"Diabolus ex vacuus"? Really? I mean, I know proper Latin isn't a priority in TV Tropes, but everybody who speaks English would at least try to put in "vacuum" instead of "vacuus". Incidentally, the proper form would be vacuo, but let's not get into case agreement. (as a funny aside, my captcha word is "wrongest")
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I came here to post the same thing, though I disagree that the case agreement is a problem; "ex vacuo" would be fine by me. My own suggestion is "diabolus ex nihilo", keeping the play on "deus ex machina" and adding a play on "nihil ex nihilo".
I came here to post the same thing, though I disagree that the case agreement is a problem; "ex vacuo" would be fine by me. My own suggestion is "diabolus ex nihilo", keeping the play on "deus ex machina" and adding a play on "nihil ex nihilo".
I agree that "diabolus ex nihilo" would be a better name. I'm at least adding it as a redirect.
Sorcerer in training
I don't think The Fifth Element example belongs here. The Sphere of Evil and Destruction isn't any kind of one-and-done or "this is why the hero is running around raising havoc" -the Sphere drives the entire plot. If it was snuffed out, there wouldn't be a movie.
The same goes for Dr. Claw for the Inspector Gadget cartoon Series. Claw is the one initiating the problems 95%+ of the time.
Slade is a major villain through a big chunk of Teen Titans.
This trope is about one-and-done out-of-the-blue villains. None of these guys belong here.
Edited by Candi Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Unhealthy trope, unhealthy name
, started by Spark9 on Aug 28th 2011 at 7:53:45 PM
Potential Trope Renaming
I still think this trope has a really poor name. I get that it's supposed to be going off of Diabolus ex Machina, but this comes across as a spin-off of a spin-off, since that trope is a spin-off of Deus ex Machina. As well, it really doesn't give you any idea of what the trope is until you click on the page and actually read the description.
So, my suggestion for the trope's new name is:
There Is A New Challenger.
I know that this is a story trope and not a gameplay trope, but this title comes across as more indicative of what the trope is actually about. Literally, a "new challenger" coming out of nowhere to battle the heroes. The callback to old-school fighting games further cements the idea of how the trope functions as something that undermines storytelling.
Any thoughts?
Edited by Over9000Pylons An alternate time. An alternate world. Hide / Show Replies
That sounds like a completely different thing, to be honest.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Does it?
"The Diabolus ex Nihilo is an enemy so foul, so horrible, and so evil that it needs no backstory or reasoning. It just appears from nowhere, does its job of shaking things up and antagonizing the heroes, and then promptly dies."
Seems to go along with what I said above. Maybe I worded it wrong in my original post? I thought the new title I suggested worked well for what was said there, but hey, maybe I'm nuts.
An alternate time. An alternate world.
Yours is much more subdued. Also, as a matter of fact we can't rename tropes willy-nilly.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Dragon Writer
Renamed trope
Note how the article's previous title, Diabolus Ex Vacuus, has a total of 283 inbounds. Relative to its age (assuming from February 2009 to May 2011), that's about 10 per month. An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.
This one will need details before moving back to main. Please see How To Write An Example. We can't use examples which boil down to just an offsite link.
My thinking is this is a non-example, given Surtr has been mentioned in the Poetic Edda.
- In Norse Mythology, during Ragnarök, all the enemies of the gods show up to fight them. Most of them are from previous stories, but there's one guy, Surtr/Surt, who just pops in from nowhere, having never been previously mentioned. Thus making this Older Than Dirt.
- Of course, with mythology it's hard to be certain about this trope — Surtr could have appeared in other myths that were never written down or preserved.
- He is. His role in Ragnarök is described in The Poetic Edda. The Prose Edda describes the younger Niflheimr and the older Múspellsheimr, two primal worlds with the great nothing, Ginnungagap, in between them. As the ice and cold spilled from Niflheimr met the heat and fire emanating from Múspellsheimr life quickened in the void and Ýmir/Aurgelmir came into being. The world was then shaped from Ýmir's remains. Surtr is said to live in and guard Múspellsheimr, so he is older than the world and it was the world itself that came from nowhere.
- Of course, with mythology it's hard to be certain about this trope — Surtr could have appeared in other myths that were never written down or preserved.
Just to clarify, are both the "unexplained and comes out of nowhere" and "horribly evil and depraved" parts of it? I've seen a few times this has been mentioned for "we never get an explanation for the villain" for cases where it isn't For the Evulz, they state they have a purpose, but they never explain it, c.f. The Strangers.