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darkdill Since: Feb, 2016
Sep 5th 2023 at 4:23:32 PM •••

This trope is only intended for Western fictional characters, but I've seen it used on several Asian-made fictional characters (i.e. in Anime, Manga, Games, etc). I have to wonder if a counterpart to this needs to be made for those characters.

AndyLA Real Wild Child (Old as dirt)
Real Wild Child
Feb 23rd 2022 at 12:12:27 PM •••

I fell in here through a pothole named "Big Bra to Fill" which, if memory serves, was for when an actress has less, uh, tracts of land than the character she's playing is known for (which would fall into this trope). Did that other trope change address or was it sent to the grinder?

Edited by AndyLA One Nation Under WiFi
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Mar 23rd 2021 at 11:02:25 AM •••

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Rename Most Common Superpower?, started by DragonQuestZ on Jul 22nd 2009 at 8:26:31 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Sep 4th 2011 at 11:19:23 PM •••

The image caption is currently:

Comics like big busts, and they cannot lie

In my opinion this is a terrible joke. At least it looks like it's trying to be funny and failing miserably, but perhaps it is making some legitimate reference to Sir Mix A Lot that I can't figure out. Unless anyone can find a connection between this trope and Sir Mix A Lot, I think this caption should be changed.

I've tried to change it, and I've tried to compromise, but anything I do to improve the situation gets reverted. I won't get into an edit war, so I'll leave it to someone else to try to improve the situation where I failed.

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KingZeal Since: Oct, 2009
Oct 2nd 2011 at 4:37:18 PM •••

Okay, I've been watching the debate and am mostly neutral about the whole thing, so here's my thoughts:

  • Sir Mix A Lot has no connection to the trope whatsoever. It's basically an attempt to be witty, and comes off as very YMMV. However, you might as well give credit where it's due.
  • A "terrible" joke is an opinion. Some posters may find it to be witty, and being witty is one of the things that this wiki does strive for.
  • The quote sums up the trope very well, regardless...but there are almost certainly better, wittier ways to do the same.

Overall, I am indifferent to it. Just being a "terrible" joke shouldn't be grounds for change, because nearly every joke, pun, or innuendo is going to be terrible to someone. It performs its job admirably while having some degree of wit, so while I wouldn't cry over it being changed, I see no urgency to it, either.

Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Oct 1st 2012 at 2:19:32 PM •••

Being indifferent means that you don't care one way or the other. On the other hand, I think that the caption is pretty bad and almost any other caption would be an improvement, so every once in a long while I will look for whatever little way I can find to improve the situation. Perhaps some compromise is possible somewhere.

captainsandwich Since: Jan, 2012
Feb 19th 2012 at 9:56:21 PM •••

Is this really the most common super power? heroic will power seems pretty common to. even badass normals have it.

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Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Feb 19th 2012 at 10:29:08 PM •••

Heroic Spirit is more common in Badass Normals than it is in the superhero community in general. Of course it is still quite common, but not totally universal.

Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Feb 9th 2012 at 9:59:21 PM •••

I see that a moderator has removed the links from the image caption hottip:

From left to right, top to bottom: Wonder Woman, Invisible Woman, Power Girl, Storm, Batgirl, Ms. Marvel, Supergirl, Jean Grey, Caitlin Fairchild, Vampirella, Catwoman, and Mystique.

Those links seem good and useful to me, so I'm not sure why that would happen. Do links conflict with hottips on some browsers, or is it something else?

There were also some Pot Hole links in the main part of the image caption and they were also removed at the same time. I fully agree with removing those links, since they didn't contribute anything and weren't useful.

Edited by Lilwik Hide / Show Replies
Telcontar MOD Since: Feb, 2012
Feb 11th 2012 at 4:56:00 AM •••

Fast Eddie removed those links, for some reason; I agree that they were useful. There have been problems with the hottip markup recently, but those links were fine to my knowledge. Discussion link: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13288134510A93780100&page=1

That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Feb 11th 2012 at 6:03:57 AM •••

That explains it. According to that discussion, links aren't supposed to work within hottips. They do work in practice, but it's against the rules, so they might stop working at any time, or they might not work on all browsers.

Perhaps we should consider an alternative to a hottip for providing those links in the image caption. I suggest that we remove the current caption and replace it with the content of the hottip, with links restored.

Stoogebie Since: Apr, 2011
Feb 2nd 2012 at 11:17:06 PM •••

Just a rant, but...why is it that so many Western examples of this trope show up, but somehow this is commonly held as endemic to Japan. Never mind that the term "pettanko" is an anime term, and many examples of such can be found. Amazing Girl, Wonder Woman and Super Girl seem to have far exceeded a DD, but "everyone" in an anime is far worse*

Edited by Stoogebie Hide / Show Replies
KingZeal Since: Oct, 2009
Feb 3rd 2012 at 12:00:38 AM •••

Because it was enforced a long time ago that this trope was meant only for Western characters.

The debate has come up now and again ever since.

Lilwik Since: Dec, 2009
Feb 3rd 2012 at 2:36:59 AM •••

Surely the rule is that it is meant only for superheroes of the western style, no matter where they actually originate. Surely if some anime made a perfect homage to western superhero stories and the characters had bodies of this type, then no one would doubt that it was an example of this trope. If it included a lampshade, a justification, or a Played for Laughs, then surely it could be listed.

For a point that seems to be controversial, it's odd that there is no mention of it in the description of this trope.

Anaheyla Since: Jan, 2001
May 24th 2011 at 4:45:26 PM •••

Isn't this trope supposed to apply solely to the superhero genre?

This is still a signature. Hide / Show Replies
MikaruKeiko Since: Apr, 2011
Oct 2nd 2011 at 4:04:53 PM •••

Why would being a superhero/ine matter? Nigh everything in the media department has at least one Fanservice character, and most of them aren't part of the superhero genre.

Until death do we part
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast (Wise, aged troper)
Calendar enthusiast
Dec 18th 2010 at 10:44:53 AM •••

Hoo boy, lots and lots of natter:

  • Hmm...during Infinite Crisis (which was followed by One Year Later), she grew incredibly large and had to be shrunk back down to normal size. Maybe the scientists missed a spot or two?

  • Excuse me, are you kidding? That is in no way Sarah Michelle Gellar's cup size. Eliza Dushku's, maybe...
    • Let's clarify. The main artist for the inner artwork, Georges Jeanty, draws Buffy as very flat, including on his alternate covers. Cover artist Jo Chen try to be as accurate as possible, but, as seen from the previous link, she gets something a bit too excited when she draws them from the side. Or maybe she just has a hard time drawing small breast from a sideview angle.
  • Joss also found an artist who could draw slightly built women for Fray, as Joss' intro to the TPB clearly states: "I wanted a real girl, with real posture, a slight figure (that's my classy way of saying "little boobs")". He also clearly says how influenced he was by the previously mentioned Shadowcat, as his run with Astonishing X-Men shows.

  • That is Nightmare Fuel and Fan Disservice wrapped into one creature. Change for the better, my ass.

Also, some aversions; general practise is not to list aversions unless they're particularly shocking.

  • This is so common at Marvel, DC, and even most independent publishers that it'd probably be easier to list those ladies and young women who lack this attribute.
    • Wolfsbane of The New Mutants and, later, X-Force, X-Factor, and Excalibur, tends to be more realistically endowed, in both human and half-wolf forms. This is probably a deliberate choice on the part of artists, although her character was created at the age of 14.
    • Her former New Mutants teammate and (very?) best friend Dani Moonstar, despite being older, is also usually depicted as a modestly endowed rangy/athletic sort. At least until she showed up in Avengers: The Initiative. Now she's "poppin' out all over".
    • Shadowcat is usually depicted as being skinny, which tends to hold over across most artists, though she, too, was thirteen in her first appearance. At the very least, even when shown having a healthy bust herself, she's depicted as smaller than the other X-Women.
    • Likewise, the young Jubilee from Generation X is "under-endowed" by usual standards, especially after artists began emphasizing her Asian features. In Uncanny X-Men #268, she's sitting between Psylocke and Black Widow; Jubilee looks down to her chest, and makes a disappointed face. However, after appearing in the recent New Warriors series, it appears that someone has implanted something resembling Microsoft's X-Box into each side of Jubilee's chest. Whether or not this is the artist or something different is still unknown.
    • Both Shadowcat and Jubilee are constantly having their ages adjusted (either upward or downward) to suit the preferences of whoever is writing the comic they're in at the moment as well as to account for Comic-Book Time, which aside from screwing with continuity will naturally result in fluctuation of their bust size.
    • When Rachel Summers first appeared in X-Men, she was thin, flat-chested and rather unattractive, since she came from a concentration camp from a Bad Future. This, of course, couldn't last long; she eventually became Ms. Fanservice in Excalibur.
    • Ultimate Spider-Woman's lithe physique is in keeping with Peter's own. One of the Bombshells calls her a "Spider-Man wannabe with a B cup".
    • X-23 started out with a pretty modest chest (given that she had just about hit puberty when she was first introduced), however it seems that she's growing up quite nicely.

  • Death from The Sandman managed to be quite beautiful while also quite averagely proportioned.
  • Though Squirrel Girl of Marvel comics is fairly well-endowed by normal standards, she looks positively skinny next to most superheroines. Squirrel Girl's teammate Big Bertha both averts this trope while paradoxically playing it absolutely straight. She has the ability to gain massive "superbulk," making her appear massively obese. A side effect of this power is the ability to shape her body however she wants; when not being a superhero, she usually chooses to be a supermodel, obviously of the Victoria's Secret type.

  • In a subversion, Raven of Teen Titans, at least in the Wolfman and PĂ©rez days, was purposefully drawn with little to no bust in contrast to the other girls on the team. The animated series didn't much care for the idea, however, as seen below.

  • Totally averted by The Powerpuff Girls, but then again they are only kindergartners. More surprisingly, also averted by their teenage anime counterparts, the Powerpuff Girls Z. This is lampshaded in one Cartoon Network promo where the girls meet Wonder Woman. She compliments them on their work, telling them "you girls are developing into quite the superheroes." Bubbles innocently replies, "someday we'll be as developed as you!" and Wonder Woman blushes and covers her chest.
    • Still averted in "The City of Clipsville", which briefly shows the Girls as teenagers. Their chests are pretty modest. Odd that out of all the superpowers Chemical X gave them, the most common isn't on the list.

Also:

  • Teen Titans: Raven has the largest (by a small margin) breasts out of all the regular (or recurring) girls in the show. Starfire, on the other hand, has smaller breasts, a major departure from both girls' comic-book depiction.

First of all, no, Starfire has bigger boobs. Secondly, both of them have fairly avergae chests; neither qualifies for this trope.

Ty Lee's may be a little bigger than average, but they're not big enough to qualify.

Ukrainian Red Cross Hide / Show Replies
suedenim Since: Oct, 2009
Dec 18th 2010 at 10:48:27 AM •••

I think deleting the aversions is a mistake in this case, because the trope played straight is practically omnipresent.

Jet-a-Reeno!
Ju Since: Jan, 2014
Jan 20th 2011 at 1:36:39 PM •••

Well, if you have a Pettanko who lacks The Most Common Superpower, then maybe she's...Compensating for Something? Or not - maybe she's proving that there's more to women than...those. I don't know. But a lot of artists out there are male, and I noticed while flipping through an art book on Shōnen style manga, all the girls had...'talent.' Plus matching Stripperific outfits to go with! Whoo! Maybe if boys understood the laws of gravity a little better, it wouldn't be like this.

Edited by GirlwithAPlot
198.85.210.203 Since: Dec, 1969
Sep 22nd 2010 at 8:06:57 AM •••

Maybe I'm the missing the point of the this trope but from what I gather, the point of this trope is that women(PLURAL) with superpowers tend to be busty. Well, doesn't that and the title of this trope imply MORE than one woman. I could understand if the examples in this trope were referring to different universes like say dc or marvel or different artist who tend to dicipt their superheriones as busty like adam hughes, but I don't see where one character specific examples like madame mirage, Ty Lee, or most the dc and marvel females fit in this.

I could by wrong but while this trope does refer to characters, I don't think it's character specific.

MikeRosoft Since: Jan, 2001
Mar 14th 2010 at 7:32:38 AM •••

Mike Rosoft:First I added Lara Croft to the page with a surprise that she wasn't mentioned yet; then I noticed that it had been previously removed and re-removed it for now.

From the page:

  • Note that this trope applies exclusively to women with actual superpowers, but they don't have to be technical superheroines.

Edited by MikeRosoft Long live Marxism-Lennonism! Hide / Show Replies
MarqFJA (Before Recorded History)
Apr 2nd 2010 at 5:41:08 AM •••

That edit was made by someone who does not know of the relevant forum thread's conclusions. It has been fixed.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
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