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MacktheRandom Mack the Random Since: Jul, 2009
Mack the Random
May 26th 2012 at 9:24:39 PM •••

Can someone explain to me why the name has been changed to this frankly rather boring one?

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DanielTCGuitarist Since: Jul, 2011
Aug 19th 2012 at 2:57:30 PM •••

I agree, Jedi Truth was a perfect name, and besides, TV Tropes should surely be a laid back encyclopedia of tropes, and have more fun names, instead of headings remeniscent of a wikipedia entry.

SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Aug 20th 2012 at 9:14:55 AM •••

Can we plese cut it out with the "just like wikipedia" thing, guys?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
WarriorEowyn Since: Oct, 2010
Jan 26th 2013 at 1:07:32 PM •••

Thirded (or fourthed). "Jedi Truth" and "From a Certain Point of View" both got across the meaning of the trope better than either of the more recent selections, and were more interesting as well. I like trope names that reference works.

Nathanjhickman Since: Jan, 2013
Feb 14th 2013 at 10:41:11 PM •••

Fifthed, "Jedi Truth"/"from a certain point of view" explained it much better.

Thecommander236 Since: Aug, 2011
Feb 17th 2013 at 7:27:36 PM •••

Have to agree, but Septimus is right; we aren't wikipedia. Metaphorically True isn't too bad though.

Don't make me destroy you. @ Castle Series
pakaran Since: May, 2009
Feb 19th 2013 at 11:51:42 AM •••

We still need a Half Truth page to move the entries that are unambiguously in fact true to. I've seen discussion about this in various places like [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1325913017056600100&page=3], and it seemed to me that the consensus boiled down to:

Metaphorically True: It requires special pleading to understand why this example is in fact true (Obi-Wan tells Luke Vader "betrayed and murdered" his father, and is it turns out, Jedi see Sith as morally equivalent to the dead, so Vader killed Anakin in the course of replacing him).

Half Truth: While meant to mislead, it's unarguable that the statement as written is true ("Luke, we lost your father in battle with the Sith").

So, once the Half Truth page is made, I wouldn't mind splitting the examples.

johnnytightlips Since: Nov, 2012
May 25th 2014 at 5:26:53 PM •••

I think that the title 'from a certain point of view' best exemplifies what this trope is. It does a good job of being an explanatory title, and, really, the trope name (From A Certain Point Of View) is also the best example of this trope (didn't someone once say that this site is 'about the examples'?). That works out very neatly, indeed, and it has a tremendous amount of 'aha' value to anybody reading the page - the line in question and the context in which it was delivered are almost universally known, so why get rid of a trope name that sums up a trope and says it in classic TV Tropes style - humourous, specific and recognizable? It just seems to fit with trope lingo - it flows better when potholed/wikiworded from other pages, and it's instantly recognizable.

If everybody in the world could instantly recognise the Coca Cola brand and thought favourably of it, would they then change the name to Paulie's Dark Fizzy Drinkish Thing? Sure, it'd basically work, but it's not as good.

Regarding Obi-Wan's original line, he saw Anakin as dead, in the same way that anyone, whether fictional or in real life, might say that person x is 'dead to me' or that 'the old person x died a long time ago (etc.)' because of this, this, and that. It captures the essence of how something can be said to be true, but only from (you guessed it) a certain point of view - it's misleading nature is often revealed later. I think the title resonates with many tropers as being both fun and apt.

I'm in vehement agreement with the above comments; 'from a certain point of view' does it better. I think the page name should be changed back. If it works, why try to fix it?

Edited by 47.55.109.252
BobbyZ4 Since: Aug, 2012
Mar 24th 2014 at 11:01:59 PM •••

I don't understand this one:

"Near the end of What's Love Got to Do with It, Tina Turner is shown as reduced to a lounge act, implying this is what she's reduced to make ends meet and showing how far she fell before her big come back with the eponymous album. The film neglects to mention a Real Life detail: When this happened to the real Turner, it was her idea, to make sure people knew she hadn't retired or vanished since her infamously nasty split with Ike Turner."

But if Tina just wanted to show that she hadn't retired or vanished, she could have done that just as well, or better, by performing in large concert halls and arenas. If she was playing lounges instead of major venues, presumably that was because she wasn't getting offers at the time to play better venues for more money.

In any event, this could be at best a Half Truth, not Metaphorically True.

Sines314 Since: Sep, 2013
Mar 24th 2014 at 4:46:35 PM •••

This trope seems to have gone from "Trying to pretend you didn't tell a blatant lie" to "Anything misleading", and I think it needs a clean up, or perhaps an entire revisioning (in many cases it's treated as 'misleading only more so'.)

A good example from Real Life of this problem in action;

"Hugo Boss made uniforms for the SS. This is true. However, for most people this conjures up an image of a large fashion house aiding the most evil regime of all time. This is not true. In 1936, Hugo Boss was a fairly small family-run business whose main source of income was making uniforms for the German Postal Service, that just happened to land a highly lucrative government contract."

I don't even see how this could be misleading, unless you expected the tailors to use concentration camp slave labor or something.

Most other examples are not nearly as bad as that, but there are others that are better placed under "Loophole abuse" or some other trope, if any trope at all.

I suggest this trope have one of those bold disclaimers as to what this trope is and isn't, and then to purge the non-conforming ones. Either that, or it's broader nature needs to be made clearer in the introductory area. Right now it's just far too wishy-washy, possibly due to it's current and original names, which suggested it was still a truth of some kind, rather than a poorly masked blatant lie.

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Sines314 Since: Sep, 2013
Mar 24th 2014 at 5:06:06 PM •••

There are also some examples that should probably really be removed in general. The one about George W. Bush and torture should fall under the general rule to avoid controversy. I'd normally remove it myself, but it's been so long since I've edited on TV Tropes, and I don't want to overstep my bounds, especially in case some policies have changed since I was last here.

Cukeman Idiot and Scholar Since: Jan, 2001
Idiot and Scholar
May 27th 2012 at 6:11:40 PM •••

Could someone point me in the direction of who came up with the name "Metaphorically True" so I can tell them what a metaphor is?

Seriously, folks. Half-Truth neatly sums up what the trope is. Metaphorically True implies that there's a metaphor involved—but there's not. Unless it's comparing the Half-Truth with the actual truth, or that calling it a metaphor in itsef is a Half-Truth. The former case is needlessly obtuse, and in the latter case, I'd argue that illiteracy falls under Insane Troll Logic because words can't have "half true" definitions, otherwise nobody would be able to understand each other.

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Jsor Since: May, 2009
Jul 28th 2012 at 12:38:55 AM •••

See this discussion: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1325913017056600100&page=3#57

The current name is a SNAFU, we're working to split the trope into two — Half Truth which covers most of the examples, and Metaphorical Truth, which covers the original Trope namer (Obi-wan's quote) and a few other examples.

The basic idea is that Obi-Wan's quote had no part that was even partially true, hence it cannot be a Half-Truth by definition. However, it *does* make sense using some generous metaphorical interpretation when you actually learn the truth.

Edited by Jsor
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