Still in the process of reading the page, but so far I agree. I could maybe see the case if you were talking about a periphery demographic (bronies, for example), but the page seems to clearly indicate that it's comparing the *target* demographic.
It's looks like there was a bit of debate in the draft
as well.
It seems to me that the point of it is to capture a creative intention to deliberately target a specific youth demographic through the tactic of using adult-coding (such as characters that are older than the intended audience) due to the assumption that kids will be more attracted to the work if it's seen as older/more mature than their own age-group. That intention would be objective (or even, possibly, trivia), but whether or not the intention succeeds will be audience reaction (does it appeal to the demographic, does it fail, or does it successfully capture an unintended demographic, etc.).
Overall, I lean towards this being either an objective trope or trivia. Whether or not it actually succeeds in capturing the intended demographic may not be as relevant as the structure of the work being chosen to appeal to a specific demographic. One troper in the draft comments mentions seeing it almost as a type of Executive Meddling, which is Trivia. So, I think the murky categorisation of this is wider than just YMMV versus Objective. I think there's a Trivia debate to be had as well.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jun 26th 2023 at 9:23:37 AM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
The trope feels like about three ideas trying to pass itself as one. At the front it assumes that five year old characters are meant to appeal to a five year old audience, which has some logic but is not omnipresent and we dont have a trope that is simply Target Audience that I'm aware of. The second is the core idea of being less about the age of the characters and more the appeal of situations the younger audience are looking forward to including driving a car or financial independence. The third is about general speculation about who the target audience is in relation to the age of the characters, which is skewing towards ymmv territory because some works may be attempting Multiple Demographic Appeal and so just because it can be appreciated by 10 year olds doesn't mean it's not intended to appeal to older audiences too.
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Should I add this to Tropes Needing TRS?
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Yes, but you (or someone else) would need to create a wick check first.
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Technically you don't need to, Nen, but it's recommended to actually prove a problem.
♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves
Added it.
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves
I don't think a wick check would help in this case, because the problem isn't the examples, but the category.
x5: He said Tropes Needing TRS, not the TRS Queue.
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Actually, for YMMV tropes, wick checks are required to prove that the tropes are/in this case aren't being used objectively.
♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves
What do you mean by "being used objectively"?
Normally, it means whether it's being used as an objective trope, that is, something happening within the work rather than an Audience Reaction or opinion. With this page the difference is a bit harder to define and I'll wait for others to flesh it out.
Edited by MorganWick on Jul 11th 2023 at 2:57:44 AM
Courtesy link.
It's about the age the protagonist is (or at least appears to be), and the demographic the work is aimed at. These both seem like objective factors to me.