Line #32 Main/SpeakFriendAndEnter


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6	->'''Frodo:''' It's a riddle. "Speak ''friend'' and enter." What's the Elvish word for friend?\
7	'''Gandalf:''' ''Mellon''. ''[door opens]''
8	-->-- ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing''
9
10	In any story, there are problems. Characters need to solve those problems. Usually, they do so in the most straightforward way. But sometimes, they create an [[RubeGoldbergDevice extremely complex and convoluted plan]] for what should be a [[OverrideCommand simple solution]]. They may just plan it, or they may actually go through with it, but often before, during, or after, some other character points out how complicated ThePlan is, [[StatingTheSimpleSolution or what the simplest solution would be.]]
11
12	Compare with ZanyScheme, which is what happens in a SitCom when people go through with a complicated scheme (and often, either no one knows or realizes that there was a simpler solution, or there wasn't one).
13
14	Compare with ThereWasADoor, a specific subtrope where rather than simply opening a door, someone smashes through the door or wall [[note]] smashing through is simpler in the short term, and only in the long term is it more complicated) [[/note]]. Also compare CuttingTheKnot. May overlap with WeHaveTheKeys if the "key" is found before the more violent solution is tried (or after the more violent solution has failed). Don't confuse with OpenSesame, which is when the door is opened with a spoken password.
15
16	Contrast UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
19
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' uses a variant of this trope, amazingly enough, in [[Anime/Pokemon2000 the second movie]]: "And the world will turn to Ash." (This was a {{Woolseyism}}; the Japanese version simply referred to "a trainer".)
24	** Lampshaded when Ash is climbing up a cliff.
25	--->"Why couldn't I have been named George or Bob?"
26	* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Ranma gets a cursed spatula attached to his hand ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]). It will only come off when it is "used properly". Every attempt to use it to cook results in disaster and magic energy bolts flying all over the place. Then someone realizes that the Japanese phrases "use properly" and "use fish flakes" sound identical. They sprinkle on some fish flakes and the spatula falls right off.
27	* In ''{{Manga/Wagnaria}}'', there's a brief subplot where Inami tells everyone at Wagnaria that she mentioned she had a friend named Takanashi to her mother, who mentioned it to her father. Her father doesn't want her to have any male friends, so Inami begs Takanashi to cover up for it by crossdressing. Only after he's reluctantly agreed to do it does Yachiyo point out that they could have just had a girl like her pretend to be Takanashi when her father came to meet him. [[TheGadfly Souma thought of it, but didn't feel like bringing it up.]] [[ForTheLulz Because it's funnier that way.]]
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* A variant occurs in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Cauldron''. Asterix and Obelix are planning a BankRobbery, and Obelix is sent to spy on the guards. As soon as he approaches the bank, the guard stops him, says that he looks suspiciously like a potential robber, and informs him that the bank's security is way too strong for a robbery--and emphasizes this by describing the guard patrol routes and security systems in detail! Of course, [[TheDitz Obelix being Obelix]], he comes back to Asterix and claims to have learned nothing, forcing them to spend several tiresome days watching the guards.
32	* Parodied in ''Le Collège Invisible'': The door that leads to the magic part of the school if opened a certain way (and somewhere innocuous otherwise, like a broom closet) bears the inscription "Say 'friend' and enter" visible only to magic sight. The real "password" is ''kicking the door open''.
33	* In an Italian ''[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Mickey Mouse]]'' story, Mickey and Pluto are kidnapped by aliens and subjected to tests to find out which of them is the [[MistookTheDominantLifeform dominant lifeform]]. Mickey keeps finding the difficult solutions (e.g. running through a complicated maze) and Pluto finds the "common sense" ones (just walking around the maze), so the aliens conclude that Pluto is the superior intellect.
34	* In issue #4 of the IDW ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' comic, to open a door, Chrysalis poses a riddle to the mane 6 - "How is a pegasus like a writing desk...can you answer this riddle?". While the rest of the mane 6 try to answer how a pegasus is like a writing desk, Pinkie opens the door with the correct answer - "No, I can't answer it".
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
38	* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': After trying and failing for a week to get some treasure in a video game by beating a very tough boss, Jason takes a break and comes back to find that his non-gamer sister Paige had somehow done it. He begs and pleads with her to tell how she did it, and she eventually reveals that she... just walked up and took the treasure. [[SheatheYourSword Don't provoke the enemy and he won't kill you]].
39	* ''ComicStrip/RobotmanAndMonty'': After a week-long story in the comic strip where Monty thinks he locked himself out and tries all sorts of ways to coerce his cat to give him the keys (the cat gives him peas) or get the keys himself, he eventually gets stuck in the cat door. His friend Moondog walks up to him, and when Monty asks how he got inside, Moondog says the front door was open.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Fan Works]]
43	* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the Hunter, with twenty years of nonstop adventure behind him, begins to plot out a long, difficult slog into the Misery Mountains, citing lurking undead and other nasty things lying in wait along the cold, windy, miles-long path. George stops him and basically says, “Hey, I'll just turn into a dragon and fly us up there.” End of problem.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
47	* The [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney version]] of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame\|Disney}}'': Quasimodo and Phoebus find the entrance to the Hall of Miracles (the Gypsies' secret hideout) using the amulet Esmeralda gave Quasimodo. The amulet leads them to a large grave with mysterious writing on the lid. While Phoebus tries to decipher the writing, Quasi simply lifts it open, uncovering a staircase.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
51	* ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'': After a long and dangerous struggle to get the Star of Astoroth the artifact [[ShaggyDogStory disintegrates when taken from its home island]]. The youngest child Paul, [[NotNowKiddo finally gets to tell everyone]] that the picture book that told them of the Star in the first place has a detailed drawing of it, including the engraved magic words they really wanted.
52	* In ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'', Jason and Marie are trying to obtain some information from a hotel's files. Jason comes up with an absurdly complicated scheme for acquiring this information, and instructs Marie at length about the precise timing and attention to detail required before sending her in. She returns thirty seconds later, having decided to simply walk up and ''ask'' the clerk for the files after claiming to be Bourne's personal assistant.
53	* In ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' the ferocious goblin knight Sir Didymus refuses to allow the heroes to proceed because nobody will ever cross the bridge he guards without his permission! Sarah has the clever idea to simply politely ''ask'' for his permission to cross, giving Sir Didymus a brief HeroicBSOD when it occurs to him that he doesn't really have any actual reason to want to stop them.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Literature]]
57	* In the ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'' book ''The Lost City'' two boys have to race to the end of a room containing an obstacle course. One begins making his way through the obstacles. The other, after taking a moment to think, just runs straight through the middle of the lanes, avoiding all the obstacles, and wins. The dinos think this solution quite clever, and praise the boy, although his friend accuses him of cheating.
58	* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' is the TropeNamer. Gandalf spends hours casting opening spells and trying passwords on the door into Moria. He finally realizes that he mistranslated the inscription on the door: instead of "Speak, friend, and enter", it was "Say 'friend' and enter" All he had to do was say the elven word for "friend" and the door opened. Gandalf read the inscription aloud before, but in the common tongue, not in Elvish. He notes that the doors were made when trade between Moria and neighbouring Eregion was plentiful, and the dwarves of Moria would have little reason to close the gates, especially not to elves. The late third age, however, is far more dangerous, and people are more suspicious.
59	** [[BilingualBonus For bonus points]], Tolkien's attention to linguistic detail shines here: the Sindarin phrase inscribed on the door, "Pedo mellon a minno", really does permit both of these translations.
60	* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' parody novel ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'', Goodgulf tries many passwords before realizing that [[FailedASpotCheck the door has a knob]].
61	* ''Muse'' magazine's AffectionateParody of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' had the inscription on the door read, "[[AC:I give up my secret]]". Naturally, the door opens when the "Gandalf" character (played by Chad) [[YouWereTryingTooHard exhausts all his ideas and says, "I give up!"]]
62	* ''Literature/TheMarvellousLandOfSnergs'': At the end of a subterranean maze, the protagonists stumble upon a locked door. Gorbo tries to push it open but it does not work. Then he charges the door once and again and again until his whole body hurts. Then Sylvia grabs the doorknob, and instead of pushing, she pulls the door open effortlessly.
63	* The children's series ''Literature/ThePeterkinPapers'' runs on this. The Peterkins are a very intelligent family--so intelligent that they have no common sense. For every problem that has both a simple solution and a complex one, they'll inevitably go for the complex one, and get themselves entangled. They need to go to their neighbor the "Old Lady from Philadelphia", who always presents the simple solution--and is praised for her wisdom.
64	* ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' references the Trope Namer and parodies it, as the Witches discuss the Invisible Dwarf Runes while at the door. Granny even strikes the door "and spake thusly:'Open up, you little sods!'"
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
68	* ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'': Dr. Samuels gives the class an assignment: how do you measure the height of a building using a barometer? After several explanations, he asks the new sub Mr. Moore how he would do it. Mr. Moore says to the super, "If you tell me how tall this building is I'll give you this neat barometer.". This is a reference to a tale of [[http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/barometer.asp similar smartassery]] on the part of Niels Bohr (in his university days).
69	* In the first series of ''{{Series/Raven}}'', this was the final challenge on each qualifying week. There was a portal that lead to the finals, and it had a riddle on top, such as “Answer with wisdom and move forward”. Each of the three remaining warriors would go to a rock and whisper their answer into a hole in said rock. If they gave the correct answer, “wisdom” in the aforementioned case, the portal would open and let them continue. The first two to do this would appear in the finals, the third being eliminated from the quest. The final week dropped this, presumably since the finalists would now be onto this format, replacing it with a KnightsAndKnaves style puzzle instead.
70	* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Rimmerworld":
71	-->'''Lister:''' Why don't we scrape away this mortar here, slide one of these bricks out, then using a rope weaved from strands of this hessian, rig up a kind of a pulley system so that when a guard comes in, using it as a trip wire, gets laid out, and we put Rimmer in the guard's uniform, he leads us out, we steal some swords, and fight our way back to the bug.\
72	'''Kryten:''' Or we could use the teleporter.
73	* In the ''{{Series/Sherlock}}'' episode "[[Recap/SherlockS01E02TheBlindBanker The Blind Banker]]", John finds a wall covered in graffiti that's actually the code that will allow them to solve the case. He runs to fetch Sherlock, but by the time they get back, the entire thing's been painted over. Sherlock then spends the next minute or so pressing John to remember the code, waxing lyrical about the fallibilities of the average human mind's memory capacities, all the while ignoring John's protests and attempts to get to his camera phone, on which is stored a picture of the entire wall before it was painted over.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Radio]]
77	* ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'': In the episode ''Cheesed Off'' protagonists are faced with an infestation of mice. Lennox-Brown suggests using high tech methods to get rid of them such as laser beams or ultrasonics. His secretary suggests a cat.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
81	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
82	** In the tournament module C2 "Ghost Tower of Inverness", the PC's get extra points if they enter the castle ruins by climbing through large holes in the wall rather than wasting time opening the gate.
83	** Module I7 "Baltron's Beacon" has a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' example. A door has the inscription "Sayez Chi, Passant Avantre" ("To pass through, say who"). If the party uses magic to read the inscription they may think they need to say "who" in Common: they actually need to say "Chi", which is the word for "who" in the language the message is written in.
84	** First rule of lockpicking: check that the locked door is actually locked.
85	** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine #6 adventure "Forbidden Mountain". In the Hallowed Ground room, one of the exits is covered by an iron gate. The gate has a sign on it that says "whatisthepassword". The PlayerCharacters can try a variety of passwords in an attempt to open the exit. However, the gate will only disappear when someone says "what". The sign wasn't a question - it was a statement of fact.
86	* In the ''{{TabletopGame/Paranoia}}'' adventure "Send in the Clones", the PC's encounter a door with a panel of buttons nearby. If they push the buttons and succeed in a difficult skill roll, the door opens. If the skill roll fails, the door stays closed. If they just push on the door, they find that it was open all along.
87	* ''{{TabletopGame/Rolemaster}}'' ''Shadow World'' supplement ''Emer''. Inside the Ahrenthrok, a door made of frosted green laen has a silver rune inlaid on it. It will open if the Iruaric word "Iken" ("open") is spoken.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* In ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany 2'', the squad captures a Russian soldier and intends to interrogate him for information. While The Sarge goes off to talk to him, the other soldiers start talking about how effective he is at torture and betting on how long it will take the guy to break. Sarge comes back in seconds, having simply asked the guy straight-up. Apparently, he was just a Russian conscript with family in Houston, and wanted no part of the whole thing.
92	* ''Bureaucracy'': this InteractiveFiction game, written by Creator/DouglasAdams, has a puzzle that consists of a locked door in an apartment complex. The way to get the door open is to do something no experienced adventure game player would ever think of trying, but someone faced with the same situation in RealLife would probably have no trouble finding the answer. [[spoiler:Simply knock on the door, and the person inside lets you in.]] It's that kind of game.
93	* The very first ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' has a mission where an unholy artifact is at the center of an old cathedral, whose massive doors require a great concentration of firepower (lascannons and missiles) to destroy. Or, you could just go through the hole in the wall that's actually closer to the artifact, isn't guarded by entrenched Chaos SpaceMarines, and wide enough to admit four Land Raiders inside the cathedral and shoot down the doors from inside.
94	* ''VideoGame/FableI'': The Guild's Demon Door will only open if you pass a riddle: "Your path is dark. Only a light will reveal it, and you are not bright enough." Is it referring to your [[FameGate Renown]] level? Your [[OnlyThePureOfHeart purity of heart]] in a setting where LightIsGood? Your [[IdeaBulb intelligence]]? No, you need to light the lamp in your inventory.
95	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
96	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', Ipsen's Castle has a movable wall that Zidane tries increasingly extreme methods to open, from banging on it to dropkicking it. It's only when he takes a break and leans against it does it actually move.
97	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', Lightning tries almost everything to get a certain door open. Then, for some reason, she ''gives the door a hug'', and says: "I'm sorry. Please open." The door pops open, and every other door of that type opens without a fuss from then on. This happens because [[spoiler:the doors are fal'Cie, and thus living creatures who don't respond well to being punched and knocked on]].
98	* In the Creator/{{Infocom}} game ''Journey'', the characters find a gate with an inscription reading "Please only say 'gate open' to enter storage-room." [[spoiler:Clues allow the player to read this correctly as "Storage-room entrance. To open gate, say only 'Please'."]]
99	* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', to choose your Jedi class, you are asked a series of questions, one of them being "You are at a locked door. What do you do?" [[spoiler:One of the choices is "knock".]]
100	* In ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', one of the puzzles asks the player to "trace the name that is not," as the original release's FanTranslation puts it. The remake's translation demystifies the clue by specifying [[SomebodyNamedNobody "the name that means 'nameless',"]] though the actual solution is not quite so simple in this version.
101	* ''VideoGame/LeatherGoddessesOfPhobos'': The player is captured by aliens and thrown into a cell. The way to escape is [[spoiler:simply to open the door -- it's not locked]]. Many players were stuck for weeks on this point. Lampshaded in-game as well -- the other prisoner admits he never thought to try it.
102	* In the third ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', knocking on the door is also the solution, contrary to anything your support team suggests, to getting through a random locked door in the enemy base.
103	* In the old game ''Might & Magic: The Lava Pits of Aznar'', one of the secret doors opens with an unexpectedly simple password. To quote the [[http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2020/03/game-359-might-magic-lava-pits-of-aznar.html CRPG Addict]]:
104	-->''...a set of runes only tells you to "speak the word" to open the door. You can spend a frustrating hour trying to figure out what the word could possibly be, or you can remember your "obvious clues" in cryptic crosswords and realize that what you want to say is literally THE WORD.''
105	* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter'', "You can't do anything to solve this puzzle." Or, in other words, [[spoiler:"To solve this puzzle, you can't do anything."]]
106	* In ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'', puzzle level 10-11, the player is given the clue "Write the answer!". [[spoiler:To beat the level, you actually have to write Answer in the notebook.]]
107	* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge'', the Labion natives welcome you into their home and tell you to "say the word" when you're ready to move on. As demonstrated in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-siZx4REO8 at least one Let's Play]], this trope can still confuse people.
108	* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', towards the beginning of the Sith Inquisitor story, you come across a holocron that Sith Lords and apprentices have been trying to open for years. Your character can attempt to meditate and recite the Sith Code, but the solution is actually to simply shoot it with lightning, one of the most iconic abilities of the Sith. [[spoiler: Much later you learn that it was probably keyed to your family specifically, and wouldn't have worked for anyone else.]]
109	* ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'':
110	** In Hades, the player is tasked with answering a bunch of questions on the Hades Hotline telephone before he/she can call a shuttle. It's made especially confusing (the Hotline strives for "customer dissatisfaction") by the fact that, for example to press 6, you need to press 2, and to press 4, you need to press 0. The puzzle is doable, and there are only 5 questions, but it can also all be overridden if the player [[spoiler:casts "Kendall" to simplify the instructions]].
111	** Another example presents a puzzle board with several moving pieces activating a lock that opens a small cage holding a skull that the player needs. The player, who at this moment is controlling a rather dim-witted troll-like creature, [[spoiler:simply smashes the cage open with a club]] to proceed.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Webcomics]]
115	* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' has this in the chapter "Death Volley". The entrance of the Inocktek temple has [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p26/ an inscription of a riddle]], explaining that anyone who wishes to enter must answer the riddle "loudly and with pride". Doc sees all the prior, failed answers to the riddle, and realizes what's up. He just walks into the temple without saying anything. The riddle was just a trick to make attempted temple raiders give themselves away to the sound-activated laser guarding the entrance.
116	* ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'' has its own take on the trope namer in [[http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=680 this strip]]; the players are working out how to construct a battering ram by the time the exasperated GM gives in and just tells them the solution.
117	-->"[[AltText No matter how difficult or absurd you make a puzzle, your players will find an even more impossible and preposterous way of solving it.]]"
118	* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', Florence [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2100/fc02032.htm is trying to find]] a way to open a door, and Winston (talking to Benny) references the TropeNamer. An AI inside the building opens the door because they heard conversation outside.
119	* In ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', the goblins encounter a wall covered in a series of blocks depicting various items accompanied by the words "To open the door, Take the key, It will be yours if under the tree." Thaco and Complains assume it's a sliding-block puzzle and try to move the block with a tree above the block with a key. [[spoiler:Fumbles simply pulls the tree block off the wall, revealing the key to the door underneath it.]]
120	* ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'' has [[https://xkcd.com/530/ a strip]] (based on something the author actually did) where a character forgets his keys and works out a complicated system to log into his desktop and have the text-to-speech tell his roommate to let him in. The woman he explains the situation to then asks why the doorbell doesn't work...
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Western Animation]]
124	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', Timmy, Chester, and AJ are sent to a military school, where they are forced to conquer an obstacle course. One obstacle is a sixty-foot climbing wall covered in spikes. While Timmy and Chester are in awe of what they seemingly have to climb, AJ comes up with a simpler solution -- walk around it.
125	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': In the episode "Syren", Master Fu is working on completing the recipe for a kwami power-up potion; the ingredients are all written as riddles (for example, the potion for the aquatic transformation requires "a branch from the dragon king's garden", ie. seaweed), and he's deciphered most of them, but is stuck on the last, "a tear of joy". As it turns out, the potion needs literal TearsOfJoy.
126	* Happens in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Timon and Pumbaa}}'' where the duo are enlisted in a Survival of the Fittest training camp to get fit and healthy by a wolverine who secretly plans to eat them afterwards because he favors lean food. While Pumbaa faithfully follows his fitness guidelines, Timon lazes around and does absolutely nothing. After a pumped up Pumbaa surpasses a gruesome maze of challenges, when it's Timon's turn all he does is walk across the white starting line, erase the "start" etched on the ground next to it, walk back to the front of the starting line and then write down the words "Finish" on the ground, completely ignoring the maze of challenges.
127	* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'':
128	** There's this huge obstacle course covering the area that loops around to a pedestal with the goal. After the others have failed to get through the course, Clay asks if all he has to do is get the object at the goal. When told he does, he simply walks over to the pedestal and picks the goal up, completely ignoring the obstacle course.
129	** Another challenge Clay participated in required him to catch a small bird in order to win the necessary artifact. While his opponent Jack Spicer took off on a jetpack trying to grab it, Clay filled his hat with birdseed and just waited for it to come to him.
130	[[/folder]]
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132	----
133	->[[Webcomic/{{XKCD}} So what's the Elvish word for "frenemy"?]]\

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