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Also seems to have a knack for creating walls of text.
EDIT: Courtesy link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/el.php?findfor=merlinxchick
As a sidenote, should the Big Brother character pages be renamed to avoid having the US series take precedence over the UK series naming-wise? In other words, Characters.Big Brother US 1, Characters.Big Brother UK 1, Characters.Big Brother Canada 1, et cetera.
2025: the year it all ends?I am going to suggest, somewhat radically, that the Big Brother character pages (and, indeed, characterization tropes in general) be savagely curtailed or even removed entirely, under the grounds that reality shows are, at least technically, about real people.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I think most media-savvy people know that reality shows of that nature are about "real people" to the same extent most movies that are "based on a true story" are about real people. They may be real people but they're still real people playing a character.
Rocks fall, everyone miraculously survives.The character, in this case, is how they are edited and presented to the audience by the show's producers. Whether participants in reality shows are "acting" is debatable. The point is that we are troping the pretense that is given to us by the show, and that is a very flimsy basis for many of the tropes that I've seen used.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"If anything, pro wrestling proved that audiences, even after kayfabe was "official", have a hard time separating the performer from their character.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Imma oppose here. Acting is not Real Life.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanBut reality show participants aren't usually acting or following a script - or at least the conceit is that they aren't. They put on a persona on the show, which may not be their normal personality, and they are edited and presented in a certain way , but the point is that the way they are perceived by the audience tends to stick to their real persons, not to a fictitions character.
So troping a reality show is, I think, troping real people.
Still. A Reality Show is a work. The format and presentation matter.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI tend to agree with Gnome Titan. Reality show participants have said repeatedly, starting from way back when Survivor and The Amazing Race were still new, that what you see on the show may have little to no resemblance to the real person. I see no reason that we shouldn't trope the characters as the producers and editors create them.

Can somebody do something about the troper, "merlinxchick"? Regularly clogs up pages by adding literally HUNDREDS of unnecessary tropes that don't fit proper definitions. Check out this page to see what I mean: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/BigBrother16
I sent her a PM, she either ignored or didn't see it.