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PracticalTaunt feels like it's two (or possibly three) tropes merged into one.

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Aquillion Since: Jan, 2001
#1: Nov 4th 2025 at 8:42:36 PM

Practical Taunt.

It feels like two tropes here:

1. Abilities that are used to draw aggro, usually in RPGs. These moves are straightforward ordinary support moves you're intended to use as part of a normal strategy, and just happen to be frequently named "taunt" (but aren't always named "taunt"; some of them don't have anything to do with taunting at all.)

2. Taunt Button moves that would normally be useless, but have some hidden effect or Not Completely Useless trick. Examples of these are taunts in fighting games that increase your super meter a bit, or things like the Heavy's finger gun taunt in Team Fortress 2 that will actually kill people right in front of it (but is too slow to really be practical.) Like the latter implies, these are often not really practical, despite the name - they do something but are only effective in fringe situations.

There's no real overlap between the two aside from the word "taunt", and sometimes not even then.

And then there's a third trope, outside of games, that seems to be just "a character taunts someone else to make them lose their cool or as part of a strategy", which... might overlap with the first type, I guess.

Edited by Aquillion on Nov 4th 2025 at 8:44:25 AM

CompletelyNormalGuy Am I a weirdo? from a place where folks put cream cheese on hot dogs (Oldest One in the Book)
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#2: Nov 4th 2025 at 9:19:59 PM

I agree. This does feel like two tropes in a trench coat. If you want to split, I'd recommend a wick check to make sure that both definitions have enough examples to stand on their own.

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#3: Nov 5th 2025 at 4:35:13 PM

Started a wick check. If I don't get to it first, feel free to fill out the check.

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