Logical Extreme

This is a Trope Trope.

Some tropes have a logical extreme that:

• Fits neatly within the description of the trope
• Requires no exaggeration
• Usually has at least one example of that extreme (indeed, the Logical Extreme might be quite common, even to the point of being a Sub-Trope).

Note that sometimes a trope can have more than one Logical Extreme that fit the trope in different ways. For example, the Logical Extremes of Reclusive Artist include artists who no one knows who they are, artists who no one knows where they are, and artists whom no one knows whether they're alive or dead.

For obvious reasons, this cannot be used on YMMV items.

Compare Deconstructed Trope, where tropes are played realistically and sometimes by straining them in the logical extreme. See also Exaggerated Trope, which is the "Illogical Extreme", and the TV Tropes section of Literal Metaphor.

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Examples:

• A Day in the Limelight: The main character disappears for the episode in order to keep the focus on a more minor one.
• Backseat Driver: Someone who's supposed to be the passenger tries to literally drive the car by grabbing for the controls (usually the steering wheel). There are legal repercussions for this, so needless to say^note but we'll say it anyway, Truth in Television.
• Band of Relatives: Everyone in the band is related. Far from rare. Even if you narrow it to everyone in the band being immediate family (that is, parents and siblings), you have The Cowsills (mother and children), The Shaggs (all sisters), The Jackson Five (all siblings), The White Stripes (husband and wife), Hanson (all brothers), The Band Perry (sister and two brothers)...
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: No Fourth Wall
• Broke the Rating Scale: A reviewer refuses to assign a rating at all. There are a number of examples of that on the trope page, often when the reviewer finds the work downright repulsive or otherwise not worthy of a rating.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Loads and Loads of Characters given intricate and distinct tropes that separate each one of them, sometimes doubling as Doing It for the Art. Well-known examples include Touhou and Monster.
• A Child Shall Lead Them:
  • Posthumous heir—in other words, a child is born to a waiting crown and throne (which has happened).
    • The most recent example is King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the posthumous son of Alfonso XII. There were even debates about backdating Alfonso XIII's reign to the date of his father's death, rather than the date of his birth. He was actually crowned King when he turned 16.
    • According to some sources, the Sassanid Empire managed to turn the Logical Extreme Up to Eleven with an in utero coronation; King Shapur II is the only monarch known to be crowned before he was born (the crown was placed on his mother's belly). Other sources say she was ordered to wear the crown around her loins so her child would be born into it.
  • In Star Wars, Naboo takes it to a different extreme by making all their rulers teenagers (they retire at twenty).
  • Teenage Wasteland is where there are no adults to lead at all.
• Conviction by Contradiction: Conviction by Counterfactual Clue, when the convicting "evidence" is explained away by simply checking the facts.
• Everything Is Online: Brain Uploading and The Singularity.
• Evil Counterpart: Everything about the evil character from associates to hobbies is exactly equivalent to the main character, only evil. For instance Kim Newman's version of Professor Moriarty, who has Colonel Moran as an Evil Watson, the Conduit Street Comanche as Evil Baker Street Irregulars, takes "cases" that are strangely parallel to Holmes's, and in his spare time breeds wasps (evil beekeeping).
• Face of the Band: Fans think the name of the band is that of said face — in short, the musical version of I Am Not Shazam.
• God Created Canon Foreigner: a creator creates an entire cast of additional new characters for an expanded adaptation. See Robert Kirkman creating the characters and providing guidance for the Fear the Walking Dead sister series to the live action adaptation of The Walking Dead
• I Am the Band:
  • A single artist who plays all the instruments, writes all the songs, and performs under a band-like moniker. For example, Trent Reznor really is Nine Inch Nails.
  • One-Man Band.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Everyone has awesome clothes, and they fit for the environment. Example: The World Ends with You.
• Just the First Citizen: When the leader of a nation holds no official position at all, but is quite firmly in charge. Example: Muammar Gaddafi, who insisted he couldn't step down from office because he held no office to step down from.
• Lampshade Hanging: Better Than a Bare Bulb, where Lampshade Hanging becomes a central part of the work.
  • Or Lampshading a Lampshading.
• Long-Runner Lineup: A Long Runner band that has only one lineup from start to finish, or all lineups were long-runners. This has happened a few times.
• Minimalist Cast: The movie or play has one actor/actress—after that, you don't have a cast. All Is Lost is an example, where Robert Redford plays an unnamed sailor in a sinking ship.
• No Ending: "The Jewels of Nabooti" of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, in which there were a series of choices that made an infinite loop.
• One-Hit Wonder: One-Book Author, the artist had a hit—and is known for nothing else because there is literally nothing else to be known for.
• Oven Logic: Freefall brings you cooking with explosives! Predictable results ensue.
• Moral Guardian: Knight Templar, where the Moral Guardian will do anything to protect.
• Reclusive Artist:
  • Identities Unknown:
    • Scholars are pretty sure B. Traven died in 1969 and that he was male. As for where and when he was born, what his real name was, or whether the original language of his books was German or English, on the other hand...
    • The Residents are also unknown. Nobody has a clue who they are.
    • Graffiti artists who manage to keep their anonymity in spite of developing global fame, for example Banksy.
  • Whereabouts unknown:
    • Richey James Edwards went missing in 1995 and was declared Legally Dead in 2008.
    • Author Salman Rushdie went into hiding several years ago after a fatwa was declared against him. His location is still unknown, though he makes public appearances.
  • The logical extreme of both would be, of course, works which were published anonymously, or where knowledge of their original source has been lost permanently.
• Revolving Door Band: A band goes through entire lineups on a regular basis. Several groups (Menudo, the Oak Ridge Boys and the Blackwood Brothers) fit this description.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Seen in the vaudville version of Gertie the Dinosaur, which combined animation, live-action film, and Winsor McCay live on stage.
• Satellite Love Interest:
  • When Loving a Shadow meets Shadow Archetype with a bit of The Dulcinea Effect: Nobody is more shallow than a shadow.
  • Alternately, the love interest never actually makes an appearance onscreen, effectively serving as The Ghost.
• Schedule Slip: Orphaned Series.
• Science Fantasy: Most soft science fiction makes liberal use of Applied Phlebotinum which simply makes no sense from a scientific perspective, and may as well be magical. When an explanation is given, expect it to contradict physical laws because the writer either doesn't know as much about science as they think, or are disregarding it for the sake of a better story. Science Fantasy is therefore when a work actually admits this. Depending on how you look at it, it is also the Logical Extreme to Magic A Is Magic A and Sufficiently Analyzed Magic, as "classical" fantasy stories are inspired by mythology, and therefore never give any explanation for why the magic works the way it does. Again, in Science Fantasy, the setting is inspired by science instead.
• Short-Range Shotgun: The shotgun, despite firing rounds, can only be used as a melee weapon.
  • Peacock's shotgun in Skullgirls for one of her aerial attacks.
  • Shotguns in Star Wars: The Old Republic are generally used at a 4 meter range, the same as melee attacks.
• Skill Scores and Perks: Go crazy and add anything you can find. Path of Exile is both famous and notorious for having what is essentially a skill forest.
• Subverted Catchphrase: A Once an Episode Catch Phrase isn't able to be said at all.
  • Example: When The Nostalgia Critic starts his reviews, he usually says, "Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don't have to." The subversion for the film Cool as Ice was him cracking up mid-catchphrase. Barb Wire had him say, "I remember it so you don't boobies." When he reviewed The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, however, he simply had his face buried in his hands, before saying, "I've got nothing. I have absolutely nothing."
• Totem Pole Trench: Instead of two or three people teaming up to pretend to be one person, thousands of tiny people work together to form one "person" (also a trope as well: The Worm That Walks).
• Unconscious Objector: Died Standing Up. He doesn't just rise to keep fighting while unconscious, he rises to keep fighting while dead.
• Unexpected Successor: When the very need for a successor is unexpected.
  • William Henry Harrison taught the United States the hard way that a President can expire before his term does.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons, Vlaakith CLVII is the Lich-Queen of the Githyanki. Being undead, she has no need for a successor. It's mentioned in at least one sourcebook that if Vlaakith is killed, the githyanki will be thrown into chaos.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Flock of Wolves. Everyone is an imposter or a spy.
• Written-In Infirmity: The Character Died with Him (that is, the actor's not just sick, he or she is dead).

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