Basic Trope: A place where going somewhere will just take you back where you started.
- Straight: Bob walks out of the Lair of Despair, down a hall...and finds himself back in the lair.
- Exaggerated: Bob walks out of the Lair of Despair, into the Lair of Despair.
- Downplayed: Bob goes through several rooms and eventually finds himself back in the lair.
- Justified:
- The Lair of Despair has been enchanted by an Evil Sorcerer so no one can escape.
- The Lair of Despair is an aesop-teaching Genius Loci; no one can leave without Epiphany Therapy.
- It's a sign that this is BREEP-BREEP-BREEP-… All Just a Dream.
- Inverted: Bob walks out of the Lair of Despair and can never find it again afterwards, even when he tries backtracking his steps.
- Subverted:
- Bob was just walking in a circle around the camera.
- The east/west hallway of the underground lair, though straight looking, actually follows the 88°S circle of latitude.
- Bob walks out of the Lair of Despair, down a hall, and finds himself back in the lair...but Alice hears Dracone gloating about having made more lairs just to gaslight Bob, and spills the secret.
- Double Subverted:...But when Bob confronts him, Dracone smugly tells him that he just let Bob think that in order to build up his hopes before crushing them again; it really was the same lair.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Locations work the way they do in real life and can be left.
- Enforced:
- The author wants to paint the Lair of Despair as an Eldritch Location.
- The developer mis-sectored one of the roomsnote , either by mistake or to prevent the player from getting to the exit too early.
- Lampshaded:Bob: How can we be here again? It's not like this room is the world now, right?
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz has a spell put on the Lair of Despair to make it inescapable.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz uses the Lair to store prisoners, given that it's inescapable.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Hey, didn't we just leave Unnaturally Looping Location? Uh-oh...
