Really a Useful Note: Neutron Bomb

This trope has been around since at least 2010 according to the page history, but in that time has attracted a rather small 75 wicks. It think it's because the description is rather unclear.

There seems to be two different ideas clumped together on one page here. First, there's the Real Life weapon that we know as the Neutron Bomb. The trope description is large and unwieldy, and looks like it was made as a subpage for Nuclear Weapons. Second, there is the tropable concept of an explosive weapon which deals little physical damage but kills a lot of people. Effectively a Depopulation Bomb, but that title has already been taken for a more general concept.

For example, let's take a look at the Film folder:

Several examples, sometimes without context (Repo Man), sometimes chairsy (Robocop and Banlieue 13) are describing a literal neutron bomb. For Repo Man and B13, the fact that it's a neutron bomb is not inherently tropeworthy: the trope at play there is Empty Quiver. With Robocop, it's used to enforce the South African regime as particularly immoral; the same effect would be achieved by mentioning that they've deployed ordinary nukes or biological weapons against their own population. Others are describing the actual trope (Wrath of Khan and Halo), but are clearly not traditional neutron bombs.

Ergo, I think this page should be split. Move the Useful Notes stuff onto a new page or possibly merge it with one of the existing nuclear weapons ones, and TLP a new trope out of Literal Depopulation Bomb (title pending).

Edited by Morgenthaler on Jun 29th 2020 at 10:53:04 AM

This was quietly opened.

Is it Useful Notes material/tropeworthy or already covered by Artistic License – Nuclear Physics? Ignoring chairs, misuse, and fantastic examples, if it describes actual nukes that aren't as destructive to buildings as they should be, that sounds redundant with the artistic license trope.

Since Artistic License – Nuclear Physics exists, having this as a trope might be redundant with it. Either way, the current description for Neutron Bomb already reads like a Useful Note, so the transition would be easy.

Conceptually, pages like Artistic License – Nuclear Physics are meant to be used as proto-tropes, as catching ground for examples that can be then spun off as their own tropes. So I am not sure that it'd be a good idea to merge the "inaccuracies" part into that trope.

How many examples are there following the idea of wiping out human life yet keeping the infrastructure intact? That seems to be the core part worth salvaging. A good share of the description could be folded under an Analysis tab.

I think the key to the trope is that weapons that kill people but don't destroy property are called a Neutron Bomb, even though in Real Life that's not true.

What we need establish, ideally through a wick check (hint, hint), is how many examples actually involve both concepts (called neutron bomb, kills people not objects) versus just one or the other. Not comfortable splitting without looking a larger range of examples.

Edited by naturalironist on Jul 31st 2020 at 4:24:37 AM

I didn't make it clear last time, but my previous post was meant to be a comment and not a vote (hence why I said "might be" instead of "is", and why my comment about the transition to Useful Notes was hypothetical). I was too tired to completely think things through at the time, and that includes how to word the post.

I might as well hold off on a proper vote unless the thread creator does a wick check; until then, I agree that some of the description can probably be moved to an Analysis page (though regular description cleanup already doesn't need TRS, due to the Projects thread).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jun 30th 2020 at 8:47:44 AM

Clock is up with no progress; closing.