"Dr. Hannibal Lecter?" he presses, which is the first time we hear the title character's name spoken, and somehow it's not followed by an ominous thunderclap or something. This is what I tend to think of as the People in Dracula Don't Know They're in Dracula problem. You and I are sitting here going, "Dude, are you hearing yourself? Hannibal Lecter. What kind of name even IS that? It RHYMES with how he's EVIL. Everyone knows who he is, that's why he's got four movies and a TV show." [...]
But in a story, the characters don't know. "Why would you go to the dark scary castle of a guy named Dracula?!" Well, because "Dracula" doesn't mean anything to those fictional people—not the way it does to us. So, as a reader/viewer, you sometimes have to fight this impatient disbelief that the characters do not realize they are talking to a household name of horror. Rather, they're living in a world where "This guy is actually a terrifying killer who wants to feast on you" is the least obvious conclusion.
But in a story, the characters don't know. "Why would you go to the dark scary castle of a guy named Dracula?!" Well, because "Dracula" doesn't mean anything to those fictional people—not the way it does to us. So, as a reader/viewer, you sometimes have to fight this impatient disbelief that the characters do not realize they are talking to a household name of horror. Rather, they're living in a world where "This guy is actually a terrifying killer who wants to feast on you" is the least obvious conclusion.
"You can only be a wise man on the other side of the screen."
— Kasumi Ayase, Dies Irae
"Sure, we are introduced to Iago when he shit-talks Othello, and he flat out spells out to the audience 'I hate Othello and I want to ruin his life.' Good thing Iago never does any of this stuff when Othello is in the scene with him..."
— A quote from a thread
about this phenomenon.
about this phenomenon."People get really hung up on how Shadow could be mistaken for Sonic, but they're always thinking about it at a surface level completely divorced from the context. To you and I it's easy to tell them apart, but to everyone else, they see a hedgehog-like creature with a similar silhouette to Sonic moving at blitzing speeds with a Chaos Emerald at night. Why wouldn't they suspect Sonic?
"And that's not even the half of it. Try to divorce yourself from SA2 and how it's shown to you, and just picture Sonic." *shows picture of Sonic* "You know him. You're familiar with him as a popular character. Then you see this." *shows picture of Shadow* "You have never seen him before and don't know who he is. Wouldn't your first assumption to be that he's some kind of dark form of Sonic? Hell, you show anyone who is only vaguely familiar with the series and they'll just straight up say, 'oh, it's Sonic'. Even the former CEO of Sega of America mistook Shadow for Sonic.
"Once again, to you or I who are Sonic fans, and who are experiencing what's happening from Sonic's perspective, no shit it's easy to tell that they're not the same person. But how is anyone else supposed to know that? That they look superficially different? Need I remind you that Sonic has been witnessed by probably hundreds of people before, transforming into another form with the Chaos Emeralds, whose spines are shaped exactly like Shadow's, might I add. I will go as far as to say that it wouldn't make sense for people not to mistake them. I'll go into more detail with this later, but suffice to say, context is everything."
"And that's not even the half of it. Try to divorce yourself from SA2 and how it's shown to you, and just picture Sonic." *shows picture of Sonic* "You know him. You're familiar with him as a popular character. Then you see this." *shows picture of Shadow* "You have never seen him before and don't know who he is. Wouldn't your first assumption to be that he's some kind of dark form of Sonic? Hell, you show anyone who is only vaguely familiar with the series and they'll just straight up say, 'oh, it's Sonic'. Even the former CEO of Sega of America mistook Shadow for Sonic.
"Once again, to you or I who are Sonic fans, and who are experiencing what's happening from Sonic's perspective, no shit it's easy to tell that they're not the same person. But how is anyone else supposed to know that? That they look superficially different? Need I remind you that Sonic has been witnessed by probably hundreds of people before, transforming into another form with the Chaos Emeralds, whose spines are shaped exactly like Shadow's, might I add. I will go as far as to say that it wouldn't make sense for people not to mistake them. I'll go into more detail with this later, but suffice to say, context is everything."
— Ruby of Blue, "What Makes Sonic Adventure 2's Story THE BEST?"
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