Discussion Main / CrazyAwesome

That's gonna be a though call with 4000+ wicks.

I'm in total agreement of this. As the Square Peg Round Trope page says, "(...)besieged by people who only know crazy as a superlative adverb rather than a descriptive adjective.". A name change would seem a great idea to avoid this.

Heck, putting the word "The" infront of Crazy Awesome would fix the problem, but what are some better names? -Joey Joe

There's been enough name-changing bullshit around here lately. I disagree.

Well that's an open minded perspective. This isn't a discussion about any other trope page, it's about this trope page- whether you think too many pages have had their names changed is immaterial.

How about some form of X (conjunction) Y, a la Awesome But/Yet (Im)Practical? "Crazy But Awesome?" "Awesome Yet Crazy?"

Crazy But Awesome is great. Only subtly changed but effective. Unfortunately the current name is pretty well ingrained (and thoroughly seeded through the wiki) so people may not take a rename very well.

Checking the related links shows:

That is not a small number. Step one would be to start looking for wicks and making sure they apply.

It is possible that this category is so incredibly rare that it shouldn't exist as a trope. This is probably the most misused trope of all of them. In this discussion alone it has been misused in 3 of 8 posts, including the first one. And the rest of them simply don't address the matter.

Crazy Awesome isn't "crazy yet does awesome things" nor is it "Crazy But Awesome".

Crazy Awesome is someone who is awesome because they are crazy. Their insanity, for whatever reason, works. Really, really well. Most of the example on the page are characters who are awesome and crazy without the one leading to the other. Let's be clear: Monk (from the TV series "Monk") is Crazy Awesome, because when he isn't OCD, he's not nearly as good at his job and his being so meticulous is why he normally is. River Tam is NOT Crazy Awesome, because her being awesome is not remotely related to her insanity. She's awesome, and she's crazy. Her being crazy isn't what makes her awesome, if anything it makes it harder for her to be awesome.

The point is, this trope is so incredibly misused it might not have a point existing at all. And if it does exist, it needs a name that doesn't engender the spirit of "Holy Crap WTF was that!?!"

You just modeled part of the problem. River's awesome IS directly tied to her craziness - if they hadn't driven her crazy, she could not be awesome, either in dialogue or in fighting (she might still be in dialogue considering her intelligence, but it would be very different dialogue). But her awesome does not directly derive from her craziness, they're side by side.

-meant to create new topic ignore-

Another issue is the the definiton of the word "awesome", because, to many people, insanity in fiction can easily equal awesome, simply becuase of it's eye-catching, sudden, unexpected little turns to hilarity. While indeed nice to watch and crazy by all accounts, these are not examples of insanity that works, and therefore not examples of this trope. for example, River's awesome is indeed tied to her craziness, but her insanity isn't one that works. The main reason the word awesome is used in the first place seems to be that it's an catch-all term that doesn't limit the examples because of the way in which the characters quirks take form. Which is also the source of the issue.

In other words, this trope in it's current state is bound to be misunderstood pretty much no matter what.

I do not, however, want to give up on this trope, because when the convuluted examples are out of the way, there are still examples of this trope that are legitimate. While i agree that the name is rather ingrained, we need a name that has components that aren't this vague. Of the top of my head, i suggest Pragmatic Insanity or an equivalent, to remove the possibilty of a dual meaning but still not limit the way in which the character's insanity works.

Hmm. How about "Awesome by Insanity"?

I think we should keep the name, but put in bold lettering that This is not for cases of being simply "very" awesome. The character in question must be insane to qualify for this trope!, or something to that tune.

Really, I like the name we have now, and a name change would be very frustrating for me.

^ The problem is, many tropers only read the definition of a trope if they don't think they can figure it out from the title. This doesn't matter much if the trope is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, or at least has a clear name, but with a name like Crazy Awesome...

I like awesome by insanity.

I'd tell you that's ridiculous, but then I'd be a hypocrite

^ You mean that tropers only read the definition of if they don't think they can figure it out from the title? Well, it's true. Hence why, for instance, Designated Hero is often misused as "someone who is designated as the hero".

I second awesome by insanity, but I'm a little hesitant. There are many definitions of the word "crazy", so I don't want worthy characters not being listed because they are not legaly crazy.

Awesome By Insanity sounds like a good idea, but there's a further question that needs be adressed: what do we do about the misused trope wicks? Do we just retool the Crazy Awesome page into a YMMV page for characters who are Awesome Up To Eleven or what? The misuse of the trope is so endemic that a simple purge would probably be highly damaging to the site, and it would simply be reverted within a week or so by the same people who made the mistakes to begin with.

I know what you mean LO Lin8or, but we get to many examples like

Tallahasse, from Zombieland, whose picture formerly graced the main page. While Columbus, is simply trying to survive, Tallahassee, deals with his depression brought on by the apocalypse by eating Twinkies, which he can almost never find. And he is so awesome that sometimes he is forced to rely on improvised weapons. At the climax, he's using rollercoasters.

So what else can we do?

Doesn't matter if people like her, if she's an example, put her down. Make sure to read the description first though.

Sorry, but none of the tropes you mention for your owner have anything to do with this trope.

Took Revy form Black Lagoon off the page. There's nothing in the example to explain the "crazy" part. It simply sounds like she a run-of-the-mill action girl and badass. Where's the Crazy part?

• Revy in Black Lagoon is all about this trope. Most of the stunts she pulls would get a real person killed in short order, but being a Dark Action Girl with Guns Akimbo she survives and triumphs. Her ultimate showing of Crazy Awesome was when she, singlehandedly, defeated and sank five boats of heavily-armed enemies, jumping from one enemy boat to the next effortlessly.

(whoops, I'm a moron)

I'll admit I haven't seen much of Black Lagoon, but I have seen several clips (including that boat scene) and she definitely fits the trope by virtue of the manner and attitude that she does it in. However, I'm editing it to apply to more than just her.