Needs Help: Beetle Maniac

Deadlock Clock: Dec 27th 2018 at 11:59:00 PM

rachiebird Since: May, 2014

#1: Oct 21st 2018 at 12:05:27 PM

Going by the trope description, this trope is a duplicate of Friend to Bugs.

Friend To Bugs is the more popular trope, being found on 242 articles (as opposed to Beetle Maniac's 61).

Beetle Maniac also shares 14 of its 41 on-page examples with Friend To Bugs.

Additionally, I found that many of Beetle Maniac's examples fit just as accurately on Friend To Bugs or Bug Catching. (Basically, that the examples on this page don't all share any common trend, beyond being associated with insects.)

Below, I've sorted the examples into four categories, based on the exact genre of beetle-lovin' taking place.

1. The character feels a friendship-type affection towards bugs. (Examples that aren't necessarily on Friend To Bugs, but should be.) - 4 total

Beetle Maniac

Ryuuto from the horror manga Region, who is willing to risk bullying from his classmates and elementary school teacher over his refusal to let them kill the insect collection they were keeping as a class project. This leads to him sleeping with the insects in his bed to help them stay warm, much to his unsuspecting sister's chagrin.
In Goodnight Mommy, Elias keeps a vast number of captured cockroaches in a terrarium and plays with them throughout the film.

On Beetle Maniac and Friend To Bugs

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.

2. The character thinks bugs are cool-looking and wants to catch/collect them. (Examples that aren't necessarily on Bug Catching, but should be.) - 12 total

Beetle Maniac

Luffy in One Piece shows a keen interest in beetles in the Skypeia arc. In fact, he once becomes uncertain whether he'd rather have the One Piece or a pet stag beetle.
In the Pokémon anime, there's a kid dressed as a samurai (in fact, Samurai is the name he goes by) who catches Bug types. He uses a Metapod^note and a Pinsir^note.
In the 2009 anime of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, during the summer "Groundhog Day" Loop, Haruhi leads the group on beetle hunting (and she wins every time).
Momotarou Mikoshiba from Free! likes to catch stag beetles, and he even tries to give one as a present to Gou, who he has a crush on.
Star Wars Expanded Universe:
- As a child, Jacen Solo had a fascination with beetles.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876): in chapter 5 Tom plays with a beetle while in church. The other worshipers and even a dog get into the act.
Booster from Super Mario RPG is a beetle enthusiast, and has his lackeys go out and collect them for him. Mario can also collect beetles for coins, and there's a purchasable mini-game called Beetle Mania.
Barawa from Granblue Fantasy has a passion for beetles, eagerly examining each and every one in the tropical jungle of Palapogos Island. It's later revealed that his rival, Chat Noir, shares an equally passionate love for beetles.
Jougasaki Rika from THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls is a middle-schooler heavily into the Gal subculture — nevertheless, her favorite things are beetles and stickers, which is meant to show her childish side, and that her preoccupation with sex appeal is because of her admiration of her sister.
Some of Charles Darwin's earliest interests were in beetles. Of course, it wasn't until he started looking at finches that he put his name down in history, but things might have been different if Darwin wasn't so interested in beetles. To give an example of how strong his obsession with beetles and beetle collecting was, once as a young man he was returning home after collecting beetles in the woods when he came across a bombardier beetle. Even though he was already out of room to carry it, he was determined to bring it home with him and attempted to carry it in his mouth. Naturally, this resulted in him discovering what being sprayed in the mouth by a bombardier beetle was like, and the resulting effects caused him to lose both the bombardier and all the other beetles he'd collected. He described the event with great enthusiasm in his diary.

both

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.

3. The character is either 1 or 2, but there wasn't enough information to clarify. - 20 total

Beetle Maniac

Samurai Champloo has Sumo Beetle!
Weevil Underwood in Yu-Gi-Oh! uses a deck that specializes in Insect monsters.
Jobin Higashikata from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He's a mature and sharp businessman, but can be distracted by exploiting his interest in hobbies such as gambling in fights with his large collection of beetles.
In the Discworld novel The Last Continent, the God of Evolution is all about beetles. He recurs in The Science Of Discworld where he shares his passion for beetles with Charles Darwin.
Carl Meredith from Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside.
In Something Fresh, the first of P. G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle novels, J. Preston Peters is fanatical about scarabs and has a large collection. When Lord Emsworth absent-mindedly takes one home, it becomes the MacGuffin for the rest of the story.
The only trait we know so far of Tyrion Lannister's "simple" cousin Orson on Game of Thrones.
This is central to Mushiking, a Mons Game where the Mons in question are all realistic-looking beetles.
Sig from Puyo Puyo.
Ringo: This easygoing boy with a faint smell of beetles!
Sig: Oh, I found a bug.
Dr Tarsus Beetle from Girl Genius chose a stylized beetle as his emblem, present all over his city, Beetleburg.
In The Water Phoenix King, Gilgam has quite a few beetles decorating his equipment. His pauldrons, the large pin which unfolds into a collar that connects them over his warmer-weather gear, the charge crystals for his gun, are all scarab-shaped, and his riding-beast is a robot that looks like a cross between an ant and a beetle of some sort. It makes sense...

Both Pages

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.
On Gor, the only thing that can kill a Priest-King is basically a giant beetle, which the Priest-Kings keep around for when they tire of life. The beetles have an aroma that's overwhelmingly enticing to a Priest-King.
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.

4. A character shows their depravity/villainy by treating bugs cruelly. - 3 total (Also at least one example of this listed as an "inverted" Friend To Bugs.)

Beetle Maniac

In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Amadeus Arkham inherited his obsession with beetles from his mother, who ingested them because they symbolized rebirth (it bears mentioning that Arkham's entire family was insane).
One of the first things we find out about Eustace Clarence Scrubb is that he "liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card".
In the animated series at least, beetles are the favorite treat of Beetlejuice, probably a less nasty alternative to the blowfly and cockroach we see him eat in the movie.

Personally, I think the best move would be to redefine Beetle Maniac as 3, and move the other examples to relevant pages.

But I'm also not extremely set on that. Either way, we need to figure out how Beetle Maniac is different from Friend To Bugs, and update the description to reflect that.

eroock Since: Sep, 2012

#2: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:45:18 AM

I see Beetle Maniac as the dark sister trope of Friend to Bugs where the farming/petting/admiration of bugs is played for creepiness factor instead of showing the character as being nature-loving or curious. Seems like there are few examples following this idea.

rachiebird Since: May, 2014

#3: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:54:15 PM

I could see that. If that's the case though, then I think the description definitely needs help, and the examples need sorted through. Do you think the examples with characters who are associated with bugs, but only through treating them cruelly - would also fit with that kind of definition?

Lymantria Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph from Toronto Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.

Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph

#4: Nov 1st 2018 at 6:42:30 PM

If we don't merge the tropes, rename Beetle Maniac, since it isn't specific to beetles and the name doesn't show the "creepy" aspect of the trope.

Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!

rachiebird Since: May, 2014

#5: Nov 2nd 2018 at 12:20:04 AM

Everything about Beetle Maniac needs to be clearer, I think. Whether or not it needs to be merged really depends on what we decide the description is.

How would people feel about defining the trope as something like "A character whose association with bugs indicates evilness"

Edited by rachiebird on Nov 2nd 2018 at 12:21:17 PM

Lymantria Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph from Toronto Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.

Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph

#6: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:57:50 PM

That works. What should the new trope be called?

Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!

eroock Since: Sep, 2012

#7: Nov 2nd 2018 at 7:54:45 PM

Edited by eroock on Nov 3rd 2018 at 12:08:18 PM

rachiebird Since: May, 2014

#8: Nov 3rd 2018 at 1:23:04 AM

Honestly, I'm drawing a blank in terms of coming up with anything more witty than "Bug Loving Baddie" or "Liking Bugs Makes You Evil"

Looking at the tropes in the insect index though, I'm noticing a lot more overlap than I initially realized. We have separate pages for "evil versions" of pretty much every bug imaginable. And then Bug Catching, Friend to Bugs, and Animal Motif cover pretty much everything else.

I was going to suggest "Villian who tortures bugs" as a different possible varient. But really, Bad People Abuse Animals seems to cover that too. Merging might be the best option after all.

eroock Since: Sep, 2012

#9: Nov 3rd 2018 at 3:33:19 AM

A simple merge with Friend to Bugs doesn't look right to me as this trope is not covering the dark side this subject is played with.

My proposal: Sort evil characters loving bugs under Nightmare Fetishist and Boys Like Creepy Critters (depending on the age) and merge remaining neutral to light examples under Friend to Bugs.

Drope Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?

#10: Nov 21st 2018 at 11:06:32 AM

"Critter-Collecting Creep"?

There's definitely a trope about bug-collecting being associated with weirdos (when they're adults, at least). I think Beetle Maniac just really needs to evolve and play up the creepy aspect.

Edited by Drope on Nov 21st 2018 at 11:12:36 AM

Original the Signature. Do not steal.

SapphireBlue from California Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible

#11: Nov 24th 2018 at 11:12:26 AM

Critter-Collecting Creep sounds good.

SeptimusHeap MOD from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#12: Dec 24th 2018 at 1:32:22 AM

Clock is set.

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

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#13: Dec 29th 2018 at 2:26:00 AM

Clock is up; locking for inactivity.

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

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