History Main / CoverDrop

* ''The Literature/{{Wraeththu}}'' RPG is not one of the three [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Worst_RPGs_ever worst RPGs of all time]], but tends to come up once those have been addressed. Its cover features a broken dagger and some kind of strange ornamental flower. Inside, it transpires that the game is about a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] [[OneGenderRace all-male]] hermaphroditic race of {{Bishonen}} [[OurElvesAreBetter who are better than you at everything,]] ''[[OurElvesAreBetter human]]''. Their penises are shaped like flowers.

** ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'': The image from the 1987 cover by Creator/DeyRey[=/=]{{Creator/Ballantine}}, which is used repeatedly thereafter, has a figure in a spacesuit climbing a crumbling statue. This scene occurs on Melpomenia, the only planet they visit that doesn’t have an atmosphere to support human life.

* Most ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books show the protagonist morphing into an animal, and rarely repeat one from another cover. #45 shows Marco changing into an ant, even though it's only one morph out of several that he uses to reveal his powers to [[spoiler:his father]] and he doesn't even complete it before demorphing. Given that Marco ''hates'' his ant morph, this seems to have been written in just because he doesn't do any new or interesting morphs to put on the cover instead.
** #44 creates a contrived story about Cassie winding up in Australia by accident. As the review blog Blog/CinnamonBunzuh put it, "Let's talk about the cover, since the only reason this book was written was so Mattingly could draw a kangaroo."

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'''s opening is a variant on the Music/BowlingForSoup song "Today's Gonna Be a Great Day," and over time Phineas and Ferb do most of the bizarre things that the song mentions. Eventually it seems like the creators felt obligated to include everything, leading to scenes like this:

* Much of Music/PhilCollins' video for "In The Air Tonight" is a tight close-up of his face, much like the cover of his first solo album, ''Face Value''.

* The title track of Music/TheDoors' ''Strange Days'' album begins the video with one, and focuses on three of the circus performers on the cover (the dwarf, the juggler and the acrobat) as they explore New York.

* The cover art of Music/PinkFloyd's 1987 ''A Momentary Lapse Of Reason'' comes from the line "a vision of an empty bed" from the song, "Yet Another Movie".

* The cover image of Music/KatyPerry's ''Teenage Dream'' appears in the video to "California Gurls".

** Near the end of the video for "So Far Away", there is a partial dissolve to a shot of a dobro like the one featured on the cover of ''Music/BrothersInArms''.

* The [[http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/popcrush.com/files/2014/01/AGBW.jpg cover]] for A Great Big World's ''Is There Anybody Out There?'' comes from a line in the song "Rockstar": "There's a girl in the tree top looking at the stars, waiting for a touchdown comin' in from Mars, thinkin', 'Is there anybody out there?'"

* The full cover for ''[[http://www.sonicabuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/cormorant.jpg Dwellings]]'' by Music/{{Cormorant}} is really awesome. What's just as cool is that just about each piece of it is in reference to at least one song (the wire-walker for "Funambulist", the giants creating humanity from "The First Man", the Tower of Babel itself for "Confusion of Tongues", to name but a few).
* The cover art from Music/{{Aurora}}'s ''[[https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/770x0/3b34f6f1b339e9857fb276c318cb8b05.jpg All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend]]'' is described in the post-chorus of the song "Home": "Wrapped inside a cocoon made of flesh and bones".

* The first verse of "Oceania" by Music/TheBirthdayMassacre describes the cover of its album, ''Superstition''.
-->From the ocean, we were washed up on the other shore.\\
We didn't know where we'd been, or who we were before.\\
We were two brothers and a sister with three poisoned hearts,\\
We walked so close together, but our souls were always far apart.
* Music/Project86's music video for "Spy Hunter" involves the lead singer getting shot with a cannon, leaving him with a gaping (yet [[BloodlessCarnage surprisingly bloodless]]) hole all the way through his torso. At the very end, he grabs a knife and holds it behind his back, so it's still visible through his torso hole--recreating the pose from the ''Songs to Burn Your Bridges By'' album cover art.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'''s opening is a variant on the Music/BowlingForSoup song "Today's Gonna Be a Great Day," and over time Phineas and Ferb do most of the CrazyAwesome things that the song mentions. Eventually it seems like the creators felt obligated to include everything, leading to scenes like this:

* ''The Literature/{{Wraeththu}}'' RPG is not one of the three [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Worst_[=RPGs=]_ever worst [=RPGs=] of all time]], but tends to come up once those have been addressed. Its cover features a broken dagger and some kind of strange ornamental flower. Inside, it transpires that the game is about a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] [[OneGenderRace all-male]] hermaphroditic race of {{Bishonen}} [[OurElvesAreBetter who are better than you at everything,]] ''[[OurElvesAreBetter human]]''. Their penises are shaped like flowers.

* The cover of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' displays a close up of an image which repeats throughout the story, the Comedian's bloodstained smiley, although it is not readily apparent that this is what is being shown until it appears in the novel.

** The cover of ''Comicbook/TheMultiversity: Pax Americana'' does the same trick with a burning flag with a peace symbol on it, for the Peacemaker.

** ''Literature/Foundation1951'':
*** The 1965 Creator/{{Panther}} cover has an artist depicting the Time Vault, where the [[PosthumousCharacter long-dead]] Hari Seldon [[DeadManWriting has a holographic message for the successors of Terminus]]. It’s a red cube containing the {{Hologram}} of Seldon in a room with red walls.
*** The Creator/DelRey cover from 1983 has an artist depicting the Time Vault, where the [[PosthumousCharacter long-dead]] Hari Seldon [[DeadManWriting has a holographic message for the successors of Terminus]]. It’s a green cube containing the {{Hologram}} of Seldon set upon a pedestal.
*** The Creator/BantamSpectra cover from 1991 has an artist depicting the Time Vault, where the [[PosthumousCharacter long-dead]] Hari Seldon [[DeadManWriting has a holographic message for the successors of Terminus]]. It’s a blue cylinder containing the {{Hologram}} of Seldon behind a bronze vault door with blackness behind it.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/LuckyStarrAndThePiratesOfTheAsteroids'': The original 1953 cover shows Lucky's EVA battle versus Dingo with the push-guns.

* In the video for "After The Fire", [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]] lights a match at thend of the first chorus, echoing the cover of his solo album, ''Under A Raging Moon''.

** The opening, closing and "opera section" (I see a little silhouette of a man, now ...) of "Bohemian Rhapsody" have the group arranged in the same pose as the cover of the album, ''Queen II''.

* The cover for Music/{{Aurora}}'s album ''[[https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/770x0/3b34f6f1b339e9857fb276c318cb8b05.jpg All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend]]'' is referenced in the post-chorus for the song "Home": "Wrapped inside a cocoon made of flesh and bones / Doesn't really matter where you come from".

* The first three ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' games did this. In the first two, the title screens turn out to be the first frame of the opening cutscenes, and in the third one, it shows Kratos silhouetted against the world after it's [[spoiler:been plunged into eternal chaos]], which just so happens to be the last cutscene of the game.

* All three of the ''VideoGame/GodOfWarSeries'' did this. In the first two, the title screens turn out to be the first frame of the opening cutscenes, and in the third one, it shows Kratos silhouetted against the world after it's [[spoiler:been plunged into eternal chaos]], which just so happens to be the last cutscene of the game.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Wraeththu}}'' is not one of the three [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Worst_[=RPGs=]_ever worst [=RPGs=] of all time]], but tends to come up once those have been addressed. Its cover features a broken dagger and some kind of strange ornamental flower. Inside, it transpires that the game is about a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] [[OneGenderRace all-male]] hermaphroditic race of {{Bishonen}} [[OurElvesAreBetter who are better than you at everything,]] ''[[OurElvesAreBetter human]]''. Their penises are shaped like flowers.

* Most ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books show the protagonist morphing into an animal, and rarely repeat one from another cover. #45 shows Marco changing into an ant, even though it's only one morph out of several that he uses to reveal his powers to [[spoiler:his father]] and he doesn't even complete it. One gets the impression that it was written in just because he doesn't have any new or interesting form to put on the cover instead.
** #44 creates a contrived story about Cassie winding up in Australia by accident. As the review blog '''Blog/CinnamonBunzuh''' put it, "Let's talk about the cover, since the only reason this book was written was so Mattingly could draw a kangaroo."

[[folder:Anime]]
* The fight scene that's shown prominently in the opening of ''Anime/HandShakers'' is Tazuna and Koyori's second battle with Kodama. We finally see the fight in full in Episode 9.
* Two fight scenes from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''[='s=] second opening (Goku versus [[PettingZooPeople Bergamo]] and Vegeta versus [[MagicalGirl Ribrianne]]) end up happening within the Tournament of Power.
[[/folder]]

* The cover of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts1'' shows a heart-shaped moon in the background with the main characters sitting atop a tower. The significance of the moon doesn't become apparent until the third game, where it is revealed to be the entity "Kingdom Hearts". The city also resembles the World That Never Was, the world in which the Kingdom Hearts moon is seen.