History Main / TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou

* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' is much like the ''You and Me and Her'' example above. [[spoiler: The Literature Club president Monika -- the only character the player is unable to romance -- gains MediumAwareness and the ability to rewrite and delete files within the game itself, and becomes a {{Yandere}}, deciding that she loves the player directly (instead of the PlayerCharacter) and will do anything to get them to love her back. Ultimately, she ends up deleting all the other characters (after driving two of them to shocking in-universe deaths that can't be undone by loading or restarting the game - when the first one of them dies, the game crashes and resets to the first day with that character [[RetGone no longer existing]]), forcing the player to choose her by virtue of being literally the only character left in the game. The player can defeat her by going into the game files and deleting her character file, which is an {{inversion}} of this trope (the Fourth Wall doesn't protect the other way either). Monika is a more sympathetic example than Miyuki; much of the poetry she produces (poetry being a huge part of the game) is about her existential dilemma about being a fictional character, and when the player is actually given an option to spend time with her in the first cycle, the game railroads them away from her in favor of one of the love interests. When her character data is deleted she finally accepts defeat and tries to put everything back to normal (minus herself), only to realize that anyone who becomes the Literature Club president in her stead will gain the same self-awareness that she has and become as obsessive and dangerous as she is, and finally deletes all the game's assets to protect you.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[InvertedTrope Boy, I sure would hate to be him right now...]]]]

* Videos featuring Monika from DDLC tend to do this, like in Monika vs Harely Quinn where she pops out of the computer while rapping while the animator is working on the animation.

See also SecondPersonAttack, RageAgainstTheAuthor, ScarilySpecificStory, and TheMostDangerousVideoGame. May involve SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou or a TomeOfEldritchLore, or may implement FissionMailed. TheComputerIsALyingBastard is a game specific version of this, though it usually involves trickery instead of threats. If an action from the video game affects something beyond the game or its display or usual sound device, such as something in the real world, then it may be a case of ReachingThroughTheFourthWall. AbusiveAdvertising is a related trope where advertisements threaten to cause harm to the audience if they don't buy what's being advertised. A SnicketWarningLabel may overlap if a piece of media opens with a warning of dangerous content. In-universe examples may fall under DeadlineNews or SpectatorCasualty. Can be subverted in a combination of FourthWallPsych and ShockAndSwitchEnding.

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou/WebVideo

* In one of the YouTube ads featured Dat Damned Smith watching a horror video shouting "DON'T GO IN THERE!" However, after a few seconds, a no wifi single pops up behind him. After a short while it causes Damned Smith to ear-bleedingly scream at the camera!!! And not just any scream; it was a [[HellIsThatNoise banshee-like screech that sounded like someone in front of you screaming]].

** [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Bill Cipher]] vs. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Discord]] is naturally full of this. During both of their analyses both Bill and Discord have their fun messing with the hosts in their own unique ways. Bill begins by possessing Wiz's body and Discord invades the booth, snapping his fingers and warping the hosts into their voice actors doing their lines in the recording studio, to which they are both horrified. Lastly, after Bill is [[spoiler: trapped in the Nightmare Realm after killing Discord]], he turns to the audience and extends his hand out to us for '''[[DealWithTheDevil one more deal]]'''. He even gets in the last word by announcing the K.O. much to the announcer's confusion and [[SdrawkcabSpeech leaves a backwards message for the audience]] too.

* The final chapter of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' reveals that the killing game is the latest entry of a wildly successful media franchise, and the final opponent you have to argue against is the audience of ''Danganronpa'' fans, something you probably are if you're playing the game.

* In ''VisualNovel/YouAndMeAndHer'', a visual novel by Nitro+, the end of [[spoiler: Aoi's route]] has this apply in full force. You can only play [[spoiler: Aoi's route]] [[ButThouMust after you finish Miyuki's]] and then replaying from the beginning. At the end of the route, [[spoiler: Miyuki walks in and starts [[AxCrazy killing everyone]], saying that Shinichi "broke their promise of love." Even though that happened in a different game entirely. [[BreakingTheFourthWall "I'm talking to YOU, who promised me eternal love in the first route."]]]] What's worse, [[spoiler: after she finishes killing you, she calls ''God'' and asks him for a patch, at which point the game will close and ''run an autoupdate from DOS.'' On opening the game, Miyuki will tell you that your ability to save, load, or restart the game are now gone, and closing the game causes your screen to [[NightmareFuel cut to static for with a distorted voice speaking to you before shutting down.]]]]

* In ''Abaddon Princess of the Decay'', after completing the truly "True" route and saving the game, the main screen can seemingly glitch out with a message popping up in Kanji before crashing to the desktop. On reopening the game, you will find all your files are corrupt with the phrase "Endless Sleep" on top of the picture of your team--who all have their faces melted off in a gory mess. Exiting and reopening the screen following this will bring your files back to normal and revert the main screen to how it was before beating the truly "True" route...as if it never happened. Fitting with the MindScrew nature of the game.

** ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} vs. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie]] technically ended with neither killing the other, but realizing both can break the fourth wall and going around annoying people in past videos, until Wade decided to pay a visit to the staff of Website/ScrewAttack for the whole thing, with Pinkie whisking Deadpool off to throw him a birthday party after he mentions it's his birthday before he could hurt the staff. The whole thing leaves Wiz and Boomstick, the hosts, completely and utterly confused.

* "The Sluggite Koan" GuestStrip story in ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' combines this with RageAgainstTheAuthor in a multi-layered way. Near the beginning, Bun-bun is ejected into the real world where ''Sluggy Freelance'' is just a webcomic -- emerging from a hapless ''Sluggy'' reader's computer. (This doesn't phase him because he has MediumAwareness in this story.) He sees some of the latest comics where [[NotWhatItLooksLike it looks like]] one of his friends (if he has any friends) is killed. After shoving the ''Sluggy'' fan into the comic in his stead, he sets off to get revenge on comic creator Pete Abrams. However, on his way there, he discovers that his motive really is because he cared about his supposedly dead supposedly not-friend after all -- whereupon he successfully threatens the guest writer into writing him a different motive. When he finally gets to Pete, Pete manages to make a deal for his life, but Bun-bun breaks his arm anyway. The best part of which is that Pete really broke his arm in real life at the time at which this comic's events happened (which was earlier than the time the comic appeared).

* "The Sluggite Koan" GuestStrip story in ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' combines this with RageAgainstTheAuthor in a multi-layered way. Near the beginning, Bun-bun is ejected into the real world where ''Sluggy Freelance'' is just a webcomic -- emerging from a hapless ''Sluggy'' reader's computer. (This doesn't phase him because he has MediumAwareness in this story.) He sees some of the latest comics where [[NotWhatItLooksLike it looks like]] one of his friends (if he has any friends) is KilledOffForReal. After shoving the ''Sluggy'' fan into the comic in his stead, he sets off to get revenge on comic creator Pete Abrams. However, on his way there, he discovers that his motive really is because he cared about his supposedly dead supposedly not-friend after all -- whereupon he successfully threatens the guest writer into writing him a different motive. When he finally gets to Pete, Pete manages to make a deal for his life, but Bun-bun breaks his arm anyway. The best part of which is that Pete really broke his arm in real life at the time at which this comic's events happened (which was earlier than the time the comic appeared).

* [[Animation/TheMindsEye Beyond the Mind's Eye]] is an in-universe example, showing a man being attacked by his TV under the control of a character on the screen.

* ''Webcomic/TheSecretKnots'': In "The Silentii", the titular creatures are ominous, sometimes antagonistic NPCs in a video game that was shut down. Years later, it's heavily implied that they're somehow becoming able to break into reality, with their names appearing scrawled on walls around the world and former players all dreaming of speaking with them every night for a week.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'' usually has AltText giving sassy comments on the events of the page, but it's afraid of [[BigBad The Purple One]] and won't show up when she's on-panel. [[spoiler: Cassidy's DyingMomentOfAwesome marks the one exception.]]

* Franchise/{{Superman}} once fought the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan. The ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome real]]'' Ku Klux Klan. The [[Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman the radio program]] contained advice on how to help catch them in a 1946 serial titled "Clan of the Fiery Cross," provided by an informant named [[http://mentalfloss.com/article/23157/how-superman-defeated-ku-klux-klan Stetson Kennedy]] who infiltrated the Klan and leaked this information to the writers of the radio show. And Superman ''won''. Exposing the Klan and its rather silly rituals on the radio program is credited as one of the reasons it (the Klan, not the radio program) didn't experience a renaissance and become as publicly acceptable as it was in the early 20th century, even at the height of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and the ensuing segregationist backlash: fewer people wanted to be associated with such a bunch of clowns.

* In one of the YouTube ads featured Dat Damned Smith watching a horror video shouting "DON'T GO IN THERE!" However, after a few seconds, a no wifi single pops up behind him. After a short while it causes Damned Smith to ear-bleedingly scream at the camera!!! And not just any scream; it was a [[HellIsThatNoisebanshee-like screech that sounded like someone in front of you screaming]].