A thread discussing similar tropes. If thread participants agree that two (or more) tropes really don't seem distinct enough to be separate, one can start a thread in the Trope Repair Shop for further discussion.
Before asking "What's the difference between these tropes?", check the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions and Laconical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions lists. They may contain the answer. Feel free to contribute to them, too.
I've decided to start a new cleanup thread dealing with trope similarities. This thread is for discussing tropes that appear to be a duplicate of another trope, and if it's agreed upon that the two tropes talked about are similar enough, one should start a thread about it in the Trope Repair Shop.
I'll start with my issue...
Asian Hooker Stereotype and Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow are pretty much the same trope—they both involve a white man and an Asian woman.
Edited by Tabs on Nov 1st 2022 at 10:57:37 AM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I get the feeling that Beetle Maniac is an old trope while Friend to Bugs was made much later
I could believe it. What would that mean for this page? I was thinking about taking Beetle Maniac to TRS - on account of the poor description, potential redundancy, and inconsistent usage. But I'm not really at a confidence level where I'd want to do it without a second opinion.
I’d be curious to see how many of the wicks overlap.
Beetle Mania, the redirect to Beetle Maniac has a wick from Friend to Bugs, and both tropes also share wicks from:
- Characterization Tropes
- Insect Index
- Invertebrate Index
- GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff.Other
- Recap.Supernatural S 01 E 08 Bugs (Wicks to Beetle Mania, not Maniac.)
Trope pages that are wicked both tropes are found through the intersect
tool:
And Friend to Bugs should not wick to itself... Fixing... Actually, no. Gonna wait until we know if it's getting cut, as it'd be useless otherwise.
Edited by Malady on Oct 21st 2018 at 8:30:41 AM
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
I think the big thing is that Beetle Maniac and Friend to Bugs are the same trope, based on page description (although, once again, Friend To Bugs has a much better description). Looking at the examples - some are only on one page or the other, but they read like they would fit on both (and also potentially Bug Catching). I think I might try whipping up a list of examples, as sorted by the specific breed of bug-loving happening in each example.
Does this seem worth opening a TRS over?
EDIT
Friend To Bugs is listed as being found on 242 articles. Beetle Maniac is found on 61.
Beetle Maniac has 41 on-page examples. 21 are a pretty even mix of:
1. Characters who have no particular affection towards bugs, but want to collect them.
2. Characters who see bugs as friends.
3. Characters whose interest in bugs is meant to be seen as a villainous trait.
20 of those 41 examples did not contain enough information for me to make a distinction between types 1 and 2.
14 of Beetle Maniac's 41 examples are shared by Friend To Bugs.
In the examples listed below, a few of them had different descriptions based on which page they were found on. I used the copies from Beetle Maniac.
- In Galaxy of Fear: The Swarm it's noted that some of the S'krrr, particularly Vroon, all but worship drog beetles. Vroon, unfortunately, takes it to the extent of Belief Makes You Stupid, using his position as chief gardener aboard the station to kill all drog beetle predators in the garden to protect the beetles. Which are a species of Explosive Breeder carnivore. His Karmic Death is very justified indeed when the swarming insects eat him alive as part of their rampage through the station.
- Gonta Goukhara, the Ultimate Entomologist from New Danganronpa V3. He's known for thinking that anyone who likes bugs must be a good person. Unfortunately, his size, strength, and general passion mean that no one around him will ever admit to disliking insects - they're all too terrified of the repercussions.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Agitha has Link collect bugs for her in exchange for items.
- The Beggar from Ocarina of Time is so completely obsessed with beetles he will pay crazy amounts of money every time someone brings him one. You can exploit a design flaw in the game (whereby one beetle turns into three when released from its bottle) to get very rich very quickly.
- On CSI, Gil Grissom's specialism is forensic entomology, and enthusing about the particular species of bugs crawling all over the Corpse of the Week is one of his many Nightmare Fetishist traits.
- The Aburame Clan in Naruto not only has interest in beetles, they literally become homes for them, controlling the beetles in exchange for their own chakra.
- Masahito Kakihara has a fondness for beetles, specifically stag beetles.
- Strich, one of Groose's lackeys from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, is also insect-obsessed.
- In The Wind Waker, it's implied that Beedle is (true to his name) a beetle lover. Indeed, in Skyward Sword, he has his own beloved pet beetle (despite it not technically being the same Beedle), while in Breath of the Wild he will excitedly buy beetles from you.
- Pokémon was inspired by its creator's insect-collecting hobby. There are also the Bug Catcher and Bug Maniac trainer classes that can be fought.
- Pokémon Gold and Silver/Crystal / HeartGold and SoulSilver has the Gym Leader Bugsy who specializes in using Bug type pokemon.
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum has the Bug type specialist Aaron as the first member of Sinnoh's Elite Four.
- Pokémon Black and White has Burgh as another Bug type specialist Gym Leader. Also, the Unova champion Alder is not officially identified as a Bug specialist, but three of the six Pokémon on his team are Bug types.
- Nadine from Hey Arnold! was a complete bug maniac and spoke of her love of beetles at least once.
Edited by rachiebird on Oct 20th 2018 at 9:32:11 AM
Seems like it could be TRS-worthy. Of the three, 2. seems like the best fit for the description. 1 is just Bug Catching, and 3 seems like a variant of 2.
I definitely didn't describe 3 as well at all! Most of the examples I put under 3 were on the level of "this character eats bugs" or "you can tell this Pest Controller is a bad guy because they don't care when their bugs are killed".
But anyways, I'll work on a TRS thread.
Question; what's the difference between They Copied It, Now It Sucks and Serial Numbers Filed Off?
The former is an Audience Reaction, the latter is not.
Specifically, They Copied It, So It Sucks! is a negative reaction to (actual or perceived) Follow the Leader, whereas Serial Numbers Filed Off is an objective example of Follow the Leader taken to the logical extreme.
Edited by Primis on Oct 23rd 2018 at 9:52:13 AM
If Serial Numbers Filed Off is an objective trope, then why is it on the YMMV index and have a banner saying "This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list." at the top of the page?
No, the other one.
YMMV and Audience Reaction are not synonymous, but they are both tagged with YMMV. The former is about a subjective trope (mainly when it's up to interpretation for if it qualifies), while the latter is about a non-trope for how the audience reacts. In this case, it's about how similar something must be to qualify. That's not an Audience Reaction.
Check out my fanfiction!
EDIT: Nevermind. ![[nja]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/user_ninja_2074.png "[nja]"){kind=small}
Edited by Primis on Oct 23rd 2018 at 12:43:17 PM
Serial Numbers Filed Off is a trope, but not an objective one. It's also our way of saying "it's a ripoff" and it's, as you can guess, a hot button issue.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
This seems the place to ask. What is the difference between Gladiator Subquest and Inevitable Tournament? Is it that Inevitable Tournament is foreshadowed?
Inevitable Tournament is usually the main plot. Gladiator Subquest is, well, subquest, and thus not the main plot.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
If some YMMV items are subjective tropes, why do we have the page Subjective Tropes that claims such a thing is an oxymoron?
No, the other one.
There seems to be a difference in what type of combat it is. Gladiator Subquest seems to be about some kind of combat challenge, while Inevitable Tournament is about a competition in tournament form. They can overlap, but don't have to.
Edited by AnotherDuck on Oct 25th 2018 at 12:14:55 PM
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Okay, I can go with that distinction. I think I might try and think of a way to improve the description of Gladiator Subquest it seems kind of wishy washy in whether or not it is related to the main quest and how it relates to Inevitable Tournament. I'll throw these up to the trope description improvement thread.
I struggle to contrast Viral Transformation against The Virus. Viral Transformation has humans being transformed into non-human by a virus and The Virus is different in what aspect? The image on The Virus seems to illustrate Viral Transformation. Any help?
The Virus also has the human's mind being mutated by said "infection", i.e turning into werewolf also makes said affected human's mind bestial. Viral Transformation only concerns the physical transformation without the mental one.
That is the only distinction, AFAIK.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
^ That's the opposite of how Face–Monster Turn defines the tropes. Also, the second part of the second paragraph of Viral Transformation alludes to mental changes on top of the physical one.
Name-wise it would make sense to have The Virus as a catch-all "infection" trope and Viral Transformation for the subtrope where the infection causes the victim to mutate into another form regardless whether a mental change happened or not. However, this would make the lanonic and trope image of The Virus misleading.
Edited by eroock on Oct 28th 2018 at 3:18:56 PM
No Warping Zone, from the name, sounds like Teleport Interdiction... The description makes it seem like a specific way of generating a Closed Circle In Space...
So is it actually just Teleport Interdiction to make a Closed Circle, and maybe redundant?
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
The Virus says: "The transformation is both mental and physical." (Emphasis mine)
Viral Transformation says: "While it's not (always) The Virus, making those infected into Always Chaotic Evil, Mind Controlled servants to a Hive Queen who gladly eats puppies, it does lend itself to "Power Corrupts".
i.e while Viral Transformation can lead to the infected, transformed character think they're something different, the "transforming factor" itself doesn't mutate the subject's mind by itself. If it does, it's The Virus.
If it's about regular disease, we have The Plague. Although I agree, The Virus would need a better name.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
No Warping Zone concerns itself with the limits of Faster-Than-Light Travel. Teleport Interdiction concerns itself with the limits of Teleporters and Transporters—specifically those that can be imposed by the opponents of the people using the teleporters.
Beetle Maniac vs Friend to Bugs?
Going by the trope description for Beetle Maniac, it's the exact same trope as Friend to Bugs.
Going by the comparison written on Friend to Bugs (though of course, we aren't supposed to let tropes define other tropes), Beetle Maniac is really similar, but potentially different.
Going by the examples on Beetle Maniac, they're pretty much just stuff that would belong on Friend to Bugs, Pest Controller, or Bug Catching - with one or two "This character is depraved because they show their affection for bugs by torturing them".
Edited by rachiebird on Oct 18th 2018 at 5:20:46 AM