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"The character thinks they're in one genre when they actually are in another." or "They believe that they play one role in the story but actually aren't."
Wrong Genre Savvy is when a character is familiar with the conventions of genre fiction, and believes those genre conventions apply to their situation, but they don't.
A tell-tale signs of Wrong Genre Savvy is when a character's Genre Savvy ideas are met with "you watch too much TV."
Importantly, a character's knowledge of genre conventions must come from their familiarity with in-universe fiction. It's a trope that gets shoehorned a lot with entries that say that a character "acts like" or, worse, "seems like" they think they're in a particular genre. That's not enough: the character actually has to be familiar with that genre due to knowing in-universe fictional stories.
Edited by HighCrate
"OMG, it's like we're in a teen comedy or something. I watched Clueless, I know how this goes. You're all rebellious and shit, and she's coming to terms with her sexuality, and I'm the streetwise dude who helps everyone find their inner truth... AAAAGHHH!" *splurt* *gurgle* *thump*
"Actually, you're in a slasher flick."
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
When I looked at the Playing With and Examples from the Wrong Genre Savvy page it seemed that I seemingly may have misuderstood the concept of Wrong Genre Savvy.
When I saw the trope title Wrong Genre Savvy I thought it meant somebody is aware of the genres of fiction and they think the "real life" scenario they're in is the wrong fiction genre.
An example of what I think I think Wrong Genre Savvy was/should be: Kristine and Blake are between the rural area and suburbs where several faceless goons are. They think they're gang members and this is an action genre where they're the gun toting heroes. It turns out the leader of the faceless goons is a spree killer like jason voorhees and they're the lone survivor/final girl
Edit:
Can somebody/someone give the most basic and generic layman definition of Wrong Genre Savvy?
Edited by Pivel1982122