Misused (Single Prop Crowner 08/17/13): Early Bird Cameo

I don't know if it's enough to make it a different trope, but I feel there is something very distinct about a background character becoming a real character later on, and an adaptation introducing a later character earlier on.

The former is generally a form of foreshadowing, or perhaps an effect of the Law of Conservation of Detail, while the latter is generally a way for adaptations to make more definitive versions of a work that are more consistent, by doing things like retconning what originally created Early-Installment Weirdness (obviously that doesn't strictly apply to all examples, but it's the typical reason why these happen).

The Naruto entry is a good example of this. The manga just had a bunch of generic background characters early on, before fleshing out the world and developing characters who technically would have been those aforementioned background characters. The anime knew this ahead of time, and took the opportunity to show the fleshed out world from the start, instead of having to retcon it in later.

I think that's a much different trope than simply a character with a small role gaining a larger role later on.

Background character becoming a real character later on = Ascended Extra.

Right. We have several tropes about characters becoming important later on - Ascended Extra, Chekhov's Gunman. If you think we're missing one, YKTTW it. But let's not lose the trope that we currently have in Early-Bird Cameo. There's a very specific thing where an adaptation throws in a character who'll become important later and assumes alert viewers will recognize the cameo. This is possible only in adaptations.

@Star Sword, well maybe I wasn't describing the non-adaptation form of this trope right, or I'm misinterpreting it. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting you, but my main point was that I think the adaptation distinction is important, because it has different expectations and connotations.

edited 8th Jul '13 6:56:43 PM by Jokubas

Never mind. I was troping in between working on a paper for school; only really read the first paragraph.

Was the decision to not limit this to adaptations discussed in a previous discussion?

A few pages ago, if I remember.

All those who are opposed to broadening: how do you plan to address the absolutely rampant misuse?

Cleanup project, and possibly a rename to something like Appeared Earlier In The Adaptation.

You are pretty optimistic about the chances of a cleanup project working. Based on recent data, I would say "not likely enough to work".

I get that, but the thing it would be broadened to to compensate for misuse (based on earlier in the thread) is already covered by Chekhov's Gunman.

Added cleanup and rename to the crowner.

edited 9th Jul '13 12:04:08 PM by StarSword

I have questions about whether the overlap would be substantial. And since we don't know who's going to shoulder the job yet, I filed a .

My issue with broadening is that I don't see how it will not be covered by Chekhov's Gunman or Ascended Extra.

This one is specific for cameos and the like, apparently.

That said, now that I see, this would definitively overlap with Ascended Extra anyhow...

I don't think it does... Ascended Extra is about minor characters who were not supposed to be important, but the plan changed between episodes or sequels or something.

Ah, yeah. There might be some overlap, though...

Let me see if I have this correctly:

So (in a non-adaptation), Early-Bird Cameo would be someone appearing in the background, having no bearing on the plot or interaction.

Chekhov's Gunman can do something, and likely will, but will eventually come back and do MORE.

Ascended Extra seems to be more about intent: if they intended to have the extra come back and do more, it's one of the previous two. If the extra was supposed to just be a one-off extra, then it'd be AE.

Does this sound right?

edited 9th Jul '13 1:35:27 PM by Larkmarn

Sounds like.

Bump for votes.

Guess we'll need a runoff crowner, yeah?

Looks like. Broadening has a higher score but renaming and cleaning has a better margin.

We could simply broaden and rename, the two are not mutually exclusive...

Yeah, but the reason I said "rename and clean" was because I think anything that it's been suggested to broaden to is already covered by other tropes. Where do you think we can go with it?

(yeas:17 nays:12) - Broaden it to not cover just adaptations.

(yeas:9 nays:6) - Rename the trope to something more descriptive (e.g. Appeared Earlier In The Adaptation) and do a wick cleanup.

edited 30th Jul '13 8:23:56 AM by crazysamaritan

(yeas:18 nays:12) - Broaden it to not cover just adaptations.

(yeas:9 nays:7) - Rename the trope to something more descriptive (e.g. Appeared Earlier In The Adaptation) and do a wick cleanup.

Failure on both counts?