Albert Einstein
amazed the world in 1905 when he published his paper on special relativity, which predicted - among other things - that time was, indeed, relative.
The writers, however, were left unimpressed, because they have been familiar with a similar principle for ages untold: for you see, it is a trivial matter to derive from the Theory of Narrative Causality that - just as things happen because the plot damn well needs them to - they also happen when it is convenient for the story.
This phenomenon is known as Plot Time, and it crops up in a lot of Tropes, such as:
- Bait-and-Switch Time Skip: It seems like a long time has passed, but it's only been a little while.
- Comic-Book Time: The in-universe amount of time that has progressed in a work is much shorter than how long it has taken for the series to progress in real life.
- Conversation Cut
- Correlation/Causation Gag
- Frozen in Time
- Inaction Sequence
- Just in Time
- Magic Countdown: Time flows differently on time counters that are currently not onscreen or discussed.
- Plot Detour
- Real Time
- Refugee from Time
- Ridiculously Fast Construction
- Sneeze Cut
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: A character inexplicably becomes older between appearances.
- Talking Is a Free Action: When a character is in danger, they somehow have enough time to talk about something right before getting out of harm's way or falling victim to the disaster.
- Time Skip: A work skips to a specific amount of time later.
- Transformation at the Speed of Plot
- Transformation Is a Free Action: When a character goes through a transformation sequence, no one does anything until after the transformation is complete.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot
- Video Game Time
- Webcomic Time
Not to be confused with Time Travel Tropes, though the two do frequently cooperate. Compare 24-Hour Trope Clock, for how times are used in plots.
