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
Captain of USS Bajor
I've read the book. Agreed that fails the test for this trope.
- A Mother's Touch:
- Reiji and Sylvio learn the hard way that being in a shounen anime where everything depends on how you play cards does not save you if you break the law. Yoko brings up how the two broke multiple laws just for Yuya's cards and she and Shuzo prepare lawsuits for all of their crimes. Valid
- Obelisk Force's training in Academia made them good against Xyz because they worked in teams against the unexpected citizens. However they don't have any other strategies outside their Zerg Rush. They were never taught how to fight dirty like Yoko and her Sirens did, who decide to just skip the dueling and literally kick Obelisk Force's asses or chase them around on their motorcycles. Moreover, Yoko and her group knows the city by heart, so they are able to ambush them before Obelisk Force can activate their Duel Disks. Crippling Overspecialization
I think for the Avengers: Infinite Wars, we should change it to We Need to Get Proof.
Edit: Nevermind, it's already listed there.
Edited by mariic on Apr 28th 2024 at 3:44:12 AM
This is on Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay:
- Age of Empires IV: The Delhi Sultanate and the Abbasid Dynasty cannot harvest boars to gain food. Which makes sense, as these civilizations were Muslim and consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam. As a trade-off, these civs' villagers gather from berry bushes at +25% faster speed.
I suggest that this is Not Surprising (Not Unexpected?). In Age of Empires, civilisations are mostly differentiated with a range of gameplay modifiers and different selections of technology, which 90% of the time has some historical basis. Thus, if you're claiming that the game acknowledging Islam's dietary restrictions is unexpected, then I feel that there is nothing stopping you from suggesting that any other civ trait is also unexpected, and this entry can be cut for that reason.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
It's also not really an "outcome" of anything. It's just world building.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Agree that it's an easy cut for the reasons mentioned.
Captain of USS Bajor
Yeah, at most it's Gameplay and Story Integration, and frankly even that is pushing it.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
Developer's Foresight is even better.
Edited by StarSword on May 7th 2024 at 3:26:24 PM
It might be unexpected if players are accustomed to the predecessor, Age of Empires II, which has no such restrictions and allows majority Muslim civilizations like Saracens and Turks to hunt boars. But it seems more like Developer's Foresight if anything.
Trying to see if this entry would qualify, JUST to make sure:
- Spies in Disguise: After stopping the Big Bad and saving tons of lives, including at the agency, Walter is convinced that he and Lance are going to get their jobs back. A Smash Cut shows they don't because they still committed a good amount of crimes throughout the film.
While I haven't seen the film, that sounds legit.
low-poly Shinri
Found these on FireEmblemThreeHouses.Tropes S To Z, all of which I'm unsure of.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Edelgard's purge of the nobility that she initiates once she claims the Adrestian throne has shades of this. While she does get rid of the more corrupt nobility like Duke Aegir, Count Varley, and Marquis Vestra, she's unable to remove Counts Bergliez and Hevring from their positions (the Ministers of Military and Domestic Affairs, respectively). It's implied that Edelgard's successful ascension and preparations for Fódlan's conquest were able to take off smoothly because she had struck a deal with them beforehand.note While Edelgard was able to take Duke Aegir by surprise and arrest him, she would still need some degree of help to control a nation whose Counts had centralized power to themselves. Bergliez and Hevring were the most essential to starting and maintaining a power grab, as military power and control of the economy would ensure the other Counts fell in line.
- The game makes the point that the nobility are better than commoners in many ways. Not inherently, but because they are wealthy and powerful and use that wealth and power to give their children excellent training and education. Lorenz insists that Catherine's incredible skill with a sword is proof she's of noble birth. Not, as she assumes, because he thinks commoners are inferior to nobles but because commoners are usually too busy working for a living to spend much time honing their bladework, a restriction the nobility doesn't share. One reason Edelgard doesn't immediately dissolve the nobility system is she doesn't have commoners trained in governance and statecraft to replace them. Her support scenes with Ferdinand have him discuss with her that nobles are raised to lead and rule and if she wants to replace the system of hereditary nobility, she'll need to find another way of preparing young people to assume those roles.
- The Leicester Alliance and Holy Kingdom of Faerghus both represent more traditionally "heroic" fantasy nations compared with the Adrestian Empire, and in classic Fire Emblem fashion, they both get invaded by the latter. This doesn't necessarily make them allies, however, even during the war. The Alliance broke off of the Kingdom, not the Empire, and quite a few of their lords see the latter as a preferable ally once the war breaks out. Claude actually exploits this in some routes by deliberately setting up conflict in the Alliance between various lords to prevent them from forming cohesive political factions and allow him to remain neutral for a time. In addition, there's only so much they can do for each other regardless since they both have to contend with defending their own borders.
- While every ending treats the events of the game from a historical context as ushering in grand positive changes for Fódlan as a whole, various character endings detail that actually implementing the changes took a number of years and much fighting and work for the characters. In a sense, winning the war for control of the continent is only the start of Fódlan's reformation.
- In previous entries, the losers of the Great Offscreen War would often receive a Historical Villain Upgrade by the winning side and end up being either Good All Along or at least more morally complex than the official narrative suggests. Nemesis was even worse than the official narrative claims he was. The Church claimed he was originally The Chosen One whom the Goddess chose to assemble a grand army to free the Fodlan from foreign invaders. In reality, he was a ruthless bandit king who learned the secret to gaining his power himself (via his secret backers, Those Who Slither In The Dark), then managed to convince the people he was The Chosen One. Despite the influence she wielded in Fódlan and the hatred she had for her enemies, Seiros and her allies could not simply rewrite history however they wished. As explained in this interview
, Nemesis and the 10 Elites were already regarded by many people as heroes (after all, only a few knew what Nemesis had done to the Children of the Goddess to gain the power he wielded), and even as the victor in the war with them, Seiros had to accommodate that impression if her version of history was to gain acceptance.
- Given that the War of Heroes happened in the distant past, many questions are left unanswered about the exact nature of the conflict. The only survivors of that time deliberately obfuscated many of the details, and Rhea herself is, in most endings, either dead or otherwise in no state to elaborate on the time period for the time being, and she's hardly an unbiassed source. The only other source, the Agarthans, are perhaps even less trustworthy. Few records other than those of the Church itself and the version passed down the Imperial family through the generations that Edelgard backs have survived and neither tell the complete story. While you do encounter Nemesis and the Ten Elites in the Golden Deer route, they've deteriorated mentally into semi-intelligent zombies with little remaining personality and are too busy trying to kill you to be questioned. As such, there are numerous conflicting accounts of what Nemesis was actually like, how he was able to win over the people to his cause, or how much the Ten Elites actually knew about the nature of the Heroes' Relics they wielded or their leader's true nature.
- The war in the Crimson Flower route is noticeably shorter compared to the other paths, ending only after the 18th chapter rather than ~22. The reason for this is because in the other routes, you play as either the Kingdom, Alliance or Imperial rebels, and have to contend with the other factions while desperately trying to turn the odds in your favor. The Empire in particular is the largest threat, as they are Fódlan's main military power. SIDING with The Empire means that the other factions are far more easily overcome without you to turn the tide. Notably, the Empire does not need to reclaim Garreg Mach or obtain reinforcements in Ailell, and dealing with the Alliance prevents the second battle of Gronder Field, thus resulting in the route being three chapters shorter than the others.
- Unlike the series's previous installment, the reveal of a greater evil that's been pulling the strings behind the various other villains throughout the game does not act as a Conflict Killer for the war, nor does it lead to a Golden Ending that resolves the conflict peacefully. Not only did Edelgard have her own motivations for starting the war in the first place that are independent of that of the Agarthans, but it's been raging for several years by the time they're discovered. In addition, no one has any way of knowing how much they're behind or why, and in some cases don't find out until after they're done fighting the war.
- Edelgard openly states on the Crimson Flower route that her alliance with the Agarthans is one of convenience, and once she no longer needs their help, she'll enact a plan to get rid of them too. Most of the Agarthan Leadership, including Thales, their leader, has been disguised as Imperial nobility for quite some time, manipulating Imperial politics for ages. Once the time has finally come to do something about them, she deals with them the same way she did most of the non-Agarthan members of the Empire's Deadly Decadent Court, by detaining them and/or having them assassinated, rather than in open combat.
From the work description of Beggars in Spain:
Leisha Camden is a Born Winner: her daddy's rich, her mama's good-looking, she's got blonde hair, blue eyes... and the latest genemods, the one that make you not need to sleep. This particular genemod is a very new technology, and Leisha is only the 21st human being ever born with it. The other 19 are healthy, sane, cheerful and incredibly smart; all of them go on to become luminaries in their fields. The 20th was shaken to death by parents who weren't prepared to handle a baby that cried 24/7.
Gonna say a mix of Too Unrealistic (we don't have gene modifications that prevent people from needing sleep) and Character Reaction (even if we did, I'm sure that reactions to such a technology would be highly variable with no singular "realistic" outcome).