By now, we all know that the people who write television shows aren't omniscient. Their knowledge of science, technology, history, and pretty much any other subject you care to name is often limited to that of a casual dabbler. The writers' mastery of logic, common sense and causality often yields to what makes for an interesting story.
Let us not judge too harshly. As often as the writers may be inaccurate, the viewers are just as guilty of making similar mistakes.
All too often, a well-intentioned fan will see the need to invent some Fanon, or an ill-intentioned critic will see the need to launch into a bitter diatribe based on some inconsistency or mistake he sees in his show of choice. About as often, the complaint will be based on a total fallacy.
Sometimes, writers really are to blame, just not the way the fan thinks: An extremely common trope may condition viewers to accept its premise as absolute fact, and to cry foul when another series (more accurately) avoids the trope. See also Fan Dumb.
Here are some examples of tropes which may fit this:
- The Aesthetics of Technology: If something looks advanced, it is advanced.
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: The audience thinks something is made up for the work when it's actually real, just really obscure.
- Artistic License
- Brand Names Are Better
- The Coconut Effect: If it's false, but firmly ingrained in the minds of viewers, it must be included.
- Comedy Ghetto: Comedy is a lesser form of media and is not true art.
- Confirmation Bias: Placing more weight in evidence that supports your viewpoint compared to evidence that disagrees with it.
- Even Nerds Have Standards: There are things so geeky no self-respecting nerd would get involved with it.
- Fan Myopia: Assuming that a work being popular automatically means everyone is familiar with it.
- Fourth Wall Myopia: Fans misjudge a character's actions, because they know more about the events within the work than the character does.
- Girl-Show Ghetto: Media aimed at girls can only be watched by girls, while media aimed at boys can be watched by any gender, because media aimed at women will be of lesser quality.
- Import Filter: The belief imported media is better, when in reality media is only imported when it is of good quality to insure the import sells well.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!
- Jumping the Shark
- Mainstream Obscurity
- Minority Show Ghetto: Media aimed at racial minorities won't appeal to racial majorities.
- Misblamed
- Newer Than They Think
- No Ontological Inertia
- No True Scotsman: Changing a definition in order to exclude an example that contradicts the original definition.
- Nostalgia Filter: People only like stuff from the past and dismiss new stuff as all being garbage.
- Older Than They Think
- Opinion Myopia: Assuming that there is no one who disagrees with your viewpoints and getting pissed off when it turns out there are people who do.
- Possession Implies Mastery
- Protagonist Title Fallacy: Assuming that a work's title referring to a specific character means that that character is the protagonist.
- Public Medium Ignorance
- Reality Is Unrealistic
- Reviews Are the Gospel: People judge the quality of a work by someone else's review of the work rather than by their own viewpoints.
- Ruined FOREVER: Fans overreact to changes they dislike by declaring the franchise ruined forever.
- Sadly Mythtaken
- Sci Fi Ghetto: The belief that speculative fiction cannot be true art.
- Small Reference Pools
- Stock Object Colors: Objects that are always portrayed as a certain color in media to the point that it is strange when it is a different color, even when the object can be multiple different colors in real life.
- Television Is Trying to Kill Us: An index of tropes that one should not attempt in real life or assume is the case in real life because doing so can have serious consequences.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Deeming an adaptation as bad just because it is different from the original work.
- Unpleasable Fanbase
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?
- Word of Dante: A Fandom VIP statement regarding the work is treated as Canon by the rest of the fanbase.
