Audience-Alienating Premise cleanup

Yep, that's much better.

This is listed on Total Trauma, a Total Drama fancomic:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: At least as of 2022, Total Trauma is... divisive amongst the Total Drama fandom. Many fans are averse to such a depressing take on the Total Drama series, and even those that would be interested in a Total Drama Deconstruction Fic are often turned off by the focus on Heather's relationship drama and the reliance on Wyatt's own headcanons to the point where the characters often don't feel like their canon selves. The portrayal of Sierra, the retconning of popular ships like Aleheather, and the controversies involving the author only make it harder for people to like it.

I have some issues with this entry, primarily that the premise is not the main issue with the comic, as noted by the entry's implication that this only really became an issue this year (the comic first came out in 2019). In fact, many people are interested in the premise of the comic, but not the specifics of the execution, i.e. the headcanons and stuff. The entry also mentions a bunch of things that are outside the premise. Also the comic is still decently successful, often cracking the 1,000-note mark on Tumblr with almost none of them being insulting, which is rare for TD fanworks.

So is this even valid, or should I just move the meat of it (that some people don't read it because of the depressing premise) to Angst Aversion?

If it doesn't, that should be cleared up in the description.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 28th 2022 at 12:59:15 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Doenst this not apply to fanworks?

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."

From YMMV.Bomberman Act Zero:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: It's a grittier, darker take on Bomberman, so it already had an uphill battle. The single-player requires you to go through 99 levels with no lives, no continues, and no way to save your game. And despite multiplayer being one of the cornerstones of Bomberman, the game has only online multiplayer with no local equivalent. Nobody thought that any of this was a good idea.

I brought this up in the complaining thread with some other entries but didn't get any suggestions on what to do.

The entry in question talks less about the premise, and more about the frustrating gameplay, complete with complaining at the end. Should it be rewritten, kept as is, or cut?

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

The premise was a good idea, so cut

MB Pending | MB Drafts | MB Dates

Thanks, it's gone.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

I dunno, I think it should probably stay. The game did horribly in reviews upon release, though I think you might need actual sales figures to show if it fits Audience-Alienating Premise.

It did fail as a game (it's on So Bad It's Horrible), the question is whether the gritty premise is the problem as opposed to just the gameplay.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Actually on second thought I think the premise was alienating. That just wasn't how it was written. If I can find proof the game sold poorly I may rewrite and readd.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

This entry under AudienceAlienatingPremise.Western Animation doesn't really talk about the show's premise and sounds more like They Changed It, Now It Sucks!.

• The 2015/2016 reboot of Blinky Bill, to fans of the "classic" (1992-2005) series. Fans were extremely divided about the new character designs, and whether the switch to CGI animation was a good thing or not.
  • To add insult to injury for fans of the classic series, they also changed most of the supporting cast. Blinky and Nutsy are still there, of course, along with Splodge, Marcia and Wombo... but there's no Flap, as well as no members of the Dingo family. In fact, Marcia is the only original character from the classic series to return, since Blinky, Nutsy, Wombo and Splodge all appeared in the original books from the 1930s.
  • Replacing Flap is a frill-necked lizard named Jacko, who takes Flap's place as Blinky's sidekick. ^note A character named Jacko already appeared in the classic series, but he was a kookaburra, and there was also a frill-necked lizard, named Ruff. Jacko was also a kookaburra in the original 1930s books, so essentially changing his character to a completely different species was considered by the fans to be a huge middle-finger towards not only the classic series, but also to Dorothy Wall's books.
    • Due to all of these changes infuriating and alienating the fans of the classic series, as well as Australians in general due to said series being just as, if not more iconic than the 1930s books, it's no wonder why Yoram Gross and Flying Bark made the decision to Un-Reboot the series a few years later.

Would it be OK to remove this?

Hqamilicious

YMMV.Mario The Music Box.

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• Audience-Alienating Premise: The very execution of this game when it comes to depicting the Super Mario Bros. characters (like Mario being able to die more easily compared to his canon depiction) and the Animesque original characters and artwork pretty much drive even Mario series fans away. Many people question why Mario characters are involved in this game in the first place, commenting that nothing would change if they were original characters instead.

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Fanworks are exempt of AAP and this example is less about the premise and more about the fact that Mario characters feel out of place on the game.

Edited by Braz on Aug 13th 2022 at 6:40:23 AM

Found this on Billions

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The show is centered on two deeply flawed protagonists who savage each other through the worlds of hedge fund management and white collar criminal investigation. People who want someone to root for will be hard-pressed to sympathize with either side, and people who can't follow the dense financial and legal concepts will be hard-pressed to understand what the hell is happening.

I'm not exactly familiar with the show but it currently has six seasons, so I'm not sure if it really failed to attract audiences. If someone is more familiar with the show, feel free to let me know if it's misuse or not. Thanks.

That's a terrible example. First, the show's sheer success automatically disqualifies it from this trope (a show that runs for seven seasons has an audience). Not to mention "show has morally grey characters" is, for a lot of people, the draw of certain shows.

And "the subject material is too smart for most audiences" is more than a little insulting. Good tv writing lets audiences understand and follow the stakes of a show, it's characters motivations, even if they aren't subject experts.

Otherwise people wouldn't watch just about any procedural.

Found this on The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: It's a lavish Disney musical... about people fighting over nineteenth-century politics. Yippee.

That sounds hilarious if done right.

I'm unsure, though the last part should definitely be cut as it's complaining (or at least comes off that way to me) and Word Cruft.

That film is a Box Office Bomb according to the Trivia page, so it's possible people were alienated by the premise.

Recently this was added in YMMV/Equestria at War:

"Audience-Alienating Premise: The idea of a My Little Pony mod for Hearts of Iron turns off a lot of potential players as many MLP fans are not terribly interested in a war game, much less getting deep into the mechanics (or increasingly high cost of entry) of Hearts of Iron IV, while most Hearts of Iron fans are turned off by the idea of playing a mod about technicolor ponies. As a result, despite the effort put into it rivalling or even surpassing other famous mods, the mod never makes the most played/subscribed mods list in the yearly player data developer diaries where Paradox shares telemetry about what countries are most played, what portion of players play modded, and what mods are most played (or at least subscribed), while mods like Millennium Dawn or Red Flood regularly feature. If you need further proof, just compare how relatively barren the trope pages for this work are compared to the trope pages of The New Order: Last Days of Europe and Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg."

Personally, I believe this is misuse. Equestria at War is one of the most popular Hearts of Iron 4 total conversion mods out there. It is the sixty-four highest rated mod in Steam Workshop(which does not sound like much but considering there are tens of thousand mods available over there being #64 is actually pretty impressive) more than 400,000 downloads according to Steam, hundreds of Steam awards and many videos on You Tube that have view counts raging in the thousands(including a collaboration from Kaiser Cat Cinema that currently has over 96k views). It may not quite be popular than Kaiserreich or TNO but it is still a big name in the Hearts of Iron modding community.

I mean, its a weird premise and is still pretty niche but that has more to do with it being a mod for a PC-exclusive grand strategy game with a step learning curve then it's out there premise. Thoughts?

Beware, I live!

It's also a Demographic-Dissonant Crossover.

Kirby is awesome.

I was going to say "no, somehow I don't think those fandoms overlap as much as the bronies claim", but yeah, if we already have a more specific trope for that situation I'm fine listing it there.

Edit: Just don't write in the "will no one Think of the Children!?!?" tone of some of the examples on that page already. :/

Edited by nrjxll on Sep 11th 2022 at 2:10:34 PM

There is no doubt it's a much better fit in Demographic-Dissonant Crossover, but please avoid the snarky Think of the Children! tone.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Sep 11th 2022 at 9:23:12 AM

Kirby is awesome.

Well then, we seem to agree that the example is a better fit for Demographic-Dissonant Crossover then Audience-Alienating Premise. I will delete it and add a note saying that if someone wants to restore it, they should do so in the Demographic-Dissonant Crossover page.

Beware, I live!

(Regarding the discussion of Stunt Flyer earlier in the thread, regardless of whether it's AAP or not I thought I'd mention I copied it to Single-Attempt Game.)

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Audience Alienating Premise requires the work to fail, yeah? I found an example on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that doesn't seem to apply, since the series was a success, making this an example of And You Thought It Would Fail. However, the example mentions that things like the Denser and Wackier humor, as well as Adaptational Personality Change for characters like Leo and Splinter still put off some people from getting into the series. Pretty sure this is still misuse though, cut?

Sandbox help wanted.

Yeah, that's misuse. The work has to be a flop in some way because its very premise alienated audiences.

At best, that entry probably fits They Changed It, Now It Sucks! better.