Basic Trope: A stealthy character appears and/or disappears without warning or explanation, often as the prelude or ending to a conversation.
- Straight: Bob shows up in Alice's house without being seen or heard and freaks her out.
- Exaggerated: Alice is flying in a crowded plane and Bob suddenly shows up in the passenger seat beside her somehow without being seen. Once he's finished talking to her, somehow leaves the plane just as easily.
- Downplayed: Alice is on the street and Bob sneaks up on her, using the crowd to hide himself until he gets close, then disappears just as easily.
- Justified:
- Bob is using his ninja skills to intimidate Alice into giving him information.
- Bob needs to talk to Alice but she is in a secure area, requiring a great deal of stealth.
- Alice was distracted the moment Bob came by/out, and thus didn't notice him appearing.
- Bob has teleportation skills, and thus can appear anywhere he chooses to without warning.
- Inverted: Bob somehow makes Alice appear in front of him when he needs to talk to her and makes her disappear when the conversation is over.
- Subverted: Alice expects Bob to pop in out of nowhere. He uses the door for once.
- Double Subverted: Then, once the conversation is over, disappears from the room just to mess with her.
- Parodied:
- Bob continually appears and disappears throughout the entire conversation until Alice becomes annoyed and shouts, "Stop that!"
- Bob seems to have disappeared after Alice looks away for a brief moment, but she soon spots him awkwardly trying to hide behind a nearby piece of scenery that is not nearly large enough to conceal him.
- Zig Zagged: Bob alternates between different methods of entering and leaving the room. Sometimes he employs this trope and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes Alice knows he's coming and sometimes she doesn't.
- Averted:
- Bob never shows up or leaves unannounced and uses the door.
- Bob appears and disappears while Alice is looking right at him.
- Enforced: The writers want to make Bob look mysterious and badass.
- Lampshaded: "I guess this is the part where you disappear and everyone is impressed, right?"
- Invoked: Bob just learned how to use this technique in Ninja School, so he tries it out on Alice.
- Exploited: Bob is purposefully being spooky and unpredictable to scare Alice.
- Defied: Alice catches Bob sneaking in through the window.
- Discussed: "So how the hell do you do that anyway?"
- Conversed: Bob and Alice see this in a movie and wonder how the character managed to sneak in without anyone seeing.
- Implied: Alice describes a meeting with Bob and briefly mentions that she has no idea how he came and went from the room.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice eventually gets tired of Bob doing this in conversations and grows increasingly paranoid and frustrated with him.
- By leaving mid-sentence, Bob misses a crucial detail and makes a significant mistake.
- Reconstructed: Until he shows her how he does it. Then they take turns doing it to each other because it is just that darn fun to do.
- Played For Laughs: Bob shows up in a random, inopportune place such as when Alice is at the dentist's office.
- Played For Drama: When Bob does this, it frightens Alice and she has difficulty trusting him.
- Played For Horror: Bob is stalking Alice without her noticing. Everytime she feels she's being followed, he just disapears, making her grow paranoid.
Now go back to Stealth Hi/Bye without anyone noticing.
