The Hindsight tropes, Hilarious in Hindsight, Harsher in Hindsight, and Heartwarming in Hindsight, are among the most misused Audience Reaction tropes on this site. Many people don't understand that the tropes require more than just "This happened, so that happened", and end up adding examples which either lack connection or the substance that makes them funny/serious/not-so-funny/heartwarming. Some of them may be suited better for other tropes (ex: Life Imitates Art), while some may not belong on TV Tropes at all (such as ones involving politicians, due to Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment).
Please report any Hindsight example that you feel are questionable, and we'll analyze them to see if they are actually examples or not.
Remember that the Hindsight tropes are Audience Reactions. That means if an example under review discusses significant fan response pointing out the hindsight, the example can't be cut solely for being too tenuous for this thread.
- Creator's character/portrayal dies in work and then creator dies in real life, unless their fictional death is closely similar to their real one (such as Billy Bob Joe portraying a character who dies from pancreatic cancer, then Billy Bob dies from pancreatic cancer himself)
- Mundane word related to something terrible (such as "corona" or "Epstein") unless there's more to the connection (such as someone named "Corona" having the flu)
- Creator appears in work then becomes more controversial later on.
- A common event (such as a typical natural disaster) happens in work, then happens in real life (unless they are closely similar, such as the event happening to the same area in both reality and fiction around the same time) For once, not everything related to disease has to do with COVID-19, not everything related to racism and Police Brutality has to do with George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, and not everything related to sexual abuse has to do with #MeToo.
- A common/generic concept was used in this work and then later reused in that work (too loose for a connection, unless the concept is so unique it's identified with the work)
- Two actors appear together then do so in another work
- Hindsight examples involving recent events, due to them often being shoehorns. Specifically:
- COVID-19 examples, before 75% of the population has returned to normal
- George Floyd/2020 Black Lives Matter examples, before protests have declined
- Examples which fall guilty of Older Than They Think, such as "Make X Great Again" slogans. Aside from violating the ROCEJ, this slogan has been in use since the 1940s.
- Characters using slurs which are treated as annoying at worst in the work, but is now harsher due to how severe the slur is made now. Discrimination has always existed with that slur. (May qualify for Values Dissonance if work is at least 20 years old.)
Note: As of January 2022, "Funny Aneurysm" Moment is no longer separate from Harsher in Hindsight.
- The former redirects to the latter and all wicks to the former (with the exception of ones on archive pages and the YMMV Redirects index) must either be moved to the latter (if they're valid) or removed (if they're invalid).
- The subpages for the former are still accessible from this page
. After a subpage for "Funny Aneurysm" Moment has been completely cleaned up, turn it into a redirect to the Harsher in Hindsight subpage for the same medium to preserve inbounds.
Edited by Tabs on Jun 21st 2023 at 11:51:25 AM
As in, real life events cannot false predict real life. The trope is for fictional events falsely predicting real life, as in this case.
Alright, I'm a bit lost on this one, but... seems like 70% of the entry for /Babylon Five have to do with "real-life actor dies" or something to that effect?
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Sinclair/O'Hare's exit from the show. There was a hole in his mind.
- "And the Sky Full of Stars" features Sinclair being drugged and suffering from delusions. It was revealed after Michael O'Hare's death that he suffered from schizophrenia, which was the real reason he left the show after the first season.
- There's also his angrily telling Bester "Get out of my head!"
- And saying "Enough people have messed with my brain this year" in "Eyes." Even worse, that was the last episode to be filmed in the season, so when he said it he was actually very close to starting intensive therapy to manage his condition.
- Crossing into real life, Jerry Doyle wasn't aware of O'Hare's condition and did a few interviews where he derisively called O'Hare "crazy."
- One of Zathras's most memorable lines is "[Zathras] probably have very sad death." The actor playing him, Tim Choate, died in a motorcycle accident.
- Franklin's musing on the briefness of human life in his debut episode. His actor Richard Biggs only lived half of one, dying at age 44 from a heart condition.
- The scene after Londo gets G'Kar removed from the council, where Sheridan tells him that he'll miss him and how the council just won't be the same without him. The actor playing G'Kar, Andreas Katsulas, died from lung cancer in 2006, and was mourned by all the rest of the crew.
- A more in-universe example: At the beginning of Walking Through Gethsemane, Ivanova asks Brother Edward if he wants to place a wager on a chess match. Brother Edward replies that gambling is a lesser sin, and he always felt that if you're gonna sin, go for one of the really big ones. This joke takes on a new light when it turns out that before he had his memory wiped, he was a Serial Killer.
- A semi-fictional list of unexpected power grabs includes "Russia in 1917 and 2013." Cue Russia's invasion of Ukrainenote at that time.
- Another more in-universe one. Londo at one point jokingly wonders to Morden why he and his associates don't just wipe out the Narn homeworld. Near the end of the season, when his own people really do bombard it with asteroids, Londo is silent and horrified.
- Doubles as Foreshadowing, since Morden's only reply is a patient "One thing at a time, Ambassador."
- In the series finale, Zack Allen walks with a limp 20 years later due to a prosthetic leg. Jeff Conaway would wind up in a wheelchair due to his painkiller addiction, and didn't make it 20 years past the end of the show.
- There's a scene involving Zack, Garibaldi, and Lochley in "The River of Souls" where they discuss the afterlife. As of 2017, two of the actors have found out about it personally.
- In "Walkabout," Franklin wakes up after a one night stand to find the woman unconscious, much like the circumstances of Richard Biggs' wife finding him dead.
- Part of season 5 was devoted to Garibaldi's lapse into alcoholism. Alcoholism was a contributing factor in Jerry Doyle's death in 2017.
- In the series finale, just before the station's destruction, Ivanova, Delenn, Vir, Franklin, Zack, and Garibaldi all take a last look around. Less than 25 years later, five of the six actors in that scene had passed away.
- Sheridan and Delenn spend years knowing he's going to die in his 60s. In fact, it was Mira Furlan who died at 65 after years of failing health.
- Sheridan being doomed to die in his 60s also makes it horribly ironic that Bruce Boxleitner was one of shockingly few members of the show's main cast who made it to age 70.
- The sheer amount of untimely deaths suffered by the cast, which even more than Poltergeist or Bewitched can make you wonder if there's a curse on them:
- Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin), congenital heart defect in 2004 at age 44.
- Tim Choate (Zathras), motorcycle accident in 2004 at age 49.
- Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar), lung cancer in 2006 at age 59.
- Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), pneumonia as a complication of opiate addiction in 2011 at age 60.
- Michael O'Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair), heart attack after years of schizophrenia in 2012 at age 60.
- Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi), heart attack as a complication from years of alcoholism in 2016 at age 60.
- Stephen Furst (Vir Cotto), complications from diabetes in 2017 at age 63.
- Mira Furlan (Delenn), complications from West Nile virus in 2021 at age 65.
JMS: It is another loss in a string of losses that I cannot understand. Of the main cast, we have lost Richard Biggs, Michael O'Hare, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, and now Jerry Doyle, and I'm goddamned tired of it. So dear sweet universe, if you are paying attention in the vastness of interstellar space, take a moment from plotting the trajectory of comets and designing new DNA in farflung cosmos, and spare a thought for those who you have plucked so untimely from our ranks... and knock it off for a while. Because this isn't fair.
- Sinclair/O'Hare's exit from the show. There was a hole in his mind.
I feel like deleting the entire Wall of Text above, but that might be overkill. So... any opinions?
Bringing up the following examples from Miami Vice:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Philip Michael Thomas had coined the term "EGOT"note in the hopes of winning all four awards. To date, not only has he never been nominated for any of the awards, it's highly unlikely that he ever will since he retired from acting in 2006.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Many viewers disliked the later seasons where Dick Wolf was showrunner due to Crockett and Tubbs starting to wear darker colors and the storylines became less flashy and more serious. Eventually, Wolf applied this formula to his own show that was not only a success, but lasted four times longer than Miami Vice.
- Season two's "The Dutch Oven" has Giancarlo Esposito playing a drug dealer.
- At the end of seaon two's "Phil the Shill", Phil Collins' character is seen to be running a new scam playing a faith healer/televangelist. Collins would later play a similar unscrupulous televangelist character in the 1992 music video for the song "Jesus He Knows Me" by Genesis.
- In the season three finale "Heroes of the Revolution", Crockett tells the FBI agents, "You boys are gonna need a little work before you look like James Bond." A month after the episode aired, Jeroen Krabbé would appear as the main antagonist in The Living Daylights.
This is on The Simpsons S 9 E 24 Lost Our Lisa
- Harsher in Hindsight: Unfortunately, incidents involving uncaring bus drivers are common, although it mainly involves altercations from foul-mouthed drug addicts towards law-abiding passengers that often end in violence, and the driver doing nothingnote . In a tragic case, 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe was ignored by a passing bus driver, leading to the boy's abduction and murder.
I found this mess on YMMV.The Professional:
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Stansfield constantly talking about how much he loves Beethoven was quite appropriate in that Gary Oldman starred as Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, which came out later the very same year.
- Likewise, Oldman played Lee Harvey Oswald in 1991's JFK and Danny Aiello would portray Jack Ruby in the biopic of the same name one year later which were movies about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Even Natalie Portman would go on to portray First Lady Jacqueline "Jackie" Kennedy in a 2016 movie about her life after the death of her husband. Her character in the movie also sings Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" which was about JFK.
- Norman Stansfield was a notoriously corrupt DEA agent in cahoots with the New York criminal underworld. By contrast, his actor would portray Commissioner Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight Trilogy who is an honest cop and an ally to Batman.
- Oldman previously portrayed another corrupt law enforcement agent from New York named Jack Grimaldi from Romeo is Bleeding. Like Stansfield, Grimaldi has ties to the Mafia and goes up against a trained female assassin.
- This wouldn't be the only movie released in the 90s to have a young brunette protagonist named Mathilda (or in this case, Matilda) portrayed by a Former Child Star who comes from an abusive family comprised of a Fat Bastard father, a blonde mother and a violent older sibling. And amusingly enough, said little girl would develop a close bond with a caring adult that has a Dark and Troubled Past and they eventually work together to take down a Large Ham villainous authority figure played by a British actor. That movie also had a branch of American law enforcement involved in the story though in this case, it was the FBI as opposed to the DEA of The Professional.
- Leon and Mathilda are shown to be big fans of Singin' in the Rain, a movie that had Debbie Reynolds as one of the three main leads. Reynolds was also the mother of Carrie Fisher who is best known for playing Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars. Portman would later portray Leia's mom Padme Amidala in the Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars.
- Mathilda's surname is Lando. Guess which character in Star Wars shares that name.
- The 2013 Besson film Malavita (otherwise known as The Family) focuses on the Mafia and includes a law enforcement agent named Robert whose surname just so happens to be Stansfield. Though to Robert's credit, he isn't nearly as corrupt and psychotic as Norman Stansfield.
- Ten years after the film was released, Mathilda's actress would portray another young woman named Alice Ayres/Jane Jones from Closer who also has a bob cut, frequently wears skimpy clothing and in love with an older man.
- This is not the last film where Oldman portrays an Ax-Crazy, Light Is Not Good hammy villain responsible for the death of the hero's loved one.
- Three years after the movie was released, Luc Besson would cast Ian Holm as Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element. Holm would go on to play Andrew's father Gideon Largeman in Garden State, a movie that also had Mathilda's actress Natalie Portman as one of the main leads.
It's all either actor garbage or, in one case, a character sharing a name with a Star Wars character. I'm gonna cut, but I wanted to show ya'll first.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
What the f... oh god that was a nightmare to read through, but I'll weigh in with a bunch of "imaginary" numbers on the left:
1. Actor Allusion, relocate to main page 2. A bit on the fence, not sure. 3. Sounds ok. 4. Jack Grimaldi — CUT. 5. Mathilda vs. Matilda... yeah sure, they might as well say "coincidentally both movies have white people" — Pointless shoehorn, CUT 6. Using Debbie Reynolds' connections as a shoehorn... CUT. 7. She's named after Pope Lando. CUT. 8. Malavita... none of the Leon actors shows up in the 2013 movie. Another shoehorn, CUT. 9. Closer ... Jane is a common name and bobcuts are a common hairstyle, CUT 10. Gary Oldman as Lord Shen in KFP 2 ... hammy villains being responsible for killing the heroes' family are far too common, CUT 11. Actor garbage, CUT.
Edited by RobertTYL on Apr 29th 2021 at 3:20:20 AM
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In Ben 10, Steve Blum voiced Vilgax (a role he later reprised in Omniverse), who's an Expy of Darkseid. Here, he lends his voice to Darkseid himself.
- Batman telling Green Lantern he is not a vampire. Wrong animated movie, Hal.
- And then in 2019, Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame was cast as Bruce Wayne
for Matt Reeves' The Batman.
- And then in 2019, Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame was cast as Bruce Wayne
- Alan Tudyk, who voices Superman, played Van Wayne, Bruce's cousin who always wanted super powers, in the short lived series Powerless (2017).
- True to the tradition of Star Wars villains looking suspiciously similar to the New Gods, Supreme Leader Snoke looks near-identical to this version of Desaad.
- Cyborg refers to himself as a Terminator. Two years later, Joe Morton would play Cyborg’s father Silas Stone in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
A Ll actor garbage
Sorry to derail, I just need a favor.
I was looking through the YMMV page for Cupcakes (Sometimes I stalk edit histories to make sure no one had reverted anything) and I noticed that someone added one of the Harsher examples that was already deleted
. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same person, and I don't think they knew that it was already deleted so I'm not going to start shit over this, I just can't delete it again otherwise I'll get suspended for edit warring.
I'm concerned that this won't be the last time the example will be shoehorned though. I added an edit reason last time
, but I don't think this person read the edit history. I doubt they'll be the last person to shoehorn it in, and the idea of having to repeatedly have something deleted annoys me.
This is on Family Matters:
- "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
- Any time Myra, post breakup with Steve, makes any comment about not wanting to live without him. Michelle Thomas, Myra's actress, died at the age of 30 from a rare form of stomach cancer.
- In "Stop, in the Name of Love", while telling Laura that Waldo needs cheering up due to his troubles getting women, Steve states that Waldo's "so sad he could depress Richard Simmons." Flash forward 22 years to 2014, when reports surfaced that Simmons had been suffering from "paralyzing" depression due to a knee injury that sidelined him from his professional career as an exercise guru and the death of his Dalmatian, Hattie
On Avatar: The Last Airbender, there's this, under Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The final scene of "The Ember Island Players" can also come off as this, as many fans came away from The Last Airbender with the same sentiments.
- Zuko: That... wasn't a good play.
Aang: I'll say.
Katara: No kidding.
Suki: Horrible.
Toph: You said it.
Sokka: But the effects were decent.
I don't know, but something just feels wrong. Maybe it's the fact that this could apply for a lot of bad movies......
"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times?"I think fans actually saw the similarities between the characters' reactions to the play and their reaction to the movie, so I thought it counted.
I still find some of the other Avatar hindsight entries questionable, though. The first few FAM entries are ZCEs and I don't think Jet even counts since he didn't die by "following his instinct". One of the Hilarious entries claims it's funny that Aang is taller than Katara in LOK, but that's just how things work.
^Also, you ninja
Edited by Dghcrh on Apr 28th 2021 at 8:54:03 PM
I'm mainly a fan of underrated media.Yeah, I recall the Nostalgia Critic review of the Last Airbender movie specifically referenced the Ember Islands scene and I'm sure he wasn't the only one. Ergo, it counts as a "this is an objective observation and not a single troper shoehorn" deal.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Why not? The Ember Island episode aired two years before the movie.
An in-universe adaptation of the characters' lives sucking, followed by a real-life adaptation of the same characters bombing for similar reasons, is something worth noting. Again, this connection has been made offsite.
Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 28th 2021 at 3:53:56 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Wait actually sorry to sandwichpost, but I'm rereading it and we can't really put it in Life Imitates Art since Trump lost the election and it would look even worse to act like the voter fraud claims are something objective and not, well, claims.
Maybe Dewey Defeats Truman or something like that?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.