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
Yeah this seems like another entry meant to bash Wish/Asha, she got featured because it was a form of promotion for the movie.
As worded, would this proposed addition to the Harsher in Hindsight section of YMMV.The Mandalorian adhere to or violate the warning not to acknowledge Gina Carano's firing?
- Grogu's attempt to get rid of Cara Dune in Chapter 7 felt more ironic after Cara was Put on a Bus beginning in Chapter 17.
I'm not sure how to take this Music example.
- Female fronted ska band Save Ferris's 1997 song "Spam" promises "If I eat it for dinner, they say I'd grow up like Bruce Jenner"
Is the only thing that makes it Harsher the fact it's from before Caitlyn Jenner came out and refers to her by deadname? Since the band is noted to be female-fronted, it doesn't read like it's misgendering her. Looking up the lyrics, the song seems to be an example of Does Not Like Spam, but this particular passage is meant to be hyping the food up and calling Jenner a strong person (since she was an athlete). It doesn't seem to be calling her ugly or anything that could be seen as retroactively transphobic.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.So, bringing two examples up from Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation:
Harsher in Hindsight: Plucky predicts that they will reach Happy World Land on April 6, 2021. Joe Alaskey (Plucky), Don Messick (Hamton J. Pig), and Jonathan Winters (Wade Pig) did not live to see that date, so it's fortunate Wade turned down Plucky's theory and got them to the Park much, much sooner.
Then there's this under Hilarious in Hindsight (which, I admit, I did find mildly humorous, but that doesn't mean it's an example):
- Some combination of Harsher and Hilarious is that Plucky's questionable calculation of when they would arrive at Happy World Land lands him on "April 6th, 2021." Meaning that, in what is already a road trip comedy of errors, they would arrive at an entertainment park still in the midst of lockdown and the place would be closed.
I think the second actually is funnier now that 2021 is associated with lockdowns. The first feels like actor mortality, though it's a bit more specific than most.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.I wanted to take a look at the Hilarious in Hindsight/Rupert page:
Rupert and the Crystal Kingdom
Rupert helps free a race of people named after gems from an usurper. In 1995? Interesting enough. To a world familiar with Steven Universe? Double Take after Double Take.
- Rupert and Steven are both Wide-Eyed Idealist All Loving Heroes who try to help everyone they meet become friends.
- The Mineral MacGuffin at the center of the plot is shaped exactly like Steven’s gem and is red (of which pink is a shade).
- Although the episode isn’t a musical, the plot does center around music (one particular note has the power to save the day).
- The villain is destroying the kingdom by harvesting gems from the ground, and a group of rebels are trying to stop the destruction.
- The land is being destroyed (terraformed, you might say) by someone named Lazuli, who wears blue.
- The character named Lazuli has an abusive relationship with a large, unstoppable soldier named Jasper.
- Lazuli sings a List Song of gem types when Rupert first meets him. What are the first two listed? “Amethyst, garnet...” (Presumably, the only reason “pearl” doesn’t follow is because all the gems on the list are ones you mine from the earth, not from oysters.)
- The pink-clad female leader of the rebels is revealed to be their ruler.
- The names of the princess’ closest companions in the rebellion? Malachite and Quartz.
This entire section feels like Steven Universe fan myopia.
Other Episodes
- “Rupert and the Sage of Um”:
- The episode takes place in Season 1, when Rupert was voiced by Ben Sandford. The young villain, who wants to be grown up immediately and loathes Rupert for ruining his plans, is voiced by Julie Lemieux... who would become the voice of Rupert from Season 2 onward.
actor trivia, but it is within the same show.- The villain, who’s after a herd of unicorns, calls himself “the Great and Powerful Enchanter!” No word on how well he’d get along with the unicorn who went by “the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
mlp fan myopia - In “Rupert and the Pirates,” Rupert stops his enemies by dropping a wasp nest on them from a tree branch. If you had to guess which characters Katniss Everdeen was most likely to share tactics with, would Rupert Bear even be on your list?
hunger games fan myopia
- After Rupert and Podgy are shrunken in “Rupert and the BIGsmall Machine,” the Villainess of the Week sees a spider, then Podgy. Not knowing what’s going on, she’s confusedly calls him “a pig spider.”
simpsons fan myopia
- “Rupert and the Bell” gets some humor out of the Elf King’s Dispel Magic password being “haberdashery” (the art of making hats). The king explains, “I change it every week. I pick words I like the sound of. Last week it was ‘cabbages.’ ” While this might have been simply humorous in The '90s, in the cyber-heavy world of the 21st century, regularly changing your password and using words people wouldn’t easily guess are some of the most fundamental security tactics everyone is advised to follow.
this one could be valid
- “Rupert in Toyland” starts with Rupert dividing things between those going to the attic and in the trash. A toy meant to go in the attic accidentally gets thrown out and winds up in a place which is allegedly a paradise for toys but is actually a prison. The villain preaches that all owners are evil and all toys are better off without them. How do you know this isn’t Toy Story 3? Because the villain DOES reform after the hero saves him. The best part?
Colonel: Where's your owner now?Lotso: Where's your kid now?toy story fan myopia
- Season 5 has an episode titled “Rupert and the Little Bear.” When the show first began airing on Nick, Jr., it shared a promo with Little Bear (because the 2 new cartoons both starred young bears).
little bear fan myopia, though the promo does have some connection.
- “Rupert and the Chalk Drawings” involves Rupert Bear and Gregory Guinea Pig entering a world inhabited by erased chalk drawings. Bear in mind that the episode aired years before ChalkZone came to be.
chalkzone fan myopia
- The Get Along Gang would also have a policeman dog named Growler (though he was officer, not constable).
get along gang fan myopia
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"get along gang fan myopia" is certainly A Rare Sentence. That said, The Get Along Gang predates the Rupert animated series, so it's not even "hindsight".
I agree on most, but the Simpsons one might be valid. The (lengthy) Steven Universe one miiggghhht be valid as well, but it's difficult to tell which are legitimate similarities and which may be twisted to sound more similar than they actually are.
Edited by jandn2014 on Jan 27th 2024 at 1:10:18 PM
Thankfully the episode is available on Youtube
, and watching it, yeah these entries stretch it severely. The gem people are not Amazing Technicolor Population and just look like normal fantasy archtypes (ie a king or a elf). The entire setting is also a medieval fantasy setting which Steven Universe does not have. I can't see anyone thinking that the 2 are similar apart from the basic gem references after watching.
In the Rupert episode, this "abusive relationship" is really just Jasper as the minion being loyal to the king Lazuli despite Lazuli frequently belettilng him, but he eventually becomes good and sends Lazuli to the mines (where he previously worked). It's really not the same as the Jasper/Lapis relationship from Steven Universe, that was portrayed a lot more dramatically and seriously.
I think even if it's not exactly the same, the relationship between a Jasper and a Lazuli is enough to at least make the Rupert episode ironic in an amusing way. I'd count it. I don't hear those two gems come up much as a pair elsewhere.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.As much as I want to dissociate myself with Yandere Simulator, I need to bring this up again solely because I don't like how its currently written. Case in point: this Harsher in Hindsight entry that was added on the game's YMMV page back in October of last year in light of the then-recent allegations made against its creator.
- Harsher in Hindsight: (sub-bulleted)
- YandereDev's abuse of Midori in his videos and the panty shot mechanic may come off as this after YandereDev was accused of grooming a 16 year old girl, which prompted Ayano, Senpai and Midori's VA's, among many other VA's and volunteers, to quit.
This example would've been fine if it weren't for a few key issues. The first is that the example only mentions the panty shot feature. Which, while one of the most criticized aspects of the game, is actually one of the many issues the game has when it comes to its notorious habit of sexualizing school-aged charactersnote . Furthermore, most fans of YanSim were well aware of the dev's creepy behavior towards the game's minor (as in young) characters (especially the female ones) and the flimsy reasons to justify that, so it's not like he suddenly became a paedo out of nowhere. Lastly, I have never seen people compare him subjecting Midori to the game's many painful deaths to him sexting a minor.
"It's requested that your death ends here, now!" - Sayaka, Death end re;Quest Code Z.There’s no need to bump so hastily; it’s only been 8 hours.
Anyways, if you think the entry is bad, why not take a shot at rewriting it yourself? You can just say something among the lines of “the sexual aspects surrounding the high school-aged characters becomes more disturbing after YandereDev was accused of sexually grooming a teenager”. The bit at the end about the VAs quitting is irrelevant and can go.
I'd say that two subjects are not close enough and the entire example can be cut.
TroperWall / WikiMagic CleanupI noticed that the Simpsons 9/11 one discussed two pages back wasn't re-added despite the consensus. Should we go ahead and restore?
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallYMMV.Orpheus A Poetic Drama had an example removed for "hindsight myopia", which confused me until I saw this thread. Was it discussed at all before removal? I tried searching but couldn't find anything.
This was the example: "* Hilarious in Hindsight: Hades running an Underworld full of meaningless labor and holding rallies to enforce his rule? Hadestown would have the same nearly 70 years later."
If more context is needed, I would add that a Job Song was part of Poetic Drama and is also a big part of Hadestown, and both versions of events have similar contexts as he has the shades explain why they do the work. I also don't think Hades as an example of Capitalism Isbad is as common as the removal would suggest, as those two examples are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and when adding the example it was cause I found it funny/kinda sad that works set 70 years apart that were otherwise pretty different had such similar themes for the Underworld.
If it is misused that's okay, I just wanna know.
The Protomen enhanced my life.It feels like we haven't seen a good COVID shoehorn in a while, so enjoy this:
- There's some uncomfortable parallels between Marco's avia pox diagnosis and the COVID-19 Pandemic. He was infected with it, healed, and carried the virus, much like most other COVID patients did. He infected various humans during work, which is how it mainly propagated in the United States. And just like COVID, avia pox in Marco initially had no cure or treatment in Adastra because it was a novel case, and he wasn't profiled.
COVID: The first disease in history to be contagious and infect humans.
I've cut it.
Agree to cut that example, and agree to re-instate the Simpsons 9/11 one, maybe with a commented-out notice or a discussion page note.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jan 31st 2024 at 4:35:18 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.- Harsher in Hindsight: Moser's execution can be a bit hard to watch when you know Lyle Alzado died at the horribly young age of 40 from brain cancer. (Alzado, a former football player, attributed the cancer to his steroid usage.) - Actor Mortality? The character in the film is a Resurrected Murderer whose death... isn't cancer.
Re: Yandere Simulator
So, Amonimus, should I axe the entry entirely or go by jandn2014's rewrite?
