of her classmates are not there to see (since she did not know that Marinette and Adrien were watching), admitting she was feeling guilty for forgetting Miss Bustier's birthday and not getting her a gift.
  • Anima Solus - Samuel: Since he only lives with his sister, she's honestly the only person he interacts with outside of school, due to his general distrust of people that don't have the same liberal access to monetary support that he does. Kind of stupid when it comes to people or more practical things, Samuel is really just lonely.
  • Angry Birds - Mighty Eagle: He's a grumpy old hermit who lives alone on a mountain.
  • Transformers: EarthSpark: Bumblebee isn't really a people person and tends to come off as an arrogant Know-It-All. It's so bad that he has to get advice from four separate Cybertronians and humans on how to deal with the Terrans in "Moo-ving In".
  • Tripping Over You - Nice Jewish Boy: Averted with Liam. Sure, at the core he is a decent kid, but around that core are layers and layers of cynical snark, (Not Good With People) social ineptitude, and quite some temper.
  • Protectors of the Plot Continuum: Some agents aren't very good with people. Agent Tasmin is a good example of this.
  • The Confines of the Crown: Prince Nazagi, mainly due to the fact that his sight is so bad without glasses that he can't read visual cues, like emotions or body language. He usually gets his valet to do the talking for him.
  • Always Remember Me - Dr. Jerk: Eddy seems like this at first, but turns out to just be Not Good With People.
  • Anime & Manga - Case Closed: The flighty and boy-crazy Sonoko Suzuki ultimately swears by the trope as her long-distance boyfriend is the dorky Gentle Giant Makoto Kyougoku, who is Not Good With People but is pretty much his White Knight to her White Lady.
  • Station Eleven: Clark is actually good at manipulating people, but he's had to develop this skill because he has no natural charisma. In fact, he has an irrational belief that no matter what he does, people instinctively hate him. This is contrast to his friend Arthur, whom everyone loves the moment they meet him.
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Upon meeting Karli for the first time, Bucky, who has mistaken her for a hostage, greets her kindly and asks her in a concerned tone if she's alright. He even returns her (slightly creepy) smile. Granted, the situation didn't turn out very well, but hey—points to (Not Good With People) Bucky for at least trying to help what he initially thought was a young girl in trouble.
  • The ColSec Trilogy: Samella calls Cord out for being socially naïve in Exiles.
  • Totor Verse - Jerkass: He doesn't act very nicely with the people around him. Not because of a malicious intent though, he just runs on Brutal Honesty and Not Good With People. His lack of expressinevess doesn't really help matters.

    unclear  
  • Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu: The entirety of the brief socially awkward exchange between Honebami and (Not Good With People) Yamanbagiri in the next episode preview in which Yamanbagiri acts vaguely Tsundere while praising Honebami. Doubles as Heartwarming Moments. — since this distinguishes b/w No Social Skills and Not Good With People, indicates that Honebami may actually fit the trope, but can't tell from the example as written.
  • Princess Tutu - Beast in the Building: Subverted. Ahiru attempts to deliver a letter to Mytho in her duck form by breaking into the boys' locker room, hiding so as not to get caught and thrown out. The (Not Good With People) normally gruff Fakir finds her there, causing her to flush with embarrassment and expect the worst. However, he is surprisingly gentle with her (thinking she's just a dumb duck), bringing her back outside before feeding her breadcrumbs, only lightly scolding her for being silly enough to think she would find food in there. This is the first hint that he is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • The Beastmaster: The How to Train Your Dragon 2, set after a five year Time Skip, presents two others of note. (Not Good With People) One hermit independently worked out techniques similar to Hiccup's when the latter was a baby and guards a hidden dragon sanctuary, while a vicious warlord managed to brutalize a hatchling into submission decades ago and now uses a Kaiju with mind-control powers as a linchpin in his horde of warbeasts.
  • Plants vs. Zombies: Crazy Dave demonstrates this in "I, Zombie", in which he agrees to let zombies practice attacking your house, as long as no plants are harmed. Thanks, neighbor. — this doesn't say whether or not Dave is awkward. just that he values plants more than people.
  • Yandere Simulator - Main Characters - Senpai: Downplayed. He prefers nature, classical music, and a good book to spending time with other people. That said, while he's introverted, he's a Nice Guy who happens to become a Chick Magnet over the course of the game.

    ZCE 

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 19th 2023 at 11:12:29 AM

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#51: Apr 19th 2023 at 3:37:11 PM

I added Madden Into Misanthropy and Misanthrope Supreme to the disambig since a few examples were of human characters with extreme hatred for humans.

Edited by amathieu13 on Apr 19th 2023 at 6:45:32 AM

Yindee Just stoic wisdom. from New England Since: Jul, 2016
Just stoic wisdom.
#52: Apr 19th 2023 at 5:04:23 PM

Done with Main/. Felt like 65-30-5 split between rerouting to NSS, BWNHC, and others.

Vehicle-Based Characterization | Grief-Induced Split | Locker Mail
amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#53: Apr 19th 2023 at 6:43:49 PM

yeah I find myself often just replacing the link with "asocial"

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#54: Apr 19th 2023 at 8:08:34 PM

cleaned out the namespaces with few works under them. Down to 746.

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#55: Apr 20th 2023 at 7:00:43 PM

Cleared out sandbox, series, playing with, video game, and webcomic namespaces. down to 687

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#56: Apr 21st 2023 at 2:38:54 PM

cleared out heartwarming, darth wiki, comic book, manga, film namespaces.

I also asked the pantheon thread to deal with the pantheon wicks since I can't tell what needs to be replaced vs what is misuse.

Counting Pantheon, 586 wicks left

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#57: Apr 21st 2023 at 8:51:29 PM

all namespaces besides characters have been cleaned. 490 left.

Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#58: Apr 23rd 2023 at 6:04:59 PM

By the way, what do we do with examples where the characters are non-human, e.g. Funny Animal? Like Characters.Wings Of Fire Third Arc Protagonists has this entry:

  • Sundew: She is great at communing with plants and unfriendly and angry towards other dragons.

I've moved it to Better with Non-Human Company for now, but I don't know if there needs to be some extra explanation to go with this.

Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the Retromancer
#59: Apr 23rd 2023 at 6:29:36 PM

Mentally substitue "human" with "people". The idea is a character not socializing, but it's hard to get a universal name.

Edited by Amonimus on Apr 23rd 2023 at 4:30:03 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#60: Apr 23rd 2023 at 6:31:24 PM

[up][up]I came across a similar example for My Little Pony that was something like "she's not good with other ponies but likes plants" (or something like that).

I think that's still an example of this and I moved it over to Better with Non-Human Company. Whatever they are is important only in so far that the expectation of you getting along with those that you can communicate with/share a culture with is expected. But the character feels more comfortable with other living things that can't really talk back (at least not as directly in most cases), are inanimate, don't share the same social understanding, etc.

I can add a sentence clarifying that at the end of Better with Non-Human Company.

ETA: Done. Was easy since the description already had the sentence "the one rule for this character is that they have a powerful empathy with some other species than their own, apparently at the expense of basic social skills."

Edited by amathieu13 on Apr 23rd 2023 at 9:34:39 AM

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#64: Apr 28th 2023 at 2:49:54 PM

Down to last 100. Can probs be finished within the next 24-48hrs

themayorofsimpleton Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him from Elsewhere (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Abstaining
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#66: Apr 28th 2023 at 4:09:57 PM

Good work. Locking as resolved.

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Trope Repair Shop: Not Good with People
14th Apr '23 6:34:48 PM

Crown Description:

Consensus was to rename Not Good With People due to misuse. What should its new name be?

Total posts: 66
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