Little People seems like it has a potential to explore tropes associated with small races, but basically comes down to "short"

My apologies if this is the wrong way to discuss it, but I ran into the Little People page while trying to track down a fantasy film, and was initially amazed at how small it was. Then, I went to edit an example in, and realized it was because a number of the entries are commented out because they really only mentioned a work and a race name. I fixed a few, and then realized that many of the examples were basically "these people are short" while the trope description seems to indicate that there should be an actual trope involved in it. Is this a trope worth trying to reclaim? I can see potential, from the tendency of larger races to treat the Little People as children (sometimes being shocked when they act like adults, having sex, drinking, and engaging in violence) to the general assumption that a smaller race has to find a way to deal with defending themselves since they have a height/weight disadvantage.

There's something cosmically funny about a page on Little People being short...

I do like your idea about being treated as children, although that's basically a completely separate thing that would need to go to TLP. As is the "trope" does seem rather chairsy.

Edited by Sid-Starkiller on Feb 20th 2024 at 9:57:07 AM

I don't see how it can be People Sit on Chairs.

If a character's blonde or left-handed or an architect, that could be People Sit on Chairs, because there's not necessarily any meaning behind it. The character might have those traits simply because (outside of a Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue) it'd be hard to tell the story without revealing details like hair-color or handedness or occupation.

But fantasy species who resemble human beings, except much shorter? Those don't exist in Real Life, so you're not going to have a character who just happens to be a Leprechaun or a Pixie or whatever. Or, if them being a Leprechaun/Pixie/whatever is entirely incidental, then that establishes the story's setting as one where Leprechauns/Pixies/whatevers are unremarkable, which is itself a storytelling decision.

Edited by RavenWilder on Feb 20th 2024 at 9:25:39 AM

I still feel like there needs to be more to it than "yes, we have halflings/hobbits" or "Little People Are Surreal" in the race's existence. I do think that it's a definite thing that they need to be a definite race in the fantasy sense (I removed an example for Bonanza that was basically "there have been a few dwarf characters"), they are basically humanoid (no adding an example of a two-foot parrot race), and that they're closer to regular scale than a Mouse World resident or Lilliputians.

Debating whether or not adding a mention of real-world pygmies would fit. They're not a separate race in the fantasy sense, of course, and it's mildly controversial as to how much is genetic and how much is caused by environment. Probably safer to steer clear of it.

And I really didn't intent to get this far into this trope. I just ran into it, and wanted to draw attention.

I feel like Little People is a bad name for the trope because it's used to refer to people with dwarfism (and similar genetic disorders) in real life, and the trope itself is to do with races of beings that are far smaller than humanly possible — Little People Are Surreal was pointed out above, but that's for, well, real people.

I think there are two things being conflicted here: real people with genetic disorders that make them much shorter/smaller than average, and fantasy beings that are unrealistically short. Fictional dwarves, as in the race, are somewhere in between, maybe?

Maybe something along the lines of Tiny Beings or Magically Mini Beings would be better? If nothing else, I think it should be renamed since it's not about real world health conditions.

Edited by Zazie122 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 5:00:04 AM

I mean, "little people" is also just a very common term for, like, leprechauns.

Hm, perhaps it's a cultural thing, then? I've only ever heard it in reference to real people with genetic disorders and not fantasy creatures (or if I have, it's in older works).

I'm not saying the term is offensive, just that imo we should refer to small fantasy creatures as a supertrope by something different.

I may be thinking too much about this, of course. Just throwing out my thoughts.

Maybe more explicitly calling it a Little People Race?

I do still think that the "child-sized, basically human" part is integral, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise if people want to include, say, Anzellans.

Yeah, Little People Race, or Race Of Little People sound better to me for sure.

Would they be child-sized and smaller, or limited just to child-sized? As is, the trope description mentions things that are also much smaller than child-sized beings, but I'm neutral about how this is handled in the grand scheme of things.

I just wanted to mention the name because on top of it referring to multiple different tropes potentially, it's not very indicative of what trope it actually covers, in my opinion. If that makes sense.

Edited by Zazie122 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 8:01:36 AM