Category talk:Esoteric Trope Names

About this board

Not editable

Are these tropes Esoteric Trope Names, and do their names need to be changed?

2
Chris Lang (talkcontribs)

I already posted this in the forum, but in case you missed it, I'm sharing it here too.

There are a few trope names inherited from TVT whose names have bugged me. In the first one's case, it's an inaccurate (I think) name. In the second, it's a name that definitely fits the category of a trope name that won't be understood except by people familiar with the Trope Namer, and will need explaining to those unfamiliar with it. So here goes.

Disney Death

This is sort of an Esoteric Trope Name, as it equates Disney with the sort of 'You think they're dead, but it turns out they're going to be okay' thing. This trope isn't just limited to Disney. For example, it's turned up in the anime One Piece a number of times, most egregiously in the Alabasta arc with Pell after his Heroic Sacrifice.

But the thing is -- people DO die in the Disney movies, and not just the villains. Bambi's mother, Mufasa in The Lion King, Ray the firefly in The Princess and the Frog, and the title character in Old Yeller are all examples of Disney characters who have died who were neither villains nor minor one-scene bit players.

So the trope's name isn't entirely accurate. I've thought of 'Disney Pseudo Death' as an alternate title, but I think that's an Esoteric Trope Name, too, as it's still largely equating Disney with 'looks like they died, but it turns out they didn't' trope. I don't know what other name would be good.


Cerebus Syndrome and its many snowclones (Reverse Cerberus Syndrome, Knight of Cerebus, Cerebus Retcon)'

Lately, I've noticed that on this wiki, at least, Big Lipped Alligator Moment has been renamed to the more forgettable Non Sequitur Scene. Though I prefer the previous name (it's a catchy, rolls off the tongue phrase), I can understand why the change was made: The name is basically an in-joke based on a thirty-year old Don Bluth movie that not many people talk about these days.

But All Dogs Go to Heaven might as well be a classic everyone's familiar with compared to Cerebus, a comic that few outside of devoted comic fans that read stuff outside of Marvel and DC have heard of. (And let's not even go into its creator's questionable beliefs here). I think the term 'Cerebus Syndrome' originated outside of TV Tropes, but it still depends on familiarity with a work the average person on the street has never heard of.

So we need another term to describe how a lighthearted work becomes darker and more serious as it goes along, I think. I just wish I could think of good alternate trope names for Cerebus Syndrome and the other 'Cerebus' named tropes.

Robkelk (talkcontribs)

Taking the second one first: "Cerebus Syndrome" was identified at least as far back as 2004 in this Stanford University work. It may be esoteric, but it's a real-world term (even Wikipedia has it, albeit as a redirect to the work), so I for one think it doesn't need to be changed. And if we do change it, we should keep "Cerebus Syndrome" as a redirect.

As for "Disney Death"... yeah, that's non-indicative and misleading. If anybody has a suggestion for a better name, feel free to offer it.

There are no older topics