Refuge in Cool

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Watching trailer for Transformers, which is all about this trope.

While most works make use of tropes like Rule of Cool, Rule of Funny, or Rule of Scary, some works rely on them for their very existence.

These are works that heavily attempt to use one or more of the Rule of Index tropes. They just wouldn't work without them.

The exact form of the reliance can vary. Here are some ways to tell such a work fits this trope:

• Several distinct instances of one of those tropes. We mean half a dozen as the bare minimum.
• Much of the plot just doesn't make sense unless looked at in the context of attempting these tropes.

Now this is about works deliberately using these tropes. But as Rule of Cool states, "you only get to invoke the Rule of Cool if the end product is, in fact, cool". Thus even though these works attempt to use these rules to stretch Willing Suspension of Disbelief, they don't always work. Generally the older the audience, the less likely Refuge in Cool will work: audiences over 30 do care about cool, but they've been around long enough to recognize what's legitimately cool and what's merely the product of a marketing campaign.

Some works do succeed, and are the stuff of legends for their fans. Some works fail, and are lucky if they end up So Bad It's Good. In short, both highly loved and highly hated works will be on this page.

Compare Artistic License, Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot (combinations that work because they are cool), Refuge in Audacity, Reference Overdosed.

Contrast Magic A Is Magic A (fantastical worlds still try to follow logic). Works that work on this usually take place in either a World of Ham or a World of Badass.

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Tropes about works that commonly do this:

• B-Movie
• Humongous Mecha, especially Super Robot series
• Rapid-Fire Comedy
• Rated "M" for Manly
• Slasher Movies

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Anime and Manga

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
• Black Lagoon
• Kinnikuman
• The Legend of Koizumi
• Hellsing
• Space Adventure Cobra

Comics

• This trope is arguably the entire point of the Superhero genre.
• Nextwave
• The Umbrella Academy
• Scott Pilgrim
• Agents of Atlas
• The Amazing Screw-On Head

Fan Fiction

• Dead Fantasy
• Tiberium Wars
• Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami
• Thirty Hs

Film (Animated)

• Monsters vs. Aliens

Film (Live-Action)

• Star Wars
• Battlefield Earth
• Doomsday
• Krull
• Versus
• Surf Ninjas
• The Mummy Trilogy
  • The Scorpion King
• Moonwalker
• Moulin Rouge
• Shoot Em Up
• Van Helsing
• The entire oeuvre of Michael Bay. That he directs the Transformers films is thus highly appropriate.
  • And Roland Emmerich.
  • And Kurt Wimmer.
  • And what Uwe Boll thinks he's doing.
• Indiana Jones, notable in that it's pointed out in the movies.
• The Fifth Element
• You Don't Mess With the Zohan
• Clash of the Titans
• Avatar
• The Brothers Grimm
• A Knight's Tale
• Spy Kids
• It's possible that this was what Catwoman was trying to pull off.
• Sucker Punch
• The Expendables

Literature

• Pride and Prejudice And Zombies

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40000
• Exalted

Toys

• Transformers. The entire franchise.

Video Games

• Super Robot Wars
• Sengoku Basara
• Devil May Cry
• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
• Metal Wolf Chaos
• The Force Unleashed

Web Original

• Chuck Norris Facts
• Kickassia

Web Comics

• Axe Cop
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
• Problem Sleuth

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• The Powerpuff Girls
• Codename: Kids Next Door