Contrived Coincidence: Difference between revisions

** The fact that the main (human) heroine of the series is a [[Identical Stranger|dead lookalike]] for (the alien queen) Starsha and her sister is also an unexplained and apparently random coincidence.

* ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' uses it for humor in episode 37, pointing out the four different coincidences (including one that seems to have nothing to do with anything) that just so happen to resolve the plot in exactly the right way.

* ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', both fortunately and unfortunately, happens to be chock full of this trope. This is basically the reason why all of the characters meet in the first place, as the chances for these select few individuals encountering one another (especially Lucy and Kouta) is next to impossible.

** That none of them ''remember'' each other is a whole 'nother web of improbability.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]'': When Miss Piggy is stranded and needs to get across town in time to foil a museum heist, a motorcycle just happens to drop off a passing box van, to which she remarks, "What an ''unbelievable'' coincidence!"

* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode IV'', the odds of Luke meeting up with childhood friend Biggs at the Rebel base (as shown in the Special Edition) is next to nothing -- as the two characters themselves acknowledge earlier in the film (this part of the footage was not restored). All six films are riddled with bizarre [[It's a Small World After All]] (or rather galaxy) moments, starting with the two droids just happening to be brought to the Lars homestead. There's some justification, since "There's no such thing as luck," and ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|KOTOR]]'' lampshades the matter by having most Jedi characters interpret the ''massive'' coincidences and unlikely happenings coming their way as [[Because Destiny Says So|part of the Will of the Force]].

'''Mission:''' Good point. }}

** [[Fridge Brilliance|It becomes less contrived]] that the droids wound up with the Lars's when you consider that Leia was coming to Tatooine at the behest of her father to find Obi Wan and when she realized she would be captured; Leia sent R2 to find Obi Wan in her stead. R2 programmed the escape pod to land as close as he could to Obi Wan (whose coordinates he would have been given by Leia) and was headed to find him when the jawas captured him. When you consider that Obi Wan was there to watch and protect Luke should Vader ever come looking, he wouldn't have lived far from the Lars's. The jawas' territory was obviously near the Lars's farm (and therefore, by extension, Obi Wan's abode) and they showed up looking for a translator and an R2 unit. The true contrived coincidence is that the other R2 unit blew up so they took R2.

* Done in ''[[The Truman Show]]'', where the producers' increasing reliance on [[Contrived Coincidence|Contrived Coincidences]] as desperate attempts to convince Truman everything's normal and stop him from suspecting the sham he's living in backfire spectacularly and only drive him ever more paranoid. {{spoiler|The 'return' of his father -- previously thought dead -- is only the most prominent example, but this one ''also'' backfires, in that it helps Truman not only see through the artifice he's surrounded with but helps overcome the fear of water that was previously the best method of keeping him there.}}

* In ''[[Top Secret (film)|Top Secret]]'', this receives a [[Lampshade Hanging]] courtesy of the protagonist.

'''Hillary:''' I know. It all sounds like some bad movie. ([[Aside Glance]]) }}

* Lampshaded in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'' when Yzma ({{spoiler|in cat form}}) has finally gotten the potion back from Kuzco and is promptly squished by Kronk throwing open the other opening of the chute he had fallen into [[Brick Joke|a good while ago]] (too long ago to have taken this long, but this movie runs on pure [[Rule of Funny]]). His quote -- while still oblivious to what he had just done -- "Wow. What are the odds of that trap door leading way out here?"

* The film ''[[Tokyo Godfathers]]'' has quite a bit of this, to the point of being a plot point. One of the main characters repeatedly mentions that the baby they've found is a gift from God, and we see many times that she might be what's making everything fall into place so perfectly.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Wayne's World|Waynes World]]'' when, upon stepping out of an [[Alice Cooper]] concert for a moment, they conveniently talk to a security guard who tells them the travel plans of a producer who could help the career of Wayne's girlfriend Cassandra.

'''Wayne:''' Yes. It seemed extraneous at the time. }}

* The plot of ''The Perfect Host'' kicks off when an escaping bank robber goes into a convenience store to treat his injury. It ''just happens'' to get robbed by a completely unrelated criminal, which delays him and gets him noticed by the store clerk. So he talks his way into a nearby house to hide out, the occupant of which ''just happens'' to be {{spoiler|a lunatic who likes drugging strangers and having all night "dinner parties" with them.}} And it [[Tropes Are Not Bad|gets]] [[Up to 11|more ridiculous from there.]] {{color|white|Oh, and the lunatic ''just happens'' to be the LAPD Lieutenant assigned to his case. Told ya this film was nutty.}}

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero Lost]]'', Mab thinks that Father Christmas being nearby in a mall so they can take refuge is an enormous coincidence. Miranda argues it would only be if they were ''looking'' for Father Christmas; instead, they were looking for somewhere, anywhere, ''safe'', and it just happened to be Father Christmas who could swing it.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Malevil]]''. Emmanuel is stunned by the unlikelihood of the following events: {{spoiler|Vilmain's men take La Roque the night before he planned to, they would have walked into a trap the next night when attempting it themselves. The only reason they don't is because of the scouts caught investigating Malevil in the morning; Emmanuel breaks his own orders and captures one rather then killing him, and the scout turns out to be ''a friend who wants to defect'' and warns them of their new enemies}}.

* In ''[[The Merchant Princes Series]]'', Miriam's ex-boyfriend is a DEA agent. Given that fact, it's not a coincidence that he was pulled in by [[The Men in Black]] to hunt down the Clan (any government agent of any kind would do), but it is a huge coincidence that he's the guy {{spoiler|Matthias defected to, spilling the whole story about the Clan itself}}.

* ''The Adventures of Blue Avenger'' by Norma Howe argues that this trope falls under [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]. Unlikely coincidences happen all the time, and [[Million-to-One Chance]] events are pretty common in a world with nearly seven billion people. So here comes one...

** Mohinder's cab in Season 1. Seriously, it must be the only taxi in New York or something, because whenever a character hails a cab, there he is.

* In the first episode of ''[[The Tick]]'''s live action show, The Red Scare, a communist assassin robot built in 1979 and programmed to hunt down and kill Jimmy Carter, is deployed in The City by a group of neo-commies who were trying to reprogram it to kill the postmaster general. Unfortunately, The Tick and Arthur foil them and accidentally activate the robot before the commies could reprogram it. Upon interrogating the communists and learning the latter, Arthur suddenly notices the title of that day's local newspaper. I'll give you three guesses as to what it says, and the latter two do not count.

* On ''[[Lost]]'', pretty much all of the passengers of flight 815 have unknowingly crossed paths before meeting on the plane, to the extent that the series also falls into the [[One Degree of Separation]] trope. For instance, only in season 3 we find out that {{spoiler|Claire and Jack are half siblings; this remains unbeknownst to Claire until her supposed death, while Jack finds out only in S4.}} These past connections eventually end up looking slightly less contrived now that it's clearly stated that one of the main themes of the show is "destiny".

** The trope in this case would be subverted. At first it seemed like the writers were just throwing in little connections to please fans, but as of season six it is pretty obvious the fact they have all crossed paths is an important aspect of the show, and it may not be fate that brought them to the island in the first place.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'':

'''Julio''': Pretty good, considering we wouldn't be having this scene if it didn't forward the plot in some way. }}

* ''[[Megatokyo]]'' has quite a few of these, most notably the significance of nearly ''every'' member of the Sonoda family (Yuki is Piro's student, Meimi has a hit on Largo, the Inspector knows half the cast and Erika was engaged to his brother). Oddly, the example quoted above is one of the few that can make any sense, if you're willing to believe that Largo actually CAN sense evil (given everything else in the comic, it isn't too far a stretch).

** Also lampshaded in "28 Geeks Later", although it's not really plot-significant. "''Aw man!'' Brain-bug ''right'' up the nose! How plain silly! What are the ''chances'' it'd be shooting out of the drain ''right'' when my nose was over it? What's the word I'm looking for? '''ARGH!!!'''" [gets made slightly nerdier by brain-bug] "...'Contrived'!"

* Lampshaded and subverted in ''[[Digger]]'', when the title character is told she's {{spoiler|a descendant of Helix, one of the wombats who worked on the chains binding the dead god}}:

{{spoiler|'''Helix''': I had eight sons a thousand years ago. You do the math.}} }}

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has an interesting [[Subverted Trope|subversion]]. During the party, a lightbulb explodes, [[Moment Killer|interrupting]] {{spoiler|Susan and Justin's ill-advised hook-up}}. They see this as a {{spoiler|fortunate coincidence}}. It's actually {{spoiler|the Demonic Duck saving their friendship. He owed Justin a favor after a joke went very wrong.}}

* Chapter 3 of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. All the other parts of the comic's [[Generation Xerox]] have a reasonable in-universe explanation, but in this chapter Reynardine, attempting to escape from the Court, smashes through several roofs. And one of these roofs just happens to be the dorm of Antimony Carver, the daughter of Rey's old friend Surma. This then gets practically [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] shortly later: Annie tries to find Rey again, but has no idea where he is. Then she finds a train, [[Expo Label|clearly labeled]] "Secret Train To Large Animal Holding Cells (Very Hush Hush, You Know.)" which naturally takes her straight to Reynardine.

'''Antimony''': ... [[Understatement|On occasion.]] }}

* Cale lampshades the concept in [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/236 this] ''[[Looking for Group]]'' comic.