Needs Help: He Was Right There All Along

To anyone not familiar with the source, this image is really hard to understand. I just looks like a creepy Giant Spider over a bunch of little things. I guess the point is that they are the player, and they're not looking up, but the image is so small, it's really hard to see that. At the very least, a larger version would be better.

Yeah, I don't get it either.

Off-topic: Isn't that exactly Turtle Island or That's No Moon, but a video game play of it?

Is there a reason why this trope presents itself as Video Game centric that "non-Video Game examples" have to be separated?

Anyway, I was thinking of this◊, but probably with a higher quality shot.

How does this work? Is "Creepy Shadow Lady" boss-like enough for it to work visually?

Um, cool concept, but a little confusing. Also, that image looks pretty distorted. Make sure that you lock the aspect ratio when resizing.

The issue is I think the original upload was from an emulator.

I tested the aspect ratio. The width is scaled twice as much the height. This is something we try to avoid. I won't upload anything since you have the source. Just be aware of that.

I'm pretty sure the issue goes down to the one that made the original video. Tried another source.

I'm rather confused what the shots are supposed to be illustrating. So, the character has a womanly silhouette...?

Someone appearing from his shadow. Don't remember it from the game, but that's what it looks like to me. Not sure how well it illustrates tha trope, though.

I'm not crazy about the shadow one either. I am just really picky about image quality and wanted to point out the aspect ratio issue. I think the Lord of the Rings one is probably better, but it looks like it could be illustrating some other trope.

@Rodney: Yes, this appears to be the exact same thing as That's No Moon, and the page for the latter already contains examples like walking on a hill that turns out to be a giant instead.

Eh, based on its name only, I was expecting this to be about the heroes trying to find, hunt down or even escape from a villain/monster only to have the latter sneak up on them. And the description does appear to read as something similar. Haven't gone through the examples though.

I think an image of a character clinging to something while another person is oblivious to it would work. Multiple panels could be necessary.

An example that comes to mind is a notable shot of this scene from Spongebob Squarepants. One panel could show Spongebob running from Patrick, another could show him breathing heavily after seemingly running away from him, and the last one would be of Patrick hanging on the ceiling. Of course, there'd obviously have to be rips of a higher quality video, but thankfully several exist on YouTube.

edited 28th Mar '14 9:27:59 PM by KingClark

Damn copywrites. Here's a higher quality version. The mandatory idiotic twist to avoid being taken down is that it's sped up. This is a really cool scene, but I don't think it is this trope. This is about entering a boss room that seems empty, then it turns out that the boss was in the room the whole time. You just didn't know it. Sponegebob was trying to hide from Patrick, something else entirely.

The current image shows nothing about the trope. Cull it.

^ Actually it only shows half. IIRC you enter the area and initially you only see these four large pillars ... who turn out to be the legs of the boss (when everything is revealed).

We definitely need a two-parter for this.

But as much as I love TWEWY, I don't think it makes a good illustration, mainly because it's from cinematic cutscenes. The source doesn't include the surrounding dialogue that explains it, plus it's NOT actually a good example of the trope either.

edited 29th Mar '14 9:31:10 AM by Stratadrake

How about a two-part "before and after" shot of one of the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus? Most of the colossi start off as innocuous parts of the environment before bursting into their arenas.

Is there any way for this trope to not be specific toward video games? I mean there's no real reason for it to be so. This can pop up in any sort of work.

Also I like that idea. Which Colossus I wonder... the first?

edited 10th Apr '14 9:53:46 PM by Lakija

I'd like to see what the shots look like first, before agreeing, because I don't know what Shadow of the Colossus is

It's a stunning game. Absolutely beautiful. Here's the video. I took screen caps but I don't know if they are clear enough.

Here's an example from Dragons Dogma on this video.

edited 11th Apr '14 6:51:09 AM by Lakija

Bumping. So is this one good or bad?

edited 16th Apr '14 8:02:40 AM by Lakija

No. To me, in Shadow Of The Colossus there generally is no wandering around wondering "okay, where is this boss?" before the colossus reveals itself. It's a simple script trigger - you head towards location X marked on your map, and when you cross invisible line Y the colossus appears. Whether or not you can see the colossus beforehand (which, actually, in many cases you can't) is irrelevant.

Of course, this isn't strictly the same as whether it makes a good illustration of the concept. In which case it's ... neither bad nor good. In the above pic, the player is on a plateau and this pile of rocks is literally the only other thing on it; of course the player is going to go check it out (cue colossus reveal).

edited 16th Apr '14 8:17:36 AM by Stratadrake