Basic Trope: As the orbits of planets and/or other celestial objects cross paths, wacky stuff begins to happen.
- Straight: The planets of The Solar System align with each other. Meanwhile, Alice and Bob experience a form of D.I.Y. Disaster (except without the DIY part) where the tap turns on the lights, and the light switch turns on the faucet. This happens every time some or all of the planets are in alignment.
- Exaggerated:
- Everything in the Book of Revelation comes to pass, leading to an Apocalypse How. All because there was a solar or lunar eclipse.
- Unusual things (comical, supernatural, tragic, whatever) happen across the entire universe, as the orbits of galaxies and the planets within them align.
- Downplayed: When the planets align, Alice (and anyone in her species) must Mate or Die.
- Justified:
- Planetary alignment is a (relatively) rare event; it only makes sense that it coincides with other unusual happenings.
- The orbits of planets have actually resulted in collisions, which would lead to chaos (and most likely The End of the World as We Know It).
- NASA is performing a wacky experiment that depends on one of the trajectories permitted by the alignment.
- Inverted: Earth is a wacky place to begin with; when the planets align, it's the only time things approach any semblance of normalcy.
- Subverted:
- For any unusual events to happen on Earth, this alignment of the planets has to be just so. Because Jupiter is slightly off-kilter, nothing actually happens.
- Alice and Bob's D.I.Y. Disaster is the result of a not-so-competent plumber, not the placement of the planets in the night sky.
- Double Subverted:
- Once the planets are all perfectly aligned, chaos ensues.
- The plumber is great most of the time, but when the planets align in just the right way, he becomes absolutely terrible at plumbing.
- Parodied: Everything goes haywire when the plants are aligned.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Enforced: Ancient superstitions about the unknown, the sky, the vastness of our universe, the Jerkass Gods pulling the strings, etc. Especially in a setting where All Myths Are True, or some of them are.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked:
- Alice reads the horoscopes in the paper, and it mentions that things might be a little crazy today because Pluto is in Uranus.
- NASA is playing Mad Scientist.
- Exploited:
- Alice and Bob use the ensuing chaos as an opportunity to achieve their dream of world domination.
- The plumber uses it as an excuse for not doing his best work.
- Defied: Alice puts no stock into horoscopes, and goes about her day. Meanwhile, any mishaps during the day are attributed to mundane causes.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
When the Planets Align, the Tropers will suddenly want to return to the main page.
