Basic Trope: A character swallows a key for safekeeping.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz locks up Hiro and then swallows the key to his cell.
- Exaggerated: Evulz then locks up 50 of Hiro's allies in different cells, and swallows the keys to every single one.
- Downplayed: Evulz swallows the key, but it's attached to a string that allows him to pull it back up.
- Justified:
- Evulz is about to be captured by Hiro's allies, and has no better place to hide the key.
- Evulz isn't human and can eat things that humans normally can't eat.
- Inverted:
- Evulz shoves the key up his ass.
- Hiro is locked up, but when no one is looking he spits up a key.
- Subverted: It turns out Evulz merely pretended to swallow the key...
- Double Subverted: ... but he swallows it for real after Hiro calls his bluff.
- Parodied:
- Evulz tries to swallow the key, but can't get it down no matter what he does. Then he pretends to swallow it in an attempt to intimidate Hiro... but it's really obvious that he just palmed it and put it in his pocket.
- The "key" swallowed by Evulz is clearly a flimsy paper replica.
- Zig Zagged: Evulz first pretends to swallow the key to Hiro's cell. Then he swallows a key for real... but it's suggested that it's an unusable copy, and that the real key is still out somewhere. However, the second key is destroyed before Hiro's allies can try to use it.
- Averted: Evulz doesn't swallow the key. Even if he tried, he would choke on it and realize just how terrible an idea that is.
- Enforced: Evulz is a boss in a video game where most battles — but not his — are skippable. The executives tell the writers to have him swallow the key to make it obvious that players can't skip the fight by stealing the key.
- Lampshaded: "Yes, I swallowed the key to your cell. It hurt a bit going down."
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Lance, one of Hiro's allies, puts poison on the key.
- Pragma Tichero, Kills two birds with one stone by using a super magnet to turn the key into a Chest Burster.
- Defied: One of Evulz's minions advises him not to swallow the key.
- Discussed: Lance and Chica can't find the key anywhere, and discuss what they think Evulz did with it. Chica suggests that he may have swallowed it.
- Conversed: "That evil emperor in that show ate the key to the hero's cell. Why didn't he just throw it into the nearby volcano or something? It's not like he'll need to... retrieve it later."
- Implied: An x-ray of Evulz shows a key, but Lance says he frisked him and didn't find anything on him.
- Deconstructed:
- The sharp edges on the key end up damaging Evulz's stomach and intestines.
- When Evulz needs the key again to let Hiro out, in order to start his execution, he spits the key back up. Unfortunately, his stomach acids corroded the key and made it worthless. This eventually allows Hiro to escape.
- Played For Laughs:
- It turns out that someone screwed up and ordered hundreds of keys to Hiro's cell. Evulz gets a Balloon Belly after swallowing them all.
- Evulz gets sick of his Mooks going to the bathroom every five minutes, so he swallows the bathroom key. Potty Failure ensues.
- Played For Drama: The work focuses on how painful it is for Hiro to see his enemy gulping down his only hope of escape.
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