Does Not Illustrate: Could Have Avoided This Plot

The trope is about when characters in a story realize and point out how the problems that they are experiencing could have been avoided if they had just done something differently early on. The trope has often been misused as a reaction trope, a bit like Fridge Logic, in which tropers will just explain how they think the plot could've been avoided. The trope image doesn't help because it doesn't demonstrate the trope, and instead supports the misused version of the trope. I don't know what image would be better, but I think it might be better to have no image at all than to leave this image up, giving people the wrong idea as to what the trope is about.

Opened.

The image may be a parody, but it's still in-universe. It's clearly not an audience reaction.

Keep Until Better Image Suggested.

The problem isn't that it's a parody. It's that it doesn't demonstrate the trope. The trope would be if one of the characters said "wouldn't it have been easier to just trade the shoes for the broom?" What the comic is is more of a For Want Of A Nail alternate What if retelling of the story, which isn't this trope. And it is a fan reaction. It's the comic artist reacting to the film and creating a fanfiction, which is what all the misusages are trying to do. In any case, the image is leading to misuse and that needs to change.

Nobody has suggested a replacement image. A replacement image would have a character commenting that they could have avoided a major obstacle or situation, or it could be BUPKIS. Either way, pull the current because it's misuse, and possibly open a TRS thread if that doesn't resolve misuse.

EDIT: From a wick check, I think most people are using this trope correctly.

Edited by LaundryPizza03 on Oct 25th 2020 at 7:55:44 AM

I agree - the image doesn't illustrate the trope at all. What it does is to show (in a joking way) that Dorothy could have avoided a lot of trouble by acting differently. But for this to be the trope, it would have to be a character in the work who had that reaction, not the author of the comic.

Could we pull the image until one that actually illustrates the trope is found?

Now that I've looked at some of the examples, I'm good to pull the current, it feels like it's illustrating something other than this and isn't listed as an example on the page.

How does this image◊ look?

Tentative pending other suggestions.

Pull current.

^^ Could work.

Edited by eroock on Oct 25th 2020 at 7:11:06 AM

Exactly!

to that.

11 is pretty text reliant, but it's good enough if the current is misuse.

Done and tagged; caption?

Old pic:

No caption needed, it's already pretty text heavy.

I'm good with no caption. Going ahead and locking.