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" Why do we have to come up with all the answers? People think we have all the answers. We don't. We're just the creators. We don't know what we're doing"
Joy of joys, the authors of your favorite series are answering the fan's questions! Now's your chance to finally get some closure on pressing continuity issues! So you walk up and ask, "Was Bob really a robot?"
Their answers? "I dunno." "No comment."
Congratulations. Instead of an answer, you just got the Shrug Of God.
Before you get angry at them for being evasive, remember that they may have a reason for their ambiguity. Maybe:
- It's an ongoing series, and the question will be answered in an upcoming episode.
- It's an ongoing series, and while there are no immediate plans to answer the question in an upcoming epside, the author wants to leave his options open for addressing it at some point in the future.
- The plot point in question was supposed to be ambiguous or senseless. The fans are supposed to come up with their own answers. Sheesh.
- The possible answers to the question have sparked much debate amongst the fandom, and the author realizes that coming down on either side will provoke a backlash.
- The question is about some detail completely tangential to the story, which the author had never considered. Sure, it would be cool if the author would just make up answers on the spot to questions about supporting character #23's favorite pizza topping, but you can hardly blame the author who doesn't.
- The creator thinks ambiguity feels realistic; after all, Real Life isn't perfectly neat and organized with no mysteries.
- The creators firmly believe in the Death Of The Author theory and don't feel their interpretations are any more valid than anyone else's.
- The writer honestly doesn't remember anymore what he was thinking when he wrote that particular bit.
- The question is (and it frequently is), "So what were Alice and Bob really doing, If You Know What I Mean, while off-camera after that UST-filled scene?", and the writer can't answer truthfully without Moral Guardians screaming for their head on the chopping block.
- The writer is just making it up as they go and honestly has no more idea what's going on than any of the viewers.
- The question has religious implications that the authors would really rather avoid. ("Does God actually exist in this setting?", for example.)
- It's funnier that way.
- The writers just like being contrary and watching their fans squirm.
Contrast with the Hand Wave and " A Wizard Did It," which are given in response to questions about Plot Holes or the workings of a story's Phlebotinum. In contrast, the Shrug Of God is given in response to more mundane questions: questions that should have a simple, straightforward answer. Don't mistake it with Sure Why Not which, while it may come with a shrug from the creator, is quite different.
In other words, if the question is "How does this work?" and the answer is "Beats me," then it's a Hand Wave. If the question is "What happened?" and the answer is "Beats me", it's the Shrug Of God.
For those stories that are deliberately ambiguous, see No Ending. See also Bellisario's Maxim and the MST3K Mantra.
Not to be confused with Atlas Shrugged.
Examples:
Anime / Manga
- When asked if Spike of Cowboy Bebop actually died, Shinichiro Watanabe said he didn't know and jokingly said there could be a sequel. It's anyone's guess whether it's for the third, fourth, or both reasons.
- By contrast, Watanabe has also answered questions asked by those who seemed to assume Spike must be dead with something to the effect of "Did you see him die? I didn't, he seemed like he was seriously lacking some sleep."
- It's easier to pull out the tongue of a live lion than it is to get a straight answer on Revolutionary Girl Utena symbolism from Ikuhara. "Miki keeps timing things because his watch contains the secret of the universe
 ".
- The people from Seven Arcs will answer anything you ask about Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha... unless if it's "Are Nanoha and Fate in love with each other?", then they go all coy and skirt around the question.
- Hideaki Anno is brilliant at this. He directed Neon Genesis Evangelion, and not even he knows what in the blue hell was going on in the last two episodes.
- The mantra "I don't know. Fan Wank something." tends to pop up along with a picture of Anno, whenever the fandom discuss the more ambiguous parts of the series.
- Completely inverted by Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece, who will answer absolutely any question a fan poses to him about the series, no matter how silly, obscure, or disturbing. However, his answers are themselves often rather silly, and other times he just agrees with a guess the reader makes.
- In the interviews for Death Note How to Read 13, Ohba and Obata answer several questions (mainly about the ending) with "That's meant for the reader to decide."
- Yoshiyuki "(no longer) Kill Em All" Tomino is perhaps the granddaddy of shrugging Gods. On many oft questioned significant story elements, particularly dealing with the endings to his many series, he steadfastly refuses to give answers, as he truly does want the people watching the show to create their own idea of how the story ended. He wasn't likely thinking of Fan Fiction, but you still won't get straight answers from him as to Amuro and Char's fate in Char's Counterattack, or whether Loran Cehack and his eventual partner are in a married kind of love or if it's a caregiver/friend thing.
- Yoshitoshi ABe won't answer many questions about Haibane Renmei because he wants people to draw their own conclusions and make their own interpretations about the series.
- Akira Toriyama is particularly bad at this, to the point where a recurring Dragon Ball character simply disappears and his only explanation was that he forgot about her.
- The makers of Noir keep very quiet about what the two gunshots at the end mean, so the fans are still in the dark about the important question whether the main characters live or not.
- Rumiko Takahashi's famous reply to being asked (probably not for the first time that day) whether or not Ranma could get pregnant in female form: "I don't think about such things, and neither should you."
- In fan circles, a "pregnant Ranma" is something that is better left unanswered. The Other Wiki once had an article on the phrase, but it's no longer up.
- When asked if the ending of Code Geass was meant to be happy or sad, director and co-creator Goro Taniguchi's response was "Decide for yourself."
- In regards to Lelouch's apparent death at the end, however, this trope was averted; in every single post-series interview, the staff and cast say he's really dead... although Word Of God had also claimed that Nunnally died during the Tokyo disaster in order to keep her eventual return surprising.
Western Animation
- Avatar The Last Airbender: Supposedly Word Of God says that Azula could eventually regain her sanity and/or redeem herself, but didn't say if she actually will. This was likely because a definite "yes" would feel cheap, but a definite "no" would seem rather harsh.
- There's also the above quote, which was in response to asking Michael Dante DiMartino why he removed a scene in the Grand Finale of Zuko reuniting with his mother. They have since said that it's a story that needs to be told properly...
- Before that, they gave a rather playful shrug when a fan asked about the name of the previous airbender avatar who appeared in a flashback. Their answer was "Susan?" She was eventually revealed to be named Yangchen.
- Glen Murakami of Teen Titans fame is (in)famous for not caring about the finer points that get the Fandom up in arms. The Shrug of God is the official answer to anything related to whether or not it's in continuity with the other DCAU cartoons, anything to do with the characters' origins or out-of-costume lives (most famously, which Robin it is), and pretty much anything not detailed onscreen. General fan consensus is that Teen Titans isn't part of the DCAU and Robin is Dick Grayson, but The Powers That Be have never answered yes or no, not considering these things to be important.
- David Slack, a writer for the show, disagrees, having stated that the Robin we see is Dick Grayson.
- Greg Weisman, writer of Gargoyles, can go into this territory. Admittedly, he's already revealed much of what would've (and may yet eventually) happen had the story been allowed to continue. So now fans wind up asking questions that get the simple answer of "I'm not going to answer that at this time" or some variant thereof. Man's gotta keep some secrets.
- Transformers Animated: After Starscream found out each of his clones was part of his personality, he asked his Opposite Sex Clone what she represented and she responsed "Don't ask!" When someone put the same question to lead character designer Derrick J. Wyatt on an online Q&A session he responded "I try not to think about that one!" He also said that she has a name, but wouldn't say anything beyond it not being Susan, Dirge, Nightbird, Laserbeak, or Laserwave.
- Fan Theory have come up with everything from his self-loathing, to his treachery, to his gayness.
- He did joss self-loathing.
- And her name was confirmed at Botcon 2009: Slipstream.
- In a much different version of this, Marty Isenberg said they have no idea the significance of Professor Sumdac's name being "Cadmus" backwards as it was decided before they go involved.
- This troper has always assumed it was because, like King Cadmus sowing the dragon's teeth which grew into an army, Sumdac sowed the "teeth" (technology) of Megatron, which grew into the ubiquitous robots of the series' setting.
Video Games
- "Team Silent, Team Silent, which one of the endings to Silent Hill is canon?" "They're all canon." "Nyoro~n."
- "Please, no more. It is 9:27pm, I'm trying to work on Banjo and you keep asking me questions about supporting characters in games I designed nearly 15 years ago."
- The Final Fantasy XI dev team is frustratingly notorious for this. Every interview they have will always have at least one question with an ambiguous answer that's as vague as possible. Always. It's not so bad to want your MMO to have some mysteries, but trying to have your game as Guide Dang It as possible with things that hundreds of thousands of players haven't figured out for 4+ years is something else entirely.
- The "you wish it was only Nintendo Hard" boss Absolute Virtue is featured in a developer-made video showing unimaginably vague "hints" for beating it. Every single frame of the video has been scrutinized and subjected to dizzying heights of Wild Mass Guessing. To this day, nobody knows what the developers were trying to convey.
- When asked how Kirby got his name, Masahiro Sakurai says he doesn't remember.
- It's named after John Kirby, the lawyer who defended Nintendo from Universal Studios's accusation of copyright infringement. Reference here.
- Bungie Studios, the creators of Halo and Marathon, deliberately dodge many questions by the fandom, because they prefer to let the fans answer the questions and come up with the theories themselves.
- What happened 10 years ago, during the War? Why did the scientists come to the island? And what the hell is Balrog? These are just a few of the questions that all Cave Story fans wish to have answers to. Yet all Pixel-san says is "I leave it to the player's imagination".
- In Knights Of The Old Republic 2, it's strongly hinted at that Kreia is Arren Kae, Brianna's mother. If this is news to anyone, check out Scorchy's post here. Still, the writer Chris Avellone's response to a question on this was "Can’t comment, but good catch. Sorry." Doesn't he realize that we want to know? :(
- In the RPG Tales Of The Abyss this is how the creators reacted to the question of whether the main character, Luke, survives or not. Cue endless debates on the subject.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who: Russell T Davies refused to confirm whether or not Jack really is the Face of Boe.
- Similarly, the stinger at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords" has its official Shrug Of God. It's apparently a generic Sequel Hook, no strings attached.
- Director's commentary is "It was in, it was out, it was in, it was out."
- When asked whether the Eighth Doctor's revelation that he's half-human on his mother's side is still valid, Steven Moffat gave a response to the effect of, "Well, he certainly said that, didn't he?"
- The producer of Life On Mars "encourages" multiple interpretations of the ending.
- David Chase was very tight-lipped about the ambiguous ending of The Sopranos.
- Cuse and Lindelof of Lost. 'Nuff said.
- Well, in case enough wasn't said, there are occasional things fans want to know that the show runners don't consider interesting or important. Some they have mentioned in podcasts include how Kelvin got to the island and what happened to Sun's dog. At other times, they'll read the fan question, but avoid answering it, then comment on how they dodged the question (this usually means, "Yes, that's important, and will be revealed on the show, possibly soon.")
- Reunion was planned such that each episode would take place in one year in the lives of six friends, covering the span from their high school graduation to their 20-year reunion. Tying the series together was the mystery of the murder of one of the friends. Unfortunately (at least for the show's few fans), it was cancelled with only nine episodes having been aired. When the show's creators were pressed in interviews for details on how the show would have played out, they admitted that they hadn't decided who the murderer was.
- A deleted scene from Battlestar Galactica features Helo confessing to Adama that he was responsible for stopping the humans' chance to wipe out the Cylons with a virus. Adama's knowledge or lack thereof is a pretty significant part of the relationship between the two characters, yet Ronald D. Moore has never given an answer on whether the scene should be considered to have actually "happened".
- He also has no idea just what the hell Starbuck is/was. So...yeah.
- Mostly averted by Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski, who was among the first TV show producers to consistently interact with fans and answer any of their questions, with the exception of things that would spoil future plot points; on some occasions, he even flat-out lied to avoid spoilers. This was made possible due to his having planned out in advance not only the entire five year run of the series, but the thousand years before and after that period. However, there are still some plot points he refuses to explain, in case he gets a chance to use them in a spin-off: a case in point is Delenn's toast to the disgraced Lennier in the series finale among toasts to the dead; all we get on the commentary is "That's a very sad story, and maybe I'll tell it someday."
- It seems someone Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joss Whedon has convinced Morena Baccarin to avoid answering any questions on Inara Serra's preoccupation with aging. Not trying to start a rumor or anything...
- The staff writers who maintain the Heroes blog "Behind the Eclipse" do this a lot. One shrug that inspired particular fan rage was when they were asked how Nathan Petrelli came back to life after being pronounced dead in the Season 3 premiere, and the answer was, "He just got lucky. People can survive shootings all the time. It happens."
Literature
- Of the famously ambiguous scene in the Marabar caves in A Passage to India, E.M Forster said, "In the cave it is either a man, or the supernatural, or an illusion. If I say, it becomes whatever the answer a different book. And even if I know! My writing mind is therefore a blur here, i.e, I will it to remain a blur."
- When asked whether Lyra and Will from His Dark Materials had become lovers at twelve or thirteen or however old they are, Philip Pullman said something like, "I wasn't going to look and neither should anyone else." Pullman also has no answer as to why only a few people in Lyra's world have daemons that are their own sex.
- He had a Sure Why Not moment, though, when someone asked if it meant the person was gay. He said he'd never thought of that and it was as good an explanation as any. He also said it could mean second sight or something.
- The most notorious mystery in the Wheel Of Time series is: Who killed Asmodean? Every time Robert Jordan was asked, he refused to answer, assuring the readers that they should have figured it out already (although this is not clear at all).
- JK Rowling used to do this a great deal before all the Harry Potter books were released, but most of the questions she didn't answer would have spoiled the later books, so she had to be very careful with what she said about them, and in some cases, she worried about seemingly innocuous questions where even refusing to reveal the answer could spoil the surprise, e.g. if someone were to ask what Dumbledore's wand was made of.
- In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is usually an omniscient narrator, knowing the deeds, words, and innermost thoughts and feelings of many different characters. But at one point, his omniscience falters, and he says that one woman is rumored to be a witch, without confirming whether she is or isn't.
- Well, if she isn't, she sure does use a lot of weird metaphors. She even invites Hester into the forest to dance with the Devil.
- To a reader that asked him who or what was really Tom Bombadil, JRR Tolkien answered in a letter: "Even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."
- This is the entire point of the story "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank Stockton, as well as its sequel "The Discourager of Hesitancy".
- Stockton was once at a party where, in an attempt to get a straight answer out of him, the host(s) served two kinds of ice cream: one in the shape of a lady, the other in the shape of a tiger. They asked which he would prefer. Stockton said, "I'll have a bit of both."
- In The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, the murder of Owen Taylor is never explained. When the book was originally being filmed, the director asked Chandler who killed Taylor; Chandler said that he didn't know either, so it was left unexplained in the movie as well.
- Legend suggests that the lack of a solution was an error on Chandler's part, which he acknowledged in during the above conversation. He just forgot to tie that detail up.
- George R.R. Martin is very fond of doing this, either because he hasn't thought out the details of a particular question, or because it's related to future events in the series. The most common shrug is the one that comes after any question about Jon Snow's parentage in A Song Of Ice And Fire.
- Every Discworld book contains a statement by Terry Pratchett that there is no map of the Disc, because "you can't map a sense of humor." Then he made one anyway.
- However, the map was supposedly written by the very CMOT Dibbler itself. That alone should raise questions of accuracy.
- And he's also said the Disc has alternate pasts. God only knows which one the map is showing.
- Ciaphas Cain was originally inspired by the idea of a Flashman Expy. However, the (in-story) editor of his memoirs has said that he doesn't give himself enough credit. Sandy Mitchell admits to not knowing himself whether Cain deserves more credit than he is prepared to give himself.
- In the prologue of Margaret Craven's I Heard An Owl Call My Name, a doctor explains to a bishop that a newly ordained priest is terminally ill: a few active years left, then a few as an invalid. The priest dies during the novel, in an accident. Craven has said she doesn't know what he had.
- An interviewer asked W. M. Thackeray if Becky kills Jos in Vanity Fair. Thackeray cheerfully admitted that he hadn't a clue.
- Lois Lowry has refused to explain the Gainax Ending of The Giver. The two main schools of thought are that Jonas escapes or that the final vision is a Dying Dream as he freezes to death. The sequels, however, imply that he survives
Theater
- John Patrick Shanley won't reveal whether, in his play Doubt, the priest molested the children or not. The point of the play is the investigation. He has, however, noted that he has decided on an answer and told the actors playing Father Flynn, although nobody else.
- W. S. Gilbert, when asked about whether or not Jack Point is dead (the libretto says that he "falls insensible") at the end of The Yeomen of the Guard, said: "The fate of Jack Point is in the hands of the audience, who may please themselves whether he lives or dies." (However, he was also reported as having said "Jack Point should die" when asked if it was all right to treat Point as dead.)
Film
- The Joker in The Dark Knight tells two entirely different stories as to how he got those scars (and started to tell a third), all of which are probably lies. Christopher Nolan not only didn't comment on them, he said Joker has no backstory at all.
- This follows the comics, where (leaving aside one recent storyline that everyone seems sensibly to be ignoring) the Joker has never had any backstory that was not told by the Joker himself. In The Killing Joke, a backstory is told which initially appears to be definitive, but the Joker later says, "Something like that happened to me. I'm not quite sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I'm going to have a past, I'd rather it be multiple choice."
- The contents of the suitcase from Pulp Fiction are arguably an example. It was originally supposed to be diamonds, but then Tarantino changed his mind and said it's basically supposed to be "Whatever seems most valuable to the viewer and can fit in a suitcase".
- "If you understood 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise more questions than we answered." — Arthur C. Clarke
- The DVD commentary to Tron explains just about everything of significance in the film, except the bit where the Master Control Program is terminated and is revealed as a spinning bearded ancient operating an adding machine. The commentators can't even manage a verbal shrug — they just stop talking until the scene finishes.
- The novelization by Brian Daley explains this as the Program reverting to earlier, less complex iterations as it degrades.
- Anything by David Lynch.
- In response to questions of whether or not the Human Project really existed and if they were able to create a cure to the mass infertility after the ending of Children of Men, the staff merely responded that the answer depended wholly on where you lie on the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
Webcomics
- Tom Siddell of Gunnerkrigg Court is usually very helpful about providing answers, no matter how pointless or obscure. But when future plot points or very specific questions about numbers or lengths of time come up, Mr. Siddell proves a master of answering questions without actually answering the questions.
- T Campbell is as notorious as Tom for answers like these, although usually responding to fans who should have known better. One noteworthy Shrug Of God is that he refuses to reveal whether the Hermans Head storyline 20 2020 Pennies was a dream or an actual plane of existence — which wouldn't be so bad, except that he did say the versions of Penny and Aggie featured there were bisexual and lesbian, respectively.
- Maritza Campos of College Roomies From Hell is famous for answering fan questions with a smile and a "Maaaybe..."
- Interestingly, Dave of Bob And George rarely answers questions about his own comic, more likely, someone on the Bn G forum gets there first, leading to a huge discussion on the meaning of life, which Dave leaves alone (in most cases).
- Any questions about plotholes are actually taboo in the Bn G community.
- That's because there are no plotholes. Even the ones you think you see, even the ones you know you see, are not plotholes.
Tabletop RPGs
- Many fans of the Dungeons And Dragons campaign setting Eberron frequently ask questions such as "What happened to destroy Cyre and create the Mournland?" no matter how many times such things are said to explicitly be points of Canon Uncertainty And Doubt. The answer is deliberately left out, so DMs can provide their own and easily work those events into their own plotline.
- Additionally, a similar question involving the Planescape campaign setting is one regarding the true nature of Sigil's ruler/guardian, the Lady of Pain. A straight answer has never been given, other than a novel hinting that she has ties to the Greek pantheon of gods. The most direct answer simply states that she was inspired by the titular character of Algernon Swinburne's poem "Dolores".
- Incidentally, unlike the Eberron scenario, which it's stated explicitly that it is the DM's call to provide an explanation for the various mysteries, Planescape encouraged DMs to leave such questions regarding the Lady of Pain and various other multiversal engimas deliberately unanswered, to maintain the setting's particular ethos.
- Similarily, the nature and identity of Ravenloft's Dark Powers are usually kept mysterious.
- Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games (the creators of GURPS) has been known to answer obscure questions about his games with "Fnord." (A reference to the Illuminatus trilogy, which has often gotten Shout Outs in SJG products.)
- Given the sensitive nature of the subject matter (religion) in the In Nomine roleplaying game from Steve Jackson Games, many topics are what the Line Editor officially refers to as matters of "Canon Doubt and Uncertainty". Each individual DM is supposed to come up with their own answers to such questions as 'Was Jesus Christ really the Son of God?', and the official game material has never and will never address the issue directly.
- Warhammer 40000: So, what's up with the two missing Primarchs? Word Of God is, of course, "No comment."
Comic Books
Web Original
- None of the editors on Orions Arm will ever answer certain questions about certain setting elements. Are the Dawn Hunters real? Why did the previous galactic empires all up and disappear? "The last—" What did they find at the Hedrile? Where, exactly, does the Fargate lead? Which of the higher Archailects actually exist? Is the universe just another Bottle Universe? Are the Amalgamation Terragen or Xeno?
- The official mission position of The Salvation War is that every single thing that happens has some kind of rational, scientific explanation. Whenever the author has trouble coming up with one, he inserts a shrug into the story himself by having the characters say they have no idea why this thing is happening, so they're just going to accept that it does for now.
Music
- Paul Simon's song "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard" contains the line "What your momma saw/it was against the law". Simon has claimed he has no idea what it was the momma saw, other than it was probably something sexual.
- Carly Simon notoriously refuses to publically name the subject of "You're So Vain." (Although she did reveal the identity to NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol, who had the winning bid of $50,000 in a charity auction for the privilege, on the condition that he not reveal it. He also got a private performance of the song and a peanut butter sandwich, both by Simon.)
- The straightest answer to the question "What does American Pie mean?" that anyone has gotten out of Don McLean is "It means I never have to work again." More seriously, he claims "songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."
- The most popular theory is that "The Day The Music Died" refers to the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper and the song is pretty much about the loss of innocence that comes with getting smacked in the face with the fact that "Youth =/= Immortality". McLean infamously won't confirm or deny this interpretation.
- Bob Dylan, upon being asked what his songs are about, replied 'Some are about three minutes, some are about five minutes"
Newspaper Comics
- Calvin And Hobbes: What is Hobbes true nature? A magical stuffed animal that comes to life when Calvin is around? A figment of Calvin's imagination? Bill Watterson isn't sure himself.
- In the Tenth Anniversary Collection, Watterson states that "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie (like the 'Noodle Incident' I've referred to in several strips) is left to the reader's imagination, where it's sure to be more outrageous."
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