Arc Words: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:BadWolf 9622.jpg|link=Doctor Who|frame|[[Weirdness Censor|Eh. Probably just a coincidence.]]]]

 

{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' Bad Wolf.

'''Rose:''' But, I've heard that before; "bad wolf", I've heard that ''lots of times''.

 

An enigmatic word or phrase that appears, unexplained and without context, here and there throughout an [[Arc]], and (with luck) is finally explained at or near the climax. A way of building up tension and mystery, as well as an indicator that anyone using the words knows more than they're telling. Can also be used as a [[Me Me|memetic]] way of advertising the show. A typical element of a [[Mind Screw]].

* 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."

* 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.]]