History Main / ArtisticLicenseEngineering

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* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' doesn't so much have an artistic license as it has ''[[ToonPhysics entirely separate laws of physics from reality]]''. On one hand, sand, gravel, and most living things will respect the laws of gravity while most other blocks ignore it entirely, enabling [[FloatingContinent floating continents]] and [[OminousFloatingCastle fortresses]] to be built and naturally generate with a little effort. Yet on the other, most anything electronic barring mods follows the laws of electronics mostly swimmingly (well, minus the fact that [[PerpetualMotionMachine redstone torches]] produce seemingly infinite power).

* AccidentalAstronaut: In Real Life, spacecraft are designed with so many safety and security checks that the chances of someone accidentally launching themselves into space are zero.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series makes heavy use of HumongousMecha in general, most famously with the titular [[WalkingTank Metal Gears]]. Notable in that [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 one of the games]] actually lampshades [[SelfDeprecation how impractical the design is]].

[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': The strength of a structure like a house is dependent on the foundation it is built on. When the house is lifted off the foundation with no reinforcement of the foundation it would fall apart. Furthermore, since the balloons were anchored to the chimney, the rest of the house around it should have been sagging.
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'': Vector's "plane" doesn't even have wings, and pulls in the shrink ray through its engine and the support strut that's too thin for it. Gru's plane doesn't look particularly well-engineered either.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The use of platinum armor to make mechs immune to [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending]]. Even if you try to explain away the rarity and expense of so much platinum by saying it [[WorthlessYellowRocks might not be as rare in the Avatar world]], that still leaves the issue that platinum is a relatively soft metal (closest to soft iron), so it would make horrible armor for any purpose [[CripplingOverspecialization other than resisting metalbending]]. Any strong [[DishingOutDirt Earthbender]] (of the type likely to be part of any defensive force) could destroy any such mech with a single boulder. And any sort of electroplating or platinum alloy would reduce the metal's purity, lowering its resistance to bending. Also, like gold, it's heavy, which would make it a doubly-horrible choice for armoring [[spoiler:Kuvira's giant mech from season 4]]. It could be argued that the platinum armor is meant specifically to counter metalbenders, who the show portrays as suffering from CripplingOverspecialization. But that makes sense for Zaofu and Republic City, not the Earth Kingdom at large. And any attempt at arguing that Avatarverse platinum might not correspond to real world platinum (which could explain it being strong and light enough for such use to be practical) means that it isn't really platinum: it's {{unobtanium}} being [[CallASmeerpARabbit called "platinum"]].

* Most iterations of ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' have a tower that is not anchored to the ground, essentially floating in place with only a narrow bridge connecting it to the rest of the castle-- It's usually where your final confrontation with [[BigBad Dracula]] takes place. This feature is so iconic that even a [[https://www.pngitem.com/pimgs/m/207-2070878_castle-castlevania-dracula-draculas-castle-png-download-castlevania.png a simple rendering of the castle]] has it.

* Most iterations of ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' have a tower that is not anchored to the ground, essentially floating in place with only a narrow bridge connecting it to the rest of the castle. This feature is so iconic that even a [[https://www.pngitem.com/pimgs/m/207-2070878_castle-castlevania-dracula-draculas-castle-png-download-castlevania.png a simple rendering of the castle]] has it.

* In ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'', Legolas manages to knock down a stone tower in such a way that it lands with its base on one side of a chasm and its roof on the other, so that he can use it as a bridge. A stone structure designed to be upright almost certainly wouldn't have withstood the impact of such a fall, but even if it had, it's more than miraculous that it manages to maintain its integrity [[spoiler:for the length of time it takes Legolas and Bolg to have a fight to the death on it.]] The tower was meant to bear vertical loads from roof to base, not horizontal loads directly on its walls. Admittedly it gradually falls to bits over the course of the next while, but RuleOfCool was taking many liberties here. It's also possible that the tower's resilience was meant as a testament to the engineering skills of the dwarves that built it.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series makes heavy use of HumongousMecha in general. Notable in that [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 one of the games]] actually lampshades [[SelfDeprecation how impractical the design is]].

* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'': Flavor text from NETRICSA says that the [[SlowLaser Laser Gun]] is made of titanium so as to not overheat. Titanium actually has very low thermal conductivity – a titanium laser gun would in fact overheat ''faster'' than one made of, say, steel or aluminium alloy. Not that it matters for a game firmly on the "Classic" end of the FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism, mind you.
* ''VideoGame/TheSims'', falling under acceptable breaks of reality, since house building can take a long time without you thinking how many pillars to put to support the entire structure. Of course, there are also bugs that allow things like a ''floating house''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The use of platinum armor to make mechs immune to [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending]]. Even if you try to explain away the rarity and expense of so much platinum by saying it [[WorthlessYellowRocks might not be as rare in the Avatar world]], that still leaves the issue that platinum is a relatively soft metal (closest to soft iron), so it would make horrible armor for any purpose [[CripplingOverspecialization other than resisting metalbending]]. Any strong Earthbender (of the type likely to be part of any defensive force) could destroy any such mech with a single boulder. And any sort of electroplating or platinum alloy would reduce the metal's purity, lowering its resistance to bending. Also, like gold, it's heavy, which would make it a doubly-horrible choice for armoring [[spoiler:Kuvira's giant mech from season 4]]. It could be argued that the platinum armor is meant specifically to counter metalbenders, who the show portrays as suffering from CripplingOverspecialization. But that makes sense for Zaofu and Republic City, not the Earth Kingdom at large. And any attempt at arguing that Avatarverse platinum might not correspond to real world platinum (might be stronger, not as heavy) means that it isn't really platinum: it's {{unobtanium}} being [[CallASmeerpARabbit called "platinum"]].

** There's also the issue of how a city-spanning planet could possibly void all the heat that it generates, and the gaseous exhaust of trillions of vehicles, building systems, and industrial facilities.

* Hogwarts Castle as depicted as the ''Film/HarryPotter'' movie series contains multiple architecturally impossible features, like the headmaster's office being three turrets stacked on top of each other and a pointy tower on the middle of the Great Hall's roof with nothing to support it. Possibly intentional; it is a ''magic'' school, after all.

* ''Series/TheManInTheHighCastle'': The Nazis have rebuilt downtown Berlin according to Hitler's master plan, with [[SigilSpam swastika-festooned]] megastructures all over the place, most conspicuously the truly-enormous ''Volkshalle''. Unlike ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', which handwaved it with a [[AppliedPhlebotinum "super concrete"]], no attempt is made to explain how such enormous structures can stand in a ''city built on a swamp''.[[note]]In real life, ''Reichsminister'' Albert Speer had several concrete test pylons placed around Berlin to evaluate the feasibility of Hitler's dream city. They can still be seen today, although they've sunk considerably since 1944 and are still sinking. Berlin's underlying soil is too soft and damp to take that kind of load; any structures of the sizes envisioned would have to be built on top of pylons extending all the way down to bedrock, which would significantly increase the already-colossal costs of the whole project.[[/note]] Another engineering problem with the ''Volkshalle'' is also left out, namely that a dome that size would have its own indoor precipitation because of the humidity brought in by 100,000 or more people standing inside.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The use of platinum armor to make mechs immune to metalbending. Even if you handwave wave the rarity and expense of so much platinum by saying it [[WorthlessYellowRocks might not be as rare in the Avatar world]], that still leaves the issue that platinum is a relatively soft metal (closest to soft iron), so would make horrible armor for any purpose other than resisting metalbending. Any strong Earthbender (of the type likely to be part of any defensive force) could destroy any such mech with a single boulder. And any sort of electroplating or platinum alloy would reduce the metal's purity, lowering its resistance to bending. Also, like gold, it's heavy, which would make it a doubly-horrible choice for armoring [[spoiler:Kuvira's giant mech from season 4.]] It could be argued that the platinum armor is meant specifically to counter metalbenders, who the show portrays as suffering from CripplingOverspecialization. But that makes sense for Zaofu and Republic City, not the Earth Kingdom at large. And any attempt at arguing that Avatarverse platinum might not correspond to real world platinum (might be stronger, not as heavy) means that it isn't really platinum: it's {{Unobtanium}} being [[CallASmeerpARabbit called "platinum".]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

** And perhaps the most incomprehensible engineering choice in all of Star Trek, making the power supply for the Voyager holodeck ''incompatible'' with the rest of the ship. A power generator ''built into Voyager'' is somehow incompatible with the rest of Voyager. Why any engineer would design such a baffling system has never been explained.