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Author: Aielyn

Mar 13th 2012 at 11:15:44 PM

Regarding the Dolphins thing, perhaps I misread what you said. When you said "emerged out of TRS by getting split into subtropes", I read it more along the lines of "that was the problem"... perhaps because I don't think of PSOC cases as actual supertropes, but rather, as bad tropes. I wouldn't call the Dolphins article a supertrope, I'd call it an index. I was extrapolating from what I assume was my mistaken interpretation, and I apologise for that.

Anyway, I suppose what I was getting at with it is that the example doesn't really demonstrate anything other than the difference between PSOC and actual tropes... which isn't really in debate, here (DQZ's failure to understand King Zeal's example notwithstanding).

"Too common" tropes can be omnipresent, like {{Plot}}, or they can just be really, really common, as per the example given by King Zeal. Here's the difference: Omnipresent tropes either can't be averted, or the aversion is a key part of the purpose of the work, whereas the other "too common" tropes can easily be averted and it happens, it's just rare that it happens.

On a pure side-note, I don't think that WomenAreDelicate, EveryoneIsRightHanded, and other similar tropes are actually OmnipresentTropes, although they're on that list. The list of aversions of both of those tropes would be almost as long as the list of straight examples. They're not even "too common", let alone omnipresent. The description says omnipresent tropes are either ubiquitous, necessary cases of acceptable break from reality, or are so legendary as to pretty much be standard... none of which describe either trope.

It's quite sad that you have to go all-caps to put down my assertion without providing any counterargument other than "no apparent reason". I've provided reasons before. I've provided a more fleshed-out one now.

Think of it this way - Omnipresent Tropes can be thought of as ''defaults''. As one person put it in the discussion, TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin is omnipresent because it wouldn't be a spoiler to tell someone that the good guys win. If the bad guy wins, that would be a spoiler. When someone writes a story, one of the first things they think about is TheProtagonist. One could write a story without one, but it would have to be a very specific decision. Not all "too common" tropes are defaults, they're just extraordinarily common. In many cases, they're so common that people don't even realise they're using it... but no conscious decision is necessarily made ''not'' to use it, either.

Let me put it one more way - an OmnipresentTrope wouldn't really be mistaken for PeopleSitOnChairs. But some "Too Common" tropes are. Note, by the way, that I put it in quotes every time, to emphasise that I don't mean the tropes are ''actually'' "too common", but that some people might ''call'' them "too common".