Misused (Alt Names crowner 23 May 2021): Olympic Swimmer

This page is supposed to be about characters swimming unrealistically easily, with both "swimming underwater is something anyone can do without practice or training" and "characters don't get tired swimming" mentioned in the description. But it's used too often to refer to, well, Olympic swimmers, or just characters or powers with in-story swimming abilities. 65 of 116 intrawiki inbound links are from Characters/, when this isn't supposed to be a character trope (it's intended to be an Acceptable Break from Reality mostly applicable to video games), so before even looking at any of them specifically there are signs of rampant misuse, some of which seems to be seeping onto the trope page itself unless I'm misinterpreting the description.

In sum, out of 50 links we have 17 correct, 31 misuse, and 2 ZCE, with the caveat that the lines can get somewhat blurry with some of these (also I did this on Monday so it may be slightly outdated). It was one thing when I encountered it being misused for literal, actual (or almost) Olympic swimmers, but when it's just used as "can swim well" it basically means anything that's a Justified Trope (specifically when they actually mention putting in the training) is misuse. I tended to pre-emptively declare video game classes or units as being correct when I might not do so for analogous situations in other media (since a specific subset of characters being able to swim would seem to imply an explanation even if it's not given), though if anything that might have the effect that I understated the misuse above.

Several of the examples above (at least five by my count) seem to refer to being able to swim well as a power, which is something I'm not sure we quite have; Super Not-Drowning Skills comes close but, like Olympic Swimmer, is phrased as a video-game Acceptable Break from Reality, and the next-closest thing might be Apparently Human Merfolk (!). Merely being able to swim well, but at realistic human levels, is something I'd be inclined to declare People Sit on Chairs, though I could be convinced otherwise since it can have an effect on the story. Being a literal Olympic swimmer is definitely Chairs though.

Opening.

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

I wonder if this trope was intended as a swimming sister-trope to whichever one's the "character able to sprint forever without tiring" trope. Both are under Acceptable Breaks from Reality.

Another problem is that the trope seems to require a character "inexplicably" being able to swim (normally, not superhumanly) well when there are plenty of ways a 'til-now-unseen swimming ability can be justified. And there ARE numerous "justified" examples in the morgan check and OPEs.

Maybe Improbable Swimming Skill (or alternatively, the plural Improbable Swimming Skills) would work as a name.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 12th 2021 at 3:16:14 AM

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

Maybe rename to Improbable Swimming Skills or Everyone Is An Olympic Swimmer.

Keet cleanup

Improbable Swimming Skills

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

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Also throwing in my hat for Improbable Swimming Skills.

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Edited by callmeamuffin on Apr 13th 2021 at 1:40:13 AM

Come play Character Uplift Game!

Remind me, how do we separate this from Super Not-Drowning Skills?

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

Super Not-Drowning Skills is the ability to breathe underwater for extraordinarily long amounts of time, despite usually not being able to do so, like due to being human and having lungs. I'd say Improbable Swimming Skills should be different enough from that.

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

You know, the "without practice or training" qualifier makes me wonder if Olympic Swimmer might be worth splitting into multiple tropes:

• One for characters with explicit swimming-related abilities
• One for characters who have trained to swim very well
• One for certain swimming feats being depicted as unrealistically easy

On a related note, Tabs brought up a good point. Do we actually have a trope for characters who can run/sprint indefinitely without getting tired?

Plot-Powered Stamina is the closest I can find for characters doing a task without getting tired, but what you mentioned still sounds distinct from that, since Plot-Powered Stamina is a plot trope and what you mentioned has more to do with a character's abilities.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 14th 2021 at 5:57:20 AM

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

Do we need a crowner or something here?

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I think the decision for a rename is unanimous. the question is whether we want to split it into multiple tropes as suggested by IMXO.

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

I'm not sure if the first two bullets are actually distinct concepts (since anyone who's trained to be a swimmer will just be a justified example of the first concept, I feel), but the third one is definitely distinct and sounds like an Artistic License trope.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Perhaps create a disambiguation page between the renamed trope and a Olympic Swimmers article?

SKREEEEEEEONK!

Why would we need an Olympic Swimmers article? It has nothing to do with storytelling.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Agreed; not everything is worthy of a Useful Notes page.

Keet cleanup

We can just refer folks to Wikipedia.

As for splitting, I am not keen on splitting unless folks can come up with sandboxes with examples for each proposed trope. There are too many TRS threads that go awry because of folks asking for splits without the necessary legwork.

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

Well...how about this?

We cut the trope as-is and yard the proposed definition ideas. Then if someone down the line wants to adopt the ideas, it'll be up to them and the TLP-goers to supply examples.

That way, this thread can close, and we can let the tropes be made down the line, in a more natural creation process.

Later, if the tropes end up being launched, we can always revive "Olympic Swimmer" as a disambig page.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Honestly, that feels like taking the easy way out. My sense is that we need to consider a rename to something like Super Swimming Skills or so but without splitting unless someone does the legwork to make sandboxes for any additional trope. And someone should consider sending Super Not-Drowning Skills to repair because it has Video Game Fan Myopia problems.

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

Fair enough.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Super Swimming Skills actually sounds like a good name.

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