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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Talia:''' I've been [[Telepathy|scanning]] Mr. Abbut all day, and his mind is still just as empty as when we started. And these phrases that you keep speaking in, they don't make any sense.
'''[[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Kosh:]]''' Ah, you seek meaning. Then listen to the music, not the song.
|''[[Babylon 5]]'', "Deathwalker"}}
This is the favorite pastime of the [[Zen Survivor]], [[Waif Prophet]], [[Eccentric Mentor]], and any character with even a smidgen of knowledge on the setting's [[Backstory]], or plots that are happening that the hero knows nothing about.
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Often, these [[Poor Communication Kills]] will only frustrate the player/hero's attempts at solving the most recent dilemma, eventually riling them (and us) enough to tell the offending [[Mentors]] to [[Rage Against the Mentor|shove your vagueness someplace painful.]]
This is related to how [[Prophecy Twist|prophecies]] are never clear or straightforward, full of loopholes and interpretations. Creators might use these dialogues as place holders for [[
'''Common set ups for this include but are not limited to:'''
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'''Common Cryptic Conversations will have:'''
* [[Allusion]]s
* [[Double Meaning]]
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'''Common Cryptic Conversationalists will be:'''
* [[Aloof Big Brother]]
* [[Enigmatic Minion]]
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* [[Zen Survivor]]
▲* [[Talking Through Technique]], where a concise conversation is held without ever saying a word.
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Although not intentionally vague, about half of everything anyone said in the first season of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' was misunderstood by the other person because of their own preconceptions, usually leading to paranoia and literal [[Poor Communication Kills]].
* Quon from ''[[RahXephon]]'' speaks like this more often than not... the meaning of the terms she absently throw around in reference to the hero and his [[Humongous Mecha]] do not become clear untill the end of the series, but along the way, others 'in the know' makes occasional use of them, creating sinister suggestions of their true importance.
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* There are a couple of this in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', most notably among Father and the homunculi about the so called "promised day".
** Which was pretty obviously going to be a {{spoiler|solar eclipse}} long before Brosh's younger siblings woke him up wanting to borrow his telescope...
* Used and abused extensively in both ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' and ''[[
** Even the [[Exposition]] is typically given via Cryptic Conversation; you need to wait a while longer (sometimes ''months'') to get more exposition to explain the cryptic parts of the last batch. Even when everything is said outright, [[Mind Screw|its still somewhat hard to comprehend]], giving the impression of this trope on occasion even when things are being said outright.
* Lampshaded in [[Yu Yu Hakusho]] when Kurama says something akin to "Oh, I see. It must be... that." and Yusuke responds that he is going to start charging him money every time he is vague.
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** The same scene is also a play for irony since Sesshoumaru, although he dispatched the enemy, had failed to master his own sword in doing so even though he had increased the physical strength of his sword during the fight. This is because Totosai had left him with cryptic advice that to master his sword he needed to grow in strength. {{spoiler|What Totosai was actually talking about was the strength of Sesshoumaru's compassion.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In one ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strip, Peter and his girlfriend have a Cryptic Conversation over the phone; the last panel shows his brother Jason listening in and musing that his spying may have gotten a bit obvious.
* From [[Birds of Prey]]
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'''[[Black Canary]]''': I'll give you a dollar to stop being cryptic. Please say you'll take it. }}
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* A Lot of them in ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'' and ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]''. The stand-out is the conversation of two creepy girls in the prologue of the latter.
* Hermione, Ron and Harry are on the receiving end of a couple early in ''[[Hermione Granger and the Boy Who Lived]]''; it takes several years before they decode the [[Spy Speak]] and realize what they were being told.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' films, a very lot, as skewered in this Maddox [http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/images/matrix_question_tot1.gif parody]
** The second two of [[The Matrix]] trilogy are possible subversions. It turns out that {{spoiler|The Oracle makes deliberately vague prophecies partially because she only has a limited insight into the future through predicting the choices of others, partially so she has some way to pretend to have predicted any turn of events, and partially in order to cause the other characters to carry out her prophecies.}} After all, "would [Neo] have really [broken the vase] if [the Oracle] hadn't said anything?"
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'''Linus:''' I am a traveler in both time and space, to be where I have been.
'''*Moments later, outside the restaurant*'''
'''Rusty:''' [[Led Zeppelin|Kashmir?]]
'''Danny:''' Is that your idea of making a contribution?
'''Rusty:''' We hadn't even started. We ain't even got to the terms yet.
'''Danny:''' We came this close to losing that.
'''Linus:''' Hey, I don't even understand what happened in there. What did I say?
'''Danny:''' You called his niece a whore.
'''Rusty:''' A very cheap one.
'''Linus:''' What?
'''Danny:''' She's seven. }}
** It isn't until much later in the movie, after Linus is rescued from prison by {{spoiler|his mother}} that he figures out that all the nonsense phrases he'd heard ''really were'' just nonsense; a Lost in Translation con that Danny and Rusty (along with the informant) played on him, partly as a practical joke, and partly because they didn't want him screwing up their negotiations.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* In one of the ''[[The Dresden Files|Dresden Files]]'' novels, it is explained that prophecies ''have'' to be deliberately vague. If a prophecy is too detailed (e.g., "Your car will be stolen Friday"), and you act on it (move your car so it's not stolen), then that creates the question of ''how did you know your car would be stolen if it wasn't'', which leads to a [[Temporal Paradox|paradox]], which can lead to very bad things.
** In the RPG book, Harry notes that the Gatekeeper always speaks like he knows more than he's letting on, and if you asked him something as simple as "What do you want on your pizza?", he'd ramble on and give you an answer that didn't make any sense until later. Then he giggles at the idea of [[The Comically Serious|the Gatekeeper]] eating pizza.
** Harry is also sometimes deliberately cryptic when talking to his allies. Not because he's trying to protect them or anything. It's just that being sneaky and cryptic and mysterious is pretty much heroin for wizards.
* Weber & Ringo's novel ''We Few'' has a two-page conversation consisting of mixed allusions, metaphors, indirections, and double meanings. On the surface, it's about a meat supplier trying to get a contract with the Home Fleet. The subtext is that 1) the [[Rightful King Returns|Prince]] has returned, 2) he is neither [[Took a Level
* [[Book of Amber|The Amber series]] begins with Corwin/Corey having conversations with his sister and brother about things ''they'' know all about, and he has no memory of... and yet he [[Refuge in Audacity|still manages to make them think he's fully aware of everything and perhaps knows more than they do, and takes over control of the situation]].
* In Mad Magazine's spoof 'Doone' 'Duke Leto' rules that until the end of the crisis they will converse only in complete sentences. To the relief of his mentat who was about to call a time out to find out what they were talking about.
* Ayatani Zweil in [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Warhammer
* Would you believe [[Eragon]] had one of these with a bird?
* Traditional Chinese courtesy requires indirection and ritual self denigration in conversation allowing for very polite and cryptic threats. A prize example is [[Judge Dee|Judge Dee's]] various conversations with the [[Big Bad]] in ''The Chinese Bell Murders''.
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"...I'll drop by as soon as I'm out." ''I am going to escape. I can't wait. something has come up in here.''}}
== [[Live
* The Hybrids in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' once explained why he doesn't give out a proper name thusly.
{{quote|''Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it... the turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go... That's who I am. Now forget me.''}}
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* Angel in the first few episodes of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Appears out of the darkness, says something cryptic, then disappears.
** She lampshades it nicely, with 'you couldn't just say it's a vampire with a fork?'
* Father Mulcahy tries this strategy several times on ''[[
* ''[[Twin Peaks]]''; The owls are not what they seem.
* Parodied in ''[[Mitchell and Webb]]'' where a generic evil genius is giving vague commands to his minions until one of them objects on the basis that it's confusing. And brings up the time they spent months actually ''hoping'' a guy would have an accident instead of [[Make It Look Like an Accident|arranging one]].
** Yeah, here we are: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
* [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Darmok, and Jalad... at Tanagra]]
** Though TNG has many examples of this (The Samaritan Snare and Rascals immediately spring to mind), Darmok might not qualify. The alien species were speaking quite plainly, it is just that they speak a different language, built around a radically different communications phenotype.
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* And if you’re ever in ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', ask [[Trickster Mentor|Cantus the Minstrel]] for advice. He’ll freely give it, but you’ll have to [[Figure It Out Yourself]]. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by frustrated fellow minstrel [[Only Sane Man|Murray]], and an exasperated [[Action Girl|Red Fraggle]].
▲== Tabletop [[RPGs]] ==
* A lot of [[Forgotten Realms]] sources used this.
** The best case may be [https://web.archive.org/web/20161101201457/http://
* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', the GM may narrate this way to help keep the [[Player Character|PCs]] in the dark:
{{quote|'''PC:''' ''(in a vehicle with unlabeled controls and no manual)'' [[What Does This Button Do?|I press button #5.]]
'''GM:''' Sounds like something big just fell off. }}
== Toys ==
* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', this drives [[The Stoic|Kopaka]] [[Not So Stoic|nuts]]. Every second character he comes across talks this way.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* Yeesha of ''[[Myst]] V'' and Uru is the queen of this.▼
* The Vortigaunts from [[Half-Life 2]] may qualify here, although it doesn't always take a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|theoretical physicist]] the figure out the meaning of their word play.▼
* In [[Baldur's Gate]], you can carry one with a shady individual in one of the eponymous city's inn. The only way to end it is to acknowledge that you have no idea what you are talking about. The rogue expresses surprise, with a hint of respect, that you were able to fake the conversation for so long and then disappears, never to be seen again...▼
* Subverted hilariously in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. The PC is performing contract kills for an assassin guild. She or he corresponds with a messenger from the guild who constantly speaks in cryptic messages. By choosing the correct dialogue options and acting confused as to what the messenger means, the PC can eventually frustrate the messenger enough that he says (and I paraphrase), "Yes, yes, you kill the target, you get the reward!" Whereas before, he only alluded to it.▼
** Played straight with Flemeth. Practically every conversation with her has her speaking in riddles and chiding you for acting like you understand what she's truly talking about. She gets no better when dealing with Hawke in [[Dragon Age II]].▼
** Similarily, the [[Taken for Granite|petrified]] oracle Eleni Zinovia is incredibly cryptic. In the Mage origin, Jowan dismisses the statue's prophecies as nonsense.▼
* Taken to truly absurd levels with the [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Gazel Ministry]] in [[Xenogears]].▼
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' employs this trope several times over the course of the series, especially in regards to [[Bonus Boss|bonus bosses]] and secret endings that hint towards the next sequel.▼
** Especially where Namine erases Sora and his friends' memories of their time together with her, the only remaining evidence being a cryptic line written in Jiminy Cricket's journal "Thank Namine" and "We must return to save them from their torment". The answer to the last line becomes a major focus of [[Kingdom Hearts coded]]▼
** Doubly so in the [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition|Final Mix]] versions. The fact that there's a [[Bonus Boss]] known by fans as the "Enigmatic Man" should be proof enough of this.▼
* It's more of a "cryptic monologue", but {{spoiler|Tezkhra}}'s thoughts in ''[[The Reconstruction]]'' often take the form of this, making vague references and trailing off before anything important is revealed.▼
* Ulysses of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' speaks entirely in metaphorical terms with heavy use of symbolism in his language. For example, he tends to refer to NCR and Caesar's Legion as the Bear and the Bull, the animals depicted on their respective flags.▼
* The Praetorian Resistance in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' communicates entirely in a metaphor- and symbol-ridden argot that is difficult at best to decipher. One Resistance contact with whom players may interact is so deep into their lingo that he is all but incomprehensible—despite the fact that he's handing out mission assignments.▼
== [[Web
* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', [[Trickster Mentor|Taliesin]] talks to [[Wandering Minstrel|Leon]] about the Laws of the Andain by using riddles because he feels every Andain must figure out the laws and the true meanings behind the words themselves with no outside help.
* ''[[Broken Saints]]'' can be heavy on this, particularly from the [[Big Bad]].
* ''[[Xkcd]]'' plays this trope off of [[Spy Speak|several]] [[Waif Prophet|others]] in the "Race" story arc.
{{quote|''Nathan'': "I'm down. Tell Summer 'The chickens are in the hayloft. Plan Gamma is a go.'
''Jewel'': She says '[[Attack Pattern Alpha|Plan Gamma]] acknowledged. The meercats are in the bag.'
''Nathan'': ...
''Jewel'': So we're good?
''Nathan'': Hard to tell with her. Do you see an actual bag of meercats?
''Jewel'': No.
''Nathan'': Then we're probably good. }}
* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' Annie once asks [[Physical God|Coyote]] what the Court is, and he replies "It is man's attempt to become God." Coyote immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by asking [[The Dragon|Ysengrim]] if it's a sufficiently cryptic answer, to which Ysengrim replies "Very cryptic. It barely answers anything at all." and Annie appends that it just raises more questions. Coyote of course, being [[The Trickster]], was going for this exactly and is delighted that it was so vague.
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NANNASPRITE: When you pass through the first gate, everything will change. You will find the place where the constellations dance beneath the clouds. And then your true work may begin. Hoo hoo hoo!
JOHN: i suddenly understand everything! }}
* ''[[PS238]]'' has Veles exploit this in his [[Impossible Task]] challenge to the heroes. One, this of course requires the heroes to solve his stealth riddle to succeed. Two, this gives them a chance to bring him what he wants, because {{spoiler|when they seek the wrong target, all the mind-reading defences just let them go, except the one which starts protecting the false target, thus the heroes can freely go for the real one - if they figure out what he meant at the point where they ''have to'' stop and think}}.
* ''[[Evil Inc.]]'' has a [[Crystal Ball]] "[http://evil-inc.com/comic/title-95/ answering]" the question about Captain Heroic's weakness. The witch thought it malfunctioned, but metaphorically it was entirely correct - {{spoiler|Cap's [[Dating Catwoman|main weakness]] is a "bombshell" with moderately short fuse}}. See another useless correct answer 2 pages later.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* [[12 oz. Mouse|Twelve Ounce Mouse]] is basically made of this.
* The Dungeon Master, of the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' cartoon.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Iroh's teachings to Zuko often come in cryptic statements. When trying to figure out what Iroh would say in a situation where he wasn't present, Zuko says [[Ice Cream Koan|something cryptic and vaguely profound]].. and unfortunately can't understand ''that'' either.
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' had [[Macbeth|the Weird Sisters]], who loved to confuse Humans and Gargoyles by talking like this.
▲== Video Games ==
▲* Yeesha of [[Myst]] V and Uru is the queen of this.
▲* The Vortigaunts from [[Half-Life 2]] may qualify here, although it doesn't always take a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|theoretical physicist]] the figure out the meaning of their word play.
▲* In [[Baldur's Gate]], you can carry one with a shady individual in one of the eponymous city's inn. The only way to end it is to acknowledge that you have no idea what you are talking about. The rogue expresses surprise, with a hint of respect, that you were able to fake the conversation for so long and then disappears, never to be seen again...
▲* Subverted hilariously in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. The PC is performing contract kills for an assassin guild. She or he corresponds with a messenger from the guild who constantly speaks in cryptic messages. By choosing the correct dialogue options and acting confused as to what the messenger means, the PC can eventually frustrate the messenger enough that he says (and I paraphrase), "Yes, yes, you kill the target, you get the reward!" Whereas before, he only alluded to it.
▲** Played straight with Flemeth. Practically every conversation with her has her speaking in riddles and chiding you for acting like you understand what she's truly talking about. She gets no better when dealing with Hawke in [[Dragon Age II]].
▲** Similarily, the [[Taken for Granite|petrified]] oracle Eleni Zinovia is incredibly cryptic. In the Mage origin, Jowan dismisses the statue's prophecies as nonsense.
▲* Taken to truly absurd levels with the [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Gazel Ministry]] in [[Xenogears]].
▲* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' employs this trope several times over the course of the series, especially in regards to [[Bonus Boss|bonus bosses]] and secret endings that hint towards the next sequel.
▲** Especially where Namine erases Sora and his friends' memories of their time together with her, the only remaining evidence being a cryptic line written in Jiminy Cricket's journal "Thank Namine" and "We must return to save them from their torment". The answer to the last line becomes a major focus of [[Kingdom Hearts coded]]
▲** Doubly so in the [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition|Final Mix]] versions. The fact that there's a [[Bonus Boss]] known by fans as the "Enigmatic Man" should be proof enough of this.
▲* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', constantly.
▲* It's more of a "cryptic monologue", but {{spoiler|Tezkhra}}'s thoughts in ''[[The Reconstruction]]'' often take the form of this, making vague references and trailing off before anything important is revealed.
▲* Ulysses of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' speaks entirely in metaphorical terms with heavy use of symbolism in his language. For example, he tends to refer to NCR and Caesar's Legion as the Bear and the Bull, the animals depicted on their respective flags.
▲* The Praetorian Resistance in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' communicates entirely in a metaphor- and symbol-ridden argot that is difficult at best to decipher. One Resistance contact with whom players may interact is so deep into their lingo that he is all but incomprehensible—despite the fact that he's handing out mission assignments.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Dialogue]]
[[Category:This Might Be an Index]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:A Failure to Communicate]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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