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
One of the minor characters has this line during a dive scene early on in the film (emphasis mine):
"Two and a half miles down. Three-thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one meters. The pressure outside is three-and-a-half tons per square inch. These windows are nine inches thick, and if they go, it's sayonara in two micro-seconds."
Early indications are that was precisely what happened in this incident — some kind of a failure in the submersible's hull that caused it to implode with such rapidity that the crew would have been dead before they even realised there was an issue.
I agree that the deleted example was probably a bit too vague, but I think there's enough of a case to add a new example citing that particular line, once they've established the cause of the submersible's destruction a little more firmly (albeit the depth at which the accident happened probably means there's not a whole lot more they can do on top of what they already have done).
This is on Arthur S 3 E 8 Popular Girls Busters Growing Grudge:
Hilarious in Hindsight: The Imagine Spot of Buster carrying his petty grudge against Binky all the way through being elected president becomes this when Donald Trump also began spending most of his speaking appearances, particularly after being voted out of office, airing his grievances against his political opponents and the lie that the 2020 election was rigged against him (much like how Buster insists that if he had told the joke, Ratburn would've passed him).
The following has been modified in YMMV.Project Wingman:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Mission 14 "Open Season" features a massive wildfire covering the ground, with the Federation deliberately fanning the flames to cover their retreat. 2020 (the year the game released) was a particularly nasty year for wildfires on the United States West Coast, close to where Cascadia would be in real life, with some cities like San Fransisco and Portland plagued with orange, smoky skies like the ones in the game. As a result, players on the West Coast basically watched their own recent history eerily repeat itself. Then it happens again in 2023 where Canada's been struck by a massive wildfire in nearly all of its provinces and territories while the smoke had arrived in New York City, severely impacting the air quality to the point that it's difficult to breathe in addition to covering the entire city in a thick orange haze.
Are we seriously going to list every wildfire event while we're at it because "haha, funny orange PW meme"? The cause of the wildfire in the game totally has nothing to do with the 2020 wildfires and these past days' wildfires in Canada.
Edited by AnoBakaDesu on Jun 27th 2023 at 7:35:33 AM
"They played us like a DAMN FIDDLE!" — Kazuhira Miller, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom PainThis entry from Recap.Black Mirror Joan Is Awful was originally on Does This Remind You of Anything?, but was pulled for not being an example (the episode — about CG likenesses of actors being used in AI programming And That's Terrible — was written filmed way before this year's strikes). It's now on both Trivia.Black Mirror Joan Is Awful under Reality Subtext and YMMV.Black Mirror Joan Is Awful under Harsher in Hindsight. Is it actually an example of either?
Would this count as Harsher/Hilarious.
In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia S07E03 "Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties", Frank wants to make sure he isn't seen as a child molester after buying a child beauty pageant by wanting a song about how he doesn't "diddle kids". The others criticized Frank how wanting a song about not diddling kids are going to make other's think he does do it. After being accused of grooming young fans, Colleen Ballinger deny the allegations by posting a video singing about how she didn't groom any fans. There are those who have link the similarities
.
Edited by WhirlRX on Jun 29th 2023 at 8:17:25 AM
"The game's premise is that Tokyo is in lockdown following the arrival of demons throughout the city. Following 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this has felt very real for not just citizens of Tokyo, but the entire world."
Aside having a word "lockdown/outbreak" I see nothing in common.
Edited by Amonimus on Jun 30th 2023 at 1:58:28 PM
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup![]()
Completely different reasons for the lockdown. Cut.
Reposting these.
Found these hindsight examples
From YMMV.The Legend Of Heroes Trails Into Reverie
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A player made a mod of McBurn being playable
in Cold Steel III just 2 months before his official inclusion was announced for Reverie. unsure
- Olivert telling Rufus that he's now a dead man can be this when players remember that in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, DIO kills Kakyoin. The only difference is that in Jojo, Kakyoin got the Torso with a View experience while Rufus' death is faked. seems like Fan Myopia
- A player made a mod of McBurn being playable
From YMMV.Dramatical Murder (originally posted here
)
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A poster for re:connect appeared in SoniAni. Months later, DRAMAtical Murder was announced to get adapted into an anime. unsure
- This will not be the last time Satoshi Hino voices a character in a Boys' Love work that likes bunnies, is surprisingly wealthy, something of a tsundere and is not the greatest at social interactions. Fan Myopia
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Harsher in Hindsight: Mary Elizabeth trying to hook up with Charlie becomes this after we find out what happened to him as a kid, considering the power imbalance between the two (as Mary Elizabeth is presumably 18 and a senior, and Charlie is 15, and a freshman).
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- After working with Emma Watson in this film, Ezra Miller entered the Harry Potter 'verse in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. What's more is that Emma Watson and Logan Lerman would star together again in Noah - as adopted siblings. And Emma uses a Fake American accent in this, while Logan uses a Fake Brit voice in Noah (and this time Emma gets to keep her own accent).
- Patrick celebrates getting a C- to pass shop class. And Sam applauds him for doing this. Harry Potter fans will love the sight of Hermione Granger applauding an average grade.
- Two of the 2000s most famous female companions to male heroes, Hermione and Katara, team up to help Charlie.
Yeah, only the first one under Hilarious sounds like actual hindsight.
Edited by randomtroper89 on Jul 2nd 2023 at 8:10:53 AM
From YMMV.Kung Fu Wa:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: This isn't the first time a powerful character finds themselves turned into a sock due to the actions of their apprentice and living with the main child protagonist who gains their powers and becomes a superhero through wearing them.
This entry just seems to be dependent on Fan Myopia (especially because some people won't know what Atomic Puppet is). Is it safe for this one to get removed?
An excited Wally Walrus for everyone! (Check out my troper wall if you can!)If it begins with "This isn't the first time..." just either delete it right away or move it to Older Than They Think, because the "Hindsight" part doesn't apply.
Okay, I've chosen to delete the entry for the reasons that you and I have stated.
Bumping
(x6) as well as adding this newly added entry, which is also Fan Myopia
- Olivert telling that Rufus is now a dead man can also be this when players remember that in the sequel Diamond is Unbreakable, Jotaro indirectly kills Yoshikage Kira. The difference is that in Jojo, Jotaro pulled a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Yoshikage Kira until the latter was accidentally crushed by an Ambulance. Here, Rufus' death was faked.
Edited by Ayumi-chan on Jul 1st 2023 at 10:06:05 PM
She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/AThis was recently added to Minions: The Rise of Gru:
- Harsher in Hindsight: The movie ends with Wild Knuckles faking his own death. Almost a year after the film's release, his voice actor, Alan Arkin, would pass away.

Actually wait I misread the example. I forgot the framing device of the movie involved the submersible, I thought it was comparing the actual ship with the submersible.
In that case I think the example can be re-added, as watching people go underwater to investigate the Titanic will likely never be seen comfortably again, but maybe give it some time as the Titan case is still developing.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 23rd 2023 at 2:59:54 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.