Arc Words: Difference between revisions

 

 

'''The Doctor:''' Everywhere we go: two words. Followin' us. Bad Wolf...|''[[Doctor Who]]'', "Boom Town"}}

 

* The Japanese version of [[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] Duel Monsters (dubbed as Yu-Gi-Oh!) has the term "shin no duelist" which means "true duelist". You could make a drinking game out of it once it starts showing up.

* Kotomi Ichinose's route in ''[[Clannad]]'' has "Day before yesterday, I saw a rabbit; yesterday, a deer, and today, you." Quoted word-for-word from a short story called ''[[The Dandelion Girl]]''.

* Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. As revealed in Episode 10, {{spoiler|Walpurgisnacht is a powerful witch that Madoka is supposedly fated to defeat as a [[Magical Girl]], leading to ''her'' conversion into a witch.}}

* [[GaoGaiGar]] has its villains occasionally mention two mysterious concepts: "the legacy of Cain" and "the curse left by Abel." Eventually we learn that {{spoiler|these refer to two children, Mamorou and Kaidou, who are refugees from planets ruled by leaders named Cain and Abel.}}

* ''[[Glamorama]]'': "Let's slide down the surface of things"

* ''[[Little House on the Prairie]]''

* In [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s works, he has his characters use arc words he refers to as "choruses." Most notably, {{spoiler|"Birds ate my face"}} in ''[[Invisible Monsters]].''

** ''[[Fight Club]]'': "I know this because Tyler knows this."

** ''[[Discworld/Mort|Mort]]'': "{{smallcaps|There is no justice. There is just me.}}"

** ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'': "The Truth Will Make You Free!" (often with "Free misspelled, such as Fred) and "A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." This becomes a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in the end for our hero William de Worde, as he says to the [[Big Bad]]:

** ''[[Discworld/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'': "It is the thing, and the whole of the thing."

** ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud]]'': "Mr. Shine, Him diamond!" "The battle of Koom Valley" is a [[Running Gag]] through the whole series, until it's explained in ''Thud.''

* ''[[Dark Future (novel)|Dark Future]]'': Has meta-arc words, ''"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock."'' Jessamyn Bonney is {{spoiler|possessed by the Ancient Adversary, a spirit being dedicated to opposing the coming of the Dark Ones and the [[Endofthe World As We Know It]] this will cause, that [[Big Bad]] Elder Seth is actively seeking.}} When the two establish a [[Psychic Link]] by accident, Jessamyn manifests in Seth's mind as these words. The form the Ancient Adversary most commonly takes in the spirit world? A giant crocodile. Also represents the ticking away of time until the end of the world.

** ''Comeback Tour'' is subtitled ''The Sky Belongs To The Stars''. During the Prologue we meet NASA Officer Lawrence Fonvielle who expresses his belief about The Dream of the Space Programme being to ''"reach up into the sky, make a fist and hold on tight;"'' taking ownership of some part of space. As the novel progresses, it's revealed that Elder Seth plans {{spoiler|to reactivate a [[Kill Sat|dormant satellite weapons system]] and use it to eliminate everyone who could stop his plans for the Apocalypse.}} Fonvielle comes to see {{spoiler|[[Heel Realization|that his belief in The Dream was wrong and that space can't belong to anyone]] and says exactly this to [[The Dragon|Roger Duroc.]] [[Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves|Who promptly shoots him.]]}}

''"The sky? That can't be...like the man said...the sky belongs to the stars!"''|'''Elvis and Krokodil''' ''Comeback Tour''}}

* ''[[The Go Between]]'': ''Delenda est belladona'' – the deadly nightshade (or beautiful woman) must be destroyed.

*** These two arcwords were often seen together and therefore assumed to refer to the same thing, much like {{spoiler|Doctor Donna}} was assumed to refer to separate things.

** Series 5 also had the hilarious arc words of "Hello Sweetie," River's graffiti on various historical artifacts to get the Doctor's attention.

'''River Song:'''' ''You'' weren't answering your ''phone!'' }}

*** It's also a [[Something Only They Would Say]]

* ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' gets a couple, used to blackmail Spode, although they're more like Episode Words: "Eulalie" in the first couple episodes of season 2, and "Celia" in the series finale.

* ''[[Taken (TV series)|Taken]]'' has a couple, reinforcing that ideas will get passed down form generation to generation. The Clark family has one phrase about Love, the Crawfords have one that revolves around fear, and the aliens have one that's just plain threatening.

'''Alien/Half Alien''': ''Look at me.'' {{spoiler|IMMINENT [[Mind Rape]]}} }}

* [[Warehouse 13]]: Knock Knock.

== Radio ==

* The [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audios used [[Arc Words]] for one season of their Eighth Doctor Adventures. The phrase itself was a [[Ironic Nursery Rhyme|nursery rhyme]]:

 

 

* Eric Overmyer's ''[[On the Verge]]'': "Vaya con dios!"

* In the [[Absurdism|absurdist play]] ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', by Samuel Beckett, the following snippet of dialogue recurs, almost as a refrain (and to punctuate the various ways the two find to pass the time):

'''Didi''': We're waiting for Godot. }}

** Or:

'''They do not move.''' }}

* [[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]:

** Another example is the {{spoiler|red flowers}}. They are mentioned often in the opening sections of the game but the player never really understands the significance until they see the power firsthand during the battle with {{spoiler|rabid Toroko}}.

* In Chapter 1 of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'':

'''LeChuck:''' Till death do you part, eh? We'll have to do something about that. }}

** And in Chapter 5:

{{spoiler|1='''LeChuck:''' "Till DEATH do you part," Threepwood! And that part has already been taken care of!}} }}

* Gathered through three chapters of ''[[Rule of Rose]]'': ''Everlasting / True Love / I Am Yours''.

* ''[[Darken]]'': '''''The Worm Lord is Rising!'''''

* The robots in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' seem to respond to every mention of a woman by the name of Jeanne with "She died and we did nothing." This was cleared up much later when it was revealed that {{spoiler|she was used as a sacrifice in order to "fortify the Annan Waters." Diego (the robots' creator)'s final words on his deathbed were along those lines:}}

** Ironically {{spoiler|it wasn't even ''her'' who they killed. It was the forest-dweller (the "traitor") who she'd fallen madly in love with. She simply remained there, [[I Will Wait for You|slowly turning]] into a murderous ghost}}.

*** Yeah, but that makes it all rather worse. The narration implies that {{spoiler|the magic rooted her to the spot and she stood there, unable to move. Diego went about his life in the castle for days as she [[Fridge Horror|starved to death]]}}.

* [[Red vs. Blue|You ever wonder why we're here?]]

** "Reconstruction" had "Memory is the key", which was lampshaded a season later by Caboose.

* ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' has "The Ark", the importance of which still remains unknown.

* And in ''[[Everyman HYBRID]]'', we have HABIT.

* [[Ben Drowned|"You shouldn't have done that."]]

* From ''[[Wormtooth Nation]]'': "The sky is infinite."