Needs Help: "Could Say It, But..."and"Hint Dropping"

I'm trying to find a middle ground here for a trope where one character is trying to persuade another character to act a certain way. "Could Say It, But..." is where they're being blatant in deliberate Loophole Abuse, while the description of "Hint Dropping" indicates that it only applies to relationships.

As an example of what I'm looking for, the conversation between Harry and the fake Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where Moody can't outright tell Harry what to do to beat the dragon, but gives him some "general good advice." Or, to use a metaphor, "Could Say It, But..." is telling someone what's behind a shuttered window, while what I'm looking for is showing them where the controls for the shutters are. If "Hint Dropping" is what I'm looking for after all, then could we make its description less strictly defined?

Edited by Mitis on Mar 20th 2021 at 1:16:19 PM

Moved to Trope Talk, as it fits better here. ~Mitis.

i feel like Could Say It, But... still works here? there are definitely examples on that page that match the one you gave, like "don't open the shutters, especially not by pressing this button." it's a downplayed instance, but still applicable to the trope

Mmm. OK, let me share exactly what sparked this. Hint Dropping is the trope linked to an example on the This Bites! page regarding the following situation:

In the middle of a prison, Poisonous Person Warden Magellan is fighting main protagonist Luffy. In a lull of their fight, a monster shows up behind Luffy that's a recent addition to the prison's features. Luffy hates these monsters because they're in his way and hard to kill. Magellan hates them because they're going past acceptable levels of torture and causing too many pointless casualties in the name of 'research.'

When Luffy sees that Magellan hates the monster just as much, he says, "Oh, look, I'm standing in front of your big bad weapon. You can't attack me or you might kill it, too."

Magellan takes about one second to get it, then drowns the monster in poison and says, "Oh, no. I missed. Now I have to report that because of you, Straw Hat, we lost two of the Government's prototypes. How very...tragic."

yeah that's definitely Could Say It, But.... they're both working together for a common goal, but keeping up the denial that they're not. it's downplayed because they aren't being as obvious in their intentions as the trope usually entails, but still an example, i would say. Hint Dropping seems to be more exclusively about romantic advances so putting it under that is likely a misuse of the trope

Edited by NoUsername on Mar 21st 2021 at 4:01:32 AM

Very well, then. Thanks for the clarification.