Misused: True Companions

Two problems here: 1) This trope is really messy (some cleanup done but needs more) between shoe-horned examples, zero context examples, and examples that belong on subtropes of this page being listed here instead of or in addition to the subtrope they fit better. I have a sinking feeling from glancing through it that the massive wick list probably has the same problems.

2) There's a YKTTW here and a Lost and Found discussion (a few weeks back) on how the real life and LGBT fiction trope of Families of Choice fits with True Companions. I've also seen Families of Choice cropping up a lot more recently in werewolf fic (such as Teen Wolf fandom) as a type of pack dynamic thing so it might be getting more popular. Do we start throwing Families of Choice examples in to True Companions or is it a missing subtrope?

To me, there's a difference between Families of Choice who decide to be family out of a desire for emotional bonds they would otherwise lack and True Companions that (maybe because there are so many Band of Brothers examples) are people who've fought through so much crap together that they eventually arrive at family bonds. If the Band of Brothers examples are moved to that trope, what True Companions is might seem more general and therefore fit Families of Choice better... or is Families of Choice another subtrope like Band of Brothers is? What do you think TRS?

edited 21st Feb '13 4:34:01 PM by StarValkyrie

True Companions does include chosen families, so the way I see it, once (or if) Family of Choice gets launched, it would be a proper subtrope, and should thus be handled accordingly. However, that's an issue for that trope, and shouldn't affect True Companions more than cleaning/moving.

Issues of shoehorning can go in the discussion shoehorning in the ensembles and ZCE issues can go in Fixing zero context examples.

Didn't realize we had threads for that. I started commenting out some ZCE and removing the ones I'm familiar enough with to know are shoehorned. I'll head over to those threads now.

A lot of the shoehorning dates back to when it had an obscure Japanese name that people interpreted however they wanted. Seriously, I found some really weird uses while going through the wicks for the old name. Basically, the only consistent notion that tropers seemed to have was "group of people". :)

eta: "group of people" is actually closer to the meaning of the Japanese word we were misusing/abusing than the current definition of the trope is. :)

edited 21st Feb '13 7:18:12 PM by Xtifr

I would like to take out the firefly example and anything else that fits better under The Team. Being bound by teamwork isn't the same as being bound by friendship.

Firefly starts off as The Team, but by the end they care about each other far more than that.

Most any group of characters end up becoming more than just teammates and become comrades, it's a tried and true piece of character development. Trying to draw a line between "characters do it intentionally" and "characters do it incidentally" seems like splitting hairs.

That's not to say there isn't a good idea in "Family Of Choice" where they form an actual family-like organizational structure. I know in Scrubs J.D. once played up that analogy with Turk and Carla being his brother and sister, Elliot was the cousin you have funny feelings for and Cox was the uncle who you hoped wasn't showing up this year.

Keep in mind that zillion of these wicks are probably left over from when this was still being called by the now infamous N word and was being used by many for pretty much any group. Not to mention it went through numerous defintition changes and drifts over the years.

I think Families of Choice is distinct in more than just intention. It's not people hang out, go through stuff, grow closer together, decide they're family. It's people decide they're family, then they go through stuff together (because they're family and you can't let family go through crazy stuff alone). Or at least that's my understanding of the Families of Choice concept from LGBT media and Queer Studies.

@ Star Valkyrie - I haven't heard this being an LGBT concept. Can you tell us about that?

If Family of Choice is going to be it's own trope separate from True Companions then shouldn't they not have the exact same context? The writer of Family of Choice copied and pasted the context for firefly from True Companions. He did the same for Buffy and Angel as well.

Well, because a lot of gay people (now somewhat less so than in the past) lose their connections to their family when they come out and/or can't tell their family a lot of details of their life with their partner without coming out, they can end up without a support network to fall back on. They instead form very strong bonds with a circle of friends to be a substitute family who can provide that missing support and take responsibility for each other like parents do for their kids and vice versa or like siblings do for each other. If I remember correctly, that's where the term Family of Choice developed.

edited 22nd Feb '13 5:26:57 PM by StarValkyrie

Zero Context Examples aren't an issue for TRS.

Using the supertrope over the subtrope is not inherently forbidden. The supertrope will, by definition, usually overlap with the subtrope. Using the subtrope because there is no supertrope is a shoehorn that stretches the limits of the subtrope. And That's Terrible.

If someone wants to launch a distinct subtrope, they're free to. Whether it's distinct is something YKTTW will determine.

Is there anything relating to the trope at hand that isn't simple maintenance? It doesn't need renaming or redefining, and moving examples to subtropes is a free action.

edited 23rd Feb '13 8:02:25 AM by lu127

It needs cleanup help. I guess those don't go in TRS anymore or something? There's no way I can clean up all the shoehorning and ZCE myself, nevermind the 3700+ wicks.

Not really. They go in Short Term efforts, as it should say here

It took, what, a year and half just to fix the name? And we dropped several hundred wicks during that effort, so there's been some cleanup. Of course, what it really needs, in addition to ZCE removal and removal of misuse, is crosswicking. :)

But none of that is within the scope of TRS. This is all just leftover stuff from the previous TRS. Which, as I say, took a year and a half just to change the name.

Well yes, that was a hectic thread. Here, lemme move over to short term so you can clean to your heart's content.

If moving examples to subtropes is a free action does that mean that we could take out every example in True Companions that mentions family and put it in Family of Choice? There are quite a few of them.

Only if they fit. You can't just go blindly by the appearance of some word.

(shudder)

I saw a trope repair thread for the trope that shall not be named and I started having flashbacks.

I'm so glad this is for small and easy problems:

If Family of Choice launches, make it a subtrope of True Companions and move the appropriate examples there.

Other issues mention here: go forth young one and cleanup the trope! (ie Do it yourself, and don't remind us old tropers of this trope.)

Some examples don't really qualify. Some are just very good friendships, but without really showing how strong their friendship is, without exploring in the deepness of their bond.

Locking due to lack of interest/activity.