We don't want to clog this thread since Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is an Overdosed Trope. Before posting here, check if the example you're analyzing qualifies for summary deletion from the three criteria below by keeping this trope's rigorous definition in mind.
- Does the example involve Applied Phlebotinum (Functional Magic, Science Fiction, Artistic Licence) or a character reaction? If so, it instantly violates the definition's second bullet point's realism requirements, and you should delete it without question.
- Is the example a Discussed Trope or an instance of Conversational Troping? If so, it violates the definition's third bullet point's emphasis on only counting outcomes, and you should delete it without question.
- Considering the definitions, would the example qualify better for Deconstructed Trope or Deconstructed Character Archetype from the trope page's rules? If so, move it to the appropriate one on the spot.
If the example survived all three tests, it satisfies the second and third bullet points, so you don't need to change it immediately. If you feel like it meets the first bullet point's requirements for being surprising, you can leave it. However, if you believe it doesn't meet the first bullet point or aren't sure, talk it over in the cleanup thread before deciding.
Many Stock Phrases you'll see used in this thread describe a particular type of misuse:
- Not surprising. — The outcome described isn't a Bait-and-Switch and merely follows expected genre conventions.
- Plot happens. — The example merely describes an event or series of events but not why we would expect something different.
- Too fantastical. — The causes/outcome described included the presence of stuff Impossible in Real Life such as Applied Phlebotinum, Functional Magic, or Science Fiction, meaning they're too unrealistic by default.
- No character reactions. — The outcome involves a character reacting in a certain way or having certain emotions, which we can't gauge the realism of because people's emotional reactions vary far too much.
- Not realistic. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but this one requires you to write a short description for why it isn't realistic.
- Too implausible. — The outcome describes an outcome that happened because of things too unlikely to count as relatively realistic compared to what they were subverting.
- Cuttable ZCE. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Not an outcome. — The example is either a Discussed Trope, Lampshade Hanging, Conversational Troping, or happens over too much time to be momentary.
- Too unclear. — The example is too convoluted or obtuse to judge.
- Irrelevant. — The example describes stuff utterly irrelevant to the definition of SRO.
- Bad indentation. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
A big thing I've noticed is that it's often used for anything remotely realistic, or something that's realistic but doesn't necessarily affect the story. Another problem is that the trope seems to be cherry-picked, where any instance of reality ensuing is put there, as well as when another trope could serve the example better.
Problematic examples from one sample page, SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome.Disney Animated Series:
"Despite his attempts Wander can't make friends with Dominator who constantly rebuffs his friendly gestures throughout season 2. Even at the end of everything, she still refuses. Sylvia even lampshades it, telling him some people are just like that."
"Spider-Man's fight against Sandman and Rhino, where Spidey uses Rhino's weight against him. rather than fighting him directly."
"Beshte gets sunburns all over his body and is easily exhausted while he is lost in the Outlands. Justified due to the fact that hippos need water to survive to avoid sunburn and overheating."
"It's heavily implied that being the leader of the Lion Guard has taken a toll on Kion's social and private life."
"Milo Murphy's Law is about a boy named Milo Murphy whose entire life is centered around Murphy's Law. In another cartoon, being The Jinx would cause people to be afraid of them, resulting in an unsocial lifestyle. That does not apply here. While everyone does watch their step around Milo, they do not hate him for it. Being The Jinx does, however, give everyone Paranoia Fuel, given that Murphy's Law can happen at any time, so chances are you might need insurance, a phone in case of emergencies, among other things. Milo himself (as well as his friends Melissa and Zack) just learned to adapt to his condition, being prepared for anything. He has lived with Murphy's Law his entire life after all. That being said, that does not mean that they don't panic all the time. Examples include Milo panicking over his monthly doctor's note, and Melissa panicking over riding a rollercoaster with Milo."
" Hiro is initially not allowed to use Tadashi's former lab, as it can only be accessed by upperclassmen who earned the privilege. Subverted in the second half of the pilot when Professor Granville decides Hiro using the lab would benefit him. On a related note regarding Granville, she is tough, but fair when interacting with the students. She might be, as Wasabi describes "a hard case", but Granville being a complete sadist and picking on Hiro would be unrealistic. She is actually a decent person."
-Edited with permission from the OP-
Edited by lalalei2001 on Aug 10th 2022 at 5:47:25 AM
Found this on Recap.Spy X Family Manga Stella Star Arc that I’m unsure of:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: No matter what rumours may say, a school isn't going to hand out its most prestigious award to the winner of a simple gym match. On the other hand, a student yelling "Die!" at others is perfect grounds for getting punished.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Jan 22nd 2024 at 9:53:37 PM
She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A
I don't even understand what that example is supposed to be about. It's basically a ZCE and should be edited out for that alone.
Captain of USS Bajor
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
For context, the school in question gives out "Stella Stars" to students who perform above and beyond; get x number of them and you get put in a special class for high-achievers. Conversely, it gives out "Tonitrus Bolts" to students who screw up badly; get y number of those and you're expelled.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
Yeah, that's as much context as I know, I don't actually know who was involved in this incident (although at a guess, it's Anya Forger).
Edited by StarSword on Jan 24th 2024 at 10:16:11 AM
Sure, but that context should be in the example.
Without it, and as is, it's basically incomprehensible and therefore a bad example. Which characters are even involved? Nobody is mentioned by name. Even with your added context, it's unclear who did what and why the outcome was so surprising.
Cut as a ZCE, maybe it can be retooled later.
But what about this example
?
Konstruktor
That seems like it would fall under the umbrella of character reactions. It also probably doesn't count as a outcome; I don't know much about the work, but it sounds like it's a recurring plot point, which would mean it happens (to use the header's phrasing) "over too much time to be momentary".
From Mulan II.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: No, you cannot change firmly entrenched views about women held by an entire nation for an untold amount of time, especially not in a month. All of the allies Mulan made in the first movie, while polite to Mulan specifically, still are misogynistic towards women as a whole. In general, "character doesn't change viewpoints" probably falls under character reactions?
- The Emperor has made no major reforms after publically honoring Mulan, and is using his own daughters as bargaining chips to form an alliance. In real life, change takes time. Probably more character reaction
- Shang knows that most women are being treated unfairly, but doesn't care because it doesn't affect him, Mulan, or his relationship with her. Definitely character reaction. Also doesn't explain what makes it realistic.
- Yao, Ling, and Chien Po's wife fantasies have gotten even worse in the time skip, as shown by what they told the matchmaker they wanted in a bride, and during the song Ling steals chopsticks from an innocent girl advertising a shop and sticks up up his nose because she assumed her waving at him had to be a romantic gesture (she wanted to promote her shop, small wonder she punched him right after that). They treat the princesses decently for the first and only three days of their relationship before getting married (Ling following Ting-Ting around bothering her after she's made it clear she's not interested and wants to honor her engagement notwithstanding) Sounds like a series of character reactions
- The only person who is seen improving is the matchmaker, as she throws the gang of three out in disgust when she hears their obnoxious demands, ostensibly wanting to protect any girl from having to deal with them as husbands. Character reaction
My New Boss is Goofy and all the Mulan II examples are character reactions and should be deleted.
The Spy X Family example is a bit trickier, because that scene definitely feels like it's calling out a trope (Infallible Babble) for being unrealistic, but on the other hand, Eden Academy is a fictional school, so you can't really objectively say that it should or shouldn't hand out merits for good performance in PE.
- Archer
- Cyril and Lana push a bomb off an airship before it can detonate. Unfortunately, this just causes it to blow up whatever they were just flying over. Not surprising. They knew it was going to blow up. They failed to disable the bomb, that's why they pushed it overboard.
- In Dingo Baby Et Cetera, Archer confronts Reiko, a larger than life woman who stole his heart when he was a young and vulnerable agent, only for her to have been an assassin who manipulated Archer into making it easier for her to strike her target. Archer forever regarded this as his greatest failure, especially because she killed an agent who was acting as a (bad) mentor for Archer and got away when Archer hesitated to shoot her when he had her at gunpoint. At the end of the episode, Archer is forced to shoot Reiko and she falls from the rooftop they are on. Considering her large role in Archer's backstory, the absurd injuries that both the main and some of the recurring characters have survived (just see how Archer's rival/Evil Counterpart Barry or his one-time love interest Katya cheated death by being transformed into cyborgs, and also Barry's complete inability to die, no matter what happens to him), and Reiko's reputation for making unlikely escapes, Archer is initially certain that Reiko survived the fall and escaped to become a recurring foe. When he looks over the rooftop to check on her it turns out that no, she did indeed die. Character reaction.
- Family Guy
- The page quote comes from the episode “I Take Thee, Quagmire”, wherein Peter is trying to get Quagmire back to normal as he marries Joan, Peter’s maid for the week. And apparently one of his whacky schemes was to get the Statue of Liberty’s foot to trigger Quagmire’s foot fetish. When Quagmire declines, Peter launches into a tirade about how he had to scrape up $430,000 dollars just for the foot by somehow cashing in favors from people he doesn’t even know. Seems like a character reaction. I'm not sure what the expected outcome is even supposed to be.
- "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air:" Bonnie averts Revolvers Are for Amateurs, as she's a horrible shot, hitting Joe everywhere except the spine, to the point that he tells her to just give him the gun so he can do it himself rather than be injured further. ZCE. Seems like this Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. And it doesn't explain how Revolvers Are for Amateurs is relevant here
- Dexter's Laboratory
- In another episode, "Morning Stretch", Dexter invents a machine that slows time around him down (from 30 seconds to 30 minutes) to give him more time in the morning to go about his routines. He rather quickly finds out that while he's sped up, nothing else is. The water from the shower is traveling at a snail's pace, the toast ejected from the toaster is hanging hopelessly out of his reach in mid-air, the microwave set on a three-minute timer takes a full minute to count down a single second, and he can't finish his homework because moving at such high speeds causes extreme friction burn that sets the paper on fire. Too fantastical
- Another episode, “Figure Not Included”, has Dexter creating Major Glory action figures with high-tech features and abilities for a group of Glory-loving kids so he can join their gang. Eventually, after a fight, the action figures overload and explode. When the kids prepare to pound him for his defective action figures, the actual Major Glory flies in and saves Dexter in the nick of time. Dexter mentions that he’s learned a lesson about trying to buy friends with toys. Glory appreciates his moral, but clarifies that he’s taking Dexter to see his attorney, since Dexter committed copyright infringement by making the action figures without Glory’s permission. Seems like Hilarity Sues and Bait-and-Switch
- One season 3 episode "Copping an Aptitude" is about Dexter being invited to attend a college. Being the child genius that he is, it makes sense that some schools would be interested in having him join. Dexter of course spends all his time doing nothing but studying and working. His roommate warns him that he will burn himself out, and that’s exactly what happens. Without his family around Dexter gets no social interaction, and without Dee Dee interrupting him occasionally he works so much that he snaps. Interestingly, this kind of thing happened to him before way back in an early pilot episode. Not sure
Edited by maxwellsilver on Jan 26th 2024 at 7:14:42 AM
The last Dexter episode sounds like a character reaction, plus it's not surprising if he was warned about the risks of his behavior. "Character acts in a certain way, is warned that he should stop, keeps going anyway, and regrets it" is a common-enough plot that this isn't defying any normal conventions.
Major Glory is also a superhero so the second Dexter's example is too fantastical to be valid.
Found these at Spy X Family, all of which I’m unsure of:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For all the wacky humour, the series is surprisingly grounded in reality:
- Eden Academy frequently stages fake scenario to test the families applying to the school, such as one student pretending to be trapped in a sewer drain. Henderson, who very exacting in his standards for elegance and very demanding on the families, is horrified when a stampede of farm animals terrorizes the school grounds and demands to know whose idea it was. Turns out, no one's, it was an entirely legitimate threat caused by the animals breaking free of their pens. Even a comically strict school for the elite isn't going to actually risk the lives of their applicants.
- Swan is infamous for being a bitter, spiteful man who takes his frustrations over his awful home life on any families that seem happier or more stable. He gets away with it because because his name carries significant weight in the school, making it difficult to punish him. Henderson, who viewed the Forgers as very promising applicants, is furious with Swan for his misconduct and punches him so hard in the face it knocks him flat on his back. Henderson realizes that he'll get in serious trouble for this however, since assaulting your coworkers is a serious offense.
- Swan's connections only take him so far however, since Henderson is only demoted from his position rather than being fired. Henderson is also a well-respected figure in Eden College and Swan's reputation is implied to be well known amongst the faculty. His threats against Henderson ultimately amount to very little in the long run.
- Anya gets accepted to Eden Academy, but just barely—she starts off at the very top of the waiting list, meaning that if any student has to drop out for any reason then she'll get in. Yor briefly considers hunting down another student's parents and killing one of them to ensure that Anya gets in, but before she can really complete that thought Henderson points out that there's always someone who has to drop out for one reason or another and so Anya is basically already in, they just need to wait a little while to make it official. Indeed, exactly that happens—no schemes, shakedowns, or slayings required.
- Yuri is the only one who enjoys Yor's cooking, which frequently leaves people catatonic due to how bad it is, due to having grown up to it. He frequently devours her meals and sings the highest praises for it while doing so, but he still suffers the negative effects same as anyone else, frequently vomiting while eating. Camilla and Dominic wonder how he's even alive at this rate. While the actual effects of the food are highly exaggerated for comedy, any food that has that sort of effect on people is most likely unsafe for consumption and developing an appetite for it won't make you immune to its effects.
- Yor eventually manages to make a pretty good meal after receiving cooking lessons from Camilla and managing to reverse-engineer a stew her mother made for her and Yuri. It's also the only meal she knows how to make appetizing since she still hasn't gotten the hang of cooking unfamiliar foods.
- During Special Mission 2, Yor gets Shot in the Ass by a terrorist she was tasked with killing. In spite of her otherwise superhuman feats displayed throughout the series, she's still in a lot of pain and utterly miserable throughout the entire chapter. Gunshots aren't something one can just walk off, they take time to heal. Even after the pain is temporarily relieved, she is in pain again the following day because the wound still hasn’t healed fully.
- Henderson tells Anya that plenty of imperial scholars received Tonitrus Bolts before graduating, with one earning six. Strict though Eden is, it's inevitable that even their most prestigious graduates will have a few black marks on their records, and it's not enough to disqualify them unless they earn too many.
- A rumor goes around that whoever is MVP during a dodgeball match would receive a Stella. Damien and Anya's team is pitted against Bill Watkins, who is insanely tough and has a variety of throws that are night-impossible to dodge. Anya manages to make it to the end thanks to her mind-reading powers and a Heroic Sacrifice from Damien, and tries to prepare her own Special Attack, complete with flashbacks to Yor teaching her the move and a power up reminiscent of a Magical Girl. She hurls the ball foward... and bounces it off of the floor, allowing Bill to catch it and knock her out. A few days of training aren't going to make you an Instant Expert.
- Following the match, everyone on Bill's team cheers him on for qualifying for a Stella, only for Henderson to dismiss the idea immediately since the school isn't going to award their most prestigious merit for winning a single game of dodgeball. Bill actually receives a Tonitrus Bolt instead since his treating the dodgeball game like a shonen anime battle resulted in numerous acts of misconduct such as using needlessly dangerous tactics and shouting "die" at his opponents.
- Even if they are expert intel gatherers, <WISE> are still only human and so make mistakes like everyone else. A good example is at the end of the Campbelldon Tennis arc, when it's revealed that the dossier that they believed could "reignite the flames of war" turned out to be nothing more than a merchandise stash, and that the "war" was Erik Zacharis and his wife arguing over the former's hobby, making the mission All for Nothing. While the revelation is Played for Laughs, it nevertheless shows that a small amount of information can lead to a huge misunderstanding. This also happens to be the very reason Operation Strix is necessary in the first place i.e. they need to be sure if Donovan Desmond is a genuine threat to national security or if he's just full of hot air.
Kirby is shaped like a friend
- Feels more like Everyone Has Standards than "realistic".
- Same as above.
- Ditto.
- I mean this was a moment where they just wait for a mundane solution instead of going with the Imagine Spot's hilariously-over-the-top suggestion, but not sure if it counts.
- Considering how Yor is a comical Lethal Chef with her food having a purple aura in the anime version I don't think "realism" was the intent here.
- If I remember the scene correctly it wasn't "surprising" since the entire gag essentially went "oh of course she wouldn't know how to cook anything else".
- How do we handle characters with superhuman abilities suffering mundane problems again? I forgot.
- Unsure.
- The scene, especially in the anime, is set up like a sports anime Special Attack only for it to immediately fail in a way anyone who has ever played sports would be able to relate to. Valid, but trim it down to just the bit of Anya flubbing it.
- While the first part is "surprising" given the expectations the characters gave the audience, I'm not sure if I would call it "realistic". The second part is a character reaction.
- People fail. Probably doesn't count.
Unsure 1 (Yor Shot in the Ass) isn't surprising enough, since it's just setting up the episode's central gag rather than being there to remind viewers of how bullets work in real life. Unsure 2 is not an outcome, since it's just someone mentioning that something happened in the past.
So recently Surprisingly Realistic Outcome was removed from the MCU: Peter Parker Variants page, specifically from the Webb-Verse Spider-Man folder. This was what was originally shown:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Years of being the sole superhero defending New York means that he doesn't really know how to work as a team, which he confesses to when he and the other Peters get back into a corner at one point during the final battle.
- While time does help in moving on from a traumatic event in real life, completely throwing yourself into a high-risk job without getting professional help will only result in a negative outcome to your mental state. As a result, Peter admits to Peter-1 that despite his attempts to remain a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in honor of Gwen's memory, he couldn't stop his grief from making him more bitter and rageful to the point he regressed back into the violent vigilante he was after Ben's death.
While the first point probably should be removed, I think the second one should be kept. My reasons for thinking this are: one, by the standards of the superhero genre Peter reacting in this way to Gwen's death is surprisingly realistic, considering how Peter in the comics didn't have such an extreme reaction and most superhero comics often have a character getting over such a loss far more quickly; and two, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a much happier ending where Peter, after a couple of months, started to move on from the loss, so NWH instead showing that this decision backfired for the reasons stated is realistic.
The second example was removed because it's a character reaction, which is not allowed on this trope, since there's no single way that people are supposed to realistically grieve in real life, and it's not assumed that fictional characters won't experience grief.
There are other tropes that would cover Pete backsliding in such a way.
Happyending Override comes to mind.
I saw these ones on the Shrek 2 main page
- During the prison break scene, Pinocchio tries to rescue Shrek and the gang with a "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop by his puppet strings, doing several fancy flips on the way down. However, these flips just entangle him in said strings, immobilizing him.
- Fairy Godmother wants King Harold to, without hyperbole, force his daughter entirely against her will to marry a man neither she nor he especially likes, by having Harold administer a mind-affecting potion to strip her of her say in the matter. Of course he doesn't go through with the plan, how could he possibly?
- The plan to get Fiona to be with Charming, via having him pretend to be a transformed Shrek, ends up failing miserably; a) Charming's never met Shrek and can't pull off impersonating him (nor would he wish to) and b) Fiona had already fallen in love with another man and is in fact very happy with him, and doesn't like this version of 'her husband' at all. The only reason Fiona falls for it is that she never met Prince Charming and thinks the Fairy Godmother is on her side so she has no reason to suspect what's really going on.
- Fiona is convinced her parents will immediately accept her new form as well as her marriage to an ogre because they love her. However, as much as her parents love her, it isn't enough to overcome their prejudice and their initial meeting is rather hostile.
- Harold's objections to his daughter's marriage do not cause her to break up with Shrek. Instead, he ends up pushing her away from her parents and she eventually decides to disown them and return to the swamp with Shrek. Even Lillian had warned this would happen earlier in the film.
The first bullet is the only one that should stay IMO. The rest seem like character reactions.
I don't think the first one counts either, because living puppets don't exist in real life, so you can't say that this is what would happen if one of them tried to do what Pinocchio does.
I understand that living puppets don’t exist in real life either, but it is possible to be immobilized by strings if you imitate a stunt like hanging in a manner.
Anyway, I’ll trim the whole entry.
"Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop isn't a completely unrealistic trope (it has some real life examples listed), so it still doesn't count as "Surprisingly Realistic".
Konstruktor
From Cadet Kelly:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The free-spirited Kelly from an artsy alternative learning school is sent to Military School. She doesn't fit in, and this causes some flashes with her new stepfather.
- Kelly pulls a prank on Stone by painting her hair. Stone immediately finds out it was Kelly since Kelly is the only cadet that she antagonizes more than the others.
From Literature.Fatherland:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: This is one of the most realistic outcomes of a Nazi victory depicted in fiction. Rather than taking over the world, the Nazi empire consists only of Europe, and is basically no different than the Soviet Union in our universe. Most of the land conquered is also poor and undeveloped except for a guerrilla movement resisting Nazi rule, and the entire empire will most likely collapse in the near future.
The first example is a character reaction, the other two are just "realistic" in the sense that they make some sense, but not for the sake of highlighting a common kind of Artistic License, so it's not surprisingly realistic.
Any input on these?
- Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?:
- Aizawa at some point reports his bullying to his homeroom teacher. The Gang of Bullies gets away with it by shedding some Crocodile Tears and continues abusing Aizawa like nothing happened.
- Yumi's public confession and Heartfelt Apology to Shiori does not absolve her of her actions. While Shiori forgives her, she also clarifies that the two of them can never be friends again and she is expected to face a lot of social consequences going forward.
- Most bullies don't become better people when growing up. Takano and Hatake, former members of Shinji's Gang of Bullies seem to play the Reformed Bully trope straight by helping him get his revenge on Shinji and offering a seemingly Heartfelt Apology to Aizawa. In reality they just helping him because they are sick of Shinji's Smug Snake attitude and are shedding Crocodile Tears just to get Aizawa off their backs. Having watched them shed Crocodile Tears before, Aizawa doesn't buy it and proceeds to also destroy their lives.
- Aizawa's actions lead to him losing his job and never being able to work with children again. He now focuses on adult bullying victims.
- Sailor Moon:
- Minako has the most experience of the Senshi but she is still a teenager and later seasons showed her as The Ditz. Season one reveals that when Artemis awakened her, she was living in London and working with a cop named Katerina. They also both fell in love with the same guy, Alan, who was Katerina's age. After Sailor V nearly died in an explosion, she saw Alan comforting a grieving Katerina, who believed they lost her. Minako tearfully decided to let them go and faked her death so that they would be happy together and she could rip the Band-Aid off with her hopes about starting a relationship with Alan. Even without Kunzite brainwashing Katerina, she has an appropriate reaction to finding out a Kid Hero was alive after all this time: what happened with Alan was not important as the fact that she thought Minako was dead so it's partly a What the Hell, Hero? and Anger Born of Worry. She expressly says that Minako's life was more important to her than any relationship drama. In fact, Minako herself realizes that her actions were foolish and convinces a murderous Usagi to heal Katerina after Kunzite turns her into a youma. After that happens, Minako and Katerina apologize to each other; Katerina for treating Minako like a child and not a friend, and Minako for hurting her badly.
- Usagi, Ami, and Makoto attempt to confront a villain in a narrow alleyway. However, there isn't enough space for all of them to fit, and they end up tripping over each other while trying to strike their signature poses.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!: Kuaidul Velgear's initial deck is composed exclusively of the ace monsters of the various people he's captured in his pocket dimension and a handful of their spell and trap cards, 39 cards in total (one from each person) plus his own Signature Mon. He wins his initial duel to Yudias and has the deck stolen. In the rematch, Yudias finds the deck unwieldy and difficult to use, because he's using a deck with no low level monsters, a spell/trap count in the single digits, and consisting of an assortment 40 cards from 40 different decks.
This was added to Binding the Galaxy Together:
Besides not having much substance, character(s) reacting to certain things generally don't qualify for the trope as per the header. Cut?
Edited by KageTsuki88 on Jan 20th 2024 at 6:58:32 AM