Reality Ensues and Reality is Unrealistic

I got this from this from the Go T thread and paraphrase, "Just because things don't work in reality, doesn't necessarily mean that is not unrealistic." The poster in question may or may not have a point but he also touched on something I found interesting. In more deconstructive works, they often use Reality Ensues to show that how a trope would work in real life often with unpredictable results. It would the case except that 'perspective is not reality' and what seems 'real' to one may person seems unrealistic to another. Who is to say that certain trope such as One Man Army may not work in real life?

There might be repercussions but real life is sometimes stranger than fiction. What do you think of these tropes especially when applied to reality?

The point of Reality Ensues is, in a nutshell, that characters stop being the beneficiaries of Plot Armor and become vulnerable to the kinds of outcomes that would occur if you or I decided to grab a rifle and a belt of ammunition and charge the enemy lines single-handed, or get dropped on our heads from five stories up.

Reality Is Unrealistic describes the phenomenon where audiences come to believe that reality works the way it does in fiction because they don't know any better, and complain when a work treats one of those subjects realistically. An example is Space Is Noisy. It's so prevalent as to cause people to be genuinely surprised when a work portrays space as silent.

edited 11th May '14 4:27:42 PM by Fighteer

In the case of both tropes, it can also be applied to more mundane things like relationships and karmic results. For example some people have wondered why Dr. Cox from Scrubs could possibly keep his job because of his abrasive personality and ignoring the rules of the hospital, when he is very firmly in the realm of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, WAY too good at his job to just fire him and very much Truth in Television. At the same time, Reality Ensues because he is so abrasive with the people in charge he could never get above a basic attending physician until he humbled himself to ask for recommendations from peers and his board member wife/ex-wife.

Are there really doctors like Dr.Cox? That was a nut.

Yes. Or close enough. If people are good enough, they often do get to keep their job despite doing things that would get others fired. And it also often keeps them from getting promotions.

Happens a lot too with clerical work or with a limited job pool, replacing them is more of a hassle than trying to find someone else and get them up to speed before too much time and money is lost.