Basic Trope: Something dramatic happens when a little bit is added to something on the brink on collapse.
- Straight: A fly lands on a full cart, and it breaks.
- Exaggerated: A grain of sand lands on a bridge, and it breaks.
- Downplayed: A brick lands on the cart, causing it to break.
- Justified:
- The cart was at or extremely close to its weight limit, so even the tiniest amount of extra mass would cause it to break.
- The cart was already structurally failing. question
- Inverted: Removing a fly sitting on the cart causes it to break.
- Subverted:
- Someone adds something little to the cart, and nothing happens.
- It was mere coincidence.
- Double Subverted:
- then it cracks and breaks after a few seconds
- ...then someone else adds another small object, and it cracks and starts to break.
- Parodied: One more atom landing on Earth causes the entire planet to blow up.
- Zig Zagged: Adding something to the cart seems to have no effect, but then it breaks; however, the addition of the object caused something else to fall in the cart, breaking it.
- Averted: There are no carts in the story, or they never reach carrying capacity.
- Enforced: Everyone is required to fill carts to carrying capacity to minimize cart usage, so even the smallest amount of extra weight causes problems.
- Lampshaded: "Why do carts break after going even a little over carrying capacity? It's dumb!"
- Invoked: A character says that if he adds even a little bit more, the cart will break...
- Exploited: The villain adds a litle bit of mass to the cart to break it and ruin the hero's day.
- Defied: A character takes mass from the cart to make sure it doesn't break.
- Discussed: "Carts don't break when a tiny amount of mass is added, you know."
- Conversed: "Carts always seem to break if you go even a little over their carrying capacity. I wonder why that happens?"
- Deconstructed: The villain fills carts right to the carrying capacity so they can break at any time.
- Reconstructed: The characters don't fill carts up to capacity because they worry it will suddenly break.
- Played For Drama: The breaking of the cart injured or even killed a few people. The fact that the disaster could have been averted if not for a tiny piece of straw is not lost to the victims' relatives.
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