TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

"Idiosyncratic"

Go To

MissConduct (Septatroper)
#1: Oct 26th 2024 at 12:11:37 PM

idiosyncratic {adj.} - "a peculiarity of constitution or temperament: an individualizing characteristic or quality"'
Merriam-Webster's

So, the TRS thread for Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage, among other issues that trope has, the fact that the word "idiosyncratic" in the title made no sense for the trope. "Idiosyncratic" means "something that is very unusual or unique to one individual", but IMS's definition was "Mechs that can make themselves more compact, usually for storage purposes," and most of the correct examples were either for humanoid mechs kneeling with their heads down or curling up into a ball, which is neither unusual nor specific. Someone else brought up how Idiosyncratic Cover Art was also very weird, since it describes itself as "Multiple releases in a franchise use the same style for cover images, some together may even make a bigger image", which is basically the exact opposite of idiosyncratic, as each cover follows a theme.

So, I went looking for all our "Idiosyncratic" tropes to see if there were any other weird cases like IMS and ICA, and I found an incredibly mixed bag with regards to how well "idiosyncratic" works in the title. Of note, some tropes have very low inbound counts relative to their wick count, which gives me the impression that those ones are not popular offsite terms. From largest inbounds to smallest:

  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels (719 wicks/19243 inbounds): "Using labels other than "Easy", "Medium" and "Hard" [to talk about video game difficulty levels]." This trope probably uses "idiosyncratic" the most accurately - this trope is about individual games using their own set of labels to their difficulties besides "easy/medium/hard". Since the "easy/medium/hard" set is still commonly used enough to have diversions from it be notable, I would say that yes, these labels are "idiosyncratic".
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming (2912/14508): "Episode titles following a theme." This is another case of people mistaking the word "Idiosyncratic" to mean "connected by a theme", which is not correct at all. If the majority of a show's episodes follow a strict patternnote , then that's not idiosyncratic. That's Theme Naming. And on the larger scale, unlike the concept of easy/medium/hard difficulty levels, there are almost no standards for what episodes/works in a series can be called, so by that standard, every series has Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. note  "Episode Theme Naming" would be more accurate for the trope as it stands.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming (419/12417): "Referring to a couple using a regular word (suffixes optional)." This one also makes some sense, since Portmanteau Couple Name and Name/Name ship names are also very common and using something that involves neither character's name is relatively unique.
  • Idiosyncratic Wipes (489/4433): "Variations on a scene transition, usually to fit the series or a specific state of mood." Since a handful of Screen Wipes are pretty common, like the Iris Out, this is pretty correct use of idiosyncratic.
  • Idiosyncratic Combo Levels (108/2164): "Creative names for several different score tiers." This is another trope that's like IEN since combo level names aren't nearly as standardized as difficulty levels, so something like "Creative Combo Levels" (compare Creative Closing Credits) would be more accurate.
  • Idiosyncratic Cover Art (168/1114): See above, and what I said in IEN about how all episode title schemes are idiosyncratic also applies here as, Trend Covers aside, all covers/cover themes are idiosyncratic.
  • Idiosyncratic Ratings Scale (28/700): "A ratings scale that uses unusual metrics, as opposed to common scales like the five/ten star system, a numbered point scale, or thumbs up/thumbs down." This I suppose is accurately idiosyncratic, since there are traditions to break from, but once IMS gets cut this will be the least thriving wick-wise out of all these tropes. It is just barely clinging onto not-starving.
  • Idiosyncratic Album Theming (44/549): "A band has a unique element common to all their albums". This trope is just a mess in general. IAT describes itself as the musical equivalent of IEN, and yes, almost all of the examples about album titles are also on IEN, but other examples seem like they should be Creator Thumbprint, Once an Episode, or even Mascot.
  • Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage (23/482) (is being handled back at TRS)
  • Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture (35/326): "Gestures unique to certain cultures, real or fictional, are demonstrated in fiction." This one's weird and feels like it both wants to be a catch-all for cultural-specific gestures that don't warrant their own page (such as "Silly Me" Gesture) and for fictional hand gestures (like the page image). What about either is idiosyncratic is beyond me.
  • Idiosyncratic Menu Labels (43/310): "A video game titles basic menu functions like "New Game", "Load", "Quit", etc. into something fancier." This is another one like IDL or IRS where I feel like it's tropeworthy as a concept and is cataloging a difference between a usual set (in this case new game/load/settings/quit/etc.)

Ironically, the way we use the word "idiosyncratic" is, itself, very idiosyncratic. So what do you guys think? Do you guys think either the misuse of the word or how it seems to mean something different with almost every trope is a problem?

StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#2: Oct 26th 2024 at 12:33:50 PM

It is kind of a trope title buzzword, but with some exceptions like Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage, I don't think buzzwords are necessarily a bad thing.

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#3: Oct 26th 2024 at 12:38:10 PM

In some cases, it may be intended as something that makes the work unique, not in that every example of it is unique. So for the episode titles and cover art tropes, it may be saying that the themes are a unique element of the work. That usage seems to pop up a lot, actually. It's an idiosyncrasy of the work itself.

Edited by WarJay77 on Oct 26th 2024 at 3:38:55 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Lymantria Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph from Toronto Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.
Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph
#4: Oct 26th 2024 at 1:51:24 PM

[up] Yeah, I think that’s the intent for ones like Idiosyncratic Episode Naming and Idiosyncratic Cover Art. Even if any of them are clearly misusing the word, I’m not sure if that’s enough for a rename (but see the rename of Role Reprisal to Role Reprise for similar reasons).

Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!
MissConduct (Septatroper)
#5: Oct 26th 2024 at 3:43:48 PM

I agree that trope buzzwords aren't inherently bad, but I also think that's reliant on the buzzword meaning the same thing across all its uses. "Gambit" is used to mean "a high risk high reward action" on both Batman Gambit and Wounded Gazelle Gambit. "Idiosyncratic" isn't one of our Loaded Trope Words, but given how many tropes it's used in, it's totally mistakable for one.

There's also the issue of, like Role Reprisal, if someone may have made an earnest mistake on the definition of the word.

Edited by MissConduct on Oct 26th 2024 at 6:44:47 AM

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#6: Oct 26th 2024 at 4:30:55 PM

Thing is, I don't think the word is misused here.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Reymma RJ Savoy from Edinburgh Since: Feb, 2015 Relationship Status: Wanna dance with somebody
RJ Savoy
#7: Oct 26th 2024 at 4:37:58 PM

Some of them seem to use "idiosyncratic" as shorthand for "themed idiosyncratically for the work". It's not good usage, but I don't see that it's causing misuse.

IMS seemed to have started off as hoping to collect various ways in which they fold up, but eventually had to accept that most of them just kneel. (It was seven years in TLP.) It may also have been added in the same vein as the "Our Xs Are Different" tropes, which have been found to be better at attracting context over tropes simply named "Xs".

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.
MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#8: Oct 27th 2024 at 4:03:00 AM

Idiosyncratic Episode Naming is very old and I do get the sense it was meant to be "idiosyncratic to the work". Precisely because there's no common scheme to episode names across all works, things like Friends' The One With stand out as vaguely quirky. It may have become subject to bad snowclones over the years, though.

EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#9: Oct 27th 2024 at 10:52:10 AM

I think the issue is that the relationship between "Idiosyncratic" and media discussion is not well defined by the site, which simply broadened the scope it's applicable to rather than being a misuse of the term. For example, Idiosyncratic Episode Naming can be:

  • The work compared to other works: Avatar: The Last Airbender called their seasons Books and their episodes Chapters.
  • The installments within the work: Friends always named their episodes "The One With..."
  • The Myth Arc compared to the Filler: In a Half-Arc Season the important episodes make a reference to ghosts or demons
  • A Once a Season episode being different: A specific character returns and it's always a single word
  • A sporadic episode has a name has with no story reason other than being different: Every couple of years there is a title that is Breaking the Fourth Wall just because it can.

"An individualizing quality" is pretty much an impossible definition for a site that is all about cataloguing recurring patterns, so that's why it was used as a broad "trying to be different" concept. When it comes to universal things like work names, individualizing qualities of a name is pretty well in line with the definition and purpose of the term Idiosyncratic.

That said, I think some of the tropes it's being applied to simply have better options available because it's a lot more specific than episode names. Like Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture could be Fantasy Cultural Gesture and nothing would be lost.

Edited by EmeraldSource on Oct 27th 2024 at 11:01:35 AM

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
Urbenmyth Since: Feb, 2020 Relationship Status: One True Dodecahedron
#10: Oct 27th 2024 at 1:50:33 PM

I think "Idiosyncratic" is being used totally normally here?

The episode titles are idiosyncratic, they're named in an unusual way that's unique to this series. This is what it seems to mean in all your cases - "idiosyncratic to this work", which seems a perfectly reasonable use of the word.

In all these cases its discussing something that's unique to one individual series/game/movie/whatever. I don't really see the problem?

Edited by Urbenmyth on Oct 27th 2024 at 1:51:37 AM

SoyValdo7 I mainly fix indentation issues from La tierra de lagos y volcanes Since: Sep, 2022 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
I mainly fix indentation issues
#11: Oct 27th 2024 at 7:18:00 PM

[up] Yes, but they are unusual based on what, what is the usual way to name an episode? There is not really a standard model for naming episodes.

Valdo
StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#12: Oct 27th 2024 at 10:37:42 PM

[up]I disagree. When TV episodes get titles at all, they're normally titled after their own content, without regard to what other episodes are called. There's no broader pattern being filled out, in other words.

That said, I do agree with the point that this would be more accurately encapsulated with a trope name like Episode Theme Naming, but unless we have proof of misuse, there's no actual reason to.

Edited by StarSword on Oct 27th 2024 at 1:38:17 PM

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
Add Post

Total posts: 12
Top