History Main / MyNameIsQuestionMarks

[[quoteright:258:[[{{Pokemon}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whoareyou_2409.png]]]]

** Caused many a small child to permanently name him ??? when asked, thinking it was a kind of trivia where there's a right answer you need to enter to continue. Kind of embarrassing when the older fans told you you had done it wrong, but HilariousInHindsight.
** Averted in the remakes, which instead call him Passerby Boy.
*** Another change in the remakes is that he no longer tells you his name in dialogue. Instead, he drops his Trainer ID and the main character (but not the player themselves) reads it.

One of the simplest and most prevalent videogame interface tropes.

** Caused many a small child to permanently name him ??? when asked, thinking it was a kind of trivia where there's a right answer you need to enter to continue. Kind of embarrassing when the older kids told you you had done it wrong, but HilariousInHindsight.

** ''PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and ''PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' also use question marks to represent non-seen Pokemon in the Pokedex. Similarly, their equivalent/version of Missingno is shown as the same icon, or for another kind, two white question marks.

* One time, when the [[DoctorWho Seventh Doctor]] had to sign a guestbook, he wrote a really big question mark.

* As yet unlocked minigames in ''MarioParty'' are represented by "?????????????????".

*** Another change in the remakes is that he no longer tells you his name in dialogue. Instead he drops his trainer ID and the main character (but not the player themselves) reads it.

** ''PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and ''PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' also use question marks to represent non seen Pokemon in the Pokedex. Similarly, their equivalent/version of Missingno is shown as the same icon, or for another kind, two white question marks.

* As yet unlocked games on the ''WarioWare'' grid are represented by question marks.

* {{PokemonGoldAndSilver'': Your rival gives his own name as "???". You [[HelloInsertNameHere enter]] his name later.

* ''{{Pokemon}} Gold/Silver'': Your rival gives his own name as "???". You [[HelloInsertNameHere enter]] his name later.

** ''{{Pokemon}} Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', ''Diamond'', and ''Pearl'' also use question marks to represent non seen Pokemon in the Pokedex. Similarly, their equivalent/version of Missingno is shown as the same icon, or for another kind, two white question marks.

* In the ''AceAttorney'' games, a new character's dialogue will be labeled as spoken by "?????" until you learn the person's name. This is also occasionally the case for previously-appearing characters who speak from offscreen and then appear.

[[caption-width-right:258:[[TheUnpronounceable Just how are you supposed to pronounce that?]]]]

* In ''SuperMarioRPG'', the character Geno is labeled "???" at first. His actual name isn't much better (since it's ♥♪!?).

* In ''PaperMario: The Thousand Year Door'' this is the name given in the tattle log for Doopliss before you find out his name.

** Caused many a small child to permanently name him ??? when asked. Kind of embarrassing when the older kids told you you had done it wrong, but HilariousInHindsight.

Fast Eddie is a dictator! Rise up against the tyrant! -EA

[[Bong milk is good for the brain.:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/werewolf_9693_8856.jpg]]

But you can't tell your boyfriend about it! He'd freak out and leave you, or worse. But then, you can't keep it a secret forever, either. At some point, one of your supernatural incidents will inevitably happen exactly when you were having a romantic dinner. Or maybe your relationship has simply reached the next level, and you feel that you need to be completely honest with him.

So what now? How will he react? Well, it turns out he's perfectly okay (well, for the most part he's perfectly okay) and understanding with it! That's right, as a reward for your sacrifices, the PowersThatBe will make sure that you end up with a truly noble and loving soul who loves you for who you are and doesn't care what you are. So no worries!

This trope is a DoubleStandard, in that wives and girlfriends are pretty much automatically accepting of their ActionHero husband/boyfriend's actions, whereas the number of husbands/boyfriends who automatically accept that their significant other is an ActionGirl are pretty thin on the ground. For the guy who is a super and needs a girlfriend, his powers are often a plus for her (because AllGirlsWantBadBoys). For women, finding a guy who truly doesn't have a problem with dating someone with superpowers when he's a {{Muggle}} is the bigger issue, because, well, NoGuyWantsAnAmazon.

Compare ButYourWingsAreBeautiful, when a disguise forms part of the powers. Compare to ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend for the ActionGirl [[InvertedTrope variant.]] Compare and contrast BoyMeetsGhoul, for the guy/girl who is on the other end of this trope. See also TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife, which is an aversion of this trope.

!!Examples:
[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* The central premise of ''[[NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu The Secrets of Haruka Nogizaka]]''. The titular girl is an otaku.
* Ditto with ''[[OreImo My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute]]''. Except that the guy is not a boyfriend, but the big brother... [[{{Squick}} yeah]].
* Austria from ''AxisPowersHetalia'', in regards to his VictoriousChildhoodFriend Hungary. While he's concerned for her well-being, in the end he knows that if she wants to fight, he better lets her... since she will go [[OneManArmy One Woman Army]] and destroy the enemy. Considering their childhood, [[LoveAtFirstPunch he knows it beforehand]]!
* [[ShamanKing Keiko Asakura]] had been dumped by ''every'' single boyfriend she had when they learnt she was able to see spirits. Until the last JerkAss left her and a penniless musician with similar abilities comforted her. That guy was Mikihisa, and she would marry him.
* Horribly deconstructed with [[spoiler: Shiso and Ceres]] in ''AyashiNoCeres''. [[spoiler: Shiso started like this, but being left helpless when he and Ceres got attacked [[IJustWantToBeSpecial made him very frustrated]], so he asked Ceres to give him a part of her powers [[IWillProtectHer so he wouldn't be a burden on her.]] But then, [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity said powers turned out to be too much to handle]], and ItGotWorse...]]


[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* [[NiceGuy Kong]] is this to [[XMen Kitty Pryde]] in UltimateMarvel, even going so far as to yell "You're welcome!" at AllOfTheOtherReindeer for not thanking her when she saves their lives.
* Back in the GoldenAge, Steve Trevor was this for WonderWoman (a remarkably progressive move for the times), and not at all threatened by the idea of getting rescued by or mooning over a woman who was twenty times stronger than him. The Silver and Bronze Age characterizations of him were...[[TooDumbToLive unfortunately]] [[JerkAss less so]], which probably led to him being deleted from continuity PostCrisis.
* In an old What If comic, Jimmy Olsen married Supergirl because of amnesia. Once she recovers and lets him know, he's totally fine with being married to Superman's cousin.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''InnocentBlood'', FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Marie has her understanding CopBoyfriend Joe.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Elend in Brandon Sanderson's ''{{Mistborn}}''. At least [[spoiler:until he gets superpowers himself.]]
* Seth in ''WickedLovely''. When Aislinn tells him that she can see faeries, he has exactly one moment of "Is this a joke?" before accepting it and trying to help her with her faery situation.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* The ''GhostWhisperer'' features Jim the Understanding Husband.
* Both [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and played straight in ''{{Bewitched}}''. The original Darrin (Dick York) was less than understanding, to the point of being downright hostile to Samantha when she used her magic. TheOtherDarrin (Dick Sargeant), on the other hand, tried his hardest to be understanding, the point that it was more the fault of Endora and the rest of Samantha's family that TheOtherDarrin didn't get along with witches.
* Played with in the ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' TV series. Harvey ''does'' leave Sabrina when he finds out she's a witch, not out of intolerance but because she'd been using magic to mess with his life for years. He eventually does come back to her, though, and says he never had a problem with her being a witch per se.
* Zack was the "gay best friend" equivalent of this in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', at least until ExecutiveMeddling got in the way.
* Unless she's dating one of the undead, Buffy never got this on ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (even Riley, who was himself a demon fighting super-soldier, had an inferiority complex due to dating a genuine superhero). It's Willow who hit the boyfriend jackpot with Oz; upon being told the truth about the supernatural world she runs in, he replies, "Actually, it explains a lot," and just goes with the flow from there.
* Tyler Ford in ''TheMiddleman'''s unaired season finale (released as a comic)...[[spoiler:at least, until MM pushes the ResetButton]].
* Allison's husband Joe on ''{{Medium}}'' believes in her powers and is understanding and accepting of them.
* In ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', 2x09. Merlin discovers [[spoiler: Freya turns into a bastet at night, but he isn´t afraid and stills takes care of her. He even pets her cat´s head...]]
[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/understanding/ this]] ''WapsiSquare'' comic. Also the page quote.
* {{Subverted}} (although this may be a retrospective way of seeing it) in ''SluggyFreelance''. Leo seems to be accepting of all the weird things Zoë tells about happening to her - but it turns out that was only because he thought she was lying. In the words of another jerk he hangs out with, "You've got to respect a girl who realizes romantic relationships are based on lies and goes to town with it!" As soon as Leo finds out it was all true, he feels betrayed, and they eventually break off.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* [[PhineasAndFerb Candace]] seems to have this with Jeremy. Despite all of Candace's attempts to put a stop to PhineasAndFerb's projects, the guy never, ever seems to lose his cool, and they're still an item.

* [[JojosBizarreAdventure ZA WARUDO!]]
* ''{{Sonic Adventure 2}}''.
* ''ShadowTheHedgehog''.
* ''Okami''.
* ''{{Onimusha}} 4'': Jubei Yagyu's special ability to slow down time.
* ''MegaManX 5'': When you use Dark Hold. And hence, TatsunokoVsCapcom.
* The Unknown from ''KingdomHearts: BirthBySleep'' will cast Stop on you and rewind time a few seconds to heal himself, with this effect.

[[AC:Other Coloured Indications of Timestop]]
* ''{{Persona 3}}'': The whole world is covered in a green filter during the Dark Hour
* ''DarkerThanBlack'': When Amber/February users her powers she and whoever else she chooses to affect turns gold and is able to move around while the rest of the world is tinted in a strange purple or blue color.
* ''[[{{Discworld}} The Thief Of Time]]'': The visual effects are described in a way that's [[ShownTheirWork actually sort of plausible]]: everything ahead of Lobsang is blue-shifted, while on the one occasion he glances behind him while moving the view is red-shifted to impenetrability.
* In ''PrinceOfPersia: The Forgotten Sands'', the timestopped world is simply darker.
* ''The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything'': Uses a red filter.
* ''ShakuganNoShana'': The sky becomes dark red.
* ''{{Bayonetta}}'': The Witch Time tints the world in dark blue.
* ''CardCaptorSakura'': Everything turns a shade of gold.
* ''{{Homestuck}}'': A red zodiac appears on the victim, who flashes red. [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003664 As seen here]]. It doesn't seem to be in effect for all timestops though, just some.
* GhostTrick: The ghost world is basically the normal world with time stopped and a tinted filter over it, different ghosts receiving different colored filters.
* RedDeadRedemption has it's bullet time filtered in a sepia screen.
* In ''BunnyMustDie'', the world turns bluish when time stops, red when time is reversed, and yellow when time is slowed.
* In the non-fighting games of TouhouProject, the screen darkens when Sakuya stops time.
* The ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' and ''MegaManStarForce'' games have some chips/cards which freeze the action while they play out; these darken the screen.
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[[quoteright:258:[[{{Pokemon}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whoareyou_2409.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:258:[[TheUnpronounceable Just how are you supposed to pronounce that?]]]]
When the name of something - be it a character, object or menu item - is unknown in a video game, it will often be represented by a string of question marks.

One of the simplest and most prevalent videogame interface tropes.

The reasons for this vary (see below), and the result can range from confusion to an InterfaceSpoiler. See also NoNameGiven.

ConfusedQuestionMark is for a different meaning of the symbol.

* ''{{Pokemon}} Gold/Silver'': Your rival gives his own name as "???". You [[HelloInsertNameHere enter]] his name later.
** Caused many a small child to permanently name him ??? when asked. Kind of embarrassing when the older kids told you you had done it wrong, but HilariousInHindsight.
** Averted in the remakes, which instead call him Passerby Boy.
*** Another change in the remakes is that he no longer tells you his name in dialogue. Instead he drops his trainer ID and the main character (but not the player themselves) reads it.
** ''{{Pokemon}} Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', ''Diamond'', and ''Pearl'' also use question marks to represent non seen Pokemon in the Pokedex. Similarly, their equivalent/version of Missingno is shown as the same icon, or for another kind, two white question marks.
* ''The Codex Of Alchemical Engineering'' gives 13-ish question marks for the mysterious Level 15 compound.
* The title of one episode of ''{{Lost}}'' is, you guessed it, "'''?'''" (pronounced "question mark.")
* As yet unlocked games on the ''WarioWare'' grid are represented by question marks.
* As yet unlocked minigames in ''MarioParty'' are represented by "?????????????????".
* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'' if something has a significantly higher level than you (more than 10 levels), the level is displayed as "??" in its tooltip (in the level indicator in its portrait, however, the "level" will be a skull). This is also true for things that are coded to be "X levels higher than you", i.e., "boss"-rank creatures.
* In the ''AceAttorney'' games, a new character's dialogue will be labeled as spoken by "?????" until you learn the person's name. This is also occasionally the case for previously-appearing characters who speak from offscreen and then appear.
* This is initially Terra's "name" in ''FinalFantasyVI''.
** The temporary ghost party members you can get on the phantom train have the same "name".
* ''[=~Final Fantasy IV: The After Years~=]'' does this straight, and has a variation. When a character talks from offscreen, their name is given as "???". When someone is in disguise (like in [[InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja Edge's Tale]]), the name is given with a question mark at the end, like "Trainee?".
* Spiruna's assistant, hella in ''MapleStory'' is shown as ???? in npc form.
* Kuroko's name card in the non-continue game credits for ''SamuraiShodown 2'' is obscured and "????" is read below, regardless if you fought him or not. Suppossedly what's obscured is his real name (Kuroko is an alias).
* In ''SuperMarioRPG'', the character Geno is labeled "???" at first. His actual name isn't much better (since it's ♥♪!?).
* One time, when the [[DoctorWho Seventh Doctor]] had to sign a guestbook, he wrote a really big question mark.
* The flashy guy/Gigolo/[[spoiler:Loki]] from ''DevilSurvivor'' has his name displayed as "???" on the area menu.
* ''{{BlazBlue}}'s'' credits list "??????" as the voice actors for Hakumen and v-13 to hide [[spoiler:the fact that they are alternate version of Jin and Noel and therefore have the same voice actors.]]
* In ''PaperMario: The Thousand Year Door'' this is the name given in the tattle log for Doopliss before you find out his name.
* Happens twice in ''FinalFantasyX''. First, when Rikku joins you mid-battle early on. Then later, for an Aeon in a battle before you get to choose its name.
* In homage to all of the previously mentioned {{JRPG}}s, ''BarkleyShutUpAndJamGaiden'' uses ???? for people who are talking but haven't yet been identified.
* ''{{Tales of Symphonia}}'' does this with Kratos, when he first joins the party. Yeah, he was a bit of a LoneWolf.
* The unidentified items in ''StarOcean'' games.
* The GBA ''FireEmblem'' games have "??" as the HP total for their final bosses at the beginning of the battles, because given that the normal {{cap}} is 60, HP displays are only two digits, and the final boss of each game has 120 HP. Once they're knocked down to 99 HP, they'll show their HP total as usual (even though the in-battle HP bars only show 80 HP.)
* In the NES game ''Magician'', if you try and craft a spell which doesn't exist, the runes full up with question marks and the spell name is listed as "UNKNOWN..."
* In ''FinalFantasyV'', there's a [[MegaManning Blue Magic]] spell called "???". The reason for this seems to be the fact that it has no [[CallingYourAttacks call box]] whatsoever. (If you care to know, it [[DesperationAttack deals damage equal to the difference between your max and current HP]].)
* The DS ''GloryOfHeracles'' uses this for the main character at the start. Early on, he is told he is the great hero Heracles. After ''another'' Heracles joins the group, Leucos asks him to come up with a name for himself to differentiate the two... at which point the player is finally allowed to input a name.
* In [[RuneFactory3 Rune Factory 3]], before you learn someone's name or if you hear someone talking in the distance but cannot see them, their name is listed as "???".
* The final boss of ManaKhemia. [[spoiler:Vayne's LiteralGenie SplitPersonality, which obviously doesn't have a name of its own.]]
* The lead singer of ? and the Mysterians, a band most famous for their hit "96 Tears".
* ''SuperRobotWars'' labels unidentified units (ones that haven't fought one of your units yet) with question marks and their status screens are also question marks. In addition, bosses with very high HP (over 100,000 in ''SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'') have a ???????? HP count.

* In ''PaperMario: The Thousand Year Door'' this is the name given in the tattle log for [[spoiler: Doopliss]] before you find out his name. (Yes, even his NAME is a spoiler.)
** That being said, you can't actually sequence break around the bit where you learn his name. So it's not much of a spoiler.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'' if something has a significantly higher level than you, the level is displayed as '??'.
** Except with mobs. If they're significantly higher level than you, their level may be displayed as a tiny skull. This is especially true for things that are coded to be 'Xty levels higher than you'.

[[{{Pokemon}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whoareyou_2409.png]]
[[caption-width:258:[[TheUnpronounceable Just how are you supposed to pronounce that?]]]]