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8* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': Byakuya Togami's childhood involved him being constantly forced to compete against his half-siblings, so he easily accepts the premise of the DeadlyGame and openly declares his desire to commit murder to escape, while the protagonists are the students who realize that the game is a farce meant to psychologically torture its participants, Monokuma is the true antagonist, and ultimately the only winning move is not to play and to instead take the fight to Monokuma directly.[[spoiler: Byakuya eventually has a HeelFaceTurn after the chapter 4 case (which Byakuya, usually among the smarter students, got completely wrong because he assumed that everyone was thinking like him and that it would be completely understandable for someone to kill their supposed best friend in order to get revenge or to escape. The fact that the victim [[HeroicSuicide killed herself to save everyone]] catches him completely flatfooted) unites the students against Monokuma, which turns out for the best as the game and all of Monokuma's motives were based on false premises.]]
9* Kim Kitsuragi, your partner in ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', consistently makes predictions about the case which assume you're in a very grounded and mundane sort of detective story. He's consistently wrong, because the story you're actually in is a gonzo [[MagicalRealism magical realist]] mess where you can talk cargo containers open and a dead man can tell you how he died.
10** One especially notable example is that he insists that a pillar of magical silence is some kind of architectural quirk of the church you find it in.
11* While Monika in ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' certainly understands RomanceGame tropes are in play, she says some inappropriate things that backfire on her because she misses an important point about how the genre works. [[spoiler:She actually [[MediumAwareness knows it's a game]], and she knows the other characters are therefore not real. As a result, Monika expects the player to laugh along with her when she jokes about the horrible things that happen to the other members of the literature club when Monika hacks the game to take control of it. The whole time, Monika doesn't realise that dating sims generally want you to ''[[VideoGameCaringPotential empathize]]'' with the characters, instead of [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential toying with them for your own amusement]]. WordOfGod is [[IntendedAudienceReaction they intentionally wrote her in a way]] where the player should be ''horrified'' about what happened to the sweet and quirky members of the Literature Club, and hate Monika for forcing them through it. (This interpretation is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPw9cMWkAMs&t=3s affirmed here]].)]][[invoked]]
12* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
13** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', King Cailan establishes himself as a great admirer of the Grey Wardens, and expresses his eagerness to fight alongside them to defeat the darkspawn like in all the stories he has read. Unfortunately for Cailan, ''Dragon Age'' is [[BlackAndGrayMorality not that kind of fantasy]], and he's betrayed by his [[EvilChancellor father's oldest friend, Loghain.]] Meanwhile, Loghain himself is under the impression that he's embroiled in a web of political intrigue, with the Grey Wardens colluding with the Orlesians to take over Ferelden. In reality, all of his efforts to protect his country from foreign influence just weaken it against the real threat of the Darkspawn.
14*** It's also noted that part of Loghain's failings is that he forgot to apply the 'fantasy' part of dark fantasy and thought that the Darkspawn were basically another human nation he could defeat militarily, while this is ''not'' the case- they are very much a fantastic enemy that requires fantastic measures to defeat. Darkspawn are immune to most conventional military tactics; they don't require food or armaments so there's no supply lines to cut, they communicate in a telepathic BlackSpeech so you can't get any intelligence on them, they're practically endless so they can't be defeated by attrition, and the Archdemon [[KeystoneArmy leading them]] can't be killed except by a Grey Warden. He's so stuck in his political view of the world that he doesn't realize that all those heroic tales of Grey Wardens ending blights by defeating Archdemons in personal combat are ''absolutely true'', and there are ''very good'' reasons things are that way.
15** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', Knight Commander Meredith believes she's surrounded by abominations, doing everything she can to, in her eyes, protect the innocent from evil mages, while Anders sees himself as a revolutionary fighting for the rights of the oppressed, and Cassandra thinks Hawke is TheChessmaster who orchestrated the beginning of the mage rebellion. In reality, Hawke is an ActionSurvivor who, while extremely popular and influential in their own way, was basically along for the ride, Meredith is a literal KnightTemplar who [[ColdBloodedTorture at the very least ignores the abuse of the mages under her care]] and [[AFateWorseThanDeath overuses the Rite of Tranquility]], and Anders is an abomination who JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope and manipulated Hawke into [[spoiler: helping him perform terrorist acts.]]
16* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': When Lucina travels back in time to under her ruined future, the main antagonist Grima follows suit to thwart her under the assumption that her success would RetGone him out of existence a la ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''. However, that's not how time travel works in the Fire Emblem series, as instead these actions simply create an AlternateUniverse rather than erase the old one. If he had simply let them go nothing would have happened to him either way, but since he did follow Lucina he was instead greatly weakened, allowed for Robin to glimpse the bad future and plan around it to prevent tragedy, opened himself up to be permanently killed due to Robin sharing their power, and left the old world he conquered completely free of his influence.
17* A semi-example in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. Lamar Davis thinks he's the protagonist of a GTA game, when in reality he's the sidekick to Franklin, one of the actual protagonists; as such, he acts very impulsively and doesn't think his plans through, relying on violence, which repeatedly lands him in trouble and forces Franklin (and on occasion, Trevor and/or Michael) to bail him out of jams.
18** Another semi-example would be Stretch, a fellow hoodlum who thinks he controls Franklin and Lamar's lives. While he might qualify as Lamar's BigBad (if only because Lamar's so dumb and therefore repeatedly falls for Stretch's attempts to get him killed), he's more a BigBadWannabe otherwise, as Franklin's got much bigger problems to deal with ([[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt businessmen]], [[InterserviceRivalry warring government agencies]], and [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese gangsters]]) and often forgets Stretch even exists; he's basically tossed in as an afterthought during the "Deathwish" ending after Trevor brings him up.
19* In middle school, some of your classmates in ''VideoGame/GrowingUp'' [[HighSchoolRocks compare high school to how it's usually portrayed in TV shows]], and you can agree or disagree with them. When they actually enter high school, however, they realize that it's nothing like on TV as they face the harshness of reality. [[spoiler:This is true for Alicia and Jake, since the former's forced to volunteer for part-time hospital work while the latter develops a drug addiction and gets hurt in gang fights.]]
20* ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTheGame'': [[{{Jerkass}} Miles Chadwick]] tries to save himself from a pack of Dilophosaurs by throwing Nima to the ground and running like hell, under the impression that they'll go after the easier prey. He finds out the hard way (i.e., getting eaten alive) that ''real'' predatory animals tend to target fleeing prey that breaks from the pack, meaning that by fleeing for his life like a DirtyCoward, he just marked ''himself'' as the easy prey.
21* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
22** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', Zelda assumes she's in a standard FairyTale and is going to play the typical DamselInDistress role after her physical body is stolen, even lampshading how it's "something of a family tradition." This is one of the only games in the franchise where Zelda is playable. Needless to say, it isn't long before she finds out it's really a ComingOfAgeStory and she'll need to learn how to be an ActionGirl if she wants to get her body back.
23** Everyone in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', including Zelda herself, believes that meditation and prayer to [[PatronGod Hylia]] will awaken her divine powers. However, after ten years of training, Zelda still hasn't summoned a flicker of power. Her father thinks that [[FantasyForbiddingFather indulging in unrelated hobbies]] is keeping her from being truly devoted to her prayers, while Zelda herself hopes that her powers might come once she's finally old enough to visit the Spring of Wisdom. [[spoiler:In the end, both of them are wrong. Zelda's powers awaken when she tries to perform a HeroicSacrifice for Link, implying they're fueled by ThePowerOfLove rather than piety -- so everything she did in the last ten years wasn't actually helping to nurture her powers and may have even been holding her back.]]
24** Also in ''Breath of the Wild'', Hyrule as a whole fell victim to this in the backstory. They believed they were in for a legendary battle that would end with good triumphing over evil and prepared accordingly. They found TheChosenOne to wield the Master Sword, the princess began training from an early age to master her divine magic, and archaeologists unearthed an army of Guardians to fight with them. In reality, however, they were in the opening act of a tragedy; [[spoiler:Ganon turned the army of Guardians against them and managed to mortally wound TheChosenOne, while the princess's power awakened too late for anything but damage control]], leading to the game's AfterTheEnd setting.
25* ''VideoGame/LostJudgment'': Mami Koda joined the basketball club at Seiryo High School because of a basketball manga she used to read. Despite her inexperience in the sport, she hoped that her teammates would support her like how it happened in the manga. Unfortunately for her, her lack of experience only made her a target for bullying by her teammates that Mikoshiba himself encouraged through his intense drilling and his off-color remarks towards her.
26* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': As she investigates the arson on her mother's café and interrogates the suspects, Amelia thinks that she's acting out her favorite episodes of ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Mysteries of Miguel]]'' because she recognizes the plot beats, but sometimes, the endings don't turn out to be just like them.
27* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': Liam, being a movie buff, thinks Peebee's declaring LetsSplitUpGang might result in her death by spike pit (it doesn't), and more seriously during his LoyaltyMission, where he thinks that if you rush into a situation with [[IndyPloy no real plan]], it's still "supposed" to work because they're the heroes. What happens is everything goes seriously screwy.
28* Early on in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'', FU has the UAA establish the Galactic Superhero Rankings as a challenge to Earth. Travis Touchdown, who's [[HereWeGoAgain become weary of the usual killing game routine at this point]], reasons that he can prevent this from starting and get the invaders to leave if he kills FU right off the bat. Unfortunately for him, FU is still the game's BigBad, and things go south quickly when he gives Travis and his friends a brutal beating.
29* In ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', Issun initially believes in BeautyEqualsGoodness in regards to women. He immediately trusts Rao because of her large chest and distrusts Queen Himiko who (initially) refuses to show her face. [[spoiler: Rao has been DeadAllAlong and is impersonated by the evil Ninetails and Himiko is actually good, trying to save her city and people (and also happens to be quite beautiful).]]
30* ''VideoGame/Persona4'': Dojima is actually a fairly competent detective and manages to actually reach some of the same conclusions that the Investigation Team makes at around the same time. Unfortunately, he thinks he's in a mundane murder mystery, when there's actually UrbanFantasy mixed in, meaning that he doesn't have all the pieces since he refuses to consider the supernatural.
31* Dutch in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemptionII'' thinks himself and his gang as Robin Hood and his Merry Men who are always able to stay one step ahead of the law and is seen as chivalrous bandits to those who are oppressed. Unfortunately, due to Dutch's leadership and his own destructive tendencies, the gang is constantly on the run from authorities who are able to easily track down the gang and cause them to be feared rather than adored by the people. Dutch also attempts to fight a military patrol, thinking it would be like fighting a rival gang, only for the gang to be almost overwhelmed and killed when the rear guard shows up.
32* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has a hilarious example where the evil mastermind Saddler mocks Leon's belief that he's going to rescue Ada and save the day like the cliché AmericaSavesTheDay ending of a cheesy Hollywood movie. From the moment Saddler makes this comment, the rest of the game plays out like a cheesy Hollywood movie: Saddler goes OneWingedAngel, Leon blows him up with a bazooka after a short fight, then [[LoveInterestTraitor Ada swoops in and nabs the sample off him]] [[PetTheDog but is kind enough to leave him the keys to a jetski]] as [[CollapsingLair the island starts inexplicably blowing up]], [[OutrunTheFireball forcing Leon and Ashley to escape speeding down a tunnel away from a fiery death]], and then it all ends with Ashley flirting with Leon as they go RidingIntoTheSunset.[[note]][[CueTheSun Sunrise]] in this case.[[/note]]
33* In ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' Harry Flynn basically tells Elena that she is this. [[spoiler: This ends badly for Elena.]]
34-->'''Flynn:''' Sorry love, but this isn't a movie. And you're not the plucky girl who reforms the villain and saves the day.
35* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'':
36** Once the main characters realize that there's a killer on the loose, Emily insists to Matt that they should not go back to the lodge, as that's what he'd be expecting them to do. [[spoiler:Considering that the ''actual'' threat wasn't a slasher killer, but something far more supernatural and monstrous, the lodge was actually the safest place on the mountain.]]
37** After learning about [[spoiler:the {{wendigo}}es]], the main characters initially assume that [[spoiler:they are like [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] -- and that Emily, should she be bitten by a wendigo during her chase scene, is [[ZombieInfectee infected]]. They're wrong, but they only learn that ''after'' you're given the option to [[StakingTheLovedOne kill her]].]] Sam is the only one willing to give Emily the benefit of the doubt and tries calming the others down, and needless to say, Emily is quite justifiably ''furious'' afterwards.
38* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' has a few cases where characters new to the supernatural side of things think the world they are in works by common horror tropes. Most notable would be one of the thin-bloods, who thinks a full blood transfusion or killing the head vampire can cure him from vampirism. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential The player can milk his gullibility for all it is worth.]]
39** Another example would be when you get a mission to keep the zombie population at a local graveyard under control for a bit.
40--->'''Romero:''' Whatever you do, don't let them bite you.\
41'''Player:''' Why? Will I turn into a zombie then?\
42'''Romero:''' Nope. It just hurts like a bitch.
43%%** A third is Grünfeld Bach's view of [=LaCroix=]. Bach considers [=LaCroix=] a storybook monster, and expects him to show up to slaughter his way through the Society of St. Leopold if he pushes hard enough. However, [=LaCroix=] is a very human character -- a petty, egotistic schemer with an ego the size of a country and nothing to back it up, who happily cowers in his tower and sends his patsies out to do the heavy lifting.
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