So, rename into Standard Fantasy Races?
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That would be an excellent proposed name.
However, the trope also applies to sci-fi races.
The trope could be split to Standard Fantasy Races and Standard Sci Fi Species.
Edited by Nen_desharu on Nov 5th 2020 at 12:43:28 PM
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There may be some similarities but even equivalent races within fantasy and sci-fi tend to diverge in meaningful ways. For example traditional fantasy elves often tend to be more Functional Magic or nature-based, while "space elf" races tend to be very technological and rely on Psychic Powers.
Could be worse
How about Standard Humanoid Races or Standard Humanoid Species (personally, I prefer "species". As a biologist it always bugs me when clearly systematically unrelated populations are described as different "races". It even supercedes the MST3K Mantra for me.)
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- Well, Half-elves and orcs are things possibly... So sometimes they can interbreed, so Races makes more sense there?
Especially since how we defined... Ah. Species Title...
Edited by Malady on Nov 6th 2020 at 3:33:47 AM
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I still think inter-race dynamics in fantasy settings and how well said races fit into certain archetypes are tropeworthy concepts.
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Keep with species. Yes, I know a vulcan-human hybrid or klingon-human hybrid shouldn't be possible because they're different species... but it does. They're genetically distinct populations, even if they can somehow interbreed though magic or whatever.
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Could be worse
After thinking on this clean-up and rename a little further, I think that the different Sci Fi species can be removed from the trope altogether and it would be more efficient to limit this trope to Standard Fantasy Species.
For Sci Fi species (standard or not) we've already got Human Aliens, Rubber-Forehead Aliens, Humanoid Aliens, Intelligent Gerbil, Insectoid Aliens and Starfish Aliens.
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If we really want to be technical, multiple real-life species can and do breed with each other to produce fertile offspring (even ones as distant as bottlenose dolphins and false killer whales sometimes), so there's that. I would be in favor of using Standard Fantasy Species over Standard Fantasy Races myself, especially because "race" is a very charged term and I also do not care for how it gets used in fantasy.
Splitting recurring science fiction species off into a thing of their own also sounds like a reasonable idea. They're certainly pretty distinct.
Edited by Theriocephalus on Nov 6th 2020 at 11:18:39 AM
The Unknown
"Species" is kinda dehumanizing and I'm pretty sure most fantasy games use "Race" as the term. We generally go with what already exists for trope names so it should be Standard Fantasy Races.
Plus "Species" is way too broad for the intended definition.
Edited by Karxrida on Nov 6th 2020 at 1:09:38 AM
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While "race" is a charged term it is what these works use and we should stick with the actual terminology.
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We could go with Groups, or Cultures, I dunno.
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Calling it "Cultures" would make people confuse it for Fantasy Counterpart Culture.
Most fantasy works call these groups "races" despite the word being incorrect and historically charged, so I think it's fine to follow suit and call this trope Standard Fantasy Races.
The racist subtext is unfortunately a pretty major part of the trope and a frequent criticism of fantasy, so I think we would be whitewashing to remove that subtext.
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- Due to its J. R. R. Tolkien origins?
Possibly another way to phrase the 5 is The Fighter, The Mage, The Scientist, The Average, and the None?
Although there's tons of bullets, there doesn't seem to be many true works... Only ~100?
And I'm really unsure about this, as how Weapons are another type of Human...
- While it is not emphasized all too much, Soul Eater has the Stout Meisters, or fighters; the Fairy Witches, the highly magical species; the Mundane Humans, whom the meisters and weapons protect; the Shinigami are the High Men (although we only know two); and the Weapons would be the Cute, as over half of them are incapable of self-defense and are always told to stay with their meister, in weapon form while in combat.
Edited by Malady on Nov 6th 2020 at 5:20:04 AM
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Gentleman Troper!
The catch is that there rarely are exactly five, and many shoehorns. Your slightly-different set of categories doesn't alleviate that.
Even the supposed Trope Maker, The Lord of the Rings, doesn't have exactly five races (there are four core races, humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, and lots of sub-races and minor races).
It truly is Five-Man Band by another name.
Which adds an extra incentive to remaking it into a Standard Fantasy Races trope.
Well, that's currently leading the crowner; although it's still too early to call.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I agree with AlleyOop that using the word "culture" instead of either "races" or "species" would make the name sound too much like Fantasy Counterpart Culture.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Nov 8th 2020 at 5:11:44 AM
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Calling in favor of rework + rename.
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Do we need another crowner for the name, or is everyone agreed on Standard Fantasy Races?
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