Markup View

Author: 69BookWorM69

Jul 25th 2012 at 8:28:03 PM

Well, primarily it is first and foremost someone unknown to most if not all the other characters. As events unfold, such a character may be shown to be known to '''some''' other characters (say the BigBad or other members of [=TOCOV=]), but likely not to [[TheProtagonist the protagonist(s)]], and it is often from the POV of the protagonist that the audience gets their information. Personally, I prefer the [=OP's=] choice of "stranger" because it emphasizes that this character is a stranger to other characters, which is what the subtropes all have in common.

I can understand why you read the laconic as you do, although I didn't when I first read it. That is one reason I wrote the description as I did.

I was also trying to avoid having a stub, so I tried to pattern this after other supertrope pages on the wiki. Many tropes I've read on this site have some of the whys wherefores on the main page rather than shunting it into an analysis page. It is entirely possible that I've drawn the line in the wrong place, but the [=OP=] doesn't seem to think so.

Perhaps it could use more emphasis on the puzzles that such characters present to the protagonist(s); that is the more usual function of such characters. [=OTOH=] sometimes it's simply a gag, like the neighbour in that Tim Allen sitcom, whose face is never shown, even when he has dialogue with other characters.

I'd say Luke's father would count, though I cannot recall offhand what the trope name for unknown-parents-that-nobody-talks-about actually is. In fact, that trope would be a subtrope of this, assuming we have it.