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
- Is it my Fault that I got Bullied:
- Sounds like a character reaction. And it doesn't explain how it would be unrealistic for someone to see through the Crocodile Tears.
- Character reaction.
- Character reaction.
- ZCE, since it doesn't explain what Aizawa did or how other works portray the consequences unrealistically.
- Sailor Moon:
- Character reaction.
- Could be moved to Failed Attempt at Drama
- Yu-Gi-Oh GO RUSH: Just a case of a character having a weakness, and fails at being surprisingly realistic since winning with a bad deck is unrealistic by the standards of the game rather than real life.
low-poly Shinri
Found this on A Sign of Affection.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ema shows up at Itsuomi's apartment, unannounced, and all Itsuomi does is let her stay and leave her alone. Since Itsuomi wasn't expecting her, and it was already late, he wasn't in the mood to give her the attention she wanted. From this, she thinks he doesn't want her around... which is correct, but not for the reasons she thinks it is.
I deleted it, since it's a character reaction.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Found this on Kirbys Return To Dreamland:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In Deluxe, after Magolor destroys the Master Crown for good and a portal appears to free him from his dimensional purgatory, he clenches his fists, briefly quivering, before rubbing his eye, as if trembling and tearing up in frustration. Just because he resolved himself to redeem his sins, it doesn't make it any easier to let go of the one thing he'd wanted for so long.
I feel like this can be cut, since it boils down to a character reaction and I don't think it's that surprising that a former villain would show some signs of inner turmoil while undergoing a redemption arc. Thoughts?
I agree about the Kirby thing. That's a character reaction.
Also, on the front Anime and Manga section, about Fairy Tail...
Proud Beauty Lucy Heartfilia gets oggled by Spear Carriers or Mooks from time to time. When this happens, Lucy sends them flying in Pervert Revenge Mode. However, at one point, main protagonist Natsu walks in on Lucy in the shower. Lucy goes into Pervert Revenge Mode again and tries to hit Natsu with a flying kick. Natsu — a powerful fighter many times physically stronger than Lucy — just blocks the kick, causing Lucy to fall flat on her face in the bathroom. Lucy lays on the floor in shock while Natsu says that Lucy's combat technique needs work. It's a strength-based situation. I don't think we do those.
When the crew goes off on an S-Ranked mission to save an island from a curse that turns people into demons, they find that there is a demon on the island that was sealed away in ice, and the villains are trying to thaw it out. The villains manage to get the ice melted, only to find to their horror that the demon inside was already dead. Turns out being frozen in ice for several years is fatal, even to demons. The villains end up in a mix of shock and grief that their victory was instantly rendered worthless. Demons don't exist in real life... but should we just take out the "even to demons" part or remove the whole thing? Because it's a very common media trope for people to survive frozen in ice for long periods of time.
Edited by Bonkfast on Feb 15th 2024 at 9:06:28 AM
Welcome, traveller, welcome to Omsk
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Doesn't sound like it counts, to me. It's about a fictional creature, and we have no frame of reference for whether demons can/can't survive frozen in solid ice.
I mean with regards to the first example, I think it's referencing the trope of characters being stronger than they are otherwise established to be due to Rule of Funny for Pervert Revenge Mode, and subverting that would work just as well with realistic people who have different physical strengths as people who have superpowers.
This is Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay rather than SRO, but at a glance the page's Metal Gear entries feel a bit odd to me, so I would like to go over them.
- Metal Gear:
- In Metal Gear Solid, the fight against Psycho Mantis. He starts controlling Meryl and making her try to blow her brains out. The easiest way to stop her? Just put her in a choke hold to knock her out.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has a mad, passionate love affair with this trope.
- You have to open a locked door. How do you do it? Disguise yourself as a scientist who has business in the building past that door, and knock.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has a mad, passionate love affair with this trope.
- The Fear constantly uses up all of his stamina to turn invisible and jump around. He replenishes it by finding food on the battlefield. Thus, Snake can leave his rotten or spoiled food around for The Fear to find and actually poison him with it!
- The Pain attacks with a swarm of bees in water-filled caverns. And since everyone knows bees hate water, you can actually toss grenades into the water to splash him.
- You can defeat The End by sniping him the first time he appears in a cutscene, thus skipping his entire boss fight. Barring that, you can also skip the fight entirely by just saving the game and leaving it alone for a few days. Since The End is over 100 years old, he'll actually die waiting for Snake to show up again!
- You just ingested rotten food and don't have digestive medicine to counteract it, so what do you do? Well, just go to the Medical screen and start spinning Snake around until he gets dizzy and pukes it out!
- The fake cyanide pill has several uses. Many enemies will reveal their positions, expose vulnerabilities or unlock doors to see what the hell happened if Snake just suddenly "dies" right in front of them.
low-poly Shinri
Found this on VideoGame.Lost Judgement and I'm unsure of it:
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Mikiko is holding Sadamoto at gunpoint and is attending to shoot him dead for all he's done, Kaito and Jun attempt to talk her out of it, not because it will make her like him, but because it will get her sent to prison. Regardless of what the person may have done, killing an injured, unarmed man in cold blood is legally murder and will get you arrested. Kaito, Mikiko and Jun were just lucky that Kenmochi survived just long enough to do the job for them.
No, not an example.
Usually, when people plead with someone and use the "it'll make you like them" speech, it's often because they might not go to prison. But using "you will go to jail" is also common enough that using it shouldn't count as surprisingly realistic.
Okay, I have to ask. Why do you even still have the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome trope? For as long as I can remember people have been deleting examples left and right for one reason or another, either because they're too fantastical, not surprising (which can vary from person to person) or aren't 100% guaranteed to happen in real life. It really makes me wonder just what examples could possibly be allowed. Just get rid of it. It'll save you all a lot of trouble.
Edited by JoeDevaney29 on Feb 18th 2024 at 3:51:09 AM
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is absolutely a real trope, but it's for things happening as they would in real life instead of with the Artistic License similar situations always use within that genre or medium to expose a genre's reliance on Artistic License and deliberately mess with audience expectations.
The reason so many examples are being deleted is because the trope used to be called "reality ensues", so people thought it just meant "character does something, and something mildly interesting or unexpected happens" and added thousands of examples of misuse, or didn't properly explain why the valid examples counted.
For the Metal Gear examples:
- The Psycho Mantis example doesn't count as realistic, since it's about dealing with someone being controlled with psychic powers, which isn't something that happens in real life.
- The Fear and The Pain seem more like Logical Weakness.
I agree with the rest.
The Lost Judgement example isn't an outcome.
Yeah we dont "get rid of" tropes because people misuse them.
SRO exists as a storytelling device (MHA has one of my favorite go to examples in season 2) and we document those devices here.
The simple fact is that most people arent very good at writing examples, at least not at first. Thats why we have so many clean up threads.
SRO, in particular, is too often seen as a badge of honor. "You thought they were gonna do this, but then they did THAT, cruelly subverting the usual use of this trope."
(Also saying "for as long as i can remember" is wild when you've been here for like...5 months. We work hard but we don't necessarily work fast)
Edited by ArthurEld on Feb 18th 2024 at 8:51:15 AM
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Another set of entries I found, this time on The Marvels (2023):
- A civilization that has had all of its political and military decisions made by an AI for over a millennium is not going to be in any position to even function if the AI is suddenly removed from the equation. So, after Carol destroys the Supreme Intelligence shortly after the events of Captain Marvel, it doesn't take long for the Kree Empire to descend into chaos and civil war. Cut, since there's obviously no superintelligent AI that have ruled entire governments.
- Nick Fury traveled from the station to Earth and back again in work clothing, so the Space Elevator is probably designed for civilian scientists, government personnel, etc. rather than astronauts and people with Super-Toughness. But no one in the Khan family has had any experience or training for going into space, the trip is unplanned, and they were worried for their daughter. So they are hilariously, but understandably, nervous about the trip. Leaning towards cut, since Space Elevators don't exist in real life.
- Easy Amnesia doesn't exist in real life. When one experiences such a traumatic loss of memory as Carol's retrograde amnesia is, regaining the memories can sometimes be impossible. In this film, her amnesia is implied to have been permanent, as she's still using devices to stimulate her mind to try to find pre-1989 memories with limited success over thirty years later after the initial incident. I'm leaning towards keep, as people can lose their memories in real life and there can be dissonance resulting from regaining those memories
- Dar-Benn's anger at Carol, having festered for at least two decades, doesn't magically go away just because Carol offers her a peaceful solution to her problem. No matter what claims she may make about wanting to save Hala, she chooses Revenge Before Reason in the end. Cut, as this is a character reaction.
So overall, I think only the entry about Carol's amnesia can stay, while all the others can be cut. Any additional thoughts?
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
I think it's valid not only as a subversion of Harmless Freezing but the more specific set-up that powerful superhuman beings can survive freezing even when mere mortals can't and eventually break free and have to be stopped (i.e. The Thing (1982)). The "realistic" part is "the demon is less supernatural than expected".
Edited by Noaqiyeum on Feb 18th 2024 at 11:06:27 AM
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
In "Driven to Extremes" after dealing with a sadist substitute teacher, Ginger gets fed up and verbally stands up to her. This just results in Ginger being sent to detention, thus making the episode a Downer Ending. This is due to Ginger's actions to the teacher being viewed as insubordination and disrespect to the authority (whether the student is right or wrong). The girls' school pictures intentionally look hideous. They don't know how to apply makeup!
I saw this on the As Told by Ginger page. Are these examples or naw?
Found on WesternAnimation.Puss In Boots The Last Wish.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Interesting trope to misuse on a movie parodying fantasy and fairy-tale tropes, but here we go...
- Puss's death by the hands of a sumo wrestler in the trailer. He can take an opponent like Shrek if he catches them off guard, but the sumo wrestler was better trained and had to have been taking the fight seriously. Too fantastical. Cats don't sumo wrestle. Even if they did, no sumo wrestler with that kind of training would attempt to belly-flop an opponent like that. In sumo rules, you lose if you leave the circle, or if any part of your body other than the soles of your feet touch the ground. All that is assuming, of course, that the sumo wrestler would even agree to a match with an opponent the size of a housecat in the first place. Real-life contact sports have weight-class rules for a reason.
- Despite Baby Bear's powerful sense of smell making him a Scarily Competent Tracker, the scene where the Bears search Mama Luna's home shows that even it has its limits, which he lampshades when replying to Goldi's order to sniff out Puss that all he can smell is cat pee. When Papa Bear forces him to comply, his search nonetheless leads him to all of Mama Luna's other cats instead, and he doesn't get a real lead until he chances upon the makeshift grave for Puss's outfit in the yard outside. Plot happens. Also too fantastical because bears don't talk, let alone complain about everything smelling like cat pee.
It seems that a common issue with this trope is that tropers assume that any time anything bad happens, it's "surprising" no matter what, and if the work provides a reason why the bad thing happened, it's "surprisingly realistic". Even in the most idealistic shows, success is only "guaranteed" near the end of the episode, since some conflict is to be expected, and there wouldn't be much of it if the protagonist succeeded instantly.
As Told By Ginger: I remember keeping the first example while doing clean-up since I couldn't figure out definitely if it counted or not, but now that my understanding of the trope improved, I say it should be cut, at least for now, since it doesn't specify the expected unrealistic outcome. It's usually expected for a cartoon protagonist to succeed at the end of an episode, as I mentioned above (unless it's trying to teach viewers that this is wrong), but it's still not universal enough to just let readers assume that Ginger should have successfully gotten rid of the substitute with no problems. Same for the second example.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish:
The Sumo Wrestler example isn't surprising, since the whole point of the trailer is to list all of Puss' deaths, and this is the seventh, so him being crushed to death is what viewers would immediately (and correctly) assume would happen as soon as the scene started.
The second example is a bit more trickier, since it is a common (but unrealistic) trope in fiction that you can have any animal (usually dogs, but All Animals Are Dogs) smell an object and they will immediately lead you to its owner, so it should count as surprisingly realistic, but in this case, he only failed because the smell of other cats covered up Puss' trail , rather than because of this trope being inherently unrealistic, so it still doesn't count.
Konstruktor
Unsure about this example from Everybody Hates Chris. Does it count? I'm mainly wondering if this would be more of a character reaction.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Chris doesn't attempt to fight back every time he gets bullied and physically assaulted by Caruso. Chris has lampshaded that he would either get framed by Caruso or beaten. Given the time period of the series, when racism was rampant, and the useless school rules regarding bullying, yep this counts.
Captain of USS Bajor
Well, it's misusing Lampshade Hanging for one thing. More generally I think the example fits better on Simple Solution Won't Work.
I saw this example that was added to the "Fear of a Krabby Patty" recap page for Sponge Bob:
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even a workaholic like SpongeBob will eventually crack from exhaustion if made to work all day every day straight.
Tobias/TJ (He/Him)
I'd like to ask about this entry on the page for The Owl House episode "Once Upon a Swap", since I just watched this episode the other day:
This feels primarily like a mix between "plot happening" and "not surprising" misuse. It might be worth a mention that early in the episode, Eda specifically lists being a wanted criminal as the main reason why she can't have her name on her stall. Therefore, when Luz-in-Eda's-body makes another sign later in the episode, her being caught doesn't come off as surprising. While the new sign does attract a lot of customers, the fact that it's attracting attention in general seems like it's fairly obvious that it'll also attract the Emperor's Coven — and as mentioned, Eda explicitly states why she can't put her name on her stall towards the beginning of the episode, so viewers would be more likely to expect there to be a negative outcome.
Should I cut it?
Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.
dave bowman but worse
Yeah, I'd say cut.
Tobias/TJ (He/Him)
I'll be cutting it, citing this thread.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
I found these entries on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom:
- Being the king doesn't mean you can do anything you want. The Council of Atlantis can and will oppose anything Arthur wants to do for his kingdom if it doesn't fit their own agenda as well. Oh, and of course, Arthur being the fun-loving, thrill-seeking man means he easily got bored from figuring out the politics going on among the kingdoms, making him literally dozing off on the throne, and later on flat out admits to Orm that he hates his job as the King of Atlantis. I think this one can stay, since it's about how Arthur has to deal with the actual bureaucracy that comes with being a king and how that doesn't necessarily mean he has complete authority over his kingdom. Granted, it's a fictional kingdom, but still...
- The Fishermen have not forgiven Orm for murdering their king with the excuse of self-defense, so Arthur cannot just pardon him for that crime. Unsure, although I don't think it's that surprising that Orm's murder of the Fishermen's king would cause diplomatic problems with Arthur tried to pardon him
- To ensure that the Fishermen don’t know that Orm has been released from his prison, the kingdom is not involved in the attack on Manta’s base nor that final battle. Especially since, having fish tails instead of legs, they would provide little help in a terrestrial battle. This isn't that surprising, since that's just following a logical story progression. Plus, fish-people don't exist, so the latter part of the entry is too fantastical
- Arthur points out that the only way for Atlantis to be free from water pollution is to tell the surface world that they’re accidentally poisoning people. He reveals the existence of Atlantis to the surface world at the end of the film as the first step to remedying pollution and climate change issues for both sides. That's just plot progression. Plus, this assumes goverments would actually do something about climate change
So overall, I think only the first entry should stay, while the others can probably be cut. Any second opinions?
