Actually, the reason why the TRS thread was closed is because TRS threads are automatically closed until a moderator approves them. None of us opened the thread, presumably because we need evidence that Black Vikings existed in Real Life in sufficient to negate the trope, not merely a reference to Google. History has shown that TRS threads without evidence quickly devolve into arguments.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI'll give you guys the evidence as soon as I get off from work. Its a short shift so this will be edited immediately as I get home.
Edit: Actually I'm an idiot, and I have an hour before I work, so here's your sources!
True Myth: Black Vikings of The Middle Ages by Nashid Al-Amin
Black Vikings By Demetrius Dillard
And these were all from the first page of just looking up "black vikings history." Hope these will suffice.
Edited by Masterofchaos on Nov 2nd 2020 at 9:03:47 AM
The trope is not "dark-skinned Vikings". It also includes WASP actors hired to portray characters like Kublai Khan and his staff, hiring Asians for a story about Pocahontas, and hiring Mediterranean actors for Goso, the Teacher.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.Then why does the Lanonic page state the trope is "Having a Token Minority in a historical setting where it doesn't make sense"? And again, why was there a real life section which instantly contradicts it? If it was just people playing a white person a la Hamilton or white people playing a person of color I wouldn't bring my concerns like this. But its not.
Edited by Masterofchaos on Nov 2nd 2020 at 10:05:16 AM
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Of your sources, one of them says nothing about black people being Vikings, another misunderstands what referring to somebody as "black" meant in Medieval Europe, and the rest insist that the Vikings were black. Not that there were some Vikings who happened to be black, that the Vikings were actually black people.
So then there's still the issue with the Lanonic, the concerns brought up in the discussion thread, and the fact that there was a real life section which instantly contradicts the Lanonic.
I'll elaborate more when my shift is over, but I just want to clarify that I don't wish to fight. Just to bring up a trope that's been bothering people both here and out of tv tropes. And sorry for some of the innacurate sources.
Edited by Masterofchaos on Nov 2nd 2020 at 10:43:06 AM
Laconics are often inaccurate and shouldn't be trusted in isolation. Take them with a grain of salt.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallStill, if this trope is meant to be a casting trope, the Comic Book, Western Animation and Literature entries are not relevant.
Everything can be found on the Internet... except common sense.I believe the trope is about a historic setting having ethnic makeup that differs from the commonly perceived ethnic makeup of a historical society. The point of the real life section of the description is to point out that the common perception of history is not always accurate. So whether there were actual Black Vikings in real life is not particularly relevant, as the common perception is that they were all white and blond.
If Black Vikings is being used to complain about people of color being cast in films, that's a problem and would be grounds for TRS. You could demonstrate that by doing a Wick Check. Without one, the TRS thread is unlikely to be opened.
"It's just a show; I should really just relax"
Click on "Related" on the top of the page. There, you can see every "wick" (an internal link on this wiki) for Black Vikings. For a wick check, you should check the square root of the trope's wick count, although wick checks should always contain at least 50 (the square root of 173 is 13, but you should still check 50). To check a wick, select a random page, enter Edit mode, then use whatever "find words on a page" function you have on your device to find where the wick is, then write down what kind of wick it is (correct usage, misuse, ZCE, etc). Do this 50 times, and you'll have a wick check.
Edited by jandn2014 on Nov 2nd 2020 at 4:50:51 AM
Okay thanks. I had more to say but you guys mostly helped so I'll do the Wick Check when my shift ends.
Again thank you!
Though I do have to wonder why we even have a Laconic page if it's supposed to be ignored, or why we have a Comic Book, Literature, and Western Animation examples if this is supposed to be a casting trope.
Edited by Masterofchaos on Nov 2nd 2020 at 3:12:59 AM
It's not limited to casting, that's just a convenient way to describe the unrealistic appearance of nonstandard ethnicities.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.Okay, so if I'm reading this properly, it's yet another situation in which a trope is given a title that is itself a [fictional] example of the trope, causing confusion to occur between the literal title and the actual meaning. /sigh
We really have too many of these. The ideal solution is to find a title that describes the actual trope. Something like Historically Inaccurate Ethnicity.
Edited by Fighteer on Nov 2nd 2020 at 7:07:59 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Well, not about racial stereotypes specifically, but yeah, we have far too many cases where the trope is named after an example of the trope, leading to confusion.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Forgot to mention this before, but we also have a Wick Check Project
thread where you can either help with other peoples’ wick checks or get help with a wick check of your own.
So, I've temporarily shifted this TRS
to the morgue because from the discussion here it seems like the problem with the trope is quite different from the one flagged with the OP. Can someone write up an opening post that describes the actual problem?

Mods, please don't lock this. I'm making this thread here because I realized that I posted this in the wrong area and I'm making up for it by putting it in the right place. Believe me when I say that I am NOT gonna post this everywhere. That being said, I am gonna copy and paste everything I said in the Trope Repair because I'm lazy and I don't want to repeat myself.
Anyway, this trope shows a huge lack of research.
To start with, Black Vikings is inaccurate. A quick google research will show that there were, in fact, Black Vikings in history. Also, there was absolutely no point in history where it was just white folks in Europe and people of color just suddenly popped up. At best, it's just flat out misinformation.
But what really hurts this trope more than anything is the fact that, before it was cut, there was a real life section that listed all the times people of color existed in Europe.
These factors pretty much show that there's really no reason for this trope to stay. Multiple people have brought up problems with this page, both on the discussion page, and on other sites such as Twitter.
Again, I have absolutely no ill intent with this. I just want to bring attention to the fact that this trope has a lot of issues and shows a profound lack of research.
Edited by Masterofchaos on Nov 1st 2020 at 7:36:50 AM