Confusion for illumination, not light as an attack: Light The Way

Checking the wicks for Light The Way, I've seen a few confuse it for lighting a path (as that is what the term usually means) or even someone simply lighting up.

Now I would suggest a rename, but Holy Hand Grenade, which came first, includes both light and goodness, which would make this a Sub-Trope. But there is also the possibility of merging the two just as much as there is renaming.

But there is misuse nonetheless (will post some in a little bit just to make it clear), so which do you think would be best?

Power Of Light?

Shining Attack?

Hmm. I don't know.

The Light Of Day?

I'd say Bright Slap, but that's probably a redirect to Dope Slap.

EDIT: Nope, to something else entirely.

Weaponized Light, maybe?

edited 22nd Oct '10 5:55:43 AM by Willbyr

Actually, it's a redirect to Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!.

Um...

Flashy Light Powers

Everything I can think of is lame!

Maybe pick an attack name from a works out there, where the name of the attack shows an obvious light motif.

I'd offer an example but all I can think of is Shining Fingers.

The Light, It Burns! ? It would be a Ptitle until that fix goes in, but after that it would be fine.

Kill It With Light?

I don't think The Light It Burns would be good because it would get mixed up with either vampires or It Burns!.

edited 22nd Oct '10 7:57:10 AM by Deboss

The Glow Of Victory? The Light Victorious? Bright In Battle? Shining A Fight?

Light Up The Fight?

What about merging with Holy Hand Grenade?

Holy Hand Grenade is specifically about 'good' holy/divinely derived powers used for offensive purposes. The "light" in that trope description is there because English culture and language (among others) conflates "light" and "good".

Is it really being misused often, or are there just a few? I just took a random selection, so...

• Brutal Legend: Maybe Correct. "You can see the metal gods shining beacons down" is probably incorrect, since it's your mission objective, but "Later the player can control this at will" makes it sound like you get it as an attack later.
• Crack Down: Correct
• Blue Dragon :Correct
• Black Sigil :Probably Correct-just a characters name. Spoiler tagged.
• BIONICLE :Correct, used in conjunction with Holy Hand Grenade
• Freedom City Play By Post :Correct
• Gone: Incorrect
• Lightbringer:Correct
• Ninety Nine Nights: Probably Correct- Character's name.
• Code Breaker: Correct
• Legend Of Dragoon: Correct, used alongside Holy Hand Grenade
• Extra Oredinary: Correct, ussed in the description.

That's... 1 that's possibly correct, 8 that are definitely correct, 2 that are probably correct, but only the characters' name, and only 1 that is definitely incorrect.

EDIT: And looking at the other pages it's listed on on Related To, a lot of those look like they're going to be using it right, too— a lot of them are character sheets. Second wick check—

• White Magic: Correct
• The Bible: Incorrect? Looks like it's trying to use it as an actual alignment- God: "The Bible connects him to both Light and Darkness", Satan: "His name, 'Lucifer' translates to the bringer of light[...]"
• The Elda Series: Correct
• Sailor Moon Correct
• Mega Man: Correct
• Metaspace: Correct? Looks like it means it as a damage type?
• Kingdom Hearts: Correct
• Kamen Rider Agito: Correct
• Humans Are Superior: Correct? Used in a quote- "You can't stop me, [[Light The Way I have the light!""But humans are... SUPERIOR!"
• FiveBadBand: Correct
• Ben10: Correct
• Bayonet Ya: Correct
• Sengoku Basara: Correct
• Sky High: Correct, but subverted? A character has Light as an elemental power, but he just glows...
• Spider-Man: Correct
• Surge Correct
• Warcraft Correct

Even after a second check, the examples look like they're overwhelmingly correct...The second one has 14 correct, and two possible incorrect, so even assuming that all the maybe incorrect ones are, that's about an 86% success rate with this name. Against a rename.

edited 22nd Oct '10 11:36:16 AM by Wulf

"Holy Hand Grenade is specifically about 'good' holy/divinely derived powers used for offensive purposes. The "light" in that trope description is there because English culture and language (among others) conflates "light" and "good"."

No, I wrote up the trope, and it included light from the beginning.

BTW, I'll look at more wicks in a moment. But if we keep this separate, how about Smite With Light?

NOTE: Sorry for the triple post.

Wicks (skipping some that are apparently false positives):

• Brutal Legend - Incorrect. Context is illumination.
• Dissidia (character page) - Incorrect. Context is being a guiding light.
• Jays Journey - Correct. In the context of elements.
• Birth By Sleep - Correct. In the context of elements.
• Shinryaku Ika Musume - Incorrect. Context is illumination.
• Alan Wake - Sort of correct. Light is a weakening agent instead of an attack or elemental power.
• FiveBadBand.Anime - Might be correct. Haven't watched One Piece.
• Characters.Archipelago Exodus - Don't know.
• Arc The Lad Twilight Of The Spirits - Don't know.
• Bakugan - Correct. In the context of elements.
• Bayonet Ya - Correct. In the context of elements.
• Characters.Because I Love You - Don't know.
• Characters.Ben 10 - Don't know.

Now this does look like there isn't much misuse (but that's still up in the air with the unknowns), but note that hasn't stopped renames before, if enough feel there is a better, clear name (as in not based on a term that doesn't mean the trope), that can still be a good pun.

edited 22nd Oct '10 7:14:26 PM by DragonQuestZ

We do not rename because "we can come up with a better name." we rename because there is something demonstrably wrong with the current name. Saying "oh, well, the name isn't really broken but we can still do better right?" is quite frankly a pathetic attempt to sidestep the proper process.

I repeat, it's based on a term that does not really fit the trope. That is not just coming up with a better name. It's coming up with a name that actually sounds like the trope.

If the name were truly that bad, you'd be coming up with a much more solid Misuse argument.

Misuse is not the only rename reason. If it truly were, there would not be renames based on other reasons, but there have been.

yes, but other reasons do not include "there could be a better name." The argument that "this could be mistaken for something else" is proved or disproved by wicks, a high misuse rate shows that yes, people are confusing this for something else, while a low misuse rate shows the opposite.

The only two arguments I see from you are "this could be confused" which has very little support and "we could make a better name" which is not a valid reason.

Just because you only see those does not mean those are my only arguments. Did you not notice when I wrote "lighting a path (as that is what the term usually means)", "based on a term that doesn't mean the trope", and "it's based on a term that does not really fit the trope"?

An established term that does not mean a trope has been grounds for a rename, just as established terms that mean the trope have been grounds for keeping a name.

edited 22nd Oct '10 8:29:53 PM by DragonQuestZ

Yes, but what's the argument there if not "people will think that this trope means the established phrase"? or in short, "people might confuse this trope for something else." which is shown to not be the case.

"what's the argument there if not "people will think that this trope means the established phrase""

No, my argument is that it IS an established phrase. How could you think I meant just confusion when the words I wrote clearly indicated otherwise?