To-do list:
- Redefine as a No On-Page Examples supertrope with the definition "the most tension/comedy is achieved by a thing just barely missing", as drafted at Sandbox.Near Misses.
Near Misses is a very old and obscure trope, which hasn't seen any substantial edits or additions to its (very minimal) main page since 2013.
Per the wick check, there's a grand total of 19 wicks (not including the wick check itself) and 7 non-crosswicked examples on the page.
The trope is supposed to be about stereotypical ways that heroes avoid getting shot (being pushed down by an ally, the bullets inexplicably hitting the ground where they were standing, and so on), but it is redundant to more popular tropes including Hero-Tracking Failure, Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure, A-Team Firing, Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, Dodge the Bullet and so on. Not helping matters is that, due to the ambiguous name and broad definition, the majority of examples are about People Nearly Getting Shot rather than the intended definition.
My suggestion is to create an index in its place, with "Near Misses" as one of its redirects, as a disambiguation would essentially do the same thing, but this is dependant on there being enough related tropes for that.
Potential solutions:
- Cut and disambiguate.
- Create a new index, "Near Missin' Dex" (or just "Missin' Dex") which could include the tropes mentioned above.
Wick check:
This page will cover a wick check for the trope Near Misses.Progress: 19/19 (Wicks) 7/7 (Non-crosswicked examples).
Why?: This is essentially a dead trope, having no substantial edits to the (very minimal) page since 2013, and a paltry number of wicks. The definition is also exceptionally broad and prone to misuse.
Comments in bold.
- Hero-Tracking Failure: You may also notice the tendency for Near Misses to be shown by the bullets hitting the ground just behind the hero's feet, even when the shooter does not have the sort of elevated position that would make it appropriate for all missed shots to immediately hit the ground. Admittedly, a spray of sparks/dust following the hero one step behind them is more dramatic than bullets just disappearing into the background, but it only adds to the absurdity of the scene.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars S2E1 "Holocron Heist": Obi-Wan grabs Anakin and pulls him away from a walker just before a droid fighter crashes into it, with Anakin even saying it was close.
- MacGyver (1985):
- "The Golden Triangle" features a shot of MacGyver ducking for cover as twin lines of gunfire from a helicopter pass either side of him, which was used in the opening titles.
- "The Enemy Within" has a good example of bullets kicking up dust always just behind the running hero.
- Lucky Dog 1: Gian is pretty good at avoiding bullets by complete accident. On the third day of the escape period, Gian accidentally slips on the muddy ground and pushes Bernardo down as he falls forward...and then a bullet flies right where their heads were if they hadn't been been knocked down. A similar incident occurs in Luchino's route.
- Support Your Local Sheriff: Used in the movie, in which James Garner runs down a typical western wooden sidewalk while a dozen gunmen blast away him from across the street. Every one of dozens of bullets hits the wooden boards of the sidewalk just behind him. (Non-crosswicked, definitely redundant to Hero-Tracking Failure)
- Inverted in the 1989 Batman movie. Batman (in the Batwing) strafes the Joker who just stands in the middle of the street with his arms out, taunting him. Batman opens fire with everything he's got, but he just shoots the ground on either side. Even the missiles miss. Joker then fires one shot from his long-barreled revolver and Down Goes the Batwing! (Non-crosswicked)
- In Batman: The Animated Series, whenever a mook fired a machine gun at Bats (a semi-frequent occurrence), he would dodge to the side, while bullets ricocheted off the place where he had just been standing. The ground where he had just been standing, even if the mook was on the same level, and at close range. (Non-crosswicked)
- Fairy Tail – Official Guilds: Most of his shots end up as this courtesy of Wendy's quick reflexes allowing her to Dodge the Bullet. He eventually takes out Sagittarius after a couple of Shoot the Bullet exchanges, though. (Sniper Drake)
- Fame: The 1985 episode "His Majesty Donlon" sees Chris having to trade places with Prince Frederic of Vatonia to allow the prince to experience normal life for a period prior to giving a speech at the United Nations (though unknown to Chris until a near-miss; the Prince is also the target of an assassination plot)
- Nation: Justified and then subverted: Cox has guns which he uses in his duel against Mau. Mau is just smart enough to dive into the water, where bullets don't have as much effect. He does get his ear shot off, though.
- Tropes M to O: stronger character vs. anyone using the time-warping bullets (Though this is essentially a ZCE)
- Items: Every shot aimed at a Scout after drinking the energy drink.
- Tropes H to P: A Scout under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch will dodge every attack until the drink wears off. Also, when an enemy shoots at you and narrowly misses, you can hear the bullet/flare/dart whiz by you.
- In Harry Potter, especially towards the end, nobody can hit the broadside of a barn standing two feet from it, unless the plot or drama dictates that it should. This causes such mishaps as one of the twins losing an ear.
- There's an interesting justification in the climactic battle of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry blew his stack of luck potion among his friends, who would've been dead five times over without it. Ginny actually said that everything just seemed to miss them.
- Although the books probably do fall under this trope, that particular instance is actually justified in that Snape cast the curse; being that he was The Mole, he didn't want to raise suspicion amongst the Death Eaters but clearly didn't want to cause too much damage. The presumption is he just aimed carefully. (Non-crosswicked)
- Played for laughs (Like everything else) in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, where The Mole is trying to kill Mason Dixon as he slowly strolls down the sidewalk and ends up shooting everyone on the street except the guy he was aiming at. (Non-crosswicked)
- * Often seen in Xena: Warrior Princess, especially in the episodes "Livia" and "Eve," where Xena uselessly but dramatically catches daggers out of midair that seem to have been aimed somewhere over her shoulders. (Non-crosswicked)
- Diary of a Nudist: While stepping over Eleanor (Maria Stinger) lying on their stomach and making eye contact with their spouse, Marie (Doroles Carlos) very nearly makes contact with the rear end of the one on the floor. But, she manages to get over her anyway, and without accidentally falling on top.
- Of course, Richard Dean Anderson's other successful series, Stargate SG-1, repeats this, but with Goa'uld Deathgliders, the gunfire from which usually sends people flying. (Non-crosswicked. I have no idea what this is referring to and if it counts or not.)
- Could Have Been Messy (Mentioned as a related trope)
- Guns and Gunplay Tropes (Index)
- Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure (Mentioned as subtrope)
- The Rescuers: Constantly. (Madame Medusa, commented out as ZCE)
- M to N: (Obviously not a usage of the trope)
- Amonimus: (Listed among tropes needing TRS, appropriately enough.)
- Ice Heart: (Commented out, complete ZCE)
- All-Blue Entry: (Pothole)
- Tropes H to N: (Index)
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 26th 2024 at 6:33:03 AM
OK, that definition would work. I guess we could move the examples related to the current gun/bullet-related definition to the previously mentioned tropes if we define this into a trope related to drama or comedy.
Edit: I think indexing this on No On-Page Examples might be a good idea due to how broad it would be. I think the broadness would also mean the wick count wouldn't matter.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 17th 2024 at 12:44:43 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.Makes sense to me. Sort of akin to something like Finagle's Law.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure PurenessI'm willing to write up an expanded definition, but that'll probably have to wait until the weekend.
I also agree with what's been proposed .
Here there be cats.Welp, I found some extra time to draft this now:
To induce narrative tension in the viewers, withholding information about a setup's outcome is necessary. One of the most common ways to do this is by making people think something game-changing has happened just to reveal at the very last second it hasn't. Alternatively, the event is this close to taking place but is dodged every time. This is a Near Miss.
Chances are, this will be used for dramatic effect; you thought the character was run over by a car but, oh, the smoke clears and it becomes evident the character jumped to the side at the right moment.Comedic cases, however, aren't uncommon, with the punchline often the ridiculous way in which the character managed to miss the event.
Of course, a near-miss can also mean that the event did happen, just not in enough of a plot-changing way. For instance, the long-awaited Will They or Won't They? couple is about to kiss but then the girl backpedals and only kisses her love interest's cheek. Or the bullet hits the character, just not in a vital organ or anything that could spell instant death.
Looks like a broad concept? Well, it is; that's why it has a myriad of sub-tropes:
- A-Team Firing: Nobody gets hit by bullets, no matter how much gunfire is exchanged.
- Almost Kiss: Two characters are about to kiss before suddenly being interrupted by something.
- Close-Call Haircut: A part of somebody's hair gets cut off during a struggle, usually by a bullet.
- Diving Save: Jumping and plowing someone out of the way to save their life.
- Hat Damage: The character's headgear gets hit to show how close the projectile was to being lethal.
- Hero-Tracking Failure: The hero is always one step ahead of the villain's gunfire.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Mooks are lousy shots when trying to hit the heroes.
- Knife Outline: Dodging sharp projectiles one by one while being unable to move away from the wall.
- Missed Him by That Much: Two characters just barely miss running into each other.
- Near-Miss Groin Attack: A subversion of Groin Attack is Played for Laughs.
- Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure: The goodies are in the middle of two lines of cannon fire.
No On-Page Examples, please.
Edit: Added some more sub-tropes collected from previous posts.
Edited by Asterlix on Apr 18th 2024 at 12:22:16 PM
Here there be cats.I would replace Played for Drama with Rule of Drama, since Played for Drama implies the trope isn't normally dramatic.
Welcome to Corneria!I copied the draft to Sandbox.Near Misses so other people can contribute to it (and since only mods can copy the source code of posts that aren't theirs).
Edit: Adjusted this post to make it clear I copied the text to a sandbox.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 19th 2024 at 5:10:56 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.𝕋𝕒𝕓𝕤 suggested By Wall That Is Holey, and I wasn't sure if Smoke Shield and/or Amusingly Awful Aim would count?
Edited by Azorius24 on Apr 19th 2024 at 11:33:43 AM
"The only thing which is certain, is that something will happen".Replaced it.
I think By Wall That Is Holey definitely counts, as well as Amusingly Awful Aim, though I'm not sure about Smoke Shield.
Edited by Asterlix on Apr 19th 2024 at 12:32:30 PM
Here there be cats.Neglected to make it clear that the link in my previous post goes to Sandbox.Near Misses and not Main.Near Misses because I typed a slash instead of a period. Fixed that. (The link goes to the same place; they just display the same text when there's a slash.)
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 19th 2024 at 5:11:58 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.So, what now?
Here there be cats.I was thinking the same thing. I think a crowner could be set up to vote on disambiguation vs turning into a Super-Trope vs anything else?
Edited by Azorius24 on Apr 22nd 2024 at 10:13:48 AM
"The only thing which is certain, is that something will happen".I hooked a crowner with the supertrope proposal and the disambiguation proposal as (mutually exclusive) options.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.to redefining.
Calling in favor of redefining as a No On-Page Examples supertrope with the definition "the most tension/comedy is achieved by a thing just barely missing", as drafted at Sandbox.Near Misses.
For now, I'll wait until the rewrite is live before indexing it on No On-Page Examples.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 26th 2024 at 6:32:13 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.What else does the rewrite need?
Here there be cats.A couple more opinions on it, maybe? I think it looks good. There are a myriad of subtropes, but those can be added in time.
Would the NOPE notice benefit from clarifying that "This just defines the term.", as is common on such pages?
"As long as I have my comrades with me, I can do anything!" (She/Her) (Current Focus: Cleaning Hell Is That Noise misuse)No, because that's the notice for Definition-Only Pages, which do only define terms. No On-Page Examples tropes still allow off-page examples (though it's preferable to put all examples under subtropes instead when possible), so saying they only define terms is inaccurate.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 28th 2024 at 12:28:58 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.I just wanna settle whether we should add Smoke Shield (which Tabs proposed) as a sub-trope or just as a related one. I'm honestly not sure either way.
Here there be cats.I'd say just as a related one, since a Smoke Shield doesn't necessarily mean the explosive missed. It could also mean that the character was tough enough to survive the explosion.
Welcome to Corneria!I just read the line "Of course, a near-miss can also mean that the event did happen, just not in enough of a plot-changing way." I now believe that Smoke Shield is a Sub-Trope of Near Misses.
Welcome to Corneria!Well, then that would be two people vouching for it to be a sub-trope, so... do I change it or do we wait for a third opinion?
Here there be cats.I think Smoke Shield often plays out like the character behind the smoke did manage to evade the attacks or put up a shield just in time. That seems close enough to fit the spirit.
Crown Description:
What should be done with Near Misses?
I would also add Almost Kiss, or Near Miss Kiss as Roger Ebert calls it.
One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.