Cryptic Background Reference: Difference between revisions

The effects of world-building are diminished, the more references are made. [[Continuity Nod|Continuity Nods]] are hard enough to follow for story elements that have ''actually'' been depicted. The more you reference events, characters, and plots that the audience never sees on-screen, the more apparent it becomes that they are references to things that only exist in the author's imagination.

 

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** The non-appearance of the Furlings has become something of a [[Running Gag]].

* In addition to the character [[Backstory|backstories]] seen in flashbacks, ''[[Lost]]'' has included a number of throwaway references that have captured fan imaginations, including Sawyer's "Tampa job" and Sayid's Basra incident.

** Characters other than the Doctor are known to do this, too. For example, Captain Jack Harkness of ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' fame. [[Anything That Moves|This mostly has to do with various sexual exploits]], but he does mention actual bizarre past experiences. Random side-characters can do this too, usually to the Doctor or one of his companions, with the assumption that they're from the same period/place, and know what they mean.

* Unintentionally done in the TV series adaptation of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', where things [[All There in the Manual|that are explained in the books]] are referenced, but are never explained in the series. It is possible they would have been, [[Too Good to Last|had the show not been canceled after a season]].

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': There was much speculation as to the origins of the goat in Ted's apartment, which is mentioned in season three but abruptly dismissed with "oh wait, that was on my thirty-FIRST birthday". Fans had a whole season to wonder, but the actual explanation was, perhaps inevitably, a bit of a letdown.

** The title itself refers to How Ted Met the Mother of His Children. Her identity ''still'' hasn't been revealed.

* The constantly expanding ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' universe is replete with this one and usually two or three are generated per episode.

** The other most common thing are events that occurred in the fictional gaps of time between the various eras (Approximately 100 years elapsed between [[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Enterprise]] and [[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|The Original Series]], 15ish years for TOS and ''[[Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan (Film)|The Wrath of Khan]]'' (''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Film)|The Motion Picture]] being close-ish to TOS' present), and 80ish for [[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|The Original Series]] and [[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|The Next Generation]]. Significant things happened during those periods that are frequently referred to, but almost never shown on screen ("What happened to the Enterprise-B?" and the Earth-Romulan War being some of the big ones.) [[Expanded Universe]] naturally latches onto these things like crazy.

* ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'' has several of these, such as the named cons that we never see the team run, like the "London Spank," the "Genevan Paso Doble" and the "Apple Pie," which is a "Cherry Pie" but with lifeguards. Also, there's what Nate did at the Russian border. [[Word of God]] says that {{spoiler|he may have technically hijacked a train,}} but that hasn't been mentioned on the show and likely never will be.

** We've also seen the team coming back from jobs - one in Mexico where [[Cloudcuckoolander|Parker]] picked up a ''lot'' of pinatas, and one in the Caribbean that went wrong in several different ways - without hearing much about what those jobs actually ''were''.

** He was never seen, of course, because he was on the Night Shift. When anything we saw happened on the show, he'd either be asleep, or he'd be at work when the characters we cared about were in their quarters.

** Also, much like ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' above, B5 would frequently have characters relate something happening in the episode to one or two things from real-world Earth culture or history, and add a third example from future Earth history ca. 2000-2250 or from a non-Earth culture.

* ''[[Half Life]]'' and its sequels are almost entirely built out of this trope. What were the various departments at Black Mesa researching? What do those vast Combine machines actually do? How did those corpses end up where they are? Who was the Rat Man? Who was Lazlo? The ''vast'' majority of the story is told by implication only.

* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' has six legendary heroes. Hakumen is playable, Jubei & Valkenhayn Hellsing show up as NPCs and the rest are shown only as silhouettes until [[Mission Pack Sequel|Continuum]] [[Obvious Rule Patch|Shift]]. It adds Terumi Yuuki to the playable list, adds Platinum to the NPC list and reveals that Nine is dead. Platinum later became playable through DLC and expansions, and {{spoiler|the silent villain Phantom is heavily implied to be a brainwashed Nine}}.

* ''[[Fable I (Video Game)|Fable I]]'' and ''[[Fable II (Video Game)|Fable II]]'' gives us all kinds of elaborate references to places you never go, ancient tribes and cults, and legendary heroes, none of which are ever seen.

* The heck with ''[[Street Fighter]]'' minutiae; the ''entire driving force'' behind ''[[King of Fighters]]'', Orochi, qualifies. The only things we know for certain are 1. it involves a horribly evil destructive power, 2. the clan is absolutely fanatical and will stop at nothing to raise their god, 3. the Kusanagi, Yagami, and Kagura clans were the ancestral foes of Orochi, 4. but the Yagami betrayed the alliance, causing their flames to turn purple. Everything else is a confused mishmash... some artifacts we never actually see, "maidens" who may or may not have been slaughtered, Kyo getting preferential treatment causing Iori to go all emo or something, a bunch of sealing and unsealing attempts, "battle energy", earth worship and "returning all to nothing", Rugal of all people chosen as a guinea pig, self destruction, betrayals, counter-betrayals, etc., etc. Worst of all are the numerous plot points and outright sequel hooks that are flat-out dropped, such as a heavily-implied rift between Rose and Adelheid at the end of XI.

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Cryptic Background Reference]]