Misused: Awesome Yet Practical

I've done some of the preliminary work on this one myself this morning, but as I've been working on it I've come to realize exactly how much help this trope needs.

The root of the problem appears to be that the title seems to have lead quite a few people to confuse it with Mundane Utility and/or Simple, yet Awesome, dispite the article clearly explaining what the trope is actually about, things which are awesome with no downside, the inverse of Awesome, but Impractical

The result is a sprawling tangle of examples that need to be shuffled around to their proper places in these other two articles and there are quite a few inexplicable examples I can only assume are there because someone decided that they were an awesome thing.

The quote for the page also has nothing to do with the trope itself(and odder still, nothing to do with the incorrect views either...???) which I think is only adding to the confusion, and there's an ongoing discussion for an image, but I'm not sure that the one the crowd seems to be going for fits the trope. Some intervention may be needed there. I've done some of the weeding and pruning, and made an attempt at some "this is not..." red flagging, but this one needs love from the repair shop crew pretty desperately.

edited 7th Apr '14 11:40:04 AM by Scorpion451

This is doomed. Essentially, the name could be reduced to either "Awesome" or "Practical". Nominated for the cutlist, as it is just another subjective YMMV-fest that doesn't help us get down any storytelling tropes.

If this does end up getting cut, there's an IP thread for it that will need to go as well. I'll post this link in that thread.

I'm sad to say that Eddie's probably right again. I think I'd label the problem "Gushing". The examples are about gushing, not storytelling.

I tend to agree. You could make a solid case for the sunglasses used by the characters in the Matrix films (which is why I was so keen to make them the page pic) but the page is way too slurpy.

Gyaah! The Example Indentation is just awful.

Anything with a judgement-call in the name is going to attract natter.

Looking at the examples, this reads like a list of stuffs some tropers considers Awesome. The Real Life section is particularly bad, since a lot of them are mundane objects whose Awesomeness and Practicality are questionable.

<takes deep breath, dons Teflon-coated anti-shitstorm armor>

Yeah. Burn it down and salt the earth.

I think that in general fiction, there's not much of a trope. Things that are awesome are also expected to be practical. It doesn't really say much aside from itself. There's no contradiction involved like the other tropes in the same family. The only place I could possibly see it is in Video Games, where there is a far greater tendency for flashy stuff being impractical, usually due to costs or other balancing restrictions, but even there it's kinda weak.

If (and that's a big if) there's anything worth saving, cordon it off with the rest of the gushing in Sugar Wiki. Otherwise, get out the white phosphorus and napalm.

edited 7th Apr '14 7:52:30 PM by tdgoodrich1

Given that Awesome, yet Impractical is already a separate trope, what does that example have to do with this one?

Given that this was created as a counterpart to Awesome, yet Impractical, is there any reason we still need to fulfill that need should we get rid of the "trope" that currently fills it?

It's been burned.

This was basically a list of aversions (or subversions) to Awesome, but Impractical and Cool, but Inefficient at least in definitional spirit, so I give a postumous cut support.

Nothing more to see here. Everybody out, so I can turn off the lights on this one.