I'm opening this. Again, very good OP.
I agree that the confusion between the stock Aesop and the idea of kids outsmarting would-be assailants is enough to justify distinguishing them.
Edited by Fighteer on Feb 28th 2019 at 2:45:36 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Previous discussion: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1551217667075970900
I suggest making a separate trope for "strangers are bad news" scenarios that do not involve deception, unlike Bad Samaritan, or Paedo Hunt Aesops, like with this trope.
By the way, the AoStH example may or may not be a Very Special Episode example, as it's a And Knowing Is Half the Battle, as with all other episodes. Judge for yourself:
Edited by Brainulator9 on Feb 28th 2019 at 3:57:40 PM
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!Definitely the description can stand to be clarified; I somehow never even noticed it was specifically defined as a Very Special Episode.
Agreed with OP that this is most conveniently thought of a sister trope to Drugs Are Bad, where instead of drugs it's strangers. Also, both were huge in The '80s.
Surely the Stock Aesop and Very Special Episode readings are two sides to the coin, rather than mutually exclusive? As with drugs, the Stock Aesop was (thought to be) serious enough to warrant being presented via a VSE or PSA. Bad Samaritan meanwhile is simply the best character type to set up the narrative, as you can't have a story about stranger danger without a dangerous stranger.
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I kinda agree with your third paragraph; they are somewhat the same. Thing is though, the VSE reading would pretty much cover a subset of the examples under the Stock Aesop reading, so I'd prefer to err toward the latter.
And yes, that's exactly why I suggested listing it as a Sister Trope to Drugs Are Bad: they're both shoehorned morals that were ever-present on kids' shows in the 1980's but have since fallen out of fashion.
Have you seen my comic yet?~Septimus Heap, I have created a new crowner here
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What I'm seeing here is that we need to clean examples/wicks and tighten the description, is that right?
There was plenty of discussion about renaming in the earlier thread, but I think the crowner was called too early to decide on a rename in this thread.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Crown Description:
What would be the best way to fix the page?

What started out seeming like a pull-thread for what I thought was a terrible image raised an important question: is this trope about a Stock Aesop about stranger danger, or is it about kids' shows dropping that particular anvil in a Very Special Episode?
Summary
Conclusions
It's about an even split between the 2 views, with Stock Aesop in a narrow lead. I also notice that a lot of the usage assumes that it merely means "strangers are bad"—an interpretation for which Bad Samaritan is much better suited.Recommendation
Edited by SomePerson on Feb 27th 2019 at 8:52:26 AM
Have you seen my comic yet?