Spectacle

All forms of showing off in a work, to impress the audience. Frequently used to set the mood and serve the Rule of Cool.

For example, for Live-Action TV, this includes exotic scenery, lighting, props, elaborate costuming, makeup, bombastic background music, sound effects, and Special Effects in general. Live Action movies use Scenery Porn, glamorous locations, car chases, Stuff Blowing Up, and computer generated imagery. For Comic Books, it includes things like coloring and lettering. For theater, operas, and musicals, spectacle is achieved with a large number of dancers, flamboyant, glittering costumes and so on. A rock or pop concert may use smoke machines, lasers, pyrotechnics, choreographed dancers, a moving stage platform, and huge screens.

The name comes from Aristotle's Poetics and is used more broadly here. He considered using spectacle to cover deficiencies in plot and character a flaw. If they are just in addition to good plots and characters, then these are just a bonus.

Not to be confused with Glasses Tropes.

See also Garnishing the Story, Opulent Outfits, and Rule of Index.

Contrast with Dogme '95, a film movement that was against special effects and spectacle. Some other styles of art deliberately avoid special effects, such as traditional folk music and lo-fi music.

Tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: A traditionally animated cartoon has some elements that are clearly created using three-dimensional computer graphics.
• Action-Hogging Opening: The opening sequence of a television series has more action than the actual show does.
• Alien Landmass
• Alien Sea
• Alien Sky
• All Deserts Have Cacti
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield
• Animal Battle Aura
• Awe-Inspiring Dinosaur Shot
• Apocalypse Wow
• Artificial Outdoors Display
• Astral Finale
• Awesome Underwater World
• Awesome Art
• Bad Vibrations
• Battering Ram
• Battle Amongst the Flames
• Battle Aura
• Battle in the Rain
• Behind the Black
• Big Ball of Violence: When two or more characters get into a fight, they become a ball of smoke with fists and feet repeatedly poking out.
• The Big Board
• Big Dam Plot
• Billions of Buttons
• Bookshelf Dominoes
• Build Like an Egyptian
• Bullet Sparks
• Burn Baby Burn
• Busby Berkeley Number
• Car Porn
• Cave Mouth
• Chunky Updraft
• Chiaroscuro
• Cobweb Jungle
• Comet of Doom
• Confetti Drop
• Conspicuous Consumption
• Conspicuously Light Patch
• Construction Is Awesome
• Cool Chair
• Costume Porn
• Cow Tools
• Creation Sequence
• Crystal Spires and Togas
• Desert Skull
• Desolation Shot
• Destination Defenestration
• Dirt Forcefield
• Disaster Dominoes
• Discretion Shot: Moments where the scene cuts away or obscures something to prevent the audience from seeing it.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Taking over all TV channels to deliver a message.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang
• Dramatic Spotlight
• Editorial Synaesthesia
• E = MC Hammer: Nonsensical or incorrect math equations.
• Eerily Out-of-Place Object
• Eiffel Tower Effect
• Empathic Environment
• Epic Launch Sequence
• Epic Movie
• Epileptic Flashing Lights
• Excessive Steam Syndrome
• Every Bullet is a Tracer
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Cars explode when they crash.
• Everything Makes a Mushroom: A mushroom cloud appears even though the explosion did not involve radiation of any kind.
• Explosive Instrumentation
• Eyedscreen
• Fake-Out Fade-Out
• Fanfare
• Fantastic Fireworks
• Farts on Fire
• Fashion Show
• Fighter-Launching Sequence
• Final Battle-Induced Shirt Loss
• Fire Means Chaos
• Fireworks of Victory: For when a major victory calls for a flashy celebration.
• First Time in the Sun
• Flag Drop
• Flaming Hair
• Flaunting Your Fleets
• Flashy Teleportation
• Floorboard Failure
• Frank's 2000 Inch TV
• Fungus Humongous
• The Future Is Noir
• Grand Staircase Entrance
• Gratuitous Special Effects
• Great Balls of Fire!
• Hand Puppet
• Heart Light
• Hit Flash
• Hollywood Darkness
• Human Cannonball
• Hurl It into the Sun
• If You Can Read This
• Immortal Life Is Cheap
• Impressive Pyrotechnics
• Improbable Cover
• Incendiary Exponent
• Instant Runes
• Instant Thunder
• Interesting Situation Duel
• It's Going Down
• Knife-Throwing Act
• Made of Explodium: An object that easily explodes.
• Made of Incendium: An object that easily catches on fire.
• Man on Fire
• Marked Change
• Midair Bobbing
• Model Dissonance
• Monumental Damage
• Monumental Damage Resistance
• Monumental View
• Mood Dissonance
• Motorcycle on the Coast Road
• Mundane Made Awesome: A mundane task is described or depicted in a way that it looks much more impressive and exciting.
• Muppet
• Natural Disaster Cascade: Something is causing a chain of natural disasters at the same time or close to the same time.
• Natural Spotlight
• No OSHA Compliance: A workplace has enough hazards that realistically the business would be forced to shut down if they didn't make the necessary changes to prevent endangering employees.
• Nothing but Skulls
• Nuclear Candle
• Obvious Stunt Double: During the more dangerous scenes, the actor's stunt double clearly doesn't look a thing like the actor they're filling in for.
• Ocean Awe
• Off-the-Shelf FX
• Ominous Multiple Screens
• One-Woman Wail
• Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame
• Phosphor-Essence
• Pillar of Light
• Pixellation
• Possession Levitation
• Power Dyes Your Hair
• Power Echoes
• Power Floats
• Power Gives You Wings
• Power Glows
• Pre-Explosion Buildup
• Pre-Explosion Glow
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep
• The Power of Rock
• Rain of Blood
• Raygun Gothic
• Real Footage Re-creation
• Real-Place Background
• Ridiculously Potent Explosive
• Ring of Fire
• Rockers Smash Guitars
• Rod And Reel Repurposed
• Roll Out the Red Carpet
• The Ruins I Caused
• Rule of Perception
• Scene of Wonder
• Scenery Dissonance
• Scenery Gorn
• Scenery Porn: Highly detailed backgrounds.
• Screen Shake
• Screw the Electric Bill
• Sensational Staircase Sequence
• Short-Lived Aerial Escape
• Siege Engines
• Serkis Folk: Animated characters are brought to life from computer-generated models controlled by people in costumes.
• Shapeshifter Showoff Session: As soon as they're revealed as such, shapeshifters just can't resist flaunting their powers.
• Shifting Situation Duel
• Shiny-Looking Spaceships
• Shoot the Money
• Showy Invincible Hero
• Sickly Green Glow
• Sigil Spam
• Signature Shot
• Sinister Deer Skull
• Sinister Silhouettes
• Skyward Scream
• Slow-Motion Pass-By
• Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb
• Special Effects
• Special Effects Evolution
• Special Effect Branding
• Special Effect Failure
• Sphere of Destruction
• Sphere of Power
• Spoofing in the Rain
• Standard Establishing Spaceship Shot
• Standardized Space Views: Stock space shots.
• Starring Special Effects
• Stop Motion Lighting
• Streaming Stars
• Stuff Blowing Up
• Summer Blockbuster
• Super Move Portrait Attack
• Swiss-Army Tears: Crying on anyone or anything will magically solve your problems.
• Sword Sparks
• Symbolic Blood
• Tainted Veins
• Taxidermy Terror
• Technicolor Death: It's amazing to see that this formidable foe are now defeated, with a BANG!
• Technicolor Magic
• Technology Porn
• Throat Light
• Tickertape Parade
• Toppled Statue
• Transformation Sequence
• Trashcan Bonfire
• Tron Lines
• A Truce While We Gawk
• Unflinching Walk
• Unsound Effect: Onomatopoeia is used for actions that can't really be heard.
• Used Future
• Visible Invisibility: An invisible character is depicted in a way that the audience can still see them even though the other characters can't.
• Volcanic Veins
• Vomit Discretion Shot: When a character is about to vomit, the work either cuts to the next scene or has the character bend over out of frame before they start heaving.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: A character pukes and the work actually shows them horking on-screen.
• Wacky Startup Workplace: Amenities used to show off.
• Weaponized Landmark
• The World Is Just Awesome
• Wormsign
• Written Roar
• Written Sound Effect
• You Have to Burn the Web
• Your Head A-Splode
• Zeerust