Complaining: Temporary Scrappy

The trope only has ten wicks wiki wide, one of which is actually an index. The examples tend to devolve into natter rather quickly, for example:

• When Batman had his back broken in the '90s, his temporary replacement was Jean-Paul Valley. This portrayal of Batman was an Ax-Crazy Darker and Edgier '90s Anti-Hero that sent most fans into a rage. His entire purpose was to show why the real Batman isn't an Ax-Crazy vigilante.
  • The whole storyline was a response to fans complaining that Batman wasn't "hardcore" enough for the grimdark 90s because he didn't kill or brutalize his enemies. So DC called the readers' bluff by giving them exactly what they wanted. As the writers expected, fans hated it. The storyline ended with the real Batman beating down his replacement and taking back the mantle, which had been planned from the start... Please note though, that had Azbats proved lucrative, they totally would have stuck with him.
  • Interestingly, Valley was still popular enough to have his own series, and the character still has fans. He'd undergone some Character Development, so he wasn't so obnoxiously hardcore by the time of his own series.
• This also happened when Captain America was replaced by his Anti-Hero Substitute, the former enemy Superpatriot. The new Cap was shown as a tool of the government first and an uncontrollable violent man later, while good ol' Steve Rogers took a black suit to remain playing hero.
  • Note that the replacement Cap, John Walker, went on to become a somewhat successful character in his own right once they gave him his own costume and the name U.S. Agent. He's since appeared in a number of titles such as West Coast Avengers and Dark Avengers.

Furthermore, despite going out of its way to express that it's not a trope of where a fanhated character gets taken off the show, and it's not actually a trope about an actual Scrappy character, people still seem to think it's the former. Or just a character who was hated but then rescued after a short period of time, like so:

• Garnet briefly flirts with this trope in disk 3 of Final Fantasy IX when certain events in the plot send her into a Heroic BSoD. This has the gameplay effect of giving all her spells a chance to simply not work about 50% of the time, though eventually she gets over it and the effect goes away. It doesn't help that during this time she's the only remaining healer because the other one got kidnapped.

Opening this.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

To me, the trope looks like The Scrappy applied to a one-shot on purpose. Whether that can be salvaged is anyone's guess.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

That actually seems like a good trope. But this... I don't know what this is. This mentions things like in-universe resentment, among audience reactions. Is it actually related to The Scrappy?

Either way, I vote cut and send to back to ykttw. This needs a solid definition, cleaner exampes, and a rewritten description. It's got few enough wicks and inbounds it won't be missed.

That works for me.

How is that different from just The Scrappy but more specific? I'm not sure what the idea behind this trope to find anything worth saving

And that's just Hate Sink.

edited 3rd Mar '17 3:43:47 AM by Adept

x3 It likely won't make it out of Trope Launch Pad because the mods will murder it. They don't want more complaint tropes.

Just cut it.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

I don't think it's The Scrappy at all, but rather Hate Sink but more specific.

I think "Character is intentionally put into work and designed to be disliked so that audiences can cheer that they're gone" is a reasonable, not-inherently-complainy trope. But the name is way off and it runs the risk of misuse to being "one-shot character is disliked" which is just dangerous.

I could've sworn we had something else like this, possibly referencing "New Coke."

edited 9th Jan '17 8:41:42 AM by Larkmarn

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Essentially a Hate Sink that's not meant to be seen as one, or a Hate Sink meant to draw X-Pac Heat, from what I can determine. Looks like The Scrappy, but is actually a Hate Sink.

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We could see if there are any appropriate examples to add to hate sink, but we should definitely cut it.

Isn't this just Replacement Scrappy?

Oissu!

It's some kind of weird replacement-parody-hate sink-scrappy hybrid. We could probably just nuke it.

edited 2nd Mar '17 3:07:21 PM by GhostHouse

That Final Fantasy IX example looks to me like complaining about an annoying game mechanic rather than the character.

Agreed. Removed that one.

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What should we do with the trope as a whole?

Chop, chop, chop with prejudice.

Cut

& : Agreed. So...how do we go about that? Shout to the mods, or just erase all the page's content?

A holler wouldn't hurt. And blanking pages is a no no (as in, it will get you suspended if not banned).

We might need to wait for a few more concensus. I believe it needs at least 12 yes to motion forwoard in TRS.

I, for one, also think that it's probably best to do away with this one.

Oh God! Natural light!

I was thinking this trope be redefined as a deliberate subversion of the Scrappy, characters that are written with many trope from the Scrappy Index, only to surprise us when 1). it becomes clear we are supposed to hate them and they get comeuppance or 2). they develop into/are shown to be sympathetic characters after all. Example:

• Fluttershy brother Zephyr Breeze in "Flutter Brutter". For most of the episode Zephyr is lazy, obnoxious, and narcissistic, and his constant, clearly unwanted hitting on Rainbow Dash doesn't much help. It's clear that viewers are not supposed to like him until the end.

Should we just cut this and start from scratch in TRS, or is it worth salvaging as is?

edited 10th Mar '17 7:28:25 PM by Ferot_Dreadnaught

Eh, I think that those are pretty well covered by Hidden Depths, Character Development, and Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, or Hate Sink. I don't really think it's that salvagable.

edited 15th Mar '17 1:57:59 PM by CatcherInTheWry

Good point. So...what should we do?

I'd say toss it. I had and idea for a trope that would reuse it's name but be more clearly defined. Can trope names be recycled (a trope cut/renamed with a new trope taking that name or the cut trope salvaged after being cut)?