History Main / SpottingTheThread

* ''Franchise/{{Mistborn}}'': The Kandra can easily shapeshift into anyone whose body they've eaten, except for their hair, which they need to transplant strand by strand. In ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'', Wayne muses that he should keep an eye out for someone without any hair on their..,[[LastSecondWordSwap arms.]]

See also AGlitchInTheMatrix or a RevealingContinuityLapse, for when dreams or illusions are given away by their imperfections, INeverToldYouMyName and INeverSaidItWasPoison for when the impostor gives themselves away by revealing they know something they shouldn't, SuspiciouslyPrescientPlanning for when excessive planning for something one could not reasonably anticipate gives away a crime, or ConfrontingYourImpostor, which is what happens when somebody stumbles upon somebody else pretending to be them.

** In ''Zero Dawn'', Pitt has a computer search uncover that over 80 people died on April 18th, 1906, all at almost the same time at different places but each obit almost exactly the same with just a few words changed. They all actually died in an experiment gone wrong (which inadvertently caused the San Francisco Earthquake) and the government hushed it up. Lampshaded by the government agent dryly stating that in 1906, no one was really considering the possibility some fancy machine would be able to see through the pattern.

See also AGlitchInTheMatrix or a RevealingContinuityLapse, for when dreams or illusions are given away by their imperfections, INeverToldYouMyName and INeverSaidItWasPoison for when the impostor gives themselves away by revealing they know something they shouldn't, or ConfrontingYourImpostor, which is what happens when somebody stumbles upon somebody else pretending to be them.

** During case 4 of the first ''Ace Attorney'' game, Phoenix Wright completely bluffs about how someone who had been shot could have carried a bullet from the scene of a crime...and, following it to its logical conclusion, helps prove it.

Related to PullTheThread, as this is often what leads to it. Compare SayingTooMuch, a more incriminating version. See also ConvictionByCounterfactualClue, when this gets even more unrealistic, and ConvictionByContradiction, which overlooks that there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the discrepancy. Often overlaps with ImposterForgotOneDetail. Compare ForWantOfANail.

* Cermit in the WebVideo/DevilArtemis universe gave himself away as having impersonated Kermit when he referred to their friend "Broly", not knowing that Kermit calls him Billy.

* In 1972, Klaus Altmann, [[ArgentinaIsNaziLand a German living in Bolivia]], was interviewed by French journalists after being accused by NaziHunter Beate Klarsfeld of being notorious war criminal Klaus Barbie. Altmann vehemently denied being Barbie until the journalist asked him if he'd ever been to Lyon (where Barbie had been head of the Gestapo). Altmann replied that he hadn't...except that the question had been asked ''in French'', a language "Klaus Altmann" would not have spoken, but that Barbie did speak. He tried to cover himself by claiming to have been to Versailles during the war, but the damage was done and his identity was confirmed soon after, allowing him to eventually be extradited and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes.

*

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': During the second scene of the game, the main character will note that [[TheFashionista Junko Enoshima]] looks different from her cover shots on magazines. This is then played off as [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the result of touch-ups and editing]]. Some of her dialogue during Free Time events also seems incongruous with her Ultimate Fashionista title. [[spoiler:Chapter 6 reveals that the girl everyone met at the start was not Junko, but rather her [[FraternalTwins fraternal twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba]], whose appearance is very similar, but with a few [[DyeHard minor]] [[YouthfulFreckles differences]].]]

!!Examples:

* In ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', Kyousuke first suspects that [[spoiler:Aoi is actually the White Queen]] when she doesn't forget about him when he's out of her sight (in the setting, normal people can't remember anything about summoners outside their field of vision). This wasn't certain evidence on its own, since [[spoiler:Aoi is an ArtificialHuman to which this might not apply]]. The key evidence is [[spoiler:"Aoi" using a specific technique for squirting water with one's hands, which Kyousuke originally taught to the White Queen. However, it's implied that these slip-ups may have actually been deliberate, given that the end of that novel reveals that the White Queen wanted Kyousuke to defeat her]].

* Creator/CliveCussler is fond of this in many of his books from SpotTheImpostor to figuring out clues behind some event.
** In ''Iceberg'', Dirk Pitt instantly knows something is up with Kristi as she is supposed to have spent years living in the jungles of South America but her tan is far too shallow.
** In ''The Mediterranean Caper'', Pitt finds it odd that Bruno Von Till, who boasts of his past as a World War I combat pilot, would have a model of a submarine in his study. This leads to his investigation that [[spoiler:Von Till is actually wanted Nazi war criminal Admiral Eric Heibert.]]
** The same novel has Pitt managing to spot the clues to tell him [[spoiler:cop Darius is TheMole for Von Till.]]
%%** ''Literature/RaiseTheTitanic'' has a great scene of Pitt explaining how he's figured out the identities of the Soviet spies on the NUMA project.
** ''Night Probe'' has former MI-6 agent Shaw (who may or not truly be Franchise/JamesBond) brought to his old headquarters to be recruited into a mission. After agreeing, Shaw asks why they bothered using a building that quite clearly has been deserted for years from the amount of dust around to the lack of a regular staff. The head agent admits it was both to set Shaw at ease and test his observation skills.
*** After a younger agent mocks his age at an airport, Shaw puts him in his place by pointing out how a "businessman" has been following them for the last ten minutes to a flight attendant at a terminal where her airline doesn't have any flights.
** In Literature/TheOregonFiles novel ''Skeleton Coast'', Sloane Macintryre shocks Juan by being the first person to see through the ''Oregon's'' facade of a run-down tramp ship. She's spotted several of the crewmembers wearing clothing or watches far too expensive for a crew barely scraping by. Also, having grown up around boats all her life, she knows there's no way the ''Oregon'' can be moving so fast without highly advanced turbines developed after it was built. The fact the ship was moving when the bridge telegram was at "all stop" and it took several minutes for the "smokestacks" to billow out smoke added to it. The clincher is her pulling back a painting on the wall to reveal a hidden camera as she'd seen Juan glancing to it a few times during their talk.
** In ''Zero Dawn'', Pitt has a computer search uncover that over 80 people died on April 18th, 1906, all at almost the same time at different places but each obit almost exactly the same with just a few words changed. They all actually died in an experiment gone wrong (which inadvertently caused the San Francisco Earthquake) and the government hushed it up. Lampshaded by the government agent dryly stating that in 1906, no one was really considering the possibility some fancy machine would be able to see through the pattern.
** The Isaac Bell series focuses on a detective who's a master of spotting the tiny details (such as figuring out a man faked being knocked out in a fight as his eyes are still very alert rather than showing the effects of a blow).