Information on the TGT Principle

 For as long as I have been writing and creating fan-oriented work regarding each fandom I’ve resided in, I think it’s time I go over the usual things I’ve been creating when it comes to stuff like this. Over the course of the Yumeji!Smash Bros. AU’s lifespan and the development of Bomber Forces (my Bomberman AU) and Saturday (my Pokemon AU) I was critically skeptical on the character traits of each cast member and had been quite observant of each and every one of the personality changes that were made. To better clarify how and why this happens, here is an entire research blog I’ve created to explain.

      This is also the birth of a new term I created within fanfiction regarding the canon characters for whatever fandom I use. 

     The Tails Gets Trolled Principle - otherwise shortened and referred to as the TGT Principle - is the practice of changing the personalities of a canon character in any form of fanworks that somehow doesn’t match their original counterpart from the source they’re from. This term was created by MockeryLloyd as a reference to the infamous MS Paint webcomic Tails Gets Trolled, wherein one of the questions correlated with the term itself. 

“Q: Are any of the characters stand-ins for the authors or their beliefs? Are they actually bigots and/or approve of murder?”

    “ A: No. Even the most "moral" characters in the story are flawed at best, and many are portrayed as reprehensible, including some of the protagonists. None of the actions taken by the characters in the story are condoned by the authors.

A quote from Lazerbot himself on this topic: ‘Truth is there's a lot of portrayals of toxic and dysfunctional behaviors in TGT. One of the main aspects of TGT is showing how those ways of life are destructive to others and the people living that way. Usually there are negative consequences for their self destructive nature.’”

     Some examples I would like to give from Yumeji!Smash Brothers would be the Brawl Fighters and their constant need to pick on and bully the subspace kids to satisfy their selfish desire to feel better about themselves, despite the fact that there were alternate ways they could have fixed the problem. The Sm4sh Fighters are oftentimes depicted as wearing large clothing and coping with trauma in extremely unhealthy ways. The Smash Veterans are control freaks who try to justify it by “being protective.” 

     The term had originated from the many times I’ve spent reading the TGT webcomic and had been paying close attention to how the characters behaved in ways that were not normal for them. However, this term could also be part of the Out Of Character trope.

     TL;DR 

The TGT Principle is a term I subconsciously use when I write a canon character acting like a complete fucking moron and not behaving like their regular self.

     ~ MockeryLloyd