Reality Ensues/Surprisingly Realistic Outcome cleanup

Consensus? Not too confident about a few of my judgments.

• Abyss: Not sure if it's valid. I'd classify it as "Not an Outcome" since it's just people explaining what the realistic outcome is.
• Apama: The part about Apama/Ilya hurting his hand might count due to the Invulnerable Knuckles trope, but the part about Jesse should be removed since it sounds like it involves unrealistic powers.

This has been added to Recap.RWBYV 9 E 8 Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble.

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Still rattled by the events of last episode, Yang wonders why Ruby didn't come to them with her problems. Weiss points out that she thought she couldn't, which is entirely true. Even if they have a well-meaning support system, many people usually have trouble expressing their doubts and problems. As shown in this chapter, even if Ruby had expressed her problems, it's highly unlikely that they would have been able to help her in any meaningful way.

The entry has taken a very tiny part of a larger storyline to create a "realism" entry. As a result, it's a cherry-picking. It's also speculative. It's arguing that the companions would never be able to help even if they did intervene because "realism". However, what the entry doesn't say is that the friends did notice Ruby's mood at different points and start to intervene/probe, but something would always interrupt before they could get very far. In this chapter, they arrive too late to help Ruby against the Despair Gambit villains, therefore don't know what happened and are stunned by what little they do see. So, the real situation is that her friends couldn't intervene because the plot actively stopped them from doing so. We therefore have no idea how helpful they could have been had the plot permitted intervention.

In terms of "surprising" and "outcome", this is the storyline the entry is a part of:

• Ruby's been heading for a breakdown for several volumes, and the fandom has been anticipating it for years. It happens in this volume after a lot of traumatic shocks in previous volumes due to Ruby being in an Empathic Environment that reveals her moods, and two villains targeting her with Despair Gambit plots for two different, competing reasons. Villain 2 temporarily fails because Villain 1 succeeds, but eventually succeeds by exploiting Villain 1's success to switch targets from Ruby to Villain 1. The storyline's "surprise" is the setting in which the break down occurs and Villain 2 being a villain, not Ruby being broken by Villain 1.
• "Outcome" may be an issue as the storyline is still unfolding and has rebirth elements to it. At this point in the storyline, the question is what the actual fate of both Ruby and Villain 1 will end up being. What role the companions in the entry end up playing is something we don't know.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Apr 11th 2023 at 11:06:23 AM

Found this in Characters.My Hero Academia All For One. Are the entries correct? Or are they all "plot happens"?

• Isekaid to a JRPG as a Harem Member:
  • People are going to notice if you have a knack of noticing patterns that turn out to be right as well as being able often to come to the right conclusion when it comes to uncovering other people's motives and plots. Such as predicting when a powerful monster is in the area or when a battle is going to escalate. Several characters such as Lector and Campanella show interest in Jessica as a result, especially when the latter reveals that Jessica's tendency to come to the right conclusion is a result of her being immune to Aidios' Divergent Laws, therefore making her a person of interest to multiple parties. Character reaction

• Pride Lands Generations:
  • Cub Cues Protective Parent: Played with. Danger to cubs does result in protection arriving several times (Mfalme and Malkia right in the opening chapter, when Damu threatens Dhahabu, and Tembo when Kuchinja attempts to kidnap Mahiri's cubs). In the elephant graveyard, Dhahabu tries to invoke the trope if the hyenas harm him and his siblings, but Mwizi correctly surmises that no one knows the cubs are there. Despite this, Mfalme does show up again (drawn by the vultures and the cubs' cries, rather than Zazu as Mufasa was), but while he ends up killing one of the hyenas for their actions, he is not able to get there in time to save Sulubu. Valid

• Jack Orlando: Turns out, holding the commander of a military base at gun point on the base, in his office, in broad daylight, is a bad idea, as the Colonel and Jack end up being saved when the guards he called for show up. Valid
• Janes USAF: Being a flight simulator, certain abnormal flying conditions are realistically represented. Such as
  • Think you can level off at any altitude, leave the controls alone and expect to fly straight and level till eternity? Not!! Your airplane will eventually run out of fuel, lose engine power, stall out and crash. But long before that, your airplane will be subjected to pitch oscillations which might cause you to crash or stall out. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Go ahead!! Fly your aircraft up to its max service ceiling then try to climb just a bit higher! Now enjoy the stall and downward spiral before you crash. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Yeeeessss!! Go ahead and load one wing more than the other wing by making it carry heavier bombs. Now see if you can maintain control of your aircraft!! Happens too frequently
  • Go right ahead and disobey those orders prohibiting you from entering a Demilitarized Zone in the Vietnam mission "The DMZ Deception". Congratulations You Are Grounded!. Unsure
  • Go on, load your planes up with AMRAAM or AIM-9X missiles and waste them shooting down enemy fighters. You'll never ever run out of them, right? Wrong!! You may have to settle for the less effective AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. Use them all up too, and your final mission may have to be done with only your gun. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Let your wingmen or your Buick and Corvette flights get shot down. You'll always be given the required complement of wingmen right? Not!! Lose too many wingmen, and you'll have to fly further missions without them. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
• Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast:
  • When Fyyar finally shows up to defend the Doomgiver's shield generator, he believes Talking Is a Free Action and spends several seconds gloating about how his and Desann's plan will spell the end for the Jedi. Kyle proves him wrong when he interrupts the speech partway by simply tossing his lightsaber to destroy the shield generator. Valid
  • In the end, Desann's assault on the Academy fails to do long-lasting damage, as while he brought hundreds of artificially-empowered Force Users (Reborn and Shadow Troopers), those were just average mooks who got Force Powers and lightsaber skills through an external power with little training - they only had two actually trained individuals, one of whom has long since fled by the time the assault happens - while Luke's disciples were full-fledged Jedi who have been trained in the proper use of the Force for months and even years, which allowed them to defeat the more brutish Reborn, who at best had more advanced technology like the limited-issue Shadow Trooper armor and a heap of stormtroopers in support to try to even the field. Too fantastical
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: Following off from the ending of Outcast: in an issue nicely mirroring similar ones with the Imperial Remnant itself, the Reborn didn't just go away and stop being a problem after their leaders were killed or scattered. There's still a lot of them, and they still have someone to rally around - namely, Tavion, who slipped away on Bespin - who herself has a reason to hold a grudge and continue the work Desann and Fyyar started. Just two years later, more problems are being caused by a "new" cult, and while the rank and file have the same problem of no time or training to adjust to their new powers, the Reborn that survived the initial assault on the Jedi Academy have had two years to grow stronger and become the elite among the new cult. Valid
• Joe Dever's Lone Wolf: In combat, you may end up crossing blades with your enemies in a mutual attack, requiring you to win the struggle to break through their posture and deal a decisive blow. Gourgaz though are so much bigger (and stronger) than Lone Wolf that the weapon clash ends immediately with Lone Wolf pinned by the monster's massive polearm, having to struggle to dodge the bites and break free. Happens too frequently
• Judgment:
  • The entire Matsugane Family Break-in during Chapter 3 plays with this. On one hand, as Ayabe points out, it'd be unwise for Kaito to try his luck with someone who's holding a gun to their head. On the other, however, had Higashi not been there to witness Red Nose robbing Kaito at gunpoint, it's likely that Kaito would've just knocked the bum on his ass for his troubles. Not an outcome
  • In the final chapter, Yagami cross-examines Ichinose about how he created the Medical Institute and thus the ADDC as a place for senior executives to retire to, even getting the Vice Minister position for his move. However, he points out a glaring flaw: because these men and women are not actually doing anything innovative, most of them are just a waste of taxpayer's money. The Institute was even in the process of being shut down when AD-9 was announced. Not an outcome
• Jump Force: Despite the general premise, some of this does pop up, mainly in terms of the few select abilities your custom character can not learn. For example, custom characters cannot learn anything from Jotaro as all of his moves use Star Platinum. Happens too frequently
• JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain: Polly had this happen to her in the backstory, to her shock. She explains that she was taking a big history test, where she knew all the answers. Ms. Winkle knew that Polly would ace the test if we believe Polly. Polly, because she was bored, made up joke answers to make the teacher laugh, including the extra credit question. Even though Ms. Winkle does find some of them funny, she had to mark the entire exam as incorrect and give Polly a "big fat" 0. Sure you can be funny on your exams, but don't forget you're working for a grade and the teacher has to do his or her job. While Professor Sparks and Ms. Winkle agree to retest Polly, they make sure it challenges her this time — with all the questions and answers being in Latin, a subject she hates. Not surprising

The All for One examples sound like they're just explaining why it's "realistic" that he was defeated (realistic by in-universe standards, not strictly real-life), but not why it's surprising. He's the villain, so having weaknesses that can be used to find a way to defeat him is the expected outcome.

Found this in Literature.Darth Bane. Do they qualify? Or are they not surprising?

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • During the ten-year Time Skip in "Rule of Two", Johun was assigned to Chancellor Valorum, and he spent more time learning politics than practicing with his lightsaber and Force abilities. As a result, when he and the other Jedi face off against Bane and Zannah in the climax, Johun himself is the weakest fighter in the room.
  • Bane nearly abandons the Rule of Two in Dynasty of Evil because of the very Chronic Backstabbing Disorder it was meant to restrain: he fears that Zannah plans to let him die of old age and dark side corruption rather than kill him the way he planned it, and worries that with his body breaking down he doesn't have time to train a replacement, and so he researches a Sith sorcery ritual to pull a Grand Theft Me on her. Would you have expected personal trust from a cult fundamentally built on selfishness and the weaponization of negative emotions?

Any feedback on my RWBY question above?

I also came across this. It's from The Mallorean and refers to Cyradis having to decide the fate of the universe when the two Prophecies finally come together for the final meeting between the Child of Light and Child of Dark. It seems a bit too mystical an example to me.

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: She has been trained since infancy in preparation of the CHOICE, and when the CHOICE actually comes, she has a panic-induced breakdown from the sheer pressure of having to decide the fate of the universe.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Apr 12th 2023 at 1:53:18 PM

Most of those RWBY examples look like character reactions. Delete them.

• RWBY: That doesn't sound like an outcome, since it's just a character in-universe explaining why a character's actions were realistic/justified after the fact.
• Darth Bane: both examples sound like Justified Trope. They explain why some events are realistic, but they're realistic by in-universe standards, not real life, and don't mention any expected unrealistic outcomes. If that was enough to count as SRO, literally anything that isn't a Non Sequitur, Plot Hole, or Big-Lipped Alligator Moment would count as SRO.
• The Mallorean: Standard character reaction example. And having to decide the fate of the entire universe isn't something people do in real life.

The Mandalorian S3E7 "Chapter 23: The Spies"

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The beskar-armored Dark Troopers are a match for any non-beskar wearing Mandalorians at range, but in close, several fall victim to some of the Mandalorians onboard weaponry.

Is it fantastical?

Beskar armor doesn't exist, so yes. It also doesn't explain why it's surprising.

Any opinions on mine?

• The Owl House:
  • The Owl House S3E2 "For the Future":
    • Even after the brief pep-talk from the rest of the Hexsquad and Camila joining the quest to save Eda and King, Luz is still set on permanently remaining in the Human Realm after the adventure is done. Given her outlook on life in the last episode, just one reassuring conversation with her friends and loved ones that they don't blame her for Belos' evil is not enough to convince Luz that she still shouldn't be punished for her incidental role in his plans. Character reaction
    • Camila may be accepting of Luz's desire to stay in the Demon Realm after bonding with the Hexsquad and recognizing how much her daughter loves the place, but that doesn't mean she's going to instantly acclimate to it herself. She freaks out at the sight of the giant Titan skull, and has to force herself to say that she loves the idea of her daughter spending months living on a giant carcass, freaks out and nearly attacks some squishy fleshy eyes she mistook as solid ground, and shows visible disquiet that a rat carcass she finds in the Owl House's fridge counts as 'spoiled food'. Character reaction
      • Camila also freaks out when the Hexsquad flies into town on their Palisman staffs, much like Luz did the first time Eda took her for a flight, noting that their thin wooden frames should come with seatbelts or something. Character reaction
    • Acting like an Abusive Parent all the time will mean that you have no other skills to try and rein in a child with the ability to actually defy said abuse (in this case, reality-warping powers), as Odalia learns the hard way. Plot happens
    • Even the most emotionally-together members of a friend group, who act as The Reliable One to others, are not unfazed by horrible things happening, especially to all their loved ones, and have their own emotional needs. Trying to suppress them forever so you can stay strong for your friends instead of addressing these feelings will eventually take a toll and cause you to break down at the worst time once you're overwhelmed by stress (which is especially true for children). This is exactly what happens to Willow in this episode, and she completely loses control over her plants as a result, which traps Gus and Hunter and subsequently makes her even more upset, until she herself starts to be overwhelmed by her powers, until Hunter rescues her and both boys remind her that it's okay for her to be scared and sad, too, and she can rely on them as well. Character reaction

  • The Owl House S3E3 "Watching and Dreaming":
    • The Collector's attempt to redeem Belos with kindness and forgiveness is a sweet effort on his part, but it ends in a spectacular failure, much to the Collector's surprise. Unlike the Collector who has a child-like mind and easily opens up about his insecurities for everyone to understand him, Belos' immature mind is reinforced by deflecting rationalization and he never opens up about his insecurities regarding Caleb, making it practically impossible to reason with him. Character reaction
    • In the climax, Amity discovers that her magic is on the fritz, which Camila theorizes is a result of none of the kids having time to rest after the back-to-back events of the last three episodes. Too fantastical
    • Bereft of the Titan's heart, Belos' last gambit to avoid his fate is reassuming his humanoid form of 'Philip' and trying to claim that his actions were all due to being cursed with Dark Magic. It falls completely flat and nobody even bothers to dignify it with a response. Having burned his bridges so utterly and repeatedly showcased how he's Beyond Redemption, nobody is willing to extend Belos any goodwill after he's done nothing but harm and manipulate others for his own gain for centuries, even exulting in his victories against them in extremely petty ways that highlight how vile he was underneath his claims. Character reaction
    • Despite all the hints, the heroes never find out about Caleb and Evelyn and how exactly events went down between the brothers centuries ago. Belos persistently refuses to speak about the subject and constantly obfuscates the truth even inside his own head, and everybody else who might have been able to give an unbiased recounting, such as Flapjack, is now dead. The Titan himself, the only other being who might have been able to explain events, declines to do so, all but admitting to Luz that the truth wouldn't help anybody, as Belos is simply too far gone for knowing his past to make a difference. Plot happens

RDR examples. Lots of unsures here.

• Red Dead Redemption:
  • No matter how much of a badass you are, taking on the army in a standup fight won't end well. And that's how John Marston dies, when Edgar Ross decides that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness. Not sure. Needs more context to explain why we'd assume he'd win.
  • The game's epilogue. So you faced your father's killer and killed him in a duel? Hooray! After all these years, you finally got your revenge! Too bad your father is still dead and remembered as a brutal criminal even if he was a good guy, and no one but you knows what Ross did so he goes down as a retired cop who was brutally gunned down while fishing. Oh, and also too bad that the days of the old west and vigilante justice have come and gone so you'll spend the rest of your life as a depressed loner on the run from the authorities. What? You thought you could get revenge and everything would be awesome? Nah, what do you think this is? An old western movie? The example does imply there's an Expected Unrealistic Outcome, but this just sounds like a straightforward Downer Ending.
  • The plot with Bill Williamson could be considered this. Bill has since left John for dead twice and frequently insulted John whenever they crossed paths. It's no wonder Bill ran as much as he could, considering John's One-Man Army status and the number of bodies John has killed to get to him. As a bonus, Allende sells Bill out the second they are both in trouble and caught by John. Probably just Plot Happening. It doesn't explain what's the surprising outcome here.
  • John's reunion with his family. It's not the standard teary hugs and love declarations. Abigail's initial reaction is to yell and hit John for being away for so long and then discuss what will happen to them now as the government knows where they live and all their cattle are gone. Also when Jack appears, John gives him a somewhat awkward hug, hinting at their strained relationship. Character reaction
• Red Dead Redemption 2:
  • If Arthur is Covered in Gunge and/or hasn't bathed in a while, people will refuse to interact with him. Being covered in blood may result in people actually running away from him, possibly to the point that the local law enforcement acts hostile to him. And of course, walking around with a mask covering your face while openly armed isn't the best way to get people to talk to you. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • People you beat up have a chance of getting up and can either try to continue the fight or limp away. However, hit them with a gun in your hand, and they will stay down for good. After all, getting hit in the face with a fist hurts, but being hit in the head with a heavy metal object can potentially kill you. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Enemies that are set on fire are unable to be looted because anything of value they might be carrying would be charred and thus worthless. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay again
  • John can get away with a lot of carnage in the first game since he's basically a government-sanctioned hitman; Ross and the Bureau turn a blind eye to John's crimes as long as he stays useful. Here? He, Arthur, and the rest of Dutch's gang have no such luxury. Every time the gang pulls off a high-profile stunt (like the shootout in Valentine or the raid on the Braithwaites' house), they have to immediately move to a new place because the law isn't just going to wait until they strike again. Plot happens.
  • Although they may kill or escape from as many deputies, policemen, Pinkertons or bounty hunters as they want or are able to, the Van der Linde Gang is nevertheless still only a handful of struggling, nomadic criminals going up against the incredibly vast and established resources of the United States government. The outcome is never really in doubt; it's more a matter of when. Plot happens, the Foregone Conclusion pothole implies this is not a surprising outcome
    • Related to the above, killing the man financing the Pinkertons isn't going to stop them. Considering Leviticus Cornwall was extremely powerful and wealthy, the Federal government can't ignore such a high-profile murder, resulting in even more people being deployed to find the gang. Maybe? It sounds like a player could assume this would be a valid solution.
  • While the Grays and the Braithwaites hate each other, they aren't stupid enough to not realize that Dutch's gang is working both sides, especially since they had Arthur approach both sides and attacked one family immediately after attacking the other. Plot happens
  • Much like Devin Weston, Angelo Bronte believes his vast wealth means he can get people to do anything he wants; all he has to do is name the right price. Also similar to Weston, he finds out the hard way that having more money than God is worthless when offered to men who are devoted to ideals other than wealth. Wrong Genre Savvy, since it's the character, and not the audience, who is surprised
    • Beforehand, his men also discover that intimidating local businessmen and bribing or murdering the occasional policeman does not mean you're capable of going toe-to-toe with seasoned, skilled, and heavily-armed outlaws who have survived dozens of gunfights over the years. Wrong Genre Savvy again.
    • Finally, murdering a man as influential as Bronte by storming his mansion guns blazing is bound to bring the law down on one's head. When the gang's bank heist in Saint Denis goes sideways, John says that they should have left Bronte alone. Probably not surprising.
  • Just because you're a hardened badass who cheats death almost daily doesn't mean you're invincible; Arthur might be your archetypical gunslinging outlaw, but he's still only human. This is best exemplified when he's kidnapped by the O'Driscoll Boys and tortured by them; he's so busy watching the meeting between Dutch and Colm that he fails to notice one of Colm's men sneaking up on him until it's too late. And even though he escapes with his life, Arthur passes out from his injuries while riding back to camp and takes at least two weeks to fully recover. Probably just Plot. The Cutscene Incompetence trope means that a skilled player character getting hurt isn't that surprising if it's plot-relevant.
  • Relating to the above, since this game is a prequel to the first one and Arthur doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant Last Stand like John will eventually be? No. He's diagnosed with tuberculosis after contracting it from one of Strauss's debtors near the beginning of the game. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the medicine and technology to treat a disease like that simply doesn't exist yet. Unsure. Might be more of an Anti-Climax. For someone who gets into gunfights regularly, dying from being shot isn't an unrealistic outcome.
    • Similarly, traumatic brain injuries weren't widely understood or easily treated at the time. After a botched robbery results in a trolley crash where Dutch hits his head, he begins showing signs of a TBI, which goes untreated. This is implied to be one of several reasons for his rapid mental decline and erratic behavior. Sounds like it's just a Justified Trope for Sanity Slippage. It explains why it's realistic, but not why it's surprising.
  • In the epilogue, Dutch is implied to have finally realized Micah was the traitor and helps John, Sadie and Charles kill him. It may take time, but it turns out you can only fool someone so many times before they eventually catch on, especially if you run out of people to pin the blame on. Plot happens.
  • Molly O'Shea drunkenly confessed to being the one who ratted the gang out and everyone believed them as alcohol makes them less likely to lie, right? Wrong, as Molly's confession was just a drunken cry for attention and only ended up helping out the real traitor. Not sure. In Vino Veritas is the supposed "Expected Unrealistic Outcome" here, but it might count as a character reaction.

For the ones I can comment on:

• No matter how much of a badass you are...

• The game's epilogue...

• Relating to the above, since this game is a prequel...

I agree with everything else.

Do any of these sound valid?

• Grandmother's Farm 2: In the first movie, Khalid brings one of the girls he met at the gas station, Noora, back to Yassir's grandmother's farm while under the influence of the djinn. By the time of this movie, she still hasn't come back, and Khalid is dealing with her angry, worried mother about it. She tells him she plans to call the police. Character reaction
• In Muppets Most Wanted, Nadya arrests Kermit for escaping from the gulag (though it seems his arrest has more to do with leaving before the gulag revue ended). She only lets him go after Walter, Fozzie and Gonzo ask her to arrest them, too. Used as a gag on the blooper reel when Kermit then asks her how the hell she got through customs with a foreign army (apparently she had a small problem, but only because she was carrying fruit). Character reaction
• In Terminator Salvation, this trope was used as the justification for why John Connor is a low-level operative in the human resistance, rather than the leader like he was in the future segments of the first two films. Valid
  Joseph McGinty: You survived the nuclear holocaust and you crawl out of the hole after three-to-five years and say, "Well, I know what's going on - I'm the one!" Some SAS guy isn't going to say, "Where do I go, boss?" He'd say, "Shut the fuck up and get in line."
• Under the Shadow: At one point in the movie, after suffering another supernatural attack from the djinn, Shideh grabs her daughter and runs out of the apartment building into the street. However, she didn't put a hijab on before going out, so when the authorities catch her, she's arrested.^note This movie is set in 1980s Iran. She's brought in, and told she should be ashamed for exposing herself in public. Valid
• Unforgiven: The whole film is built on this trope applied to westerns:
  • The Quick Draw is shown to be bunk. Little Bill explains and William Munny later demonstrates that winning a gunfight, even one against multiple people, isn't about who can draw first, but who can accurately aim first. Munny prevails in a close-range shootout against Bill and four of his deputies because when Little Bill, the only truly experienced gunman of the group, is taken out first, most of the deputies respond by firing off panicked snapfires (with most of the deputies obviously acting in an unthinking and panicked haze), while Munny makes himself as small a target as possible and calmly pops them off one-by-one. Deconstruction
  • When Munny decides to join the Schofield Kid on the bounty hunt, he goes outside and practices firing at cans. Despite being an experienced gunslinger back in the day, Munny hasn't touched a gun in years since his "glory" days, and is rusty. Valid
  • There's a strong element of Gossip Evolution with characters recounting events. Every time a character gives the story of Delilah's mutilation, the gory details get more and more extreme because the tellers are operating on second-hand information and they have a vested interest in making the offending cowboy sound bad. Basically, Delilah's face got cut up because she laughed at his pecker; by the end, the story goes that Delilah lost her nose and her breasts were cut up as well, both untrue. Gossip Evolution
  • In contrast to many westerns, the act of the hero so causally being able to gun down some one, here it is shown to be a horrific act that one never truly gets over. Munny is plagued with guilt over all the people he has killed over the years and The Schofield kid damn near has a complete breakdown after he kills one of the man involved in attacking Delilah. Character reaction
  • The quality of both the guns and gunpowder available and the potential issues they can cause is mentioned or shown to be an issue several times. Little Bill tells the less than flattering truth about how English Bob killed "Two-Gun" Corcoran; Corcoran's Walker Colt exploded on him when he went to fire, allowing Bob to get the drop on Corcoran and kill him while he was defenseless. At the end of the film, Munny walks through a dramatic thunderstorm with his shotgun out to confront Little Bill... and when he tries to shoot Little Bill, it misfires, either due to being faulty or because the gunpowder has gotten wet from exposure to the storm. Happens too frequently

Edited by CelestialDraco on Apr 18th 2023 at 8:45:09 AM

Consensus?

Not sure about the valid ones. Terminator might not be an outcome, since it's just someone explaining why something is realistic. Under the Shadow doesn't properly explain why it's surprising. And Unforgiven sounds like it's just a character becoming rusty after not using their skills for a while, which is probably common enough to be a trope, plus the movie is supposed to be a Deconstruction of Westerns, so realistic outcomes should be the norm.

These were also added to the main page:

• Marooned in Madagascar: In the first Madagascar movie, the ending showed Mason and Phill still in their cage, implying they were stuck there unattended while the penguins sailed to Antarctica and back again. Here, they are shown to have almost died from hypothermia and are accidentally rescued when Alex and Gloria went back to make sure there were no humans left on the ship. Julien assumes they must be wimps for being unable to handle frigid weather because he thinks chimps are native to Russia (due to his experience with Stanislav and his cosmonaut chimps).
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: In Yami's first duel with Raphael, he figures it will end up just like all of his other duels, where everyone just spends the whole time making wisecracks and referencing internet videos. When Raphael starts actually playing the game, he suddenly realizes that he has no idea what to do, since he never expected any of his opponents to actually play the game seriously.

For the first, I think we have a trope about something funny happening that's turned into a downer or given more downer context in a later installment — Cerebus Retcon — which this seems a better fit for. For the second, it's character behavior (taking the game seriously) that another character reacts to.

• Aliens:
  • Usually used to establish how out-of-depth the Colonial Marines are when they meet the Xenomorphs. Lt. Gorman has only ever performed two real combat drops (including the current one he's leading), so when the Sergeant Rock is killed and circumstances get messy, he freezes and Ripley has to salvage the situation. Character reaction
  • Ripley wakes up 57 years after the loss of the USCSS Nostromo. There's nobody else to corroborate her story about how a lethal alien monster with acid for blood killed the rest of the crew, and the Xenomorph was Thrown Out the Airlock (some damage it caused to the escape pod being the only evidence of it ever being there). The planet where the Xenomorph was encountered in her story has been colonised for twenty-two years and nobody there has ever reported encountering any living thing matching the creature's description. Surprisingly, the WY executives do not take her testimony seriously one bit. Instead, they chalk it all up to an industrial accident and revoke her flight licence. Plot happens
  • Hicks shooting down Vasquez's suggestion to deploy CN-20 nerve gas against the Xenomorph hive after most of the Marines are slaughtered. While he concedes it's worth a try, Hicks also rightly points out that they have no idea if CN-20 will affect Xenomorph physiology or not. This is quite justified, as the only real knowledge the team has of said physiology comes from what little Ripley and the USCSS Nostromo crew were able to discover in the previous film (in addition to the Marines having just seen their resiliency firsthand in the Atmospheric Processing Facility). So going back into the Nest to deploy the CN-20 — a weapon they can't garuntee will work — with their depleted numbers would be a guaranteed Suicide Mission and it's thus too risky. Character reaction to fantatiscal events
  • The explosion of the Atmospheric Processing Facility. Ripley's concerns about using heavy ammo around the reactor's coolant system are right on the money, but Gorman's failure to explain this to the team when he issues his orders means several of the Marines naturally ignore him and keep their ammo. So when the Xenomorphs attack, out come the bullets and instant damage to critical systems ensues (if he'd explained his reasoning, they might have at least been more careful where they were aiming). Combine the firefight with the additional damage caused by the Dropship crash (on top of nobody servicing the Station for at least several weeks once the Colonists were overrun) and something like this was inevitable. Plot happens

I've removed this entry from Recap.RWBYV 9 E 10 Of Solitude And Self. I've put it in spoiler tags because it's the most recent episode and contains some spoilerific material.

Can I get some consensus on these?