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From Always Female: An index of characters that are female at least 90% of the time. [...]For the other 10%, see Gender-Inverted Trope (aka. a "rare male example").
Yes, male examples may be included on Spoiled Sweet, remember to call it a Gender-Inverted Trope and include the example there as well. Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Alright, cool. There have been cases where editors have de-linked or unlisted examples based on their being on the Always Female index, so I wasn't sure if there was an additional rule I was missing.
To my understanding, male examples of Spoiled Sweet in the past tended to be shoehorns. So perhaps this is a case where too many gender inverted examples are shoehorns.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Well, the trope is currently defined to fit teen girls and young women. Read the description with Lonely Rich Kid Richie Rich in mind and it simply does not fit. To my understanding, he could fit Uncle Pennybags (uses his money to have fun with other kids and just wants to have friends)?
More on this shoe-horning issue is in the old TRS discussion.
Cullen Moorland from A Brother's Price is ok because I understand that the book treats all men as rare sex and as such, teen boys and men are treated like women often were in the past, and the book simply uses gender-inverted tropes (e.g. boys get kidnapped, damsel in distress becomes gentleman in distress etc.).
Most (I want to say all) of the 'examples' that list small kids or men lack context. The trope is more than 'his parents are loaded but he treats other kids decently' or 'he's of nobility but not a jerk, at least to most people'. Most adult male examples mention that they are charitable and provide money to worthy causes, which fits Wealthy Philanthropist, not Spoiled Sweet.
Edited by XFllo
The description doesn't say they have to be teens, and if Always Female does allow for rare male examples, it seems like a character who meets the rest of the criteria should still fit. Which Richie Rich does — he hasn't been a Lonely Rich Kid since the very first issues of his comic.
I think the source of any shoehorning is more that the title of the trope indicates an inversion of Spoiled Brat, which, if this trope isn't, we don't seem to otherwise have?
Edited by Unsung
"Rich child who is not a spoiled brat" is not a distinct trope. Spoiled Sweet is about how a character is spoiled and/or pampered, but turns out to be a Friend to All Living Things or otherwise abnormally kind. A rich child who just wants to have friends and be normal is not an example.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
The thing is that the trope is more a subversion of Rich Bitch + it requires the character being spoiled/pampered. The trope is not supposed to be an inversion of Spoiled Brat.
This trope is not really defined for small children and all adult male examples are shoe-horns (at least so far they have been, with the exception of Brother's Price). I suggest we continue this discussion in Trope Talk (it's discussed in Is this an example? here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13543987200A54420100&page=323)
or you may start a separate trope discussion.
However, if you want to re-define the trope to include small kids, it would require TRS — to my best knowledge.
I don't see a problem with having male examples. After all, this trope is meant to be someone who, because they're pampered/spoiled you'd expect them to be vain/arrogant, selfish and a Jerkass, but instead they are actually friendly and genuinely nice (though they probably still come off as pampered).
I found the previous repair thread
for this where it was said that this would remain Always Female for lack of male examples, but I think that could have been premature? Off the top of my head, there's Richie Rich, some versions of Dick Grayson/other Robins, X-Men's Warren Worthington/Angel, and, as came up on the Blackadder page, Lord Percy, Prince George, and Lieutenant George. The current page also has Cullen Moorland from A Brother's Price, which I'm not personally familiar with but seems straightforward enough. Is there an alternate trope that covers wealthy male children or man-children?
Edited by Unsung