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{{trope}}
{{quote|''He's so beautiful, and he's a wise man
''He brings the change - angel in human shape
▲He's the solitary angel<br />
▲And he's not from heaven sent<br />
''He brings salvation and he brings love''
▲He tries to bring the peace to the world<br />
The art of playing mutually exclusive tropes at the same time, by making [[Exactly What It Says
A trope is being played. But ''what'' trope, that depends on a premise that we cannot know for sure: Either some vital piece of information is missing, or we are left with contradicting information and no definite verification about what is correct and what is not. Take for example the page quote above, quoted from a song about an unidentified character. This song could be one of several different tropes, depending on who ''he'' is.
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Only add examples where the alternatives are reasonable. If needed, make an argument for why it's a viable interpretation. Also, don't add situations that are only temporarily ambiguous: If the situation is clarified after a little while then it is not an example.
Please note that pretty much
Supertrope to [[Ambiguously Gay]] and [[Ambiguously Evil]]. Compare [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]] for another kind of uncertainty. Contrast [[Epileptic Trees]], which are conclusions that viewers draw when they don't limit themselves to information objectively present within the work. Also see [[Cryptic Conversation]].
{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{noreallife|we'd be here all day.}}
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has quite a bit of this, ''partly'' resulting from that [[Rule of Symbolism]] mentioned in the trope description. The most notable example would be the final scene of ''End of Evangelion'', where the true meaning of Asuka's words remains up to viewer interpretation.
* At the end of the first season of ''[[
** Multiple explanations for various happenings are also presented. For example, Koizumi claims that Haruhi created the espers and either attracted time travelers and aliens or created them, while Mikuru says that Koizumi is lying and that the residents of the future have their own goals. Nagato refuses to say what the IDTE thinks because neither she nor the previous two have the slightest bit of proof that they can show to Kyon and any of the three could easily lie to him. Another big ambiguity that is touched on occasionally but never truly addressed is whether Haruhi is a god or not. One of the early theories that Koizumi presented, a large number of fans assume it to be the case, but even Koizumi himself doesn't know if it's true or not.
* ''[[5 Centimeters per Second]]'': Is the woman that Takaki passes at the railway crossing in the third act really Akari? The fact that she doesn't wait to acknowledge him despite getting her memory jogged a short time ago by {{spoiler|finding the letter she had intended to pass to him years ago}} is suspicious, and invites speculation that it could have been a doppelganger or Takaki's hallucination instead. Official artbook ''A sky longing for memories'' unhelpfully uses the phrase "the woman" rather than explicitly confirming or denying that it's her, further muddying the waters. The manga has {{spoiler|an apparition of young Akari appear and wave goodbye at Takaki after the latter has turned his back rather than try going after the woman}}, but whether this is even meant to confirm that the woman is Akari after all or is merely symbolising Takaki's finally giving up on the pursuit of Akari is also debatable. The number of divergences the manga has from the film also call into question how much stock should be put in this even if the former is the correct interpretation.
== [[
* ''[[Watchmen (
== [[Film]] ==
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** Also invoked by one of the sedative makers who treats a group of people who are so dependent on the sedatives that its the only way they can dream anymore. Cobb notes that they come to him to dream; he counters "No, they come to wake up".
* ''[[Source Code]]'' ends with Colter going back into the titular program and completly averts the destruction of the train using everything he had learned from his previous attempts. Then we see Goodwyn recieving a text message he had sent from within the program, and acting surpised when she hears that the bombing had been prevented, so did Colter actually change the past, or is he now in an alternate timeline within the program?
* ''[[Angels
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', Neo has superpowers because he is in a computer simulation. In the sequel, he is revealed to have superpowers in the real world as well. Does this make him a [[Superhero]] kind of [[The Messiah]]? Or does it simply man that the "reality" is actually a computer-generated [[Dream Within a Dream]]?
* The 2008 movie ''[[Doubt]]'' invokes this. You're left never really knowing if the priest is actually guilty of the allegations.
** In fact, the writer/director has only ever revealed the answer to this to the actors who played the priest, showing that a) there was a very definite answer intended and b) we're not ''supposed'' to know for sure... but Father Flynn sure does.
* ''[[Changeling (
* In [[Attenberg]], the relationship between Marina and Bella... is it [[Friendly War]], [[With Friends Like These...]] or even [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]? Maybe all three at once!
* The movie ''[[Cloverfield]]'' is an interesting example of this. The film acts as a deconstruction of giant monster movies, showing what it would be like to be a civilion in a giant monster attack. As such the monster's origin is left almost completely ambiguous because the characters themselves have no idea where it came from. The only thing that comes close to giving an idea about where the monster comes from is the ending which shows a large object falling from the sky into the ocean far off in the background. The fans and theorists are torn as to whether the object is the monster falling from space (meaning the creature would be an alien) or a piece of space junk, like a satilite, falling into the ocean and waking up the monster (which means the creature is an at least partially natural creature). Both explantions just raise more questions.
* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (
* ''[[Happy Death Day]]'' originally had an ambiguous ending, where Tree is in the hospital, the movie ending with the wife of the professor she had been sleeping with sneaking in, dead set on revenge. The director had wanted it this way because it left the ending open, so if the movie was a flop, it meant Tree was [[Killed Off For Real]] and nobody would expect a sequel, but if it was a success, it would be a [[Sequel Hook]] with a second movie seeing her regenerate and revive yet again. However, test audiences didn't like it, as it cheated poor Tree out of a [[Earn Your Happy Ending|well-earned happy ending]], so it was changed. And a sequel ''did'' occur.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Is the main relationship in the novel ''[[The Story of O]]'' simply [[Casual Kink]] and [[Property of Love]], or is it [[Destructive Romance]]/[[Romanticized Abuse]]? The novel exists in two versions. These versions have very different endings, casting the rest of the story in very different light. In the most popular version (which most adaptations are built on), the first option might be the most likely. In the alternative version, the second option is far more likely. That version of the novel ends with the protagonist and her boyfriend agreeing that she should commit suicide... and she does.
* ''The Lady or the Tiger'', by Frank R. Stockton is an example of [[
* ''[[From a Buick 8]]'' has multiple examples because the story is based around the idea that you'll never have all the answers. Is the Buick alive? Intelligent? Did it kill Curtis and more.
* In [[A Passage to India]] what really happens to Adela is never explained, the reader is left to draw their own conclusion. We'll never know what the author intended becuase [[Shrug of God|Forster refused to say during his life]]
* ''[[Leviathan (
* ''[[A Simple Survey]]'' has a number of short stories that end before resolving the situation. For example, in one story humans have developed technology that lets them see into hell, and portrays it as a nice place. The narrator converses with a demon, who claims that her kind are too lazy to punish sinners, and invites him to enter hell. However, an angel intervenes and claims that it's an illusion, to trick people into going to hell willingly.
== [[Live
* The sixth season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has an episode called "Normal Again", which follows the [[Cuckoo Nest]] trope: Buffy is injected with a poison that make her hallucinate... Or is it the other way around? According to a psychiatrist, who may or may not be a real person, she is in fact getting better: She has been sick all along, and now she's finally waking up from years of catatonic schizophrenia. So, the whole series is either [[This Is Reality]] or a mad [[All Just a Dream]] with a dash of [[The Schizophrenia Conspiracy]]. In the end, Buffy chooses her
* ''[[Law
** ''Either'' because Elena is in the country illegally, and also because her conservative aunt and other relatives would not approve of her living in a polyamorous relationship,
** ''Or'' because they have kidnapped Elena and held her against her will until [[Stockholm Syndrome]] set in.
* Much of ''[[Life
* ''[[Person of Interest]]'' episode 4, "Cura Te Ipsum": We never find out if Reese kills the serial rapist or lets him go.
* ''[[Lost]]''. True to its [[Gnosticism|gnostic]] roots, it eschews answers about the nature of the universe in favor of personal revelation according to the perspectives of the characters (''and'' the viewers). A close-up of eyes is a recurring visual motif, characters making a decision based on incomplete or outright fraudulent information pops up repeatedly, and questions like "Is the Light spiritual or scientific in nature?" "Is Jacob a god, a superpowerful conman, or a scientist who sets an experiment in motion and watches the results?" or "Do the Numbers really mean anything, or is Hurley mistaking coincidence for fate?" are never clarified, to the [[Broken Base|dismay of some fans]].
== [[Music]] ==
* ''[[
** If he's a human, then it's [[Big Good]] with a dash of [[For Happiness]] and [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions]].
** If he's a vampire, then it's a [[Dark Is Not Evil]] kind of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]].
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== [[Theater]] ==
* Johnny Byron, the main character of ''[[Jerusalem (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In [[Shadow of the Colossus]], the only clear part of the plot is that Wander is trying to revive Mono by unsealing Dormin, and Lord Emon wants to stop this. This leaves us with a whole boatload of varying interpretations - for a small sample, is Wander a [[Villain Protagonist]] or a [[The Woobie|Woobie]]? Is Dormin displaying [[Dark Is Evil]] or [[Dark Is Not Evil]]? Is Emon a [[Hero Antagonist]] or a [[Knight Templar]]? Indeed, director Fumito Ueda is on the record as wanting each player to form their own story, and boy has the fandom taken him up on that.
* Used to skirt around the issues of violence, death and sexuality in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'', where most characters are young children. Especially whether Mr. Hoffman sexually abused Clara and Diana. An infamous scenario features Hoffman summoning sad, reluctant Clara to his room, and you can witness through a keyhole how he...makes her scrub the floor, though in a very innuendo-laden position.
* ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'' actually builds the entire crux of the plot around this, with the nature, outcome and even symbolism of the plot dependent on both the player's actions and interpretations.
* [[Modern Warfare]]: Both the villains, Khalid al-Asad and Imran Zakhaev, blame the west for their two countries' problems. While their actions are morally reprehensible, whether they're [[President Evil|power-mad dictators]] [[America Saves the Day|America is trying to save the world from]] or [[Knight Templar
* Much to the [[Fandom]]'s [[Ending Aversion|chagrin]], ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' ended with this trope. Beyond the presence of a [[Gainax Ending]], there is the apparent {{spoiler|explosion of the mass relays in every ending except Control, which would doom the entire galaxy, given that an exploding mass relay has shown to release energy on the scale of supernova}}, in addition to the enormous amount of [[Fridge Horror]] in the endings (see [[Inferred Holocaust]]). In fact, even in {{spoiler|the control ending, the Catalyst's dialogue seems to imply that controlling the reapers will eventually lead to [[And Then John Was a Zombie]], causing the reapers to return to destroy the galaxy and renew the cycle.}} Apparently, this was the desired effect of the endings, as the lead writer Mac Walters (allegedly) wrote, in [[ALLCAPS]] on a piece of note paper regarding the endings "'''[[Memetic Mutation|LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE]]'''."
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Invoked in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v59b0iTRIs4 this episode of] [[Zinnia Jones]], about how different Christians interpret [[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', Stewie is a [[Brainy Baby]] who can talk, but whether anyone in the cast other than Brian can understand what he's saying isn't made clear. This is even lampshaded in some episodes, like in n "E. Peterbus Unum" where a student in the distant future is watching the episode and asks his teacher, "So, can the family understand the baby, or... what's the deal with that?" Creator Seth MacFarlane claimed in an interview that they ''could'' understand him if they ''listened'', but choose to ignore him, usually just regarding what he says a "cute" although he later compared Stewie to Wile E. Coyote from ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts. It seems to simply be a case of [[Depending on the Writer]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Drama Tropes]]
[[Category:Psychology Tropes]]
[[Category:Philosophy Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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