News:

Go Back!

 Mother2
Ellipsis - by SimonBob

Ellipsis

|Yamaholic| ...
|Luna| ...
|SimonBob| ...
|CursedEggNog| ...
|Traceh| ...
|Jamie_M| ...
|CursedEggNog| ...
|Falcon24| ...
|HMS-Simpsons| ...
|sd-anguish| ...
|rj_ff7debug| ...
|GONE-tlet| ...

What's that ...? It's an ellipsis.

You wouldn't believe it, but everyone uses the ellipsis. It's a phenomenon which I choose to stipulate as universal. It appears in many RPGs, even Earthbound. But what does it mean?

I started my little exploration with the first game that I believe uses (or at least overuses) the ellipsis: Golgo 13. It was one of the most annoying things I'd ever seen in a video game, as these pictures demonstrate.



See that? The girl says a lot of stuff, and all Golgo ever does is uses an ellipsis. I chose to auralize it as a sort of low grunt or growl. Sort of a guttural variant on "hmmm."

Fast forward to 199X. The place: Eagleland. The phrase: "..." The meaning? Well, that's a different kettle of fish entirely.

I opened my handy-dandy EB Text Editor utility, something that's saved me many a time when I need to know exactly what someone says. I compiled some statistics, just to see how often the little bugger came up. Turns out we've got over 1000 occurences! Owwch! But most of the time, it's just being used to show when someone's voice is trailing off:



There are still occasions when it's used on its own, though:



So what can we make of this evidence? Ellipses are bigtime trouble, make no mistake. You don't wanna mess with one, because it's the kind of thing you might meet in a dark alley after a midnight coffee bender in Fourside. Between EB and other games (notably the Final Fantasy series) I've decided to characterize it as a cross between a sigh and a sort-of growling noise. Of course, we can't forget the occasional interesting usage, for example: "...?" or "...!" I explain these as unspeakable phrases, like "wtf?" or "omg!" Taken in this context, an ellipsis could perhaps be construed as swearing. So do everyone a favour, and say "@#$!" instead, just to make yourself clear.


Other Submissions by SimonBob

Author Sort Ascending Sort Descending Title Sort Ascending Sort Descending Description Sort Ascending Sort Descending Date Sort Ascending Sort Descending Rank Sort Ascending Sort Descending
SimonBob Earthbound Bowling
446
7/31/06 0.00
SimonBob Ellipsis
538
7/31/06 0.00
SimonBob Enemy Item Guide
A guide to all the items that can be dropped by every enemy in EarthBound.
8/10/05 0.00
SimonBob Enemy Item Guide v2.0
An updated version of the Enemy Item Guide, with more sweet information, hot tips, and random details.
12/9/05 10.00

Junk:

Latest Updates:

STARMEN.NET >:. ...> Don't Chill Yet; Let's Heat Things Up!
STARMEN.NET >:. ...> WHAMAGEDDON 2023
FANART >:. ...> Momo
STARMEN.NET >:. ...> MOTHER, She Wrote: An EarthBound Podcast
EVENTS >:. ...> Memories of Life

Activities:

EarthBound Fanfest 2010
MOTHER 2 Novel Translation Project!
EarthBound Central -- Good News for the Modern Fan
Fangamer Banner
MOTHER 3 Fan Translation
Starmen.Net EarthBound Walkthrough
Starmen.Net Mother 3 Walkthrough
Donate to Starmen.Net!

Site Info:

Wanna know more about the staffers? The Site History? The Forum Badge Guide? All the info is here!

Polls:

How do you use Starmen.net?
Last Week's Poll
Which of the Super Smash Bros. Newcomers is your favourite?
Image of Last Week's Poll

Radio PSI:

Bringing the EarthBound community together through the magic of music.
Privacy Policy