Ambiguous Name: The Hypnotoad

The trope has more problems than the just the name, but I felt it was the most pressing issue.

So! A while back I did a wick check for The Hypnotoad, after certain issues about the trope were raised during an IP thread (which I will get to later).

In short, I feel the name is holding the trope back immensely, as it suffers from Wiki Word syndrome in relation to the Trope Namer, the Hypnotoad from Futurama (24 examples used the trope correctly, while 12 were Futurama references). This also feels like something that is more common in media, but because of the name it isn't troped as often?

I feel like the most damning thing about this in that the Image Pickin' thread that decided the new image, many people tried to keep the old image despite it being much less indicative, with one person even being against it because it wasn't a toad... despite the description saying it didn't have to be a toad.

Speaking of the description! It does its job, but it's very skewed towards the Hypnotoad as well, which will have to be changed if we do a rename: I'd also like to bring up the "This power is the Hypnotoad's primary method of defense, and the Hypnotoad itself has few, if any, other ways to protect itself." part — in the wick check, I found like one, maybe two examples that actually referenced this. Everything else just talked about the hypnosis, and in some examples the creature actually was formidable outside the hypnosis. I'd be down for removing this part altogether.

So in short, this trope needs a better name, a description tweak, and a cleanup to remove the misuse and ZCEs — I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that the stark amount is a byproduct of the bad name and the trope being one of the older ones.

Opening. The Dog Shot First had the same problem before it was renamed to Adaptational Self-Defense.

I agree with a rename, but I don't currently have any ideas. And the fact that All Glory To The Hypnotoad exists as a redirect isn't helping the Trope-Namer Syndrome aspect.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 11th 2021 at 2:16:40 PM

Maybe something direct like Hypnosis Creature will help a lot.

Edit: Or Hypnotic Creature, which doesn't sound like a bizarre superhero name.

Edited by Tabs on Dec 11th 2021 at 12:24:42 PM

I think Hypnotic Creature would work better.

Yeah, I was thinking Hypnotic Creature or Mind Control Creature would work way better as a name.

to Hypnotic Creature

Yes to Hypnotic Creature.

Rename to Hypnotic Creature

hypnotic creature

Hypnotic Creature.

Idea for an epitaph, if allowed:

• Here lies The Hypnotoad: Once a popular creature, but couldn't live up to the hype.

Edited by PurpleEyedGuma on Dec 12th 2021 at 12:56:17 PM

Heh. Seconding that and the general rename.

Any opinions about Crossover's suggestion to modify the description?

Support it.

Full support of both proposals (renaming and redefining)

Made Sandbox.Hypnotic Creature to hammer out a new description (what's currently there is just me trying to be descriptive yet to the point). I tried to replace the Hypnotoad stuff with self demonstrating thing, but it could be expanded on or even cut entirely depending on what we want to go for.

Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Dec 20th 2021 at 7:30:16 AM

I think the sandbox description looks fine. I don’t have any opinion on the self demonstrating bits though.

L'il bump. Would like more feedback on the sandbox.