Suggestion: Flat What

While the image for Flat "What" from El Goonish Shive does give an example of the trope, it is difficult to infer the emotion that a proper Flat "What" should convey without any context. Questionable Content has just provided us with an excellent example of a Flat "What" that also gives some better context over what should induce a Flat "What". I would like to suggest changing the page image to the last panel of this strip, which shows a Flat "What" with a little more context.

edited 7th Oct '13 11:11:32 PM by TV4Fun

I don't think that the cause of the reaction is important enough to the trope that adding it would be an improvement.

Too long, didn't read, not an improvement.

No. If there's going to be dialog, there should be only one word. And the text is very blurry. I don't really like the current either. It's not flat enough.

edited 8th Oct '13 6:08:49 AM by Rethkir

What everyone else said. Not an improvement.

What they said; not an improvement.

It's a strong image to try and top, this doesn't do it.

Not an improvement. Current is perfect.

Meh. If you're going to do something like that, at least crop it down to the people so you can zoom in on the text more.

I'm honestly torn on this one, as the current and the suggestion both satisfy two of the TVT holy trinity...I need to ask about this since Eddie prefers anything that brings more wit into the wiki. Also, I like that the suggestion actually provides some context to justify the reaction. is right, the suggestion should've been heavily cropped to make the text more legible; here it is.

edited 9th Oct '13 3:42:15 PM by Willbyr

The replacement is funnier than what is there, and more clear. In other words, an improvement.

edited 9th Oct '13 5:26:36 PM by FastEddie

So it's a 7-7 tie (with Eddie counting as 7 votes alone)? :D

I will say this, the cropping takes it from "this shouldn't be on the page at all" to at least "well, if we didn't have a perfectly serviceable image, it would go on."

I still prefer current. I don't think it's terribly important to know what they're reacting to so long as their emotions are clear, and I think the art in the current demonstrates emotion quite well.

Now that I've read the description, I'm leaning even more toward the QC pic. The description specifically notes that the character giving the "What." has to be completely flummoxed. Given that, from what I can recall of EGS, whasserface in the current pretty much has a perpetual frown, it gives the impression of being a statement of disbelief, or at least an underlying "You gotta be kidding me." Dale, in the QC pic, definitely looks flummoxed, which makes for a better fit.

Looks like some tropers have reached the conclusion that words on an image are somehow a negative. Not sure how to reconcile that position with the fact of there being millions and millions of webcomic and comicstrip fans in the world, including tens of thousands on this wiki. I think we have to discount that position pretty heavily.

Anyway, could someone who feels the proposed replacement is not an improvement explain how the current image is superior? It is hard to see, for me.

edited 9th Oct '13 6:20:02 PM by FastEddie

The main argument seems to be simplicity. In this POV, the context for the Flat "What" is irrelevant to the picture. Therefore, showing that context is superfluous and clutters the meaning.

The main objection to words on an image is that they are, well, images. If we want text, we already have the page quote, image caption, and trope description for that purpose. Good images should show, not tell. Now I know you're the boss man and everything, so maybe you think differently, but that's the general opinion here.

The art in the current shows their emotion more clearly, in my opinion. So it manages to do more with fewer words.

Which I think is overall better.

For the record, the EGS pic originally had a caption along the lines of "And she's got a flying fairy next to her, so whatever she's looking at has got to be surprising," which I deleted years ago for being redundant.

I personally prefer the Questionable Content one.

The better version of the QC one is at least readble, so plus for that.

The "is the text bad?" question doesn't affect my opinion here (both the current and the suggestion are on the same level of text) so I still consider a change as neutral.

Clock is set.

Am I the only one that preferred the one where Sarda's brain breaks in Eight Bit Theater? The screwed-up eyes helped give silent context.

I like 10.

I remember there used to be a Image Pickin thread by rodneyAnonymous related to the issue of too much text being considered an example of Just A Face And A Caption and decided to ask for the replacement of the picture from The Order of the Stick (because it's an example of too much text in a caption, and thus, being considered Just A Face And A Caption) with the picture of Simba with the Oh, Crap! facial expression.

When I pointed out that the then wording of the trope stated that it technically IS an example of JAFAAC, he decided to propose (successfully) to change the rule as to make that part moot.

Therefore, since it's the mods who decided that "huge amount of text is JAFAAC" isn't true anymore, anyone who argue otherwise have no choice but to admit that it's not against the rules to have 10 as the page's picture.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1340836096063040200