History Main / HandWave

* In ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'', Egg Shen disappears after the fight in the assembly hall, then abruptly reappears to throw his friends an escape rope through a hole in the ceiling. When asked how the he got up there, Egg just says "It wasn't easy!"

* Played for comedy in ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' when Egg Shen appears above a hole in the ceiling. Jack asks how he got up there, and Egg simply replies, [[ItWasntEasy "Wasn't easy!"]].

* Played for comedy in ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' when Egg Shen appears above a hole in the ceiling. Jack asks how he got up there, and Egg simply replies, "Wasn't easy!"

* In the film ''TheAbyss'', the pressurized station so deep underwater that it can cause illness to people on board is brought to the surface in the space of less than a minute, and immediately people climb out, without having any symptoms of 'the bends.' Lindsey defuses a FridgeLogic moment by saying "We should all be dead. We didn't depressurize," and another character answers "[The aliens] must have done something to us." No further explanation is given. The novelization (by OrsonScottCard, no less!) handles this a bit better...holes such as this (and the alien's back-story) are filled in fastidiously. All without diminishing the mystery and wonder.

Or in ''Lethal Inspection'':

** It's stated that you have to "cross dimensions in exactly the right way", and that the monster that brought the protagonist there is "a perfectionist". Presumably, if you cross ''precisely'', you can rearrange someone's brain in ''just the right way'' that they start speaking a different language. Telepathy, which appears into the series a lot, is probably also involved. It's still a major HandWave, but at least you could say that it's the work of the one creating the dimensional bridge, rather than a natural effect.

** The existence of villain Sophia Lamb in the sequel is justified by a HandWave. Lamb's a brilliant psychiatrist, smart and eloquent enough to best Andrew Ryan in public debates and charismatic enough to assemble a cult. Why did we play through the first game without the slightest hint of her existence? There's an audio recording in the sequel where Ryan tells his security chief to go beyond just imprisoning Lamb: he wants her wiped from the history books. Problem solved.

-> '''Jeff:''' Probably. But that's an easy fix.]One line of dialogue. "[[AsYouKnow Thank God we invented]] the, you know, [[BuffySpeak whatever]] [[{{Phlebotinum}} device.]]"

[[TropesAreTools When skillfully done]], a handwave can obscure the [[FridgeLogic ridiculousness]], or at least make it plausible enough so that the audience achieves a WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. It can also just turn the whole detail and its inexplicability into a joke. Scotch tape may not be strong, it may not be pretty, but if you're striving to create an accurate piece of storytelling that aims to describe, it may be much better to have some sort of explanation than nothing at all. This is only the case, however, provided that dream logic or other tropes and [[RuleOfCool rules]] do not work much better in the context.

TheWatson is often a valuable source of Scotch Tape. In ScienceFiction shows, a handwave is usually conducted with TechnoBabble. In fact, an alternate name for {{Phlebotinum}} is ''Handwavium''.

** At the end of Part II, the [=DeLorean=] gets struck by lightning while flying, and gets sent to 1885. At the point when the lightning actually strikes the car, it is stationary in the air, but it has to be moving at 88 miles per hour to time travel (which is important in both parts I and III). When it got hit it wasn't moving. The handwave is that the lightning causes the [=DeLorean=] to spin at 88 miles per hour, shown with the trails of fire being spirals in the air (the 1885 date is justified, as the time circuits were shown earlier to be broken, and an 1885 date was briefly shown).

** The [[TeleportersAndTransporters transporters]] include a component called a "Heisenberg compensator" as a handwave to get around quantum uncertainty effects. Michael Okuda (one of the designers of Star Trek, starting with the fourth movie) got around a question during an interview for Time Magazine about how it works by answering, "It works very well, thank you."

** In Lets Kill Hitler, a [[spoiler: freshly regenerated]] River Song suggests to herself "Maybe I'll dial back the age a bit. Gradually. Just to freak people out." as a handwave for why she appears to be getting older even though her timeline and the Doctor's are reversed.

** The Vita-Chambers handwave ''Bioshock'''s system of allowing the player to respawn at the instant of his death, with opponents retaining the damage you have already dealt them. Not that it does [[spoiler:Ryan]] any good later on. He did state that he has disabled the nearest Vita Chamber before letting you in to see him. Perhaps it does have an effective range.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' episode "The Frycook What Came From All That Space", Sizz-Lorr's very appearance is lampshaded by Zim of all people. The handwave comes in with Sizz-Lorr's response.

-> '''Jeff:''' Probably. But that's [[HandWave an easy fix.]] One line of dialogue. "[[AsYouKnow Thank God we invented]] the, you know, [[BuffySpeak whatever]] [[{{Phlebotinum}} device.]]"

* This trope is referenced by a movie executive in ''ThankYouForSmoking''. They are discussing the idea of [[ProductPlacement having two actors smoke in a movie]] that's set on a space station.

--> '''Jeff:''' ''Probably. But that's [[HandWave an easy fix.]] One line of dialogue. "[[AsYouKnow Thank God we invented]] the, you know, [[{{Phlebotinum}} whatever device.]]"''

* There is a Swedish reality show called ''Lyxfällan''. Rough translation: "The Luxury Trap." The show deals with regular people with severe financial problems, usually from living a luxurious lifestyle that they cannot afford. The hosts of the show try to help these people, not by giving them money, but by helping them analyse their financial situation, selling off valuable things and making deals for paying off their debts and such. The goal is to get them back on their feet and save them from bankruptcy. One episode featured a woman who had not paid her bills in eight years! When asked why the hell not, she [[HandWave hand waved]] it by explaining that the payment of bills was not a part of her life. In this case though, ADHD is a possible reason why she is not able to handle her economy, which makes the viewer feel somewhat sympathetic of her. Most of the other people on the show, however, are either TooDumbToLive or an example of exactly why you shouldn't ignore a problem with the hope that it will just go away.

** [[FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth's]] motivations stem from wanting to become a deity, but the exact mechanisms he's planning to use for this are just as hand-wavey. Not that bad, since Biologically Sephiroth was actually more Jenova than Human at the time. Everything he did does make sense, with that knowledge.
** ''FinalFantasyVI'''s [[OmnicidalManiac Kefka Pallazo]]. His motivation for conquering the world and the magic could also fall in this trope, but for him a motivation is not really necessary considering he's [[PsychoPrototype nuts]]. He just do it [[ForTheEvulz because he can]] and wants to.

** The HandWave is actually that the actual lockpick mechanism is significant nanite swarms that attempt to mimic the lock combination - depletion of those is what causes lockpicks to deplete. As for multitools, there's no explanation but it's easy to assume that a catch-all tool made to hack any and all tech in a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture high-tech game world would require a ''lot'' of juice. The damn things shouldn't be ''disposable'' though. It'd be like throwing away an iPhone after every call.
*** A better Handwave would be that you're actually carrying only one lockpick and one multitool, each of which has a certain number of "charges" (up to ten); you're never seen putting one away and getting out another even on locks that require multiple uses. Thus when you pick up an additional device, you really just take the batteries out of it and use them to recharge your tools.

* ''[[{{VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap}} The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap]]'' seems to be, at least in part, Nintendo's attempt to do more than simply HandWave the fact that Link is able to find money in random bushes and patches of grass, by explaining that the tiny race of people known as the Minish like to scatter the money for big people to find.

* In ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'', [[ItMakesSenseInContext Hector Con Carne, Major Doctor Ghastly, and General Skarr visit an island and meet their currently elderly future selves.]] Eventually, we learn that Hector and Ghastly settled down and bore a son which Hector, [[ItMakesSenseInContext being only a brain and a (sentient) stomach attached to a bear,]] naturally [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]]. Ghastly [[HandWave handwaves]] this as being caused by "the miracle of love".

-->'''Sizz-Lorr:''' [[HandWave There's a time warp involved or something.]]

* In dreams, if you are aware enough to spot an inconsistency, your mind will HandWave it with the first explanation it can think of ([[VoodooShark which can be even more implausible than the original fact]]) to prevent you from waking up. And you will perfectly accept it. Then, when you wake up, FridgeLogic will come to you. In lucid dreaming, things that are out of the ordinary or impossible are called Dream Signs.

* Played (kinda) for laughs in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' in one of its filler arcs. When Renji's [[EmpathicWeapon sword Zabimaru]] breaks free, Zabimaru is shown as a split being, a monkeyish woman and a childish snake. This is contrary to Zabimaru's previous appearance, which was an actual monkey that had a snake for a tail (a Nue). When Renji asks why Zabimaru isn't in its previous form, the Chimpett half of Zabimaru simply laughs and says, "Since when are you so concerned with minor details?" "That's a pretty big freakin' detail!"
** This is actually based on an {{omake}} when Renji and Hisagi read a catalogue of changes Mayuri can do to their weapons' true forms, Renji sees that changing them into females is possible. So it may or may not count.

** Ulquiorra has stated that Ichigo's power is "in constant flux." Which kind of explains how he's stronger than certain characters but those characters are stronger than people who were able to completely annihilate him. This "flux" is actually why Ichigo ''gets his ass handed to him from time to time''. Does not excuse the VillainBall that happens afterward, gets a passing mention, and you can count on your fingers how many plots this affected.

* {{Batman}}: He does not have any super powers but he does have super intellect, peak level human ability, and is unequalled as a detective, fighter, inventor, scientist, strategist, and whatever else the plot requires him to the the best at. He is also one of the top three wealthiest men in the DC universe. Batman also has a backup for every backup for every backup et cetera. Alfred the butler also seems to also be everybit the universal polymath being a medic, mechanic, technician, spy, actor, and occasionally a butler.

* A certain Game Genie code for ''SuperMarioBros3'' causes the game to freeze after you defeat Bowser in Dark Land. The Game Genie manual states that you must press Up at the final door straight away, otherwise you may get caught in Bowser's time trap and the game will pause forever. Nice way of masking a cheat code glitch, guys...

* The manual of ''[[{{Sonic3AndKnuckles}} Sonic 3]]'' handwaved the game's physics bugs as just part of the "many diabolical traps" created by Dr. Robotnik.

** This is actually based on an {{omake}} when Renji and Hisagi read a catalogue of changes Mayuri can do to their weapons' true forms, Renji sees that changing them into females is possible. So it may or may not count.

** One of their questions ("When did you write a song?") was answered in the 11th season episode "That '90s Show".
** Mr. Burns, when asked for an explanation of how he managed to inexplicably [[OffScreenTeleportation get to the race track ahead of them]], simply says "There'll be time enough for that later."

-->'''Junior'''. He ''happened'' to like prostitutes, okay?

** The reason the Kajiit look different is explained by there being various species which are dependent on the phases of the moons, from certain species looking like massive lions and used as sentient mounts to others barely different from Bosmer, with whatever is seen in game being the most common in that province.-

** The HandWave is actually that the actual lockpick mechanism is significant nanite swarms that attempt to mimic the lock combination - depletion of those is what causes lockpicks to deplete. As for multitools, there's no explanation but it's easy to assume that a catch-all tool made to hack any and all tech in a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture high-tech game world would require a ''lot'' of juice. The damn things shouldn't be ''disposable'' though. It'd be like throwing a way an iPhone after every call.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'''s explanation for CoOpMultiplayer and PvP: "Uh...The flow of time is convoluted. Yeah that's it."

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Jaime steals one of Brienne's swords before their swordfight and remarks, "I always wondered why some knights carry two swords." In the books, Jaime steals the sword of another character who got written out of the show, requiring Brienne to carry a second one.

* Two in the StargateSG1 episode "Ripple Effect." First, Dr. Lee asks [[LampshadeHanging why all the teams coming in from alternate universes are SG1]]; Carter explains it away as SG1 being the front-line team and most likely to get into trouble offworld which would make the SGC more likely to let them through. Soon after, Dr. Lee mentions offhand that the proximity of the various universes to each other accounts for the lack of "entropic cascade failure" that previously occurred when an alternate Carter came to the SGC.