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Suddenly Significant Rule

 Suddenly Significant Rule
type
FeatureClass
 Suddenly Significant Rule
label
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule
page
SuddenlySignificantRule
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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This is when a rule or law that is usually not given much thought is suddenly invoked. This can happen because:
The rule is obscure and outdated or little used, but it's dusted off because it can allow or disallow a course of action.
The rule is well known, but is given little thought because it's expected that everyone will follow it—and then it comes into play when someone doesn't.
A Rules Lawyer uses the rule as a trump card.
The circumstances of the rule coming into play are unlikely.
This is distinct from Loophole Abuse, which deals with getting around the rules, while this deals with following them, but there can be either overlap when invoking one rule allows someone to get around another, or exclusion when this means that a loophole that seemed to exist actually doesn't.

Examples
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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2023-10-15T08:21:17Z
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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2023-10-15T08:21:17Z
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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Dropped link to AintNoRule: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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Dropped link to BrokeTheRatingScale: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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Dropped link to DragonBones: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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Dropped link to FramingDevice: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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Dropped link to MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Suddenly Significant Rule
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DragonBones
 Suddenly Significant Rule
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16712475
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16712475
comment
In one episode of The Jetsons, Cogswell bribes a crooked commissioner to enforce the B.E.B.O.P law (Basic Electro Bionic Operations Permit) as part of a plan to shut down Spacely's factory to prevent him from making a million sprockets for his millionth cog (the paperwork needed for Spacely to go back online would take four weeks). One of the side effects of the trick was that Rosie had to marry Mack to prevent him from being melted down.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16712475
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16712475
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1.0
 The Jetsons
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16712475
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16fc4335
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16fc4335
comment
Heralds of Valdemar: In By the Sword, a novel by Mercedes Lackey, there's an old rule that says that a mercenary company that has lost enough members can call the Captaincy to vote. The Captain of the Skybolts, Ardana, gets the boot after a disastrous campaign.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16fc4335
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16fc4335
featureConfidence
1.0
 Heralds of Valdemar
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_16fc4335
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_1da65e88
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_1da65e88
comment
In The Knights of the Cross, when all other ways to extricate Zbyszko from his pending execution fail, princess Anna remembers a little-known law that a young man cannot be executed if a pure maiden claims him as her betrothed. Resulting in an iconic scene of Danusia doing just that.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_1da65e88
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_1da65e88
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1.0
 The Knights of the Cross
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_1da65e88
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2372359
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2372359
comment
In The Belgariad, there is a clause in the Accords of Val Alorn with Tolnedra that says "Aloria shall maintain Riva and keep it whole." Thing is, at the time the treaty was signed, Aloria (the ancestral kingdom of the Alorns) hadn't existed in centuries: what was once that nation was split into the kingdoms of Riva, Drasnia, Cherekh, and Algaria. The last three each have peace treaties with Tolnedra. This clause comes into effect much later, when the Emperor, angered by a disastrous expedition to Riva, prepares for a full-scale invasion. The Cherekh ambassador (fully aware of the accords) sends a letter to the Emperor saying that if this invasion happens, Aloria will fulfill that clause and end Tolnedra. The Emperor realizes that while Drasnia, Cherekh, and Algaria have signed individual treaties with Tolnedra, collectively they are Aloria, with whom Tolnedra has no treaties at all. The fear that the Alorns might band together to make war haunts the Tolnedran government for centuries—and then Nyissan assassins murder the Rivan King, and Tolnedra's nightmares come true.
One of the clauses in the Treaty of Vo Mimbre is that a Tolnedran Princess must come to Riva and await for the King to return. Ce'Nedra is ready to go through this formality that pays homage to a long-extinct dynasty and discovers that Garion is the rightful Rivan King.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2372359
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2372359
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 The Belgariad
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2372359
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_24e07b32
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_24e07b32
comment
Deputy: The central conceit of the series is that the rules of succession in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department suddenly becoming very important. The town charter (most recently updated in 1850) states that in the event of the sheriff's untimely demise, the position shall be filled until the next election by "the longest serving member of the sheriff's mounted posse". In 1850 the mounted posse would have consisted of the sheriff's most senior and trusted deputies. In 2020, the LASD Mounted Division (the only part of the LASD that still uses horses) is a dumping ground for all the misfits the LASD can't fire, who are instead shipped off to the rural outskirts of LA county until they either straighten out or leave voluntarily. So, naturally, the new Sheriff is Bill Hollister, the only man contrary enough to be shipped off to the sticks, and ornery enough to actually make a career of it.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_24e07b32
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_24e07b32
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 Deputy
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_24e07b32
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_261c8d3f
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_261c8d3f
comment
The Simpsons: "Homer Vs. The 18th Amendment" hinges on this. When several vocal townspeople protest alcohol consumption and demand prohibition, the city officials are ready to dismiss them out of hand until a clerk in the room happens to find a 200-year-old prohibition law that was passed but had never been enforced. Funnily enough, this is inverted at the end of the episode when the same clerk finds on the same parchment that the law was repealed a year after being put in place, invalidating Homer's crimes.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_261c8d3f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_261c8d3f
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1.0
 The Simpsons
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_261c8d3f
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2e80e66f
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2e80e66f
comment
A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 5 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, Twilight invokes a law dating back to the first Noble Council — "In the time where our allies are under attack, all those who deliberately deny or delay Equestria's support on their own volition and actively act against the principles of friendship that our nation was founded on, shall have their wealth and citizenship revoked, and be held prisoner until such time that the conflict is over as to not pose as a potential enemy within our own nation." In short, it lets her legally remove a majority of the nobles from power so the Princesses can declare war on the Storm King and his armies without interference. This rule is literally over a thousand years old and is still on the books, but she found it and made use of it. It later turns out that it wasn't actually ratified, though by that point Blueblood's gathered enough evidence of wrongdoing to have them all legally removed soon enough anyway.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2e80e66f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2e80e66f
featureConfidence
1.0
 A Diplomatic Visit (Fanfic)
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_2e80e66f
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_32c3b145
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_32c3b145
comment
For someone to be in Canada's Worst Driver in the first place, they must be a legal driver, having both license and insurance. Thus, the only attention those rules usually get during the rest of the show is mere mentioning. But in Season 6, Scott Schurink's nominator (who let Scott drive on his insurance) realized what an ass Scott was and cancelled Scott's insurance during filming. Since Scott couldn't pay for his own insurance (which would cost him $1,200 per month), he got kicked off the show.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_32c3b145
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_32c3b145
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 Canada's Worst Driver
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_32c3b145
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_35c619e2
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_35c619e2
comment
In Green Arrow, during Oliver's tenure as mayor of Star City, he took advantage of the phrasing of the city's 200-year-old charter — specifically, that the mayor can legally marry any two "persons" to perform legal gay marriages. Later, he uses a similar stunt to ensure that his hand-picked successor will take over from him as mayor.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_35c619e2
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_35c619e2
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 Green Arrow (Comic Book)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_35c619e2
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_468bebb0
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_468bebb0
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Discworld:
Sam Vimes comes from a poor family, that had been noble until his ancestor became a regicide, and has nothing but contempt for titles as a result (technically he's a knightnote Until the end of Jingo, where he's made a duke., due to the title coming with his rank of Commander, but only the very brave or stupid would actually call him that). So when Vimes is trapped in Ankh-Morpork during the events of Jingo, Vetinari sends him a letter that only says "Samuel Vimes, Knight". Vimes doesn't get it... until he realizes that it means he's entitled to form a regiment under his command, allowing him to sail to Klatch and prevent a war.
In Unseen Academicals, one of the more absurd-seeming of the foot-the-ball rules is "The ball shall be called the ball. The ball is the ball that is played as the ball by any three consecutive players, at which point it is the ball." This comes in handy in the big match, when Trev Likely, who has never practiced with a spherical ball but is a master of kicking a tin can, uses it to say that, as long as the team treats the can as the ball, it's the ball.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_468bebb0
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1.0
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 Discworld
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_468bebb0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_46a4b34d
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_46a4b34d
comment
From The Elenium, Berit is a Novice, so he's not entitled to wear armour yet. When Sparhawk and company head off to Zemoch, they dust off the seldom-used rank of Apprentice Knight for Berit, which means he's not a full Knight, but is allowed to wear armour.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_46a4b34d
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 The Elenium
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_46a4b34d
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_4e152e8a
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_4e152e8a
comment
In Fallout: New Vegas, one of the rules of the Brotherhood of Steel, "The Chain that Binds", ensures that the chain of command within the Brotherhood is always adhered to. It's mostly just invoked when a lower-ranked member is insubordinate to a higher-ranked one, but it also requires those of superior rank not to give orders to those who do not report directly to them and can be grounds for having a Brotherhood Elder demoted and replaced if you decide to support Paladin Hardin's attempt to depose Elder MacNamara.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_4e152e8a
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_4e152e8a
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 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game)
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_4e152e8a
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5755b96a
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5755b96a
comment
Used to literally save the world in The Order of the Stick: Just before the vampire-dominated dwarven council can finish a vote that would have resulted in the gods destroying the world, one of the non-dominated elders suspends the session because the rules require them to meet at a table with certain specifications — and Durkon's thrown hammer has just caused a falling rock to destroy said table. This prevents the vote from taking place until they can replace it, which gives the heroes plenty of time to deal with the vampires.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5755b96a
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1.0
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 The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5755b96a
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_587db2f9
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_587db2f9
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Halo: First Strike: The Cole Protocol is a series of rules drafted for human fleets listing numerous steps they must follow to prevent the Covenant from finding Earth, such as never hyper-space jumping directly to Earth, destroying navigation intel, etc. One of the rules, Subsection 7, said to never bring back a captured Covenant vessel without thoroughly checking it for tracking devices first. However, it was mostly ignored because not until the 27th year of the war did anyone ever capture a Covenant vessel without its crew hitting the self-destruct.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_587db2f9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_587db2f9
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1.0
 Halo: First Strike
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_587db2f9
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58b600de
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58b600de
comment
In the World of the Five Gods, trying and failing to perform death magic on someone is legally attempted murder and punishable by execution. Successfully performing death magic, on the other hand, is legally a miracle of divine justice and not punishable. Since a succesful death miracle also inevitably kills the caster, this is mostly just a priestly technicality... until Cazaril petitions for a death miracle, gets one, and then survives due to the effects of a second miracle.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58b600de
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58b600de
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1.0
 World of the Five Gods
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58b600de
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58d80a4a
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58d80a4a
comment
Sam Vimes comes from a poor family, that had been noble until his ancestor became a regicide, and has nothing but contempt for titles as a result (technically he's a knightnote Until the end of Jingo, where he's made a duke., due to the title coming with his rank of Commander, but only the very brave or stupid would actually call him that). So when Vimes is trapped in Ankh-Morpork during the events of Jingo, Vetinari sends him a letter that only says "Samuel Vimes, Knight". Vimes doesn't get it... until he realizes that it means he's entitled to form a regiment under his command, allowing him to sail to Klatch and prevent a war.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58d80a4a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58d80a4a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jingo
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_58d80a4a
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5ded1c9e
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5ded1c9e
comment
In Raybearer, a high-ranking judge is very upset with her emperor's attempts to erase minority cultures — one of which is the new law that families will be financially rewarded for giving their children non-minority names. So she digs up a much older law against "causing strife between a husband and wife", which no one has ever actually invoked (it was a holdover from tribal law), and finds a couple who disagree as to whether they should go for the money or not. Then she convicts the king of causing strife between them.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5ded1c9e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5ded1c9e
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1.0
 Raybearer
hasFeature
Suddenly Significant Rule / int_5ded1c9e
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_660a8ba0
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_660a8ba0
comment
In Unseen Academicals, one of the more absurd-seeming of the foot-the-ball rules is "The ball shall be called the ball. The ball is the ball that is played as the ball by any three consecutive players, at which point it is the ball." This comes in handy in the big match, when Trev Likely, who has never practiced with a spherical ball but is a master of kicking a tin can, uses it to say that, as long as the team treats the can as the ball, it's the ball.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_660a8ba0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_660a8ba0
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1.0
 Unseen Academicals
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_660a8ba0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_696b75c2
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_696b75c2
comment
In A Brother's Price, such a rule is part of the villains' plan. They hire someone else to kidnap Jerin so that they can then steal Jerin back from the criminals they hired, invoking a law that says that they're then allowed to keep the man they rescued from his kidnappers, as a reward for their victory over the criminals. Of course, for this to work, the hired helpers have to be killed (as the rule wouldn't apply if it was known everything was planned by one and the same family) but the villains show no remorse about this.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_696b75c2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_696b75c2
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 A Brother's Price
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_696b75c2
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c038c18
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c038c18
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In Phineas and Ferb episode "My Fair Goalie", Ferb is affected by soccer's "Emu Curse", which states that if you're holding the ball and a herd of emus carries off your assistant coach, then you're cursed to never be on a winning team again. Despite the improbability of this happening in the middle of the United States, it happens, leading Ferb to abandon the game. The only way to break the Emu Curse is to have a boy in a Sunday bonnet sing E-flat above high C in front of the cursed one. During the game, Candace's Sunday bonnet falls off and falls onto Baljeet's head just before he's hit in the groin by the ball, causing him to scream at a frequency that just happens to be E-flat above high C while Ferb is in the vicinity, thus breaking his curse and allowing their team to win the game.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c038c18
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c038c18
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 Phineas and Ferb
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c038c18
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c48915b
type
Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c48915b
comment
In Gunnerkrigg Court the threat of this is used as leverage on Antimony's father to force him to return. The Court caught Antimony cheating on her schoolwork, but rather than address academic dishonesty in any normal fashion they instead threaten to pretend to not have noticed until the last moment, then use it to expel her immediately before graduation. There's minor evidence that this is a pattern. They employ obvious obstacles students can get around while also surveilling them through subtler methods, then they do nothing about any rules they break — but if the Court wants something suddenly those rules can be very important.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c48915b
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c48915b
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 Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7c48915b
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7dcdbde1
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7dcdbde1
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In The Great Ace Attorney, any jurist on the jury can declare their verdict at any time, if they feel the truth of the case is clear. If, at any point, all six jurors are unanimous in their verdict, the trial immediately ends. However, the first time this happens (with all six jurors voting guilty against the protagonist Ryonosuke's client), his assistant points out that, according to an ancient law, the defence has the right to a "summation examination", where they can interview the jurists and attempt to persuade them to change their verdict. All present are stunned, since, while the law has been on the books for ages, no one has ever bothered to use it in recent memory; the prosecutor even argues that the law is clearly defunct as a result, having fallen into obvious disuse. However, the judge rules that the law is still valid and, as a result, the defence makes heavy use of it for every subsequent trial that includes a jury.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7dcdbde1
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1.0
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 The Great Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_7dcdbde1
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_817acecf
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In Fables, the position of Mayor of Fabletown is technically elected, but no elections have been held since King Cole has been chosen Mayor at the town's founding centuries ago. Then Prince Charming calls for an election and runs for the position, thus throwing everything into turmoil. However, Charming then becomes a victim of this trope himself because he did not do enough research into what exactly the Mayor's powers were. Most importantly he did not realize that the witches' help is voluntary and cannot be compelled by the Mayor. They will help in emergencies but their magic is in limited supply and they refuse to use it to help Charming fulfill his campaign promises. King Cole only asked for their help in emergencies so they never had a reason to refuse before. Thus only a few Fables were aware of these restrictions and they chose not to warn Charming because they did not like him.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_817acecf
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 Fables (Comic Book)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_817acecf
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_8f3124f0
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_8f3124f0
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In Project Delta, Jane has a lot of trouble getting the proper training due to an ancient law about outsiders being permitted on an asari colony.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_8f3124f0
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1.0
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 Project Delta / Fan Fic
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_8f3124f0
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_90f1e8a2
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Exiern: One of the leaders of the Church of Rem is publicly outed as being part of a cabal of pedophiles. Rather than face justice through the courts, he invokes a magical Trial by Combat. This irks King Urtica to no end, who knew about the rule but didn't expect him to invoke it, because if he wins, he's exonerated and no justice will be actually be done, yet the King's hands are tied by tradition.
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 Exiern (Webcomic)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_90f1e8a2
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_989c6002
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_989c6002
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A bit spoileriffic example from The Law of Ueki: The characters get special powers to participate in a tournament to decide who's gonna be the next God (since the current one wants to quit). There are two rules: If a participant attacks a normal person with his powers, the attacker loses one sai (talents, unique qualities of every person), and losing all your sais means you stop existing; but after a tournament fight, the winner gets a new sai. This becomes irrelevant after the first stage since the rest of the tournament is held up in Heaven, there's not normal humans outside of contestants, and everyone who got that far already won a lot of sais. Cue to the climax, the Big Bad gets cornered and gets out of the tournament, meaning that every time the Hero attacks he loses one sai. Meanwhile, the Hero ends up down to one sai, with another hit he will win the fight but also his existence will end. He attacks anyway but doesn't disappear because in the middle of the fight, he accidentally blasted away a poor Comic Relief, which gave him an additional sai.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_989c6002
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1.0
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 The Law of Ueki (Manga)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_989c6002
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_994af351
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The issue of evidence law comes up in the fifth episode. Previously nobody had to worry about how evidence was presented to the trial.
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 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_994af351
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Suddenly Significant Rule
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In an Archie Comics scene at Veronica's backyard pool, Veronica is scheming to get rid of Betty so she can have Archie all to herself. When Betty pushes a fully dressed Archie into the pool, Veronica promptly has her banned from the pool area for the day, citing a "No horseplay" rule. Betty agrees, but slyly points out that Archie has to leave with her since he violated a rule against being in the pool with his clothes on!
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_9b530c26
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1.0
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 Archie Comics (Comic Book)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_9b530c26
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_9d47a2a2
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In A Song of Ice and Fire, the Ironborn people have restored their old tradition of Elective Monarchy, when the kings are elected on a council called Kingsmoot. A Kingsmoot is assembled, and a tyrannical evil sorcerer wins the election. Said sorcerer's niece and rival Asha Greyjoy goes into exile to the North, and one of her followers suddenly reminds her of one rule of Kingsmoot about which everyone forgot: if a Kingsmoot was assembled and at least one candidate with a significant claim to the crown was absent, it is invalid. Thus Asha decides to rescue her brother Theon from captivity in order to invalidate the Kingsmoot through him.
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 A Song of Ice and Fire
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_9d47a2a2
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Suddenly Significant Rule
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Embers (Vathara): No one has used the Shelter of Dragon's Wings rule for over 200 years, but it was still on the books. This allows Iroh to use a Fire Navy ship as shelter, despite several very good reasons they should burn him down where he stands.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a0ad00d4
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a0ad00d4
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 Embers (Vathara) (Fanfic)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a0ad00d4
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Suddenly Significant Rule
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a28c7f4
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In The Eleven-Day Empire and Shadow Play, the first two Faction Paradox audios, Lolita, a Homeworld agent, conspires to have the young Faction Cousin Justine granted the unique shadow of the Faction's Grandfather. However, it turns out that under the Faction's laws, "the shadow is more important than the flesh", automatically making her guilty of the Grandfather's crimes and giving her the perfect opening to Logic Bomb the Eleven-Day Empire out of existence.
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a28c7f4
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1.0
 Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a28c7f4
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 Faction Paradox (Franchise)
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Suddenly Significant Rule / int_a28c7f4
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During the final duel of The Gamers: Hands of Fate, the Big Bad seems to forget the small rule that a player may give away the reward for a quest they just completed to their opponent, who has no way of refusing it. This way, Cass gives away his Apple of Life to the Big Bad—which "resurrects" his entire undead army that promptly starves to death since it never had or needed any food production before.
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The Commish. In "Sleep of the Just", a rapist has Diplomatic Impunity, so the police harass him by ticketing for obscure and long-obsolete violations of the law, like sneezing in public (it frightens the horses). When he tears up the ticket and throws it away, he's cited for littering, which is illegal in any century.
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In Kaamelott, King Arthur, who lusts after a knight's wife, avoids a deathmatch with his knight by using an outdated law that allows him to swap his wife for the knight's wife.
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In The Princess Diaries 2, Genovian law apparently says that women have to be married to take the throne, though this has never been upheld in practice. The villain brings it up because his nephew-by-marriage is next in line after Mia.
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In Game of Thrones, Yara Greyjoy expects to succeed her father, Balon, after his murder and become the first queen of the Iron Islands, since her brother has been castrated and failed so badly at a military campaign that he does not feel himself worthy of the throne. However, she is taken aback when she learns she must get the support of the islands' other nobles at the "kingsmoot", where her uncle Euron is chosen king instead.
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Forged in Fire, as the name suggests, is a forging competition, meaning that the blades created for the challenges must be forged into their final shape. This rule went unnoticed for the first season and most of the second, because the metal used usually had to be forged to make a viable blade (and none of the contestants were stupid enough to try not forging it). However, in one late episode where lawnmower blades were used, a contestant decided to grind the blade into a knife shape, instead of forging it. The resulting knife was not valid under the rules, resulting in the contestant's elimination.
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The Golden Fist Fighting-type Tournament in Boldores And Boomsticks has a long-forgotten rule allowing Black Belts and Battle Girls to compete against the Pokémon in the tournament, as a means of testing their strength. This is used to allow Yang Xiao-Long to compete, while a provision allowing martial artists to use weapons was used to let her use Ember Celica in the finals.
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In the Doctor Who serial "Paradise Towers", the Doctor does this by making up a rule; he exploits the Deputy Chief Caretaker's simultaneous hyper-bureaucratic nature and imperfect knowledge of the rulebook by claiming there's an obscure rule in his rulebook which requires the guards to stand down, walk five paces away from the prisoner, close their eyes, put their hands over their heads and wait a minute and a half. This, not coincidentally, is exactly how long the Doctor needs to find the right keycard and escape.
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In His Honor, The Mayor, Drew Lipsky? Shego's attempt to write Drakken in as a joke candidate in the Middleton mayoral election results in him getting elected. Kim tries to use Drakken's criminal record to have him disqualified, but due to a rule dating back to the city founding regarding what crimes do and don't disqualify an official from the position, nothing in Drakken's record counts.
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Reality TV competitions and Game Shows in general have many, many more rules than a casual viewer needs to know. Little-known and usually behind-the-scenes rules often only come up when they're about to be broken. For example, if The Amazing Race reminds viewers about requirements for teams to take a certain mode of transportation, you can be sure someone is about to mess up.
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In the Mahjong manga Tetsunaki no Kirinji, the main protagonist is almost certain to win an important match with a great starting hand, however he is so distracted by his great fortune that he didn't notice the other 3 players discarding the same wind tile and he discards the fourth, meaning the match is aborted. This is due to the "consecutive four wind discard" rule, that every mahjong player knows but it simply never appears in normal gameplay and thus the protagonist was careless in a crucial moment, wasting his almost guaranteed victory.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Ensigns of Command," the Enterprise crew faces off against the Sheilak Corporate, a group of Scary Dogmatic Aliens whose hat is obsessing over rules and contracts. The Sheilak are planning to colonize a planet in their own territory, only to find a group of Federation settlers (descended from those who crashed their ship decades earlier) have made a home there. It will take three weeks for a transport vessel to move the settlers, but the Sheilak insist on sticking to the exact terms of their original treaty with the Federation and threaten to kill the colonists as soon as they arrive. Picard has his crew go through the document with a fine-tooth comb and eventually finds a never-used clause that allows him to name a neutral third party to arbitrate the dispute...and promptly selects a race that's currently hibernating and won't be awake for six months. The Outgambitted Corporate begrudgingly agrees to the three-week extension.
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