Misused: Bluffthe Impostor

I'm having difficulty posting elsewhere in the forums; I think this is the right spot, but I know that this might be off-topic. If it is, please let me know where I should put it!

Additionally, this is about clarifying multiple different tropes, Bluff the Impostor one of them. Again, if this is beyond the scope of TRS, please let me know where it should go.

I've been looking at several of the impostor-related tropes, and I'm wondering if they should be modified to be more distinct. Right now there's a lot of overlap between them, and several examples appear on both pages without really clarifying what the difference is. I want to propose the following changes to these trope pages:

Spot the Impostor: Not much of a change, as it's an umbrella trope to many of these others, but clarify that it doesn't have to be about two characters (real and impostor) in the same room, just about generally discovering that someone isn't who they claim to be.

Impostor-Exposing Test: When a person, group, or organization comes up with a test to detect impostors in advance. They may not even suspect that there are impostors at the moment, but they've already prepared for it. (i.e. a password, DNA testing, fingerprints, etc)

Bluff the Impostor: When a character improvises a test because they suspect that a person isn't who they claim to be. The difference is that the character comes up with this on the spot, rather than having it prepared, and that the character already suspects something is wrong with the impostor. (i.e. asking about someone's wife when they know the character doesn't have a wife, offering someone a food they know that person hates, etc)

Impostor Forgot One Detail: When the impostor accidentally gets something wrong. This is something the impostor gets wrong; the other characters may not even suspect that this person is an impostor at the time. (i.e. mentioning a son that they're not supposed to have, using the wrong hand to sign their name)

Cover Identity Anomaly: When an impostor using an invented identity (i.e. not pretending to be a real person) has something in their background that makes no sense. The difference is that they are not impersonating an existing person. (i.e. someone claiming to be from France doesn't speak French, a fake soldier who doesn't know military ranks, etc)

Spotting the Thread: When someone accidentally gives away a clue about something other than their identity. Because there are so many other tropes about someone hiding their identity, I feel like this should be applied to cases where a person is hiding anything else. (i.e. they have super-powers, they were in the room when the murder happened ago, they're feeling guilty)

As these tropes are currently written, there are several examples that appear on multiple pages, making it unclear exactly when the tropes apply. For example, the scene from Terminator 2 where Arnold uses the wrong name for John's dog when talking to John's mother, and she doesn't notice (indicating that she's the T-1000), appears on both Bluff the Impostor and Cover Identity Anomaly. If we modify the tropes like I'm proposing, it would now just be an example of Bluff the Impostor (because Arnold is coming up with a question on the fly), not Cover Identity Anomaly (because the T-1000 is pretending to be a real, specific person).

Similarly, there's a Spider-Man example where Peter Parker's parents have apparently returned from the dead, but Aunt May realizes they're fakes because they celebrate her anniversary on the wrong date. Right now this is on Impostor Forgot One Detail and Cover Identity Anomaly; with these proposed changes, it would just be on Impostor Forgot One Detail (because Aunt May didn't suspect them until they made this mistake), not Cover Identity Anomaly (again, because they're pretending to be real people).

I know this is super-specific and more than a little pedantic, but the way these tropes are written right now is confusing. What do people think?

Edited by TedlyAnderson on Oct 2nd 2021 at 4:34:51 AM

~Tedly Anderson: This is a little unready for TRS so I've moved it to Trope Talk first.

Thank you! For some reason I had difficulty starting a new thread on my own (it kept giving me the error message "No thread with that ID exists"), so I had to put it in the wrong place first, haha.

It's been over a month, and nobody else has said anything about this idea. Should I give up on it? Should I go ahead with my suggested rewrites? Thoughts?

I welcome this attempt at improving the distinction between those tropes. Works as suggested.

I am interested in this discussion, but don't have time to look over or offer critiques right now.