We don't want to clog this thread since Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is an Overdosed Trope. Before posting here, check if the example you're analyzing qualifies for summary deletion from the three criteria below by keeping this trope's rigorous definition in mind.
- Does the example involve Applied Phlebotinum (Functional Magic, Science Fiction, Artistic Licence) or a character reaction? If so, it instantly violates the definition's second bullet point's realism requirements, and you should delete it without question.
- Is the example a Discussed Trope or an instance of Conversational Troping? If so, it violates the definition's third bullet point's emphasis on only counting outcomes, and you should delete it without question.
- Considering the definitions, would the example qualify better for Deconstructed Trope or Deconstructed Character Archetype from the trope page's rules? If so, move it to the appropriate one on the spot.
If the example survived all three tests, it satisfies the second and third bullet points, so you don't need to change it immediately. If you feel like it meets the first bullet point's requirements for being surprising, you can leave it. However, if you believe it doesn't meet the first bullet point or aren't sure, talk it over in the cleanup thread before deciding.
Many Stock Phrases you'll see used in this thread describe a particular type of misuse:
- Not surprising. — The outcome described isn't a Bait-and-Switch and merely follows expected genre conventions.
- Plot happens. — The example merely describes an event or series of events but not why we would expect something different.
- Too fantastical. — The causes/outcome described included the presence of stuff Impossible in Real Life such as Applied Phlebotinum, Functional Magic, or Science Fiction, meaning they're too unrealistic by default.
- No character reactions. — The outcome involves a character reacting in a certain way or having certain emotions, which we can't gauge the realism of because people's emotional reactions vary far too much.
- Not realistic. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but this one requires you to write a short description for why it isn't realistic.
- Too implausible. — The outcome describes an outcome that happened because of things too unlikely to count as relatively realistic compared to what they were subverting.
- Cuttable ZCE. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Not an outcome. — The example is either a Discussed Trope, Lampshade Hanging, Conversational Troping, or happens over too much time to be momentary.
- Too unclear. — The example is too convoluted or obtuse to judge.
- Irrelevant. — The example describes stuff utterly irrelevant to the definition of SRO.
- Bad indentation. — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Old OP
I've been noticing a lot of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome misuse lately, from instances of Gameplay and Story Segregation to Awesome, but Impractical, and I thought a cleanup thread could help out a little.
A big thing I've noticed is that it's often used for anything remotely realistic, or something that's realistic but doesn't necessarily affect the story. Another problem is that the trope seems to be cherry-picked, where any instance of reality ensuing is put there, as well as when another trope could serve the example better.
Problematic examples from one sample page, SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome.Disney Animated Series:
"Despite his attempts Wander can't make friends with Dominator who constantly rebuffs his friendly gestures throughout season 2. Even at the end of everything, she still refuses. Sylvia even lampshades it, telling him some people are just like that."
"Spider-Man's fight against Sandman and Rhino, where Spidey uses Rhino's weight against him. rather than fighting him directly."
"Beshte gets sunburns all over his body and is easily exhausted while he is lost in the Outlands. Justified due to the fact that hippos need water to survive to avoid sunburn and overheating."
"It's heavily implied that being the leader of the Lion Guard has taken a toll on Kion's social and private life."
"Milo Murphy's Law is about a boy named Milo Murphy whose entire life is centered around Murphy's Law. In another cartoon, being The Jinx would cause people to be afraid of them, resulting in an unsocial lifestyle. That does not apply here. While everyone does watch their step around Milo, they do not hate him for it. Being The Jinx does, however, give everyone Paranoia Fuel, given that Murphy's Law can happen at any time, so chances are you might need insurance, a phone in case of emergencies, among other things. Milo himself (as well as his friends Melissa and Zack) just learned to adapt to his condition, being prepared for anything. He has lived with Murphy's Law his entire life after all. That being said, that does not mean that they don't panic all the time. Examples include Milo panicking over his monthly doctor's note, and Melissa panicking over riding a rollercoaster with Milo."
" Hiro is initially not allowed to use Tadashi's former lab, as it can only be accessed by upperclassmen who earned the privilege. Subverted in the second half of the pilot when Professor Granville decides Hiro using the lab would benefit him. On a related note regarding Granville, she is tough, but fair when interacting with the students. She might be, as Wasabi describes "a hard case", but Granville being a complete sadist and picking on Hiro would be unrealistic. She is actually a decent person."
-Edited with permission from the OP-
Edited by lalalei2001 on Aug 10th 2022 at 5:47:25 AM
#1952: Mar 3rd 2023 at 8:17:29 AM
- Project Zomboid:
- Many Zombie Apocalypse games have the main protagonist(s) conveniently immune to whatever created the zombies. Here, there's no such luck - infection is a major game mechanic, and there's no cure. You have a chance of avoiding infection if you're just scratched or cut, but if you get bit then all bets are off, and sooner or later you're joining the horde. There's even at least one mod that lets you deal with it, not by adding a cure but by adding an option to go out early while ensuring you don't get back up. Too implausible
- Breaking a window with your bare hands gives a not-insignificant chance that you'll cut your hands and arms on it, to the point that tweezers may be required to remove glass shards, on top of bandaging the gashes and resting up. Jumping through without clearing the broken glass - which actually requires having an item in your hands to do it with - likewise can end with cuts all over. In and of itself the cuts aren't likely to kill you unless you're already running low on supplies to deal with injury, but it can end up helping the zombies catch up. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- After about a month of in-game time, the power grid and, more devastatingly, the water works will stop working, as the society keeping those amenities up and running have literally died off. If you haven't stockpiled lots of receptacles of water and built wells and rain collectors by that point, you're pretty much screwed. Plot happens
- It's impossible to truly be a Zero to Hero One-Man Army. You're merely a regular person caught in a quarantine zone filled with zombies, trying to survive by any means necessary, and that entails so many things you have to do that it means you simply don't have time, resources, or stamina to consistently train skills or learn things unless they're directly related to how you're keeping yourself alive. Personal player experience can also only do so much to help overcome in-game limitations - you may have put hundreds of hours into the game, but starting a new character means all that comes out to is having a good idea of how to start getting back to where you were on a prior one, e.g. where to find supplies to build shelter or get a weapon and ammo, but having to work on your character's skill before you can actually build that shelter properly or consistently hit zombies from beyond a couple tiles. Having more than one player aids with this as well, as everyone will need to have a lot of the same skillset just to survive, but it's perfectly possible for them to specialize into more esoteric things (e.g. one player focuses on learning how to hunt for and prepare food, one focuses on carpentry and electrical work, one gets good at using weapons for supply raids), giving you reasons to be careful, stick together and protect one another. Not an outcome
- You can sleep on a variety of things other than beds, including on chairs or in cars, but it obviously won't provide as much comfort as a proper bed, and you can end up waking up with neck or back pain. And, while sleeping pills are an option to help your character sleep better, don't take too many of them, and especially don't combine it with alcohol. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- You'll want to clear out corpses from areas you plan on spending any noticeable amount of time in. Being around corpses for too long will make you sick, and trying to run over them can and will trip you up, which is a death sentence if any of them are still moving after you. You can also trip over random objects on the ground if they're too cluttered, and it's possible to botch a landing from jumping over a fence, which gives minor cuts that will add up if you don't treat them. Being overencumbered makes it even worse, as attempting to jump over a fence like this guarantees a botched landing that can even end up with you twisting an ankle. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- You'll also want to keep yourself clean as much as possible. Being dirty or bloody greatly increases the chance of infection whenever you get hit by a zombie, and it's even possible for zombies to sniff you out if you're bloody. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- Zombies naturally also hear you, and are attracted to loud noises, as you'll quickly learn every time you draw in more zombies than you can handle after using a gun to kill one or entering a house that turned out to have a security alarm. This is especially prominent with the helicopter that comes at a random point after the first month to search for survivors, as helicopters are loud, and as a result attract a lot of zombies. And, if he finds you, he will then follow you, trying to see how you're doing, which means that huge load of zombies is now bearing down on you. Preparing for the helicopter is one of the most important things to consider for any plans of long-term survival. Too implausible
- There needs to be consideration for what and how much you eat. Rotten food is obviously less nutritious than fresh or properly-prepared food, and has a high chance of making you sick (even if you take the "Iron Gut" trait, it's still a 50/50 chance). Likewise, eating large amounts helps you recover faster from illness and injury, can alleviate depression, and temporarily makes you stronger, allowing you to carry more stuff without being over-encumbered - but the downside is that eating too much too often can Eventually make you overweight or even obese, which imposes hefty penalties to fitness. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- It's also possible to gather water from natural sources like lakes and rivers or collecting rain, but it will be tainted and also carries a high risk of making you sick, though this can be dealt with by boiling it. Boiled water can also be used to sterilize bandages, which further reduces the chances of a wound becoming infected. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- Punch-Out!!, in the several of the promotional comic strips
feature the boxers' quirks getting the better of them, including:
- Aran Ryan's Weighted Gloves weigh him down, leaving him unable to use his arms, and as such he gets completely clobbered. Deconstruction
- Soda Popinski feeling sick from one soda bottle too many. Unlike the game where he keeps chugging on them with no ill effect. Deconstruction
Someoneman
Since: Nov, 2011
#1953: Mar 3rd 2023 at 8:54:56 AM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The Punch Out examples have already been cleaned up before, and I think they're valid. They're Surprisingly Realistic, since the game has "trained" the reader to forget the consequences that stuffing heavy horseshoes into your gloves or drinking tons of soda would have in real life, and they're Outcomes instead of Deconstructions since the consequences are just a single panel punchline of a comic.
Also, more examples from that same page:
N-O
- Need for Speed: Some of the entries in the second era (beginning with Underground) feature a drag racing mode that has you and the other opponents in a quarter mile race. However, if you're unlucky with your shifting, the engine of your car would explode and you'd be disqualified for it. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
- NEO: The World Ends with You:
- The Secret Reports point out that the Deep River Society, the Variabeauties and the Purehearts had played the Reapers' Game for at least thirty weeks, with the Ruinbringers winning every time on top of that. By the time the Wicked Twisters get invoved, Kanon is not above pin-swiping for cheap points, Motoi is willing to exploit everyone in arm's reach to get ahead, and Fuya is a paranoiac at best. Halfway through the second week, Kanon is willing to break the Game and team up with the Twisters just to erase the Ruinbringers. Being forced to play a rigged Game for months on end, where the consequence for placing dead last is erasure of your entire team, is going to take its toll on morale sooner or later. Character reactions
- On a lighter note, did you expect someone with thick fingers like Susukichi to be able to type coherent text messages with autocorrect disabled? Not sure about this one. It might count since you'd assume it's just a character design quirk rather than a literal physical trait that he has in-universe
- The New Order: Last Days of Europe:
- The series of Hand Waves that make a Nazi victory in World War II possible come to an abrupt halt not long after the war, as the German economy comes tumbling down like a house of cards in the mid-'50s. Adolf Hitler is the one pillar of stability keeping the Nazi empire together, and when he dies, all hell breaks loose as Germany proper plunges into a four-way Civil War between Hitler's rival underlings, the Reichskommissariats in Eastern Europe descend into anarchy, and German puppet governments in England, France, and Norway are destabilized. Luftwaffe aircraft are directed away from bombarding key regions like western Russia and the Free French strip in Africa to take part in the civil war, and these places finally start getting their act together. Plot happens. What's the surprising thing here?
- Earlier versions of the game included the Atlantropa project, which was on the OTL Nazis' drawing board. A plan to partly drain the Mediterranean in order to create new land for agriculture and more closely tie Africa to Europe, all it accomplishes is the total collapse of the Mediterranean economy. Coastal cities suddenly find themselves miles inland and unable to trade without building expensive new port facilities by the new coastline, fisheries are destroyed by the increasing salinity of the shrinking sea and resulting ecological collapse, and the new farmland that the project was supposed to create turns out to be just worthless salt flats because it had been inundated by a saltwater sea for millions of years. The sheer cost of the project effectively crushed the German economy in one go and forced the Germans to sell it off for cheap to the Iberian Union, who promptly found the dam had so many glaring faults that it threatened to burst and cause a flood of truly Biblical proportions. The entire debacle destroys any goodwill between Germany and their allies in the region, chiefly the Italian Empire. Notably, the developers eventually decided that Atlantropa stretched plausibility too far (and created too many issues for the storylines they had planned for the Mediterranean nations), and scrapped it, though they still kept... Plot happens again. The last sentence admits it's not actually realistic.
- ...a similar (and more plausible) scheme to dam the Congo River and create a massive inland lake in Central Africa. It does exactly what it was intended to do in providing Reichskommissariat Zentralafrika with tons of hydroelectric power and freshwater... and causes an environmental and humanitarian calamity as vast swaths of jungle are washed away by the lake and millions of native Africans either drown or are forced to flee their homes. Then again, it is the Nazis who built it, so the death of millions of Africans is, in their eyes, a positive development. Plot happens again. What's objectively surprising here?
- Should Sōkichi Takagi become Prime Minister, he can set Japan on a path to eventual democracy through reforms and liberalizations. However, Japan is still largely an imperialist nation, so making these changes stick requires significant compromises with other factions within the Diet, and presenting the more radical ideas (women's rights and free market individualism) as consistent with Japanese nationalism. Failing to walk this delicate tightrope can lead to severe economic and social upheaval. Same. All these examples are just consequences Ensuing in the game's own Reality.
- No More Heroes:
- While most of the assassins in the first game match Travis in fighting ability, endurance, and ability to move around or adapt to how he comes at them, the third-ranked assassin, Speed Buster, is a frail old lady whose sole weapon is a Wave-Motion Gun. The entire point of the stage is simply getting close enough to take it out of commission - once that's done, she has no way to take on the much younger and better-armed Travis. Not sure. The part about the Wave-Motion Gun is not realistic, but once it's taken out of the picture, Speed Buster being killed in a cutscene might count, since usually, in this kind of game, bosses are Made of Iron and have massive health bars no matter how little sense that makes.
- Background material notes that Thunder Ryu's beam katana, the D.O.S., lacks any sort of power switch and is simply activated by pulling the handle out of its sheath. It also notes that this makes it just as incredibly dangerous to its user, even just to deactivate it, as to their enemies: just like the beam katanas' inspiration in Star Wars' lightsabers, it's a blade of pure energy with no weight to it other than the handle itself and no "safe" spot to touch it. Notably, when you take the weapon after Speed Buster kills Ryu and give it to Naomi, she designs the completed Tsubaki Mk III based on it, but only copies its design of emitting a blade without an extendable guide frame and not the lack of a power switch or proper crossguard. Not realistic.
- The entire plot of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle kicks off because Travis killed most of Jasper Batt's relatives. This was something that happened in the first game in a bunch of copy-pasted side missions with almost no fanfare, and neither Travis nor the player expected it to come up again or have any real consequences. Deconstructed Trope for Side Quest. It's Surprisingly Realistic, but has too much of a bearing on the plot to just be an Outcome.
- That extends to Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes as well, since Badman is out for Travis' blood for killing his daughter, Bad Girl. Character reaction. And revenge is a common enough plot point to not be surprising.
- And again in No More Heroes III, except instead of losing blood relatives, Damon seeks retribution for the thrashing Travis gave him in the previous game. Same.
- FU treats Damon as an errand boy again and again, kills his fellow board members, treats the battle against Travis like a game instead of finishing the job after the first time and outright tells Damon that he was out to conquer Earth ever since he first arrived twenty years ago. The abuse causes Damon to lose every ounce of compassion he had for FU; while he died after losing to Travis and company, the final blow was dealt by the betrayed and beaten Damon, who saw him as naught more than a failed asset in the end. Character reaction
- Octopath Traveler functions like a Low Fantasy with magic, meaning that reality has its place even with the magic. It doesn't count as Surprisingly Realistic if the whole game is trying to be realistic.
- Cyrus could not save several townsfolk from dying during a kidnapping spree because the volumes of blood required to create the hoard of blood crystals the chapter villain possessed had to come from somewhere. Not realistic.
- Supplies and concentration are required in order for humans to sustain a flow of reinforcements. Vanessa extorted the people of Goldshore and was unaccustomed to resistance, and thus was unprepared for her guards being knocked out more than once by Alfyn. Likewise, Orlick's automaton is costly and difficult to repair, and will not function in the slightest once Therion trashes it. Plot happens.
- Alfyn treats Miguel despite Ogen's request to let the man suffer; it is only revealed after the fact that Miguel is a mass murderer and thief who terrorized Saintsbridge many a time, and once he's back in proper health he goes right back to lawlessness. And while killing Miguel does end his threat to the village, Alfyn had to break the apothecary's oath and his own personal beliefs to do so, and the resulting damage to his convictions lasts into the next chapter. Plot happens. The second part is a character reaction
- The bad endings of the Oddworld games certainly qualify: making less than a token effort to save a group of people/creatures in dire straits will make them much less willing to help you when you're in trouble, if they don't decide to just screw you over beforehand. Character reaction.
Noaqiyeum
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
from the gentle and welcoming dark
(Time Abyss)
Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
#1954: Mar 3rd 2023 at 10:08:06 PM
The series of Hand Waves that make a Nazi victory in World War II possible come to an abrupt halt not long after the war, as the German economy comes tumbling down like a house of cards in the mid-'50s. Adolf Hitler is the one pillar of stability keeping the Nazi empire together, and when he dies, all hell breaks loose as Germany proper plunges into a four-way Civil War between Hitler's rival underlings, the Reichskommissariats in Eastern Europe descend into anarchy, and German puppet governments in England, France, and Norway are destabilized. Luftwaffe aircraft are directed away from bombarding key regions like western Russia and the Free French strip in Africa to take part in the civil war, and these places finally start getting their act together. Plot happens. What's the surprising thing here?
The surprising thing is that the Third Reich is depicted as collapsing under its own malicious ideology, rather than being an ultimate evil which can only be narrowly defeated by the (American) hero like very nearly every other Nazi victory timeline does.
I'm not sure it's Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, exactly, but it's at least something similar. The game is fairly well-known for portraying the Nazis as extremely lucky for just long enough, but ultimately losing the peace for similar reasons to why they historically lost the war.
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
Someoneman
Since: Nov, 2011
#1955: Mar 4th 2023 at 7:31:12 AM
It'd still fit better under Genre Deconstruction or Deconstructed Trope.
#1956: Mar 4th 2023 at 4:28:06 PM
Consensus looks good to me. The not sure one looks valid to me but probably needs a few more details.
Edited by CelestialDraco on Mar 4th 2023 at 6:28:22 AM
#1957: Mar 5th 2023 at 2:18:01 PM
- The Lost Element: An alarming example occurs during "Homo Pinkius" where Pinkie Pie tries to ice skate while stuck in a human form and falls through thin ice during a pirouette. James even lampshades Pinkie's shtick by expecting her to pop back up while partially encased in a block of ice, but this is not the case as she surfaces while flailing and shrieking in pain from the intense cold, forcing James to act quickly to save her from suffering an icy fate. Valid
- The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Link and Zelda end up separated in the Blatchery Plain and end up having to take their Last Stand separately. How does this end? With Link being the one suffering the brunt of injuries, because while Link is the greatest warrior with a sword and shield, he still can only defend himself in a limited range. Zelda has magic powers that allow her to shield herself on all sides and teleport herself to instantly avoid attacks, even though she's not as well-trained as Link. Too fantastical with magical powers.
- The Reaping of Hatsune Miku:
- Punch Catch: Ritsu does this to Momo during Day 6 of the last game. The narration describes a crack coming out of his arm when he does, and he later shows pain when he has to use that hand while defending. Valid
- The Vow: While Shen is still recovering from his bone injuries, he tries to speed things up by training despite the pain. He ends up hurting himself even further. Not surprising
- Thomas and Friends - Original Episodes: Unlike the TV series, people who work on/for the railway are scolded or punished for their involvement in accidents. For example, Byron's original operator kept eating on the job which acts as a distraction so when his lunchbox fell onto Byron's gas pedal and caused him to go on a rampage that causes harm and damage to the public, the operator gets arrested for criminal negligence. Happens too frequently to be surprising
- Three Wrights And A Justice: Iris is understandably upset by Trucy's staged Hostage Situation during the first part of Wocky Kitaki's trial. So after the trial is finished, Trucy's gonna get grounded. Character reaction
- Total Drama Voyage: As Team Heather learn the hard way in "Food Disservice," the cooking skills Mike's picked up from Manitoba may be good for wilderness survival, but doesn't translate well to refined restaurant dining. Not surprising. Is it really surprisingly that survivalist cooking doesn't make you good at culinary cooking?
- Total Drama Omega: There is no way Wawanakwa Island could have been cleaned of all its radioactive waste in the two years between Revenge and this fic, much less the one year Chris claimed it took in All Stars, thus resulting in the competition needing to be moved to a brand new island. Plot happens. It doesn't give any reason to expect otherwise
- Two Kinds (Danny Phantom/Ladybug):
- During the Lunch Lady episode, the supporters that Sam and Tucker gather for their respective protests are a lot smaller due to the fact that they only had a single night to arrange it. Plot happens
- Just because the school was forced to take the bullying at Casper High more seriously as a result of Alya interviewing the bullying victims of the jocks that resulted in an assembly that reinforced the zero tolerance policy of bullying at the school, it doesn't mean that everyone would take the lesson to heart. Something that Alya is well aware of and is proven right when she watches Dash chase Danny through the hallway. Character reaction
- After the events of Spirit Week, Jazz thinks that it would be in the best interest of the students to see a counselor due to the gas lighting Spectra put them through but says that it would likely be a bad idea due to the fact that it was a ghost pretending to be a counselor that caused all the negativity during Spirit Week in the first place. Not an outcome
- What If Goku Married Bulma?: A 'reset' 18 gets into a fight with a gang of teens. 18 eviscerates the boy she punches on accident, and is understandably shaken, as she's just a normal teenager. Character reaction
- When Did I Become a Parent?: While Simba initially adheres to an all-bug diet, it quickly becomes clear to Timon that a growing lion cub can't find enough bugs to eat to satisfy his hunger. Simba is eventually forced to eat small birds and lizards along with the bugs, with his friends pretending they don't know. Not surprising
- Where the Sunlight Ends:
- Peter One once attempted to deliver pizza via swinging across the city, a-la Spider-Man 2. However, the pizza was "smushed" thanks to said swinging, to the extent that Peter blamed it on a car hitting him. Too implausible
- Peter Three resolves himself to reuniting with Peters One and Two, but inter-dimensional travel is out of his area of expertise. He does make breakthroughs, but they're far-between because he's "running numbers that just don't exist" entirely by himself. Too fantastical
- Peter Two is likewise working on a similar project with Octavius' help. However, despite their genius-level intellects, they simply lack the energy necessary to make the portal work. It’s implied that the arc reactor that Octavius brought with him will solve the crisis the two are currently facing. Plot happens
- In Peter Three's present, Oscorp is under intense public scrutiny after word comes to light about Harry's transformation into the Green Goblin and subsequent arrest. Max, however, was kept out of prison due to Oscorp erasing the footage of Max's accident, with Oscorp also offering him two million dollars in hush money. Even after Max rejected the offer in favor of getting a permanent job at Oscorp, he still had to sign an NDA which hid his identity as Electro from the public. Plot happens
Edited by CelestialDraco on Mar 5th 2023 at 4:25:56 AM
#1958: Mar 6th 2023 at 4:47:04 PM
Consensus?
Tabs
Since: Jan, 2001
#1959: Mar 6th 2023 at 10:55:29 PM
Those are fair assessments.
Lord of Hell
#1960: Mar 7th 2023 at 1:21:16 PM
I think the 18 one is valid, but should be reworded. 18 being shocked is just a character reaction, but the part about accidentally eviscerating a regular human due to being far, far stronger than one? That sounds like a valid usage of the trope.
#1961: Mar 7th 2023 at 1:32:32 PM
But sentient androids/cyborgs with that level of strength don't exist in real life.
#1962: Mar 7th 2023 at 6:03:17 PM
- A Young Girl's Weaponization of the Mythos: Without Tanya's - and thus, Being-X's - involvement in the Type-95, Schugel's childish sabotage of the prototype's safety features accomplishes nothing but to get himself, and everyone at the testing site, killed. Plot happens
- Dark Spectrum Public Enemy: Rainbow breaking into tears after she kills her friends, who are actually changelings, even though you might hate your former friends, doesn't mean you don't care about them. Character reaction
- I Am Skantarios:
- In his report, Skantarios discusses that he'd like to say that his duel with Pope Nicolaus IV was the stuff of legends... but his opponent was nearly eighty, had never handled a sword before, and could barely ride a horse, so he barely put up a fight. Not an outcome
- During Skantarios's raid into the Egyptian heartland, he doesn't know what's going on in the rest of the world, unlike the games the series is based on. Of course, you'd expect that from going behind enemy lines in the days before modern communication. Plot happens
- I Think We'll Be Okay: Kosuke's laziness at the beginning of the story is at first Played for Laughs, but is later shown to have serious consequences. She's basically failing P.E., and she misses out on potential scholarships because she couldn't be bothered to write the essays. Her friends and family do love her, but are very annoyed with her behavior—and in her parents' case, are incredibly concerned for her future. Her lack of effort into her relationship with Kohta makes him feel like he's pulling the entire relationship, and ultimately results in the two mutually splitting ways. Her refusal to almost ever go out also means that she hasn't made any strong friendships, so once her best friend Okina moves away, she's left alone. Deconstruction and character reaction
- If You Regret, Reset the Game:
- A heartwarming version. Yusuke isn't a Starving Artist anymore, due to earning money from commissions from Futaba, as well as everyone sharing money gotten from Mementos. Plot happens
- Mayasashi Shido in canon was an Obviously Evil politician who only got support thanks to Akechi taking out rivals in the Metaverse and Yaldabaoth rigging things in his favor. He lacks both of these supernatural forces in this AU, and is thus a complete nobody. Plot happens
- Ignited Spark: Nejire constantly hitting her head in the battle trial results in her getting a concussion. Valid. Though Nejire's line when she hurt head the first time was "I think I sent us flying a bit. I'm just happy I don't have a concussion! Are you okay?"
- Infinity Train Bryces Story: After being betrayed by his fellow criminals, Bryce tries to pull a daring dive off a floor. He manages to evade the authorities and the mob goons...only to suffer severe injuries on his back and legs due to falling from that height. He barely manages to escape with his life. Not surprising. Read the first chapter myself.
- Internship:
- Mention is made that the Deputyverse Glory Girl never fixed her excessive force issues, which, combined with Panacea leaving New Wave depriving her of an easy way of covering up seriously injured criminals, results in her being sent to prison (thankfully not the Birdcage). At the time this was revealed in the story, GG had just been put on her absolute last chance over this issue in Deputy Commander, so time will tell if this is another AU point. Plot happens
- Use secret information to gain the trust of someone with trust issues? Somehow, this leads to things not going well for Rose. Taylor comes to the conclusion that, since there was no way for "Rose" to get access to data on "Forest Guardian," and there's only three people alive who could know that, and only one of them is Wards age... she comes to the conclusion that "Emissary" is Emma Barnes. Oops. Didn't Think This Through
- During the fight, Rose notices that Parian isn't talking much, and seems to be unused to talking a lot. She wonders if this is the result of her not being there to influence Parian's life, making Parian's life much harder... but then she considers that her costume is a massive, heavy dress that is currently soaked in water making it very heavy, as well as fighting a giant monster, and she's probably a wee bit tired. Not an outcome
- Report a misdeed of a Ward to the proper authorities? Don't be surprised that it turns out someone actually investigated your claims while you were busy doing other things! Plot happens
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: When fleeing Eros!Drew's minions in an Air-Vent Passageway, Rachel is too large to fit and has to go up to the rafters, and it's noted that even the below-average Jade is finding it a tight squeeze. Valid
- Later, Traitor: When Pepper finally takes Sally off her hand in Chapter 31, she isn't able to move it. It turns out keeping your hand locked in a certain position inside a hunk of wood for a few years isn't exactly healthy for its bone structure. Valid
#1963: Mar 7th 2023 at 6:05:06 PM
The Jackie Chan example needs the character tag scrubbed.
#1964: Mar 7th 2023 at 6:23:44 PM
OK, but aside from that, everything else is good?
#1965: Mar 8th 2023 at 10:27:32 AM
- Leave for Mendeleiev: When Chat gets mad at Ladybug because she didn't show up the celebration in honor of the two heroes of Paris, Ladybug fires back that she didn't even know it was happening. When Chat tries to say that Chloé was talking about it all week, Ladybug has to point out that she isn't around Chloé and never heard this. Plot happens
- Nadja's screwup on Face to Face meant that the interview series was cancelled and she was chewed out by her boss, since she did annoy one of the biggest celebrities in Paris to the point where she walked out on them on live television. Plot happens
- Lightning: After securing the Mark IV, Éclair tells Momo that she talked with Ogin and they have decided that, insead of incorporating it into their tank line, they gonna sell it and buy some better tanks because, as she and Yukari explained, the Mark IV would be practically useless aginst anything they would face. Instead, using the money from the sale, they bought three Renault R35s from BC Freedom surplus, upgunned them with SA38 cannons and distributed them between Éclair, Ogin and her crew. Not an outcome
- Locked Out: Despite Amity being well aware that her parents aren't actually calling her to disown her, Ed and Em still manage to hit on enough of Amity's real-world insecurities to end up traumatizing her to some extent. Ed and Em also feel incredibly guilty once their part is complete. The siblings end up not talking to each other for a while out of a mutual respect for each others' boundaries. Character reaction
- Lord Of Crows: No matter how skilled Itachi is, it was unlikely that the emperor's coven would let a eleven years old join them. Itachi had to prove them that he was suited for the job. Plot happens
- Messages for Dad: As it turns out, the Emperor and all eighteen Primarchs going radio-silent for weeks on end (with their Astartes legions) nearly threw the Great Crusade into chaos, with Malcador single-handedly holding it together in their absence. After that realization, the vid-viewings are limited to a few Primarchs (and sometimes the Emperor) at a time, reporting on the events depicted to the rest of the family who keep up the momentum of the Crusade. Plot happens
- Miraculous Alliance: Shortly after they start dating, Adrien and Marinette try making out in a broom closet like in the movies... Only to find it too cramped and cluttered to do more than deliver each other Amusing Injuries. Unsure
Adrien: This was a bad idea. All those movies lied to me. Broom closets are not good for making out.
- Miraculous Ninja: While Debbie's message on defending Marinette of her questionable actions did gain some support, there was also some public backlash. Messages that defend a person's questionable actions will always have some negative opinion. Character reaction
- My Hero Academia Marvel-verse: Izuku tries to channel his inner Solid Snake and sneak past an Inner Demon using a cardboard box. He is promptly captured and held hostage. Valid
And from his position behind a nearby mail cart Izuku could make out one more Demon patrolling outside the room the Board Meetings were usually held. "Okay," he whispered. "How the hell do I get past that guy?"
He looked around for something to use, not bothering with the mail cart since that would make too much noise. The only thing he found that could possibly be useful was an empty cardboard box that he might be able to fit in if he crouched down real low.Picking up the box and hiding under it, after making sure one of the handle holes was open all the way so he could see, Izuku muttered "If it worked for Solid Snake, hopefully it'll work for me."
- It didn't work. It did not work.
- New Game Plus (2022):
- The Meta Liberation Army / Paranormal Liberation Front was a huge organization which managed to infiltrate all levels of society and counted at least one hundred thousand people under its ideology. Even with the most thorough and organized efforts to topple and dismantle it, it makes sense that many adepts and sympathizers would still be around, lying low and ready to cause problems. Furthermore, in the setting of this fanfic, it's also natural that years of societal discrimination cultivated by the MLA for their own gains can't just go away with them. Plot happens
- It's mentioned only briefly but we are told that while the School Festival was a huge help for Eri to get better in the original timeline, it would still take time and therapy for her to completely leave her years under Chisaki behind, like occasionally suffering panic attacks and nightmares. Not an outcome
- Quirk: Magical Girl Mascot: At I-Isalnd, a group consisting of Tsuyu, Toru, Mina and some Pro Heroes go through the air vents. However, unlike most media, which treat this as a good way to move around sneakily, the noise they make climbing through the vents gives them away. Valid
Edited by CelestialDraco on Mar 8th 2023 at 12:41:29 PM
SoyValdo7
I mainly fix indentation issues
from La tierra de lagos y volcanes
Since: Sep, 2022
Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
I mainly fix indentation issues
#1966: Mar 8th 2023 at 10:36:26 AM
I think the Miraculous Alliance entry is fine. The rest, you can cut it.
#1967: Mar 8th 2023 at 11:58:12 AM
- Null: When Yang gets stabbed in the hand, she finds she cannot use it anymore. In other stories, she would be able to power through the injury, but here the tendons have been cut, rendering her hand literally useless. Valid
Someoneman
Since: Nov, 2011
#1968: Mar 8th 2023 at 1:21:43 PM
P
- Paladins
- Played for Laughs with Maeve, who has a seemingly bottomless supply of throwing knives. However, if she loses a match, she'll complain about having to retrieve all of the knives she's thrown. Not sure. It's a reference to the trope Everything Fades, which does count as an Expected Unrealistic Outcome, but in-game, the knives actually do disappear from the player's perspective, so that might not count since the unrealistic outcome actually happened, until the game just retcons it and says it didn't.
- In the backstory for Furia, she tries to protect her sister from the Magistrate's forces. Try as she might, she is easily defeated because she is just one untrained civilian fighting trained soldiers. Not surprising since it's a Foregone Conclusion.
- Papers, Please has the player working border security, determining who can or cannot enter the country, and morality frequently comes up against practicality. You can let people in who are desperate but don't have the right forms, but too many penalties mean you won't have enough money to care for yourself and your family. You can accept bribes, but the extra money will get the authorities suspicious of you. Denying someone you've been warned about when their paperwork is in order will get you a penalty, but letting him through will result in him killing the young woman who warned you (in this case, however, you can Take a Third Option; show him the warning note and he unwittingly confirms the woman's accusation, at which point you can detain him). And revealing that you have evidence linking you to the local subversive element will get you arrested. Plot happens. Hard decisions are the whole point of that game, so it's not surprising.
- Parasite Eve 2 features a type of special, genetically engineered bio-weapon called a GOLEM which is outrageously strong, resistant to small arms gunfire, and armed with a gigantic sword. Eventually, a plot development leads to a unit of GOLEMs squaring off with an entire company of US Marines... where it turns out that 'being really strong' and 'having a big melee weapon' doesn't quite compare to dozens of highly trained and coordinated soldiers opening fire from long range with assault rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns, and grenades. Not realistic
- Reality hits players in a surprising way in PAYDAY 2: just because you can replace the red dot on a powered optic with a hand Flipping the Bird doesn't mean you should. The regular dots and crosshairs for a sight may be boring, but at least they actually show you where the bullet will hit. Likewise, you can select the color your sight's crosshair displays in, but you're going to be hindering your ability to shoot accurately with it if you don't pick a color that will stand out regardless of what you're looking at with it - there's a reason many crosshairs in older shooters default to a bright green or red. Another way that players get a dose of reality is with the Laser Sight. It is possible to pick a hard to see color, and this is as bad an idea as it sounds. And do not ever use a red laser. Ignoring for a minute that enemy snipers use lasers even when they shouldn't, they use red lasers and players tend to see snipers as Demonic Spiders, so it's a toss up between your teammates wasting time every time to look for the sniper and see you over and over or ignore a real sniper, Crying Wolf style. And then some players will Troll teammates by randomly playing cloaker sounds over voice chat, which can end up with similar results. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay. The last few parts are real life player reactions.
- The events of Varnhold's Lot in Pathfinder: Kingmaker shows what happens when a group of mercenaries with little experience outside of adventuring is put in charge of a burgeoning barony: the three at the top (Varn, Cephal Lorentus and the General) are constantly arguing on which the best course of action is, kingdom officers are nominated out of Varn's preference rather than any pragmatic reason, Maegar Varn attempts to stay neutral to both the main game's Baron and his Aldori sponsors, and adamantly refuses to inconvenience the common people for any long-term gain, instead of relying on his own penny-pinching abilities to keep the economy afloat. Their ineptitude results in Varnhold never expanding past the borders of its first settlement, constantly having to play a perilous balancing act with both the locals and foreign powers, and nobody (except the Baron) coming to their rescue when they do eventually get in trouble, since they haven't managed to develop themselves into enough of an asset to make saving them worthwhile. Character reactions
- Even if he hands over the entire barony to your Baron in the main game after rescuing him, his charisma and reputation still lead many in Varnhold to see him as a better ruler, leading to more than one verbal (and possibly physical) scrap with a separatist cell developing in Varnhold. Just having the previous ruler vouch for you doesn't mean everyone will immediately accept the change in power. Character reactions
- Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Played for laughs in one optional interaction in the Wintersun area. If Daeran is in the active party and is in a Romance Sidequest with the Player Character, he'll suggest to them they fulfill one of his sexual fantasies by making love under a waterfall. The PC can choose to shove him into the pool, whereupon he emerges dripping wet and complaining that those romance novel authors should be flogged because that water was way colder than he expected—being water from a mountain stream in winter. Sounds valid, since there's a clear Expected Unrealistic Outcome, and an objective reason why that outcome can't happen.
- Desert Bus from Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is Surprisingly Realistic Outcome incarnate, made as a response to the violent video game controversy and meant to be the most realistic video game ever made. The entire game is about driving a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas. For eight hours. Of real-time. There's no pausing the game ("Does real life have pause control?"), and you can't just hold down the gas button with something while you do something else because the bus constantly veers to the right, and if you crash, you have to get towed back to Tucson. Also in real time. Not surprising or an outcome. It's just the entire game being "realistic".
- And when you finally get to Las Vegas? You turn around and start driving to Tucson. You're driving a bus route, you've got a job to do! Same
- Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners: While taking an old ship across the underground river, it starts sinking due to the amount of weight and stress the group is putting on it. In hopes of lightening the load, Ayuto pushes a mummy off the boat, only for Professor Tsuchida to inform him that mummies weigh practically nothing due to being hollowed out, meaning this made no real difference at all. Not an outcome
- In Phantasy Star Online 2, ARKS is incredibly messed up because of this trope:
- There Are No Therapists despite the fact that the organization is constantly on the front lines fighting Eldritch Abominations throughout the universe. ARKS prioritizes grabbing people from all walks of life because they have the photonic aptitude... without making sure they have the necessary emotional aptitude means you're going to have people out there not fit to be on the battlegrounds dealing with the horrors of war. Luther uses this to his advantage, turning Theodor into an Unwitting Pawn when his best friend Uklu is killed in action. Character reactions
- Because ARKS was built by the Photoners and Xion, this allows the madman Luther to take control behind the scenes with no one able to do anything until it's too late. This nearly gets the Player Character killed when Luther falsifies information to the Council of Six and allows the Code ABYSS order to go off to take you down. This rattles public confidence in the organization. Plot happens.
- With the Falspawn, Luther, and everything else showing up, ARKS just practically falls apart as the Council of Six is very hands off with everything yet have tight laws on certain things "for morale purposes". Even more, most operatives don't talk to each other well, if at all. Thus, things that could be solved easily aren't because no one's speaking up until it's far too late. This leads to the events of EPISODE THREE and Xiao and Uklu rebuilding ARKS from the ground up to end such a thing. Plot happens again.
- Pikmin 3: The main plot involves the captains from the planet Koppai coming to the Pikmin planet in search of food. It's mentioned in conversations that the Koppaites' brains are wired such they genuinely can't tell when they're full so they overeat, and that, plus a lack of planning of the consequences of those habits, has caused an apocalyptic food shortage. Each of the game's endings gets more optimistic the closer you are to having all fruits, but even in the 100% ending the narrator makes a note that, while their success will bring their world back from the brink, they need to plan for the future, otherwise they'll have to go through the whole song and dance again in a few decades — and this time there might not be another PNF-404 to save them. Not realistic
- A Plague Tale: Innocence: Killing Vitalis is a big one for the protagonists. Yes, Vitalis was a corrupt sadistic power-hungry monster who no one in the audience would miss, especially since he was excommunicated. The townsfolk don't immediately run off or try to capture Hugo and Amicia and may or may not know much about the witch-boy with rat-powers who killed a psychotic witch-tyrant with worse rat-powers and saved them. But regardless of whether or not he was evil, the fact the protagonists killed such a high figure in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church means that the Church will never stop hunting them and the local townsfolk do know the two are wanted, and so they have to leave the region. This was deemed valid in a previous post.
- Planescape: Torment: The game starts with the protagonist Waking Up at the Morgue where attendants and workers are buzzing about the building. So what is the best way to get out without raising the alarm? Stop one of them and politely ask where the exit is, of course. This is just a normal example of Mundane Solution (which is potholed in the example)
- Police Quest: Most of these are unsure, since the point of this series is to punish the player for being a Cowboy Cop, which might mean these outcomes (which count as outcomes rather than Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay, since it's an adventure game and they are scripted events) might not count as surprising, even if they are realistic.
- As police lieutenant Sonny Bonds, you have to follow police procedure by the book to avoid the myriad ways you can get a game over. While some decisions are obvious (such as not shooting someone who has a gun drawn at you), some are not. Shoot someone who only might be reaching for a gun in his glove box? Turns out he was an unarmed FBI agent, and you're fired. Forget to frisk the raving lunatic? He'll draw a knife and kill you. Need to open a door with a battering ram? You have to get permission from a judge to use it first. See above
- There are also non-fatal ways this shows up, too. In the third Police Quest, you can miss points if you fail to follow proper procedure when writing someone up for a ticket. You can also question witnesses, some of whom lie or are uncooperative with the cops. Many of them aren't even hiding anything, and have no real reason to lie; they just don't want to talk to the cops, simple as that. The second one here is a character reaction
- Police Quest II ends with a shoot-out in which Sonny shoots a suspect; as a result, the suspect dies. Sonny is immediately put on administrative leave for three days as the Internal Affairs division of the Lynton Police Department reviews if his actions were justifiable homicide. Thankfully it's deemed to be so, and they award Sonny by giving him a two week vacation with pay for taking down the bad guys... unless Sonny pulled the trigger first in the shootout. In that case, his actions were not in self-defense, and Sonny instead gets arrested for murder.
- Police Quest III has Sonny notice that his wife isn't getting proper medical care on one of the machines in the hospital. Rather than fiddle with the dials himself, like many an adventure game would expect you to do, the correct solution is to bring it to the attention of the hospital staff who know how the machines work, and let them fix it.
- SWAT 1 has internal affairs coming in anytime you have to use a firearm, even if the mission was a success. This is done to review if the shot you took was justified. Accordingly, justified shots have you reinstated and commended, while unjustified shots get you arrested, ending the game. This one is just Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
- Using a flashbang on an elderly woman with a bad heart has her die immediately. There's a reason flashbangs and the like are emphatically less-lethal weapons and not "non-lethal" ones - because there simply is no such thing as a non-lethal weapon. Not sure
- SWAT 2 would suspend an officer for shooting a suspect as well, even if it was justified. See the SWAT 1 example
- When playing the terrorist campaign in SWAT 2, any terrorists who are severely wounded during a mission will be labeled "maimed", and cannot participate in any further missions. It's not like they can just go to a hospital, after all. Another general game mechanic.
- In the backstory of Portal 2, Cave Johnson is the Crazy Is Cool Pointy-Haired Boss of Aperture Science, who has no qualms whatsoever about working with hazardous experimental substances, blatantly ignores the advice of his scientists because Screw the Rules, I Have Money!, and wildly misapplies potentially revolutionary scientific breakthroughs because he doesn't realize what they could do (e.g. the portal gun was somehow developed as part of a project to make shower curtains). Unfortunately, it's not a cartoon, and these practices have the same result they would in real life, i.e., he dies slowly and agonizingly from exposure to dangerous chemicals while his company collapses into financial ruin. Most of Cave Johnson's inventions are not realistic, so there can't be any realistic consequences to being exposed to them. And the whole game is spent going through the ruins of Aperture Science, so it's a Foregone Conclusion that Cave Johnson's actions will end badly.
- Chell's boots are what happens when people apply this to a game during design. During testing of the first Portal, the playtesters refused to accept that a human being could survive the falls Chell has to survive on a regular basis, some pointing out that Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of Valve's earlier Half-Life series, would be pasted by the kinds of falls Chell has no problem surviving. The developers applied a Hand Wave by giving her boots that are described as diffusing the shock of landing and ensuring she lands on her feet. This restored the playtesters' suspension of disbelief. This is a real life player reaction, and also a justification for an unrealistic outcome.
- It turns out that moon dust actually can be dangerous. Who knew? note IIRC, the moon dust in the game is made into Conversion Gel, which isn't a real substance, so you can't prove making Conversion Gel won't nullify the moon dust's harmful properties. Even if it's not, as mentioned above, it's a Foregone Conclusion that Cave's obsession with moon dust will have bad consequences, so it's not surprising.
- One of the pre-recorded messages from an alternate Cave Johnson in the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC is Prison Warden!Cave telling his test prisoners why the Air-Vent Passageway trope is dumb: ventilation shafts are not a secret escape tunnel, they're how the Prison Ship is ventilated. You try to escape that way, you're most likely just going to end up in the air conditioning unit. And since it's also pretty dusty up there, you have a good chance of dying, especially if you're asthmatic. In short, just don't try it. Not an outcome
- Also, Prison Warden!Cave installed a Force-Field Door on all of his prison cells instead of metal bars. Then the power goes out, and all the prisoners get loose. Force fields are not realistic.
Warden!Cave: Man, those blue force fields looked good, though. Every time I saw one, I thought, "Wow! I am in space." Still, though... A door made out of paper would have been better in the long run. Would have at least slowed 'em down for a second.
- Also, Prison Warden!Cave installed a Force-Field Door on all of his prison cells instead of metal bars. Then the power goes out, and all the prisoners get loose. Force fields are not realistic.
- Princess Maker: Two of the contestants in the Martial Arts Tournament fight in the nude, which means they lack defensive parameters and tend to take lots of damage. Not an outcome.
Edited by Someoneman on Mar 12th 2023 at 6:23:51 AM
#1969: Mar 8th 2023 at 3:23:54 PM
And here are the last for the fanfics.
- Operation: B.U.T.T.E.R.F.L.Y.:
- The KND Arctic Base has bad food, because kids, by and large, don't know how to cook much more than instant meals. Plot happens
- The Arctic Base also has training robots to help teach kids to fight adults, but Numbuh 9 flat out states that learning to fight from a real adult who's sympathetic to the cause would be better. Not an outcome
- The Fake Teen Ninjas freak out once it's pointed out that stealing all the games in the city would mean that video game companies can't survive, since they need money. Character reaction
- Revelation (Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel):
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Moxxie and Octavia end up stealing some jackets to cover their heads and disguise themselves in order to get Octavia to a hospital to treat her bullet wound. While they somehow manage to get out of the hospital without being exposed, it ultimately doesn't keep them from getting found out when they enter a bar for some water later. Valid
- Both Octavia and Moxxie are shot in the leg at different points in the story, and their injuries avert Just a Flesh Wound. Via's wound is severe enough that she would've bled out or died of an infection had Moxxie not managed to get her to a hospital for treatment (in disguise, of course), and Moxxie doesn't get an opportunity to get professional medical treatment for his, which means that it's constantly at risk of reopening... And this does happen once Alastor captures and tortures the pair. Their injuries also make it difficult for them to move around properly. Valid
- Ultimately, Moxxie does not come out of the story mentally unscathed despite being an assassin by trade; The final chapter firmly establishes him as a Shell-Shocked Veteran who doubts that he'll ever be able to work as an assassin again since even the sound of a screaming crowd at a sports stadium is enough to trigger his PTSD. Character has truama
- Shadows Over Hell: While the body armor I.M.P. wear during their attack on the cult does save their lives on multiple occasions, the blunt trauma by feel from the impact of the bullets, leaves their bodies battered and bruised. Valid
- Some Things Never Change:
- Despite being a highly successful career woman and scientist who's also achieved her dreams, Sandy admits that her daredevil tendencies have completely burned out her body, making her unable to enjoy her old hobbies as much as she used to anymore. Deconstruction
- Team Prime's Lovable Blue Idiot: Just because the Blood Gulch crew have experience in driving the vehicles that make up their alt-forms doesn't mean that they are Instant Experts at controlling their alt-modes as Transformers, which proves to be the case when they test out their vehicle forms at a nearby military base. Too implausible
- The Blood of the Covenant: When Aang takes his new friends to the Southern Air Temple, Kallik faints due to the altitude. Aang is horrified and quickly explains that the monks used to warn him about bringing visitors, as the thinner air can make some people sick. While Katara and Sokka are fine, Kallik (being a firebender) passes out due to the lower oxygen. First part valid
- The Gray Jedi Series:
- Improbable Falling Save: Subverted. When Zari falls out of the Vindicator, then uses the Force to launch herself back up, she falls short, and Des tries to catch her, only to be pulled down with her. Lampshaded by Samala. Valid
Samala: Did you forget how physics works?
- Having sex up against a tree comes with a very real risk of splinters. Not surprising
- Improbable Falling Save: Subverted. When Zari falls out of the Vindicator, then uses the Force to launch herself back up, she falls short, and Des tries to catch her, only to be pulled down with her. Lampshaded by Samala. Valid
- The Heart Trilogy:
- When Kathryn decides to return to the Lonely Mountain, she tries to sell her property and animals and set out immediately afterwards. Much to her frustration, Bree's magistrate insists on weighing the value of everything she has at their own pace instead of just buying everything at the lowest price, and it also takes time to find a farmer who'd buy her animals since all the farmers are busy due to the nearing harvest season. Add in the equation a huge storm, and Kathryn is able to begin her journey after being delayed by an entire week. Plot happens
- In the 9th chapter, "Cail Agonn" gives King Wilhelm an increasingly threatening "The Reason You Suck" Speech in front of his court. The king is initially intimidated along with everyone else, but then he refuses to take anymore of it and orders a guard to cut out Smaug's tongue. Fortunately Queen Lalemwen refuses to allow blood to be shed in her father's throne room and orders Smaug to be thrown in a dungeon insteadnote , but insulting royalty - especially one as self-absorbed as Wilhelm - in their face is likely to end badly. Character reaction
#1970: Mar 8th 2023 at 3:29:56 PM
Second Revelation bullet probably isn't surprising for whoever got shot second.
#1971: Mar 8th 2023 at 4:00:12 PM
How's this then: The end of chapter 6 has Octavia in the leg while escaping the Guard and her injury averts Just a Flesh Wound. Her wound is severe enough that she would've bled out or died of an infection had Moxxie not managed to get her to a hospital for treatment.
Edited by CelestialDraco on Mar 8th 2023 at 6:12:06 AM
Noaqiyeum
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
from the gentle and welcoming dark
(Time Abyss)
Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
#1972: Mar 8th 2023 at 8:10:05 PM
IIRC, the moon dust in the game is made into Conversion Gel, which isn't a real substance, so you can't prove making Conversion Gel won't nullify the moon dust's harmful properties.
Cave's sickness is from breathing the raw moon dust. (It's an ironic callback to his glib dismissal of asbestosis in a previous recording, as breathing moon dust and asbestos have similar symptoms.)
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
#1973: Mar 9th 2023 at 11:32:16 AM
- Fire & Blood:
- Argilac the Arrogant's daughter swears after her father dies that she and her troops will fight Aegon to the last man. Her troops very quickly decide they'd much rather live, and turn on her. Character reaction
- Aegon the Conqueror's death comes quite suddenly, not due to a battle, assassin or plot, but just from a stroke out of nowhere. Badass warrior king or not, he's still human. Surprisingly Sudden Death
- Criston Cole and Rhaenyra used to have a mutual crush on one another until something happens that turns them against each other. Afterward, Cole backs Aegon's claim to the throne. Instead of a thematically appropriate confrontation to settle things, neither Criston or Rhaenyra come anywhere near one another during the Dance. Character reaction
- Criston Cole, facing an enemy army with superior numbers, demands a trial by combat with the enemy commanders, no doubt intending to go down in an act of heroic valor. He's instead told he can shove it, and is promptly and fatally riddled with arrows. The thing about demanding stuff when outnumbered by people who hate you is they don't have to actually acquiesce to your demands. Character reaction
- During The Dance of the Dragons, the Blacks find themselves with more dragons than dragonriders, and so offer rich rewards to anyone who can claim one of them. Which means handing control over some of the most powerful and effective weapons in the world to random citizens who have no special reason to be loyal to their faction. Unsurprisingly, some of these new riders turn against the Blacks (and the Greens can't really control them either). Too fantastical and character reaction
- The dragonseeds known as the Two Betrayers, Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White, defected from the Blacks to the Greens...and promptly make so many enemies with their obnoxious behavior and outrageous demands for their continuing support that the normally squabbling Green lords unilaterally agree to assassinate the pair. Character reaction
- Bold Jon Roxton was able to kill Hugh Hammer, cutting the traitorous dragonrider in half with his Valyrian steel sword...and then is promptly swarmed and slaughtered by Hugh's vengeful supporters. Surprisingly Sudden Death
- The Green commanders from the Reach spend so long prevaricating over their best course of action after the sack of Tumbleton, the Blacks use that time to muster a new army and launch a surprise attack that knocks the Reach forces out of the war. Plot happens
- After finally killing Rhaenyra and retaking the Iron Throne, Aegon ignores his advisors urging him to be magnanimous for the sake of peace, doles out heavy fines on Rhaenyra's supporters in the Crownlands, then imperiously commands her loyalists in the North, Riverlands and Vale to stand down and face the same. Unsurprisingly, those loyalists (whose armies vastly outnumber Aegon's) decide they'd rather keep fighting than accept those terms, and continue the war with the aim of putting Rhaenyra's son on the throne instead. Character reaction
- When Aegon II's forces have been all but completely destroyed, he calls on the Houses that are ostensibly his allies to send their armies to aid him... but they are very reluctant to even reply, as they are both sick of the war and dealing with their own problems, and as Corlys Velaryon points out, even if they do send aid, it would take far too long for their troops to actually arrive and fight their enemies that are now practically on their doorsteps. So instead, the Greens hastily put together an army out of what men they have left and bolster them with men sent as tributes from houses that have no reason to actually want them to win and conscripts from King's Landing... both of who either desert as the battle turns in the Blacks' favour or outright turn on the Greens' loyal forces. Plot happens
- After his last remaining army is destroyed and King's Landing about to be assaulted by Rhaenyra's vengeful loyalists, Aegon II flatly refuses to surrender, and orders that his nephew, Rhaenyra's son Aegon, is to be mutilated to force the Blacks to stand down. Rather than die fighting for a lost cause, several of his courtiers decide enough is enough, arrange Aegon's assassination and the murder or arrest of his remaining supporters at court, then promptly proclaim the boy King Aegon III and surrender the city before the Riverlords can lay siege to King's Landing. Character reaction
- Cregan Stark sentences multiple men to beheading for their involvement in the assasination of Aegon II — but instead of a dramatic mass execution at dawn, Perkin the Flea gets out of dying by asking to join the Night's Watch, and when they see there's an option other than death all but two of the other prisoners follow his example. Plot happens
- Unwin Peake, furious that his attempts to get Aegon III to marry his daughter Myrielle have failed, the boy has chosen Daenaera Velaryon (the cousin of his hated rival Alyn Velaryon) as his new bride, and the other regents have halted his attempts to stop the marriage, threatens to resign as Hand of the King to get them to fall in line. To nobody's surprise but his own, his fellow regents gladly accept his resignation, since they all hate his guts and are happy to see the back of him. Character reaction
- Amaury Peake doesn't wear a closed helmet when coming to "arrest" Prince Viserys and his wife. Her personal bodyguard Sandoq, and an axe he happens to have to hand, demonstrates why this was a bad idea. Valid
RighteousFury
Since: Nov, 2012
#1974: Mar 10th 2023 at 11:08:36 AM
[quote]Total Drama Voyage: As Team Heather learn the hard way in "Food Disservice," the cooking skills Mike's picked up from Manitoba may be good for wilderness survival, but doesn't translate well to refined restaurant dining. Not surprising. Is it really surprisingly that survivalist cooking doesn't make you good at culinary cooking?[/quote]
I don't think your explanation for why this doesn't count is valid. Yes, it isn't surprising that being good at survivalist cooking doesn't make you good at culinary cooking- in real life. In fiction, on the other hand, there's usually no distinguishment between the two, which is where the surprising part comes in. You're confusing the "realistic" part of the trope with the "surprising" part.
Edited by RighteousFury on Mar 10th 2023 at 11:12:17 AM
#1975: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:21:14 PM
OK, that seems like a fair assessment. Does anyone else have anything to say on that point?
Total posts: 2,437
1st one doesn't explain what's surprising. The others are character reactions. Delete them all.