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Invisibility Flicker: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
An '''Invisibility Flicker''' is when a [[Cloaking Device]] or other form of ability appears to drop momentarily, allowing the cloaked person to be seen for a split second. While [[Visible Invisibility]] is another common way to clue the audience in that there is something invisible around, it has issues with not giving much suspense due to the audience already knowing where it is. With an
The trope has the requirement that the flicker is in universe even if nobody sees it. The most common form is when the invisible object gets hurt, is physically contacted in some way or launches an attack itself. In action sequences, this often happens just before the invisible object does something awesome. Many times, it is also used as a form of balance. While this usage is especially common in games where it would be unfair for one party to be indefinitely invisible, it can also be seen in other mediums with handwaves such as the need to draw power away from the cloaking device to power the weapons.
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* The Id Monster from ''Forbidden Planet'' gets an early - and truly badass - blink [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k97JZHTCVbM during its climatic attack.]
* ''[[The Shadow]]'' in the film of the same name.
* ''[[Star Trek]]''{{'}}s Klingon and Romulan combat starships have cloaking fields that must be turned off in order to attack. The Klingons managing to overcome this technical difficulty is a major plot point of ''[[Star Trek VI: The
{{quote|'''Scotty''' "Go to them with WHAT? That the Klingons have a new weapon that is invisible? Raving lunatics, that's what they'll call us!"}}
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* The human eye is always moving, but the brain clips out parts of the movement to present a picture without motion blur. This is called saccadic masking. In Peter Watts's first contact novel ''[[Blindsight]]'', aliens develop the disturbing ability to time their movements to human saccades, rendering themselves invisible. It takes the heroes a lot of careful video analysis to even [[Paranoia Fuel|realise they've]] ''[[Paranoia Fuel|made]]'' [[Paranoia Fuel|first contact]]. [[Cosmic Horror|And these are really not the kind of aliens]] you want to discover dancing all around you...
* [[Cthulhu Mythos|Star Vampires.]] Invisible, chittering creatures, full of bloodsucking tentacles. Once they've drained a victim dry, they will momentarily become visible - and catching a glimpse of one during that moment is enough to drive most people mad.
* The Cardati Assassins from [[Eluki Bes Shahar]]'s ''Hellflower Trilogy'' use cham-suits to sneak up on their prey and kill them with a quick, precise knife stoke.
* One of Molly Carpenter's favoured battle tactics in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. That and her patented 'One Woman Rave' spell.
== Live
* Cloaking devices in ''[[Star Trek]]'' work on the same principle: you have to decloak, if only for a moment, if you want to open fire. Similarly, the Jem'Hadar on ''[[Deep Space 9]]'' have a biological invisibility power which seems to deactivate when they attack. If they're capable of staying invisible while they strangle you, we never saw it.
** Subverted in Star Trek VI (see "Film") when General Chang develops a bird of prey that can fire while cloaked... proving over the course of the movie that it's good for more than just taking out enemies.
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* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Oblivion'' there were two types of invisibility spells. One was called "invisibility" and made you invisible until you interacted with an object (Like a door), got in a fight, or the spell wore off. The other, called chameleon, made you translucent and refractive in what was probably the most badass effect in the game. However, chameleon worked as a percentage, so it was still possible for enemies to see you even at 99% chameleon. [[Game Breaker|If you got 100% chameleon, however...]]
** 100% chameleon also had the effect of making you completely transparent. Much fun is to be had in cloaking to 100%, riding a horse around, and convincing friends that you had turned yourself into a horse.
* In ''[[BioShock (series)|BioShock]]'' you can get a "Natural Camouflage" plasmid by sufficiently researching a Houdini Splicer, which makes you completely invisible as long as you stand still. Moving or attacking cancels the cloaking, but even machines and cameras cease to see you and even Big Daddies can bump into you without noticing (not that they're really aggressive if you're not provoking them). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2xiVXrhwao So you can wait out a security bot alarm safely by just standing still (around 2:30 in the video)]. Is this awesome ? (Y/N).
* In ''[[Prince of Persia
** And this is different from what you could do if you couldn't detect them at all how?
*** If you couldn't detect them at all, your swinging wouldn't automatically be in their direction no matter what. You can't tell how far away from you they are, but you sure know what direction they're in, even turning to follow them if they try to sidle around you.
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** In the FPS Renegade, this happens to stealth Black Hand units. Also, falling damage made them blink, too. Usually the people who use them bunny hop away. Note that they're still revealed even when the "falling damage" is zero (i.e. falling from a jump). Also note that bunny hopping in that game [[Too Dumb to Live|isn't actually faster than running.]]
** That and stealthed units/buildings in Dawn and Sun can be revealed by getting a unit close enough that they would essentially be touching it. And the force attack (ctrl) command is your best friend for targeting cloaked buildings.
* The [[Battleship Raid|Gleipnir]] from ''[[Ace Combat
* In ''[[Global Agenda]]'', the Recon class pops out their stealth all the time when using their abilities or getting shot at.
* Reptile from ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' uses a cloak ability in later games.
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* This happens in ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'' when a player picks up the invisibility amulet.
* [[Escape Velocity]]: Nova has this for the Wraith, everytime they get close, they flicker a bit, same when they're angered and they attack you. The Polaris gets a cloaking [[Organic Technology|organ]] but requires you to decloak in order to fire weapons, later in the specific storyline, the Scarab and Raven are upgraded to have a specially modified Polaron ([[Macross Missile Massacre|multi-]])torpedo tubes that allow you to fire while cloaked.
== Web Comics ==
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== Western Animation ==
* Inverted in ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' with an ultra-powerful robot that has a cloaking device that activates only [[Fight Unscene|whenever it is kicking ass]].
== Real Life ==
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