Fan myopia running amok: It Was His Sled

So there was some discussion in another thread. And it turned into a discussion about the page itself with the general consensus that most of the examples seem to be the result of Fan Myopia. And the page seemed to have turned into "post spoilers to shows you think other people should watch."

So what should be done about this?

edited 30th Sep '10 7:19:48 PM by Marioguy128

I think the examples should be cut off.

Well IMO examples should only be added by people who have never watched the series/movie before but there is no way to enforce that.

I keep wanting to run through that page and delete every example I don't know.

Hence the discussion. Should we resort to that?

What I think is more of an issue than the examples listed on It Was His Sled is the belief that those examples as so well known that they're acceptable to list without spoilers elsewhere. This has come up in Image Pickin' a couple of times.

That said, I'm for cutting the example list. Fan Myopia is inescapable, and even if you aren't getting any spoilers out of it, the examples aren't very useful compared to those listed on the more specific subtropes of Twist Ending.

I almost would say that to put an example up there we would have to use a crowner like this and it takes 20 votes or something to be put on the page. (same thing for a Meme)

There are definitely a good, sizable chunk of examples on the page that I would say aren't exactly common knowledge, but a lot of that might just be because I'm not too familiar with some given mediums as a whole.

Anime & Manga? Never watched/read one in my life and never discuss them; I wouldn't know a thing about anything in that folder. Video Games? Seeing all the Final Fantasy games listed right off the bat when I've never played one or discussed them leaves me pretty clueless.

The only folder that I'm perfectly content with that I would like to think is listing truly widely known endings and revelations is the Film folder, and even then I'm sure a bunch of us here who have never heard of The Crying Game, Network, or Videodrome... And then there's Scanners, which outright points out that most people probably don't know that the iconic exploding head◊ (WARNING: Graphic Content Therein) came from this movie. If most people wouldn't be familiar with the source movie, then how could something like this be as universally known as Citizen Kane.

It's probably just a safe bet to just cut all the examples.

See I' ve never watched or read anime or manga either, but just from hanging around in the forums I know that the End Of Evangelion is something about 'they all turn into Tang'. It came up in the 'rename Instrumentality' thread.

I don't know I mean there are some really well known examples out there (Aeris dies, Luke's father, and the Trope Namer itself.) its worthy of still having examples the requirements for examples need to be toughened up more.

I know Luke's Father, the Sled, Aeris dies, and the tang one. And the last three are without ever having seen the media in question. I would keep those. There's a lot of stuff on there though that is just spoilers for no reason. The others I know on there, Gwen Stacy dies. Soylent Green is people. Planet Of The Apes. Old Yeller.

edited 30th Sep '10 9:40:47 PM by shimaspawn

Hmm. Seems there was some discussion on the discussion page for deleting all the examples.

The problem is that as tropers, we are not viable judges of what fits this trope. We are simply too embedded in popular culture to say what twists have truly undergone Popcultural Osmosis.

Soylent Green is people. Planet Of The Apes. Old Yeller.

Those seem like they're in sled territory to me. Especially the second. Isn't Planet of the Apes Ending a trope?

Well, it was.

edited 30th Sep '10 11:06:40 PM by Arha

There clearly needs to be some sort of reasonable criteria if the page is going to have examples.

One thing to keep in mind is that the "you mustn't spoil the ending" mentality is fairly new, outside of mysteries and whodunnits. For instance, for all that it was advertised as having a "shocking ending", the trailer for Soylent Green all but gives it away with a shot of body bags on the conveyor belt at the factory. That's one reason that many of the legitimately It Was His Sled entries are older works.

A great many issues are resolved by locking out the examples. That's done. Closing this one.