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3%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather than at the end.
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6->''"That one is keeping a secret, but I'm totally onto her. She's psychic!"'' [[note]]She's from an AlternateUniverse.[[/note]]
7-->-- '''Pinkie Pie''', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1''
8
9When somebody comes to a completely logical conclusion from what they know, and are completely wrong.
10
11The reasoning is usually (although not always) completely logically valid, but either [[WrongAssumption one of the premises is wrong]], [[DidntSeeThatComing there exist things outside the frame of reference of the deducer]], or there are facts not in evidence that cause the wrong conclusion to be reached.
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13Sometimes, assumptions based on what a character thinks or knows are used against them intentionally. See KansasCityShuffle.
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15A common feature of rational WrongGenreSavvy characters who don't think they're in a story, MasterOfDelusion characters, and [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Know-Nothing Know-It-Alls]].
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17As a general rule, an example should usually have the audience [[DramaticIrony already know the conclusion is false]]. Exceptions to this rule exist, such as the Sherlock Holmes one below, but tread carefully in adding examples that don't have this trait.
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19Contrast RightForTheWrongReasons, which is getting the facts wrong but the conclusion correct, and BatDeduction, where the facts and conclusion are correct but the logic connecting them is bad or unclear. Many examples of SureLetsGoWithThat and FutureImperfect are the result of the assuming party being entertainingly wrong. See also DramaticIrony, DontBeRidiculous, and ATaleToldByAnIdiot.
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21This trope is the enemy of OccamsRazor. Not to be confused with SustainedMisunderstanding. It and its redirect title "Hilariously Wrong" are ''also'' not to be confused with the idea of something being [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant entertainingly]] ''[[SoBadItsGood bad]]''
22----
23!!Example subpages:
24
25[[index]]
26* EntertaininglyWrong/FanWorks
27[[/index]]
28
29!!Other examples:
30
31[[foldercontrol]]
32
33[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
34* In the first volume of ''Literature/AccelWorld'', Kuroyukihime is trying to find out the identity of the Burst Linker who's hunting her for the point bounty. Her initial choice is Haruyuki's long-time friend Chiyuri, considering that the Burst Linker is someone with access to the Umesato school network, and that Chiyuri was fairly hostile toward Kuroyukihime in their first meeting. Of course, Haruyuki knows Chiyuri isn't a Burst Linker, since he describes her as unable to hide her feelings and terrible at video games, and the truth is that the actual culprit used a backdoor program in Chiyuri's neurolinker to access the Umesato network.
35* The setting of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' is a walled city that very few ever leave. So when Armin tells the other children about a vast "ocean" of saltwater that exists outside the walls, they are skeptical. Such a big amount of salt ''cannot'' exist, their reasoning goes, because if it did then merchants would have taken it to sell. They have no way of understanding just how big an ocean is.
36* In ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'', Moritaka Mashiro assumes that his uncle, Nobuhiro "Taro Kawaguchi" Mashiro [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]], since he'd been unemployed for a while after the cancellation of his last series, and he was deep in debt (It didn't help that [[DidNotGetTheGirl the girl he'd had a crush on]] moved on and married someone else before his debut). In reality, Nobuhiro had overworked himself while trying to get serialized again, and Moritaka's father (Nobuhiro's older brother) points out that Nobuhiro wasn't the type to give up and kill himself.
37* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', Zagred quickly realizes that Asta is host to another devil whom he doesn't recognize, and decides to leave it alone under the assumption that said devil is biding his time until he can [[GrandTheftMe possess Asta]] and gain a physical body like he did, even offering to let him keep Asta's five-leaf grimoire since Zagred already got one of his own from Patry. As the night goes on and more and more people show up to kill Zagred, however, he grows increasingly puzzled that Asta's devil is not really doing anything, and urges him to make his move soon before Zagred is forced to kill his host. What Zagred is not aware of is that [[spoiler:[[HunterOfHisOwnKind Liebe hates all devils with a burning passion]], and while he does intend to possess Asta eventually, at the moment he is far more content with letting Asta use his AntiMagic to tear Zagred a new one]]. When Zagred is finally killed and [[spoiler:Liebe]] [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating mocks him for his defeat]], an outraged Zagred flat out asks him just who the hell he is, only to be ignored as he dies.
38* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
39** After Ichigo completes his training in the Dangai and arrives to Karakura town right after Aizen has [[spoiler:killed [[DragonWithAnAgenda Gin]]]], Aizen fails to detect his Reiatsu. Having become so powerful that there's no way he couldn't detect Ichigo, Aizen assumes that he has discarded his Reiatsu in exchange for raw physical strength. It's not until after Ichigo repeatedly [[NoSell tanks his attacks]] and is about to hit him with the [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Final Getsuga Tenshou]] that Aizen realizes the horrifying truth: Ichigo has become so powerful that he has reached a level above Aizen's own. The realization leads to Aizen having a VillainousBreakdown, refusing to believe that "[[PunyEarthlings a mere human]]" could surpass him.
40--->'''Aizen:''' When I evolved to a dimension beyond Shinigami, it became impossible for humans or Shinigami to sense my Reiatsu unless I deliberately lowered the level to something they could comprehend. Just as a two-dimensional being cannot comprehend a three-dimensional being. Could it... possibly be... ''[[ExplainExplainOhCrap that he has transcended to a level beyond even my own?!]]''
41** PlayedForDrama twice in the [[WarArc Thousand Year Blood War arc]]:
42*** First, following the Vandenreich's declaration of war on Soul Society and [[spoiler:[[AlmightyJanitor Chojiro Sasakibe]]]]'s death, the Shinigami are led to believe that the Vandenreich has the means to [[PowerNullifier seal a Shinigami's ability]] to use [[SuperMode Bankai]], thanks to [[spoiler:Sasakibe]]'s dying words seemingly indicating as much. They are quickly proven wrong during the Vandenreich's first invasion when [[spoiler:Byakuya, Komamura, Soi Fon and Hitsugaya have their Bankai ''[[PowerParasite stolen]]'']].
43*** Following from the above, Yamamoto is quick to notice during his fight with Yhwach that he never once tried to [[spoiler:steal his Bankai]]. This, coupled with intel received earlier that confirms the enemy can't do the same thing to Ichigo, leads to his deduction that the Vandenreich is unable to do so unless they understand how a Shinigami's Bankai works at its full potential. A reasonable assumption, since Yamamoto did not use his full strength during the [[GreatOffscreenWar first Quincy War]] one thousand years ago and Ichigo's power still has plenty of room to mature and grow given his young age. [[spoiler:[[ActuallyADoombot Then the real Yhwach shows up]], steals Yamamoto's Bankai and corrects him by stating that no, it's not that Yamamoto's Bankai can't be stolen for the reasons he thought, but rather that Yhwach is the only one strong enough to handle its power.]] Ichigo's case is unrelated and specifically because [[spoiler:of his unique nature as a Shinigami-Hollow-Quincy hybrid: Hollow energy in particular is naturally toxic to Quincies, and indeed later temporarily Hollowifying the affected Shinigami is enough to restore the stolen Bankai.]]
44*** A third example from the same arc that is PlayedForLaughs: after Renji kills Mask De Masculine, he finds a hiding spot to wait out the night and prevent the enemy from ganging up on him, as per Rukia's instructions. Come sunrise, Renji takes his leave, completely unaware that [=NaNaNa=] Najahkoop was watching him the whole time. The Sternritter only stopped himself from attacking Renji because he had assumed that he was only pretending to sleep, and [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough calls him a lucky idiot for having the audacity to actually take a nap in the middle of enemy territory]].
45* In the ''Manga/BocchiTheRock'' spinoff ''Hiroi Kikuri's Heavy Drinking Diary'', Kikuri gives a rundown of what Kessoku Band is like to Yoyoko, namedropping Bocchi a few times in the process. Yoyoko does her best to pick up information about a potential future rival, and learns that Bocchi is a loner, a prodigy on the guitar, and the one who writes the rather depressing lyrics of most Kessoku Band songs. From this, she concludes that Bocchi is an archetypal cool, aloof, handsome guitarist--something ''incredibly'' off from the Bocchi the readers have met, whose loner attitude is less "stoic badass" and more "NervousWreck."
46* ''Manga/BokuGirl'' is about an [[DudeLooksLikeALady androgynous boy]] named Mizuki turned physically female for the amusement of trickster god(dess) Loki. Outsiders who learn Mizuki is female but do not know about the gender bending take his declarations of being male as something along the lines of Mizuki being a UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} boy who already transitioned. On the other hand, Mizuki's crush Fujiwara, who is unaware of the gender bending but does know Mizuki was originally male, comes to the opposite conclusion and thinks Mizuki is a transgender ''girl'' still living as a boy.
47* In ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'', in the manga, just before Waku's battle, the pilots enter Zearth's cockpit and try to find out where their seats are, which is fairly easy for most of them, since the chairs are replicas of the ones they sit in at home. Since Maki's adoptive parents will give birth to a boy soon, Maki assumes that the crib belongs to her, rather than [[spoiler:[[TeenPregnancy Chizu]]'s unborn baby (who technically counts as a pilot)]], and sits there, rather than the chair she initially assumed was hers.
48* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the magic side [[TheDreaded hates and fears Touma Kamijou]] because of his [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]]. After finding that Touma has made "alliances" with several powerful people from both the science and magic sides, they conclude that Touma is building an army to take over both sides, calling this army the "Kamijou Faction" ("Kamijou Forces" in the English dub). They couldn't be more wrong, Touma has no interest in taking over anything and only wants to help and protect people. These powerful people are mostly members of his UnwantedHarem, and most of them are unaware of magic and Touma's adventures.
49* ''Literature/TheCreationAlchemistEnjoysFreedom'' has many such events, but the most consistent and justifiable is the fact that when Thor reads the [Mail Order Catalog] he found among the various items in the laboratory he was provided by Rukia, the Demon Lord, he presumes the advertisements are statements of fact, not hyperbole, because all the otherworld heroes summoned by Humanity have super-powers far beyond the norm, therefore, they must come from a world where everyone, or almost everyone, has super-powers, and there's no way for him to confirm or deny this hypothesis.
50* ''Manga/{{Dandadan}}'': After hearing that Okarun, Ayase, and Shiratori all mysteriously appeared nude in the hallway, Ayase's friends conclude that there must be a LoveTriangle between the three of them, which they were resolving with '''nude gladiatorial combat''' (using rulers and protractors for some reason).
51* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
52** In the second arc, upon being brought to the Kame House, Lunch assumes that Goku and Krillin are Master Roshi's grandsons. At the same time, Krillin assumes that since Lunch has a lot of money and was being harassed by armed men, she is an heiress about to be kidnapped. As Lunch herself reveals, it's because she has a violent, sociopathic split personality who probably just robbed a bank, and her pursuers were police trying to arrest her.
53** In the Red Ribbon Army arc, when the Red Ribbon leaders observe Goku apparently leaving the site of the next Dragon Ball, Adjudant Black, on the (very accurate) theory that Goku must have gotten his Dragon Radar from someone else, suggests that he's going back to that someone for help. A scout is sent to follow Goku, and sees him talking to an old man. The Red Ribbon then makes the very ''inaccurate'' conclusion that the genius behind the Dragon Radar is [[DirtyOldMan Muten Roshi]].
54* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', during the Future Trunks arc, [[EvilDoppelganger a being with the looks and fighting power of Goku]] (who died years ago in this timeline) is rampaging across the Earth and killing every human he can find. Future Trunks dubs him "Goku Black" and travels to the mainstream timeline so that Goku and Vegeta can help him deal with him. Their investigation leads them to Universe 10, where a Supreme Kai apprentice named Zamasu is noted to have a similar Ki to that of Black, but leave him be when his master Gowasu shows everyone that the Time Ring Black possesses is not one of his. Upon travelling to the future, however, Goku and Vegeta encounter not only Black, but also Zamasu's future counterpart, who is [[CompleteImmortality immortal]] and working in tandem with Black to wipe out all mortals. After barely escaping with their lives, they conclude that Future Zamasu has used the Super Dragon Balls in the future to wish for immortality and create [[EvilKnockoff an imitation of Goku]] in order to assist him in his schemes. Beerus puts this theory to the test by [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong killing Present Zamasu]] after proving that he intended to murder Gowasu, with Zamasu flat-out admitting as much after he's stopped by Whis. When Goku and Vegeta return to the future, however, they learn that Future Zamasu is still alive because he ''also'' carries a Time Ring, which makes him immune to [[RetGone alterations of the past]]. More importantly, they discover that [[spoiler:Black is not a clone of Goku: he's a Zamasu from a ''third timeline'' who murdered Gowasu, stole his Time Ring and used the Super Dragon Balls to [[GrandTheftMe swap bodies with Goku]], before killing him [[KickTheDog along with his family]]. Then, after travelling to Future Trunks' timeline, convinced his counterpart to enact their planned genocide of all mortal life together, starting by [[KillTheGod killing all the other gods]] so that they wouldn't interfere and then making Future Zamasu immortal]].
55* ''Manga/FoodWars'': Erina Nakiri admires Joichiro Saiba as the ideal chef, and somehow has convinced herself that he is a perfectionist who does not admit failure, even denouncing Soma Yukihira's trial-and-error approach as "things losers make up to cover their failures." Little does she know, not only Joichiro does not believe in perfection like she does, but he's also Soma's father and ''reared'' him to be that way in his cooking. When she does eventually find out the truth, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she flips out as she realises that she has been belittling the son of her idol all along]].
56* In ''Manga/GakuenBabysitters'', Ushimaru believes that Ryuuichi and Imomata are dating after seeing him give Imomata chocolates on Valentines Day. In reality, Ryuuichi was simply thanking Imomata for helping in the daycare.
57* ''Manga/GrannyGirlHinataChan'': Side chapters that take place when Hinata was a baby feature her brother Haruto noticing odd behaviors from his newborn sister. These behaviors include folding origami cranes in her crib, confirming with a clear nod they're to wish their mother a speedy recovery from her birth, never crying at night until her mother expresses worry about it, looking embarrassed when she does cry at night, reciting the Japanese alphabet, and stopping as soon as she realizes Haruto has noticed. Haruto takes this all to mean that Hinata is simply a BrainyBaby. The real reason is that Hinata is the reincarnation of an adult who has retained her intelligence and memories of her past life.
58* ''[[Literature/ImABehemothAnSRankedMonster I'm a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl's Pet]]'': The entire population believes Tama is an Elemental Cat, not a young Behemoth. Even if Tama could [[TheVoiceless tell them the truth]], he won't because his life depends on the misunderstanding.
59* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': Miko has a RunningGag of walking in on the other Student Council members during NotWhatItLooksLike situations (like mistaking Kaguya's attempts at giving Shirogane a perfectly innocent massage for them having sex), which leads to her believing that the the male members of the council are sexually exploiting the female members. In Chapter 80, Miko's friend Kobachi points out how wildly out of character that would be for everyone involved and encourages her to re-examine the facts. Miko heeds her advice, but instead comes to the conclusion that ''Kaguya'' is the one sexually exploiting the boys.
60* ''Manga/LifeWithAnOrdinaryGuyWhoReincarnatedIntoATotalFantasyKnockout'': Schwarz starts thinking that Tachibana and Jinguuji's relationship is that Jinguuji is a ParentalSubstitute for Tachibana, who misinterpreted his fatherly love for her and ended up falling for him. He ends up challenging Jinguuji because he thinks that's a challenge that's necessary for him to give Tachibana's hand in marriage to him. What is ''actually'' the case is that both Jinguuji and Tachibana are 30 year-old salarymen who have been friends since childhood, and Tachibana was turned into a young girl by the world's Goddess of Love.
61* ''Manga/MakeTheExorcistFallInLove:'' When Father first meets Leviathan, she constantly calls herself "Mama" and says that she'll have Father's child as thanks for helping her. This triggers Father's TraumaButton as he comes to the misunderstanding that Leviathan is a girl abused by her pedophile father. Meanwhile, Imuri is internally screaming about this exchange as the "Father" Leviathan is referring to is none other than God.
62* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Once [[BullyHunter Maria]] makes it clear that she intends to kill him, Kowase immediately assumes that this is retribution for his {{bully|Brutality}}ing of [[ShrinkingViolet Yashima]]. To the very end, Kowase never realizes that Maria is the mother of Kiritaka Nagare, [[PlotTriggeringDeath whom Kowase and the rest of Okaya's gang killed two years ago]], and that [[BestServedCold she has been plotting]] to [[KnightTemplarParent kill them all ever since]].
63* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'':
64** Characters outside of the main cast are under the impression that Kobayashi is Kanna's mother. This is not an unreasonable assumption. Kanna lives in Kobayashi's home, goes by "Kanna Kobayashi" at school, and Kobayashi ''is'' a ParentalSubstitute to Kanna. Further, Kobayashi doesn't really argue against the description, even as she's shown to dislike it, and she herself notes she's old enough that some of her classmates have children of their own. The full truth is that Kanna is an exiled dragon child that Kobayashi took in because she had nowhere else to go. Kanna's best friend, Saikawa, does note that Kanna calls her mom "[[LastNameBasis Kobayashi]]" and refers to their maid as "Lady" Tohru, [[CutenessProximity but is so overwhelmed by Kanna's cuteness that she never pursues this line of thought.]]
65** Taketo misinterprets the kind of person Kobayashi is due to Ilulu giving him information that is wildly out of context, which only gets worse when he meets her for the first time and sees what appears to be her forcing Ilulu to act like a dog.
66* In episode 4 of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'', Miorine sees that Elan Ceres is being unusually friendly with Suletta, and figures that he's actually trying to use Suletta to get to her. Since Elan is the head of Peil House and every other house head is out to marry Miorine for her inheritance, while Suletta is just a countrygirl from a nowhere planet, this would ''usually'' be the case. However, Miorine doesn't know that Elan is actually interested in Suletta's status as a Witch (a Gundam pilot), and her mobile suit Aerial, the only known Gundam in existence [[spoiler:not developed by Peil Technologies]].
67* In ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'', there actually is a fairly reasonable train of thought leading Kashima to try to give Hori the role of the princess in a play or to try giving him a BridalCarry. There's just two problems: One, it doesn't occur to her that everyone around her has {{shoujo}} manga as reference material for their work. Two, she never doubts her conclusions, meaning once people realize what bizarre notion she's gotten into her head they can't get it back out.
68* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
69** During the [[TournamentArc Sports Festival Arc]], Todoroki observes that Midoriya and All Might have very similar Quirks, and that All Might gives Midoriya more attention and mentoring than the other Class 1-A students, which leads him to the conclusion that the two are father and son. His logic is sound given what he knows, but he ''doesn't'' know that All Might's Quirk can be [[SuperEmpowering deliberately passed on to another person]] and that he's chosen Midoriya to be his successor since he's near the end of his career, all of which are closely guarded secrets.
70** Similarly, [[TheRival Bakugo]], having known Midoriya since they were both kids and having a massive InferioritySuperiorityComplex, assumes that he was hiding his power their whole lives, and [[CassandraTruth disregards]] Midoriya's [[IgnoredConfession confession]] that he was given his Quirk by someone. [[spoiler:He eventually figures out the truth after All Might is [[DePower forced to retire]] at the end of the Hideout raid Arc.]]
71** In an anime-only episode, a group of students have to solve a mock murder of a villain, played by All Might, killed by one of his hostages. When Asui checks All Might, he laughs because her hair accidentally tickles him. She and the others assume All Might simply broke character. After All Might has disappeared and escaped, they realize too late that the villain was PlayingPossum all along and All Might's moment of {{Corpsing}} was a deliberate clue they missed.
72* ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'':
73** Katarina actually ''does'' have a reason for wanting to know how to farm "just in case" and other weird things like her constant practice at making toy snakes and so on. It's just that these are really silly solutions to problems that don't even exist anymore. She also tends to make similarly wacky interpretations of why her friends do what they do. They make sense in the context of her knowing that she's living in an otome game, but being utterly blind to the fact that everything has gone ''way'' OffTheRails by this point.
74** Katarina gets increasingly concerned about which of the four capture targets Maria is falling in love with, since she needs to prepare for a potential Bad Ending. Maria is in fact completely in love with Katarina. As are the four capture targets. [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer And her two closest lady friends]]. It's blatantly obvious to everyone else, and several of them ''have stated their feelings to her face'', and [[ObliviousToLove she's still oblivious]].
75* Ucchi, of ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'', turns this into something of a RunningGag. She's completely convinced that Tomoko is a PsychoLesbian StalkerWithACrush, based on the many instances of Tomoko saying or doing something pervy, violating her personal space, or peeping at her in a private manner. In reality, Tomoko just has NoSocialSkills and barely even knows Ucchi's name -- she stumbles into sexual situations mostly by accident, and doesn't clear it up with Ucchi because she doesn't care enough to and Ucchi's too neurotic to ask. It doesn't occur to Ucchi that someone would be peeking up her skirt out of curiosity for whether cheerleader outfits include spats, and then leave the room when other people show up out of social anxiety rather than fear of being caught. Funnily, she ''is'' right that Tomoko is at least AmbiguouslyBi and a perv; it's just that none of that energy is directed at ''her''.
76* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
77** Upon learning that his friend and leader is also the father of Monkey D. Luffy, Emporio Ivankov makes the perfectly valid assumption that Luffy's brother Ace is ''also'' the son of the friend and leader and assists Luffy in a jailbreak to save Ace from certain death. Revealed only after the jailbreak is that [[spoiler:Luffy and Ace are ''not'' blood-related siblings. Though he was correct in assuming that Ace's father was a world-renowned criminal -- only instead of "The Revolutionary" Monkey D. Dragon like Luffy, it was ''"The Pirate King" Gold Roger''.]]
78** In a PlayedForLaughs matter, Buggy reads in a newspaper that the Dark King Rayleigh had helped Luffy. [[spoiler:Thanks to the recent reveals that Luffy is Vice Admiral Garp's grandson and Revolutionary Leader Dragon's son, Buggy concludes that Rayleigh is also a relative of Luffy, specifically that he's Luffy's ''uncle''.]]
79** In his backstory, Chopper went on a journey and nearly got himself killed securing a mushroom he thought was a miraculous cure-all. Tragically, the reason Chopper thought this was because there was a skull-and-crossbones next to the mushroom's picture and his mentor Dr. Hiriluk had taught him to associate the skull-and-crossbones with the indomitable pirate spirit.
80** Thanks to his refusal to fight her seriously during their battle, Tashigi accused Zoro [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero of being sexist.]] Zoro actually has no issues fighting women so much as he has issues fighting ''Tashigi'', who [[IdenticalStranger shares her face with the girl that inspired his dream.]] To defeat her would mean tarnishing the memory of his greatest rival. Otherwise, it's fairly obvious Zoro isn't sexist -- the only reason Tashigi hasn't realized the truth herself is due to her own insecurities.
81** In the climax of the Totto Land arc, Big Mom is in the midst of BerserkerRage inducing hunger pangs for a cake that was destroyed before she could eat it. A substitute cake is made to placate her, but the one delivering it had, just the day before, led an assassination attempt on Big Mom. Big Mom's children all assume that the cake ''must'' be poisoned and, when Big Mom reaches it, they can only pray that both the poison fails to work and the cake tastes good in spite of it. Anything else would doom them all. What the Big Mom pirates don't know is [[spoiler:Sanji led the cake's creation, the idea of poisoning food, even an enemy's, is unthinkable to him, and he managed to convince the allies delivering the cake to leave it alone.]] The result is an outcome the Big Mom pirates never considered: the cake is not poisoned at all and tastes delicious enough to satisfy Big Mom.
82** When Luffy took some of his friends into Totto Land to rescue Sanji from his forced marriage to one of Big Mom's daughters, all they wanted to do was slip in and out quietly. Circumstances changed this to "Save Sanji's family from Big Mom's assassination and maybe kill her too" and teamed up with Capone "Gang" Bege to accomplish this. While the rescue worked out, the assassination failed and the heroes were forced to fight their way out, and along the way Big Mom's palace was destroyed due to an outside factor Luffy was only tangibly connected to. An IntrepidReporter who had come to the wedding later wrote that Luffy "obviously" carefully planned out his assault on Big Mom's territory, completely unaware that the debacle was actually a rescue mission that had GoneHorriblyWrong, [[spoiler:and declared Luffy the ''Fifth'' Emperor of pirates.]]
83** Momonosuke and Shinobu are being chased by several people who want to kill them. They then see this crazy, blushing, horned person suddenly running towards them, [[NotHelpingYourCase introducing themselves as Momonosuke's long-deceased father.]] They naturally run away in a panic, not realizing that this person is actually an ally, despite Luffy's attempts to reassure them.
84* In ''Manga/OtherworldlyIzakayaNobu'', a spy from another country attempts to gather information about Aitheria by sampling foods from a local restaurant. He accurately (and nervously) notices how Nobu has access to many luxurious, foreign resources, thus the country they belong to must be wealthy. However, the spy naturally assumed the country is Aitheria, not realizing that Nobu is actually from modern-day Japan.
85* ''Literature/{{Overlord|2012}}'':
86** [[ChessmasterSidekick Demiurge]] tends to overestimate Ainz's intelligence and foresight, and believes that everything his Master said and does is in service of a far greater plan than actually intended. This is taken to ridiculous levels in the SpinOff, ''Pure Pure Pleiades'', where even an obviously stupid mistake gets interpreted as a lofty means to some grander end. For example, he correctly deduces that the "Overreacting trend" that was plaguing Nazarick was caused by a disguised Pandora's Actor, but somehow concludes this to be an exercise for the denizens of Nazarick to start thinking for themselves.
87** The Guildmaster of E-Rantel's branch of the [[AdventureGuild Adventurer's Guild]] deduces that "Dark Hero" Momon is [[RoyalBlood royalty]] hailing from some fallen country and that his companion, the "Beautiful Princess" Nabe, is a noble from the same country and his lover. These assumptions come from Momon's ''very'' expensive equipment (which he also deduces must be some form of royal treasures), his story of pursuing an immensely powerful vampire ([[{{revenge}} which he deduces razed his homeland]]) and Momon not understanding how the Adventurer's Guild worked when he first arrived to E-Rantel ([[FishOutOfWater which virtually every commoner knows]]). He then immediately drops his plans to have Momon conceive a child with prostitutes from the city (with the original goal being to preserve his immense strength through his bastard children), fearing that it could cause a SuccessionCrisis. While his original assumption would usually be a reasonable one to make, in truth "Momon" is simply a fake name used by Ainz ([[OurLichesAreDifferent an immensely powerful lich]]) while posing as an adventurer, while "Nabe" is the alias of Narberal Gamma, one of the [[NinjaMaid Pleiades Battle Maids]], who would be quick to correct people that [[ShipperOnDeck Ainz already has a lover in Albedo]] if Ainz didn't stop her from [[CannotKeepASecret blowing their cover.]]\
88The adventurers escorting the workers from Volume 7 seem to share this train of thought (at least the "lovers" part, anyway), given that they assume Momon and Nabe are retreating to their tent in order to have sex. In truth, Ainz is simply switching places with [[BodyDouble Pandora's Actor]] so that he can personally face the workers, who have just entered Nazarick. There was a man, however, who was so infatuated with Nabe's beauty that [[TheoryTunnelVision he convinced himself that she was Momon's slave]] and challenged Momon to a fight in the street [[UnwantedRescue while demanding that he release her]]. He hurt his hand hitting him and got himself convicted and sentenced to hard labour for his trouble.
89** Emperor Jircniv of the Baharuth Empire assumes that [[BenevolentBoss Ainz]] is a DiabolicalMastermind and an [[BadBoss iron-fisted tyrant]], that [[ManipulativeBastard Demiurge]] is {{overzealous|Underling}} and [[DidNotThinkThisThrough not very clever]], and that [[LeeroyJenkins Shalltear]] is Ainz's concubine and secretly one of his more [[TheSmartGirl brilliant]] advisors HiddenInPlainSight. Oh, and that [[BigBrotherIsWatching Ainz is constantly watching him for signs of betrayal]], which leads him to use an elaborate secret code even during private discussions. While he does effortlessly thwart a plot to gather allies to fight against Nazarick, [[AchievementsInIgnorance Ainz mostly did that by accident]] while visiting the Empire for his own reasons. Also, Ainz actually had been using magic to spy on Jircniv, not because he suspected the emperor of plotting against him, but because he wanted to study how other rulers behave so Ainz could make his own act more convincing.
90** Following his fight against Ainz, the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Platinum Dragon Lord]] is left with the vague suspicion that [[AintTooProudToBeg Ainz]] could be an NPC posing as a player and that [[{{yandere}} Albedo]] is a player posing as an NPC, making her [[TheManBehindTheMan the true power behind Nazarick.]] What he's not aware of is that [[spoiler:he never even fought against Ainz in the first place: that was just [[ActuallyADoombot Pandora's Actor]] posing as Ainz [[WillfullyWeak in order to underplay his fighting strength.]] ''[[InvokedTrope And it worked.]]'']]
91* When the girls of ''Anime/PrincessPrincipal'' are assigned to try and locate a killer that uses poison gas, they decide their best option is to infiltrate the laundry mill that washes the uniforms of the soldiers their suspect is among and test the uniforms for traces of the gas. A solid idea, since women wouldn't be able to infiltrate the barracks directly and the men typically don't handle their own laundry. What they don't realize is this man ''does'', in fact, do his own laundry. They would never have seen his uniform if the other soldiers hadn't sent his to be washed without telling him first.
92* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', shortly after [[spoiler:Mami's death]], Sayaka Miki assumes that the mysterious new magical girl Homura Akemi is a selfish bitch who only cares about collecting grief seeds. It's hard to blame her for reaching this conclusion, since most magical girls in the setting really ''are'' like that, which she has seen first hand in Kyouko Sakura, and Homura did conveniently show up to take the spoils once [[spoiler:Mami was already dead]]. However, Sayaka doesn't know that Homura actually wanted to team up with Mami, having warned her about the danger, but Mami arrogantly ignored her warnings and tied her up to keep her out of the way. [[spoiler:The bindings only loosened when Mami died, which is why Homura showed up when she did]]. Homura's insistence on acting aloof and distant doesn't do her any favors either. This tragically contributes to Sayaka's overly idealistic view on Mami and hopeless attempts at living up to her unrealistic example, [[spoiler:which leads to her own FateWorseThanDeath]].
93* ''Literature/RollOverAndDie'': Some of the villains tend be partially characterized by this trope.
94** Dein Phinneas thinks he has Flum figured out because she is a slave and always saves innocent people that are victimized by Dein and his men. Therefore, he assumes that she is a softhearted person that would be demoralized if another slave blamed her for his misfortune. Except that in reality, Flum is a hardened individual who immediately deduces Dein's scheme when the slave boy starts talking and is unfazed.
95** Satils Francois mocks Milkit for wearing a maid outfit, believing that her current master only bought her to fulfill some kind of fetish. She also believes Flum doesn't actually care about her, and will not bother saving her. She is wrong on all accounts. Flum bought her those clothes because Milkit liked them, and is already in a rescue operation to save her. In fact, Flum breaks through the wall mere minutes after Satils' declaration in order to save Milkit.
96* ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'': Tsukune's older cousin came to a perfectly valid conclusion considering she didn't know about monsters being real prior to her arrival. Of course she was clearly not being entirely observant, seeing as a succubus transformed right in front of her, a snow demon froze a goldfish in an unobscured line of sight before her, and a witch's magic kept dropping amusing weights on everyone that tried to talk to Tsukune. That and a faerie-like spirit came right out of the cursed mirror she was holding, and she was still in denial till all hell broke loose at the ExtranormalInstitute she was visiting.
97* In ''Manga/TheRoyalTutor'', [[spoiler:Licht]]'s boss at the cafe correctly deduces that [[spoiler:Licht]] is a pampered son from a well-off family. The boss simply didn't realize that [[spoiler:Licht]] happened to be one of the princes of the kingdom.
98* In the ''Manga/SailorMoon'' anime, Uranus, Neptune, Kaolinite and the MonsterOfTheWeek Senishienta all believe that Usagi's brilliantly shining Pure Heart must be one of the [[MacGuffin Talismans.]] Except when Uranus examines it, it turns out that it's merely a mark of her extremely pure heart, which has nothing to do with whether it contains a talisman.
99* ''Literature/TheStrongestSageWithTheWeakestCrest'': The whole concept of the Crest System in the current day. There are strengths and weaknesses to each Crest, but everyone is taught that the First Crest is the strongest and the Fourth Crest, the one best suited for combat, is the weakest. It later turns out this was part of a LongGame plan by the Demons to weaken humanity's magic superiority and make them easy to conquer. Matthias made himself reincarnate for the express purpose of getting the Fourth Crest instead of the First he'd had and one of the first things he does is correct this misapprehension of which Crests are strong.
100* ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'':
101** Siune, a woman with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, notices that she's been getting less medication over the course of the past month, and concludes that she's been switched from salvage therapy to quality of life treatment, meaning that she'll die soon. It actually turns out that she's on the verge of full remission, and soon leaves the hospital.
102** In ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'', after playing in Gun Gale Online, Karen[=/=]LLENN makes significant progress in overcoming her HeightAngst and developing a better self-image, resulting in her [[ImportantHaircut cutting her hair,]] since the only reason she'd kept it long was in order to seem more feminine. Unfortunately, she knows her family wouldn't approve of her playing a VRMMO, so she doesn't tell them about it. As a result, the rest of her family thinks she cut her hair because of a breakup, and when she misses her older sister's calls due to being on GGO, her sister assumes Karen's depressed about not making friends (LLENN did make some friends, but only while playing GGO).
103* ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'': During Episode 42 of the anime, Lag notices that Calibus Garrard and Hazel Valentine are searching for Gauche, and fearing that they will interrogate Sylvette, decides to impersonate her, with Niche disguising herself as Sylvette's wheelchair. [[spoiler:Garrard and Valentine, who are actually Marauders infiltrating the Bee Hive, then abduct Lag-as-Sylvette. Their plan is to use "Sylvette" as a hostage to lure out Gauche/Noir so that they can kill him, then dispose of "Sylvette" once she's no longer useful.]] After Lag and Sylvette reveal themselves, Valentine assumes that Lag did this because he'd figured them out, but Lag replies that he only wanted to protect Sylvette. In fact, Largo, who's smarter than Lag and has a better intelligence network, only realized [[spoiler:that Valentine and Garrard were Marauders after they'd left with Lag.]]
104* Briefly seen in ''Manga/TomoChanIsAGirl'', when a gym teacher announces at the last minute that a girl named Aizawa-san would be competing alongside the boys in an intra-mural [[DodgeballIsHell dodgeball tournament.]] Many of those in the other classes promptly start speculating with the most thoughtful concluding that Class 1-A is getting a handicap to offset 'that beast' Kubota. Those in the school Martial Arts club recognize Tomo, have enough information to make an informed guess why she was switched over (she no longer practices with the ladies after her "enthusiasm" traumatized a couple of opponents), and [[MassOhCrap conclude that they are all doomed]] (''they'' find her completely undefeatable even when she is holding back, and know she is functionally in Kubota's weight class where no one else in their year is).
105* ''Manga/UzakiChanWantsToHangOut'': Hana's mother Tsuki Uzaki is all about this. When Hana brings her senpai Shinichi to visit her house and meets him, at one point Shinichi stares at her, and she assumes he's [[BuxomBeautyStandard ogling her large chest]], while he's just [[KindheartedCatLover looking at the cat]] she has on her lap. Later when she visits Hana at work, a few misunderstandings leave her assuming that Shinichi is a [[LikesOlderWomen cougar chaser]], but after ''that'' is cleared up, she overhears Hana and Shinichi talking in a way that makes her believe they're having sex in a storage room (she just accidentally ripped a bag of coffee and spilled the grains). Bottom line, she's somehow convinced herself that Shinichi desires both her ''and'' her daughter sexually.
106* Rinne from ''Anime/VividStrike'' thinks that Vivio is a SpoiledBrat who has never undergone any hardship, unaware that the horrors that she went through in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' vastly outstrip the bullying that Rinne experienced in her past. Of course, Rinne would have no way of knowing this since most of Vivio's past was classified by the TSAB and [[AngstWhatAngst she doesn't let the memory of it affect her.]] She's also unaware that they have common ground in being adopted.
107* ''Manga/YuGiOh'':
108** Kaiba created the Duel Disk for this reason. He realized that Pegasus had some kind of way to read his opponent's strategies, and deduced that it was some kind of tell-spotting technique, that Pegasus had some kind of well-honed way to, at close range, read an opponent's body language and facial expressions and figure out their thoughts. Hence, he invented a dueling machine that positioned the opponents a good distance apart, and put a bunch of giant holographic cards and monsters in between them. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize at the time that Pegasus's powers work through straight-up magical MindReading, and though it does have a range, it's a lot longer than the distance the Duel Disk works at, and therefore none of this would matter even if he ever got the chance to use it.
109** In the anime, after Pegasus and Kaiba dueled, Tristan and Tea (English dub) decided to investigate the duel arena in the middle of the night because Pegasus pulled off a bunch of moves that weren't possible unless he somehow knew what cards Kaiba was going to play in advance, so Tristan climbs up to the platform and holds up a card like he was dueling, and the two teens notice a beam of light on the card coming from behind. They trace the light to a window overlooking the arena and presume someone with a telescope could be broadcasting instructions to Pegasus through an earpiece hidden in his hair, allowing him to cheat. While this isn't the manner in which Pegasus was cheating (he was using mind-reading which is still the same as looking over the opponent's shoulder), ironically, this "strategy" is precisely the trick a contestant in the Battle City arc used to scam victories. Joey Wheeler, already knowing how the trick worked, was able to fool the "psychic" duelist and get him off his game to squeak out a victory.
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112[[folder:Comic Books]]
113* ''ComicBook/AntMan'': In ''ComicBook/AntMan2022'' #2, Skrull infiltrator Criti Noll has a private freak-out over Eric O'Grady stealing the G.I.Ant-Man suit, thinking he has discovered there's Skrull tech and is ready to blow the Skrull infiltration wide open. Eric O'Grady is a bungling, selfish, cowardly moron who doesn't have the first clue how his stolen suit works to begin with.
114* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
115** There's a moment of this at the conclusion to ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman R.I.P.]]'' Batman concludes that the Joker's playing card suits were a reference to the red and black poisoned flower petals used against Batman during the climax. They weren't. There was no clue, the Joker was addressing Batman's [[BatDeduction skill at solving these kinds of things]] by providing a riddle with no answer. The Joker's crazy, you can't expect him to be honest all the time.
116** In ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', a comic based on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Riddler manages to deduce that Batman has to be a rich Gothamite with a personal grudge against crime. He proceeds to accost a roomful of suspects matching the criteria. Bruce Wayne is not among them -- Riddler mistakenly assumes that Batman and Robin are relatives, and members of a club for rich people which Bruce Wayne isn't a member of.
117** A similar instance happens in ''Chase'', when federal agent Cameron Chase is sent to Gotham to determine who Batman is (if he's even real). She deduces that Batman must be someone wealthy with a history of supporting social causes, probably has old family ties to Gotham and is a known associate of other superheroes and the Gordon family. At a party, she notices Gotham Broadcasting manager [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 Alan Scott]] standing around confidently and realizes he fits all the criteria, noting that he "can't help but stand out amidst the group of [[DramaticIrony useless schmoozer like Wayne]]."
118** A ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' story has him suspect Bruce Wayne is Batman, so he sets a test. Knowing that Batman was badly beaten up on a mission, Ollie Queen challenges Bruce to a game of squash. As the game continues, and the badly beaten Bruce refuses to back down, Ollie sees past the Rich Idiot persona to the ''real'' Bruce Wayne beneath. His conclusion? Nobody ''that'' screwed up could ''possibly'' do the things Batman does.
119* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': Whenever someone suspects that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, they make the logical conclusion that [[ObfuscatingDisability he's faking being blind]] as a cover. Likewise, many a foe assumes that blinding Daredevil with bright lights is an easy way to win a fight. ComicBook/DoctorDoom once swapped bodies with him, and realized that Daredevil had SuperSenses and opaque lenses in his mask; he concluded that Daredevil was [[BlindfoldedVision blocking his own vision on purpose]] as some kind of technique to sharpen his other senses.
120* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' An early issue introduces a hack tabloid journalist who manages to uncover and piece together evidence that the residents of Fabletown have lived in the same New York neighborhood for over 200 years [[Really700YearsOld without aging a day]] -- thus making him the first [[{{Muggle}} "Mundy"]] ever to figure out the Fables' secret. And then he immediately jumps to the conclusion that they're all ''vampires'', threatening to expose them to the world if they don't turn him into one of them. Since they obviously can't do that (and they can't just tell him who they ''really'' are), the Fables have no choice but to [[TheCaper hatch a plan to steal and destroy his evidence]].
121* ''ComicBook/LadyMechanika'': Young Allie Littleton is a fan of the titular adventuress, but when she meets Lady Mechanika in person, she asserts that she must be an impostor. After all, the ''real'' Lady Mechanika is a famous ActionGirl and would ''never'' wear anything as "frumpy" as the Victorian dress she has on at the time (which is her normal attire when she isn't on the job). She later "proves" Lady Mechanika is an impostor by asking a question about one of her adventures...except the adventure is from a penny dreadful Allie read about Lady Mechanika, and not one of her actual escapades. Lady Mechanika seems more amused by the whole misunderstanding than anything, though she does take a small amount of offense over the "frumpy" comment.
122* ''ComicBook/PaperGirls'': One of the four young girls delivering newspapers in the first issue (which is set in 1988) mentions that her father thinks that newspapers don't have much of a future. Indeed, starting shortly after the turn of the millennium, newspapers in the United States did start experiencing a sharp decline in customers and circulation as they did not adapt well to competition from online news sources and the loss of ad revenue when advertisers discovered that targeted online ads performed far better than those placed in newspapers. However, the girl's father isn't a visionary or prophet who thought newspapers would go downhill for these reasons, instead he believed it was because the world had nearly run out of trees to use for paper and everyone would be getting their information from broadcast TV networks.
123* ''ComicBook/RickAndMortyOni'': In one issue, Rick thinks that Morty's new friend Nestor is an alien. It turns out that Nestor and his father are perfectly human; it's his mom that's the alien.
124* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'': In "Monkey See, Scooby-Doo'' (Gold Key #24), the gang is helping an anthropologist translate a stone with the writings of an ancient civilization which is coveted by an entrepreneur. The following day, an "ape spirit" appears to have stolen the body of the anthropologist's assistant and stolen the stone. When the assistant returns to normal, everyone thinks the entrepreneur is the culprit. But he isn't. The ape spirit identified Shaggy by name and the entrepreneur was never introduced formally to the gang. The assistant gave himself away as the culprit.
125* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsonsFuturamaCrossoverCrisis'': Leela, Marge, and Amy are all drooling at [[spoiler:Zoidberg after he mutates into a human]], but he concludes they're drooling with disgust instead of [[EatingTheEyeCandy the complete opposite reaction]].
126* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
127** Just about every recurring member of Spider-Man's RoguesGallery is able to figure out that Spidey's usual photographer, Peter Parker, [[FriendOfMaskedSelf has a personal connection to him.]] So hey, maybe if we [[BruceWayneHeldHostage kidnap the kid]], Spidey will show up and save him!
128** When Peter starts working at Horizon Labs instead, you'd think this trope would go away. Nope! Instead, he becomes known as "the guy who builds Spider-Man's equipment." Cue more [[BruceWayneHeldHostage Peter Parker Held Hostage]].
129** More than once, the Chameleon has gloated that there is absolutely no way whatsoever Spider-Man will ever see through the Chameleon's perfect disguise of... Peter Parker.
130** A private eye makes a big deal of coming into "the payday of a lifetime." He talks to himself on how Spider-Man is seen at the ''Daily Bugle'' all the time and they publish his photos a lot. He thinks of how the guy is in good shape but puts on a show of looking worse in public so no-one connects him and must be passionate to be a hero. The issue ends with the smirking P.I. at the ''Bugle'' confronting the man he is convinced is Spider-Man... ''J. Jonah Jameson''.
131* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
132** In the ComicBook/New52 ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #2, ComicBook/LexLuthor captures Superman and subjects him to torture and experimentation. At one point, Luthor orders him to "drop the act" and reveal his true form. Superman asks what he's talking about, and Luthor carts in a twisted inhuman corpse, saying that logically Superman is this creature's kinsman and shape-shifted into a human form to blend in. (A later issue, which reveals that the corpse was found in the vicinity on the night Superman's spacecraft landed, does at least mean Luthor had a reason for thinking it was related to him beyond just "they're both alien".)
133** In a nineties storyline, after promoting how he's going to reveal "Superman's real identity," on TV, Jimmy Olsen finally says Superman doesn't have one. In truth, Jimmy believes he knows who Superman is but doesn't want to ruin him. When criminals come after him for the info, Jimmy runs to the man he's convinced is Superman: Magazine publisher Colin Thornton. Jimmy even attacks him in his limo, tearing off the man's shirt and it's when Thornton kicks him out that Jimmy realizes he was wrong (even more so given Thornton is actually the demonic Lord Satanus.) [[spoiler:His logic was sound, since his key evidence was seeing Thornton and Clark leaving a burning building. The information he didn't have was that there was another reason Thornton wasn't affected by smoke, and that Superman's new electric powers left him unpowered in his human form, so Clark ''was''.]]
134** In a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] story, Jimmy Olsen sees Bizarro Superman dressed as Bizarro Clark Kent. He logically concludes that since Bizarro always does everything wrong, Clark Kent is therefore ''not'' Superman.
135* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Rorschach immediately assumes from the death of the Comedian that there's someone going around killing superheroes, and is more deeply convinced when Doctor Manhattan has a breakdown and leaves Earth. He's wrong; the Comedian was killed for knowing the truth about a conspiracy, and Doc was manipulated into his breakdown to keep him from uncovering it. They were taken out by the same conspiracy, but that was because of things about them and only them; every other superhero was (more or less) perfectly safe. Rorschach had the bad luck to tell his theory to the ''actual'' killer, who proceeded to orchestrate more fake attempts and disappearances to keep Rorschach on the wrong trail.
136* ''Webelos Woody'': A comic from a 1989 issue of ''Boys' Life'' involves this trope. Woody is learning about air pressure and discusses many facts about air pressure in regards to a brick he's holding. He deduces that the brick is lighter than the air pressure pushing up on it and should therefore shoot upward when he releases it. The brick [[AmusingInjuries instead falls on Woody's foot]]. Text at the end verifies that Woody's facts were true and the math was correct. It gets explained though that Woody didn't understand that an equal amount of air pressure was pushing down on the brick too, cancelling both forces out. Gravity then took over and made the brick fall.
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139[[folder:Comic Strips]]
140* In a ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' parody of ''Superman 2'', Lois Lane realizes why Clark Kent always seems to vanish whenever Superman shows up. It's because... he hates Superman and avoids him.
141[[/folder]]
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143[[folder:Films — Animation]]
144* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', Helen eventually comes to the conclusion that Bob is having an affair and a HollywoodMidlifeCrisis after Edna shows her the tracking device on Bob's suit, and learns that he was fired. The hair on his suit, their new cars, and the lying about being employed may have had something to do with that. She's only right about the midlife crisis and accordingly assumes that he went to a tropical island for a "business trip". Helen quickly realizes that she miscalculated when missiles come out to shoot down her plane, despite her shouting that "There are children aboard!". She admits to the kids that Bob must have gotten in over his head with something much worse than an affair.
145* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'':
146** Quoted above is a scene from [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1 the first movie]]. Twilight Sparkle knows Pinkie Pie and Applejack's names despite having met them for the first time, acting rather suspicious when questioned about it. Pinkie picks up on it and believes she has Twilight figured out -- she's psychic! It isn't until later that she correctly guesses that Twilight is actually a pony princess from another world whose friends are pony versions of her friends, and this is right as Twilight is about ready to confess the facts herself.
147** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsLegendOfEverfree'': Sunset Shimmer comes to believe that Timber Spruce is spreading the legend of Gaea Everfree and is responsible for the weird things happening at Camp Everfree because he wants to sell the camp against Gloriosa's wish, and was trying to scare the campers. She is wrong, however, as she discovers later. [[spoiler:The strange incidents were caused by Gloriosa Daisy's magic; Timber was trying to convince her to let go of the geodes, and he came up with Gaea Everfree's story to deflect suspicion from his sister.]]
148* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', Skinner becomes convinced that Alfredo Linguini is [[ObfuscatingStupidity playing dumb]] and {{gaslighting}} him, trying to make Skinner think Remy the rat is important somehow. Little does he realize that Linguini ''is'' just an average schmo and [[TheDogWasTheMastermind the rat is the culinary genius]].
149* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', when Mei is freaking out in the bathroom because she's just transformed into a red panda, her mother comes to the conclusion that she's experiencing her first period.
150-->'''Ming:''' Did the... did the red peony bloom?\
151'''Mei:''' No! ''[{{beat}}]'' Maybe?
152* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' has the title character seeing EVE undergoing diagnostics and repairs after [[spoiler:the plant was stolen from her body and]] the Captain thought she was malfunctioning. For the last 700 years, WALL•E's ideas for repairs are "take pieces from broken down robots", and seeing EVE through a blurred-out glass, he thinks she is being tortured and taken apart, having no way to know that the repairs are enjoyable for EVE.
153[[/folder]]
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155[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
156* In ''Film/{{Andhadhun}}'', Sofie concludes that Simi and Akash have eloped when she sees a news report that says that it is believed that Simi committed suicide although her body hasn't been found and that she was last seen leaving with Akash, whose whereabouts are unknown. What actually happened was that Akash kidnapped Simi.
157* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'':
158** Knowing that Doctor Strange was the keeper of the Time Stone before Thanos got it and Strange resided in New York, Bruce goes to the Sanctum Sanctorum in 2012 at the same time as [[Film/TheAvengers2012 The Battle of New York]] to get it. What Bruce doesn't know is that Strange had not begun his training with the Masters of the Mystic Arts until 2016, so he's actually showing up at the Sanctum four years too early. He arrives there, only to encounter the Ancient One instead of Strange. Who seems to have brought the Eye of Agamotto from Kamar-Taj just in case it's needed during the invasion.
159** Looking for an escaped Loki inside Stark Tower after the Battle of New York, 2012 Captain America, upon meeting his double, comes to the natural conclusion that he is Loki under a magical disguise. The concept of a time-travelling alternate self isn't going to come to mind, especially since 2023 Cap doesn't really try to explain, aware that he wouldn't be believed.
160* In ''Film/TheBatmanSerial'', Dr. Daka, the BigBad, finds that Batman keeps interfering with his plans despite his minions repeatedly claiming they've killed him. He comes to the reasonable conclusion that "Batman" is the CollectiveIdentity of a group of agents working against him, so killing one just means another takes his place.
161* ''Film/GetOut2017'': Chris is a black man dating a white woman in America. When they go to meet her rich liberal family in their nice country estate, they are a bit racist towards him, but he just thinks it's misguided BourgeoisBohemian ingratiation to him (such as celebrating African-American athletes and an Asian man wondering if BlackIsBiggerInBed). [[{{Gaslighting}} He even begins to wonder if]] the events are really that weird or [[EverythingIsRacist just manifestations of his own racial sensitivities and discomfort around white people]]. His girl insists that her parents are totally uncool but not at all ''racist'' or even conservative. [[spoiler:The truth is her family are a {{Cult}} who have found a way to BodySurf between people to experience life and youth forever, and they really do think black people are physically better than everyone else -- which makes them perfect hosts for their "superior" white minds. And his girl? She's in on the plot.]]
162* In ''Film/TheGuilty'', Asger finds out that Michael came over to Iben's place, yelled a lot, and left with her, only for her to call emergency services and [[spoiler:their infant son Oliver to be found gutted when the police arrive. Asger deduces that Michael killed Oliver and abducted Iben, likely planning to kill her too. What actually happened was that Michael found out that Iben had killed Oliver during a psychotic episode and took her to be committed to a psychiatric ward.]]
163* The entire plot of ''Film/HotFuzz'' is this. Nicholas Angel examines the evidence he has uncovered and deduces that a string of murders that has been going on in town are all being committed by [[DevilInPlainSight Simon Skinner]] as part of a master scheme involving a lucrative real estate deal. The truth is much sillier. [[spoiler:Each of the murder victims were actually going to make the town appear bad in the annual contest for best town, and ringleader of this conspiracy, Chief Inspector Butterman, is a little bit obsessed with winning every year due to a promise to his dead wife. The people were killed for ''minor character flaws'' such as having an annoying laugh, being a bad actor, making typos in a newspaper, having a gaudy house, and planning to move away, specifically. Funnily enough all of these details are offhandedly mentioned by Nick and Danny while brainstorming but neither ever considers they'd be motivation for murder.]]
164* In ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'', amnesiac Charly!Samantha makes incorrect assumptions about the clues to her past.
165** When she spontaneously starts chopping vegetables at great speed, she assumes she must have been a chef. [[KnifeFight She was right about being trained in the use of knives]].
166** When she reads on old postcard to an "Uncle Max" telling him she's engaged, she takes it at face value. In fact, Uncle Max is the agency and "engaged" means she's located the target she was sent to assassinate.
167* In ''Film/{{Nope}}'', [[spoiler:The characters (including Ricky) initially think the FlyingSaucer is some kind of highly advanced alien spacecraft that's trying to covertly research humans, but halfway through OJ realizes it's ''alive'', when it's "abducting" things it's actually eating them, and is no more intelligent than a regular animal.]]
168* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
169** ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'': Norrington refuses to interrogate Jack Sparrow about where to find the pirates who attacked Port Royal and kidnapped Elizabeth. The pirates who attacked left Sparrow in his jail cell, therefore they weren't his allies, and so there's no reason to think that Sparrow knows where they went. In any case, Norrington wouldn't trust a pirate's word anyway. Norrington's conclusion is wrong because there are certain facts that he can't have known (they weren't his allies, but they ''were'' his old crew and were in fact his ''enemies'', and he ''did'' know where they went). So Will takes it on himself to spring him and go after Elizabeth himself. Norrington also criticizes Jack as the "worst pirate" he's ever met for, among other things, having a compass that doesn't point north and only one shot for his pistol. Not only does Jack demonstrate himself to be a skilled pirate, but it's later revealed the compass is enchanted and he only carries one shot as a reminder of being marooned by his crew [[LeaveBehindAPistol with said pistol]].
170** ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'': When Cutler Beckett blackmails Will into stealing Jack's compass, Elizabeth recalls that it had been used to navigate to the Isla de Muerta, and assumes that Beckett is after the Aztec gold. She sneaks into his office at night to dissuade him, whereupon Beckett explains that the compass doesn't ''only'' point to the Isla. Immediately after, he himself makes the mistake of assuming she has no further reason to be there.
171--->'''Elizabeth:''' ''[cocks pistol]'' Recall that you robbed me of my wedding night.
172* ''Film/{{Planet of the Apes|1968}}:'' Zaius believes that Taylor is a mutant from a fringe tribe who is lying about being a space explorer. He believes that Taylor's story of coming from Fort Wayne is a LineOfSightName and goes onto a pretentious tirade about how Taylor immediately thought of a place with the word fort, proving that he has a belligerent subconscious.
173* ''Film/ThePrestige'':
174** When Olivia begins working for Borden as a spy for Angier, she comes to believe that Borden's trick is that he is employing a double like them, as she sees makeup and wigs lying around. Angier thinks these are plants from Borden as misdirection for her. [[spoiler:Olivia is actually on the right idea: the makeup and wigs aren't for Borden's double, but for the brother posing as Fallon.]]
175** Olivia takes Borden's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove as an obvious lie and believe him to be a narcissistic jerk to say such things after [[spoiler: his wife's suicide]]. It turns out that Borden was being honest with her but [[spoiler: could not reveal that he is a twin and it was his brother who had loved Sarah]]. Regardless, Olivia was right to leave him.
176** Sarah comes to suspect that her husband is cheating on her with Olivia when Olivia calls him by an AffectionateNickname in front of her. [[spoiler: Her husband's twin is the one in love with Olivia while her husband does love her but the twins decide to continue hiding the truth from both women.]]
177* ''Film/TradingPlaces'':
178** Louis Winthorpe is right when he deduces that somebody arranged his downfall. However, he believes Billy Ray Valentine was responsible when, in fact, they're actually both pawns of a bet by the Duke Brothers, Winthorpe's old employers.
179** Valentine is right to be suspicious of the Dukes suddenly giving him a high paying job and fancy place to live after they had him arrested the day before. He just thinks it's some kind of prank rather than part of a social experiment they're conducting for a bet.
180* The plot of ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'' revolves around a pair of these, one from the titular hillbillies and the other from the bunch of college kids who wind up camping nearby (both groups were already prejudiced against each other):
181** The hillbillies see a college girl get knocked out while swimming, so they rescue her. However, due to a mixture of prejudice and just the appearance of things, her friends assume the hillbillies have just ''kidnapped'' her, so they run off, then wind up coming up with a desperate plan to kill the hillbillies and rescue their friend.
182** Unfortunately, the college kids' bad judgment and bad luck winds up just getting them killed -- one after the other, in the most unfortunate ways -- so Tucker and Dale assume the kids are in some kind of suicide pact and planning to kill (rather than rescue) their friend.
183* ''Film/TheWrongGuy'' focuses on Nelson, an arrogant exec who discovers his boss' dead body shortly after a fight including death threats. Convinced he's the prime suspect, Nelson goes on the run, trying to find the real killer and clear his name. What Nelson doesn't realize is that the police not only aren't considering him the killer but have the real murderer ''on tape'' committing the crime. Thus, Nelson is frantic bumbling around, thinking he's racing one step ahead of the cops who couldn't care less about him and tracking a "conspiracy" that doesn't exist.
184[[/folder]]
185
186[[folder:Literature]]
187* Some of the hypothetical future reconstructions of modern animals in ''Literature/AllYesterdays'' have descriptions that dismiss how they actually look. The iguana has fur because they assumed all rat-sized vertebrates did; they say there's no evidence for elephants having long facial extensions; and they assume all python fossils are incomplete because they don't have legs.
188* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': As the war against the Yeerks stretches over the years, the kids start skipping more and more school, ignoring more and more of their homework and home chores, and appear more and more worn down. The readers know it's because the strain and increasing demands of the war are pushing them to their limits, but it causes their families (who are not in the loop) to believe that they're doing drugs, in a gang, or various other normally-plausible explanations.
189* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Ferdinand knows about Myne's ReincarnateInAnotherWorld situation, but has been shown to still have trouble grasping its full implications:
190** Before he discovered the situation, Ferdinand was the first person to notice that Myne was acting like an educated person suffering a CultureClash rather than a ChildProdigy, which made him assume that she was somehow from elsewhere in his own world.
191** When a PsychicLink inducing magical device allows Ferdinand to actually see modern-day Japan via Myne's memories of her previous life, he comes to the conclusion that she was the equivalent of a high-ranking noble there. This is because the modern-day urban area looks like the Noble's Quarter to him. While Myne corrected him about the implications of an urban area, Ferdinand promptly drew that conclusion again upon seeing the elaborate lace pattern on the curtains in her home, as using such a pattern on curtains is a sign of wealth in the story's setting.
192** When Myne, as her noble identity Rozemyne, acquires a magical device to which she can give the form of an animal of her choice, she goes for a red panda. The setting happens to have a feybeast named a grun that resembles a red panda, so Ferdinand keeps mistaking the red panda for a grun.
193* In the ''Literature/AuntDimity'' series, many of the plots resolve themselves in this way. Lori was right to suspect someone was in the woods in ''Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter'', but it wasn't a vampire or a pedophile, it was [[spoiler:a neighbor with a sun allergy thinking about a lost love.]] Willis Sr.'s new housekeepers have a secret, [[spoiler:but they aren't burglars casing the joint, they're caring for an elderly aunt with dementia who grew up in the house.]] The elderly man wasn't robbed of his treasures by his family, [[spoiler:his grandson loaned them to a museum with an inadequate security system]], and he wasn't imprisoned by relatives taking advantage of his illness, [[spoiler:he himself sent word that he couldn't see anyone due to his post-polio syndrome.]] The mysterious neighbour isn't scheming to knock down the value of Finch's houses and buy them on the cheap before putting up some profitable and soulless development, [[spoiler:he and his ancestors have saved Finch from gentrification by owning nearly all of it outright in a trust and screening potential new residents.]]
194%%* In ''Literature/BabeRuthManTankGladiator'' Throckle No'Goor is almost always this.
195* ''Literature/BewareOfChicken'': Bi De wants to laugh when Chow Ji tells him that his master is a "qi-less wretch", "squatter in a land too good for him," and that Bi De should rule the farm. It was a reasonable assumption based on the typical behaviour of cultivators, but Jin is not typical. In fact, Jin has extraordinary qi, and is largely responsible for the land's richness. [[spoiler:Bi De proceeds to execute Chow Ji for his attempted coup.]]
196* In ''[[Literature/BloodBooks Blood Trail]]'', Detective Celluci looks into Henry Fitzroy's background and finds a lot of [[UndeadTaxExemption missing paperwork.]] While the specific conclusion that he comes to--that Henry is involved in organized crime -- is definitely influenced by the fact that they're involved with the same woman, it's still more logical than the truth, which is that Henry is a centuries-old vampire.
197* In the first few chapters of ''Literature/{{Citadel}}'', the super-powered agent in training Isaac grows increasingly concerned that his male roommate, Kelly, is skipping training. Kelly, a gender-fluid shapeshifter, spends that same time wondering what she did to offend Isaac, since he barely acknowledges her when they cross paths outside their shared residence.
198* ''Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels'':
199** In ''Literature/LethalWhite'', Strike thinks that Robin may be either pregnant or trying to get pregnant. In fact, her marriage is going terribly and she could want nothing less. When Strike finally gets up the nerve to ask her if she's pregnant, it's been a week since she split up with her husband Matthew for cheating on her with Sarah Shadlock, an old-school friend whom he previously had sex with before getting married to Robin. She laughs before revealing this to him.
200** In ''Literature/TroubledBlood'', an offhand comment by Robin leads Strike to think that she and Saul Morris, one of their subcontractors, may be getting romantically involved. In fact, not only can Robin not stand the man, but he's been sexually harassing her and she hasn't told Strike only because she doesn't want him to have to deal with more pressure on top of the situation with his aunt dying of cancer.
201* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
202** In ''Literature/ReaperMan'', Miss Flitworth's initial impression of Bill Door (the alias used by [[TheGrimReaper Death]] after his forced retirement) is that he's "one of them Men of Mystery" on the run from the authorities. The rest of Sheepridge think he's probably a revenuer. Bill Door's reaction on learning this is "'''No. [[TheThreeCertaintiesInLife Not taxes.]]'''"
203** In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', both Vimes and 71-Hour Achmed come to the same conclusion regarding a plot to kill a Klatchian prince: it's deliberately designed to be an act of war. They each even figure it's their own side plotting everything (Klatch for Achmed, Ankh-Morpork for Vimes). The difference is that [[spoiler:Achmed]] is the one who's right.
204** In ''Literature/TheTruth'', this happens on two notable occasions with the otherwise very sharp William De Worde. First, he thinks that he's sussed out who the Watch Werewolf is: [[spoiler:Nobby Nobbs.]] Second, he thinks that "Deep Bone" -- really Gaspode -- said "pull one of the other ones" instead of "pull the other one" because he's a foreigner who hasn't quite got the hang of all the idioms. Since he's led to believe that "Deep Bone" is part-werewolf and most of the werewolves in the city come from Uberwald, this isn't an unfair assumption.
205* In ''Literature/TheErasers'' by Alain Robbe-Grillet, special agent Wallace is investigating the assassination of a Professor Dumont, who actually was not killed but is being hidden by a local doctor, concealing this fact so the would-be assassin would assume that the attempt was successful and not try again. Wallace uncovers a series of clues leading to this conclusion, then sneaks into Dumont's office to find further evidence only to get into a shoot-out with a shadowy figure who he has every reason to believe has nefarious purposes. After getting the final clues and downing his adversary he immediately calls police headquarters with the starting news that he can prove that Professor Dumont is still alive. Of course, the shadowy figure Wallace just killed was actually Professor Dumont, coincidentally returning to his office for some other purpose.
206* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
207** A major plot point in the first book, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. Given what they know, Harry, Hermione, and Ron come to a perfectly valid conclusion that [[spoiler:Voldemort's supporter within Hogwarts is Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master who actively loathes Harry and appeared to be sabotaging Harry during his first Quidditch match]]. Turns out it's [[spoiler:Quirrell, teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts, and much of Snape's suspicious behavior was him acting to counter Quirrell. Much later, it turns out that Snape has been deliberately cultivating this kind of image since the first war -- and he was, in fact, one of Voldemort's supporters in that war]].
208** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'':
209*** Before he escaped, Sirius Black was heard muttering "He's at Hogwarts" over and over again after reading a newspaper with an article about Harry, with everyone assuming he wants to kill Harry for being imprisoned for betraying Harry's parents to Voldemort. [[spoiler:However, Sirius was innocent and the "he" Sirius was talking about was the real traitor, Peter Pettigrew, who transformed into Ron's pet rat Scabbers, who would be at Hogwarts when Harry attends the school. Sirius had actually seen a picture of the Weasley family in the newspaper, which included Pettigrew's rat form.]]
210*** When Lupin arrives at the Shrieking Shack and helps Sirius to his feet, the trio accuse Lupin of being EvilAllAlong and helping Sirius Black break into the school to kill Harry because as Hermione reveals, he is a werewolf. Lupin tells them they only got one out of three right. [[spoiler:While he is a werewolf, he has not been helping Sirius get into the school and he certainly doesn't want Harry dead. He only recently realized that Sirius was after Peter Pettigrew all along.]]
211** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' has several:
212*** Dumbledore and Harry both come to the perfectly valid conclusion that Voldemort had tried to get a job at Hogwarts in an attempt to get hold of an item belonging to a Hogwarts Founder for use as a SoulJar. In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry realizes that [[spoiler:they had it backwards; Voldemort used the interview to ''hide'' one of his Soul Jars in a hidden room on the way to Dumbledore's office. Actually getting the job would've [[XanatosGambit just been a bonus.]]]]
213*** Also in ''The Half-Blood Prince'', knowing that Mrs. Weasley doesn't like Bill's girlfriend Fleur Delacour, and seeing that she has been repeatedly inviting Tonks over for meals, Harry and the others assume that Mrs. Weasley is trying to get Bill and Tonks together. Harry even notes at Christmas in one scene involving Lupin that Mrs. Weasley seems mad at Lupin that she isn't getting Tonks for a daughter-in-law. In actuality, Mrs. Weasley had been inviting Tonks over to help her with her relationship issues with Lupin, who had been pushing Tonks away due to his personal hangups. She really did dislike the idea of Bill marrying Fleur, but that was unrelated and she gets over it.
214*** Speaking of Tonks... after Harry encounters Tonks inside Hogwarts, he speculates to Hermione and Ron that Tonks might have been in love with Sirius, the reasons being that: (A) Tonks was nearly in tears after Harry mentioned Sirius' name, and (B) her Patronus resembles a four-legged entity nowadays. Near the end of the year, Tonks confesses her love for everyone within earshot (including Harry) to hear, prompting Harry to realize that while he was right about Tonks being in love, he was mistaken only about with whom she's in love.
215* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
216** It's a belief of many Manticoran flag officers that one is not truly surprised in space combat, they just wind up in this trope due to overlooking or being kept from some key piece of information.
217** An example occurs in the very first book, ''On Basilisk Station''. The climax of the book is a fight to the death between a Havenite Q-Ship and Harrington's very-much-outgunned light cruiser. The battle breaks out because Harrington has figured out Haven's plan [[spoiler:to use a native insurrection and attack on humans, including Havenite traders, to act as an excuse to launch a military occupation and seize the system, and that the Q-ship is supposed to be an "innocent trader" that goes running for "help" from a waiting invasion force,]] and so she has to stop it before it can. All of which is completely true, but circumstances are such that the plan has been shot to hell and the Havenite captain is [[spoiler:running to tell the waiting invasion force to ''not'' to launch the invasion.]] And so the two ships get into a battle [[{{Irony}} neither wants over something that both are trying to prevent.]]
218** ''A Rising Thunder:''
219*** In one scene, Mesan antagonist Benjamin Detweiler is telling his father Albrecht everything Manticore and Haven have learned about them in the past book, including the fact they had [[spoiler:Haven's Secretary of State reignite the war]] several books ago. Albrecht's surprised because they actually ''didn't'' have anything to do with that one. They just helped it along when they realized it was occurring. Benjamin points out that the circumstantial evidence alongside their use of PuppeteerParasite nanotech to tie up loose ends supports their belief.
220*** An example from the same book comes from the Mesans themselves. They had earlier covered up the destruction of one of their secret facilities by claiming that infamous Manticoran and Havenite spies had assisted local terrorists in a bombing that killed a large number of civilians and died in the blast. The fact that those spies had needed a long time to get home so they could report in supported their belief that the two were dead. Not only was Mesa wrong about this, but the fact that they're alive to now dispute their claims makes them an even bigger SpannerInTheWorks than they would've been otherwise.
221* In the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' book ''The Two Towers'', after Frodo is stung by [[AnimalisticAbomination Shelob]], he appears dead even when Sam cuts Frodo free from [[GiantSpider Shelob's web]]. Sam then has to reluctantly leave Frodo's side and [[InvisibilityCloak put on the Ring to conceal himself]] when groups of orcs come up the road to investigate. One of the orc leaders notes that Frodo was deliberately cut free from the web and not carried off by Shelob, and guesses this means that Frodo had a companion who cut Frodo free after fighting off Shelob and is still on the loose, all of which is correct. Then that same orc guesses that for the unknown companion to have gotten the better of Shelob means that they're probably a legendary elf warrior wielding a famous sword. [[{{Hobbits}} Sam]], who is the only companion with Frodo at this point, and was ''[[WorkingClassHero Frodo's gardener]]'' before the adventure began, is understandably amused by this description.
222%%* ''Literature/MotelOfTheMysteries'' by David Macaulay is all about future archaeologists getting present-day America entertainingly wrong.
223* ''[[https://allpoetry.com/The-Owl-Critic The Owl-Critic]]'' is a poem by James T. Fields (1817-1881) in which a self-proclaimed expert in taxidermy raises a loud and lengthy stink about the very poorly stuffed and mounted owl on display in a barber shop. [[spoiler: The owl he's complaining about then gets off his perch and hoots, revealing it is actually a living bird.]]
224* ''Literature/ThePriceOfTheStars'' plays this for a bit of drama. As Lieutenant Ari Rosselin-Metadi is abducted at blaster-point and made to board an armed freighter, he almost instantly recognizes the ship from his father's old privateer days. A ship he knows had been signed over to his [[RebelliousPrincess semi-estranged kid sister Beka]] last year and, as far as Ari knew the previous hour, was completely destroyed in a fatal crash eight months ago. So when the vaguely androgynous one-eyed dandy answering to Captain Portree emerges from the cockpit, Ari (a giant of a man clearly capable of snapping most humans in two) rises to his full height and makes it clear that the twerp's continued well-being is wholly conditional on the ship's prior owner being produced alive and well.
225-->'''"Tarnekep Portree":''' Suppose I killed her? Then what, Lieutenant?\
226'''Ari Rosselin-Metadi:''' Then you're a dead man, Captain.\
227'''Beka Rosselin-Metadi:''' For someone so devoted to his sister, Ari, you're damned unobservant. What happened -- too much time in the Space Force wipe out everything [[HonoraryUncle Ferrada taught you?]]
228* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'':
229** Aivah Parsahn manages to work out that Merlin Athrawes [[spoiler:is able to change his appearance and travel at speeds that should be impossible.]] Because Aivah is not aware of Safehold's true history as a LostColony, she deduces that these are simply part of Merlin's abilities as a ''seijin'' rather than [[spoiler:because he's a RidiculouslyHumanRobot with access to aircraft.]] This is a perfectly reasonable assumption to make, since the ''seijin'' title is Merlin's method for explaining away his capabilities for public consumption.
230** The Sisterhood of Saint Kohdy is an AncientTradition even older than Charis' equivalent Brotherhood of Saint Zherneau. However, their patron had only begun to suspect that the "Archangels" weren't entirely on the up-and-up prior to his death. As a result, they do not know Safehold's full history like the Brotherhood does. They were, however, able to work out that the original colonists, known as Adams and Eves, were someplace else before awakening on Safehold on the Day of Creation. There has been debate within the Sisterhood itself over whether it was the colonists or the colonists' ''souls'' that were somewhere else.
231* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': Galadriel 'El' Higgins begins the book regarded by most of her WizardingSchool classmates as not merely an un-affiliated 'loser' with no contacts, prospects, or particular ability; but a bottom-feeder tier [[EvilSorceress maleficer]] who is not even competent enough to keep her dabbling in TheDarkArts from warping her [[SupernaturalSensitivity aura into a warning signal]] for any wizard with sense to sense. As it turns out, El ''is'' a loser in the sense that her mother the [[FamedInStory internationally renowned]] healer [[WhiteMage Gwen Higgins]] has flat refused every offer of an in-house position from the enclaves that track her to rural Wales for consultation. Beyond that? Like her mum El is the sort of strict {{mana}} oddball that will not even fry an anthill or wither some weeds for a bit of extra power, but [[LikeMotherUnlikeDaughter unlike her]] she combines a particular knack for [[BadPowersGoodPeople death and destruction]] with [[PersonOfMassDestruction so much raw casting power]] that she has [[PowerIncontinence considerable difficulty functioning on the level of normal wizards]][[note]](The gut-level collywobbles set off in the presence of obsessively suppressed Arch-Devil tier talent for Bad Juju are hard to tell from those set off by poorly concealed low-end dabbling in Bad Juju. Who knew?)[[/note]].
232* ''Literature/TheScumVillainsSelfSavingSystemRenZhaFanpaiZijiuXitong'':
233** When Shen Yuan wonders why Luo Binghe has not yet romanced any of the women who were originally meant to be his wives, he wonders if his tinkering with the plot had made Luo Binghe asexual. A few chapters later, he finds out that his changes to the story had actually made ''him'' the object of Luo Binghe's affections.
234** Gongyi Xiao immediately believes Luo Binghe is taking advantage of his former shizun when he sees the state of dress Shen Yuan is in the Water Prison. Shen Yuan gets the feeling that there's been some kind of misunderstanding, but doesn't bother to figure it out.
235** After Shen Yuan [[spoiler:comes back to life]], Liu Qingge assumes that when he gave himself over to Luo Binghe so he'd leave the other sects alone he was doing it by giving up his virginity. Shen Yuan is touched at Liu Qingge's protectiveness, but also confused at why he thinks that.
236* Uncle Monty in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is a wealthy herpetologist with many well-kept secrets, and his last assistant died under mysterious circumstances. He then receives a new assistant at around the same time the Baudelaire children show up, who claims to be a man named Stephano sent by the Herpetological Society to be Monty's new assistant. Uniquely among guardians of the Baudelaires, Monty correctly places Stephano to be not what he seems, as he has no real knowledge of reptiles, constantly acts shifty, and tries to interfere with Monty's work, and guesses that Stephano is a spy sent to steal his discoveries before he can present them in an upcoming event. However, Stephano is actually a disguised Count Olaf, who doesn't care at all about Monty except as an obstacle to reaching the Baudelaires. Monty just turns out to be too prideful to believe that the whole thing doesn't involve him.
237* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': In "The Adventure of the Yellow Face", Holmes deduces that a man's wife, recently immigrated from America, who has been spending money and apparently keeping a cottage for a mysterious yellow-faced figure, is being blackmailed by her first husband, someone who apparently did not die of the scarlet fever she claimed he had. In a rare case, Sherlock is absolutely wrong.
238* ''Literature/SingTheFourQuarters'': After leading the troops that brought one Duc Pjerin to the capital of Shkoder to answer for his uncovered treason, one Captain Otik went on leave to visit family only to (shortly after Pjerin's execution was announced) run by chance into a colleage leading a group of guards to arrest King Theron's estranged sister Annice, along with her baby-daddy, for [[ParentalMarriageVeto unauthorized interference in the royal succession]]. Otik managed to get a look at the arrest orders including a description of the fellow in question, recognized the man he spent months dragging down from the mountains, and came to multiple conclusions:
239** The traitor had in fact sired a child upon the 'Princess Bard'[[note]]True.[[/note]].
240** Annice had, between her inside knowledge of the palace and her [[MagicMusic bardic powers]], managed to spirit Duc Pjerin out of the dungeons before his beheading[[note]]Also True.[[/note]].
241** For whatever reason, the King wanted the whole jailbreak thing hushed up. So he staged the execution and used the old family squabble as a smokescreen to get this guy back in custody discreetly[[note]]Three for three! The King even made a point to keep anyone that ever laid eyes on the Duc off the mission.[[/note]].
242** Getting rid of a traitor condemned out his own mouth [[TruthSerum under Bardic Command]] would be at least quietly quite appreciated by the crown. The regs on extra-judicial executions would not even apply....[[note]]'''Nope'''. Theron's convinced the Duc was framed, wants him back intact to figure out ''how'' he was made to give false information under compulsion to speak the truth, and staged the execution in the hopes that whoever set the guy up will neither flee nor cover their tracks further before they are identified.[[/note]].
243* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Eddard Stark in ''A Game of Thrones'' knows that his son Bran had [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident a suspicious fall]] while the Lannister siblings Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion were around, and that someone sent a man with a very rare and expensive knife to kill Bran shortly after. Furthermore, he later learns that the recently deceased [[TheGoodChancellor Jon Arryn]] was looking through a book on noble genealogy before his death, a book which shows that all of Robert Baratheon's confirmed bastards and general family have his black hair while all of his wife Cersei's children have the characteristic Lannister golden hair, and he received a message from Lysa Arryn accusing the Lannisters of murdering her husband Jon. From all this, he comes to the conclusion that Jon Arryn was murdered by Cersei and her brother Jaime because Jon had discovered that her children were the product of incest, and they tried to kill Bran because he saw them together. He's almost right except for two details. The first is that it's later implied that it was [[spoiler:Joffrey, the oldest of Cersei and Jaime's children]] who sent the man with the knife to murder Bran because he had [[spoiler:heard Robert call Bran's paralysis a horrible fate and say that Bran should receive a MercyKill,]] and the second is that [[spoiler:Cersei and Jaime had nothing to do with Jon Arryn's death, it was actually Lysa acting under Petyr Baelish's orders, and the letter was meant to throw everyone off their trail and sow distrust between the rival houses.]]
244* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
245** In the ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Grand Admiral Thrawn discovers that a Noghri commando named Khabarakh has suddenly returned to his homeworld, Honoghr, after being missing in action for about a month following a failed mission to kidnap Princess Leia on Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld. Khabarakh maintains that he had used that month to meditate over his failure. Thrawn, still suspicious, has his ship thoroughly examined, and finds Wookiee hairs all over. He concludes, quite logically, that Khabarakh had in fact been held on Kashyyyk for the last month, and has him taken into custody on suspicion of treason. Unfortunately for Thrawn, the conclusion was wrong: Khabarakh's story was true, and the Wookiee hairs [[spoiler:were all from Chewbacca, who had been aboard the ship (and had helped with a bit of cover-up sabotage to it)]]. This is one of the few times that [[MagnificentBastard Thrawn]] is shown to be fallible, and in fact this error eventually leads to his downfall, because had he known a bit more information, he might have realized that [[spoiler:there were Rebel spies on the planet. Specifically, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO — who eventually were able to expose the Empire's betrayal of the Noghri. This caused them to turn on and assassinate Thrawn.]]
246** Thrawn's major piece of missing information was something only a handful of people alive were aware of: Leia was Vader's daughter. The Noghri could determine that by her smell, and that relationship gave "Lady Vader" influence with them, enough for them to talk. Had he known that, and knowing Vader's reputation among Noghri, he might have realized why they were so "unsuccessful" in hunting her down.
247* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' book 2, ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'':
248** Tyn is perfectly reasonable in believing that Shallan is just using the identity of a conveniently housebound, never-seen noblewoman as her cover and still needs a [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism dose of reality]] as to [[DirtyBusiness doing what needs]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo to be done]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for her, she's [[BrokenBird wrong on]] [[SelfMadeOrphan the first count.]]]]
249** The book is pretty much full of this. Characters are constantly making assumptions about each other, their abilities, their religions, and more, that seem reasonable but are based on incomplete or incorrect information. Among the most amusing incidents comes when Shallan and Kaladin are [[spoiler:falling into the chasms together]]. They both use their own abilities to save themselves, but being unaware of the other's abilities, they both assume they're responsible for saving the other as well.
250* In ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', humans make assumptions about two dragon tribes that seem logical from their point of view, but are hilariously wrong to readers of the series:
251** They dismiss [=NightWings=] as "''Probably not that important''" because they're so rarely seen. [[spoiler:In reality, while they're certainly reclusive, they have also been manipulating all sides of the twenty-year long, three-way civil war in a bid to conquer new territory for themselves.]]
252** They theorize [=RainWings=] to be the deadliest dragon tribe because there are no accounts from any survivors encountering them. [[spoiler:They're half-right and half-wrong: [=RainWings=] can camouflage and have a potent venom, so they can be ''incredibly'' dangerous if they want to, but are generally content to keep to their rainforest home and subsist on the abundant fruit instead of bothering to hunt anything.]]
253[[/folder]]
254
255[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
256* This forms an entertaining subplot in the first episode of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson''. Watson's [[Literature/SherlockHolmes mysterious roommate]] doesn't seem to have a regular job, interacts with many unsavory people, seems to know a suspicious amount about crime and related subjects, and owns a set of lockpicks. Could he be a criminal mastermind?
257* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
258** The Superior is convinced Coulson is responsible for the outbreak of superpowers and alien attacks because Coulson can be connected to almost all of them. Which is true, except for having the causality wrong since Phil's job is to ''react'' to such incidents.
259** The Clairvoyant is so named because of their ability to pre-empt S.H.I.E.L.D. as if they know about events before they happen. It turns out they just have access to high level intel.
260* In the ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' story "De Mortuis," two men drop by to see the town doctor, Clarence, only to find him coming up from the basement with dirt on his clothes and filling up a hole with cement. Seeing his wife, Irene not present, the men jump to the conclusion Clarence murdered her. They say they understand as Clarence must have found out what everyone in town already knew, that Irene was a vapid woman using his money and cheating on him constantly. They assure Clarence that they'll keep quiet and no one in town will question the story Irene left him. Clarence thanks them for their help as they leave. No sooner are they gone than[[spoiler: a very much alive and well Irene enters from the back, having been on a trip out of town like Clarence was telling his friends all along, so they've been providing an alibi for a murder that never happened. After making sure no one saw Irene coming back, Clarence asks his "loving" wife to come down to the basement...]]
261* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'':
262** Andy and Barney came to the completely logical conclusion that Opie's friend, "Mr. Ockley" [[ImaginaryFriend wasn't real]], given the description Opie gave (jingles while he walks, can blow smoke out of his ears, runs around the top of trees, has 12 hands, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wears a silver hat]]). Turns out he is a tree climber, covered with tools (which he calls his "extra hands"), and can do a trick where he catches smoke in his mouth and releases it from his ears. Believe it or not, that last is actually realistic for certain people, as the ear and mouth share a connection, and having a hole or rip in the eardrum allows air to migrate from the mouth to the ear.
263** Another episode had Andy and Barney worried about the town drunk buying a car. They later find the car crashed, found that Otis had let himself into the jail. They came to the conclusion Otis [[DrunkDriver drove drunk]]. Turns out Otis had sold his car before even having a sip, already deciding a drunk like him doesn't belong behind the wheel.
264* An episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has an old man bodyswap with Angel and make various false assumptions about his life. When Cordelia tells him he needs to talk to Fred about her feelings for him (but without using pronouns), he assumes Wesley is Fred. He also assumes Gunn is a delivery boy when he shows up carrying breakfast.
265* ''Series/BabylonFive'': When trying to get the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to accept White Star patrols along their borders, Sheridan concocted a scheme that made the League ambassadors think there was a new enemy that only the White Stars could detect and so insisted that Sheridan deploy them to protect their space, [[BatmanGambit exactly as he intended]].
266* ''Series/TheBarrier'': After her husband Luis turns against the government with the help of their daughter Daniela, Alma assumes Luis manipulated Daniela into helping him. The reality is that Luis asked for Daniela's help because she has been the sort of person who would carry out the plan for much more of the recent past than he has. The situation is partly justified by Alma being the manipulative person in the couple and that sort of personality often reacting to their children doing things they don't approve of by assuming the child got roped into it by a third party.
267* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': The season four episode "General Hospital" centers around Edmund trying to root out a spy in a nearby hospital. At the end of the episode, he comes to the conclusion that [[spoiler:Nurse Mary]] is the spy and gives a perfectly explanation as to why: [[spoiler:she, among other things, has a German-sounding name, knows German, had admitted earlier that the nice nurse persona was an act, and was willing to blame Captain Darling as the spy, whom Edmund knows is innocent despite their rivalry. Finally, Blackadder set a trap by discussing England's "great universities: Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull" - and Mary failed to recognize the last one was the odd one out.]] This is a conclusion you'd expect in a war series, but this being a BritCom, the leak had a more silly explanation. The real spy was [[spoiler:his friend George, for sending letters to his German relatives.]]
268* ''Series/{{Black Lightning|2018}}'': Crime boss Tobias Whale believes he killed Black Lightning nearly a decade earlier. In reality, Jefferson Pierce survived the attack but decided to retire at the urging of his wife. When Lightning returns, Tobias assumes this is [[LegacyCharacter a new guy taking up the suit and mantle]], not getting this is his old enemy.
269* In an episode of ''Series/TheBlacklist'', the villain of the week is a priest who has assassinations carried out by a group of devotees. These men are paedophiles who believe they're atoning for their crimes by killing other paedophiles, while in fact they're killing the priest's business rivals. The FBI doesn't catch on straight away, in part because the victim whose murder got the priest on their radar actually ''was'' a paedophile.
270* A number of characters in ''Series/BreakingBad'' take a look at Walt's conspicuous absences after being made aware of his impending death, the large amounts of money that seems to find him, his increasing distance from his wife, and the fact that he has two cell phones are a sign that he's having an affair. Skyler herself manages to peg that he's involved with drugs (since she knows about his surprisingly regular contact with drug dealer Jesse Pinkman), but initially assumes he's either being dealt or dealing marijuana. The idea that he's become the most notorious meth cooker in the southwestern United States, for self-evident reasons, doesn't occur to most people.
271* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E8TabulaRasa Tabula Rasa]]", when the Scoobies' memories are accidentally wiped by a spell, the only relationship they get right is that Buffy (who calls herself "Joan") and Dawn are sisters because of the way they argue; Xander and Willow assume they're dating and Tara is Willow's "study buddy", Anya concludes that she's engaged to Giles because she's wearing an engagement ring and the papers say they co-own The Magic Box, and Spike mistakenly concludes that his name is Randy because it's inscribed in his (stolen) suit and that he's Giles's son because they're both British (later speculating that he's "[[Series/{{Angel}} a vampire with a soul [..] helping the helpless]]").[[note]] Tara, Xander, Willow, Anya and Giles know their names because they're carrying ID, but Buffy, Spike and Dawn aren't. Dawn is wearing a necklace with her name, however. Buffy makes up "Joan" wholecloth as a [[JeanneDArchetype Joan of Arc]] reference.[[/note]] Dawn also refers to Xander as "Alex" at one point, since they only know that his first name is Alexander.
272* In ''Series/{{Charmed|2018}}'', the sisters are under a "magic allergy" that makes them unable to touch each other. They find a letter left from their mother on "times it will hurt to be near each other" and assume she had a vision of the curse and how to break it. They contact Marisol... who reveals she meant "there will be times sisters fight" and she was just leaving behind "some motherly advice."
273* Mixed with DeceptiveLegacy, an episode of ''Series/{{Continuum}}'' has [=Liber8=] killing women with the same name of Lilly Jones and time-travelling cop Kiera realizes they're trying to wipe her out of existence by killing her grandmother. As it happens, Kiera has already found the woman she believes is her grandmother, remembering her mother's tales of her being a strong, independent and compassionate woman and so thinks it's a successful lawyer. But then Kiera sees another woman named Lilly Jones who has the right tattoo and realizes her real grandmother is a pregnant homeless woman with a hot temper.
274* Also seen in ''Series/CriminalMinds'' when an initial profile ends up being wrong and they're forced to re-evaluate the entire motive (and suspect). Often the result of PullingTheThread.
275* ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'': When Wilson Fisk tricks Ray Nadeem and the rest of the FBI into harassing Nelson & Murdock by painting Matt as a former associate of his, Nadeem approaches Foggy and claims that he thinks Matt is living a double life, "lawyer by day and criminal by night," that Foggy and Karen know all about it, and that Matt's double life led to the breakup of Nelson & Murdock. In every way, Nadeem is right about Matt, except it leads him to conclude that Matt was an accomplice to Fisk, not that Matt is Daredevil.
276* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution Resolution]]", the Doctor, examining a slime trail left on a sewer wall by a mysterious alien creature spotted by an archaeologist working in the sewer, deduces that the creature, which is missing, slid down the wall and into the water to escape. [[spoiler:In actuality, the creature, a Dalek recon scout, created the slime trail in the reverse order, and has latched on to the archaeologist to use her as a MeatPuppet.]]
277* On ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', Inspector Lestrade comes to New York as, without Sherlock to help him solve cases, his stock in Scotland Yard has fallen. Watson gives Lestrade files on some muggings in the area with Lestrade soon solving the case quickly. When he finds a feather in the culprit's apartment, Lestrade figures it was from Holmes' birds and that Sherlock set this whole thing up. It gives him encouragement to get a job for the Irish police and leaves. As soon as he's gone, Sherlock admits to Watson he had absolutely nothing to do with any of this and the irony Lestrade refuses to believe he solved a crime completely on his own.
278* ''Series/ElleryQueen'':
279** This is the key character trait of Simon Brimmer. The arrogant radio host fancies himself a better detective than Ellery and will always brag about finding out the real killer, even going so far as to have a recording of his summation made. Too bad ''every'' time he's wrong. To his credit, Ellery never mocks Simon but notes how the man's deductions were perfectly logical and following the evidence. The problem is Simon misses the tiny detail Ellery spots to find the truth.
280** In "The Adventure of the Lovers Leap", Simon seems to have gotten to how a husband killed his wife with the man confessing. Ellery congratulates Simon on his deduction... then reveals that while the husband thinks he did it, it was actually someone else. And Ellery only knew that because of a conversation he'd heard with the implication that if Simon had heard it, he'd have figured the truth out first.
281** Ellery will occasionally thank Simon for how his wrong deduction allowed Ellery to eliminate a suspect and get at the real solution. He fails to see how Simon doesn't take the "compliment" well.
282** While not as arrogant as Simon, reporter Frank Flannigan also tries to outdo Ellery and likewise, makes incorrect guesses as to the killer. In his case, Ellery will note that often, Frank is on the right track, but because he's in such a rush to break the "exclusive" story, he fails to think the evidence through.
283* In ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'', an old girlfriend of Abe's observes the dynamic between Abe and Henry and figures out that they are father and son, but she understandably has their roles the wrong way round (Abe having been adopted by the immortal Henry after he was rescued from Auschwitz as an infant).
284* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
285** Cersei is convinced that Tyrion is the one who murdered Joffrey at his wedding day feast. He previously had threatened to find a way to ruin Cersei's happiness at a moment she was convinced she was safe, openly hated Joffrey, had threatened to murder Joff previously and had tried to leave the feast more than once just before Joffrey died of poison. All in all it is pretty convincing, if entirely circumstantial. It just happens to be absolutely wrong, it's revealed to have been [[spoiler:Olenna Tyrell working with Littlefinger to protect Margaery from Joffrey]]. Then again, Cersei's hatred of Tyrion means that she likely would've pinned the blame on him regardless.
286** This tends to be Littlefinger's M.O. Using knowledge of other peoples' assumptions against them to stir chaos and turn people against each other. Of course, the success rate of simply causing chaos to benefit himself tends to fall a little into GambitRoulette territory. It would be a bit more believable if he had another few dozen chaos schemes that resulted in no major benefits at all. [[spoiler:In the end he falls into the same trap himself; framing Arya as attempting to overthrow Sansa as Lady of Winterfell seems like a perfectly logical power play, and given their mutual antagonism possibly even true. What he doesn't know is that Arya completely rejects her role as a noble Lady, and the second Sansa pauses to think about it, the whole scheme blows up in his face.]]
287* On ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', when the new interns see Lucas talking to Amelia a few times, they jump to the conclusion the pair are hooking up (no surprise in this hospial). In reality, Amelia is Lucas' aunt and he's trying to keep quiet as he's afraid they'll treat him differently if they know he's the nephew of a couple of famous surgeons.
288* This is a RunningGag in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Ted fancies himself "quite the detective", but his elaborate deductions are always wrong. In episode "Daisy", for example, Ted is onto Lily, suspecting her to have started smoking again. His elaborate summation ends with him pulling a...pregnancy test from a flower vase. Apparently, all the changes Ted saw with Lily were due to her new circumstances.
289* ''Series/TheInBESTigators'': Since Maudie hasn't had many friends before, she assumes that the small cake the Inbestigators share at their office in "The Case of the Baffling Birthday" was her surprise party. Ava is ''horrified'' that Maudie thinks she would throw her something so simple, flat out saying "That wasn't a party."
290* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'':
291** While arguing over how to sensitively address casting Murtaugh in their version of ''Film/LethalWeapon 6'', Frank points out that Creator/JamesEarlJones "does a great {{blackface}}".
292--->'''Dennis:''' "James Earl Jones ''has'' a black face; he is a black man!"
293--->'''Frank:''' "He's not black! He was [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]!"
294--->'''Mac:''' "...Darth Vader was black."
295--->'''Frank:''' "Darth Vader was not black, they took the mask off, he was white!"
296** The episode "Who Pooped the Bed?" has Artemis come up with a pretty elaborate explanation for the constantly appearing poops, involving a multi-layered revenge plot where just about everyone in the bar and several others dropped at least one, explaining rather plausible motivations for those involved. [[spoiler:At the end of it, Frank admits he did all the poops.]]
297* In the pilot of ''Series/JonathanCreek'', Jonathan uses a complex model to demonstrate how a woman could have escaped from her top-level office to commit a murder, while a secretary was waiting outside the entire time. After the demonstration, Jonathan admits that while theoretically possible, it requires too many things out of the woman's control to have actually been what occurred.
298* ''Series/TheKingsWoman'': Gongsun Li sees Yan Dan, who she knows is the Crown Prince of Yan, and assumes he's now the king. She's actually in Ying Zheng's palace and Yan Dan is his hostage.
299* Commonly seen in the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' franchise when one or more of the initial, red-herring, suspects turns out to have a perfectly reasonable explanation for their suspicious behavior. The guy with the shrine to a dead kid who was stalking him, who quit a high-paying job to work with young children, all seeming to perfectly fit a predatory pedophile? The kid's real father concerned about his care by the adoptive parents and wanted to be close to him.
300* Both ''Series/{{Life on Mars|2006}}'' and its [[Series/LifeOnMars2008 US remake]] have this exchange while the cops are in a surveillance van, listening to a conversation in a house they've bugged:
301-->'''Sam Tyler:''' It's this technology that ends up bringing Nixon down.\
302'''Gene Hunt:''' You don't think Tricky Dicky would notice a van parked outside the White House?
303* In an episode of ''Series/TheMole'', which frequently peppers the contestants' interactions with hints about who the mole is, one time had the host meet up with the contestants while eating an apple. One of the contestants assumed that meant "The Big Apple", and thought the mole was a fellow contestant from New York. It wasn't, and he was eliminated right after. [[spoiler:The apple '''was''' a clue, but it referred to Washington state, whose state fruit is the apple.]]
304* ''Series/OrphanBlack'': [[TheDitz Krystal]] is correct that she is being targeted by a conspiracy targeting her and correct about who is behind the conspiracy, but is wrong about why they exist and what their goals are.
305* This happens a few times in ''Series/OurMissBrooks'':
306** In "The Burglar", Miss Brooks believes the man she recommended for the job of school custodian had stolen the cafeteria silverware, Mr. Conklin's watch and Mr. Boynton's desk.
307** "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton" has Miss Brooks guess that Mr. Boynton wants someone to play his wife to impress a College dean. She gladly takes on the role, until she finds out she's playing his mother, not his wife!
308** During "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton", "Mr. Boynton's Lots", and "June Bride", Walter Denton and the Conklins jump to the conclusion that Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton are finally getting married.
309** Miss Brooks believes Mr. Boynton is finally going to propose in "Mrs. Davis Reads Tea Leaves". It turns out that he wants to start a summer camp!
310* Happens a lot on ''Series/{{Psych}}'' as, while brilliant, Shawn's lack of police training means he can jump to the wrong conclusions a lot.
311** One episode opens with a flashback of Shawn doing a book report on ''Charlotte's Web'' even though he hasn't finished reading it. Shawn tells dad Henry he doesn't see the point as "It's obvious what happens: Wilbur wins first prize at the fair and he and Charlotte live happily ever after." A smiling Henry bets Shawn a trip to Disneyland he gets an "A" on the report and Shawn starts planning it out.
312** Shawn is about to accuse a man of murder only to have Henry interrupt. He takes Shawn aside to tell him that the guy is innocent because of a detail in the police report Shawn didn't bother reading. Thinking fast, Shawn is able to figure out who the real killer is and then acts like he meant to accuse the other guy to "flush him out."
313** This leads to the plot of the episode as Shawn is hired to take part in a think thank by a billionaire to come up with ways to kidnap him as a "security precaution". Too late, Shawn discovers they ''are'' the kidnappers and he's just given them the perfect plan.
314* On ''Series/{{Quantico}}'', the team are tracking who was behind the bombing of an airliner. They find a company short-sold the stock for the plane's cargo before the crash and thus logically conclude they must have known it was going to happen. The team do a full-on investigation at a party with aliases, costumes, bugs and more. Alex is putting up a tracker in the computer when she overhears the heads of the company talking...and discovers they had nothing to do with the crash as the company is actually just a massive PonziScheme. The reason they decided to short-sell that particular stock? Because it was a shipping company and one of the partners was ticked they lost his mom's birthday present.
315* In ''Series/TheSandman2022'', Lady Constantine believes the legend that "once every century the Devil and the Wandering Jew" meet in a pub and confronts them. She simply did not realize she was dealing with one of the Endless and an immortal human.
316--> '''Dream''': I am no Devil.
317--> '''Hob''': And I'm not Jewish.
318%%* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' gave us the line "Lois Lane is the Blur".
319* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
320** In the episode "Arthur's Mantle", Dr. Lee knows that Sam and Cameron were in a room with an Ancient artifact; that the security cameras in that room went out and when they came back on the two of them were no longer visible; and that the cameras in the hallway outside the only exit don't show them leaving the room. He concludes that the artifact must have [[IncredibleShrinkingMan miniaturized them]] and spends quite a bit of time trying to find them on the floor of the room. In reality, it rendered them [[{{Invisibility}} invisible]] and [[{{Intangibility}} intangible]], and Sam spends most the episode hovering over Dr. Lee's shoulder, frustrated with the fact that she can't communicate this to him.
321** In a later episode, another device sends Sam into an alternate reality. When she returns, she discovers the rest of her team had assumed she'd been [[CallBack rendered into "ghost" form again]] and spent three weeks "keeping company" to an empty room.
322* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
323** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
324*** The episode "Little Green Men" had 20th century humans unable to communicate with Rom, Nog, and Quark (whose {{Universal Translator}}s weren't working) making assumptions about the three's behavior that were wrong but made sense from their perspective.
325*** In "Armageddon Game", when a lab is attacked by soldiers from one of two sides in a recently ended war, Bashir and O'Brien reasonably assume that the side in question has broken the truce. As it turns out, the attack was an agreement between the leaders of both sides, to kill everyone who had knowledge of a certain biological weapon -- a category that unfortunately includes Bashir and O'Brien.
326*** In an even more hilarious example from the same eipsode, O'Brien's wife, Keiko, deduces there's a conspiracy afoot after she spots something that makes her think the surveillance footage was doctored, and she's completely right about the doctoring. But not about the coffee order that originally tipped her off.
327** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow", Data is sent back to the turn of the 19[[superscript:th]] century. He discovers Guinan also happens to be in that time period, and comes to the conclusion she somehow was sent back in time as well. Data had no way of knowing Guinan's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld real age]].
328** In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Admiral Cornwell senses that something is off about Captain Lorca, and her concerns are violently confirmed when, after they have sex, she gently touches him and [[WakeUpFighting he grabs her by the throat]] with [[PillowPistol a phaser pulled from under his pillow]]. Her conclusion is that he was severely broken by the loss of his first command, the USS ''Buran''. She has no way of knowing that [[spoiler:he's actually an impostor from the MirrorUniverse]].
329* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'', Boba had thought for years that his armor stayed in the Sarlacc, and thus comes back to the beast to reclaim it (the armor is made of beskar, one of the rare few things it couldn't digest). The armor was in fact stolen by Jawas shortly after he emerged from the pit, but since at the time he was likely delirious from the ordeal (not to mention getting a concussion thanks to said Jawas), it is no surprise that his memories would be jumbled. He also believed to have killed the Sarlacc by firing his flamethrower inside it, but apparently all it did was give it a stomach burn.
330* [[InspectorJavert Agent Henrickson]] in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' makes the same assumptions about the Winchesters that anyone would make if they weren't in the loop in regard to supernatural beings. He doesn't realize the bodies they leave in their wake are either victims of the MonsterOfTheWeek or they ''were'' the monster, nor does he understand the various rituals they conduct. From his point of view, they're a couple of Satan-worshiping, grave-desecrating murderers.
331* During the first season, ''Series/TheTribe'' meets Bray and Trudy, a handsome boy and heavily pregnant girl travelling together. They refuse to leave each other under any circumstances, and Trudy is very possessive of Bray and bullies any girls who show interest in him. The Mall Rats quite naturally assume that the pair are in a sexual relationship, but the truth is more complicated: Trudy has a crush on Bray, but slept with [[spoiler:his brother, Zoot]] who became a fanatical tyrant after the Virus hit. Bray's morals demanded that he protect Trudy [[spoiler:(and his nephew)]] while she was in such a vulnerable state, but he doesn't have any feelings for her at all, much to Trudy's [[{{Yandere}} anger]]. Because of the circumstances, though, it takes some time before all this is sorted out.
332* In Season 1 of ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'', Kimmy falls under the impression that "''callate''"[[labelnote:translation]]shut up[[/labelnote]] is the Spanish word for "hello", because it's how Vera greets [[CloudcuckooLander her]] every day.
333* ''Series/{{Voyagers}}'', "[[Recap/VoyagersS1E20JacksBack Jack's Back]]": After spending a fair amount of time examining Jeff's shoe and all the different things on it, Doyle concludes he's been to the Royal Zoological Gardens. Jeff can't tell him [[TimeTravel the truth.]]
334* ''Series/TheXFiles''
335** Scully became convinced that Skinner was going to try to kill her when the Well-Manicured Man told her a hit had been put out on her and that "they'll send someone you know". He was the most logical suspect based on what little she had to go on.
336** A few seasons later, Skinner thinks that Mulder thinks he's a mole. He awaits in dread when Mulder announces he's discovered the mole's identity, only for him to name someone else.
337* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "Albert Einstein and the Story of Another Mary", right after Mary and George accept the possibility of having another child, Sheldon walks in to announce his decision to stick to his current (lack of) religious belief, and Future!Sheldon narrates how he thought it was his announcement that brought his mother to joyful tears.
338[[/folder]]
339
340[[folder:Podcasts]]
341* ''Podcast/KingdomSmarts'': The premise of the podcast is Shannon, a ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fangirl, explaining the series to the ''KH''-ignorant Jake one half hour at a time. A lot of the fun comes from Jake trying to understand the story he's being told and formulating theories based on knowledge that often has yet to be fully expanded on. An early example from the first episodes has Jake hear how Riku is swallowed by the darkness, followed immediately by Sora's pulling the Keyblade from the darkness, and posits the question "Is ''Riku'' the Keyblade?" This is proven wrong when Riku becomes a major character in the story not too long after. Yet even when these guesses are wrong, Shannon often concedes that the ideas Jake suggests are the kinds of things ''Kingdom Hearts'' probably ''would'' do.
342[[/folder]]
343
344[[folder:Roleplay]]
345* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
346** Minor character Vanessa comes across Lenore, Ciro, and Michal while they're talking about the strange smoke from the previous night. They're really discussing the fog that gave them their superpowers, but Vanessa, being ignorant to the event, instead assumes that they're talking about getting high.
347** Hyeon and his group learn that they're being watched by a government agent just before Rose sends them an invitation to meet up in a local graveyard to talk about their powers. Hyeon goes on a rant about how it's an obvious trap, and that they should stay home and enjoy some weed brownies instead of walking right into it. The reality is that the agent isn't related to the graveyard meeting at all.
348* ''Roleplay/ScaryNewsOutOfTokyo3'' is full of people trying to extrapolate the truth about [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion the current crisis]] from what little they know about NERV and the Angels that isn't classified, and going in completely the wrong direction -- when any of them makes a correct guess, it's [[CassandraTruth usually by accident and frequently followed by skeptical dismissals]]. You know things are bad when the resident conspiracy theorists aren't crazy ''enough''.
349[[/folder]]
350
351[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
352* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' expanded universe, Anastasius Focht receives reports of unknown configurations of Battlemechs using technologies far beyond that used in the Inner Sphere (as well as even the LostTechnology used by the Star League Defense Force during its golden age, which he has access to samples from). They are invading the Inner Sphere from the same direction the SLDF's navy and army left when they chose to exile themselves from the Inner Sphere instead of choosing a side in the CivilWar that destroyed Star League. Focht's logical conclusion? They are not descendants of the SLDF exiles, come back to re-establish Star League, but rather more technologically advanced aliens that found and assimilated the SLDF, made more advanced fascimiles of the SLDF's battlemechs and ships using their superior technology, and are tracing the SLDF exiles back to the source. The idea that the SLDF exiles' technology and 'mech designs could have changed that much over that short a period of time, while the Inner Sphere had been reduced to a near-ScavengerWorld in the meantime, was inconceivable to him.
353* From ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The history of [[http://www.candlekeep.com/fr_faq.htm#_Toc16090515 High Moor]]. The resident pissed-off druid in Elminster's Ecologies II, Bara, assumes it to be the result of typical human deforestation. It's really the result of a [[FantasticNuke Killing Storm]] unleashed by elves during a civil war. She just assumed based on what she saw and knows, and probably never saw a single elf capable ''or'' willing to do this, nor would she know, since elves aren't eager to tell anyone else about less glamorous moments of their past. The fact she's a self-professed misanthrope who figures HumansAreTheRealMonsters probably didn't help her.
354* Earlier on in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' lore, not long after the T'au were introduced, a Fire Warrior commander fought a long, hard battle against an army of Slaanesh's daemons. After killing the daemon in charge, causing the army to disperse and flee to the Warp, the Fire Warrior commander reported with pride that they had killed [[EldritchAbomination Slaanesh]] for the Greater Good. They, uh, hadn't. Like, not even close. (This was back in the day when the T'au were portrayed more as [[WideEyedIdealist Wide Eyed Idealists]] that hadn't yet realized they lived in a CrapsackWorld influenced by evil gods beyond mortal comprehension; they've gotten a bit savvier since then.)
355[[/folder]]
356
357[[folder:Theatre]]
358* In ''Abie's Irish Rose'', Patrick Murphy obverses all the oranges festooning the place of his daughter's wedding, and leaps to the horrifying conclusion: his Rose Mary is marrying a ''Protestant''! When Patrick encounters Solomon Levy, the proud and obviously non-Protestant father of a NiceJewishBoy who by implausible coincidence is getting married to a certain "Rosie Murpheski" at the same time, he grills him about "all the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Protective_Association A.P.A.]] decorations":
359-->'''Solomon:''' Vell, I tell you why! The girl's from California!\
360'''Patrick:''' So's my daughter!\
361'''Solomon:''' Bud my son is marrying a Jewish girl!\
362'''Patrick:''' My daughter is marrying an Irish boy!\
363'''Solomon:''' My son isn't Irish!\
364'''Patrick:''' Well, my God! My daughter isn't Jewish!
365* In ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' by Music/RichardWagner, there is an upcoming singing contest [[EngagementChallenge with Eva Pogner's hand in marriage as the promised reward]]. Hans Sachs, a great favorite among the townspeople, suggests that the whole of Nürnberg should judge the contestant instead of just the Masters, a select few, and later sabotages the attempts of Eva's AbhorrentAdmirer Sixtus Beckmesser to serenade her. Then Sixtus finds a love song clearly addressed to Eva and in Sachs's handwriting, so he figures out Sachs wants Eva for himself. In truth, Sachs is [[ShipperOnDeck helping]] Eva get together with Walter, the man she really loves; the song was composed by Walter and just written down with slight editing by Sachs.
366* ''Theatre/MyFairLady'':
367** During the Embassy Ball, Zoltan Karpathy (a rival dialectician) is asked by the Duchess to determine Eliza's background. He can quickly tell Eliza's perfect English is the result of coaching, but he assumes that her ''manners'' are innate, coming to the conclusion that she's a foreign aristocrat instead of a lower-class Englishwoman.
368** At the beginning of the play, Professor Higgins correctly decries the fact that people's accent and the ''way'' they speak acts as a social and class divider and keeps them in their place, particularly the lower classes. However, his solution isn't to wish that people stopped judging others simply based off their accent; it's to want to get ''rid'' of dialectical idiosyncrasies and lament that everybody isn't taught to "speak ''properly.''"
369[[/folder]]
370
371[[folder:Video Games]]
372* In ''Batman '66'' a visitor to Wayne Manor stumbles across the Batcave after Bruce and Dick have left and comes to the only logical conclusion: Batman is living in Bruce Wayne's basement.
373* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'':
374** The Riddler is convinced that Franchise/{{Batman}} is a VillainWithGoodPublicity; he ''must'' be stealing money from criminals he catches to fund his [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys Wonderful Toys]] and pay off the cops to look the other way. Besides his cynical belief that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood "no one is that selfless"]], he doesn't know that Bats is legitimately filthy rich and has an R&D department he can nick stuff from.
375** In a [[BreakingTheFourthWall wall-breaking]] moment, should the player solve enough of the Riddler's riddles, he'll scold "Batman" for looking them up on the internet. It becomes entertainingly wrong for those players who resisted the temptation to "cheat". [[TakeAThirdOption Also for players who used the official strategy guide.]]
376* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', Slate's driving grudge against Comstock is how he claims credit for the massacre at Wounded Knee, specifically for things that Booker did, despite Comstock not being there. The fact that Booker is right in front of him confirms Slate's anger against Comstock. However, [[spoiler:Comstock is revealed to be an alternate Booker, though unnaturally aged, thus he can genuinely take credit for those things. Also, the Booker the player is controlling is from a different reality]], though Slate had no way of knowing any of that.
377* PlayedForDrama in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' with Joshua Stephenson, a death row inmate who had a HeelFaithTurn and decided that he would become an InspirationalMartyr like [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Jesus Himself]] to inspire others by [[spoiler:creating a SnuffFilm of his own crucifixion. Despite his noble intentions, nobody in his life approves of it; his friend who started him down this path tells him that he's missing the point and fixating too much on Christ's HeroicSacrifice rather than His actual message, his producer reveals herself to be the "spiritual but not religious type" if V ticks her off and chews them both out saying that a person's faith should be between them and their deity rather than a spectacle for the world to see, and on the day of his execution an angry mob of Christians forms outside the studio. Regardless, as he's being put to death anyway there's no real way to talk him out of it if befriended and [[PlayerCharacter V]] can only control how involved they are.]]
378* ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'': All of the humans in Veldime were transformed into demons by [[BigBad Overlord Zenon]]'s curse, except for [[TheHero the protagonist Adell]]. He thinks this is because he's TheChosenOne who will overcome all the odds, defeat Zenon and break the curse. It's actually because [[spoiler:the curse only effects humans. Adell can't be transformed into a demon when [[TomatoInTheMirror he's always been a demon]], he just has a birth defect that resulted in him lacking the characteristic pointy ears and fangs of humanoid demons and was adopted by humans]].
379* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] have been subtly manipulating events since the Great War against the [[TheEmpire Empire]]. Case in point, they let [[RebelLeader Ulfric Stormcloak]] think that [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique information tortured out of him]] had turned out to be crucial to [[TheSiege the capture of the Imperial City]] (when in fact it had fallen before he broke), then let him escape none the wiser. Years later, independent events led to the Stormcloak Rebellion and the [[CivilWar Skyrim Civil War]], which benefitted the Thalmor in the long term by pitting Skyrim and the Empire against each other while weakening both. When Ulfric is captured shortly before the start of the game, however, the Thalmor decide he is more useful alive and attempt to prevent [[PublicExecution his execution at Helgen]]. Not that they get the chance: [[BigBad Alduin]] returns to Skyrim right around that time and burns Helgen to the ground. As a result, Ulfric and some of his men manage to escape Helgen alive, prolonging the civil war for a little longer. The Thalmor conclude that this obviously means [[TheManBehindTheMan whoever is behind the dragons]] is [[PsychologicalProjection also interested]] in [[TheoryTunnelVision the continuation of the civil war]], though at least they agree that [[NotInThisForYourRevolution it's dangerous to assume that their goals are aligned with those of the Thalmor]]. Not only do the dragons most likely not know about the civil war or the Thalmor, [[BigBadWannabe both of them being probably too insignificant for Alduin to even care]]; in truth he attacked Helgen in an attempt to kill [[PlayerCharacter the Last Dragonborn]], who was also set to be executed along with Ulfric for trying to illegally cross the border.
380* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': The antagonist of the ''Stormblood'' Summoner job quests is Sari, a summoner of ancient Allag and creator of Principia, the book familiar that has been the player's guide. However, being from the time of the Allagan Empire, Sari should be centuries dead. Knowing that the Allagan Empire was big on cloning technology, the characters' initial conclusion is that the Sari they're up against is a clone of the original. What is not revealed until later is the original Sari was researching how to use the computational power of machines to increase the power of summoning. This resulted in a machine capable of summoning creatures called Egi, the pets the Summoners utilize. The Sari they have been up against until this point is an Egi of Sari, and the final boss of the questline is the machine that has been doing the summoning, who acknowledges that "clone of Sari" was a valid theory, given what they knew at the time.
381* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'': Hugh was RaisedByGrandparents because his actual parents died young and didn't inherit the family talent for dark magic, despite his grandmother's efforts. In his A support with Niime, after she tells him his father had it, he concludes that he's not her real grandson. Niime tells him that he's being stupid - she had intended to have her son marry a shaman per the family tradition, but he married a mage instead, and Hugh got his mother's magic instead of his father's. Crosses into DramaticIrony, as the end of their B support has her lament that he inherited his father's kindness, but not his talent... after Hugh has exited the conversation.
382* ''Videogame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'':
383** [[WideEyedIdealist Prince Dimitri]] assumes that the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Flame Emperor]] is responsible for the massacre that killed his father. He bases this on how the Emperor works with [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the men who actively caused the crisis]], uses their technology and weapons, and how he overheard them talking about Duscur. He's wrong, as the Flame Emperor had nothing to do with the event and has TeethClenchedTeamwork with the people who did at best. Unfortunately, their [[{{Pride}} unwillingness to explain their innocence]] coupled with Dimitri's own UnstoppableRage at the people who destroyed his family and effectively started a genocide [[FromBadToWorse results in the prince's]] SanitySlippage.
384** On Edelgard's route, the history passed down through the Adrestian royal family leads her to some conclusions that are reasonable based on the information she has, but those who've played other routes will know are incorrect. She knows the church has lied about the reasons for Seiros and Nemesis' battle, and assumes their fight was a simple territorial dispute rather than Seiros putting down a FallenHero. She's half-right that Nemesis wasn't as bad as the Church's history says he was... [[spoiler:he was ''worse''. Instead of a fallen hero, he was a power-hungry bandit who massacred Seiros' family and made weapons out of their bones and hearts, and [[{{Revenge}} that was her motive for fighting him.]]]] Secondly, later in the route she assumes Rhea [[LegacyCharacter took the name Serios to motivate her followers.]] [[spoiler:In reality, [[Really700YearsOld Rhea actually IS Seiros.]]]]
385* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' is set a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been reduced to tribal societies and most large animals are extinct, replaced by machines that resemble them instead--horses are extinct, for example, but have been replaced by horse-like robots. Much of the "Metal World" that preceded the current cultures is very mysterious and there are some characters scattered around who are trying to learn more about it but, with little to go on, jump to the wrong conclusions: one merchant is searching for certain ancient vessels--e.g., coffee mugs and similar--and is convinced that they were part of a grooming ritual and is aghast when Aloy, the protagonist, suggests that they might be drinking cups instead. In the "Frozen Wilds" [=DLC=], another is obsessed with animal figurines which activate a hologram projector at what was once the visitor center of a national park and, provided with only their names by audio recordings, thinks that the cougar was a burrowing animal and that the mule deer was a vicious predator that used its antlers to gore its prey.
386* ''VideoGame/InvestiGatorTheCaseOfTheBigCrime'': In Case 2, Investi-Gator investigates the disappearance of Mr. Crime's daughter, Grizzelda. The characters believe Grizzelda has been kidnapped, but it quickly becomes obvious to the player that Grizzelda faked her kidnapping to guilt-trip her father. After his investigation, Investi-Gator concludes that there is no evidence that anyone else kidnapped Grizzelda. This leads him to believe that [[spoiler:''he'' is the kidnapper, [[InsaneTrollLogic somehow]]]]. He even admits that he doesn't know how this can be possible, but he still believes it's true [[spoiler:and allows himself to be arrested]].
387* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the [[BirdPeople Rito]] think, upon seeing the Sheikah Slate on his belt, that Link is a descendant of the Hylian Champion who fought and died to defend Hyrule from Calamity Ganon a century before and who was bequeathed the Sheikah Slate as an heirloom. They don't realize that he was OnlyMostlyDead as a result of that battle and that he spent the following century in the [[HealingVat Shrine of Resurrection]] to heal. Though the elder Kaneli does start to catch onto the truth once he sees Link carrying the [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield Master Sword]].
388* ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'' has you tricking a sea-captain into thinking ''wheat'' worms are eating through the apple supplies:
389-->"These are worms, all right -- viscous, snarling wheat worms driven mad by their hunger for a change of diet!"
390* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
391** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the plot of the "Leviathan" {{DLC}} revolves around Shepard trying to track down the Leviathan, believed to be a Reaper who has mysteriously gone rogue from the others. [[spoiler:Despite all of the mounting evidence pointing to this conclusion, it turns out that Leviathan is actually a giant sea-monster, one of TheRemnant of the race that came ''before'' the Reapers and whose image the Reapers stole for their own. It also makes the Reapers' [[AGodAmI god complex]] seem downright ''modest'' in comparison]].
392** If you had Kasumi Goto in your party in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', her mission in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' involves a Hanar diplomat. The Hanar revere the Protheans as deities; the Protheans were converted into the Collectors; the Collectors serve the Reapers; therefore, the diplomat reasons that the Reapers are in fact the true deities and collaborates with them. Despite the relatively high stakes of the mission, this is all played for comedy, complete with Shepard's meme-y line "You big... stupid... jellyfish!"
393** At the beginning of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Shepard offhandedly wonders if they are a clone, before Jacob reassures them that they ''are'' the real Shepard; the Illusive Man wanted them back exactly like they were, not a clone. In ''Mass Effect 3'''s "Citadel" DLC, [[spoiler:the main villain is Shepard's clone, created as a backup in case the Lazarus Project failed. Shepard was right about being cloned; they just got the fact of ''who'' the clone was wrong.]]
394* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'', one lategame sidequest has Veronica trying to decide what to give Dolcinaea for a gift. She eventually gives Dolcinaea one of her dumbells, since she was told that good gifts come from the heart, and Veronica loves training, so the dumbells are important to her. Dolcinaea then goes off on a ramble about how beautiful the dumbell is... because Dolcinaea is a famous singer and dancer, so she assumed that Veronica meant to give her some kind of musical instrument.
395* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
396** In ''VideoGame/Persona4'' the team comes up with multiple theories arrived at rationally, based on the information they have. They just happen to also be wrong. The killer [[spoiler:isn't targeting women or people who had some indirect connection to Mayumi Yamano]], the Midnight Channel [[spoiler:isn't some ability of the killer used to announce the next target]] and the killer isn't even [[spoiler:directly responsible for most of the people being thrown in the televisions]]!
397** In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', during the Medjed arc, a mysterious hacker named Alibaba asks the Phantom Thieves to change the heart of someone named Futaba Sakura ([[spoiler:who happens to be Alibaba herself]]). The Phantom Thieves quickly and correctly guess that Futaba is related to Sojiro Sakura, owner of the café where the protagonist stays, but don't immediately understand why Futaba would need a change of heart. After asking around and finding out that no one in Sojiro's neighborhood has heard of Futaba, as well as the protagonist overhearing a conversation in which Sae threatens to revoke Sojiro's parental authority, the protagonists briefly wonder if Sojiro is abusing Futaba, and whether Futaba wants to be free of the scars of that abuse. It turns out that [[spoiler:Futaba is actually a badly traumatized shut-in who hopes the Phantom Thieves can heal her heart]].
398* The events of ''Save the Prince'' came about because a traveling sorcerer prince who's looking for a bride sees a beautiful girl on a castle balcony and in his mind beautiful girl + castle = princess. When the king denies ''having'' a daughter, ''naturally'' he's lying to try and keep his intended from said sorcerer and ''naturally'' the logical response is to start turning people into stone.
399* Early in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', Otto Octavius walks in on Peter fixing his Spider-Man suit. Because Peter is a prodigy scientist with a particular knack for, as Otto calls it in an audio log, guerrilla science, Otto assumes not that Peter is Spider-Man himself, but that he's the designer of Spider-Man's equipment. [[spoiler:Subverted by the end of the game, where Otto (now ComicBook/DoctorOctopus) reveals that he knew Peter was Spider-Man all along.]]
400* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'':
401** The PlayerCharacter is allowed to name themselves as [[spoiler:one of Alphys' crushes]] when asked about it during Mettaton's PopQuiz. He points out that you are completely wrong (the actual answer is most likely [[spoiler:Undyne]] but could be [[spoiler:any of them except you]]), but deserve credit for the answer as you are "correct" in a metaphorical sense due to the way she acts towards you, and that he loves how conceited the answer is.
402** Among [[DemBones Papyrus]]'s possessions is a JollyRoger flag, a human artifact which leads him to believe that humans evolved from skeletons.
403** In ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', if you go for a pacifist playthrough and don't visit the Top Chef with Susie, then after the battle with King he assumes that the gathering is Clover's birthday party and Susie is Clover's mother, and the reason she devoured the cake that was commissioned for the party was to protect Clover. Susie begins to object, then realizes that playing along might get her more cake.
404* In Chapter 6 of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', the party discovered that [[spoiler:ex-Chairman Bana]] was plotting an assassination during the peace talks between the Queen of Uraya and the Emperor of Mor Ardain. Their investigations (which included a report of a Nopon attempting to purchase poisons, a large unexplained sealed crate being among the cargo, and very strong-smelling ingredients being used by the chefs) led them to the natural conclusion that [[spoiler:Bana]] was aiming to poison the banquet, so they rush in to stop the Tirkin chefs. After a quick battle, it turns out that [[spoiler:those chefs are the world-renowned Dragon Chefs, and, as confirmed by Zeke who tested one of their dishes, damned good ones. Bana had actually elected to take a much less subtle approach in smuggling in an upgraded version of [[HumongousMecha Rosa]] to carry out the assassination and wipe out any witnesses.]]
405[[/folder]]
406
407[[folder:Visual Novels]]
408* ''Franchise/AceAttorney''
409** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'':
410*** Iris has a secret involving Phoenix which she doesn't want him to find out. During the final case Phoenix comes to Hazakura where Iris lives and on the same day she receives a letter telling her to come to a certain place at certain time "unless she wants her secret to be exposed". Iris of course thought she was being blackmailed and the blackmailer threatens to tell the aforementioned secret to Phoenix. As it turned out [[spoiler:it was actually a ''love letter''. Larry Butz is just bad at flirting.]]
411*** When Phoenix met Iris for the first time he was rather shocked. As the player knows it was because [[spoiler:she looked exacly like his ex-girlfriend who should be in prison after she tried to kill him (and as it's later revealed, had just recently been executed for said crime)]]. Maya, however, unaware of that fact, seeing Phoenix stunned after seeing such a beautiful girl, thought she just witnessed LoveAtFirstSight.
412** ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'':
413*** Iris Wilson was told by Herlock Sholmes that her father was an old partner of his. After finding Sholmes's memoirs and comparing their handwriting with an autopsy report signed by Dr. John Wilson, she confludes that Wilson was both Sholmes partner and her father. [[spoiler:While Wilson did perform the autopsy and signed the result, it was actually his student Yujin Mikotaba that wrote down the notes, and Yujin that was Sholmes's partner and biographer. Sholmes then admits that he lied about Iris's father to protect her from the truth: that her father is neither Wilson nor Yujin but rather Klint van Zieks, secretly the SerialKiller the Professor]].
414*** [[spoiler:In the second game, it is revealed that before the first game Sholmes intercepted a telegram reading " K. Asogi, A. Shinn, T. Gregson, J. Wilson." After Wilson's death in case 1-1 and Asa Shinn's disapperance from Britain, he concludes the telegram was an assassination checklist. He took measures to fake Kazuma's death in 1-2 and warn Gregson to go into hiding. It's only during 2-4 that he learns that Wilson's killer, Jezaille Brett, was really Asa Shinn. The telegram wasn't a list of targets but a message for an assassination exchange program, with Asa Shinn sent to kill Wilson in Japan and Kazuma orignally sent to kill Gregson in Britain.]]
415* In ''VisualNovel/CollarXMalice'', one route has Mochida realizing that Ichika has been spending lots of time researching into the X-Day incidents and comes to the natural conclusion that she wants to be promoted to Division 1 so she could arrest the criminals. While Ichika is investigating the X-Day crimes, it's not for a promotion but because Adonis placed a deadly collar on her neck and is forcing her to investigate to find the truth.
416* In the fifth trial of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' the students realize that [[spoiler:Nagito Komaeda arranged it so that one of them would accidentally throw a bottle filled with deadly poison at him]] and guess that the reason for this was because [[spoiler:he was trusting [[BornLucky his luck]] to have it be the traitor so that they could be unmasked at the trial and executed]]. After the trial, Monokuma reveals that [[spoiler:while Nagito ''did'' want the traitor to be the one to kill him, he never wanted them to be unmasked. He wanted the traitor to ''win'' the trial and have everyone ''else'' executed. The plan only failed because ''Nagito'' was wrong about the traitor too; he thought she was a spy who didn't care about the class. She was actually a ''counselor'' working to rehabilitate them, and so [[HeroicSacrifice outed herself]] so the others could live]].
417* In ''VisualNovel/HeartOfTheWoods'', late in Chapter 2, the footage Madison and Tara took of the forest spirit somehow becomes corrupted, and all the heaters in their cabin fail except for the one in Madison's room. Morgan pulls Tara aside and suggests that her mother Evelyn is using mind control on Madison to try to get Tara to leave Eysenfeld, citing how Madison has been going off by herself without telling anyone where she went as proof of her being mind controlled. In reality, Madison was going off to meet up with [[CuteGhostGirl Abigail]], and had kept the meetings secret from Tara and Morgan.
418[[/folder]]
419
420[[folder:Web Animation]]
421* The Dark Angels commanders in ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' learn that both Cypher and Mechanicus are on one planet and conclude that [=AdMech=] must be in league with Cypher, while in fact the Techpriests were lured there for unknown reasons and they don't even know of Cypher's existence.
422* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
423** Jaune assumes that [[TeamMom Pyrrha]] is a deeply compassionate girl who wants to make her teammates happy (which is true), and that, furthermore, she's so ridiculously out of his league (also true) that her constant attempts to spend time with him and build his self-esteem could not ''possibly'' have romantic motivations (not true). Nothing about his thought process is ''wrong'', but the viewers know that his conclusions are. In truth, Pyrrha does have feelings for him, but she doesn't know how to express them, and suffers from a bad case of AttractivenessIsolation — ''nobody'' thinks that they're good enough for [[TheAce her]].
424** When Professor Goodwitch first heard [[GenkiGirl Nora]] and [[TheQuietOne Ren]] were partners, she assumed they'd be a terrible match because they're so starkly different. Their differences are actually the reason [[OppositesAttract they have been friends since childhood]].
425[[/folder]]
426
427[[folder:Webcomics]]
428* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
429** Grace [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2013-03-20 chooses]] ''Film/DieHard'' as the first movie in a ChristmasSpecial marathon due to assuming that [[DidIMentionItsChristmas if it is a movie set during Christmastime]] it must be a Christmas Special. (She ''does'' [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2013-03-21 realize it's a violent action movie,]] but still thought it counted as "Christmas".)
430** The very first thing Ellen notices on meeting Diane is an uncanny resemblance to Susan. As the story continues, Ellen and Nanase discover Diane was adopted as an infant, was born approximately twenty minutes earlier than Susan, happens to have the exact same magical affinity as her, and was protected by an immortal who had vowed to be Susan's ally. Ellen and Nanase reach the conclusion that the two must be related, as does Diane when she gets enough pieces to put together. Their initial idea that the pair might be twins separated at birth is debunked by Tedd's father, but Susan's father was "a cheating cheater who cheated" on Susan's mother, opening the possibility of being half-sisters. It is eventually revealed that they ''are'' related, but more distantly than anyone considered. Their familial connection is [[spoiler:Adrian Raven, a teacher at Diane's high school. He's an elf, a half-immortal, who's lived for centuries believing he couldn't even ''have'' children. Susan is the descendant of a woman he was with in his biological twenties, while Diane is his biological daughter.]]
431** One piece of evidence that Ellen and Nanase present to Susan when telling her about Diane for the first time is that Jerry, an immortal sworn to be Susan's ally, appears to believe it's true. He helped Diane while claiming it was due to a debt "to her sister", while doing nothing to help Diane's adopted sister, Rhea. Because Jerry is an immortal, a magical being with the power to travel invisibly and see much more than a mortal would, Susan takes this as conclusive evidence that they are sisters. Unknown to any of them, Jerry is in the room, invisible, and noting that he doesn't actually know any more than anyone else does.
432--->'''Jerry:''' I reached that conclusion for the same reasons Ellen and Nanase did. I don't know ''jack.''
433** In the EGS:NP storyline ''Who Is Ellen'', George comes to the conclusion that Elliot is either UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} or gender-fluid, based on the following evidence: He knows for a fact that Elliot is Cheerleadra, a female superhero, Nanase used to date Elliot and is now dating "Elliot's sister," he's seen Elliot and Ellen since Cheerleadra's debut, but never at the same time, and Ellen is friends with all of Elliot's friends, but seems more confident. The reality is Ellen is a product of the Dewitchery Diamond which Elliot used to dispel a curse that temporarily turned him into a girl. The Diamond, when dispelling curses, splits the curse off into its own being. He's not ''entirely'' wrong about Elliot being gender-fluid ("[[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/party-134 I'm more 'gender casual']]"), but his conclusion about Ellen is way off, although TheRant admits it makes more sense than what actually happened.
434* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
435** At the beginning of the story, it is perfectly logical for Baron Wulfenbach and his son Gilgamesh to conclude that a young soldier is the Spark responsible for a rampaging clank, rather than the girl he was found with, because you can't hide "the Spark". The girl, Agatha Clay, studies at the local university under Dr. Beetle: if she were a Spark, all her professors would know. The soldier, Moloch von Zinzer, only just came into town. What the Baron and Gil don't know is that you ''can'' hide "the Spark": Agatha had been wearing a device that does exactly that. Of course, since Klaus leaves early, he misses the big clue of the Clank going off to "protect" Agatha, leading Gil to do the sensible thing -- check their hands, revealing that the soldier's hands are clean... but Agatha's have grease and oil on them from building the clank. Which leads Gil to come to the conclusion that Agatha is breaking through ''now'' due to the stress in her life. Once again, somewhat wrong: she broke through when she was ''five'', and the same necklace that had hidden her was acting as a PowerLimiter.
436** Jiminez comes to realize that his feelings for Larana... right around the time he mistakenly comes to think that she's in love with his brother, Aldin. He is eventually set right, but Aldin lets the misunderstanding stand because it is throwing Jiminez off his game and makes it much more likely Aldin and Larana will be able to complete their covert mission for the Library without being found out.
437* ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': During his fight with Maxima, Vehemence concludes that electricity must be her weak spot after pinning her, since the constant shocks he's sending seem to be weakening her. The truth is a bit more complicated: Maxima's power is to "maximize" some of her attributes ({{Flight}}, SuperStrength, HandBlast, etc.) at the cost of weakening other powers, and by constantly electrocuting the heroine he's forcing her to put everything in shielding, leaving her with not enough strength to break the hold. Of course, Maxima's exact powers are a well-kept military secret, so it's not surprising people would get it wrong. It does get a call-back in a different fight; Sciona starts using electric attacks in an attempt to stop Maxima from chasing her, and is confused when it doesn't seem to work. (One difference in ''this'' fight is both are flying and avoiding grapples for most of it.)
438* [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} Banquo]] in one ''Webcomic/HarkAVagrant'' [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=262 strip]] hears the prophecy that Macbeth will be king, but Banquo's sons will be kings after him. Banquo is happy to hear this, as he assumes it means his son Fleance will marry Macbeth's child and inherit the throne. In reality, it means that Macbeth will die childless after killing Banquo, and Fleance (or one of his descendants) will take the throne some time later.
439* At one point in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Terezi comes across the scene of [[spoiler:Eridan's]] recent killing spree. Having just seen [[spoiler:Tavros]] after he was impaled by [[spoiler:Vriska,]] she concocts a crazy sequence of events positing [[spoiler:Vriska]] as the killer there as well...except she immediately realizes ''it makes no sense.'' [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext Especially since some of the evidence she saw was the result of one of the "victims" reviving as the troll equivalent of a vampire.]]]]
440* In ''Webcomic/JupiterMen'', Quintin is so embarrassed and freaked out by his [[ElementalShapeshifter newly developed powers]] at first that he hides in the janitor's closet. He fears he's turning into a goopy zombie due to his translucent slime arm with bone-like structures inside. His next conclusion is that this is somehow a side effect of puberty, as he hadn't been paying enough attention in health class to know for sure. Jackie concludes from his hysterics that he's taken a swig of coffee, which he vehemently denies.
441-->'''Quintin:''' I don't know if I'm dying! Or is this part of puberty?! I don't think they taught this in health class did they?! I wasn't paying attention!! I don't remember! Do you remember?!\
442'''Jackie:''' ''[unamused]'' Quintin... you're intolerant to coffee. How many times do mom and I have to tell you?\
443'''Quentin:''' I'm not on coffee! You know I don't drink it because of the [[NoodleIncident "INCIDENT!"]]
444* In ''Webcomic/{{Kaspall}}'', [[http://kaspall.com/comic/2010/04/25.html Sam concludes that the world would be a lot better]] if it was just humans, because there would be no FantasticRacism.
445* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', Corrie is forced to disguise as a wolf named Dale after being entered into the Species Registry as one. Unfortunately for her, this means that she'll have to fake being a hunter, but Bruno helps her with that. Rudy and Fiona realize that Corrie is not actually hunting her own kills and then conclude that she's the secret daughter of Ralph Dewclaw, a laughably incompetent hunter, based on her inability to hunt and her scent matching his (she's wearing his wolfskin). In the short term, Corrie's relieved that her secret is still safe, but it turns out that Rudy and Fiona were actually right.
446* ''Webcomic/MageAndDemonQueen'': Since Malori constantly challenges the Demon Tower, [[DeathIsCheap no matter how many times she is killed,]] everyone assumes that she hates the Demon Queen and praises her for her incredible dedication. Only Malori's best friend knows that she actually in love with the Demon Queen and keeps getting killed because of her ham-fisted attempts at romance.
447* ''Webcomic/MobPsycho100'' has a scene where the frightfully powerful psychic Shimazaki has been flattening all of Mob's friends and allies in a fight. He claims to be able to use his PsychicRadar to detect all Espers and predict their movements. He's so confident in his abilities that even though he's [[BlindSeer physically blind]], he fully believes he can read other people to the point of short-term precognition, even challenging the possibly-omnipotent Mob. This is when Reigen suddenly shows up and [[RapidFireFisticuffs repeatedly sucker punches Shimazaki]]. Shimazaki assumes that Reigen has mastered aura cloaking, and the fact that he commands the unflinching loyalty of the incredibly powerful Mob leads him to fear that Reigen must be an ''even more'' dangerous Esper... after all, Mob is practically a psychic god, so the god's master must be even more powerful, right? Except that Reigen is [[TheBarnum a shameless con-man]], and makes a brisk living of lying to people about his psychic abilities. Shimazaki couldn't sense Reigen because ''[[PhonyPsychic there is no psychic power there to detect]]'', as Reigen is the ''least'' powerful person in the room (and this includes the guy whose arms are broken and one that's been knocked out cold). Howeer, he is perfectly content to let Shimazaki make this error of judgement if it means Shimazaki will stop fighting.
448* In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', Dave's internet girlfriend Lovelace (who is actually Professor Madblood's [[ArtificialIntelligence supercomputer]]) lets it slip that she's staying in the same hotel room as Madblood at a convention. When Dave and Helen break into Madblood's room to find her, they only discover one set of luggage; Dave mistakenly concludes from this that Lovelace ''is'' Madblood.
449* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
450** Durkon at one point concludes that the storm Miko ambushed the Order of the Stick in was sent by his patron god, Thor. He reasoned if there hadn't been a storm, the Order would have [[CurbStompBattle destroyed Miko]] before she even got in melee range with arrows and flame spells. She wouldn't have told them why she was following them, or figured out that her "detect evil" power had been getting a false reading. The storm also cleared just as soon as Durkon noted this. Turns out, Thor was just drunk.
451** In one comic, Roy concludes that if there were no ''raise dead'' or ''planeshift'' spells (meaning death was permanent, and you didn't even know for certain there was an afterlife), nobody would have wars.
452** When we finally meet Haley's father, he ''severely'' misunderstands his daughter's place in the Order.
453--->'''Roy:''' Actually, your daughter works for me, Mr. Starshine, not the other way around. I'm the leader of the Order of the Stick.\
454'''Ian:''' Oh, I see. ''[sotto voce, to Haley]'' Good work, Kitten. Always let the stuffed shirts think they're in charge. This way, you can subtly manipulate them into doing what you need without them realizing that you arranged it all from the shadows.\
455'''Haley:''' No, Dad--\
456'''Roy:''' And for that matter, we didn't come here to rescue you. We're here in this region on a totally unrelated mission. It's just sheer coincidence that we happened to get thrown in the same cell block as you.\
457'''Ian:''' ''[sotto voce, to Haley]'' Wow. You've gotten good at this.
458** Later, Tarquin [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0816.html recounts]] how his ninth wife Penelope had, when she was younger, had a child with a man who turned out to be a member of [[PrecursorHero Girard Draketooth's]] family, and that the latter had spirited the child away with him to rear her amongst his own. Penelope died soon before she had the chance to hire adventurers to help her follow up on a lead that could have reunited her with them. Upon learning this, Haley, Durkon and Elan come to the conclusion that, since Nale seemed to have knowledge about the Gate that the Draketooths are guarding, that he had Sabine discreetly kill her to prevent anyone else from learning anything more about it. A perfectly logical assumption on its own, though the truth turns out to be something they couldn't have known. [[spoiler:Vaarsuvius's then-recent DealWithTheDevil culminated in their casting of ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill familicide]]'', which they had intended to scourge the world of any Black Dragons related to the one that had attempted to take revenge on V, as well as any related to those affected. V had, at the time, failed to take into account that this would also apply to any HalfHumanHybrids (or, indeed, any other crossbreeds) that were related to any affected Black Dragons, and, as the [[MeaningfulName Draketooth]] family were [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0842.html Black Dragon-descended,]] Penelope had been [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0843.html caught in the crossfire of the spell]] by dint of mothering a child of their blood.]] Nale himself assumed that Tarquin killed Penelope over some EvilIsPetty reason, just as he's done to most of his previous wives. Both are rather stumped to realize that it's a mutual NotMeThisTime.
459** Inside Kraagor's Tomb, as the Order is lured into [[TrapIsTheOnlyOption what they know is clearly a trap]], Roy is thinking their ambushers have used a ''darkness'' spell when they are suddenly plunged in the dark. That is not the case, though (as the party's dwarves can still use their darkvision); what happened is that [[spoiler:a beholder hiding close to the ceiling opened its central eye and directed the AntiMagic cone at them, suppressing all of their magic, including V's ''light'' spell]].
460* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': After waking up from a coma that was caused by a PowerStrainBlackout, Onni has a general dazed attitude, causing Trond to come to the conclusion that he suffered a stroke. What Trond doesn't know is that Onni saw [[spoiler:his younger sister's soul leave for the afterlife]] shortly before waking up from his coma, and Onni's daze is his emotional reaction to it.
461* In ''Webcomic/WeakHero'', Eugene and Rowan are surprised when the usually [[TheStoic standoffish]] Gray shows an interest in the latter. Rowan, thinking himself an excellent fighter, assumes that Gray is impressed with his strength. In actuality, Gray (who couldn't care less about someone's strength despite being one of the best fighters in the webtoon) noticed that Rowan could speak fluent English, and was interested in learning it for himself.
462[[/folder]]
463
464[[folder:Web Original]]
465* The aliens in ''[[https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/series/humans_dont_make_good_pets Humans Don't Make Good Pets]]'' make several inferences about the protagonist due to not knowing a thing about human biology, including that humans are sentient. At one point, one of them assumes he must have infrared vision to know which pipe in a room was hot when he used it to cook meat. In reality, he just held his hand over each pipe until he found one that was hot enough.
466* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'':
467** The demon lord Belial is extremely confused about why [[MugglesDoItBetter the humans are slaughtering the demonic hordes]] even though they used to only cower in fear a "mere" five millennia ago. He thinks about his own forges, and how his slight refinements to tridents made them much better. He comes to the conclusion that humans have been so scared of the mighty demons that they stockpiled many great weapons over the thousands of years and only use them now that they're facing extinction. Wrong, sure, but much closer to the fact than the rest of Hell assuming that [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien humans suddenly have magic.]]
468** The demons thinking they would just crush the human race with ease actually makes a lot of sense given the knowledge they have and their society as a whole. Hell's social and technological level is essentially the Bronze Age, and demons are immortal (unless they are killed). Some have been kicking around for thousands if not millions of years. They don't have the concept of science and their latest information on humanity is at least several centuries old, which is completely up-to-date by demon standards.
469** [[spoiler:The White House assumes that the sky volcano that was randomly moving around Detroit, spreading lava everywhere, was an intentional tactic by the demons to cause more damage than the previous one that stayed in the same place (limiting how far the lava spread). What really happened was a combination of the Nagas on the other end unable to make the portal in unison combined with the portal's guide demon being shot down before it could be opened.]]
470* In the early stories of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Phase brilliantly deduces that the person who left him an extortion note just before school starts is... Assistant Administrator Amelia Hartford, who has a grudge against Phase's older sisters! Phase is so, so wrong. But he doesn't figure that out for about a month, when he spots the real clue and realizes what it means (which is probably a correct series of deductions).
471* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'':
472** The events of June 20th (Arcs 18 Queen and 19 Scourge) get classified because [[spoiler:the evil clone of Eidolon created by Echidna revealed the truth about Cauldron to everyone.]] Then [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/interlude-19-y/ Interlude 19 (Donation Bonus #2)]] shows us a thread from the InUniverse Parahumans Online forum in which, from the sketchy data they have, the forum members come up with theory which is not only false, but leads them to ''specifically rule out'' [[spoiler:the existence of evil duplicates of prominent superheroes.]]
473** Taylor creates a series of increasingly complex theories about Dragon, such as her being crippled in the destruction of Newfoundland and blackmailed by the PRT, to explain oddities resulting from [[spoiler:Dragon being an ArtificialIntelligence.]]
474[[/folder]]
475
476[[folder:Websites]]
477* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-451 SCP-451]] is a former agent who ran afoul of an artifact that rendered him completely incapable of perceiving or meaningfully interacting with other people. His diary reveals that he has come up with increasingly outlandish ideas as to what has happened, all based on the assumption that the problem is with the ''rest'' of humanity and not himself. Of course, given the nature of the Foundation, he could easily be right.
478[[/folder]]
479
480[[folder:Web Videos]]
481* Johnny Lawrence from ''Series/CobraKai'' frequently engages in this, often due to still mentally living in the '80s:
482** When Aisha wants to join Cobra Kai, he says girls aren't allowed, just like they aren't in the US Army.
483** Eli explains his doctor told him he might be on the spectrum and Johnny tells him to "[[IsItSomethingYouEat Get off it pronto]]".
484** Johnny wants to add a song he likes to his commercial for Cobra Kai, Aisha points out buying the rights would be expensive. Johnny believes that owning the cassette is the same thing.
485* WebVideo/TheUnluckyTug: {{Discussed|Trope}} in "10 Hidden Gems of CGI WesternAnimation/{{Thomas|AndFriends}}". One of the things he likes about "[[Recap/ThomasAndFriendsS19E25GoodbyeFatController Goodbye Fat Controller]]" is that the engines don't understand human concepts, which is true to [[Literature/TheRailwaySeries the source material]]. In this case, they assume Sir Topham Hatt is leaving when his office is being cleared because the idea of an office renovation is outside their frames of reference.
486* ''WebVideo/WitchCraftSMP'': After meeting all of the other Witches with ''none'' of them mentioning Lauren in their conversations, Scott immediately presumes that she's extremely powerful and dangerous, so everyone's too afraid to speak of her. This is in reference to someone who is terrified of being eaten by birds, and whose starter ability doesn't even work if she's indoors.
487[[/folder]]
488
489[[folder:Western Animation]]
490* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
491** Prince Zuko is hunting the Avatar expecting an old man, since he hadn't been seen in a century. A valid assumption since he has no way of knowing Aang was frozen in an iceberg.
492** In the episode "Serpent's Pass", Toph is drowning, and Sokka yells out that he's going to save her. However, Suki ends up jumping into the water before he gets a chance to, and since Toph is blind, she can't tell the difference, thus assuming when the two resurface that Sokka rescued her. The "entertaining" part comes in when [[LesYay Toph gives Suki a]] SmoochOfVictory before she gets a chance to reveal herself.
493--->'''Toph:''' [[ShipTease Sokka, you saved me!]] ''[smooch]''\
494'''Suki:''' Actually, it's me.\
495'''Toph:''' Oh... you can go ahead and let me drown now.
496* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
497** In the episode "Almost Got 'Im" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Two-Face is under the impression that ''Batman'' is actually several men who are working under Gordon.
498** In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', a couple of [[FutureImperfect far-future]] archaeologists who are excavating the Batcave have a few solid conclusions based on their findings, which are all humorously wrong. For instance, they think Oracle's wheelchair belonged to Alfred, and after seeing a portrait of Bruce and his parents, they conclude that ''Thomas'' Wayne was Batman, and Bruce was Robin.
499** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
500*** In Season 3, Terry/Batman's girlfriend Dana finally figures out why [[StoodUp he's always ditching her in favor of his job]]... it's because he views his boss as a father figure and presumably wants to spend time with him and impress him with his diligence. Max thinks it's an entertainingly wrong conclusion, but Terry admits that there's some truth to it. Becomes HilariousInHindsight when the DistantFinale reveals that [[spoiler:Bruce actually ''is'' Terry's father, genetically.]]
501*** In an earlier episode, prior to discovering his identity as Batman, Max reviewed Terry's habit of sleeping in class, falling grades, change in attitude, and unexplained injuries and came to the conclusion he'd joined a gang.
502*** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'', Terry asked Bruce how he is certain that the Joker is dead years ago and Bruce reported because he was there when the Joker died. Terry comes to the incorrect theory that Bruce broke his ThouShallNotKill rule and killed the Joker who was going to do something terrible. [[spoiler:The truth is much worse -- the Joker had kidnapped and tortured Tim Drake for three weeks, culminating in Tim snapping and then killing the Joker.]]
503* ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|2017}}'': In "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", Webby sees Lena hesitant to go to sleep and determined to stay awake during their slumber party and assumes it's because she's afraid of the dark. Webby says she was too and points out glowy stars on the ceiling to help. It's not until they're in they start {{Dream Walk|er}}ing that Lena confesses she's been having nightmares for the past week.
504* Late in ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'', the Neo Megas, a new subrace of the [[ArtificialHuman Neo-Sapiens]], come up with a plan to overthrow BigBad Phaeton, believing that Phaeton's increasing instability is dooming the Neo-Sapiens in their war against humanity. The plotters behind the coup get certain people, including fellow Neo Mega Galba, to cooperate with their plans by lying and saying that they plan to reach a peace deal with the humans once Phaeton is deposed, rather than that they just want Phaeton's power for themselves. When the plotters think the coup has succeeded, they order Galba imprisoned. Phaeton learns of Galba's arrest once the coup is put down and Phaeton has resumed control, and comes to the conclusion that Galba must have been arrested for remaining loyal to him. So Phaeton frees Galba and keeps him involved in the war effort, which allows Galba to sabotage his plans or pass along information to the humans on several occasions later.
505* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'':
506** Both the titled characters and Macbeth are on the hunt for scrolls written by Merlin. Naturally, they assumed the writings of the great wizard in history would contain all kinds of spells, incantations, and magic, but it turned out the scrolls were just a journal.
507** After a magical mirror is stolen by Demona, Goliath repeatedly assumes that all the mayhem happening in the city (Elisa transforming into a gargoyle, the rest of the humans in New York becoming gargoyles, the gargoyles themselves transforming into humans) were purposely caused by Demona to throw them off. What he doesn't realize is that Demona never had any control of the situation or intended for any of it to happen, as [[JackassGenie Puck]] was repeatedly screwing Demona over by deliberately misinterpreting her wishes.
508* ''WesternAnimation/TheGhostAndMollyMcgee'': In "Scratch the Surface", Molly tries to get out of lying to her best friend Libby about Scratch with a convoluted scheme that involves posing as her cousin from Canada, Milly. After trolling Molly for most of the episode, Libby eventually confronts her and announces she's figured out Molly's secret and the reason behind her strange behavior... she's been infected by an eastern Canadian brain slug.
509-->'''Scratch:''' Oh wow, she went off in a ''totally'' different direction, huh?
510* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has Dipper gathering evidence that his sister's new boyfriend Norman is a zombie, cumulating in him becoming convinced and running to the rescue. Not that she doesn't need it, but Norm is actually [[spoiler:[[TotemPoleTrench a stack of gnomes]].]]
511-->'''Dipper:''' Huh, I was way off.
512* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': The first season of ''Unlimited'' involves rising tensions between the League and the government agency Cadmus, which partially stems from knowledge of the Justice Lords AlternateUniverse, where the League went KnightTemplar after killing PresidentEvil Lex Luthor. [[ConspiracyTheorist The Question]] notices that there's a suspicious amount of HistoryRepeats going on, and comes to the conclusion that the Justice Lords timeline is really a BadFuture[=/=]StableTimeLoop rooted in the present conflict. He decides the best way to avoid this is to independently kill Luthor (currently a popular presidential candidate) and bear the fallout of doing so himself, in order to keep the League's reputation intact. Unfortunately, Question turns out to be completely wrong: [[spoiler:[[ManipulativeBastard Luthor himself was deliberately engineering all the similarities]] to keep the League and Cadmus at each others' throats, and thus distracted from his own evil schemes. He even gloats that pouring 75 million dollars into a fake presidential campaign was solely "[[EvilIsPetty to tick Superman off]]"]].
513* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
514** In "Vision Quest", John Redcorn inadvertently helps Dale into having an honest-to-goodness [[VisionQuest spiritual vision during a camping trip]]. Dale's vision tells him, in pretty unambiguous terms, that his son Joseph was actually fathered by a Native American man. But instead of finally piecing together the many obvious hints that [[EverybodyKnewAlready John Redcorn is his son's biological father]], he becomes convinced that ''he'' is actually a Native American. Eager to throw him off, John Redcorn agrees with him, and Dale spends the rest of the episode hilariously trying to "reconnect" with his Native American roots.
515** Dale does this a lot when it comes to Joseph. For instance, in "Of Mice And Little Green Men", he once figured out that nine months before Joseph was born, he was halfway across the country chasing a UFO sighting. He comes to the only obvious conclusion, the aliens impregnated Nancy because they knew Dale was onto them and wanted to distract him! He later "remembers" that the aliens abducted him and said it was likely that they harvested his sperm to impregnate Nancy with, and therefore Joseph is biologically his son after all! However, it's implied that he made up that last part to make Joseph feel better since he was going through an identity crisis after "learning" that he was half-alien.
516** For Dale being Entertainingly Wrong in the ''other'' direction on his family tree, in "My Own Private Rodeo", his own father (who he believes is a real ladies man) attempted to come out to him as gay. In his awkwardness, he merely said to Dale that the rodeo he works at is a gay rodeo, and that his friend that Dale met earlier is his partner. Dale is disgusted, telling his dad to get out of his sight. After all, his dad obviously just confessed to being a ''[[DiscriminateAndSwitch government agent]]'', the natural enemy of a ConspiracyTheorist like Dale! Why ''else'' would he be working at the gay rodeo with a "partner"? They must be undercover! Of course, when it's all straightened out ([[LamePunReaction ha ha]]), Dale is perfectly accepting of his dad's sexuality. After all, [[MistakenForGay John Redcorn is gay and Dale's been friends with him for years]]!
517** Peggy Hill often gets hit with a case of this as well, either due to her over-inflated ego or whenever her (in)ability to speak Spanish comes up. In "Flirting With The Master", she came to the conclusion that the actor who plays [[ShowWithinAShow Monsignor Martinez]], whose children she had been tutoring, was in love with her. He'd been speaking in a rather romantic tone, buying flowers and gifts, and said that his wife was "[[NoLongerWithUs with her ancestors]]". However, he was just poor with English. What he meant was that his wife went to visit her ''grandparents'' and the flowers and gifts were a surprise for her when she got back. Funnier still, she thought she wooed him with her skills in Spanish!
518* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': In the ChristmasSpecial "Santa Claws", Ladybug finds evidence of a missing Adrien and a Cataclysm-destroyed poster board nearby. Her conclusion is that Cat Noir protected Adrien from an Akumatized supervillain. The truth is that Adrien and Cat Noir are the same person.
519* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'':
520** Jacob is a ConspiracyTheorist and actually has collected a solid amount of evidence that proves that witches and demons are real... Except thanks to online conspiracy circles he also thinks that they come from Mars and are trying to steal human teeth in order to fuel their time machines. The bonkers nonsense conclusion ruins any chance of anyone actually hearing out the reasonable first half.
521** Hunter was essentially raised as a ChildSoldier, conditioned to obey Emperor Belos without question and having had little social interaction with anyone outside the Emperor's Coven. So when he takes it upon himself to find recruits for the Coven from among Hexside students and has to interact with kids his own age in a non-combat setting, [[NoSocialSkills he makes some... slightly-off assumptions]] about the typical teen mindset.
522--->'''Hunter:''' Teens are probably into the same things as me. Like authority! And rules!
523* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 2", the police accuse and arrest Homer for the shooting due to a number of evidence that seemingly points to him; an eyelash with Simpson DNA on the suit Burns was wearing when he got shot, Burns waking up from his coma shouting "Homer Simpson!", and most damaging, the gun that was used to shoot Burns not only found in the family's car, but also has Homer's fingerprints! [[spoiler:The eyelash came from Maggie, who was left in the car. Burns tried to steal her candy, and during the struggle, his gun fell out of its holder, firing and shooting him. Homer got his fingerprints on it while feeling around for an ice cream cone he dropped. Oh, and Burns was saying "Homer Simpson" due to brain damage- it was ALL he could say.]]
524* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
525** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
526*** "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E1HolocronHeist Holocron Heist]]": Master Yoda has a premonition that there are going to be intruders in the Jedi Temple. The Jedi, logically, assume that the intruders are after sensitive information on military deployments and strategies, stored on the computers in the Temple's communication centres. As the audience knows, however, bounty hunter Cad Bane and accomplices have ''actually'' been hired by Sith Lord [[BigBad Darth Sidious]] to steal a holocron — a Force-powered data storage device that can only be opened by a Jedi, and thus usually useless to anyone who isn't one. This misconception allows Bane to escape with a holocron, especially as he also had his personal droid engage in some misdirection to fool Anakin and Obi-Wan, in pursuit, into thinking the intruders were headed for the communications centre.
527*** The Order 66 arc is ''full'' of this. After clone trooper Tup abruptly kills a Jedi Master in the heat of battle, the Jedi come to the conclusion that it was some kind of Separatist plot, probably involving mind control. Thanks in part to the villains' manipulations, they don't find out that this was actually an accidental premature activation of a Sith plot to destroy the entire Order, using the clone troopers as {{Manchurian Agent}}s.
528** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsResistance'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsResistanceS1E11Bibo Bibo]]", Tam and Neeku, seeing the giant sea monster attacking the Colossus and knowing from [[spoiler:[[DreamingOfThingsToCome Eila]]]] that the monster wants Bibo, Neeku's new pet, assume that the monster eats Bibo's species. This horrifies Neeku. [[spoiler:The monster is Bibo's mother and she wants him back.]]
529* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
530** A pivotal moment in the show's {{backstory}} is the shattering of Pink Diamond by Rose Quartz. In "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial The Trial]]", Steven, who possesses Rose's Gem, is put on trial by Blue and Yellow Diamond, who want to see "Rose Quartz" answer for her crimes. During the trial, the Blue Zircon assigned to defend Steven realizes that the known details about the crime don't add up. For starters, how did Rose, by then a known war criminal, get anywhere ''near'' Pink Diamond in the first place? The conclusion Blue Zircon reaches is that Pink was lured from safety by someone she knew and trusted, and the only ones she knew, trusted, and could have shattered her were the other Diamonds. "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose A Single Pale Rose]]" reveals that Blue Zircon was very close, but would never have considered the truth: The one responsible for Pink Diamond's shattering [[spoiler:was Pink Diamond herself. She faked the whole thing because ''she'' was Rose Quartz all along and wanted to shed her Diamond persona entirely in favor of living on Earth.]]
531** "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E28ChangeYourMind Change Your Mind]]": White Diamond believes that Steven is merely [[spoiler:a Meat Puppet for Pink Diamond]], and thus that he's merely deluded himself into thinking that he's a different person. Gems ''do'' have the ability to change shape, Steven has some of Rose's memories, and even he has questioned if [[spoiler:he is just his mother]]. White is proven wrong when [[spoiler:she pulls out his gemstone only for it to create another version of him instead of his mother]].
532[[/folder]]
533
534[[folder:Real Life]]
535* The common belief in AncientEgypt was that [[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/heart.htm the heart was the center of the body]], responsible for producing all thought and emotion. The reason for this belief was that the human heart is connected to all parts of the body through veins, and a quickened pulse preceded strong emotions. For this reason, the heart was preserved when someone died and was mummified. Meanwhile, ancient Egyptians believed that the brain was only responsible for creating mucus, so they just threw it away. This is also the source of using hearts to represent emotion, making it OlderThanDirt.
536* An example of ItWillNeverCatchOn from RealLife: someone predicted television would never be successful in the United States because "Americans don't have the attention span to sit and watch a box for an hour." Logically sound, but based on wrong assumptions.
537* A lesser known real-life example occurred when Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, heard about the Europeans approaching the Inca capital of Cuzco. He noted that the Europeans had cooking pots (metal helmets for protection) over their heads. Atahualpa believed that anyone who wore cooking pots was crazy, which goes double if they didn't even use those cooking pots for preparing food!
538* ''[[http://books.google.com/books/about/Ignorance_Is_Blitz.html?id=DfynSW_kXVIC Ignorance Is Blitz: Mangled Moments of History from Actual College Students]]'' contains a healthy share of these, surprisingly, to the point of doubling for RightForTheWrongReasons (had the phrase been explained properly).
539* University teaching assistants, who are often responsible for grading undergraduate essays and exams, often have many a tale of the entertainingly wrong answer: whether it's a term definition, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, or essay question, ''someone'' will find a way to botch it beyond all belief working with the limited knowledge that they have.
540* Wilbur Wright declared out of frustration that man would never fly... a solid ''day'' before ''[[http://0.tqn.com/d/inventors/1/0/W/7/1/WB1903Flyer.jpg this happened]]''. One of the Wright brothers, knowing the limitations of his own invention, didn't think it would ever be possible to use one to fly over the Atlantic.
541* Creator/FrancisEDec's entire worldview was [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness completely wrong]], but some things stand out. For example, he claimed that the Polish Christmas tradition of ''kolęda'' -- children going from house to house dressed up as devils and angels and singing Christmas carols -- is actually a leftover from the ancient (reality note: nonexistent) religion of Astrocism. This is especially jarring to someone who took part in ''kolędas''.
542* Potatoes were once considered to be heinously poisonous. This is because they actually are... if you eat the fruit or leaves. The ''tubers'', on the other hand, are perfectly fine as long as they're not too green.
543* Similarly, it was once widely assumed among Europeans that tomatoes were poisonous for the understandable reason that people consistently got very sick after eating them. As it turns out, this wasn't because of the tomatoes themselves; they were eaten off of lead plates, and the tomatoes' acidic juice absorbed some of the lead.
544* Many of the educated people who have developed pseudoscientific theories and/or reject accepted scientific consensus do so because they take facts they know and extrapolate them to a completely wrong conclusion, unaware that there are facts they don't know and that what they do know is often a very simplistic explanation useful for teaching students or the public [[LiesToChildren but useless for detailed study of the topic]].
545* Creator/RobertHeinlein had visited Moscow and concluded it must have a population of less than a million. He was counting by the amount of traffic (Soviet Union had relatively few private cars) and the amount of people on the streets (socialism doesn't like unemployment).
546* A few Muslim scholars have allegedly insisted Earth is flat because a round Earth would translate into a polar night, and people will starve to death during Ramadan. Well, it's indeed a problem...
547* While most people when traveling to a foreign country [[CultureClash might inadvertently assume things work the same]] as they do back home, this proved deadly in the case of [[http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ four Germans on a family vacation to the southwest of the United States, in 1997]]. It's believed that what caused them to come to a slow death in the desert were a series of logical but fatally wrong assumptions. They underestimated how rough the roads can be, might not have fully realized just how serious of a situation they were in 'til it was too late, and, most notably, it seems that they saw a military base on a map and assumed, based on their experiences in Europe, the base would be fenced and regularly patrolled. Seems like pretty sound logic unless you are in any way familiar with US desert military installations, which are seldom fenced and almost never patrolled, as the vastness and inhospitability of the terrain is adequate security.
548* The ancient Greeks thought that the brain acted like a radiator to cool one's body (''Creator/{{Aristotle}}'' is thought to be the first person to propose this idea).
549* Creator/{{Plato}} believed that the Sun was a living being: according to him, the fact that it moves, and moves on such a consistent schedule, meant that it had to be intelligent. He also argued that it was probably some kind of deity: after all, it's a perfect and unmarred sphere, and it clearly has great power. (Obviously, the technology to reveal the existence of sunspots was a long ways away.) In general, it was very common for early astronomers to assume that celestial bodies were perfect in form and shape, which was part of why the invention of telescopes (which revealed that many of them had craters, rings, spots, or objects orbiting them) proved very controversial.
550* The site [[https://www.iusedtobelieve.com/ Iusedtobelieve.com]] is full of weird things people believed as kids. The interesting thing is: many of the misbeliefs make sense even if they are wrong, such as one kid thinking only the most beautiful girls in the world would become prostitutes, as why else would people pay to have sex with them? Or things like thinking weather forecasters have PsychicPowers and that's how they could predict the weather ahead of time.
551* The cure for scurvy became LostTechnology for a period in the late 1800s because of this. Expeditions that were rich in lime juice (supposedly the perfect cure) ended in scurvy, while expeditions that had the crew eating fresh meats didn't. This led to many doctors and scientists claiming that scurvy wasn't actually a dietary problem, but rather, a form of food poisoning of unknown origin (possibly resulting from bacteria, which had been newly discovered at the time) that occurred in contaminated meat, especially when dried or preserved. After all, voyages that ate nothing but fresh meat were fine, and voyages that ate nothing but preserved meat got scurvy, so the "lime juice" cure was probably just a primitive and unproven superstition of the sort that were getting knocked down left and right in the era. In reality, scurvy is the result of Vitamin C deficiency, and said vitamin is common in... pretty much any kind of fresh food. If you eat a fresh apple or lemon or steak on a somewhat regular basis, then you can wash it down with as much dried meat as you please and never risk scurvy. The problem is that Vitamin C breaks down pretty quickly when exposed to the environment, so heavily dried or processed food tends to not carry any, and most expeditions intended to subsist entirely off dried and processed foods. This is also why lime juice stopped working; initially, lemons were used, but limes were cheaper, despite containing much less Vitamin C, and the process of juicing limes and pumping the juice around in copper pipes for months on end would destroy what little was left.
552* There's a story that German prisoners interned in a POW camp in the Midwest managed to escape, though they were caught a few days later. They were reportedly disheartened on asking how close they'd gotten to the Mexican border and learning they hadn't even made it out of the ''state'' much less the country. (Remember, the USA is '''huge'''. There are states bigger than entire European countries, and the US has 50 of them...)
553* As explained in Literature/TheGreatPtolemaicSmackdown, up until the days of Sir Isaac Newton, it was the view of every remotely credible astronomer in the Western world that the Earth sat at the center of the universe and the Sun revolved around it. Most people nowadays assume this means that [[MedievalMorons those astronomers were stupid]], or, more charitably, [[BeliefMakesYouStupid only believed in geocentricism more for philosophical or religious reasons rather than scientific ones]]. However, to the contrary, plenty of people had come up with various forms of heliocentricism since at least the time of Aristotle, and it was ''these'' theories that were widely seen as steeped in philosophical nonsense rather than observable fact (i.e. "the Earth can't be at the center because fire is a nobler element than earth" or "planets must revolve around the Sun because then they'd have perfectly circular orbits, and the heavens are perfect"). This was because astronomers had major evidence in favor of geocentricism--in particular, the concept of stellar parallax, that the stars should visibly move over the course of the year if the Earth really was in constant orbit, and the question of how people can stay on the Earth without falling off from its constant motion--that heliocentrists mostly had to ignore or brush past. Tycho Brahe in particular, probably the best astronomer of his era, revised his own solar system model to fit new discoveries, but kept the Earth at the center simply because that was what made the most scientific sense. It wasn't until telescopes had advanced enough to detect stellar parallax and Newton published his Law of Universal Gravitation that geocentricism finally stopped working as a sensible view of the world.
554* On the topic of astronomy, this trope is why many 19th century astronomers believed there were one or more planets orbiting very close to the Sun. There were irregularities in the orbit of Uranus compared to how it should have behaved according to UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton's theories on motion and gravity, which most other bodies in the solar system mostly followed. When it was discovered that the gravitational pull of the previously unknown planet Neptune was the cause of these seeming abnormalities, it was assumed that similar irregularities in Mercury's orbit were caused by one or more objects between it and the Sun. At the time, they didn't know that the model they had constructed was based on incomplete ideas about gravity, and wouldn't until UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein developed his theory of relativity.
555* Scientists used to believe that glass was a very unusual and slow-moving ''liquid''. This was mainly because really old glass windows (such as those in medieval cathedrals) are thicker at the bottom, so scientists thought that it was a liquid and gravity made it flow downwards over long periods of time. In reality, the windows were made thicker at the bottom on purpose to make them more stable and durable. This belief wasn't proven wrong until a few decades ago, so some science textbooks as late the early [[TheNineties '90s]] still state this "fact".
556* AI chatbots such as [=ChatGPT=] are good at this. If asked, they can produce a convincing-sounding short essay with appropriate-looking citations. The facts will frequently be inaccurate, and in many cases the works cited won't exist at all. The AI doesn't really have a concept of what is true or false; the only thing it is meant to do is create something that looks like the data that has been fed into it.
557** A lawyer attempted to use [=ChatGPT=] to create a legal brief and then submitted it to the court. The court was ''not amused'', because the brief cited to nonexistent cases as precedent. [[https://youtu.be/oqSYljRYDEM LegalEagle explains in detail.]]
558* Early paleontology can be quite amusing, looking back on what even the best scientists of the era thought dinosaurs looked and acted like compared to even a layperson's knowledge today. The best example are the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, state-of-the-art reconstructions of "antediluvian reptiles" such as ''Megalosaurus'' and ''Iguanodon'' which portray them as if they were wolf/monitor lizard and iguana/rhino hybrids, respectively. The supposed nose horn on the iguanodon is particularly notable--we now know that it belongs on their ''thumb!''
559* Physicist Wolfgang Pauli, reading an unclear paper, declared "Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!" — "That is not only not right, it is not even wrong!" The phrase "Not Even Wrong" has become associated both with material that is so brain-meltingly confusing that it's hard to definitely say that it's wrong because it's hard to even say what it's saying at all, and also with arguments that are this trope - when InsaneTrollLogic meets KnowNothingKnowItAll for a happy little MushroomSamba through non-sequitur valley until sensible people throw their hands up and walk away either muttering darkly or laughing at the absurdity.
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