Basic Trope: A supernatural disguise has a flaw that lets people see through it.
- Straight: Dai'mon uses his powers of illusion to pass for human, but his shadow reveals his demonic true self.
- Exaggerated: The weaknesses to Dai'mon's human disguise are Mundane Solutions that won't just dispel the disguise, they'll probably kill him.
- Downplayed:
- His shadow reveals his true self... but since he only has tiny horns, fangs and red skin, his true shadow would only really break his disguise if he shaved his head and bared his fangs, and even then the light hitting his shadow would need a specific angle.
- If you look at Dai'mon closely enough, his disguise will flicker momentarily.
- Justified: Whether Dai'mon uses illusion magic, holograms or Hollywood makeup, there's always a Fantastic Fragility that makes the disguise imperfect.
- Inverted:
- Only Dai'mon's reflection and shadow seem human.
- Alternately, everyone thinks Dai'mon is a guy in a mask with good Special Effects, explicitly demonic acts just reinforce this delusion. Only by doing something incredibly un-demonic can he convince people he's the real deal.
- Subverted:
- The heroes read a book about demonic glamours and plan to expose Dai'mon's human disguise and dispel it in front of a crowd by casting his shadow on the stage's curtain. However their plan fails because his shadow is just as flawless as his physical illusion. His glamour has no flaw.
- A person appeared to be a demon, but that was actually the real demon casting his illusion magic to throw the heroes off the trail.
- Double Subverted: ... except that's what his enemies wanted him to think, his disguise has flaws, but they let him think otherwise to find out what he's up to.
- Parodied: Dai'mon's human illusion is already a Paper-Thin Disguise, but it also has a half dozen Weaksauce Weaknesses that can break through it, which is made pretty redundant with his constant bellowing for virgin blood in his coffee, and threatening random passerby with tormenting them for eternity in hell.
- Zig Zagged: Salt can reveal Dai'mon's true form, but it turns out he was just bluffing to make the heroes think all demons are vulnerable to salt, except the heroes used Iodated salt, not blessed salt from the Dead Sea which can break his glamour.
- Averted: Whether or not Dai'mon's disguise has flaws is never brought up, the heroes figure out he's a demon by normal Occult Detective work.
- Enforced: To help viewers keep track of who isn't who, every character with some form of disguise has a tell.
- Lampshaded: "We spend millions on retina scans, X-ray machines and other security measures, but all it takes to see through a glamour is a cheap mirror."
- Invoked:
- Nancy suspects Dai'mon isn't human, so she invites him to a party chock full of things likely to trigger a glamour failure.
- Daimon is honest about the A Form You Are Comfortable With aspect of his guise.
- Exploited: A person who notices the tell holds it over Dai'mon's head for payment.
- Defied: Dai'mon suspects Nancy's trick, so he replaces the holy water with water from the tap. He then tells Nancy she sucks after gargling the "holy water".
- Discussed: "I really wish it were like in the TV shows where you just need to wave wrought iron before someone to see if they're really fairies in disguise."
- Conversed: "I'll need to work extra hard to fool those pesky heroes — no doubt they have something which can break my disguise."
- Deconstructed: No matter how perfect Dai'mon's magic or mannerism, a part of him is still demonic and malevolent. His need to hold on to some minor token of his demonic nature means he'll always have one way to suffer Glamour Failure.
- Reconstructed: Much like a Serial Killer has a need to blend in, Dai'mon controls the situation he's in such that his glamour is never compromised.
Back to Glamour Failure
