"I don't understand it... but I will."
The Rubik's Cube is a fascinating toy. Since its invention, it's spawned clubs, speedrunning competitions, and many derivatives. However, it's not known for being an intuitive toy, and in a lot of cases, those encountering it for the first time may be taken aback by its design.
Occasionally, a character will discover the cube and fiddle around with it for a bit, perplexed by the mysteries of its multicolored faces. This usually occurs in settings that take place on alien worlds or After the End, where novelty is less important than survival or the person who finds it is of a different mindset. Sometimes this produces a childlike sense of wonder, while other times it results in frustration and obsession. Discovering the intended "use" doesn't always correct things — it may cause the individual to become even more determined to solve it, and then finding out nothing happens could be... upsetting.
Despite the name, for the trope to count, the character cannot simply be finding or playing with a puzzle cube toy, rather it's for seeing one for the first time and not understanding it. This makes it related to Block Puzzle but not quite its sub-trope.
If the Rubik's cube is used to show how smart the character solving it is, then it's Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol. Compare with Mundane Object Amazement (which is this trope, but applied to mundane objects). Contrast with Unusually Uninteresting Sight.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Overlord (2012), Zesshi Zetsumei owns a Rubik's Cube, which is considered to be a divine artifact as it was brought into the New World by an YGGDRASIL player long ago. She fiddles with it often and comments that she can never seem to get more than one side solved.
Comic Strips
- In a Crock comic, Commandant Crock frees an enemy spy, but when his officers protest he says the man will be a babbling idiot in days. "I gave him a Rubik's Cube."
Fan Works
- There's a Touhou Project fan 4koma (NSFW warning, it's Danbooru)
that has this as the first plot arc. While Reimu is completely enjoying solving the Rubik's Cube, Marisa has no clue about what it is and accidentally breaks it. After getting Nitori to fix it, Marisa gives it to Reimu, who stares at the modified cube in awe.
Films — Animation
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Spider-Man Noir is fascinated by the colors on a Rubik's Cube, since he comes from a Deliberately Monochrome universe where such colors do not exist. In the end, he brings it back to his home dimension.
- In WALL•E, the titular robot finds a Rubik's Cube in the wastes of the city. He thinks it's fascinating enough to add to his collection. Later, when he shows it to EVE, she solves it rather quickly.
Films — Live-Action
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: Larry exploits and then subverts this trope when he tricks Kahmunrah by telling him he's missing "the Cube of Rubik". Kahmunrah demands to be given this "artifact", allowing Larry to lure him not to a Rubik's Cube, but instead to a box holding a giant octopus.
- Hellboy (2004): In a conversation with Liz, Abe Sapien mentions that, for as long as he has had his cube, he's only ever been able to solve two sides.
Literature
- A 1632 side story concerns a Masque composed by Ben Johnson for and with those exiled from the English Court. The Masque opens with the author contemplating a Rubik's Cube.
Live Action TV
- Taskmaster: In the "best thing to show to an alien" prize task in Series 13, Judi Love brings in a Rubik's Cube (or "rubi cubi" as she calls it), arguing that trying to solve it would baffle the aliens into renouncing their claims to intellectual superiority. If they challenged her to solve it, she planned to declare that she is Queen Zafufu and engaging in such a contest would be beneath her.
Video Games
- In the adventure game Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge, Roger Wilco comes face-to-face with a fierce Labion Terror Beast, and the only way to save him is have him throw a "Cubix Rube" at the monster, whose efforts to try and solve it distract the beast enough for Roger to get past.
- Stellaris: One of the anomalies you can discover is a box, its description being obviously a Rubik's cube. You can task your scientist to solve it, which he may eventually do, granting you the treasure inside... or he may get frustrated and saw it open with a laser cutter, in which event you gain nothing.
- In Zeno Clash, the Golem has a Rubik's cube that he fiddles with throughout the game, finally solving it at the end. In the sequel, it's revealed that there are more Golems, each with their own favorite puzzle. The presence of these real-world toys is an early indicator that the setting was Earth All Along.
Web Animation
- In the Polder Animation short film Scrambled, a living Rubik's cube encourages a woman to solve it.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: SCP-1437 is a hole that leads to a number of Parallel Universes. One Universe had a Rubik's Cube pop out of their hole, which caused some confusion in the version of Earth it emerged in.
Western Animation
- In an odd variation, on Gilligans Planet (a sequel to the animated adaptation of Gilligan's Island) they find a "mysterious cube" on the planet. The Professor notices that if you get one side all one color, it sends off a ray that enlarges. A side of a different color emits a reducing ray. So, a Rubik's Cube that DOES something when solved.
Real Life
- Ernő Rubik himself was initially baffled by his own invention. He created the cube to solve the problem of moving parts independently without the whole structure falling apart, and he colored each face to keep track of where each piece had gone relative to its starting position. He didn't realize he had made a puzzle until he scrambled it for the first time and tried to restore it.
