Trope Idea Sounding Board

Subtrope of Mischief for Punishment?

That's actually the exact thing I was thinking of.

A trope about how reboots of works often tend to be a One-Word Title. Like Cruella instead of "Cruella de Vil". It seems common enough to perhaps be its own trope, like Mononymous Biopic Title.

That might just be a recent Disney trend, and not exclusive to their reboots. As such, it sounds like One-Word Title But More Specific.

I wonder if somebody ever considered this a trope: how in Shooters (especially first person ones) there is always only one rocket/missile launcher^note in contrast with multiple shotguns/SMGs/rifles - basically a slightly biased gun version of the One-Steve Limit. This was prevalent in older games although nowaday's shooters mostly avert this.

There may be multiple BF Gs and the launcher is one of them but there's only one.

It sounds like an interesting idea. I know Toss the Turtle had only one bazooka (pretty sure they would count) which was the second most powerful gun. You can probably even use this◊ as an image.

Well, foguring out why they're unique would help defining a name for it...

How many of them are Infinity +/-1 Swords?

I don't see how that's related to One-Steve Limit at all, though.

To broaden a little, is it a weapons version of Cast Speciation?

Double post: Do we have something that covers Subverted Sitcom? Like the plot/genre version of Stepford Suburbia and the sitcom version of Subverted Kids' Show — seems nice and happy on the surface, but something is very wrong beneath it. Got inspired by the trailer for Kevin Can F*** Himself, other recent examples are The Good Place and WandaVision.

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 19th 2021 at 1:55:08 PM

We do have Sitcom Homage Episode, but I've also thought about the more specific thing you're describing. Bojack Horseman and Close Enough do that "subverted sitcom parody with a dark secret" thing, too.

EDIT: Wait I slightly misread your post, thinking it was more for in-universe sitcom parodies than a Genre Shift. Maybe it could still be the same thing?

Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 19th 2021 at 3:09:19 PM

Ooh, interesting. Yeah, the goal is to examine or even mock the archetypes, plots, and setting of sitcoms, but not always to the extent of Deconstructive Parody. Horsin' Around is always given the This Is Reality treatment in-universe.

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 19th 2021 at 2:50:06 PM

Would Too Many Cooks count?

First of all WTF did I just watch, second absolutely.

You watched art, that's what.

Wondering if an Embarrassing Full Name is a valid sister trope to Embarrassing First Name, Embarrassing Middle Name, or Embarrassing Last Name—i.e. when each of the names are fine on their own, but sounds ridiculous when taken together (either because it forms a silly Rhyming Names, or it's an Overly Long Name).

Edited by Adept on Feb 19th 2021 at 11:30:08 PM

For the "Name as title" trope, there might be something in having the name at all, basically the opposite of Job Title.

Clark Kent vs. Superman for instance. Though, that's Codename Title-type Protagonist Title...

... I think Codename Title is in the Salvage Yard?

Oh, Gendered Title might be a valid trope too...?

Edited by Malady on Feb 19th 2021 at 9:51:29 AM

So, I noticed that the Straw Nihilist trope was originally called Nietzsche Wannabe, and thus the latter link redirects to the former. However, the title "Nietzsche Wannabe" seems to describe a different trope than Straw Nihilist (which is why the trope title was changed) — to me it suggests a character either implicitly or explicitly based on Nietzsche and his philosophy, most often portrayed in a negative light.

Therefore, would it be possible to create a new trope named "Nietzsche Wannabe" that would reflect this definition, and to eliminate the redirect to Straw Nihilist? Common associated tropes would be those stereotypically associated with Nietzsche: Straw Nihilist, The Social Darwinist, Virtue Is Weakness, Hollywood Atheist, A Nazi by Any Other Name, and especially Übermensch. There would also be a note that although Nietzsche Wannabies are often Straw Nihilists, the tropes are not synonymous.

There might be a separate trope there but I don't think naming it Nietzsche Wannabe would be a good idea. As can be seen from Creator.Friedrich Nietzsche and Analysis.Friedrich Nietzsche, some parts of Nietzsche's work are received quite differently from how they were intended. If anything, the scope of the trope should be broadened. Maybe Bigotry Justified With Philosophy?

Sure, it is irrelevant if the portrayal of Nietzsche's philosophy is accurate or not, only that it is used to justify the character's action. If you know of enough examples, sure, go for it. If it turns out there aren't enough examples you could always broaden it to include any attempts to justify or rationalize ideologies with scientific theories or philosophy.

Edited by Sirena on Feb 21st 2021 at 6:50:49 PM

I think the number of Nietzsche-inspired villains is enough to warrant its own trope. Also, whether or not the character (or the writer) actually describes Nietzsche's philosophy accurately is irrelevant. What matters is that they justify their actions with Nietzschian philosophy.

That being said, I was planning to have a note in the trope description say what you just said, that Nietzsche's philosophy is often misunderstood, and that a Nietzsche Wannabe often invokes Misaimed Fandom (on the part of the character) or Shallow Parody (on the part of the writer).

It’s a lumper vs splitter thing, but I find making the broad trope first and then deciding if the prospective subtrope is unique enough to be its own thing is a healthier approach (more wicks to start with and no risk of Missing Supertrope Syndrome) — eg. while in Fiery Stoic was in TLP people wanted to make Power Stereotype Flip first.

In addition, since merging was a TRS decision and you want to make a new trope with the same nameas the redirect, you might need to run it by TRS again.

About that post I made regarding stereotypical JRPG final bosses; while I do acknowledge Makir's feedback on the subject (that most examples already fall under Angelic Abomination and Physical God), I can't help but feel that there's still something genuinely tropeworthy about it.

To elaborate, this isn't about the fact that these characters constantly appear as eldritch or angelic abominations, but rather about how their design tends to convey it. A recurring key element I noticed is that their character design runs on the same principle as Elaborate Equals Effective but exaggerated, being highly artistic, visually striking, and very elaborate as mentioned before. The intent here is to visually emphasize their place on the "extremely high threat" end of the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat as much as possible — sometimes to the point that they end up like eyesores.

I recommend you google "JRPG final boss" or "JRPG final boss meme" and browse the image results to get a clear idea of what I'm talking about (hell, people are even making memes and jokes about it, too). If stereotypical JRPG final bosses or other similar characters still don't seem tropeworthy enough, then the "Elaborate Equals Effective but applied to character design" aspect could.

Edited by Unnerving_Posterior on Feb 21st 2021 at 11:10:52 AM

There's at least a little Flashy Protagonists, Bland Extras, so that you're not fighting a Ridiculously Average Guy-type Blob Monster for the final boss...

Then there's how it's sorta like the enemy version of Costume Evolution / Frilly Upgrade...

Also, how many of them are larger than humans? If you're bigger and have the space, stack on the details?

Edited by Malady on Feb 21st 2021 at 11:55:26 AM

So, I realized a few days ago that the trope Family Title didn’t exactly cover sibling titles - as in, it covers the works with titles that are about a family, like The Simpsons, but not the ones whose titles are about a group of siblings, like Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn. Should we distinct the difference, or is it too close to similar tropes? (exempli gratia Sibling Team)

I stuck some sibling titles in there, basically all Fan Works, but I can see the value in the split. A family does imply the parents are some of the focus, which might not happen.

Edited by Malady on Feb 21st 2021 at 8:05:16 AM

I'd kind of like to make a TLP about songs where the chorus changes (sometimes every time, but sometimes, the chorus only changes for one chorus). The most prominent I can think of is Mary Poppins, where the chorus to "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank" goes: