Critical Research Failure cleanup

The example refers to how many right-wing American politicians and Moral Guardians thought that Kami (a character from the show who happens to be HIV-positive) was for the original American Sesame Street. It definitely needs a rewrite, however; it's too vague currently. Also, I believe that example is Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer, not Critical Research Failure.

Edited by jandn2014 on May 21st 2020 at 8:31:03 AM

But why specifically "right-wing" Americans? I'm incredibly liberal but I would've thought the same too; it's got fuck all to do with politics, and mentioning them just makes things more confusing.

Also, Critical Research Failure is when the work itself gets a very-known fact wrong. It's misuse as well as it's horribly written and nonsensical.

It might make more sense as Cowboy BeBop at His Computer.

Conservatives are mentioned because some thought the character would be used to "encourage acceptance of homosexuality".

link to the character's Wikipedia page.

Anyway, I suppose someone should create a trivia page and add a rewritten example under Cowboy BeBop at His Computer?

Okay, but then the example should mention that. It reads currently like American Right Wingers just happened to be the only people on the planet who didn't know this thing, and that's just objectively ridiculous to claim.

Like, no matter how you slice it, it needs to be rewritten entirely.

And I'm not fully convinced it's Cowboy BeBop at His Computer, unless it's made clear that this was perpetuated by Right-Wing media, not just a random assumption.

It is mentioned on Trivia.Sesame Street under Cowboy BeBop at His Computer.

On YMMV.The Handmaids Tale:

• Critical Research Failure: While the book does seem bad to many Western Audiences in many Islamic countries women are treated worse than what's shown in said book e.g. beaten, raped and starved by their own family members.

I don't see how this works as research failure, and in fact it might only have substance as bashing Islam. I'd say this is a cut.

That's...definitely not the right trope.

It's gone. It's likely better under Applicability, which is already on the page.

Edited by Kappaclystica on Jun 15th 2020 at 12:46:57 PM

Bringing up this example from YMMV.Bad Movie Beatdown:

• Critical Research Failure: In his review of XXX, Mathew mocks Xander Cage for pretending to shoot an ally saying that James Bond would do so for real. Clearly he forgot about the scene in The Living Daylights where 007 stages a fake assassination. Also, Bond having to shoot an ally for real has never happened in any of the films.

About a work, not CRF.

Could it qualify then as Cowboy BeBop at His Computer?

Edited by Anddrix on Jun 17th 2020 at 4:05:22 PM

Here's something that also qualifies as Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:

• Critical Research Failure: One of the points MatPat brings up in his "The Metroid Morph Ball is LAME" is that crawling would be just as effective as using the Morph Ball. This completely disregards any of the power-ups from that series that would be difficult or impossible to use otherwise such as any of the Bombs, Bomb Jumping, the Boost Ball, the Hyper Ball, the Spider Ball, etc.

(From Game Theory)

Bringing up the following examples from Hollywood (2020):

• Critical Research Failure:
  • The series ends with a major Hollywood studio making a film starring Rock Hudson (who had come out a year earlier) about a homosexual romance. This ignores that in 1949, sodomy was still illegal in all 48 states, including California, which means Hudson might well have been arrested for his public romance. Even with the movie industry supposedly changing, the idea that it could have overturned laws that weren't fully ended in California until 2003 is hard to accept.
  • Indeed, the show seems to exist in a world where the many laws banning interracial relationships or women having legal power either do not exist or are simply ignored.
  • While the show does note the issues of the Hays Code, it pushes how the studio is able to simply circumvent that to get Meg released. In reality, there is simply no way any theater would be willing to risk releasing a movie the Hays Code was against for fear of being targeted or even forced to shut down. And the Hays Code would have openly prevented a movie about an interracial romance from ever being filmed, let alone released, in the first place.

First and third are too obscure to laypeople. Second doesn't even say enough to be a Zero-Context Example.

YMMV.Pokemon Anime

• Critical Research Failure:
  • The many times that attacks have worked on types they should be immune against, with the prime example being Pikachu's Electric attacks damaging Ground-types yet are easily brushed off by types that are weak to it on more than one occasion. (Artistic License?)
  • A large number of moves, especially those that are defensive in nature, are shown working very differently than they do in the games, like Light Screen and Reflect being able to outright block attacks as opposed to halving damage, Safeguard also being a glorified Protect instead of just blocking status moves, and Heal Bell being used to calm Pokémon to stop them from fighting. Though in later seasons, most of these moves are depicted much more accurately. (Artistic License)
    • The move Aerial Ace is drastically different from its game counterpart. Aerial Ace is meant to be a swordfighting technique that can be learned by pretty much anything with claws or talons but is only used by Flying-types in the anime as a glorified Tackle. Fortunately, the move is depicted more accurately when used by Ash's Greninja. (Cut as it is a very common misconception due to the english name as opposed to something average viewers would know)
    • The first couple of times Dragon Rage is seen in the anime, it takes the form of a massive cyclone as opposed to in the games, where it is simply fairly weak breath attack. A Dragon-type move that actually takes the form of a twister would later be introduced in Generation II, and Dragon Rage is more accurately depicted from then on. (Artistic License)
    • Pokémon moves that exhaust the user afterwards, or need to be charged up beforehand, are very rarely ever used properly throughout the anime since the writers tend to ignore the downsides of said moves in favor of faster or well paced battles. What you're left with is witnessing exhaustion moves, like Hyper Beam, not tiring the user out after firing one off, or how charge-up moves, like Sky Attack and Focus Punch, get activated almost instantly. Depending on the episode, sometimes the exhaustion effect does actually happen in an episode, though more often it is used when the opposing Pokemon needs a way to defeat the one using the move. On the other hand, flying Pokemon such as Scizor and Gliscor utilize a tactic in which the vulnerable portion of such a move can be used to help them fly a long distance into the air from the opponent, which gives them time to recover. (Artistic License as it sometimes addresses this)
  • The 4Kids and (to a lesser extent) TPCI dubbing companies are prone to compounding this with translation mistakes, such as:
    • Getting attack names wrong, calling certain Pokémon the wrong names, stating the wrong evolution chains and so on.
    • The 4Kids dub-added Trainer's Choice misspelled many Pokémon names, got the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors wrong on multiple occasions, and once asked "Which Pokémon evolves into Seviper?" They claimed Arbok does, but in reality, Seviper is a fully-contained 'mon that doesn't evolve from or into anything.
    • The 27th episode of Advanced Generation, "A Three Team Scheme," was one of the biggest examples of 4Kids glossing over stuff that appeared in the Gen III games. Not only did they mistake Tabitha of Team Magma and Shelly of Team Aqua by calling them "Harland" and "Isabel" respectively, they also ended up calling the Red and Blue Orbs as the "Rose" and "Indigo" Orbs. These errors are fixed in later episodes.
    • One of the earlier episodes in both versions confidently stated that Pinsir evolves into Tauros. They don't, and aren't even remotely similar in design to warrant the confusion.
    • On more than one occasion, the Fire-type has been referred to as the "Flame-type", and at least one of these occurred late in the Johto arc. You would think at least the voice actors would have caught that one.
  • A trainer ordering a Scizor to "finish it off with False Swipe." In this example's defense, the anime portrays this exactly like what would happen if you tried to finish a Pokémon off with False Swipe as Ash's Heracross wasn't actually knocked out by the attack. Critical Research Failure would have been a lot worse had the knock out actually happened, but the question still remains if the creators at the time forgot that False Swipe doesn't defeat Pokémon. (Artistic License as nothing suggest it has that property in the anime)
  • Very rarely do the anime writers take a Pokémon's game-defined weight into consideration. What you're left with is seeing some very strange, but funny, occurrences where the characters (children in particular) will be holding up Pokémon that they should have no business being able to lift. May and Max being able to pick up a 231-pound Munchlax is probably the most infamous case, but some other noteworthy examples include Ash carrying around a 158-pound Larvitar on his back, or when he was holding up a 109-pound Hippopotas on his head. (Artistic License)

My question about these is, as Critical Research Failure is errors so obvious even those without specific knowledge can see them, does it not count if the viewer are fans and such would disproportionally have said specific knowledge? Thought on the rest?

The first two 4kids examples and the False Swipe example could stay, with some rewriting.

Bringing up the following example from Youngblood:

• Critical Research Failure: At one point, Shaft compares the situation to "the biblical equivelant of Armageddon." The biblical equivelant of Armageddon is Armageddon, the word originates in the bible.

YMMV.Project SNT:

• Critical Research Failure: Naturally.
  • SNT couldn't break through the wall because it's made of plexiglass. While more resilient than regular glass, it is not indestructible
  • In the sprite comics, the fact that Rouge works for the government despite everyone living in caves appears to be this. Later Subverted in that everyone has houses, though Rouge still lives in a cave.
  • Apparently, the Master Emerald is nearby. Either everyone is on Angel Island, or it is this trope.

I feel like there should be some sort of leeway (is that the word?), since Courtney was like ten when she made these.

Bringing up the following example from Adventures in Babysitting:

• Critical Research Failure: The writers are somehow under the impression that there's something special about Thor's helmet. As in Marvel Comics Thor. In the comics themselves, the only thing special about Thor's helmet is...he wears it.

Sounds more like Cowboy BeBop at His Computer, if anything.

Bringing up the following example from YMMV.Doctor Who S 28 E 12 Army Of Ghosts:

• Critical Research Failure: Yvonne quotes energy readings in gigawatts at one point. The watt is a measure of power, not energy.

Sounds valid, provided that does indeed happen in the episode.

Oh good, we do have this thread. Here's an example from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee:

• Critical Research Failure: Samantha once mockingly mentioned that an average young male in the alt-right has, among other things, an unhealthy interest in Rick and Morty. While it is true that the alt-right has an interest on certain animated works to the point of integrating them into their propaganda, in reality the alt-right hates Rick and Morty with a seething passion, as its creators, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, are devoutly outspoken liberals (Harmon in particular), and their expression of said views both in and out of the show has made them hated by the alt-right.

I don't think the average person would recognize that Rick and Morty is a liberal show, especially because its fandom is stereotyped as obnoxious white guys. I think only people who know about the fandom personally would recognize this error, so it's not glaringly wrong.

Yes, I just posted it in "Is this an example?" because I didn't know this thread existed.

Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 14th 2020 at 5:46:47 AM

Hell, I've heard from multiple people who've watched it that Rick and Morty isn't a liberal show, whatever the creators' intentions may have been.

I think I just saw this example mentioned somewhere else, with people saying to cut it, and I agree with them.

Edited by nrjxll on Oct 14th 2020 at 4:44:41 AM