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
I have a potential entry for What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? let me know if it fits:
Harsher in Hindsight: Towards the end of the comic Manchester Black tries telling Superman that he's "living in a dream world" for believing that their ideological quarrel is over. In 2019, Zack Snyder would use those exact words to those who decried his decision to have Superman and Batman kill criminals in the DC Extended Universe.
For context, Manchester Black and the Elite believe their '90s Anti-Hero attitude makes them more effective heroes than Superman's Thou Shalt Not Kill virtues.
Is there a connection between Manchester Black and Zack Snyder? If Zack Snyder is deliberately evoking that quote in his response, then I'd agree. Otherwise, I don't think a director who's being rude because criticism offends him is a strong enough connection. "You're living in a dream world" is an extremely common insult to throw in arguments where that sentiment is relevant (and sometimes when it's not).
Edited by Wyldchyld on Feb 12th 2023 at 5:49:35 PM
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.
Regarding Asterix and the Chariot Race:
- Harsher in Hindsight: The name of Coronavirus became a bit less funny in 2020 (the comic book was published in 2017) due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. As a bonus, the book centers around a race in Italy, the first country outside of Asia to have an outbreak of the virus and one of the countries in Europe hit hardest by it. And then Albert Uderzo died in the middle of the pandemic, though not from the virus.
Should the last sentence about Uderzo be removed? As said in the example itself, his dead is unrelated to Covid-19.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I can't say for certain if Snyder was quoting Manchester Black but Snyder has made it clear he prefers the '90s Anti-Hero over The Cape. Snyder has admitted he hated comic books until he read Watchmen a book that is pointed to as one of the earliest examples of a Superhero Deconstruction and the '90s Anti-Hero
Edited by Mariofan99 on Feb 13th 2023 at 1:23:53 PM
Hm. It sounds like there's a good chance he'd know about that quote then.
My knowledge of this area is quite limited; I'm happy to go with whatever the consensus is.
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.
I cant believe someone who enjoy the dark age 90 heroes was hired to direct Superman.
How is that Harsher in Hindsight, though?
"Man who thinks Superman should kill is quoted (quite possibly by accident) by other man who thinks Superman should (or rather, would) kill, eighteen years later." That's the example as written.
How does that make Manchester Black's actions, or the events of that particular comic issue, worse?
Edited by ArthurEld on Feb 14th 2023 at 10:35:11 AM
Well I've seen many Harsher in Hindsight examples where it relates to the latter work rather than the former. But I understand if its considered a stretch. My point is in spite of the comic coming to the conclusion one shouldn't kill Superman would later kill in adaptations with the man running them making a point similar to the villain of the comic
Edited by Mariofan99 on Feb 15th 2023 at 12:52:29 PM
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
I think the part that's supposed to be harsher is that the later storyteller decided the villain was right.
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
That wasnt even the first time Superman killed though. In comics or the movies. The christopher Reeves superman (and comics inspired by that storyline) had Superman outright murder the Kryptonian trio because he thought them too dangerous to leave alive.
And while Snyder shares some viewpoints with Manchester Black, he ultimately thinks Superman should have gotten brighter with time.
It's an extremely tenuous connection at best, and is Mo S is hardly the first "heroes should kill, actually" story.
Now if the upcoming Authority movie does the same thing, that would be a different story.
Edited by ArthurEld on Feb 15th 2023 at 7:49:34 AM
Yeah, honestly "Superman shouldn't kill ever" is a pretty minority segment of the criticism of Man of Steel that I've seen - the much bigger percentage is about the specific contrived circumstances and other stuff like the infamously destructive final battle in general.
Edited by nrjxll on Feb 15th 2023 at 5:18:48 AM
So too weak of a connection?
Yeah. There's too big of a difference between what the Elite are advocating for-preemptive strikes on rogue governments, dictators, and other authoritarian figures well out of a superhero's usual purview and anything that Snyder's version of Superman does.
HIH is more than just "this concept/event was mentioned, and then decades later it happened in a completely different continuity and set of circumstances."
In that case I might need to comb through some YMMV pages as I've seen stuff like that used all the time
Bringing up examples from Pokémon Detective Pikachu:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Pikachu saying "At this point, how can you not believe in climate change?". In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Corsola's variant form is outright stated to have been a side-effect of climate change. The only thing stopping this from being Hilarious in Hindsight is that the new Corsola is now a Ghost-type.
Will cut. No substantial connection.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: With the reveal that Harry's mind was inside Detective Pikachu all along, it makes every affectionate moment that Tim and Pikachu shared this, particularly the part with Tim crying over missing his chance to see his father and Pikachu telling him, "If your dad was here, he would hug you so hard your bones would pop."
General example. The part in question probably counts as Foreshadowing.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The Reveal that the Torterra Garden is actually a group of Torterra experimentally grown to the size of kaiju becomes this with the announcement of the Dynamax phenomena in Pokémon Sword and Shield just a month later.
Can probably stay.- Mr. Mime, who in this movie was interrogated in Ryme City, got an evolution named Mr. Rime soon after the movie's release.
Okay, I guess.- Tim's implied crush on Lucy, now that Justice Smith is openly queer.
So? It's not like straight characters cannot be portrayed by LGBT people.
All of those seem right, though I think the Mime/Ryme/Rime connection is too flimsy to be hindsight; by that logic any character in the film that later does anything related to the word 'rhyme' could get a hindsight entry. I will also take a bit of offense at the wording of the last entry; 'queer' does not mean 'cannot be in a straight relationship'.
I want to have a look at Moonraker:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Ahhh, remember the days when we had the Space Shuttle and Concorde, and permanently manned space stations were just around the corner?
- In this film, the United States Armed Forces has a fully trained and fully armed Space Force ready to intercept foreign threats in orbit within a few hours notice, specifically Drax's space station. Fast forward to 2018 when President Donald Trump began pursuing the military to establish a space force as an entirely new branch to the US Armed Forces, oficially founded in 2019; however, there's no Space Marine force, yet.
, and Space Marines have been a staple of science-fiction for just as long. I think this is therefore an example of it not being hindsight via it already being a widespread trope in speculative fiction.
- Drax is revealed to own the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but the French government wouldn't let him move it to the United States. A View to a Kill would show an action sequence at the tower in Paris.
I cut everything except the Torterra example. I also agree with your arguments regarding the Moonraker examples.
Angry babby
I think the Corsola example could be right since that climate change lore is treated more seriously in later Pokemon canon, and Foreshadowing isn't mutually exclusive with Heartwarming in Hindsight.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
I found this one on On The Water Front that I kind of feel is a misuse:
Harsher in Hindsight: Marlon Brando's character being controlled by a mob boss becomes a lot more depressing when you remember he'll eventually become one in 1972.
I don't really understand this one, its just describing Marlon Brando playing another of his iconic roles, it didn't exactly have any negative effects on him. It honestly sounds more like it should be Hilarious In Hind Sight if anything.
Edited by MGD107 on Feb 18th 2023 at 5:43:39 AM
low-poly Shinri
Bumping this post, since it's getting buried.
Angry babby
I think the Brando one could work as Hilarious cuz it's kind of ironic.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
"Actor plays a character victimized by criminals" and then "actor plays a criminal later, so it's funny" is a very low bar to clear.
Angry babby
I mean, "victimized by mob boss" is a bit more specific than "victimized by criminal" and this is referring to his future role as one of the most famous mob bosses of all time.
Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 18th 2023 at 1:37:45 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Edited by SereneSpecter13 on Feb 12th 2023 at 10:13:37 PM
On a semi-hiatus from this site due to being busy with other things (may contribute here and there, but nothing major).