Ask The Tropers

Ain't Harsher in Hindsight meant to be something directly related to the events of the work, anyway?

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

That's how I tend to interpret it. That's why I generally consider entries like this that consist mainly of "this thing happened here, then this other, similar thing happened there", to be misuse, as there's no actual hindsight involved anywhere.

Edited by sgamer82

I dont see it as HIH because things like this would happen in real life.

I concur with WhirlRX and matruz on this situation. Given that, I think RicardoRenegado's removal of the HIH entry described above is reasonable enough.

He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.

^ I do, too.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I got the impression matruz was asking whether the entry should be restored, since, while its removal doesn't really hurt anything, it doesn't run afoul of the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment either.

In that case, I say leave it off. Not because of ROCEJ, but because it's just not an example of the trope to start with.

Edited by sgamer82

Well, there have been a ton of battles where civilians were caught in the crossfire. Literally. Since before there were written records. I don't see why this particular battle would be HiH.

Furthermore, the battle of Aleppo ranged from 2012 to 2016. Hardly Harsher in Hindsight, considering that it had been going on for nearly four years before the film's theatrical release.

Edit: fixed the link.

Edited by RoundRobin - Fly, robin, fly! - ...I'm trying!

^I agree with both of your points.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Actually, the reason for me to bring this up is because using ROCEJ as an edit reason, when there's nothing at first sight that would warrant it, seems suspect to me of an agenda, especially considering that the images inspired a lot of sympathy throughout the world; furthermore the wiki has plenty of HiH examples of a fictional events that draw comparison to say... 9/11, Columbine massacre...etc.

^I concur with RoundRobin on the fact that the chronology of the event would preclude the entry of being HiH However I must say that, while it's true that millions of civilians have been killed in battles in human history, it's only until recently that the mass population actually gets to see that thanks to mass media, which would trigger the HiH resonance when they inevitably draw the comparisons between real life and fictional events.

Edited by matruz

ROCEJ probably isn't a valid reason for removal. However, the example is not harsher in hindsight, so that's clearly a misuse. Furthermore:

The bombing of Britain. The bombing of Berlin. Mustard gas in WWI. And directly relevant to Aleppo, the Great Fire of Smyrna.

All of the above were widely covered by the media at the time. Ever since the press became a thing, people have been learning about atrocities of wars both near and far.

Edited by RoundRobin - Fly, robin, fly! - ...I'm trying!

Both Harsher and Hilarious in Hindsight have been a recurring problem because people will use ANYTHING as an example.

The trope should relate to the work itself and not be used for silly things like "Oh theres a character with this name thats shared with this work".

Muramasa got.

Which only means that all of those people are likely also using the trope wrong.

We need a cleanup thread for these three. We can't always rely on the Is This An Example thread to handle them.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

We have a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment cleanup, but nothing specially for Harsher or Hilarious.