Smoke Shield/Playing With

Basic Trope: An attack kicks up smoke or dust around an opponent. When the smoke clears, the opponent is unharmed.

• Straight: Alice shoots a rocket launcher at Bob. After the dust from the explosion settles, Bob is unharmed.
• Exaggerated: Alice fires a Macross Missile Massacre, and none of them hit Bob.
  • Every bullet fired kicks up dust.
• Justified: We see Bob duck behind cover before the rocket hits.
• Inverted: Alice and Bob are invisible, and are only seen when an attack hits (Invisibility Flicker, Darkened Building Shootout).
• Subverted: After the rocket hits, the smoke swirls dramatically, and Alice gets ready for the inevitable counterattack. When the dust settles, there's just a crater where Bob was.
• Double Subverted: ...but Bob snuck up behind her when she was watching the dust cloud.
• Parodied: The smoke clouds from each attack take hours to clear, so Alice takes a nap while she waits to see if her attack hit.
  • The smoke forms into a shield shape.
• Deconstructed: The dust cloud stops Bob from seeing out, so Alice gets the drop on him.
  • Alternatively, the explosions don't kick up enough dust to conceal Bob totally, and Alice shoots him.
• Reconstructed: ...so Bob trains to fight even when blind.
  • ...so Bob starts carrying smoke bombs when he needs concealment.
• Zig Zagged: Alice shoots a rocket, and Bob uses the dust cloud for cover to sneak up on her, but Alice expected it so she laid mines behind her, but those kick up an even bigger dust cloud, but Bob can't find her in the dust either...
• Averted: Alice's attacks don't create dust clouds, or if they do, Bob is still visible through them.
• Enforced: "If Alice is carrying a rocket launcher, this fight will be really one-sided. So it'll just kick up lots of dust instead of killing him."
• Lampshaded: "Whenever there's a big dust cloud like this, you just know something bad will step out of it."
• Invoked: Alice carries special rockets that create a big cloud of smoke because she likes the look of it, or because she doesn't really want to hurt Bob.
• Exploited: Alice knows that her rockets will make a huge dust cloud and Bob won't get hurt, so she uses the rockets as distractions and a different gun to finish him off.
• Defied: Alice uses smaller weapons that won't kick up dust or smoke.
• Discussed: "Those rockets make a lot of smoke. You can never see if you hit your target."
• Conversed: "Have you ever noticed how nobody ever gets hurt by any attack that makes a big dust cloud?"
• Played For Laughs: Alice and Bob have a climactic rooftop duel, their battle kicks up a ton of dust, and when the dust settles, there's not a scratch on either of them.
• Played For Drama: Alice is quickly killed because her rocket launcher, the only gun she has with her, is totally ineffective because of this trope. Bob mocks her for thinking that a rocket would do anything besides kick up dust.

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Don't worry, once the dust clears, you'll find that the main Smoke Shield page is unharmed.