Can we get a better picture?: Little Green Man In A Can

You know that's a Vorlon, I know that's a Vorlon, many tropers know that's a Vorlon. But to people that don't know B5, encounter suits only make them look starfishy. Perhaps something more like the pic in Mobile-Suit Human, where it's clear which is the alien and which is the suit?

edited 26th Feb '11 9:00:50 AM by Ejia

Didn't we have this thread?

Really? It looks like a suit to me, all the other examples kind of look like that. I originally wanted a Mondowa...whateverian from The Fifth Element but coudldn't find a good pic. These two choices are good because one has one eye and the other has a tiny side.

I'm really not sure what it is. I think I see some tubing or something when I zoom in a little, so I can take your word for it that it's a suit, but I don't really understand what I'm looking at.

It would help if the caption could explain it better. I think I'm halfway there, maybe.

Here's some other images that might fit, if we decide the current image doesn't work.

[1]◊
[2]◊
[3]◊

All three are great pics, but I think the Dalek is the only one that actually fits...possibly whassisface from Mega Mind also since he has to be in the water bowl.

Off Topic: I Thought It Meant Oscar the Grouch.

^^^ Was that Krang in the last one? It gives me a 504 error now. I think I like the Dalek the most, probably because their armor actually looks like a can.

bump

The Dalek or the sidekick from Mega Mind still work best for me.

Bump...do we need a crowner?

Bump to remind myself to make the crowner later tonight if no one else does.

Crowner, definitely.

Done. Vote away!

From the text: "The great thing is that because you don't know what their encounter-suited butts look like, they could be anything!"

I get the sense that we don't see the guy inside the suit most or all of the time in this trope. If that's right, my problem the the Dalek pic becomes: is it clear Daleks don't always look like that?

You'd have to ask someone that's fluent in Who, I've never watched it so I dunno how often they're shown out of their saltshakers.

What a Dalek looked like inside the can was a big mystery for a long time, but now we see them quite regularly. And that's what I'm trying to get at: the wording is a bit vague but I get the sense the trope is about the power of keeping the mystery by not showing the alien inside the suit. If I'm right in that reading, the early Doctor Who is a better example and I would suggest that we'd be better off with a buttoned-up Dalek.

edited 13th Jul '11 8:59:33 PM by Camacan

Bump for weekend votes...as of right now:

• A Dalek◊ from Doctor Who: +2 (yeas:2 nays:0)
• The sidekick◊ from Mega Mind: +1 (yeas:2 nays:1) 2.00 : 1

Everything else is in the red.

Yes, you are right. That's what I meant (I wrote this). I'm still iffy on the Daleks though because they don't look like most of the other examples. They are little Panzer tanks whereas most of the others are Space suits or Hazmats.

The side kick from Megamind isn't an alien. And both sidekick and Utrom are not this trope- if not Mobile-Suit Human (which is not this trope and which takes things away from being this trope) then they are a trope of "Thing without arms given mecha body that does have arms".

Dalek leads with +7 votes, next one is -1.

edited 27th Jul '11 12:54:15 PM by Tambov333

...and it got a couple of down votes since then, so this hasn't quite stabilized yet.

This image change makes me unhappy. I feel we rushed into it before we properly understood the the trope.

We need a trope for "Thing without arms given mecha body that does have arms".

I'm seeing what you're getting at...maybe we should go with a generic Dalek as the pic, with the exposed alien either linked in the caption, potholed in the pic, or in the examples list.

edited 28th Jul '11 4:13:48 AM by Willbyr

Possibly not these Daleks◊. Or this one◊. No no no.

edited 29th Jul '11 6:42:38 AM by Camacan

Noooooo, probably not This◊ one would do.