Topic on Forum:Trope Talk

Suspiciously High Security?

1
2dgirlfan (talkcontribs)

Characters realize something isn't what it looks like because there is way too much security for its cover. A bakery shouldn't have the latest alarms, so clearly it's actually a front for drug sales. The conspiracy writer who has gone on a vacation without telling anyone shouldn't have a huge team of FBI agents watching their apartment. A random assault at a bowling alley shouldn't have a high profile construction company foot the legal bill.

Sometimes justified by requiring a character's expertise to spot: The protagonist's intelligence background allows him to notice all the people standing around have concealed weapons of the same make and model, only a wizard will realize there are magic traps, the alarms are invisible except to a career criminal. Other times it is merely Revealing Coverup.

Do we have anything like this?