Basic Trope: When a character is invisible, there will be some visual anomaly (that other characters ignore) to clue in the viewers as to that character's whereabouts.
- Straight: Bob, an animated character, drinks the invisibility potion and becomes transparent, save for his outline. Alice doesn't seem to recognize Bob when he's in a room.
- Exaggerated: Bob doesn't change at all, but is followed around by a giant arrow that says 'HE'S INVISIBLE NOW!
- Downplayed: Bob is completely invisible to the audience, although we can still see his footprints and a very faint shadow.
- Justified:
- Due to an imperfection in the invisibility machine, Bob is fully invisible only from a certain angle.
- Bob becomes transparent, but with a different refractive index to the air around him. The "outline" is a stylized representation of the barely-visible distortion.
- Bob has turned transparent monochrome red. While humans can still see him, his foes only see in blue/green and thus can't.
- Inverted: The characters can see Bob, but the viewers cannot.
- Subverted:
- Bob's outline walks on screen, but it turns out that he just painted himself "invisible" for the sake of a gag.
- Bob turns into an outline...then he fades entirely.
- Double Subverted: ... but since he painted the pattern of a brick wall onto his skin, nobody can see him when he flattens himself against the wall.
- Parodied:
- Bob drinks the invisibility potion and begins to glow. Alice pays no attention to this.
- Bob yells, "I'm invisible!" Despite the fact that nothing has changed, nobody can see him.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- There is no clue that Bob is invisible, except for his being ignored by other characters.
- Bob is invisible to the viewers as well as the characters, and the viewers aren't in on it until something gets lifted.
- Enforced: "Do something about Bob. He's invisible, but that doesn't mean the viewers shouldn't see him."
- Lampshaded: "Bob, get out of the ladies' room. I can see your outline."
- Invoked: "And this button turns my outline white and makes me transparent."
- Exploited: A Genre Savvy Fourth Wall-breaking character makes a living tracking down invisible assassins, spies, and thieves.
- Defied: "I knew that invisibility devices usually have some sort of visual cue that lets you spot them, so I tested this one carefully to make sure it didn't."
- Discussed: "If I squint, and I know where I'm looking, I can see an outline."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: After drinking a potion, Bob turns into an outline, and no one talks to him. He might be invisible, but everyone might just be ignoring him.
Back to Visible Invisibility
