Misused: Only Child Syndrome

Do we actually have examples of characters angsting about being an only child that isn't covered by Siblings Wanted (which has nothing to do about angst, but still)?

The first thing that comes to my mind is Rainbow Dash, who couldn't bear being near her parents because they gave her too much attention as their only daughter, as shown in "Parental Glideance". They were just proud of her accomplishments, but they couldn't stop bragging about her in public.

Another common use seems to be "Only child characters grow up spoiled, contrasting neglected middle children".

I do think we have some nuggets of actual trope ideas here, it's just that as-is it's very...meh.

This could be a situation where a Trope Transplant would be the best option. Put the current definition at a new page and create a new trope at Only-Child Syndrome.

Possibly. There's honestly a lot going on with it, with the "families are unimportant to the plot" angle being tropeworthy to some and not so much to others, and the misuse potentially being tropeworthy as well, and the title being vague... Trope Transplant is one solution for sure.

Bump. I have these outlined as potential crowner options so far. Assuming I understand what a trope transplant is, 1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive and neither are 1 and 3, but 2 and 3 are. An alternative titles crowner for both can be run if both 1 and 2 pass?

1. Trope Transplant: Use the name "Only Child Syndrome" for a trope about stereotypes about only children, akin to Middle Child Syndrome. Would involve things like Siblings Wanted.
2. Keep this trope but trim the description to make it clear that it is about works where characters inexplicably have no siblings, akin to World of No Grandparents.
3. Cut Only-Child Syndrome.
4. Do nothing.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jun 5th 2020 at 2:32:41 PM

Options sound good to me, though there's probably more we can add.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jun 5th 2020 at 2:39:30 PM

Make a separate option for "Rename to something clearer", like World Of No Siblings?

I think that would be a good idea.

In addition, as I previously mentioned, I think Unclear Description would have been a valid reason for this thread — the description is long and unclear.

Bump as it's been almost a month: Crowner

Are 1 and 2 mutually exclusive?

No — by "this trope" I meant the current definition. I phrased it as "this trope" to also allow for the possibility of transplanting.

There are, however, some conflicts, so I hope we don't get two contradictory things to pass.

Bump for crowner hooking.

Li'l bump.

We've definitely hit consensus, let's call it.

Why the trim? It only has 3 net votes and seems incompatible with the other option.

Yeah, the trim failed to reach consensus. (8:5 in favor)

It doesn't even matter. We cannot do both a total rewrite and a trim, so we'll do the one that actually won the vote.

Edited by TheMountainKing on Aug 8th 2020 at 10:50:30 AM

Yeah, I was gonna say the two seem to be mutually exclusive. Though the idea of a world filled with only children might be tropeworthy.

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible to do both simultaneously even if they did both reach consensus, which they didn't.

What is the workflow for when a trope is transplanted and the original definition is cut? Do we dewick first?

(I just want to note that I did not intend for trimming to be mutually exclusive with transplanting, and I wrote a comment to that effect earlier. I envisioned it as if both that and transplanting won, Only-Child Syndrome would get the 'stereotypes' definition, and we'd rename to World Of Only Children or something. Ah well)

Edited by Synchronicity on Aug 18th 2020 at 2:01:54 PM