Heavily misused: Oh Crap

This is when a normally confident character suddenly realises "oh shit, I'm screwed", and it shows.

It's rarely used that way.

Instead, people throw this in a Pothole to say things like "you should be crapping your pants over this", or possibly It Got Worse. Here's a quick random sample (courtesy of the pothole finder) to illustrate:

• Mezzo Forte: Misused.
  • This plan has two major problems, however: they were identified by the target's bodyguards during the kidnapping, and apparently Minoi didn't make it out alive.
• Hive Queen: Misused.
  • (...and although most tournaments' rules prevent it, standard gameplay mechanics don't stop you playing all three at once.)
• Iji: Misused (spoiler warning).
  • The Tasen attempted to but didn't manage to exterminate humanity. The result: one of the survivors contacts the Komato to try to get help. Whoops. As of version 1.6, Dan won't contact the Komato on a pacifist run, but it doesn't change anything anyway.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Misused.
  • Academagia: Many adventures and events within the game will fall into this. Especially when all the options are either red, or, (gulp) purple.
• Naruto: Misused (spoiler warning again).
  • Naruto for busting out the eighth tail. This causes the Kyuubi to put muscle on the bone. One more tail and the damn thing pops out. Oh god help us...
• Sailor Moon: Not misused (finally!).
  • DD Girl: [look of horror] A-ah!
• Yu-Gi-Oh: Not misused.
  • Mo L: Hahahaha...my turn! DRAW! (sees O'Brien walking away) Eh? (sees the activated Trap, reads it) Draw Bomb... When your opponent draws a card, this deals 1000 damage to them... (immediately realizes that he just lost) THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!! (KABOOM!) (LP counter rolls to 0 and razzes)
• Mass Effect: Misused.
  • Though he [Sovereign] does bring almost an entire fleet down with him. Without even trying.

Looks like a rename is in order here. Thoughts?

edited 5th Nov '10 2:09:38 AM by RocketScience

How often is it misused in example lists?

I think the meaning is usually understood well, but it is used as a form of "troper humor" that you should have this raction after hearing that.

If I'm right, a rename wouldn't help even something as literal as Realizing That You Are Screwed could be used this way.

I'd say kill any misuse in pot holes. Oh, Crap! is not supposed to be used that way.

Thing is, it's overly misused.

Post #1 : Nope. Any character can have an Oh, Crap!. Nothing about them needing to be normally confident in the trope description. "The moment at which a character realizes that they are completely and totally screwed."

The later statement that it's only effective if the character is normally confident and competent is both an opinion and unsupported — look at the page image — Wile E.Coyote is neither confident nor competent, and his Oh Crap moments are some of the best around.

^Clear 'em when you find 'em.

edited 15th Nov '10 8:43:16 PM by Madrugada

I agree with your assessment of competence, I disagree with confidence. I present evidence of Wile E Coyote Super Genius:

Agree to disagree. I see him as more hopeful than confident.

I wish they'd kept the "Super Genius" personality myself. The later ones were good, but the arrogance really sold the original.

...okay, that's beside the point. The thing is, Oh, Crap! being misused because of how easy it is to pothole. You could even do it with this sentence. A name that conveys the meaning of the trope, not the end result, would fix that problem. Maybe something like The Oh Crap Face?

edited 16th Nov '10 1:19:35 AM by RocketScience

Oh Crap is honestly one of my favorite tropes, so it's been the first one I've really weighed in on. So, let's see...

The best use of the trope tends to be the final cutting down of a Smug Snake, though it's by far not the only one. Anyone can have an Oh, Crap!, even heroes - it's just so much SWEETER when it happens to someone the fans love to hate. The face is important, as it's that expression that queues in the viewer that yes, this is it for this character, and there's no returning from it; however, Oh, Crap! is simply about the realization. As Hobbes says, Oh, Crap! is the moment seconds before your last, the moment of dawning comprehension.

...actually, there's a good one in it of itself, and one we can use as a Trope Namer. Dawning Moment Of Comprehension. Plays off of Crowning Moment Of Insert The Style Here within the wiki and still keeps the ideal of it fresh.

Well, I suppose that's my two cents.

edited 17th Nov '10 12:58:19 AM by HayateKusanagi

Dawning Moment Of Terror, you mean? More accurate to the nature of the trope.

I think Eternal September is correct; it's not that people don't realise that it's a trope about a character's reaction; it's that people use it to indicate that either they, the writer, or you, the reader, should be having this same sort of character reaction. So, while this does lead to misuse, the misuse does not stem from a misunderstanding of what the trope is. The title is not unclear. Changing it to make it harder to use seems counter-intuitive. I say, let it be, and fix incorrect use where you find it. Generally, it doesn't seem to really dilute the trope's meaning.

I agree this shouldn't be changed.

"Dawning Moment of Terror" seems more like the reaction one would have as a moment of Fridge Horror starts to sets in. Oh Crap sounds more like the reaction one would have after realizing they were screwed.

Oh Crap can have varying levels of intensity. Minor versions are like someone realizing their master plan is lacking a key ingredient and quietly muttering "Oh crap!" upon realization, and then there are the panicky version, like when someone realizes they are about to be shredded by More Dakka.

In short, it might not hurt to more carefully explain the proper usage at the top of the page, but the name is fine.

How does "ZOMG IZ SUPASCARY" translate into "I am so screwed"? In any case, using it that way is entirely superfluous. It should be fairly obvious if one is meant to be TERRIFIED of THIS THING AND I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

edited 19th Nov '10 12:43:43 AM by RocketScience

Test with example list entries:

• Alan Wake: One literal saying, and another I'm screwed moment" listed. Correct
• Gremlins: Reaction when a gremlin jumps into water. Correct
• Rocky: If I understand correctly, it's a moment after the shit hits the fan, but it is not traditionally incorrect. -
• Fairy Tail Seven examples, all about characters having this moment. Correct
• Westworld: Not elaborated. -
• Code Geass: "A global Oh, Crap! moment". Not the traditional usage, but the editor knows the terms meaning, and elaborates how it is different here. Correct
• Cloverfield: Potholed as "Oh Shit", quotation marks included, so it's probably even uttered in the film. Corect
• Kickassia: Character's reaction for not having quite defeated someone Correct.
• Nights Dawn: protagonist's moment at ralizing that the enemy spread through the galaxy. Correct.
• Teen Girl Squad: Ending cliffhanger. Corret

I saw no sign that the term is misunderstood by anyone, as some sort of "Crowning moment of horror".

It's also worth mentioning that by only clicking on work page examples, I only encountered 3 pages that used it as potholes, instead of listed examples, and all of them were video games, intentionally using it for the player.

edited 19th Nov '10 2:22:39 AM by EternalSeptember

Hmm... alright, I'll go with this. The argument's convinced me.

Let it stay goes my vote.

I don't think I've ever seen a trope with less need to be renamed.

However you will have to go through and kill all the bad wicks. It does help kill potholing memes but you really have to go through all of them. It's 2892 wicks. ...Or So I Heard had around 1400 so it should only take two of you .

But are they actually bad?

They are more like when tropers are intentionally writing Understatement, My Friends... and Zoidberg, or Completely Missing The Point jokes into their text, as in "this T Vtropes entry proides an example of that trope", and not just using the term for an unrelated concept, like You Suck was, for example.

I thought this was renamed to get the Ad Sense people to shut up, so I'm at a loss for what to do.

Oh Crap Reaction ?

We're Screwed?

(I don't know how to do ptitles, so I just typed that one out)

Wrap the phrase in [=~ instead of [[.

I like Oh Crap Reaction, simply because it adds something much like what happened with I Am Not Making This Up.

Misuse doesn't always equal bad name, especially if the misuse comes from potholes and not from bad entries (although potholes have destroyed tropes with good names in the past like I Am Not Making This Up).

And the trope doesn't demand any specific characterization for it to be Oh, Crap!. All it needs is the realization of being screwed. This Is Gonna Suck is basically Oh, Crap! combined with the desire to Face Palm.

Oh Crap Reaction sounds good to me. The problem with the current name is not that it's bad, it's actually a good name, it's the fact that it's a natural phrase to say, and as a result, people will look at the title without looking at the definition, and pothole it with their own reaction. It's a lesser version of what happened to So Yeah.

That would also explain why the examples on the page are correct, but the potholes are wrong.