Justified Trope: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Thank God we created the, [[Buffy-Speak|you know... whatever... device]]."''|'''Jeff Megall''', ''[[Thank You for Smoking]]''}}

A justified [[Trope]] is one in which, in its common usage, runs counter to the normal laws of logic and probability but in a particular instance has a concrete reason for applying to the story. In other words, a trope is ~~[[Justified Trope|~~"justified"]] if it is ''required'' by other pre-existing elements in the ~~story -- otherwise~~ the explanation is a [[Hand Wave]].

A justified [[Trope]] is one in which, in its common usage, runs counter to the normal laws of logic and probability but in a particular instance has a concrete reason for applying to the story. In other words, a trope is '''"justified"''' if it is ''required'' by other pre-existing elements in the story—otherwise the explanation is a [[Hand Wave]].

Note that there are varying degrees of justifying a trope and a spectrum of justification from the completely logical to [[A Wizard Did It]]. For a justification to be more than just [[A Wizard Did It]], there has to be reasons that make it make sense ''in context''.

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* [[Every Car Is a Pinto|The car blew up upon crashing]] because of the nitroglycerin that was put in the trunk in an earlier episode as part of a ploy to blast through a bank vault.

Now, how would these same scenarios look if the justifications were [[Hand Wave~~|Hand Waves~~]] requiring you [[MST3K Mantra|to turn your brain off]]?

Now, how would these same scenarios look if the justifications were [[Hand Wave]]s requiring you [[MST3K Mantra|to turn your brain off]]?

* The protagonist uses a glowy sword because the power source is leaky ([[Fridge Logic|but wait, shouldn't that cause other problems? We also know that he has the tools to fix it!]]).

* The car blew up upon being shot because the shooter aimed for the gas tank and said he used tracer rounds ([[Fridge Logic|but wait, why would he have tracer rounds in his service pistol?]]).

A [[Justified Trope]] has common ground with [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshading]] in that both often deal with tropes that are typically illogical or otherwise problematic.

A '''Justified Trope''' has common ground with [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshading]] in that both often deal with tropes that are typically illogical or otherwise problematic.

Remember that a trope being justified is not about it ultimately being good or bad or effective or ineffective - it's about whether or not it ''makes sense from an in-universe point of view''. A trope can be perfectly justified and still ruin a show. Contrarily, a trope may be completely unjustified and [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|make the story better]]. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Do not assume that the existence of a trope is inherently a sign of]] bad writing.