39,327
edits
He Who Must Not Be Seen: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 11:
* ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]'''s Lord Deadcross.
* Ai Enma's "grandma" from ''[[Hell Girl]]''. Although she talks, all we ever see of her form is her silhouette. The only human that takes a good look at her is completely horrified by what she saw.
* The Sacred Ancestor, the Vampire King [[Dracula]] remains unseen save for flashbacks where he receives no physical description save for his [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|eyes]] in all mediums of ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]''.
Line 25:
* The Soviet premier in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''.
* Roxy Carmichael from the 1990 movie ''Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael''.
** Mainly because he's in Russia, which is only shown in the movie as a background-shot.
* The Blair Witch in ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'' is never seen on camera, only spoken of and feared. [[Nothing Is Scarier|This of course makes her all the more scary!]]
* [[James Bond|Blofeld]] ([[The Blofeld Ploy|yeah, him]]) actually started out this way.
* Sir Not Appearing in the Film from ''[[Monty Python and
** But he does appear very briefly, in the illustration on his page of the storybook. From the looks of things, he must be the youngest knight of them all...
* The man directing the criminal organization in ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' is only shown as a silhouette behind a curtain giving orders. It's later revealed that {{spoiler|the man behind the curtain is just a cardboard cutout and a radio; the head of the psych hospital, who has become obsessed with patient Mabuse's titular "crime manual," has been remotely directing the organization the whole time.}}
Line 41:
* Sauron of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. This, despite his being the novel's [[Big Bad]] and [[Ultimate Evil]]. The title is even a direct reference to him (the Lord of the Rings).
** Pippin, Aragorn, and Denethor see him face-to-face through the Palantír. Denethor explains Sauron's hidden nature as being due to the notion that all wise persons of power use ''others'' to do their fighting for them; however the story indicates that this is the act of dictators (like Sauron, Denethor, Saurman etc), while ''good'' rulers fight actually lead their underlings into battle (like Gandalf, Aragorn, and Theoden did).
*** Denethor isn't being cowardly, though. Before he goes insane from the use of Palantír he essentially tells that if everything is lost and Gondor falls, he will be spared so that Sauron can personally gloat and mock him, and ''then'' he will have a chance to strike personally, revealing that he's been living and even sleeping in a chain mail with sword on his belt to prepare for that moment. That is the reason he won't endanger himself in lesser battles. "Historically," Denethor is recorded by Tolkien as personally leading many defenses of Osgiliath, and every bit Boromir's equal in the pure badass department.
** Somewhat undermined in the movies where the Eye of Sauron shows up plenty of times, such that the audience assumes (erroneously) that Sauron ''is'' the Eye.
* Galbatorix, the [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'', has yet to put in a physical appearance in the books. He does appear in [[The Film of the Book|The Film]], played by John Malkovich, but this was only for appearances' sake. {{spoiler|He finally shows up in the last book.}}
Line 50:
* [[Altered Carbon]] includes the often-referenced but never-present Elias Ryker. {{spoiler|It emerges that the central character, [[Takeshi Kovacs]], is inhabiting Ryker's body or "sleeve" while Ryker himself is "on stack," imprisoned in a digital environment.}}
* Bod from ''[[The Graveyard Book]]'' never sees the Sleer {{spoiler|until the end of the book}}.
* Matai Shang, [[Priest King|Holy Hekkador]] of the [[Path of Inspiration|Holy Therns]] in [[John Carter of Mars]] hovers around the edges of the second book, ''The Gods of Mars'' without ever putting in a direct appearance. He finally shows up in the next book, ''The Warlord of Mars'', where he's half of the [[Big Bad Duumvirate]].
Line 84:
** Subverted on the NBC episodes of ''[[The Price Is Right]]'', as he would occasionally be seen on camera as a substitute host whenever regular host [[Bill Cullen]] was either sick or on vacation.
* On ''[[Lost]]'', the "monster" was unseen for the whole first season.
** Subverted: {{spoiler|We saw the Monster repeatedly throughout the first season, except we didn't know it was the Monster because we didn't know it had the ability to do a [[Dead Person Impersonation]]. However, we didn't see its actual Smoke Monster form until season 1 finale, and we never saw its real form until the season 5 finale.}}
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' had several, most notably George's Boss George Steinbrenner, whose face is never seen, Kramer's never-seen friends Bob Sacamano and Lomez, and Jerry's cousin Jeffrey, about whom Uncle Leo talks constantly.
* "This is Dr. Kahn..." from ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]''.
Line 96:
* ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]'': Sparky, the radio operator at I-Corps who Radar or Klinger often speaks with, pretty much fits this trope... although he did make a single, brief appearance in the season 1 episode "Tuttle."
** The camp's P.A. announcer was both this and [[The Voice]].
** The characters' loved ones back in the States, obviously...although some of them did "appear" via home movie, including Henry's wife Larraine, Frank's wife Louise, B.J.'s wife Peg, and Radar's mother (played by [[Uncanny Family Resemblance|Gary Burghoff in drag]]).
** B.J.'s wife Peg appears again in the surreal episode "Dreams", in a depressing [[Nightmare Sequence]] that is meant to show how much he misses her and how he believes the war has pulled him away from her. Naturally, everyone else is suffering a case of this throughout this particular episode.
** In the "Run for the Money" episode, Charles gets a tape recording from his sister Honoria, so we get to [[The Voice|hear her voice]] (which includes a bad stutter).
** Colonel Potter's wife in the states, Mildred, does not appear in the main series (save as a photograph on his desk), but is a regular character (played by [[The Other Darrin|two different actresses]]) in the short-lived spin-off ''[[After MASH (TV)|After MASH]]''.
* The physical incarnation of this particular trope is undoubtedly Wilson from ''[[Home Improvement]]''. If it wasn't the fence hiding his mouth, it was a tree branch, a grill, other people, a Santa beard, or even a yam!
** Also, Al's mother.
Line 135:
* Caroline's father, Martin, in ''[[Two Broke Girls]]''. Justified since he's in jail, but both she and Max have been shown talking to him on her phone.
* Cambot in [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]], apart from his brief appearences in the [[Theme Tune Roll Call|Robot Roll Call]]. Justified in that everything on the Satellite of Love is seen through his lens.
* Until the last season Morty Fine, Fran's father, from ''[[The Nanny]]''.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Peanuts]]'' adults were seen exactly once: Some adults were partially shown in an [http://comics.com/peanuts?DateAfter=1954-05-23&DateBefore=1954-05-23&Order=d.DateStrip+DESC&PerPage=1&x=24&y=10&Search= early strip] depicting Charlie Brown and Lucy at a golf tournament.
** In a few early strips Linus and Lucy's parents (and blanket-hating grandmother) can be [[The Voice|"heard" off-panel]], and the kids' schoolteachers are heard (albeit [[The Unintelligible|as trombone music]]) in the animated specials.
** The Little Red-Haired Girl is also never seen, except once in silhouette. (She ''is'' seen in one of the specials, ''It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown'', although this was deemed non-canonical by Charles Schulz.)
** Also Snoopy's nemesis, The Cat Next Door.
* Susies' parents in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''. Their voices were heard from off-panel once or twice, but they never appeared.
** Susie's mom was seen from the waist down once.
* [[The Phantom (comic strip)|The Phantom]] is usually wearing a mask or sunglasses; whenever he's not, he's usually shown from behind or has his head out of frame. In-story, anyone who sees his face will die (mainly through [[Laser-Guided Karma]]), but his wife and other loved ones are apparently excluded. (In one ancestor story, the current Phantom had died and his son arrived at the Skull Cave to take up the role; he's shown completely, face and all, for several frames. Presumably the curse doesn't take full effect before he dons the suit for the first time, or the comic's readership may have taken a drastic drop in numbers...)
* In ''[[Cul De Sac]]'', Dil has a horde of unseen older brothers whose hobbies include building trebuchets.
* The title characters in George Herriman's early 20th century strip ''[[The Family Upstairs]]''. They live on the top floor of an apartment building and cause endless problems for the poor souls situated below them.
** This also applied to the title characters in another early strip, Pom Momand's ''Keeping Up with the Joneses''.
Line 190:
* In ''[[Backyard Sports]]'', Stephanie Morgan always talks about her best friend Dorothy, who is never seen in the game.
* The Lich King is this for the core campaign of ''[[Warcraft]]'' III, despite being one of the main villains and having his backstory described in detail in the manual (though to be fair, he is [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed inside a block of ice]], controlling his minions telepathically). He does show up in the expansion.
** Until Wrath of the Lich King, this was a staple of most of World of Warcraft. The [[Big Bad]] was rarely seen other than his or her particular raid encounter. The Lich King, however, had a very prominent and personal role for the player all throughout Wrath of the Lich King, as does Deathwing in Cataclysm, so this seems to have changed.
* In the games [[Betrayal at Krondor]] and [[Return to Krondor]], there is a character called the Crawler. The Crawler is never seen or heard, only mentioned through conversations and letters. What is known for certain is that the Crawler is some sort of crime boss, and is assumed to be male. He has an agent named Bear, who is very dangerous on his own. He also has powerful connections (one letter from a powerful man in a land called Kesh warns his niece to "Beware the master of Durbin. The Crawler's plot is a web within a web."). It is too bad a game has not made where you actually get to fight this guy.
* The protagonist in the game [[In the 1st Degree]] is prosecutor Sterling Granger. The character is male, and you can hear his voice. However, he is never seen in the game.
Line 244:
== Real Life ==
* [[Islam|Muhammad]]. Muslims have repeatedly threatened violence and murder when Muhammad is pictured in any way.
** It's worth noting that this wasn't always the case. [http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/things/depictions-of-muhammad-in-islamic-art.htm This page] is a good starting point for understanding this.
*** It's still a matter of contest among different branches of Muslim faith. Until only a few years ago pictures of Mohammed were perfectly common in many Islamic countries.
* [[Anonymous]]
* Any [[Strawman Political]] ideal. An Unnamed Democrat/Republican for example -- a very popular choice in the polls for any election, because he/she ''has no opinions'', and therefore has no ''unpopular'' opinions.
| |||