| 1 | ->''"I detest talk of supernatural drivel. I suppose now you'll say she has [[Film/StarWarsThePhantomMenace midi-chlorians?]]"'' |
| 2 | -->-- '''Miles Edgeworth''', ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' |
| 3 | |
| 4 | A moment within a show that doesn't work within [[{{Consistency}} the conventions of the genre]]. For instance, a [[Series/HappyDays UFO abduction in a]] DomCom, [[Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim or the sudden appearance of magical elves]] in a RealRobotGenre series. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | This usually falls outside the main characters' GenreBlindness, allowing them to see and [[LampshadeHanging comment]] on how manifestly [[ThisIsReality weird]] it is. It is not, however, based on {{parody}}ing of the intrusive element (though some {{satire|ParodyPastiche}} may be involved). |
| 7 | |
| 8 | If enough of these happen and stick around, the [[GenreShift entire genre of the series may change]]. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Especially common in {{Massive Multiplayer Crossover}}s and similar mashups, since these often involve sticking [[SatireParodyPastiche characters from different genres in the same plot]]. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ScienceFiction and {{Fantasy}} also cross each other often, as they're opposite sides of the same SpeculativeFiction coin--not to mention equivalent, per [[ClarkesThirdLaw Arthur C. Clarke's third law]]. If that's the case, expect to hear the intruding elements described in terms that match the original genre (after all, to a starship captain there's NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus, only {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s). If the two sides can't play nice and one view takes over, that's either DoingInTheWizard or DoingInTheScientist; if they can live together harmoniously, it's ScienceFantasy. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | A violation of GenreConsistency. May be caused by AchievementsInIgnorance or PowerBornOfMadness. May also be the result of {{Filler}} or other {{Padding}}. A character who can consistently do this is InexplicablyAwesome. These moments are likely to be considered JumpingTheShark. See also: ArbitrarySkepticism, MagicRealism, SkepticismFailure, ThisIsReality, NewRulesAsThePlotDemands, OutOfGenreExperience. Contrast MagicAIsMagicA, MinovskyPhysics. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Examples: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 22 | * The ''Manga/BattleRoyale'' manga is fairly realistic, then out of nowhere, [[KiManipulation Ki Attacks]]. |
| 23 | * That really, ''really'' [[QuirkyWork weird]] ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' prequel manga. As an example, it's revealed the main character was created by a cult using human and monster DNA, and that the cult intended to use him to control the monster, which responds to an emotion-powered orb in the character's body. |
| 24 | * L, the master detective in ''Manga/DeathNote'', has solved the world's toughest mysteries, but he is completely stumped as to Kira's ''modus operandi'' because he doesn't believe in the supernatural -- at most, he allows that Kira must have psychic killing abilities or mental powers, but not something out of (pseudo) Myth/JapaneseMythology. When he's finally presented with evidence that ''shinigami'' are real, he has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSMtT5rQeQU screaming freak-out]] followed by a short breakdown. Light does his best to convince him there's no such thing as shinigami, while Ryuuk grins in the background. |
| 25 | ** And again [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilbCV_jk9E in the live-action movie]]: "Such things could not exist!" |
| 26 | ** Fairly early in the manga, when it looks like he's exhausted all other explanations, L does briefly consider, in a very general way, the possibility that the "Kira" phenomenon really is of some kind of divine retribution. However, after giving the facts a once-over, he concludes that the case still sounds a lot more like a human with paranormal abilities and a god complex than any god or God that he can take seriously based on present evidence. |
| 27 | ** This is especially bizarre when you consider the companion novel ''Literature/AnotherNote'', where Beyond Birthday (somehow) had The Eyes, and L knew that. (To be fair, however, this LightNovel was not written until ''after'' the series was over, and was not originally part of the canon, but absorbed into it later. So it could be considered a type of RetCon.) |
| 28 | * ''Manga/GhostInTheShell: Man-Machine Interface'' arbitrarily features a psychic who keeps astrally manifesting to the protagonist as a raccoon dog and a teenaged girl whose body is made out of a dragon, commenting on her activities in a [[TheTrickster Trickster-like]] manner. Motoko's own comment on her first manifestation is "How unscientific" (added with a footnote that it's unscientific to dismiss a phenomenon on the drop of the hat, implying that the author has his own opinions on the subject). |
| 29 | * Parodied, like many other things, in ''Manga/{{Gintama}}''; specifically, the episode where Gintoki and co. team up with the Shinsengumi to fight a supposed ghost: |
| 30 | -->'''Shinpachi:''' Could it be there's really a ghost?\ |
| 31 | '''Gintoki:''' Huh? I don't believe in things that can't be scientifically sustained like ghosts. Though I do believe in the Continent of Mu. ''(beat)'' This is ridiculous. I don't feel like goofing around with you guys. Let's go back.\ |
| 32 | '''Shinpachi:''' Gin-san.\ |
| 33 | '''Gintoki:''' Hm?\ |
| 34 | '''Shinpachi:''' What is this? ''[Gintoki is holding hands with him and Kagura]''\ |
| 35 | '''Gintoki:''' What do you mean? I was just worried that you two might be afraid or something.\ |
| 36 | '''Kagura:''' Gin-chan's hand's all sweaty, this is disgusting.\ |
| 37 | '''Gintoki:''' Huh? What are you talking about?\ |
| 38 | '''Okita:''' Ah. The woman in the red kimono. ''[the ghost in question; in this case, Okita's just {{troll}}ing them, as customary]''\ |
| 39 | ''[Gintoki leaps into a cupboard and assumes fetal position]''\ |
| 40 | '''Shinpachi:''' What are you doing, Gin-san?\ |
| 41 | '''Gintoki:''' Uh, nothing. I just saw a gate to the Continent of Mu. |
| 42 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'', which is a (slightly exaggerated) slice of life series about the trials and tribulations of a high school teacher: Onizuka is momentarily possessed by ghosts after he takes on the very stressful job of picking up the remains of those who committed suicide by jumping in front of trains. Miyabi and Fujiyoshi also meet the ghost of a child killed in a road accident, though they don't realize it after seeing a sign talking about his death. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | * ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'' is a HumongousMecha RealRobotGenre MechaShow. In the episode 2, the main character meets a fairy capable of casting illusions, reading minds and scouting souls. |
| 45 | * In ''Anime/InfiniteRyvius'', StrawVulcan Stein Heigar is quite upset when the spaceship ''Grey Geshpenst'' suddenly goes OneWingedAngel, transforming from a conventional-appearing vessel to a massive organic sphere, insisting that it violates all logic. (He is unaware that the ''Grey Geshpenst'' is a LivingShip). |
| 46 | * A startling example occurs in the second season of the ghost-and-swordmanship filled ''Anime/JubeiChan'', where it's revealed that the reason the HumanPopsicle villainess knows about 21th century customs is because upon thawing, she was raised by ''{{Talking Animal}}s.'' |
| 47 | * ''Anime/MarginalNumber4''. |
| 48 | ** It's a SliceOfLife show about [[IdolSinger idols]] in high school - until episode 3, when during a commercial shoot, the twins start having bad luck everywhere, and it turns out it might be ''demonic possession'' - [[spoiler: it's not. It's a hidden camera show, and they're trying to scare R. But they turn it around on the director, making it look like R killed the rest of them to stop the demon, became a demon himself along with L, and now they need another human sacrifice...]] |
| 49 | ** [[spoiler: Subverted again]] in the ShowWithinAShow mystery drama that the boys star in. Atom's character, a young cop, gives ArbitrarySkepticism that Rui's character is his murdered partner's ghost, but accepts it - [[spoiler: but it was a lie - the young man is the partner's nephew, joining the case to catch the real murderer - Atom's character]]. |
| 50 | ** Lighter example - Rui is fond of saying this about things like Atom's [[GoodLuckCharm lucky underwear]]. |
| 51 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ'' is a sci-fi MechaShow. Several times [[TheHero Kouji Kabuto]] has said (in the original manga) that he does not believe in ghosts or living corpses. Then in a {{Crossover}} movie with ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', he accidentally awakens a demon and spends the remain of the movie finding and fighting demons and devils. |
| 52 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' has a hard science fiction setting for most of its run, yet when [[spoiler:Naze is dying from a railgun barrage, the spirit of his wife Amida (who died moments earlier) suddenly appears to cradle his body]]. It's not a bad thing though, as it only [[RuleOfSymbolism makes the scene feel that much sadder]]. |
| 53 | * Back when the {{masquerade}} was still in place in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Chisame remarked on pretty much every development with this attitude. |
| 54 | * ''Franchise/{{Patlabor}}'' featured two episodes that clashed with the show's otherwise stringent policy of depicting "real life, but with robots:" One with a prehistoric [[{{Kaiju}} giant monster]], and another with a haunted building full of ghosts. |
| 55 | ** There were a few other giant monsters, as well. Though all of them had sorta-scientific rationales behind them, they still stretched the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief by playing fast & loose with the SquareCubeLaw (more so than the relatively modest sized HumongousMecha of the title, anyway). The first OAV featured a giant monster that was created by a MadScientist doing experiments on abiogenesis that somehow [[EvolutionaryLevels rapidly evolved]] from an amoeba to a humanoid Kaiju that inexplicably had [[TheBigGuy Yamazaki's]] face. The TV series had a Patlabor sized giant rat created by growth hormone experiments and the monster from the 3rd movie, which was a grotesque giant zombie/fish thing created from genetically altered human cancer cells and alien DNA from a meteor. |
| 56 | ** The prehistoric monster story also played with the unreality by having hyper-rational ButNotTooForeign cop Kanuka Clancy insisting the creature must be some sort of dinosaur and practically using the trope quote as a MadnessMantra, while dreamy GenkiGirl Noa insists on calling "him" a dragon. It's "him" according to Noa because "He had a deep voice". |
| 57 | * Inverted in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', when Kyubey, [[spoiler: who acts like a demon by making [[DealWithTheDevil Faustian Pacts]], [[UnreliableNarrator claims]] to be from [[RecycledINSPACE space.]]]] Although in this case ''both'' interpretations can work at the same time if you consider the show to take place in [[spoiler:a CosmicHorrorStory universe]]. |
| 58 | * ''Anime/SailorMoon'' was, most of the time, a MagicalGirl show set in the modern day, where the only non-ordinary elements are the Sailor Team itself and the season-specific villain faction. The [[BeachEpisode beach episodes]] (once a season), however, were strange exceptions: episode 20 had Usagi, Ami and Rei confronted by an (apparently) real ghost, not connected to the Dark Kingdom in any way [[spoiler:it is actually the result of little esper girl manifesting something she couldn't control]]. Episode 67 featured no villains and thus no need for the girls to use their powers, instead presenting a couple of living ''plesiosaurs''. Seriously. |
| 59 | ** Episode 67 had so little to do with the overall plot, it was actually left out of Creator/ADVFilms' DVD releases of the series. The DVD release simply skips over it. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 63 | * The ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' book, ''Asterix and the Falling Sky'', features two groups of ''aliens'' fighting for control of the magic potion. With Franchise/{{Superman}} clones. And lasers. In an otherwise LowFantasy version of AncientRome. |
| 64 | * Some of the humor in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' comes from LampshadeHanging on things that are too ridiculous for its universe, such as [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant ants]]. This really comes into play, however, when Robo fights the talking raptor Dr. Dinosaur, who claims to have time-traveled from the death of the dinosaurs with a [[PowerCrystal crystal-powered time machine]]. Robo points out the grossly bad science in this backstory before pointing out that Dr. Dinosaur is probably just a genetic experiment gone wrong (which is implied to be true). At the same time, whenever Robo lampshades how ridiculous, or in defiance of the laws of physics Dr. Dinosaur's plans are, ''they always work''. |
| 65 | ** In a fit of DramaticIrony, there ''is'' a science to Dr. Dinosaur's time travel... [[spoiler: none other than Robo's own personal theory of zorth, the fifth cardinal direction.]] |
| 66 | * {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' #600, where Patriot of the ComicBook/YoungAvengers meets Rikki Barnes, the dimension-hopping AlternateUniverse granddaughter of ComicBook/BuckyBarnes. He notes how implausible her back story is, but then accepts it after remembering that one of his best friends is a teenage [[TimeTravel time traveler]]. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}''. The eponymous OccultDetective discovers that Aliens exist the hard way when they try to [[spoiler: give him an AnalProbing]] in "Buster Oakley Gets His Wish". |
| 68 | * In the chapter of ''[[ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen The Black Dossier]]'' that deals with Les Hommes Mysterieux, it's specifically mentioned that team leader, air pirate Jean Paul Robur from ''Literature/RoburTheConqueror'' and ''Literature/MasterOfTheWorld'', specifically avoided using cavorite for his flying ships, instead developing heavier than air flight, for exactly this reason. |
| 69 | * In one ''Ramba'' story, Ramba (an assassin who normally takes on gangsters, drug dealers, terrorists, etc.) encounters cultists who are summoning a demon. She steals their magic book and uses a spell from it to transform her cat into a monster that battles the demon. This is the only appearance of the supernatural in the entire series. |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is mostly just a very exaggerated FilmNoir, except for the mute characters, Miho and Kevin. Both are implied to be supernatural entities of a type (confirmed via WordOfGod), though what they are exactly (aside from Miho being good and Kevin being evil) is never explained. |
| 71 | * ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': |
| 72 | ** In the story ''Flight 714'', we had a [[spoiler:thrilling hijack plot and Tintin and Co. being trapped on a remote island. And then out of the blue... Aliens!]] |
| 73 | ** "Tintin in Tibet" reveals that the [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Yeti]] really exists. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 77 | * In ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', TheCowl of the title seems to live in [[ArbitrarySkepticism surprisingly strong denial]] of the weirder side of his LowFantasy world, refusing to admit in the existence of things like aliens or magic when he keeps several monsters (a {{unicorn}}, a [[LivingDinosaurs stegosaurus]] and a family of primeval humanoids) as pets or his ancestors' journals discuss one ancestor who used magic to regenerate his gouged-out eyeballs. |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 81 | * Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' when aliens are introduced into the new episode of the show. Rhino is shown looking particularly unimpressed by the changes. |
| 82 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' is the story of a NatureHero raised by {{Talking Animal}}s. There are no supernatural elements in the story. This carries on to ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan'', the [[RecycledTheSeries TV spin-off]]... until an episode introduces Queen La, a villain with magical powers. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 86 | * ''Film/{{Blade}}'' has this to anyone one not familiar with the [[AdaptationDisplacement original comic book]]. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]] are explained in DoingInTheWizard fashion (vampirism is a literal virus, they are burned by UV light, they react to garlic but not to crosses, etc) then in the film climax [[spoiler:the BigBad uses a mystic ritual to become the avatar of the vampire's blood god to issue the [[ZombieApocalypse vampire apocalypse]]]]. Despite this he is still killed in a mundane manner. |
| 87 | * ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'', where the Immortals were revealed to be [[spoiler:aliens from the planet Zeist]]. |
| 88 | * The case in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. On one hand, this was the film which introduced [[spoiler:interdimensional alien beings]] into a series which had firmly rested on the magical side of MagicVersusScience. |
| 89 | * ''Film/JamesBond'' movie ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' introduces supernatural elements in a film series that had never gone anywhere near the subject before (or since). The BondGirl Solitaire is a fortuneteller whose precognitive power is directly [[VirginPower tied to her virginity]], the main villain Dr. Kananga appears to be in his 30's but mentions how Solitaire's grandmother worked for him when ''she'' was a virgin, and his henchman Baron Samedi [[spoiler:''actually comes back from the dead'' like the deity he's named for/impersonating/possibly ''is'']]. |
| 90 | * ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' has [[spoiler:an alien abduction scene set in a decidedly non SciFi context]]. It has [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment little bearing on the plot and never comes up again]], which is [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools oddly appropriate]] in a movie explicitly about InsaneTrollLogic. |
| 91 | * ''Film/{{Scream}}'': |
| 92 | ** In [[Film/Scream2022 the fifth film]], the FinalGirl Sam frequently has visions of [[spoiler:her dead father, the [[Film/Scream1996 first film]]'s killer Billy Loomis]], including a scene during the climax where he points her to a weapon that she can use. Whether these visions are hallucinations caused by her [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness mental instability]] or an actual SpiritAdvisor is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane never explained]], but until then, the series had always grounded itself firmly in reality, playing as a DeconstructiveParody of what would ''actually'' happen if somebody carried out a SlasherMovie killing spree, without any elements that could even be slightly interpreted as supernatural. |
| 93 | ** ''Film/ScreamVI'' leans towards the "mundane" by showing Sam going to therapy and taking medication that has subdued her hallucinations, implying that her visions were chiefly due to mental illness. |
| 94 | ** It also happened in-universe with the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab]]'' films, where the fifth movie had a TimeTravel storyline that one character describes as the point where the series [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]]. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 98 | * Enoch Root in ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' appears to not age in the half century between his appearances in both the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII era and the modern era. In ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle'', this is elaborated upon, but to someone just reading Cryptonomicon the presence of this unaging man sees pretty much no explanation. |
| 99 | * ''Literature/TheDecameron'' suffers from this in one tale, where the mundane medieval setting is disturbed by an actual vision of Hell. |
| 100 | * Creator/DennisWheatley's adventurer the Duc de Richlieau debuted in a non-paranormal adventure novel. However, Wheatley featured de Richlieau in the novel ''Literature/TheDevilRidesOut'' (1934) where he encounters the modern wizard Damien Mocata, who has actual paranormal powers. The Duc de Richlieau would alternate between paranormal adventures such as ''Strange Conflict'' and ''Gateway to Hell'' and mundane adventures such as ''The Golden Spaniard'', ''Codeword-Golden Fleece'', ''The Second Seal'', ''The Prisoner in the Mask'', ''Vendetta in Spain'' and ''Dangerous Inheritance''. Wheatley's character Gregory Sallust also features in a novel in which Satanism plays a part, ''They Used Dark Forces'' though the supernatural events in this are only peripheral and it is mainly a spy story. |
| 101 | * In ''Literature/{{Dexter}}'''s third installment, wherein the Dark Passenger which joins the titular serial killer in his "fun" [[spoiler: is pretty much proved to be some sort of primordial creature that comes to certain humans during times of great emotional pain instead of just being part of a (completely understandable) dissociative disorder.]] |
| 102 | * The ''first'' time the Doctor pulled a WhereIWasBornAndRazed, in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novels, the absence of the Time Lords allowed magic to gain a foothold in the universe. So the Doctor has sex with a [[TheFairFolk Fair Folk]]-esque water nymph who wants to trap him in her realm, and gets horribly injured in several magical rituals. What, were they trying to ''literally'' [[DoingInTheScientist Do in the Scientist]]? Also, he has to get married to save the world, [[AWizardDidIt because magic]]. This almost resulted in him marrying a thirteen-year-old girl, although, reassuringly, not only is consummating it never brought up, the {{UST}} between him and the grown woman he does end up marrying remains just that. Amazingly, he's [[IronWoobie never seen complaining about all this damn magic making his life worse]]. You can, of course, ignore all of this, and assume the Doctor's (apparent) TraumaInducedAmnesia is preventing him from giving the [[BlatantLies perfectly scientific]] [[TechnoBabble explanations]] he has for apparent magic in ''The Daemons'', "The Shakespeare Code" etc. |
| 103 | * The ''Literature/EightySeventhPrecinct'' novel ''Ghosts'' involves the paranormal, and in ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' notes this serves as a detriment to the novel as a detection. |
| 104 | * ''Literature/GarrettPI''. In ''Angry Lead Skies'', Garrett's already-GenreBusting world of fantasy noir is intruded upon by strange Visitors which the reader (but not the characters) will quickly recognize as Grey-like space aliens. |
| 105 | * In the book ''The Great Detectives'', Walter Gibson wrote an article of reminiscence on his work on Literature/TheShadow, and he noted that some stories approached or crossed into science fiction, while other Shadow stories stood as conventional crime thrillers. |
| 106 | * The collection of short stories known as ''TheInformers'' is mostly just plausible tales about quirky characters in Los Angeles...except for the one about a vampire. |
| 107 | * Used in the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series. The way the Hell-Hole in Space works, and what happens to someone who goes through it, are nothing like anything else that happens in the series, and do not make sense even in terms of the most far-out reaches of the series's mental or physical science. Up until this point everything that happens is basically a more extreme version of something that has happened before, but the Hell-Hole in Space is on a different track altogether. Even the description of it flounders, and resorts to using words like "binding" and "geas". The literal invocation of ThePowerOfLove as a DeusExMachina to put right what the Hell-Hole put wrong could also be considered as this; it is presented as an aspect of the series's mental science, but if that segment was read in isolation with the characters' names changed the connection would not be at all obvious. |
| 108 | * Some of the ''Literature/MillyMolly'' books imply that the girls can ''[[SpeaksFluentAnimal understand animals]]'', such as when the plovers tell them, "Don't let them fell our trees!". However, in other books, plus the entire TV series, this is never brought up, even when it would've come in useful. |
| 109 | * ''Literature/{{Mog}}'': |
| 110 | ** In "Mog and the Granny", Mog has PsychicPowers and can use them to know where Debbie is. |
| 111 | ** In "Goodbye, Mog", Mog apparently [[spoiler: dies and comes back as a ''ghost'']]. Even weirder, [[spoiler: she comes back ''again'' as a flesh-and-blood cat in the next book.]] |
| 112 | * Some paperback original heroes of the 1970s such as ''Literature/ThePenetrator'' switched back and forth from mundane gangster foes to enemies with technology that outpaced the 20th century. |
| 113 | * The ''Literature/PureDead'' series has this kind of moments. Its mostly about fantasy, but the second book introduces ''cloning''. Given how it was handled (basically the clones were incubated in a duck corpse and ended up as being small sized, red versions of the humans that they were cloned from) it hardly matters. |
| 114 | * James Lee Burke's ''Robicheaux'' series featured the paranormal in the book and film ''In the Electric Mist (With the Confederate Dead)''. |
| 115 | * Leslie Charteris' ''Literature/TheSaint'' rarely encountered the paranormal, as he mostly had mundane adventures facing blackmailers, gangsters, kidnappers, and so forth. He encountered advanced technology sought by Dr. Rayt Marius (a [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup no plans, no back-up]] situation) in ''The Last Hero'', oversized ants in ''The Man Who Liked Ants'', machine to produce gold, advanced aeronautics, zombies, and the Loch Ness Monster. The anthology ''The Fantastic Saint'' collects most of these stories. |
| 116 | * The ''Literature/SkylarkSeries'' by Creator/EEDocSmith may get extremely far-fetched with the science, but it was always science, or at least plausibly something ''like'' science. Then came the series finale, in which the collective witches of the universe got together with the main heroes to turn their collective magical willpower to overcoming the villains' telepaths and [[spoiler:transporting a whole solar system into another galaxy, which is then set on fire to burn for a thousand years]]. May have some of the details off there, but it was not a little disconcerting, what with the effective MoodWhiplash. |
| 117 | * ''Literature/TheShipWho'' series is solidly science fiction, though the hardness of it varies DependingOnTheAuthor and minor, limited PsychicPowers are sometimes evident. In the final novel, ''The Ship Who Won'', a [[BrainsAndBrawn brainship and her brawn]] who like to pass the time {{LARP}}ing high fantasy, encounter a society of mages and magesses who ride flying chairs and teleport, without evidently using machines. No questions asked, [[KnightInShiningArmor Keff]] immediately decides that magic exists. [[TheSpock Carialle]] is more skeptical and disbelieving, thinking that there must be an explanation. |
| 118 | * The final Literature/DocSavage novel ''Up From Earth's Center'' has Doc clashing with someone who might have a demon and visiting somewhere that might have been Hell. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 122 | * ''Series/SevenDays1998'' mostly deals with TimeTravel. Said TimeTravel equipment came from a crashed alien ship, so it's sci-fi. Then there's the episode in which the main character stops a nuclear war started by ''{{Satan}}.'' |
| 123 | * ''Series/AccordingToJim'' is, for the most part, a realistic SitCom. However, in the episode after [[CousinOliver the twins]] were born, {{Satan}} comes to collect Jim's soul, resulting in Cheryl hating him. (ItMakesSenseInContext.) The episode's plot then revolves around him trying to win Cheryl's heart back. [[spoiler: Of course, it was AllJustADream, so this might be a SubvertedTrope.]] |
| 124 | * The ''Series/BabylonFive'' follow-up ''[[Film/BabylonFiveTheLostTalesVoicesInTheDark The Lost Tales]]'' introduces a demon into what had until then been a fairly hard sci-fi universe (apart from souls and reincarnation being implicitly real). The fans were not pleased. |
| 125 | * ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' was ''supposed'' to be a fairly realistic drama about lifeguards, but it quickly began having plots that could have come straight from cheesy action movies, featuring casino heists, international assassins, shootouts with pirates, and oh-so-many jewel thieves. There are also a handful of episodes where supernatural phenomena like ghosts, UFO abductions, and MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Christmas elves appear and then are never mentioned again. |
| 126 | ** The spinoff ''BaywatchNights'' centered around Sgt. Garner Ellerbee and [[Creator/DavidHasselhoff Mitch Buchannon]] starting a detective agency and was a fairly realistic crime show. Then the low ratings prompted the producers to ditch Ellerbee, [[GenreShift turn the show into an]] ''[[Series/TheXFiles X-Files]]'' ripoff and have David Hasselhoff fighting aliens and mutants. |
| 127 | * ''Series/{{Benson}}'' was generally a perfectly straightforward sitcom, but it had a few episodes like this, like the time the mansion staff acquires a robot, the one where Benson and the Governor have a Close Encounter with a U.F.O., and the Halloween episode where Benson ends up challenging Death to a game of Trivial Pursuit to save the lives of a busload of children. Plus there was the [[AllJustADream dream sequence]] episode where Benson and Krauss are the only two humans left on Earth. |
| 128 | * ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' was a fairly normal prime-time soap opera. The third season ChristmasEpisode had two angel narrators (who were a CorruptedCharacterCopy of the angels from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'') trying to figure out a way to save the main characters because, as a result of their relationship drama, they put themselves on a bus which was set to collide with a truck being driven by a drunk driver. At the moment of collision, the bus and the truck just magically moved right through each other. |
| 129 | * '' Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is realistic except for one closing scene where a couple of aliens propose to come to Earth and eat people. |
| 130 | * The "Leap of Faith" episode of ''Series/BlueBloods'' has both the identity of the murderer and an important bit of evidence revealed through the daughter of the VictimOfTheWeek getting messages from {{God}} in an otherwise realistic CopShow. |
| 131 | * The ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorMazeyDay Mazey Day]]" is about the titular actress becoming a recluse after a mysterious accident while filming a TV series in Europe and a paparazzo trying to get a photograph of her post-reclusion since it will be worth a ton of money. So far, so good. But when Mazey is finally found in person, the twist of the episode turns out to be that she was [[spoiler:bitten by a werewolf and is turning into one. Essentially turning the episode into UrbanFantasy]]. The sudden GenreShift can feel too jarring to be taken seriously since all the other ''Black Mirror'' episodes, even the most experimental ones, remained mostly consistent within the boundaries of the Thriller and Science Fiction genres. |
| 132 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}'': |
| 133 | ** Booth, at one point, is trapped in a room with a bomb, and a door that he's not strong enough to open on his own. He's also hallucinating a soldier buddy that he knows is dead, that he calls a hallucination several times to further reinforce the point. Long story short, he convinces the ''hallucination'' to help him open the door, thereby escaping death by explosion. And if you're thinking that he summoned up some HeroicWillpower, at the end of the episode, the Squints, a team composed ''entirely'' of genius-level academics, points out that the door ''really was impossible for one man to open''. Eventually, [[spoiler: the hallucination is explained by Booth's brain tumor, but the mystery of the door is left unsolved.]] At the very end of the episode, when Booth and Bones visit the gravesite Bones is shown actually seeing and acknowledging the ghost of the dead soldier, but since she was apparently never shown a photo of the deceased, she never realizes she's seen someone who is dead. |
| 134 | ** A crossover later shows that ''Bones'' takes place in the same continuity as ''Series/SleepyHollow'', so. |
| 135 | * A Halloween special of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' has Eric, in typical Eric fashion, convinced that Jack's new girlfriend is a witch. As it turns out, [[SkepticismFailure she is a witch]], and the episode builds to the attempted ritual sacrifice of Jack and Shawn. Then Eric hooks up with [[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch Sabrina]], who turns Shawn into a toad. (Another episode featured Sabrina, as part of a crossover, but all she did was set off a FormulaBreakingEpisode -- set in the 1940s due to a magical time warp -- with no other supernatural elements.) |
| 136 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffy has fought robots several times, with a robot decoy of Buffy being significant in the sixth season premiere, despite the show being virtually entirely focused on magic and demons and the like. ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has as well, though less frequently and in a less important role. WordOfGod is that they're supposed to represent MagicPoweredPseudoscience enabled by the warped physics of the Hellmouth. |
| 137 | * ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': |
| 138 | ** The series generally goes for MaybeMagicMaybeMundane but in the episode "Time Will Tell" it seems to go for this involving time travel as the series of events makes no sense without it. Generally [[AgentMulder Castle]] has to try and come up with a rather convoluted series of events in order for it to be possible but yet in this case [[AgentScully Beckett]] couldn't come up with a logical series of events that worked. This is especially true when the supposed time traveler just disappears from lockup. [[spoiler: There was also the ending in which she spills her coffee on a letter that was a key piece of evidence and it matches the stain from a picture of that letter held by the killer.]] |
| 139 | ** As for the chain of events: [[spoiler: Featuring a plot somewhat similar to ''Film/TheTerminator'' with elements of ''Film/TwelveMonkeys''; the killer, Ward, had supposedly traveled back in time to look for a budding physicist named Deschile who would eventually develop a future technology that would win a future war according to Doyle, who supposedly traveled back in time to stop him. The starting point for Ward is a letter sent by Deschile to a present day physicist with a stain that matches Beckett's coffee spill at the end of the episode. The problem with that is that Ward kills the first victim of the episode in order to find her brother, who was the physicist that inspired Deschile. Why would he do this if he already had stolen the letter from said physicist? Beckett's final explanation also doesn't work. Ward was supposedly an anti-technology nut who tried to kill Deschile for stopping him from blowing up a technology seminar. The letter would be irrelevant there. The fact that both appear in the same psych ward doesn't really help as Doyle claims it will be a future mission. Doyle disappearing twice without warning, once from lockup, also helps his argument.]] |
| 140 | ** And in "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the murder of the week appears to have been committed by a telekinetic, as a pair of girls were videochatting with the victim at the moment of her death, and saw her thrown around by an invisible force. Investigation uncovers other incidents of apparent TK, [[spoiler: but when they finally pin down who was responsible for the incidents he claimed to have done it all with wires and magnets and such. The real MindScrew? Beckett tells Castle at the very end that CSU had extensively swept the crime scenes, and there weren't any wires or magnets or anything else that could be used to fake those incidents.]] |
| 141 | * ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' was a light-hearted murder mystery programme which involved a lot of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s but nothing actually unbelievable. Except that one episode where the murderer was an honest-to-gods ''vampire''. Who died when she telekinetically flew herself into a chair leg. And was never spoken of again. There was also that other episode with a psychic woman, and we never got an explanation for her predictions, so yep, psychic abilities exist in this universe. |
| 142 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' slowly crossed the line from at least trying to sound scientific at all times to allowing the supernatural (though usually calling it something else). The dividing line is probably The Key To Time stories in the Tom Baker Years, which introduced [[PowersThatBe the White and Black Guardians.]] |
| 143 | ** Perhaps best exemplified in ''The Impossible Planet'', where the Doctor encounters a being that claims to be the Devil (not ''a'' devil, but ''[[{{Satan}} THE]]'' [[{{Satan}} Devil]]). The Doctor refuses to believe it, theorizing that it's just some SufficientlyAdvancedAlien trying to sound impressive. The episode leaves the whole matter [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguous]]. |
| 144 | ** Also nicely mocked in "The Girl in the Fireplace," where the Doctor gives the usual TechnoBabble explanation for portals to 18th century Paris in a spaceship, before admitting he made it up just because he didn't want to say "magic door." |
| 145 | * Gradually took over the show in ''Series/FamilyMatters'', with the many and varied inventions of Steve Urkel. It started as a middle-class SitCom starring predominantly black characters. However, after Urkel's ascent to popularity and building of gadgets, rather than this feeling out-of-place it was effectively {{retool}}ed to become the Wacky Adventures Of Steve Urkel, Harmless But MadScientist. |
| 146 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' established that various ReligionIsMagic powers and EnlightenmentSuperpowers existed in its world almost immediately, but for the most part treated them like other sci-fi treats psychic powers so they don't usually stand out too much. The main exceptions are the episodes where the crew goes up against the evil wizard Maldis, where it suddenly turns into a straight-out fantasy story. Maldis deliberately using a gothic aesthetic in-universe doesn't help. |
| 147 | * During the last few episodes of ''Series/{{Felicity}}'', a to-that-point relatively tame romantic drama about college life, the main character began to wonder whether or not she'd chosen the right man in her life. So her friend cast a spell that sent her back in time a few years. No, really. |
| 148 | * One episode of ''Series/GetSmart'' had a brief appearance of what seemed like a ghost. |
| 149 | * An episode of ''Series/GuidingLight'' actually featured a character gaining superpowers after a freak accident with Halloween decorations. |
| 150 | * Apparently, the ''Series/HappyDays'' universe contains [[Series/MorkAndMindy wacky aliens]]. Good to know? It actually makes the spinoff cartoon with the alien girl a little less nonsensical. |
| 151 | * Mild example in a HalloweenEpisode of ''Series/HawaiiFive0'', which has a main plot involving around a creepy, yet realistic story where the team pursues a serial killer involved in black market organ sales. However, the episode also strongly implies that a series of misfortunes that hit Danny are due to him being cursed after trespassing on an ancient Hawaiian burial ground, and it's also implied at the end of the episode that the woman who recommended an apartment to him (that he's able to get for cheap due it belonging to one of the murder victims) is in fact a ghost. |
| 152 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' parodies this. The entire show is ridiculous, but it focuses almost entirely on the (physically-possible if really unlikely) exploits of a group of mundane, if wacky, modern-day New Yorkers. But every so often they throw in a one-shot gag about {{time travel}}, [[RuleOfFunny just because]]. Possibly explained by the show's FramingDevice being an UnreliableNarrator. |
| 153 | * In ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'', the world was relatively mundane, aside from the main character and his affliction. David Banner mainly faced off against gun-toting thugs and other criminals, and the only super-powered person he ever encountered was [[EvilCounterpart another person like himself]], who had undergone a similar overdose of gamma radiation. Then, six years after the show ended came the first telemovie, ''The Incredible Hulk Returns'', which included a magical hammer summoning the spirit of a long-dead viking warrior. (By comparison, Kingpin's ninja squad and hoverchair in ''The Trial of the Incredible Hulk'' were downright normal) |
| 154 | * ''Series/{{JAG}}'' usually kept itself grounded in something resembling reality... except for the episodes involving Mac's psychic powers and Bud's near-death experience. And then there was that one time a villainous plan involving a fake ghostly vision was foiled by the appearance of a real ghost. |
| 155 | * In ''Series/LogansRun'', Logan and Jessica don't just deal with Sandmen, leftover technology, and strange little civilizations Outside; there are episodes with aliens, people with psychic powers, and even magicians trying to resurrect one of their own. (The desperation of the writers was pretty palpable with this last.) Interestingly, the setting-logical idea of mutants is never brought up, except in a perfunctory manner. |
| 156 | * Invoked on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' every time the current plot elements shift from pseudo-scientific discussions and theories to mythological and religious elements. Which happens quite often. |
| 157 | * Aliens once appeared in an episode of ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}''. So did Sasquatch. And a Soviet psychic. Also, Time Travel. To medieval Scotland. To save his ancestor. It was AllJustADream, OrWasItADream |
| 158 | * ''Series/TheMagician'' was a show about a MagicianDetective where all of the trickery was achieved by sleight of hand. But "The Illusion of the Fatal Arrow" features a woman with genuine psychic abilities: the only example of anything genuinely paranormal in the whole series.[[note]]The episode was made in the early 70s when parapsychology was an emerging field of huge interest in popular science[[/note]] |
| 159 | * ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' had aliens as a plot element in one episode, and also the whole trip to England plot arc which was based on a 17th century curse by a witch. By this point though the show had basically become a live-action cartoon that ran on NegativeContinuity and thus these episodes were largely brushed off by fans. |
| 160 | * The early 1980s detective series ''Series/MattHouston'' had one episode where a faked alien abduction was somehow involved in a crime the eponymous hero was investigating. Then, at about the 3/4 mark of the show, Houston, driving by himself, is actually abducted by the stereotypical little gray buggers. He doesn't remember it happening, there's no witnesses, and it has no effect whatsoever on the plot of the episode, and is never mentioned again. |
| 161 | * In the infamous ''Series/MiamiVice'' episode "Missing Hours," the otherwise normal TV series sees a lot of weirdness, including Trudy getting abducted by an alien (played by Music/JamesBrown) and Crockett and Tubbs later seeing a UFO. |
| 162 | * ''Series/MidnightCaller'' was generally a serious, realistic drama, except for the episode "Do You Believe In Miracles?" in which a statue of baby Jesus [[TearsFromAStone starts crying]]. This is never explained, and is implied to be a genuine miracle. |
| 163 | * In a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, ''Series/MissionImpossible'' had exactly one episode that featured genuine supernatural activity and a woman with real psychic powers: "Zubrovnik's Ghost" in first season. |
| 164 | * ''Series/NaturallySadie'' was teen drama/sitcom about a girl coping with the vagaries of high school life. Except for the episode "Ghouls Just want To Have Fun" which featured Hal's girlfriend Tabitha handing out wristbands that turned people into zombies. |
| 165 | * The fourth season finale of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' (a show that is usually firmly grounded in reality) has a doctor encounter a little girl who was heavily implied to be the [[TheGrimReaper Angel of Death]]. |
| 166 | * Likewise, recent episodes of ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' have shown Pride having visions of a mysterious beautiful woman who is apparently the Angel of Death. Her words have accurately presaged certain events (albeit in cryptic fashion), implying that she really does exist. |
| 167 | * ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfRobinHood'' was mostly a ''Series/{{Xena|Warrior Princess}}'' homage Fantasy, but the episode "Dragon from the Sky" was about an alien crash-landing in Sherwood and repairing his spaceship in time before the Sheriff dissected him. |
| 168 | * This was basically what [[{{Pun}} torpedoed]] ''Series/SeaquestDSV''. The first season was fairly hard scifi with plots that revolved around real oceanic phenomenon. Then in the second season ExecutiveMeddling forced the introduction of outlandish soft scifi stories; including the god Poseidon being real, time travel, and aliens. The How Unscientificness of it pissed off Creator/RoyScheider so much that he left the show. |
| 169 | * ''Series/SeeingThings'': This light-hearted 1980s Canadian dramedy was usually squarely in the MundaneFantastic camp. It had a single fantastic element: Toronto Gazette reporter Louis Ciccone suddenly starts manifesting precognitive flashes, which allow him to uncover and solve the show's typical mystery-of-the-week mysteries. However, in one very out-of-character episode, a mysterious, befuddled old man found wandering the streets of Toronto and claiming to be an alien actually turns out to BE an alien, complete with anti-gravity levitation powers and a laser battle with hostile reptilian aliens in a Toronto park. |
| 170 | * ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' was obviously science-fiction to begin with, with the premise of sliding between worlds. Spirituality and psychic phenomena (over which some worlds are depicted as having overt control) came under its domain in short order. ''Then'', all of a sudden, they find themselves in a world of wizards, shapeshifters, dragons, and what can only be described as magic. Scientists Quinn and Professor Arturo, to their credit, are genuinely baffled by this. Quinn's analysis gets as far as something about string theory and fundamentally different laws of physics, but by that time, he is also tempted to settle on "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} More things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio...]]" |
| 171 | ** Arturo dismisses not being meant to understand as "blasphemy", but by the end, the events of that particular world force him to admit that, somehow, the system apparently works and he can roll with it. |
| 172 | * ''Series/SpecialUnit2'' was a short-lived UPN drama that worked from the idea that all the monsters of myth were just evolutionary off-shoots from existing species. Then came the episode where a "Link" so powerful he could be assumed to be the Devil sought an artifact that could grant him power if he performed a magical ritual. For a show that had been all "science we don't understand," it took a pretty damn hard turn into "magic." |
| 173 | * Japanese ''[[Series/SpiderManJapan Spider-Man]]'', episode 37 of 41. A man who specializes in the occult warns that King Enma from Hell is coming. He comes. Note that for the last 36 episodes, the series has entirely been based on sci-fi. |
| 174 | * ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' has "The Psychic," in which a man uses his psychic visions to help the police track down a kidnapped girl, and "Murder on Voodoo Island," in which HollywoodVoodoo causes Starsky to try to strangle Hutch. |
| 175 | * With the possible exception of London's level of stupidity, ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' was completely realistic, but its sequel series ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' introduced supernatural elements and at one point crossed over with ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. Admittedly, there were two episodes in the original series that implied a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]] and a visit to an AlternateUniverse were real in their [[TheStinger credit scenes]]. |
| 176 | * In the second season of ''Series/TwinPeaks'', Major Briggs's experience with Project Blue Book is often alluded to. The context strongly suggests that if the show hadn't been cancelled, it would have veered towards science-fiction. |
| 177 | * In one episode of ''Series/TheUnit'', Kim Brown is investigated because she knew vague details of a mission which she claimed to have learned in a dream. The Colonel brings in a psychic specialist, and by the end of the episode (even though none of the characters realize it), the audience is pretty convinced that Kim is a high-level psychic medium. |
| 178 | * In the ''Series/VeronicaMars'' episode "Normal Is the Watchword" our titular heroine is saved by a hallucination of (or possibly the actual spirit of) her dead best friend Lilly. Lilly had appeared frequently the previous season (as Veronica tried to solve her murder), but it had certainly been implied she was not a literal ghost, just Veronica's way of working through her emotions and thoughts. At least until "Normal Is the Watchword", when Lilly's sudden and unexplained appearance distracted her friend from getting on a doomed bus. It is later implied that Veronica may be suffering from a neurological condition brought on by various traumas. |
| 179 | * Excluding very few anachronisms and the main character being BeenThereShapedHistory in steroids, ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' was a docutainment with a fairly realistic depiction of early 20th century history and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Until one certain episode where the main character was sent to investigate abductions in Transylvania and ended battling {{Dracula}} himself. |
| 180 | ** Which ''is'' in keeping with the supernatural events he eventually runs into as an adult. |
| 181 | ** And the original framing sequence (which was removed from the DVD release) implied that it was a ghost story that old Indy was telling to some kids on Halloween. |
| 182 | * The crossover episodes of ''Series/Warehouse13'' and ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' feel like this. The two shows had existed on the opposite sides of SpeculativeFiction ({{Fantasy}} and SciFi) until they were revealed to be the same universe. (Not even to mention the actor paradoxes.) The gap between the two shows is perfectly illustrated in the episode "13.1" by an exchange between Claudia and Fargo (paraphrased): |
| 183 | -->''[Claudia has a ring on her finger, causing her hand to glow brightly]''\ |
| 184 | '''Fargo:''' Is it somehow increasing your own bioluminescence?\ |
| 185 | '''Claudia:''' ''[shrugs]'' It used to belong to Ben Franklin! |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 189 | * Several scholars of Greek Tragedy have claimed this to be the case for the [[Theatre/OedipusRex Oedipus story]]. The confines of realistic human tragedy seem to always be at odds with the riddle-spewing, man-eating, she-beast in the backstory. |
| 190 | [[/folder]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 193 | * The 1st Edition ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'' starts out like any other fantasy dungeon-crawl of the era ... at least until the heroes enter the mysterious "cavern" -- actually the airlock of a crashed spaceship full of weird life forms and hostile robots. |
| 194 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' campaigns can very easily come across this way, due to the extent of the FantasyKitchenSink being somewhat hidden at first. On the surface, at least, the setting of Golarion seems like pretty straightforward Tolkeinian High Fantasy - elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, gods, demons, all present and correct. The technology level by default doesn't ever exceed muskets and cannon. There's teleportation and interdimensional travel but it's always portrayed in MagiBabble that squares it with the expected parameters of a High Fantasy setting. So it can be a little jarring the first time you find out that Golarion is ''also'' home to some alien lifeforms both organic and robotic that rode in on a crashing spaceship, or that some of the setting's "demigods" are actually very powerful artificial intelligences, or that one of the planets in Golarion's solar system is canonically a [[ThatsNoMoon dormant space station]], or that the planet Earth implicitly exists in the same universe and (thanks to the Public Domain) [[CosmicHorrorReveal actual literal Cthulhu]] is currently asleep beneath its oceans while Literature/BabaYaga conquered a Golarion country for the lols. |
| 195 | [[/folder]] |
| 196 | |
| 197 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2'' has for half of the game the supernatural elements in a Medieval castle that are the staple of other ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games, the other half is set in the modern world, where the player as Dracula has to face mooks in PoweredArmor, robotic enemies, genetically enhanced super-soldiers and shotgun wielding mutants. |
| 199 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', known as ''Indigo Prophecy'' in North America, has a notorious game shift toward this. What begins as a realistic murder mystery in an American city with vague supernatural elements transforms halfway through into a fantasy game featuring ancient Aztec temples and fight scenes straight out of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. |
| 200 | ** ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', another Creator/QuanticDream title, had a cut sub-plot about {{psychic powers}} in what was otherwise a very realistic FilmNoir thriller. |
| 201 | * This reaction, taken to ''extremely'' FanDumb levels (''death threats'' were involved), forced a significant change to ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic III: Armageddon's Blade'': originally the expansion pack was supposed to be centered around a ''science fiction'' faction, the Forge, and the attempts to stop it from taking over the world, but that had to be thrown out and another story quickly come up with. Whether this trope is an accurate reaction is... more complex: the ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' universe was a clear ScienceFantasy one ever since the first game in the parent series (the BigBad Sheltem was a rogue android creation of the Ancients and the world of Varn - Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle - was actually an artificial environment that was part of a larger spaceship, with your party crossing to another nacelle at the end for the next game), so looked at from that perspective the Forge was in keeping with genre conventions. The ''[[MorePopularSpinoff Heroes]]'' spinoff series, on the other hand, had previously only loosely alluded to the science fiction elements (the planet Enroth being a LostColony of the Ancients, the Kreegan "demons" being a HordeOfAlienLocusts) in ways that didn't make clear they ''were'' science fiction elements, so looked at from the perspective of those only familar with ''Heroes'' it was a breach of genre conventions. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' takes place mostly in a Myth/GreekMythology inspired fantasy world. With, the exception, of the few SpacePirates, as well as when the [[spoiler: world desroying aliens called the Aurum]] show up. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', which already featured ninjas, [[SupernaturalMartialArts superpowered martial artists]], street fighters, crime lords, secret agents, sorcerers, demons, gods, other preternatural beings, other cybernetically and bio-augmented warriors, and [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking Duck King]], entered this territory in spinoff ''The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2'' with the introduction of [[BigBad Jivatma]] and [[MysteriousWaif Luise Meyrink]] as well as the revelation that [[spoiler: the Meira brothers]] were aliens themselves. |
| 204 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' featured cow abductions and a battle against aliens despite its otherwise HighFantasy setting. |
| 205 | * ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' starts out as a FarEast version of FracturedFairyTale, including references to people who live on the moon. Sounds appropriately mystical at first, but you eventually see these people's vessels and the game portrays them as [[spoiler:spaceships]] (one - described the locals as a "metal bamboo shoot" - even looks like [[spoiler:a traditional rocket]]). The BigBad itself is [[spoiler:practically a robot]]. |
| 206 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' has several of these, usually breaking the hard end of science fiction DuringTheWar setting from certain series (like ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'') that forms the main backdrop of each story. |
| 207 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars4 Super Robot Wars F]]'', [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Master Asia]] takes out several military HumongousMecha using nothing but his own martial arts skills. [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka Langley Soryu]] [[TropeNamers utters the trope's title]]; rather hypocritical, given she comes from a series where the antagonists are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and mankind's {{Super Robot|Genre}}s have human souls residing in them. |
| 208 | ** In an official {{Yonkoma}} for ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'', Asuka repeats the line when [[Anime/GiantRobo Alberto the Shockwave]] does the same thing to an [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Angel]], although the former at least fights it to a draw. |
| 209 | ** While ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' manages to subvert this, it's played straight once a new {{Super Robot|Genre}} from a [[BeneathTheEarth subterranean world]] assists the cast with two talking cats in two. In fact, this happens so often in ''Original Generation'' that a battleship bridge operator lampshades this when he teases the vice-captain, who is thinking of leaving the ship, that he'll miss the latter's constant moments of this trope. The vice-captain doesn't know what the operator means, when he's almost hit with another out-of-this-world experience. |
| 210 | * The "silly clowns" option in ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII'', a game that takes place in a middle-eastern fantasy setting. Granted, these games basically run on AnachronismStew combined with an overabundance of cheesy gags, but this one has sight gags like a golfer in the middle of the desert. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'': [[VideoGame/Rayman1 The first game]] is a light-hearted platformer where you fight musical instruments and colorful wildlife. [[VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape The second]] has you fighting evil robot pirates who have blown up the heart of the world and enslaved all of your friends. Given the ludicrousness of the series in general though, that probably falls under MoodWhiplash more than this trope. |
| 212 | * Sega's ''VideoGame/RentAHero'', aside from the powered suit of the title character, is set in early 90s Japan where he has to deal with thugs, loan sharks, mob bosses and undergo tasks like looking for a missing child, protecting innocents, investigating cases of industrial espionage and so on. All rooted in reality, until some archeologists unearth a sarcophagus from where the spirit of an ancient pharaoh, King Glutenramen, emerges. He possesses one of the archeologists and it's up to Hero to take him to rest again. Unlike the other missions, this one is not further referenced and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment has no bearing on the overall plot.]] Also, an Egyptian sarcophagus in Japan? |
| 213 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'', [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsV Velt]]'s first comment about the [[Anime/CrossAnge Dragons]] once it's revealed [[spoiler: they're half-humans is that they're violating conservation of mass and energy.]] |
| 214 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''s Halloween events. [=TF=]2 is normally about a (not so) normal war going on between two companies, but every Halloween supernatural elements come into play. For example, in 2013 you had to send your employer's dead brother to Hell, while fending off skeletons with magic. |
| 215 | * The final Nevada level in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' is pretty consistent in theme, ranging from a high security area in the middle of a desert and transitioning to a secret government lab experimenting on aliens and have an alien spaceship locked away in a room. However, at one point, you see a pair of orcas/whales in a tank. The whales are just there without any explanation at all and they severely clash with the theme of the level. The only reason you would jump into their tank is to collect the level's last secret. |
| 216 | * In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' side manga ''Manga/TouhouIbarakasenWildAndHornedHermit'', [[PhysicalGod Kanako]] uses this trope when doing the cold fusion experiment after Reimu wonders if there would be demons or spirits emerging instead of just bubbling water. The whole use is rather [[{{Irony}} ironic]] considering they are conducting a scientific experiment in [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensokyo]], the land where everything fantastic exists. |
| 217 | * ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA'' is a gritty, if [[LargeHam cheesy]] cop story, mostly dealing with the right and wrong sides of the law, and how doing the right thing can take a backseat to vengeance at the expense of being a good guy, among other things. Except for the part where you [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment descend into the bowels of LA, confront a Japanese mystic guy, and fight off dragons composed entirely of fire that shoot skulls at you]]. And then Nick, the protagonist, ''doesn't mention it ever again''. |
| 218 | [[/folder]] |
| 219 | |
| 220 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 221 | * A lot of ''Franchise/AceAttorney'''s cases leave the unfortunate protagonist to debunk the wackier things ([[{{Flight}} Levitation]], {{Teleportation}}, TimeTravel, {{Stock Ness Monster}}s, people appearing in multiple places at the same time, etc.) that some witnesses see. In one case, the culprit uses an ''actual'' magic trick to murder the victim, create an alibi, and pin the blame on the defendant. Also, the [[WillingChanneler Spirit Media]] and [[SpookySeance Divination Séances]] are legitimate. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 225 | * Some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' have scenes implying that aliens actually exist (such as the end of "The Chips are Down" where two aliens are seen talking about how they like ballet). Even more peculiar, sometimes the alien scenes are inconsistent, such as in "D.W.'s Snow Mystery" it's shown that some aliens took D.W.'s snowball thinking it to be human food, but in "Return of the Snowball", it's shown that two ''different'', teenage aliens stole it. |
| 226 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' episode "[[Recap/DariaS3E04 Depth Takes a Holiday]]" involves Daria meeting personifications of the holidays asking her to find other missing personifications of them who have run off. Quite different for a show mostly about life in high school. Do yourself a favor and [[FanonDiscontinuity don't bring it up to fans]]. |
| 227 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': The Great Gazoo is a space alien in [[{{Stonepunk}} a modern stone age setting]]. |
| 228 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Goliath, Elisa Maza, Angela, and Bronx during their world tour arrive on UsefulNotes/RapaNui and run into Nokar, an alien sentinel who was sent by his race to protect Earth from another unmentioned race of aliens. This is a little less weird than it seems, though, as science fiction elements had been in the show from fairly early on, with cybernetics and genetic manipulation having already put in appearances. |
| 229 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': |
| 230 | ** Zigzagged in "Spell it Out" where [[{{Goth}} Lucy]] finds Great-Grandma Harriet's spell book and believes she's made [[ChildProdigy Lisa]] sticky, broken [[PhoneaholicTeenager Lori]]'s phone, made [[ThePigPen Lana]]'s butt itchy, and [[LostVoicePlot all her siblings lose their voices]]. However, it turns out that Lisa had spilled adhesive on herself, Lori's phone had simply run out of battery power, Lana's butt was itchy because she'd sat in poison ivy, and apparently, the siblings had lost their voices cheering for their grandfather, however, [[CreepyChangingPainting the picture of Great-Grandma Harriet smiles]], so it's unknown if that really happened, or if it really was magic and cheering for their grandfather was a coincidence. |
| 231 | ** In "Washed Up", a Nessie-type monster named Plessy is shown to exist. |
| 232 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has the first season episode, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]", an episode where Twilight Sparkle attempts to figure out the scientific nature of Pinkie Pie's "[[SpiderSense Pinkie Sense]]" and is driven up the wall by the fact that it doesn't make any sense at all. In later episodes it's simply accepted as fact that laws of magic and physics don't really apply to her. |
| 233 | * ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' is set around the conquistador times, and is about men in search for El Dorado, and cities full of Gold. While there are some semi-mythical elements (such as Esteban being the "Child of the Sun" and that the imperial-age Quechua Nation have fairly sophisticated fantasy-esque technology), it was always kept in the theme of the period and explained in terms of what was available at the time. Then out of nowhere, the aliens are revealed and watching the protagonists on television screens... |
| 234 | * The ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/PostmanPat'' features an old man with ''[[MindOverMatter psychokinesis]]'', who [[SantaAmbiguity might]] be SantaClaus. |
| 235 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'': [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness During the first season]], the stories are strictly SliceOfLife, with some elements exaggerated for laughs. The second season starts introducing overt fantasy storylines, such as a HalloweenEpisode in which Penny [[BecomingTheCostume turns into a real superhero]], and a camping trip into what turns out to be a LostWorld. The BigDamnMovie, which acts as a GrandFinale, has a plot about genetically engineered peanut people, a long way from the mundane plots the series began with. |
| 236 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "The Santa Experience" ends with Santa's sleigh flying off. |
| 237 | * ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' has occasionally been known to replace [[ScoobyDooHoax the guy in a monster mask]] with an actual monster. Generally, if Shaggy and Scooby are alone (or with Scrappy), the monsters are real. If Fred or Velma is there, they aren't. The films, both live-action and Direct-to-Video, usually have real monsters regardless of their cast. |
| 238 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' was primarily a sci-fi show centered around giant robots. However, there were several occasions where the plot delved into supernatural areas--in one episode they ran into a wizard in the past, in another they dealt with a Quintesson who used magic, and two episodes were devoted to Starscream's [[spoiler: ghost]]. |
| 239 | * This happens at least twice in ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'': |
| 240 | ** In Trick or Creek, the halloween special episode, introduces us to a new kid in an astronaut costume who reveals to be a ghost named No-Neck Natthew. |
| 241 | ** In The Haunted Dollhouse, the Dollhouse Boy is invoked by the Witches of the Creek after Craig and his friends by the title dollhouse. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
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