Basic Trope: Letters on a sign are removed or broken to give the intention a new meaning.
- Straight: Alice has a marquee outside her restaurant that reads "ALICE'S RESTAURANT". A windstorm blows out some letters which make it say "_LICE__ REST______".
- Exaggerated: The wind knocks even more letters so the sign just reads "_LICE__"
- Downplayed: Only the A gets blown off and "_LICE'S RESTAURANT" is showing.
- Justified:
- Alice doesn't have a protective cover over her marquee.
- Alice's Restaurant closed a decade ago, and no one has bought the building since then.
- Inverted: Alice puts new letters on the marquee so that it reads "ALICE'S FRENCH RESTAURANT".
- Subverted:
- A light on Alice's marquee is flimsy, making the top row which says "EAT AT" flicker and therefore not changing the sign's purpose.
- While some of the metal letters have fallen off, their backing is unpainted, keeping it readible.
- Double Subverted: The other rows' lights are just as problematic, to the point where no one knows what kind of business Alice's is.
- the unpainted letters of ALICE'S RESTAURANT aren't visible during its operating hours
- Parodied: The marquee reads "ALICE'S BROKEN SIGN RESTAURANT".
- Zig Zagged: The wind blows off letters to the sign and adds some. Alice sometimes feels like fixing it, but other times she doesn't.
- Averted: The sign is left alone.
- Enforced:
- The prop department didn't have enough materials and/or budget to make all the letters.
- The writers want the viewers to know how rundown the (practically abandoned) northern district is.
- Lampshaded: "Alice, you need to fix that sign."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Bob wants Alice to go out of business, so he vandalizes the sign so customers think they're at the wrong place.
- Defied: Alice shuts down and repairs the sign the split second it shows any signals of malfunctioning and has a well-known less-than-zero tolerance for saboteurs.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: The damaged sign costs Alice business as people have no idea what she is selling or if this is even the right place.
- Reconstructed: Alice's restaurant is so well known that everyone knows about it.
- Implied: A handwritten note is taped on the door telling people to ignore the marquee
Go back to SI_NS OF DISREPAIR. Hey, we only had one capital g...
