History Main / BehindTheBlack

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': The ''Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained'' short "Lefty" is about a person who has only ever been seen from the left by anyone. This means that his left side was always facing the camera, even though other people in the scene should have been able to see him from the right.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

* Happens in an issue of ''Comicbook/NewXMen'', where someone is trying to assassinate [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]] in an airport. The assassin is covered in a shawl, and when some of the X-corp branch unmask the assassin, it is only then that the Professor, several yards away, tells [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] who it is. This is a telepath who should have been able to tell the other telepath who it was before the audience finds out.
* In pretty much every ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}}'' album featuring Queen Cleopatra, there will be a scene where Cleo shows up in a huge sphinx-shaped throne pulled by dozens of slaves ... and no-one notices her approach until she appears on panel.
* In ''Recap/TintinDestinationMoon'', Calculus drives Tintin and Haddock toward the Moon rocket standing in the middle of its take-off site, with the panels focusing only on the jeep they are in, carefully excluding the Moon rocket from the frame until the jeep stops at its foot (and at the bottom of a page), with Tintin and Haddock looking up in surprise, leaving the reveal of the rocket in its full glory for the heroes and the readers for the next page. In short, it seems as if Calculus drove all the way to the Moon rocket without either Tintin or Haddock apparently noticing it before they are parked almost below it.

* In ''Series/{{Blackadder}} II'' episode "Head", Blackadder ducks in and out of a prison cell to interrogate Lady Farrow about the distinguishing features of her husband so he can impersonate him (having beheaded him ahead of schedule). There's an open grille above the door and everyone inside is within view of the door, but somehow Lady Farrow doesn't overhear the frantic conversation within, nor do they hear what she's saying to Blackadder, even though that ''does'' seem to happen with Queenie at the end. (But who cares; it's still hilarious.)

* Near the beginning of Franchise/{{Disney|AnimatedCanon}}'s ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', Robin has the Prince distracted while Little John robs him blind. At one point, he cuts a hole in the bottom of a chest and drains its gold coins out. However, there are four guards holding the chest on their shoulders. Justified in that the guards are rhinos, and with their eyes set in the sides of their heads, their field of vision doesn't cover the area forward and down.
* Unintentionally hilarious example in the Rankin-Bass version of ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing''. When Gandalf introduces the Minstrel of Gondor (who is standing in the corner of a fairly small room), all of the other characters look surprised. Apparently he was standing there the entire time without being noticed or introduced, just waiting for a cue. He's notably absent in the wide shots.

** In ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E24EquestriaGames Equestria Games]]'', after melting the giant ice block, Spike pulls an umbrella from just below the bottom of the screen. He opens it to shield himself from the brief downpour, then puts it back where it was, below the bottom of the screen. The camera cuts to a wider shot of Spike in the middle of the field. There's no umbrella, and nothing it could possibly fit behind.

---> [[HelloInsertNameHere You]]: Yamato-san was right! There are alot of people out here! Except... you can't see any of them in this image because, um... because.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainScientificRailgun'' hilariously lampshades this in a promo chapter for the movie ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion'', which concerned a SpaceElevator, which would logically be highly visible from anywhere in the city but had never before been mentioned.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' hilariously lampshades this in a promo chapter for the movie ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion'', which concerned a SpaceElevator, which would logically be highly visible from anywhere in the city but had never before been mentioned.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' hilariously lampshades this in a promo chapter for the movie ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion'', which concerned a SpaceElevator, which would logically be highly visible from anywhere in the city but had never before been seen or mentioned.

* Hilariously lampshaded in a promo chapter for the ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' movie, which concerned a SpaceElevator, which would logically be highly visible from anywhere in the city, that had never before been mentioned.

** Gumball and Darwin try talking to Masami in ''The Gift'' to get an idea of a present she'd like without letting her know they don't have one. When she tells them and leaves, it's revealed that everyone else who was invited was eavesdropping when the camera pulls back and shows they were framing the screen.
** The most outstanding example has to be in ''The Factory''. It has the boys stowaway in Nicole's briefcase, which Gumball hands to her from ''within'' the briefcase, and somehow she didn't notice that her briefcase was floating to her carried by an arm sticking from inside it because the camera angle didn't show that [[OnceMoreWithClarity at first]].

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Stan and Steve talk about the current plot in the living room. Francine interjects with a comment as the camera zooms out to show her standing in the doorway. Stan questions how he was completely unaware she was there despite him having a perfect view of the doorway from his present position. When the camera zooms back in to Stan and Steve, Stan starts a sentence, but squints back towards the doorway, as though he's trying to tell if Francine is still there.

* In modern 3D games, a common trick used to save processing power is to prevent the game from rendering anything the player cannot directly see. This can range from not rendering anything in the world the player isn't directly looking at, to simply not modeling the right side of the first-person model for a weapon (and using a noticeably lower-quality third-person model for other characters to hold).
* Some {{Beat Em Up}}s will hide extra lives and health pickups behind pipes. The character would clearly see it but the player's view is blocked by the pipe. ''VideoGame/FinalFight 3'' has a few.
* A great deal of {{isometric|Projection}} games, shot from a slightly slanted angle, will hide hidden characters or chests behind walls, staircases, or the like, waiting for an investigative player to find them.

* Many if not most light gun/rail gun shooters use this. No matter how well you're covering your position, mooks will appear right in your face and make it damned near impossible to avoid damage. VideoGame/LethalEnforcers is seemingly where this started, or at least became prominent.
* Inverted in some of the earlier {{M|assivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame}}MORPGs (notably ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' and ''VideoGame/DarkAgeOfCamelot'') where a target is clearly visible on screen yet when you try to cast a spell on them it will say the target is not visible, presumably due to bad programming. ''DAOC'' is in third person so you could HandWave it by saying just because the camera can see the target doesn't mean your character in game can see it from their POV; ''[=EverQuest=]'', however, is first person by default so has no such excuse. Most later [=MMOs=] with similar mechanics, like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', sidestep the issue by wording it as the target being out of your character's line of sight, such as the target slipping behind a large tree or other piece of scenery.
* A lot of {{Shoot Em Up}}s have the rule of "if it's off-screen, you can't shoot it". In other words, you could be firing everything when the boss is about 100 meters away, but until the boss appears on the screen you can't damage it. Similarly, your movement is limited to what's onscreen; if you're at the edge of the screen and cornered by bullets, you simply can't move further off to the side.
* Occurs with offscreen-spawning enemies in FPS games. Conversely, they probably [[TheAllSeeingAI already know your position.]] Some such games, such as the original ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', even complain in the console when the player can see where the enemies are trying to spawn from. More recent ones that don't eschew infinitely-respawning enemies entirely often add in obvious entrances for enemies to spawn in behind then leave to enter the playing field proper, such as a tunnel entrance or a door that refuses to open for you.
* This is {{averted|Trope}} in all third-person shooters where the player can rotate the camera around the character and zoom out. This allows the player to see around corners, over obstacles, and other impediments to line of sight without needing to expose the character. Until the game [[CameraScrew suddenly denies you camera control]].
** ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' upgraded to a slightly more realistic form. You can still turn the camera around to look behind objects, but you can no longer scan for objects using your mouse (which used to show enemies even through solid stone walls). You can, however, still use a keyboard command to show the lifemeters of all hidden enemies around you, including those below the floor you're on and behind walls.
** ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' gives you the opportunity to not just look but shoot blind around corners and over obstacles. The flipside of being able to do this is that that you have no accuracy, so firing an automatic weapon in this manner is a case of spray-n-pray.
** In turn-based games that keep track of what your character can see using fog of war, a '''four dimensional''' version of this can occur. Characters with enough movement points can pop out from cover, catch a glimpse of something, and return to safety all in the same turn. This often makes it impossible for other entities to react to or even SEE your character.
*** An especially vicious abuse of turn-based games is to perform an action (like taking a potshot at somebody) when you do this. Some editions of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' allowed heavily enhanced characters to open a door, run in, knife someone, run out, close the door, and lock it in a single turn.
*** Some turn-based games, usually based in some kind of action point model, mitigate this. They use a mechanic, sometimes called overwatch, that allows to use left over action points from your own turn during the enemy's turn, usually as a reaction from detecting an enemy character doing the above.
** The latest ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' installments take this to the logical next step. Aside from knowing what's around the corner without actually exposing Logan, you can now ''pre-aim'' shots from behind cover! This results in "peek-a-boo" headshots, where the agent will come out of cover, shoot the {{mook|s}} in the head, and duck behind cover in just half a second. Granted, this "pre-aiming" is only effective at close range and in a rather narrow angle of coverage - many situations need the manual aim which requires the player to come out of cover. Still, ''Dark Mirror'' and ''Logan's Shadow'' takes the omniscience of the third person camera to a whole new level. Also present in ''VideoGame/WinBack'', which - when you sidle up to a corner - allows you to queue up multiple headshots for button-press execution.
** Some games have very simple cameras. ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' did not push the camera in or clip outside walls, so you could swing it right through walls and see all kinds of things (or block your view with the other side of the wall Konoko's backed up against!). Since Creator/{{Bungie}} didn't fix this bug with ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'''s 3rd-person vehicle camera, it might be the reason why ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' became an FPS.
** ''VideoGame/PerfectDark Zero'' and ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas'' switch to a third person view when you're in cover, and you can pre-aim from here. Like ''Syphon Filter'' above, however, you need to actually pop out of cover to properly aim and hit enemies; outside of abusing a glitch with sniper rifles in the second ''Vegas'', attempting to blind-fire from behind cover [[ATeamFiring only works at extreme close range]]. ''Vegas'' also has camera issues, since the game always wants to view the action when you're leaning up over low cover from a specific angle depending on which direction you're aiming from that cover - the problem being that whichever angle it wants is always the one that blocks your view of who you're actually trying to shoot at with your own body.
* Many games with top-down views, such as the older ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games and ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', have "secret doors" that are only not visible because of the bird's-eye view the player has.

* Happens in an issue of ''Comicbook/NewXMen'', where someone is trying to assassinate Comicbook/ProfessorX in an airport. The assassin is covered in a shawl, and when some of the X-corp branch unmask the assassin, it is only then that the Professor, several yards away, tells Comicbook/JeanGrey who it is. This is a telepath who should have been able to tell the other telepath who it was before the audience finds out.

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Batman manages to hide from an entire dinner party (including ComicBook/TheJoker) until the camera pans slightly to the right and he's suddenly ''there''. (Of course, this is ''[[StealthHiBye Batman]]'' we're talking about here.)

** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', once the plot goes back to the opening of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', the dancing Star-Lord manages to miss a fully-armored War Machine who appears from off-screen and then clonks him on the head.

** In "The Game," Wesley comes to Picard with his concerns about a mind-controlling game spreading through the crew. After Wesley leaves, Picard retrieves a game module from a shelf beside him that was just out frame, revealing that he's in the grips of the game as well. Wesley should have been able to see the game module from his position and be tipped off to Picard's compromised state.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has an interesting example. In "Betrayal" Terra sees Slade's reflection on a mirror, but when she turns around she can't see any sign of him. We're probably meant to believe that Slade simply left the room during the time it took Terra to turn her head, except that there is a ''very'' clear shot of Terra looking behind her while the mirror in front of her still shows Slade's motionless reflection.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' has three characters, [[IronicName Handy]] (who [[ArmlessBiped has no arms]]]], The Mole (who [[BlindMistake is blind]]), and Cro-Marmot (who is [[HumanPopsicle frozen in a block of ice]]]], doing normal actions off-screen while unable to perform those same actions on-screen.