Basic Trope: Characters make mistakes that mark them as having never seen an even vaguely similar situation in fiction.
- Straight: They split up into gangs of two, when they know that one of them is a murderer.
- Exaggerated: "Oh hi Mr-Giant-Looming-And-Eery, what's that red stuff all over your clothes, catsup? Help you clean it up? Sure, I'd be glad to!"
- Justified: The character is literally unaware of the genre in question.
- The genre in question may not actually exist in the world of the story; the audience knows what's going on but the characters in the story have no frame of reference.
- It may be harder to spot the actual genre you are in when it is you. The trails of blood might make it seem like a horror movie, rather than a sign that an Eldritch Abomination is looming just behind the door that the heroes are on their way to beat with the needed macguffin.
- Although, if the character in question has access to a weapon and doesn't bring it then it's their own fault.
- Inverted: Character is Genre Savvy and provides the audience with all the right hints. But then, he acts the opposite because he is a lunatic, too.
- Subverted: See Genre Savvy
- Double Subverted: See Wrong Genre Savvy
- Parodied: "Hey, gang, let's make the same mistake all those idiots in horror movies do and split up since one of us is a murderer!" "Sounds good!"
- Deconstructed: The characters' inability to understand the genre they're in is indicative of their more general lack of imagination and experience of fiction.
- Reconstructed: The characters are genre blind because to them, it's real and therefore shouldn't be expected to work out per genre rules and conventions.
- Zig Zagged: The characters make mistakes, but the genre itself sometimes doesn't play out to form, meaning that a Genre Savvy character would sometimes be Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Averted: Some characters are Genre Savvy, some are not. Choices are made, without bringing out the cultural background of them.
- Enforced: "The Scobbies have to make some mistake sooner or later, or the show will be boring" (actually not: it's just harder to write)
- Lampshaded: "I can't see how this could go wrong!"
- Invoked: See Contractual Genre Blindness
- Defied: "Splitting up into pairs would make exploring easier, sure, but there's no way I'm going to get killed like a horror movie character if I can help it. We're sticking together."
- Discussed: "In hindsight, the Terminator franchise should have taught us to avoid this error."
- Conversed: "How come the idiots in these movies never seem to think of the obvious idea of sticking together?"
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Genre Blindness It's to die for.
