Out-of-Character Moment: Difference between revisions

[[File:out-of-character-moment_3920moment 3920.jpg|link=Jesus Christ|frame|Bitch, don't make me get my [[God|father]].]]

{{quote|''"Batman does not eat nachos!"''|'''Batman''' to another Batman (who continues to eat the nachos), ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''}}

Enter the [['''Out-of-Character Moment]]'''. Whether it's one of the various [[Contrived Stupidity Tropes|Ball Tropes]], [[Improbable Behavior Tropes]] or [[Poor Communication Kills]], a character gets temporary [[Character Derailment]] for a scene and allows the plot to move in the direction the author wants. Generally, the creator herself will acknowledge she forced their behavior in some way; though it's not quite as damaging as [[Character Derailment]], especially when it results in the natural progression of the plot.

Speaking of natural growth, this Out Of -of-Character Moment may be expanded on as [[Character Development]] (for examples of this, see [[OOCOut-of-Character Isis Serious Business]]). If they are being pushed beyond their comfort zone they may act differently than normal, but somehow they [[Taught By Experience|find their own way to survive]]. After all, not all character growth is predictable or linear.

Contrast [[AlternateAlternative Character Interpretation]]. See also [[Character Exaggeration]] and [[Characterization Marches On]]. Possibly caused by a [[Writer on Board]].

** ItIn happensthe to[[Filler KaibaArc|Legendary in a filler episode of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!Heroes]]'' arc, Kaiba is just getting ready to fire some of his business associates for ''trying to kill him'' when they tell him that he should test out their new virtual simulator. Kaiba agrees and says he'll fire them AFTER testing out the trap... er, I mean, game. You can guess what happens.

*::* ThatThis was, actuallyin fact, a [[Dub -Induced Plot Hole]]. In the original, they make a deal with Kaiba - he plays the game they invented. If he wins, they're fired; if he loses, they stay. Kaiba even notes that he ''knows'' it's a trap, but he has to play anyway or they'll try to get revenge later. It's still a nice holding of the [[Idiot Ball]] (they would get revenge either way), but Kaiba is known for never refusing challenges, so it wasn't so OOCout-of-character.

* Many ''[[Trigun Maximum]]'' fans thought the ending was ''extremely'' out of character when {{spoiler|Knives turned "good", presumably put his last energy into healing Vash and growing a tree and asked the kid to take care of Vash}}. Arguably, {{spoiler|Livio}} had an OoCout-of-character moment in his "I now realize I love kids!" speech. This may be more of an invoked trope due to him taking up {{spoiler|Wolfwood}}'s mantle regarding kids.

* In the odd show ''[[Bobobobo Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo]]'', Softon, one of the more [[Only Sane Man|"normal"]] characters, briefly lapses into the nonsensical behavior of the rest of the cast [[It Makes Sense in Context|so that he could be able to fly]]. This is lampshaded by another [[Only Sane Man|"normal"]] character.

* A mention in a [[Carl Barks]] comic of Scrooge having driven an entire village of African natives off their land to plant a rubber plantation represented a massive stumbling block for [[Don Rosa]], as it contrasts with Scrooge's honor code of making money (fair and) "Square". (NevermindNever mind the fact that Barks himself [[wikipedia:Scrooge McDuck#Morality and beliefs|acknowledged]] that exploitation exists in the natural order.) Rosa decided to portray this incident as [[My Greatest Failure|Scrooge's single most regretted act]] in ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]''.

* The entirety of the widely-loathed ''[[Spider-Man]]'' story ''[[One More Day]]'' was basically one long [[Out-of-Character Moment]] for Peter Parker, who acts like a selfish, delusional, hysterical idiot who [[Momma's Boy|can't face the idea of life without his Mommy-substitute]] and subsequently ''[[Deal with the Devil|sells his marriage to his loving wife and their unborn child to the Devil]]'' in order to save an ''extremely'' old woman who'd already told him she was ready to pass on. Yes, ''that'' Peter Parker. The [[Comes Great Responsibility|"with great power comes great responsibility"]] guy.

* A notable example where this is a plot point is in the ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' [[Peggy Sue]] Fanfic ''[[The Second Try]]''. Shinji and Asuka, after [[Adam and Eve Plot|surviving on their own]] for several years in a [[The End of the World as We Know It|Post-Third Impact]] world, overcoming their own psychoses and insecurities and becoming better humans, they are suddenly swept back in time (and age) to before the arrival of the 12th angel. One of the things they struggle with is trying to act like their old selves so as to not arouse suspicion. However, neither one is particularly good at acting, and most of their friends note that they are acting odd (Asuka is bad at hiding her emotions, while Shinji is bad about remembering to be careful with words or actions). The only reason they manage to keep the facadefaçade up is because no one would suspect that they were actually a couple, much less the other absurdities of their story.

** {{spoiler|Misato eventually figures out their secret because of this trope. Specifically, she finds an "anonymous" warning letter (meant to warn her about the 13th angel) in her belongings... That Shinji had ''written by hand''; she recognizes his handwriting, and a quick peek at his schoolwork confirms that he wrote it. She then remembers his and Asuka's odd behavior, and realizes that Asuka may know something about the letter. When she confronts Asuka, who is extremely distraught at the time (for ''Veryvery'' good reasons), Asuka breaks down and lets the facade drop. }}

* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Invincible Technomage|Harry Potterandthe Invincible Technomage]]'', Harry says Tony Stark ([[Iron Man]]) told him it's good not to make the other guy hate oneself, because it's bad business, and thus makes nice with Snape early-on. After Harry overrides the limits on his armor to defeat the troll, and is harmed by it, Tony comes in, blames Dumbledore for it, and when Dumbledore tries Legilimency on him, as a first resort, because he can't believe the arrogant Muggle is talking to him that way. Tony's response is to shrug off the mind control, and threaten to tear Hogwarts down if Dumbledore tries that on Harry. Not only is this OOCout-of-character for standard Dumbledore, but Tony is acting out of his ''own characterization in the fic'', since destroying/disrupting the only magical school in the British Isles instead of just having the corrupt Headmaster removed would certainly make people hate him. That said, you can hardly blame him for losing his temper after Harry came extremely close to getting killed.

* In ''[[She's the Man]]'', Amanda Bynes' character spends a good portion of time being shy about her body (possibly due to the fact that she's in an all[[One-Gender boy'sSchool|all-boys school]] and she's not a guy but she still appears to be body shy). Then at the end of the movie she decides to flash an entire stadium of onlookers to prove that she is a girl so that her love interest will possibly like her.

* In the [[Eddie Murphy]] and [[Martin Lawrence]] movie, ''[[Life (film)|Life]]'' you may have noticed that, in the "nigger pie" scene, their two characters personalities suddenly switched, from Eddie Murphy's somewhat hot-headed character suddenly just wanting to leave the diner to avoid any further conflict with the rednecks and Martin Lawrence's normally coolheaded, and at time borderline cowardly character becoming very angry at the owners denying them service. This is because that's exactly what happened. They did switch the characters' dialog from what was more in-character because, for some reason, it just wasn't flowing correctly that way.

* Director Brad Bird is best known for animated films like ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', ''[[The Incredibles]]'', and ''[[Ratatouille]]''. Then he was unexpectedly announced as the director of the live-action film ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)|Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol]]'' and did the job with such extraordinary competence that you would think he had been directing live-action films for years.

* ''[[Don Quixote]]'': Played Straight, even lampshaded: In the first part, it's very clear that Sancho Panza is a naive simpleton. In the second part, Sancho suddenly says very subtle, intelligent things to his wife. [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|One of the narrators]] of this tale, seeing this inconsistency, decides to [[Lampshade Hanging|warn the reader: ]]: ''The translator of this history, when he comes to write this fifth chapter, says that he considers it apocryphal, because in it Sancho Panza speaks in a style unlike that which might have been expected from his limited intelligence, and says things so subtle that he does not think it possible he could have conceived them; however, desirous of doing what his task imposed upon him, he was unwilling to leave it untranslated, and therefore he went on to say:'' This could be considered the beginning of Sancho's slow transformation into a [[Simpleminded Wisdom|discreet person]].

* In the miniseries of [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the rebooted ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']], Laura Roslin demonstrates her loyalty to humanity by ordering her (unarmed) ship to stay and assist refugees even when two Cylon Raiders approach. Thanks to Apollo's quick thinking, they manage to survive the encounter. However, later on when the situation is repeated she orders the fleet to jump away rather than risk total destruction, giving her character quite a bit of guilt but saving humanity. The writer Ron Moore even confirmed in a blog post that he wanted to spend a scene showing her reconsider her actions earlier as foolish, but due to time constraints those scenes were never filmed.

** A more serious moment of this came from the introduction of Ensign Ro Laren. She had been in prison for treason and brought on board the ''Enterprise'' because she was Bajoran and they needed to deal with Bajoran terrorists. Just mentioning her name in the beginning of the episode caused Picard and Riker to tense up. But the real moment came when Riker met her in the transporter room and chews her out for wearing the traditional Bajoran earring, claiming it violates Starfleet dress code. This is despite the fact that Worf wears his family sash at all times. But it was to emphasize that no one liked her.

*** This episode aired long before [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]] established as much as it did about Bajoran culture and the tradition of the earrings in their religion, so at the time it could have simply been viewed as scoffing at her for personal jeweleryjewellery that violated the dress code. Tuvok, however, does the same thing to a Bajoran-Maquis crewman in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'', almost making this an out of character moment for Starfleet in their uniform policies.

*** This is somewhat in-character for Riker, as it shows in several episodes (particularly the one that introduced Barclay) that, on a professional level, he is a rather stern executive officer, demanding a high level of excellence from the ''Enterprise'' crew.

* Happened in the original script of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "All Our Yesterdays," with Spock falling in love and kissing Zarabeth but averted in the filmed episode at Nimoy's insistence. Instead, his behavior was [[Hand Wave|hand waved]]d with the explanation that, having gone back in time, he became like the savage Vulcans of that time.

** Spock has several interesting examples. In the original un-aired pilot, he broadly grinned when touching a strange, quivering plant, and in the first televised pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he began violently striking a monster-disguised-as-a-woman to prove the she really wasn't Kirk's long-lost love, the "woman" in question showing no ill effects and casually throwing Spock across the room in retaliation. These can be attributed to the fact that it was early in the series and Spock's character --— not to mention Vulcan culture in general --— hadn't been fully realized. Then in the Season 2 episode "Amok Time", a visibly distraught Spock thinks he has killed Kirk during a Pon Farr duel in which Spock was basically out of his mind thanks to crazy Vulcan hormones, but when Kirk unexpectedly shows up alive and well, Spock smiles with joy and excitedly rushes towards his friend before quickly regaining control of his emotions and apologizing for his embarrassing outburst. This, of course, was to show the depth of the friendship between he and Kirk.

* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S2 /E15 Phases|Phases]]", Giles is explaining that the full moon brings out the darkest in people, and Xander quips, "And yet, ironically, led to the invention of the moon pie." Rather than snapping at Xander, which is what he ''always'' does, Giles ''giggles appreciatively''! This is probably a deliberate use of the trope; the joke is that having spent a year deriding Xander's impertinence, he finds the humour in this ''singularly lame'' remark. (He's the only one, by the way.)

* In the ''[[Degrassi]]'' episode "Take On Me" Sean, who is normally sullen, brooding bad boy, begins to act a lot crazier. A lot like Jon Bender of ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'' which was the movie the episode of was paying an homage to and Sean was the designated "rebel."

** At the end of season two, Marian has an [[Out-of-Character Moment]] that not only leads to her death but the show's demise. After spending two seasons as an incredibly careful and discreet spy, not to mention the voice of reason and compassion, Marian suddenly decides to kill the Sheriff of Nottingham. Repeat: she decides to assassinate a man by stabbing him in the back based on a ''rumour'' floating around the castle that the Sheriff was going to try and kill King Richard, despite the fact that she knows Prince John has placed a life insurance on the Sheriff's head that stipulates Nottingham will be destroyed if anything happens to him. She sneaks into his room with a sword and is instantly caught in the act of trying to ''murder him in cold blood''.

* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' has a ''huge'' case of this trope in the opening scene to the final season. First of all, Aunt Zelda {{spoiler|gives up her "adult years" to save Sabrina after Sabrina refuses to give up her true love even though she agreed to save Hilda (confusing already) and subsequently turns to stone and crumbles.}} Zelda {{spoiler|turns into an 8-year-old to give Sabrina the rest of her life.}} Wait...WHAT? Zelda {{spoiler|just gives up her entire life? Because Sabrina was an idiot yet again? Zelda agrees to this in a matter of minutes after Sabrina crumbles to pieces.}} Also, Sabrina, usually completely ignorant to most witch-things in the past, knows exactly what {{spoiler|what Zelda has done.}} But what is even more unsettling {{spoiler|is that Sabrina merely gives her aunt a cheap, poorly written, and rapid "thank you" and tells her aunt that she is ready to live her own life.}} WHAAAAT?! Obviously, {{spoiler|Beth Broderick had it with the writing and decided to leave. So, in return, they give one of the most important characters in Sabrina's life an awful, awful send-off that is poorly written, poorly acted out by an 8-year-old, and poorly conceived.}} What a joke. With {{spoiler|Hilda newly married}} they had {{spoiler|no use for her}} and since Zelda {{spoiler|doesn't have some convenient boarding school to be shipped off to (Libby) nor a family that is given a new job in Alaska (Valerie)}} this was their ''only'' option. At least, they {{spoiler|gave her a sendoff unlike Miles, Jenny, Mr. Pool, Drell, Mr. Kraft, Dreama, and Brad}} who just get {{spoiler|[[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]] and disappear without explanation.}}

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'' Delenn has a disastrous out -of -character moment in her [[Backstory]] that is revealed in "Atonement." Lennier has one at the next to the last episode.

* One episode of ''[[Modern Family]]'' has Mitchell win an award from his work, then get jealous when Cam puts up one of his old trophy'strophies which is much larger. However, the real OOCout-of-character moment is from Alex, who comments that she wouldn't "get out of bed" for a trophy the size of Mitchell's and later, when the latter explains his case, agrees with him, citing her mom putting lesser works of Haley & Luke's on the wall next to a plaque she won as if they were all equal. Obviously, this is done so [[My God, What Have I Done?|Mitchell will realize how petty he's being]], and Alex has been shown to be proud of her accomplishments on the show before, but never in such a [[Jerkass]]-y manner.

* ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'' actually [https://web.archive.org/web/20111112050820/http://garfield.nfshost.com/1979/05/28/ said that he likes Mondays] well after "I hate Mondays" had been established as his [[Catch Phrase]]. It's also parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130402123346/http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=1981&addr=810104 this] strip

* For a time, [[Wrestler/Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] was the funniest man in the WWE simply because seeing a 6'9", mask-wearing psychopath doing things like imitating [[Hulk Hogan]] and breakdancing was such an [[Out-of-Character Moment]] it crossed over into a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

* During his short stint as a commentator on WWF Sunday Night Heat, [[Wrestler/Raven (wrestling)|Raven]] had one of these. His co-host Jonathan Coachman had a bad habit of ignoring the match in the ring in favor of endlessly shilling the main event and the main event wrestlers. Raven finally interrupted him mid-shill, ''berated'' him for being disrespectful for the men in the ring and ordered him to call the match that was actually happening. There's a reason many WWF/WWE fans viewed Raven's commentary run as [[Too Good to Last]].

* In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'', Ike will sometimes say "You'll get no sympathy from me"; odd for the guy who gives everyone (up to and including {{spoiler|his father's killer}}) sympathy. Might be a case of [[Lost in Translation]], since while Ike is empathetic, he also does not hold back in battle, which could have been what ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' Ike was trying to say.

** Similarly, Marth's taunts and win quotes ("Everybody, look at me") make him out to be self-centered. Complete opposite of his personality. [[Awkward Zombie]] [[Alternate Character Interpretation|uses Marth as he appears in]] ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'', [http://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic1-030909.php causing annoyance to the author when a game starring him finally comes out in English.]

** In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', one of the characters recruitable after the storyline is {{spoiler|[[Phantom Brave|Marona]], who acts like a total brat and is prone to violence when your party first come across her, which is a drastically stark contrast to her [[The Messiah|messianic]] [[Technical Pacifist]] personality. This is somewhat justified because her innocent heart was stolen by [[Final Boss|Baal]], but since Baal hasn't stolen anything, it's implied that something else is going on}}.

** In ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', Marona herself has an out of character moment in the post-game content {{spoiler|when she meets up with [[Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure|Myao]], which stated that Marona's chest is much flatter than hers, which in turns [[Beware of the Nice Ones|causes Marona to want to rip Myao apart]]}}. Keep in mind that this coming from a [[Nice Girl|kind-hearted]] [[The Messiah|messianic]] [[Token Mini-MoeLoli|loli]] who [[Easily Forgiven|forgives everyone easily]] and [[Technical Pacifist|very hesitant to use any sort of violence]]. However she ''does'' pull an 'intentional'' [[Out-of-Character Moment]] during [[Another Side, Another Story|Another Marona]] in order to hammer a certain point home to Ash.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', Batman himself pulls an OoCout-of-character moment when {{spoiler|he opts to try to find Talia al Ghul instead of saving Arkham City from being leveled and its inhabitants killed.}} Oracle [[What the Hell, Hero?|gives him the riot act]] while Alfred refuses to listen to Bruce, telling him that he knows what he should really do.

* Fighter of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' would have moments of uncommon wit and insight, lampshaded by other characters, of course. Then this happened often enough as a [[Running Gag]] to make readers wonder if he were [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].

** "The Trouble With Trillions" has an OOCMout-of-character moment that sticks out like a sore thumb: When the family is being asked by government agents what would Homer do with the [[Zillion-Dollar Bill]] he's been accused of stealing, Marge says that the money should go to the kids' college fund... only for ''Lisa'' to reply "Who needs college? Let's buy dune buggies!" '''''Huh?''''' This coming from the girl who, after helping put Mr. Burns back on his feet, refused her rightful million dollar advisor fee out of moral disapprobation for how he did it.

** Another one that might be excused by the [[Rule of Funny]]: In "Rosebud", Homer and Bart are gloating that they can demand any price for returning Bobo to Mr. Burns, and Marge replies "Now I'm sure he'll offer a fair reward ... And then we'll make him double it!" When the rest of the family stares at her, she adds, "[[Lampshade Hanging|Why can't I be greedy every once in a while?]]"

* This ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy|Ed, Edd n Eddy]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsjdgCsxXpA commercial] for [[Cartoon Network]] Latin America may also triple as [[Fan Disservice]] and [[Divide by Zero]]. Subverted at the end, but STILL''still''...

* In a storybook of ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' ,Timmy wishes to have the perfect Thanksgiving dinner, but Cosmo and Wanda end up dropping him off at Vicky's house. To his surprise, though, Vicky's upset that she is alone on Thanksgiving because her parents and Tootie went out to get cranberry sauce and their car broke down. That's right, in this book, Timmy's [[Jerkass]] babysitter worries about her family, whom she treats no differently than him on the show.

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' had this as well. [[Cute Bruiser|Starfire]] has a hugely obvious crush on her love interest, Robin, throughout the entire series. Resident [[Kuudere]], Raven, is completely in control of her emotions at all times or else her powers will make things kaboom, and it takes several seasons for the closest thing she has to a family to [[Ice Queen|even crack the ice]]. But the show brought in the writers of the original comic book for an episode, and due to [[Sex Sells|the nature of]] [[Most Writers Are Male|the original comic book]], all of the two girls' [[Character Development|characterization]] got thrown out to have them swoon over Aqualad to [[Viewers are Morons|try to give the audience the illusion that Aqualad is]] [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]] so that they could justly have [[Shape Shifter]] Beast Boy have his own [[Out-of-Character Moment]] to become a [[Jerkass]] until they were able to get to [[An Aesop|the moral of the story]]. And that doesn't even compare to how many [[What Happened to the Mouse?|random plots point are left behind throughout the episode at this point.]] This doesn't actually count as [[Character Derailment]] though, as it was only to move the plot and [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|was only for one episode.]] Though, it doesn't help that most official sources count it as Canon, despite [[Fanon Discontinuity|most fans' tendency to pretend it never happened.]]

* In at least two episodes of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' Hank acts very out of character.:

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books{{PAGENAME}}]]