Voodoo Shark: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Zoidberg''' ''(underwater)'': My home, it burned down! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_g7liFq_3A How did this happen!?]

{{quote|'''Zoidberg''' ''(underwater)'': My home, it burned down! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}D_g7liFq_3A How did this happen!?]

'''Hermes:''' That's a very good question!

'''Bender''' ''(picking up his still-lit cigar from the underwater ruins)'': So that's where I left my cigar.

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== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Mai-Otome]] attempts to [[Hand Wave]] the [[Virgin Power]] of Otome by explaining that a chemical in sperm destroys the nanomachines that are injected into an Otome's body to give her her powers. This raises a couple problems:

* ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' attempts to [[Hand Wave]] the [[Virgin Power]] of Otome by explaining that a chemical in sperm destroys the nanomachines that are injected into an Otome's body to give her her powers. This raises a couple problems:

** Why does no one think to use this as a weapon against Otome? Aside from rape (which is an issue with any type of [[Virgin Power]]), this particular explanation makes it possible that someone could simply isolate this chemical, then poison the water supply, turn it into a spray, etc., and permanently depower the enemy's Otome.

** What about prophylactics? Has no one in this universe ever heard of a condom? Especially since the series is implied to have occurred [[After the End]], meaning that they somehow retained knowledge of advanced robotics, but not birth control?

* In ''[[Death Note]]'s'' second rewrite special, the mafia are cut and {{spoiler|Mikami and Takada kill the SPK in their place}}, with Light's meetings with them moved to earlier than occurred in the manga. This fixes a [[Plot Hole]] present in the original anime, wherein SPK member Ill Ratt is never revealed as a spy for Mello (providing no explanation for Mello's crew {{spoiler|knowing their names and thus able to kill them with the Death Note}}), but with the mafia plot's removal, another is created: Soichiro Yagami {{spoiler|making the trade for Shinigami Eyes and his subsequent death}} are also omitted, leaving {{spoiler|his absence}} and {{spoiler|Light's knowledge of Mello's true name}} unexplained.

* In [[Digimon Adventure 02]] , the explanation why the main characters of [[Digimon Adventure]] are no longer able to digivolve to ultimate or mega, is that the power of the crests was neccesary to restore balance to the world. The problem is that these crests were not only already destroyed, the kids had already learned to evolve without them by drawing power from either themselves(english dub) or each other(original). And the other problem is that the series had already introduced a 9th crest, still with full power, so they didn't even have the power of all the crests. And the other other problem is that the world was already reborn with restored balance at the end of the first season.

* In ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'', the explanation why the main characters of [[Digimon Adventure]] are no longer able to digivolve to ultimate or mega, is that the power of the crests was neccesary to restore balance to the world. The problem is that these crests were not only already destroyed, the kids had already learned to evolve without them by drawing power from either themselves(english dub) or each other(original). And the other problem is that the series had already introduced a 9th crest, still with full power, so they didn't even have the power of all the crests. And the other other problem is that the world was already reborn with restored balance at the end of the first season.

* In the ''[[Bleach]]'' manga, during Hitsugaya's fight with Harribel, after she seemingly kills Hitsugaya, it's moments later revealed that what she killed, and had been bleeding, is an ice clone, with the real Hitsugaya alive and well. The anime [[Bowdlerise|omits the blood]] when adapting the scene, and while this clears up the issue of how an ice clone can be made to apparently bleed, the audience is then left without explanation for why Harribel was fooled by the decoy, considering her accomplished status.

* In [[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai]] Maria and her older sister Kate are both nuns, however Maria is only 10 year old and Kate is only 15! For those who are unware it takes years of training before a person is considered a nun.so it's highly unlikely for a person to become one at age 15 let alone 10. so what is the the explanation we get for this? [[Did Not Do the Research|Apparently becoming a nun is just a part of a long-standing tradition in Maria's family.]] Needless to say,this explanation doesn't really answer the question. In fact it just makes the idea even more difficult to believe.

* In ''[[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai]]'' Maria and her older sister Kate are both nuns, however Maria is only 10 year old and Kate is only 15! For those who are unware it takes years of training before a person is considered a nun.so it's highly unlikely for a person to become one at age 15 let alone 10. so what is the the explanation we get for this? [[Did Not Do the Research|Apparently becoming a nun is just a part of a long-standing tradition in Maria's family.]] Needless to say,this explanation doesn't really answer the question. In fact it just makes the idea even more difficult to believe.

* In ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', protagonist Kira is caught in the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] of another [[Humongous Mecha|Mobile Suit]] and appears to be dead for several episodes (though they [[Never Found the Body]]). The spinoff manga ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'' explains that his Gundam had an automatic blast shutter that kept him from dying, at which point ''Astray'''s protagonist found him and got him medical attention. This would have been a good enough explanation<ref>though a bit [[Ass Pull]]-ish</ref>...had the anime not shown the Gundam's cockpit as a slagged ruin of molten metal, something that no human could have survived, blast shutter or not. Other than the [[Hand Wave]] of his [[Designer Baby]] genes supposedly making him heat-resistant enough to survive a [[Reentry Scare]] earlier, there's no explanation.

== Comic Books ==

* The leadup to DC's ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' revealed that the [[Died Happily Ever After|'pocket paradise']] which Alexander Luthor had created for himself, [[Superman]]-2 and Superboy-Prime at the end of ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'' [[Cerebus Retcon|was actually more of a]] [[Phantom Zone]], sealed off from the rest of reality by [[Magical Security Cam|a crystal wall which showed all the DCU's events in real time]]. The crisis proper started when Superboy-Prime, disgusted by [[Identity Crisis|recent events]], punched the wall in frustration, shattering it and freeing himself and the others to try and create a [[Merged Reality]], [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|whether it wanted remaking or not]]. This would have worked eminently well as an allegorical image, but [[Word of God]] stated that ''the wall was an actual physical representation of the DCU's timeline'', and used the damage caused by Superboy's punch as a catch-all [[Hand Wave]] to explain away some of the event's less explainable facts, most notably [[Back From the Dead|"dead Robin" Jason Todd suddenly 'waking up']] [[Buried Alive|in his grave]] and Maxwell Lord's completely-out-of-nowhere [[Face Heel Turn]]. [[Internet Backdraft|The fans were neither convinced nor amused]], and [[Memetic Mutation|"SUPERBOY PUNCHED TIME!"]] became something of a rallying cry.

* The leadup to DC's ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' revealed that the [[Died Happily Ever After|"pocket paradise"]] which Alexander Luthor had created for himself, [[Superman]]-2 and Superboy-Prime at the end of ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'' [[Cerebus Retcon|was actually more of a]] [[Phantom Zone]], sealed off from the rest of reality by [[Magical Security Cam|a crystal wall which showed all the DCU's events in real time]]. The crisis proper started when Superboy-Prime, disgusted by [[Identity Crisis|recent events]], punched the wall in frustration, shattering it and freeing himself and the others to try and create a [[Merged Reality]], [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|whether it wanted remaking or not]]. This would have worked eminently well as an allegorical image, but [[Word of God]] stated that ''the wall was an actual physical representation of the DCU's timeline'', and used the damage caused by Superboy's punch as a catch-all [[Hand Wave]] to explain away some of the event's less explainable facts, most notably [[Back From the Dead|"dead Robin" Jason Todd suddenly "waking up"]] [[Buried Alive|in his grave]] and Maxwell Lord's completely-out-of-nowhere [[Face Heel Turn]]. [[Internet Backdraft|The fans were neither convinced nor amused]], and [[Memetic Mutation|"SUPERBOY PUNCHED TIME!"]] became something of a rallying cry.

** Since then, the editorial staff seems to have realized its mistake, and has been at pains to re-retcon some of it. For example, lines from the ''Batman & Robin'' title, as well as the semi-canon animated version of ''[[Under the Red Hood]]'', strongly suggest that Todd's body was actually rejuvenated in a Lazarus Pit, which makes for a far more palatable explanation.

* The biggest [[Voodoo Shark~~|Voodoo Sharks~~]] in the [[DCU]] might be some of the explanations of [[Clark Kenting]]. For a brief while in the [[Bronze Age]], it was [[Canon]] that [[Superman]]'s nearly [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] worked despite all the close calls because he also had a "super-hypnosis" power that prevented anyone from noticing Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman. This depended on his glasses, which were made out of pieces of his Kryptonian spaceship; in one comic Lois Lane saw Clark Kent in a suit and no glasses and assumed it was Superman trying futilely to disguise himself as Clark. Fine, fair enough, Superman does lots of things superhumanly well due to his speed and intellect and they're all called separate superpowers. But this just raises ''more'' questions, like why does a wig work as a disguise for Supergirl? Or, why does this disguise work over television? Or, there are many stories where Batman disguises himself as Clark. Does Batman have Bat-hypnosis?

* The biggest [[Voodoo Shark]]s in the [[DCU]] might be some of the explanations of [[Clark Kenting]]. For a brief while in the [[Bronze Age]], it was [[Canon]] that [[Superman]]'s nearly [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] worked despite all the close calls because he also had a "super-hypnosis" power that prevented anyone from noticing Clark Kent's resemblance to Superman. This depended on his glasses, which were made out of pieces of his Kryptonian spaceship; in one comic Lois Lane saw Clark Kent in a suit and no glasses and assumed it was Superman trying futilely to disguise himself as Clark. Fine, fair enough, Superman does lots of things superhumanly well due to his speed and intellect and they're all called separate superpowers. But this just raises ''more'' questions, like why does a wig work as a disguise for Supergirl? Or, why does this disguise work over television? Or, there are many stories where Batman disguises himself as Clark. Does Batman have Bat-hypnosis?

** The current (and much more rational) explanation is that when he is Clark Kent, Superman acts completely differently; timid, slumped, and so completely unlike Superman no one would ever relate the two, which also makes Batman disguising himself as Clark easier to accept. Bruce Wayne is a master of disguise and he and Clark already look a lot alike. With a little makeup, Bruce could easily make himself look like Kent. There's also the later post-Crisis component of the explanation: Why does anyone assume that Superman ''has'' a secret identity?

* When talking about [[What Could Have Been]] with his run on the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic, several of former writer Ken Penders' explanations for the events in "Mobius: 25 Years Later" come off as this. A few examples:

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== Web Original ==

* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]],'' when the supposed ghost of Kaiba turns into a...[[Villainous Harlequin|gay clown]], [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|or something]]:

{{quote|'''Gay Clown:''' Actually, I'm not a clown. I'm [[The Rival|Seto Kaiba]]'s [[Super-Powered Evil Side|evil side]] brought back from the [[Eldritch Location|Shadow Realm]] by [[Big Bad|Pegasus]]--~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Gay Clown:''' Actually, I'm not a clown. I'm [[The Rival|Seto Kaiba]]'s [[Super-Powered Evil Side|evil side]] brought back from the [[Eldritch Location|Shadow Realm]] by [[Big Bad|Pegasus]]--

'''Yami:''' That's even ''less'' believable than the whole ghost story! You don't even know what you are, do you? ~~ ~~

'''Yami:''' That's even ''less'' believable than the whole ghost story! You don't even know what you are, do you?

'''Gay Clown:''' No.~~ ~~

'''Gay Clown:''' No.

'''Yami:''' Didn't think so. ''[[Kill'Em All|MIND CRUSH!]]'' }}

** This is meant to poke fun at an edit done by 4Kid's [[Macekre|Macekred]] dub; in the original version, the "clown" is simply a master of disguise hired by Pegasus to eliminate players unfortunate enough to cross with him.

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** Also [[Played for Laughs]] in one of the [[A Day At the Bizarro]] [[Halloween Episode|Halloween Episodes]]:

{{quote|'''Lisa:''' Wait a minute, [[Xena]] can't fly!

'''[[Lucy Lawless]]:''' [[I Am Not Spock|I told you, I'm not Xena--I'm Lucy Lawless]].~~ ~~

'''[[Lucy Lawless]]:''' [[I Am Not Spock|I told you, I'm not Xena--I'm Lucy Lawless]].

'''Lisa:''' Oh. }}

* ''[[Futurama]]'' is more or less made of this trope, as shown in the page quote. Made even funnier by the fact that the plot of the entire episode in question was held together by long bouts of [[Techno Babble]] and multiple [[Hand Wave|handwaves]], which even by ''Futurama'' logic barely made sense. For a start, shouldn't the Lost City of Atlanta's residents have, you know, ''drowned'' or got crushed by the high pressure of the sea bottom before procreating? Did the accelerated evolution with gills and fins start after just the second generation? Keep in mind, though, ''Futurama'' is a character-driven show that runs on [[Rule of Funny]], so [[MST3K Mantra|it's best not to worry too much about it.]]

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'''Roger:''' I know. I look too young to have kids in college.

'''Stan:''' No, that you have children when your persona is completely fabricated...

'''Roger:''' [[Ice Cream Koan|We are the music makers.]] [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|We are the dreamers of dreams]].~~ ~~

'''Roger:''' [[Ice Cream Koan|We are the music makers.]] [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|We are the dreamers of dreams]].

'''Stan:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|That is an unsatisfying answer]]. }}

** And then in a more recent episode: