Basic Trope: Heroes take a shortcut around the villain's traps.
- Straight: Hiro, Marcy, Bob and Kowalski are going after Baron Aspley. He retreats to his manor, which is protected by an elaborate security system. Rather than go through the traps to get to him, the party finds a way around them, surprising Aspley in his private chambers.
- Exaggerated:
- Aspley flees across the country and locks himself away in his secret fortress, hidden deep within the labyrinthian Woebegone Forest, which is filled with horrible monsters and impassable terrain. Satisfied, he gloats about they'll never find him... before turning around to see them standing right there, Marcy having tagged him with a tracking spell before teleporting to his location.
- The heroes vaporize the entire manor and Aspley with a Kill Sat.
- Downplayed:
- Instead of picking a large set of locks on an important door, our hero blows it open or gets in through the window.
- The hero blasts his way inside. However, there wasn't a real maze stopping him, just a mundane door a pair of meters away.
- Justified:
- The heroes used to work for the Big Bad, thus they know of all the secret passageways in his Evil Tower of Ominousness
- The traps were set for all angles that were found, a small trail off to the side that is normally used by kids was missed, no adults knowing about it to tell the overlord. Rather than facing the traps, they use the off path.
- Take a Third Option comes into effect, once again something not considered, such as flying over the minefield or sniping the guards who were looking for the party.
- Inverted:
- Hiro and his friends must defend Princess Velvet's castle from the invading forces; however, some of the Mooks are able to take shortcuts around the traps and other defenses they erected.
- Insurmountable Waist-High Fence
- Subverted: Hiro attempts to blow a hole through the maze between him and where he needs to be, but the walls are unfazed. He ends up taking the maze anyway.
- Double Subverted: The entire maze collapses around him the second he steps through the entrance, leaving him with a quick jog over the rubble to his goal.
- Parodied: Marcy and Kowalski start arguing about the best way to bypass Aspley's traps: Kowalski wants to cleverly disable each one while Marcy prefers a few well-aimed blasts. Before they can come to an agreement, Bob points out a side door which is clearly labeled as "Baron Aspley's Personal Shortcut — For Baron Aspley's Use Only! No Trespassing!"
- Zig Zagged: Marcy and Bob manage to "find" (read: make) a way out of the dungeon... which leads to another dungeon. Rinse and repeat.
- Averted: The heroes trek through the dungeon the old fashioned way.
- Enforced:
- The bypass was created to make backtracking shorter.
- One of the buttons for opening the final gate doesn't check if it's being pressed from the front or the back. note
- Lampshaded:
- "Screw this dungeon, I want out!" *Wall-busting ensues*
- "Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good labyrinth."
- Invoked:
- When they arrive at Aspley's manor, Kowalski immediately starts looking for shortcuts, reasoning that Aspley's employees must have some way of circumventing the defenses so they can work.
- While assembling his team, Hiro swings by the prison to give a master burglar with a talent for subverting security perimeters a chance to earn their freedom.
- Exploited:
- One of the rooms in the dungeon contains a bull-like monster. The heroes paint a wall red, with predictable results.
- The Big Bad knows some clever hero is going to try to break his walls. There's a trap triggered especially by this.
- Defied: "We can't just bust through the walls this time. The dungeon is set deep underground and the walls are the only thing preventing the place from collapsing."
- Discussed:
- "Hey, don't you think it would be easier if instead of just traipsing around the Earth Cave looking for the stairs down, we just grab a shovel and start digging?"
- "Hey, it's gonna take us way too long to find the door. Want me to make one?"
- Conversed: Hey, Bob, I've noticed you have a knack for escaping from dungeons earlier than you're supposed to. How do you do that?"
- Deconstructed:
- The heroes Took a Shortcut through the dungeon... but they didn't fight any of the monsters within or gather any of the loot, leaving them unprepared for the boss, who proceeds to wipe the floor with them.
- The heroes missed an important MacGuffin on the way over because they blasted through an exterior wall, leaving them unable to stop the Big Bad...
- Reconstructed:
- The reason they managed to get that far was because of Bob's hole-maker. As the boss is charging towards them, Bob fires it at the boss's feet and he falls through the floor.
- ...Until they use what's left of the explosives they brought along to sabotage his scheme.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Kowalski turns out to be a spy; the reason he was able to help them avoid all of Aspley's defenses is because he was informed of them in advance, guiding the team past them in order to earn their trust.
- Played For Laughs: As Aspley boasts about his completely infallible security system, the audience watches the heroes easily bypass each obstacle.
- Played For Drama: This is the climax of the heroes' Roaring Rampage of Revenge and it is clear proof that 1) they have become more powerful than Aspley hoped and 2) they are seriously sick of all of Aspley's shit and want him very dead very fast.
- Played For Horror: The heroes have about two seconds to breathe and say that they hope the building's security systems can stop (or at least delay) Aspley while they try to figure out how to escape - and that is when Aspley punches through a nearby wall like the Kool-Aid Man and keeps on trying to kill them.
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