When the writers pull something out of thin air (or... somewhere else) in a less-than-graceful narrative development, they violate the
Law Of Conservation Of Detail by dropping a plot-critical detail in the middle, or near the end, of their narrative without
Foreshadowing, or dropping a
Chekhovs Gun, earlier on. Often used to cover up poor
retconning.
Often includes
New Powers As The Plot Demands. With those, it's
Chekhovs Lecture or
Chekhovs Skill that was forgotten earlier.
An
Ass Pull used to resolve an unwinnable situation for the protagonists is a
Deus Ex Machina. An
Ass Pull used in the same way for the villains is a
Diabolus Ex Machina. An
Ass Pull doesn't necessarily have to resolve or derail a situation, though; many times, an asspull is just used without any greater plot implication. Please limit examples on this page to ones that don't fit in either of the other two.
The term is also used to describe something that the
characters make up on the spot.
And then there are times when the term may be used literally, typically combining
Victoria's Secret Compartment with
You Do NOT Want To Know. See also
Shocking Swerve.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Bleach: The Reveal of Aizen as the Big Bad looks like an asspull, but it's not; with a little further thinking you realize they've been setting it up since a good thirty episodes ago. Probably.
- It does rely, however, on a hidden MacGuffin that no fan could possibly have known about, and the plotting of a whole new set of bad guys that hadn't been mentioned. Furthermore, Aizen's ludicrously powerful zanpakutou made all of his plotting mostly unnecessary, and most of the convoluted set-up unnecessary for anything other than artificially manufacturing a surprising reveal.
- One of Gundam SEED and its sequel's biggest faults was the inability to kill cool good guys who are over 20. The result is that characters are revealed to have lived despite being in exploding mechas. The first person at least loses his arm, but the second only has a large scar, but is otherwise fine.
- A variation was used in Mahou Sensei Negima, where the other characters force Chisame to get a magical pactio with Negi for the sole reason that her artifact might be something useful for their situation. Turns out that it's exactly what they needed. Although it kind of makes sense, in that the artifact is based on the person's personality, so they had some idea of what to expect.
- They do it again when Asakura reveals her pactio and again the artifact is exactly what the group was in need of. The total convenience of it was lampshaded repeatedly by the other characters.
Film
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Apparently where Max of Sam And Max keeps his gun, though it's still none of our damn business.
- Capcom has a history of this with Street Fighter, especially concerning:
- Balrog who somehow "isn't" Mike Bison due to localization and fear of lawsuits.
- Birdie being "sick" in previous games due to his new Alpha designs.
- Poison's "sex change" due to Nintendo's policies regarding violence against females.
- Hugo somehow not being an Andore.
- The whole Cammy story, but some people accept it.
- Subverted in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In a mission you have to get a USB drive from a guy, who has been taken hostage. When you get to him and take you can say "Where were you keeping this? It might be good to know." His response: "Not where you think I had it. I just have experience hiding things."
- In World of Warcraft, the "twist" of M'uru allowing himself to be captured and drained by the Blood Elves would have far more effective if everything in the game hadn;t pointed in the opposite direction (M'uru making active attempts at escaping, the Blood Elves becoming increasingly violent and arrogant about their stolen abilities, etc). One of the Blood Elf leaders, Lady Liadrin, pulling a complete 180 in terms of personality in the space of three seconds didn't help the plot development seem any less of an ass pull.
Webcomics
