I always thought that entering, hot-wiring and driving away with a car was a complete fabrication, as cars have a steering column lock that prevents movement of the steering wheel. This scenario is often depeicted in older movies.
At least I thought so. I recently learned that this doesn’t seem to be true, as there were cars around that do not have such locking mechanism. So this TV trope doesn’t seem to be far fetched. I think it is a safety requirement now to combat car theft. I assume that modern, recent cars are locked electronically rather than mechanically.
However, I don’t think that car manufacturers leave/left a conventient ammount of cable length underneath the steering column to be yanked out and to be hotwired in a comfortable and accessible way.
The image of “yank down on a panel under the steering wheel, a bunch of loose wires not in a loom or harness dangle out, two in the front are conveniently stripped and tinned. Touch these together to start the car.” happens too often.
Back when I was an active user, I learned a lot of people only take in one piece of media and nothing else. I’m sure the site culture has shifted since then, but I remember a ton of entries exaggerating how extreme or unique basic tropes in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic are.
A lot of tropes were also constantly referred to as “anime tropes” and people suggested Japanese names for them when there was nothing about them that was unique to anime or Japanese culture.
That the Xanatos gambit is what I now expect from all good villains. Any villain worth their salt has a way to defeat the hero — even captured, killed, or frustrated.
