Opening.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I'm not sure this trope is all that usable, because it relies on us assuming real world knowledge of why a certain creative decision was made. Those kinds of tropes are always hard to manage.
Edited by TheMountainKing on Dec 17th 2020 at 3:32:40 PM
Gentleman Troper!
So, "the work contains a dragon but not in a story-relevant way"... isn't that by definition not a trope?
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
Well, dragons don't exist in Real Life so by definition their presence in a story is deliberate by the author, i.e a trope. That said, I think we made Garnishing the Story in part to catch these examples when an element is inserted just because it's cool. And we already have Our Dragons Are Different for general dragon tropin.
I'd probably advise to disambiguate Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons between Garnishing the Story and Our Dragons Are Different.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Disambiguating sounds fine, per what was said about Our Dragons Are Different.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Gentleman Troper!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'd suggest to just redirect it to Dragon Tropes, because that page already disambiguates between all kinds of dragon-related pages.
I don't think that would be a good idea since the Garnishing the Story aspect ain't covered there. A disambiguation between Garnishing the Story and Dragon Tropes is a better play IMO.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I agree with Septimus that this is supposed to be a sub-trope of Garnishing the Story. So maybe it's worth keeping, except I don't know how many wicks would be left if we cleared all the misuse.
I'd like to apologize for all this.
Gentleman Troper!
I mean, the current content is indeed (mostly) an example of Garnishing the Story, but people who follow a link named Awesome Dragons are probably looking for the index of dragon tropes.
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
I agree with the concern that if we did a clean-up we wouldn't be left with enough good examples to justify keeping the trope around, assuming this wick check is representative.
In its current state it's pretty analogous to the ex-trope Everythings Better With Princesses, which underwent a "split" of sorts. Gratuitous Princess (princess in a work that doesn't need it) :: Gratuitous Dragon?
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
As a lumper I'd be happy to see gratuitous dragons being folded away under Garnishing the Story or Rule of Cool.
How sweet it is
I'm fine with Gratuitous Dragon.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
I am definitively opposed to Gratuitous Dragon as I don't think that Garnishing the Story should be subdivided by object. It will just invite bad trope proposals and PSOC examples to other tropes.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Gentleman Troper!
Seconded.
How would we even define 'gratuitous' in Gratuitous Dragons?
(Actually, I have the same concern about the princess trope, but that's another discussion.)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Gratuitous here would mean that the dragon isn't added because it's sensical or plot-relevant or meaningful, but simply because dragons are cool and they enhance the story. They're added for the sake of being added.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Which is why I suggested "in the background".
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Just noting that the trope is already listed on Garnishing the Story. Essentially we’re considering a rename...?
Basically. That or cutting the trope.
Rock'n'roll never dies!
Gentleman Troper!
That and removing examples about dragons that are important to the story, or non-dragons that use the title "dragon".
Crown Description:
What would be the best way to fix the page?
Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons is supposed to be about dragons added to a story only because dragons are popular. The article explicitly says the work cannot be about dragons (i.e. mutual exclusion with Dragon Works), the dragon(s) cannot be major or secondary characters, and the dragon(s) are unnecessary.
Too many wicks ignore these parameters and instead list:
Wick check (52 wicks):
Edited by KD on Dec 16th 2020 at 10:04:11 AM