Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, previously called Reality Ensues, is one of the most heavily misused tropes this site has ever had, having gone to the Trope Repair Shop twice ([1]
[2]
) and Trope Talk once ([3]
) before settling into its current state of having to receive constant cleanup.
These issues finally came to a head in 2019 when Reality Ensues went to TRS after a wick check found misuse to outnumber valid examples 30-40 to 1. After discussion, tropers agreed to drop the "broken convention" aspect of the trope and rename it Surprisingly Realistic Outcome to improve clarity. However, after the cleanup began, it soon became apparent that instead of properly reviewing examples, tropers were mass-moving them to the new name with no regard for whether they even fit the new definition, and the cleanup soon became regarded
as the textbook example of botched TRS work. Despite removing nearly half of the examples, SRO was still in Overdosed Tropes with over 10,000 examples by the time Reality Ensues wick migration finished. This cleanup thread, which predates the TRS efforts by nearly two years, noticed the problem and took it to TRS a second time, which eventually turned into a Trope Talk discussion that finally fleshed out SRO with an actual description and established clear, concise criteria for judging examples. After that, cleanup began intermittently, eventually deleting nearly all the subpages and getting SRO below the Overdosed Tropes threshold; active cleanup continues.
Many Stock Phrases used in this thread describe particular types of misuse encountered frequently:
- Not surprising. — The outcome described isn't a Bait-and-Switch and merely follows expected genre conventions.
- Note that SRO can't be common in any fiction, as realistic events being surprising requires that they be rare. They might be unexpected at first if they keep happening, but they would eventually become expected; SRO being "common" in media is an oxymoron.
- Plot happens. — The example merely describes an event or series of events but not why people typically expect something different.
- Deconstruction / Genre Deconstruction / Deconstructed Trope / Deconstructed Character Archetype shoehorn. — The example is a deconstruction of some type misplaced under SRO.
- Too fantastical. — The causes/outcome includes stuff Impossible in Real Life such as Applied Phlebotinum, Functional Magic, Science Fiction, etc., meaning they're too unrealistic by default.
- Character reaction. — The outcome involves a character reacting in a certain way or having certain emotions, which we can't gauge the realism of because people's emotional reactions vary far too much.
- Not realistic. — The supposed "realistic" outcome isn't legitimately realistic; using this phrase requires you to describe why it isn't realistic.
- Too implausible. — The outcome describes an outcome that happened because of things too unlikely to count as relatively realistic compared to what they were subverting.
- Cuttable ZCE. — The example is a Zero-Context Example, which can be cut unilaterally in a cleanup.
- Not an outcome. — The example is a Discussed Trope, Lampshade Hanging, Conversational Troping, something that happens over too much time to be momentary, a general feature of the setting, or is otherwise not a singular event.
- Too unclear. — The example is too convoluted or obtuse to judge.
- Irrelevant. — The example describes stuff utterly irrelevant to the definition of SRO.
A big thing I've noticed is that it's often used for anything remotely realistic, or something that's realistic but doesn't necessarily affect the story. Another problem is that the trope seems to be cherry-picked, where any instance of reality ensuing is put there, as well as when another trope could serve the example better.
Problematic examples from one sample page, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome.Disney Animated Series: "Despite his attempts Wander can't make friends with Dominator who constantly rebuffs his friendly gestures throughout season 2. Even at the end of everything, she still refuses. Sylvia even lampshades it, telling him some people are just like that."
"Spider-Man's fight against Sandman and Rhino, where Spidey uses Rhino's weight against him. rather than fighting him directly." "Beshte gets sunburns all over his body and is easily exhausted while he is lost in the Outlands. Justified due to the fact that hippos need water to survive to avoid sunburn and overheating."
"It's heavily implied that being the leader of the Lion Guard has taken a toll on Kion's social and private life."
"Milo Murphy's Law is about a boy named Milo Murphy whose entire life is centered around Murphy's Law. In another cartoon, being The Jinx would cause people to be afraid of them, resulting in an unsocial lifestyle. That does not apply here. While everyone does watch their step around Milo, they do not hate him for it. Being The Jinx does, however, give everyone Paranoia Fuel, given that Murphy's Law can happen at any time, so chances are you might need insurance, a phone in case of emergencies, among other things. Milo himself (as well as his friends Melissa and Zack) just learned to adapt to his condition, being prepared for anything. He has lived with Murphy's Law his entire life after all. That being said, that does not mean that they don't panic all the time. Examples include Milo panicking over his monthly doctor's note, and Melissa panicking over riding a rollercoaster with Milo."
" Hiro is initially not allowed to use Tadashi's former lab, as it can only be accessed by upperclassmen who earned the privilege. Subverted in the second half of the pilot when Professor Granville decides Hiro using the lab would benefit him. On a related note regarding Granville, she is tough, but fair when interacting with the students. She might be, as Wasabi describes "a hard case", but Granville being a complete sadist and picking on Hiro would be unrealistic. She is actually a decent person."
Edited by lalalei2001 on Oct 18th 2024 at 2:06:25 PM
Some long entries on Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon:
- When the Corporations pull an Enemy Mine against both the PCA fleet and the Ice Worm terrorizing operations, Balam's decision to fight the Ice Worm ends up costing them dearly. As soon as the alliance wraps up, Balam exhausts itself trying to rush ahead to the Watchpoint Alpha, while Arquebus takes the opportunity to steal PCA's technology after defeating their fleet, giving them the technological edge that allows them to mobilize a much stronger force that eclipses Balam's. Regardless of the story route taken, Balam winds up being pushed off Rubicon-3 altogether, leaving the Arquebus Corporation with a sole monopoly on the planet. Unclear what the surprise is
- However, just because Arquebus manages to seize control of the whole planet and gain a monopoly of the Coral does not mean the Forever War ends. Arquebus is now the sole opponent for nearly every faction on Rubicon-3 now — including the RLF, which will fight to the very last man if need be, and Arquebus's Smug Snake tendencies and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder leaves them with very few allies to give them breathing room to capitalize on their newfound monopoly... especially in the "Fires of Raven" route where C4-621 ignites the Coral, wiping it from existence alongside most of their Corporation's assets in the process, which renders their clever strategies All for Nothing. Same
- The "Alea Iacta Est" route goes even further for Arquebus. Turns out that while they may have gotten a lot of shiny new PCA tech to play with, what they haven't got is anywhere near enough time to study and properly understand it before they're forced to push it into action against all the other factions, resulting in their Super Prototypes being barely tested and hastily deployed rush jobs with most of the intel Arquebus has on them being observations from when the PCA was using it on them. Plus, the lack of understanding leaves several glaring holes in their cybersecurity systems... allowing ALLMIND to start up a massive Mook Horror Show by hijacking all of their stolen PCA technology (like their shiny new Institute M Ts) through backdoor hacking and turning it against Arquebus at the worst possible time. Probably valid
- The Avengers:
- The end of Avengers Disassembled touches on the downside of not having a secret identity when you're a visible public figure. Iron Man announces that thanks to a humiliating incident where the Scarlet Witch made him go on a drunken, racist tirade while speaking at the United Nations, his company's finances have taken a huge hit, meaning he can no longer fund the Avengers. As the head of a publicly-traded corporation, someone like Tony Stark needs to make sure he's keeping his shareholders happy so that stock prices don't plummet. Deconstruction
Tony Stark: Realize that when someone like me has a bad day... like that day... the public humiliation... billions of dollars are lost. Thousands of jobs are lost.
- In one issue from Jonathan Hickman's run, a group of supervillains take over a country and then send one of their members to UN to make a case for their new regime to be acknowledged. Because of circumstances, he actually had a chance to convince them — then Captain America attacked him. Instead of stopping the villain by beating him, the villains got what they wanted — starting Blood on the Debate Floor makes your side look unreasonable and politicians more likely to side with your opponent. Valid
- The same group of villains shows up more in his New Avengers run. Their leader Namor gathered them to basically do horrible things for greater good. However, when you have dangerous supervillains and criminals doing things, they tend to go overboard, and the fact that Namor has standards makes them incredibly difficult to control, as the villains aren't afraid of him. Instead, it just makes them betray him even quicker than usual. Character reaction
- The plot of Avengers Arena revolves around perennial C-list joke villain Arcade kidnapping a bunch of teen superheroes and forcing them to fight to the death in Murderworld, which he thinks will finally convince people to take him seriously. The followup, Avengers Undercover, reveals that this completely backfired. Not only can Arcade no longer leave Bagalia (since the entire superhero community is now out for his blood), but he's also still considered a joke by his peers. In the eyes of the supervillain community, Arcade now looks like a pathetic loser who had to murder a bunch of kids because he couldn't cut it against experienced heroes like Spider-Man or the X-Men. Even Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil make it clear they want nothing to do with him, and Zemo flatout tells Arcade that what he accomplished is nothing to brag about. Character reaction
Baron Zemo: Tell me... which of your impressive deeds am I meant to respect most? Kidnapping? Child abuse? Inspired video editing?
- In an issue of Avengers World, Shang-Chi draws strength from the tales of three warriors from Chinese history: A monk who fought off a squad of his emperor's warriors, a lawman who managed to defeat the assassin who poisoned him, and a peasant girl who single-handedly defended her village from a group of bandits. Despite the inspirational nature of the stories, Shang-Chi later notes that they all come with very unfortunate epilogues: The monk died of a broken heart after realizing he'd been betrayed by the emperor, the lawman defeated his attacker but succumbed to the poison while in a hospital bed, and the peasant girl was murdered after the bandits returned and attacked her while she slept. Plot happens
- The end of Avengers Disassembled touches on the downside of not having a secret identity when you're a visible public figure. Iron Man announces that thanks to a humiliating incident where the Scarlet Witch made him go on a drunken, racist tirade while speaking at the United Nations, his company's finances have taken a huge hit, meaning he can no longer fund the Avengers. As the head of a publicly-traded corporation, someone like Tony Stark needs to make sure he's keeping his shareholders happy so that stock prices don't plummet. Deconstruction
- The first issue of Captain America: Sam Wilson opens with Sam taking a commercial flight from Arizona to New York, despite being an Avenger. As the issue progresses, it turns out that he has to fly commercial since the Avengers are currently on hard times, meaning that they have to be smart with their money. The Quinjets are so advanced that they require a prohibitively expensive amount of fuel to run, and Sam has already spent so much money on his own crime fighting operation that he doesn't have any cash left over to buy his own plane. Plot happens
- In the first issue of All-New, All-Different Avengers, Sam has to buy some Girl Scout cookies, with one seller being black and the other being white. He realizes picking the black kid over the white kid or vice versa would be a PR nightmare, and ends up defusing the situation by tricking the girls into doing a photo op with Iron Man instead. He later says that everything he does is heavily scrutinized and viewed as a racial issue by the press and social media, something that often happens to high profile people of color in real life. Not an outcome
The first two were added to the main page. Any thoughts on them and the other ones?
- Chainsaw Man: At the end of Part 1, Denji ends up starting an adopted family, which he accepts with delight. Come Part 2, and his life is as disastrous as a real-life 17-year-old would be in the same shoes: Between excessive living expenses and no stable day job due to his school forbidding it, he faces constant financial problems and has to rely on desperate measures to make ends meet at many points.
- Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest: Old Orc culture believed that basic shelter against the elements was considered a sign of weakness. So naturally, history is full of Orc royalty and warlords dying of pneumonia, dehydration, hypothermia and other conditions that could have been prevented easily should they have done anything about it.
- Chainsaw Man - Denji: In Part 2, Denji becoming Nayuta's caretaker has been a disaster, to put it lightly, with her developing a lot of Makima's old traits because Denji is a know-nothing kid who's barely a functional Manchild on his best days thanks to his childhood and his closest and most intimate role model for understanding female interaction was Makima, so he was doomed from the get-go in steering Nayuta's development clear from what created the monster Makima became in the first place, with his only saving grace being that his genuine compassion and want to ensure Nayuta has a future instead of abuse (like Makima grew up with) provides a moral compass that prevents Nayuta from being as evil as her past life and instead just a Spoiled Brat with Goo-Goo-Godlike powers.
- Chainsaw Man - Asa Mitaka and Yoru: She severely overestimates the bond she makes with Denji in the aquarium, believing that after just three days of forced confinement, sharing a single meal, and a few hours of fun collecting money that he ought to be in love with her. Even a peek into his head shows that Denji just likes her a little and he isn't too broken up when Asa shouts that she hates him.
- Chainsaw Man - Devils and Fiends: Asa bemoans how she and Yoru are going to have to take a presumably long time to find the mysterious student who mutated Yuko further only to run into her the next day because she has a very striking appearance and they both go to the same regular-sized high school.
Edited by CelestialDraco on Oct 11th 2023 at 6:15:40 AM
Second and fourth items look like SRO. Lost in the wall of text in the third, the first isn't a moment, and the fifth looks more like Gilligan Cut or something.
From The Von Trope Family description:
This just seems like "someone has Dutch or German ancestry, therefore the person who thought they were suspicious or goofy is just Wrong Genre Savvy" rather than anything realistic.
Your goateed philistine is sashaying towards us. | 🧱Thoughts?
- Astro City:
- In the 1950s, a reporter sees a fantastic battle between the Honor Guard and a group of cultists. However, his editor keeps cutting down the story because he can't prove any of it actually happened, and Honor Guard isn't available to confirm any of it. Thus, the tale simply becomes a report on a frozen shark derailing a train. When he becomes an editor himself, he admits that his boss was right on not printing what can't be backed up by facts.
- Astro City itself defies Comic-Book Time by having characters age, often forcing heroes to retire. One story arc has Crackerjack and Quarrel, two regular, non-powered street fighters, forced to acknowledge that in their forties, they're not as physically capable as they once were.
- The man who would become Mister Drama tried robbing a theatre he'd failed an audition at, and made no attempt to hide who he was. The stick-up was successful, but the victims remembered his name and face and told the police, who quickly went to his house. Only the fact that he wasn't home prevented him from getting arrested.
It's Astro City, the comic book where superhero attempts to capture villains and deliver them to the police results in the police asking them if they have any evidence the people they accosted were actually in the process of committing crimes. The comics about the place of superpowered individuals in society and how society works with that. Yeah, the creator rejected an attempts to label the work as "realism", but the point here is that "Surprising" is one of the criteria that needs to be met for SRO, so anything that involves "realism", like journalists needing proof before their stories can be printed aren't surprising, they're just par for the course.
So, that's the first issue, and would apply to any potential example for this work... is it surprising within the boundaries of the work? I'm betting most of the time, the answer will be "no". The second issue is with the second bullet point — the ageing of superheroes is clearly a plot point here, so it's just "plot happens". Also, ageing superheroes are a thing even in Comic-Book Time works. Even Batman ages out of being an active superhero and needs successors, for example.
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.- Night in the Woods:
- A sidequest has Mae introduce Saleem, a bear violinist, and Sadie, a cat saxophonist, who start playing together. Mae expresses that the two will get married one day, but Saleem is already seeing someone else and Sadie says looking after her kid leaves her with no time for a relationship.
- A family doctor, who thinks simple psychotherapy is the answer to every mental disorder, turns out to be very ill-equipped to handle Mae's illness. Yes, there are numerous success stories, but antipsychotics tend to be more reliable for such severe cases. He should've referred her to a real psychiatrist at the very least.
These sound iffy. The first doesn't seem like an outcome, and even if it was, two people not falling in love is a character reaction. The second also sounds like a character reaction since it involves mental illness.
Another video game example that was added:
- In Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Peter's flimsy excuses and absences from school to go save the day were barely tolerated when he was a student. Now that he is a teacher, any absence of his is treated much more harshly, especially when his leaving during a supervillain attack puts his students at risk. After having to leave to fight Sandman, Peter is promptly fired when he returns to the school.
This one probably fails on the surprising front, since Peter Parker having balance his civilian and superhero lives is a common thing in Spider-Man stories, so this is just following normal conventions rather than exposing them as unrealistic.
Superhero stories do tend to have even unpowered heroes be Made of Iron, but in this context I don't think 'a physically weak person is physically weak when not in their superpowered form' to be at all surprising. Simple cut also.
This was recently added in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Played for Laughs at the end of chapter 2 of the first game; on the train back to Trista, Sara makes a touching speech about how they shouldn't worry about what goes on the world and they should focus on their time at Thors, believing that their time there will be invaluable, especially the memories they make with their friends, "people for whom there is no substitute". and the others are left speechless for a moment... then laugh at how utterly out-of-character it is for her. Turns out if you act like a lazy, irresponsible drunk the vast majority of the time, you'll make it impossible for people to take you seriously even when you act mature, as people will believe the latter just doesn't suit you.
I'm unsure of this entry because there are times when a silly person can be taken seriously. Plus, it also has a sinkhole.
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A![]()
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That is 100% Character Reaction.
Cleaning up the Like a Dragon entries:
- Yakuza 4:
- Complexity Addiction: Courtesy of Katsuragi not thinking things through, the Ueno Seiwa hit boiled down to a lot of this. The conspirators have Saejima seemingly do all the kills via non-lethal ammunition and take the blame, so that Katsuragi can get back up and kill the targets afterwards from beneath suspicion while extracting Ueno safely. Sugiuchi would then wound Katsuragi as part of the ploy and try to fudge up the police reports a little to cover for him. All of this so they and Shibata can rank up and get a higher personal standing in the years to come while butting Ueno out of the way. The moment Munakata looks at the fine lines of the reports, however, this overly-complicated plan falls apart in seconds as he points out Saejima doesn't line up as some ace gunman that would perfectly headshot everybody there yet fail to kill Katsuragi. Through Sugiuchi, the conspiracy is thus blackmailed by Munakata for the next 30 years.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A panty thief leaps from buildings to get away from his target and slips off the railing. Beginning to fall, he flings one of the bras he had stolen onto a nearby fire escape like a Grappling-Hook Pistol. It slides around it and stops his fall... for all of half a second since it had nothing to clip onto (and would have just ripped if it did), sending him crashing into the street below.
- Yakuza 6:
- At the end of the previous game, Haruka revealed her ties to the Yakuza through Kiryu. Rather than everyone understanding her and leaving her alone, this goes disastrously for everyone involved, and results in her reputation going up in flames. In fact, as Kazuma Kiryu is the greatest Yakuza warrior alive and holds the infamous title of the Dragon of Dojima with a well-known reputation for stomping his opponents while causing collateral damage, even Haruka's adopted siblings suffer. Even Kiryu ultimately realizes that his dream of a happy life with Haruka and the others can never come true, as his reputation and title itself even without him doing anything else represents incredible strength to be feared.
- Kiryu, who had been causing quite some damage to people and objects around him since the 80s, is arrested for assault and destruction of private property. Played with, as the arrest only happened because the police needed a scapegoat, and even then he only served a relatively merciful 3 years in prison despite already having a criminal record beforehand.
- Funny/Yakuza6:
- After Kiryu's final interrogation with Big Lo that ends with Lo leaving to Face Death with Dignity, Kiryu tells Yuta he's going to Onomichi alone to investigate the secret. Yuta, livid with Lo for accusing Hirose of killing to protect the secret, insists that he's going with Kiryu to prove his patriarch's innocence and then declares that he'll kill Lo for real afterwards. In front of Date. Who's a detective. Who promptly slaps some handcuffs on Yuta and drags him to the station for interrogation about the fire he started. Date even lampshades this.
- Characters/Judgment:
- Mundane Solution: So Bato Detective Agency have broken into YDA and are ready to ambush Kaito and Jun. The solution? Call the cops. It works. And that's all there is to it.
- Funny/Judgment:
- On another visit to KJ Art later down the line, Yagami accidentally bumps into a thug carrying a box full of weapons and other improvised equipment. When the thug trips the alarm and prepares to square off with Yagami, all that he can muster is an "Oh, for fuck's sake" look on his face!
- Funny/LostJudgment:
- While Oshikiri is The Dreaded in Todoroki's Boxing Gym, at the end of the day, he's still a high school student. So where might he be working a part-time job? Flipping burgers.
- Like Ichiban, if you're not careful while running around in traffic in either Kamurocho or Ijincho, Yagami will get run over and take damage in doing so!
- The Boxing style is probably the best (and literal) example of "throwing hands". Especially as mentioned above if you use it on the rowdy students since, compared to most of Yagami's other fighting styles (though not without some creative liberties taken), it's a brutally hilarious case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome as even the strongest high school student like Ya-kun doesn't stand a rat's chance in hell against even an amateur pugilist. Just ask Kamoji or the first Mr. Try and Hit Me.
- YMMV/LostJudgment:
- If you want to laugh your ass off even more as you're beating on some rotten teenagers, you can't go wrong with the Boxer style. Which, unlike most of Yagami's other fighting styles, is a pretty hilarious case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome on the account of Boxing being one of the more practical and effective martial arts to use for self-defense. Talk about throwing hands.
Input?
- New Warriors:
- There are a number of instances in the first volume where the Warriors must either let the villains go or walk away from a fight due to lack of sufficient evidence of the villains' wrongdoing or the heroes needing to avoid having to answer for the laws they have broken themselves. One such example is the New Warriors' first battle with Psionex, a team of supervillains created by Genetech. The New Warriors are forced to accept a ceasefire from the leaders of Genetech as the Warriors broke into their building first. In addition, creating superpowered beings isn't illegal and the New Warriors can't actually prove that Psionex are villains.
- The series acknowledges how difficult it is to be on a super team when you live in a different city from the rest of your teammates. Speedball lives in Springdale, Connecticut while the rest of the team is in New York and is often late for meetings as a result. This does prove advantageous when his lateness allows him to avoid getting captured along with the other five Warriors in their first battle with Psionex.
- Speedball's focus story in the fourth annual reveals that his superhero activities have impacted his school work to the point he is at risk of being held back.
- Arnold Astrovik's continued abuse of his superpowered teenage son who is showing more of a willingness to stand up to him ultimately results in his death.

The ones with fantastical elements can probably be cut.