Line #122 Main/RuleOfPerception


1	%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700
2	%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=7p05x110
3	%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
4	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Echochrome}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/echochrome3.png]]]]
5
6	->'''Jon:''' OW! ...Did you do that?!\
7	'''Garfield:''' Nope.\
8	'''Jon:''' You kicked me!\
9	'''Garfield:''' If you didn't see it, it didn't happen.
10	-->-- ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'', [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2008/01/12 January 12, 2008]]
11
12	''If the audience can't perceive it, it doesn't exist.''
13
14	The audience of a movie will know only what they can see and hear. This means that nothing really exists in a movie unless you can see or hear it (because if it does, you're going to have to explain why it was BehindTheBlack). As a result, a kind of accepted audio-visual shorthand has been created over many years, to help the audience understand what they're looking at and what's going on. The same is true of all other media as well: video games, theater, art, comics, written stories, and even music all have numerous ways of helping to telegraph the parts of the story that they aren't directly telling, and ways to clarify the parts that they ''are'' telling.
15
16	[[folder:Sub-tropes]]
17	[[index]]
18	* OneDimensionalThinking: Fleeing characters could avoid mishap by stepping aside rather than continue rushing forward.
19	* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Realism and accuracy are pointless if the audience can't understand the story.
20	* AcousticLicense: If the audience can hear (or see speech bubbles for) a sound, then the characters are also aware of it, physics be damned. (It can also work the other way around.)
21	* AllNaturalGemPolish: Gems are naturally shiny and pre-cut so that the audience can recognize them.
22	* AgeIsRelative: Characters who are more competent will also look older/more mature.
23	* TheAirNotThere: You can't see air; therefore, it does not exist.
24	* AsYouKnow: The characters already know this exposition, but the viewers don't, so it has to be stated onscreen.
25	* AudibleGleam: If it just looks shiny then it could be mistaken, but if it makes the noise too then you know it's meant to be taken as shiny.
26	* AudibleSharpness: It's easy to tell when a blade is sharp because it makes a "sharp noise."
27	* BedheadItis: Visibly unkempt hair can be used as a shorthand for all the internal suffering caused by a disease.
28	* BeepingComputers: Computers beep so that you can tell they're doing something.
29	* BehindTheBlack: Anything that's offscreen is invisible.
30	* BigHonkingTrafficJam: Car horns are ''always'' heard in traffic which is completely stationary.
31	* BlahBlahBlah: You can tell a character does not understand/is not paying attention to what is being said because it is also made incomprehensible to the audience.
32	* BriffitsAndSqueans: Stationary images have to do ''something'' to represent motion.
33	* BulletSparks: Bullets spark when they ricochet to make it obvious where they hit.
34	* CartoonCheese: Cheese is always immediately recognizable by a distinctive shape and color.
35	* ChainsawGood: Chainsaws are flashy and make a lot of noise, so they must be really powerful.
36	* CharacterizingSittingPose: One can tell something about a character's personality from the way they sit.
37	* CharacterTics: You can tell he's feeling a certain way because he's doing that thing he does when he's feeling that way.
38	* ChristianityIsCatholic: Given that Catholic churches tend to be more ornate in design and features of Catholic services are more identifiable (e.g., mass, confession), if you want to make it clear it's a church service then this is the easier kind to spot.
39	* ColourCodedTimestop: When time stops, everything goes gray (except characters who aren't affected).
40	* ConcealmentEqualsCover: If you can't be seen, you can't be hit.
41	* CongestionSpeak: If a character in a written work has a stuffy nose, certain words will be misspelled (like "nose" to "bose" or "dose").
42	* ConvectionSchmonvection: Fire and lava are only dangerous if you touch them directly.
43	* ConvulsiveSeizures: If a character has a seizure, the writers will make it the most visible kind of seizure.
44	* CowerPower: You can tell a character is terrified by their exaggerated cowering.
45	* CultureBlind: The audience probably doesn't know about foreign cultural norms, so the characters will be clueless as well.
46	* DevilInPlainSight: Not every work benefits from a HiddenVillain; sometimes, the audience needs to know who the villain is [[DramaticIrony even when the other characters don't]].
47	* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: If you don't touch the ''visible'' part of a tornado, the most it can do is whip your hair around a little.
48	* DramaticStutter: A clear, auditory representation of a character's shock.
49	* EditorialSynaesthesia: Non-visual senses like smell and pain have to have some form of visual representation.
50	* EmotionalMaturityIsPhysicalMaturity: If the character looks physically young, they will be emotionally young as well, even if they're OlderThanTheyLook.
51	* ErmineCapeEffect: Fancy clothing is an easy way for us to tell which characters are royalty.
52	* EveryBulletIsATracer: Bullets leave visible trails in the air to make it easy to tell which way they went.
53	* EveryPizzaIsPepperoni: Pizza in animation is always immediately recognizable with red spots.
54	* ExactEavesdropping: The person who gets to eavesdrop will almost certainly come in when something important is being talked about.
55	* ExactProgressBar: Everything has a progress bar, even if it logically shouldn't, so the viewers know how close it is to being done.
56	* ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation: Computers use flashy, unnecessary graphics.
57	* EyeDentityGiveaway: Characters may not always be able to tell whether or not a character is an imposter, but the eyes may be the definite giveaway for the audience.
58	* FaceOfAThug: Particularly used in comedy purposes, the audience may not always be able to tell whether or not a character with an intimidating face is a good person, but after some time, they will get to know them.
59	* FingertipDrugAnalysis: Namely, when the "drug" turns out to just be sugar, salt, flour or the like, the cop will say so, as obviously the audience can't taste what they're tasting.
60	* FlashOfPain: You can tell a video game character just got damaged because they briefly flashed a different color.
61	* {{Flatline}}: If a hospitalized character's cardiac monitor starts sounding a long beep, the audience knows that they have died or are on the verge of death.
62	* FluorescentFootprints: When you're tracking someone, their trail will glow brightly so the audience can see it too.
63	* {{Flynning}}: Many real life sword techniques rely on very quick and subtle movements, meaning the layperson might be unable to tell what's going on, such as if the opponent gets hit despite it seeming to the untrained eye as if the sword never made contact. Since most viewers are unfamiliar with sword techniques, movie fights exaggerate movements to make it clear what is happening.
64	* GaspOfLife: If a character previously shown as dead has been brought back to life, they need to prove it by breathing loudly enough for the audience to hear.
65	* {{Gonk}}: Particularly in animated medium, if a character is supposed to be considered ugly, then the best way to do so is to lay it on thick.
66	* GreenAroundTheGills: Need to show someone is nauseated without having them gag, throw up, or say so? Have their face green!
67	* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Since AnimalsLackAttributes in most animated works, nudity isn't really a concern. They often still wear something so the audience can recognize them, though.
68	* HalfIdenticalTwins: Fraternal twins need to be (nearly) identical too, or the audience won't recognize them as twins.
69	* HeadTurningBeauty: If a character can literally turn heads as they pass, they're clearly supposed to be seen (at least in-universe) as attractive.
70	* HesDeadJim: There will always be an obvious cue so we know the exact moment when a character dies.
71	* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: When a character pauses their speech for any reason, it's an audio cue that he's second-guessing what he wants (and ''doesn't'' want) to tell the others.
72	* HighlyVisibleNinja: Ninjas are stealthy, but they can't be so stealthy that the audience doesn't know they're there.
73	* HighSpeedMissileDodge: As long as you don't touch the rocket, you'll be okay.
74	* HitSpark: Every kinetic impact makes a bright, fireworks-like effect.
75	* HollywoodDarkness: It's dark, but not so dark that we can't see what's happening.
76	* HologramProjectionImperfection: Holograms have little flickers and static effects and such so that it's obvious they're not real.
77	* HonkingArrivingCar: When the audience hears a honking sound from outside a scene or off-screen, they immediately know that a car is present and relevant.
78	* IceCrystals: Ice with a crystalline shape or structure.
79	* ImpairmentShot: The camera's "vision" gets distorted when depicting the [=POV=] of a drunk/high/injured etc person to make it obvious something's wrong.
80	* IncrediblyObviousBug: Bugs, tracers, hidden cameras, listening devices, and their ilk will be very conspicuous--if they were as inconspicuous as real ones, the audience wouldn't know they were bugs.
81	* InverseLawOfSharpnessAndAccuracy: Attacks that don't cause massive open wounds are treated as much safer and less damaging than ones that do.
82	* JingleTheCoins: The presence of money is confirmed by the rattling of coins.
83	* KungFoley: Physical blows make loud noises so the audience knows when someone gets hit.
84	* LawOfCartographicalElegance: Maps only need to show what's important to the story, so in order to prevent the audience from wondering what places might lay beyond it, no landmasses extend off the boundaries of the map.
85	* LaserHallway: A type of security system that is conveniently easy to see.
86	* LaserSight: Snipers use laser sights so that the audience can tell where they're aiming.
87	* LuckilyMyPowersWillProtectMe: If it's not visually obvious that your superpowers are protecting you, you'd better state it explicitly in dialogue.
88	* LuminescentBlush: Blushing can be quite subtle, but in fiction it's usually clearly visible from the other side of the room so we can see their emotions. For a FunnyAnimal, it will also be visible under their fur.
89	* MadeOfIron: The audience can't feel the character's pain, so the character won't be incapacitated by what should be serious injuries.
90	* MidairBobbing: When a character is bobbing up and down, you know they're floating in the air and not just misaligned with the background.
91	* MindControlEyes: If his eyes are glazed over or spiralling, it's a good indication to the viewer that he's being brainwashed.
92	* ModelDissonance: Sometimes a game's graphics must be tweaked so they look right to the player.
93	* MorphicResonance: When a character shapeshifts, there are visual cues that make it easy to tell they're the same person.
94	* MotiveRant: If the writers want the audience to know the bad guy's motives, he has to actually explain them at some point.
95	* NarratingTheObvious: For the benefit of the audience, characters narrate events that should be extremely obvious to them.
96	* NationalStereotypes: How else will you know that it's foreign?
97	* NervousTics: She must be nervous because she always does that thing when she's uncomfortable.
98	* NeverFoundTheBody: If a character is presumed dead and their body isn't shown to confirm it, it's nearly certain that they [[NotQuiteDead survived]].
99	* NoPeripheralVision: The camera doesn't have peripheral vision, so neither do the characters.
100	* NoPowerNoColor: Lack of color indicates that something's energy is depleted.
101	* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: As long as you don't ''splat'' into the ground, you'll be okay.
102	* ObfuscatedInterface: Interface displays are unclear/confusing to the viewer, the characters, or both.
103	* ObligatoryEarpieceTouch: When a character wears an earpiece, they will touch it to let the audience know a message is being transmitted.
104	* ObviousPregnancy: A woman must have a baby bump even right at the beginning of her pregnancy, or else the viewers will forget she's pregnant.
105	* OffscreenInertia: As long as a character is offscreen, it's assumed that they continue doing whatever it was we last saw them doing.
106	* OffscreenRealityWarp: Implausible changes are accepted if they happen offscreen.
107	* OffscreenTeleportation: Offscreen characters are in a sort of limbo that allows them to reappear wherever they like when they come back onscreen.
108	* OutrunTheFireball: As long as you can escape the visible blast, you won't be hurt by the invisible shockwaves that would tear you to bits in real life.
109	* PaperThinDisguise: A character's disguise is much more transparent than it would take to obscure who they are, but if their disguise was actually that good, the audience might not recognize them, either.
110	* PatternCodedEggs: Eggs are colored like the creature that will hatch from them, so the audience knows what creature that will be.
111	* PiecemealFundsTransfer: Cibernetic funds are transferred gradually, with an ExactProgressBar to represent it.
112	* PowerEchoes: Super-powerful characters have a voice that echoes or reverbs dramatically.
113	* PowerFloats: Ordinary people can't float, so if a character can then he must have some sort of mystic power.
114	* PowerGlows: Power is represented with a highly-visible glowing effect.
115	* PsychicNosebleed: A strictly-mental injury is represented with the more-visible effect of a nosebleed.
116	* PunyParachute: Parachutes are small enough to fit on the screen.
117	* RadioVoice: You can tell the voice is coming from the radio because it's slightly distorted.
118	* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic: Fictional conversations are, on a {{meta}}-level, pre-scripted, so there's no reason they can't be perfectly polished and smoothly flowing unless the plot specifically calls for it.
119	* RedLiveLobster: Crustaceans in cartoons have to be red-colored, otherwise, they just can't be crustaceans.
120	* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: We can't hear the other end of his telephone conversation, but that's okay because he'll repeat it back for us.
121	* RustproofBlood: Blood stains stay red to let the audience know that it's blood, as opposed to other things that stain brown, such as mud, chocolate, or [[BringMyBrownPants feces]].
122	* SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil: Off-screen events won't be audible until they appear on-screen.
123	* SeeWater: The camera (and audience) can see clearly underwater; therefore, so can the characters.
124	* ShapesOfDisappearance: The audience gets to see the outlines or afterimages of where an entity that suddenly disappeared used to be, so they get to see what isn't there but is supposed to be there.
125	* ShockAndAwe: Electricity-based powers and weapons almost always involve visible arcs of electricity coursing over the target to make it clear what's happening.
126	* SicknessEqualsRedness: You know that the character is sick because their nose is red.
127	* SizableSnowflakes: Realistic snowflakes would not be very visible on screen, particularly in stylized works.
128	* SlowLaser: Lasers behave in unusual ways that make them more visible.
129	* SocialSemiCircle: When characters form a group or sit around a table, they'll leave a gap so that none of them have their backs to the camera.
130	* SoftWater: Why shouldn't water be softer than dry land?
131	* SomeKindOfForceField: A visible disruption effect in the air, usually with appropriate sound effects, accompanies a force field.
132	* SoundingItOut: A character reads something out loud for the benefit of the audience, even though there's nobody else around to hear.
133	* SoundsOfScience: When scientific minds are engaged in scientific debate, they will mutter in a scientific manner so everyone can tell that's what they're doing.
134	* SpaceIsNoisy: There is sound in space because the viewers want to be able to hear what's going on.
135	* StockCostumeTraits: Certain visual cues let the audience instantly identify a character's profession.
136	* StockVisualMetaphors: An index of visual shorthands that help the audience understand what's going on.
137	* StreamingStars: If the stars seem to be stretching into lines as they go by, you're moving through space very quickly.
138	* SuddenlyObviousFakery: Something should be obviously fake, but the story relies on both the characters and audience being fooled, so it is portrayed as if it were real with no explanation until the audience needs to know the truth.
139	* TapOnTheHead: Since injuries to the head aren't outwardly apparent, knocking someone out with a hit to the head is much less likely to leave lasting injuries in fiction compared to real life.
140	* TastesLikeChicken: Since the audience can't taste whatever exotic meat the character is eating, they have to say what it tastes like, and the best way to describe a taste is to name something else it tastes like.
141	* TechnicolorToxin: Poison is brightly-colored so it's easy to tell that it's poisonous.
142	* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: For obvious reasons, you can't just display a character's genitalia, so you've got to find ''some'' way to make it clear who's a boy and who's a girl.
143	* TheatricsOfPain: Actors exaggerate pain for the benefit of the audience.
144	* ThinkingOutLoud: A character expresses their thought out loud for the spectator's comprehension.
145	* TranslationConvention: The characters may be foreigners, but the audience has to understand what's going on, so they're speaking English (or whatever the audience's language is).
146	* TravelingPipeBulge: When a character is traveling through a pipe, the pipe will bulge to show their location.
147	* TronLines: Glowing blue lines over everything are a good indicator of advanced technology.
148	* ViewerFriendlyInterface: Computer interfaces are designed for the viewers watching them on TV, not the characters who are actually using them.
149	* VisibleInvisibility: The audience needs to be able to see what an invisible character is doing.
150	* VoiceoverLetter: We can't see the actual text of the letter, so instead we hear a voiceover of the person who wrote it.
151	* VoicesAreMental: If characters swap bodies, their new body will talk in their old voice so that you can tell it's the same character.
152	* WaistDeepOcean: If the floor of a body of water isn't directly visible, then the depth can change to whatever the plot needs.
153	* WalkInChimeIn: A character just entering the set has somehow heard what the characters already there were talking about before they walked in--the audience knows, after all, so the characters should too.
154	* WaterIsBlue: In drawn media, water is always depicted as a clean blue rather than clear. This way, it's much easier for the audience to see it.
155	* WhenItRainsItPours: There's no point in having it rain so lightly that the audience can't even tell it's raining, so if it's gonna rain, it rains a ''lot''.
156	* WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens: Something spins so you know the machine is doing science.
157	* WormSign: When something is tunneling underground, you can tell where it is because it will displace dirt or break floorboards on the surface.
158	* WrittenSoundEffect: In comics, the audience can't hear the sounds, thus they're written down so the audience can see them instead, especially if the sounds happen offscreen and/or are important to the story.
159	* XRaySparks: You can tell a character is being electrocuted because their skeleton is showing through their skin.
160	[[/index]]
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	A lot of these violate RealLife physics because RealityIsUnrealistic. But Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad. Remember, this is in consideration to the audience, so if you're looking for realism, go check out ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_%28theatre%29 naturalism]]'', aka SliceOfLife. The Rule of Perception is the whole reason Foley artists and sound mixers exist.
164
165	Related to TheCoconutEffect, in that the Rule of Perception is often what causes the initial drift away from reality.
166	----
167	!!Examples:
168	[[folder:Advertising]]
169	* In a feminine-hygiene ad, some blindfolded women try to identify the rhinoceros standing between them. Their guesses are all inanimate objects, based entirely on the shape of its body parts that are seen on screen ("It's a rope", "It's a pillar", etc). None of them notice that it smells like a big freakin' animal, that it's warm to the touch, or that ''it's moving'' slightly. A case of Rule of Perception, as in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant the original parable that inspired this scenario]] (which involves an elephant), the blind investigators ''know'' it's an elephant, and are asked what the animal is ''like'', not what it is.
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
173	* ''Manga/CaseClosed'' often has people whose actions the audience is supposed to know, but whose specific appearance is unknown to the other characters, rendered as all-black silhouettes even in places where there would be no shadows (even outdoors in the middle of the day).
174	* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
175	** Light Yagami's eyes turn [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]] and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glow]] during his most psychotic moments. Unlike other fictional characters with glowing red eyes, Light isn't magical (not that [[DealWithTheDevil the option wasn't offered multiple times]]) so his eyes aren't actually glowing in-universe; it's just visual shorthand to show us [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope how far he's gone]].
176	** It goes further than that - WordOfGod is that Shinigami-vision, when transferred to a human, creates ''no'' visible differences in the human's eyes. So all those scenes where people who've made the eye trade suddenly have GlowingEyesOfDoom? That's for the audience's benefit only.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Art]]
180	* ''Art/TheLastSupper'': All the Apostles sit [[SocialSemiCircle on one side of the same table]] to allow the viewer to clearly see all of their reactions to the news of a traitor in their midst.
181	[[/folder]]
182
183	[[folder:Comic Books]]
184	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In Creator/DonRosa's "The Three Caballeros Ride Again", [[WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos Jose Carioca]] hides out in WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's trunk and asks him to help him flee from a bandit. The two exchange several lines of dialogue, but do not recognize each other until they are face to face--apparently in a comic book, neither of them can hear the other's [[GratuitousForeignLanguage distinctive]] [[SpeechImpediment speech patterns]]...
185	* ComicBook/DoctorStrange's [[AstralProjection astral self]] is represented by a 'ghosted' version of himself with various other visual effects. Whether other characters can see him is indicated by dialogue. He also has visual indications when spellcasting, usually in the form of a [[PowerGlows glow around his hands]].
186	* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Sue Storm's "invisible" self and force field are visible to the audience, by dotted outlines in the comics and CGI ''Franchise/{{Predator}}''-like distortion [[Film/FantasticFour in the movies]]. Played with in both. When they want the audience to see that Sue is doing something, such as sneaking around invisibly or deploying an invisible force-field, they will be rendered visibly. When they want Sue's reveal to be a surprise, they will leave her and her force fields totally invisible until the reveal. Improvement in art quality has removed the infamous dotted lines from the comics and replaced them with the same effect used for glass.
187	* ComicBook/PoisonIvy often has some sort of MindControl in the form of some pheromones/pollen etc that allow her to control people who inhale them. Typically they are represented by green or pink squiggly lines, although whether people in-universe can see and/or smell it, or whether it's just there for the reader's benefit varies, and is often left unclear.
188	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
189	** ''ComicBook/AMindSwitchInTime'', Euphor's emotion-eating powers have a representation visual for the reader's benefit: some kind of blue energy surrounds his target before moving to him. No character shows signs of seeing it in-universe.
190	** In ''ComicBook/StrangersAtTheHeartsCore'', Lesla-Lar's astral form is represented as a floating, glowing, shapeless will-o'-the-wisp which nobody in-universe ever sees.
191	** ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'': When Superman contacts ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} using his super-ventriloquism, large blue letters flash above Kara's head so readers know what she is hearing.
192	** In ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'', Lena's mind-reading is illustrated like a floating image depicting one scene invisible to everyone in-universe.
193	** ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor'': Mind-Bomber's bursts of mental power are depicted as pink waves, which nobody ever sees in-universe, flying straight towards his target.
194	** ''ComicBook/DeathAndTheFamily'':
195	*** After telling Kara no doctor has been able to identify her illness, Kara stands still in front of Lana for several seconds. Readers can see two conical beams of bluish light erupting from Kara's eyes and bathing Lana, who has to guess Kara is using her microscopic vision.
196	*** After Supergirl has been struck by Silver Banshee's sonic scream, the dialogue bubbles become blank to show Supergirl has become temporarily deaf.
197	** ''ComicBook/ThePlagueOfTheAntibioticMan'': The sounds emitted by Amalak's star-amulet are depicted as rows of musical notes wrapped in a yellow bubble speech.
198	** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'': ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}'s words when he has been shrunk to nearly nothingness are rendered as nonsensical letters, so readers understand it is unintelligible gibberish.
199	** "ComicBook/BrainiacRebirth": Brainiac's disintegrated body is depicted as a stream of highly-visible, multi-colored, marble-like molecules, since readers obviously need to see it, and people tend to associate molecules with round shapes.
200	** ''ComicBook/TheLegionOfSuperHeroes'':
201	*** Saturn Girl's telepathic messages do not get their own speech bubbles. Instead, they are depicted as letters floating in the air or water. Naturally, nobody can see them.
202	*** As the Time bubble travels through a dark-blue limbo, an ascending number of years trail behind it to show the teenagers are moving through the timestream.
203	** ''ComicBook/SupergirlsThreeSuperGirlfriends'': When Kara turns on her belt-generated force-field, she is surrounded by a thick white outline which only the readers can see.
204	** ''ComicBook/TheDominatorWar'': As four Legionnaires travel through the interior of the Earth, Brainiac 5 complains he cannot see absolutely nothing on account of being thousands of miles away from any source of light. However, he and his partners are surrounded by a bright orange glow that allows the readers to see the team and their reactions.
205	** ''ComicBook/BrainiacsBlitz'': When Supergirl dives deep into the Metropolis' harbor, Kara is perfectly visible -and blue-colored- despite being surrounded by lightless, murky black waters.
206	** ''ComicBook/SupergirlsGreatestChallenge'': As Supergirl's Legion figurines are sending a distress call, their heads are crowned by a halo of black lines to mean they are glowing.
207	** "ComicBook/TheUnknownLegionnaire": So that readers know Unknown Boy is using his x-ray vision, a -invisible to the characters- cone of yellow light sprouts from his eyeless mask whenever he is scanning something.
208	** In ''ComicBook/Superboy1949'' #201, tiny white stars are drawn around each member of the ComicBook/LegionOFSuperHeroes to represent that they are feeling dizzy and succumbing to the effects of an invisible poisonous gas.
209	* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
210	** When Jean Grey uses telekinesis, visible (to the reader) pink energy is often shown moving from her head to whatever she's manipulating. Other telekinetics often have similar effects (light blue for Justice/Vance Astrovik, purple for Psylocke, dotted lines or translucent white for the Invisible Woman, etc.). Rarely, if ever, is it made clear whether this energy is supposed to be visible or not. Often, onlookers will clearly be unable to tell why an object is moving seemingly under its own power, but on at least one occasion another character referred to Jean's telekinesis as "pink stuff."
211	** Every mental power gets a visual representation. Examples include concentric yellow circles for Aquaman's animal control powers, lightning bolts around his head for Professor X's telepathy (rarely used anymore), a wavelike effect for Magneto's magnetic powers, squiggly lines around his head (with half of his face turning into his mask if he's in his civilian ID) for Spider-Man's spider sense, etc.
212	** Ink was a character who thought he had the mutant ability to simulate others' powers by getting an appropriate symbol tattooed on his body (it turned out he was a normal human - it was the tattoo artist who had super powers). One of his tattoo powers was telepathy, which he got from having lightning bolts tattooed on his head, just like the ones used to show Professor X using his powers in old school ComicBook/XMen comics.
213	[[/folder]]
214
215	[[folder:Fan Works]]
216	* ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' is blissfully unaware of the Rule of Perception, as a result of which characters often seem to materialise out of nowhere.
217	* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' sometimes likes to poke fun at this trope. For example, Mai Valentine is treated as a poor duelist because all her on-screen battles were losses on her part, with the only exception being her battle with Jean Claude Magnum, who is just a mere filler villain. However, Season 4 eventually acknowledges that she actually has a pretty huge winning streak. It's just that these battles occurred offscreen. Joey retorts Mai by pointing out that anything that happens offscreen doesn't ''actually'' happen, in which Mai proceeds to humiliate Joey by claiming that his balls never dropped because nobody saw it happen.
218	[[/folder]]
219
220	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
221	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011'', Captain Haddock recounts the legend of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and realizes the villain Sakharine is the descendant of Francis’s nemesis Red Rackham. This reveal is done by Red Rackham dramatically unmasking in a flashback, showing [[IdenticalGrandson he has the same face as his descendant]], yet Captain Haddock shouldn’t have any way of seeing this because he’s just reciting the tales his grandfather told him.
222	* ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'': Puss doesn't know that Kitty is female until he hears her voice. In real life, cats can tell the sex of another cat by smell.
223	[[/folder]]
224
225	[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
226	* In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', NoEndorHolocaust appears to be in play during the battles in Manhattan and Sokovia, respectively. ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' averts that trope with footage from those battles and others showing that, yes, innocent people had died during those battles and the Avengers had not noticed due to dealing with Loki's Chitauri army and Ultron.
227	* In ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', the eponymous monster [[OffscreenTeleportation just shows up]] practically on top of the protagonists in Central Park at the very end, yet [[SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil no indication of its approach]] is shown beforehand, like the fact that the ground quakes when it walks, and it tends to clumsily destroy the surrounding environment wherever it goes. The creature just appears out of nowhere to the protagonists [[BehindTheBlack because]] it appears out of nowhere to the audience.
228	* ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus'': We know that large insects are noisy. One would think that Megaguirus, being a monstrous dragonfly-like insect almost as big as Godzilla, would be pretty loud. But no, turns out she is as stealthy as a {{ninja}}. Godzilla and humans alike tend to fail to detect her until she is right on top of them.
229	* ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'': Enforced. One of the film's famous rules is that nothing exists until it has been shown on screen; consequently, characters will frequently fail to notice things that should be extremely obvious to them, simply because the audience has not seen it yet.
230	* In ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'', absolutely nobody out of several thousands of people, haven't notice Azog building up his camp (which should involve a lot of noise too) on the highest and most visible point. Everyone was so preoccupied with their own conflicts that he had to announce his own presence.
231	* In ''Film/MovingViolations'', the jerkass deputy doesn't realize that the prankster of the traffic school class has rubbed brown gunk on his megaphone's speaking end, and reports to his boss with a brown ring smudged around his lips. Never mind that anything moist or tacky enough to adhere to human skin would easily be ''felt'' on one's own face ... that is, if this trope didn't prohibit characters from having a sense of touch.
232	* In ''[[Film/{{Selfless}} Self/Less]]'', Madeline doesn't recognize [[spoiler:the body of her husband]] until he turns around, despite having a good view of him from behind and hearing him speak. Granted he's wearing different clothes and [[spoiler:was thought to be dead]], but she seems to think he's a complete stranger until he turns around and she sees his face.
233	* In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', Scotty is shown sitting alone in the conference room studying some blueprints shortly before discovering a major plot point. The blueprints consist of small-scale external views of the ''Enterprise''. This is the sort of basic information we'd expect the chief engineer to have committed to memory. But it tells the viewer that Scotty is hard at work, better than a random electrical schematic might.
234	* In the 2010 version of ''Film/TrueGrit'', the speed of sound issue is noticeably averted. When Rooster Cogburn fires a rifle as a signal from across a valley, we see a plume of smoke shoot silently out of the gun, followed seconds later by the distant crack. Rule of Perception is one of many tropes that Creator/TheCoenBrothers make a habit of averting and subverting in most of their films.
235	* ''{{Film/Tenet}}'': When the Protagonist at Freeport fights an Inverted GasMaskMook, the opponent’s goggles are clouded and no part of their face can be seen. [[OnceMoreWithClarity When the scene plays again]] [[spoiler:from the Inverted Man’s POV]], their goggles are clear, revealing it’s [[spoiler:the Protagonist’s future self being fought.]]
236	* In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' (1971), none of the visitors recognize that the chocolate river ''is'' chocolate until Mr. Wonka tells them. Mr. Salt even comments "It's industrial waste, huh?" Clearly, the chocolate ''smells'' no stronger near the chocolate river than anywhere else in the confection-filled room.
237	** ''Film/EpicMovie'' has a characteristically boneheaded take on the same scenario: Edward drinks from the "chocolate river," and apparently likes it just fine, until someone tells him it's [[VulgarHumor actually a sewage line]].
238	* In ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty'', during the climactic raid, Pakistani civilians neighboring the compound start to approach in curiosity. The SEAL team's translator tries to warn them off in ([[RealityHasNoSubtitles untranslated]]) Arabic, but to no avail. It's not until he cries out "Get away! They will kill you!" in English that the civilians stop, because this is an English-speaking movie.
239	[[/folder]]
240
241	[[folder:Literature]]
242	* In ''Literature/HushHush'', Nora finds a gun in Patch's car, which is splattered with a red substance that she [[ABloodyMess assumes is blood]]. Patch explains that the gun is a paintball gun and that the red substance is paint from a game a few days ago. It's possible that Nora simply can't tell the difference between a paintball gun and a real one, but the smell, texture, and color of several-days-old blood is different than several-days-old paint. (For starters, dried blood gradually darkens to black.)
243	* In ''I Love Lemonade'', Quirky Turkey accidentally drinks [[UrineTrouble goat pee]] instead of lemonade. In reality, the smell would give it away.
244	* In ''A Mouthful'' by Creator/PaulJennings, the main character tricks her father into eating real [[RoadApples cat poop]] instead of the [[GrossoutFakeout fake poop]] he pranks his daughter and her friends with. However, real cat poop smells, and it feels a lot different than plastic.
245	* In ''The Three-Legged Cat'' by Creator/MargaretMahy, a man puts a sleeping cat on his head, mistaking him for his hat. Even if the cat didn't wake up, a real person would be able to feel it breathing and the fact that it was warm. Also, the average housecat is much ''heavier'' than the average hat.
246	* Literature/ThursdayNext retreats to a [[TrappedInTVLand fictional world]] for a while in the ''The Well of Lost Plots'', and notices several things, like wallpaper, underwear, and breakfast, are missing because they're not usually mentioned in stories. She also finds that she is one of the only people with a sense of smell.
247	** And a sense of hearing, at least as we understand it. Although Bookworlders aren't deaf, they can only hear what's explicitly stated in the text. For example, they can't distinguish voices unless something like "Thursday said" appears after the quote.
248	** Inverted in ''One Of Our Thursdays is Missing'', when a fictionalized version of Thursday comes to the real world and discovers how insanely complex the act of "walking through a crowd" actually is, since in her world you simply did it with no details or difficulty, while in the real world you have to do things like "Avoid multiple people travelling in various directions at various speeds and guess which way they will dodge depending upon visual clues never described in books".
249	[[/folder]]
250
251	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
252	* ''Series/ColdCase'' relies primarily on witness testimony for the investigations, considering all the physical evidence is either gone or already examined, which is depicted as flashbacks rather than just showing the detectives talking to the witnesses. The detectives always respond as if they've seen the exact same flashback, meaning they can only get the same information the audience did. This leads to situations like a witness apparently describing "a blonde girl" looking in the window and later clarifying her identity, rather than describing "my former student Lea" looking in the window and later clarifying her appearance, since the audience hasn't been introduced to Lea yet and wouldn't be able to identify her.
253	* In a ''Series/{{CSI}}'' arson investigation, Greg must compare a used match from the crime scene to a large pile of matchbooks taken from a suspect's home. In through-the-microscope views of him holding the torn match end to the matchbooks, the used match's cardboard shaft is dark in color, while the books' matches are light. This makes it more obvious to viewers that they aren't a [[{{Pun}} match]] for one another but begs the question of why Greg bothered comparing those samples microscopically at all, when their colors are so visibly different.
254	* ''Series/DoctorWho'' uses this combined with RuleOfScary in "Blink". The Weeping Angels cannot move if they are being looked at, which means ''on camera'' specifically. TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou.
255	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
256	** When Matt Parkman reads someone's mind, the audience usually hears a jumble of sounds, with an ''occasional'' clear sentence bubbling through the chaos.
257	** Parkman usually tilts his head when reading minds. Lampshaded in an episode where all powers were lost but Parkman wasn't immediately aware of it. He tried to read someone's mind, but the target simply said "why do you keep tilting your head?"
258	** Many of the other powers in ''Heroes'' take this to an almost absurd degree. Peter and Ted's hands glow when they are emitting radiation. Elle's electricity is in the form of blue sparks. Sylar's lie-detection skill is indicated with a shake of the camera (and usually his saying "You're lying!" directly afterwards).
259	** In the earlier seasons, Hiro's powers require ''intense concentration'', AKA screwing his face up.
260	* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' frequently uses this and it became a hallmark for the show. They constantly play with the use of narration in how the story unfolds and how the characters perceive a situation. One notable example was "Three Days of Snow" where Ted explains, "This is a three day story" and we see three different plots going on simultaneously, only for a twist in that each story takes place on a different day. Another episode "No Tomorrow" has Ted believes himself to be experimenting with an unusually lucky night he was having at the bar. But Marshall shows him an accidental audio recording of Ted's evening where Ted's dialogue is the same but changed from curious and honest to sleazy.
261	* A ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode had the detective miss a dead body directly in their line of sight until the camera could see it.
262	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Despite stationing for 80 years in the Southlands, and watching over the inhabitants from the watchtower of Ostirith --which is located on a mountain-- somehow, the Elves completely missed the Orcs kidnaping people, digging caves and destroying the environment for who knows how long. One would assume they should have seen signs like deforested forests and fires caused by Orc from their watchtower.
263	* In "The Pine Bluff Variant" of ''Series/TheXFiles'', Mulder and Scully's conversation is bugged with a laser beam against the window of Mulder's apartment. The laser is bright red (so we know it's there), instead of infrared, which would be a lot more discreet.
264	[[/folder]]
265
266	[[folder:Music]]
267	* In the music industry, if you're not in the public eye people assume you're not doing anything, or have "Fallen Off". Usually happens when an artist isn't properly promoted, or ignored by media outlets.
268	* Good luck hearing The Beatles' catalogue the same way after reading and listening to some of the examples [[http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/wgo.htm here]].
269	* Music/BoneThugsNHarmony hit this trope in the 2000's, They would release mainstream albums and people would still say "I thought they broke up?", Or "I didn't know they had a new album out". Despite having previous albums people seem to have short attention spans thanks to the FleetingDemographicRule.
270	[[/folder]]
271
272	[[folder:Video Games]]
273	* In ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'', [[AnomalousArt Dusk's painting]] works on this. If someone sees her paint something, it is as real as anything else, but if they close their eyes before she starts painting, the creation isn't real and has no effect on them. [[WrongContextMagic No one really knows precisely how Dusk's painting works]], and even ''she'' can't really articulate it either.
274	* The Eve's Garden strip club in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock\|1}}'' probably qualifies; the sign includes the anachronism "XXX", which would not come into use in RealLife until the 1970s. But players instantly recognize the shorthand.
275	* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', this is one of the reasons InUniverse as to why [[OurGodsAreDifferent Peryite is considered the weakest Daedric Prince.]] Peryite's spheres involve natural disease, pestilence, and decay, as well as the ordering of the lesser realms of Oblivion. Since these are things that are easy to maintain or just wouldn't be visible to the mortals inhabiting Nirn, most people think he isn't very powerful, especially compared with Princes who have far more obvious and visible activity. Despite this, [[AlmightyJanitor Peryite is just as powerful and dangerous as any other Prince]], and inflicted the worst plague in Nirn's history.
276	* This is likely the only explanation as to why everyone keeps mistaking Shadow for Sonic in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' despite several cameras getting close-ups of his very different face from Sonic's. The player has to know that the hedgehog going around wreaking havoc is different from Sonic.
277	* PlayedWith in ''Stick It To The Man''. The hand you use to interact with the world is invisible to most characters.
278	* In the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series, any pipe with a Piranha Plant will only hurt you if you can see the plant. If the Plant is currently inside the pipe, you can go inside the pipe without taking damage.
279	* Any VisualNovel with multiple routes, and the challenges facing the heroine in her route are assumed to occur regardless of whether or not the [[HGamePOVCharacter main character]] is involved with her. Potential NightmareFuel [[FridgeHorror without this trope]], especially if the heroine will meet a horrible fate without the intervention of the main character. Does not apply if intervention by the main character causes her suffering circumstantially or directly.
280	[[/folder]]
281
282	[[folder:Webcomics]]
283	* ''Webcomic/TheCartoonChroniclesOfConroyCat'' naturally toys with this one now and again. The "off panel" aspect of this trope is one that Conroy picks up on incredibly quickly during his 'toon training, to Doggy's irritation.
284	* ''[[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/deathclaw-desu-ga/list?title_no=82535 Deathclaw Desu Ga]]'' has a pervasive element of non-human characters depicted as anthropomorphic, with intermittent reveals of their true appearances, usually when someone else observes them. The main protagonist, Peabody, is almost always shown as a cute monster girl of slightly below-average height wearing a vault suit and speaking normal english, when in reality she is a huge hunched-over lizard in a ''very'' stretched-out and torn vault suit who, although intelligent, communicates through growling. She genuinely visualizes herself as the former, and doesn't understand why regular clothes keep getting ruined when she tries them on. Likewise, the radroaches are seen as pretty boys and girls by themselves, and the black radqueen sees the goldfish as a handsome hispanic man in a golden suit.
285	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', whenever Elan plays his [[MagicMusic bard song]], green musical notes fill the air. As part of the strip's general MediumAwareness, one (green) character notices that they are the same color as she is.
286	[[/folder]]
287
288	[[folder:Web Original]]
289	* In ''Series/{{Noob}}'', [[TheCracker Tenshirock's]] avatar seems to exist for interaction with players, [=NPCs=] and in-game objects. However, erasing it is treated as the same thing as keeping him from doing anything to the game and the effects of his hacking only seem to ever happen a short distance away from him.
290	[[/folder]]
291
292	[[folder:Western Animation]]
293	* In the ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "Robositter", Shake and Frylock get jobs at a mall restaurant called Slurp-a-Lunch, which sells '''''liquified meat'''''. Shake proceeds to drink half a pitcher of a liquified meat called fried chickwit, but doesn't realize what he's drinking until ''after'' Frylock points it out to him.
294	-->'''Shake:''' ''(after vomiting up the drink)'' There was ham in that pitcher?!\
295	'''Frylock:''' ''(annoyed)'' No, ''that'' was fried chickwit.
296	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Airbending can be seen as visible gusts. Given how people normally can't see air, this is done to give scenes a little extra flair. And to avoid having a character look like a dork throwing their arms around without some sort of visual to show that they are doing something.
297	* ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'': "The Case of the Shattered Vase" has an example that could be justified as it's in a story Martha is telling. In the story, she, Danny, Helen, and Truman mistake the tail, body, ear, and trunk of Jeffy the elephant as a rope, wall, banana leaf, and palm tree respectively [[BlindMistake due to feeling in the dark]]. Since elephants are mammals, however, Jeffy would feel warm, and they'd likely be able to hear him breathing. In addition, Martha is a dog, so even if Jeffy was clean, she at least would be able to smell him.
298	* ''Literature/MillyMolly'': In "Marmalade and the Birds", Milly's father mistakes some spilled water for cat pee. Cat pee in real life, however, has a strong smell, so the lack of smell would be a dead giveaway.
299	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
300	** In the second season premiere, Discord corrupts Twilight Sparkle's friends one by one. When the ponies turn into jerks, they also become sepia-toned and later turn gray. Spike and Pinkie Pie are the only ones to note the color change, and both characters are among [[FourthWallObserver the only ones to have openly broken the fourth wall before]].
301	** More generally, the [[ColorCodedWizardry colored auras]] that show up around unicorns' horns or [[MindOverMatter levitated objects]] are purely for the benefit of the audience, as they have never been commented on in-universe.
302	** "A Royal Problem" Has Princess Celestia swap cutie marks with Princess Luna. Despite a prior episode showing the black patches were part of Luna's natural coloration as opposed to her mark, the black is swapped along with the white moon cutie mark for no clear reason save that it would be blend into Celestia's white coat otherwise.
303	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'':
304	** When Darth Vader's mask is cracked to reveal his eye, he has a visible eyebrow identical to Anakin's. While this contradicts other depictions that show his eyebrows were permanently singed off, as they were digitally edited out in the updated cut of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' by the time ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' was released, here it serves the dual purpose of better defining his character model and [[spoiler:clearly indicating his identity to Ahsoka]].
305	** [[spoiler:Thrawn]], despite normally being depicted with MonochromaticEyes (although even that was DependingOnTheArtist), has pupils and an iris slightly lighter than his sclera. This was done because it was difficult to show line of sight without them.
306	** In "Jedi Night", [[spoiler:Kanan's eyes clearing right before he dies was meant as a visual representation of him being so close to the Force that sight didn't matter, not his disability magically curing itself.]]
307	[[/folder]]
308
309	[[folder:Real Life]]
310	* "Object Permanence" is the mind's ability to avert this trope, understanding that objects still exist when they can't be perceived. Some animals lack this trait, as do human infants under a certain age (this is why the game peek-a-boo works on them; they can't recognize you without seeing your face).
311	* In his classic essay "[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/That_Which_Is_Seen,_and_That_Which_Is_Not_Seen That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen]]", the 19th century French economist Frederic Bastiat argues that many destructive government policies arise from tendency of people to only focus on what is obviously visible.
312	* Inverted in quantum theory, since observing a quantum phenomenon actually changes the output of the quantum effect.
313	* The idiom "out of sight, out of mind" invokes this trope.
314	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RuleOfPerception