Not Tropeworthy (alt names crowner 17 Jan 2021): Tyrannosaurus Rex

Tyrannosaurus Rex is about any occurrence of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in fiction which doesn't strike me as a tropeworthy concept. As troper Snicka mentioned in the Trope Talk discussion, it's one of those old tropes where they just listed all existing occurrences of a certain type of creatures (we had stuff like Frogs And Toads or Fat Cat in the past). And what's more, the trope description is pretty long-winded and Useful Note-typish.

T. rex is the single most iconic dinosaur depicted in fiction so there is a pattern here. The question is if this isn't sufficiently covered already by other tropes like Stock Dinosaurs or Prehistoric Monster. Alternatively, there may be room for a more sharply profiled trope called something like T Rex Are Bad News similar to Bears Are Bad News. Compare the recently launched Savage Spinosaurs which at least narrows the focus on Spinosauruses posing as the villains of the story.

Wick check:

The complete wick check of 60 samples can be found here. As to be expected, there isn't much useful information to get out of the examples. The basic categories are:

1. Potholing of "T. Rex" in running text: 40%
2. Work features a T. Rex: 40%
3. T. Rex as an antagonist: 20%

Notes:

• Since there isn't much context given in the examples, some of the category 2 examples may as well fall into category 3.
• Keep in mind that I only sampled work pages. The overall ratio of potholing is probably much higher across non-work-related pages.

So, is there anything salvageable here or should we just cut the page?

Edited by eroock on Nov 21st 2020 at 6:45:12 AM

~eroock: I think we need a proper Wick Check here, sorry. What is presented here is too anecdotal to justify a thread.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Ok, opening with the wick check.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Cut for being prehistoric chairs. The examples that feature antagonistic T. rexes (which are outnumbered by sinkholes and "work features one or more T. rexes" examples) can be sandboxed and added to the Trope Idea Salvage Yard (maybe Tyrannical Tyrannosurus Rex or just Tyrannical Rex would work as a name; the latter is more in line with Temper-Ceratops's name).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Nov 19th 2020 at 3:41:52 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

I'd be up for cutting and saving valid examples for a Tyrannical T Rex trope.

Rock'n'roll never dies!

Cut it, salvage the tyrannical idea.

I'd like to apologize for all this.

Let's gather some more opinions before we cat, but I'd be willing to sponsor a "Tyrannical T-Rex" trope, seeing as I just got done with my last TLP obligation for TRS.

Is this Useful Notes worthy? The page seems decently informative and it'd be a waste to just cut it all. The T-Rex being a pop culture icon might justify it getting a UN page.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

I don't mind moving some info to a UN page and letting Imperial make the TLP draft.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I think there is a case to be made for a Garnishing the Story subtrope for T. rex, because media often treats tyrannosaurs like T. rex and Allosaurus like beings made of pure awesome, more so than other animals and even other dinosaurs. You can see this in the page image for Cool vs. Awesome, for example. So I would suggest retooling the trope to be about tyrannosaurs being treated in universe as exceptionally badass, cool, awesome, what have you. Or is this too similar to Everythings Better With Dinosaurs?

Regardless, ++ to moving the current description to a useful notes page — T. rex definitely deserves one.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

If anything, this should be made so it's about unrealistic, stylized, or things-similar-to-Tyrannosaurus-rex depictions, in the vein of Raptor Attack.

I think the main trope here is that T. rex is much more commonly cited by name than other dinosaur species.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

So we have four different ideas here:

• T. rexes are scary.
• T. rexes are cool.
• T. rexes are inaccurately portrayed.
• T. rexes are more often portrayed than any other dinosaur.

As you see, all of the four can fit under an existing trope - but some of them might work as viable subtropes.

I think the best of those is "scary", mixed with a little bit of "cool", in line with the other dinosaur stereotype tropes. "Inaccurately portrayed" doesn't seem worth splitting from Artistic License – Paleontology, and I think "commonly cited" will just devolve right back into "exists".

I agree.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

If the trope is "T-rexes are scary", then I have a few name suggestions (beside the above suggested Tyrannical Rex or Tyrannical T Rex): Terrifying Tyrannosaur, Terrifying T Rex, Terrible T Rex, Tyrannosaur Terror, Tyrannosaurus Wrecks.

If we go with that definition, almost any name would be better than just using the name of the species itself. Well, except Everything's Worse with T. Rexes.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

I'm responsible for this trope's existence.

Cut it. Terrifying Tyrannosaurus is probably tropeworthy.

Ukrainian Red Cross

Yeah, I'm for turning this into a "Tyrannosaurs are scary/evil" trope. I think having this be a "Tyrannosaurs are cool" trope would just be a more specific version of Everythings Better With Dinosaurs.

So specifically I think tyrannosaurs are often treated as the ultimate and most powerful dinosaur and thus often the most dangerous or evil one. This is part of the name— Tyrannosaurus rex literally means King tyrant dinosaur. This combines the cool and scary aspects but is a bit richer than just “T Rex as an antagonist”.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

In that case, I think Tyrannical Rex would be the best name, since "tyrant/tyrannical" is more evocative of authority/power.

Let's go with Tyrannical Rex then, incorporating T. rexes that are scary, powerful, or both. Tyrannosaurs that are initially scary but are revealed to be friendly and/or do a Heel–Face Turn are subversions, cute T. rexes like Barney the Dinosaur are plain aversions.

(x10)

I like this trope idea. Maybe we can call it All Dinosaurs Are T Rexes?

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

Nah, that definition seems to be more of a Tropes in Aggregate where you can only spot the pattern when analyzing a large number of works featuring dinosaurs. When listed in individual works, it'd likely just become "T-Rexes exist", as Synchronicity says.

I can see your point. I withdraw my claim.

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