Outside Context Problem / Fan Works

Outside-Context Problems in Fan Works.

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Crossovers

As a general rule, this is fairly common in crossover fanfictions, as characters from both franchises usually have an area of problems they have to deal with, while the other characters/problems tend to be outside of what they have ever dealt with and can often go against how their magic, science, and/or politics work. This is particularly common in crossover fics between science fiction and fantasy stories.

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• A Is A is one long series of Outside Context problems, but specific examples include:
  • Reality, showing the Jaffa and Goa'uld being caught totally flatfooted by bending, with one Jaffa desperate to believe that it must be the same "magic" that the Goa'uld use.
  • Operation: HIGHER EDUCATION throws this in the face of Team Rainbow, though Six swiftly pivots to put their new connection to the MVTF to good use as an outside-context problem to their advantage.
  • Darkness drops Team Rainbow in against the inhabitants of Philadelphia, the local monsters and hunters both unprepared for the team's blitz through the city.
  • The Philia Signal drops this hard on the MVTF, since no one expects a group like ZFT to exist anywhere near U-1923. This leaves 1st Platoon and the small Overwatch detachment totally lost when trying to respond.
• Abyssal Plain: While Breakthrough and Tattletale have some experience with the Parahuman version of the afterlife from Ward, the horror of the Abyss of Pact shocks all of them to their cores and breaks all the rules of how they thought the world functioned. Even with the barest of hints about the existence of Magic thanks to Tattletale, they aren't that close to understanding its history or nuances.
• All For Luz: All For One's vestige residing in Luz's mind acting as her Evil Mentor is this for the girl's friends and foes alike, who aren't even aware of his existence or even heard of him. The most notable ones being:
  • Kennedy and his team thought killing Luz and collect the award money would be easy after killing off half her new camper friends. However, not long before they arrive, All For One convinces his distraught successor to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge while stealing their Quirks. By the end, Luz wipes out all but one of them and gains a body count of 22, including Kennedy.
  • After Jonah tricks Luz into believing she just killed her own mother with her Forcefield Cannon when Charlie teleports her corpse in the attack, she about to go into a Heroic BSoD, which was All According to Plan for the monster to set her up a killing blow. What the assassins didn't count on, was the Spirit Advisor living in the girl's head to bring her out of it with a pep-talk invoking The Power of Hate and to Pay Evil unto Evil which gives her a Heroic Second Wind to kill them instead.
  • Hunter wants Luz as an ally to liberate his people from his Evil Uncle. However, he's completely unaware of All For One's presence in her mind with his own agenda to replace The Emperor in Luz's body.
  • He was this to Emperor Belos and the rest of the Boiling Isles when he came along from the Mutant Realm, discovered it and waged a 10-year war on them, as he tried to conquer them (almost ruining Belos's Final Solution plans).
• The Leap in the Quantum Leap/Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover All That Glitters is this for Sam on several levels; not only has he leapt into the future rather than the past, leaving him with no idea how he can work out how to change anything in a timeline that hasn’t even happened yet, but he’s also Leaped into Data, an android specially trained for service in Starfleet, leaving Sam completely lost for how he can do anything Data couldn’t do better. As it turns out, the Enterprise had discovered a machine planet that would destroy organic visitors for being illogical, but Sam-in-Data was able to present them with examples of machines acting in an illogical manner to show that the divide between machine and organic isn’t that simple.
• The Amazing Spider-Luz in: Across the Owl-Verse!:
  • Dragons are this for the Boiling Isles. According to Lilith, no one's ever found out where they come from, and all they know for sure is that they seem drawn to attacking the Isles for some reason.
  • Human-based magic is this to Grometheus. When Amity uses the magic she learned from Doctor Strange in her fight against it at Grom, it's completely unable to fight back and is quickly destroyed by her.
• In An Extraordinary Journey, naturally nobody in the Colonial Fleet or any Cylons have any idea what to do when they realise that there are "blood demons" (their term for vampires) on Kobol, while the SGC has some experience thanks to Willow’s own personal history.
• In Are You Ready, a Stargate SG-1/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover story, the members of SG1 are their usual hypercomptent, intelligent, well-trained selves. It's just that they view the world in terms of science, technology, and occasionally fighting off alien beings. None of this applies when they run into Faith Lehane, Xander Harris, and the monster-filled, magic-fueled world in which the Slayers operate, even as Cassie's new status as a Slayer forces them to adapt.
• "Astronomy Domine" sees Dean Winchester and Castiel being sent to Deep Space 9 after the death of Dick Roman, which leaves Sisko and others shocked when they witness Dean and Castiel kill a Bajoran who was possessed by a demon and provide evidence that the man had been dead for over a week and was still walking around.
• Avengers: Infinite Wars:
  • While both sides in the Clone Wars are used to facing Jedi and Sith, they are unprepared to face enemies with the Avengers’ abilities and technology.
  • As well as their powers, Rhodes in particular assists the Republic by volunteering his experience as a military pilot on Earth to suggest new flight formations that the Republic and Separatists aren’t aware of during the attack on the Malevolence.
  • But all of it pales in comparison to Ultron himself, an advanced Artificial Intelligence that's capable of infiltrating the entire computer systems of the Galaxy and easily digs up even the most deeply hidden secrets of both the Jedi and Sith. When he finally revealed himself with a simultaneous droid attacks throughout Galaxy, he managed to establish himself as third party of the Clone War that seeks the destruction of both the Republic and Separatists and throws the two sides into complete disarray.
• Boldores And Boomsticks:
  • The creatures of Grimm serve as this to the Pokémon world. It takes a bit for everyone to catch on to the fact that they aren't just scary Pokémon from another world and they don't just peacefully challenge battlers, they strike to kill from the get go and are perfectly willing to ignore Pokémon just to get at their far more vulnerable trainers. Since Pokémon moves are based off Aura in this setting, the Grimm are also functionally immune to certain attacks and status effects. They're thankfully bottlenecked by the Ultra Wormholes, but where the wormholes will open is unpredictable and a few hundred Grimm can come through at a time...
  • To a lesser degree, Team RWBY as well. In a society based off of Pokémon battles, the idea of humans (a) fighting toe-to-toe with their opponents and (b) effectively having a Pokémon's toughness and their own signature moves throws everyone, especially the criminal element. And then it turns out that they can learn Pokémon moves, which has some interesting implications.
  • On the flipside, people from Remnant are very confused by the existence of Pokémon —creatures with naturally unlocked Aura with a bevy of elemental superpowers. Salem specifically tells Cinder to drop everything and kill the one Pokémon that has made it through the portal because they are that much of a threat to her plans. The technology of PokéEarth also astounds Team RWBY, starting from Poké Balls and going through their brief tour of the Devon Corporation Labs. And then it turns out that evolutionary stones are actually highly concentrated Dust...
• In The Bridge (MLP), it's telling that in a crossover that involves kaiju, equestrians, and humans the Apex Windigos prove to be this for everyone. Zephyrus, Boreas, and Notus pre-date Equestrian history by a wide margin, were creations of an evil god barely anyone even knows once existed centuries ago, and are extremely hard to discover, track, and actually damage due to lack of weaknesses. All while they continually grow stronger off the conflict and a plan no one is able to predict. Even their own Antagonistic Offspring didn't know they were still alive nor what they would want.
• "Browncoats at World's End" starts when the crew of Serenity are sent back in time to the 1700s on Earth-That-Was and join the pirates fighting against Cutler Beckett and Davy Jones. As the crew of Serenity fight alongside the pirates, they are often able to exploit their future technology in various ways, ranging from Mal shooting Davy Jones multiple times when Jones assumed his gun only had one shot to River using Serenity to get the entire enemy fleet to stand down as nobody knows that Serenity has no weapons. On the other side, once Simon learns that Davy Jones literally cut his own heart out of his chest and yet is still walking about, he resigns himself to accepting the bizarre idea that he's in a situation where a man can remove his own heart and stay "alive".
• Buffy meets Star Trek is exactly what it says in the title; Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Anya and Spike are drawn to the Enterprise-E when a demonic spirit escapes its prison in two dimensions and takes Data as its new host.
• In Cheaper, a Super Saiyan Xander ends up in the Marvel universe shortly before superheroes start appearing in earnest. Once he starts fighting, one of Wilson Fisk's agents compares him to Iron Fist to give him an idea of how powerful Xander is. According to him, if Iron Fist's chi is a pitcher of water, Xander's is all of the planet's oceans.
• Colosseum of the Heart goes both ways with this: Sora is completely unfamiliar with Pokémon, while Ash and company know nothing of The Heartless.
• Consensus for EVERY WORLD they end up in for each incarnation of the Communication. After all, how can The Omniscient that only its Hosts can hear not be a problem for anyone? That's not even getting into the Super Power Lottery for practically every power in that particular universe each Host can be granted as time goes on?
• In Crossed Wires, Sydney Bristow is completely caught off-guard at the very idea of dealing with vampires and demons, to the point of instinctively wondering if Dean Winchester’s anti-possession charm hides some kind of technology.
• Cycles Upon Cycles has the Koprulu Alliance (terrans, zerg, and protoss) in the eyes of the Citadel (turians, asari, salarians, and their associates and neighbors, which excludes humans for obvious reasons), as 1) they use AIs, which are banned in Citadel space, 2) they managed to establish peace between the Quarians (of which the Alliance made First Contact with) and the Geth, 3) while Citadel races' largest (dreadnought-class) ships are limited to 800 meters, that is the minimum size for a "capital ship" in the Alliance, and 4) (and perhaps the most shocking for the Citadel) is that they all use Faster Than Light travel without using Mass Relays or Element Zero.
• Dante from Dante's Night at Freddy's'. The animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza are used to killing security guards like they are nothing, but clearly are in over their heads trying to take on a veteran demon slayer.
• Demon Slayer: Dark Fury: The Symbiotes are an anomaly to the Demons as they can match against the strongest demons and are able to mask their host's scent from them and if the Symbiotes bonded with a Demon Slayer, they can amplify the Breathing Styles.
• A Devil Amongst Worms: Makima is this to the world of Earth-Bet, as a supernatural being with powers and abilities completely disconnected from those stemming from the Entities' Shards. As further evidence of her outside-context status, she's shown to have a severely deleterious effect on Thinkers who try to analyze her, with Tattletale experiencing splitting headaches when she tries, and several other Thinkers tasked with analyzing her experiencing brain hemorrhaging. In the case of the Simurgh, while Makima's not an outright blind spot like Scion, it's shown that she's something of a blur in the timeline, that while capable of being seen, cannot actually be understood by the Humanoid Abomination.
• A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings: Jon Whitewolf is quite puzzling for King's Landing. As he's already wealthy and famous in another country and wants nothing more than go back there, there's nothing the highborns can bribe or persuade him with in order to make him stay or trade with them.
• In Dungeon Keeper Ami. Sailor Mercury is transported into the world of Dungeon Keeper and has a rather unconventional approach to being a Keeper, as well as the whole evil alignment. Her Sailor Senshi status also gives her more magic than most human mages, which stacks with the considerable power she gets from a Dungeon Heart, and she has a working knowledge of some scientific principles. All of these combine to make her inscrutable to both Good and Evil forces in the Dungeon Keeper world.
• In the The Hunger Games/Angel crossover Demon's Games, Katniss is shocked to learn that the Capitol are actually acting on behalf of the demons that were once the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart, requiring Angel to give her some lessons on how to fight demons as part of her training.
• Earth's Alien History:
  • The combined forces of humanity and the Race were this to the Fithp of Hearth during the Alpha Centauri War, since their technology exceeded that of the Fithp's Precursors, which the Fithp didn't think was possible (as they viewed said Precursors as the pinnacle of development).
  • The Reapers find their attempt at harvesting the galaxy blunted and defied by the sheer amount of non-Element Zero technologies (Humongous Mecha, cloaking, energy weapons, etc) used by their enemies, which they have no defense against. Not to mention things like metahumans, Kryptonians, Tamaranians, Pokemon...
  • The Milky Way colonists are this to the various factions in Andromeda, again due to various technologies (cloaking, transporters, Jaegers, etc.) not present in that galaxy.
• Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship: The Rainbooms' and Dazzlings' entire view of Timmy is tainted by the misconception that he must be using Equestrian magic, because they don't even know that fairy godparents exist. The Dazzlings adjust to this fast enough to adapt their plans to fit, while the Rainbooms end up caught totally off guard.
• Fate Azure Destiny: The Shipgirls and Sirens of Azur Lane are much more powerful than humans, but their abilities are based on science. Everyone is caught off guard when Ritsuka Fukimaru from Fate/Grand Order shows up with unheard of magical abilities that allow him to fight on par with them and heal with a touch. The Shipgirls and Sirens also cannot analyze Noble Phantasms.
• In Fate/Black Reflection, Ichigo and his friends are this to everyone else in the Holy Grail War. They're capable of matching Servants in combat, their abilities are bizarre by magus standards, and their morality doesn't even line up with most magi. Add it all together, and you have a group that is frighteningly incomprehensible to the other Masters and Servants. On the other side of the coin, the magi and Heroic Spirits are this to Ichigo's crew, being unlike anything they've fought before. Though, they do have Rider to explain the basics behind their new enemies, so they end up adapting far quicker than everyone else.
• Fate Genesis:
  • Dr. Eggman to the Grail War and Magi society in general. He uses robots and technology far beyond anything else the Nasuverse has, and he's both able and willing to operate in the open and in broad daylight. Sonic and the gang are more heroic and oppose his attempts at world domination, but they're still operating too openly to easily keep under wraps, even appearing on the news and leaving numerous witnesses. Even worse, their open actions are prompting the other villainous groups to more open acts to either compensate or take advantage of the chaos they're causing to throw the entire War Off the Rails.
  • The Chaos Emeralds are also an anomaly, being powerful enough to serve as mana batteries for Servants with ease and having the potential to be even more valuable than the Holy Grail itself in terms of ease of usage. Gilgamesh, Caster, Zouken and Avenger all end up gunning for the jewels for their own gain and intend to either take them to use to win the War or use them in place of the Holy Grail for their goals.
• In Fate/Stay Night: Ultimate Master, Ben Tennyson serves as this to the magic community and the participants of the Fifth Holy Grail War. A boy who can turn into various aliens wasn't really on their radar. Even Archer has no idea who he is, even though he's from the future. The only ones who had heard of him were the ones who watched TV like Shirou and Illya (most mages are Hopeless with Tech, so they wouldn't do this).
• Finishing the Fight, where the capabilities of the Master Chief and UNSC technology are beyond the ability of most of Faerun to combat.
• In the now completed Attack on Titan/Gate crossover fic, Freedom's Ring, the United States (and modern Earth in general) are this to pretty much everyone in the AoT world:
  • For starters, not only do their advanced weapons and technology enables them to completely decimate every Titans on Paradis Island without breaking a sweat, but their vehement opposition to the ingrained discrimination and hatred against Eldian people also manages to throw Marley and the entire world outside the island (referred collectively as the World Union in this fic) out of the loop. This is because the World Union simply could not comprehend the idea of an entire world of ordinary humans who would willingly throw their support for the so-called "Eldian Devils". The incomprehension is only exacerbated when a motion that authorizes the US and NATO military intervention to protect island inhabitants against genocide (the sort of motion that in other circumstances would be vetoed by oppositions like Russia and China), passes unopposed in the United Nations.
  • When the World Union forces finally land their troops on the island as part of desperate Final Solution measures, the combined Earth and Paradis defenders armed with 21st century technology are able to swiftly deal with the invading forces a crushing blow. The Union forces, expecting to only facing against armies of the awakened Wall Titans at worst, finding themselves completely outclassed by the Coalition's combined arms of not only ODM gears, but also main battle tanks, field artilleries, attack helicopters, fighter jets, and guided-missile warships. Needless to say, after witnessing the sheer discrepancy in technological level, the rational minds within the WU forces quickly announces their surrender and sign a non-aggression treaty that forces them to peacefully co-exist with the new Paradis nation under Queen Historia.
  • Even before the first contact with Marley and the World Union, the first US forces to cross the Gate and help the Survey Corps to retake the Shiganshina District without incurring any losses, already proves to be the OCP for both Rod Reiss and the Warriors Trio. For the former, it's mainly due to them being an uncontrollable and heavily armed third party that Rod believes would threaten the stability of his regime and unravel the curtain that his family had put to isolate Paradis from the outside world. For the latter, it's because they possess advanced medical technology that are capable of exposing their true identities as Marley's Titan Shifter infiltrators. Every single one of them were eventually proven to be correct in their assumptions.
• The Hunter from The Good Hunter. No one has ever seen someone this strong and fast, yet has no mana and any sort of blessing from a god (whether the latter is true depends on whether the reader considers the Moon Presence a "god", not that anyone in the story knows this anyway), not to mention he is a man resistant to any sort of seduction, negating the main advantage a monster has over a human. The very fact that he is inimical to human and monster alike means that he is an unprecedented threat any man or monster has ever faced. Fortunately, Cyril/Klaus is possible to be reasoned with, as Greilia and the Oberon League have shown, which provides a silver lining that minimises the danger he poses. However, instead of opting for this less risky option, both The Order and the Monster Lord have decided that the best course of action is to track him down and eliminate him ASAP, with the assumption that he can be stopped, because his "outside-context-ness" is a threat to their pride, honour, existence, and whatever else they stand for. It wouldn't take too much to guess where this would go, even though the fanfic is still ongoing.
• Discord in The God Empress of Ponykind; when he first arrives, Celestia is puzzled because he does not act like a normal Chaos Daemon (going for silly manipulations instead of Hell on Earth), and she is forced to use alternate methods to defeat him. Not even the Chaos Gods know what Discord is, Tzeentch calling him an anomaly. His alignment as well is questionable, as he saved Horus' soul and placed him in a position to reach out and try to stop Luna's fall to Chaos.
• Guest Starring sees the Galaxy Quest stars meet up with the Thermians again, this time accompanied by their new associates of Cordelia Chase, Willow Rosenberg and Angel (Angel) after Cordelia got a role as a princess on the reboot show and Willow demonstrated her magic when she was cast as a handmaiden to the 'princess'.
• Hail to the King (Thuktun Flishithy): NERV was created to fight Angels and Gendo thought he had planned for everything... but a bizarre accident in the Godzilla universe sent the King of Monsters, several of its Kaiju and human allies and several of its Kaiju enemies to the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe. Oh, and his son Shinji accidentally merges with Zone Fighter (Ultraman in the rewrite). As it's quickly proved, NERV has no way to deal with Kaijus, let alone the most powerful of them, and Gendo's attempts to remove Godzilla's presence from his scenario backfire awfully. And he definitely was not prepared for Shinji becoming mentored by a Toku hero.
• In Hatchling Quest, Samus Aran is this to the villains and Eldritch Abominations of the Worm universe. She's a genetically-enhanced human (hybridized with alien DNA) from another dimension and time. Her biology is incomprehensible to them, her technology is literally several thousands of years ahead of their time, and her suit and space-ship's computers can hack any Earth computer, analyze Tinker technology, and discover many secrets... And she's fully committed to the protection of the innocent and helpless.
  • Samus quickly learns that a Hidden Villain has been bringing things from her own universe into Worm's Earth. Even Samus is surprised to see weapons from her universe in the hands of criminals, or alien wildlife just suddenly appearing on Earth. It soon becomes apparent that nearly anything from the Metroid setting is this to the setting of Worm. Especially the Space Pirates, who got to Worm Earth well before Samus did and secretly infiltrated it. Being a ruthless, sadistic, and technologically advanced species from another dimension, no-one could even conceive of their existence until Samus showed up. The Pirates are even this to the Entities, as they have begun to subvert their cycle by eliminating certain Parahumans, abducting as many Tinkers as they can get their hands on, and even hatching a very nearly successful plan to abduct Leviathan.
• Harry Potter and the Boiling Isles:
  • Harry confounds both Eda and Luz because they've never encountered humans with innate magical abilities before, let alone a disguised community of magical humans just like him.
  • The Dementors imprisoned in the Mobile Maze on Monster Island catch everyone off guard, due to being Wizarding World monsters that haven't been seen on the Boiling Isles in centuries. As such, none of the Witches present know how to deal with them and despite being from the same world, Harry and Ron have never encountered them and are therefore equally clueless.
• Harry Potter in The Havoc Side of the Force is completely outside of everyone's understanding. Palpatine is wondering how to get his plans for Anakin back on track once Harry befriends him and the Jedi don't know how to deal with an apparent force user who commits horrible acts but isn't affected by the Dark Side. Neither group has any idea how Harry does what he does except that he actually harms the Force while performing his magic. Though it takes Harry some time to realize that Force users can track him when he uses magic since he's basically sending screaming alarms through the Force.
• In The Heroic Adventures of Zeus, the Olympians have no idea that the Zeus before them is a completely different person than the one they know, attributing his behavior to a fit of madness and grief brought on by the loss of his Master Bolt. Alarm bells start ringing when Zeus can freely enter and leave Hades' domain, intervenes on behalf of a group of doomed demigods, and even show up at Camp Half-Blood unannounced in defiance of the Ancient Laws that keep the PJO gods' hands tied.
• Hunters of Justice: Brainiac. Life on Remnant was difficult enough with the Grimm, so most, if not all, of the population was either ignorant or uncaring of intelligent life beyond their planet. Then, they're attacked by one of the most dangerous alien conquerors in the universe, and find themselves immediately outmatched on every conceivable level.
• Because of the way The Infinite Loops work, this is everywhere. Loopers who loop into new worlds often get new powers that they will keep, even when they return to their normal worlds. Thus, these new powers are often used by loopers to derail their loops. In addition, loopers themselves are outside context problems. Different loopers who replace others are often quick to derail loops in even more insane ways.
• In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, the titular Infinity Train is this to the world of Pokémon: The Series. Since it's a bizarre piece of engineering from an alternate plane of existence that is in no way linked to any lore within their universe, connected to legendary Pokémon or otherwise, most characters have no idea of its existence. So there's nothing Professor Cerise can use to help locate his daughter, and when he does meet a character that is familiar with the train, it takes some time for the Professor to be convinced this isn't an odd, mean-spirited prank.
• In A Jade Dragon, the Jade Company serves as this to Westeros and Essos west of the Bone Mountains. No one in these regions knows how to fight a professional army, least of all one armed with gunpowder weapons like cannons and rockets.
• Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger:
  • Darth Nihilus is one for all of Remnant. To the people of Remnant, who are ignorant to the existence of alien life or magic, Nihilus is an undead alien warlord whose use of the Force closely resembles magic. His extraterrestrial origins make him a complete unknown to both Ozpin and Salem. Through the Dark Side, he's able to control the Grimm, something that was previously believed could only be accomplished by Salem and the God of Darkness. His unique nature as a Force Wound also allows Nihilus to feed on the Grimm, something that is unimaginable for Remnant's people.
  • The terentatek from the chapter "Fear" is another example. It's a Dark Side monster that specializes in hunting Force-sensitives. Its appearance in Forever Fall creates a lot of trouble for the heroes, who are used to fighting Grimm and have never encountered a creature like it before. Also, it's the first enemy that Jaune encounters which is able to No-Sell his Force powers. Additionally, the terentatek is an alien from outer space, so even Ozpin has no idea what he's dealing with.
  • Nihilus later gets this trope flipped on his head when Ruby's silver eyes manifest for the first time during the story's climax. Although Nihilus has easily slaughtered scores of Light Side users in the past, all of them were Jedi whose Light Side powers were defensive and passive in nature. However, silver-eyed warriors like Ruby weaponize the Light Side by firing bursts of pure Light Side energy from their eyes. This is especially shocking for a former Jedi like Nihilus, who has no experience when it comes to dealing with someone who can use the Light Side aggressively or in such a destructive manner.
• In Justice, the Straw Hat Pirates act as this to the Justice League, and pretty much everyone else in the DCAU. First is their sheer power — aside from their use of Haki, which Word of God states DCAU humans can't use, there's the fact that One Piece is such a World of Badass that even the physically weaker Straw Hats (like Nami and Usopp) are major threats. Then there's the cultural differences that give the Straw Hats what seems to be Blue-and-Orange Morality compared to the DCAU's more basic Black-and-White Morality, as they go out of their way to help people even while still relishing in being thieves. Altogether, this makes them both dangerous and unpredictable to the League and everyone else.
• In Justice League of the Rebellion, Metahumans like Superman (Rivalz), Shazam (Kallen), and Green Lantern (Suzaku) are this for Britannia. Not only are they're powerful enough to take on their Knightmare Frames, they're also an antithesis to their Social Darwinist principals since they show off their might without killing their opponents or taking power for themselves.
  • Lelouch's plans to take down Britannia and his father come to a halt when he learns that Charles is nothing more than a Puppet King for Vandal Savage, an immortal conqueror that is willing to dispose of Britannia for his own long-term plans.
• The inhabitants of Thedas have dealt with a lot by the time the story of A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor rolled around: from the Fifth Blight that would have destroyed everyone and everything to the uprising from the Circles that is still going on and everything else that came before and after the above. So, it was safe to say that Thedas has experienced everything... except for the arrival of the Gender Flipped King Arthur from the Fate Series, whose unrivaled holy sword has a Sword Beam that might as well be an Wave-Motion Gun in its own right, in addition to having Anti-Magic that can No-Sell magic like no tomorrow. Oh, and she actually uses her newfound power and influence to actually solve the problems actually plaguing the world instead of being a part of them, along with keeping her methodical approach on her journey in disastrous times despite the normal protocol being everyone losing their collective shit.
• Lambert, the titular Lamb in A Lamb In Hell, who breaks just about every rule in the Hellaverse's version of Hell. He's a Funny Animal from a world with no humans (often catching people who assume he's a Sinner off-guard) and his not quite divine, not quite demonic nature gives him powers almost incomprehensible to both angels and demons, up to and including resurrecting someone killed by an angelic weapon.
• Last Child of Krypton: In this crossover Shinji is Superman. He is capable of lifting mountains, faster than a speeding bullet, nearly invulnerable, able to fly... He can crush a Evangelion or Angel with his bare hands. Gendo and SEELE have no way to counteract his powers and abilities and they have no way to harm him.
• Legacy of the Enginseers: Taylor/Mechanicus is this to Earth Bet. She has technology millennia ahead of what the best Tinkers can do, her hacking skills make the most advanced firewalls little more than a speedbump, she can craft weaponry that can do the impossible, and no one can find where she's hiding (mostly because she's in Mars).
• Legends of the Fourth of July (Coreline): On the Massive Multiplayer Crossover World Gone Mad of Coreline, the Avengers Infinity thought they saw it all and were prepared... until they were attacked by a malevolent version of the Stark Endo-Sym armor that was based on a Neon Genesis Evangelion Angel rather than the standard Marvel Universe symbiotes. It took the intervention of various heroes (that were NGE-verse natives that had obtained superpowers of their own) to prevent the Avengers from falling to a Grey Goo scenario.
• A Light Against The Darkness, a crossover between Warhammer 40,000 and RWBY, sees a small Imperial fleet become this for the entirety of the world of Remnant. No one on Remnant has any idea how to deal with an army of fanatics dedicated to warfare, while the Cadians and Space Marines feel instantly at home holding the line between humanity and the monster horde.
  • Especially prominent in the second non-canon omake bonus chapter, where the fleet completely wipes out the entire Land Of Darkness, the continent housing the spawning pools of the Grimm and the Big Bad's castle, with a series of orbital strikes, while the Big Bad can't do anything to fight back.
• The Power Rangers in Space/Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series crossover "Lost and Found" mentions that Wraith is generally this for the Ducks, as a lifetime without experience of magic is hard to overcome even after dealing with Wraith for a year. By contrast, when the Space Rangers assist the Ducks against Draganus's latest scheme, Andros finds it easy to deal with Wraith as he's from a world where magic is plentiful and spells such as Wraith's signature fireball attack are common for evil sorcerers, giving Andros experience in parrying such attacks.
• Lulu's Bizarre Rebellion: Though they were both aware of stand and ripple, neither Brittania nor the Black Knights were prepared for the Cult of K with its vampires and flesh buds.
• In Magical Pony Lyrical Twilight the Equestrians are this to the TSAB and their High Council, being naturally-occurring (as opposed to deliberately-engineered) nonhuman sapients who are not servile familiars and having abilities the Bureau has no experience with. The fact that their entire species can use magic in one way or another probably doesn't help.
• A Man of Iron:
  • Iron Man. In a low tech, low magic universe like Westeros, a flying knight that can shoot magic from his hands and is impervious to all known forms of weaponry is a major game changer.
  • And the sequel introduces Thor, a bonafide GOD to Westeros.
  • Ned Stark becomes this during the war over the Iron Throne. Unlike the other factions, he doesn't want the throne, he just wants his lands to be free; his only interest in King's Landing is that there are people he wants dead there. Because of this, he doesn't need to go on the offensive and can just fortify his lands, making him impossible to lead into a trap.
• Man off the Moon: Shirou is this to the law enforcement in the galaxy at large, as his hacking and magical abilities are far out of left field for them.
• In Megamorphs: The Wizarding World, the Animorphs and the Hogwarts students are each taken aback to learn that magic is real and aliens exist respectively, but soon decide that they have to help the other side against their enemies; Ernie MacMillan is explicitly shown thinking that if Ax can accept magic as an alien, he can accept the existence of aliens.
• Mischief (MHA): As a common example, there aren't many people or heroes aware of aliens and the supernatural, and they are not prepared to handle threats as such. As for individual examples:
  • The Dark Elves are belived to have gone extinct after their major fight against Asagard, so it's a shock to Izuku to see one of them amongst the villains attacking the USJ. In truth, they have actually joined Thanos and their continued existence has been concealed by Loki.
  • Gorr. No one expected the God Butcher to still be alive centuries after his last appearance, so his galaxy-wide Roaring Rampage of Revenge catches everyone off guard. Even Loki, one of the biggest masterminds in the story, admits that Gorr's sudden appearance throws a wrench in his carefully planned schemes.
  • Mephisto. While his grudge against Loki is nothing new, nobody expected him to hand Tenya the Ebony Blade and make Tensei Ghost Rider's host, causing even more problems for the villain's side and forcing them to step their games.
  • Two heroic and literal examples happen during the Final Exams. Exploring the Loophole Abuse of Nezu's phrasing about the rules for the exam, Izuku arranges for Thor to join the students and take on All Might. In a rather ironic twist, Nezu also makes use of said loophole and brings Hawks to face the students after they seemingly defeat the teachers.
  • New League members, Kraven and Taskmaster, who show up out of nowhere, catch Shishido off guard and kill him.
  • Another heroic example happens during the I-Island arc. Since Tenko never displayed Decay during his time on the island, Ultron is unable to create a countermeasure against it, allowing the boy to be a decisive point for the heroes (temporary) victory against the android.
• The Mission Stays the Same features a human Stormtrooper officer and an Eldar Farseer from Warhammer 40,000 getting punted through the Warp to the Mass Effect 'verse, where personal-scale laser weapons are considered the Holy Grail of weapons development instead of barely-adequate standard-issue weapons for trillions of soldiers, and Psyker powers are completely unknown.
• The plot of the unlinkable Monster Girl Encyclopedia is what it is because of an outside context Demon Lord: usually Demon Lords are the strongest and most ruthless monster decided by many vicious battles and whose plans revolve around killing humans in a Balance Between Good and Evil. However the current demon lord instead was a Succubus who managed the position via a lot fewer conflicts and used her power to change the series's lore into the Porn with Plot setting that makes said series unlinkable on TV Tropes. This threw the Chief God and humanity for a loop as her plans changed the behavior of monsters from 'eating humans' to 'marry or convert humans', and the Chief God's attempt to undo the Demon Lord's actions were driven off by the power she and her fallen hero husband had accumulated via Sex Magic.
  • Crossover fic Dimensional Gate Screwover has several people from Disgaea scattered across the MGE's world. Both sides are depicted as being utterly alien to each other, which only gets worse once the main villains of the story unleash a brand-new threat in the form of several newly made monsters that consume holy energy. The creator of said monsters? The Original Chief God, who made the MGE-world how it was and set up a replacement long before the new Demon Lord changed the status quo during his absence.
• Monstrous Compendium Online: The 74th floor boss turns out to be a demon. Not a demon-themed lump of code, an actual demon summoned from Khyber and allowed into the game. The graphics are constantly glitching during the fight because the system doesn't know how to handle it. The only reason they manage to survive is because Klein unexpectedly receives the Call, becoming a paladin of the Silver Flame and giving them enough divine magic to fight back. The players who understand what is happening are terrified of the implications, because the demon could have followed their souls back to Earth and invaded a world with no magic to fight it. In fact, since they didn't actually kill it, just banished it, that still might happen. This produces another round of cursing Kayaba for allowing such a thing to happen.
• The Mountain and the Wolf:
  • Westeros is simply unprepared for the kind of magic the Warp provides, or for the level of martial skill/willingness to get killed against insane odds that Chaos-hardened Norscans display.
  • The Wolf brags that warpfire will easily burn through the Night King, laughing at the mere comparison to dragonfire. He's wrong.
• My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: The Doom Slayer is this to the entire MHA world. He crashes outside of Izuku's apartment with no one understanding who he is or mistaking him for a hero. The next day, he brutally disarms Shigaraki and proceeds to beat him half to death with the severed arm. Then the day after that, he not only knocks out several heroes non-lethally, but takes on the most infamous mercenary company in the world and completely slaughters them.
• New Stars: When the clone trooper CT-5599 (or Maxx) is zapped to a different universe by an experimental machine, he ends up at a Union base right before the Krill attack. He has no idea where he is or who's attacking, but he's able to recognize an unwarranted attack when he sees it and leaps into action to defend two kids he meets (who turn out to be Marcus and Ty Finn of the Orville).
• The Night Unfurls:
  • From the perspective of others, the Hunter is a mysterious outsider clad in nondescript clothing and a weird hat. No one in the country knows where he comes from, and the stuff he uses are completely foreign. The awe, mystery, and suspicion only increases tenfold when compounded by his secrecy, as well as his talent for slaughter. On the other hand, readers who have played Bloodborne are familiar with his origins, his abilities, and his motives. Throughout the story, he is the Godzilla Threshold to Celestine, ruler of Eostia and leader of the Seven Shields, who has no choice but to find this elusive, yet dangerous agent in hopes of possibly ending the Forever War with his help, which it did. All of his enemies, be it monsters, dark elves, or the Black Dogs that go rogue, simply don't stand a chance against this blasted Nigh-Invulnerable Lightning Bruiser that came out of nowhere.
  • At one point in the original version, the Hunter alludes to his "outside-context" status during a conversation with Grace. He exploits this trope to be an effective Terror Hero, noting that fear and deception are useful tools for him to move if everyone knew almost nothing about him.
• Kara in Not in Kansas is basically impossible for either the Watchers Council or Stargate Command to respond to. She's even further beyond a Slayer than a Slayer is to a quadriplegic, has no viable weaknesses in a universe without kryptonite yet, and doesn't remotely care about being discreet. That she knows how to create technology thousands of years ahead of Earth's is just frosting on the fubar cake both parties find themselves eating.
• The Omnitrix Hero: The Rainbooms have plenty of experience dealing with magical threats, but are completely unprepared for more sci-fi threats like aliens and robots. They are almost killed by one of Vilgax's drones before Flash Sentry arrives as Diamondhead and manages to save them and fight off the drone himself.
• In On the Back of the Turtle, Xander Harris is turned into a combination of Lobo and a Bizarro Superboy. He wrecked the balance in his home universe so badly that the Powers That Be made a deal with Xander for him to stop (including a halt to all their schemes for 500 years and long lives for his friends and their descendants) in exchange for him having to live on an island for the next 500 years where said island moves to a new universe every sunset but will take him back to his universe the moment he left once his sentence is up^*The various powers are all hoping Xander will find a universe he prefers and stay there so they don't have to deal with him again. When he finds himself in the Naruto universe, Xander is referred to as a god by others and ends the Kiri civil war by throwing the Three Tails (and Yagura by extension) into space.
• In Once Upon a Supernatural Time, while the people of Storybrooke were aware of magic, they’re still caught by surprise when they learn of the magic that exists in their new world, such as when Sam has to help David exorcise a demon from Archie, or Sam, Bobby and Castiel help Regina, David and Ruby confront Pestilence.
• Operation Forging Steel (an C&C/RWBY Fanfic) has the U.S military (and a few U.K SAS members) as this to the rest of Remnant. The Terran forces are a highly competent, technologically advanced, and numerically large military force not reliant on the world's main energy resource called Dust. No one was expecting an army capable of matching the world's superpower (Atlas) to appear out of nowhere and strike at a major terrorist organization with brutal force.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Power Girl crossover story Origin Story, Alexandra Harris is this to both Glory the Hell God and her demonic worshiper Doc. While they were both able enough opponents to face a vampire slayer, they were just horribly outclassed when faced by a pissed off Kryptonian.
• Out of the Corner of the Eye is all about the entities of the Cthulhu Mythos inserting themselves into the world of Jackie Chan Adventures and quickly proving how far beyond they are of that world's heroes and villains alike.
• The Pros and Cons to living a triple life: The Metaverse for Sora and friends, The Heartless for the Phantom Thieves. This trips up Sora at one point due to both series using the term Shadows. Downplayed on both sides, though, as Akira and Ryuji are introduced to the Heartless a matter of days after their first trip to Kamoshida's palace, while Sora and Riku are probably more at home fighting Shadows in the Metaverse than they are just navigating the normal world, where they can't deal with human monsters such as Kamoshida by simply beating him up with a Keyblade.
• A notable trend in the Reaching for a Dream series is that each additional story makes Naruto and Xanna even more outside context than the previous. In the first, they're simply an incredibly strong ninja and the strongest tailed beast in a world of ninja. But by the fourth, the closest beings to them are the Ascended who are collectively weaker than Naruto and Xanna individually and the two deliberately minimalize uses of their divine powers to keep their empire from being overly reliant upon them.
• A Red Rose in the Blue Wind: The arrival of the Eggman Empire on Remnant is something that Ozpin or Salem could never have predicted. Even worse, Dust's inability to work outside of Remnant's atmosphere means that the Remnantians have no space travel capabilities, and thus cannot reach Eggman's base on the Ark, while he can strike at them more-or-less at will.
• In the one-shot Robbie Rotten and the Town of Equality, Robbie is this to Starlight Glimmer. He doesn't need the magic of friendship to save the day, he doesn't have a Cutie Mark for her to steal and render him helpless, and his pitfall trap, laziness-inducing food, and Anti-Magic cage render HER helpless instead. Even better, instead of trying to reform her, he shoots her dead with a cannon before she can cause any more trouble.
• The Klyntar, especially the Crescent Rose symbiote, prove to be this to Remnant in RWBY: Rose In Black. Ruby's bond with the aforementioned symbiote quickly makes her a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond compared to the rest of the cast until Velvet and the surviving members of Team JNPR get their own, leaving most of Beacon and much of Salem's group blindsided by her unexpected new abilities, greatly contributing to her status as The Dreaded. Even as Roman and Neo learn more about the symbiotes, particularly their weakness to fire, they are still vastly outmatched due to the difference in sheer power between them and their battles tend to end with retreat. Cinder's lack of knowledge or understanding of the Klyntar also leads to the Battle of Beacon being completely derailed, from her being exposed as a criminal during the dance to the Black Queen virus being neutralized by the Crescent Rose symbiote, and she is left utterly defeated and out of options by the time she wraps her head around what the symbiotes really are.
• The Scarab sees the Scooby Gang join forces with SG-1 to stop an exiled Goa'uld System Lord from working with an army of demons to open the Hellmouth. While both sides need the other's insights into their enemies, the groups soon fall into a comfortable team dynamic, the SGC providing the group with sharpened wooden bullets and Buffy being healed with a sarcophagus after sustaining a serious leg injury.
• The Sister in the Door sees the Jeffersonian staff (Bones) forced to face the threat of Angelus (Angel), who was "extracted" from Booth's mind by the First's agents when his tumor was removed.
• In Six Paths of Rebellion Naruto and C.C.'s powers and later Sayoko, Rakshata, and Nunnally as well are functionally impossible for Britannia to plan around since not only do they not know everything the two can do, what they do know seems to break the laws of physics.
  • Furthermore, Naruto and C.C.'s knightmares, as well as later ones created by Rakshata, skip right over seventh generation and are actually eighth or ninth generation frames due to the creation of the Core Radiance (a Core Luminous enhanced with chakra), a power source that puts out roughly fifty times as much power as a Core Luminous.
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Smallville fic Stakes and Fenceposts, where Clark Kent is portrayed this way to the Buffy-verse villains and heroes. Both sides are completely baffled and terrified at how powerful he is, thinking he's some kind of Humanoid Abomination. Some of the fights are shown from the villains' perspective.
• Star Wars Force Of Nature: Let's be honest, no one is prepared whenever Godzilla shows up.
• Star Wars vs. Warhammer 40K: The Imperium of Man is an incredibly advanced civilization from another galaxy with gigantic technology that puts even the most sophisticated societies in the Star Wars universe to shame. Furthermore, since they arrived in the late years of the Clone Wars, both the Republic and the CIS are completely unprepared for the sudden appearance of the Imperium in the known galaxy.
• The Superwomen of Eva series (an example of it being Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton; with Asuka Langley Sohryu being Supergirl): the titular super heroines are this to both NERV and SEELE and their beloved "scenario": a girl (or group of them) with powers beyond their understanding that appeared out of nowhere, has no allegiance to them and is more than capable of single-handedly destroying their giant alien adversaries and the Humongous Mecha used to fight them. Much Hilarity Ensues as they try to reign in a Villainous Breakdown and race to find some way to put them out of the way (without showing their hand to the other group).
• In Temporal Anomaly, 2068!Sougo Tokiwa/Oma Zi-O is this to the world of Drakengard. He's an unparalleled Time Master, meaning that there is no one capable actually countering his powers due to such a thing never existing in the first place on this world, not even the Watchers. He's shown to be capable of summoning dragons not known to the world and other matter of creatures and beings without making a pact or needing a Disciple of some kind to aid him. There's also the fact that he's an Evil Overlord, meaning that he actually WANTS to conquer the time period of the Crapsack World he's found himself in, so he's actually making the effort to get the Intoners to join his side one by one, instead of trying to just kill them for the danger they pose to his reign.
• Thousand Shinji: Shinji, Asuka and Rei are this to NERV and SEELE thanks to the intervention of the Warhammer 40,000 gods. They have powers gifted by dark gods, can tap the power of an alternate dimension made of raw energy and thought, and have access to future technology. Gendo and SEELE have no counter to their abilities and they weren't even aware of them until it was too late.
• Works both ways in Tomica Hero Rescue Pups: While the Rescue Force had dealt with Neo Terror before, the former was completely unprepared for the latter's various Star Wars-related upgrades. In Tomica Hero Rescue Force, not one villain used lightsabers or the Force. Episode 10 has the new NT leader Darth Longinus start fighting early, wipe out an entire regiment with the aforementioned abilities, and nearly kill Everest and Skye. Meanwhile, Neo Terror was not prepared for the Paw Patrol being able to use the Force as well, or the pups' PlatinumGames levels of over-the-top stunts.
• Nobody on Azeroth has any clue what to make of Ichigo when he appears in Transcendence. For starters, he possesses spiritual power, which humans from Azeroth aren't even supposed to be able to wield. Then there's the fact that his power is comparable to minor deities such as the Ancient Guardians and the Loa despite him being mortal. And to top it all off, his very existence is somehow permanently altering Azeroth's main timeline, which completely freaks out the Bronze Dragonflight.
• The Ultimate Big Brother: Charlotte Katakuri proves to be this to Monokuma's plans. He has physical abilities that are way beyond those of the rest of the Ultimates involved in the Killing Game, and even with that, he wields outright unnatural abilities thanks to his Haki and Mochi-Mochi Fruit. Katakuri is also able to read Monokuma and the mastermind like a book and lacks any form of weakness for them to exploit to push him into murdering anyone, and he is utterly unafraid and unimpressed by them (though he still treats them as seriously as he treated Luffy), discounting Junko as "...if Doflamingo and Caesar Clown [had] a kid and that kid [got] thrown away".
• Ultrasonic, a crossover fic in which Akumas start appearing in Zootopia, a year after Marinette was somehow transported there.
• The Unexpected Rookie: The cars, naturally, have no idea what's going on when the Decepticons show up and Hot Rod (along with his pit crew^note  the Autobots) suddenly turn into giant robots and start fighting.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover The Vampire of Steel, Buffy and the Gang happen upon a Kryptonian vampire. Since they aren't equipped to deal with him, Buffy calls Kara in (having met her in a previous adventure).
  Giles: As powerful as the likes of the Master are, or were, a being from another planet is outside of our experience. But not outside hers. However, we have shown ourselves adaptable to many sorts of dangers, not a few of which, though you know it not, have threatened our very world.
• For Vandread Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana become this to the Nirvana crew. At first, it didn't seem like much when they attacked the Tarak fleet like in canon while picking up the damaged piece of the Forward Unto Dawn. But once the Spartan comes before their eyes and demonstrates his fighting capability, both the men and Improbably Female Cast are stunned by how much of a different world they've come from.
• In Venus Flash, both Sailor Venus and Cutey Honey are this for each others' opponents:
  • As it is the manga version, Sailor Venus is much more powerful than anything Panther Claw has ever imagined, and Nigh-Invulnerable (enough that the firearms of Panther Claw mooks have no effect on her).
  • Cutey Honey isn't as strong as the Youma. On the other hand, she has modified the Airborne Element Fixing Device to work on everything, resulting in her having the ability to disintegrate anything.
  • The villains are this to each other, too. The warriors of the Dark Kingdom are ludicrously more powerful than any Panther Claw member, and every encounter ends in a Curb-Stomp Battle against the latter (the only time when a Panther Claw member won was when a very weak youma was caught by surprise by Jewel Princess' transformation, and Jadeite promptly annihilated her without even trying). Interestingly, Panther Claw are villains too, it's just that their goals are mutually exclusive and Dark Kingdom members are disgusted by what Panther Claw minions are willing to do for kicks.
• The adult fan faction Wandering Pilot has Shinji Ikari in the Queen's Blade universe. The Continent's ladies have spent their lives fighting bandits and perverse, macho men for the dream of being Queen. But they never expected to encounter someone like Shinji. Not only do all the girls on the morality spectrum have different reactions (from very friendly to... not so friendly), but he also influences them so much that they go through a lot of changes good and bad. And what really twists things are his role as The Medic and staff. Said staff is the compact version of EVA Unit-01.
  • On the flip-side, the driving forces running Earth including Gendo Ikari never expected Shinji to return with a portion of his Battle Harem. Most importantly, they never expected one to be Nanael, an Angel, who helps Rei awaken her own abilities as the vessel for Lilith and orders the remaining Angels away. Sure is a Spanner in the Works.
• The Weaver Option:
  • Parahumans to the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and particularly Taylor. As her Pest Controller power is independent from the Warp, it makes her absurdly useful for the Imperium, particularly as she gets her hands on some of the galaxy's most lethal creatures.
  • Vista and Clockblocker later begin to make their mark, especially as Taylor manages to use her connections to the Adeptus Mechanicus to get them technology to allow them to go well beyond their normal abilities. For example, at one point Vista smashes a fortress by bending a mountain on it.
  • The destruction of Slaanesh at the end of the Battle of Commorragh leaves a mark on all Aeldari souls — caused by the Emperor's shard of Sacrifice. The Eldar realize that, while their Spirit Stones were good at warding off Slaanesh's corruption, they are useless in fending off the new mark's effects.
• The Weaving Force: Parahumans prove to be examples of this to various parties. Their powers are very different from what most people in the galaxy are prepared to encounter, including Force-sensitives, and the Jedi High Council are unnerved by the Shard's 'cold but not dark' Force presence. This makes them very good at disrupting the established status quo of the galaxy, especially with Alexandria and Glory Girl both being Flying Bricks.
• The Westerosi: Captain Jade Hasegawa of the Starfleet Ranger Corps to the people of Westeros. Not only because of her tech or her ship, but her attitude. She's a powerful force that refuses to play the Game Of Thrones, refuses to act as a lady, and refuses to kneel to or even respect those who expect it. Lady Olenna realizes during a conversation that she cannot catch the woman off guard like she does with everyone else, and is unnerved by her. Of course, this means that she does not give a damn about local titles, so threats of taking them away if she does not stop toeing the line are about as successful as Joffrey's attempts to be a good king.
• The old crossover What Insertion? has Inuyasha and Hellmaster Phibrizzo as this to The Black Organization. Inuyasha is tough enough on his own to stop, even though knives and bullets would still be able to injure him if they hit. When borrowing Phibrizzo's body, it becomes a different story altogether. Age-reducing drugs and Agasa's inventions aside, that world is still mostly realistic in nature; between Inuyasha's general combat ability and usage of Tessaiga paired with Phibrizzo's Nigh-Invulnerable body and teleportation, the Organization has no answer to him whatsoever and is eventually forced to stay out of his way until such a time that they can find a countermeasure.
• What the Cat Dragged In: The main reason why SHIELD and the Avengers stay away from Paris is because they have absolutely zero idea of how to deal with Miraculous holders like Hawk Moth or how to deal with Akumatized people (both to prevent SHIELD agents and Avengers from being infected by Akuma and how to deal with Evilized villains without doing collateral damage, because they don't know if Ladybug's powers can fix destruction performed by a third party). A very important dramatic point is having to explain to Tony Stark, stubborn ass that he is, that this situation is a big unknown where he and his friends are a bigger potential liability than they would be a help and make him accept it. It takes becoming Evilized for him to finally do so.
• “A Witching Happiness” sees Alec Trevelyan (GoldenEye in a continuity based on Spectre) being rescued from a terrorist base by his twelve-year-old daughter, Mildred Hubble (The Worst Witch), as his captors obviously have no way to anticipate being attacked by a witch, even an inexperienced witch.
• Zootopia: Lightning sees Nicky and Judy dealing with cases involving artificially engineered meta-animals, but they are fortunately given aid in the form of Barry Allen, who just jumped dimensions by accident.

Batman

• Batman is renowned for being a master strategist who has come up with countless plans in response to a myriad of theoretical situations and being capable of adapting on the fly with extreme ease to conquer any adversity. Precisely none of those plans or adaptability help in Bruce Has a Problem, where Harley Quinn figures out his Secret Identity and decides she's better off with him than with the Joker.

BattleTech

• Fragmentation has Executive Outcomes and its owners, the Kyphon. They possess a tech level that surpasses the Clans by levels that far exceed how the Clans themselves dwarf the Inner Sphere. But even more, their philosophy and promotion of Boring, but Practical Zerg Rush tactics to nations in order to counter the Successor States' Humongous Mecha supplies baffle the Inner Sphere's Honor Before Reason tendencies.

Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom Vs The Paranormal: Set after the final episode, the series involves Danny coming across non-ghostly monsters allegedly encountered in the real world. The first story, The Kentucky Goblins, involved the titular alien creatures of the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter. The second, The Wendigo, involves the evil entity of Algonquin legend.

The DCU

• In But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci, the Justice League in a dystopian alternate timeline created by Lex Luthor bodyjacking Superman get taken completely off-guard when the Joker returns to sanity and exhibits Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory. In their timeline (which has no Batman), the Joker is a minor threat, so it takes them a while to catch up to dealing with a Joker who's spent decades as one of the most terrifying villains in the DC universe, and is no longer hampered by being insane.

Digimon

• Tamers Forever Series: The Triad never considered Daemon returning as part of their plan. Naturally, this proves to be a catastrophic error.

Draconia Chronicles

• Human colonists in an untitled fanfic. Flak cannons grind dragon troops into hamburger, and there's no way a tiger with a scythe can stand up to a laser cannon-armed soldier in Powered Armor. Both factions decide the colony's not worth the trouble (and gods forbid they piss us off) and declare it neutral territory.

The Familiar of Zero

• Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji has Saito himself. He uses a magic system very different from what is practiced in the world he's been sent to, so hardly anybody knows what to expect from him or how to deal with him.

Forever (2014)

• Henry Morgan is used to being knowledgeable on basically everything relating to murder, so he's naturally thrown in "Star Wars Forever" when the current case sees the team deal with a Star Wars-themed serial killer, as while Henry recognises that serial killers have drawn inspiration from popular culture in the past he's never seen any of the films and therefore has trouble understanding the significance of some key details in the evidence.

Glitch Techs

• Glitched Miko AU: Somewhat. Miko is still a Glitch, made of living data with all the general abilities of one. What makes her different however is the fact that shes 'not' a video game character. She doesn't have any goals, behaviors or glowing weaknesses programmed into her that Glitch techs normally take advantage of to fight them. She's also so much more complex than a normal glitch that the normal, non-intensive security measures they use for detecting glitches don't identify her as being anything but human.

Harry Potter

• In Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past, Pettigrew manipulates the IRA into attacking Hogwarts, and the group are able to damage the Hogwarts wards with a bomb because the school's defences against non-magical assault haven't been updated since the castle was built; after Harry and his friends are able to help repel the subsequent Dementor attack, Flitwick makes it clear that he will remedy that oversight while repairing the wards.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Due to his unique grounding in the field of science and his terrifying creativity, Harry (and technically Voldemort) is this to the entire Wizarding World given how hopelessly backwards it is. Even Muggleborns, who at least know of mundane technologies, are stymied by some of the solutions he concocts. This goes so far that it circles back on Harry himself now and then. For example, his combination of a broomstick and a rocket engine... only realising after the fuse is lit that the two are incompatible, by dint of each subscribing to totally different physics models!

How to Train Your Dragon

• In A Thing of Vikings, Berk is this to the outside world. None of the powers in their part of the world envisioned that a tribe of Vikings would ever 'domesticate' dragons and scramble to deal with the this new 'threat' in various ways ranging from trade agreements for dragons, paying tribute, to looking for ways to increase their defences, to plotting ways to install someone more to their liking on the throne of Berk.

Invader Zim

• Witching Hour: As we find out at the end of the story, there's a case of this due to the story being a Historical AU set in Medieval times. Technology in this universe hasn't advanced beyond a medieval level... on Earth, that is. Zim comes from a planet with more advanced alien technology than anything the Kingdom of Doomsvillia could ever conceive of. With it, he projects a hologram of Gaz riding a broom into the sky, zaps Iggins with an invisible death ray right after she hits him, and uses the robotic legs of his PAK to climb into her tower and move her into a field where he has set up what looks like a demonic ritual with slaughtered cows and blood. All of this allows him to frame her for witchcraft without anyone being the wiser.

Jackie Chan Adventures

• Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: All of Team Chan's previous major magical foes had Asian roots, but the main threat in this story is a Greek goddess and the essences of the other Greek gods. Uncle in particular is thrown by this, as he's only ever studied Asian magic, and knows nothing about Greek magic. His frustration at this, and at having to rely on Prometheus' aid, is prominent in the early chapters, and actually contributes to him being possessed by Athena's essence.

Left Behind

• Left Beyond: The Omega quasi-sentient computer network become this once they reach the threshold of sentience: just near the end of the Millennial Kingdom, suddenly there's a soul that was not directly created by God. While this does not allow the Omega to alter the fixity of prophecy, they succeed at everting it, so that the children of humanity can colonize the cosmos after the Judgement.

Love Hina

• For His Own Sake: Ultimately, for all their issues, the worst of the Hinata Girls are 'merely' Spoiled Brats who have grown used to having their bad behavior coddled before having their Karma Houdini Warranties run out. Chisato and Kagura, by contrast, are legitimately evil, setting their sights on Keitaro purely because they can.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• Sixes and Sevens: The zero matter organisms are this for Ivan and his communist crew, since they were expecting a simple retrieval mission to get Dottie. Emily knows they're not prepared for the more cosmic nature of the creatures, so she simplifies the situation into "a HYDRA experiemnt gone wrong".

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Paradox: The Paradox Gundam itself is an anomaly by the time it is first appeared during the final battle at Jachin Due. As a result of interrupting the fight between Kira Yamato and his Freedom vs. Rau Le Creuset in the Providence, this allowed Kira to rescue Flay and her escape shuttle, ultimately undoing her death in the process. The real kicker is that the Providence's DRAGOONs would be rendered obsolete due to the Paradox's ability to manipulate time even in space itself, allowing it to defeat the Providence without breaking a sweat.

My Hero Academia

• Disciples Rising, features the titled antagonists. No one besides All for One and Garaki were aware of the existence of the Disciples, so their arrival in the story puts a major wrench in the plans of both Heroes and Villains.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• In Useless, the third story in The Negotiationsverse, Rainbow Dash admits that she can't understand why Equestria could not overcome the human race when she and her friends already fought against and defeated beings that were basically Physical Gods in comparison prior to the transition to Earth. Celestia really shouldn't have pushed humanity against the wall.
• The Pony POV Series has Princess Gaia. Twilight and the others are looking for the missing Fluttershy, and don't even realize that there even is a new Big Bad let alone that it's Fluttershy's Superpowered Evil Side.
  • In the Dark World, this role falls to Discord's sister Rancor, who joins the villains just as the redeemed and new Elements of Harmony begin their campaign against Discord's rule. Interestingly, she's as much this to the villains as to the heroes, as none of them (except for the Valeyard and Fluttercruel) even knew about Discord's family. She ultimately ends up being a Spanner in the Works for everyone (even The Voice) by betraying Discord at the right moment in order to steal Destruction's power for herself.
  • Queen Chrysalis in the Wedding Arc is this intentionally, having spent years enforcing The Masquerade while systematically infiltrating Equestria on every level so that her invasion would go off without a hitch. However, she then ironically becomes a victim of the inverse of this trope, as numerous ponies she didn't bother to view as a threat have Misfit Mobilization Moments and begin to throw wrenches in her plans.
  • In the Rumors arc, this trope is invoked by several of the actions the Pantheon performs to counter Discord's endgame. Justified as he and his cousin rewrote reality to run on horror movie rules, so heroes that run on completely different rules are the best way to counter that.
    • Havoc manipulates things such that Button Mash gets video game Personality Powers, which the horror movie based enemies have difficulty dealing with as their victims aren't supposed to be strong enough to fight back and kill them. This gives the CMC a powerful ally to help them survive while they're still inexperienced.
    • Pandora, the Goddess of Imagination, arranges for AK Yearling (who in this universe was just a fan of Daring Do) to merge with the Shadow of Existence of Puzzlemint (who she's a Reincarnation of the Light of Existence of, also making this an example of Came Back Strong when they reform their original soul) and Daring Do's books to become the real deal, now running on action adventure story logic rather than the horror movie logic the world's running on, allowing her to save many lives from the Rumors as well as assist the CMC several times.
    • The Love Goddess Venus helps a mare named Lovestruck perform a Fusion Dance with her erased, demi-god son Cupid's Shadow of Existence (as she is the Reincarnation of the G3 pony Cupid turned into during the Wish Spell) to become the new Anthropomorphic Personification of Sharing Love and a Demi-Goddess. Due to a Demi-God's Hybrid Power, she's capable of using her full power to save ponies unlike the rest of the Pantheon because her mortal half hides her divine half (unlike the pure deities, who had to use much weaker avatars to avoid detection) and can freely go between the spirit and mortal worlds for quick escapes. The big reason she qualifies is Cupid was killed Deader than Dead, so naturally no one would see somepony with his powers coming.
    • During the Rainbow Factory chapter Scootaloo manages to get Rainbow Dash to split from the rumors possessing her and become the Mare-Do-Well, now running on comic book logic. This means she's capable of beating her Enemy Without.
• Deliberately invoked in the Quiververse.
  • In A Daring Day, Quiver Quill attempts to be one of these in order to stop a plot by Ahuizotl and rescue Twilight Sparkle. He suspects that Ahuizotl is prepared for a fight, but not for a fanboy to come along and stoke his ego. Quiver's efforts are successful, Twilight is freed, and the plot is foiled.
• In The Rise of Darth Vulcan, the titular Villain Protagonist is one of these to Equestria, as he's a strategist with vast resources and complicated morality, rather than a cartoonish challenge-you-to-your-face Card-Carrying Villain who usually works alone, and who is taking a long time to deal with, rather than the quick fights the Mane Six are used to. To counter this, they and the Princesses eventually decide to summon a human warrior of their own, who might better understand how Vulcan thinks.
• The killing spree of the Maerhwolf in Urban Wilds gets thrown for a loop when a benevolent necromancer walks onto the scene and resurrects the latest victim. The implications spook the conspiracy behind the Maerhwolf so much that they almost immediately make an attempt to kill her purely out of panic of what she might be able to do.
• The Writing on the Wall: Magical pony explorers exploring ancient ruins are expecting traps, competing tomb robbers, and maybe a curse or two. They are NOT expecting nuclear waste and radiation poisoning.

Naruto

• Glass Marionette: This version of Kankuro happens to have memories of a past life where he remembers following the Naruto series in manga and anime form. Nobody else is aware of this - least of all Kabuto, who grows increasingly obsessed with figuring out where the hell the puppeteer gets all of his information from.
• Your Heart a Haven of Thorns: Kikyō is a member of the Tiger clan who made her home inside the Forest of Death. While the Sandaime was aware of her presence there, he never considered the possibility of her making a summoning contract with anyone... least of all one of the genin passing through the area during their Chuunin Exams. For everyone else, she's even more of an outside-context problem, given how they very much weren't aware of the giant tiger.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• A Crown of Stars: The Avalon army is this to Jinnai and the other warlords ruling the post-apocalyptic world. Jinnai is a military dictator, prepared to deal with other warlords armed with conventional weaponry... and then Shinji and Asuka, two of his subordinates/mistreated puppets, disappear and reappear backed by an army from another dimension armed with several Humongous Mecha and Transforming Mecha, Powered Armors... Has it been mentioned a good number of their soldiers have Psychic Powers?

One Piece

• For the World Government, the Straw Hat Pirates in This Bites! are this, especially their Third Mate and Tactician Jeremiah Cross, who uses his knowledge of the series to help his crewmates make it through their battles far easier. The Straw Hats become more of a wrench to the World Government by being a public example of pirates that aren't cruel and greedy, and making their battles known to the public thanks to the Transceiver Cross and the Transponder Snail Soundbite uses. The Straw Hats victory in Enies Lobby alone leads to a large strike against the 800-year old world power.
  • Inversely, however, there's the fact that Cross' foreknowledge comes solely from having read the One Piece manga and watched the anime. As such, threats from the movies he never saw, like Baron Omatsuri or Shiki, completely blindside him.

Persona

• Steal the Truth, Reach Out For Your Heart: Nanako's Metaverse abilities are based more on Persona 4's game mechanics and are derived from Margaret's Compendium, so she doesn't manifest a costume and has no Persona of her own unlike the other Phantom Thieves. This troubles Morgana, as all he can remember is his knowledge of the Metaverse and Nanako's powers leaves him questioning if he can even be sure of that.

Pokémon

• Fics that have the Pokémon Legends: Arceus plotline be done instead by Ash Ketchum quickly fall into mass confusion for the Hisuian side. In stories like Light up the Sky A.U and Pokemon Hisuian Journeys Ash's skill with Pokemon befriending and training and mindset are so different from that of the Galaxy Team or Clans that the two struggle to comprehend him, while also being well aware that Ash is basically strong enough to survive Hisui anywhere so they can't just hope he just dies from the elements or wild Pokemon attacks.

RWBY

• Forged Destiny:
  • Jaune serves as one for everyone he comes across, as his amulet hides his true profession. So everybody dealing with him thinks he's a Knight, when he's actually a Blacksmith.
  • The Hunters serve as one for the Grey Cloaks, as they keep interrupting or thwarting their plans whenever they encounter them.
  • In Book 6, Raven and her portals enable the Grey Cloaks to infiltrate the necessary temple right under the Hunter's noses, as well as providing the sacrifices necessary to summon Salem.

Star Wars

• Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo:
  • Vader is this to the Jedi. In their view, he's an immensely powerful Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere despite the Sith having been thought to be extinct. He's decided to aid the Republic planet of Naboo for seemingly no personal gain. And the most baffling to the Jedi, is that he shows no outward hostility to them aside from defending himself if needed, and is perfectly capable of holding a cordial conversation with them.
    • Both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon pull this card when the Jedi question them about their reactions regarding Vader — "Why did you let them on the ship, near the queen," "Why did you not try to fight him," "Why did you let him come to Coruscant," for example. They cite that "Sith Lord acting friendly after showing up after a thousand years of no sign that they exist," was so far out of their realm of what they expected, not even including the invasion that they were in the middle of, that the best they could do is roll with the punches.
  • Vader is also this to Sidious. As far as Palpatine knows, Vader is either a rival apprentice to Plagueis or an outsider from another Sith Order, yet in either case is not operating like a Sith Lord should. More to the point, he knows more about Sidious than anyone should, and is powerful enough to not be threatened by him, all of which completely upends Sidious' plans.
  • Darth Sidious was this for the Jedi in canon, but there, they did not even realize his existence nor the extent of his power until it was too late. Here, the entire order becomes of aware of his existence prematurely thanks to Vader, and are completely thrown off and near-traumatized by the sheer level of dark side power the man radiates, with some even gobsmacked that he is even a sentient being at all.
  • To a small degree played up for amusement, Anakin is this to the creche masters and younglings of the temple — a child powerful in the Force who is not a Jedi Youngling, but was just brought to the temple. The younger students were so fascinated at him that Anakin compared it to "A ship surrounded by Jawas," and Master Phara admitted that it was an accurate comparison.
  • During the battle for Naboo, the Trade Defense Force thought they could take on anything Padme and her allies could muster with their three Droid Control Ships... And are caught completely by surprise when they show up with the Clamator, a prototype Acclamator and an actual warship larger and more powerful than anything that had been built for a thousand years at that point (the Control Ships were larger, but were actually repurposed cargo ships and undergunned for their sizes). The TDF loses two ships, but Padme's allies exhaust their resources in the process and the last Control Ship cannot surrender due Nute Gunray, in his paranoia, having programmed the droids to kill the organic crew if they tried... And then the ship explodes so suddenly nobody has any idea what happened, the closest being Padme's guess that Darth Vader is somehow responsible, guess that he confirms without elaborating. Turns out that Darth Vader had time traveled with the entirety of Death Squadron, a fleet of warships designed with the advantages of over a decade of technological development and the lessons of a galaxy-wide total war and crewed by professional soldiers with better training and often more experience than either the TDF or Padme's allies, and had put an Imperial Star Destroyer near Naboo to help in case Padme's allies failed to take down all Control Ships.
• Star Wars: Paranormalities: Let's just say this story has that title due to thriving on these. The Valkoran Empire seem pretty normal by Star Wars standards for the most part at first, initially believed to be pirates/political terrorists before being revealed to be cultists, but their leaders are something else entirely. Maesterus is a Force user who isn't actually a Sith Lord (despite dressing similarly to one) with Lovecraftian Superpowers, Juganak is strong enough to dismantle a walker with his bare hands, Neur is a brain-damaged human-Twi'lek hybrid, Machinus is a droid with the soul of a Nautolan, Masochus is an insane ex-Sith Lord who skinned himself down to the bone, and Armogeist is a disembodied spirit possessing a suit of Animated Armor. Let's not even get started on Emperor Valkor himself...
  • The Forceless Collective, an army of Eldritch Abominations from another galaxy that can possess other living creatures and it's theorized that there are other Forceless born from the Force wounds created by mass genocides. Like the Yuuzhan Vong, very few in the galaxy knew about their existence aside from the Valkoran Empire.
  • Gestroma. Why? He's a deranged, Forceless-possessed Imperial mutant supersoldier turned Bounty Hunter that wants to Kill All Humans.

Steven Universe

• In Faded Blue, the Crystal Gems were caught off guard by Steven's entire existence — Garnet specifically states in Chapter 11 that he was a walking blind spot in her Future Vision. This is because, as would turn out to be the case in canon as well, Future Vision is biased towards how the user views reality and what they're looking for: no one was aware half-Gem hybrids could exist, so anything involving one wasn't a future Garnet could see. Garnet directly tells Steven later on that now that she's aware he's a thing, she can now accurately predict events involving him.

Warhammer 40,000

• Secret War: You thought Taryst was the Big Bad? ehh! wrong! It's Inquisitor Edracian who's behind everything but it's a subversion as many characters excluding Attelus and a few others knew of him and his involvement already.

Xenoblade Chronicles

• Where We Don't Belong: The very existence of the Ouroboros is this to the respective antagonists. Alvis even notes that Noah doesn't appear in any of Zanza's visions, which Shulk later confirms. This is ultimately the reason Ontos kept X and Y alive, despite the mutual animosity between them; they want to minimise the risk of an already bad situation becoming worse.

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