Why isn't this a YMMV trope? In fact, why does this even need to exist in the first place? If it absolutely MUST be a trope, then why not explain in better detail on the main description???
Can someone explain to me what this trope even is? Is it just about spending time Developing Doomed Characters? In that case why is that portrayed as a inherently bad thing? How can the audience care about the tragedy of a character if that character isn't developed? Or is it about spending time on developing unlikeable doomed characters? If that is the case then why isn't this a YMMV trope since what constitutes an unlikable character is YMMV. And shouldn't it be renamed to something more specific?
Edited by 95.34.47.192 Hide / Show Replies
A lot of it is holdover stuff from when the trope name was Twenty Minutes with Jerks.
The basic premise is that a story spends an unusual amount of time developing a plot between characters that is actively at odds with the real, main story of the movie. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, as it helps build the characters and is sometimes used specifically to contrast priority levels (ie their biggest concern was worrying about prom, now it's about survival of the human race). But in a movie about Godzilla it makes people anxious to get past the human drama and straight to the monster fights.
I can see why spending way too long on the characters can bring a horror or an action movie down, but the trope description makes it sound like it's always bad to not immediately have monsters on the screen. Character development isn't a bad thing, even in a horror movie. I think the description/trope definition should be changed to be specifically about overly long character development, rather than the mere presence of character development in a horror/action movie.
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May I suggest rewriting it so it sounds better? It is a wiki, after all.
"Freedom is not a license for chaos" -Norton Juster's The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
So the page was renamed... good... but now many examples make no sense because they were trying to cleverly reference the old name. Ugh.
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Definately agree. It needed a rename badly but not this one, someone's either gonna have to edit half the examples or re-rename it.. Perhaps some version of '20 Minutes With [less negative term]?' Except I have no ideas..
So in other words, this rename actually generated more work for the site? I'd have suggested "20 Minutes With the Doomed", if you want something that fits the previous name...
Personally, I'd drop the "Doomed" because I can see a way that this Trope can be used in a series where Nobody Dies:
Basically, every Ordinary High-School Student needs to be shown that she's an Ordinary High School Student before coming upon the events that will changer her life forever by plunging her into the plot, i.e. the First-Episode Spoiler. Giving her a life before she's thrust into an Alternate Dimension may help the audience identify with her, though the way that such such a schism with her old life would be handled would be in a similar way as the start of a Horror/Disaster movie. But in that case, the former "jerks" would not be doomed to die, just doomed to never know what they are missing out on.
: The Musical
I saw this in Recent Edits and thought it was a So You Want To page. I was disappointed when it wasn't :(
Can be a Necessary Weasel for Reality Series where there are team immunity challenges due to A Death in the Limelight. If one team constantly wins, then that team won't get any airtime in the second half hour each week. And the winner usually comes from the curb-stomp-ers. Ergo, we get to see the worse team break down almost every week and we don't know a whit about the true contenders.
Edited by DonaldthePotholer
The example from Catacombs was pulled. It would be commented out if it's not referencing the former name and needing a complete rewrite if correct.
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