Suggestion: When The Planets Align

This seems straightforward enough,my suggestion is this ◊ cropped image from Eternal Darkness, the larger,uncropped image can be found here ◊

Suggestions and thoughts are welcome.

edited 1st Jan '14 10:58:41 AM by Ultimatum

Not bad, counting the original if cropped and resized properly.

OK, although the squashed-together appearance of the crop doesn't look well to me.

or maybe the orrery◊ from Pitch Black?

How's this?

I'd like a recropped version of 1.2. Like Sep said, the cropped version (1.1) is squished and that's no good when dealing with spheres.

The reason I like it is it shows the planets aligning, but more importantly, shows something happening because of it.

It's easy to get shots of planets just aligning, but harder (and, in my opinion, more important) to show why that matters.

EDIT: Recropped

Double edit: ... never mind, Willbyr beat me to it.

edited 1st Jan '14 1:35:45 PM by Larkmarn

5 is good. I just wonder how it will look with the description as it is.

edited 1st Jan '14 2:42:17 PM by AnotherDuck

Description is shorter, really.

I'm surprised not only to not see a suggestion from 2001, but to not even see 2001 listed on the trope's page. I always thought that the film had a few of the most iconic instances of celestial alignment in cinema.

I'd suggest this image.

I think the Eternal Darkness one is better because it implies "when the planets align, stuff happens" rather than just "the planets align."

That's pretty good, but I think the Eternal Darkness pic has more visual punch.

To Eternal Darkness.

The Eternal Darkness pic shows better the mysticism associated with this trope, so my vote's for that one.

What Lark said.

on 9.

The planets in 5 doesn't align with the planet with the glowing magic stuff. Ergo .

9 doesn't have glowing magic stuff. Ergo 5.

Well... where does the trope say it needs "glowing magic stuff"?

And Monoliths are cool. Heck, I've even got an action figure of one. (The packaging boasts an impressive zero points of articulation! I'd like to see "glowing magic stuff" do that!)

My argument, all kidding aside, is that the image from 2001 is more iconic and identifiable to the average person then a video game that is probably mostly forgotten about today outside of those who were fans of it in the heyday of the Gamecube.

Not that it isn't a cool game! I should probably finish it one of these days. (I left off with this part where I kept dying! I may need to backtrack a bit...) But if you showed both images to random people without identifying the source, which one do you think more people would be able to identify the significance of?

(Besides, as m8e said, the alignment actually doesn't even look quite... well... properly aligned in the Eternal Darkness pic!)

edited 3rd Jan '14 4:35:55 PM by Yotsuyasan

Popularity and iconicity mean smack. I, for one, do not recognize the source of both suggestions. I find 5 to be far superior because glowing magic stuff.

5 gets my

edited 3rd Jan '14 4:45:14 PM by Elbruno

If popularity and iconicity mean smack, then we may as well choose the picture that clearly shows celestial bodies organized in a straight line rather then one in which they are not properly aligned◊, even though it seems more popular in this discussion thread because, "Ooh, look! Magic glowing stuff!" (It is even less aligned if you include the star, and not just the planets... but I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt there.)

"Magic glowing stuff" is not a part of the trope. Celestial bodies being in a straight line very much is a part of the trope.

edited 3rd Jan '14 5:01:11 PM by Yotsuyasan

It's celestial bodies being aligned doing something, which is something that 9 does not show, at least not very well. And on not being actually aligned; to me that gives the impression that they are about to align, and something is about to go down because of it.

edited 3rd Jan '14 5:03:07 PM by Elbruno

The trope isn't planets in a straight line, it's that something happens when they are. Magic glowing stuff is a good representation of that.

I rather much gather at this point that I am in a loosing battle, preaching to a crowd with its mind already made up, but just to put fourth one more pair of contrary questions before backing down (unless others suddenly voice support for my suggestion):

1. Giant space rectangle (which can do a plethora of amazing things such as sparking the evolution of intelligence in humanity, open interstellar star gates, or transforming Jupiter into a star) being associated with celestial alignments isn't impressive enough? Seems rather more impressive to me.

2. If "magic glowing stuff" is a representation of what happens when they are in alignment, then why is the magic glowing stuff glowing before they are in alignment? That to me says that the magic glow could be independent of the alignment. Could the alignment cause the glow? Is the glow causing the alignment? Or is it just a coincidence? Who knows?

(The monolith is shown with alignments on multiple occasions, years or even millennia apart. True, on each individual occasion it is subtle if there is any significance to this, but the repetition makes it seem less then coincidental.)

Anyway, as I said, unless there is a sudden swell of support for my suggestion, I suppose I'm out. (Other then to place a vote should it go to a crowner, but it seems to me that support for the Eternal Darkness pic is sufficient over any other suggestion for a crowner to be unnecessary.) I made a suggestion, more then said my piece, and it seems it is not to be. So no need to keep at it.

edited 3rd Jan '14 5:58:57 PM by Yotsuyasan

Alrighty,should the image have a caption?

Since the majority of the thread has been in support of the cropped Eternal Darkness pic, it's up, potholed, and tagged. No ideas on a caption.

Since there hasn't been any discussion on a caption to this point, I'm gonna go ahead and close this.