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{{trope}}{{Mechanics of Writing}}
{{quote|''"There's also a guy with a unique sprite there. So you know what THAT means."''|'''Chibi Soma''''s ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 5'' [http://www.gamefaqs.com/gba/924452-mega-man-battle-network-5-team-protoman/faqs/34008 walkthrough]}}
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Oh, sure, we can set up a [[Red Herring]] or two, but we had better expect the viewer to attach importance to any detail we let loose in the plot. Shame on us, if we later expect the viewer to be surprised by the importance of the detail we let slip.
Although conservation of detail tends to be particularly pronounced in a "compressed" medium like a weekly television show, it ''is'' a proper and useful tool for creating fiction in all media, filtering out irrelevant detail to make time for actual plot. There is a fine line between good [[World Building]], and rambling on about pointless crap. How come people on TV always find a [[Rock Star Parking|parking spot]] right outside their destination (unless they need to [[Walk and Talk]])? This is why.
This trope has probably caused more [[Epileptic Trees]] than every other trope combined -- [[Dying Dream]] notwithstanding, as people ''expect'' things to have a reason.
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For the drawing equivalent of this trope, see [[Rule of Animation Conservation]]. For the nonhuman equivalent, see [[Rule of Personification Conservation]]. When an adaptation removes explanatory details to save time or attention, see [[Adaptation Explanation Extrication]].
When a work flouts this trope and contains lots of little asides that are not necessary, that is [[Narrative Filigree]] or [[Description Porn]]. Software may also exploit [[Combinatorial Explosion]] to present vast unique sets of details without proportional amount of work on content, via [[Procedural Generation]].
'''Warning: May contained unmarked spoilers.'''▼
▲'''Warning: May contained unmarked spoilers.'''
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Football manga ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' does this with every team the main characters go up against. Except for the protagonist's team, every team consists of a few dozen generic nameless players whose faces are usually hidden behind their helmets and two or three important named characters. The latter are inevitably the stars who make all the big plays. You can tell how important a team will be to the story by how many players get names; the first team they play, for example, gets one named player, and after that game they never impact the plot again. Meanwhile, important recurring rival teams get five or six named players, plus coaching staff.
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** Makie's lack of worries about life turn out to have plot relevance later on.
** Ala Alba symbol appears repeatedly dozens of chapters before the group is officially formed.
** When the series is still [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|pretending to be]] a standard harem
* In ''
* Subverted in episode 2 of ''[[Death Note]]''. Light spends a good chunk of the episode setting up and explaining an elaborate safety mechanism to hide his notebook, and it never comes up again. Instead, the pay-off is more immediate: it gives the audience a quick introduction to Light's personality.
** In the manga, when he notices that someone (the people who installed the cameras) entered his room from the state of his no less elaborate door safety mechanism, he infers that they didn't find the notebook because the fire trap didn't go off. His solution to the problem of the cameras is considerably less elaborate. "Hey Ryuk. Go find the cameras and I'll give you some apples."
* ''[[Steins;Gate]]'' utilizes this trope to the full extent. Every single character actions that were shown will have some kind of significant effect. {{spoiler|One best example would be Mayuri's Metal Oopa from episode 1. 22 episodes later it was revealed that the Oopa set off the metal detector at the airport, preventing Dr. Nakabachi from boarding the plane that was fated to crash.}}
== Comic Books ==
* Dropped all over the place in ''[[Sandman]]''. Seemingly minor details end up being plot-centric on a second read.
** The seemingly innocuous phrase "I have my responsibilities..." that Morpheus is fond of invoking early and often in the series ends up being such an integral statement of his personality that he {{spoiler|would rather die than abandon his realm}}.
** Early in the series, Desire says in a seeming throwaway line that s/he'll "Bring the Kindly Ones down" on Morpheus. That's precisely what happens, though not in the way Desire planned.
* Used to good effect in Jeff Smith's ''[[Bone]]''. A map that Smiley Bone finds by random chance in the first issue ends up {{spoiler|triggering a chain of memories in Thorn that leads to the eventual climax of the series.}}
== Film ==
* Parodied in ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]'', when the narrator sarcastically points out the importance of a conversation in his story.
{{quote|
* Used very well in ''[[Back to The Future]]'', which disguised its plot points as jokes.
* Used to create tension in the final battle of ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]''. When Tony creates his original power generator, he observes that it could run "something big for 15 minutes." {{spoiler|When he is forced to use his original generator after Stane steals his improved model, there is a literal deadline for Iron Man -- if he does not beat Ironmonger in less than 15 minutes, he will run out of power ''and'' his heart will stop.}}
** Also, the "icing problem."
* ''[[Wayne's World]]'' - Chris Farley's unusually knowledgeable security guard.
* ''[[The Incredibles]]'': the ''moment'' Edna Mode starts making a big deal about capes being caught in things, you know that someone else is going to experience a very fatal wardrobe malfunction by movie's end... unless you've read ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', in which case you might write it off as a [[Shout-Out]]. The costume for the baby, {{spoiler|can survive a wide range of extremes, all of which the baby exhibits near the end.}}
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** At the beginning of ''Pawn of Prophecy'', the first book, the old storyteller brings out {{spoiler|a story only to be told in the presence of royalty, even though he's in an ordinary (though pretty wonderful) farm, and glances at Garion}}. Lo and behold, halfway through the fourth book {{spoiler|Garion is crowned the Rivan King.}} The old storyteller, being Belgarath himself, knew the entire time.
** Also in ''Pawn of Prophecy'', Garion mentions to Belgarath in a throwaway line that {{spoiler|a fortuneteller once came to Faldor's farm and told Durnik the blacksmith that he would die twice}}. Funnily enough, in book 5, {{spoiler|Durnik dies and is resurrected a chapter or two later. One down, one to go.}}.
* Lots of "masterful" literary works are called so due to complete aversion of this trope. The lady passing on the street is described in extreme detail and [[
* If someone is invited to a banquet in ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', then chances are that it's part of a plan to kill them. Most of the banquets without murderous intent go unmentioned, leaving [[Genre Savvy|modern readers]] to wonder why anyone would be stupid enough to go to a banquet in the first place.
* [[Douglas Adams]] is famous for mentioning things in throwaway lines which later turn out to be what the entire plot hinges on. However, he does a ''fantastic'' subversion in ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (which is itself a ''book'' of this trope) - there's a scene where the protagonist is looking into a bathroom, and Adams spends several paragraphs describing the contents of the room, the panelling on the walls, the scuffs on the floor, and so forth, in intricate detail, only to end with "There was also a large horse in the room, taking up most of it."
** Adams also explains the use of this trope in ''So Long And Thanks For All The Fish'', stating that "It makes for big fat books such as the American economy thrives on, but it's boring."
* Subverted in the book series ''[[Personal Effects]].'' The main gimmick of the series is that it encourages the reader to follow up on details mentioned in the books - calling the phone numbers gives you voicemails, and all the websites actually exist. The first printed book even comes packaged with a bunch of handwritten notes and pictures.
* [[Tom Clancy]] tends to fight this tooth and nail. Paragraphs will be spent describing things other authors would just gloss over. He does love his [[Technology Porn]].
* Ignored in Joe Haldeman's ''The Coming''. The story follows a lot of characters, most of which ultimately do nothing for the plot. (Seriously, there was even a porn actress thrown in.)
* PD James' detective novels featuring Adam Dalgleish feature an insane amount of back-story on almost every character. Everything you need to know is in there, but so are an awful lot of things you don't need to know.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' GOOD GOD! Every trope on [[This Index Will Be Important Later]] appears in the later books. And each time it is fully fleshed out.
* Subverted repeatedly in Hawthorne's ''The House Of The Seven Gables''.
* One of ''[[Gor]]''s criticisms is that John Norman averts this with densely worded depictions of structures, ships, weapons, down to counting the beams and explaining their practical and cultural significance. He also subverts this, as one detail buried in several dry paragraphs can come back as a plot point or a [[Brick Joke]] that will go over the heads of readers who skip those portions.
* [[The Count of Monte Cristo]]: Averted big-time
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Enough said. One can wonder whether Rowling loves to re-read her book before writing the ending to insert plotline clues into seemingly trivial details.
* ''[[Don Quixote]]'': This law is invoked by the [[The Presents Were Never From Santa|Innkeeper]] when he and Don Quixote discuss at Part I Chapter III the need for money being a [[Knight Errant]] who is [[Walking the Earth]], and helps to deconstruct those tropes:
{{quote|
== Live Action TV ==
* Parodied on the DVD commentary for the final episode of ''[[The Office]]'' (UK). Gervais and Merchant lampshade the "Secret Santa" game, commenting on its apparent insignificance to the plot, and how it ''definitely'' won't become relevant later.
* In an episode of ''[[Charmed]]'' Prue finishes talking with someone in her office, that person leaves and then the coffee girl (who we've never seen before) arrives, gives her coffee which had apparently been ordered, receives a compliment, and the scene ends. Yeah. The feeling "why did they just show us a scene of someone receiving coffee" was pretty strong, but it did help remember the coffee/sandwich girl character for when it turned out that, without her knowledge, she was actually {{spoiler|the mother of the person who will eventually find a vaccine for demons}}.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' - Played straight during a series regarding the Dominion, which was mentioned in passing in the first episode it showed up in and {{spoiler|was on the verge of taking over the Federation a few seasons later.}}
** In the episode Time's Orphan it's done a bit heavy handed when Keiko gives little Molly a shiny silver bracelet and the music swells for a moment before going back to normal. Guess what feral Molly is wearing when they pull her back from the past?
* In one episode of ''[[Goosebumps]]'' we see the parents of a kid protagonist working on something. It turns out {{spoiler|it was a device to expose invisible people and the plot had an invisible friend}}.
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** This could be [[Subverted Trope|deliberate misdirection]]
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' did the opposite and focused on silly things(like the parking spots mentioned above), yet it was still funny. ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' after it, however, was completely made up of small details and barely had anything else, which is why it is awesome.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' exudes this trope. Vote Saxon was one particularly devious detail given, foreshadowing the final arc. The same thing happened with [[Arc Words]] "Bad Wolf".
** In the Season
** It may just be nothing, but in Season 27 (New Season One), Mickey Smith finishes one of Captain Jack's anecdotes for him:
{{quote|
* The ''[[Leverage]]'' team needs to create elaborate schemes in order to manipulate their mark. This means that side comments to the mark often end up being important later, and their importance becomes apparent during the "how it was done" flashback scenes. This is a trait shared with it's spiritual predecessor ''[[Hustle]]''.
* On one episode of [[24]], Jack is captured and forced to give bad tactical information to CTU. He ends the information by declaring he is in a "flank-two position". Given that the series is all about time constraints, it's reasonable for viewers to assume that any apparently-innocuous dialogue that's not [[Techno Babble]] is important. In-character, the terrorists holding Jack just assume its standard tactical talk. Naturally, it turns out to be the duress phrase. Except that CTU ''changed'' the duress phrase since Jack was last part of it, and they barely pick up on it before it's too late.
* [[Lampshaded]] ''constantly'' on ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'' in which the titular detective notes apparently pointless bits of general knowledge which become crucial in solving the mystery. At one stage, after ascertaining that an elderly client buys fish-food at a market and getting a baffled look in reply, [[The Watson]] wryly comments: "Don't worry, it'll have some deep significance that is invisible to us mere mortals."
* In ''[[Eureka]]'', any and all interesting new technologies presented or talked about early in the episode is inevitably going to turn out to be either A) part of the cause of that week's crisis, or B) part of the solution to said crisis.
* On a time-travelling episode of ''[[Smallville]]'' Clark and Chloe walk through the busy work-space of the Daily Planet in which their collegues are partaking in some rather noticeable activites: someone gets a huge bouquet of flowers, someone else trips over, and so on. The camera lingers on them the first time around so that Clark can accurately describe their activities to Chloe when the time-travel kicks in and he needs to convince her of their situation (that the day is repeating).
* On an episode of ''[[Once Upon a Time]]'', Kathryn bumps into a character we've never seen before at the school, and the camera dwells for a moment on his confused face. Back in fairytale land, he ends up being her true love: a knight turned into a gold statue, whose face was hidden beneath a visor up until the end of the episode.
== Tabletop Games ==
* A very common mistake for new [[Game Master
* One RPG group went by the tenet that 'Any woman or plant the GM bothers to describe is a trap.' The GM caught on and ran them through an adventure that could roughly be described as 'The Magic Greenhouse Land of Amazons'.
* Similarly, whenever the DM makes a hidden roll or asks for a spot or listen check (that they fail), the players will assume something is going on and, if they're bad metagamers, try to act on it. Incidentally, few things unnerve a player as much as rolling really well on a spot check and being told, "No, you don't see anything of importance..."
* ''[[Paranoia]]'' recommends that [[Game Master
* ''Risus'' too in order to help with improvising off what the players speculate the roll was for.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' occasionally uses this trope to explain why all the magic and gear seems designed for folks crawling into caverns, killing ugly people, and taking their stuff. The local magicians probably [[Utility Magic|do make magical plows to help farmers, magical compasses for navigators, and so on]]. However, since players don't care about most of this stuff most of the time, let's cut back to the stuff that will affect the world as players experience it.
** [[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon Magazine]] every once in a while had articles dedicated to [[Utility Magic]] items, magic quirks, "things to be found in pockets of a random NPC/goblin/whateever" and other flavour-focused material.
** ''[[Ebrerron]]'' outright states this in its campaign setting.
== Video Games ==
* Since every object in a game has to be created from scratch rather than in movies where the world conveniently exists already, it's inevitable in video games of all types with regard to the environment. There simply aren't the resources in terms of textures or manpower to create, say, five hundred unique cars, or thousands of different books to fill a library that only makes up part of a single level. Some games have started creating procedural plant life and [[
** Any newspapers you see will always be either the cover or a single page with a story relevant to the game, even if they're supposed to be random pages blowing in the wind.
** Books will usually be relevant to the plot or at least relevant to its message; an evil doctor might have fifty copies of ''Frankenstein'' lining his various shelves, for example.
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* ''[[Persona]]''
** In ''Persona 3 Portable'', the PSP rerelease of [[Persona 3]], a random faceless character was added in the game's bar/night club. He makes some pretty ominous statements throughout the game, but the last thing he says near the end of the game is followed by a portrait. This leads fans to believe that due to the Law of Conservation of Detail, he is important. Turns out he's a character named Vincent, protagonist of an Atlus psychological horror game titled ''[[Catherine]]''.
** ''Persona 4'' exemplifies this trope. Every little nagging detail has meaning -- ''every'' detail. The guy who gets rejected by Yukiko at the beginning of the game? {{spoiler|Serial killer suspect. Turns out to be a copycat.}} The council secretary who is having an affair? {{spoiler|Serial killer suspect. Turns out he was being duped.}} The TV announcer he was having the affair with? {{spoiler|Murder victim.}} The bumbling detective who can't keep his mouth shut? {{spoiler|The serial killer.}} The gas station attendant you shake hands with in one of the very first scenes? {{spoiler|The one behind everything that happens in the entire game.}} The list goes on.
* Subverted with Ziegfried in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''; the character is interesting and appears throughout the game, but is completely unimportant. This characteristic has its own entry on [[The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches]]. Ziegfried's Contradiction: Just because someone is weird doesn't mean they're important.
** Square's been subverting this trope since the first Final Fantasy. Coneria Town, the first city you can visit, has a well that you can inspect:
{{quote|
** The infamous '1/35 Soldier' items in [[Final Fantasy VII]] ("Collect all 12!") were hard to find more than a handful of and had no function (also the 'Custom Sweeper'). In a game famous for its confusing translations, these may have been supposed to be actual toys in-universe.
* ''[[Suikoden]]''
** In ''Suikoden'' you can tell in the games who is one of the [[108|108 Stars]]: If they have a portrait and a name, they're a Star (or a villian, but [[Defeat Means Friendship|those are often the same thing]]).
** Subverted in ''[[Suikoden II]]'', however. There's a character with a portrait and a name (Ellie) that is neither a Star nor important to the story at all. She exists for one reason: In the quest that's unlocked if you load ''[[Suikoden I]]'' data at the start of the game, {{spoiler|1=Tir McDohl joins your party while Gremio occupies a Convoy space. However, if you failed to resurrect Gremio in the S1 file you loaded, he'll be dead in this game, and Eilie will take his place in the plot, occupying the convoy and speaking his lines instead}}.
* Subverted in ''[[Chrono Cross]]''. Of the portraits that characters have, forty of them are playable characters, five of them are alternate versions of the playable characters, and twenty six of them are NPCs. Of the NPCs, one is unimportant: a shopkeeper you meet early on. Throughout the game you become convinced she'll be important, but she never does, being the only one of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] who isn't.
* Avoided in ''[[Metal Gear]]'', ''[[Snatcher]]'', ''[[Policenauts]]'' and anything [[Hideo Kojima]] does, because of his ''obsessive-compulsive insanity''. He cannot stand to ''not'' worldbuild. The only people who care about the incredibly elaborate [[Deus Angst Machina|tragic backstories]], sex lives and namedropping pertaining to characters who show up once and then die - and the endless infodumps about guns and items and nuclear weapons and the future and useless metagame trivia - are going to be fanfiction writers. For the most part, backstory events will be mentioned inconsequentially to add a little flavour to a character
** For example, Hideo Kojima designed every desk in the first Metal Gear Solid separately. Every sigle desk! You have to respect a man who puts in that much work. And at least in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' Kojima-san was nice enough to let players skip all that and go right to the neck-snapping if they want.
* The entire ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' scene is all over this, up to the point of being [[Anvilicious]]. Every piece of evidence - besides the lawyer's badge, etc. - is always used at least once. The problem is using the right one, because you need to use them [[Guide Dang It|as a sort of sentence fragment to answer questions.]] Players soon hit on the idea of [[Save Scumming|saving before a particular point]] they don't know how to get through, and just trying out ''[[Try Everything|every single item]]''
** Similarly: profiles in ''Justice for All'' and ''Trials & Tribulations.'' The lawyer's badge gets used once or twice outside of the courtroom. You even had to present the screwdriver, which had importance exactly because it has ''no importance at all'', which throws suspicion on the suspect's reasoning for having Edgeworth personally pick it up in the first place.
* In the first ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game, there's a single empty room in Jill's storyline. No puzzles, no items, no enemies. Turns out it's only important in Chris' scenario.
* One Sega CD role playing game would say things like "Who would talk to a cow" if you talked to the cow, as all role players will do. Also mentioned "Wow the guards and castle are laid out exactly the same in this castle as they were in the last one. Maybe that is to show how the two kindgoms are very closely tied, or maybe the programmers were just lazy."
* Averted in the Elder Scrolls series, most notably the more recent offerings. The sheer amount of useless items dropped into the environment (paintbrushes, mugs, flatware, etc.) threatens to boggle the mind.
** Being on the same engine, the 3d Fallout games do the same. However, a shrewd player will be able to tell important items from the rest of the [[Vendor Trash]] and [[Cow Tools]] that litter the level. The older ones had TV dinners, popcorns, nuka-colas, ''pocket lint'', and others that do nothing but take up space in your inventory. You can also examine rocks. Do it enough times and your character will ''cry out in frustration''.
* Near the beginning of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' we find a masked character that ''manually'' opens doors unlike every other NPC in the entire game. This tiny fact foreshadows just how long his particular sidequest will go on for and how import he really is. {{spoiler|He even temporarily becomes a PC.}}
** You also get a notebook that is useful for sidequests—of which the game has many. Any NPC who appears in this notebook after talking to you has a mask to give you. Characters that do not appear in the notebook are not important for sidequests, though they may still be important to the plot.
* Subverted in ''[[Mega Man ZX|Mega Man ZX Advent]]'' due to its attempts to avert [[You All Look Familiar]], where everyone you meet has different designs and personalities, except for the guys in uniform, who still act different. In other words, trying to rely on this trope to see who is important is completely pointless for this game. Though, as in all Mega Man games, the only ultimately really important ones are the robot animals/things actively shooting you.<br /><br />The ''Battle Network'' series is a strong example. Since there seem to be [[Only Six Faces]] used for all the generic NPCs ever, anyone with a unique sprite is bound to have a NetNavi that you will eventually fight [[Defeat Equals Friendship|and/or]] befriend. It is particularly noticeable in Battle Network 5, since you are in the process of building an anti-terrorism task force; if you're told to be on the lookout for a new member, expect the very next place you enter to have an NPC with a unique sprite, and expect that exact same member to be the operator of the next Navi to join your team.▼
* Subverted in ''[[Mega Man ZX|Mega Man ZX Advent]]'' due to its attempts to avert [[You All Look Familiar]], where everyone you meet has different designs and personalities, except for the guys in uniform, who still act different. In other words, trying to rely on this trope to see who is important is completely pointless for this game. Though, as in all Mega Man games, the only ultimately really important ones are the robot animals/things actively shooting you.
* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' ▼
▲**
** ''Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies'' mission "Deep Strike" is set in an area with a ravine leading from the target area back to the RTB line. After splashing the targets, you get notice that Stonehenge is firing your way and have to take your plane below 2000 feet in order to make it out of the area. The only way to do that? Why, the ravine. It also shows up in the "Megalith" mission. Those other missiles within reach aren't just for show.
** ''X: Skies of Deception'' is also in love with this. It's particularly obvious after you play both halves - or, in one case, all three thirdths - of a [[Remixed Level]]. Most of them.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', almost all enemy or NPC with unique sprites and more then a few lines of dialogue is either a boss or recruitable. Which is understandable, considering how many enemies you end up facing.
* ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]: The Game'' subverts this. There are various places that appear different on the map, many a locked door... While some of them are indeed significant, quite a few of those are [[Red Herring
* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto|Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', the dirt bike seemed to be an incredibly useless bike: not as fast as the speed bikes, not as cool-looking as the choppers, not as cool-sounding as any of the bikes. But, provided you choose the right storyline, Niko uses a dirt bike to chase {{spoiler|Pegorino}} in a helicopter. (Needless to say, the dirt bike also enables a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]).
* Used in a different way in the first two ''[[Fallout]]'' games. The point-and-click aspect leads to a prevalence of "examining" objects similar to Wasteland. Therefore, even if the character sprites are the same, a player can tell the difference this way. Upon examining two men in leather jackets, you might see this:
{{quote|
''You see a short, stocky man. He has the confident, relaxed stance of an experienced fighter.'' }}
** Also used hilariously for innocuous items that aren't really meant to be examined. Upon examining a pile of rocks:
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* In [[Ar tonelico]] II, you can tell which characters are important to the plot because they have full-body pictures used when they speak; everybody else has only a small sprite. This leads to strange situations like a visible character speaking to an "invisible" one, or [[Early-Bird Cameo|identifying a character that turns out to be very important later]] during an otherwise innocuous scene.
* Many an [[Urban Legend of Zelda]] was started thanks to this trope. Back in the day, when more rudimentary technology meant a much stricter enforcement of this, people took it for granted that only the important stuff would get detailed. So as technology got better and developers started averting this trope for the sake of providing a richer gaming world, gamers payed attention to neat but nonessential details (e.g. the Mario character portraits seen through a window in ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'') and thought that they had some greater significance.
* Modern [[Interactive Fiction]] loves this. One-room games where the player must use everything in the room are
* In ''[[Daily Life with Monster Girl|Monster Girl Quest]]'', other than kings and other rulers, only the monster girls get any paper dolls (the rest are [[Faceless Masses|just human-shaped blobs of colors]]), and they're usually the only ones with names as well. [[Better Than a Bare Bulb|Like many other tropes in the game]], this is lampshaded.
{{quote|
'''Villager A:''' Why would you call me that when I have such a glorious name? I'm ''Cervantes!''
'''Alice:''' I don't care. }}
* RPG Classic ''[[Divine Divinity]]'' takes this trope and uses a sledgehammer to destroy it. It contains innummerable amounts of plot-unrelated or useless things like kitchen ware, pictures, junk and all sorts of other things that can be bought or sold for no reason or moved around yet not used for anything useful. It also contains a lot of [[In-Game Novel|books]], most of which are highly entertaining short stories and at least two longer series, one about an Ork pirate and his adventures. Others show spells and demon summoning or are about the ingame world, describing plants, animals and monsters.
* Averted in ''[[Shenmue]]''. The town is full of buildings you can enter and characters you can talk to, but only a handful of them are important in any way.
* Averted in ''[[Dreamweb]]'' - there's plenty of items you can take, but the most of them are useless, and would just clutter your inventory. (things like plates, cups, lighters, and so on)
* Averted in the ''[[Deus Ex]]'' series, there's dozens of characters you can talk to that have no impact on the plot and serve no purpose, and there's lots of virtual books that are interesting to read but don't really serve any actual purpose.
==
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' the author had intended for a one
* ''[[Goblins]]'' - A strip introduces a prominent glass [http://www.goblinscomic.com/02092010/ window] on an inn. Prominent and shiny. MinMax is forbidden to smash it. There is exactly zero chance the window will remain intact.
* Invoked by Gabe in a ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' strip where, while playing Skyrim, he insists on carrying 270 pounds worth of BROOMS because he didn't "[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/14 want to get to the fucking Broom Dungeon and be, like, "why didn't I pick up all those brooms?]"!"
* ''[[Homestuck]]''. Every detail is either important or will later get reused for a [[Call Back]] or [[Running Gag]]. ''Every. One.'' And there are a lot of them.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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[[Category:The Law of Conservation of Detail]]
[[Category:Mechanics of Writing]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Law of Conservation of Detail, The}}
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