Extra-Strength Masquerade: Difference between revisions

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This is when a story has a [[Masquerade]] in place that, based on the events of the plot, should have been [[Broken Masquerade|broken]], but somehow [[Status Quo Is God|isn't]]. Maybe a dragon terrorized the populace of Manhattan. Maybe aliens landed in London and had [[Spot of Tea|tea with]] the Queen. Or maybe the Sphinx came to life and led a mummy army against Cairo. Whatever the specifics may be, it seems like the world of the story should have become [[The Unmasqued World|unmasqued]], yet the general public seems as ignorant as ever.

Normally this sort of thing gets a [[Hand Wave]] about the [[Ancient Conspiracy]] or [[The Men in Black|some other entity]] erasing everyone's memories of the event, passing the whole thing off as a hoax, or at least claiming people's [[Weirdness Censor|Weirdness Censors]] take care of the [[Masquerade]] for them. Sometimes, though, we don't even get that. The [[Masquerade]] just seems to [[Snap Back|repair itself]] of its own accord. This is, of course, the [[Viewers ~~Are~~ Morons|most insulting]] way to handle it.

Normally this sort of thing gets a [[Hand Wave]] about the [[Ancient Conspiracy]] or [[The Men in Black|some other entity]] erasing everyone's memories of the event, passing the whole thing off as a hoax, or at least claiming people's [[Weirdness Censor|Weirdness Censors]] take care of the [[Masquerade]] for them. Sometimes, though, we don't even get that. The [[Masquerade]] just seems to [[Snap Back|repair itself]] of its own accord. This is, of course, the [[Viewers are Morons|most insulting]] way to handle it.

This has the additional benefit of lifting responsibility off the shoulders of the heroes; who now don't have to actively suppress anyone who knows the secret via methods above or passively promote ignorance by not warning [[Muggles]] about the supernatural beasties who want to control or kill them.

== Anime and Manga ==

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** [[Digimon Savers]] manages to get away with a ''lot'' because DATS has memory erasing technology and enough pull to spin the media. Where it gets ridiculous is when an army of Digimon invades Japan. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people see the army of giant monsters with their own eyes. The only mention it ever gets is that the city is seen rebuilding in later episodes.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' takes full advantage of this, especially during Mahorafest. CGI handwaves notwithstanding, you'd think someone would catch on, what with the teleportation bullets and 100-foot-tall demon mecha. Then again, this is a school where the robotics club makes a full size robot T-Rex and a [[World Tree]] dominates the center of campus, so anything goes I guess.

** Originally, it was stated that mages cast spells to make people stay away from magic and to instantly forget when they witness it. Negi casts such a spell when he tries to mindwipe Asuna in the beginning when she sees him (but she has [[Anti Magic]]). However, when it became apparent that this would require a stupendous amount of mind-control ([[Black Magic]] according to the actual series!) and gray actions to enforce, they instead provided a (semi-) mundane reason of an extra-big festival event. It may be fantastic to the extreme, but it's non-magic fantastic, so the masquerade holds!

** Originally, it was stated that mages cast spells to make people stay away from magic and to instantly forget when they witness it. Negi casts such a spell when he tries to mindwipe Asuna in the beginning when she sees him (but she has [[Anti-Magic]]). However, when it became apparent that this would require a stupendous amount of mind-control ([[Black Magic]] according to the actual series!) and gray actions to enforce, they instead provided a (semi-) mundane reason of an extra-big festival event. It may be fantastic to the extreme, but it's non-magic fantastic, so the masquerade holds!

** {{spoiler|Chao's}} plan was to come up with a spell that would actually ''make'' people consider the idea by its merits, a world-wide forced recognition spell. How much of that [[Weirdness Censor]] is already there naturally and how much is created by the mages using similar (if smaller) magics is up to spirited debate. (And the plot itself has left Earth, so this is no longer an issue.)

** Lampshaded when, in the Magical World, Rakan accidentally blows up a floating rock {{spoiler|demonstrating the [[Sword Beam|Zanmaken ni no Tachi]]}}. Bystanders just say, "Are they shooting a movie?" Even magic citizens find some of the stuff going on unbelievable :)

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* ''[[Transformers (Film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Less than two years after a bunch of transforming [[Humongous Mecha]] had a giant droid deathmatch in the middle of a major city, everyone has forgotten and the bots are still hidden. {{spoiler|Halfway through the film, [[Big Bad|The Fallen]] announces their existence to the world anyway, and even outright states that the governments have been hiding it from them.}}

** Lampshade is hung in the comic, where it's revealed the excuse was a runaway science experiment in unmanned drones. Sam can't believe people fell for it.

* In ''[[The ~~Sorcerers~~ Apprentice (Film)|The Sorcerers Apprentice]],'' the main character's mentor explains that normal people must never know that magic exists. Later, an evil sorcerer creates a dragon that chases the main character through China Town. When police arrive citing reports of an actual dragon, the mentor, disguised as a fellow officer, says that it was just a bottle rocket hitting a paper dragon. Apparently that is enough to make the whole thing go away. Throughout the film, sorcerers throw powerful magic around with no one seeming to notice, although at one point a sorceress creates a flaming pentgram over New York and the hero's girlfriend literally can't see it, implying either that some magic is invisible to normals, or that normal minds refuse to accept it.

* In ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Film)|The Sorcerers Apprentice]],'' the main character's mentor explains that normal people must never know that magic exists. Later, an evil sorcerer creates a dragon that chases the main character through China Town. When police arrive citing reports of an actual dragon, the mentor, disguised as a fellow officer, says that it was just a bottle rocket hitting a paper dragon. Apparently that is enough to make the whole thing go away. Throughout the film, sorcerers throw powerful magic around with no one seeming to notice, although at one point a sorceress creates a flaming pentgram over New York and the hero's girlfriend literally can't see it, implying either that some magic is invisible to normals, or that normal minds refuse to accept it.

* The upcoming film ''Apollo18'' has the premise that there was a secret 18th mission to the moon. Aside from the enormous amounts of money, resources, specialized facilities, and trained personnel such a mission would require, this would necessarily require the government to cover up the launch of a Saturn V rocket. A Saturn V can be seen from hundreds of miles away during lift off, and is detectable by seismographs even further than that.

* Inherent to [[The Matrix]]. [[It Was Here I Swear|Any and all evidence as to the Matrix's existence can be erased at will by the Machines]], and even witnesses can be suborned.

* Inherent to [[The Matrix]]. [[It Was Here, I Swear|Any and all evidence as to the Matrix's existence can be erased at will by the Machines]], and even witnesses can be suborned.

* [[Serial Killer]] Patrick Bateman of ''[[American Psycho]]'' confess his crimes to a lot of people but nobody seens to think he is being serious. Add to that the fact that proofs of his murders seen to vanish, which may be explained by Bateman being an [[Unreliable Narrator]] and obviously insane.

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** What's noteworthy about this is that Harry, for the most part, really does not care about the Masquerade. While there are subjects he won't bring up (because he's forbidden, usually by way of the Wizards' Council {{spoiler|now [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|council]]''s''}} or a risk of [[Speak of the Devil]], or just lets someone/-thing stay secret out of professional courtesy), he's very open about his wizardry.

*** At one point, a vampire confronted by Harry [[Wrong Genre Savvy|believes himself safe because]] Dresden would never dare reveal himself to the world by openly attacking him at a crowded convention. In response, Harry points out that he's in the phonebook, under "wizards."

*** :ring: Harry Dresden! [[~~Names~~ the Same|Yes, I'm really]] [[Harry Potter|a wizard named Harry]]. No, I don't do parties. :click:

*** :ring: Harry Dresden! [[Name's the Same|Yes, I'm really]] [[Harry Potter|a wizard named Harry]]. No, I don't do parties. :click:

* The young adult horror book series ''Strange Matter'', about a town where strange supernatural events are constantly happening to the local kids, falls right into this trope with its first "Strange Forces" book; the ENTIRE TOWN is attacked by an army of monsters, including such crowded locations as the Mall at peak operating time, and the creatures are seen by hundreds of witnesses of all ages. Yet, later books seem to act as if the huge monster invasion never happened, and there are still people in town who are skeptical about the existence of the paranormal.

* Justified in the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series, since the wizards have a spell which can change the past by intentionally invoking a [[Reality Bleed]] from an [[Alternate Universe]] where the [[Masquerade]] was never broken.

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== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', [[The Masquerade]] keeps [[Muggles|the population of Iwatodai]] from ever learning of the Dark Hour, the existence of Shadows, and that a select few can summon their Personas during the former to battle the latter. This is helped by the fact that, during the Dark Hour, most people are transmogrified into coffins... and those who aren't, freak out at the occurrence, are preyed upon by Shadows, and are consumed from the inside, ending up as shambling husks (a condition known to the public as "Apathy Syndrome"). However, every time the heroes defeat a Master of Shadows, its victims return to normal, and they lose all recollection of the Dark Hour they witnessed. Especially egregious {{spoiler|in Natsuki's case, since she experienced the Dark Hour but was never attacked}}, and even ''worse'' in {{spoiler|the climax, when ''the entire city'' witnesses [[The End of the World As We Know It|both the Dark Hour and the arrival of Nyx]], but ''everyone'' (including the protagonists) [[Laser Guided Amnesia|lose their memories of it]] immediately afterward}}.

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', [[The Masquerade]] keeps [[Muggles|the population of Iwatodai]] from ever learning of the Dark Hour, the existence of Shadows, and that a select few can summon their Personas during the former to battle the latter. This is helped by the fact that, during the Dark Hour, most people are transmogrified into coffins... and those who aren't, freak out at the occurrence, are preyed upon by Shadows, and are consumed from the inside, ending up as shambling husks (a condition known to the public as "Apathy Syndrome"). However, every time the heroes defeat a Master of Shadows, its victims return to normal, and they lose all recollection of the Dark Hour they witnessed. Especially egregious {{spoiler|in Natsuki's case, since she experienced the Dark Hour but was never attacked}}, and even ''worse'' in {{spoiler|the climax, when ''the entire city'' witnesses [[The End of the World As We Know It|both the Dark Hour and the arrival of Nyx]], but ''everyone'' (including the protagonists) [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|lose their memories of it]] immediately afterward}}.

** Explained by a bad ending in which the heroes willingly let their minds be erased of ''every'' Dark Hour they lived. If they can be erased, then they probably were of everyone else.

** Doesn't the game explicitly state at one point that only people who have mastered their Persona can remember the events of the Dark Hour, even if they both experience it and survive? I can't recall the exact quote, but it was something to the effect of, "She doesn't have the power like us, she won't remember any of this." They seem to be subconsciously aware that ''something'' happened, but they can't recall any details and most will just assume they were dreaming.

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== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Kenny from ''[[South Park]]'' {{spoiler|cannot die}}, yet no one else knows this even though he has died repeatedly in front of his best friends. He even goes so far as to commit suicide, telling everyone to "remember this time." Still, to this day, no one else knows about his powers. {{spoiler|It's later hinted at that this has some connection with Cathulu, and [[Laser Guided Amnesia]] is to blame,}} but it's not explained in detail.

* Kenny from ''[[South Park]]'' {{spoiler|cannot die}}, yet no one else knows this even though he has died repeatedly in front of his best friends. He even goes so far as to commit suicide, telling everyone to "remember this time." Still, to this day, no one else knows about his powers. {{spoiler|It's later hinted at that this has some connection with Cathulu, and [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] is to blame,}} but it's not explained in detail.

* ''[[Gargoyles]]''' masquerade could be surprisingly resilient when the creators wanted it to be: after a spell turns most of Manhattan's population into stone for two consecutive nights, said population lets it go with a shrug. While there's a scene where the people are understandably frightened at the prospect of having lost a night, nothing comes of it. Nobody outside of Manhattan seems to notice the largest city in America shut down completely either.

** That one's especially egregious, if you know that much of Manhattan's subway system would flood within a matter of hours if nobody was there to operate its pumping stations.

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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Extra Strength Masquerade]]

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