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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!
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]].
This is the perfect concoction for the [[Empathic Environment]] to whip up a good old
Bonus points if the flash is so quick, the audience/characters are unsure if they saw anything at all.
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{{examples}}
▲== 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.
* In [[Naruto]], [[The Reveal]] of {{spoiler|Tobi's ([[Mind Screw|not really]]) true identity, Madara Uchiha, as the real [[Big Bad]] of the series}} is done this way.
** Also, in [[Narm Charm|Naruto Shippuden 167]], [[Ass Pull|thunderclouds]] envelop the sky, and a large mass of the Kyuubi's chakra rains from the heavens as Naruto begins his transformation from a [[Four Is Death|4-tailed]] to a never-before-seen [[Number of the Beast|6-tailed]] fox form.
* Oda Nobunaga in ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'''s anime adaptation is so evil that, wherever he goes, evil red-glowing thunderstorms follow. Naturally, he gets an introduction through
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', when Bakura appears [[Badass Longcoat|wearing a black trench coat]] in front of Rex and Weevil, we get our first glimpse of his face (well, the first in a while) when lightning flashes.
== 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 ''[[
* In Lee Lightner's [[Warhammer
* 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.
* In [[David Weber|David Weber's]] [[Safehold]] series, at one point the Royal Guard is desperately fighting assassins in the rain. One moment, there is one Guardsman standing. The next, there is a flash of lightning, a roll of thunder (from the wrong direction) and there are two... {{spoiler|One of them is a 26th Century cyborg. Guess what happens next.}}
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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
* 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 ==
* 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
* 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|
''[lightning strikes, revealing "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" [[Room Full of Crazy|scribbled all over the walls]]]''
'''Marge:''' Mmm... this is less encouraging. }}
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' plays with this in the episode where the kids find the money clip.
* The opening theme to ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]''. Batman fights crooks in darkness, and the police wonder who it could be. The theme ends with the crooks tied up and a silhouette of Batman, standing on the roof of a building. A flash of lightning confirms his presence, before he disappears. Take a look at the opening, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk it's pretty awesome].
** In the first part of ''"Two-Face,"'' Harvey Dent is sitting in the psychiatrist's office, discussing his mental problems, with his [[Face Framed in Shadow]]. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and the dark half of his face lights up... [[Foreshadowing|as Two Face]].
* [[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]]
** [[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.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Weather and Environment]]
[[Category:Thunderbolts and Lightning]]
[[Category:Darkness and Shadows Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Lightning Reveal]]
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