Line #99 Main/ConvenientEclipse


1	[[quoteright:226:[[ComicBook/{{Tintin}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tintin_eclipse.png]]]]
2
3	->'''Cranky Kong:''' The eclipse! 3:35 p.m. exactly! So, that was your plan!\
4	'''Diddy Kong:''' Yyyyep! And it worked!
5	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'', "Kong Fu"
6
7	The heroes are in a sticky situation somewhere. So the writer makes the story happen at a specific time where a natural event, like an eclipse, is about to happen. On any other day of the year the heroes would be caught/killed, but sheer planning for the event (or just lucky outcomes due to it) yields an unexpected outcome.
8
9	This is obviously not TruthInTelevision. Eclipses are very rare, and in the modern era, you're very unlikely to see one without knowing in advance that it's happening.
10
11	A convenient way to set up a GodGuise. Compare/contrast with DeusExMachina, ContrivedCoincidence and WeatherSavesTheDay. See also TotalEclipseOfThePlot.
12
13	----
14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Comic Books]]
19	* It happens in ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' album "[[Recap/TintinPrisonersOfTheSun Prisoners of the Sun]]": when held prisoner by a surviving group of Incas and pending execution by sun-lit pyre, Tintin claims the date of the eclipse is Captain Haddock's birthday, causing the Inca priest to schedule their execution for that day. During the day itself, Tintin fakes being able to command the sun and the Incas let them go. It's a ''little'' more believable than many examples of this trope, as the Inca leader tells Tintin that he must die within a month, but can choose which time for the execution (being a full month, the chance that an eclipse actually ''would'' occur in that time period is a little higher). Also, Tintin found a newspaper that had astronomical tables printed in it. Creator/{{Herge}} himself admitted that since the Incas were solar worshippers and skilled astronomers who knew about eclipses, it's doubtful they would have been fooled by such a trick in real life.
20	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Parodied in the Creator/DonRosa comic story "The Once and Future Duck", where WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is about to be executed by (the historical) Myth/KingArthur, and he orders his nephews to wow Arthur by predicting an eclipse. After protesting [[ThisIsReality "That only works in old movies and comic books, Unca Donald!"]], they reply "You have two options: get them to pack up camp and move to Madagascar, or stay here and convince them to delay the execution for 237 years!" Don is instead saved from execution when Gyro beeps the horn on his truck and scares the whole camp silly.
21	* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' mini-series ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'', the Man of Steel and [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} his cousin]] learn their ancestor Jaf-El convinced the people of Krypton to abandon polytheism and worship Rao exclusively. When people asked Jaf-El a sign that Rao is the only god, Jaf announced Rao would turn the red sun yellow at once. When the Sun indeed turned yellow, his listeners became convinced. As listening to that story, Superman states that was the period when the Gold Volcano erupted, scattering yellow dust all over the atmosphere. He notes his ancestor couldn't have known about it, though, so maybe Jaf-El had some kind of prophetic dream after all.
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
25	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado,'' the titular city already believes that Tulio and Miguel are gods, but this gets "confirmed" when their bickering happens to coincide with a local volcano acting up; it calms down right when they do. The two of them don't even seem to notice it.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
29	* In ''Film/{{Accident}}'', an eclipse prevents the Brain's plan for killing Fong (which relies on reflected sunlight) from working. When the eclipse ends, [[spoiler:the sun comes out and the plan triggers, killing Fong's wife]].
30	* ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'': The Mayan leaders secretly know that an eclipse will occur during their sacrifices, since this is the whole point of the show. It conveniently occurs ''just before'' our hero was to be sacrificed.
31	* ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'': The climax of the movie hinges upon the fact that Marty happened to be sent mere days before the only lightning strike he could possibly know the exact time and place of, thus giving him the energy necessary to get back... [[TitleDrop to the future]].
32	* Sort-of inverted in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn2TexasBloodMoney'': the hero escapes the vampires into the sunlight... Then guess what happens. Note that the moon must have wanted the vampires to win; it literally comes racing across the sky then screeches to a halt when it reaches the proper position.
33	* ''Film/DieHard2'' has Colonel Stuart and his team heavily relying on a bad storm on the exact day they need to hold the airport to ransom. On a day with good visibility, it would have been nearly impossible to trick pilots into crashing by messing with the landing systems.
34	** It's sort of implied that they may have had some other plans if the weather had been clear. Note that Garber says "God loves the Infantry" when Cochrane gives him a weather update at the bar. The weather nicely played in their favor.
35	* ''Film/AKnightInCamelot'': Vivien Morgan accidentally [[TimeTravel travels back in time]] with her laptop into the period of Myth/ArthurianLegend and is soon arrested. Looking up info on her laptop that there should be a solar eclipse right at the time of her execution, she bluffs her way out of burning stake by threatening the locals with eternal darkness as the moon passes by.
36	* ''Film/{{Ladyhawke}}''. "Night without a day, day without a night."
37	* The musical remake of ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' has the evil plant coming to Earth during an unexpected eclipse. Never mind the fact that real eclipses are predicted decades in advance, so there's never an "unexpected" one.
38	** Which would make an alien ship passing between Earth and the Sun [[FridgeBrilliance pretty unexpected, huh?]]
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Literature]]
42	* In ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' (and any similar guy-from-now-ends-up-in-medieval-times plot), the hero just happens to be around on the same day as a total eclipse, which he can use to his benefit. On any other day of the year, he would simply be run through. There's also the convenience of him happening to know the exact date and time of the eclipse and his execution being slated at the exact same time.
43	* Occurs in the book ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' (though not most of the movie versions) to con themselves out of death at the hands of African natives. Changed to a convenient ''lunar'' eclipse in later editions when Haggard realised that solar eclipses aren't followed by full moons. One of the villains tries explaining that the eclipse is a natural occurrence that will pass soon, but no one bothers to listen to her.
44	** The 1937 British movie kept the Solar Eclipse from the first edition.
45	** It helps that one of the characters was carrying an Almanac at the time, which documents that sort of thing, and which is often logically carried on long expeditions like the one they were on.
46	* The [[http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle1951/SE1963Jul20Tgoogle.html real-life solar eclipse]] visible in Maine on July 20, 1963 is a plot point of the Creator/StephenKing novels, ''Literature/GeraldsGame'' and ''Literature/DoloresClaiborne''. King admitted he fudged the times in both books so that the eclipse path passed over Maine in early afternoon, when in reality it was near evening.
47	* The Creator/EnidBlyton adventure story ''The Secret Mountain'' (1941). The main characters need to escape from the titular mountain. They find out that there's to be a solar eclipse the next day, so at the appropriate moment their father throws his hunting knife off the mountain. The lights go out and the tribe [[GodGuise think he's killed the sun]], at which point the "big white bird" turns up to carry the heroes to safety before the tribe realise they've been had.
48	* Subverted in ''Shadow of Earth''. Where a modern-day American woman is trapped in a 'the Spanish took over all of the Americas and never developed beyond feudalism' parallel universe. The main character is annoyed about the lack of handy eclipses. Luckily being a natural blonde gets her a relatively good deal anyway.
49	* In the Creator/GeneWolfe novel ''[[Literature/BookOfTheNewSun Urth of the New Sun]]'' a convenient eclipse saves the protagonist Severian's life from an attack by Aztecs, but this is a subversion because [[spoiler:it was probably caused deliberately by time-traveling aliens who are looking out for him.]]
50	* Parodied in one of Jack Handey's books: "I bet a fun thing would be to go way back in time to where there was going to be an eclipse and tell the cave men, 'If I have come to destroy you, may the sun be blotted out from the sky.' Just then the eclipse would start, and they'd probably try to kill you or something, but then you could explain about the rotation of the moon and all, and everyone would get a good laugh."
51	* Subverted in the short story by Augusto Monterroso ''[[https://spanishtextstranslated.wordpress.com/augusto-monterroso/el-eclipse-the-eclipse/ El Eclipse]]''. Fray Bartolomé Arrazola tries to do this when he is captured and about to be sacrificed by Mayans, claiming that he will magically darken the sun unless they release him. Unfortunately for him, the Mayans had already independently calculated the dates of upcoming solar and lunar eclipses, and sacrifice him to honor the eclipse that day.
52	* Parodied, along with ThisIsMyBoomStick, by Creator/DavidLangford in "[[http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/jungle.html A Tale of the Jungle]]":
53	-->In fact, to state the Matter plain,\
54	The ''Sun'' will be eclips'd again ...\
55	To aid a troubled English Gent\
56	This Astronomical Event\
57	Is by some ''Holy Power'' sent!\
58	(And is, by Scepticks, thought to be\
59	Suspicious in its frequency.)
60	* Subverted in ''[[Literature/AmeliaPeabody The Last Camel Died At Noon]]'', an AffectionateParody of ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines''. A family of [[AdventureArchaeologist adventure archaeologists]] are in a lost civilization and looking to impress the natives. The wife asks her husband if a Convenient Eclipse coming up by any chance, and his response is essentially, "How the Hell would I know? I'm an archaeologist, not an astronomer."
61	* In Lawrence Miles's ''[[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures Interference]]'', IM Foreman prevents a town from being destroyed by convincing the attackers that he can blot out the sun. Cue an eclipse. [[SubvertedTrope However the attackers know it was an eclipse]]. Then, Foreman pretends he actually has technology allowing him to rearrange a solar system, and tells the attackers they should check his species. Turns out he's a Gallifreyan - who do own such technology and are dangerous enough to not take lightly. The attackers retreat. It was just a regular natural eclipse though.
62	* In ''Literature/{{Pharaoh}}'' Herhor (the de facto ruler of Egypt) uses one to dissuade the peasants from rebelling.
63	* The French libertine scholar Gabriel Naudé mentions the "prophecy" of solar eclipses as a way to feign supernatural abilities and thereby awe the gullible masses. His "Apology for all the great men who have been wrongly accused of magic" (1625) sets out to prove that historical figures like Pythagoras, Socrates, Solomon or even Merlin simply possessed bright minds and superior knowledge of astronomy and the laws of nature and used this to their advantage. The (heretical, and thus unspoken) implication being of course that the miracles described in the Bible were clever impostures as well (Naudé was a secret atheist who for most of his life just happened to be working as a librarian for high-ranking cardinals).
64	[[/folder]]
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66	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
67	* 1960's ''Series/Batman1966'' episode "The Cat and the Fiddle". Batman and Robin are tied under giant magnifying glasses so they'll be broiled to death by concentrated sunlight. An eclipse gives them time to move one of the glasses so it burns through their bonds and frees them.
68	* In one episode of ''Series/McHalesNavy'', the men have been ordered by Captain Binghamton to negotiate with a tribe of violent native islanders for the use of their land for an airstrip for the U.S. military. Parker tries to impress their chieftain with his lighter but it doesn't work, and while fiddling with the lighter an eclipse occurs and the chief thinks Parker did it. Mchale quickly orders the men to play along and that Parker has powerful magic.
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70
71	[[folder:Video Games]]
72	* Subverted in the InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/{{Bureaucracy}}'': At one point, the player is captured by natives. If he tries to run the eclipse predicting program, it will predict the eclipse as being "Yesterday", and the natives will mention having seen it.
73	* In the video-game adaptation of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'', when Jackie initiates his attack on his uncle's island hideaway, the sun has started to rise, and the player is left with the horrifying realization that the Darkness, which is reliant on, well, ''darkness'' to provide Jackie with his shield and offensive powers that make him capable of taking down the entire Mafia all alone, won't be any help. And then the Darkness conjures an eclipse to happen on the spot, restoring your abilities.
74	** Not that The Darkness directly conjured the eclipse as much as it [[BatmanGambit kept Jackie on the hook long enough]] that it would occur at just the right time for Jackie's raid, ensuring that Jackie would have the power required to pull off the kind of atrocities that The Darkness needed to fully take him over.
75	* In ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra'' this is how the story progresses [[spoiler: At Avdol; after defeating a member of the Rudra Cult, the party is temporarily separated: Legin takes the kidnapped children back to their families, Sork takes Lolo to see the Prophet Solon to find a way of getting Lolo's Memories back. Surlent decides to see the Eclipse, several seconds after it happens, a loud noise is heard from below and Surlent checks it out, The Rudra on the stone was awakened by the Eclipse and kills Surlent embedding a CosmicKeystone inside him]].
76	* ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' has the Grand Cross and the Leonids, which factor into the villains' plans. From this, you can tell exactly when the game took place in real life.
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79	[[folder:Web Comics]]
80	* In one ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'' arc, the guys are playing ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' as cultists. During a magic duel with a rival cult, in [[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1632 this]] strip Nelson uses the at the time real world solar eclipse across North America on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017 August 21st, 2017]] in game to defeat said rival cultists.
81	[[/folder]]
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83	[[folder:Western Animation]]
84	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' subverts and plays around with this. A solar eclipse set to come in a few months provides the heroes with a clear way to defeat the BigBad (the way [[MagicAIsMagicA the magic system]] of the setting works means that he and his forces will be temporarily [[DePower depowered]] during the eclipse), but it's far from convenient and much more accurately portrayed than in most media; the eclipse only lasts for about eight minutes, giving them an incredibly tight schedule to work on that leaves almost no margin for error. [[spoiler:Sure enough, the attempt to exploit the eclipse goes horribly wrong when it turns out the Big Bad ''also'' knew it was coming and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm wisely chose to sit the day out in his emergency bunker]].]]
85	** There's also a villainous inversion with the imminent arrival of Sozin's Comet (which has [[SuperMode the opposite effect of the eclipse]]) creating a deadline of less than a year for the entire plot. Otherwise Aang would have the option to take his time mastering all the elements and facing the Fire Lord only when he was completely ready.
86	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck''. Darkwing was to be executed by a group of medieval peasants for witchcraft, but was informed that the time of the execution coincided exactly with a solar eclipse and decided to threaten the peasants that he would block the sun if they didn't release him. Unfortunately, Launchpad misread the date of the eclipse, which was actually happening ''the day after''; Darkwing ended up having to stall for 24 hours, pretending to put out the sun, before it actually went dark. Peasants = amazed.
87	** And it was probably parodied there because it had already been played straight on that show's predecessor, ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987''. Scrooge [=McDuck=] went into a South American country on the deadline day to resign a lease on the company he owned there, but, like Darkwing, he found himself scheduled to be executed by the local dictator instead. His nephews, who had inadvertently caused this predicament by tricking Scrooge -- and through him, the entire world! -- into thinking it was the next day, consulted their [[GreatBigBookOfEverything super-exhaustive Junior Woodchucks Guidebook]] to try to fix things. And what do you know, a Convenient Eclipse was supposed to happen today! The boys showed the dictator the eclipse, thus correcting the date, and "Unca Scrooge" was not only free to go, but free to resign that lease.
88	*** The exact same plot was later [[RecycledScript recycled]] for the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "The Time Bandit".
89	* Parodied again in ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum'': When Fanboy is told he is going to die after naptime, he tries everything he can to keep everyone awake while he devises a plan. One of these efforts is him opening the curtains and saying they should go outside, but as soon as he does an eclipse comes, causing Fanboy to scream, "Curse you semi-elliptical orbit!!"
90	* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in "Marge and the Monorail" when an eclipse causes the out-of-control solar powered train to stop temporarily and everyone breathes a sigh of relief... only for the sun to come back out and cause the train to start again.
91	-->'''Creator/LeonardNimoy:''' A solar eclipse. The cosmic ballet...goes on.\
92	'''Guy:''' Does anybody wanna switch seats?
93	* Played with on ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry''; DK finds his position of future ruler challenged by Kong Fu, an ArrogantKungFuGuy who can mop the floor with him, working on behalf of King K. Rool. Diddy finds out that Kong Fu is afraid of the dark, and ensures the fight takes place at the time of a solar eclipse mentioned earlier by Cranky. However, DK can't bring himself to beat an ape when he's down. Luckily, K. Rool's crew mocks Kong Fu's phobia, causing Kong Fu to throw the duel to spite them.
94	* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold,'' the title character was born while his parents were living among the Green-Eyed People in San Lorenzo. When his mother was in labor, the local volcano started erupting; just as Arnold was born, it stopped. WordOfGod says that in ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie The Jungle Movie]],'' the Green-Eyed People will consider Arnold a godlike figure because of this reason.
95	* Played straight in the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' special "Back to Bortron 7." When Mitchell is about to expose Jet's secret to the entire town, Jet 2 causes a solar eclipse with his flashlight, which distracts the townspeople long enough from seeing the Propulsion house land back on Earth.
96	* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. Mordecai has jinxed Rigby (someone has to say his name three times before he can talk freely again, otherwise he'll be punched for talking). During Rigby's ButtMonkey montage, an eclipse happens in the middle of the day. Awestruck, Rigby comments "Woah!" and "It's so beautiful...", which leads to Mordecai punching him twice for both comments.
97	* WesternAnimation/TheBeatles follow a daffy professor to a tropical island to see a lunar eclipse. The natives on the island are hostile but they panic when the eclipse occurs. The Beatles sing "Mr. Moonlight" (the episode's title) under the notion they're bringing the moon back and calm the natives.
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100	[[folder:Real Life]]
101	* Somewhat surprisingly, an actual eclipse example actually happened once. Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica in 1504 and the natives became increasingly unwilling to help him and his crew (not surprising, given that Columbus and his crew were treating them ''horribly''). Consulting an astronomy book, he realized that, by sheer luck, a total eclipse was coming up in the area. Naturally, he warned the natives that, if help wasn't forthcoming, he'd destroy the sun on a certain day. When the eclipse hit, he agreed to "bring the sun back", after they acceded to all of his demands.
102	* British explorer James Cook's 1779 arrival in Hawaii coincided with a festival dedicated to the Polynesian god Lono. According to some accounts, the Hawaiian natives, who had never seen a European before, took him to be an incarnation of the god himself and deified him upon his arrival. (When he returned later in the year, ''after'' Lono's festival had ended, he was received less warmly - the natives stabbed him to death and reputedly ate parts of his body before returning it to the British for burial at sea. Though that was probably more because he apparently went insane and kidnapped the Hawaiian king and tried to set himself up as the ruler of the islands.)
103	* Another real life example that deserves mention: an oft-repeated legend claims that when the Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortés reached the Aztec Empire, they took him to be a god, thanks to many circumstances and prophecies. Supposedly the Aztec believed that the god, Quetzalcoatl, was a pale, bearded god that had left by the Atlantic coast and would return the same year that Cortes arrived. This coincidence proved rather fatal for the Aztec, who didn't try to kill Cortes until he was too powerful.
104	** Conversations recorded between Cortés and Montezuma seem to indicate that Montezuma recognized Cortés as another mortal human, and the only documents that bring up the legend are Spanish. It's possible that him or one of his successors fabricated the story as a way of taking full credit for the conquest of the Aztec Empire, conveniently ignoring the fact that the Spaniards had far superior technology.
105	* Very conveniently for science, there was a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_29,_1919 total solar eclipse over Principe in 1919]], just a few years after Einstein had written his general theory of relativity. British scientist Arthur Eddington organised an expedition to take photographs of the eclipse (more specifically, of the stars close to the sun that would only be visible during the eclipse) and used them to prove that Einstein's theory was correct, catapulting him to fame. Recently made into a rather good film "Einstein and Eddington" by the BBC, starring Andy Serkis and Creator/DavidTennant respectively.
106	** It's worth noting that total solar eclipses occur ''somewhere'' on Earth every 18 months, usually only being visible at sea - the 1919 eclipse was notable because it occurred at a convenient time and in a semi-convenient place. It wasn't ''too'' convenient - the humid conditions ruined most of Eddington's stock of photographic plates before he even started, and the skies were so overcast in the days leading up to the eclipse that it was feared the whole costly exercise would be for nothing. [[StiffUpperLip Eddington worked on regardless.]]
107	* When the Spanish Armada was coming to invade England, the wind happened to blow just right to screw up their plans. This was referred to as the 'Protestant Wind'.
108	** Worst of all, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glen_Shiel#The_Alberoni_Plan it was used twice]].
109	*** Similarly, on two separate occasions, the Mongols launched massive invasion fleets against Japan and were thwarted when typhoons destroyed the fleets. This was the origin of the term Kamikaze ("divine wind"), due to the belief that Japan was being protected by the wind god Fuujin and/or the storm god Raijin.
110	* The appropriately-named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eclipse Battle of the Eclipse]], also known as the Battle of Halys, was called off and a peace agreement made, due to a solar eclipse -- but ''not'' an unexpected one, as it had been (allegedly) predicted some time in advance by Thales of Miletus, the first eclipse ever so predicted. Incidentally, the fact that this battle was interrupted by an eclipse lets us determine its exact date (May 28, 585 BCE) despite the fact that calendars of the time weren't even remotely unified, making it the oldest event we can date to this level of precision.
111	* A solar eclipse occurred on [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_22,_1879 January 22, 1879]] during a battle in the Anglo Zulu War. At 2:29 PM there was a solar eclipse, and according to legend, this motivated the Zulus, who claimed that it was a sign that they would prevail. The conflict was named the Battle of Isandlwana, the Zulu name for the battle translates as "the day of the dead moon".
112	* Apparently one of the earliest examples of the "predict an eclipse to fool people into thinking you've got magical powers" gambit comes from Aglaonice, a Greek woman of the 2nd century BC. We don't really know the context of it, just that she was rumored to have the power to make the moon disappear.
113	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ConvenientEclipse