No Mere Windmill: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Ah yes, Reapers. An immortal race of sentient starships allegedly waiting in dark space. [[Memetic Mutation|We have dismissed that claim.]]"''|'''[[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Councilor Sparatus]]''', ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''}}
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* Type B is the straight warning: The threat turns out to be exactly as foretold.
* Type C is when outrageous claims turn out to be modest: The guy accused of fighting a windmill had actually not yet understood the full magnitude of the real threat - it is ''worse'' than the dismissed warnings indicated.
* Type D is somewhat like Type C, but much worse: The people whom the supposed Windmill Crusader is trying to warn either are [[Have You Told Anyone Else
For something to be No Mere Windmill, it must first be dismissed as a windmill. Thus, the trope is often closely related to [[Only Sane Man]], [[Ignored Expert]], [[Cassandra Truth]] and, depending on context, either [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]] or [[Straw Man Has a Point]].
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* In ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'', the bad weather is only bad weather. It’s only bad weather, it’ll get better soon... or not. This is a Type C, where the main character gets ridiculed for a prognosis that is far less lethal than the situation they are really about to face.
* In ''[[War Games]]'', there’s nothing wrong with the computer. Nope. It’s just a hacker. It’s all his fault. And since this disaster ''could not'' have been caused by some random kid, he must have been working with the Russians. {{spoiler|No, it was the computer all along: A dangerous case of Garbage In Garbage Out, ascending towards [[The Computer Is Your Friend]]. This is a Type B case of [[Not Merely a Windmill]]: The main character knows what Joshua is up to, but nobody believes him}}.
* In ''[[Defendor]]'', the hero appears to be a lunatic going up against an imaginary [[Super Villain]] called "Captain Industry". Defendor may or may not actually believe this, but in either case the "Captains of Industry" is actually a metaphor for the very real threat of drug
* In ''[[Terminator]] II: Judgment Day'', we are introduced to a crazy woman who is obviously a paranoid schizophrenic. She even believes that evil robots from the future are out to get her, imagine that. To the great surprise of everyone except the audience, it eventually turns out that the robots are real and Sarah is completely sane (although traumatized). She knows exactly what a terminator really is, a straight Type B of this trope.
* The 1971 George C. Scott film ''[[They Might Be Giants (film)|They Might Be Giants]]''<ref>which, yes, is where [[They Might Be Giants|the band]] got their name</ref> bases its conflict on this trope. The protagonist believes himself to be [[Sherlock Holmes]], and is trying to convince his psychiatrist that not only is his claim true, but [[Criminal Mastermind|Moriarty]] is also at large in the city. {{spoiler|Since the ending [[Smash to Black|cuts out at the last second]], it's open to interpretation whether they finally meet and confront Moriarty, or are run over by a train.}}
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