Basic Trope: A character is praised or blamed for doing something but the consequences were just luck or lack thereof.
- Straight:
- Alice is praised for going to the museum at night, because she was the only one who noticed that it was on fire and led to the fire being put out. However, she didn't know it was on fire, it just happened to be.
- Bob is blamed for his wife Carol ending up in the hospital because he went to the bar, she got bored without him around, went for a walk, and got injured.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is praised for "saving" Bob, but she did it in her sleep.
- Carol outright gets murdered on her walk, but Bob is arrested for murder instead of Alice's actual killer because he went to the bar, so Carol got bored.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is given a literal pat on the back for noticing the fire, but not much else.
- Dan, who's a bit obnoxious, says, "This wouldn't happen if you hadn't been to the bar!", but that's it.
- Justified: There is some kind of magical force governing human actions that means Alice and Bob are actually responsible for unintended consequences.
- Inverted:
- Alice outright saves the museum workers from a fire, but Bob says, "She was just in the right place at the right time."
- Bob deliberately trips up Alice and lands her in the hospital, but everyone claims it was just bad luck.
- Subverted: Alice is praised for noticing the museum was on fire... and then questioned over why she was there in the first place.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied:
- Citizenship awards are given for things like "noticed the museum was on fire", "saved a cat from a blizzard because the cat just crawled up his coat", etc.
- Bob is in jail and asks what the other inmates are in for. They all give reasons like "I wasn't there to stop Elaine from being murdered" and "I suggested we go to the movies, so we went there and Frank got kidnapped".
- Zigzagged:
- Alice is seen winning a citizenship award for noticing the fire. Bob argues that she doesn't deserve the award because she was simply at the right place. This leads to everyone else arguing about it while Alice just stands there and watches.
- Bob is taken to court for Carol being hospitalised. Some people say he was responsible, some don't.
- Averted: No one's morality is judged based on luck.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Seriously, it was just good/bad luck!"
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Alice exploits the fact that she's lauded as a heroine.
- Carol uses Bob's "getting her hospitalised" as an excuse to file a divorce.
- Defied: "I'm not judging someone by blind luck!"
- Discussed: "That guy was just at the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time."
- Conversed: "Dudes, she was just lucky/he was just unlucky, no one in this show seems to realise that!"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed: Alice points out that she easily could have just done nothing, especially since helping out carried a risk of getting her in serious legal trouble. She may not have started her good deed, but she finished it.
- Reconstructed: Alice is given a fine for trespassing. Her reward for reporting the fire was being spared from prison time.
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Carol blames Bob for getting her hospitalised, causing a strain on their relationship.
Back to Moral Luck.
