"The key was with you all along"
Whenever the protagonist, or another key player in the story, is given a MacGuffin by a family member or authority figure that doesn't seem to have a use until a certain moment. u/Advanced_Question196's post about specific skillsets reminded me of this.
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The House of Hades: In a subversion to this trope, Percy isn't the one to figure this out but Annabeth is. Ever since his first quest, Percy has had his sword Riptide by his side since he previously used it only once prior to defeat Miss Dodds/Alecto. But whenever Percy and Annabeth need to send a message out of Tartarus to Camp Half Blood, the duo are unsure how to until Annabeth figures it out. Since Riptide is a pen that you take the cap off the tip of the sword to summon it, what happens when you want it to become a pen again? She then places the pen lid on the hilt of the sword to transform it into a pen with Celestial Bronze ink so the message she writes is able to get to Rachel through the offering bonfire by "offering" it to Camp Half Blood.
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Supah Ninjas: While Owen is the one to actually do it, Mike Fukanaga is the one to figure out that the necklace given to him by his grandfather, by lieu of his dad, of the Fukanaga family crest, or Mon, matches the metallic indent in his bed's headboard. So his childhood friend Owen places the necklace in the indent and the bed flies up to reveal a hidden dojo under his bed. And his grandfather is down there as well to train Mike and Owen (and Amanda after she discovers them in the pilot episode), just as a hologram; which Owen affectionately dubs Mike's grandfather's hologram as "Hologramps".
Posted Jun 13, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC