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

Frankly, I have to question whether any of these trope concepts relate to the common use of T. rex in fiction.

The actual reasons why that species appears in fiction so often is because a lot of fossils of it are known (unlike many other dinosaurs) and it occurred in North America. It is thus better known than many other dinosaurs. All these tropes discussed here are common depictions but they are not the trope here.

The consensus seems to be that "T. rex is more often depicted than any other species" is not particularly tropeworthy, since although it might be one of the Tropes in Aggregate, single uses of it just end up as "Tyrannosaurus rex exists", which feels a lot like People Sit on Chairs rather than a legit trope.

Edited by Snicka on Dec 6th 2020 at 8:59:23 PM

We have ways to trope Tropes in Aggregate that don't require us to list chairsy examples.

Beyond that, though, all these proposed tropes are trying to make the forest to be about one tree. If there is a non-Tropes in Aggregate thing here it's Hollywood Trex.

Based on those tropes, Tyrannosaurus Rex would need an adjective or a verb just to ensure there will be no people sitting on chairs.

This is why I suggest salvaging the trope in the form of Terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex.

That was suggested all the way in the very first page, so we've gone full circle. I felt like the splitting thing came out of left field; we're talking about how to retool *this* trope, and the way to do that is to look at the usage in the wick check. Most of it is useless potholing and "T-Rex exists", the ones we do have are "T-rex antagonist". That's why I support a single, general Scary T-Rex (or whatever it gets named) trope. The "T-rex expy" thing can be made independently.

A Tremendous T-Rex? I still think it's possible that the trope could be split into hero and villain Tyrannosaurus.

Bumping. Crowner. I haven't hollered to give time for review.

T. Rexpy / Pseudo Rex (i.e. other dinosaurs made similar to T. rex) should just go through a regular TLP, right?

I’d say it’s divorced enough from this original topic to do so. There’s no evidence in the wick check that the page is being used as such.

What about the Tropes in Aggregate option, i.e. showing that if there's only a few dinos showing up, one is almost always a T. rex? I personally don't think that's a tropable concept, but others seem to have been in favor of it.

Because that's already covered by Stock Dinosaurs.

I agree, but SeptimusHeap above appears to disagree.

I added an option to that tune anyway

Bumped and hollered to hook.

Crowner hasn't been hooked for 2 weeks now...

Hollering again...

Attached it, but also downvoted most options - as noted before, the point here is that T. rex is a commonly depicted dinosaur even though there are thousands of other species with similar ecological niches and apparel which aren't mentioned. All these specific retools such as "noble", "scary" are The Same, but More Specific.

Thanks for hooking.

What you're suggesting is, in a sense, also The Same, but More Specific - it's Stock Dinosaurs (which is already a subtrope of Small Reference Pools), but limited to T. rex. The other approach, which you seem to heavily oppose but virtually everyone else seems to support, follows the logic of Animal Stereotypes (species + attribute, the latter also giving narrative context). We already have many of those for dinosaurs, including Savage Spinosaurs, Gentle Giant Sauropod, Temper-Ceratops, Social Ornithopod and Headbutting Pachy. There are pros and cons for both approaches, which I won't repeat here - one can read back the earlier posts in this thread to see them.

Six day bump. Options in the green:

• 19 (yeas:21 nays:2) 10.50 : 1
  Retool into a "king of the dinosaurs" trope about the T-rex being one of the most majestic/scary dinosaurs. (may be incompatible with the other retool options)
• 18 (yeas:22 nays:4) 5.50 : 1
  Create a Useful Notes page about the dinosaur. (not mutually exclusive with any option)
• 8 (yeas:11 nays:3) 3.67 : 1
  Rename the trope.
• 4 (yeas:11 nays:7) 1.57 : 1
  Create two tropes - one for noble T. rex portrayals, one for antagonistic T. rex portrayals (may be incompatible with the other retool options)

First three are in consensus range, all other options in the red.

Four suggestions for the rename:

• Tyrannosaurus Rules
• Awesome Tyrannosaurus
• Conversely, Tyrannosaurus Awesome
• T Rex Is Awesome

Call it King Of Dinosaurs or Tyrant Lizard King. "King" implies "awesomeness".

Edit: Or we can go punny and call it Tyrannosaurus Rocks or T Rex Rocks.

Edited by Snicka on Jan 13th 2021 at 7:46:03 PM

King of the Dinosaurs would work better than Tyrant King Lizard cause it parallels with the King of the Beasts and I don't think anyone would mistake the Dinosaur King to be anything but T. rex.

Though I would choose Tyrannosaurus Rules because there are so many multiple meanings to that trope (like it's cool, there are rules to Hollywood T-rex, and they did rule the dinosaurs).

I'm fine with King Of Dinosaurs, or maybe King of the Dinosaurs, but I do think Tyrannosaurus Rules is catchier. Tyrant Lizard King doesn't sound like it's referring to T. rexes; it sounds more like it's referring to evil Lizard Folk (or maybe Jim Morrison dressed in a dictator uniform).