Markup View

Author: dakta

Mar 6th 2013 at 4:41:53 PM

There are possible scenarios, all of which seem to have examples here:

1. The other characters speak the foreign language, so the audience is the only one left out (useless subtitles)

2. The other characters speak the foreign language, so the audience knows what's going on (translated subtitles)

3. The other characters don't speak the foreign language, so the audience is left out with them (useless subtitles)

4. The other characters don't speak the foreign language, so the audience knows more than them (translated subtitles)

Useless subtitles can be anything from no subtitles where there otherwise should be subtitles, subtitles that are a transcription of the language as spoken, or subtitles that just say "[Speaking _Language_]".

The proposed trope image gives what I think is the original and best example: the foreign language isn't understood by the audience and the subtitles are no help. Some of the audience knows what was said, others don't, just like the characters. ''This is about the audience being left in the dark, so they go to the subtitles expecting a translation and all they get is "[Speaking Japanese]". Thus the name: "Reality Has No Subtitles".''