Needs Help: Elemental Ignorance

OP by amathieu13

There's a lot going on here. First, the page has been around since 2011 and has only 19 wicks, making it starving. Second, and more importantly, I'm not even sure this is tropeworthy as written. I opened up a Trope Talk thread about this, but to save y'all the click, the laconic and parts of the description say that this is for when a character with Elemental Powers deliberately chooses to fight at a disadvantage. Putting aside the fact that this idea doesn't need to be limited to elemental powers, other parts of the description muck up just how "deliberate" this needs to be, like the second and third paragraphs (the third paragraph is a jumble at an attempt to scope that doesn't really seem to land).

As I wrote in the Trope Talk thread, this doesn't read like the character is choosing un-ideal fighting conditions, or rather, what's influencing the choice has nothing to do with the fighting conditions. It's a bad matchup, but that info seems like a non-factor to the character's choice. A lot of the trope (and many of the on page examples) reads like Fridge Logic.

And on top of this, Morgan Wick pointed out that this sounds like the comparatively more objective tropes of:

• Poor, Predictable Rock: Someone always uses the same kind of tactics/abilities and thus is easily countered.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Using one (usually) generic power or weapon for every situation.

They also noted that in the original draft, the sponsor didn't even intend for this to be limited to Elemental Powers but went with the name (and thus the framing) in lieu of a better name. [1]

Recommendation: Given the lack of wicks (and few inbounds), murky description, and the idea overlapping with two more objective tropes, cut, merge with Poor, Predictable Rock, or disambig b/w the two tropes above. Personally prefer the cut, but would be fine with any of the three options.

Pinging ~amathieu13

Anyways, seconding a cut. We can always move any examples where applicable.

Edited by Berrenta on Oct 3rd 2023 at 10:32:12 AM

Cut it due to the low wicks and inbounds.

I think the idea of "fighting at an intentional disadvantage" might worth yarding, if no trope existed for the idea.

Willfully Weak?

Doesn't I Am Not Left-Handed cover this as well?

I think a lot of these tropes cover this too. But again due to the low wick count and inbound count, I'd just say cut it. A disambig wouldn't be worth it.

We also have Fights Like a Normal and Deliberate Underperformance for other "character deliberately doesn't use their full potential".

Cut. I think the idea of "character waits for their luck to run out in a fight" is definitely tropeworthy (I know, that's not quite what this trope is). Tall Order Draw? Luckiest Stone Wall?

Cut

Cut

I also vote Cut, by the way.

My elemental abilities all involve cutting starving tropes like Elemental Ignorance.

Cut!

Cut.

Fine with cutting.

Cut

Cut

I'm not sure if this is enough consensus, but the majority vote is pointing towards this trope being cut (due to the low wicks and inbounds) and moving the on-page examples/wicks to other tropes.

Wicks done; preparing the cut.

Time to close.