Arc Words: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'' fanfic ''[[Two Step]]'': "Say hey, Daisy Mae. How many children have died today?"

* ''[[Ice Age]]'' fanfic ''[[Lost in Time Series]]'' for ''Lost In Time: Origins'': "A herd will survive."

* From the ''[[Death Note]]'' [[Cyberpunk]] [[Alternate Universe Fic|AU]] ''[[Alternative Gods]]'': "Because there cannot be two of the same thing."

* ''[[The Party Never Ended]]'' has a unique example, in that the arc words are heard by the main character, but are not actually revealed to the reader until near the end. Every time the arc words are brought up, they get their own arc words: "It said seven simple words to her..." {{spoiler|The true arc words are "I love you, Pinkie! Please wake up!"}}

* The words "copper" "silver" and "gold" in that order are in every story of ''[[Godel Escher Bach|Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid]]'' until the big reveal that {{spoiler|you are actually reading a book written by a guy named Douglas Hofstadter, and every person you've grown to know and love in it is actually a character inhabiting stories written in the pattern of Bach's fugues.}} You could actually read the chapters, rather than just the dialogues prefacing them. [[Viewers Are Geniuses|If you can keep up]], it gives quite a good overview of modern symbolic logic.

* "Who is John Galt?" from ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''. {{spoiler|He's the unnamed figure in ''every'' story that anyone tells to Dagny before she meets him.}} [[Memetic Mutation|He also won't shut up.]]

* [[Philip K. Dick|Philip K. Dick's]] ''[[Ubik]]'', especially. Ubik varies from chapter to chapter, finally culminating in Ubik declaring itself as God.

** Also, "The Empire never ended", from several of his later works.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'': "Who are the Patriots?"/"La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo". The first time you hear it, [[Narm|it just sounds silly]], then you find out [[Paranoia Fuel|why people say that]]. {{spoiler|Its origin is comparatively mundane, as they're just used for the challenge-response ally confirmation procedure.}}

** If a [[The Last Days of Foxhound|certain other source is to be believed]], its meaning is much deeper, and much more menacing.

** The concept trailer "Another Side, Another Story [deep dive]" from Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is entirely ''composed'' of [[Arc Words]]. The thing is ''filled'' with quotes and random concepts that are subtly included in Kingdom Hearts II (non-existent ones and "You are the source of all Heartless," anyone?), excepting the final quote ("We'll go together"), that itself being a [[Meaningful Echo|line from early in the first game]], changed to a different line in the English version before the translators had a chance to cotton on to its [[Arc Words]] status. It can make chills run up and down the savvy fan's spine.

* [[Urban Chaos: Riot Response]] has one. While not a sentence, or a phrase the {{spoiler|Company, Shift It}} appears everywhere! If you look for it. The reason it's so important is that {{spoiler|Shift it are actually the Burners. The CEO is the leader of the gang, and forceably brainwashed all of his employes into the animals that are the burners.}}

** "How Soon is Now" is the name of a song. While it's been covered many times, the original version was by a band called the Smiths. (As it happens, all the courier memos are also named after songs by the Smiths.) While the other two may qualify as Arc Words, this one's probably more of a [[Shout-Out]].

** [[Suda 51]]'s next game, ''[[No More Heroes]]'', repeatedly had various female characters, especially Sylvia, instruct Travis to "Head for the Garden of Madness!"