Spectacle
All forms of showing off in a work, to wow the audience. Frequently used to set the mood and serve the Rule of Cool.
For example, for Live Action TV, this includes scenery, lighting, props, costuming, makeup, background music, sound effects, and Special Effects in general. For Comic Books, it includes things like coloring and lettering. And so on.
The name comes from Aristotle's Poetics and is used more broadly here. He considered using spectacle to cover deficiencies in plot and character a flaw. If they are just in addition to good plots and characters, then these are just a bonus.
Not to be confused with Glasses Tropes.
Categories:
Tropes:
- Abandoned Area
- Above the Ruins
- Alien Sky
- All Deserts Have Cacti
- A Truce While We Gawk
- Awesome Art
- Bad Vibrations
- Battle Amongst the Flames
- Big Ball of Violence
- The Big Board
- Big Dam Plot
- Billions of Buttons
- Bookshelf Dominoes
- Build Like an Egyptian
- Bullet Sparks
- Burn, Baby, Burn
- Busby Berkeley Number
- Cave Mouth
- Chunky Updraft
- Chiaroscuro
- Cobweb Jungle
- Comet of Doom
- Confetti Drop
- Conspicuous CG
- Conspicuous Consumption
- Conspicuously Light Patch
- Construction Is Awesome
- Cool Chair
- Costume Porn
- Cow Tools
- Crystal Spires and Togas
- Deadly Fireworks Display
- Desert Skull
- Desolation Shot
- Destination Defenestration
- Dirt Forcefield
- Disaster Dominoes
- Discretion Shot
- Dragons Up the Yin-Yang
- Dramatic Landfall Shot
- Dramatic Spotlight
- Editorial Synaesthesia
- E=MC Hammer
- Eiffel Tower Effect
- Empathic Environment
- Epic Movie
- Epileptic Flashing Lights
- Every Bullet Is a Tracer
- Everything Makes a Mushroom
- Eyedscreen
- Excessive Steam Syndrome
- Fake-Out Fade-Out
- Farts On Fire
- Fashion Show
- Fighter Launching Sequence
- First Time in The Sun
- Flag Drop
- Flaming Hair
- Flaunting Your Fleets
- Floorboard Failure
- Frank's 2000-Inch TV
- Fungus Humongous
- The Future Is Noir
- Grand Staircase Entrance
- Gratuitous Special Effects
- Great Balls of Fire
- Hand Puppet
- Heart Light
- Hit Flash
- Hollywood Darkness
- Human Cannonball
- Hurl It Into the Sun
- If You Can Read This...
- Immortal Life Is Cheap
- Improbable Cover
- Incendiary Exponent
- Instant Runes
- Instant Thunder
- Interesting Situation Duel
- It's Going Down
- Knife-Throwing Act
- Man On Fire
- Marked Change
- Mid-Air Bobbing
- Monumental Damage
- Monumental Damage Resistance
- Monumental View
- Mood Dissonance
- Motorcycle On the Coast Road
- Mundane Made Awesome
- Muppet
- Musical Number Index
- Natural Spotlight
- Nothing but Skulls
- Nuclear Candle
- Ocean Awe
- Off-the-Shelf FX
- Ominous Multiple Screens
- One-Woman Wail
- Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame
- Pixellation
- Power Dyes Your Hair
- Power Echoes
- Power Floats
- Power Gives You Wings
- Power Glows
- Power Makes Your Hair Grow
- Power Makes Your Voice Deep
- The Power of Rock
- Rain of Blood
- Raygun Gothic
- Ring of Fire
- Rockers Smash Guitars
- Rule of Perception
- Scenery Porn
- Screen Shake
- Screw the Electric Bill!
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape
- Siege Engines
- Serkis Folk
- Shiny-Looking Spaceships
- Shoot the Money
- Showy Invincible Hero
- Sigil Spam
- Signature Shot
- Sinister Silhouettes
- Skyward Scream
- Slow-Motion Pass-By
- Special Effects
- Special Effects Evolution
- Special Effect Branding
- Special Effect Failure
- Sphere of Power
- Standardized Space Views
- Stanley Steamer Spaceship
- Starring Special Effects
- Stop-Motion Lighting
- Streaming Stars
- Stuff Blowing Up
- Summer Blockbuster
- Super Move Portrait Attack
- Swiss Army Tears
- Sword Sparks
- Symbolic Blood
- Taxidermy Terror
- Technology Porn
- Ticker Tape Parade
- Toppled Statue
- Transformation Sequence
- Trashcan Bonfire
- Unflinching Walk
- Unsound Effect
- Used Future
- Visible Invisibility
- Vomit Discretion Shot
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot
- Weaponized Landmark
- The World Is Just Awesome
- Worm Sign
- Written Sound Effect
- You Have to Burn The Web
- Your Head Asplode
- Zeerust