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Basic Trope: The story is perfectly recounted by a character who shouldn't be able to.

  • Straight: Bob recounts the story of invading the Big Bad's stronghold and stealing the MacGuffin in perfect and vivid detail.
  • Exaggerated: Bob recounts the entire story of his life, down to what he had for lunch fifteen years, three months, and five days ago, and why it was two hours later than normal.
    • Or, Bob recounts the story of him invading the Big Bad in perfect and accurate detail...except he wasn't even there.
  • Downplayed: Bob recounts his fight against the Big Bad for the MacGuffin in mostly accurate detail.
  • Justified: Bob has a Photographic Memory.
    • Bob can Time Travel, which allows him to remember past events easily.
  • Inverted: Bob barely remembers anything about his story of invading the Big Bad's stronghold and stealing the MacGuffin.
  • Subverted: Bob begins the story in great detail, but it gets vague as he continues the exposition.
  • Double Subverted: But it gets crystal clear during the climax and denouement.
  • Parodied: Bob can barely remember the story of how he invaded the Big Bad's stronghold and stole the Macguffin, so he makes-up the story as he goes. In. Excruciatingly. Accurate. Detail.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob recalls the story of invading the Big Bad's stronghold and stealing the MacGuffin in detail, but a lot of facts don't make sense and contradict eachother.
  • Averted: Bob tells the story of how he invaded the Big Bad's stronghold and stole the MacGuffin, but does not go into detail.
  • Enforced: The writers were going to have Bob do a quick retelling of how he captured the MacGuffin from the Big Bad, but the audience has been clamouring to find out how Bob did it, so they devote an entire episode to Bob telling the story.
  • Lampshaded: "Gee, Bob. How did you remember all that?"
  • Invoked: During his travels, Bob makes sure he remembers every detail of his journey so that he can recount it later.
  • Exploited: A detective listening to Bob's story uses obscure details from his adventure to solve a mystery.
  • Defied: Bob is about to tell Alice the story of how he invaded the Big Bad's stronhold and stole the MacGuffin in time-consuming detail, but she stops him before he can start.
  • Discussed: Alice: "Bob telling his story, again? Make sure he doesn't forget that forty-seventh time he blinks." Tom: "Don't tempt him."
  • Conversed: "How does he 'remember' all of that?"
  • Deconstructed: Bob tries to recount every detail of his adventure to a group, but he can't remember everything, it takes twice as long as the adventure itself, and by the time he's remembered a quarter of the action, everyone left to do other things.
  • Reconstructed: Bob is a witness to a crime and is trying to recall his story to the police, who are patient to hear every single detail.
  • Played For Laughs: Bob remembers all the strange and obscure details of his adventure, but none of the important plot points.
  • Plotted A Good Waste: Bob lost the MacGuffin during his invasion of the Big Bad's stronghold and must recount every detail of the events to remember where he lost it before the Big Bad finds it and uses it to destroy the world.

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