I'm not familiar with any of the examples listed in MacGuffin Girl, but the whole concept of a MacGuffin turning into a person (because thereare male examples as well), almost seems too bizarre to be a trope. I'm fine with merging these.
Image Source. Please update whenever an image is changed.
"MacGuffin turns into a living person" is a thing, though more rare than the wicks would lead you to believe, since people keep mistaking it for Living MacGuffin. I say we copy the old crowner. Making Living MacGuffin a supertrope would help make things easier.
The instances I always thought of when it came to MacGuffin Girl (after realizing that it wasn't The President's Daughter, which is clearly my first thought) are those where people are looking for a MacGuffin, but it's actually a girl (and may have always been).
But yeah, this entire family of tropes (MacGuffin Girl, The President's Daughter, Living MacGuffin, Phlebotinum Girl) all have really non-indicative names. The President's Daughter is too specific-sounding, and the other three are effectively have names that are more or less interchangeable.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Jupiterian Local
I think we've pretty much determined what the current batch of tropes are and why they're bad, but the question is what should we replace them with? I think we need something like this:
- Mac Guffin Person: A MacGuffin that is a person. (no current equivalent)
- MacGuffin-Person Reveal: The Reveal that the MacGuffin they've been looking for has been with them all along, in the form of one of the characters. (happens often enough in MacGuffin Girl that I figure its worth its own trope)
- Animate Mac Guffin: An inanimate MacGuffin embodied in, or transformed into, a person. (currently MacGuffin Girl)
- Mac Guffin Hostage: A person who is a MacGuffin because they're important (they're the president, a rich businessman, a top scientist, etc) or related to someone who is (family, Love Interest, True Companion, etc). Probably needs a better name to distinguish it from "threatening to destroy a MacGuffin to cause a No MacGuffin, No Winner scenario". (currently The President's Daughter)
- Mundane MacGuffin Person: A Mac Guffin Person who's sought after for some mundane trait (beauty, wisdom, etc) turned Up To Eleven. Probably needs a better name. (currently Living MacGuffin)
- MacGuffin Super-Person: A Mac Guffin Person who's sought after for some unique power or status they have (eg, they're The Chosen One or an Apocalypse Maiden), usually with world-shaking consequences. Also needs a better name. (currently Holy Child)
I don't think Phlebotinum Girl is directly related to the rest of these tropes, but it could certainly use some work on its own. Maybe we should give it its own thread.
edited 12th Aug '13 9:42:23 AM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Good work. I'd say, let's make these into sandboxes.
Image Source. Please update whenever an image is changed.
Looks good to me. I was going to say we already have a trope for Mac Guffin Person in the form of Living MacGuffin, but the definitions are so blurred and misused, it's not even worth discussing. Let's just cut all the current tropes (well, redirect them to a disambig) and replace them with Jovian's suggestions.
Captain of USS Bajor
Thirding Native Jovian's proposal.
Firstly, NJ's suggestions overall sound great. I just have a few comments:
- Instead of Animate Mac Guffin, I'd like something that implies that life have been given to it, not just that it's alive. Animated Mac Guffin is an improvement, but isn't perfect. Any thoughts?
- I'm not positive that Mundane MacGuffin Person and Super Mac Guffin Person need to be separate tropes. But that's just me.
Do we have enough man- and YKTTW power to go with @30?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Between MacGuffin Girl, The President's Daughter, Living MacGuffin, Phlebotinum Girl, and Holy Child, we have 1,110 wicks (and 878 inbounds). That's a little daunting, but not too bad, especially since we can assign the smaller tropes to one person each and have them taken care of in under an hour or so. I'm willing to help on that front. But I'm crap at YKTTW's, so I can't sponsor those.
I like 30 as well.
Bump. Do we need a crowner, or just wait for a few more yea votes?
I'm not sure how it would be crownered, but sure.
Bump. Made a crowner
. Only has one thing on it right now, but more can be added.
Hi
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Hooked.
OK, who's up for babysitting all these tropes?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
We should call the crowner first.
There are only six votes. General rule of thumb is at least ten.
In favor of proposal in general, but I have a question:
Plot Devices are not inherently inanimate. Some plot devices are animate, though not all animate plot devices are human. (Heck, I just used the Trope in the forum to refer to a girl 
who may turn out to be an Olympus Mon, whether wittingly or not.) So shouldn't cases where: "Girl is an unwitting/(EDIT:)amnesic deity" also be covered?
edited 20th Sep '13 7:13:34 AM by DonaldthePotholer
Ketchum's corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced tactic is indistinguishable from blind luck.
There are 12 votes, but with the amount of work to be done, I think it needs more votes.
I'm pretty sure Living MacGuffin is already the supertrope. Living MacGuffin is a MacGuffin that's a person. A MacGuffin Girl is, by definition, a person and a MacGuffin, which makes her a Living MacGuffin. The President's Daughter is always a MacGuffin and obviously a person, which makes her a Living MacGuffin. There you are: supertrope. Saves a lot of trouble.
I do like the proposed "MacGuffin Person Reveal" as a splittable trope, assuming it's not stepping on the toes of some existing trope. I would go with something more like MacGuffin All Along.
Rhymes with "Protracted."
The problem is that these are all just so consistently misused for each other, it's easier to start over than to try and make sure they're all being used correctly and keep them that way.
Starting fresh is an attractive option.
MacGuffin Girl and The President's Daughter maybe, but Living MacGuffin is perfectly fine.
Rhymes with "Protracted."
Crown Description:
What would be the best way to fix the page?
To me, The President's Daughter sounds like a a person who is sought after because they are related to some important political entity.
As for MacGuffin Girl - that should be redirected to Living MacGuffin. I can see a trope for "MacGuffin being turned into something ordinary to hide it", but that name is just horrible.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman