History Main / LinkedListClueMethodology

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E23TheBigMacQuestion The Big Mac Question]]", as part of Big Mac's WackyMarriageProposal to his marefriend Sugar Belle, he inscribed a bunch of apples with rhyming clues to lead her to the hill where he was planning to pop the question. Unfortunately, since Sugar Belle [[FailedASpotCheck kept missing the apples]] (due to having ''her own plans'' to proposal to Big Mac), Discord decided to bring them to life so that they could tell her the messages. Unfortunately, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Discord forgot to tell the apples]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough which pony]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough the messages were for]], so they ended up chasing every pony they saw while spouting their rhymes.

* In ''FanFic/FateRevelationOnline'' Griselda's guild takes a quest to track down a missing NPC. At each step they talk with another NPC who had worked with him and knows where he searched next. Partway through they decide not to bother with the breadcrumbs and just [[DowsingDevice dowse]] for the [[DungeonBypass man's location]].

** In the episode "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", Twilight Sparkle's older brother Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadence, leave her one of these to send her on a search around town; Twilight comments that her brother used to do this often when they were younger, and that the prize was often "a new book...or several books." ''This'' time, though, the prize is information: namely, that Cadence is pregnant. But Pinkie Pie already knows that (hence the title), as Shining Armor and Cadence wanted some help preparing the surprise; Pinkie usually CannotKeepASecret, though, so she has zero patience for Twilight thinking about the clues, instead solving them herself and outright yelling the answers.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E23TheBigMacQuestion The Big Mac Question]]", as part of Big Mac's WackyMarriageProposal to his marefriend Sugar Belle, he inscribed a bunch of apples with rhyming clues to lead her to the hill where he was planning to pop the question. Unfortunately, since Sugar Belle [[FailedASpotCheck kept missing the apples]], Discord decided to bring them to life so that they could tell her the messages. Unfortunately, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Discord forgot to tell the apples]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough which pony]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough the messages were for]], so they ended up chasing every pony they saw while spouting their rhymes.

* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': Some of [Uncle Scrooge's more expansive treasure hunts take this form. ''The Dutchman's Secret'' by Creator/DonRosa has at least a rich [[JustifiedTrope justification]]: the clues are not made by the same authors. The treasure had been found and lost many times, each treasure owner intentionally obscuring the maps they'd used to throw off the competition before being driven out of the mountains. Then, they wrote clear and straightforward directions for their friends or family which the next treasure hunter would use to find the treasure. [[ChewToy Until Donald accidentally destroyed the last map]], and the Ducks are forced to make use of the clues that are not completely eradicated.

* ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'': At the end of ''The Tyrant's Tomb'', Apollo recieves the first verse of a prophecy in ''terza rima'' (a rhyme scheme where the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, and the second line rhymes with the first line of the ''next'' stanza). The first verse essentially tells him to go to New York (where the Big Bad has his headquarters), and Apollo realizes that he is going to receive the next verse of the prophecy there.

* Repeatedly used in the ''Franchise/DotHack'' games. Kite goes to dungeon, gets information about the next part of the poen, goes to next dungeon, same thing happens. Add some irrelevant sidequests (oh noes Piros is in danger again!) and a few boss fights, and you have a 4-game series.

* This is more or less ComicBook/TheRiddler's MO in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. He leaves riddles at his crime scenes as his CallingCard and solving said riddle gives the heroes a hint as to what the next step of his EvilPlan might be. This is actually {{Justified|Trope}} since Riddler is an InsufferableGenius with a ComplexityAddiction and SuperOCD that enjoys matching wits with his pursuers and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex wants to prove he's smarter than they are]]. As the character evolved, it's revealed he became actually psychologically unable to commit crimes without leaving clues behind, much to his own horror.

** Played straight (as straight as anything in ''The Simpsons'', at least) in the episode, "Gone Maggie Gone", considering there're plenty of jokes at ''The Da Vinci Code'''s expense.

* In the G3.5 ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' short "[[http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=397692719436 Sweetie Belle's Gumball House Surprise]]", Sweetie Belle leaves clues for the others at different locations in her house to lead them to her backyard, where she is waiting with muffins.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
** In the episode "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", Twilight Sparkle's older brother Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadence, leave her one of these to send her on a search around town; Twilight comments that her brother used to do this often when they were younger, and that the prize was often "a new book...or several books." ''This'' time, though, the prize is information: namely, that Cadence is pregnant. But Pinkie Pie already knows that (hence the title), as Shining Armor and Cadence wanted some help preparing the surprise; Pinkie usually CannotKeepASecret, though, so she has zero patience for Twilight thinking about the clues, instead solving them herself and outright yelling the answers.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E23TheBigMacQuestion The Big Mac Question]]", as part of Big Mac's WackyMarriageProposal to his marefriend Sugar Belle, he inscribed a bunch of apples with rhyming clues to lead her to the hill where he was planning to pop the question. Unfortunately, since Sugar Belle [[FailedASpotCheck kept missing the apples]], Discord decided to bring them to life so that they could tell her the messages. Unfortunately, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Discord forgot to tell the apples]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough which pony]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough the messages were for]], so they ended up chasing every pony they saw while spouting their rhymes.
* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter sends Lois on a scavenger hunt following this model to distract her while he plays golf on their wedding anniversary. She doesn't figure it out until the last clue, which tells her to go back to the start; there, she happen to run into Cleveland and Loretta, who tell her what's really going on. When Lois storms over to the club to find him, Peter admits he didn't expect her to make it this far before he got back.
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'': In the episode "Nuclear Confusion", Dee Dee swiped a "strange glowing thingie" from Dexter's latest creation and set him on this kind of game in order to find it. Unfortunately, the "strange glowing thingie" in question was actually the core component for what amounted to a Nuclear Fission reactor, and said reactor would [[GoingCritical go critical]] after an hour if it wasn't returned, which made things a lot more urgent. Then after Dexter got it back, [[HereWeGoAgain the book he was planning to read was taken by Dee Dee]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndHerSistersInTheGreatPuppyAdventure'', every place the girls visit has a clue that leads them to the next area, and, ultimately, the treasure.

* ''Literature/TrialsOfApollo'': At the end of ''The Tyrant's Tomb'', Apollo recieves the first verse of a prophecy in ''terza rima'' (a rhyme scheme where the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, and the second line rhymes with the first line of the ''next'' stanza). The first verse essentially tells him to go to New York (where the Big Bad has his headquarters), and Apollo realizes that he is going to receive the next verse of the prophecy there.

* This is more or less ComicBook/TheRiddler's MO in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. He leaves riddles at his crime scenes, as his CallingCard and solving the riddle gives the heroes a hint to what the next step of Riddler EvilPlan might be. This is actually {{Justified|Trope}} since Riddle is an InsufferableGenius with a ComplexityAddiction and SuperOCD that enjoys matching wits with his pursuers and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex prove he's smarter than they]]. As the character evolved, it's revealed he became actually psychologically unable to commit crimes without leaving clues behind, much to his own horror.

* This is more or less ComicBook/TheRiddler's MO in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E23TheBigMacQuestion The Big Mac Question]]", as part of Big Mac's plan to propose to his marefriend Sugar Belle, he inscribed a bunch of apples with rhyming clues to lead her to the hill where he was planning to pop the question. Unfortunately, since Sugar Belle [[FailedASpotCheck kept missing the apples]], Discord decided to bring them to life so that they could tell her the messages. Unfortunately, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Discord forgot to tell the apples]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough which pony]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough the messages were for]], so they ended up chasing every pony they saw while spouting their rhymes.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' features one of these in the episode "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows." Twilight Sparkle's older brother Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadence, leave her one of these to send her on a search around town; Twilight comments that her brother used to do this often when they were younger, and that the prize was often "a new book...or several books." ''This'' time, though, the prize is information: namely, that Cadence is pregnant. But Pinkie Pie already knows that (hence the title), as Shining Armor and Cadence wanted some help preparing the surprise; Pinkie usually CannotKeepASecret, though, so she has zero patience for Twilight thinking about the clues, instead solving them herself and outright yelling the answers.

* ''Mystery Woman: In the Shadows'' had a former spy hide the identity of a mole with this method [[spoiler:and subverted it by putting nothing at the end; he didn't know the mole's identity, and the scheme was to get the mole to expose himself.]]

* The Franchise/StarWarsLegends book ''Literature/LabyrinthOfEvil'' concerns the Jedi's hunt for Darth Sidious, which begins when they seize Nute Gunray's mechno-chair and find a holographic message from Sidious. The chair is the first in a chain of clues, each leading straight to the next, that Obi-Wan and Anakin follow through the first 2/3 of the novel, then hand off to Mace Windu when the trail leads back to Coruscant.

* Clues are presented as "Truth Bullets" in the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series, with your own player character narrating where they should probably check out next after deciding that a certain room has received a thorough-enough once over. Amusingly, there are times when one character will explicitly tell you that an object likely isn't important, only for it be added as a truth bullet at the end of the conversation, proving that it will come up later and will probably be vital. One example is [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Kirigiri]] saying the Electronic ID's probably aren't related to the third case, and [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2 Komaeda]] saying the rope in that game's third case wasn't relevant (and in his case, he knew full-well that it was important).

* Clues are presented as "Truth Bullets" in the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series, with your own player character narrating where they should probably check out next after deciding that a certain room has received a thorough-enough once over. Amusingly, there are times when one character will explicitly tell you that an object likely isn't important, only for it be added as a truth bullet at the end of the conversation, proving that it will come up later and will probably be vital. One example is [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} Kirigiri]] saying the Electronic ID's probably aren't related to the third case, and [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2 Komaeda]] saying the rope in that game's third case wasn't relevant (and in his case, he knew full-well that it was important).

* TabletopRPG ''Gumshoe'' (Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists), has this as a main game mechanic.

** The following generation's ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' features one of these in the episode "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows." Twilight Sparkle's older brother Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadence, leave her one of these to send her on a search around town; Twilight comments that her brother used to do this often when they were younger, and that the prize was often "a new book...or several books." ''This'' time, though, the prize is information: namely, that Cadence is pregnant. But Pinkie Pie already knows that (hence the title), as Shining Armor and Cadence wanted some help preparing the surprise; Pinkie usually CannotKeepASecret, though, so she has zero patience for Twilight thinking about the clues, instead solving them herself and outright yelling the answers.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dee Dee swiped a "strange glowing thingie" from Dexter's latest creation and set him on this kind of game in order to find it. Unfortunately, the "strange glowing thingie" in question was actually the core component for what amounted to a Nuclear Fission reactor, and said reactor would [[GoingCritical go critical]] after an hour if it wasn't returned, which made things a lot more urgent. Then after he got it back, [[HereWeGoAgain the book he was planning to read was taken by Dee Dee]].