Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Proud Race Guys
, started by GameGuruGG on Feb 3rd 2011 at 6:49:53 AM
Shouldn't this be called "Proud Merchant Race Guy" for consistency with Proud Warrior Race Guy and Proud Scholar Race Guy?
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Why are there "No Real Life Examples" allowed on this? There have been many well known nations that were built on trading.
Eg.
The countries of the Hanseatic league. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League
The Dutch, especially at the time of the VOC
Italian Merchant republics such as Venice and Genoa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_republics
The Japanese after they opened to the world.
I looked on the No Real Life Examples page and it said this was to avoid stereotyping, but that seems a bit stupid in my opinion. Nobody's going to be offended because Dutchmen always have and continue to be good in the business world.
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The trope is more specific than just "nation notable for trading". See this discussion for the reasons that Proud Warrior Race, Proud Scholar Race and Proud Merchant Race have been made No Real Life Examples Please. The points are these:
- The "Proud X Race" tropes are stereotypes in fiction in the mould of Planet of Hats, i.e. one trait defines the whole culture/people/nation. In real life, nations/peoples etc are not defined by a single trait. If real life nations figure in this role within a work, then that's a perfectly fine example, but it goes to the media folders.
- If you interpret the trope so loosely as to allow RL examples, there are just too many of them. More so if you broaden the concept of "race" to include caste or organization. If you include the Hanseatic League as a "proud merchant race", you are basically saying that proud merchants are a Proud Merchant Race. It's not an offensive trope, in fact it's elevating and that's the reason editors regard these kind of real life sections as Halls of Fame for their country of origin or their historical favorites, which leads to shoehorning.
What about the Villagers from Minecraft?