Basic Trope: A panel lacks speech or thought bubbles.
- Straight: In one panel, Alex says something stupid. The next panel shows Bob, without a word, walking away.
- Exaggerated: And so do the next page and a half.
- Downplayed: The next panel shows Bob with an ellipses speech bubble.
- Justified: It is necessary to convey an awkward or otherwise silent moment.
- Inverted:
- One panel shows Alex deep in thought, with words absent. In the next, he says something stupid to Bob.
- Or: In one panel, Alex says something stupid. Bob fills the next with a Wall of Text.
- Subverted: In a comic, a panel depicts a loudspeaker calling for a moment of silence. Until this moment is up, the kids in the class are as loud as they can be, with words in every panel.
- Double Subverted: At least, until the final panel of "silence", when the teacher performs a Death Glare and they shut up.
- Parodied: There's one in a middle of an intense fight scene.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Every panel has text.
- Enforced: The editor feels the joke doesn't flow well without a beat.
- Lampshaded:
- "Let's just have a beat panel so I can catch my breath."
- The beat panel is accompanied by a 'BEAT' Unsound Effect.
- Invoked: Someone in the comic shoves a picture of what the scene looks like into the camera and invents a single-panel speech bubble-blocker.
- Exploited: A villain in the comic triggers this reaction in his target, and uses the time to line a bead on them with his sniper rifle while they're thinking.
- Defied: Someone makes a machine to form speech bubbles in panels without them.
- Discussed: "A moment ago, when I was silent and my mind was blank, I felt so . . . singled out!"
- Conversed: "This comic tries too hard to get a beat panel in. The panels surrounding it are walls of text."
- Deconstructed: Upon Bob's silent exit, Alex begins to wonder if he's worthy of Bob's friendship, and this puts a strain on their relationship.
- Reconstructed: Upon Bob's silent exit, Alex says, "Okay, maybe that joke wasn't that good."
Back to
…
