Ass Pull Wick Check / Sandbox

Unforeshadowed plot twist

WebAnimation.Overly Sarcastic Productions:
1. Ass Pull: One of the types of plot twists discussed in "Plot Twists". Red starts the episode by discussing the finale of Game of Thrones and how it subverted a whole bunch of expectations, even though the subversions made no sense within the context of the story or character arcs. Red calls this trope by the term "shock bait", which she defines as "deliberately trying to confuse/surprise the audience, no matter the cost to the quality of the narrative". Thus, Red argues that trying to surprise the audience purely for the sake of shock value can be seriously detrimental to the narrative. Red also highlights how doing a twist can be less interesting than not doing a twist, citing Quicksilver's death in Avengers: Age of Ultron as an example, noting that having Pietro alive for the subsequent films would be significantly more interesting in her opinion and would've resulted in a whole bunch of interesting plot developments and character exploration. invoked
2. Idiot Plot: This gets its own video. While this trope is stigmatized as a bad trope that should be avoided, Red points out that a lot of William Shakespeare's most popular stories used this trope, and it made sense in the context of the stories and characters. For instance, the titular Macbeth creates a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and Romeo of Romeo and Juliet ends up causing a lot of needless tragedy, both because the characters were too impulsive and stubborn to hear any arguments to the contrary. Comedy is also a genre where people are expecting idiot plots because the characters doing something stupid that makes no sense is usually funnier than them acting rationally. The problem with this trope is when characters act inconsistently for the sake of advancing the plot because the writer can't think of another way to do so. Red ends the video pointing out that the problem with idiot plots isn't when characters act dumb, but rather when the audience suspects the writer is dumb. invoked
Awesome.Atop The Fourth Wall
1. The Unfortunate Implications of the HYDRA version of Steve Rogers being worthy to lift Mjolnir are also addressed, that the explanation as to how a Nazi was worthy of the power of Thor came five months after the event, by which time that audiences were stewing in the Ass Pull, and that it's further not helped by the fact that Norse mythology was and is frequently co-opted by Nazis and neo-Nazis.
YMMV.Blade II:
1. Ass Pull: Even though the first film made it clear that Whistler shot himself to avoid becoming a vampire (which should have killed him even if he had already turned into a vampire), in this one he's revealed to have survived with little to no explanation.
2. Ass Pull: Many fans feel there's no appropriate context or Foreshadowing for Scud being The Mole.
3. Base-Breaking Character: The movie's fans are quite split on what to make of Scud. On the one hand, there are plenty of fans who consider him a poorly-written Plucky Comic Relief character incorporated as a forced attempt at trying to appeal to teenagers by acting as stereotypically "cool and hip" as possible (i.e. talks trash, listens to rap music, calls the eponymous anti-hero 'B,' and constantly has a joint in his mouth.) Others enjoy him if for no other reason than to see an early-in-his-career Norman Reedus ham it up like nobody's business. Even the reveal that he's The Mole has split the fanbase; some hate him for being a very incompetent villain whose betrayal came out of nowhere, while others love his Bloody Hilarious and well-deserved death scene too much to care.
YMMV.Lupin III Part 5 - Ass Pull: Enzo's sudden change of heart to love Ami can be considered nonsensical due to its abruptness and lack of justification.
YMMV.Jeff Hardy - Ass Pull: Jeff's Face–Heel Turn in TNA. The only Face–Heel Turn of Jeff's career, in fact, done with no foreshadowing and on a wrestler that everyone likes, even the smarks. While his video promos and the nasty treacherous in-ring style he developed afterwards were credited with getting him heat even if half the crowd still cheers him, that still doesn't obscure the fact that it came out of nowhere.
Spoiled by the Format - Even with pro wrestling's love of the Ass Pull, though, you'll rarely see this happen as an intentional fake-out rather than real life writing the plot.
Writing Pitfall Index - Deus ex Machina: Do not save your characters with an Ass Pull.
YMMV.Double The Fist - Ass Pull:
1. In the final episode, Steve's glasses grant the wearer levitation powers. This is never so much as foreshadowed, and Steve himself only uses said powers after we see someone else using them against him.
2. After getting himself caught in an endless time loop, Rod is saved by what appears to be his ideal vision of himself, who reveals the true source of their power (Pubes) and gives him a sleek condom suit. It just sort of happens.
YMMV.Dragonball Evolution - Ass Pull: Sure, we understand that Goku is not of this Earth, but The Reveal that Goku is Ozaru comes directly out of nowhere. After Piccolo's reign ended, how can Goku still be alive and who sent him into space only to send him back to Earth? And even then, there is no explanation for why Piccolo went to such lengths to have him killed if he was so critical to his plans. Ironically enough, this is one of the things actually close to the source material, as it's a clear indication of Goku's Saiyan nature.
Headscratchers.Sly Cooper - Why did they introduce the 11th-Hour Superpower of Sly 3, the laser slide, with an Ass Pull? Sly even says himself that he doesn't know the move necessary for his father's chamber in the Cooper vault.
YMMV.Game Of Thrones S 8 E 1 Winterfell - Ass Pull:
1. In the previous episode, Theon was under the impression Euron was going back to the Iron Islands. Here, however, he somehow knows to go after Euron's fleet at King's Landing without explanation and pulls it off without a single hitch.
2. The fact that only Targaryens (well technically anyone with enough Valyrian dragonrider blood, but that's been a distinction with difference for the last 400 years) can ride dragons is standard knowledge in-universe, yet Dany puts Jon up to it on a whim with a blunt, "Go on," and Jon only has difficulty with Dany's No OSHA Compliance riding style (in contrast to her ancestors' saddles and chains per the "Histories and Lore" featurettes). The show-runners even acknowledge the Only Targaryens rule in their "Inside the Episode" and call Jon a slow learner for not realizing the implications, but don't explain why Dany would randomly expect Jon to be able to do it other than to move the plot along.
YMMV.Haunting Starring Polterguy - Ass Pull: The ending has an anvil suddenly fall from the ceiling and turn Polterguy, who was briefly turned into his human form, back into his ghost form. There is nothing that hints at this possibly happening. It's presumably made by the Sardini Company, but they were just scared out of their house for the fourth time and Vito doesn't seem to have any supernatural powers.
YMMV.Robinson Crusoe - Ass Pull: Robinson (as the narrator) does this a LOT. It is probably justified by the age of this work (many literary conventions were not in place in 1719), but it is a bit jarring when Robinson suddenly "remembers" to tell the reader something that occurred earlier, like rescuing a dog and some cats or two additional mutineers coming to the island.
Headscratchers.Kingdom Hearts II:
1. The universe makes the same contradiction with Sora. When he becomes a Heartless, his body disappears. When Kairi helps him find his way back, his body returns. According to the next two games, becoming a Heartless tossed his body clear into some other world where it became a Nobody. For some reason, it's apparently easier to Ass Pull a new body out of thin air than to reverse the process by dragging the body back from wherever it just went — which should be just as possible as the initial and unexplained tossing of empty bodies into other worlds.
2. It was basically that; upon reviewing Jimminy's Journal, Mickey noticed some kind of discrepancy, & created a virtual version of it to investigate it. It's a puzzle game, as well as a total Ass Pull.
YMMV.Batman Three Jokers - Ass Pull: Batman having known the Comedian’s real name since about a week after they first met. Not only was it never foreshadowed that Batman would know something like that, but it also creates a Continuity Snarl, because it had already been established that Batman didn’t know any of the three Jokers’s identities. Not to mention that back in Darkseid War, Batman asked the Mobius Chair about the Joker’s real name. At that point, Bruce didn’t know about the three Jokers and thought that there was only one, so if he already knew the Comedian’s true name, why would he even bother asking the chair in the first place? And to make things worse, the story had already established that the Joker had no fingerprints, dental/medical records, DNA, or anything that could be used to identify him or trace his past back to him, so even Batman wouldn’t be able to figure out his identity that easily. And of course, the story doesn’t even bother to properly explain in detail how Batman figured out the Comedian’s true name, so it just comes across as him simply knowing things he shouldn’t for no reason. It also raises the question of how he was able to figure out the Comedian’s identity, but not the Criminal or the Clown’s identities. After all, if he somehow managed to, against astronomical odds, determine the Comedian’s identity, why would he have trouble with the identities of the Clown or the Criminal?
YMMV.Care Bears - Ass Pull: Secret Bear making another key out of nowhere in the first movie.
YMMV.Photopia: The astronaut Wendy having wings. Justified and a case of Tropes Are Not Bad, since the whole thing is just Alley's weird imagination.
Headscratchers.Fallout New Vegas: Well then, have us bring ED-E to some bad guy, or robot, that then takes it the rest of the way to the Divide. Still the Courier's fault, for all the same reasons, and we get to experience enough of it for it not to feel like a huge Ass Pull.

Twist was actually foreshadowed

YMMV.Doctor Who S 30 E 13 Journeys End - Ass Pull: This story features some of the biggest Ass Pulls in the history of the show. The Doctor is able to stave of a regeneration by sending regeneration energy into a severed hand. This means it grows into a half-human Doctor with the Doctor's mind when a human touches it. Then when the human touching it is electrocuted she suddenly gets Time Lord intelligence, Just in Time to stop the Daleks destroying the Universe. It is forgivable since the severed hand had played major parts throughout the Tenth Doctor's tenure, "Doctor Donna" was hinted at way back in "Planet of the Ood" and turns out to be unsustainable (Donna starts burning up pretty quickly) and Dalek Caan, at the start of this story, spoke of the "Three-fold man" so it is clear that the writers were laying the ground work ahead of time. Moffat also did his own Author's Saving Throw by revealing it still counted as an official regeneration, bringing the Doctor one step closer to his supposed thirteen life limit.
YMMV.The Mentalist:
1. Ass Pull: For many, The Reveal that Red John was Sherriff McCallister falls into this. Mostly because so little evidence over the course of the series pointed to him (except for evidence in season 6, the season he was revealed, which should mark it as Ass Pull), and because it doesn't easily jive with what we did know about Red John (like his height and hair, which are pretty different to what they had been described as). Not to mention, any motive or backstory Red John had was dismissed by Jane as irrelevant, so we learn little about him beyond the fact that this man was Red John. Many of his impressive and nigh impossible psychic feats are given no explanation, and there are also logistical questions that push the trouble of his identity into Fridge Logic territory, such as how he could keep showing up and killing in Sacramento, where the team is based, especially in his last season, when he's supposed to be a small-town sheriff from Santa Monica, hundreds of miles away.
2. One of the biggest criticisms in general were the number of associates that were revealed to be working for Red John over the course of the series, with some of these reveals being seen as Ass Pulls by fans. This was something that existed in the first two seasons where the reveal that Dumar Tanner, the local sheriff in the area that the CBI Team is investigating in season 1 and Rebecca Anderson, Sam Bosco's secretary at the CBI in season 2 were helping Red John carry out the worst of his crimes. This was excused in the early seasons because there was at least an in-universe explanation given for why these people worked for Red John: Dumar Tanner from season 1 was revealed to be the son of Orville Tanner, who had aided Red John in committing his first murder in 1998. Furthermore, it's implied that Red John acted as a Parental Substitute to Dumar when his father was taken to prison, which explains why he's devoted to Red John. Likewise in season 2, when Rebecca is revealed to be a Red John associate, Jane deduces that she came from an abusive upbringing which caused a history of self-hatred on her part until Red John "rescued" her. Plus, at the time, these were just 2-3 associates of Red John. This started to become a problem from season 3 onward when that number increased to over a dozen and there was little to no explanation given for why these people were so loyal to Red John, or why they'd be willing to commit horrific acts (rape, kidnapping, torture, murder, etc) on his behalf. The show tried to hand-wave this by revealing in season 5 that Red John had been a member of the cult Visualize back in the 80s and picked up tips from there on how to manipulate people and in season 6 that Red John was the leader of the Blake Association, which was a group of corrupt law enforcement officials dedicated to covering up heinous crimes, but for many people, these revelations broke Willing Suspension of Disbelief as we never really get to see how Red John formed the Blake Association or his techniques for brainwashing people to commit morally reprehensible acts.
3. Red John's ability to pull off impossible feats have always been a source of controversy with fans because of how close they come to straining credibility. Some of the earlier examples include Red John being able to hack into the Department of Justice Network just to tell Jane to "Keep up the good work" ^note and being able to infiltrate the CBI in season 2 to kill an associate who had become a liability. At the time, fans rolled with this because they believed the show would eventually explain how Red John was able to pull his accomplishments off. However, as the seasons continued, there were fewer and fewer satisfying explanations, and meanwhile Red John's ability to run circles around law enforcement started to get more outlandish. This comes to a head around seasons 5-6 when it's revealed that Red John was able to figure out the names of the 7 suspects on Jane's list 2 months before Jane was able to. Aside from briefly hinting at the idea of Red John being psychic (which many fans saw as an Ass Pull), there is never a logical explanation given for how Red John was able to do this.
FridgeBrilliance.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Season 7 - A lot of viewers thought Rarity being unable to grow her mane back was a huge Ass Pull, given that there were two instances where magic made ponies grow mustaches. However, there are a lot of implications that it isn't an asspull at all.
YMMV.The Crown And The Flame
1. Ass Pull: Anton being revealed again to be Brainwashed and Crazy in Book 3, chapter 9 after being hinted at to have his mind broken by Hex. It came off as a cheap way to let him be an Optional Party Member without having to rehabilitate him.
2. They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Anton being revealed again to be Brainwashed and Crazy in Book 3, chapter 9 after being hinted at to have his mind broken by Hex. Having him as a broken, pitiful fire user who has to be put together by the other characters would have been much more interesting than this revealed that has no foreshadowing whatsoever.
Fridge.Chrono Cross - The revelation that Lynx was actually Wazuki, warped by FATE into Serge's literal worst nightmare comes so late in the game (during an Exposition Dump, no less), that many dismiss it as a simple Ass Pull. However, it does bring a new level of horror when you think about everything Lynx did to Serge over the course of the game. And by that point, Wazuki was too far gone to stop himself...
No One Could Survive That!: A meta-example occurred in Episode 18 of R2, where a FLEIJA tactical warhead obliterated a good section of Tokyo, including (apparently) Asahina, Miss Rohmeyer, Guilford, Sayoko, and most importantly Nunnally; in truth, only the first two actually died. When the supposedly dead characters returned, the fandom was divided between those who felt it was an Ass Pull, and those who argued that the elements of their survival were in the episode and required good observation skills to notice.
Fridge.Bleach:
1. The moment when Captain Aizen was revealed to be the Big Bad in Bleach, I thought it was something like the epitome of Ass Pull, especially considering that he was supposed to be dead. Then I realized that they'd probably been planning this practically since they killed him, and if not at least a while before The Reveal, because they'd been foreshadowing it since before they killed him.
2. Halibel. Her Aspect of Death is "sacrifice". The manga never gets into this, so it seems like a bit of an Ass Pull, right? Yeah, that's what I thought until the anime got more in depth about it. While everyone's commended Halibel on how close and friendly she is with her Fraccion, and how much she hurts after their deaths (especially in comparison to the Espada who are indifferent to or outright abuse their Fraccion), they didn't realize that she's actually the CRUELEST of them all. Halibel's element of sacrifice isn't referring to herself — it's referring to them. Unlike the other Fraccion, Halibel has specifically trained her Fraccion to kill themselves in order to help her cause. They're essentially suicide-bombers, which explains why they do the most damage of any other Fraccion in the series. And the reason Halibel lets herself get close to them is so that when they die, she can kick their killers' ass that much harder.
3. So, the whole idea of the Vandenreich being able to steal Bankai and use it against the Shinigami seems like an Ass Pull, right? But when you think about it, it's actually a logical extension of their powers! Unlike Shinigami and Hollows, its established that Quincies fight by using the surrounding spirit particles as their weapon, as opposed to relying on their own powers. Taking someone else's powers and using it against them is basically the same concept, but on a grander scale!
4. As of the latest chapter, where it turns out Ichigo's mother is a Quincy and Ichigo has Quincy powers it seems like Kubo just done another Ass Pull, right? But when you think about it, it actually makes sense. Ichigo's Bankai has always been considered unusual in that it compressed his powers around him rather than expand them outwards, but what makes Quincies so different to Shinigami? Rather than release their own power, they draw in power from around them! What made Ichigo unique was actually pretty clever Foreshadowing.
5. Lots of what seemed asspulls make a frightening amount of sense after this revelation. Yes, Ichigo power indeed fluctuates wildly, depending on how well Old Man Zangetsu suppresses it. That immense wave of power which has beaten Zaraki back in the Soul Society arc? Apocalypse Hollow Ichigo form which flattened Ulqiorra? That was the actual level of Ichigo's Shinigami power all along. Every time when he struggled against seemingly weaker foes.
6. Perhaps it was intended to test out a) what the old man would do without his Zanpakuto and b) whether it was possible to seal an ancient, powerful sword in the first place. Or at least that's the sort of 'explanation' one could imagine Aizen giving on another couple of test subjects. Yamamoto did genuinely seem to catch Aizen by surprise, firstly by grabbing his sword and secondly by using the spell, indicating (Aizen being uber-prepared as he appears) that Captain Broken didn't know enough about the head captain to face him one on one and be sure of winning. So he threw poor Wonderweiss (he was afraid!) into the ring in order to work the rest out. The flames didn't matter, but maybe getting Yamamoto to provide Aizen more information did.
Awesome.Atop The Fourth Wall
1. In the review of Maximum Carnage, while Linkara admits that while the Alpha Magni-Illuminizer was hokey, poorly foreshadowed and something of an asspull, he also admits that it was probably the most logical way to conclude the fight: with the power of hope, kindness and decency, as a direct counter to the cold nihilism Carnage and his followers had been professing throughout the arc.
FridgeBrilliance.Pokemon The Series - Though some consider Rowlet quickly defeating Hau's Decidueye after waking up an Ass Pull, the dex entry for Rowlet specifically states that the species fall asleep to store energy from photosynthesis. Essentially taking a nap allowed it a power surge and to regain energy while Decidueye was still worn out from their battle.
YMMV.Batman Three Jokers - Ass Pull: Some fans feel the same way regarding the reveal that the "Comedian Joker" was a violent psycho even before the events of The Killing Joke. A fan in particular pointed out that neither the official artwork nor Alan Moore's notes and script for The Killing Joke seemed to imply that the "Comedian" Joker was an abusive husband or that his wife was scared of him and that it was stated multiple times that the two of them had an healthy and functional relationship. Granted it was also stated that the Joker himself was unsure if his memories were true or not, and Boland himself didn't draw it to Moore's description.
Awesome.Lilo And Stitch The Series - More bonus points if you consider that his sudden competence is not even an Ass Pull: 625 has the same skills and powers Stitch has. That wasn't just "quick", it was "faster-than-a-supercomputer" thinking. Aversion
RememberTheNewGuy.Video Games: Averted with the Sylvari — Guild Wars 2 states them as being the newest race, and makes zero effort to claim they've always been there. They may seem a bit like an Ass Pull, but there was a little bit of backstory to the Sylvari in Eye of the North. Hope you didn't blink; you probably missed it. The lead up to Heart of Thorns reveals that the recent origin of the Sylvari wasn't just to justify another race in Guild Wars 2, but was a massive, plot-relevant Chekhov's Gun. Aversion
Analysis.Running The Asylum: Moral Event Horizons and other irredeemably heinous acts being Easily Forgiven, especially by characters who would have every reason in the world to not forgive them, or because of retcons or justifications due to external factors that were made up on the spot.
WMG.The Order Of The Stick The Order Of The Stick: Redcloak's plan to use the Snarl to blackmail the Gods into remaking the world requires a powerful divine spellcaster (who can be Redcloak himself) and a powerful Arcane Caster. Currently, the role of Arcane Caster is allocated to Xykon, whose defeat the heroes are concentrating on. Once he's out of the way, Vaarsuvius (a powerful arcane caster who has been prophesized to gain complete and total ultimate power by "saying the right four words to the right being at the right time for all the wrong reasons") may join with Redcloak to remake the world in a way that benefits elves. He's been shown to be amoral, though not as obviously so as Belkar, and so this makes for a good Ass Pull.
YMMV.Codes And Geass Embracing Your Inner Megalomania - Continuity Lockout: Certain details pertaining to the story, specifically the organization NOD, it's members Laila and Iah'bahad, and the events taking place in Area 18, require reading the sidestory "Laila of Arabia". Making things even harder though is that the writer for that sidestory, omgitsTabi, has left it abandoned, and many details that would have been explained there end up feeling like an Ass Pull in the main story, namely that Iah'bahad is actually an amnesiac Naoto Kozuki. Word of God says this was not intentional. The plan was to have two concurrent stories, and the plots converge in R2. This was apparently the cause of considerable fighting behind the scenes between the writers.

Doesn't say it the plot twist was foreshadowed or not

YMMV.Van Helsing - They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The only thing that can kill Dracula is...a werewolf. Which Van Helsing has conveniently been turned into. This plot point comes across as something of an Ass Pull, with a lot of viewers wishing there had been more focus on Van Helsing using his wits to defeat his nemesis.
YMMV.Oreimo - Ass Pull: A lot see Manami's sudden reveal as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing to be this.
Characters.Total Drama Superstar Showdown:
1. Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Julia joins his team after an Ass Pull of a switch, and he's then reluctantly forced to work with her. This is later brought back when they're paired together in a wedding challenge (for the second time).
2. Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Finds herself on the same team as Arthur after an Ass Pull of a switch, and is reluctantly forced to work with him. This is later brought back when they're paired together in a wedding challenge (for the second time).

Doesn't say what wasn't foreshadowed

ContestedSequel.Live Action Films: The Rise of Skywalker suffered a lot with this, specially in trying to address all the disliked things in The Last Jedi: those who disliked that movie liked the retcons, those who liked it were negative to discarding elements to appease the haters. There were also clear attempts at compromise made in order to satisfy the warring factions of the fanbase, to varying degrees of success. Otherwise, it's either a fan-pleasing closure, or an uncreative and at times nonsensical mess.
FandomRivalry.Literature: There was some rivalry between A Song of Ice and Fire and the Malazan Book of the Fallen during their common hey-day, courtesy of both being major Genre Deconstructions of High Fantasy and willing to kill off important characters, even though that's where the similarities end. Malazan fans were arguing that at least there was rhyme and reason beyond the shock value in their series' character deaths, and besides, at least Steven Erikson was delivering his Doorstopper volumes on time, while George R. R. Martin's fans were claiming they'd rather wait five years for a book than deal with the inconsistencies and Asspulls the Malazan series was riddled with. The situation wasn't helped by Malazan fans also often being fans of A Song of Ice and Fire but leaving it behind due to the increasing Schedule Slip and ASoIaF fans looking for a palate cleanser between books but finding the Malazan series to be nothing like their favorite series and turning away in disgust. Lots of mudslinging happened. The authors themselves are on friendly terms, and tried to discourage any thoughts of competition but ended up fueling it even more in some cases by stating that they'd read each other's first volume and found it not to be their cup of tea. The rivalry died down when ASoIaF became hugely popular thanks to the TV adaptation and the Malazan series had its last volume published.
GuideDangIt.Adventure - The third is just as bad, with three big puzzles that each seem to be some form of Moon Logic Puzzle. The first one tasks you with escaping a cell. Trade an expensive watch with the man in the opposite cell for a sink handle, turn on the sink, stop up the drain with a coin, block the floor drain with a blanket, and call the guard so he slips on it. The second one requires you to find evidence. Click on a random spot on the wall to open an alcove, put a nail in a single-pixel hole above the alcove, use the toilet seat(!) you had to remove earler as a hammer, put a lamp in the alcove and turn it on, hang a picture with a pinhole over the lamp, look for the light spot on the opposite wall, and click on the wall to open an alcove with evidence in it. The final one? Remember the colors of the previous two rooms (and if you don't remember them, good luck guessing because you can't go back), use color-coded microchips to change the color of a ventilation shaft (WHAT!?!), change it to brown to get a key and green to get a combination, and use the key and the combo to open a safe. Made even worse by the ending, which is basically one giant Ass Pull.

Not a plot twist

YMMV.Dark Simpsons - Ass Pull: "Lisa Gets Bullied at School" has Lisa attempting to shoot up the school (without any apparent bloodshed), then running away toward a bridge as the police launch a manhunt for her, leading viewers to expect her to either commit suicide or get caught by the police. In a violation of Consistency, the ending shows her working The Oldest Profession.
Uranus Is Showing: In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliot tells his friends about E.T., prompting the question,
Tyler: Where is he from, Uranus? Get it? Your anus?
1. Which also goes with the theory that ET is a movie about overcoming one's anal phase.
2. Or saying that he pulled the idea out of his ass.
YMMV.Tiny Toon Adventures - Strangled by the Red String: Fifi and Hamton's entire reason for being together in the show relies purely on Pair the Spares, both being the third 'odd-one-out' of their respective Power Trios. Their relationship started by Hamton nervously asking Fifi to the prom despite never showing interest in her before the episode, and "revealing" he secretly had a crush on her which came completely out of the blue. Also, after their date in "Prom-ise Her Anything," the pairing was only seldom referenced again in the form of the occasional brief gag or vague reference (All of which were episodes written or co-written by Paul Dini who also worked on the prom episode). This, among other reasons, is why numerous people prefer pairing her up with Furrball or Calamity.
Quotes.The Night Gwen Stacy Died: Not only is this a glaring and desperate attempt to absolve themselves of creative responsibility in the eyes of fans, it brings up an even more disturbing question: Was the writing staff so unable to think of any other potential avenues for the character’s fate?
CurseCutShort.Another Character Interrupts:
1. In this Dilbert strip, there are are two trolls running the accounting department instead of one "Because it's hard to reach into your own..."
2. Screen Rant Pitch Meetings: The Screenwriter does this when confronted about a Contrived Coincidence in Christmas with the Kranks
Producer: Wow, what are the odds of that?
Screenwriter: Oh, odds don't matter when invokedI'm pulling all of this out of my... (interrupted by the Producer, who changes the subject)
Characters.Total Drama Superstar Showdown:
1. Ass Pull: In-universe, Roz is fond of these. Many of the challenges in this season are simply just excuses to help her out with some sort of problem she's having, such as retrieving her stolen phone or buying her food from McDonald's.
WMG.My Immortal: It also subconsciously found ways to project flying things into the fic, such as Draco's flying car and the broomsticks TaEnony and Draako pull out of their asses to flee Volxemprxt's lair.
ConspiracyTheories.O To Z: A totally serious chain email in the late '90s claimed that Bill Gates was the Antichrist and that the Internet (which... he owned?) was his Mark, by adding up the ASCII for "Bill Gates" (66 + 73 + 76 + 71 + 65 + 84 + 69 + 83) and adding 3 as in William Gates ''III'' to add up the Number of the Beast. It went on to say this method also worked for "Windows 95", and that "WWW" represented the Number because of its resemblance to "VI VI VI".
BlindIdiotTranslation.Video Games: The Polish version of Scrapland is just atrocious, translating "They're engaged" as "Everyone is busy" (original voiceover says "They're engaged", referring to a female robot and the Big Bad, Polish subtitles say "Everyone is busy" completely out of the ass). More confusing is translating "Stapler" (a type of robot) as "Stapler" through all of the game with an exception of a STORY MISSION OBJECTIVE, where it's translated as "OfficeBot" (Biuras), very similar to the Polish name of "Messenger" (another type of robot).
EndingFatigue.Literature - Dean Koontz's Phantoms. While a very good book overall, the battle against the Ancient Enemy is clearly the climax. Following that, the fight at the hospital feels completely tacked on. It is only tangentially related to the main plot and doesn't count as a Twist Ending or Ass Pull because it doesn't actually change anything. It just feels like an attempt to cram one last dramatic moment into the final chapter, and it falls flat because the main plot of the story has already been soundly resolved.
Headscratchers.Kingdom Hearts II: Interestingly enough, in Limit Form (Final Mix), Sora also has no chance of going into Anti-Form. Perhaps it's from absorbing the darkness in his friends' hearts? Final Form could be immune because I always saw it as an expression of Roxas's powers, as well. But, maybe I'm just asspulling.
Funny.Avatar The Last Airbender Book Three - Dock/Xu/Bushi. At first, the appearance of Xu right after Dock is almost handwaveable - then the fact that they're the same guy becomes pretty blatant, to the extent that you fully expect him to Ass Pull a third personality. What you DON'T expect is for Aang to literally blow a fuse when it happens. There's even a puff of smoke!
Trick Bullet: In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Burned," a man wanted for setting fire to his ex holds off the cops by threatening to kill himself with a knife. Benson shoots him with rubber bullets in order to prevent a suicide and to take him in.
1. As the SVU cops had never used non-lethal bullets before this scene, and there's no set-up for it in the episode, it's close to being an Ass Pull.
YMMV.Walker Texas Ranger - Ass Pull: "Blood Diamonds" to a T. Not only is the plot wildly over the top (in an ultra-campy series, no less!), but in the opening minutes of the episode, we see Trivette has been hung and Walker is desperately running away from crooks critically wounded. Then, in the ending minutes, Walker is gunned down by automatic weapons all around and tumbles off a storehouse roof. And then the episode smash cuts to Alex waking up in bed. Fortunately, the episode gives us an ominous twist by revealing Walker is about to undertake the investigation that leads to the events of her dream... Alex freaks.

Complaining

VisualNovel.Kanon - Willing Suspension of Disbelief: In the anime, since they have 5 characters to go through in 24 episodes which sums up around 3-5 episodes per girl, post deduction of the exposition; that means the plot for each arc / route has to advance quickly; which enforces Ass Pull characters or motives to appear without any explanation or proper legitimization to advance the plot. But the viewer is willing to avert one's gaze away specifically because of the limited number of episodes.
Mandatory Twist Ending: Every main Danganronpa installment has a massive twist regarding the circumstances of the killing game. This has come to be criticized with time, as fans have started to feel that making the twist as shocking and over the top as possible has begun taking a premium over making it a satisfying part of the narrative.
YMMV.The Mentalist - Ass Pull: Shettrick is Volker's mole. Unlike other Moles in the series, this time the writers just pull her out their asses.
YMMV.Orange - Ass Pull: The letters being sent back in time via a black hole that exists within the Bermudas Triangle, since they just happen to land correctly in each of the group's respective mailboxes at the exact moment they needed when they had no control of it, or were even certain that they would travel back in time in the first place. Deus ex Machina does not even begin to cover this plot point.
YMMV.New World Order - Ass Pull: Vince Russo must have loved watching the nWo's WCW run, since they pretty much ran on this. Wrestlers turning heel left and right and joining the nWo, the split creating nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac, the Finger Poke of Doom, etc.
YMMV.Ridonculous Race Shawshank Ridonc Tion - Ass Pull: Say what you will about the original Total Drama series and how badly they abused non-eliminations (especially in World Tour), at least they never resorted to having two occur back to back (excluding the Aftermaths after "Broadway, Baby!" and "Sweden Sour")!
Headscratchers.Digimon Adventure Tri: If Gennai's goal was the reboot, why destroy it? Just a dick move? Especially since he used Ken's appearance.
1. To make things as grimdark as possible without ever making sense.
Horrible.WCW - By far the worst match of the night, and possibly the entire year, was the Rip Off the Camouflage match between Ms. Hancock and Major Gunns◊ aka Tylene Buck. The backstory alone is groan-worthy, as it's basically Hancock feuding against Gunns for the affections of the former's then-boyfriend David Flair. This match came about because Gunns tried to give David mouth-to-mouth after his (losing) appearance in a Cruiserweight Championship title match. Right from the start, it's obvious these two have no idea what they are doing. Gunns clearly doesn't know how to take bumps, whereby she plods slowly towards the turnbuckle and then turns her back long before she actually connects with it. The pair make their way up to the stage where a pool of mud (naturally) just happens to be. The match takes a turn for the tasteless when Gunns kicks Hancock right in the stomach, the latter holding it with a very worried face. That's right, Russo tried to make a miscarriage angle out of what should've been a silly fanservice match. This turned out to be an Ass Pull when, months later, Ms. Hancock returned with a baby carriage which was revealed to be just a pile of pictures of Shawn Stasiak, whom she had dumped David for. Truly an abortion of both a match and a story.

ZCE/Other

Characters.Total Drama Superstar Showdown:
1. Ass Pull: invoked When it comes to challenges. He's even worse than Roz in this regard.
YMMV.Terminator Genisys - Ass Pull: See the franchise page.
It.In Italiano: Gioco di prestigio [Ass Pull]
Diabolus ex Nihilo - See also Ass Pull and Unspecified Apocalypse.

IDK

YMMV.Superjail - Fridge Horror: Even with taking some loopholes into account, there are those that feel like the Mistress taking over Superjail could be considered an Ass Pull since the jail should have been completely shut down in the Warden's absence. There are also fans that decried "Best Friends Forever"'s plot twist of having the Warden ejected from Superjail for a time, noting that the jail should have shut down once he was outside of it. Although, as the show's continuity is admittedly meant to be loose and episodic (save for instances where continuity has carried over), it's debatable if the rule from "Time-Police" even still applies ^note. Canon status of what makes it a plot twist is ambiguous
YMMV.Ghost Dad - Ass Pull: Near the end of the film, it turns out Elliot isn't dead but in a comatose state. With a title llke that, it doesn't seem all that surprising
Headscratchers.Friday The13th: Its because Jason was indeed dead according to the filmmakers. It was just an Ass Pull to crash in on the first film’ss success. Jason being disable doesn’t hold water either since he shown to be more intelligent than that by founding Alice and sneaking into her house unnoticed. The later sequel said that he just came back from the dead.
YMMV.The Nobody Of Ever After High - Ass Pull: The absence of Aqua from Twist In Time is never explained. Instead, Ven is the main Birth By Sleep character who is even mentioned, yet nothing of Aqua or Terra.

Sandbox / Ass Pull Wick Check

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