Rename due to misuse: Beyond The Impossible

Beyond the Impossible is supposed to be a series and work overtopping itself all the time. I have noticed though, that it seems to be overtopping other series of some kind of aspect.

Any alternate titles to propose? Perhaps the boring Series Overtopping Itself or something else?

Beyond the Impossible found in: 4245 articles, excluding discussions.

This title has brought 3,777 people to the wiki from non-search engine links since 20th FEB '09.

I think it's too entrenched for any modifications.

Then maybe we should redefine/expand Beyond the Impossible to accommodate the mistaken definition? Unless it's absolutely non-tropable, that seems to be the way to go, given that we can't change the name and we need to do something about the major misuse.

This is not the first time the subject of Beyond the Impossible has been brought up in TRS. IMHO, I see Beyond the Impossible being used in the context of taking Up To Eleven ... up to eleven.

Somehow I don't think "topping yourself over and over" is easily tropeable. In any case, this name should redirect to Up To Eleven, because that's what is often meant when potholed.

When I look at the examples listed and compare it to the Trope Namer Gurren Lagann's example, it seems that this Trope hinges on a fixed sequential pattern of story writing which a majority of the examples here do not follow within their own stories.

The examples listed instead questions literally 'how certain characters or scenarios within the story go beyond the impossible' rather than listing how the story itself is 'topping itself after another', like Gurenn Lagann does.

This Trope also feels like its forcing Examples to become either Up To Eleven or Crowning Moment Of Awesome or other similiar Tropes which means that it was better to put those examples in those Tropes themselves from the beginning.

I would suggest redefining the Trope to reflect all of the examples listed in the page. Renaming the Trope without a clear definition first won't work.

OR... maybe call it Rule of Impossible, and state that this Trope allows a certain level of Willing Suspension of Disbelief due to the Rule of Cool. Since that is what this Trope is suppose to accomplish.

edited 1st Jan '11 8:56:21 PM by Gobstopper

With a trope this entrenched, I'd think it's better to tweak the definition to match the misuse.

Yes, no, maybe, don't care, rename, don't rename, change, don't change, I'm starting to hate the Trope Repair Shop.

^ Complaining aimlessly is annoying no matter what, especially if you have nothing else to say. Did you have a point?

edited 1st Jan '11 11:01:34 PM by KrisMahai

Here's my idea for redefining this Trope.

New Trope Name Either: Rule of Impossible OR Impossible Suspension of Disbelief

There you are watching a show, and you're introduced to Giant Robot A. At first, you don't buy it, but the Sci-Fi talk of key ignitions and video monitors allowed a Willing Suspension of Disbelief. So you let it slide and are introduced to Giant Robot B, who is ready to fight. That is cool. The robot battle gets serious. You're glued to your seat with every missle fired. Suddenly, Giant Robot A just gave a beatdown on Giant Robot B, with an entire physical galaxy. At first, you feel Disbelief tugging your shirt telling you its impossible, the show sucks now, give it up. But you kicked it to the curb, because what you saw was Crazy Awesome.

You have now accepted the Impossible Suspension of Disbelief. You don't care if Giant Robot A is pounding Giant Robot B with a planet in its hands. All you know is that they're robots, there's explosions, and there's a planet to the face of the enemy. The fight went Up To Eleven.

Fridge Logic is overridden by the Mantra. Tropes pile up in record numbers. Crowning moments are born!

Be careful. An overdose may occur.

keep as is, the status quo isn't causing a problem, its only a hot button for a few people.

4000 wicks and 4000 inbounds? This name ain't gonna get changed. If the description needs to be modified slightly to fit the use, then that's the way to go in this case.

Allow me to sample ptitles for trope articles only (for sake of convenience I'm assuming that works articles simply include it in the alphabetical trope list, making it almost exempt from misuse to begin with).

• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering: Page quote, potholed. Unclear. Can someone explain?
• Author's Saving Throw: Pothole. DC example sound like "that should be impossible", a.k.a. Up To Eleven. Misuse.
• Awesome McCoolname: Pothole. Code Geass example. Sounds like Up To Eleven.
• Beat Still, My Heart: Wikiword, IRL section. Wait, why do we have a RL section again?
• Clarke's Third Law: Pothole, Harry Potter example. "Doesn't have to make sense", a.k.a. Bellesarios Maximu or Fridge Logic. Misused.
• Cliché Storm: Wikiword. Anime/Manga example comparing Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gao Gai Gar. Looks like it means "taken Up To Eleven". Misuse.
• Daddy Didn't Show: Pothole. Discworld example. Unclear, combines The Determinator and Crowning Moment Of Awesome into an All Blue Sentence.
• Did We Just Have Tea With Cthulhu?: Pothole. Anime/manga example. Unclear, potholed as a character name (Fate and Rakan).
• Does This Remind You Of Anything?: Pothole. Bleach example of Bankai Kamashini no Yari. Possibly means Up To Eleven.
• Don't Fear The Reaper: Pothole. Supernatural example.
• Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend: Pothole. Darths And Droids example.

Okay, stopping now. I know this is very much an arbitrary selection, but pretty much all of these are cases where the context appears to be potholed as a memetic phrase for "that's not supposed to even be possible" as a viewer reaction, often for single events that lack the progression required by the trope definition.

edited 2nd Jan '11 9:48:58 AM by Stratadrake

There seems to be a huge trope attractor with HSQ, I Am Not Making This Up and now Beyond the Impossible orbiting it.

As far as the use they get, they're the same trope. Maybe we should make a huge "OMG! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS EXAMPLE!" page and start redirect farming.

edited 2nd Jan '11 10:31:48 AM by TripleElation

Isn't that Most Triumphant Example?

No, it is turning into I Am Not Making This Up, only its misuse instead of being a bad page.

And what do we do with Exaggerated Trope? It's a clone of Up To Eleven.

No, at most it's a Sub-Trope. Up To Eleven would have to be strictly a form of Playing with a Trope for it to be that. I know, I wrote both Up To Eleven and Exaggerated Trope.

If we can agree here on a clean description first. Then move unfit examples where they belong.

2 Dragon Quest Z: well, they drift. The less articulated "would have to be" is described, the faster.

The potholes are used terribly, but then those always are. The actual trope examples (at least the ones on this page; didn't really follow any back) are mostly good, giving a short list of events within a single series that continuously top themselves.

Bump-ity bump bump.

Just the other day I fixed a spot of misuse in Golden Snitch, let's see, here:

...In fictional games, the skew will generally be insurmountable: 1-1-3 rather than 1-1-2 (Or, [[BeyondTheImpossible in extreme cases, 1-1-1000]])

Context was "Up To Eleven taken Up To Eleven".

The page image seems to imply Rule of Cool rather than the actual trope. A series of images with something getting progressively more exaggerated would be better, wouldn't it?

edited 26th Feb '11 1:09:26 PM by Laukku

I say we concede to trope decay and merge it with Up To Eleven

Just to point out, Beyond the Impossible is mentioned on The Merch at Zazzle. We're using the Trope Name to sell people stuff.