The Plot Demanded This Index - TV Tropes
- ️Wed Jul 07 2010
The events in a story ought to flow naturally as the consequences of prior events and the actions of the characters. However, sometimes the writer has an end result in mind, but no natural way of getting there. The writer has to kludge the story a bit to make it go where they want to.
In other words: something exists or happens for no reason other than that the plot requires it to. See also Ind ex Machina, which is more about clumsy ways of resolving plots as a whole and tying up loose ends.
One of the most common Tropes Hidden from Audience, as the work tries to avoid pointing them out.
Tropes:
Categories:
- As Lethal as It Needs to Be (Effective Killing Power as the Plot Demands)
- Blamed for Being Railroaded (The Plot demanded the player to do something heinous, and everyone hates their character for it)
- Conflict Killer (Ending of Conflict as the Plot Demands)
- Context-Sensitive Button (A video game control that does different things depending on the current situation)
- Contrived Coincidence (The Plot demanded these things to happen)
- Convenient Photograph: (An event is captured via photograph to move the Plot)
- Drama-Preserving Handicap (Implementing Power Limitations as the Plot Demands)
- Emergency Taxi (Transportation as the Plot Demands)
- Forgot About His Powers (Plot-Induced Stupidity)
- Forgot the Disability (Moments to remind characters and the viewers that a character is disabled who would have otherwise forgotten)
- Idiot Plot (Plot Driven By Plot Mandated Stupidity)
- Narnia Time (Time Flows as the Plot Demands)
- New Job as the Plot Demands (When characters frequently change jobs to whatever is convenient for the Plot)
- New Neighbours as the Plot Demands (When you just need to copy/paste characters into Plot)
- New Powers as the Plot Demands (When characters are finally able to do something as the Plot Demands)
- New Rules as the Plot Demands (When proper plotting isn't enough)
- Plot Allergy (A character has allergies as the Plot Demands)
- Plot-Induced Illness (Sickness occurs as the Plot Demands)
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure (Plot makes people hate each other)
- Plot-Powered Stamina (Energy as the Plot Demands)
- The Plot Reaper (Deaths occur as the Plot Demands)
- Plot-Sensitive Items (When objects are powered by Plot)
- Plot-Sensitive Latch (When locks open at the most inconvenient time)
- Plot-Sensitive Snooping Skills (When someone can Spy as the Plot Demands)
- Railroading (The Plot will proceed whether you want it to or not)
- Resolved Noodle Incident (The Plot makes a Flash Back to an occurrence that, many episodes ago, was only brought up in conversation)
- A Rotten Time to Revert: A transformed character just happens to revert to their true form at a time that will cause the most trouble for the plot.
- Science at the Speed of Plot (Groundbreaking discoveries of the universe only occur cause Plot)
- Smoking Gun Control: Easy methods of solving a crime are out because, otherwise, the plot is cut short.
- Strong as They Need to Be (Effective Power as the Plot Demands)
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands (Spreading of Knowledge as the Plot Demands)
- Transformation at the Speed of Plot (When shape-shifting is powered by Plot)
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot (Plot as a Universal Speed Limit)
- Unscientific Science (Plot as the Only Universal Constant)
- Weapon Running Time: A projectile's time to hit its target is long enough for things to happen.
- Within Arm's Reach (A defensive weapon or Improvised Weapon is in arm's reach as the Plot Demands)
- You Can't Thwart Stage One (Heroic Failure as the Plot Demands)