Bat Deduction: Difference between revisions
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** Though the case involving {{spoiler|Kan'o (spelt using the characters 'ka' + 'n' + 'o') referring to the person Kano (spelt using the characters 'ka' + 'no')}} was easier to solve for Western audiences.
* ''[[Death Note]]''
** Near does this, especially in the anime, which compressed a 5 volume arc into 11 episodes. The manga explains his deductions a lot
** In early episodes of the anime, L does a bit of this but it drops off as enough clues are established for the audience to follow what's happening. The bilinear narration between Light and L only makes it all the more obvious.
* This is how Lucy deducted where Mavis' grave was in the exam arc of ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. We have six hours to find the grave? The only six letter word related to death is "demise"… and it is the only one that has the letter "E" twice… so the grave is somewhere in the E route of the first exam!
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** The movie does show that Bruce Wayne is dubious about the supervisor's apparent suicide from day one, so much so that he ordered full benefits be paid out to the man's family even though their insurance doesn't cover suicide (he's versed in psychology and must have observed that the supervisor didn't seem suicidal). Put that together with the scene Bruce had witnessed earlier with the belligerent supervisor humiliating the clearly unstable Nygma and its not so big a leap for Bruce to conclude that Nygma murdered his boss once Bruce knew that Nygma was a supervillain.
*** For what it's worth, the riddles in the movie were devised by ''New York Times'' puzzlemaster Will Shortz.
** In fact, one of the reasons the Riddler was never used that much in comics even before he reformed was that it's hard to get around this trope where he's concerned without making the riddles insultingly
* In ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'', the scientists reason that, since arsenic is poisonous to carbon-based life forms, the nitrogen-based aliens must be poisoned by selenium. How do they reach this deduction? Because arsenic is two spaces up and one space to the right on the periodic table, so this pattern should hold true for nitrogen.
* In ''[[Superman]]'', Lex Luthor somehow reasons that kryptonite is lethal to Superman just because he is from Krypton and that pieces of Krypton must have fallen to Earth just because of the location and time of Krypton's explosion in 1948 (which he knows from reading details in Superman's interview with Lois Lane, which Superman never actually provides in the interview
** He gets one pass in the director's cut, however. He tried EVERYTHING ELSE first, with fire, ice, lightning, etc.
* ''[[Black Dynamite]]'' brilliantly parodies the entire concept [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PSueHOY-Jk here].
* Subverted in ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'': Vezzini uses this to "deduce" which glass contains poison ("Iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them...") Arguably, he isn't actually trying to Bat-Deduce the location of the
* Subverted with Jason in ''[[Mystery Team]]'', who sometimes makes assumptions based on the smallest pieces of evidence. Played straight later with Jason connecting the murders to {{spoiler|Robert}} when he tells him to "Take a chill pill."
* In ''[[Without a Clue]]'', lampshaded. A mysterious number is given, and Sherlock Holmes uses a few long and complicated leaps of logic to deduce that it means a specific warehouse. {{spoiler|At the end Holmes and Watson explain to the person who left the clue how they figured it out, leading to a sudden [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] - the victim reveals that the number was simply the address of the warehouse he was being held at.}}
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== Literature ==
* Deconstructed in a scene in Paul Auster's ''[[The New York Trilogy|City of Glass]]'', where it is used to show that the character doing it completely insane.
* Joyfully inverted in Sherlock Holmes' ''The Adventure of the Yellow-Face''. The title detective extrapolates a complex theory involving murder and foul-play to explain the case without having so much as set foot in Norbury to Watson. And then, rather than every leap of logic/intuition being
** Holmes himself was invented, in part, because Arthur Conan Doyle was sick and tired of seeing detectives in fiction who ''always'' solved the case via this trope.
* Harry's deductions about the Deathly Hallows in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Harry Potter]]''. Lampshaded by Hermione, who looks at him as if he's lost his mind when he comes up with it. Nevertheless, he turns out to be right.
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*** Also the IUPAC naming convention places Sodium's symbol as Na not S (which is Sulphur/Sulfur). So N, U, Na ...or Na-N-U: It's Mork!
** The series was so aware that it was going to rely on this sort of thing that [[Invoked Trope|invoking the trope]] formed the backbone of the plot of the ''very third episode''. The Penguin, being out of ideas for a heist, sends a random umbrella to Batman. His plan: Batman will analyze the "clue", use
*** The series actually got worse as time went by. Batgirl once deduced the plot of an entire episode based on the fact that her father was late getting home and that a new singer was in town.
*** In another episode, Riddler [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|knockoff]] "The Puzzler" left a clue that "will make Batman and Robin ''really'' put on their thinking caps": a piece of paper with the single word "Puzzles". Cue extraordinarily [[Egregious]] use of this trope.
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* Even worse in L.A.Noire where in one case Cole deduces that {{spoiler|from the corpse of a recently stabbed victim he finds a ticket, therefore the fighter you were looking for is in the theater.}} Wait what? Even your Partner lampshades this.
* A good portion of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series is based on this. The player often figures things out before the lawyer, and vice versa. The hilarious bit is that it's acknowledged, multiple times, that Phoenix Wright is basically BSing furiously.
* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'': This is how Battler {{spoiler|figures out Beato's game and becomes the new Game Master}}. One of the clues that Battler used was {{color|red|Knox's 6th: It is forbidden for the case to be resolved using accident or intuition}}, so
* In ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam And Max Save The World]]'': "Bright Side of the Moon", Sam figures out Roy G. Biv's identity through a long chain of reasoning that has nothing to do with the actual clue in his name (a mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow).
{{quote|'''Max:''' We're detectives, Sam, not mind-readers! Maybe we should ask Hugh Bliss.
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{{quote|'''Sam:''' Helix, why is it every time ''you'' think, it's ''my'' head that hurts?}}
* Deconstructed humorously in [http://nonadventures.com/2011/04/16/another-mine-mess/ this] episode of ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'', in which we see what happens when you overestimate your opponent's deductive skills.
* ''[[Chainsawsuit]]'' has a character guessing what another
* ''[[Shortpacked]]'' shows [http://www.shortpacked.com/2008/comic/book-6/03-gritty-and-adult/rareflower/ a possible exploit].
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'''Hilo:''' [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|Snagnabbit]], that's it! If we can't find plutonium for the bomb, we'll never convince the werewolves to come out during a crescent moon!
[[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?|Because they'll be showing]] ''[[Yogi Bear]]'' reruns if that happens!!! This completely ruins the whole plan! }}
::Hence, Hilo realizes that Ackro is right in saying that it's preposterous for bicycles in a pole barn to nuke Mecca. But his reasoning doubles as both [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]] ''and''
* [http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/021649.html This] ''[[Overheard]]'' bit of navigational wisdom.
* [[Seanbaby]], on Batman and the Riddler (in the animated ''[[Superfriends]]'' cartoon):
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Batman]], in the 1970s ''[[Superfriends]]'' cartoons, would routinely come up with some extremely convoluted link between the clues and the crime. It became especially pronounced if the Riddler was involved.
* This is one of [[Darkwing Duck]]'s signature detective skills: for instance, finding the location of the Fearsome Five's hideout from a
* In the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "Legends", the [[Expy|Justice]] ''[[Expy|Guild]]'' [[Expy|of America]], a team of heroes from a [[Silver Age]] [[Retro Universe]], gets notice that the bad guys are planning a crime spree themed for the four classical elements. The Guild members immediately figure out what these refer to, even if they are only tangentially related to the elements themselves: The fire crime is the theft of the famed ''fire ruby'' (a gem), the air crime is the theft of an "antique flyer", the water crime is the theft of a new fountain being dedicated by the city's mayor, and the earth crime (this one is a doozy, and the biggest Bat Deduction of all) is the theft of the trophy for the ''clay'' court tennis championships. The League is pretty confused by this development, to be fair, {{spoiler|which is one part of [[The Reveal]] that neither the Guild nor its enemies are real}}.
** The earth crime being the trophy for the clay court tennis championship makes a ''bit'' more sense when you consider that the criminal who commits it is The Sportsman.
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== Real Life ==
* [[ARG
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