Complaining: They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot

Like, does our current definition actually exist as a common audience reaction? In my own fandom experiences, the discourse is definitely more along the lines of "The creator should've done this because it would've been cooler", not "this plot idea was underutilized".

How about this? Redefine They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot as an objective trope (kinda in the same way Adaptation Decay or Fan Hater is) with Character becoming a redirect, and make it be about when either characters In-Universe or someone reviewing something thinks something is wasted potential. Expand the scope to include when they pitch other directions the story could have followed, maybe still not allow the "execution sucks" examples if that's all they're meaningfully saying, so you can keep examples of a phenomenon that is very common while discussing works. It can do this while limiting random user's thoughts thanks to its high subjectivity and misuse. I think that's a fair compromise to make. Maybe those legitimate examples can all be moved to What Happened to the Mouse? anyways.

So something like I suggested in the OP regarding Roger Ebert's opinion of Cowboys and Aliens?

Yes, precisely. Just make it exclusively focus on that aspect because reviews do it all the time, and occasionally characters will state this too. I think with the current name still in tact, it's the best way to save it.

I am not for keeping the current name at all besides a disambig at best. It is too ingrained in site culture.

Though we'd have to be really careful, because not changing the name means people who don't know it's IUEO (which will be anyone who doesn't bother to check the trope page at any point after this) will continue to use it on YMMV pages.

If we wanna get really drastic, we can do something to the effect of Getting Crap Past the Radar where we nuke all examples and wicks (expect maybe for the ones on work pages that we know will fit the new criteria) and give a little waiting period to start adding new wicks.

I don't actually think that worked, either; most of the cleanup hadn't finished by the timer running out, and it just left a bunch of outdated notes everywhere that I'm still finding today.

I was completely against it initially, but an objective "Unused plot elements" may work, similar to What Happened to the Mouse? and Fauxshadow. What I still don't like this is that it could just move all the current issues from YMMV to main.

Edited by Amonimus on Apr 22nd 2022 at 8:05:45 PM

Isn't that Aborted Arc?

Aborted Arc requires a plotline to start, what I'm referring to are plotlines that have the setup but either haven't started at all or a newly introduced element is utilized instead.

Edited by Amonimus on Apr 22nd 2022 at 8:08:59 PM

I don't think "underdeveloped" can be troped objectively aside from an In-Universe opinion, and how many such examples of that do we have?

There's a phenomenon where a writer will pass their latest draft around to a group for editing and comments and often there's at least one person whose idea of constructive feedback is "your writing is good but personally I don't like this premise/genre/theme, have you considered changing it to tell a completely different story" and the correct response is basically always "no, because I don't want to tell that story, I just want to tell this one as well as possible".

This page feels like people continuing to do that after the story is already published.

So then... do we have a trope here?

That's what I'm saying. I'm not sure the current definition even actually exists as a reaction, and it's impossible really even quantify what counts and what doesn't.

Then in that case, I'll say I'm in favor of just cutting it.

I actually came across one of these notes just a few hours ago. I had forgotten about that restriction, too.

The current name is probably unsalvageable and people are rightfully questioning if it's a valid trope. (Wick check didn't seem to bring up enough In-Universe examples to justify a move.) Unless we move to Darth then our only other option is probably to cut it.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 22nd 2022 at 3:59:34 AM

If not preserved at Darth Wiki, I suppose disambiguating it between Left Hanging, Fanfic Fuel, Fan-Preferred Cut Content, Aborted Arc, Worse Than It Sounds, can also work, as most examples I'd consider good enough could be described as the combination of the first two of these. Both options may not be mutually exclusive.

Edited by Amonimus on Apr 22nd 2022 at 2:01:54 PM

I'm not opposed to a disambig.

Disambiguating doesn't sound like a bad idea.

iirc another TRS thread pointed out that some other problematic trope was turned into a disambig and continued to attract wicks due to how prominent it was. I cannot for the life of me remember the thread or trope in question, though.

I don't think disambiguating would help any.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 22nd 2022 at 11:14:55 AM

Foe Yay? That was a disambig for a decade before we finally incinerated it.

Maybe we could do the same for this that we did for Foe Yay? Cut it, but with a disambig list as the reason?

We could decide on whether to move to Darth, disambiguate, or cut and faux-disambiguate like Foe Yay when the time comes to make a crowner.

Yeah, it was Foe Yay.

Admittedly, Foe Yay also had around five times the inbounds of TWAPGP (58,092 vs 10,830). I'm not sure what its peak wick count was, however (the page lists 3,840 redlinks at the time of its cut), so I cannot say how much more intrenched it was into the site and thus if it was more inherently problematic as a result. Though I'm guessing it was by a lot more based on personal experience and the general prominence of the similar Ho Yay.

I still think making TWAPGP a disambig would be a mistake, and I'd consider trying to move it to Darth before cutting it. Though the cut option shouldn't be discounted.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 23rd 2022 at 1:42:12 AM