Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Needs Help
, started by Larkmarn on Sep 29th 2015 at 9:59:04 PM
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Needs Help, started by thecarolinabull01 on Mar 16th 2018 at 1:04:46 AM
I see somebody opened a Trope Repair Shop thread on this, but this doesn't really appear to have ever been tropeworthy at all. For "common" names, this trope is just not true - these names are indeed reused across multiple fictional works. For rare names, maybe, but the odds of using a specific rare name are quite low anyway. So this trope is only for uncommon names that happen to have only been used prominently once, which will frequently just be a coincidence rather than any specific authorial intent.
The vast majority of entries on this page are absolutely terrible, Mario makes sense, but applying it out to a trope this broadly is just insane.
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I agree. It's basically listing anyone who's the most popular character by their name. The "Charlie Brown" entry even mentions that it's only valid for characters named not just "Charlie," but "Charlie Brown." Special mention goes to claiming that "Yosemite" refers to "Yosemite Sam" more than "Yosemite National Park." Many of the other examples are names that are already extremely obscure, like "Dilbert" and "Falco," so of course they're rare. I think a good rule of thumb would be that if The Other Wiki doesn't redirect the first name alone to the character (such as Mario, Leia, Yoshi, Romeo), it's not example, which admittedly would almost kill the trope.
Seriously, maybe I'm just being overly literal but this is called ONE Mario Limit, not Two-Or-Possibly-Even-Three Mario Limit. Every example where there's more than one famous person or character across all media with a distinctive name should be deleted.
The problem is it's self-defeating. If the character shares their name with someone else, then they aren't an example. If they don't share their name with someone else, then they aren't an example. Like, I get the concept of this trope but it's simply impossible to quantify what does and doesn't count. Practically every example, up to and including the Trope Namer, have been hit with edits pointing out other characters with the same name.
There probably are a lot of cases where overall usage of the name dips off after a famous use, but there's always going to be the exception that proves the rule. Writers from different genres, cultures, time periods etc. may not see the connection, and there's probably some that do it deliberately to ride on the more famous character's fame. Or who just don't care about the association at all.
This seems to be in the same YMMV vein as Song Association, which has No On Page Examples. Perhaps One-Mario Limit needs it as well.
Edited by TurretBot
Okay, a few things:
Pulling this:
- When you hear the term "the Doctor" outside of a medical drama, you're probably thinking of Doctor Who and/or the character on Star Trek: Voyager.
- Because it's a really common stock name.
- Because it's a really common stock name
- The X-Files: It's unlikely there'll be any more characters named Mulder or Scully any time soon.
- There's a Scully in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and it goes unlampshaded. Honestly, I think this is a case of Fan Myopia.
- Gilmore Girls: Don't think you'll be hearing the name Lorelei (or its short form, Rory) in many comedies from here on out. And there is only one other Sookie in pop culture.
- Because those are already fairly uncommon names, and yet still (as the second bit indicates) they still come up.
- Star Wars: Luke in science fiction is rare; the last name Skywalker even more so.
- That's because hardly anyone in real life has ever been named Skywalker.
- Pulled the Skywalker part because the natter clearly indicates that, well, that's not a name.
- That's because hardly anyone in real life
Just to be clear, Just A Face And A Caption is acceptable for this page because it's part of the trope, right?
do names that inventions get named after count?
Like Richard J GATLING
Henry SHRAPNEL
Edited by dragonkingofthestars
The Doctor IS actually the name of, well, "the Doctor" the chief medical officer of Voyager... As far as I can tell (I'm not at all up on Dr. Who, I'm a little behind) they've run totally concurrently, though and they do both reside in the scifi ghetto...
Ok, I suppose I should check all the links!
Edited by VitaminM
These examples are terrible. The very few valid ones drown in the vast majority of names that no one would have used again anyway - Garfield, Conan (which got reused twice anyway!), Sherlock, Hermione...
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What about Beyonce? I dont think it would be possible anywhere on earth now to call your baby that and not have someone think (like the singer?)
Just wondering, why has no one mentioned the name "Clark", let alone "Clark Kent"
Agree. Mario itself is a great example, but Skywalker? How likely is it for any fiction writer to independently come up with that specific name and be forced to give it up?
For many names, I'm not that confident because I don't know how popular they used to be before their famous fictional character. (Are there real people named Nanoha?) So I can't just go through this page and purge any name that sounds too weird *to me*. But Someone Should Do Something About This.
Maybe I'm being dickish, but the Indiana Jones descriptor in the article header is slightly out, as Indiana was the name of the family dog. The guy with the hat and bullwhip is merely Henry Jones Jr.
Moved to JustForFun.One Mario Limit per TRS:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1603679826047909900&page=3#comment-72