Fair Play Whodunnit: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m Looney Toons moved page Fair Play Who Dunnit to Fair Play Whodunnit: Standard spelling of "whodunnit" |
Replaced redirects |
||
(20 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God?"''|'''[[
The opposite of a [[Clueless Mystery]]; the puzzle of the story is entirely solvable before [[The Reveal]] or [[The Summation]], if you've spotted the clues, and not just by [[Narrowed It Down to
▲The opposite of a [[Clueless Mystery]]; the puzzle of the story is entirely solvable before [[The Reveal]] or [[The Summation]], if you've spotted the clues, and not just by [[Narrowed It Down to The Guy I Recognize|various methods]] of being a [[Genre Savvy]] reader/viewer.
In 1928, the writer Father Ronald Knox created a "Ten Commandments" of plot devices that more or less codified the rules of the Fair-play whodunnit:
::* Some modern interpretations allow violation of this rule if the [[Magic A Is Magic A]] rules are strict enough and Rule 4 is followed.
:9. The stupid friend of the detective, [[The Watson|the "Watson"]], must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120614064919/http://www.mysterylist.com/declog.htm Other such lists can be found here.]
Though increasingly rare in modern mystery literature (and in any media outside of print), in the "Golden Age" of mystery, novels were almost entirely of this type (though even then, some were better about the "fair" part than others).
Done badly, this can lead to [[Conviction
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Two manga, ''[[The Kindaichi Case Files]]'' and ''[[Case Closed]]'', based upon teenagers solving mysteries, give you the information to unveil the killer before the solution is officially "revealed" - Kindaichi much more so, because the translators go through more effort to translate the evidence to English, while to solve the Detective Conan mysteries, once in a while you'll need to know various Japanese references, names, and pronunciations.
** Unfortunately for ''Detective Conan'', this doesn't translate to the anime, which feels free to [[Clueless Mystery|hide the evidence from you]]. (Although, especially early, Funimation made more of an attempt to translate cultural-specific info than Viz does with the manga.)
** The anime is sometimes good about playing fair, and other times shamelessly cheats. It depends on the writer, though the show seems to cheat more nowadays than they did in earlier seasons. Any story based on the manga will still be fair play, though, ''unless'' something crucial is [[Compressed Adaptation|cut during the shift from manga to anime]].
* ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' has the mystery episode "Remote Island Syndrome". The first part of the episode seems to be a regular [[Beach Episode|fun-filled day on a private island]]. That episode secretly contains almost all the clues you need to solve the mystery presented in the second half, although if you don't expect the mystery, you could easily miss them.
** However, it's
== Comic Books ==
Line 45 ⟶ 44:
* Played with in ''[[Deep Red]]''; an early scene actually shows the face of the murderer, but it's done so quickly - and before you know to look for it - that most people never catch on.
* The Japanese film ''The Laughing Policeman'' plays with this trope. Many clues are given from the outset, but many are so subtle at first that the detectives don't notice them at all until towards the end. It also subverts this by having someone {{spoiler|kill the [[Big Bad]]}} offscreen just as the cops plan to arrest him. This is only to reveal the ''real'' mastermind, the titular Laughing Policeman {{spoiler|who never gets figured out}}.
* Utterly twisted, warped and subverted by ''[[Murder By Death]]'', which is an elaborate parody and [[Deconstruction]] of classic detective stories, as well as an indictment of those which claim to be Fair Play but actually aren't. Even after all the detectives leave, the film continues to throw more clues at the audience, to the point of complete and utter [[Mind Screw]].
== Literature ==
* [[
** Several of the [[Miss Marple]] short stories were the ultimate in fair play. They were told to Miss Marple by guests at a party, so the reader knows exactly what the detective knows. It also helps explain what an [[Little Old Lady Investigates|elderly woman]] is doing solving mysteries.
** In both ''[[The Big Four]]'' and [[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]] Christie violates as many of these rules as she can, probably [[Stealth Parody|on purpose]].
** [[The Mysterious Affair
** [[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]] is also extremely fair. The way Poirot ultimately solves the crime is by reading what Dr. Sheppard wrote down which is ''exactly what the reader is reading''. Which means that an acute reader could actually pick up most of the important clues before Poirot does.
* [[Michael Connelly]]'s mystery novels are often these; ''The Poet'' actually won an award for Fair Play.
** Note: make sure you read this before reading "The Narrows"
* There's a [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] mystery where a particular missing item from a painter's setup is an important clue that the painter had been murdered, rather than died accidentally, and the page revealing what it is before [[The Summation]], in a vaguely clever twist, is removed for "the entertainment of the reader". {{spoiler|The painter was an oil painter, and the missing item was... well, read the book for yourself.}}
** [[Dorothy L. Sayers|Sayers]] still plays fair, though. There are three or four other scenes between the missing page and [[The Summation]] which, taken together, can be used to work out what the object was and what happened to it.
*** In fact you can deduce what's missing in the same way that Lord Peter does, from the description of the scene alone, although a (very) basic knowledge of oil painting may be needed.
** A straighter subversion is ''Have His Carcase'', where the solution requires on a very elaborate {{spoiler|(and accidental on the part of the murderer)}} trick involving the time of death. {{spoiler|The victim has a rare condition known as hemophilia, which prevents the blood from clotting, obscuring the ''real'' time of death.}} If the reader is knowledgeable enough in minor trivia, there are enough clues for a [[Viewers Are Geniuses|genius]] to figure out what the trick is - but it requires a very specialized knowledge base that most people simply do not have. For those without the prerequisite knowledge, Lord Peter's [[The Reveal|revelation]] seems a bit like an [[Ass Pull]] or [[Deus Ex Machina]], though the astute and [[Genre Savvy]] reader can generally figure out that ''something'' is hinky, because everyone's alibi is too solid, which is what tips Peter off that something is hinky. {{spoiler|One of the things that tips him off to the ''identity'' of the murderer is that that suspect also has a (manufactured) alibi for the ''real'' time of death, once he realizes what that is.}}
* Most ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' mysteries are not really fair, if only because Dr. Watson (the narrator) is not as observant as his colleague, but "The Lion's Mane" gives the reader enough information to draw a conclusion even before Holmes does (although this may not have been Conan Doyle's intention).
** It bears mentioning that [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Watson is usually writing these up after the fact]]. He ''could'' give the reader the
** "The Lion's Mane" was one of the few stories narrated by Holmes himself, which could mean the difference was intentional after all.
** ''Silver Blaze'' is another. All the important clues are shown to the reader, leading to one of the greatest detective fiction quotes ever.
{{quote|
'''Holmes:''' To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
'''Gregory:''' The dog did nothing in the night-time.
'''Holmes:''' That was the curious incident. }}
* All '' [[
* [[Isaac Asimov]] deliberately wrote his ''Black Widowers'' mystery stories in this fashion.
** ''[[
** Asimov also tweaked the novelization of ''[[Fantastic Voyage Plot|Fantastic Voyage]]'' to provide clues to the identity of [[The Mole|the saboteur in the crew]], as well as to [[Hand Wave|paper over the scientific problems with the concept]].
* In Shirley Jackson's 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle', an entire family was murdered, and the answer to which of the three survivors committed the crime is fairly clued within.
* The [[Nero Wolfe]] stories by [[Rex Stout]], may or may not be [[Fair Play]], since they're all narrated by Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's dogsbody and legman. Archie reports everything he finds to Wolfe, but Wolfe often doesn't return the favor, leaving both Archie and the readers in the dark. As a result, Archie and the reader usually have about the same chance of solving the mystery. If it ''is'' a Fair-play story, Archie will tell the readers at some point that ''he'' figured it out, and that they can too.
* The ''[[Ellery Queen]]''
* [[Neil Gaiman]] says that he tried to make ''[[Murder Mysteries]]'' entirely solvable for acute enough
** On the other hand, if you're ''not'' an acute reader, you might miss the fact that there were any murders other than the one in Raguel's story, namely that {{spoiler|the narrator murdered his female friend and her daughter before encountering Raguel}}. This is not helped by the fact that even the murderer doesn't remember what he did {{spoiler|as Raguel obliterates the memory of it from his mind}}. The comic book adaptation by P. Craig Russell makes it slightly more obvious
* The stories of John Dickson Carr (as well as his pseudonym Carter Dickson) always showed you all the clues. The only problem was usually that the murder was ''impossible'' to begin with, so you couldn't figure out ''how'', much less who. Carr even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded the tar out of this]] in ''The Three Coffins'' when Dr. Fell stops in the middle of the novel to explain all the ways you can do a locked room mystery, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|because there was no point in pretending they weren't in such a novel]]. At the end of the chapter (yes, it's a full chapter of all the ways to pull one off) the other characters tell him that the two murders don't fit into ''any'' of his categories. {{spoiler|They're really wrong.}}
** Carr's essay "The Greatest Game in the World" makes a key point about what makes a Fair Play Whodunnit really fair, and good when done right: the key to the case isn't just one clue - a random word hidden in chapter six - but a system of interlocking clues that allow the reader to open a tapestry of interpretation that gives a larger picture: that of the truth.
* Scott Turow's ''[[Presumed Innocent]]'' delicately scatters its clues amidst character development and the trial
* The [[
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books are like this; the mystery plot is deliberately littered with [[Red Herring
** In fact, many readers who had become used to Rowling's extensive use of [[Chekhov's Gun]]s and [[Chekhov's Gunman]] were able to figure out a couple of things the sixth book set up before the seventh book confirmed them: the identity of "R.A.B." and that {{spoiler|Harry himself}}
*** And even smaller ones, like {{spoiler|the barman of the Hog's Head in [[Harry Potter and
== Live
* ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' actually had quite a few, given that the killers usually revealed themselves by [[I Never Said It Was Poison|saying something only the killer would know or assume]].
* The occasional ''[[Law and Order]]'' spin-off (although not [[Law
** ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' does this more often than the others. Excluding the cases where you know who did it from the very beginning about a third of the shows have enough clues to solve it part way though, a couple can almost be deciphered based on the opening.
* Some episodes of ''[[Monk]]'', before they stopped caring about the mystery aspect of the show. In the early seasons, what set Monk apart was his ability to notice important clues and details that other detectives didn't see, and he would then point them out. At that point it was often possible to put them together and solve the case along with Monk.
* The British game show ''[[Who Dunnit]]!'' was based upon this concept.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'': [[Girl of the Week|Arissa]] asks Odo if he's worked out who the killer in the book was. He says "by the third page." Either he's just that good or the book's just that bad.
* ''[[
* The short-lived ''[[Scene Of The Crime]]'', hosted by Orson Welles, was an attempt at a series revolving around a different fair-play mystery or two per episode.
* The ''[[Clue (
* The early episodes of ''[[The Mentalist]]''.
* Japanese live action series ''[[Furuhata Ninzaburou]]'', in addition to being a [[Reverse Whodunnit]], also provides additional clues to show the viewer how Furuhata ends up on the trail of the suspect. Like the Ellery Queen example, he would pause just before the final act to address the viewer and give them hints as to why he believes that the chief suspect did it, and what evidence there is to force a confession.
** The episode guest starring baseball player Ichiro goes even further than usual, as [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Not-Really-Ichiro]] goes out of his way to ''leave'' a clue at the scene because he believes in fair play.
* ''[[Sleuth 101]]''
* "A Study in Pink" on BBC's ''[[
* The 1975 [[NBC]] series ''[[Ellery Queen]]''. Better yet, it always had a [[No Fourth Wall]] moment [[Once an Episode|every episode]], immediately following Ellery's mandatory [[Eureka Moment]], during which he would turn to the audience, briefly review the key evidence for the viewers, and ask them if they'd figured out who the culprit was.
** This was a trademark of its predecessor radio show as well.
== Video Games ==
* The two mystery subquests in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' play completely fair, given that it's up to you to solve them. (Admittedly, one isn't much of a mystery, though.)
** There are a
* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games, since the focus is entirely on the clues and how they fit together, it is occasionally entirely possible to figure out who the killer is before [[The Reveal]]. This is, of course, when the mystery isn't already a [[Reverse Whodunnit]], or [[Clueless Mystery]]. The hard part, of course, is proving it.
** It gets ridiculous in the last case of ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]]''. Edgeworth figures out the culprit easily, but proving exactly what happened and how it was done is such a laborious process that you're given a save point in the middle of the interrogation.
Line 114 ⟶ 115:
== Visual Novels ==
* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
** The veracity of that claim is debated hotly to this day.
== Web Original ==
* ''The Big Idea'' of the [[Whateley Universe]] is a
* From ''[[SCP Foundation]]'', the whole point of [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5002 SCP-5002]'s File. SCP-5002 is a mystery writer whose stories somehow become real, but after taken into custody by the Foundation, she herself is the victim - stabbed to death in her cell, the door locked, and no sign of forced entry. Who killed her? How did it happen? Did she actually [[Crazy Enough to Work| cause her own death by writing about it?]] Well, that's the Trope, ''you'' figure it out.
== Western Animation ==
* [[Lampshaded]] in the theme song to ''[[A Pup Named Scooby
** A lot of later series became more fair when it came to mysteries, though some would return to the [[Clueless Mystery]] route (but they would usually at least try to lampshade it).
* The first few Sideshow Bob episodes of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' were this kind of story; later on, the writers abandoned the mystery angle because coming up with them proved too difficult.
Line 129 ⟶ 130:
*** The writers lampshade this by ending the first part with Dr. Hibbert turning to the viewer and saying "Well, I couldn't possibly solve this mystery...can YOU?" Then the camera pans back and we realize he's actually talking to Chief Wiggum.
*** The reason the fan didn't win was because the contest was so poorly designed. The way it worked was that of all the entries, the producers would choose a thousand, out of which they would pick whoever sent in the correct answer. Unfortunately, from the thousand that they picked, no one actually had the correct answer. You would assume that they would just start again with another thousand, but the rules specifically stated that the winner had to be out of the ''first'' thousand picked. So, they just chose someone randomly. Of course, this meant that any number of people could have sent in the correct culprit, just were unlucky to not wind up in the final thousand.
* Pops up in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** {{spoiler|The Mare Do Well is established as being stronger than Rainbow Dash, particularly in her hind legs. [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** {{spoiler|During the construction scene, Mare Do Well proves to be very agile, dodging every piece of debris as they fell. Rainbow Dash muses to herself that she is fast as well as strong, but she also muses that she's able to [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** {{spoiler|While Twilight's magical aura color is seen in many episodes, one could point to [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** {{spoiler|From the same scene, the Mare Do Well is seen with a unicorn horn, and then a moment later with pegasus wings. Outside of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence (who are ruled out for size considerations), no pony has both horns and wings, indicating that more than one pony is posing as the Mare Do Well.}}
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** When Pinkie runs down to the caboose, {{spoiler|Rainbow Dash's mane style is visible in silhouette}}
** Next, in the engine car, {{spoiler|the "conductor" uses a female pony model and a yellow ear is seen. These put together mean Fluttershy.}}
Line 140 ⟶ 141:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fair Play
[[Category:
[[Category:Basic Mystery Classes]]
|