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rva98014 Since: Nov, 2012
Dec 23rd 2017 at 6:03:29 PM •••

I see the the point trying to be made by the addition of the Failure Hero trope in that Captain Marvel continually fails to protect the members of the Malcom expedition from being killed off one by one and their lenses stolen by the villain. However, I don't think this trope applies because of the following reasons:

1) When the Wizard Shazam grants Billy the powers of Captain Marvel, he charges the Captain to make sure the "curse of the Scorpion is not visited on innocent people". Shazam also implies that the other members of the Malcom expedition were already cursed by ignoring the inscription on the tomb, violating the tomb, and taking the golden scorpion and its lenses among themselves. Thus they were already "doomed".

2) The story, being an pulp adventure serial, forces a Failure Is the Only Option condition on Captain Marvel's actions, else the story either stalls (if he constantly thwarts retrieval of the lenses) or abruptly ends (if he uses his super powers to quickly capture the Scorpion).

3) The trope is about a hero that never wins and the current example points out that Captain Marvel does repeatedly win all fights and story-wise he succeeds in saving Betty, Whitey, Tol Chatali and (technically) Billy from the harm imposed by the Scorpion's actions. He just can't totally succeed because You Can't Thwart Stage One.

Thus I would recommend removing the Failure Hero example and perhaps replacing it with a Failure Is the Only Option pointing out that because of the story format, Captain Marvel can't really succeed until the last chapter of the serial.

Edited by rva98014 Hide / Show Replies
rva98014 Since: Nov, 2012
Dec 24th 2017 at 12:17:01 PM •••

Invited starofjusticev21, the troper who initially added the Failure Hero example to participate in the discussion. They declined with the comment to just remove it if I felt it it didn't belong. So, removing the Failure Hero example and replacing with Failure Is the Only Option instead.

Edited by rva98014
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