As You Know: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** This trope is only present in the English version however, in the original french (The show is a France/Japan co-production and the writing team was French) characters never use [[As You Know]]. At best it's them applying what they previously learned to new situations (If X was solar powered, then Y must also be!).

* The anime version of ''[[Witchblade (Anime)|Witchblade]]'' tends to occasionally fall back on this.

 

== Comics ==

{{quote| '''Lieam:''' ''(Captions next to him illuminates his and his two partners' names)'' So tell us [Kenzie], what were the three best of the Guard sent to do?}}

** [[Sarcasm Mode|Very modest indeed, Lieam.]] Not only were the three plain and undecorated guardmice at that time, but especially a recruit like Lieam should not talk like that (that is, poshly lionising them and himself in ''third person'').

* ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' frequently uses this as a simple ploy to avoid having to show them travelling: one panel in an early comic has Sam saying "We're off to the Philippines!" In the next panel they're standing in front of a bunch of weird buildings:

{{quote| '''Sam:''' Well, here we are in the Philippines.<br />

* The first issue of ''[[Mega Man (Comic Book)|Mega Man]]'' is especially guilty of this, having Light explain to [[Obviously Evil|Wily]] that he lost his credintals years ago, and to Mega Man and Roll about their origins.

* Turned into a [[Running Gag]] by ''[[Asterix]]'': as it is stated in every book (and in many editions, explained on the presentation page), Obelix isn't allowed any of Getafix's magic potion because he fell into a cauldron full of the stuff when he was little. Obelix himself remarks in one story "We'll never hear the end of it!" A few times they skip the story, with Obelix grumbling "Of course, I don't get any because <small>grumble grumble</small>..."

 

== Fan Works ==

{{quote| '''Yugi:''' Your brother's been kidnapped?<br />

'''Mokuba:''' Yes, that is exactly what I just finished telling you. }}

{{quote| '''Mai:''' I can't believe Joey is dueling Marik!<br />

'''Yugi:''' Yep, that sure is the current situation. }}

* Averted in ''[[Kira Is Justice (Fanfic)|Kira Is Justice]]'' in the case of giving names. They are usually just given in the narrative, as sometimes when a new character is introduced, he/she is introduced in his/her own point of view. For example, Ronan.

* The early chapters of ''[[Hogwarts Exposed]]'' are full of [[Just for Pun|(well)]] [[Expospeak]] which often takes this form, even using the actual phrase "[[As You Know]]" at one point.

** Of course, it's then played with:

{{quote| '''Rufus:''' And a special treat from the 23rd century, Miss Ria Paschelle. Miss Paschelle, as you all know, was the inventor of the [[Applied Phlebotinum|statiophonic oxygenetic amplifier]] [[Techno Babble|graphiphonideliverberator]]. Kind of hard to imagine the world before we had them, isn't it?}}

** Also occurs in the next movie, ''Dark of the Moon'', when the new intelligence director appears for her first scene and hurriedly informs somebody about all of the important things she is in charge of.

* The movie adaptation of ''[[Red Sonja (Film)|Red Sonja]]'' starts out with the title character laying barely conscious in a field as some kind of spirit grants her the power to get her revenge, but first explains Sonja's own backstory to her in great detail. It's especially awkward because it presumably all happened to her moments before the movie started, and involves her [[Rape As Backstory|being raped]] and having her family killed off, which are things you'd think she wouldn't need (or want) to be reminded about.

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[Methuselahs Children|Methuselah's Children]]'' opens with a meeting of Howard Foundation members where one character goes on for several pages, detailing the history of the foundation, its goals, and his plans for the future. While very interesting (to the reader), the entire monologue is framed as an As You Know. As the characters are all extremely long-lived and therefore very patient, they don't mind too much.

** He is however called on it by Lazarus Long, who has better things to do - [[Loveable Sex Maniac|mostly involving sex]].

* In the novel ''[[Frankenstein (Literature)|Frankenstein]]'', the title character receives a letter from his sister which basically tells him his own life story in nauseating detail. The phrase "You will recall..." pops up a few times.

* James Hogan rather neatly avoids this trope while still managing to do huge Infodumps in his ''Ganymede'' series, by managing things so that there's always someone present who justifiably needs the infodump, whether it's a biologist getting briefed on extremely advanced physics, a physicist being brought up to speed on political matters, or a businessman being briefed on the fine points of biochemistry. It helps that Hogan's got a huge multi-disciplinary team to work with, and even better, the main character is a man who's biggest talent is his ability to cross-correlate information from many areas without being a specialist in any of them himself. This means he often specifically ''requests'' an infodump from a specialist.

* ''[[Brave New World (Literature)|Brave New World]]'' has an [[Author Filibuster|obscenely long lecture]] describing the way people are modified and replicated at the very head of the book, from a professor of the subject to collegiate students who must already know all this. Aldous Huxley: <s>Good thinker, good writer,</s> clumsy panda at exposition.

* In early 20th century dystopian sci-fi, Yevgeny Zamyatin's ''[[We (Literature)|We]]'' averts this: the novel, written as a journal, is addressed to an alien readership; therefore, it's natural that the narrator explains some of the most basic facts of his everyday world.

* Subverted in ''Cowboy Feng's Spacebar and Grille'': "Don't tell me what I already know."

* Averted in [[Dan Simmons]]' ''[[Hyperion]]'' and its sequel where almost no technology is ever explained unless there is a very good reason for the character to need the information explained. Most prominently, characters use various sorts of "EMVs" as transport but exactly what EMV stands for is ''never'' stated (though it's made clear that they are '''E'''lectro '''M'''agnetic '''V'''ehicles).

* In Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's ''[[Hunters of Dune]]'', the old couple Daniel and Marty do this ''a lot'' in the last chapters (when it is revealed that they are really {{spoiler|Omnius and Erasmus}}),

* At the very beginning of ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone|Harry Potter]]'', Dumbledore and McGonagall have a discussion about things each one of them knows in detail. Of special mention are the specifics of the war they have just been fighting, the introduction of the villain's name, which has a vague justification, and telling Dumbledore he's noble, just to establish him as a [[Big Good|good guy]] in the books. Also, they refer to each other by last names, while they are on first-name terms in later books and have known each other for decades.

** The scene with Dumbledore and McGonagall differs from most uses of As You Know in two ways: first of all, it's mostly gratuitous, in that most details in that scene relevant to that book are also covered later, being told to Harry directly; and second, it also refers to a lot of things that aren't apparent until later books, [[Chekhov's Gunman|like Sirius Black.]]

** In the first chapter of ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', a school textbook Harry is reading feels the need to explain to its readers what "Muggle" means.

** Somewhat [[Inverted]] with ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'''s Dementors: every character refers to them as simply "guards of Azkaban" until the chapter where a Dementor first appears. Also, the phrase "Death Eater" never shows up until ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire|Goblet of Fire]]'', although in hindsight it would be natural in many previous conversations, e.g about Sirius.

* Justified in the ''[[Lord Darcy (Literature)|Lord Darcy]]'' books, where Master Sean natters on about the underlying principles of whatever spell he uses to examine crime scenes and clues, even though Darcy's surely heard all this before. Darcy actually ''insists'' that Sean do this, as it helps him overcome his own innate [[Muggle]] mental blocks about how magic operates; plus, as Master Sean is also a professor, he performs best while in classroom-lecture mode.

* Subverted in the ''[[Dresden Files]]'' books. Harry has a spirit advisor who informs him of details of magic relating to the particular case he is working on. Usually, Harry either doesn't know about the juicy tidbits, or needs a little help remembering them. The origin of this character is from the author's writing class, where he was told not to make the research assistant he was thinking of a "talking head". His solution? A Talking Skull named Bob. The teachers response? "You think you're funny, don't you?"

* ''[[Codex Alera]]''.

** The fundamentals of furycrafting are presented by Tavi to Max as if it's a necessary refresher because he's such a bad student.

** She does it again, even worse, with the guy who can become invisible. When they have figured out he's evil and Clark needs to stop him and all, Chloe thinks he might have figured Clark's [[Achilles Heel]] since he can become invisible, so she asks him ''and he is there and finds out''. Quite infuriating because she asked "Are you sure he ''doesn't know you feel bad around meteor rocks''?" instead of the safer "Are you sure he doesn't know ''your weakness''?". And made double infuriating by the fact that she had about 2 seasons or so calling them "Kryptonite", and only went back to "meteor rocks" for ''that one scene''.

* [[House (TV)|House]] almost always explains to either his team or to [[Ho Yay|Wilson]] or to the patients just what and how they were dying. It's perhaps justified by House having an obsession with this, and in one episode, he gets in a bad mood when a dying patient doesn't want to hear what she's dying of. This gives him the [[Eureka Moment|epiphany]] he needed to solve the case and cure her.

** And then for some more metaphors. But these are lampshaded quite often.

* On ''[[Law and Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'' (and presumably other [[Law Procedural]] media), lawyers summarize court opinions to each other. Sometimes a lawyer or judge will explain an opinion to the person who cited it.

* ''[[Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (TV)|Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman]]'': Colleen, trying to stop Jake from shooting Sully: "He saved your life! Those Indians wanted to kill you after you accidentally shoot one of them, and he persuaded them not to! You owe him your life."

* The first episode of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' used the "introduction by name" version; the five Rangers-to-be are all mentioned by name in the first fifteen seconds.

* Lampshaded in ''[[She Spies]]'' episode 16:

{{quote| '''Jack''': It goes without saying...<br />

'''JERRY:''' ...Who proceeds to burn the man's cabin down with one of those very same cigars! [[That Makes Me Feel Angry|It's very comical]]. }}

* Used rather blatantly in ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' when Clay returns a bloody knife to the man he's been blackmailing, which factored into events of the previous season. Clay then explains that it's a murder weapon with the man's fingerprints on it, like you could forget something like that. The man snaps that he knows what it is.

* Played with in [[Yes Minister]]. Not having read the papers, Jim Hacker often seems to know as much as the audience, but tries to hide it from his officials. In "A Victory For Democracy", notably, neither Hacker, sir Humphrey or Bernard seem to precisely know what is happening (or where St. George's Island is). The trope's name is invoked during a conversation between Humphrey and the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Humphrey mainly making educated guesses and agreeing with whatever is said.

* In episode 2 of ''[[Luck]]'', Ace has a rather awkward monologue explaining why he was in prison. They actually try to sell us on the idea that the person he's talking to (his bodyguard and best friend) wouldn't already know this, but it's very hard to believe.