Trope Talk: Cosmic Alignments

The stars only align to produce a video such as this one every ten thousand years, so aren't we all lucky it happened to fall on a friday?

MUSIC: "Sneaky Snitch," Kevin Macleod

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[ajavisk]

Another "I want a reason to talk about Avatar" banger video

[lckaboom]

I love that Owl House and Fullmetal Alchemist use the eclipse for their circle-based magic systems. Throughout the whole show you see different circle sizes be used for different power levels of spells, and then the reason the bad guy needs the eclipse is because they’re using the *actual shadow of the moon* to trigger their big-ass world ending spell.

[holymolymacaroni]

i love how ATLA fits so many of these trope talks

[pomaceous]

The whole "writers by nature are mean to their characters" thing reminded me of one of the Magnus Archives Q and As where they're asked who would win in a fight, the director or the character he voices, and the answer is "the character is too gentle to actually fight me, unless he learns that I'm the one making him suffer in which case I'm screwed"

[Dmobley]

I find it funny how Avatar basically makes use of every possible instance of this trope.

Winter Solstice early in Season 1 to foreshadow future events, lunar eclipse at the end of Season 1 when the good guys are weakest yet come out on top, the library part way through Season 2 telling about the coming solar eclipse, which then takes place part way through Season 3, when the baddies are weakest, yet come out on top, mirroring the events of the lunar eclipse but with the victors flipped, and then the prophesied comet at the climax of Season 3.

The ENTIRETY of The Last Airbender REVOLVES around cosmic alignments. No wonder it's one of Red's favorite shows.

[MosBikeShop]

'You fool, look at the runtime' is my new favorite audience response.

[peterfreeman]

I have several suggestions for trope talks.
- one man army: a self-explanatory name.
- Castle Rock syndrome: when the obvious solution to a problem is to just leave. Named for the town commonly seen in many of Stephen King’s novels. Common trope in haunted house stories.
- superheroes with no powers: Hawkeye, Batman, Punisher, etc.

[bodaciouschad]

Scific cosmic allignments are typically "we're waiting for the optimal launch date to pull off an orbital slingshot and cut down our travel time by 99.3%" or "the enemy is waiting for a perfect window to launch an invasion fleet using an oribital slingshot we've calculated happened x years ago but will be visible to us in y years which will heralf their arrival shortly thereafter."

[redman]

Ah yes, cosmic alignment; when Sephiroth needs to be extra dramatic before dealing a comically small amount of damage

[ryanstewart]

Red: "The big bad's ultimate plan can't be stopped before the climax."

Every LARPer and D&D player: "Challenge accepted."

[granienasniadanie]

2:56 The plot of "The Martian" features an cosmic alignment if you classify a transfer window as a cosmic alignmnet.

[d.b.]

Fun sidenote about Castlevania: They call out well ahead of time that it can't possibly be a solar eclipse, because the day it was scheduled to happen was "the night of the full moon". By definition, a full moon can't result in a solar eclipse; only a new moon can do that.

[illegalmemedealer]

Convinced Red is working backwards from “how many videos can I make out of binging ATLA”, and honestly we love that

[afkathisguy]

Red talking about Avatar and FMA is the true cosmic inevitability

[FuzzyStripetail]

Red having an app on her phone telling her when a Venus is getting close to her asteroid is the kind of happy ending one usually has to pay extra for.

[ApesWithEgos]

Explaining characters as beings separate from the author is the sort of thing that has me thinking I have 6 worlds simultaneously cursing and cheering that I've yet to put rigid form to their tales.

[alexandruulesan]

I'll never forget the moment in the Owl House S2 finale when the Collector stopped the eclipse by dragging the moon away like the sky was their freaking Ipad. "$hit! this kid's playing on creative!"

[PurpleLugia]

I like that "The Dark Crystal" was included as example clips. Its take on Cosmic Alignment was a great way of making it good or bad for both sides because both sides needed it- if good prevailed, the villains would lose their dominion and the land restored; if evil prevailed, they'd make sure no one could stand up to them again and they'd keep their dominion and pseudo-immortality. The lore makes it more poetic of an event from how this Alignment had happened twice before and each time was a historic turning point on how the villains impacted the land, and the third Alignment bringing everything full circle.

[ryderjames]

"...it takes an *EXTREMELY* high powered character to alter the course of the heavens themselves."

Sun Wukong: "What, what is it, whaddayou want?"

[Daemonworks]

The dark crystal's three suns aligned prophecy remains my favourite version of this, because it's the greatest opportunity for both sides, each having planned for centuries around it.

It's the only chance for the skeksis to truely cement their power, but also the only chance to restore the urskeks, depending entirely on who managed to play the gelfling card correctly.