Benevolent Architecture: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

It seems in certain shows and video games involving vehicles or characters with special abilities, the setting the characters reside was planned from the get-go with their mischief in mind, usually regardless of whether or not it would be useful to anyone else (say, for example, the people who ''live'' there). In the case of vehicles, for example, the town may have an abundance of broken bridges that [[Ramp Jump|can be jumped over]], flimsy fences protecting places where cars aren't "supposed" to go, a strange overabundance of seemingly useless ramps, etc. Of course these could be considered [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]], but still, you have to wonder why someone doesn't complain about those bridges.

 

The polar opposite of [[Malevolent Architecture]], yet you will often see both of them in the same place. Overlaps almost completely with [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman]] or [[Plot Tailored to the Party]]. Also see [[Theme Park Landscape]] (which can be both malevolent or benevolent).

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Lampshaded]] big time in the first ''[[Secret Wars]]'' when ''[[Spider-Man]]'' spends a couple of panels wondering if all the Mysterious Alien Architecture he is swinging from was placed on War World strictly for his benefit.

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Spirit (film)|The Spirit]]'' (2008) lampshades this; the [[Character Title|titular hero]] feels that he was reborn as the [[Genius Loci]] of Central City, and that it aids him as he fights for it. He ''does'' finds plenty of convenient structures for him to [[Le Parkour]] his way around, and snow ''does'' tend to fall on [[Mooks]]' heads just when he needs a distraction...

* ''[[Banlieue 13]]'' is absolutely full of convenient parkour architecture, the prime offender being a rope conveniently hanging down the side of one building.

** This is a possible subversion in that the character using the rope did appear to control that building/area, and may have placed the rope there for this explicit purpose.

* In [[Jackie Chan]] movies, it's unclear if this trope is in effect, or if Jackie is simply capable of turning ''any'' architecture to his benefit.

 

* [[Lampshade]]d and discussed in ''[[Lord Of The Isles]]'' by [[David Drake]]. It's Benevolent Architecture that a building crumbled in such a way that one character can easily climb the rubble from higher levels to reach a second-story window—but it's [[Malevolent Architecture]] that said rubble blocked the front door.

 

* In ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' it seemed that every time they needed to jump over something with their car there was a convenient ramp (usually a dirt ramp, but wooden ones and even auto carriers have been shown as well). There are also frequent instances of backroad turnoffs, offroad shortcuts, and hiding places in the woods that are used to outfox or hide from the cops.

* ''[[Pacific Blue]]'' had this trope in spades. Not only did Santa Monica have a strange abundance of drivers that don't mind Bike Policemen and women skitching their cars, it seems that every alleyway in the city has a plywood ramp, some of which seem to teleport out of nowhere.

* Thank goodness Japan is entirely cluttered with [[Katamari Damacy|Things]]. Arranged domino-like in straight lines.

* The ''[[Knight Rider]]'' video games were embodiments of this trope. No matter how high-tech the enemy base was, there was always some way for the car to get in, do what it had to do and get out. Granted, it had all the usual gadgets, such as two-wheel driving to fit in tight spaces, but still.

* In the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series, the combination of Benevolent Architecture and [[Malevolent Architecture]] is at times completely baffling. The most [[Egregious]] general example: Why are there always craggy walls when Raziel needs to climb to a ledge (Benevolent Architecture), but on the other hand, why can't he just climb any wall ([[Malevolent Architecture]] with a flimsy excuse)? And when he shifts between material and spectral realms, why do things always change to enable his routes? Defiance creates even weirder situations. On the one hand, many elements of Benevolent Decay are justified, as Kain and Raziel travel through the same places at different times, causing the decay that later benefits the other. However, often these environments will have water when Raziel is there, and it will be gone when Kain is there (he can't touch water), with neither an explanation nor a logical assumption to explain it.

* The ''Zelda'' series, naturally. Obstacles scattered around the dungeons (and to an extent, around the overworld) are invariably designed so that they can be bypassed only by using specific items from Link's inventory. Particularly the item of that particular dungeon, but items from previous dungeons are allowed. Never, of course, items from later dungeons. This becomes particularly obvious when the items get more outlandish; it's not too difficult to imagine obstacles where a Hookshot might come in handy, but when Link acquires the Magnetic Gloves and dungeons happen to include vast abysses punctuated only by rotating columns labelled with North and South polarities... The Spinner in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' is another [[Egregious]] example - the dungeon it's found in is covered with slots in the walls for the Spinner to slot into.

** Parodied excellently in [http://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic1-040907.php this comic].

*** Somewhat believably [[Handwaved]] for the most part by explaining that much of the games' environments were either directly built by the Chozo, or in the second game built by people who "borrowed" Chozo technology; so it is reasonable to believe that Samus and her Chozo-created suit can navigate them. As for why the Space Pirates and other places do this...

*** ''Prime 3'' kind of does this offscreen, as the Space Pirates seems to use them to transport Crawltanks, and most civilisations have either insects that burrow or maintenance drones.

*** The doors are handwaves in ''Prime 3'' by having "force shields" over them which are vulnerable to various types of weapon fire. Samus needs a specific type of energy to [[Percussive Maintenance|shoot the forcefields off]] - the actual creators, presumably, use a key.

* The eponymous colossi of ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' occasionally have things built right ''onto'' them, allowing the main character handholds, ledges, and even platforms to park himself on.

** There's the fact that for nearly every Colossus, the surrounding architecture is just perfectly designed to reach the Colossi and kill them, except those that aren't anywhere near architecture.

** Sly learns the "Spire Jump" in the first game, a move that specifically lets him land on small points. The fact that there are random lines going across gaps that just happen to have said points is remarkable, but all the others he can simply run across.

* Even for a war zone ''[[Sniper Elite]]'' has a lot of barriers and perfect places to snipe from.

*** To say nothing of Empire City's highways. Either Dark Gaia's release seriously warped the place or the highways were designed by the same guy who made the "Radical Highway" mentioned above...

* Every ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' level has a way to get in a room/past the guards/to the objective without using conventional doorways, making your job a lot easier if you just look around.

* The ''[[Thief]]'' games are built with this trope in mind, to make it possible for the player to sneak past guards and monsters without having to kill them.

** ''[[Thief|Thief 2: The Metal Age]]'', "First City Bank and Trust": The security camera / turret sets that provide much of the automated portion of the security were, as [[lampshade]]d by a letter of complaint in the Security Office, badly placed, and can be avoided if enough care is taken. [[Justified Trope]] in that the human security guards have no reason to help make themselves obsolete.

* The dungeons in the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' games seem to have been designed so that, after thousands of years of decay, they would still be wholly accessible by an individual with the physical stamina needed to crawl along ledges, swing from poles, and grapple from conveniently-placed wall rings.

* ''[[Tony Hawk]]'' games: Everything is a skatepark! If it resembles a quarterpipe, it will be one. Anything can be grinded on ([[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence|except when not]]). Of course, partially a case of [[Truth in Television]], as skaters don't limit themselves to skateparks, and try to pull off tricks in increasingly odd places, but any realism goes out of the window when you do your first powerline grind. Same holds true with most skateboarding games, as well as BMX and Snowboarding games.

* In ''[[Hype The Time Quest]]'', in the town of Torras (all four of it) there are some conveniently placed boxes that lead over a wall that nobody else would ever need to go to, especially for the hidden button that leads to an extra magic... as well as an unexplained ladder that takes you to a well out of reach platform into three people's yards.

** There's also a button that takes some sort of elevator (I thought this was medieval) that takes you down into the well, which has more conveniently placed platforms that lead either to a treasure chest, a magic button (that runs ANOTHER elevator), and the other elevator that ultimately leads to the castle well, where somebody nicely left a ladder. These carpenters sure saw Hype coming, didn't they?

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' not only has ramps everywhere, leaping some gave you money. Early in the game(s), this actually mattered.

** There are '''corkscrews and loop-de-loops built in some of these cities.''' Not to mention one track that has [[Malevolent Architecture|a mini obstacle course.]]

* ''[[Track Mania]]'' United and earlier versions, in contrast to the popular Nations, has environments that are either homages to other games (Outrun, for the Island environment) or attempt to look and feel very realistic. Coast in particular has a rural French setting that almost looks like something out of Gran Turismo. Then you get to the loops and corkscrew jumps. The Bay environment is a Japanese city and you get an SUV. It also has construction frameworks that very much resemble quarterpipes and loops, actual loops in the highway, giant jumps and highway roads that head at a sixty degree angle towards the sky. Justified in that this is a stunt racing game, but compared to the obviously artificial Stadium environment of Nations, some of those environments feel ''off''.

* Somewhat explained in ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours]]''. Half completed arching bridges making de-facto ramps and great short cuts. But doesn't explain the ramp happy ships in the harbor that just happened to be lined up well.

* In a rare RPG example, ''[[Golden Sun]]'' is quite shameless about it, to the point that most of the time the easy straight path is blocked one way or another and you have to look for a way around, fortunately there are always wooden stumps, water ponds, psynergy-sensitive plants, the characters are genre-savvy enough to realize that they need an adept of each element and as many flavours of psynergy as possible, then again, the main goal of the game is to prevent/enforce the lighthouses from being lit, and those where designed specifically so that only an adept of the matching element would be able to get in.

* In the ''[[Uncharted]]'' series, no matter what part of the world you find yourself in, there are lots of bricks conveniently sticking out of walls in all the right places.

* ''[[Night Trap]]'' has this as an essential part of the gameplay. Who the hell puts false walls and smoke traps with bottomless pits in their house?

* ''[[Double Switch]]''. Eddie tells you at the beginning that he designed the entire security system with traps around the apartment, because the neighbourhood sucks. Later, Lyle the Handyman will set up some traps of his own.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has structures that serve a purpose, but ''just so happen'' to have perfect spots for snipers, sentries, etc.

* Particularly [[Egregious]] all throughout [[Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time]]. In the present and the past, throughout the whole Mushroom Kingdom, regardless of who lives there, you will find hundreds of combinations of blocks, gates, buttons, and passageways intricately designed for two spinning men and two toddlers with hammers to get past. It's not even probable by Mario universe standards.

* The ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' series takes what would otherwise be a blatant use of this trope and works it subtly into the meta plot. First, the [[Framing Device]] of using the [[Applied Phlebotinum|Animus]] to create a VR simulation of the protagonist's [[Genetic Memory]] creates a handy excuse for all kinds of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] tropes: in this case, the Animus is specifically programmed to make the environment easy to move around in so as to improve the user's ability to "synchronize" with his ancestor's memories. The result of this is a vast array of conveniently located poles, ledges, and other environmental features that seem to be tailored perfectly to Altaïr and Ezio's [[Le Parkour|free-running skills]]. Oddly, once Desmond starts acquiring these same skills via the [[Upgrade Artifact|"bleeding effect"]], he begins finding areas in the real world that operate in exactly the same way.

** [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: Many of the odd grab-points on buildings that you find are actual elements of the period architecture. Looking at Medieval and Renaissance stone walls you often notice evenly paced crevices in the rock, for example; these were attach points for scaffolding that weren't considered worth the trouble to cover up.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Suspiciously Convenient Index]]

[[Category:Benevolent Architecture]]