Ambiguous Name: Lightswitch Surprise

A recent Image Picking thread came to the conclusion that Lightswitch Surprise has a misleading name for the trope it's actually about.

The trope on the page is "Person sneaks into their home late at night, but discovers somebody has been waiting up for them to ask why they've stayed out so late."

The name Lightswitch Surprise suggests "You turned on a lightswitch to discover something you didn't expect."

My first passes at a new name is something like "Stayed up late waiting for you" or "It's late. Where have you been?", but I feel both of those are a bit unwieldy for a trope title.

Edit: (Nov 3 2019 update) Based on the crowner, there's a consensus to make a Lightswitch Surprise Super-Trope (covering revealing something when you turn on light) and a Caught Coming Home Late page (with the name still needing to be worked on.)

Edited by thok on Nov 3rd 2019 at 10:21:54 AM

Opened as it was indeed suggested elsewhere.

As for rename options, I can get behind a rename, but on both suggested names. Not only are both unwieldy, the latter sounds like a stock phrase.

I wonder if Launch Displacement is in order, since the misuse does seem tropeworthy.

The misuse goes on Matchlight Danger Revelation. A quick look at the examples doesn't point to enough misuse.

Edit: Sorry, misuse of Lightswitch Surprise. Most if not all are of people waiting (in the darkness) for someone to arrive home, which is correct.

Ignore the above. Please see the wick check a few posts down.

Edited by Tabs on Oct 4th 2019 at 12:19:21 PM

Not enough misuse of which trope? Matchlight Danger Revelation or Lightswitch Surprise?

Either way, if this is renamed (which it may not be, if misuse isn't that bad, and since misuse is already covered by Matchlight Danger Revelation), stock phrases are a no-go.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 2nd 2019 at 2:04:48 PM

Catching The Curfew Breaker?

That's not bad (with the caveat that you've seen my ability to come up with good trope names.)

My one quibble is I'm not sure if "Catching the Curfew-Breaker" or "Caught Breaking Curfew" is the right variation on the name (the change in grammar alters which character the emphasis is put on, and typically the one breaking curfew is the main character, while the one doing the catching is a supporting character.)

That's a good point...I think either could work, but I lean toward the latter version.

for Caught Breaking Curfew

Would like to see a wick check demonstrating misuse before a rename.

^ 34 wicks since 2010. It's seriously under-preforming.

Huh, yeah. For something so ubiquitous, that's not acceptable.

Given that, throwing my hat in for a rename.

Wick checking.

A few examples use Lightswitch Surprise as "danger waiting in the dark for you in a familiar place" (as opposed to Matchlight Danger Revelation, which is "(usually immediate) danger waiting in the dark for you in an unfamiliar place"?). Or even as a catch-all "turning on the light in a building that's probably familiar and being greeted by a surprising sight".

In the wick check, if the person being caught is going home late (whether they're a child or spouse), I've called it "caught returning late", since there isn't necessarily a curfew in place.

Only counting "caught returning late", we have 10 correct uses out of about 24.

There seem to be a few where the light switch is irrelevant, i.e. you're simply caught coming home after sneaking out. Is there another trope for that?

I see a potential "turning on the lights and being surprised by a presence", where Matchlight Danger Revelation could be a subtrope.

I'll throw in a vote for a rename, then. Maybe a trope transplant is also needed.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 4th 2019 at 5:33:55 AM

drthabbrz puts down the sword and picks up the pen . . . . . . . I hate this a little, because someone could just as easily mistake Fridge Brilliance the same way, because I believe almost any light is surprisingly bright in the middle of the night, soooo there's that . . . . so maybe, the Busted Lightswitch Surpise? Many tropes are straightfoward ( White Sheep ) but some are not ( Fridge Brilliance . . . lol) Oh, right, Busted Light Switch Surprise because hapless participant is busted.

Edited by drthabbrz on Oct 7th 2019 at 11:01:14 AM

I'm not sure what you mean. What does Fridge Brilliance have to do with this?

All the Lightswitch Surprise mentionings in connection with a Trespassing to Talk incident must go, these surprises are contained in Trespassing to Talk. I wasn't convinced that we would need a rename but after this wick check it seems necessary due to the misuse.

Edited by eroock on Oct 8th 2019 at 2:48:01 AM

I think there's clear consensus that we definitely need a page which covers "Caught Returning Late" (and I like that title, since it covers both children breaking curfew and spouses out drinking, but drilling down the name is a conversation that needs to be done).

There seems to be a second question of whether we need Lightswitch Surprise as something of a supertrope (that literally covers turning on a light and seeing something surprising.) That supertrope theoretically could have as subtropes the new "Caught Returning Late", Matchlight Danger Revelation, Surprise Party, and Trespassing to Talk (and maybe others).

I like the supertrope idea. Based on the wick check, I guess I’ll throw in my hat for a rename as well, although I feel like we can come up with something snazzier than Caught Returning Late.

Let's see, so yeah: I was referring to Fridge Brilliance not to reference it's actual use, but to show the few similarities to the general creative process here. Fridge Brilliance (ironically the "brilliance" of the refrigerator light in the middle of the night for use in comparison with the shocked curfew breaker's reaction to the unexpected exposure ("bright light! bright light!!")) refers to the remembering of some aspect or other of the solving of some half hearted conundrum suddenly - with or without anything readily apparent in the fridge - (phew) SIMILAR to the curfew breaker hopefully coming to terms with their disobedience in a very like, and shocking manner.

Honestly I'm tapped. Busted Lightswitch Surprise. In contrast there could be Busted Cur-phew for a successful curfew breaker. We could imagine a Medusa effect for this as well, but I'm not clear on how closely the trope's label should remain to (literally) the mechanisms of the devices involved. Get what I mean? o_O

Edited by drthabbrz on Oct 8th 2019 at 6:22:56 AM

Oh wait . . . Flash Pants because curfew breaker is probably breathing heavy after getting snagged?

This has been neglected for a couple weeks; would it make sense to make a crowner for the following options?

1. Just turn into Lightswitch Surprise into a page for the "Caught Coming Home Late" trope

2. Create a Light Switch Surprise Super-Trope and also make a page for the "Caught Coming Home Late" trope

3. Do Nothing

(I'd also appreciate name discussion for the "Caught Coming Home Late" trope.)

Edited by thok on Oct 26th 2019 at 1:07:06 AM

Sounds good to me.

I've made a crowner [1]; let me know if there are any tweaks that should be made.

Option 1 is basically just "rename Lightswitch Surprise to something more specific", right?