TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Merge into ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Legally Dead

Go To

rhebus Since: Sep, 2010
#1: Oct 27th 2010 at 4:45:53 AM

Legally Dead was launched recently. Although it didn't arise in the YKTTW discussion, Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated is very similar, and shares many of the same examples.

Legally Dead is simply a character who is declared legally dead; Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated is a Legally Dead character who is Not Quite Dead. But the alternative — Legally Dead and Dead for Real — just isn't terribly interesting. Any example interesting enough to go on Legally Dead could also apply to Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated and vice versa. Therefore, I think they should be merged (into Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated, since it is the older trope).

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#2: Oct 27th 2010 at 5:47:59 AM

I think it should be separate because it can be a major plot point. If somebody is Back from the Dead, they may not be able to access any of their stuff because they were declared dead.

Fight smart, not fair.
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#3: Oct 27th 2010 at 7:55:18 AM

Agreed that they need to stay separate. Legally Dead is one trope. It may or may not lead to a second trope, Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated. Merging them means that we have nowhere to put examples of people being declared "legally dead" that don't progress to "Reports of my death..."

rhebus Since: Sep, 2010
#4: Oct 27th 2010 at 8:52:55 AM

I agree that it's possible to have Legally Dead but not Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated. I just don't think it's interesting enough. Someone is Killed Off for Real and a death certificate is issued. It strikes me as People Sit On Chairs.

shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#5: Oct 27th 2010 at 9:05:54 AM

You don't need to be Killed Off for Real to be Legally Dead. There are other reasons that it can happen. Sometimes it's done on purpose and then the character gets a new identity to hide out in, and you don't need to be Legally Dead to have Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated.

edited 27th Oct '10 9:07:11 AM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
blackcat Since: Apr, 2009
#6: Oct 27th 2010 at 9:23:36 AM

Keep them separate. Legally Dead is the result of a legal process. The other may result from gossip, conjecture, sleight of hand, apparent disappearance, any number of things and has a different set of implications.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#7: Oct 27th 2010 at 9:42:54 AM

And Legally Dead has been used to drive entire plots — Martin Guerre, for example, requires Legally Dead, but leaves the question of is The Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated true or not.

edited 27th Oct '10 9:43:05 AM by Madrugada

rhebus Since: Sep, 2010
#8: Oct 27th 2010 at 4:07:25 PM

Ok, I think you've convinced me that these could be separate tropes. However, I think that the boundary needs to be made clearer: currently Legally Dead lists examples which involve presumed death whether legally dead or not (Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit is presumed dead but we don't know of any Shire legal system for him to be legally dead); and ROMDWGE lists examples of *any* premature death report, of which Legally Dead would automatically be one (such as Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers).

Basically, my main gripe is that — in spite of the conceptual differences highlighted above — almost all of the examples of Legally Dead could be cut and pasted into ROMDWGE because they fit that just as well. (The exceptions: Zero Punctuation and [[Hackers]]). The tropes might be conceptually different, but in practice Legally Dead almost always implied ROMDWGE.

rhebus Since: Sep, 2010
#9: Oct 29th 2010 at 2:28:38 PM

Well it seems I'm not convincing anybody. I know when I'm in the minority; this thread can be locked.

Also, apparently I should remove the repair shop tag from Legally Dead, but it doesn't seem to be in the source. How do I do it?

edited 29th Oct '10 2:31:25 PM by rhebus

Micah from traveling the post-doc circuit Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#10: Oct 29th 2010 at 2:39:10 PM

Part of the problem is that the description of ROMDWGE is a lot more specific than the examples — the description boils down to "Faking the Dead Gone Horribly Right", but a lot of the examples are situations where the "death" is unintentional, or where the character was actually dead but then resurrected.

132 is the rudest number.
Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#11: Oct 29th 2010 at 3:36:33 PM

The tag goes away when the TRS thread is locked.

Fight smart, not fair.
rhebus Since: Sep, 2010
#12: Oct 29th 2010 at 4:21:05 PM

Ah, I got confused because How To Fix A Trope includes the step "Remove the Repair Shop Tag".

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#13: Oct 30th 2010 at 4:25:03 PM

Go to the thread and click the "holler to a mod" button and ask them to correct it.

Fight smart, not fair.
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#14: Oct 30th 2010 at 6:04:11 PM

Taken care of. Thank you for catching that.

Add Post

Total posts: 14
Top