Laconic Description Improvement

Laconic.Voodoo Zombie: "The original zombie of the Caribbean Voudon folklore."

That tells me the origin, but not what it's about.

I guess it's Zombie as Slave?

Laconic.Die For Our Ship was just changed a few days ago, from

As memey as the old one was, it was also much more accurate — Die for Our Ship is very specifically about fans hating a character who gets in the way of their ship, not just fans taking shipping too seriously in general.

Should we revert, or does someone have a better idea?

(And paging ~The Living Drawing to participate in this discussion)

I was trying to shorten it. Though I did misunderstand the trope as I thought it referred to shipping being Serious Business rather than it being shippers hating a canon pairing.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Oct 7th 2021 at 12:46:45 PM

For Die for Our Ship laconic page, why not do something like "A character is disliked for getting in the way of fans' preferred ships"

~The Living Drawing, I'm not sure if your laconic replacement for Laconic.Punch Out is ideal. The original was:

• Diminutive pugilist fights cheating, stereotypical opponents.

It may not be the most clever thing in the world, but I fail to see how your revised version:

• David and National Stereotypes Boxing

... is any better. I request a revert.

The entire series has a smaller and weaker boxer triumphing over much larger and stronger opponents (hence David Versus Goliath pun) who are all National Stereotypes. Also it’s shorter.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Oct 10th 2021 at 2:43:31 PM

It's still too obtuse; it requires people to already recognize the David Versus Goliath reference.

How about this

• Small-in-Stature Boxer versus larger, stereotypical opponents.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Oct 10th 2021 at 2:48:36 PM

The laconic page for No Time to Die features a major spoiler for the film in it.

Laconic.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic end in "Also, hello, boys! Welcome to the herd!" in reference to the Periphery Demographic. Is that kosher?

It was added recently and I don't think it's necessary.

It's not very laconic either.

Cut it. It's unnecessary and feels outdated (I thought we'd moved past the shock of "boys in the MLP fandom" years ago).

Yeah, brony self-congratulation is just so old school.

Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 10th 2021 at 6:06:29 AM

I don't know if it's a shock thing, it seems more like a "yay Brony fandom" thing, but Bronies don't really exist as much as they used to so it's moot anyway.

Edited the No Time to Die laconic best I could.

The Living Drawing: That's better. I support that version.

So the laconic page for Use Their Own Weapon Against Them reads as follows: "A character has their own weapon used against them in battle by their opponent. This often (but not always) results in the weapon's original owner's defeat or death." Do you think this can be shortened to something like "A character is killed or otherwise injured by their own weapon"? Thanks, also, do we have any updates for the Die for Our Ship laconic page?

I think Use Their Own Weapon Against Them is more:

"A character is defeated or killed by having their own weapon turned against them."

Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 16th 2021 at 3:14:33 PM

Changed it to that.

Actually, after reading the description a bit more, and referring back to the original draft, it did have to be clarified that the trope only applies in battle, and the description does emphasise that it doesn't always cause defeat or death. If it's not during battle, it's not an example, and the emphasis seems to be on disarming (with a view to defeating or killing the character). I'd therefore suggest the following tweak:

"A character is disarmed, defeated or killed during battle by having their own weapon turned against them."

How about just: “A character is disarmed of their weapon in battle, which gets used against them.”

That’s good. I’d add a wick for Hoist by His Own Petard to the end.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Oct 16th 2021 at 11:07:10 AM

That's fine. Personally, I would not add a wick to another trope.

I'm not a fan of wicks in Laconics. They're supposed to be an easy summary of the trope they're attached to. A wick forces people to go and read a completely different trope just to understand how this Laconic works for this trope. If a Laconic needs a second trope to explain the first trope, it's not doing its job properly.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 17th 2021 at 10:55:04 AM

I agree.

Hm, looking at the draft, I think Use Their Own Weapon Against Them needs to fix its relationship to Hoist by His Own Petard. The description just says "Compare" the two tropes; looking at the intention specified in the draft, I think Use Their Own Weapon Against Them is actually a sub-trope of Hoist by His Own Petard. But, that might be a job for the trope relationship thread.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 17th 2021 at 10:55:48 AM