History Main / Subvertedtrope

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'':

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode ''[[{{Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS3E6Redemption}} Redemption]]'' subverts MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency for drama. In this episode, John Hawkins is convinced that the man he put away years ago who has just been released Roger Berry is responsible for a series of murders and rapes despite the fact that Roger Berry is mentally disabled and his mother protests his innocence. However, in this case, Roger has an airtight alibi, and John's team begins to be skeptical of Roger Being guilty because of his disability. John insists that Roger is smarter than he looks. Ultimately, John accepted that he got the wrong man and put an innocent person in prison; thankfully, the real killer who was framing Roger Berry for his crimes was captured by John Hawkins by the end of the episode.

-->'''Smithers:''' ''(after a moment of [[JustForPun fruitless waiting]])'' Uh, I don't see one, sir.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode ''[[{{Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS3E6Redemption}} Redemption]]''subverts MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency for drama. In this episode, John Hawkins is convinced that the man he put away years ago who has just been released Roger Berry is responsible for a series of murders and rapes despite the fact that Roger Berry is mentally disabled and his mother protests his innocence. However, in this case, Roger has an airtight alibi, and John's team begins to be skeptical of Roger Being guilty because of his disability. John insists that Roger is smarter than he looks. Ultimately, John accepted that he got the wrong man and put an innocent person in prison; thankfully, the real killer who was framing Roger Berry for his crimes was captured by John Hawkins by the end of the episode.

* ''Fanfic/MonsterChronicles'' subverted KickTheSonOfABitch. Cedric's cruel and horrifying actions towards Alejandro and Duncan are not shown to be deserving and in fact invoke some sympathy for them.
** Like in canon Alejandro is a lying, back-stabbing snake, who charms everyone he comes across to further his own placing in the game, and votes them out once they have been lulled into a false sense of security. [[spoiler: However, his torture to near death and soul stealing by Cedric was horrifying and it is made clear that despite Alejandro's actions throughout the game, he does not deserve what happened to him.]]
** While at first it was amusing to see Cedric picking on Duncan and tormenting him much like the latter would do to Harold in canon, it stops being funny when Cedric's abuse of Duncan grow worse and you see how much danger his life really is in. [[spoiler: This comes to a head when Duncan decides to rebel against Cedric, he beats Duncan within an inch of his life, and it's made clear than even if Duncan is at is worst, and if he never reforms he still does not deserve that beating.]]
* ''Fanfic/TwinningWithATwist'': Subverted AdaptationalJerkass. Dave's positive traits are ignored in favor of making him a one-dimensional jerk, justifying his much earlier elimination, and right before the rest of the team starts bonding with Sammy. However, Sammy later learns from Amy at Playa de Losers that Dave just happened to be having a bad day when he arrived on the show, which ended up not getting better in the two days he was there. She finds him to be much more approachable when they speak again.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarepants'' is almost as good at doing this as ''The Simpsons'' is. In "The Slumber Party", Mr. Krabs enlists the help of [=SpongeBob=] to [[OverprotectiveDad spy on Pearl]] at the titular slumber party, from which her father has explicitly been forbidden. When the party starts, we see [[PaperThinDisguise what is obviously]] [[DisguisedInDrag SpongeBob dressed as a woman]], making no effort to disguise his voice and calling himself "Girly Teengirl from Farawayville." Pearl and her girlfriends [[GenreSavvy call him out on this]], and "Girly Teengirl" gets upset and runs off crying...right past a normally-dressed [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs, who wonder who that strange teenage doppelgänger girl was.

* In the season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'', Jonesy strikes Varlyn Stroud unconscious with a log of wood. He then runs into the house that Varlyn was about to enter and rescues [[DistressedDamsel Sophie]], leaving Varlyn ''and Varlyns handgun'' unattended right outside the door. [[spoiler: Seconds later, Josey gets shot... By Sophie.]]

** If the car drives into the pane of glass, but the glass is only slightly chipped, then that's also '''downplayed''' (and also Played Straight.)

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Elder]] [[UsedToBeASweetKid Arthur]] [[NobleBigot Maxson]] of the [[BadassArmy East Coast]] [[TheOrder Brotherhood]] [[AbsoluteXenophobe of Steel]] seems to be set up for being a PuppetKing for [[GreaterScopeVillain the Lost Hills Elders]] back in California. Maxson [[AChildShallLeadThem gained his position at the age of]] ''16'', [[YoungerThanTheyLook is only 20 years old (which would make him seem inexperienced)]], and is praised by his followers for [[TookALevelInJerkass bringing his chapter of the Brotherhood]] "back onto the right path" of following the Brotherhood's Codex. It's also suggested that, since Maxson took control [[TraumaCongaLine (unwillingly)]] [[spoiler:[[FieldPromotion because of the death of Sarah Lyons in combat]], [[PrecociousCrush the woman who he had his first crush upon]]]], that he's been indoctrinated by the Elders back out west in order to become a PrinciplesZealot. However, this trope is subverted in that Maxson actually '''does''' wield massive authority and respect among his organization: he is [[AFatherToHisMen highly charismatic]], the members of the Brotherhood [[HundredPercentAdorationRating love him to a near-fanatical degree]], and he is more or less treated like a [[WarriorPrince honorable and mighty warrior king]]. Also, while he ''has'' [[TookALevelInJerkass Taken A Level In Jerkass]], he still has a noticeable [[TheGoodKing honorable side]]; he is actively spreading the Brotherhood's influence not because the Lost Hills Elders are ''telling'' him to do it, but because [[ChronicHeroSyndrome he wants to use the Brotherhood's resources to help people]] (something that the Lost Hills Elders are ''not'' happy about). He also refuses to let go of ''all'' of Elder Lyons' reforms (his Brotherhood still recruits Wastelanders, they still protect Wastelanders by annihilating dangerous mutants and [=A.I.s=], and rule fairly (if firmly) over the peoples in the lands they conquer), and [[WellIntentionedExtremist still thinks that what he's doing is for the betterment of the human race]] ([[IDidWhatIHadToDo even though he takes no pleasure from it]]).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nemo_died.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Nemo died. By [[https://scribblyg.com/ Scribbly G]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/449/242/eaa.jpg]]

But how could people know a trope is going to happen? Well, {{trope}}s live in the minds of the audience. As such, sufficiently [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Trope Savvy]] audience members can predict a familiar trope coming based on [[TropeTelegraphing the hints dropped by the writer]]. So when the writer decides to build on this expectation, only to reveal that the expected "trope" was a RedHerring while an entirely different situation results, you have a SubvertedTrope.

To put this another way, a trope of the form "X are often Y" is not subverted by every X you can think of that isn't Y. If someone is murdered and there's a butler around, but he didn't do it, that's not automatically a subversion of TheButlerDidIt; that's an ''a''version. But if the writer makes it ''look'' like a typical example of TheButlerDidIt, then reveals he didn't, ''that's'' a subversion.

Basically, this is playing BaitAndSwitch with a trope. A work makes you think a trope is going to happen, but it doesn't.

* ''Webcomic/BlurTheLines'' subverts StuffedIntoTheFridge when Drew receives a present that the giver implies is the head of his lover, Rick. After crying out because he thinks his lover is dead, Rick walks up behind him and says, "What? Why are you screaming?" [[http://www.blur-the-lines.com/?p=110]]

But how could people know a trope is going to happen? Well, {{trope}}s live in the minds of the audience. As such, sufficiently [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Trope Savvy]] audience members can predict a familiar trope coming based on [[TropeTelegraphing the hints dropped by the writer]]. So when the writer decides to build on this expectation, only to reveal that the expected "trope" was a RedHerring while an entirely different situation results, you have a SubvertedTrope.

* In ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'', Sydney fumbles for her glasses, talking as if she were BlindWithoutEm. [[http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1290 She then takes out the overconfident bad guy and exclaims, "Trope subverted!" before putting her glasses back on and explaining that no one's that blind -- well, yes, some people are, but they don't get to be cops.]]

* Through much of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', Pete the Prospector plays the role of Sage, dispensing advice to other characters. But a glimpse of "Woody's Roundup", the TV show that represents his origin, shows Pete playing a self-sabotaging buffoon. The glimpse hints that his sagely nuggets of wisdom may actually be fool's gold. By the end of the film his true role is revealed.

Basically, this is playing bait and switch with a trope. A work makes you think a trope is going to happen, but it doesn't.

* If there is no pane of glass, car chase, or either, it's '''averted'''.

* Through much of the Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2, Pete the Prospector plays the role of Sage, dispensing advice to other characters. But a glimpse of "Woody's Roundup", the TV show that represents his origin, shows Pete playing a self-sabotaging buffoon. The glimpse hints that his sagely nuggets of wisdom may actually be fool's gold. By the end of the film his true role is revealed.

* WesternAnimation/CloneHigh:
** SingleTargetSexuality: For most of the show's [[CutShort very short run]], Abe is only in love with Cleo and doesn't even notice that Joan is in love with him. But in the end, Abe has the sudden epiphany that he's in love with [[spoiler: Joan]].

** The writers seem to go out of their way to take elements consistent in previous ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' shows and insert a bit of RealityEnsues into them, creating many franchise-specific examples.

* ''Comicbook/TooMuchCoffeeMan'': A character in a bar [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] how he has never seen a [[BarBrawl barfight]] happen in real life, and is approached by a man who says he is sitting on his jacket. He gets up from the bar stool to let the man have his jacket, and sits down as the man walks away.

* ''[[Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall The Writing On The Wall]]'' has AdventurerArchaeologist [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Daring Do]] speculating that the eponymous writing is just a curse meant to scare off superstitious tomb robbers who might otherwise disturb the AncientTomb she was exploring, just like she had seen on dozens of similar buildings. She's right about it being meant to scare off tomb robbers, but it isn't a curse - it is a genuine warning against entering. [[spoiler: The building isn't a tomb at all; it is an ancient [[http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ nuclear waste storage facility built by humans]].]]

* ''Fanfic/UnbreakableRedSilkenThread''

* The Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy does this for FalseUtopia. Sure, the Kindar are a PerfectPacifistPeople with a society built on a Big Lie (the exile of dissenters who became the Erdlings) and has serious issues with narcotic abuse and fading psionic skills...but when the whole thing was exposed due to the High Priestess's BatmanGambit, the Erdlings turn out to be ''almost'' as pacifistic as the Kindar, people adjust to the reality in a relatively calm manner, and most make an effort to integrate the societies. By the end of the tie-in game, the society is well on its way to ditch the "false" label entirely.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince''

* [[WesternAnimation/RegularShow Regular Show]] subveted the [[SheetOfGlass sheet of glass]] used as example in the page in "Guys Night 2" when the cars pass by the side of the workers, just after it the workers left fall the glass because they were distracted by the persecution.

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