History Sandbox / RealWorldEpisode

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'': The 2003 anime ends with Ed and Hohenheim travelling through the Gate of Truth. On the other side is our world. [[spoiler: They discover that UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne and UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo were at least partially the result of all the alchemy that was going on in their world.]]

Compare MageInManhattan (where a powerful villain from another world, but not always another fiction, comes to assault the world of the audience), UpTheRealRabbitHole (where the "topmost" universe is recognized as the "real" one), and TomatoSurprise (where we learn the protagonists are not what we expected them to be). Contrast TrappedInTVLand (basically the inverse of this). Definitely [[IThoughtItMeant not to be confused with]] an episode of ''Series/TheRealWorld''.

This trope is related to, but distinct from, Refugee From TV Land. In RefugeeFromTVLand, a character is pulled out of a ShowWithinAShow, whereas a Real World Episode concerns characters the viewers have been following for some time prior to this, and no indication had yet been given that they were in fact fictional (other than the fact that they, y'know, exist in a TV series, movie, book, comic, or video game). Also, while the RefugeeFromTVLand plot often [[LampshadeHanging hangs lampshades]] [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall on everything]], a Real World Episode plot rarely does. Quietly implies that AllFictionIsRealSomewhere and can be paired with a ReadingIsCoolAesop.

* In a metafictional sort-of inversion, one Marvel Comics FifthWeekEvent was comic books based on what they would look like if published in the MarvelUniverse itself. The writers there didn't know the secret identities of most characters, suffered from the FantasticRacism against mutants, and could not do comics based on what the heroes are really doing, so most such comics were very different from the real versions.
* At the end of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies 5'', Machine Man and Howard the Duck go into a universe that isn't designated to collect information on zombies. They stumble across an actual Marvel zombie (that is, a giant fan of Marvel) who has become psychotic whom they kill. As the book ends, they comment on how the ZombieApocalypse trope itself makes little sense, cutting to a copy of their own book.
* Flirted with in ''Comicbook/TheSandman''. Dream's normal home is, of course, the Dreaming, but he can visit the waking world (the "real" world) whenever he wants. The last book in the series is titled "The Wake" and it's narrated in the [[SecondPersonNarration second person]], implying you (the reader) are watching current events.

* The whole premise of ''{{ComicBook/Fables}}'', in which {{Public Domain Character}}s from folklore and fairy tales have decided to emigrate to our world.
* Franchise/TheDCU, prior to ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', had Earth Prime, a world that is in fact ''our'' world, with no superpowers or anything. Comicbook/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/TheFlash occasionally ended up here. Earth Prime got its own version of Superboy shortly before being destroyed in the Crisis.
** Later, [[spoiler: Earth Prime was recreated, and the aforementioned Superboy wound up being dumped there after he [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet punched himself.]] He seemingly lost his powers and did nothing there other than [[{{Metafiction}} reading the very issues you were reading]], {{troll}}ing DC message boards and making his parents cook for him. Even later though, the ComicBook/BlackestNight somehow managed to breach into Earth Prime; he regained his powers shortly afterwards.]]
** He's stuck as a BasementDweller because people read about what kind of a person he was while trapped in the DC Universe.
* An early issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's deservedly famous run on ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' builds to a climax in which the title character (a.k.a. Buddy Baker) freaks out because he can see the reader(s). At the conclusion of a long MindScrew StoryArc (which involves one of the few characters who can remember ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', as well as UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} version of DC continuity), Buddy has a long metaphysical conversation with Grant Morrison in person, who says that, at this point, he can't think of anything else to do with the comic than hand it over to somebody else.
** It is heavily implied that the last issue of Morrison's run on ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' also takes place in the same world as his last Animal Man issue, i.e. the real world. Aside from the fact that the world seen in the Doom Patrol issue apparently has no superheroes, it also shares the same colour scheme with the final issue of Animal Man. And if we take into consideration Morrison's later DC comics, it seems the final issues of Doom Patrol and Animal Man both take place [[spoiler:inside the infant universe Qwewq, which is revealed to be our universe]] in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman''. This also means that [[spoiler:the final fate of our universe is to get speared by Frankenstein]] in Morrison's ComicBook/SevenSoldiers!
** ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Ultra Comics #1]]'' features the most literal RealWorldEpisode ever. [[spoiler:This chapter takes place on the real world, but it isn't the world depicted inside the comicbook. Earth-33 (a.k.a Earth-Prime) is the world of the readers themselves. The comicbook Ultra Comics is just a character in the actual story, a comicbook-shaped superhero made of paper and ink (or digital data) that acts like an avatar to its reader to fight The Gentry]].
* The comics of Marc-Anthonie Mathieu explore the (two-dimensional, black-and-white) protagonists occasionally becoming aware of such things as "three-dimensionality" or "four-colour offset". These are implied to be dreams of the protagonists.
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' comic in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' had a story entitled "TV Action!", where the Eighth Doctor and Izzy travelled to our reality. [[TheMadHatter Tom Baker]], who had played the Fourth Doctor, defeats that month's alien by merely ''[[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking]]'' to him and rambling endlessly.
** A more recent [[ComicBook/DoctorWhoIDW IDW comic]] written in honor of the 50th anniversary recycled the premise. The Eleventh Doctor travels to an alternate dimension where ''Doctor Who'' is a fictional long running TV show, and he's just a fictional character, most recently played by Creator/MattSmith. During the course of the adventure he gets [[YourCostumeNeedsWork second place in a cosplay contest]], meets fans he's inspired throughout the years, [[NoBudget saves the always budget-less BBC money by letting them film his latest adventure]], and confirms that while Creator/ElisabethSladen may have tragically passed away, [[CharacterOutlivesActor her beloved character Sarah Jane Smith is still very much alive chasing adventures offscreen]]. Also, he's the one who suggests that Creator/PeterCapaldi play the next Doctor.
* In 'World's Funnest', Bat-Mite and Mxyptlk fight across countless realities, briefly ending up in one made of photos, not drawings. Despite their God-like abilities, the weirdzo locales and POV's they've visited and the scores of mega-powers they've brought low during this fight, the place scares the crap out of them and they leave quickly by mutual consent.

* ''Anime/SonicX'' would probably count. At the very beginning of the series, Sonic, Eggman, and a whole menagerie of characters from their world are pulled into the explosion of Eggman's base, and end up in what is, for all intents and purposes, the real world. It gets progressively less "real" as the show goes on, however (for example, it turns out that the city Sonic and most of his friends emerged in was Station Square from the ''Sonic Adventure'' series, and later episodes had the two worlds merge in order to adapt both ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'').
* Played fairly straight in most ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' continuity, mostly ''[[Anime/DigimonTamers Tamers]]'', and {{subverted|Trope}} in ''[[Anime/DigimonSavers Savers]]''. The Digimon that appear in the "real world" often suffer a loss in [[PowerLevels power]], but they somehow manage to exist despite being made of data. Also, they can still use special attacks and evolve.

Compare MageInManhattan (where a powerful villain from another world, but not always another fiction, comes to assault the world of the audience), UpTheRealRabbitHole (where the "topmost" universe is recognized as the "real" one), and TomatoSurprise (where we learn the protagonists are not what we expected them to be). Contrast TrappedInTVLand (basically the inverse of this). Definitely [[IThoughtItMeant not to be confused with]] an episode of ''Series/TheRealWorld''.

This trope is related to, but distinct from, Refugee From TV Land. In RefugeeFromTVLand, a character is pulled out of a ShowWithinAShow, whereas a Real World Episode concerns characters the viewers have been following for some time prior to this, and no indication had yet been given that they were in fact fictional (other than the fact that they, y'know, exist in a TV series, movie, book, comic, or video game). Also, while the RefugeeFromTVLand plot often [[LampshadeHanging hangs lampshades]] [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall on everything]], a Real World Episode plot rarely does.

Compare MageInManhattan (where a powerful villain from another world, but not always another fiction, comes to assault the world of the audience), UpTheRealRabbitHole and TomatoSurprise (where we learn the protagonists are not what we expected them to be). Contrast TrappedInTVLand (basically the inverse of this). Definitely [[IThoughtItMeant not to be confused with]] an episode of ''Series/TheRealWorld''.

When characters in an ongoing story suddenly find themselves in a new world that views their entire history as a work of fiction, you're watching a Real World Episode. The intended effect is to make the audience believe that the characters have broken through the FourthWall and [[ThisIsReality entered your reality]]. Stories with these plots are popular because of {{Deconstruction}} and LampshadeHanging jokes, as well as TakeThatMe humour.

Compare MageInManhattan, UpTheRealRabbitHole and TomatoSurprise. Contrast TrappedInTVLand (basically the inverse of this). Definitely [[IThoughtItMeant not to be confused with]] an episode of ''Series/TheRealWorld''.