Very bad snowclone New Crowner: 02/15/12: Token Deity

Maybe I didn't have it quite right.

I guess it's more just about subverting the audience's expectations, and it only involves tokenism when it's done badly, like the current description says.

This trope is about portraying a deity in a form other than the one they're normally seen in. For example, if you made the Hindu Goddess Kali a white male, it would be this trope because she's not generally depicted like that. Thus any titles with the words token, minory, or about being not white or male should be automatically disqualified from being on the crowner.

The reason we are renaming this trope is to stop the misconception that this trope is about tokens, minorities, or god not being white and/or male.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:41:11 PM by shimaspawn

So that would leave us with... Alternate Deity Appearance Interpretation.

I like Odd God :P But I guess I think of the definition "different from what is usual or expected" before "strange" and others might not.

Odd God makes me think of things like Elder Gods with all the tentacles and the squirming. Or about gods that are just plain odd like the Oh God of Hangovers.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:42:53 PM by shimaspawn

Or Odd Jobs God.

That would be Ood God

That sounds even more like like the Oh God of Hangovers, says nothing that this is about a god portrayed with a different physical appearance than normal. It's not about a god that does odd jobs.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:44:28 PM by shimaspawn

It is the right direction tho. Atypical God? Unconventional? Unusual?

Deity Looks Different?

edited 16th Feb '12 8:45:19 PM by rodneyAnonymous

None of those really say anything that they're about subverting expectations of how we expect this particular deity to look.

The God Subversion? (Play on The God Delusion, hehe.)

edited 16th Feb '12 8:49:54 PM by rodneyAnonymous

All the variants of "God Is Weird" just make the trope seem like, well, "God is weird." There's no way to guess that it has to do with race and gender.

It's not obvious what the trope is just by reading the name, but, aside from Alternative Deity Interpretation Appearence, it's the only one that's totally 100% accurate.

Personally, I still prefer God Is Not White or something like that. There are tons of tropes with names that don't describe exactly what the trope is. It's better just to get one that's clear and that covers at least the majority of the examples.

But that one sounds far too broad and completely off topic. It just sounds like list every nonwhite God here. It's going to attract more "Real Life Examples" of nonwhite deities then you can shake a stick at. Names that sound like Exactly What It Says on the Tin but aren't turn into huge messes. That name will just get it back into the TRS in a few months.

It also discourages a lot of good examples like Alanis Morissette in Dogma. She's white, but showing the Abrahamic God as a woman is exactly this trope.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:57:53 PM by shimaspawn

In that case, using something with minority in the title would at least exclude gods from places where white isn't the standard. And it might encourage things like the Dogma example, since women are often considered a minority.

edited 16th Feb '12 8:58:22 PM by abk0100

"All the variants of 'God Is Weird' just make the trope seem like, well, 'God is weird.'"

The trope is kind of that tho. A big part of the trope is how the deity looks. That is, it looks different than its usual portrayal. God Looks Weird is not great (easily mistaken for "white-bearded guy turns green" or something) but it's not utterly terrible either.

edited 16th Feb '12 9:14:02 PM by rodneyAnonymous

But if a God that's not normally portrayed as white suddenly is a white male, it's this trope. So that would also discourage good examples and this trope has nothing to do with minorities.

"There are tons of tropes with names that don't describe exactly what the trope is. It's better just to get one that's clear and that covers at least the majority of the examples."

Strongly agree btw.

I agree, but that one is A) not clear and B) it's not what the trope is actually about. It covers a small portion of examples and makes the rest of the examples sound dead wrong. It also makes non-examples sound right. That's a bad name.

Names that encourage misuse are inherently bad.

edited 16th Feb '12 9:07:40 PM by shimaspawn

Subversive Deity Presentation?

Your Idols Are Wrong? :P

Bumping for votes.

Subversive Deity Presentation?

Isn't there some kind of middle ground between being precisely accurate, and having a name that's at least a little bit memorable or catchy?

Clear Concise Witty, in that order of priority. If you can't be witty without compromising clarity or conciseness, it's better to not be witty.

I believe that comment is also about being concise. Yes, same applies, but wanting both (or all three!) is understandable. That is a mouthful.

Yeah, but "memorable" and "catchy" fall under "witty", hence how I phrased my previous response.