|
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* In [[Youkai|Japanese Mythology]], [[kappa]] traditionallyare havea type of [[youkai]] with a depression on the top of the head, which must contain water for them to have any power. Fortunately, they are compulsively polite and so- if you bow to them, they will bow back -, spilling the water and rendering them helpless. The similarly sneaky tactic of pouring really strong alcohol into the head-bowl in an attempt to reduce the kappa to helpless drunkeness has produced unreliable results.
** The Jiang Shi (Chinese vampire) can be defeated by strewing anything small, such as grains of rice, in its path. It will be compelled to stop and count them. According to legend, this worked quite well against other vampires too. A vampire would get so caught up in counting the grains that by the time he got them all, the sun would be up and it would be "bye-bye vamp ." .▼** The sneaky tactic of pouring really strong alcohol into the head-bowl in an attempt to reduce the kappa to helpless drunkeness has, as of this writing, produced unreliable results.
* The Jiang Shi (Chinese vampire) can be defeated by strewing anything small, such as grains of rice, in its path. It will be compelled to stop and count them.
▲** According to legend, this worked quite well against other vampires too. A vampire would get so caught up in counting the grains that by the time he got them all, the sun would be up and it would be "bye-bye vamp."
** [[Sesame Street|"One! One grain of rice! Two! Two grains of rice! Three! Three grains of rice! AH AH AH AH AH!"]]
* According to Hebrew myth, the same applied to certain demons, most notably Asmodeus.
* In Britain and Germany, you could often trick a changeling into [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|revealing their true age]] by doing something really strange, usually boiling water in eggshells. Then they'd say something like 'I'm as old as the Eastern Woods, but I've never seen anyone boil water in eggshells before!' Some stories claimed that they'd give up the trick and be defeated just from saying something like that, others used it merely as confirmation before they tortured the changeling to get the true child back.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Star Control|Star Control 2]]'' has The Words: "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?" {{spoiler|Use this [[Dialogue Tree|dialogue option]] on the [[Big Bad|Ur-Quan]], and they will explain their history and [[Motive Rant|the motives]] for their actions.}} However, they'll still attack you afterwards. The reason it works is {{spoiler|that phrase is a [[Meaningful Echo]] from a race they tried to exterminate in their [[Backstory]], which initiated the [[Enemy Civil War]] between the two factions of the Ur-Quan, the Green Kzer-Kza, and the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Grey Kohr-Ah]].}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'':
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'':* Part of containment procedures for [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-578 SCP-578-3] is covering the containment area with sand and painting a labyrinth on the floor, since the undead wight in question compulsively counts salt grains and traces labyrinth lines, slowing it down when it inevitably manifests. There was apparently some resistance to this kind of "folkloric strategy" at first among the scientifically-minded SCP researchers.
* [[Left Hanging|Had it ever been continued past chapter three,]], ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'' would've featured this tactic with the [[Super OCD]] [[Vampire Hunter]], Abner. According to the author's sketches, he would somehow be defeated by the [[Trash of the Titans|masterfully disgusting]] [[Back-Alley Doctor|Doc Worth]];, usingwith Worth's repulsiveness to drivedriving the mysophobic (that's 'fear of germs') hunter away.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
|