for Backing into Danger. Crosswicking after moving is also valid.
While I wouldn't call this not thriving in the purest sense of the word (not Starving per Wick), Backing into Danger and clearing out misuse sounds like a good idea.
Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)Agreed with Backing into Danger. I can't help but wonder if Walking Backwards is worth converting into a disambig.
Maybe it could be disambiguated. I think the targets should be Backing into Danger, Backing Away Slowly, and Moonwalk Dance (though it's walking forwards but moving backwards)?
Edited by Piterpicher on Jul 15th 2021 at 4:05:05 PM
Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)I'm not fundamentally opposed to a disambig but I also don't see any reason to think it necessary.
Most of the actual misuse involves one of the following:
- Backing away from a threat, which isn't particularly tropeworthy in itself as it's expected human behavior
- Miscellaneous uses of walking backwards or giving the appearance of doing so, which were generally covered by other tropes,
- Backing Away Slowly (only two instances and they were both on-page, not wicks).
I'm not sure a disambig is really needed because I think it's pretty self-evident that the name doesn't even accurately describe the trope. It's much to broad at best, and misleading at worst.
Disambiguating Backing into Danger, Backing Away Slowly, Nice Kitty..., and Moonwalk Dance would essentially be attempting to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist.
For changing it to Backing into Danger and cleaning misuse.
Renaming to Backing into Danger should solve future misuse, the current name is just too vague.
The description includes:
And one of the entries on the page describes an example of this:
- In Van Helsing, upon realising there's a werewolf in the large armoury with her, Anna does this in true "horror movie idiot" fashion by walking through the middle of the room (leaving herself open to attack from all sides) while brandishing a pistol (which, being a ranged weapon, gives an even more compelling reason to look ahead and try and spot the monster from as far away as possible). She also commits the other stereotypical horror movie mistake of not looking up, despite knowing that werewolves are capable of a Ceiling Cling.
Should this be considered a variant of the trope and grouped in with it, or a related but separate trope?
Well, it's been almost four days, and the vote is 16-0 in favor of the rename.
I've also taken the liberty of updating the description, submitted for your approval. I don't think I've changed anything substantial about it, just made the writing itself less amateur-hour and needlessly smug/complainy.
Backing into Danger is a perennial horror trope, particularly in the Survival Horror or "monster movie" subgenres, but it can just as easily appear in action movies, or any movie with a strong element of suspense. It can take various forms, but the most basic version is that a character backs into something dangerous or scary because they didn't think to look in the direction they were actually moving.
A less cartoonish variation of this trope can occur when a character isn't obliviously walking straight backwards, but simply fails to protect their blind spots properly. For example, a soldier or police officer may be skulking through hostile territory, but instead of keeping their back against a wall, they simply leave their back unprotected. This can lead to them walking right into danger because they couldn't adequately watch every exposed angle.
Yet this trope need not be limited to horror films. Comedies, cartoons, and less-serious films often play this trope for laughs in various ways, the most common method being two people both walking backwards while searching for a threat, and colliding with each other. This often results in a Jump Scare for the characters, without or without a Reactive Continuous Scream. This was especially popular with Hanna-Barbera cartoons, particularly Scooby and Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.
Subtrope of Failed a Spot Check, which is about failing to notice something important even when actively looking for it. Contrast Backing Away Slowly, which is about backing away from an awkward or crazy situation. See also Behind the Black, which is when objects or people outside of the camera's view are assumed to be completely absent, even when they would logically still be nearby.
Edited by HeavyMetalHermitCrab on Jul 27th 2021 at 3:45:10 AM
Looks like it's unanimous.
Will make the move to Backing into Danger in a moment.
Edit: The video game example will be omitted as it's a general example. Using the description rewrite; if it needs to be adjusted, we can make the adjustments on the page.
Edited by Berrenta on Jul 27th 2021 at 9:04:01 AM
I checked the Related page just now and saw that the wicks have already been moved (the only one left is on the wick check sandbox), so is the description rewrite all that's left?
I got a rock for Halloween.

Walking Backwards is a poorly written, not-thriving page whose definition is technically "backing up while looking around, only to back into something dangerous (can be played for laughs).
Naturally, it's being used for all manner of instances of walking backwards, from Backing Away Slowly to simply backing away from danger.
At the very least, it needs a name change like Backing into Danger, or it could be cut and yarded. I could rewrite the trope description, but I don't have many examples.
Wick check:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Sandbox/WalkingBackwardsWickCheck