History Main / TheLawOfConservationOfDetail

* ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'' cuts out the parts of his videos that are boring or don't have any action in them.
** In the final minutes of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylNqtyj0gs Minecraft Manhunt grand finale,]] [[spoiler: after Dream blows up the End spawn trap, he goes to the End and shoots the first pillar. It then cuts to him fighting the Ender Dragon, suddenly at low health. He edited the video the way he did so that the viewers wouldn't know if he died or not, and after going to the End, no viewer would have to worry about Dream dying to the Ender Dragon.]]

-->-- [[spoiler:'''The Writer''']], ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee''

->''"I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? ''[='=]Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe?[='=]'' I hate it when movies do that: TV's on, talking about the new power plant... Hmm, I wonder where the big climax will happen?"''
-->-- '''[[LemonyNarrator Harry Lockhart]]''', ''Film/KissKissBangBang''

* In the mini-series ''Series/{{Whitechapel}}'', the police investigative team occasionally visit the local hospital for information where the camera always takes the time to linger on a red-headed nurse. This being a HistoryRepeats premise concerning a JackTheRipoff, many viewers probably guessed in advance the significance of [[FinalGirl a red-headed woman]]...

* Played straight in ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', which adapts the events of the namesake game in novel form. AdaptationDistillation is used to remove most of the Sheikah Shrines spread out through Hyrule in the game, and instead only has the ones on the Great Plateau, the ones in towns, and the ones near horse stables, as well as the Lakna Rokee Shrine, all of which are made into Blessing Shrines. This includes the shrines near the horse stables and towns in the Faron and Lake Regions, an area that has no Divine Beasts, no memory locations, and thus no plot-relevance. However, Link makes a point to go collect the different Spirit Orbs. Link traveling to this region and collecting the Spirit Orbs is done between chapters and only detailed in Link's diary entries.

* The known reroll situation from ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' becomes revelant in ''Film/NoobLeConseilDesTroisFactions''. Several characters have rerolls, all implied to be on the same gaming account as their main avatar. The only exception to the pattern is Gaea, who explicitly has her two avatars on different accounts, but is also the only one ever seen using both at the same time, which could explain why she needs two accounts despite the possibility of just making a second avatar on the same account. In ''Film/NoobLeConseilDesTroisFactions'', it turns out that she ''has'' made other avatars on her main account, but they're mules. [[spoiler:There's five of them and they're loaded with in-game currency, which makes her fortune six times the maximum sum she would have been able to keep with her main avatar alone.]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' is fond of this one as well. Usually it's Castle's daughter or mother who makes the seemingly-innocuous comment.

** Conversely, the Weighted Companion Cube in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is an inversion. The dev team noted that playtesters were loathe to carry a crate they needed through a level, because it looked just like any other boring crate they'd seen a million of before so they had no reason to do so. They got around this by giving the crate a unique design and name and getting the narrator to heavily reference it - coincidentally creating one of the most recognisable (and [[MemeticMutation memetic]] parts of the entire game.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'' we see the parents of a kid protagonist working on something. It turns out [[spoiler: it was a device to expose invisible people and the plot had an invisible friend]].

* Dropped all over the place in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. Seemingly minor details end up being plot-centric on a second read.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': the ''moment'' Edna Mode starts making a big deal about capes being caught in things, you know that someone else is going to experience a very fatal wardrobe malfunction by movie's end... unless you've read ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', in which case you might write it off as a ShoutOut. The costume for the baby [[spoiler:can survive a wide range of extremes, all of which the baby exhibits near the end.]]

* Averted somewhat in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' due to useless items like the Protractor and Ruler. Some [=NPCs=] don't say anything useful, but are there to add witty lines. Finally, there are plenty of food items that are usable, but impractical by the time you reach them. Sure, eating a hamburger in combat (effectively instantly, and with no chance of indigestion!) is funny, but PSI powers are generally far more practical.

* Enforced in ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}'' with the ruins of Earth, which as of the timeframe of the game has been biologically dead for over 125 years after side effects from the development of the [=GravDrive=] destroyed its magnetic field. Earth in the game has exactly 11 decaying but otherwise easily-recognizable ruins.[[note]]The Empire State Building in New York City, a launch tower at Cape Canaveral, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, The Shard in London, two of the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, the Shanghai Tower, Abeno Harukas in Osaka, and the Leaning Tower of Piza[[/note]] But the rest of the planet is a giant cold ball of sand with no evidence it was ever a warmer, wetter world teeming with life and geological activity. Not even random fossils.

* Enforced in ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}'' with the ruins of Earth, which as of the timeframe of the game has been biologically dead for nearly 200 years after side effects from the development of the [=GravDrive=] destroyed its magnetic field. Earth in the game has exactly 12 sparse but otherwise easily-recognizable ruins, but the rest of the planet is a giant cold ball of sand with no evidence it was ever a warmer, wetter world teeming with life and geological activity. Not even random fossils.

* Enforced in ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}'' with the ruins of Earth, which as of the timeframe of the game has been biologically dead for nearly 200 years after side effects from the development of the [=GravDrive=] destroyed its magnetic field. Earth in the game has exactly 12 sparse but otherwise easily-recognizable ruins, but the rest of the planet is a giant cold ball of sand with no evidence it was ever a warmer world teeming with life and geological activity. Not even random fossils.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' limits the world to only part of two provinces, Hammerfell and High Rock, but makes the world a bit more detailed and less repetitive as a result. It still relies are large [[ProceduralGeneration Procedurally Generated]] areas and RandomlyGeneratedLevels for the dungeons themselves.

* ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'' took this to new extremes with throwaway lines and scenes to have huge ramification on the entire series. The best example is an early episode of Delenn getting worried about a 'soul-catcher' in a seemingly filler episode, but is actually the answer to the mystery of the first season recurs throughout the show.