Implied Trope

They didn't show it happening—nowhere in the dialogue or narration was it explicitly stated that it happened—but the evidence that it did happen (though indirect) is pretty clear just the same.

Maybe it happened before the story proper, in the backstory. Maybe it happened in the interim between sequels (or even scenes). Maybe it was going on in the background just out of the audience's sight.

An Implied Trope is where the author leaves a trail of clues to hint that a trope happened without actually showing it; the clues are taken from Subtext. This can be done by showing the build up to a trope, by showing the after-effects, or both. It is something between playing a trope straight and subverting it. As with a Subverted Trope, an Implied Trope assumes the audience is familiar enough with the trope that they'll be able to understand what's being suggested, but rather than defying those expectations, the work uses them to create the same effect as the trope while leaving the details up to the audience's imagination.


 * Rage Against the Reflection in Fallout: New Vegas. One of the characters you meet, Boone, is a Shell-Shocked Veteran . The bathroom mirror in his hotel room is broken, and there's a small bloodstain underneath.
 * Parting Words Regret in The Simpsons. When is Killed Off for Real, Homer tries to apologize to her for a fight they had before he notices she died.
 * Heroic Sacrifice in The Thing.  is found as a charred corpse. There was no reason for the Thing to kill him off instead of assimilating him, so it's safe to assume that he did it to himself in order to avoid being assimilated.
 * But You Were There and You and You in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. We know that Alice dismisses her first visit to Wonderland as a dream. At the garden party, she meets an old woman who has traits of the Red Queen, and twins (the Chataway sisters) who behave like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
 * Disability Immunity is implied in the fanfic Objective, where the bad guy needs to make eye contact with his victim and say, "Objective."
 * Brother-Sister Incest in Gladiator, with Commodus quite clearly lusting after Lucilla (though he is never shown to act upon those impulses).