Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: Difference between revisions

Remember [[Chekhov's Gun]] that was on top of the mantel? The one Little Bobby was told ''never'' to touch, under ''any'' circumstances? Now's the time to grab it. This is a specific subtrope of the [[Chekhov's Gun]] where some points out the "gun" and ''explicitly warns against using it''. It doesn't have to be a [[Matter of Life and Death]]. It can be as simple as being told not to push a button, then later being told to push it.

 

 

Often used in conjunction with a [[Godzilla Threshold]]. ''Mildly'' related to [[Explosive Overclocking]], [[Temporal Paradox]], and [[Finishing Move]].

 

 

== Anime ==

* ''[[Slayers]]'' offers another example with the Giga Slave. In order to keep it from being Lina's answer to every problem, a [[Godzilla Threshold]] aspect was introduced. Lina learns that the spell could cause the world to turn to chaos, and vows to never use it again; naturally, she's forced to do so at the end of Slayers Next.

** Interesting to note, however, is that it's not always used when there's a climax. The end of the first season, like the end of NEXT, is one big attempt to get her to perform the spell. She doesn't. Almost the entirety of Try, once the characters learn who the [[Big Bad]] is, is about finding a way NOT to use it. They succeed, but Lina always accepted that she may have to use the Giga Slave if their plan didn't work.

 

 

* The Omega 13 from ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]''. Somewhat played with. None of the characters even ''know'' what it does, including the aliens who built it. So they don't want to use it, because they don't know what it will do.

* The [[Super Prototype|Gunstar's]] [[Spin Attack|Death Blossom]] attack in ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''; not so much that's it's insanely overpowered (although it is) as that it leaves the ship vulnerable just before and after it's engaged.

* In the ''[[Lost in Space]]'' film, ships have hyperspace engines, but it is not a good idea to jump without coordinates or a jump gate as the exit vector would be random. The crew does this anyway when the ship is sabotaged and crashing into the sun.

 

 

== Literature ==

* In the novel ''[[Foundation And Empire]]'', Devers is trying to escape Trantor, with the police in hot pursuit, since {{spoiler|he just killed a Lieutenant}}. He enters hyperspace very close to the planet, which could kill him.

* The Door to Nowhere and Nowhen serves this function in ''[[The Redemption of Althalus]]''.

 

* The Manhattan Project. Scientists did experiments seeing how close they could get radioactive cores to going critical without ''actually'' making them go critical. They called this [[Tempting Fate|Tickling The Dragon's Tail]], and considered it a necessary but insanely dangerous thing to do. One core did accidentally go critical (very briefly) on two separate occasions, resulting in the deaths of two researchers and less severe cases of radiation poisoning for several others. They dubbed this one the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Demon Core]].

* The Higgs Boson A.K.A The God particle. The way to discover it ''could'' turn Earth into a black hole.

** Or cause the vacuum of space to drop to a more "stable" state, [[The End of the World As We Know It|destroying the universe as we know it]].

* In ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'', the [[Big Bad]] is defeated by literally crossing the time streams.

* Happens again in ''[[Ghostbusters the Video Game]]'', {{spoiler|except this time due to being in the ghost world - where the same rules of physics don't apply, such as the lack of gravity on the actual landmass - one can probably assume that you can [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun|cross the streams]] without frying your ass to bits because the chances are ''reversed'', thus making it more safe to try.}}

* The command that stops the [[Big Bad]] from sacrificing you to end the world in ''[[Chzo Mythos|Trilby's Notes]]'' is {{spoiler|DIE. Yeah.}}

* ''[[Metroid Other M]]'' combines this with [[A Taste of Power]] for the {{spoiler|Power Bombs}}. You test them out in the beginning of the game, and are promptly told to ''never'' use them, and in fact attempting do so will fail. {{spoiler|Until the final boss, where you HAVE to use them after being swallowed.}} Also a [[Guide Dang It]] since you have, most likely, completely forgotten they exist by that point and wouldn't think to use them after all the hubbub about not using them previously.

== Webcomics ==

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==