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.

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* A very subtle one in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. When Mami explains why Witches are bad, she mentioned them luring people to suicide and causing fights to break out in certain places. The second type of bad influence is never seen in the anime.

** It's also hinted that she knew {{spoiler|Kyoko, and Kyoko's past}} - but this is actually confirmed in [[All There in the Manual|a Drama CD]].

* ''[[So Ra No wo To]]'' is rife with this trope. Most of the back story can be divided into two categories. There's the information that was lost forever during the [[Great Offscreen War]], which isn't explained since none of the characters are aware of it. And then there are the things that all of them know about, which isn't explained since the characters have no reason to exposit out loud about it when speaking to each other.

* ''[[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou]]'' is the [[Slice of Life]] story of a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] named Alpha running a small cafe [[Cozy Catastrophe|during the twilight of humanity]]. Numerous mysteries are touched upon but ''absolutely none'' are explained fully, either because they have nothing to do with the story as previously outlined, or the characters are just as much in the dark as the readers.

* In the Mad Tea-Party scene from ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', [[The Mad Hatter]] proposes the riddle, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?" Some time passes before Alice, the Hatter and the March Hare all admit that they can't find the answer. This did nothing to stop readers from persistently trying to find the answer. Although Carroll himself eventually came up with the answer "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are ''very'' flat; and it is [[Sdrawkcab Name|nevar]] put with the wrong end in front!"

* Stephen Brust's ''[[Dragaera]]'' books use this in massive amounts. Paarfi's novels are supposed to be historical fiction novels within the universe, so they assume that the reader is a Dragaeran who doesn't need additional explanations. Vlad sometimes seems to make the same assumption, but other times he explains common aspects of the world for the reader's benefit. Vlad will also make vague references to his various other misadventures outside of the scope of the current story without going into detail. Sometimes he says he doesn't want to digress, and other times he's simply cryptic. Some of these do get explained in future novels. Brust intentionally includes them as possible story hooks for future novels without planning on where they'll go.

* In the ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' stories, Watson is famous for this, often referring to other cases, such as the one involving "the giant rat of Sumatra, for which the world is not yet prepared". Some of these became stories in their own right (though usually not from Doyle's pen), but most remain unexplained.

* Used masterfully well in Ulysses Silva's novel ''Solstice''. There is exactly one incident where things are properly explained by the main character (even then, it's mostly clarification on things you've picked up). Everything else is left for the reader to figure out. And quite often, everything you thought you'd figured out turns out to be completely ''wrong'', leading to many an [[Epileptic Trees|Epileptic Tree]] until the very end.

* In [[Michael Ende (Creator)|Michael Ende]]'s ''[[The Neverending Story (Literature)|The Neverending Story]]'', many vague allusions are made to the further adventures of secondary characters, always accompanied by the phrase, "But that is another story, and will be told another time." Needless to say, said stories have never been told.

** Actually plot-significant, and gives the book its title. In the ending, {{spoiler|Bastian is told he can't leave until every storyline he started up is finished. But given the rate uncompleted plots have been created (several story hooks get created for every one he finishes) he'd never be done. Atreyu saves him by taking on the task on his behalf}}. The movies leave this out, resulting in an [[Artifact Title]].

** What's ''really'' interesting is that the many of the stars and systems he mentions are real, like Sirius. This amuses people with arbitrary knowledge of stars.

* Used in ''[[The Old Kingdom]]'' books by Garth Nix, and not overused, either. He's mentioned in interviews that he's not really into world-building - he just makes everything up as he goes along.

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

** A common theme in ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' and early ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' is [[Famous Famous Fictional|having a character list one or two examples from real-world history and adding a fictional example from the setting that is implied to be similar by association]].

* ''[[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''.

* ''[[Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri]]'' includes many fictional quotes from the game's characters and other people in the game's world. These as well as a handful of other game elements are the only inside look we have into what life on Planet is really like (unless you read the novelizations, anyway). Many details are left to the imagination, such as, "What exactly is 'nerve stapling', anyway?" Somehow, it works.

* In ''[[Tsukihime]]'', during the final encounter with Nrvnqsr, he and Arcueid have an entire conversation on things that you don't learn until much later in the game, or in supplemental materials. This is intensified by the use of code-like terms, such as referring to Roa as the "Serpent of Akasha".

* ''[[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.

** Also a somewhat literal example. In the background of one of the stages in the 4th game, there is an orb... thing. The 6th game rebooted what little continuity existed, with only a handful of characters crossing over, and no mention of anything that came before. Flash forward to the final boss of the 10th game, ''Subterranean Animism'' - She has the ''exact same orb in her artwork''! Just the artist recycling an artistic element, or...??

* ''[[Silent Hill]]'' is another prime [[Canon Fodder]] series, as this trope tends to be the '''only''' source of available information. With one exception (Walter Sullivan, the main enemy in ''Silent Hill 4'', was originally mentioned in a newspaper article in ''Silent Hill 2'') none of them are explored or elaborated upon, and in the case of some this is probably for the best.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Occasionally they'll also drop and/or hide names we're familiar with in places we can spot them, showing how those individuals are different in this version of history (the most prominent one is actually reasonably well known, but he's addressed by his surname where we the reader are typically familiar with his given name alone). {{spoiler|It's Rembrandt ''van Rijn''.}}

* The most recent story arc in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has involved a lot of clarification of throwaway details like this from earlier in the series. We've finally seen Butane the planet of dragons; we've gotten a minimally technobabblish explanation of what borfomite actually does; we've seen some court intrigue in the Nemesite Empire; Fructose Riboflavin is finally looking competent enough to explain how he got his terrifying reputation; etc.

** Some of these are [[All There in the Manual]]. A B-List is world-threatening, but your average supergroup can still maybe win. Maybe. If they're lucky. An A-list, you have to call in EVERYONE. An A-list is the kinda guy you have for a [[Crisis Crossover]].

* Also present in ''[[The Descendants]]'', with characters mentioning minor villains they've defeated, superheroes in other cities, and seemingly pivotal moments in history that haven't even been explained in flashback. Whether or not they're just building up a [[Chekhov's Armoury]], though, remains to be seen.

* [[Discussed]] (perhaps inevitably, given the name) in ''[[Limyaaels Fantasy Rants]]'', which suggests that if you're going to use these for [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/539688.html worldbuilding], use a lot of them, so the audience gets used to them as a worldbuilding element and doesn't mistake them all for plot points (and the ones that ''do'' turn out to be plot points have the element of surprise).