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Faceless Masses describes itself repeatedly as an animation trope, but it... isn't restricted to animation at all?

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Aquillion Since: Jan, 2001
#1: Dec 30th 2024 at 7:36:40 AM

The description for Faceless Masses seems to have been written by someone who was only thinking about the trope in animation; it describes it as an animation trope repeatedly, explains why it is used in animation, and makes no acknowledgement at any point that the trope is used outside of animation.

The examples, on the other hand, are full of non-animation examples, and not just one or two "anime-inspired webcomic artist" ones but enough to make it clear that no, this trope isn't about animation specifically at all. The animation sections are a bit bigger than the others, but not by much, and that's mostly because the anime / manga section also includes a bunch of manga-only examples that either used the trope in the manga version prior to being an anime, or were never made into an anime at all.

I was going to just fix the description, since it seems like an obvious oversight, but I figured I should run it past people here first just in case there's something I'm missing, since toning down the "this is an ANIMATION trope, for ANIMATION" heavy-handedness would require rewriting almost every part of it.

MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#2: Dec 31st 2024 at 3:16:23 AM

It's old enough that, judging by the archived discussion, there may still have been a lingering sense that this is TV Tropes at the time.

I suppose the question is whether broadening it would require TRS.

Edited by MorganWick on Dec 31st 2024 at 3:16:56 AM

StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#3: Dec 31st 2024 at 6:50:13 PM

[up]I don't think so, this is just a description rewrite. The actual definition of the trope isn't changing here.

Edited by StarSword on Dec 31st 2024 at 9:50:39 AM

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#4: Jan 1st 2025 at 9:25:09 AM

The question is whether the emphasis on animation makes it even perceived to be definitive enough of the trope to require TRS.

Aquillion Since: Jan, 2001
#5: Jan 2nd 2025 at 6:48:20 AM

Alright, I tweaked the description. It actually didn't require as many changes as I thought, just swapping the first and second paragraph, tweaking the wording to be a bit less definitive, and adding some bits about it in other media.

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