* ''SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'':
** Anthony Hope has made a plan to elope with Johanna in order to get her away from Judge Turpin, who [[WifeHusbandry seeks to marry her despite the fact that he's raised her as a daughter]], and is making his way to Sweeney's barber shop in order to inform him of the plan. Unknown to Anthony, Turpin is paying Sweeney a visit for a shave so that he can seduce Johanna, and Sweeney has murder on his mind for Turpin.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Anthony would contact Mrs. Lovett and ask if Sweeney had a customer before barging in, or at least take a moment to ''look through the goddamn window of the shop'' before busting in.\\
'''Instead:''' He busts right into the barber shop, with Judge Turpin ''right there in the room'', in order to inform Sweeney that he's found Johanna and that she has agreed to the plan. Because Judge Turpin is in the room, this means that ''he'' has now been informed about it as well, which not only blows Anthony's plan to elope with her straight to hell, but also Sweeney's plan to kill Turpin -- and to make matters even worse for them, Judge Turpin then returns home and has poor Johanna sent to [[BedlamHouse Fogg's Asylum]] for seeking to defy him. And to make things even ''worse'', Sweeney goes from AntiHero to full on VillainProtagonist as a result of being denied his shot at vengeance. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to break it, Anthony]].
** In the setup for that scene, Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeney to be patient as he plots his revenge. "Soon, love, soon/Hush, love, hush" and all that.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Sweeney would understand that she's advising patience in ''waiting for Turpin to fall into his grasp.''\\
'''Instead:''' When Turpin ''does'' fall into his grasp that very day, he takes her advice to heart and spends a few minutes giving the guy a proper shave and singing about pretty women, leading to the scene above. "You told me to wait!" he snarls in the next song. Um, yes, Sweeney, she told you to wait for Turpin to come to you, ''not'' to waste time once his throat was finally under your blade! He should have been dead and packed away in the crate long before Anthony arrived!
** And just to put the icing on the above cake, in the film version Anthony proceeds to barge into the shop ''again'' and disrupts another incredibly important moment. Finally, ''finally'', Sweeney and Mrs Lovett are actually talking about themselves! The audience are mere seconds away from hearing them clarify, in front of one another, the exact nature of their relationship. And then Anthony decides he wants to talk to Sweeney.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Anthony to look into the shop, see two characters ''of opposite genders'' talking and employ basic politeness and sensitivity, besides remembering the consequences of the last time he interrupted Sweeney. (In case any tropers have forgotten, these include [[NoIndoorVoice Sweeney screaming "GET OUT! GET OUT!"]] while brandishing a straight razor).\\
'''Instead:''' ... He goes in like a bull in a china shop.
** Mrs Lovett is also a major idiot. The Beadle's coming to ask questions, and she's got a kid on her hands who knows far too much? [[SarcasmMode What ''is'' she going to do with him?]]\\
'''You'd Expect''': Her to put him somewhere that won't make the situation any worse than it already is.\\
'''Instead:''' She locks him in the basement: the one place where he's absolutely guaranteed to gather even ''more'' incriminating evidence than he has already.
* ''TheComedyOfErrors'': One character has been searching for his long-lost twin, and comes to a town where said twin actually lives, causing him to be recognized by everyone and confused with his twin. Mistakes abound, and HilarityEnsues.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That he'd come to the obvious conclusion that his search is over — his twin lives in this town, and the character's just being mistaken for him.\\
'''Instead''': He grows progressively more and more confused about everything that happens and ultimately concludes that the entire town's full of witches who are tricking him. Nobody figures it out until the twins come face-to-face.
* In the 2007 version of ''{{Hairspray}},'' Tracy wants to join the Negro Day Dancers to march against segregation in "The Corny Collins Show" in order for blacks to be allowed to dance on television. \\
'''You'd Expect:''' Tracy would listen to her mother about why it won't be a good idea for her to join the march, since she can be jailed for doing so.\\
'''Instead:''' Tracy joins the march, assaults a policeman with her sign, and nearly gets herself arrested.
* OlderThanFeudalism: In the backstory of ''Theatre/TheTrachiniae'', Deianira is nearly raped by a centaur called Nessus. Her husband Herakles shoots him with arrows poisoned by hydra blood. As Nessus is dying, he gives Deianira some drops of blood from said wound and tells her to handle it very carefully -— it's a love potion that will make Herakles' affections return to her should they ever stray.\\
'''You'd Expect''': She'd put two and two together. This centaur has bad intentions towards her. This centaur hates her husband. He's not actually going to give her something helpful. He was shot with poisoned arrows. Love potion = deadly poison.\\
'''Instead''': At a moment when Herakles has fallen in love with another woman (or seems to have), she tries to save her marriage by using the love potion on him. It kills him brutally, slowly, agonizingly. She commits suicide.
* CyranoDeBergerac, an ImpoverishedPatrician StarvingArtist, unknown yet talented playwright, is offered the Patronage of [[MagnificentBastard Cardenal Richelieu]], [[ManBehindTheMan The most powerful man in all France]] and [[RenaissanceMan known playwright]], who will only [[ExecutiveMeddling ''edit one or two verses'']] of [[NewMeat Cyrano’s unproduced play]], ''"Agrippine"''.\\
'''You’d Expect:''' A serious, talented StarvingArtist who [[NewMeat has never been represented in scene]] [[PayingTheirDues will recognize this as a golden opportunity and be tolerant of a]] [[ManBehindTheMan powerful]] Mecenas [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney with a lot of money]] [[RenaissanceMan who really has experience with playwriting]] [[ExecutiveMeddling and whom really]] [[TropesAreNotBad could improve]] ''"Agrippine"''.\\
'''Instead:''' [[SmallNameBigEgo Cyrano arrogantly]] invokes ProtectionFromEditors and [[UngratefulBastard nastily rejects the patronage]]. To put things in perspective, rejecting Cardenal Richelieu’s patronage in TheCavalierYears Paris it’s like someone in MarvelUniverse rejecting DoctorDoom’s patronage, or someone in DCUniverse rejecting LexLuthor’s patronage ''when he was PresidentEvil of the United States''.

----