Basic Trope: Hiding something in a way that accidentally draws attention.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz burns an entire library to hide the destruction of a book detailing one of his weaknesses. The oddity of one of his minions burning a library tells the heroes Alice and Bob that something in it must have been important, and they figure out the scheme from talking to the librarian.
- Exaggerated:
- Emperor Evulz burns a library to destroy a scrap of paper detailing one of his weaknesses. The situation is so extreme that Alice and Bob investigate, and they find out about the weakness and discover The Mole who set the fire.
- Emperor Evulz starts a war on a false pretense to cover up his weakness.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz burns down part of a library to destroy a book detailing one of his weaknesses. Alice and Bob figure one of the books must have contained something important, but they're not sure what it was.
- Evulz steals a book with information about his weakness. When Alice and Bob learn which book was stolen, they figure on Evulz being a likely suspect and start working on why he would steal that particular book.
- Justified: Evulz sincerely thought Alice and Bob would stop at investigating the surface crime itself rather than go any further into the motive, which would have truly exposed him.
- Inverted: Emperor Evulz shoves the proof of his culpability in Alice and Bob's faces, but he had Cassandra tell them, so they don't believe it.
- Subverted:
- Bob realizes that the destroyed library contained obscure information on Emperor Evulz, that it might have been destroyed to eliminate all trace of that information, and wonders who would have gone to that much trouble. He stops himself before he reaches the conclusion, however, and says "It's Probably Nothing."
- Evulz intended to have the library destroyed, but cooler heads among his minions prevailed and they settled on only destroying the offending page.
- Double Subverted:
- Then Alice independently has a similar "Eureka!" Moment and follows up on it.
- Alice and Bob discover this from Emperor Evulz's less-than-subtle cover-up of the way he punished his mooks for disobedience.
- Alice and Bob find out that a page was removed because they decide to read the book for reasons of their own, notice a missing page, and dig around a little.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob deduces or induces that the library was destroyed because somebody wanted to eliminate some evidence that was there. However, he suspects Fiers, who proves he didn't do it. Alice has the same realization, but she suspects the equally innocent Garana. Then both Alice and Bob simultaneously announce "Evulz did it!" — but they're referring to an act that, as far as they know, is unrelated to the library's burning.
- It was intended to be a subtle, quick operation, but the minions were caught in the act and it escalated out of their control. Eventually, they fake their deaths and destroy the entire site so Evulz doesn't learn of their screw-ups.
- Parodied: Emperor Evulz didn't even destroy the relevant piece of evidence. He may not even have gone to the right library.
- Averted:
- Nobody attempts to hide anything in the story.
- Emperor Evulz chooses a way to hide the salient piece of information that won't lead Alice and Bob to him.
- Enforced: The author wants Emperor Evulz to get Hoist by His Own Petard.
- Lampshaded:Bob: Overdoing a distraction — the hero's best friend.
- Invoked: Dracone, acting as The Mole to Emperor Evulz, suggests a method of destroying the book that he knows will attract his team's attention.
- Exploited:
- Evulz is pulling a Batman Gambit on Alice and Bob: he knows they'll investigate and he sets a trap for them where they go in case of it.
- The book contained fake information, Evulz destroyed the library to give it extra credence.
- The high-profile coverup was deliberately made conspicuous as a mere distraction; the actual information was tossed in the fires of Mount Doom, or Fed to the Beast.
- Defied: Emperor Evulz considers burning the library but decides it would draw too much attention.
- Discussed:Mook: Pardon the presumption, my liege, but ... isn't there a subtler way to hide this information than leaving a smouldering, obvious ruin? Just eat the page, perhaps?Evulz: We don't know where the scrap is kept within the building, and in all fairness ... it's also about sending a message. The place had lousy service and I want that librarian to know it.
- Conversed: "Man, that villain is sure threatening his own cover with his cover-up." "It is ironic."
- Deconstructed: Evulz does this so often it's only a matter of time before Alice and Bob catch him and beat him.
- Reconstructed: ...But he's merely the decoy and accomplice to a Greater-Scope Villain who is free to run amok and cause destruction without Alice and Bob tailing them.
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