The name doesn't seem to work for me. My first guess upon the name was that it was an animation trope where one cries entire rivers/fountains of tears. If it is supposed to be "person is disliked because he/she cries too much" then the name really doesn't indicate that at all.
Zzzzzzzzzz
To me the name indicates obvious, heavy tears. Not the person, the type of crying.
edited 10th Oct '11 6:06:36 PM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
I see the Awesomeness.
Again, people are still naming tropes very badly. Move the current definition to something like Nobody Likes A Crybaby or something. I'd prefer to make this a supertrope for crying in general if we don't already have one. Or turn it into a redirect.
Fight smart, not fair.
Dragon Writer
"Still"? This trope dates back to at least 2010... and so does the misuse.
An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Crying in general is not a trope. It's People Sit On Chairs.
A rename would make sense, since the trope's name is non-indicative, and it sees a ton of misuse, but I'm honestly skeptical that this trope even exists. Very few examples on the trope's page even come close to qualifying, and my wick check turned up one correct usage. One. This trope is so unhealthy I wouldn't overlook the possibility of just flat-out cutting it.
edited 11th Oct '11 12:20:24 PM by Insignificant
This one is terribad. Is there any reason not to cut it? At this point it might be better to just chop it and if someone wants to take another stab at running it through the YKTTW further down the line they can.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
I see the Awesomeness.
Crying in general would be an index.
Fight smart, not fair.
I see the Awesomeness.
And there we go. Point Water Works at that.
Fight smart, not fair.
Bumping for more feedback.
Okay Guy
I think Nobody Likes A Cry Baby is a better name.
Put me in motion, drink the potion, use the lotion, drain the ocean, cause commotion, fake devotion, entertain a notion, be Nova Scotian
I made a crowner
. Feel free to add options as you see fit.
edited 14th Oct '11 6:35:25 PM by Insignificant
To my mind Nobody Likes A Cry Baby makes this one seem like a YMMV — a negative audience reaction to a character crying.
I see the Awesomeness.
That would be Wangst I think. Might want to differentiate them.
Fight smart, not fair.
Bumping for more votes.
I think the trope that the original author had in mind was only "Crying As A Sign Of Weakness". That the character is called out in-story on this is, according to the description, not necessary.
The laconic — "Being held in contempt for crying" — is actually not in accordance with the trope description and (arbitrarily) narrows the trope down quite a bit.
In other words, I think the laconic should be changed, rather than the page be cut. Maybe a redirect was in order, such as Tears Of Weakness.
Let's just say and leave it at that.
The trope's definition contains hints of both. Another reason to axe this. It's not only constantly misused, it's not even clearly defined.
As I said, I don't think that it's so much misused, only at some point someone wrote a (wrong) laconic version that defined the trope much more specific.
My suggestion would be to write a new laconic and improve the description for clarity. It is a trope after all.
Let's just say and leave it at that.
It's misused. People will label any crying as an example of this trope.
Yes, it is a trope, but whoever made it didn't define it very clearly and nobody uses it correctly.
edited 18th Oct '11 2:37:38 PM by Insignificant
From your wick check:
It's not all that misused.
Let's just say and leave it at that.
First of all, crying in general is not correct use of the trope. If no reason for the tears is given and it's just "this person cries", it's People Sit On Chairs. Secondly, simply "cries a lot" is not correct use of the trope either; just because a character cries a lot doesn't necessarily mean they are weak. There's a difference between Tears Of Weakness and Tender Tears.
edited 18th Oct '11 4:58:13 PM by Insignificant
The problem with the "cries a lot" and many of the "crying in general" cases is rather that people often give too little context when linking or potholing this trope. So we simply don't know if the link is misuse or not.
My suggestion is to rename this page to Tears Of Weakness, while redirecting Water Works to Tear Tropes. The wicks that fit the Tears Of Weakness definition could be changed accordingly.
Let's just say and leave it at that.
Bumping for more votes.
Bumping again.
Crown Description:
Water Works is supposed to be about being held in contempt for crying, but it's constantly misused to refer to crybabies or crying in general. Misuse is so rampant that actual correct examples of the trope are rare.
OK, here's my second attempt at a discussion for fixing this trope, since my first thread didn't address all of the trope's problems and did little more than collect dust.
This trope has undergone some severe Trope Decay. The defintion suggests it's supposed to be "character is held in contempt for crying", but the trope is rarely used to mean that. Usually it's used to refer to characters who are cry babies, cry a lot, or worse yet, just crying in general.
I did a wick check for unpunctuated wicks A-C. Here are the results:
Excluding artifact/nonexistent wicks and X Just X uses, that makes a total of 5 uses for cry baby, 6 uses for cries a lot, 14 uses for crying in general, 2 uses as an Audience Reaction, 1 almost correct usage, and 1 instance of the trope actually being used correctly.
To say that this is not a healthy trope would be an understatement.
edited 10th Oct '11 5:36:16 PM by Insignificant