Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Blossom''': Hey, who filmed this anyway? What, do you have cameras all over the world?<br />

'''Mojo Jojo''': [[Crazy Prepared|Yes!]] Now shut up!|''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''}}

{{quote|''Lex Luthor had cameras everywhere. It didn't matter if Jayna was on the toilet or if Superman was 3 galaxies away enjoying a bowl of cereal, Lex Luthor could put it up on the big screen if he wanted.''|'''[[Seanbaby]]''', on ''[[Super Friends]]''.}}

The bad guys [[Sinister Surveillance|have cameras everywhere]]. Like some even-more-sinister version of ''[[Big Brother]]'', they always know exactly where the heroes are and what they're doing, even if there's no possible reason for them to be able to. It doesn't matter if they're [[Subspace Ansible|three galaxies away]] or [[San Dimas Time|five thousand years in the past]], the villains can still find them. They can put anything that they want up on the big screen, making you wonder why they don't just give up on the bizarre plans for world domination and [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|just surreptitiously blackmail every government]] in the world without the good guys ever finding out. Or at least you would if you weren't so busy trying to puzzle out exactly how [[Lex Luthor|Luthor]] managed to get a live feed of the [[Super FriendsSuperfriends]] repairing satellites in outer space.

[[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] will often make heavy use of this trope -- ittrope—it's evidently how they keep the [[Xanatos Roulette]] up-to-date. It also has aspects of the [[Magical Security Cam]]. Heroes or antagonists savvy to this will give them a [[Poke in Thethe Third Eye]] to escape detection.

The trope used to take its name from the Palantíri, the mostly-lost Seeing Stones from [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth stories (e.g. ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''). Incidentally, magical versions of this trope ([[Crystal Ball|Crystal Balls]]s, [[Magic Mirror|Magic Mirrors]]s, etc.) are a little ''more'' sensible, being one of those tropes that's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|so unlikely]] that [[A Wizard Did It]] becomes the most plausible explanation.

* MakubeX in ''[[Get BackersGetBackers]]'' while inside his tower.

* ''[[Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel]]'' has Baramos monitoring the heroes' progress through magic using the eyes of his many minions.

* The new ''[[Ai no Kusabi (Light Novel)|Ai no Kusabi]]'' OVA shows that Iason has surveillance cameras all over Eos watching Riki where ever he goes.

* In ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]'' Professor Utonium has a screen in his lab that can show any spot in the city, no matter how little sense it makes for him to view anything there. Mojo Jojo, unlike in [[Powerpuff Girls|unlike in the original]], does not.

* L from ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' likes this trope, {{spoiler|so do Mello and Near}} and is often seen watching [[Ominous Multiple Screens]]. At one point L put 64 cameras in his suspect's room only to take them out again later.

* Justified in ''[[Agents of Atlas (Comic Book)|Agents of Atlas]]'', where their opponent has {{spoiler|a video link to their robot team member, allowing him to always have a camera where they are.}}

* Mocked by [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Linkara]] in his [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908143524/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/11957-koolaid01 Kool-Aid Man #1 review]:

{{quote| "''The Kool-Aid Man sees you when you're sleeping. *leans in close to camera* [[Nightmare Fuel|The Kool-Aid Man sees you in your nightmares]].''"}}

* Parodied in ''[[Spaceballs (Film)|Spaceballs]]'', where the bad guys track down the heroes via {{spoiler|a VHS tape of the film itself}}.

** Surveillance was used in a much worse fashion in ''[[Batman and Robin (Filmfilm)|Batman and Robin]]''. Incriminating speeches made by the villains were sometimes replayed using ''[[They Just Didn't Care|the same shot that was used earlier in the movie, surveillance-free!]]''

* In ''[[You Only Live Twice (Film)|You Only Live Twice]]'', two scenes where [[James Bond]] follows the action through TV screens might bring [[Fridge Logic]]. In one, the car television shows a helicopter throwing a car in the middle of the sea - ''from above'' - and Blofeld's ship engulfing the American one ''in space''.

* [[The Alcatraz|Sunnyside Day Care Center]] in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' has more surveillance cameras than [[Smallville|the Luthor mansion]].

** Some of the wizards at Unseen University own small pocket crystal balls that can be used to observe a specific location, although sometimes reception is bad. And lampshaded: An Omniscope, one of the most powerful magical devices, can technically show ''anything'' ''anywhere'' in the universe; the tricky problem is getting it to show you the specific thing at the correct place and correct time that you want (it's easier now that Hex, the magical computer at Unseen University, can crunch the numbers for you). Some wizards just set the lens of the Omniscope to the dark of infinite space and use it as a shaving mirror. Recently (in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Going Postal (Discworld)|Going Postal]]''), two omniscopes have successfully been linked for long-distance "video conference" communication purposes.

** This is the result of an accidental discovery Ponder Stibbons makes in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'', where his clumsiness reveals that one half of a broken omniscope automatically sees out the other half's POV.

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]'', the villain, an evil [[Fairy Godmother]], has a [[Magic Mirror]] room that allows her to scry through any reflective surface on the disc. It's a bit [[Awesome but Impractical]], though, since she has no magical ability locate what she wants to look at, so she has to essentially scroll through every reflective surface in a given area to find what she's looking for.

* ''The Light of Other Days'' by [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]] and [[Stephen Baxter]]:

** It's implied that the Overlords in ''[[ChildhoodsChildhood's End]]'' have similar technology, and that it contributed to the downfall of mass religion, as people got to see their religious figures in flesh.

* In [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)|JRRR. Tolkien]]'s Middle-Earth:

** Oddly, the Palantíri themselves seem to subvert this trope -- theytrope—they were primarily designed for communication between the owners of the stones. However, they are not purely communication devices. Tolkien elaborates on how they can be used in one of the chapters in ''Unfinshed Tales''. They have limited range, cannot see through things, and cannot look everywhere at once, but they can be used to view things in locations other than the rooms where other stones are kept.

* In ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'', Merrin Meredith and later Simon Heap can use appropriately-name [[Evil Lair|The Observatory]] to spy out the Castle from safe distance.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'':

* Granted she's not a villain but disregarding that [[Gossip Girl]] fits this trope to a T.{{context}}

* Lampshaded in the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series]]'' episode "[[Star Trek/Recap/S1/E11 The Menagerie, :Part I|The Menagerie]]," when Spock shows footage from his days with Capt. Pike (using footage from "[[Star Trek/Recap/S1/E00 The Cage|The Cage]]") and when it gets so detailed, Kirk objects noting that no security footage could be like that. It turns out it is images sent fromby the [[Master of Illusion|MastersOfIllusion]] from Talos IV instead.

* On ''[[The Mentalist]]"'' this becomes a crucial point during an investigation of a murder in a high school. The school's principal is able to obtain information about events he could not have witnessed and was not told about. It turns out that he secretly installed security cameras in the bathrooms.

== [[Tabletop RPGGames]] ==

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]], Fourth Edition'': The cover illustration of the fourth edition ''Dungeon Masters Guide'' is a dragon spying on adventurers (from the cover of the ''Player's Handbook'') via a crystal ball in Palantir Ploy fashion.

* ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'':

** Which was done again in ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]''. The {{spoiler|save points}} also acted as {{spoiler|subtle mind-control devices for FATE}}.

* According to ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', Seto Kaiba has cameras all over Tokyo to stay aware of his enemy's every move. He is adamant that this includes shower rooms.

* A more low-key example, [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]] surreptitiously sets up cameras in her BFF Nella's parents' house. On the other side of the country. In Nella's bedroom. Without Nella's knowledge or consent. Repeatedly. Poked fun at, in that Nella is every bit as indignant about this as you'd expect.

{{quote| '''Stark''': How many cameras do you ''have''?<br />

* Slade in ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]''.

* Plasmius by Season 3 of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' has taken to using numerous, tiny, bug-shaped, ''[[Spider -Man]]''-esque cameras. [[Incredibly Obvious Bug|But not that tiny]].

** ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]''. He had cameras everywhere, including Earth orbit...and near the Earth's ''core''.

* WOOHP, the [[Heroes-R-Us]] of ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' can not only record ''everything'' everywhere in the world but can find and summon the girls from ''anywhere'': at school, at the mall, [[Time Travel|in the Middle Ages]], even from their bedroom or [[Fetish Fuel|from in the shower]]!

{{quote| '''The Monarch:''' Yeah, yeah, roll the clip...<br />

'''[[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Councilman]] 1:''' Unfortunately, we have no visual records of your time in college.<br />

'''The Monarch:''' ...Really? So we're not going to have to sit through hours of [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|me abusing myself]] to [[Night Court|Markie Post]]?<br />

'''Councilman 2:''' Of course not! How could we have video of you from that long ago? That's crazy!<br />

'''Councilman 3:''' We're the Council of Thirteen, not magic angel babies.<br />

'''Councilman 2:''' We don't have like a... magic window into the past-<br />

* In ''[[He -Man and Thethe Masters of Thethe Universe]]'':

* ''[[Transformers Generation One1]]'':

* Mumm-Ra from ''[[Thunder CatsThundercats]]'' does this. Only partially justified, based on how much you want to believe that he really is confined to his pyramid in any given episode. Lion-O's Sword Of Omens can do this too.

* Shredder was a huge offender of this trope in the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|'80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoons.

* Jafar from ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' is shown watching Aladdin in some sort of crystal ball.

* Dr. Wily in the ''[[Mega Man (TVanimation)|Mega Man]]'' cartoon had what some fans call the 'Anywhere Screen', letting him see live feed of just about anywhere.

** [[Wild Mass Guessing|Maybe]] they somehow hacked into the one Ms. Bitters used to record Zim saying he would attend Parent-Teacher Night. In that case, Zim [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s:

{{quote| '''Zim:''' Why would you record that...?}}

* ''[[Total Drama]]'' is ([[Show Within a Show|supposedly]]) a reality show. Okay. But some of the things that Chris and Chef manage to record is just ridiculous--likeridiculous—like, for example, ''Owen's dreams.'' And how did they pull off the TDWT penultimate episode? Did they put cameras all along the pathway between Alberta and Tijuana, despite not even having planned that challenge before Sierra blew up the plane?

* On ''[[Jimmy Two -Shoes]]'', Lucius seems to be able to pull up anything going on in Miseryville on his big screen. This is probably a side effect of his [[Reality Warper]] powers.

[[Category:Espionage Tropes{{PAGENAME}}]]