• Elite Beat Agents:
  • In "Highway Star", Sam, a small pug, gets separated from his owner and is lost. If the player fails the level, Sam is seen lost in the desert and giving up on finding his owner. Sam is merely an ordinary pug and is not used to anything resembling the situation he is in right now, so he is naturally blindsided. Plot happens
  • In the same level above, Sam challenges 3 larger dogs in order to defend a girl dog. If the player fails the section, he is quickly taken out by the dogs scratching him up a few times and is then left to suffer his injuries. Once again, Sam is a household pug with no fighting experience, and the dogs he was challenging were all twice as big as he was. Plot happens
  • In "Sk8er Boi", Jack tries out several stunts in order to get to the hospital faster. Once again, if the player fails these, they all merely result in the car getting damaged (though any damage it sustains is temporary). Plot happens
  • If you finish "La La" but get X's on all scenes, the athlete you're assisting only manages to win the Olympic bronze medal. His coach isn't too bothered by this; he was sick just the day before, after all. Plot happens
  • The Carrington sisters trying and failing to seduce wild animals will just result in them getting attacked viciously. ' Not surprising
  • Failing cutscenes in "Let's Dance" gets you a lot of this. Colonel Bob striking water in the desert? He gets branded a thief, beaten up, and arrested. Him digging all the way to Atlantis? Cue him being crushed by the collapsing rubble and having to be hospitalized. Him digging all the way to New York without a permit? He promptly gets arrested and has to pay for massive damages. Too implausible for the last two and not sure why he'd get arrested for striking water in the desert.
• Escape from Tarkov: Being the hardcore shooter as advertised by the developers, many of the game's features might take newer players used to standard first-person shooters by surprise.
  • Gunshot wounds are punishing in Escape From Tarkov, no matter the calibre. Headshots are extremely lethal and getting hit in one body part repeatedly will cause permanent damage that requires specific medical applications, such as bandaging severely bleeding wounds, using a splint to set a broken leg straight, and even painkillers to numb the crippling pain temporarily. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
    • Speaking of painkillers, while they can temporarily bring your severely damaged legs back to a normal walking or running condition, it doesn't change the fact those limbs are still crippled, so running for more than a short burst or falling from even a comically short height will still cause injuries that can compound on itself the more you put strain on them. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • On that note as well, in a later update, there is the addition of Emergency Surgical Kits that can be used in raids to un-blacken a limb... after some time has passed not moving while you tend to the injury at hand. On top of that, while the area will be back to safely running/aiming once again after treatment, it does not change the fact that it was severely injured, reflected by a max health penalty to the area for the rest of the raid. It's better than a splint and guzzling painkillers, but these are surgical kits solely meant to stabilize a patient's condition to get them to a medical facility; it's impossible to fully treat these kind of wounds in the field, and they can't replace proper medical care and rest. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Wearing certain headwear will significantly affect your hearing, such as the Kolpak riot helmet which covers your ears, while pulling the faceplate down deafens you even more than usual along with reducing your vision. There are certain hardware like ComTec2 headsets that do amplify certain pitched sounds while dampening other ambient noises, but can only be paired with the helmets that allow space for it. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • While the game features extensive weapon customization in and out of battle, certain modifications are impossible to do while in the field due to the precision tools that your character would obviously not have access to nor brought out with them. Happens too frequently
  • A character's metabolism won't just stop once they extract from the area, and if you want them to recover faster (assuming you don't want to use first aid kits), you'll need to keep some food and water on hand, especially if their stomach was blacked out during the fighting. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Ammo calibers are the real line between a strong and weak gun. While each firearm does have their intricacies, what kind of ammo they fire is often the most important part of their design. For example, the Mosin-Nagnant fires powerful 7.62x54mmR rounds that can punch right through armor, making it a dangerous weapon despite its small magazine size. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • Speaking of the Mosin, as usual with bolt-action rifles in video games, reloading is automatic, as quick as possible, and the player barely losing sight picture when manipulating bolt. Thus, combined with cheap price and powerful ammo, it was a one weapon to be scared of, rather than more of a situational tool. Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay
  • The only issue is that due to balance, said ammunition in basic 7n1 FMJ defeats body armour rated out to three or more hits of 7.62x54mmR API. This is seen elsewhere too, with armour being strangely weak while helmets that would never defeat rifle ammunition in real life being very tough. Happens too frequently
• Eternal Golden Dawn: If the Long March goes haywire and nukes China, it (probably) isn't due to it going Skynet and deciding to kill all humans or anything like that. It is all caused by a mundane hardware, something that most complex computers can suffer from, and would have been annoying but ultimately harmless (and probably fixable) had the Transhumanists not given it the ability to launch nukes. Too implausible

@Arthur Eld How about something like Subverted Fantasy Expectation? Trying to predict an occurrence, something different and more realistic happens.

Try something like this from One Piece in One Piece: Land of Wano Arc in the SRC section:

Before: After everything the Straw Hat Pirates had done to them in the previous arc, the Big Mom Pirates aren't going to sit idly by and wait until Luffy is done with Kaido. Already having knowledge of where they're going, Big Mom and her children sail to Wano in order to hunt down Luffy and the others, not long after they left Totto Land.

After: The Big Mom Pirates are not going to sit quietly by and wait for Luffy to finish Kaido. After being humiliated by the Straw Hat Pirates in the previous arc, they already know where the Straw Hats are headed and are sailing to Wano to hunt them down. This is happening not long after the Straw Hats left Totto Land. It is a risky move as it means entering Kaido's territory and potentially starting a costly war with him.

I'm not really sure what's meant to be surprising or realistic about that example.

An example from Power Rangers Dino Thunder (the game)

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The Tricera, Navy Beetle, and Black Bison Zords are extremely heavy and, unlike the other bipedal Zords or Wild Zords, have super tiny little legs. Thus, they are completely unable to jump. They makes up for it by having brute strength and the ability to ram into things. Too fantastical as Zords do not exist in real life

Power Rangers Zeo

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The Alien Rangers are a species of fish people who merely have similarities to humans. As a result, while nothing bad happens, it's a concern that using the Fountain of Youth on their homeworld that works fine with their species to cure Billy might not be compatible with his biology.
  • Trey is a Human Alien, but his biology is significantly different from a human's (as the whole 'if things go wrong he can split into three different people which naturally comprise his being). Powers created specifically for him and his species don't mesh 100 percent with human biology, as a result, prolonged use of them nearly kills Jason. Both of these are too fantastical as aliens do not exist

Gekisou Sentai Carranger

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though Grotch has the least combat experience out of the Bowzock generals, when he accidentally discovered the ability to grow giant through eating imo-youkan, his sheer size basically made him invulnerable to the Carrangers' weapons, thus necessitating the creation of the Ranger Vehicles to combat future giant-sized Bowzock monsters. Again, too fantastical as growing monsters do not exist

Power Rangers: Dino Thunder (the show)

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • How Ethan ends getting detention in the first episode after he hacks into the school system and makes the school sprinklers go off numerous times as a prank. Principal Randall easily catches Ethan because it would only take someone as smart as him to hack in the school system and tamper with the sprinklers when they went off, as well the fact that he is the only one who had umbrella meaning he knew it was going to happen. Plot Happens
  • Ethan lets his experience of at a video game called "Detonation Man" (plus the fact the he has ALL the top ten scores) go to his head, refuses to practice for a video game tournament, and pays the price at the video game tournament when he loses to Devin. Plot Happens
  • After Anton Mercer gives Ethan and Kira detention for being late to class, as they had to fight Zeltrax and a monster called Termitetron when appeared at the school, a bully named Derrick decides to have fun at Ethan's expense by tripping him. Unfortunately for Derrick, Anton Mercer saw him do it and he gets detention too because of that. Bullying another student in front of a teacher can get you in trouble. Not Surprising

Edited by BocchiTheRock on May 7th 2023 at 10:37:52 AM

• The very first Sue in The Game of the Gods prepares to enter Middle Earth, recites a "spell" that will open a portal there, then takes a running leap towards her television. She ends up simply crashing headfirst through the screen and dies of a massive head wound. Valid

Also, never got consensus on these.

Fine with those except the last Valid, which I'm a little less sure of—I don't know how much of a setup was intended with the uncovered face, but it's probably a fine example aside from that.

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Monster X seizing up and bleeding from every facial orifice when struck by a psychic attack isn't all that non-generic. However, what does deviate from trope norm — and makes sense given their Super-Strength — is that the violent convulsions lead to Monster X breaking their own spine. Somewhat Truth in Television, as seizures can sometimes cause physical trauma including broken bones, though media seldom directly approaches this. Probably not realistic, since the example says that this outcome is the consequence of a psychic attack and the victim's Super-Strength, but then it says that even real-life seizures can have similar outcomes (realistic) which are usually ignored in media (surprisingly realistic). I'm still leaning towards cutting it since there are too many unrealistic elements in play in this case.

The actual realistic bit in there doesn't have the unsurprising unrealistic setup.

The Legend Of Zelda can probably be cut.

Examples from other pages:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Early on Link has to prove his worth for Mido, but once this is accomplished, this doesn't endear Link to Mido one bit. It's not until a whole seven years later that Mido has anything remotely nice to say about Link. Character reaction
  • The Chosen Hero (you) are too young and sealed away in a safe spot for seven years... which leaves the rest of the land vulnerable to being taken over by the evil overlord, who isn't about to do so polite a thing as to sit around waiting for you to be ready for the evil confrontation. Ganon does get lazy eventually, though, and this is what makes it possible for him to be beaten. Plot happens.
  • Link defeats Ganondorf and goes back to his childhood where he foils Ganondorf's plot to assassinate the king and steal the Ocarina of Time. With all that done, Link is free to go home, right? Nope, having mentally developed into a warrior and now being stuck in a child's body, he is now well aware Kokiri Forest isn't his home anymore, and his quest having been fulfilled leaves him with a sense of wanderlust. And with no big bad left to grow up to fight, he instead spends the rest of his life becoming a master swordsman, until becoming the Hero's Shade/Golden Wolf in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to pass off the techiques he developed, and because he has a regret, possibly even resentment, that his heroism was "erased" by not remaining in the timeline where he defeated Ganondorf directly. Character reaction

Edited by Someoneman on May 22nd 2023 at 1:37:49 AM

• Birds of Prey (2020):
  • Jerkass Has a Point: As utterly horrible as Montoya's captain is to her, he has an extremely valid point during their first meeting. Without actual, concrete evidence of Sionis' crimes, neither the police nor the D.A. would be able to move forward with any sort of prosecution. The amount of money Sionis has would basically guarantee a victory in court. In addition, while the audience knows she's telling the truth, she then lies to her boss, throws her ex's career in jeopardy, and takes evidence from a crime scene without authorization. What does all that equal? A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome and she's suspended from the force. Valid
  • Regardless of what she does, Harley is still a bona fide supervillain. It's very hard for people to befriend her for good, knowing her history. Even kindly old restaurant owner/criminal information broker Doc, the only person Harley genuinely considers a friend, does not hesitate to sell her out to Sionis when he is offered enough money to start up a nicer restaurant someplace other than a bad neighborhood in Gotham. Character reaction
• Black Hawk Down: One of the helicopters unleashes a hail of minigun fire to ward off some Somalis on a rooftop. Unfortunately Eversmann is crouching directly underneath the helicopter and receives superficial burns from the spent shell casings; it takes fire to shoot a gun. Valid
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: In an attempt to aid Shuri, Ramonda and the rest of Wakanda, Everett Ross begins secretly feeding information to the nation to keep them aware of what's going on in the outside world. Unfortunately, regardless of whether it was done for noble intentions, this essentially amounts to treason in the eyes of the US government, allowing Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to strip him of his rank and send him to prison without much resistance. Valid
• Black Rat:
  • Lodged-Blade Recycling: Attempted. After falling down the stairs and impaling herself on her machete, Akane pulls the blade out and starts advancing on Misato again, only to expire from blood loss. Valid
  • Unlike the Rangers, who wear Kevlar helmets, the Delta operators wear hockey helmets since they're more comfortable and lighter. Unfortunately, they're not bulletproof, as Gordon finds out the hard way. Not surprising

The Wakanda Forever one doesn't really seem to be Surprisingly Realistic in any way. The consequences for Ross are set up early in the film, and the only thing that seems in question is whether or not he will get caught, not what would happen if he does.

It just seems to be the plot happening. Especially given that Allegra's past appearances makes it clear she's not the type to put anyone else's interests first.

• Amazing Fantasy:
  • A frequent complaint in the fandom is, "If Izuku wanted to become a Hero so badly, why didn't he train his mind and body like Batman?" Izuku has thought about doing this, but he's a wimpy, nerdy kid with his own hobbies. It would be unrealistic for him to drop everything and start vigorously training his body like some comic book character when he knew deep down that being a Badass Normal isn't practical in the long-term on his Earth. He also had no clear goal or guide to get him there, as no one wanted to deal with a Quirkless kid. As anyone who starts a diet or intense physical training can attest, it's not easy to start it, much less go through with it, without help. Not an outcome
    It was sad, really. Clinging to his dream despite his condition. One would think he would devote his mind and body to training, like one of those comic characters of old... But that was fiction. This was reality.
  • It isn't healthy to try and sleep off a venomous spider bite. Izuku nearly died and went into a short coma even after Bakugou rushes him to a hospital to get him medical treatment. Valid
  • Izuku tries to sneak away from Bakugou by jumping onto a rooftop from the ground. But he doesn't watch where he's jumping in the middle of a dense, crowded city and gets his foot snagged on a telephone wire that drops him into a pile of garbage bags. Too fantastical
  • When confronted by Katsuki in Mitsuki's car, she asks who threw the first punch. Izuku is tempted to take the heat if only because that's what happened in cheesy high school dramas where the victim gains the bully's respect for being the bigger man. But since Izuku knew this isn't the case, he kept his mouth shut, forcing Katsuki to admit his fault. This Is Reality
  • While Mayday is enthusiastic to go out web-swinging, she is a bit hesitant to just jump off a building. Even if someone is eager to web-swing like Spider-Man, most people wouldn't exactly be enthusiastic to jump off the roof of a very tall building. Character reaction
  • Mayday, when she started planning her superhero career and went out on her first patrol, was downright eager to find some crime and punch supervillains. Thanks to pop culture and seeing superheroes easily dodge bullets, she thinks that it will be easy for her to jump in and fight. During her first battle, Mayday is shot and and she instantly began panicking and nearly crying multiple times upon realizing she could die. Getting shot at is a whole lot different than the movies or comics make it out to be. Deconstruction
  • Roderick mocks May with the fact that she has no physical evidence of his crimes, only the testimony of a man driven insane by the Goblin Formula and killed on Roderick's orders. Even if her assumptions are correct, she has no way to pin him down in a court of law, rendering him a Karma Houdini no matter how much harm he does. Not an outcome
  • Bakugou mainly kept people behind him through fear and awe: no one wanted to get on his bad side out of fear of getting their asses kicked and how much better he was than them at everything. He loses most of his social clout after getting humiliated by Izuku and even his own lackies admit that they can't wait to be rid of him once they graduate. Character reaction
• Unlike in the comics, J. Jonah Jameson's Anti-Spidey campaign took has more detrimental consequences for his career:
  • Due to Peter saving the city numerous times and all his other heroic acts, the people of New York began to realize he wasn't the menace J. Jonah Jameson was trying to cast him as. And because nobody was buying his paper anymore or believing his sensationalism, Jonah was forced to ease up on his hatred to save the Daily Bugle. Deconstruction
  • Even then, the resulting money losses forced him to step down and let Robbie Robertson take his place as publisher. Plot happens
  • While in the comics J. Jonah Jameson's articles aren't questioned in-universe despite being based on his twisting of events, in Peter's universe Jonah was sued for helping to fuel a police officer's paranoia of Spider-Man enough to shoot at him from a crowd. After this, Jonah was forced to print a disclaimer at the end of his articles that they are his opinion and shouldn't be taken as fact. Deconstruction
  • His patronadge for Anti-Spidey measurements got him deeper legal issues: the lawsuits against him by the now-late Mac Gargan and the accusations that he bankrolled Spencer Smyth's death machines made him practically toxic to the news world, meaning that he couldn't even get a job at the other newspapers. Deconstruction
  • His reputation was hit so hard, that his radio show Just the Facts has less subscribers than JJJ expected, and most of his audience don't take him seriously according to his grandson (his listeners follow him for amusement, prank-call the station or send him joke gifts of Spider-Man plushies). Plot happpens

Didn't that spider give Izuku his powers by biting him? If so, that "valid" example is too unrealistic.

It also lacks setup or expectation, at least in the writeup.

• Danny Phantom: Stranded: Tucker rips up the paper contract that the sisters signed to render Myrtles' clause that makes him not liable a moot point. Myrtles points out what Tucker did only works in cartoons, as ripping up the one sheet of paper he had didn't cancel out the contract. He had copies of it at home and on his computer. Not an outcome
• The Willoughbys: The film shows us what happens when children try to take care of themselves, especially from a neglectful household; since their parents couldn't be bothered to teach them anything, the Willoughbys don't know how to make their own food or even heat the house and are shivering and starving before the Nanny shows up. Plot happens

Found in the Movie-Exclusive Characters subpage for Characters.Kamen Rider Zero One, specifically the folder for the character Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai. The way it's described to me makes it read like a case of plot happening, but I need a second opinion on it:

Edited by nanakiro on May 29th 2023 at 12:15:17 PM

How are these entries I added to Cry of Fear.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on May 29th 2023 at 3:32:26 PM

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Farah's hostile reaction to the Prince when he kisses her at the end. Since the Prince ended up rewinding time to before the game began, all his adventures with Farah were undone, as were the feelings she developed for him. From her perspective, she's only known him for a few hours at most.

character reaction + Too fantastical

agree?

Cut that one. The consequences of time travel aren't realism by this trope's definition.

The first two don't sound valid since they're gameplay mechanics. The first example sounds like Chunky Salsa Rule, while the second is Developer's Foresight (and already listed under that trope). The third example doesn't explain what the expected outcome is.

• Birds of Prey (2020):
  • Jerkass Has a Point: As utterly horrible as Montoya's captain is to her, he has an extremely valid point during their first meeting. Without actual, concrete evidence of Sionis' crimes, neither the police nor the D.A. would be able to move forward with any sort of prosecution. The amount of money Sionis has would basically guarantee a victory in court. In addition, while the audience knows she's telling the truth, she then lies to her boss, throws her ex's career in jeopardy, and takes evidence from a crime scene without authorization. What does all that equal? A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome and she's suspended from the force. That's just Off on a Technicality
• Black Hawk Down: One of the helicopters unleashes a hail of minigun fire to ward off some Somalis on a rooftop. Unfortunately Eversmann is crouching directly underneath the helicopter and receives superficial burns from the spent shell casings; it takes fire to shoot a gun. What the hell is this even saying? Guns get hot? That's not surprising

• In The Saboteur the final boss is just an average human that has gone insane due to your actions up to this point. He is left broken, drunk and just accepting death as even if you don't shoot him, he will just jump to his death on his own. Anti-Climax Boss
• In Scribblenauts, you can create anything and put it next to anything, with fairly realistic results: people will eat food, run from wild animals, die when attacked; predators and animals who were attacked will fight back and kill each other; buildings will be destroyed if sufficiently damaged; putting two rabbits together will result in them breeding until they fill the item limit... and while you can put things like walls and fences in the way to hinder attackers, don't expect them to last long if the attacker's big enough or strong enough. Character reaction
• The Secret World: You're a supernaturally-empowered secret agent who works for one of three ancient conspiracies and goes to the worst eldritch hotspots in the world, killing monsters and saving the world... but half the [PC]s have never heard of you and a quarter hate your guts. Thing is, you're basically an expendable minion working for the super-villains: (1) You're using a major connection to Agartha that most magic users will never be allowed to touch, (2) you started this job just a few months ago and are borrowing power from conspiracies that are stronger than you will ever be, (3) said conspiracies are borderline psychotic and regularly ruthless (the Templars are classic Knight Templar no matter how fervently they try to pass that era off as a teenage phrase, The Illuminati outright admit they're selfish pricks, and the Dragon like to tip over Disaster Dominoes and poke butterflies so they can get data on the resulting hurricanes). No matter how much power you get or how self-justified you feel, your character would be next to nothing without the conspiracies, and those conspiracies are 90% super-villains - to the point that the Illuminati had to issue threats just to make sure you joined and the Dragon flat-out abducted you. You are not the hero, you're the cleanup roadie, and most of the epic showdowns are just you stalling the boss so the real heroes can get into position with magic stronger than what you're wielding - or you've been temporarily empowered by forces you don't have access to even on your best day. In fact, on the one day you end up taking the fight to the apparent Big Bad in Tokyo, the only reason you survive the encounter is because said character doesn't actually want to fight you. Too fantastical
  • Illuminati players are warned of dire consequences if they piss off their chosen faction; given that they're the apparent "heroes" of the game, this might be taken lightly by said players... up until the failures in Kingsmouth and Egypt make it abundantly clear that the Illuminati weren't joking. After all, they wouldn't be the organization they are today if they weren't prepared to make good on their threats: letting Excalibur slip through your fingers results in you being KO'd and hauled off to Questions and Answers for a very thorough dressing down; getting on the bad side of the Orochi Group in Egypt results in a diplomatic backlash so severe that when you get back to HQ, there's an assassin waiting for you. And the only reason why you don't end up dead is because Kirsten Geary steps in. Character reaction
  • The aforementioned Tokyo story arc ends with the players leading an all-out attack on the Orochi Group's headquarters and attempting to kill the apparent Big Bad. As you progress through the penthouse, CEO Samuel Chandra flat out warns you that he is going to make your life a living hell if you continue; naturally, you ignore him - after all, even with Orochi's vast resources, Chandra can't very well declare war on a secret society like the Illuminati or the Templars, can he? Well, it turns out he doesn't need to: after all, Orochi's a legitimate corporation, and actually has even more pull than the secret societies because it doesn't need to conceal its existence. You arrive home to find that Chandra has sent the security footage of your break-in to the media, successfully framing you as an international terrorist. From then on, you are a fugitive - in both the legitimate world and the secret world - and the only way to avoid ending up being subjected to random assassination attempts is to have your face surgically altered. Valid
  • As demonstrated in both The Secret World and The Park, Nathaniel Winter spent a fortune building Atlantic Island Park on a relatively obscure island off the coast of Maine, using his immense wealth and government connections to ensure that the construction continued despite the numerous fatal accidents. Once the park was actually opened, the "accidents" continued, this time killing several guests - some of them children. End result? The Park was closed within two years, and Nathaniel Winter's continued attempt at bribery left his reputation in tatters and his finances ruined. Because construction is a dangerous business, corruption can sweep a few worker deaths under the rug, but once paying guests and children start turning up dead, nobody's going to look the other way. Valid
  • After four combat zones populated by Badass Normal types able to ward off zombies, ghouls, cultists and Filth infectees with minimal resources and often minimal training, the spinoff game The Park and its continuation go to great lengths to show what happens when untrained Muggles are pitted against the heavyweights of the secret world. Hint: it's not a David vs. Goliath scenario, but an unmitigated tragedy. There's no fighting, no gunplay, no Heroic Willpower, no chance to resist, just an entire game featuring Lorraine being tormented, tortured and traumatized for life. Not an outcome
    • Soon after, she's given an opportunity to be special. As in, force-fed an Agartha bee against her will. She spends the next few decades in constant psychological trauma, as she's forced to work as a supernatural United Nations agent - witnessing nightmare scenarios that make The Park look like a regular park (including Hell), sent on suicide missions regularly (because her health insurance is so 'good' she literally can't die - but she can feel pain), all while nightmares of Winters murdering her son haunt her every night and her organization doesn't do shit about him because they're too busy getting strangled by bureaucratic red tape to deal with one haunted theme park out of dozens. She goes to great lengths to get fired, and when they refuse to dispose of her because she does such a good job even though her work amounts to little in the end, tries to commit permanent suicide. Too fantastical and character reaction
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • After an entire game full of Supernatural Martial Arts, Charles Atlas Superpower, and Master Swordsmen, it can be a little off-putting (and funny) when the Final Boss, despite being hailed as the greatest swordsman to ever live, complements his I Am Not Left-Handed moment by pulling out a gun and an over-sized polearm instead of continuing to use his sword. But this is fitting, as polearms and guns were in fact the primary weapons of the Japanese nobility in the late 16th century when the game is set (having displaced bows following the introduction of matchlocks by Portuguese traders). Sounds more like Combat Pragmatist
  • Isshin is discussed as being absolute terror of a swordsman and a Master of his craft. So when he's summoned Back from the Dead to fight you in his prime, you'd think he'd be in his early 20s, right? Nope, he's visibly at least in his 40s, because even in a setting that has magic, "Master" isn't something you become easily, it would take decades to even be considered to be at that point, so his combative "prime" is still well past how long most people even survived as fighters in that era. Too fantastical
  • No matter how skilled Wolf is, getting into a direct fight with more than one gun-wielding enemy will typically end with you either being extremely well-ventilated or running away and coming back when you can fight dirty. Not an outcome
  • The unarmed Senpou monks can deflect some blows, but they have incredibly low posture, and two or three blows will break through their guards and leave them open to a Deathblow; turns out taking on a katana-wielding opponent with no weapon of your own is a losing proposition. Not an outcome
  • As a Shinobi, Wolf's skillset is poorly suited to fighting large groups of enemies at once, and you will usually find yourself on the losing end of any such engagement. Inversely, those same enemies are not well-equipped or well-trained to handle an infiltrator of Wolf's caliber, meaning that you can usually take them out without ever being seen, or at least even the odds before the fight starts. Plopt happens
  • The problem with the Armored Warrior is that his armor is a different tier of defense altogether compared to even other samurai. The use of European full plate and mail means a katana won't get through it no matter how hard Wolf tries. However, this is taken advantage of once Wolf knocks him off the bridge that the Warrior is guarding. Weaknesses exist
  • Twenty years ago, the Ashina clan fought off the forces of the Shogunate's Interior Ministry and their own feudal lord in a coup to keep their freedom during the Sengoku Period unification of Japan with the help of Isshin Ashina and his Seven Swords, genuinely considered an army in eight people with Isshin in particular being a One-Man Army. In the present day when the story starts, this continued resistance of the Tokugawa Shogunate has caused countless deaths, plummeting morale, open defections, ill-equipped and even worse-trained troops since there's no skilled warriors left, and the new leader has become a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Only mortal terror of Isshin keeps the Interior Ministry at bay and despite his skill and power, he's become absolutely ancient in an era where it was common to be dead before the 40s, and is dying of unavoidable disease and old age. Once his health is too bad to act, the ministry launches two separate invasions, the second with the Era's best-of-the-best, and it's an utter slaughter of the Ashina that you can't do anything stop, you can only get Kuro and get out before it's all burned to the ground and everyone is slaughtered. Plot happens
• Senran Kagura:
  • When the Homura Crimson Squad goes on the run as renegade Shinobi, their greatest threat turns out to be... getting enough to eat. They're assassins, not survivalists, and while they have a working knowledge of edible plants, they live in a city. In addition, the Crimson Squad have a very difficult time finding clients who are willing to hire assassin dropouts with no official backing, not when there's new evil shinobi from the well-established Hebijo Clandestine Academy. Their only recourse is to find jobs - minimum-wage part-time jobs that don't mind the fact they have no legal papers of any kind or proof of formal education. Plus they're all busty (well, except Mirai), healthy young girls... you can imagine where this would go if this point was taken to its logical conclusion. Unsure
    • A specific example in Shinobi Versus- Haruka, the most overtly seductive of the bunch, tries to play the role of a sexy cashier (in fast food), and seduces a high-school boy right in front of everyone. The result - she gets fired, and the angry manager tells her that he is not running a brothel. Haruka then mentions that this is the 20th time she has been fired for trying to use her charms on the job, which just created unwelcome distractions with catastrophic results. For example, her traffic guard job made cars crash into each other, and when working as a private tutor, she flirts with the kid and opens her shirt a little- cue the kid's mom getting furious and kicking her out. Character reaction and Deconstructed Character Archetype
  • Shinobi are capable of some pretty outrageous stunts and special powers, but these require them to be at their physical peak. From a story perspective, the very first serious blow landed is the match ender, since being injured will slow a Shinobi down, making them easy to finish off. First blood means the loser has to choose between running or dying, with very few exceptions. The only exception to that, Murasaki, is armed with a special power that would make her The Dreaded if she were actually training. Not an outcome
  • The narration does occasionally mention that living with such huge breasts comes with its own problems - it's mentioned the girls only avoid back pain because they're physically strengthening themselves anyway, Asuka notes hers can get in the way and speculates the only reason Katsuragi's even bigger pair don't is because she doesn't use her arms, and Yumi laments that she'll never be able to wear a kimono properly (at the time they became popular, the female ideal was a slim, straight figure, so Yumi can't get one that fits which doesn't show enormous amounts of cleavage). Deconstruction
  • The girls of Gessen Death Cram School were taken in at a young age and raised in near-total isolation. This results in some very weird value systems and even weirder social graces, making it difficult for them to appear normal in public. The only one who can pretend to pass for well-adjusted is the socialite who constantly texts her friends and runs a fashion blog - that is, The One with a Personal Life. The others are a mess of neuroses and previous-era mannerisms. Plot happens
• Shadow Complex:
  • The writers go through the trouble of fleshing out a personality for the evil quasi-Nazi Mad Scientist who has kidnapped your girlfriend... and instead of an epic boss fight or the scientist pulling out ninja moves or something to get away, he is Killed Mid-Sentence in one shot by the hero, right in the middle of saying that the hero "doesn't look like a killer". Even though the hero has killed dozens of soldiers by this point. Anti-Climax Boss
  • At the end of the game, the Big Bad is not killed by the hero, whose family and loved ones he was threatening, but by the girlfriend, who is—surprise!—an NSA operative. Which explains what they were doing in the woods right by the enemy base, but she really should've captured the guy alive. Not sure why that's any more realistic than being killed the hero
• Shadowrun Returns:
  • While running a mission on Aztechnology, the player can invoke a Janitor Impersonation Infiltration to avoid some of the response teams. If they try to do it after the alarm has already been triggered, the rest of the party will state that it won't do a thing. Not an outcome
  • Choosing to reveal you killed his community elders to Law causes the PC to pause and actually consider the consequences. Mainly, that informing a large and skilled hacker group that you killed their leaders is a great way to have all your secrets dug up and made public. It's so stupid that the PC decides ultimately not to do it. Character reaction
  • The PC has the option to give Law some meta-data on their runs so he can post it on the Shadowland BBS. This lands him in hot water with Kindly Cheng, who is rather upset that he's been posting information about her team and their runs online, putting everyone at risk. Character reaction
  • The PC and Duncan both learned Chinese when they were kids. However, it's been quite awhile since the PC used it. When they try to speak to someone for the first time they end up screwing it up. Valid

I don't think that last Shadowrun example is surprising enough to count.

"Character is rusty at a language that isn't their first" seems so mundane that it would probably just fall under People Sit On Chairs.

Persona

• General:
  • While the series establishes that accepting one's Shadow is important to overcoming your flaws and improving oneself, there have been three cases throughout the series where the owner of a Shadow simply cannot accept it because it's either too painful to accept or too opposed to what they want to believe. In Persona 2, Maya's Shadow rants that she hates Tatsuya, Lisa and Eikichi for locking her up in the Alaya Shrine years ago which almost got her killed by a serial arsonist that left her with burn scars and an intense pyrophobia. However, the original Maya is such an All-Loving Hero that the idea of hating anyone is too unacceptable to her, so she instead convinces herself that her Shadow is just a fake created by the power of rumors. In Persona 4, Mitsuo Kubo's Shadow claims that the real Mitsuo feels empty and worthless inside, but to the very end the original Mitsuo refuses to accept that he feels like his life has no self-worth. A similar case happens with Rei's Shadow in Persona Q. In her case, accepting her Shadow would mean accepting that she felt like her life was a waste, since she died and felt like she had no chance to really live for anything. Zen sums it up: Character reaction
    Zen: "There are different sides to people"... That must be true. But even with that in mind, some things cannot be accepted...
• Persona 2:
  • In Innocent Sin, many students wished for Joker to make them smarter or get better grades. One student is detained for cheating. Not realistic
  • In Eternal Punishment, if you try to eat food at certain restaurants that serve liquor, they won't serve Tatsuya because he's a minor. Not an outcome
• Persona 3:
  • The Condition mechanic. Characters you take into battle will be in a worse condition the next day, affecting their performance in battle, and using them for consecutive days will cause them to catch a cold. After all, your party has to stay up until midnight if they want to explore Tartarus, limiting their sleep schedule along with the pressures of normal school life. Makoto/Kotone is most affected, since you Can't Drop the Hero, and have to go through their social life with limited social stat gains and limited actions if you allow them to get sick. Managing your schedule, Tartarus included, is important for keeping your party in optimal condition. General game mechanic, doesn't count as an outcome.
  • Takaya's weapon is a magnum revolver. In combat, the characters have proper armor and can stand up to his gunshots, but Junpei (though he gets revived) and Shinjiro get ambushed and shot in weaknesses in their armor (if they had armor on at all at the time) and die within a minute of being shot. The game's empowered cast may be Shadow-killing, Persona-empowered individuals, but they're still humans, and without proper protection, a gunshot to the vitals is just as deadly as it is in real life. The Lethal Connotation of Guns and Others
  • No matter how much of a charmer you might be, your friends still have their own personal boundaries that they want to be respected. If you try to hug Yukari during a particularly low point in her Social Link, it causes your rank to reverse because while you meant to comfort her, you essentially ignored her own boundaries, something someone like Yukari does not appreciate. Also, saying the wrong thing to someone, even if you have high social stats, will still upset them since no matter how charming, courageous, or smart you are, what you said is still hurtful or upsetting, so they still do not like it and get upset at you. Character reaction
• Persona 4:
  • Shortly after the opening of the superstore Junes in Inaba, several local shops took a nosedive in customers and profits due to Junes offering a much broader range of products, with some even closing down; this is a fairly common occurrence in real life, as can be seen whenever a major chain store enters a community. At the end of Golden, Junes works out a deal with the Inaba shop owners with a "locally-produced goods" section to try and keep them in the public interest. Not surprising, since this happens before the game starts.
  • Yosuke is first seen trying to ride a bicycle during wet weather while steering one-handed due to the umbrella he is carrying. Naturally, he crashes due to not being able to balance or steer correctly. Not surprising.
  • Yosuke has two more realistic outcomes involving his bike: the very next day after the above-mentioned crash Yosuke is seen flying past Yu on his bike, and again crashes due to being Too Fast to Stop. Much later, Yosuke's bike is heard making plenty of squeaking and groaning noises, and it's implied that Yosuke's rough handling and speeding is the chief cause. The first one doesn't seem surprising. The second one might have counted if the bike actually broke down, since this happens in gag scenes, so it'd be reasonable to assume Rule of Funny keeps the bike from actually being damaged, but just making some bad sounds is just Plot.
  • When Yu first sees the Midnight Channel on his room's TV and realizes that he can put his hand through the screen, something grabs him and tries to pull him through, but he gets wedged in between the TV frame due to it being too small. The next morning, even though Chie and Yosuke don't believe him, she lampshades how realistic that part was, causing Yosuke to joke about trying it with an even bigger TV at Junes. Not realistic
  • When Yosuke is showing off potential weapons to Yu for the first time for them to take to the TV world in order to defend themselves, they both get arrested. Turns out being RPG heroes is not a good excuse to blatantly carry weapons in broad daylight in a crowded public space, especially with a murderer running around. The only reason that Yu and Yosuke weren't interrogated by the police is due to the protagonist having a relative (Uncle Dojima) on the force, and even then they're on thin ice with the police afterwards. Valid. It's expected that video game heroes can just carry weapons around with no problems, but in real life, doing that will get you in trouble.
  • Naoto's status as a Teen Genius and Kid Detective sometimes runs into this. No matter how smart you are or how good you are at solving crimes, it doesn't guarantee that the police will want your help, particularly when you've been acting like an Insufferable Genius and challenging the authority of the people who hired you. That said, it's also implied that they didn't think much of her due to her age and gender, and are unwilling to admit that the juvenile suspect they just arrested didn't actually do it. An unfortunate reminder that some public authorities prefer to save face rather than do what is right. Character reaction
  • When the School Festival rolls around, Yu is given an option of voting for what the class will be working on for their class booth. Your vote makes no difference due to nearly everyone voting for the Group Date Cafe. And But Thou Must! makes a Group Date Cafe because Yu is one individual in a class and is in no position to decide for the others. Maybe valid. If they give you a choice of vote, the assumption is that the matter will be Decided by One Vote, even though that's very unlikely in real life.
  • At the end of Yosuke's Social Link, Yosuke confesses that he'd always been jealous of Yu, and they work out their issues with a fistfight. Unfortunately, someone sees Yosuke and reports him to the police, resulting in Yosuke getting in trouble for fighting. You learn what happened after completing his Social Link and talking to him in the dungeon. Not sure.
  • As obvious as it may seem to Yu and the player that those people thrown into the TV should simply accept the harsh truths that their Shadow is telling them, thereby saving you and the rest of the party a boss battle... it's very difficult for the characters in question to simply come to terms with the parts of themselves that they're least proud of (and some weren't even completely aware of) staring them in the face, that are also bringing up all their worst fears and insecurities in front of strangers they don't trust. Nobody would be able to react in a positive manner in those circumstances, let alone teenagers that have been kidnapped into some mysterious realm. By the time the party goes to save Naoto, Kanji decides it's better that they let the shadow "spill the whole thing" and just clean things up afterward, otherwise Naoto will just end up still hurting from the experience. Character reactions
  • The copycat killer midway through the game sets up a mostly-perfect replica of the initial two murders ^note  they break from the real killer's pattern for victims (female as opposed to the third being an adult male) and where the victim's body ends up (victims one and two are hung from an antenna or power wire, the third from a water tower) . For the most part Police Are Useless in the story because of the explicitly supernatural nature of the first two murders, but the copycat's murder is done with zero supernatural aid and left a massive evidence trail... which means that it takes only a couple of hours for the Inaba police to gather the evidence they need to track them down and finger them for the crime. Unfortunately, this also means that everyone is ready to pin the blame for all three murders on the copycat and declare the case closed even though there's far more to it than that because the third murder after two high-profile, horrific murders with such little information has the police ready to call it quits. This is partly from wanting their community to be finally safe, but it's also because they've been a public laughingstock for in-universe months. The Investigation Team itself is almost entirely convinced the copycat decided to act on his MO without the TV world after the attempts on Yukiko, Kanji, and Rise all failed, basically for the same reasons as the police. Plot happens
  • Late in the game, the true killer Adachi uses a pistol as his weapon and just uses it as his basic (read: weakest) attack and nothing compared to his powers. The Anime of the Game, however, treats Yu having a gun pointed at him with all the real threat and severity of someone bringing a sword to a gunfight, supernatural powers or not. The Lethal Connotation of Guns and Others
• Persona 5:
  • The Phantom Thieves inflict Heel–Face Brainwashing on corrupt adults. Eventually, they successfully manage to do this to the Big Bad, who's been leading a political conspiracy. However, this doesn't immediately solve everything. The evil conspiracy ends up covering for Shido because they would also be screwed over, and due to their control over the media, the public doesn't care. Furthermore, even after Mementos is destroyed and society starts moving to convict Shido for his laundry list of crimes, he can't be found guilty without evidence. And since the Metaverse is gone, Black Mask is (presumed) dead and the conspiracy obviously won't testify against itself, the only person left who can testify against Shido is Joker. As a result, Joker has to confess to being the leader of the Phantom Thieves and be sent to Juvenile Hall due to his prior record to ensure that Shido is convicted. Plot happens. And it involves too many unrealistic things.
    • And even that gets its own dose of reality ensuing, this time in favor of the Phantom Thieves. Joker ends up in juvie for all of two months, as all of the good he had done as the leader of the Thieves lead to his Confidants and allies proving how unfair and bogus the initial arrest was — Shido tried Attempted Rape on a woman when he was drunk, then used his power to end up as a Karma Houdini while blaming Joker for it. The arrest is eventually removed from Joker's record, and he's released early. The police are furious at this, but prosecuting Joker as a Phantom Thief now would prove to a very-aware society that the police were scapegoating him. The best they can do is keep Joker under constant surveillance in case he does anything else, but it's shown that the police are doing this out of spite rather than genuinely thinking he's a criminal. Plot happens. Also not surprising, since a happy ending is the expected outcome for a game like this.
  • The Phantom Thieves meet in fairly public places to discuss their activities. Combine this with Ryuji, who has No Indoor Voice, and he very nearly spills the beans several times. In fact, Makoto was already tailing the gang under orders from the principal, and gets solid proof that they're the Phantom Thieves thanks to Ryuji's inability to keep his mouth shut. Maybe valid. The Phantom Thieves spend enough time planning things in public that you'd assume some Acoustic License is in play.
  • The school rooftop is repeatedly stated to be off-limits because the plot kicked off with Shiho attempting suicide by jumping from it. When the group's trespassing up there is finally noticed, they get a warning and it's properly locked. Not sure. Probably just Plot.
  • Late in Sojiro's Confidant link, Futaba's uncle claims that Sojiro is an abusive parent to Futaba (so he can get money from Sojiro) and that Joker attacked him, after falling down in front of two witnesses apart from the so-called attacker. While a police detective shows up to Leblanc, he just asks a series of questions to everyone involved, including Futaba. By the end, it's clear that the uncle filed a false police report, so the detective bids the group good day and leaves without arresting anyone. Not sure. If someone files a false abuse report, maybe some people would expect a side-plot about clearing Sojiro's name.
  • Played for Laughs during the trip to Hawaii. During the group's stay in a hotel, Mishima gets a bad stomachache. This is because he's visiting from Japan, and he drank American tap water. Ryuji even comments that one of the first things the students are told on the trip is not to drink the tap water for exactly that reason. Plot happens
• Persona 5 Strikers:
  • The police force after the events of Persona 5 is noticeably diminished; high-ranking officers were arrested on grounds of conspiratorial accompliceship, public opinion took a hit when their role in oppressing activists came to light, and their glorious leader's change of heart exposed the entire rotten operation. Several corrupt mid-level members are still trying to capture the Phantom Thieves in an attempt to regain public trust after a new wave of cognitive distortions hits the city, even if the evidence against the Thieves is largely circumstantial. Plot happens
  • Kaburagi continues to emphasize to her subordinates the importance of investigating every lead for genuine links to the Thieves, as similarities to past modus operandi are all they have to go on. As a result, when Owada attempts to arrest the Thieves and takes Zenkichi into custody without following proper arrest protocol and lacking legal justification on which to conduct the arrest in the first place, Sae Niijima terminates their operation immediately on the grounds that the arrest was illegal. Not sure
  • Makoto and Haru are the only Thieves with driver's licenses, and yet Makoto refuses Haru's aid and insists on driving by herself because of Haru's vehicular expertise. Several hours of marathon driving take their toll on Makoto, and Jail excursions further cut into the rest she requires; by the time they need to drive from Fukuoka to Kyoto, Makoto is too exhausted to drive and Haru has to take over. Not sure
  • The fourth Jail arc has the Thieves pull an all-nighter exploring the Jail after a long day at the beach; given this is an impromptu investigation rather than a planned-out heist, all of them are exhausted come morning and require some rest before they can continue their work in any capacity. Plot happens
  • Zenkichi had a good reason for feigning indifference to his wife's death rather than investigate it directly: (the Conspiracy was using Akane's well-being as blackmail material against him, and given how this was well before Joker was pulled into Yaldabaoth's game, the conspiracy was more than powerful enough to carry through with it, with or without Shido). Even so, his daughter Akane's feelings were grievously hurt as collateral damage; the Phantom Thieves' many successes where the police could or would not act only further fueled her hatred for the police. Thus, even when the truth comes out thanks to encouragement from the Phantom Thieves, their relationship does not improve immediately. It takes Makoto convincing Akane to give Zenkichi another chance, as well as Zenkichi admitting that Akane has every right to be mad at him, that things can truly start to heal. Character reaction
  • Once the Final Boss is defeated, the Big Bad attempts to turn themselves into the police for the part they played. However, because the crimes were committed in the Metaverse, there is no proper evidence to arrest them, and the police set them free for lack of proof. Not realistic

What about the first of the Senran Kagura? Some of does sound like a SRO.

Edited by CelestialDraco on Jun 1st 2023 at 8:51:35 AM

• Super Smash Bros. has these kind of examples:
  • In Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the Subspace Emissary story mode:
    • Snake attempts to hide from Lucario and Meta Knight using his trademark cardboard box. In his home game, mooks would be fooled. But not Lucario, who immediately notices something strange about a cardboard box in the middle of an otherwise-empty hallway. Likewise, once more enemies arrive to harass the group, Snake immediately tries to hide behind a wall, because in Metal Gear proper, taking on that many enemies at once head-on would be suicide. First past sounds valid
    • Captain Falcon makes a Dynamic Entry from his speeding Blue Falcon. But because he is going so fast, he doesn't notice the crowd of Pikmin and promptly kills them all as he lands and strikes a pose. Valid
    • Ganondorf and Bowser's battleship's defensive cannons manage to hit and destroy the Halberd, whose large size makes it an easy target. Not surprising
    • Likewise, one good hit from Kirby is enough to take down the battleship. Cuttable ZCE
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:
    • Characters with powers or equipment that are less fantastical than their compatriots are outright hosed in the face of such overwhelming destruction: Snake's cardboard box might fool guards in a stocked facility, but out in the open it can't buy even one extra second of life, while the Inklings are not immaterial when submerged in ink, and even that does no good when the attacker is willing to tear up the land to rid itself of them. The Duck Hunt duo and the Villager panic like the end of the world is coming (because it is), while the Wii Fit Trainer doing yoga poses is all she can do to stay calm in the face of the apocalypse. First part sounds valid, but character reaction for the last two.
    • Poor Luigi in Simon Belmont's reveal trailer ends up stumbling into the more realistic, gritty and lethal Dracula's Castle and unlike the ghosts in his own game who can be weakened by a flashlight and sucked up, Luigi is left running scared from the monsters, his plunger shots don't do more but make the mummies chasing him pause at his audacity, and when he has the bad fortune to run into Death, his soul gets ripped out of his body. Thankfully Simon manages to save him in time from that last misfortune. Too fantastical
    • This is what ultimately defines all three of the endings to World of Light. One, Galeem is a light-based being of absolute order, Dharkon is a darkness-based being of absolute chaos, and both are absolutely antipodal to each other, seeing the fighters as merely pawns, albeit very rebellious ones, in their 'game'. Two, if you focus to take down one of them, the other will gleefully use the opening to harness all its power to obliterate all its opposition in one fell swoop. The entire purpose of a pawn is to be used by a higher power, and the defeat of its sworn enemy is the end of any pawn; did you expect your "benefactor" to spare you in the end? Finally, this actually works against both Galeem and Dharkon; they are so antipodal to each other that the mere concept of working together for any length of time is anathema to them, and fighting both at once is a Mêlée à Trois where attacks from any party can hurt both other parties indiscriminately. This abject lack of cooperation between the two superpowers makes the fight against both sides at once easier than it should be as a result. Plot happens