Too Good To Last vs. Lostalgia: Lostalgia

Lostalgia

Too Good to Last

What's the difference between these two tropes...? I'm not seeing it. They both seem to basically just be subjective listings of things that tropers really like which were canceled before they were complete (or before the tropers wanted them canceled.)

They're both very subjective and will get the same examples (i.e. every show) but that doesn't mean they are the same. One is a belief that quality is inverse to show running time and the other is that feeling you get when you discover an old series that you really like but since it is old, is already cancelled. Of the two, it has some connection with reality. If something is a success after its initial run then you may say that this is a prime candidate for Lostalgia.

The Old Doctor Who could have had Lostalgia but it could never have been Too Good to Last.

Judging from the examples list, Lostalgia has no clear definition. A lot of different tropes are mixed in: Author Existence Failure, Franchise Killer, Keep Circulating the Tapes, Orphaned Series, Stillborn Franchise, Too Good to Last...

I saw "lostalgia" as the emotions that motivate people to sites like tvparty.com, play little clips on youtube. And everybody goes "Oh, that show was so great", whether it was on for just six episodes or sixteen years.

Actually I discovered the Lostalgia entry because I was trying to write something about a story where one of the characters was doing that.

So should Lostalgia be rewritten to say that that's what it's about? Right now it doesn't seem very clear, making it a kind of mish-mash of different tropes.

It originally didn't reference any of the other tropes it overlaps with, either... which gives me the sense that someone created it without realizing that we already had tropes for the stuff it covers.

I think that the main distinguishing feature between Lostalgia, Too Good to Last and Author Existence Failure is that in the case of Lostalgia, the core issue is that for technical/practical reasons, the original works cannot be experienced again. (which in some cases can overlap with Keep Circulating the Tapes)

So the distinction would be:

• Lostalgia: before Bob And Alice broke through with their first record, they performed at local clubs where they covered famous songs. Once they broke through they never recorded a cover, so you'll never be able to hear Bob and Alice sing their version of "Yesterday".
• Too Good to Last: Bob And Alice split up for "artistic differences" and started their own solo careers which never were able to come close to the work they did together.
• Author Existence Failure: After their first gold record, Bob died in a car crash.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: some low quality recordings of Bob And Alice's early gigs exist but cannot be officially sold due to copyright reasons.

I do agree that Lostalgia needs a good clean-up because many examples should go to one of the other three tropes; but it is a trope Audience Reaction in its own right.

From what I can tell, Lostalgia remains a trope caught between three other tropes so we any closer to a fix or is a timer required for this?

I'll go with a timer, let the tropers decide.

Eh. Okay I'm thinking about a cut, or merge with a rename.

Why? Because too good to last is largely just a bunch of entries with no explanation. Lostalgia I believe should be renamed to too good to last and then remove all examples from shows that actually had closure. If it was only meant to be 5 episodes long, I don't think anyone can claim that something was really lost.

Lostalgia isn't about the show or series being left unended. It's about finding a series or show, that's already been wrapped up or ended for whatever reason and knowing that once you've seen/read/listened to it all the way through, there will never be any new ones to enjoy.

So lostalgia's the one that needs cleanup? I still think too good to last is the less interesting page to read and lostalgia does talk about No Ending in its description.

Why not merge them, make too good to last a redirect to logtalgia and make lostalgia's only about works that didn't get their ending. "Works I want to see more of but never will isn't just a needlessly subjective trope, its one that invites people to put anything that ended regardless of context. That and its not that different from Awesomeness Withdrawal, which is thankfully without examples. We want to limit subjective pages and we don't want The Same But More Specific.

I like Lostalgia, it's fun to read (if a bit depressing) and I think that all the others (Too Good to Last, No Ending, Author Existence Failure, etc.) could be merged into it. That's just my thought, at least.

They're subtropes, specific variants (or, in this case, causes); merging them back into won't make anything clearer or more concise.

especially Author Existence Failure, because its more strongly related with another type of trope than to Lostalgia.

edited 10th Jul '11 3:07:29 PM by DocStrange

I was never sure about Lostalgia's validity as a trope. I mean, "a thing that ended before you found it"? I'm not even certain it qualifies as an Audience Reaction.

Apart from its validity as a trope, I question its intuitiveness as a portmanteau.

Hey, remember when that really confusing show was on that had all those people on an island?

Wait, you mean that's not what it means? :)

There is now a page action crowner here. Feel free to add options (it only has one at the moment).

Bump for more votes.

Well, crowner seems stable. I'm putting this on the cutlist.

The cut request was declined because of low crowner activity. I added my vote for cutting.

I added the option to keep the trope how it is but remove the examples from the main page and simply have the basic trope described there with a troper tales page for personal exampeles