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:
- Comic-Book Time
- Conversation Cut
- Correlation/Causation Gag
- Frozen in Time
- Inaction Sequence
- Just in Time
- Magic Countdown
- Plot Detour
- Real Time
- Refugee from Time
- Ridiculously Fast Construction
- Sneeze Cut
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome
- Talking Is a Free Action
- Time Skip
- Transformation at the Speed of Plot
- Transformation Is a Free Action
- 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.
