History Main / HowUnscientific

* The first ''{{Rayman}}'' game is a light-hearted platformer where you fight musical instruments and colorful wildlife. The second has you fighting evil robot pirates who have blown up the heart of the world and enslaved all of your friends.

** As for the chain of events: [[spoiler: In a plot somewhat similar to Terminator with elements of Twelve Monkeys, the killer, Ward, had supposedly traveled back in time to look for a budding physicist named Deschile who would eventually develop a future technology that would win a future war according to Doyle, who supposedly traveled back in time to stop him. The starting point for Ward is a letter sent by Deschile to a present day physicist with a stain that matches Beckett's coffee spill at the end of the episode. The problem with that is that Ward kills the first victim of the episode in order to find her brother, who was the physicist that inspired Deschile. Why would he do this if he already had stolen the letter from said physicist? Beckett's final explanation also doesn't work. Ward was supposedly an anti-technology nut who tried to kill Deschile for stopping him from blowing up a technology seminar. The letter would be irrelevant there. The fact that both appear in the same psych ward doesn't really help as Doyle claims it will be a future mission. Doyle disappearing twice without warning, once from lockup, also helps his argument.]]

* ''Series/Castle'' generally goes for MaybeMagicMaybeMundane but in the episode Time Will Tell it seems to go for this involving time travel as the series of events makes no sense without it. Generally [[AgentMulder Castle]] has to try and come up with a rather convoluted series of events in order for it to be possible but yet in this case [[AgentScully Beckett]] couldn't come up with a logical series of events that worked. [[spoiler: There was also the ending in which she spills her coffee on a letter that was a key piece of evidence and it matches the stain from a picture of that letter held by the killer.]]
** As for the chain of events: [[spoiler: The killer was looking for a budding physicist named Dechile who would supposedly]]

* This was a common complaint about ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', although it was probably deliberate in order to play with the making-the-player-doubt-the-canon theme. Vamp is a super-strong [[OurVampiresAreDifferent pseudo-vampire]] who can predict where bullets are about to hit him and come back from the dead after being shot. Ocelot claims "There is no such thing as miracles or the super-natural, only cutting-edge technology." Minutes later,[[spoiler: his [[EvilHand ghost-possessed arm]] hijacks his body.]] [[ZigzaggedTrope Except it]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4 doesn't]].
** Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the "no such thing as miracles" line was actually something of a mistranslation. The original line was simply about technology being able to manufacture miracles.
*** Which makes a lot more sense, considering that in the first VideoGame/MetalGearSolid, he was teamed up with a guy who could float around and throw things with his mind.

* ''HighlanderIITheQuickening'', where the Immortals were revealed to be [[spoiler:aliens from the planet Zeist]].

* ''Film/ThePrestige'' starts off telling the story of two rival stage magicians. Every trick is an explained illusion. Then NikolaTesla shows up with self-lighting lightbulbs, airborne electrical currents, and [[spoiler:a ''duplication machine'']].

* The ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' games are in a realistic-ish setting, with spirit channeling appearing on the side, holding no real effect on the game for the most part, and not appearing in the latter games, which while featuring rather unlikely concepts, feature nothing on the scale of mediums.

** Well, really the whole point of the movie was that the world is legitimately magical and the main characters were missing it because of their cynicism and petty feuding, that's really the central theme. Still sort of fits, though, since the main plot doesn't really fit with the age of scientific wonders that surround them.

* About half of [[Franchise/MetalGear Snake's]] codec conversations in his stage in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' consist of this.
** This was a common complaint about ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', although it was probably deliberate in order to play with the making-the-player-doubt-the-canon theme. Vamp is a super-strong [[OurVampiresAreDifferent pseudo-vampire]] who can predict where bullets are about to hit him and come back from the dead after being shot. Ocelot claims "There is no such thing as miracles or the super-natural, only cutting-edge technology." Minutes later,[[spoiler: his [[EvilHand ghost-possessed arm]] hijacks his body.]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4 Except it doesn't]].
** The original line was just something about technology being able to manufacture miracles. The translator decided to jazz it up a little and wasn't real into paying attention.

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'' is a sci-fi MechaShow. Several times [[TheHero Kouji Kabuto]] has said (in the original manga) that he does not believe in ghosts or living corpses. Then in a {{Crossover}} movie with ''Manga/{{Devilman}}, he accidentally wakes up a demon and spends the remain of the movie finding and fighting demons and devils.

** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars4 Super Robot Wars F]]'', [[BadAss Master Asia]] from ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' takes out several massive military machines using nothing except martial arts skills. [[{{hypocrite}} Asuka utters the trope's title.]]

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** In ''[[SuperRobotWars4 Super Robot Wars F]]'', [[BadAss Master Asia]] from ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' takes out several massive military machines using nothing except martial arts skills. [[{{hypocrite}} Asuka utters the trope's title.]]
** An official comedy 4koma for ''SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' has Asuka repeating the line when [[GiantRobo Alberto the Shockwave]] does the same thing to an Angel, although at least he only fights it to a draw.

* The fourth season finale of ''{{NCIS}}'' (a show that is usually firmly grounded in reality) had a doctor encounter a little girl who was heavily implied to be the AngelOfDeath.

A moment within a show that doesn't work within [[MagicAIsMagicA the conventions of the genre]]. For instance, a [[HappyDays UFO abduction in a]] DomCom, ''[[Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim or the sudden appearance of magical elves]]'' in a RealRobot series.

* That [[WidgetSeries really,]] ''[[WidgetSeries really]]'' [[WidgetSeries weird]] ''{{Cloverfield}}'' prequel manga. As an example, it's revealed the main character was created by a cult using human and monster DNA, and that the cult intended to use him to control the monster, which responds to an emotion-powered orb in the character's body.

* DependingOnTheWriter, {{Batman}} goes from "deep distrust of magic, but respects those who do use it" to "dismissing the supernatural as 'stuff we'll figure out eventually, but it ain't magic'".

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Bruce Wayne's response to Terry [=McGinnis=] telling him of a suspected haunting is "why not?", but that the incident in question is rather... childish. [[spoiler:He's right, of course.]]

* ''TheNewAdventuresOfRobinHood'' was mostly a {{Xena}} homage Fantasy, but the episode "Marion Saves the Day" was about an alien crash-landing in Sherwood and repairing his space-ship in time before the Sheriff dissected him.

* ''Film/ThePrestige'' starts off telling the story of two rival stage magicians. Every trick is an explained illusion. Then NikolaTesla shows up with self-lighting lightbulbs, airborne electrical currents, and [[spoiler:a ''duplication machine'']].

* In the book ''The Great Detectives'', Walter Gibson wrote an article of reminiscence on his work on TheShadow, and he noted that some stories approached or crossed into science fiction, while other Shadow stories stood as conventional crime thrillers.

* ''{{Japanese Spider-Man}}'' episode 37 of 41. A man who specializes in the occult warns that King Enma from Hell is coming. He comes. Note that for the last 36 episodes, the series has entirely been based on sci-fi.

* ''[[Series/SevenDays]]'' mostly deals with TimeTravel. Said TimeTravel equipment came from a crashed alien ship; so there's sci-fi. Then there's the episode where the main character stops a nuclear war started by ''{{Satan}}.''

* Ash's strategies in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime. Most notably, [[MemeticMutation "Aim for the horn!" or "Thunder Armor".]]

A moment within a show that doesn't work within [[MagicAIsMagicA the conventions of the genre]]. For instance, a [[HappyDays UFO abduction in a]] DomCom, [[HeavyMetalLGaim or the sudden appearance of magical elves]] in a RealRobot series.

* ''{{Patlabor}}'' featured two episodes that clashed with the show's otherwise stringent policy of depicting "real life, but with robots:" One with a prehistoric [[{{Kaiju}} giant monster]], and another with a haunted building full of ghosts.