Cool of Rule

Something cool is even more cool if it is accomplished within an understood set of rules.

Okay, so wall running might be cool, but let's face it, wall running in real-life is even more cool.

The "understood set of rules" is usually the rules of reality, but it can just as easily be some set of rules established within the work in question. Less props for explaining the rules after the fact.

This rule is not a contradiction of, but is in tension with, Artistic License. But if you use the Cool Of Rule to make something so cool that the audience willing suspends their disbelief, congratulations! You're an example of the Cool Of Rule.

See also: Suspension of Disbelief, Magic A Is Magic A, Chekhov's Boomerang. Compare Rule of Cool, MST3K Mantra, Reality Is Unrealistic. Contrast Hand Wave, Plot Hole.


 * In The Sixth Sense Dr Malcolm Crowe follows all the rules, while still.
 * Sherlock Holmes and mysteries general often make heavy use of this rule. When they don't they frequently aren't considered as good.
 * Death Note is basically built around this rule, as much of the entertainment derives from Light and L's clever use of the rules of logic and (in Light's case) the rules of the Death Note.