Shaggy Search Technique: Difference between revisions

This basically comes about because someone looking for mysterious passages is kinda boring to watch, and finding them normally isn't much more interesting. Related to [[Bookcase Passage]].

 

 

Compare [[Eureka Moment]] and [[You Were Trying Too Hard]].

{{examples}}

== Film ==

* ''[[Indiana Jones]]''

** The trap variation in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]''. Short Round leans against the wall, triggering the [[Descending Ceiling]] plus [[Spikes of Doom]]. Why the builders decided to have the trap set off by a protruding block in the wall rather than, say, a hidden floor switch is a question for the ages. Maybe it was only supposed to prevent idiots from reaching the aforementioned Temple. Technically, there was a floor switch, which sealed them in when Short Round stepped on it. Frustrated, Indy tells him to stand against the wall, out of the way...

== Literature ==

* ''[[Discworld]]''

* ''[[Good Omens]]'': A variation was subverted in Pratchett and Gaiman's novel. Among the search techniques the heroine attempts in trying to find her lost book of prophecies is giving up theatrically and letting her gaze fall organically on a patch of ground—which, if she was in any sort of decent story, would be where the book was. Unfortunately, this isn't a world governed by the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]], so it's not there.

* Sort of in ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]''. Leia and others, looking for the Delta Source that is reporting things to Thrawn, rest for a bit in the room where most of the spying happens, and then Leia looks at a droid tending one of the decorative color-changing trees and notices the red ripples forming and spreading each time the droid clicks.

* Exaggerated in [[Arthur Machen]]'s early works, where ''every single plot development'' came about this way.

 

* In ''[[The Comic Strip Presents|Five Go Mad In Dorset]]'', a British television special which viciously parodied [[Enid Blyton|Enid Blyton's]] ''Famous Five'' children's stories, the titular protagonists open a concealed door by yanking three times on a random tree-branch.

* [[Lampshaded|Lampshade lovingly hung]] in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode ''War Without End''. Ivanova and Marcus Cole are looking for an access panel. Ivanova declares that they'll need some luck finding one. Marcus replies that he doesn't believe in luck, even as he's turning - and his Minbari Fighting Pike (collapsible metal staff) knocks into the panel, causing it to fall open. Quoth Marcus, "Then again..."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': A tried-and-true technique of any party. Let the fighter (or [[Nodwick|henchman]]) go first to "disarm" all the traps, and simply heal them later.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' had a list of options to search a secret wall, such as examining it, poking it, shoulder barging it etc. After a while it came up with the option "rest"... which led you to lean back on the wall, and open the door. Justified in that this was in the upside-down/backwards castle, so the the best way to get through the wall was to apply the smallest amount of force possible.

** A similliar event happens in [[Breath of Fire 3]] when the gang of [[Loveable Rogue]]s are trying to find a way into a mansion early in the game: they search the wall around it for a way in, but give up quickly. Rei then leans against it, causing a large section of it to tip over since it was broken recently and they halfassed the repair job.

* In a lot of [[Point and Click]] games, randomly clicking on everything is a good way to find things.

* In ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', you have to find a hidden passage in the New York Public Library. The hidden passage is hidden behind a bookshelf, but the idea is subverted twofold: first, the Phantom Librarian guides you to it; second, the PKE Meter and Paragoggles tell you exactly where to look.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'' that's not how [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031006 Agatha] and [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101124 Tarvek] do it. But that is how [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060410 Lars (with Krosp's help)] did it.

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' by Roy [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0691.html here].

 

== Western Animation ==

* The video version of ''[[Garfield His 9 Lives]]'', during [[Garfield]]'s second life in [[Ancient Egypt]]. He's sealed in a tomb, Odie comes sniffing around, looking for a loose stone block, thinks he's found one, and pushes it with all his might. Then he takes a breather, leaning against the stone block next to it, and it slides in easily.

* ''[[Danger Mouse]]'': Subverted when DM is trying to find the entrance to a forbidden temple; when he leans on something a door opens behind him... but he doesn't notice and carries on looking.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]