Basic Trope: A work makes no sense due to heavy use of symbolism and metaphor.
- Straight: In the movie Bob and Alice, Alice is meant to represent purity, strength, and youth. This ends with a giant baby version of Alice being created.
- Exaggerated: Bob and Alice is two hours of unconnected symbolism, random imagery, and not a single person in the movie is named Bob nor Alice.
- Downplayed:
- Bob and Alice mostly makes sense, except for that one scene two-thirds of the way in.
- Bob and Alice is somewhat confusing, but mostly makes sense.
- Bob and Alice is very complex and dense, and may take a few watch-throughs to get, but isn't unreasonably confusing.
- Gainax Ending
- Justified:
- Inverted:
- Bob and Alice's plot is very literal and explained as clearly as possible. All plot threads are tied up and all phenomena are explained.
- Bob and Alice cannot make heads or tails of the reader.
- Epileptic Trees
- Faux Symbolism
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory
- Subverted:
- Bob and Alice is a story within a story, and the "outside" story does make sense.
- Mind Screwdriver
- The metaphor looks like it makes no sense whatsoever, but near the ending someone explains it and it suddenly makes sense.
- The story makes sense but you need to see the end first.
- Double Subverted:
- Then the outside story breaks down.
- The Mind Screwdriver is a Voodoo Shark.
- The end explanation runs afoul of Fridge Logic.
- Parodied: Not even the creator knows what is going on.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob and Alice makes no sense up until The Reveal. It makes complete sense then. Until the ending when the crazy train comes into the station.
- Bob and Alice makes no sense, at least until the Mind Screwdriver. But that turns out to be a Voodoo Shark, except it turns out that the Voodoo Shark is itself a Voodoo Shark, and the explanation makes sense. This is all well and good, until you consider the Gainax Ending. But there's an explanation for that too. Except that explanation is also a voodoo shark. Or is it?
- Averted:
- The story makes sense.
- The creators realize that the viewers are going to take everything literally, so they have the characters explain all the symbolism and metaphors.
- Enforced: "I'm the one-and-only David Lynch".
- Lampshaded: "Don't bother with that. It's probably just symbolic of your feelings towards your father."
- Invoked: The Walrus Was Paul, in which confusing the audience is the only goal.
- Exploited: When this trope is used to trick someone into something.
- Defied: Alice takes it upon herself to explain every plot development and image clearly.
- Discussed:
- "A giant phallic monster is going to burst out of the wall now, isn't it?"
- "Considering what just happened, I don't think that any of this is going to start making any more sense any time soon."
- Conversed: "I didn't mind the characters or the acting, just the bucket of acid the screenwriter took before writing the third act."
- Implied: In order for this trope to work; it must be conveyed. Someone might still say the lines of "WHAT WAS THAT!?"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob and Alice begin the story sane and fall into insanity as reality breaks down and nothing they do can stop it.
- Alternatively, it's best to leave the work uncomprehended at all.
- Quirky Work
- Reconstructed: Bob and Alice, now insane, go on to narrate Bob and Alice II, a story about them trying to get Bob and Alice II published.
- Played For Laughs: Surreal Humor
- Played For Drama:
- Bob's life make no sense and he kills himself, being unable to tolerate it anymore.
- Surreal Horror
- Plotted A Good Waste: The story is Through the Eyes of Madness or All Just a Dream, and the weird symbols were all Foreshadowing of this.
Back to Mind Screw...I...I think.