Already Undone for You/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



Basic Trope: The villain must solve a puzzle or set off a trap to reach a goal before the hero. The puzzle/trap is inexplicably re-armed when the hero arrives.

  • Straight: Our protagonist Alice solves a Block Puzzle to open the only entrance into the Chamber of the Golden MacGuffin. The villain Eve is already inside; somehow the blocks were moved back to their original positions before Alice arrived.
  • Exaggerated: Alice solves a logic puzzle to open the only entrance into the Chamber. The only correct solution is to smash open a vase and use the key inside. Eve is already inside; somehow the vase was repaired, and a replacement key was placed within.
  • Downplayed: Alice only has to do a simple task, like pressing a button, to get into the Chamber.
  • Justified:
    • Eve has hired goons to reset the puzzles behind her to slow down Alice.
    • The MacGuffin is stored within a magical temple. The puzzle resets after being solved, because it's enchanted to do so.
    • The solution to the puzzle involves solving some elements, passing through one door, then setting everything back to its original state from the other side.
  • Inverted: Already Done for You
  • Subverted: Alice hears that Eve was last seen entering the Block Puzzle room. Alice goes in, but doesn't see Eve, and the puzzle appears to be unsolved. Alice naturally assumes that Eve must be ahead, and that she undid the puzzle after solving it. But when Alice solves the Block Puzzle and enters the Chamber of the Golden MacGuffin, Eve isn't there.
  • Double Subverted: Actually, Eve was already in the Chamber. She was just waiting to ambush Alice.
  • Parodied: Alice is given a golden pass which allows her to phase through walls without solving puzzles. She uses this to enter the Chamber, and confronts Eve, while all the puzzles outside are still unsolved.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice must go through several puzzles to reach the Chamber of the Golden MacGuffin. Some of the puzzles are already solved, others have been reset.
  • Averted: The Chamber of the Golden MacGuffin is not guarded by any puzzles or traps, so there is nothing to solve, disarm, or undo.
  • Enforced: The video game designers want Eve to be several steps ahead of Alice for the sake of the plot, but they also want Alice to solve puzzles to get to the MacGuffin. They decide to have their cake and eat it too, Fridge Logic be damned.
  • Lampshaded: "How did Eve undo all these puzzles?"
  • Invoked: Eve builds a device which can automatically reset puzzles leading to the Chamber.
  • Exploited: Alice, knowing the first person inside the Chamber can pass through the puzzles without solving them, quickly rushes inside, so Eve has to solve the puzzles to get to Alice.
  • Defied: Alice destroys the device Eve has which resets the puzzles, and Eve has to enter the Chamber by solving the puzzles manually, leaving to an Already Done for You situation.
  • Discussed: "I guess Eve has some sort of item to reset these puzzles"
  • Conversed: "Wait, but if Sir Evil McEvilsson is already inside this chamber, shouldn't the puzzles already be solved?"
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Already_Undone_for_You/Playing_With?oldid=1988110"