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SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
2014-11-10 08:25:45

That one doesn't seem like an example of Harsher in Hindsight. The "harsher" is missing.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010
2014-11-10 08:31:51

The Harsher is that before The Reveal, it's just a woman getting inseminated. Not harsh.

After the reveal, she's chosen to use the man's only chance of ever fathering children solely to keep him married to her long enough for her to take his money.

That seems harsher to me.

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SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
2014-11-10 08:44:46

That would be more "harsh in hindsight". Also, that sound more like a reveal to me than "a later event (in the story or real life) comes up and only serves to amplify the already bitter-tasting effect."

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010
2014-11-14 07:09:12

I fail to see the different between "Harsher in Hindsight" and "Harsh In Hindsight."

So then what would be appropriate for The Reveal casting earlier acts in a different light?

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wrm5 Since: Mar, 2014
GnomeTitan Since: Aug, 2013
2014-11-14 07:36:41

While I, too, fail to see the difference between "harsh in hindsight" and "harsher in hindsight" ("harsh" is, after all, harsher than "not harsh at all"), the Harsher in Hindsight trope is in fact written in a way that supports Septimus's view. It talks about "a serious event" (which fits, getting inseminated out of desperation is serious) but also about a later event amplifying "the already bitter-tasting effect" (which doesn't seem quite to fit in this case - the original event may be desperate but doesn't sound bitter-tasting).

But Tropes Are Flexible and I'm inclined to say that the trope description is too restrictive and that the example does fit the trope.

Edited by GnomeTitan
SolipSchism Since: Jun, 2014
2014-11-14 07:39:47

Could it be a Cerebus Retcon? I thought Harsher in Hindsight was for when a Real Life event makes a prior fictional event/statement/etc. seem almost prescient, often in a way that would have been Dude, Not Funny! or Too Soon if it had happened after the Real Life event.

Whereas this sounds like a Cerebus Retcon: A comparatively innocuous fictional event or statement or made more serious or darker by a later revelation in the same work or canon.

Edited by SolipSchism
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010
2014-11-14 07:43:05

That was another thought, but it wasn't a retcon (it happened the same episode).

I still lean towards an intentional version of Harsher in Hindsight, but if that gets shot down maybe I should take it to trope-finder.

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crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2014-11-14 07:48:47

"it may be hard to distinguish retcons that bring little alteration to the initial continuity from the author using the early gags as Foreshadowing of their serious explanation/interpretation, that can be part of The Reveal"

>> I think this can still fit in a single episode. Cerebus Retcon gets my vote.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
SolipSchism Since: Jun, 2014
2014-11-14 07:51:45

Mmm. I'm not sure if either Harsher in Hindsight or Cerebus Retcon would apply to two (or three) events that occur in the space of a single episode. That sounds more like some kind of The Reveal or a very downplayed Tomato Surprise, something along those lines.

^ Your point is understandable, but I think it's hard to argue that something at the end of an episode actually alters the continuity of the episode itself (outside of Timey Wimey nonsense, of course). Personally, if it's blatantly obvious that the author meant for it to happen all along, it's probably not a Retcon.

Edited by SolipSchism
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