The point of a story is to get a reaction from the audience. This means that plot holes and unrealistic elements can be excused if their presence results in the audience feeling something (assuming they're not too blatant to allow for the desired impact). Thus, the limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its degree of meeting one or more of the following tropes.
A Sub-Trope of Artistic License.
See also Garnishing the Story, The Power of Index, and Spectacle. Contrast with Deconstruction and its subtropes, where these tropes are suspended as a rule.
Note: Just because it has "Rule of..." in the title (or even begins that way) does not mean it fits this index.
Tropes:
- Rule of Cool: If it's cool enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Creepy: If it's creepy enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Cute: If it's adorable enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Drama: If the potential for conflict is visible, then it will never be passed over.
- Rule of Empathy: A character's likelihood to survive is directly proportional to how much the audience can empathize with them.
- Rule of Fun: If a game is fun enough, all else can be excused.
- Rule of Funny: If it's funny enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Glamorous: If it's pretty enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Romantic: If it's romantic enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Scary: If it's scary enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Sexy: If it's sexy enough, it doesn't have to make sense.
- Rule of Symbolism: If it's symbolic, it doesn't have to make sense.
Looks like this index, but isn't:
- Rule of Perception: Perceiving something isn't a reaction or a feeling on its own. If anything, this rule works in the opposite direction, as sacrificing realism to ensure actions, traits or phenomena are perceptible is done in order to prevent a confused reaction from the audience.
