Line #1 Main/SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness


1	->''"I didn't feel the need to appear before now, because I knew I'd face big shouty demands like this as soon as I broke the fourth wall. I think I might have to retcon everyone and go back to nice peaceful anonymity."''
2	-->-- '''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie L.O.G.]]''''s [[http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=6269&uid=33513137116 Facebook Q&A]]
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4	In fiction, {{Webcomics}} in particular, the FourthWall is sometimes [[NoFourthWall nonexistent]]; sometimes it is so solid that you can [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall lean on it]]. This is a sliding scale of how solid the FourthWall is.
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6	From most solid/hardest, to least solid/softest (Note that promos and the like do not count for this scale):
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8	!!Completely Solid Fourth Wall
9	* ThisIsReality holds sway; within the four walls of the series, there is no direct acknowledgment of the viewer. ({{Lampshade Hanging}}s, some degree of {{Genre Savvy}}ness is allowed, but the FourthWall remains entirely intact).
10	* {{Mockumentar\|y}}ies and the like: There are cameramen who the actors acknowledge, but ThisIsReality still holds sway.
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12	!!Visible Fourth Wall
13	* Soliloquies, Asides, and the like, as long as the audience is not directly acknowledged. The characters behave as if they were characters in a story, but they don't know who might be watching. (You talk to the audience in a soliloquy, yes, but only because the conventions of the theater say that doing so means that you're actually just thinking out loud at the audience.)
14	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Where the characters don't know that they're fictional, but they make comments that tease on the fact that they are. For instance, saying, "You watch too many sitcoms" in a sitcom, or "That felt like it went by quickly" after a {{Montage}}.
15	* AsideGlance/[[AsideComment Comment]]: If a character briefly looks at the screen, or even makes a brief remark towards the camera, this usually qualifies as Visible Fourth Wall. The reason is because it was directed at the audience out-of-universe, but in-universe, it can be written off as coincidence or thinking aloud.
16	* FourthWallPsych: Where the fourth wall wasn't broken, but we're clearly [[BaitAndSwitch meant to think it was]] initially.
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18	!!Gaps In The Fourth Wall
19	* FourthWallMailSlot: where, outside of the plot, the characters respond, in character, to reader mail or reader content -- if it is the only break in the fourth wall.
20	* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: a segment of the show where characters often lecture directly to the audience, sometimes acknowledging the unrealism of that episode's events.
21	* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: The creator of a work, the audience, or you, personally, interact with characters (in a way that isn't AudienceParticipation). Such as by lending the characters a boat, or money. Can happen in reverse, too. ThePlayerIsTheMostImportantResource is a video game-specific version of this.
22	* SigningOffCatchphrase and WrapUpSong, as long as they're the only fourth-wall breaks. The characters break the fourth wall at the end of each installment to tell the viewers goodbye.
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24	!!Semipermeable Fourth Wall
25	* A {{Narrator}} who speaks directly to the audience, but whom the characters do not know about or interact with; but only if the narrator's announcements amount to more than "Meanwhile", "see Issue #7", or other scene setting.
26	* FourthWallObserver: One character has full MediumAwareness, and the others [[MistakenForInsane write it off as them being insane]].
27	** AudienceWhatAudience: When the character's medium awareness leaves others baffled.
28	* In a video game, the characters are aware of the context of the game just enough to [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits explain a concept of the game to the player]], but do so within the context of the story. Common in {{Justified Tutorial}}s.
29	* AddressingThePlayer usually falls in the semipermeable state, where the characters acknowledge their role as player-controlled entities but still continue acting on in-universe logic, but can enter the later states if it's used in a metatextual sense (as in NoticingTheFourthWall and TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou).
30	** ContinueYourMissionDammit: The game characters know full well that they're characters in a video game, but they're still within the player's control. This frustrates them when they feel you aren't moving fast enough/doing the right thing in-game, so they start telling the player to stop dawdling.
31	* Clear BreakingTheFourthWall happens, but at other times, everything works as if the characters are not aware of being fictional; the breakages are basically implied not to be {{canon}}, even though they may happen in the middle of the normal action.
32	** ScoldingTheFourthWallBreaker: Other characters admonish a character for breaking the fourth wall, as if it's taboo and they should act as if the fourth wall is solid.
33	* InteractiveNarrator: The characters and the narrator can have conversations. (Because this is very much a case of RuleOfFunny unless we're deep in Metafiction territory, and such scenes are frequently removable from the plot, this trope falls ''just'' this side of Nonexistant.)
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35	!!Nonexistent Fourth Wall
36	* MediumAwareness: The characters may directly acknowledge the mechanics of their medium and/or that this is just a show, but these acknowledgments don't actually affect the plot and/or the characters never acknowledge their fictionality.
37	** EndOfSeriesAwareness: The characters acknowledge both that they're in a show, and that the show is ending.
38	* Full NoFourthWall: The characters acknowledge their fictionality directly.
39	* NoticingTheFourthWall: The characters become aware they are fictional in the most terrifying way possible; the knowledge that they're only real in someone's imagination and will cease to exist when the story ends is used for existential horror.
40	* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Things inside the story, we are warned, can attack the reader.
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42	!! Beyond NoFourthWall
43	* {{Mind Screw}}s sometimes go beyond NoFourthWall, to imply such things as the '''''viewer''''' being a fictional character, so this entry is for them.
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45	!! Special cases
46	* FakeInteractivity: The characters not only address the audience, but act like we replied. Mainly a special case because most shows using this device engage in full ThisIsReality (and thus Completely Solid Fourth Wall), it's just that the audience is implied to be a character InUniverse, which makes its position somewhat weird.
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48	%%Note the above is sorted in suborder, so new additions should not just go on the end of the existing list.
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50	----
51	No examples; there are ''plenty'' of subtropes for them.
52
53	* Well, maybe a brief comparison of ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' and ''Webcomic/OneOverZero'', to explain how the scale works:
54	** The characters of ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' know they're in a WebComic, but it only sometimes directly impacts the plot, and the characters' actual existence is never in question.
55	** In ''Webcomic/OneOverZero'', MediumAwareness '''is''' the main plot, and the characters themselves acknowledge and debate their possible fictionality/nonexistence.
56	*** Both are examples of full NoFourthWall, but ''Webcomic/OneOverZero'' clearly has a less solid Fourth Wall than ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge''.
57	%%No more examples. The above is purely to show that the scale has graduations. %%

Context Main / SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness