History Main / VoodooShark

** In game Mankar Camoran's model was that of an Altmer, but his backstory made it clear he should be a Bosmer given the explanation for how in universe racial features are passed down from the mother, and his mother was a Bosmer, making it appear as though his model was incorrectly set to an Altmer. To explain this plothole, Bethesda handwaved it on a forum post by saying he used Mehrunes' Razor to turn into his "perfect form". The issue is that that it never is explained why the razor, which has only ever been made a dagger good for killing people, has RealityWarper powers that can let him change his race,, and if it can why doesn't [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim the next game]] have said item let it do that? Why would Mankar even turn himself into an Altmer, when it doesn't offer him anything besides appearances, and his plans are unaffected by his appearance? It also raises the issue of why he doesn't have said weapon in game, since it seems potentially powerful to change followers into other creatures or even change himself to be more powerful. This is on top of other inconsistencies with him, such as his commentaries not lining up with his backstory, meaning being an Altmer to begin with makes more sense than a Bosmer, but because his background makes it clear he should be a Bosmer, the explanation for why he's an Altmer makes the plothole bigger instead of solving it.

** In game Mankar Camoran's model was that of an Altmer, but his backstory made it clear he should be a Bosmer given the explanation for how in universe racial features are passed down from the mother, and his mother was a Bosmer, making it appear as though his model was incorrectly set to an Altmer. To explain this plothole, Bethesda handwaved it on a forum post by saying he used Mehrunes' Razor to turn into his "perfect form". The issue is that that it never is explained why the razor, which has only ever been made a dagger good for killing people, has RealityWarper powers that can let him change his race,, and if it can why doesn't [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim the next game]] have said item let it do that? Why would Mankar even turn himself into an Altmer, when it doesn't offer him anything besides appearances, and his plans are unaffected by his appearance? It also raises the issue of why he doesn't have said weapon in game, since it seems potentially powerful to change followers into other creatures or even change himself to be more powerful. This is on top of other inconsistencies with him, such as his commentaries not lining up with his backstory, meaning being an Altmer to begin with actually more sense than a Bosmer, but because his background makes it clear he should be a Bosmer, the explanation for why he's an Altmer makes the plothole bigger instead of solving it.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValleyExpanded'' attempted to justify why the Farmer uses only melee weapons against the monsters when firearms are known to exist in the setting by having Marlon explain that monsters cannot be harmed by conventional weapons and the melee weapons are imbued with magic. This then raises the question of how nonmagical slingshot projectiles like rocks, chunks of ore and the like...and more tellingly, ''bombs'' are able to harm the monsters.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** The series features Psyche-Locks -- red locks over a person's heart that are a visual representation of how much a person is willing to hide a secret, only visible to one who holds an explicitly magical charm. Fair enough. In ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', one person had ''black'' Psyche-Locks over them, which could not be removed at all and no explanation was given as to what the hell was up with them. [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies The next installment]] gave an explanation: The black Psyche-Locks hide a traumatic secret that the person is repressing -- in other words, not even they know the secret and it's potentially psychologically damaging to interrogate them about it. But the secret hidden by the black Psyche-Locks in ''Apollo Justice'' was a motive for murder, and it was something the person spilled the beans about in court after a little prodding (albeit possibly [[SanitySlippage losing his mind as a result]]). The question of how exactly that was worthy of black Psyche-Locks has bothered the fandom ever since, and has resulted in countless amounts of WildMassGuessing.
** Another important plot point in ''Dual Destines'' was the introduction of "The Dark Age of Law", a period the ''AA'' world was now set in with public opinion of the legal system at an all-time low ([[RippedFromTheHeadlines meant to mirror similar events in Japan at the time]]), which is explained as being because Phoenix Wright was disbarred for presenting forged evidence and a prosecutor, Simon Blackquill, murdered [[spoiler:Metis Cykes]] eight years ago. This is despite the fact that ''numerous'' instances in the prior six games featured the heroes taking down members of the legal system for corruption and murder, up and to including [[spoiler:[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations Blaise Debeste]]]], possibly ''the most powerful legal figure in the country!'' How these two incidents would cause such a stir that the echoes of it would still be weighing on the country so many years later is never explained, nor why no one would mention it in ''Apollo Justice'' for that matter.

** The 5th Edition ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' book created one for Tieflings in its attempt to provide more options for how a Tiefling came to be. In prior editions, Tieflings were given a vague explanation of being mortals who were born affected by the Lower Planes, which was vague enough that it left people wondering what exactly that meant, given the idea of "half-fiend" was covered by the Cambion as a monster. Generally the difference was handwaved by saying that Tieflings were closer to a product of Fiendish energy, while Cambions were explicitly born from the union of a Fiend and mortal. ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything' tried to provide more background options for most races, with Tieflings being focused around the origin of their Fiendish nature, one of which was being the child of a Fiend and a mortal, which is the origins of Cambions, once again raising the question of what exactly a Tiefling is, and what separates them from Cambions, and leaving it unclear what really makes them special beyond gameplay justifications.

** In game Mankar Camoran's model was that of an Altmer, but his backstory made it clear he should be a Bosmer given the explanation for how in universe racial features are passed down from the mother, and his mother was a Bosmer, making it appear as though his model was incorrectly set to an Altmer. To explain this plothole, Bethesda handwaved it on a forum post by saying he used Mehrunes' Razor to turn into his "perfect form". The issue is that that it never is explain why the razor, which has in almost every game been a dagger that was just really good at killing people, have the power to change one's genetic or racial appearance like that, and if it can why doesn't [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim the next game]] allow the player to do so? Why would Mankar even turn himself into an Altmer, when it doesn't offer him anything besides appearances, and his plans are unaffected by his appearance? It also raises the issue of why he doesn't have said weapon in game, since it seems potentially powerful. Instead of just admitting it was an oversight, the "explanation" created a plothole that has never been discussed again by Bethesda.

* The removal of levitation and teleportation spells from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' for technical/design reasons was [[WatsonianVersusDoylist explained in-universe]] as being legally banned across Tamriel, with its presence in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind the previous game]] being retroactively justified as a treaty exception exclusive to the province of Morrowind. What this doesn't explain is why not one single person in all of Cyrodiil, not even criminals and psychopaths who unconscionably commit far worse crimes, ever considers breaking this particular law when it would be to their benefit. (The ''Tribunal'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' also had this restriction, but with the more plausible explanation that levitation was actively suppressed by Almalexia, a powerful PhysicalGod, and only within the city where she resided.) Stranger still, when the Mages Guild banned necromancy, it caused a bunch of their members to leave in protest, yet somehow levitation and teleportation magic being banned didn't, despite being more valuable and having legitimately good reasons to remain legal compared to necromancy. This could potentially be explained by the necromancy ban being a matter of guild policy rather than Imperial law, but it still serves to highlight the complete absence of any discussion surrounding something even more controversial (and unenforceable) as the Levitation Act.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':

--->'''Zoidberg:''' My home! It burned down! How did this happen?!\\

** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E11HowHermesRequisitionedHisGrooveBack How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back]]", Morgan asks Fry why he has a cap full of yogurt in his locker. He says it used to be milk, but it expired because "time makes fools of us all". This, of course, raises the question of why he had a cap full of milk in the first place. (And why he had a waterproof cap.)

** "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E15TheFarnsworthParabox The Farnsworth Parabox]]" revolves around the Planet Express crew interacting with their counterparts from an AlternateUniverse the professor finds inside a box he created, and the crew end up visiting several other such universes over the course of the episode. This contradicts a brief gag from "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E15IDatedARobot I Dated a Robot]]" where the crew visited the edge of their own universe to see a parallel universe where everyone wears cowboy hats, with Farnsworth claiming that there were only two parallel universes when Fry asked if an infinite number existed. In a DVDCommentary, the writers "[[TrollingCreator explain]]" this discrepancy by stating that all of the universes in "The Farnsworth Parabox" are perpendicular universes. This raises the questions of what exactly a perpendicular universe is and how it differs from a parallel universe, while ignoring the much simpler explanantion that Farnsworth just didn't ''know'' about the existence of other universes.

** The Rooters story arc makes a retcon in an attempt to explain some controversial AF elements, such as the change in Kevin's origin (who went from being a {{Mutant|s}} to a HalfHumanHybrid descended from an alien species known as Osmosian) and the existence of various [[HalfHumanHybrid Human-Alien Hybrids.]] Said explanation is that Osmosians actually ''are'' a subspecies of human similar to mutants, the various hybrid kids were actually regular humans who got their alien traits by being guinea pigs for a black op (with Kevin's friend Argit being the specific source for one such kid, Pierce), and none of them remembered this because they suffered LaserGuidedAmnesia. Problem is, that doesn't explain why nobody before questioned the fact Kevin claimed to be from an alien species that apparently didn't exist.

And Azmuth explicitly references the Osmosians, which raises even more questions. It didn't help that Aggregor, the one major Osmosian villain (other than Kevin himself whenever he's DrunkWithPower) faced prior to this specific series, was originally planned to be retconned as a lab experiment in the same arc, but was absent from it in the final version.
** In season 1 of ''Omniverse'', Malware somehow manages to destroy Ben's alien form Feedback (despite the form being basically just DNA inside the Omnitrix). The reason given to explain why Ben can't just scan Conductoid DNA again to re-acquire the form is that Malware's tampering with the Omnitrix caused a failsafe glitch, leaving the Omnitrix unable to acquire this particular DNA ever again. The problem? Ben has changed Omnitrix ''twice'' since this happened, so there really is no reason for following models of the Omnitrix to still suffer this glitch.

** The Rooters story arc makes a retcon in an attempt to explain some controversial AF elements, such as the change in Kevin's origin (who went from being a {{Mutant|s}} to a HalfHumanHybrid descended from an alien species known as Osmosian) and the existence of various [[HalfHumanHybrid Human-Alien Hybrids.]] Said explanation is that Osmosians actually ''are'' a subspecies of human similar to mutants, the various hybrid kids were actually regular humans who got their alien traits by being guinea pigs for a black op (with Kevin's friend Argit being the specific source for one such kid, Pierce), and none of them remembered this because they suffered LaserGuidedAmnesia. Problem is, that doesn't explain why nobody before questioned the fact Kevin claimed to be from an alien species that apparently didn't exist, nor does it explain why nobody ever questioned how the Plumber's Kids were the sole alien-human hybrids of their kind in existence. And Azmuth explicitly references the Osmosians, which raises even more questions. It didn't help that Aggregor, the one major Osmosian villain (other than Kevin himself whenever he's DrunkWithPower) faced prior to this specific series, was originally planned to be retconned as a lab experiment in the same arc, but was absent from it in the final version.

The writers catch a particularly bad PlotHole, but they have to leave it in because it's [[AnthropicPrinciple a critical part of the story]]. So the writers make an attempt to {{handwave}} this plot hole away, except the handwave ''itself'' is a Plot Hole. It might even make the initial Plot Hole even bigger. This plot hole in a plot hole is what we call a Voodoo Shark.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The Wall of the Faithless is a giant wall around the realm of Kelemvor, the god of the dead, were people who didn't worship any god(s) in life have their souls trapped and [[FateWorseThanDeath slowly disintegrated]] until they [[CessationOfExistence cease to exist]]. But when the writers realized that the Wall made Kelemvor (who is intended to be LawfulNeutral) seem like a {{Jerkass God|s}}, they decided that the Wall was made by the previous death god Myrkul (who was evil), so Kelemvor removed it and just rewarded or punished unbelievers based on their deeds in life. Unfortunately, this made enough mortals stop worshiping gods (who [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly need worship to survive]]) that Kelemvor was forced to put the Wall back in place. The problems with this explanation are three-fold. One: getting a good afterlife isn't the only reason people worship gods, as they provide other benefits such as giving clerics their magic or just providing a sense of fulfilment to some. Two: it still makes Kelemvor look bad still, as it raises the question of why he can't just make the souls of non-believers cease to exist right away, as that's going to happen anyway after the Wall is done with them, so he might as well spare them the suffering. Three: it makes every other god look bad, especially the Good-aligned ones, since it makes them into {{Hypocrite}}s who don't really care about mortals unless they worship the gods, which defies the characterization of a lot of Good-aligned deities as being defenders of mortal races.

* The removal of levitation and teleportation spells from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' for technical/design reasons was [[WatsonianVersusDoylist explained in-universe]] as being legally banned across Tamriel, with its presence in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind the previous game]] being retroactively justified as a treaty exception exclusive to the province of Morrowind. What this doesn't explain is why not one single person in all of Cyrodiil, not even criminals and psychopaths who unconscionably commit far worse crimes, ever considers breaking this particular law when it would be to their benefit. (The ''Tribunal'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' also had this restriction, but with the more plausible explanation that levitation was actively suppressed by Almalexia, a powerful PhysicalGod, and only within the city where she resided.) Stranger still, when the Mages Guild banned necromancy, it caused a bunch of their members to leave in protest, yet somehow levitation and teleportation magic being banned didn't, despite being more valuable. This could potentially be explained by the necromancy ban being a matter of guild policy rather than Imperial law, but it still serves to highlight the complete absence of any discussion surrounding something even more controversial (and unenforceable) as the Levitation Act.

* The removal of levitation spells from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' for technical/design reasons was [[WatsonianVersusDoylist explained in-universe]] as being legally banned across Tamriel, with its prevalence in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind the previous game]] being retroactively justified as a treaty exception exclusive to the province of Morrowind. What this doesn't explain is why not one single person in all of Cyrodiil, not even criminals and psychopaths who unconscionably commit far worse crimes, ever considers breaking this particular law. (The ''Tribunal'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' also had such a restriction, but had the more plausible explanation that levitation was actively suppressed by Almalexia, a powerful PhysicalGod, and only within the city where she resided) Notably stranger about it was in universe when the Mages Guild banned Necromancy, it caused a bunch of their members to leave in protest, yet somehow the act of levitating or teleportation magic being banned doesn't, despite being more valuable of a field of magic.

* The ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' franchise has had a bit of a problem with the setting, story, and characters being seen as a ClicheStorm, with elements like characters using [[ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge medieval-style weapons in the future]], [[MagicByAnyOtherName symbology being magic]], and things like GlobalCurrency. Most of these were considered RuleOfCool logic that lots of other games used. The [[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime third game]] attempted to explain these and more with TheReveal the entire setting of the ''Star Ocean'' franchise is actually set inside a MMORPG created for 4D beings, and the BigBad wanted to have them erased for learning symbology. This raised so many extra questions. What about other people playing the game? How is maintenance done on a game of such scope and scale that it created an entire universe? Does this mean the first two games are not also retroactively set in a video game? How could it be possible for a video game MMO to run long enough that at least in game wise, thousands of years of civilization and life had been born? If the characters GrewBeyondTheirProgramming, how did anyone not notice until now? And after the servers are wiped, how do the characters and their universe inexplicably all survive like nothing happened? The twist is canon to the ''Star Ocean'' series, but it was so divisive upon release, it hardly gets mentioned anymore. The fourth game in the series had to use an AuthorsSavingThrow by introducing the concept of TheMultiverse, thus leaving the twist in while having a way to work around it, and in general, the developers seem to treat it as an OldShame.

* The removal of levitation spells from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' for technical/design reasons was [[WatsonianVersusDoylist explained in-universe]] as being legally banned across Tamriel, with its prevalence in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind the previous game]] being retroactively justified as a treaty exception exclusive to the province of Morrowind. What this doesn't explain is why not one single person in all of Cyrodiil, not even criminals and psychopaths who unconscionably commit far worse crimes, ever considers breaking this particular law. (The ''Tribunal'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' also had such a restriction, but had the more plausible explanation that levitation was actively suppressed by Almalexia, a powerful PhysicalGod, and only within the city where she resided.)

*** Vamp's immortality was ascribed to {{Nanomachines}}, although Naomi specifically mentions that they only work because he ''already'' has a supernatural and unexplainable regenerative ability, as if to annoy as many people as possible.

* In ''Literature/InannasDescentToTheNetherworld'', Ereshkigal's first husband, Gugalana, has been killed off by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh''. Ereshkigal is mourning for him and [[spoiler:gets to keep Inanna's husband Dumuzi for six months of the year, as LaserGuidedKarma for her trying to steal Gugalana and getting him killed in the first place]]. OK...but Ereshkigal is the goddess of death and the underworld. Shouldn't Gugalana be down there with her? One theory among people who have studied the myths is that Ereshkigal is merely the gatekeeper and cannot go into death itself to find him, though not enough of the original myth survives to confirm this.

* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. When the anti-intellectual bully Buford is revealed to be fluent in French, he waves it off as being easy to learn if you know Latin. Another episode had an acknowledged one when Dr. Doofenshmirtz's teleporter, after spinning a wheel of possible destinations, sends its targets into his pants. He figures out that the he confused it with his dry-cleaning wheel, hence why his pants were among the possibilities...but he has no idea why his dry-cleaning wheel is a thing that exists.

* The ending of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' involves Los Angeles being invaded and devastated by King Andrias's robot army, and this is shown to be broadcast on TV and the internet all over the world. In the DistantFinale, we're shown that people dismiss the entire thing as a hoax. The spinoff book ''Marcy's Journal'' explains that the government covered it up by explaining it as a movie shoot that went horribly wrong. That, however, raises further questions, such as why anyone would believe a movie shoot was done in a crowded city with no warning beforehand.

'''[[TinCanRobot Bender]]:''' ''[picking up his still-lit cigar from the underwater ruins]'' So that's where I left my cigar. ''[puffs on it, blows a smoke ring]''\\

* The ending of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' involves Los Angeles being invaded and devastated by King Andrias's robot army, and this is shown to be broadcast on TV and the internet all over the world. In the DistantFinale, we're shown that people dismiss the entire thing as a hoax. The spinoff book ''Marcy's Journal'' explains that the government covered it up by explaining it as a movie shoot that went horribly wrong. That, however, raises further questions, such as why a movie shoot would be done in a crowded city with no warning beforehand.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'', the [[{{Lilliputians}} Minish]] speak a different language than the humans, which naturally causes Link some trouble when he visits their village. Festari, a resident of the village who does speak human language, points Link to an item called the Jabber Nut, [[TranslatorMicrobes which lets Link understand the Minish language]]. As a side-effect, it apparently lets him [[AnimalTalk talk to animals]]. However, this opens up a couple plot holes. First, Link's talking hat Ezlo admits that he's not very familiar with the village's dialect and thus doesn't understand most of what they say, but after Link eats the Jabber Nut, Ezlo understands everything perfectly as well, despite the game never hinting that Ezlo ate any of it. Second, Link can only understand animals while he's small; when he's full-sized, it all sounds like regular animal noises. The game never bothers to explain either issue.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In response to backlash against [[spoiler:redeeming the Diamonds, who seemingly took part in intergalactic genocide,]] Ian Jones-Quartey claimed that the Diamonds had never run into intelligent life forms before they landed on Earth. However, this just raises the question as to why there are so many soldier class Gems if the Gems have never encountered any meaningful resistance to their galactic expansion, and why the first gems to be made on Earth were all soldiers rather than builders such as Bismuths or terraformers such as Lapises.

** Most forms of stun or immobilized give the attacker advantage when attacking the enemy, a way to simulate the idea that when you attack, they cannot defend themselves, so you are able to hit them easier. However, you still can miss despite them being unable to dodge your attack which from a gameplay side makes sense balance wise, but doesn't make sense from a story telling angle. Since combat usually is given the rule that time works differently (each round being 6 seconds long), the most common explanation given is that, within that time allowed, the attack misses due to varying flavor reasons, such as hitting armor or just simply missing. The issue with this approach however is that it doesn't make sense logically speaking, even if account for the time aspect, since it happening during the round it started is plausible, but subsequent turns make less sense. If it's a case of the player hitting the wrong spot, why would they hit there when they could hit anywhere else? While someone could have armor thick enough to block it, if the person lacks armor, it doesn't make sense for them to somehow not at least damage them. This also doesn't work on things without armor since they shouldn't be able to just naturally tank an attack; how can a character miss hitting a stunned wolf with their sword if the wolf is unable to move and has no armor? The general explanation is that when trying to hit a stunned or paralyzed target, you're still swinging fast (because a combat round is only six seconds long) and thus don't have time to line up a perfect hit every time, but narratively it raises questions about how after the first time such a thing can happen, especially in situations where a character doesn't have distractions to get in the way.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The Wall of the Faithless is a giant wall around the realm of Kelemvor, the god of the dead, were people who didn't worship any god(s) in life have their souls trapped and [[FateWorseThanDeath slowly disintegrated]] until they [[CessationOfExistence cease to exist]]. But when the writers realized that the Wall made Kelemvor (who is intended to be LawfulNeutral) seem like a {{Jerkass God|s}}, they decided that the Wall was made by the previous death god Myrkul (who was evil), so Kelemvor removed it and just rewarded or punished unbelievers based on their deeds in life. Unfortunately, this made enough mortals stop worshiping gods (who [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly need worship to survive]]) that Kelemvor was forced to put the Wall back in place. The problems with this explanation are three-fold. One: getting a good afterlife isn't the only reason people worship gods, as they provide other benefits such as giving clerics their magic. Two: it still makes Kelemvor look bad, as it raises the question of why he can't just make the souls of non-believers cease to exist right away, as that's going to happen anyway after the Wall is done with them, so he might as well spare them the suffering. Three: it makes every other god look bad, especially the Good-aligned ones, since it makes them into {{Hypocrite}}s who don't really care about mortals unless they worship the gods, which defies the characterization of a lot of Good-aligned deities.

'''Bender:''' ''[picking up his still-lit cigar from the underwater ruins]'' So that's where I left my cigar. ''[puffs on it, blows a smoke ring]''\\