Lightning Reveal: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:BTASlightning.png|link=Batman: The Animated Series|frame|[[Badass Boast|I am Vengeance]], [[I Am the Noun|I am The Night]]. [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|I. AM.]] [[Batman]]!]]
 
 
It's a [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|dark and stormy night]]. The main character(s) are surrounded by darkness. [[A Storm Is Coming|A sense of foreboding wavers in the air]], and the tension is so thick, a knife isn't fit to cut it, and you would instead require a heavy-duty [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw]].
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{{examples}}
== Anime Andand Manga ==
 
== Anime And Manga ==
 
* Used in the anime version of ''[[Hellsing]]'' while half of Alucard's face is in shadow. The lightning flash reveals the other half to look like Vlad the Impaler when his opponent asks him who he really is.
* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light first sees Ryuk in this way.
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== Comic Books ==
 
* Done beautifully in book three of ''[[Bone]]'' when Fone Bone, Thorn and Gran'ma Ben are on the run from the rat creatures in the middle of a storm. Lighting flashes light up the otherwise pitch black backgrounds, giving brief glimpses of the rat creature horde closing in, as well as {{spoiler|when the Red Dragon appears and chases them away.}}
 
== Film ==
 
* In the 2nd adaption of ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'', a lightning strike gives the viewer a better glimpse of Simon's bloody corpse in the water after Jack's tribe stabs him to death
* In the opening scene of ''[[Van Helsing]]'', Dracula's demonic visage is briefly visible when lightning strikes.
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== Literature ==
 
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]: Storm Front'', Morgan's appearance at the bar is revealed by lightning.
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Reaper Man|Reaper Man]]'', Death knows that his replacement is not going to arrive until midnight ''because he stood on a hill while lightning flashed.'' He reasons that someone who does that would not arrive at 11:55 if he could make a dramatic entrance at the stroke of midnight.
* In Lee Lightner's [[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Space Wolf]] novel ''Wolf' Honour'', when Ragnor and his company meet up with strange, wolf-like creatures, lightning flashes let them see the faces. (Much to Ragnor's horror. These creatures had [[Dreaming of Things to Come|haunted his dreams]].)
* Found in [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[Silmarillion]]''. After being captured by Orcs, the hero Túrin accidentally kills his friend {{spoiler|Beleg}} whom he mistakes for an Orc coming to torture him (in reality, he was trying to free him). Túrin realizes his mistake immediately when a flash of lightning illuminates the scene.
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* In the H. P. Lovecraft short story The Lurking Fear, the first chapter ends with the narrator realizing that something other than one of his human companions was snuggled up to him on a cot in a reputedly haunted house when it gets up suddenly and a flash of lightning casts its shadow on the wall he's facing.
 
== Live -Action TV ==
 
* Used brilliantly during the opening of an episode of ''[[CSI]]'', showcasing the killer lurking in his victim's bedroom.
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Friends]]'' where Phoebe, suffering from chickenpox, is revealed to her long distance relationship boyfriend by a flash of lightning, causing him to jump. When she asks if she really looks that bad, he replies that he was just surprised by the lightning.
* Happens in an episode of [[Only Fools and Horses]] where the trio are staying in Boycie's cottage. Of course, the escaped serial killer only gets shown when Del turns around, so the whole thing also ends up being a case of a [[Cassandra Truth]].
 
== Theater Theatre ==
 
== Theater ==
 
* According to [[William Goldman]]'s book ''The Season,'' there was a Broadway play in 1967 called "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg." The show centers around the toll that taking care of a severely disabled daughter - a girl with cerebral palsy so bad she cannot even communicate - is taking on her parents. In one scene, the mother gives a despairing monologue, and at the end, there's a flash of lightning to show, just for an instant, {{spoiler|her daughter skipping rope like any normal child.}} (You can imagine it being both scary and [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking.]])
 
== Video Games ==
 
* Occurs in the bonus case of ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]''. {{spoiler|Phoenix's current case revolves around a case two years prior that may have been subject to evidence tampering. The primary witness of the previous case recalls two men fighting during a blackout, but remembers one instant, during a lightning strike, where she saw one man about to stab the other.}}
* In ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' troops may be revealed by lightning.
* Not natural lightning, but in ''The Lost Crown'', crackling energies from a mystic energy rift provide a similar Reveal of {{spoiler|Ganwulf's skeleton in his sarcophagus}}.
* Done with "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140822124802/http://www.bogleech.com/aliensoldier/as-copter.gif Flying-Neo]," one of the [[Mini Boss]]es in ''[[Alien Soldier]]''. Your character fights this [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|alien dragon zombie helicopter]] on the top of an airplane. Once you get it to about a [[Turns Red|quarter of its health]], it turns [[Invisible Monsters|invisible]]... only the background lightning will reveal its silhouette.
* The [[Attract Mode]] for [[Capcom vs. Whatever|Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter]] shows off the fighters, ending with the final boss Apocalypse. The [[True Final Boss]] ({{spoiler|Cyber Akuma}}) appears for a frame thanks to a lightning reveal.
 
== Web Comics ==
 
* Played with in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0199.html this strip] from ''[[Order of the Stick]]''.
* ''Killroy and Tina'', a sadly unfinished webcomic from Justin "[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]" Pierce, has [https://web.archive.org/web/20090417221302/http://www.graphicsmash.com/comics/killroyandtina.php?name=killroyandtina&view=single&ID=5674 a scene] with quite effective use of the trope.
* Subverted in ''[[Freefall]]''. A secondary character answers a knock on his door on a dark and stormy night (While watching a werewolf movie!) and sees a bipedal wolf with large fangs. She's got severe hypothermia and is going into shock from the gash on her leg.
* Used in ''[[Parallel Dementia]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20160805063706/http://pd.milkinthepantry.com/?strip_id=115 here] and then lampshaded by Visage.
* In ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'', [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-02.html the one bright panel when November's going through the storm], and leads to her [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-03.html meeting Red during another one.]
 
 
== Western Animation ==
 
* Occurred in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' "Treehouse of Horror V":
{{quote|'''Marge:''' What he's typed will be a window into his madness. [reads it] "Feelin' fine." Woah! That's a relief.
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* [[Funny Moments|Hilariously]] [[Subverted Trope|subverted in one scene from]] [[The Far Side|Gary Larson's Tales from the Far Side.]] [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|In a dark,]] [[Mood Lighting|candle lit room]] [[Held Gaze|a woman walks up to a man with his arms out,]] [[Heartwarming Moments|they embrace and start slow waltzing to Patsy Cline's]] [[Foreshadowing|Crazy.]] [[Twirl of Love|As they spin throughout the room]] lightning keeps flashing, revealing [[Oh Crap|all sorts of]] [[Primal Fear|large dangerous predators]] [[Right Behind Me|surrounding them]] [[Eaten Alive|ready to tear them to pieces,]] [[Record Needle Scratch|suddenly the lights come on]] [[Big Damn Heroes|and policemen pour into the room]][[All Blue Entry|...]] [[Bait and Switch|Whereupon they grab and handcuff the woman then pull her away]] from the man who is revealed to be frozen in the arms out position [[Captive Date|and stood on a little board with wheels]], [[The Reveal|as the woman is lead out the building]] [[Taxidermy Is Creepy|we see the sign 'Bob's]] [[Taxidermy Terror|Taxidermy']] over the door.]]
** [[Like a Broken Record|Crazy for/Crazy for/]][[Madness Mantra|Crazy for/Crazy]]
 
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
 
* Tornadoes at nighttime can sometimes fall under this trope. A flash of lightning can sometimes illuminate an otherwise invisible funnel cloud or debris circulation, and storm spotters are trained to look on the horizon and under cloud bases for something that is not lightning but might be confused for it and that is far more indicative of tornado danger - power flashes ''from the tornado itself'' snapping power lines and blowing transformers.
 
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[[Category:Weather and Environment]]
[[Category:Thunderbolts and Lightning]]
[[Category:Darkness and Shadows Tropes]]
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