Basic Trope: Someone argues against a well-established and proven scientific theory, and thus either considers it false or considers it equal to any other explanation.
- Straight: Bob makes his argument against gravity, either verbally or by physically trying to prove gravity wrong.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob does this with other theories, arguing that the world is flat or the center of the solar system or that magnetism doesn't exist or similar. Note that these extended examples of "only a theory" are dependent on the setting: It only counts if the story takes place on present-day earth or similar world where these theories are indeed theories. There is a huge difference between a present-day educated character claiming that the earth is flat or the center of the universe and a stone-age shaman making the same claims.
- Bob argues that Peano Arithmetic is only a theory.
- Downplayed: Bob is skeptical of the well-established theory, but doesn't see the need to strongly argue the point.
- Justified:
- Bob lives in a setting where gravity is indeed optional.
- Bob doesn't argue against the existence of gravity, but that Newton's gravitational formula is inaccurate.
- Inverted: Bob insists that a wild guess is absolutely true.
- Subverted:
- Bob is a superhero-in-denial. He think he has evidence for gravity being wrong, but that's only his way of trying to explain away his own telekinetic superpowers.
- Alternatively, it turns out that Bob actually think it's absurd to dismiss gravity: He's simply playing "the devil's advocate" for one reason or another.
- Double Subverted: Bob plays "devil's advocate" for the crackpot alternate theory, which turns out to be right.
- Parodied: Bob follows a herd of lemmings off of a cliff. The lemmings fall, but Bob flies up into the sky.
- Zig Zagged: Bob falls into a series of black holes and winds up in different universes with differing laws of gravity.
- Averted: Nobody tries to disprove any scientific theory.
- Enforced: The creators insist on having open minded characters.
- Lampshaded: Bob's friend Alice reminds him that the word "theory" has a different meaning in science than it does in common conversation.
- Invoked: Bob is put on trial by a mad king for trespassing, and he argues this to prove that he wasn't really walking on the grounds at all.
- Exploited: Alice knows that Bob believes this, and tricks him into walking off a cliff.
- Defied: Bob refuses to listen to any argument against the theory of gravity.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: Bob's argument is designed to be hilariously silly or have hilariously silly consequences.
- Played For Drama: Trying to prove gravity wrong, Bob walks off a cliff. Tragedy or Epiphany ensues as he either plummets to death/mutilation or actually manage to show everyone that the world indeed is much stranger then they think. Or both, as he proves his point and plummets to his death as the power of
the sunparadox backlash causes his Icarus wings to melt. - Played For Analysis: Bob actually bothers to make a nuanced argument, hopefully including a distinction between the issue of how / if gravity works and why gravity works (or doesn't work) the way it works (or doesn't work).
- Implied: Bob attacks something more controversial, like String Theory, and someone says it's as sturdy as gravity. Bob gives them a look.
- Deconstructed: Bob is a politician or someone else powerful, and he gets people killed with a policy not accounting for gravity.
Back to Gravity Is Only a Theory
