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The Anthropic Principle as it applies to fiction is similar: Every [[The Verse|fictional universe]] has fundamental, axiomatic elements without which its story simply ''could not exist'', and the reader must accept those elements in order to enjoy the work. The ultimate expression of this trope is [[Minovsky Physics]] -these elements are actually carefully planned in advance, ensuring a logical transition from real life to the fictional universe.
 
For example, ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' requires a lead character able to get on a TV quiz show and do surprisingly well, to the point that the show itself becomes [[Serious Business]]. For ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' to happen, Dr. Gregory House must be able to keep his job as a genius diagnostician despite being a major [[Jerkass]]. For ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane]]'' to happen, there must be [[Captain Obvious|snakes on]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|a plane]]. For a ''[[Gundam]]'' series to happen, giant [[Mecha]] must be possible. And to the eternal enmity of all physicists, you cannot have a [[Space Opera]] without [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] ... and the resultant [[Cool Starship|Cool Starships]] [[We Will Use Manual Labor in Thethe Future|must have people on them]] (even if it's just because [[AI Is a Crapshoot|suitable machines can't be trusted]]) because [[Most Writers Are Human|it's hard to tell entertaining stories about unmanned probes.]] For an [[Adventure Game]] or [[RPG]] to happen, there must be ''someone'' who the player can guide through the [[Sorting Algorithm of Villain Threat]] and eventually beat up the [[Big Bad]] in single combat. And in all of the above cases, if Adventures of those types can be had regularly, it is an [[Adventure-Friendly World]].
 
This is in some ways the opposite of the [[MST3K Mantra]], which says that some details don't need to make sense because they ultimately don't matter; the [[Anthropic Principle]] says that certain details of the story '''do''' matter because they are the foundations that the story itself is built upon, and accepting those details on faith is critical to the audience's enjoyment of the show, even if it doesn't make much sense from an outside viewpoint.
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* This trope is surprisingly often [[Defied Trope|defied]] by critics reviewing [[Comic Book]] [[The Movie|film adaptations]] and [[Fantasy]], when they dismiss an entire genre in its opening paragraph by pointing out that the very premise of the story is realistically impossible and rests upon [[Character Archetype|childlike simplifications]] -- and anyone who takes such stories seriously must by definition be irresponsible and childish themselves; see [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like]].
 
* Conversely, the need for the plot to work ''as an actual story'' is a problem for [[Fan Dumb|overzealous fans]] who attempt to [[Doing in Thethe Wizard|explain away]] an aspect of the story that requires [[Broad Strokes]]. They may foreswear any [[Death of the Author|literary]], character-driven, or [[Epileptic Trees|other]] interpretations, placing [[All There in the Manual|rigorous consistency]] above whether or not it makes [[Rule of Drama|a good story]]; and apply [[Armed Withwith Canon|similar standards]] when judging film adaptations, even when there'd be no film if their proposed changes were made.
 
* Sometimes the author is dissatisfied and rebels against the underlying premise. Changes to the basic premise to make it "consistent" or "relevant" (due to [[Cerebus Syndrome]] or [[Executive Meddling]]) will require a [[Continuity Reboot]] or a total [[Retool]] of the premise. Compare [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]].
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=== This will be for shows, games, ''etc.'' where the Principle is [[Lampshading|mentioned]], [[Invoked Trope|invoked]], or demonstrated particularly well. ===
 
* The game ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]''. Near the end of the game, it is revealed that every action the hero has taken {{spoiler|was the result of post-hypnotic suggestion compelling him to act}}. If you attempt to defy the {{spoiler|mind control}} earlier in the game, [[No Sidepaths No Exploration No Freedom|not only do you not progress]], but you never even get to the point where you can discover the true reasons behind your actions. Of course, if this happens, the plot stalls. There is only an interesting game in the first place because the plot proceeded the way it was meant to - you are playing it only because it happened that way.
* The game ''[[Prince of Persia|Prince of Persia: Sands of Time]]'', lampshades this. Whenever the Prince dies, we hear him tell us,"No, no, that wasn't how it happened. Hold on." Because to have the Prince die would mean that the story of the game that is interesting would not be told, that he would not be there at this very moment to tell the story of his adventure to begin with.
** A similar situation occurs in ''[[Monkey Island 2: Le ChucksLeChuck's Revenge (Video Game)|Monkey Island 2 Le Chucks Revenge]]'': there's no way to die in the game, except one time where you are disintegrated in acid. The person you are telling the story to immediately calls you on this, as you can't have been disintegrated if you're there telling the story, looking very integrated indeed.
** The game ''[[Sacrifice]]'' features the same conceit, with almost the same line: "Of course, that's not what really happened." The protagonist is explaining the story to one of the acquaintances he met during it.
* ''[[CryofCry of Fear]]'': The whole story, and all the events that occured, turn out to have been written by Simon as a form of theraphy after the car crash from the opening cutscene. If he had not been struck by that one car, the story had not been written. This is demonstrated effectively in the alternate gamemodes Co-op and Doctor mode; the playable police officers get sucked into the book, and the only way for them to get out alive is to go from the end to the beginning and prevent the accident from ever happening. Dr Purnell however, enters simons mind willingly to destroy the book.
* Part of the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Spider and Web]]'' has a similar approach: you're interrogated in a flashback, but with an audience, and if you do something unbelievable in the flashback, he'll stop you and insist you tell the truth. {{spoiler|This is eventually subverted as the main puzzle of the game is to give a a plausible explanation for starting conditions of the game, while at the same time hiding what you did prior to capture that will allow you to escape.}}
* The anime ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''. Koizumi explains this principle to Kyon, when describing why some members of his organization think Suzumiya Haruhi is a god.
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** He later discusses the very trope that is the subject of the article when talking about fiction, saying that fictional detectives always "accidentally" end up at crime scenes because otherwise there would be no story.
** [[Kyo Ani]] evidently likes this trope; Kagami and Konata [[Seinfeldian Conversation|discuss]] this same thing in [[Lucky Star]].
* ''[[Assassin's Creed (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed]]'' uses this to [[Hand Wave]] a traditional video game trope. The plot of the game involves a man reliving the memories of an assassin ancestor using a special machine that reads genetic memories; what would be a [[Life Meter]] in most games is called a Synchronization Meter, explaining how in synch he is with the historical events. Performing actions that are badly out of character (like killing innocents) or just plain inaccurate (like dying) lower the Synch Meter. Incidentally, it was made by the same team as the ''Prince of Persia'' series, mentioned above. Logically, this implies that Altair was an ''incredible [[Badass]]'', since being hurt at all lowers synchronization- thus he never got hurt...
** In turn, we also know that Altair and Ezio must at some point have children, since they eventually become Desmond's ancestors. So when we meet Sofia in Assassin's Creed Revelations, It is even more obvious than usual that she is the Love interest.
* In ''[[Metal Gear|Metal Gear Solid 3]]'', the death of Naked Snake or Ocelot both result in the infamous "time paradox" game over screen. The future course of the story depends HEAVILY on these two characters, so it just wouldn't do for them to die in the prequel.
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* In the ''[[Chzo Mythos]]'', as the game "Trilby's Notes" is a recollection of the main character, it only makes sense that he must survive to write them. Should he die at any time during the game, the game mentions how the notes "mysteriously end" at that point, and perhaps were not actually written by the protagonist.
* In ''[[Space Quest]] V'', Roger Wilco must keep his love-interest, Beatrice Wankmeister, alive, or else get a game over. Why? Because the fact that she and Roger eventually have a son is part of the premise of the time-travel laden ''[[Space Quest]] IV'', as the son saves Roger in the opener of that game. If Beatrice does not survive, Roger Jr. will not be born, cannot travel back in time to save his dad, and thus ''[[Space Quest]] V'' can not happen!
* Given a [[Shout-Out]] in one ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' novel, where it's revealed that {{spoiler|Vladimir Ward}} firmly believes in a personal version of this -- that is, he's earnestly convinced that the Star League fell and the Clans came into being just so that ''he'' could be born at just the right time for the invasion and go on to conquer the Inner Sphere. To him, that's actually the simplest and most logical explanation for everything in his life up to that point.
* A common joke in China is wondering why Sun Wukung from ''[[Journey to The West (Literature)|Journey to Thethe West]]'' (a demi-god who can jump over continents in one bound and carry half a mountain on his back) can't just carry Xuanzang straight to India.
* When you think about it, ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' hinges on a whole gigantic mountain of coincidences that could be easily handwaved by themselves, but in aggregate are pretty incredible, particularly as the story goes on. Okay, so this incredible artifact of doom falls into the hands of an amoral supergenius; wouldn't be much of a story without that, would there? Alright, then the ''other'' super-smartest ultra-genius in the entire world gets involved. Well, that's sort of his job; the actions of the first genius attracted the second one. But Misa getting her own Death Note, living in the same country as Light and falling into an obsessive love with him? What are the odds? Doesn't matter. She is how she is, and that's why the story played out the way it did. It wouldn't have been near as interesting otherwise. It only spools out further from there.
* There's actually a whole genre of comedy based on this sort of thing, films like ''[[Big Trouble]]'' and ''[[National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation]]'' and books like ''[[A Confederacy of Dunces]]''. A lot of the fun comes from seeing just how much worse things can possibly get for the main characters, as a bunch of independent actors, all of whom have only slight knowledge of each others' actions if any, do exactly the wrong thing to screw up everyone else's day.
* ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]'' goes to an unusual amount of effort to justify its anthropic principle. The moment you discover the TV world, it's obvious you'll be going there and fighting monsters, but the characters react realistically to this discovery rather than [[Jumped At the Call|rushing in]], with the result that gameplay [[It Gets Better|doesn't fully open up until about three hours in]].
* The 2008 remake of [[Day of the Dead]] illustrates an example common to many zombie films. It is explained that the zombie virus can be transmitted by air in addition to being bitten by a zombie. When one character asks why all the [[Contractual Immortality|main characters are uninfected]], the scientist explains that "some people are just immune to the airborne aspect." Although it may seem like [[Deus Ex Machina|an incredible and unexpected coincidence]], they would necessarily have to be immune to be main characters.
* Though it is never mentioned explicitly, the anthropic principle is the entire premise of [http://lesswrong.com/lw/14h/the_hero_with_a_thousand_chances/ The Hero with a Thousand Chances].
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