Trope Talk: Unreliable Narrators

Surprise! Narration is subjective, narrative voice always carries an implied character with it, and sometimes narrators are biased, confused, or big ol' liars! Let's discuss!

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[dianagoenaga]

I love unreliable narrators. My favorite thing is when the narrator changes, and you can just FEEL the bias from the previous guy.

[ReapCykes]

What's interesting is that the Narrator in The Stanley Parable could be unreliable, be definitely reliable but with an unreliable protagonist, or have both be unreliable! It just depends on the ending you're going for...

[girl]

I like Emperor's New Groove where Kuzco tells himself (the Narrator) to give it rest since he really *is* so unreliable. The narrator can't even defend himself since Kuzco points out that the audience is very much aware of his lying since they saw the whole thing and there forth won't listen to him anymore. So he tells the Narrator to leave him alone and we never hear from the Narrator again.

Pretty clever use of the trope since it's framed as Kuzco coming to accept he very much deserves being turned into a llama. He very much *wants* to paint himself as the victim, but the betrayal of what might as well be his maternal figure and how he's treated Pacha, who really has no reason to help him has hit him hard. And his old way of thinking doesn't work anymore, showing character growth and the taking of responsibility.

[Hjhugj]

My favorite unreliable narration is from Meet the Robinsons:
“Hey, Goob! Cool binder!”
“Goob, wanna hang out at my place today?”
“They all hated me.”

[jacobsedlack]

The moment in Emperor's New Groove when Kuzco silences his own narration monologue and it remains silent for the rest of the adventure is symbolic of him getting over himself and realizing he was a tyrannical brat unfit to rule his land even before becoming a llama.

[lunarSmite]

My favorite subversion of this trope is how Percy Jackson in the first series written as an unreliable narrator, but instead of portraying himself as a cool badass like any 12-16 year old would, he SEVERELY underestimates himself. He's just a silly lil guy but to everyone else he's a murder machine with ~20, 000 kills across the first 5 books alone

[Agent]

My favorite kind of unriable narrators are when the unreliable-ness is subtle.
"We were best friends!"
"We hung out sometimes."

[MrCoolinschool]

I love the fact that Sherlock season 4 has basically become her punching bag for when writers think they’re too clever for their audiences

[okamiv]

Adult Goob from meet the Robinsons is a great example when he tells his backstory. He believes his life was ruined completely by the ball game but in reality he just held his grudge so hard he let his life fly by him.

[alexandercandicedad]

3:43 "a theoretically perfectly reliable narrator would explain absolutely everything"
JRR Tolkien gave it his best shot!

[jalapenoofjustice]

My favorite take on a narrator is The Book Thief where the narrator is death. He doesn't actually affect the plot, but he has a very distinct personality and will often voice his perspective on things

[Fikayoz]

And what people didn't realize is that Blue was the one telling this story all along, but he's heard Red do these segments so many times that he hallucinated her doin this one too

[ShanRenxin]

“Remember when I said our love was like ‘a dream come true’?”
“Aww, beans!”
Gods I love Red’s writing

[potahtwah]

"You mock my suffering?" "Who would lie about pasta?" is such a golden frame and I need it

[cjstanky]

A lot of the Percy Jackson books have the unreliable filter because it follows the viewpoint character and it leads to some funny moments, like when Percy realizes that one of his close friends has feeling for him and he's kinda like "When did this happen" while most readers have probably been screaming at him to figure it out since book 1. Heroes of Olympus expands this when have various characters trying to get a grasp on other viewpoint character's mindsets which leads to funny moments where one of them will comment about how inspiring and heroic the other is and how focused they are, then the next chapter perspective switches and the other character is just thinking about how they could go for a cheeseburger at the moment. It even gets played for drama where one character hears a slightly doomy prophecty before their group heads on a dangerous quests and doesn't pick up on or grasp why one of his companions kinda became sort of sad and melonchally on the trip and is talking about, which hits a lot harder on the reread.

[elderliddle]

The interesting part about The Emperors New Groove: Kuzco narrating and then calling himself out later is real major character development. He’s looked back over his life and found out what really happened. It was all his fault. Had he been nicer to people he’d not be in that situation. It’s literally his own thoughts until he cuts himself off. I think it’s a great subversive take on a narrator.

[yepyep]

But is Red one in this trope talk? Is she secretly leading us astray with this information? Is there misinformation mixed in? We'll never know

[thegodofalldragons]

6:21 I've never noticed that Syndrome completely changes the context of the "Fly home, Buddy" quip in his memory of it.

[skeleman]

From Into the Woods:

"There must always be an outside observer to pass the story along!" "Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it."

[sylviaperich]

So, I’m 40, and I think this is the first time anyone has ever spelled out for me that the narrator is a character and therefore has personality characteristics on purpose. 🤯 Like, it seems so obvious! Never stop learning kids!