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
Missed this from the same page: Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: D.W. learns that other people can check out books as well, and must wait a week before someone returns the book she wants.
Not an outcome, not surprising.
These examples from Marvel's Spider-Man 2 seem questionable to me.
- Peter's excuses to slip out of school to perform Super-hero work were only barely tolerated in part because of his young age at the time, and they're even less viable now that an older Peter is trying to take on a position of authority as a teacher in said school. When Peter and Miles have to team up to stop Sandman's destructive rampage throughout the city, Peter's absence from supervising his students during a citywide crisis is noted and he is promptly fired once he reassumes his civilian attire. From an outside perspective, this is a gross violation of conduct from somebody who is supposed to be protecting the students from harm during such an event — which Peter technically was, but not in a manner he can convincingly explain to the principal, who isn't as tolerant of Peter's disappearances and absences as Octavius was last game. Not surprising, Peter himself says he's gonna get fired right before he fights Sandman.
- Peter had 8 years or longer to come to terms with Uncle Ben’s death. Despite enough time passing from the first game for Miles to have become an Experienced Protagonist of his own, May's more recent death still haunts Peter and he struggles to move on from it, such as letting her old items be donated to charity. Finding a necklace of hers containing portraits of a younger him and Ben around her house has Peter audibly chocking back a sob and commenting how the sadness "hits you like a rogue wave sometimes". It's this lingering negativity that forms the core of the emotional turmoil that the symbiote feeds off of and helps attract it to Peter in the first place. Character feels grief from last game's events...not surprising.
- Peter is a superhuman who has gotten used to pushing through a lot of damage over his years of crimefighting, particularly in the 3rd act of the first game. However, even with enhanced durability and a downplayed Healing Factor, there are some wounds you simply cannot ignore or overcome with willpower. When Kraven stabs Peter in the gut with a large knife and breaks the blade off to keep the wound open, Peter is greatly incapacitated and swiftly bleeds out within minutes just like a normal human would, requiring the Symbiote's aid to not succumb to such an injury. This one is...maybe ok. But it probably better belongs under Cutscene Incompetence because Peter just kind of runs into Kraven's knife. On it's own "character is nearly killed after being stabbed" isn't surprising, considering Spider-Man has always been tough but never bullet or knife proof
- J Jonah Jameson's Bad Boss tendencies are played for laughs with his assistant Jared, but it makes him a terrible man to work for. Thus, it's not exactly surprising when MJ has enough with his pushing for negative stories on Spider-Man and general crappiness as a boss and flat out quits. This one literally even says its not surprising.
- Despite Miles managing to resuscitate Harry, the damage that Harry's body took during Venom's fight with the Spider-Men is still very much in effect, and Harry quickly lapses into a coma. Hurt character is hurt.
- Mary Jane's attempt of doing the "AKIRA" slide is the most realistic take on the slide. Try doing it yourself and see how bad you and the bike get damaged. Doesn't even explain what happens to MJ, and uses the incredibly nattery "just try it yourself". It's a bog standard Shout-Out.
Thoughts?
I'm admittedly not an expert on what counts as an example of this trope or not, but I'm not sure about the examples used for Surprisingly Realistic Outcome in Trampy Movies.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Moreso especially as the series essentially brings in line the wackier stories of the first five books with the consequences seen in later stories.
- Henry getting shut up in the tunnel in Rain might knock him down a peg, but as Thomas complains in Tricked, that basically means all of his work is squashed onto everyone else.
- Gordon's trick on Thomas is displayed as him deliberately starting without waiting for the guard so he can pull Thomas on the express. Sir Topham Hatt yells at him to stop, and in the next movie, scolds him for it.
- Discussed by Henry and James for reasons why they won't join Gordon's strike; not only will this destroy all of the effort they've made to get back in Sir Topham Hatt's good graces, but if the railway closes, which Gordon plans to use as his backup plan, it'll put them out of a job and potentially get them all scrapped. Gordon rebuffs this, believing that they'll simply be bought by other railways, aside from Edward due to his age, which ultimately convinces them.
- It then gets turned around because Sir Topham Hatt simply counters Gordon's plan by shutting them up in the sheds, getting Thomas to help Edward pull slower main line trains, and purchases Percy to run Thomas' branch line, thus thwarting Gordon's entire scheme.
- For further bonus points, beforehand, Sir Topham Hatt was already making plans to purchase a new engine to act as shunter, since they play a critical role in running a railway in the first place.
- Throughout the strike, Thomas takes great joy in teasing the big engines about their predicament...but as Edward keeps trying (and failing) to remind Thomas, this is no joking matter; they're having to carry the main line on their own and can't afford to waste time.
Most of these just sound like Plot Happens, right? Should these all be taken down or not?
What’s your thoughts in these BFDI Examples?
- Battle for Dream Island: In “Hurtful”, Flower shoves Firey to the ocean, and is about to fall, luckily Leafy swims for him, and catches him in the nick of time, until she burns her hands from touching Firey and burns ablaze, while Firey drowns in the water.
- Battle for Dream Island Again:
- In “Well Rested”, Team No-Name tries to hide away from Evil Leafy in a fancy room with motion sensor doors, but Evil Leafy struggles to get inside. As Tennis Ball explains to Gelatin, since she moves instantaneously and not continuously like themselves, the door sensors can’t register her movements as motion. So the team was safe, until Gelatin’s headphone’s shoot spike balls that activated the sensors.
- Meanwhile, as FreeSmart is driving their Super Van, they pick up some balloons to lift their van up into the sky, but then they spot a pipe, and are about to crash into it, Book tells Pencil to hit the brakes, but since they're in the air, they have no ground to use as friction, so they crash into it.
- In “Intruder Alert”, W.O.A.H. Bunch needed to use the Yoyle Warehouse to build their loser chamber, but after last episode’s storm, the place flooded. So Coiny brings an idea by drinking the water away with bendy straws. But as the team starts drinking, they struggle to finish due to the rainwater being too dirty and bitter.
- In “Catch These Hands”, the contestants had to play charades in trash compactors. While Tennis Ball was left with a complex phrase, Gelatin was too dumb to understand it, so in a quick effort, Tennis Ball creates a laser constructed out of some of the machine's parts, and draws out the molecular structure for acetylsalicylic acid on the moon. That way, Golfball, Tennis Ball’s other teammate, could read it out and free him from the compactor. But now, Golfball is in the compactor for answering correctly. Because Golfball missed a whole portion of the game (being glued to a tree in Yoyle Land), she has no idea what to do. And they can’t tell her anything, because the compactor is protected with sound proof glass. So she dies without a clue in the world.
- Also, while Coiny was trapped inside a cash register floating adrift in space for 4 months he dies from asphyxiation.
- In “Lots of Mud”, when swimming for keys in the lake, Nickel struggles to swim because he doesn’t have a snorkel, so Bomby lends in his own, but now Bomby’s about to drown, so Nickel gives his snorkel back. After the problem keeps getting repetitive, Bomby comes with an idea by sharing the snorkel with Nickel together, by trying to share air back and forth between one snorkel, but because oxygen is reduced by half every time it's breathed out, they promptly drown after Nickel lampshades that it isn't working.
- In “Well, Look Who It Is!”, Gelatin, Rocky, and Ice Cube decided to take a swim in the Yoyle Fountain, but Firey can’t swim in it, as he’s afraid of fountains, but Gelatin reassures him that the fountain is actually filled with Yoyle Oil, so he can swim in it.
Ice Cube: OIL?! Wait Firey, oil’s flamabl- [Firey jumps in the fountain, setting everyone else on fire]
- And later, when visiting the Yoyle Bakery, Firey feeds Gelatin one of its cookies that were lying around. That’s until Gelatin finds the cookie to be stale. As Firey points out, the bakery hasn’t been in operation since 1338.
Gelatin: 600 YEARS?! [Gelatin dies due to eating a centuries-old cookie.]
- “PointyPointyPointy♫”, on Dora’s island, the contestants had to eat an island. So when Coiny and Pin (with her new Mini-Mecha) enter, Pin easily finishes her island by using her garbage shredder, but once Coiny shoves the island chunk in there, a bunch of dirt flies in his face.
- As the two would complete their task, they swim up the waterfall to the next island, but due to Pin’s power cord, Coiny gets shocked, so he has to carry Pin out the water while swimming.
- Battle for BFDI:
- In “The Escape From Four”, Two demonstrates his awesome powers, as he rises magma out of the sky, and fills the magma inside Bottle. At first, Bottle giggles with the magma inside her, until she screams in pain, and immediately shatters from the intense heat. Glass isn’t durable enough to hold magma.
- “Who Stole Donut’s Diary”, after Leafy and Firey resolve their friendship, they decide to give each other a big hug, that’s until Firey burns Leafy to ashes in his grasp.
- Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two:
- In “The Worst Day of Black Hole’s Life”, after Remote was recharged, she was amazed to find a whole pile of batteries and dives in. But through the rubble, she finds Naily in there too. Who has a battery stabbed to her point.
Lightning: [concerned] Naily! How long were you in there?!
Naily: Hmmm, I’m not sure. Long enough for it to start burning, apparently.
Remote: What? What does that mean?
[The batteries have now been leaking a pool acid, and Remote and Naily are burnt to their dooms] - Teardrop zapped out one of Death P.A.C.T Again’s blocks from their block stack, so it began to collapse, but mid-fall, Marker used his stretched-out paper clip from earlier to hold the gap between the blocks. Of course, this doesn’t work, as the clip wasn’t strong enough to hold the blocks, so it sprung away, as the blocks fell to the ground.
- And later in the episode, as Death P.A.C.T. Again tries to sabotage Teardrop’s block stack, Teardrop fends them off with her zap ray, killing off each member but as soon as she’s left with Black Hole, when she tries to zap him, Black Hole just sucks up the laser, making her attacks useless against him.
- The show has a Running Gag with the number 2763, mainly being used for the amount of distance to locations, but in “Dishes and Fishes”, Coiny explains the distance from their point to Yellow Face’s Warehouse to be 2762 miles away.
Pin: 2,762?
Coiny: Yeah? Not everything is always the same distance. - Played for Laughs in a Brick Joke. Back in BFDI, “The Glistening”, when Pen loses the rejoin, he gives a Shout-Out to the 32 people that voted for him, and owes them five hundred million vigintillion dollars each, because he can't afford to pay them all at the moment. Later in “Oneirophobe’s Nightmare”, Pen has been traumatized, as he’s been in two hundred vigintillion dollars in debt and if he doesn't pay back then he will be in jail for 3 trevigintillion years. Luckily, Eraser was able to lend him the money.
- In “The Worst Day of Black Hole’s Life”, after Remote was recharged, she was amazed to find a whole pile of batteries and dives in. But through the rubble, she finds Naily in there too. Who has a battery stabbed to her point.
x5: I doubt any of these qualify. It's a show about Animate Inanimate Objects; what even counts as "realistic" there?
Also, a bunch are just "situation is resolved anticlimactically" (another character was able to lend them the money) or "joke happens."
Am I okay to add this example to VideoGame.Xenoblade Chronicles 3?
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In Chapter 4, N uses the Annihilator to destroy a section of the Urayan Mountains as a show of power. Valdi's Ascension Quest shows that this destruction forced the Ansels living on the mountains to move to lower ground, which forces the Skeeters living there to move to Fornis. This disruption to the ecosystem is commented on, with Valdi declaring that he can adapt to a new environment like the monsters have.
Hi, can I get a second opinion in this example I want to add?
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- In canon, Joker steals the Normandy after his Turian flight instructor tells him that with his disability he's better off piloting for commercial airlines in order to prove that he's skilled enough, and afterwards the instructor admits that he was wrong and appoints him as the Normandy's pilot. In this fic, Joker tries pulling the exact same stunt (with a conventional fighter jet instead of the Normandy), and while he does prove he's incredibly skilled, he gets kicked out of GUN (the army) for insubordination and being a walking lawsuit.
- A common trope in military fiction is for the army to hire the expert to deal with a major crisis, and said expert coming with maybe a bit of grumbling. Here, GUN tries hiring back Joker after Eggman made himself a public threat, but he declines because of his contract with a commercial airline (meaning that he couldn't return even if he wanted to).
All other things aside, I think you've confused the Normandy with a shuttle somehow.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Wade's habit of trying to be funny all the time, distracting himself and making jokes during a very serious situation, such as a shooting, this time has a tragic consequence: Vanessa dies. It happens like this: He tries to make a joke to ease the tension, even though he knows he still has at least one armed man behind him (#1 error), he throws the knife at him without even looking (#2 error), he misses and the man shoots Vanessa by accident, apparently having forgotten after so long being near-immortal that his "tactics" are completely suicidal if you're a normal person and that people around you who don't have a healing factor can die (#3 error... and they die very often). He usually ignores this with his immature behavior, but this time it was the love of his life that died and he absolutely cannot laugh about it! Plot happens
- Wade starts spinning his swords to deflect a barrage of bullets, which successfully blocks, oh, about a third of them, with the rest ripping through his body. Maybe
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- During the fight between Wolverine and Deadpool in the car, Deadpool frequently attempts to use his adamantium katanas, but it's quickly shown that no matter how cool two unbreakable swords may be, if he doesn't have the space to actually use them, they're hindrances at best. For that reason, Deadpool ditches the swords as soon as possible in favor of the less impressive, but much more practical, "Baby Knife". Not surprising, not an outcome
- Paradox may be a bureaucrat and a weasel, but he's still combat-smart enough to effectively sneak-attack Wade while Wade is monologuing at close range. Presumably he learned from the prior time, when Wade got the drop on him. Just a logical choice
- During the assault on Nova's base, Team Deadpool/The Others cram themselves into a Honda Odyssey. Turns out Wolverine was in the trunk, because there wasn't enough room in the seats. Which lets him make an appropriately dramatic entrance to join the Establishing Team Shot moment. Not particularly surprising, not really an outcome
- Deadpool wants Nicepool's golden Desert Eagles. When Wade finally gets them, he runs out of ammo very quickly, and has to resort to stealing weapons from the Deadpool Corps. The low-ammo capacity is one of the many noted drawbacks of the guns IRL. In fact, it was literally the first big issue he faced in the film series. Just an example of It Works Better with Bullets
Edited by maxwellsilver on Sep 3rd 2024 at 8:14:24 AM
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I’d keep the “deflecting bullets with swords” one from 2 and cut the rest.
Not to be defeatist, but I’m wondering… does this trope need to go back to TRS? It’s clear that the rename hasn’t helped much when misuse is still popping up fresh on recent works, and I’d even argue that the name makes the problems worse in some instances—”Surprisingly Realistic Outcome”, aside from being a very clunky and prescriptive title, also sounds very “formal”, which may be misleading some people into thinking this primarily is a “serious”/dramatic trope in line with something like Deconstruction, when many examples are comedic in nature.
This was recently deleted from Film.Speak No Evil 2024... as a guy who's actually against misuse of the SRO trope, I actually thought it seems legit?
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ben makes a Molotov Cocktail and throws it at the barn to set it on fire. Instead of immediately breaking, the bottle just rolls down the roof and lands on Paddy's car, where it does break.
Any ideas?

Arthur S4E1 - "D.W.'s Library Card" / "Arthur's Big Hit"