Suggestion: Spoiled By The Format

This is 3 panels out of 7.

Edited by Drope on Jan 14th 2021 at 3:58:39 AM

Previous thread. Not sure what to think about the suggestion.

I think it's not bad.

I don't see what the suggestion has to do with the trope?

the guy notices the subtitles of what the monster's saying before he sees the monster, therefore spoiling the surprise somewhat.

it's ok, but not quite enough i think. if it were chosen it would definitely be a Keep Until Better Image Suggested situation.

Isn’t that more Medium Awareness than this? I associate this trope more with “they’ve arrested asl suspect but we’re only 1/3 of the way through the book so it’s probably not this guy”.

This comic looks like to me a comic showing a player's reaction through the character he is playing. The trope can be shown either through Medium Awareness, or a character being spoiled by a story In-Universe.

Edited by petersohn on Jan 17th 2021 at 6:02:41 PM

I can see overlap in knowing they are early in a comic so there’s more to come, but awareness of the subtitles specifically is just MA.

Okay, now that I know what's going on, I'd say this is more Medium Awareness than this trope.

Same.

I like the suggestion

I don't think it's meant to be Medium Awareness in context. It's the character acting as a shorthand for the player. Especially because in the last panel the monster is subtitled (so, in-universe) while him saying 'no' isn't.

I manually added dialog to this one:

Good idea, but can you move the dialogue maybe above their heads a little? It obscures their faces and the book too much. There's blank space above them that could be filled.

Good point. The guy looking dead, fact that the book is clearly not near the end, and their facial expressions changing in response this knowledge make it not-Talking Heads.

I generally don't like resorting to it either, but the wicks don't list any good in-universe comic examples. I also have no way to access official versions of this with captions.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jan 17th 2021 at 3:51:01 AM

I'm not particularly fon of edited-in dialogue (since it veers into Image Macro territory). Only if the caption is official like in a DVD.

Edited by Drope on Jan 17th 2021 at 1:34:54 AM

Agreed, while 14 is OK, I still prefer OP.

I don't like the OP very much. I actually decided to leave this thread and come back later hoping that someone would explain it.

Even after having it explained, it still seems super awkward to me. I think I can sum it up in two reasons.

1) It's a comic, so the "subtitles" gag isn't obvious at all. It's normal for comics to have different kinds of text, whether it be because of a character gimmick or simply to denote narration, so that doesn't immediately stand out. I was confused about the same dialogue/narration being in multiple panels, but that didn't help me figure out the joke, it just made the comic look sloppy to me. Also, the fact that the character is glaring at the subtitles is more incidental than anything, and I was more distracted by the fact that something's going on that he seems too bored to pay attention to despite tapping on the glass.

2) There just isn't enough context for the scene. Even with the explanation I'm not really sure what's going on. Surely the fact that there's a guy with a hook in the next room (window?) and somebody begging to be let go would have foreshadowed something bad was going to happen even without the "subtitles" spoiling it.

Edited by Jokubas on Jan 18th 2021 at 1:13:35 AM

big "THIS" gif. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get that it's a player's reaction or whatever and not regular ol' subtitles.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:05:55 AM

I'm not super into the Steven Universe one because of needing three pictures and the first shot being very barren and the focus being off center, but they're mostly aesthetic problems so I wouldn't mind using it until we find something better, because it at least gets across two things "character appears dead" but "clearly there's more to the book."

Edited by Jokubas on Jan 18th 2021 at 1:19:51 AM

I'm usually picky about context, but this one was immediately obvious to me.

to op. this trope is about the audience getting spoiled about a medium they consume not about characters getting spoiled about their own universe.

Well, one could interpret the character as an Audience Surrogate though.

Edited by Drope on Jan 18th 2021 at 1:29:02 AM

Crowner

Hooked, thanks.