History SurprisinglySimilarStories / TroperEntries0ToI

''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII'', right? How about [[spoiler:The "Delta Episode" of ''Videogame/PokemonOmegaRubyAndAlphaSapphire'']]?
* Over the course of about two years, this "Ace" of his profession became a Legend, defying the odds time-and-time again, turning certain defeats into spectacular victories. Then, when all seemed well for him and his friends, [[HappyEndingOverride he was framed for a heinous crime]]! He was relegated to exile for [[TimeSkip a significant period]], during which things went FromBadToWorse for this man's nation. He only got back into the game with the help of a friend-[[note]][[ShipTease possibly]] [[HoYay lover]]-[[/note]]turned-ReasonableAuthorityFigure. That and the existence of a spy, whose activities include [[SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb bombings]] and murder. But, with the aid of a loud, brash, [[DividedWeFall mistrusting]] youngster, a [[spoiler:perceived]] [[DefectorFromDecadence traitor from]] [[BoxedCrook the other side]], and a lady who peppers her speech with some [[GratuitousForeignLanguage gratuitous european]], this Ace is able to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, capturing the spy and restoring the reputation of a man unfairly tarnished.\\
If the profession is "fighter pilot", the "Ace" is '''[[VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga Christopher Blair]]'''.[[note]]And the specific game for most of the events is ''Vengeance of the Kirathi''.[[/note]] If the profession is "''[[spoiler:Attorney]]''", the "Ace" is [[spoiler:'''Phoenix Wright'''[[note]]with the specific game being ''[[Videogame/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]''[[/note]].]]

* This popular film starring Creator/MarkHamill involves the potential misuse of a powerful space-based energy weapon, which is later turned against our heroes. The film serves as the finale of the main protagonist's story arc as he fully comes into his own and out of the shadow(s) of his predecessor(s). Story arcs set earlier but published after help show how the world came to be the way it was when we first met said protagonist, including information on his very birth. Clearly, this is ''Return of the J-...''

** So. Dragons. Are they [[TabletopGame/BattleTech 60-ton giant stumpy robots designated DRG-1N]] or [[Franchise/ASongOfIceAndFire actual fire-breathing reptiles]]?

* In a CivilWar, there is a 'good' side and a 'bad' side, but the leaders of both sides are both antagonists, and [[BlackAndGrayMorality the sides themselves aren't good either]]. The leader of the 'bad' side, i.e. the BigBad, is a [[PresidentEvil tyrannical government leader]] who is ObviouslyEvil and WouldHurtAChild, and was in an UnequalPairing with his love interest before they left him; while the leader of LaResistance, i.e. the 'good' side, is willing to do anything, including killing innocents, to achieve victory. The main character(s) is/are morally grey, despite being on the 'good' side; and the leader of the 'good' side gets killed around the end of the war by someone most people thought of as a hero and a good person, which creates mistrust among the 'good' side. \\
Is this the [[WebVideo/DreamSMP Manburg Rebellion]] or ''{{Literature/Mockingjay}}''?[[note]]Credit goes to [[https://lwalmart.tumblr.com/post/641522005515108352/anyone-else-notice-that-season-1-and-mockingjay @lwalmart on Tumblr]] for this one.[[/note]]

* In this decade-plus-running franchise, an allegedly secret operation run by the US military (that also recruits a number of civilian specialists) fights for freedom in an ongoing conflict with a technologically-advanced enemy they colloquially refer to as "snakes." Occasionally, they have to deal with politics, including conflict from higher up in the chain of command and hostile elements within the US government. The secrecy of the operation is also limited, with an awful lot of people finding out about it. Russia also has its own counterpart operation, and the program is not always limited to Americans, sometimes with international oversight as well as international recruits, but the franchise itself retains a very America-centric flavor and perspective despite these elements.

Is it ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' or ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''? %%Hell Kill Us All, 9 July 2013

* The film opens with a prologue where a wizard tries to keep an artifact out of the hands of an antagonistic force, only to get defeated in the process. The main protagonist's journey begins when he encounters a girl with an amazing ability and he goes through most of the adventure with a red object on his back. The main antagonist [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver wears red and black]] and is a parent of two children in another universe. The protagonist and the girl end up in another world after going through an interdimensional portal, where the girl shows the protagonist that worlds outside of his own exist, but they're not fully explored because they're not important to the plot. The two explore the new world in search of a wizard who may be able to help them. The protagonist is brought before a council of heroes who don't trust him, but they easily get defeated when their base is infiltrated. The antagonist kills two characters by erasing their face and severing them with a circular object respectively, and then they get rid of the protagonist's key to foiling their plans. At the film's climax, the protagonist tries to control his inanimate body to get back to his world and confront the antagonist. When the antagonist sees that their children in an alternate universe see them as a villain, they pull the plug on their plan and destroy their artifact of power.\\

* The film opens with a prologue where a wizard tries to keep an artifact out of the hands of an antagonistic force, only to get defeated in the process. The main protagonist's journey begins when he encounters a girl with an amazing ability and he goes through most of the adventure with a red object on his back. The main antagonist [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver wears red and black]] and is a parent of two children in another universe. The protagonist and the girl end up in another world after going through an interdimensional portal, where the girl shows the protagonist that worlds outside of his own exist, but they're not fully explored because they're not important to the plot. The two explore the new world in search of a wizard who may be able to help them. The protagonist is brought before a council of heroes who don't trust him, but they easily get defeated. The antagonist kills two characters by erasing their face and severing them with a circular object respectively, and then they get rid of the protagonist's key to foiling their plans. At the film's climax, the protagonist tries to control his inanimate body to get back to his world and confront the antagonist. When the antagonist sees that their children in an alternate universe see them as a villain, they pull the plug on their plan and destroy their artifact of power.\\

Is he in the [[VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin sea]] or [[VideoGame/{{Stray}} a dome]]?

* A princess is locked in a tower for most of her life as a result of a magical enchantment placed on her. Naturally, she yearns to see the outside world. A JerkWithAHeartOfGold eventually stumbles across her tower, and agrees to take her to and show her the outside world, not because he cares for her (or at least admits that he does) but because of his own ulterior motives. They oppose a villain who wants to exploit the princess for their own selfish reasons. Eventually, the bad guy manages to get ahold of the princess but is thwarted in their moment of triumph, the Jerk over comes his selfish ways, the enchantment on the princess is broken and they fall in love and live HappilyEverAfter. Both had a profound impact on the landscape of animated movies, albeit with the first of these films [[GenreKiller killing]] fairy-tale based animated films at the start of [[TurnOfTheMillennium a decade]], while the second [[GenreRelaunch revived]] them at the start of the [[TheNewTens next]]. Are we talking about ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' or ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''?

* This film is a DarkerAndEdgier ending to an acclaimed series; it is said by some to [[HappyEndingOverride invalidate previous endings]] [[ShootTheShaggyDogStory within the established canon.]] It is notorious for [[CharactersDroppingLikeFlies brutally killing off characters]] on a scale unprecedented in canon history, and while the rest of the story had the overlying arc of stopping a GreaterScopeVillain from causing a DepopulationBomb apocalypse, this film reveals that not only were the heroes' efforts completely useless from the start, in some ways they were even ''helping'' the villain achieve his goals. The film's ending and SignatureScene takes place as the villain succeeds in causing the apocalypse in a staggering DownerEnding - almost all of the protagonists slowly dissolve into nothing in the presence of a person they greatly care for (with one notable exception not getting to see a person important to them), accompanied by a noticeably off-kilter (either [[LyricalDissonance tonally inappropriate]] or suspiciously absent) sountrack. The final scene shows the instigator of the apocalypse in a void room with orange-red walls and filled with water of the same color. In this room, the girl he loves (who had also died previously for the sake of the instigator's character arc) appears before him in the body of a child and asks him if achieving the end of the world was really worth it; the instigator reacts to this with distress, and is then shown exiting the void room and sitting down to watch the sun set on a broken world.\\

* A young person who is closely related to the family that rules the known world, but has grown up in exile due to the actions of a parent, has to travel to the capitol for the imminent election of a new emperor, who will succeed the dying current emperor. There are two candidates and the loser will die. There, the protagonist has a dangerous romance while threachery at court is afoot. The world is ruled by a pale-skinned elite which places a high value on blood purity and the local priesthood has suppressed the worship of a goddess who was once held in high esteem, but the story ends with this old order collapsing due to the actions of the protagonist. There's also quite a bit of incest involved.\\

* In a city in an alternate-universe Earth, a group heavily based on rapid technological advancement and its introduction for use by the bulk of the population is suspected of partaking in less-than-savory activites by a loner. As he gradually finds out, this group is in fact in cahoots with the corrupt police force, running an operation to take poor people and criminals off the street in for their own operation, which entails their transformation into part-machine beings that have had most of their human will stripped away. The man behind the whole scheme, the group's leader, possesses a deranged pragmatism that dictates that it is but destiny that this operation should go through, bringing an age of metallic dominance upon the planet by wiping out all "imperfect" organic life. Together with a [[LaResistance group of rebels]] doing their best to oppose this group and its leader, the loner must use his own cunning and abilities to bring an end to the madman's scheme.\\

* The protagonist of this dark, dreary piece starts out as a sad, dissatisfied everyman, whose experience with a woman suddenly causes his life to take an unexpected turn as he finds himself in the middle of a crisis that eventually comes to involve many deaths. Though the woman could be branded as the pivotal cause behind the crisis, it also revolves around a tough-guy figure that the protagonist comes to regard as his only true friend in a midst of people who treat him with contempt and adversity. As the story continues, however, the protagonist's mind becomes more and more broken, as he comes to perceive every truth and facet of the people that surround him. Things finally come to a headway at the end, as the woman is at her most helpful but the protagonist discovers that the tough-guy is in fact a[[spoiler:n ethereal, chaotic version of himself]], and the man directly responsible for all the death and destruction. After a final, decisive confrontation, only one of them survives, but it does little to quell the chaos and destruction that the tough-guy's scheming has caused.\\

* A story set in a fantasy world with a continent-spanning, multi-faceted conflict starring a brooding northman whose father was betrayed and murdered who seeks revenge against the killer, a harsh and uncompromising would-be ruler with little patience for corrupt nobles and a sidekick well-versed in dark magic, a wise-cracking scoundrel with more brains than courage who faces discrimination because of his appearance, one of the last survivors of a family closely associated with dragons who seeks to be kind and benevolent but frequently finds that NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished, and a wicked sorcerer who seeks to conquer what's left after everyone else destroys each other. But are these people [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Robb Stark, Stannis Baratheon, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and Euron Greyjoy]] or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Edelgard von Hresvelg, Claude von Riegan, Rhea, and Thales]]?

** So. Dragons. Are they [[TabletopGame/BattleTech 60-ton giant stompy robots designated DRG-1N]] or [[Franchise/ASongOfIceAndFire actual fire-breathing reptiles]]?

Is this ''Film/CitizenKane'' or ''Film/ImmortalBeloved''?

* This is series made by a controversial MegaCorp, which takes a lot of cues from nostalgic movies made decades ago. The story introduces the stranger with mysterious powers found in the woods and secretly protected and fed by the young protagonists. There is the main heroine who thought her best friend is a good person, only to learn she was sitting next to her {{Archenemy}} the whole time. A single ActionMom who has to deal with the evil monsters that tried to kill her son, and her son who has a psychic connection with the villain of the story. She is in love with the town cop and together discover mysterious underground tunnels full of monsters. The VillainProtagonist who can subject its victims to MindRape and wants to reform the world in his image.\\

* The story is about two women who fight over who inherits the throne after the monarch of their country, and their indecisive king who rules through the most prosperous era of their kingdom. The first woman is the protagonist of the story, she is fiery, outspoken and is deeply loved by the king. She has to fight to secure the throne for herself and her children from those who think a woman should not hold so much power ever. The second one, is outright ignored by the king, despite giving him the heir he wanted, she is a ProperLady, but deeply resents the heroine for the freedom she has, and is constantly paranoid about the heroine. There are a lot of scene dedicated to women giving birth and their struggles in a patriarchal and deeply religious medieval society that threats them like {{Baby Factor|y}}ies, and lot of time skips. Characters who go from children to adults being played by different actors, while the already adult characters don't change at all, and apparently, they didn't get old either in the 2 decades that passed. Backstabbing, manipulative EvilChancellor of the king who tries everything to stop the heroine from becoming the queen and sides with her paranoid rival to make sure is her son that inherits the throne. The protagonist favors red, while her rival favors green or blue gowns. But because this is a {{Tragedy}}, nobody gets what they want in the end.\\

* This is a show with a largely female cast about teenage school students who hunts soulless supernatural monsters. Well, until the school is destroyed at the end of the show's third year, marking a distinct change in the format and setting of the show. Let's focus on one of the major supporting characters. He's a bit of a doofus who serves as an audience surrogate and, unlike his friends, lacks any real training or superpowers, so in combat, he tends to get by with stubborn determination. He allegedly shows promise as a leader and tactician, regardless of how well the show portrays this, and the show very subtly (intentionally or not) suggests he's a lot smarter and more capable than he's given credit for. His best friend -- at least in the early part of the show -- is an incredibly hot but really shy green-eyed redhead who is totally into him, but he's completely oblivious until it's too late. She was also his first real emotional support in some fashion. He's very protective of his friends, even though they're much better fighters than he is. You can mess with him all you want, and he'll just take it, but mess with his friends, and he will not stand for it. He will fight and give his all for them, to the point that he would happily give his life for any of them, though that can also be tied to his low self-esteem. It is the death of one his close friends that leads him to take a merciless position regarding the show's antagonists. Oh, and he had or has a relationship that's vitriolic at times and romantic at others with a tsundere rich bitch who goes through significant character development after losing access to her family money -- which had been largely attained through crooked business or accounting practices by one or both of her parents -- and she also ends up impaled through the midsection in front of him after the cast has its first confrontation with an old enemy in some time.

* In this loose adaptation of a story, there is a RomanceArc between a young man, with slightly curly dark hair and a wide smile, who is also very skilled at wordplay and XanatosSpeedChess, and a proud SugarAndIcePersonality girl whose name starts and ends with "A" and is derived from a word meaning "love"; she deeply loves and is protective of her family. In the climactic scene, he is sentenced to hang and already stands on the gallows with the noose around his neck before the information that saves him gets revealed. The TV adaptation of ''Literature/GoingPostal'', or the episode of ''Series/SechsAufEinenStreich'' based on ''Literature/TwelveDancingPrincesses''?

* There's this story. It's a popular story twenty-first century work known for (among other things) its portrayal of queer characters, killer soundtrack, unexpected success and popularity, and infamous hiatuses. It's a story with alien dystopias, off-the-wall humor, a goofy and [[{{Adorkable}} adorkable]] dark-haired protagonist and many greater spoilers and revelations later on. Several of the most popular characters are also [[Main/WalkingSpoiler walking spoilers]], which is a bit frustrating for newcomers since the story starts quite slowly in the first part and takes a while to pick up the pace and get really epic. The major plot-relevant alien species first introduced has no concept of biological parents, due to a [[Main/BizarreAlienReproduction bizarre and not entirely explained method of reproduction]] involving machines and raw genetic material. This is plot-relevant later on.