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{{trope}}
[[File:reality01 264.png|link=The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|
So the hero has defeated the [[Evil Overlord]]'s army. They've disarmed [[The Dragon]] using [[The Power of Friendship]]. The superweapon is destroyed. The hero is facing the [[Evil Overlord]] in the final showdown... and takes out a gun, [[Kill Him Already|shoots the Evil Overlord in the head]], and walks away.
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'''Reality Ensues.'''
Maybe [[Our Vampires Are Different|Your Vampires Aren't Quite So Different After All]]. Maybe the villain is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], or the [[Mooks]] can [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|actually shoot straight]]. Perhaps the [[Love Interest]] is ''not'' [[Immune to Bullets]], or perhaps talking is not, [[Talking Is a Free Action|despite what you may have been led to believe]], a free action. Or maybe the protagonist should have been better about cleaning up his/her loose ends, because
This can sometimes be seen on the hard end of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], though [[Dystopia Is Hard|it isn't necessarily so]]. See also [[Twist Ending]], [[Mood Whiplash]], [[Ascended Fridge Horror]] and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]. [[Defied Trope]] may lead to this, as may [[Deconstructed Trope]].
[[Negated Moment of Awesome]]. Commonly found in the company of [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]. Not to be confused with [[Hilarity Ensues]], although they can overlap, depending on usage. Compare [[Magic A Is Magic A]]; it's very important that these instances are ''consistent'' with the setting. Contrast [[This Is Reality]], where a character ''believes'' that reality will ensue, but it doesn't. '''Reality Ensues''' may also be defined as forgoing [[Genre Consistency]] in favor of [[External Consistency]].
{{noreallife|it'
{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Sprite did a series of commercials based around subverting [[Cereal-Induced Superpowers]] by invoking this trope. One features a kid spotting NBA player Grant Hill drinking Sprite, and thinking Sprite will make him a basketball player—which he quickly disproves by drinking Sprite and then attempting a slam dunk, failing, and falling on his ass.
{{quote|'''Announcer''': If you want to make it to the NBA... practice. If you want a refreshing drink, obey your thirst. Sprite.}}
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-aFQtiPzFk An even harsher one] had a visibly preteen boy thinking that drinking Sprite would transform him into a [[Professional Wrestling|professional wrestler]]. He then [[Bullying a Dragon|challenged]] [[WCW]]'s [[
** In one Sprite commercial, a mom takes out some [[Bland-Name Product|Sun Fizz]] to give to her children. The sun logo comes to life to sing the drink's praises. The mom and kids respond by doing what a real life mom and kids would do: freak out and run away, screaming. This troper recalls that commercial winning some kind of award.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpReQprVjag One depressing European ad against child abuse] had a man [[Amusing Injuries|beating a cartoon kid]] for a while before cutting to a real, unconscious kid on the floor and the legend "Real children don't bounce back".
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'':
*
** Rock's kindness to Gretel appears to do her some good and she leaves the ''Black Lagoon'' (the vessel) amicably. Then she gets shot [[In the Back]] by some guy and dies, because there's still a contract on her head by a mob boss who isn't into the whole mercy for the killers of her men thing, and a [[Badass]] is just as vulnerable as anyone else when caught off guard.
** While Blitz Stanford, an enormous [[Those Wacky Nazis|neo-Nazi]] is extolling the virtues of his [[Hand Cannon|enormous Luger]], Revy {{spoiler|takes the time to reload before promptly shooting him}}.
** There's also Lotton The Wizard, who gets shot out-of-hand while attempting to make a big entrance. {{spoiler|Luckily, he was [[Genre Savvy|the only one who thought to wear a bullet-proof vest]]}}.
** The ''Roberta's Blood Trail'' OVA deviates from the original manga by applying this. One woman, even an experienced ''[[Terminator]]''-level ex-guerilla with traps and terrain advantage, is not going to walk away unscathed from a battle with US special forces.
* In ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'', {{spoiler|Train is falling off a building and Rinslet jumps off to catch him}}, ending when Rinslet comes to a sudden stop at the end of the rope - and actually does tendon damage to her arm. Turns out inertia matters after all...
* In ''[[One Piece]]'' during the Thriller Bark arc, Chopper points out that the zombies' inability to feel pain is actually a weakness. Even if they can keep getting up from normal damage, they don't know what's ''really'' hurting them. {{spoiler|Oz's limbs all end up broken, and he can't understand why he can't move anymore.}}
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* Early in [[Outlaw Star]], the crew blast their way out of a spaceport to evade space pirates, presumably causing hundreds of thousands of wongs in damage. Towards the end of the series, the crew returns and Gene is immediately arrested and thrown in jail for property damage and other laws he broke, and only gets out at all because the traffic controller had been found to be taking bribes.
* In ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'', Keima notices that unlike in a game, {{spoiler|when an idol confesses their love to you}}, other people are generally not happy. In fact, they're ''pissed''.
* Any [[Hentai]] where the girl gets pregnant after unprotected sex when it's not explicitly [[
* ''[[Freezing]]'' features beautiful girls who attack each other with sharp weapons. When their clothes get ripped apart, so do their bodies.
* ''[[Holyland]]'':
**Gangsters often don't respect the results of [[Combat by Champion]] but instead beat the victor down anyway.
**Katou may be a tough cookie because he's drugged up to the point that he can [[Feel No Pain]], but he's still human and thus subject to the same biomechanics and needs as anyone else. He gets beaten when one of King's MMA fighter bodyguards twists him into a pretzel and then chokes him out.
**In the penultimate chapter, after two climactic battles, {{spoiler|Yuu gets stabbed out of nowhere by a nobody. He doesn't die, but it leaves his fate in doubt long enough that people start asking questions. No matter how good one is at powering through blunt force trauma, getting stabbed is a whole different matter, not something that can be shrugged off.}}
* Subverted in [[Bakuman。]]. After Kosugi does a [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]] punch to Nanamine when he essentially gives up on manga following losing to the main characters, Nanamine threatens to report Kosugi for assault and cause him to lose his job. Nanamine doesn't go through with it, though, thinking it would make him more of a laughingstock than he already is.
* In ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'', [[Cloudcuckoolander|Osaka]], of all people, pulls this when she wonders what Chiyo would do if she was kidnapped. Chiyo suggests that [[Canine Companion|Tadakichi-san]] could come to her rescue, and Osaka mimes shooting him. This leads to this exchange:
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* In episode in [[Soul Eater]] where Death the Kid first starts attending the DWMA, [[Large Ham|Black Star]] climbs up near the top of the academy building to deliver a [[Badass Boast]] to Kid...who's standing near the front entrance and can't hear a word he's saying because he's so far away.
* ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'': Pretty much the entire first season was spent establishing [[Lightning Bruiser|The Major]] as a nigh-unstoppable badass, so, when she picks a fight with Gayle and his [[Powered Armor|military mech suit]] while armed with nothing but a pistol, you'd expect her to win handily. She does not. In point of fact, she gets outright [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomped]] until Saito shows up with his [[BFG|anti-tank rifle]]. [[Rock Beats Laser]] clearly does not work in that universe.
* ''[[Your Lie in April]]'':
** The series subjects Kousei to [[Amusing Injuries]] too often for some viewers' liking, but Saki hitting him hard enough to cause bleeding is treated with the dead seriousness it deserves.
** Just because your abuser dies or otherwise leaves your life doesn't mean that the trauma she caused disappears at the same time [[And There Was Much Rejoicing]]. Kousei is still struggling two years after Saki's passing.
** On the flipside, Saki may have been an abusive piece of shit, but she was still Kousei's mother, and the death of a parent can be badly traumatising. Kousei has little emotional support; friends, no matter how close, can only be so much help, and Kousei's father is away at work almost all the time while he has no siblings. Whatever one thinks of Kaori's methods, this rut wasn't something Kousei could have gotten out of by himself.
** Kaori is an [[Ill Girl]] with {{spoiler|a terminal degenerative illness.}} Late in the series, some hope appears in the form of {{spoiler|a high-risk surgery.}} You'd think that since she's the love interest and made a promise to play together with Kousei again, everyone is going to work out, right? It doesn't, because reality doesn't load the dice even though you check the boxes of narrative convention.
* In ''[[Fireworks (2017 film)|Fireworks]]'', it quickly becomes apparent that Nazuna doesn't have a plan for running away. Unlike a more traditional story where convention would have her and Norimichi getting into shenanigans and still managing to slip through the fingers of the opposition, here she gets caught almost immediately. If not for the time-reversing bauble, the film would have ended right there. Even so, her lack of foresight continues to bite her in the ass a few more times in the course of the film.
*''[[5 Centimeters per Second]]'' is something of a self-rebuttal to Shinkai's earlier works, which had the [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] hold on despite the fantastic obstacles in their way. Here, Takaki and Akari's [[Long-Distance Relationship]] fails, not because of some exotic cause or a romantic antagonist's sabotage, but out of the depressingly mundane cause of physical distance leading to emotional distance and the both of them not doing enough to fight for it.
* ''[[Your Name]]'':
** Despite how much Taki's built it up in his mind, Lake Itomori is not in fact the household name of an iconic landmark he'd been expecting, and random passersby in its vicinity aren't much good where actually finding it is concerned.
** Mitsuha learns the hard way that finding someone in a big city is not, despite her hopes, a quick and easy thing to do.
** Even extraordinary events will be forgotten after enough time. {{spoiler|Three years after they happened, Taki has forgotten both Mitsuha being the one to give the braided cord to him on the train and the news of the fragment of the comet Tiamat destroying Itomori.}}
** Taki's plan {{spoiler|to save Itomori is entirely focused on evacuating the townspeople and doesn't even broach the topic of trying to stop or divert the incoming comet fragment.}} What, did you think this was some heroic fantasy tale? Even then, {{spoiler|the townspeople initially don't go along obediently with the spoofed evacuation orders, but instead mill around in confusion.}}
* ''[[Weathering with You]]'':
** Hodaka quickly discovers that surviving as a runaway is harder than he had expected; his money runs low after just a few days, despite using the cheapest possible accommodation of a manga cafe and subsisting on instant noodles. Also, no one is willing to take the risk of employing a student without a valid ID. Later on, the attempt to find accommodation {{spoiler|while on the run from the police}} encounters a similar problem.
** [[Free-Range Children]] is not in play; people ask questions on seeing what's clearly a teenage boy in places and at times he isn't supposed to be around.
** He also doesn't benefit from the expected results of [[David Versus Goliath]], especially since he is not established at any point to have fighting skills. Unlike other cases, where the David might be able to use agility and quick thinking to defeat physically superior opponents, Hodaka is quickly subdued once bigger adult men get ahold of him, and he needs an ally's intervention or some other way of evening the odds.
** Hina gets caught by a news crew clearing the sky for a major festival from the rooftop of a famous landmark, and orders rise sharply as a result of the newfound fame. In a normal story, this would be the time the scrappy crew gets down to brass tacks, goes through a [[Hard Work Montage]], and comes out more successful than before. In reality, though, a sudden surge in demand is something that can be hard to handle, especially for small operations, and that is exactly what happens; they get overwhelmed and need to call for a timeout.
** Teenager: Hardly a model of rationality and long-term utilitarian thinking. Teenager who's just suffered a big loss and now sees a way to undo it: Even less so. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Hodaka was going to choose to get Hina back and to Hell with [[The Needs of the Many]], but that's not what heroes in stories are supposed to do, right? Right?
** At the end, Hodaka hurries back to Tokyo after graduating from high school. Even if those who mistreated you [[Took a Level In Kindness]] after your return, as the novel suggests, that doesn't undo the damage done from the preceding years or the very understandable desire to get away from them again as soon as possible.
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'': A depressing example. Even though social services are called, that doesn't mean Satoko will be removed from her abusive uncle. Especially since Satoko is quite stubborn about it and she falsely called child services on her step-father beforehand, making them wary to investigate this very real case.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* This trope could be called "The ''[[Kick-Ass]]'' Principle". It subverts almost all superhero trends, and replaces it all with how it would work being a hero in real life. It's painful to watch it.
** Until an 11-year-old girl starts tearing apart the mob singlehandedly. But even then, reality finally catches back up with her when she fights the boss, who has trained in martial arts. Also, the Batman of the movie uses guns and armor instead of impossible crimefighting skills.
* A common situation with superheroes since the end of the [[Silver Age]]. And it has resulted in some great stories, but fails in others. The problem being that [[Necessary Weasel|some of the basic tenets of superheroes have to be kept in order for the genre to work]].
* This is probably one of [[Garth Ennis]]'s favorite tropes, and is probably the reason why he has such a devoted [[Hatedom]] among certain hardcore superhero fans.
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* [[Ultimate X-Men]]'s Colossus ended [[Reality Warper]] Proteus' reign of terror by... slamming a car down on him.
** Similarly, the villain in [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' event. Time-travelling jellyfish-totem Gothic Queen versus runaway car. And it ''rocked''.
* Every time [[Wonder Woman]] and [[Batman]] go up against each other. You expect Batman to pull out one of his [[Batman Gambit|special contingency plans]] or gadgets to take her down, because that's what Batman does, right? He's after a criminal under her protection! Here they go, this will be good, talking has failed! Epic [[Let's You and Him Fight|hero vs hero]] will ensure.
** It might also have to do with the fact that Batman and Wonder Woman have a similar tactical mindset, and with Wonder Woman's superior abilities, she of course has the advantage.
*** They have similar fighting skills. Only the Manhunter is in Batman's league as a tactician. But
* Famously, when Gwen Stacy was thrown off a bridge and [[Spider-Man]] caught her. [[Not the Fall That Kills You|The sudden stop made her neck break]]. [[Word of God]] says that the long fall into the water would have killed her just as well, averting [[Soft Water]] too.
* In ''[[Common Grounds]]'', [[Let's You and Him Fight]] situations between people with superpowers end up with at least one corpse, along with a subsequent trial and lengthy prison term. You do not get a free pass because you were a hero, you do not escape prison every other week to wreak your vengeance or operate as an outlaw vigilante, you '''do''' spend several years behind bars and, once released, have to scrounge in the trash for food because an ex-con fresh out of jail for murder has plenty of trouble finding gainful employment. However, on the upside, the death in that fight will inspire the foundation of an international chain of coffee shops where Heroes and Villains can chat amicably over donuts.
* ''[[Black Orchid]]'' doesn't just lampshade this, a mook gives a half-page [[Character Filibuster]] on the subject. Then he shoots the [[Decoy Protagonist]] in the head and sets her corpse on fire to make sure she's really dead.
* In ''[[Irredeemable]]'', the [[Ax Crazy]] [[Face Heel Turn|superhero-turned-supervillain]] [[Villain Protagonist|titular character]], in a flashback from his early teens, hears his foster mother is about to commit suicide. He gets here in a fraction of a second. But
* Amusingly one of the first times [[Empowered]] comes across as actually being badass. She points out, quite effectively, that driving an SUV at 75 miles an hour into a villain's back is much more effective than hitting him with a thrown one at about 5 miles an hour. This allows her to defeat a villain that the entire superhero squad she's a [[Butt Monkey]] for was defeated by. Unfortunately, the car is totaled, leaving her tied up and unable to brag, and her superhero squad walks off, assuming they and the villain knocked each other out. ([[The Woobie|Forgetting about Empowered in the process.]])
* In the first ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' comic, they're tied up on top of an active volcano and a husky cult leader intends to kill them. [[Convection, Schmonvection|The large amount of heat from the volcano]] causes the cult leader to spontaneously combust. However, the comic decides to play it off as a [[Deus Ex Machina]] for the sake of humor.
* This is pretty much the central premise of [[Watchmen]]: what happens to superheroes when Reality Ensues? What becomes of people who dress up in costumes and take the law into their own hands in a world as full of political and social complexities as the real world? They die. They go insane (presuming they weren't [[Black and White Insanity|insane already]]). [[He Who Fights Monsters|Or they become monsters.]]
* Similarly to [[Watchmen]], [[The Boys]] works on a decidedly more realistic take on Superheroes. They have PR agents and are fighting over defense contracts, among other things. It's shown that The Seven (DC analogues) spend most of their time being faces for the [[Mega Corp]], doing very little, if any, actual hero work, since there are no villains to fight. The one time they actually try to fight evil, The Seven find out very quickly that having superpowers doesn't automatically mean they know how to fight crime. {{spoiler|Cue September 11th.}}
* In the Zatara story found in the original [[Action Comics|Action Comics #33]], a villain attempts to steal a platinum idol so that he can sell it and become rich. More then one person notes that putting the statue on the market would cause the price of platinum to plummet.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''The Night Of Days'' (in which [[WW 2|American Airborne troops and German defenders are teleported from Normandy]] into Equestria by a reincarnation of [[Bigger Bad|Nightmare Moon]]) has her luring scattered German soldiers to her castle ruins, where she then tries to manipulate them and gradually take them over, in order to make them fight for her and put her on the Equestrian throne. The German commanding officer is... [[Shut UP, Hannibal|not amused]]. He nods at first, [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|but then he pulls out his sidearm]] and [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|nonchalantly guns her down, injuring her severely]]. Then he declares that the soldiers under his command would be serving no one but "Führer and Vaterland" and leads them on a campaign to [[Day of the Jackboot|colonise Equestrian territory]] for [[Nazi Germany]].
** [[Word of God]] says that he wanted to avert exactly what another fanfic he once read did; having the Germans comply with Nightmare Moon without as much as a question. He said he disliked it exactly because it would have been completely unrealistic.
*
* In ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'', reality doesn't so much ensue as it ambushes you in an alley, beats you over the head with a lead pipe, and then rifles through your pockets for [[Anyone Can Die|more characters to viciously and mercilessly kill]].
** It's worth pointing out that the most noble and heroic death thus far (
* The ''[[Firefly]]'' fic ''[[Forward]]'' has River facing off against a rival pirate crew's [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]. The battle begins with them sizing each other up, and with the martial artist declaring River as a [[Worthy Opponent]], who might be able to truly test his skills, and he rushes at her with his bo staff. {{spoiler|River shoots him twice in the head. Then she demands chocolate.}}
** Later on, River is facing a group of vengeful pirates. She's on the ground, and they're in their ship. She starts running for cover behind some boulders where they can't shoot her, only to get hit by the backwash of their engines and get thrown into said boulders, breaking her legs and back.
* Like the Fic above, a very old Latin Fanfic called ''Strata'' [[Lost Forever|(deleted since 2003)]] had this premise with a ''[[Ranma ½]]-[[Sailor Moon]]'' crossover. An elite army of very [[Genre Savvy]] [[Military Science Fiction|black ops]] end in their Universe and by a series of hi-jinks ended [[Kill Them All|targeting martial artists]] for the government agency. They break [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|every]] [[Killed Mid-Sentence|loophole]] in battle, using [[Combat Pragmatist|ambushes, snipers]], heavy weapons, reinforced vehicles and even bioweapons, mowing down and nearly killing the main characters. It doesn't get ''truly'' brutal until Kuno gets shot in the middle of his rambling. {{spoiler|He [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|deftly avoids it and brutally beats the entire team to within an inch of their lives]] [[Punctuated Pounding|while explaining that]], [[Reality Is Unrealistic|shockingly, the fact that he was talking doesn't make him blind, deaf, or stupid; and that he's a not worthless opponent just because he doesn't use a gun or have military training]]. Then he congratulates them for pissing off every single fighter on the planet and making ''very'' sure that no rules will ever apply to the black ops.}} [[Deconstruction|It]] [[Kill Them All|gets very]] [[Wrong Genre Savvy|dark]] from there, very fast. {{spoiler|The people of the "unreal" universe show the "professionals" how and why they were feared in their world. (What [[Deadly Dodging|Mars does]] to the [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|sniper ambush]] and Mercury's house defense are [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|undiluted awesomeness]]) and Saffron's revenge... holy crap. }} In the end... the world didn't change all that much, except for a Footnote of some insane assholes from a silly dimension in the Saotome scrolls.
* Frequently [[Played With]] in ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'' -- [[Troperiffic|lots of tropes]] show up naturally, but everyone who ''actively tries'' to [[Invoked Trope|invoke a trope]] will end up just failing at best, or running into [[Deconstruction|consequences]] at worst. Most notable is {{spoiler|Blaine}}'s past attempt to invoke ''[[Sex Equals Love]]'', which... [[Break the Cutie|didn't work.]]
** Another case is where Blaine hits his head and the [[Easy Amnesia]]/[[Tap on the Head]] tropes are ''very'' much averted.
* Played with, though also straight, in the ''[[1983 Doomsday Stories]],'' which has Austria hoping against hope that Hungary survived [[Apocalypse How|Doomsday]]. {{spoiler|She doesn't}}. Though it doesn't stop {{spoiler|her}} from looking after him even after death.
* Subverted in ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5659618/1/Mikami_VS_The_Cybermen_A_Tale_Most_Epic Mikami Vs. the Cybermen]''. After eight days straight of writing, he mentions how surprised he is that he hasn't run out of ink. {{spoiler|[[Double Subverted]] right afterwards, when he dies of thirst.}}
* In the ''[[Death Note]]'' fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8065617/1/ Markings of The Mind]'' [[Teen Genius]] Light Yagami is placed in solitary confinement for fifty days... [[Sanity Slippage|and goes stark raving mad.]]
* ''[[Kimi no Na Iowa]]'':
** A small town in the middle of nowhere with less than a percentage point of its country's population just isn't going to be missed by the world at large, no matter how exotic the cause of its disappearance or affected the former inhabitants are.
** Some of the difficulty conventional forces have combating abyssals arises from the fact that normal antiship weapons aren't meant to hit human-sized targets whose [[Super Toughness]] means direct hits are needed.
** Shipgirls don't just take [[Clothing Damage]], but also real injury that needs medical or mechanical treatment.
** Ayaka doesn't magically become a stone-cold [[Badass]] just because her true nature has been activated. Having had less than two months of admittedly intensive training by the time of her first mission and no prior experience with fighting, she takes quite badly the suffering of what would have been serious wounds for a normal human.
** Averting [[Rock Beats Laser]], anti-abyssal guerillas are not having a good time; unlike normal human invaders, even the weakest PT Imp is [[Immune to Bullets]] and retaliates with heavy weapons that will tear a tree in half, never mind a man. Anything that does work, the abyssals have the numbers to push through, and their not having a civilian populace to be [[Slave to PR]] to means that they have no rules of engagement forcing them to play nice with humanity.
** William D Porter being a clumsy, fratricidal [[The Jinx]] is not [[Played for Laughs]] like in most other ''[[Kantai Collection]]'' stories, but instead results in her being [[The Millstone]], [[The Friend Nobody Likes]], and developing suicidal ideation from the guilt of her repeated wrongs however accidental.
** People don't universally react to an [[Inhumanly Beautiful Race]] with attraction or desire. Some have [[Uncanny Valley]] reactions.
** [[A Man Is Always Eager]]? No. When Ayaka turns out to be an [[Insatiable Newlyweds|Insatiable Newlywed]] whose newfound postmarital hunger drives her into [[Making Love in All the Wrong Places]], Uileag is more than a little disturbed and reluctant.
* ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11775552/1/The-Greatest-Generation-RESTART The Greatest Generation]'': Shipgirls get a lot of leeway as [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]s; being the most effective means of combatting abyssals means they get a pass on [[Mildly Military]] and [[Military Maverick]] behaviour that would get any regular soldier in trouble. Then Tenryuu engages in gross insubordination and threatening an allied foreign officer - admittedly in defense of her subordinates who said officer had been speaking less than kindly of - and quickly learns that there are still lines, the crossing of which will not be tolerated, special ability notwithstanding.
* There are several ''[[Miraculous Ladybug]]'' fics that do this:
** Some fics have the characters (not just Chloé) judged or ostracized for their actions as akumatized villains. Sometimes they're able to evade it (mainly the child/minor ones), but others (older and/or more dangerous ones) typically aren't so lucky.
** Marinette finding proof to reveal Lila's lies (Alya's bad journalism, Adrien taking the high road, and the whole class being dumb and rude are typically also called out). Nicer fics just knock the [[Idiot Ball|Idiot]]/[[Jerkass Ball|Jerkass Balls]] out of their hands and have everyone have common sense.
** There also several fics where Ms. Bustier is punished or fired for her need to turn the other cheek towards her students' clearly harmful behaviors/actions.
** Mayor Bourgeois notices Audrey's harmful attitude towards him and Chloe and divorces her.
** There are fics where ''all'' the girls' think [[Stalker with a Crush|Marinette's Stalker with a Crush]] tendencies towards Adrien are concerning, not just [[Only Sane Man|Alix and Mylene]]. They actively try to get her to stop/help. If that doesn't work, they typically stop being friends with her.
** Speaking of which, that infamous scene in 'Puppeteer 2' typically has Adrien creeped out at what Marinette did.
* A few ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fan works that do this:
** ''[[The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well]]'': Rainbow Dash either resents her friends for either forcing her self-esteem down the drain or runs away to be a hero somewhere else. Nicer fics will have the mane 5 admit that while they had a point to take Rainbow's ego down a few pegs, they did go too far with it.
** ''[[One Bad Apple]]'': The CMC ignore Babs' bluff and tell an adult, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon ditch Babs Seed when she's done their dirty work for them, or Applejack and the CMC aren't nearly as [[Easily Forgiven|forgiving as they were in canon]].
** ''[[Ponyville Confidential]]'': The CMC run away, the mane six get a massive earful by someone for ostracizing three fillies (including their own families), and/or Featherweight and Diamond Tiara get karma for causing the conflict in the first place.
* In the ''[[Miraculous Ladybug]]'' fanfic series, ''[https://archiveofourown.org/series/994671 Smart Adversaries AU]'', not only are the baddies smarter but reality seems to come down harder.
** In ''Copycat Cops It'' and ''Darkblade and the Diary'', Adrien finds out about Marinette breaking into his locker, is very disgusted with her and breaks off their friendship. In the latter fic, it also makes her lose the election, due to everyone (save for Sabrina) also being disgusted with her.
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'', {{spoiler|Po thinks he can use kung fu to make his ordinary straw hat into a disc of destruction to cut the chains holding the furious five from half a mile away}}. [[Hilarity Ensues|He ends up looking like an idiot]].
** Prior to that, Po tries to heroically tell [[Big Bad|Lord Shen]] about how he's going to {{spoiler|rescue the Furious Five}} and stop him, only to show that Shen can't hear a word of it thanks to Po being so far away.
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* In the animated film ''[[Wizards]]'', good wizard Avatar confronts his [[Evil Twin]] Blackwolf. {{spoiler|At first everything seems to set up for a Wizard's Duel. Then Avatar, who up to this point has been a pacifist, suddenly pulls a gun and shoots Blackwolf dead, adding [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"I'm glad you changed your name, you son of a bitch!"]] }}
* Although less violent than most examples, this ends up happening in ''[[Ratatouille]]'' -- {{spoiler|after everything seems set for a [[Happily Ever After]], it gets derailed into more of a [[Bittersweet Ending]]. Despite everyone's efforts to revive Gusteau's, it's shut down for good when the Health Inspector is entirely unmoved by the fact that the rats in the kitchen are perfectly sanitary and are cooking the food. Remy, Linguini, and Colette ''do'' bounce back and open up another restaurant, though, keeping it from falling into a full [[Downer Ending]].}}
** There was also one earlier
** Linguini and Colette's [["Falling in Love" Montage]] is [[Mood Whiplash|rudely interrupted]] when Remy falls off Linguini's head, and is abruptly faced with the very real danger of being a rat in the middle of the street.
* In the [[Final Battle]] of the first live action ''[[Kekko Kamen]]'' film the title character is fighting a very butch mook who is revealed, with much gloating from the [[Big Bad]], to be immune to all of her powers. The heroine then picks up a gun from a fallen mook and uses it.
* In the Macaulay Culkin movie ''[[Richie Rich (comics)|Richie Rich]]'', the [[Big Bad]] spends the entire movie trying to break into the Rich family vault so he can steal their money. By the time he actually makes it in, however, he finds that is full of nothing but keepsakes and photo albums, leading to this:
{{quote|'''Van Dough''': But where's the gold... the diamonds... the negotiable bearer bonds? The money! ''[points his gun at them]'' ''Where is the '''money?!'''''
'''Richard Rich Sr.''': In banks. Where else? And the stock market...real estate... }}
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* The entire film of ''[[The Departed]]'' runs on this trope- deaths are abrupt and meaningless, there are no last-minute speeches, and it all happens so damn fast for the characters that they have no time to react.
** ''[[Infernal Affairs]]'' (the source inspiration) is even more so in that the one death in ''[[The Departed]]'' that actually has meaning to it never happens in the original.
* Something of a meta-example from ''[[X-Men: Apocalypse]]''; Olivia Mum has always been a fan of the comic, so was rather insistent that the Psylock costume be as loyal to the source material as possible. She may have regretted it. As she stated in an interview, the one-piece was a nightmare simply to get on, and she needed ''two'' wardrobe assistants and a ''lot'' of lube just to get into the thing.
* The costume designers for the ''[[Vampirella]]'' movie had a similar problem. They wanted an accurate adaptation of the heroine's iconic costume, but not surprisingly, it tended to fall off a lot when used on a real actress, forcing them to switch to a more practical form. The original version only appears in some promotional photographs.
* The famous scene in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' where Indy shoots the swordsman.
** Although, the script ''did'' originally call for a more dramatic swordfight, but supposedly, Harrison Ford was sick the day it was intended to be filmed, so they changed it to something easier.
** And in ''The Last Crusade'', when {{spoiler|Donovan shoots Henry Jones Sr. to force Indy to bring back the Grail}}
* At the end of ''[[Ip Man]]'', after {{spoiler|beating General Miura}}, Ip Man stands around and thinks of the cost of war. {{spoiler|Then, as promised, he is shot for not throwing the match. [[Foregone Conclusion|He survives]], but it's still a very striking moment.}}
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* At the end of ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', {{spoiler|Zoller}} makes hostile advances on {{spoiler|Shosanna}}, who shoots him. After a while, it turns out that {{spoiler|Zoller}} is not dead, and {{spoiler|Shosanna}} has second thoughts, so she goes to him - and gets shot dead in return.
* Possibly the most delightful moment from 1980s [[Eddie Murphy]] vehicle ''[[The Golden Child]]'' is when the [[Big Bad]] Sardo Numspa attempts to have Murphy's character Jarrell arrested, claiming that Jarrell stole a dagger from Numpsa, because Numpsa needs the dagger to kill [[The Messiah]]. Numpsa believes that either Jarrell will give him the dagger to avoid arrest, or that the police will simply hand it over to him after arresting Jarrell if he refuses. Jarrell gleefully agrees to be arrested, then takes a moment to explain the rules of evidence handling to Numpsa: Jarrell will be arrested, and the dagger held in police custody as evidence for his trial, which might not happen for months or over a year. Since Numpsa has to kill the child within a specific time frame, instead of having to fight his way past one or two unarmed guardians he'd have to storm police headquarters to get ahold of the dagger. Numpsa is forced to publicly back off of his accusations and let Jarrell go free rather than risk it.
* ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' ended with a triumphant victory for the heroes, but the sequel shows the aftermath. The defeat of Gozer calmed the psychic dimension, allowing the ghosts to rest at peace once again and putting the ghostbusting services out of business. On top of that, the amount of property damage, code violations, and other offenses committed throughout the first movie have [[
* In [[Werner Herzog]]'s remake of ''[[Nosferatu]]'', {{spoiler|Van Helsing kills Dracula. He is then arrested for murdering a foreign dignitary. End of film.}}
* The generally lighthearted comedy ''[[The Men Who Stare at Goats]]'' takes a dark turn when it references the real [[w:Project MKUltra|MK-ULTRA experiments]]: A soldier is driven into psychosis with LSD and disorienting lights. He goes on a rampage and is [[Driven to Suicide]]. Later on, it revisits the theme when the protagonists discover a working application of all that "research": {{spoiler|sleep deprivation torture via loud nonstop music and strobe lights}}.
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' ends with Neo running to escape the Agents and make it to a hotel room so he can log out. {{spoiler|He opens the door, and Smith is there waiting with his gun out at point-blank. He unceremoniously shoots Neo through the chest many times. Neo comes back, though, to fit with the whole [[Kung Fu Jesus]] theme.}}
** {{spoiler|In fact, the whole return from death thing is really the ultimate engagement of reality, since the whole movie is based around the concept that nothing in the Matrix is really occurring. As such, reality kicks in and he simply starts re-writing the world around him.}}
* ''[[The A-Team (film)|The
* ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'': When the [[Walking Tank|AT-AT]] first appears, it looks intimidating, fearsome, unstoppable... and it is - right until a rebel snowspeeder demonstrates the drawbacks of long, ungainly legs.
** Its main weapons were forward-facing and rather slow. AT-AT's long legs and cheek light turrets could protect from clever infantry with limpets, and that's all. Siege artillery / APC should not fight everything alone - keeping away maneuverable vehicles is a task for escorts. In battle on Hoth they ''were'' escorted by AT-ST scout walkers (without e.g. better armored and armed AT-AR), but those were destroyed or chased off by heavy guns, leaving AT-AT on their own. If AT-ATs stopped until P-Towers are dealt with, low escorts around them would remain behind the horizon, safe from line-of-sight weapons. They rushed on because they were winning and wanted to not only destroy the generator (primary objective), but overrun the base before it evacuates and get information, too. Yet unarmored artillery won't delay them if they cared to bring in fast attack vehicles of their own or mass driver artillery to do the job beyond visual range. So in the end, the Imperials tripped on their own overconfidence and impatience, as usual.
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** ''"[[Turbine Blender|NO CAPES!]]"''
** Really, the central premise behind the movie itself is somewhat similar to [[Watchmen]]: the real-life consequences of superhero activities. Mr. Incredible saves a suicidal man, who promptly sues him for the injuries he caused. He stops a runaway train, and is sued for damages. Holding superheroes responsible for the collateral damage they inadvertantly cause is the reason they disappear.
* ''[[Bodyguards
* ''[[Escape From L.A.]]'' Snake goads some mooks to see how fast they can shoot, by getting them to put their guns and not fire till his can hits the ground. When he flips it he shoots them all before it hits the ground.
* In ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]'', when West is up against a mook, said mook fights with elaborate kicks and punches, saying "I learned that from a Chinaman!" West simply hits him over the head with a shovel, stating "I made that up."
* ''[[Kung Fu Jungle]]'' ends similarly to ''Bodyguards and Assassins'' above, both of which star Donnie Yen. The [[Big Bad]], who has been killing martial artists across the length of the film, has defeated the hero and is about to finish him off when Inspector Luk catches up and aims her gun at him. He starts advancing on her, bobbing and weaving, hands moving like they can parry bullets, and when her first few shots miss, it seems that martial arts will beat guns. Then three later shots connect, killing him, showing that no, they don't.
* While ''[[The Suicide Squad (film)|The Suicide Squad]]'' dives back into the tropes later on, its opening scene harshly shows that merely being a super is not an "I Win" button against mooks; for every one able to stand with or against the Justice League, there are many more C-Listers who die to goons with guns as easily as any normal.
* ''[[Deadpool 2]]'': X-Force dramatically [[It's Raining Men|do a paradrop]] into a city. Most of them die in embarrassing ways from running into the mundanities of urban life, like power lines.
* ''[[Shazam! (film)|Shazam!]]'': Sivana makes a speech to the eponymous hero, but because they are floating in the air high up and far apart, it can't be heard.
* ''[[Top Gun: Maverick]]'':
** Maverick has thus far avoided getting kicked out of the Navy despite his antics thanks to Iceman covering for him, but even then there's only so much that can be done. {{spoiler|Iceman hasn't even been dead long}} before Cyclone pulls him off the training with the admittedly reasonable pretext that he hasn't given the desired results. Later, when he takes a plane on an unauthorised flight to show that the low-level ingress in the required timeframe is actually possible despite the other pilots' hitherto failure, Cyclone makes clear to him that he should by right be facing a court martial, and that even if he's spared that, he will still be reaching the end of his career in this mission one way or another, whether it's through dying in enemy airspace or getting grounded permanently after his return.
** This film performs a [[Happy Ending Override]] on the previous one, hitting the viewer with the fact that no, just because Maverick received a pep talk and powered his way through his grief to fight doesn't mean that his issues from Goose's death are magically resolved. 30 years on, he still misses Goose, and the man's son still blames him for his role in the death.
* ''[[The Other Guys]]'': A criminal gets away from Highsmith and Danson - two swaggering supercops who would be the protagonists of a more stereotypical story - by ziplining from the roof of a tall building. To save time on getting to ground level, the two of them do a big heroic jump off the roof, saying to aim for the bushes. {{spoiler|There are no convenient bushes to break their fall. They go splat on the ground far below, and the camera lingers on their corpses for extra black comedy value.}}
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Madame Bovary]]'' did this in 1856, making it [[Older Than Radio]]. The eponymous madame [[Thinks Like a Romance Novel|reads way too many romance novels]], and is convinced the world works that way. Naturally, [[Wrong Genre Savvy|it doesn't]]. The love affairs she has ultimately go nowhere, because the men she's seeing aren't the type to drop everything and whisk her away. The extravagant lifestyle she leads is done just to [[Becoming the Mask|delude her from sadness]]. And when she finally can't take it anymore, she takes poison, [[Perfect Poison|expecting it will kill her quickly and romantically]]... and that [[Squick|doesn't go so well either]]. The whole novel was a [[Deconstruction]] of tropes associated with Romanticism that the bourgeois classes loved to read, and ended up paving the way for Realism.
** There is a [[Recycled in Space|having Portugal as the setting]] version of ''Madame Bovary'' named ''Primo Basílio'',<ref>''Cousin Bazilio''</ref> written by Eça de Queirós, that has almost the same plot. But the ending is very different: {{spoiler|the Madame Bovary's expy, Luísa, is blackmailed by her own servant who threatened to reveal to her husband and is driven to get a stress-induced disease. She deeply regrets having betrayed her husband, has to shave her head, which in an Brazilian TV-adaptation was considered one of the most tearjerking moments of the history of Brazilian TV, and ultimately dies. There is no [[Power of Love]] to save her, there is no [[Black Comedy]] like the original, only pure [[Tear Jerker]]. In the last scene, Basílio, the eponymous adulterer is shown that he didn't care with Luísa and he should have brought "Alphonsine", making him '''''the''''' biggest [[Jerkass]] [[Karma Houdini]] of the entire Portuguese-language literature.}}
* Happened pleasingly often in the ''[[Redwall|Redwall Series]]''. For instance, in the climax of ''Martin The Warrior'', {{spoiler|where the [[Big Bad]] slams the [[The Lancer|Lancer]] [[The Chick|Chick]] Rose into a wall when she attempts to jump him. She is immediately ''dead'' as it broke her neck. Likewise, when Martin disarms said [[Big Bad]], he wastes no further time on him and kills him while he is still on the ground.}}
** However, the original novel also has
** Or in ''Mattimeo'', where a gang of slave traders disguise themselves as entertainers to sneak into Redwall Abbey and abduct the children (for underground mining labour). {{spoiler|At an ensuing festival inside the abbey grounds, they manage to spike all of the partygoers' drinks, and get them to drink them at the same time by calling out a toast.}} All seems to be working according to plan.
::'''''Or does it?!'''''
::Actually it turns out that {{spoiler|the cooks and kitchen aides naturally didn't drink anything, and try to stop the slavers by themselves. The slavers, on the other hand.. simply slaughter them and calmly proceed with loading the unconscious onto their cart}}. Two 'Reality Ensues' moments in one.
* In ''Retribution Falls'' the heroes {{spoiler|find the legendary pirate port Retribution Falls to be exactly what a city built by pirates would be like: a badly built [[Wretched Hive]].}}
* In ''[[War of the Dreaming]]'', there is an [[Out-of-Genre Experience|scene]] where a Beatrix-Potteresque [[Talking Animal|Mouse]] shows up to rescue one of the heroes. Then the setting changes back and Mouse {{spoiler|promptly gets stepped on.}}
* James Patterson has this as a side effect of the [[Author Tract]] in ''Cross Country'', Alex Cross's ex girlfriend gets brutally murdered by an African mercenary. He heads to Africa. {{spoiler|The second he gets out of the airport, he's kidnapped. By the police. Then it gets worse.}} You could basically cut out several hundred pages from the middle of the book, and all you'd miss would be the [[Author Tract]] and Reality Ensuing, over and over again.
* Pretty much the entire reason for the ''[[Lawrence Watt-Evans|Three Worlds Trilogy]]'' is Reality Ensues plus [[Deus Angst Machina]]. [[This Loser Is You|The protagonist fails]] [[Boring Failure Hero|at everything]] and a whole bunch of people die because he's just an ordinary person up against insurmountable odds. [[Grimdark]] only begins to describe it.
* In the ''[[Warhammer
** In a [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel, Cain notes that many battle sisters do something similar, [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic|fighting with their faces exposed]] claiming that faith will be their armor. Many of them die horrible deaths thanks to the [[Bug War|Tyranids]] as a result.
* ''[[Mansfield Park]]'': [[Prince Charming Wannabe]] Henry Crawford ultimately ''doesn't'' love the heroine enough to [[Ladykiller in Love|give up his lady-killing ways]] and crushes everyone's hopes of their marriage when he runs off with her (married) cousin. What, you were expecting the [[Handsome Lech]] to completely change his ways because of [[I Love You Because I Can't Control You|the influence of a girl he couldn't control]] and to deserve the heroine because [[Stalker with a Crush|the more she tried to get rid of him, the more he harassed her]]? Not in [[Jane Austen]]!
* Used numerous times in the ''[[Dresden Files]]'' book ''Changes'', nearly always as [[Trauma Conga Line|yet another way to horribly torture Harry]]. Example: the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Red Court]] sends in assassins to take him out. Rather than attacking him directly the way that, say, the gruffs did, they {{spoiler|pay lesser thugs to try to kill him ''over and over'', then set his house on fire. He barely manages to get his elderly neighbors out... then falls off a ladder and breaks his back, leaving him paralyzed. He has to make a [[Deal with the Devil]] [[Fair Folk]] to fix it.}}
** In the short story ''Day Off'', Harry goes home to find a group of weak-talented wizard wannabes waiting outside his home. Apparently, Harry dispelled a bad luck curse they'd placed on some lady (which was so weak that Harry was mostly convinced wasn't real, and dispelled it to give her peace of mind). They sneer and threaten him, with the leader demanding that Harry prepare to defend himself, before he and his posse begin gathering their power to attack him. Harry responds by shrugging, drawing his .44 revolver, and pointing it at them. At their shocked disbelief, his response is "I'm a'fixin' to defend myself."
* In the ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts|Gaunts Ghosts]]'' novel ''His Last Command'', this is how a scout takes down a stalker, an [[Implacable Man]] that can soak up ridiculous amounts of damage and keep coming. Chaos
* In ''[[The Witcher]] Saga'' Geralt tells a story about when he was young, he wanted to pose as a knight when dealing with thugs mugging a merchant and his daughter. The downright brutal method he used to dispatch the thug's leader ended in daughter fainting from horror, and merchant running away from him along with the bandits.
* In ''[[Wearing the Cape]]'', Hope/Astra is given a lesson in momentum and force and why it's a good idea to know how tough something is before you fly yourself into it like a missile. The book is actually full of little reality-checks, like superheroes getting warrants before going after supervillains, villains who's lawyers get the charges dropped, and strangers committing random acts of badness.
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* At the end of Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]'', they kill the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|who betrayed the hero of ages past, stole the power of the Well of Eternity for himself, dislodged the Earth from its proper orbit, brought up volcanoes that constantly choke the air with ash, created a permanent underclass of slaves, and turned HIS OWN FRIENDS into monsters.}} Good riddance, right? Well, no. The second book then details the political consequences of such a sudden power vacuum, and trying to go from a totalitarian dictatorship directly to a constitutional monarchy (hint: [[It Got Worse|a lot of people die]].)
* In the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' novel ''On Basilisk Station'', the Bronze Age-tech Medusans manage to brutally kill some Manticorans by swarming them. Then, the Manties bring out the heavy weapons and air support. The aliens die. And die. And die some more.
* The ''[[Discworld]]'' books play this for equal parts comedy and drama. Among other things, characters frequently react realistically to outlandish situations (in ''[[
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, there are a number of points where the protagonists forget basic things as a result of their panic at a situation. A prominent example is in the first book, when Hermione is so freaked out at the sight of Harry and Ron being strangled by the Devil's Snare that she forgets that she can use magic to save them. This is given a callback in the last book, when they are trying to get into the Shrieking Shack via the tunnel by the Whomping Willow. Ron panics because there's apparently no way to freeze the tree, prompting Hermione to remind him that they can use magic.
* ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'':
** Touma might be the main protagonist with an [[Anti-Magic]] fist... but he's still one person without formal combat training. Against multiple opponents, people who actually know how to fight, or people with proper weapons, he's at a clear disadvantage.
** Mikoto tries to take down the Level 6 Shift Experiment on her own, refusing to let anyone else know about it. But even a Level 5 esper with [[Shock and Awe|power over electricity]] can't do much against a project with the resources of an entire city behind it.
== [[Live
* ''[[Angel]]'': Lindsey has a big showdown planned with the eponymous hero, only to be outraged when he's {{spoiler|shot and killed by sidekick Lorne.}} "Goodnight, folks."
** When the gang finds out that Knox is {{spoiler|responsible for Fred's death}}. Angel starts a speech to Knox about how [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|they're the good guys and they don't kill]], and in the middle of it {{spoiler|Wesley shoots Knox dead}}. He has principles, but they don't extend all the way to showing mercy to the guy who killed the woman he loved.
** In the same episode, Illyria travels to her temple to release her army and take over the world again. Angel follows her. expecting to encounter a horde of hellbeasts, only to walk into a dusty, empty ruin, with a distraught Illyria in the middle. [[Sarcasm Mode|Apparently, if you leave a building full of people sealed off from the rest of reality for eons, they die and the building falls down.]]
* The whole point of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
** Season 5 finale: Buffy approaches [[The Dragon]] atop a tower. He gears up for a fight, {{spoiler|and she just knocks him off the tower.}}
** In the season 3 premiere, the [[Monster of the Week]] knocks [[The Chick]] down and does a speech about how his realm is inescapable. Then the girl gets up and pushes him off the edge.
** Midway through season 2, a demon is hyped throughout the two-part episode as being so strong, that [[No Man of Woman Born|no weapon forged by man could defeat him]]. {{spoiler|He is blown apart in one shot by an anti-tank missile. The mankind forged a lot more in the past six hundred years. Besides, while some components of the delivery system are arguably "forged by man", the part that hurts isn't. }}
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''(Looks up and sees that the other ship simply flew over)''
'''Wash:''' I didn't think of that... }}
** In
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode, "Last of the Time Lords", the Doctor talks one minor character out of shooting the villain, then he gives a speech about how there are better ways to do things than kill people. While he's giving the speech, another minor character picks up the gun and shoots the villain anyway. [[Talking Is a Free Action|Talking Is Not A Free Action]], and not everyone is as [[Technical Pacifist|pacifist]] as the Doctor.
** And then there's "Midnight", which savages the Doctor's usual bluster and approach to problem-solving. Instead of managing to get the people's trust, they view him with suspicion and think him very arrogant. It's all part of the [[Monster of the Week]]'s plan.
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'''Caine''': (shoots him, shoots his accomplices. Walks over to the [[Big Bad]]'s body and [[Glasses Pull|removes his glasses]]) [[Quip to Black|Apparently, it only takes the one]]. }}
* ''[[Blake's 7]]'' gives us a single ship—admittedly the most advanced in the galaxy—crewed by approximately seven people—admittedly very talented—trying to bring down a gigantic evil bureaucracy ([[The Federation]]). They manage to survive for four years, then [[Kill'Em All|reality catches up.]]
* The series ''[[16
* In the [[Star Trek]]: [[Deep Space Nine]] episode Blaze of Glory, Sisko and a wounded [[Anti-Hero|Michael Eddington]] have rescued several surviving members of the maquis from a planet controlled by the Dominion. Due to his wound Eddington asks to be left behind to [[Heroic Sacrifice|hold off the Dominion soldiers]] in order to [[Death Equals Redemption|give the others time to escape]]. However, as he gets up for the last stand ([[Theme Music Power-Up|even joking if anyone knows a rousing song to play]]) he is promptly shot at least half a dozen times in the chest and thrown against a wall.
* In the ''[[Miami Vice]]'' episode "Glades", [[The Dragon]] is holding a shotgun to a little girl's head as Sonny Crockett approaches with this pistol drawn and aimed. [[The Dragon]] begins threatening to shoot the girl if he's not let go, saying "If I so much as twitch, she's go--" '''''BLAM''''' Sonny shoots him right between the eyes, with the [[
* In the first episode of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'''s second season, Starbuck tries to shoot Sharon for being a Cylon, and then Starbuck and Helo have a tense confrontation where Helo convinces her not to shoot Sharon because Sharon is pregnant and different from the other Cylons. Just in time to hear the engine noise as Sharon high-tails it out of there in Starbuck's stolen Raider - because, of course, when your baby's life is at stake, you're not going to stand around and wait to see if the crazy lady with the gun changes her mind.
* ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'' is based around this trope. Raylan has been cautioned about killing people after the first episode because he has earned a reputation for it, which doesn't make the police look good, and besides, every time he kills someone it involves more paperwork for him and his boss. As a result there are many situations where he could kill somebody but can't because of his position, so has to find more intelligent ways around it. In a later episode, Loretta really wants to kill Mags, but Raylan (who is behind her), points out that the police are in the room next to her and they will arrest her if she does it (even though the killing is justified by her - and the audience's - standards).
** In season 3 Raylan has gotten used to bullying the local criminals for information because none of them want the trouble he can bring on them and it would be utter stupidity to kill a US Marshall. However, he does this one too many times with Limehouse who points out that Raylan is alone in a remote mountain community where everyone is utterly loyal to Limehouse. Raylan could shoot Limehouse but then he will be shot down himself by the dozen armed men surrounding them. They can then make his body disappear without a trace and with all the enemies Raylan has, they probably will not be even the main suspects in his disappearance.
* [[Chappelle's Show]] : "When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong" skits are all about this.
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* ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' uses this trope often for comedic effect. In one episode Mac and Charlie attempt to fake their deaths by blowing up a car. Their attempts to do it by invokeing various action movie tropes result mostly in the duo injuring ''themselves''. Later it turns out that their attempt to fake their demises failed naturally and that no one but Frank thought they were dead.
* A short commercial parody (of ''Snuggle'' brand fabric softener) on MTV's ''[[The State]]'' features a woman discussing how her fabric softener has improved the quality of her laundry. Then when she sees a plush bear extolling the virtues of the product, she promptly begins screaming and beats the unnatural thing to death.
* The [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] usually glosses over the consequences of normals fighting supers, but ''[[The Falcon and the Winter Soldier]]'' shows in unflinching detail what happens when a normal gets [[Punched Across the Room]] into a pillar. {{spoiler|He dies instantly, or at least near enough to it that he doesn't get to say any last words.}}
* In ''[[Hawkeye (series)|Hawkeye]]'', Clint's hearing has suffered from being close to too many explosions over the course of the previous works and now needs a hearing aid. He and Kate, being merely human, are also shown needing to patch up wounds and rest multiple times.
== [[Music]] ==
* Swedish songwriter Lars Winnerbäck tells us what really happened to some of [[Astrid Lindgren]]'s characters in his "Balladen om Konsekvenser" (The Ballad of Consequences).
** Specifically: [[Pippi Longstocking]] is in jail for assaulting a police officer, Rasmus is a homeless alcoholic, [[Ronja the Robber's Daughter|Ronja]] is screaming her head off in a mental hospital, and [[Big Bad|Kato]] from ''Mio My Mio'' [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|runs a mindless commercial TV channel]].
* The song "Scalp" by Atmosphere features the narrator describing his night. He goes to the bar and meets his friend Sonny, who offers to pay him for retrieving a package from a tattoo parlor. One expects the protagonist to follow through with his task, possibly finding something surprising in the package along the way, but instead he is killed in a car crash pretty much immediately after leaving the bar. Which is what happens when you drink $50 worth of alcohol and then drive at night.
* What [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] does with this trope in
* [[Will Smith]] had a hit song in the 80s with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson." ("[[One-Hit Kill|One punch, that's all it took]] (oooh), [[Curb Stomp Battle|He hit me in my ribs and my insides shook.]]")
== [[New Media]] ==
* [http://i.somethingawful.com//sasbi/2006/09/jumpman16/Unkempt.jpg This picture.]
** This is averted by way of more reality: the reason Batman's enemies don't work together to beat him is because they're a bunch of sociopathic murderers and backstabbers who don't play well with others.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Any tabletop RPG player knows this can happen to the heroes or the villains. It doesn't matter how dramatic the story has made it, one lucky roll from either side can make a climactic showdown [[Chunky Salsa Rule|very, very brief]]. The extent to which this happens can tell a lot about the nature of a game and GM. [[wikipedia:GNS theory|GNS theory]] covers this as well; Simulationists want this trope in force, while Narrativists want "plot first."
** Games that heavily avert this trope (such as ''[[Dungeons
** Grittier, meaner, more brutal games (''[[The World of Darkness]]'', ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'', and so on) intentionally invoke this trope to help create the feel of danger, failure, and high stakes. Some games, such as the old [[West End Games]] ''D6 [[Star Wars]]'' adaptation, have rules written to invoke this trope and then blatantly tell the GM to lie and keep the PC's relatively safe, allowing them to feel like reality may ensue when it probably won't. Some games even shoot to overplay this trope in the name of schadenfreude; for instance, in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', your character is incompetent, your boss is insane, and your teammates will throw you under the bus at the drop of a hat—so sure enough, you're pretty much guaranteed to suck, fail, and die repeatedly [[Black Comedy|for laughs]].
** ''[[GURPS]]'' defaults to a gritty, dangerous rule system where this trope is in full force, and combat is lethal. But the GM can change that, for example by using the various Cinematic Combat rules, or ignoring the bleeding rules. And then there are the ''Silly'' Combat rules, which throw reality right out the window in favor of rules like Bulletproof Nudity, [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]] (the [[Trope Namer]]), [[Bottomless Magazines|Infinite Ammunition]], and [[Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting|Martial Arts Anonymous]].
** ''[[Dungeons
== [[Theatre]] ==
* Act one of ''[[The Fantasticks]]'' ends happily, with the couple together and the "feud" between the families ending. Act two opens up with "This Plum Is Too Ripe", which is all about the characters realizing that everything isn't so great after all.
* ''[[Into the Woods]]'' is all over this trope. Not only does it show the realistic consequences of fairy tales (particularly in regards to [[Fourth Date Marriage]] and [[Parental Abandonment]]), it also shows just how dangerous some fairy tale characters can be in a more realistic setting. When a giant comes down from the beanstalk, the audience goes "hey, cool!" at first, until she starts actually stepping on people. It's ''not'' played for laughs.
** Specifically, it's Act II that does this. [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|Act I is frequently used for school productions]], as it's a fairly straightforward mash-up of recognisable fairy-tales that ends with a musical number celebrating how all the heroes have had their dreams come true and now they're going to live [[Happily Ever After]]... [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|and then Act II opens]], and everyone is faced with the fallout of their decisions.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The [[Final Boss]] of ''[[The Darkness]]'', Uncle Paulie, is built up as the catalyst for all of the misery in Jackie's life, from {{spoiler|the death of Jackie's girlfriend}} to getting blown out of a window by a bomb. Jackie finally makes it to Paulie, and {{spoiler|Paulie goes down just as easy as the [[Mooks]] Jackie had been slaughtering to reach him. After all, Paulie's a normal human being, and a rather overweight one, at that. Jackie has the personification of all evil living inside of him. If anything, it's more of a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] [[Cutscene Boss]] than a final boss fight}}.
* In [[Sonic the Hedgehog]], with the addition of the Sonic Boost in recent games we see a more realistic take on what happens when an object gets hit by another object moving at the speed of sound.
* Most strategy games would make missions where you cause an enemy commander's [[Final Death]] to be long base sieges. ''[[Dawn of War]]'' sees {{spoiler|the Imperial Guard's General Sturnn}} off in the middle of the Disorder campaign, at the start of a mission that gives the player only a standing force and no base to rush him with. There's a longer part of the mission afterwards, and his passing is barely mentioned subsequently. Only in a [[Crapsack World]] [[World Half Empty|Half Empty]] like ''[[Warhammer
** It's not even a particularly spectacular fight. Fight can be summed up as {{spoiler|Gorgutz picking up Sturnn and beating him into bloody pulp.}} Then again, what you do expect from fight between {{spoiler|beefed up Ork and normal human?}}
** In a similar case is in ''Dawn of War II: Retribution'' in the Tyranids campaign Sgt Merrick is faced with the Hive Tyrant, and the Nid just hacks him in less than three seconds.
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* ''[[Shadow Complex]]'': The writers go through the trouble of fleshing out a personality for the evil quasi-Nazi [[Mad Scientist]] who has kidnapped your girlfriend...and instead of an epic boss fight or the scientist pulling out ninja moves or something to get away, {{spoiler|he is [[Killed Mid-Sentence]] in one shot by the hero, right in the middle of saying that the hero "doesn't look like a killer".}}
** At the end of the game, {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] is ''not'' killed by the hero, whose family and loved ones he was threatening, but by the girlfriend, who is--surprise!--an NSA operative. Which explains [[Contrived Coincidence|what they were doing in the woods right by the enemy base]], but she ''really'' should've captured the guy alive.}}
* The "good" ending of the recent{{when}} reimagining of ''[[The Bard's Tale]]'' ends with the Bard saving the world from an ancient and terrifying evil. However, as nobody aside from a small cult who don't really like him know this, he's soon back to hustling inns for free booze and sex.
** The various "Chosen Ones" encountered during the game are victims of this. [[Blatant Lies|Bright, bold]] lads setting out to meet their destiny, they're quickly murdered by everything from wolves to trow to zombies. One sheriff even took to locking them up for their own safety.
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'':
**
** [[Transformation Is a Free Action]]? '''No.''' When Harbinger ASSUMES DIRECT CONTROL of a Collector, the possession and transformation takes time, and you can take a big chunk of health out of the new threat before it can even start attacking.
* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'':
** Fail to gun down Eva Core before she gets in range and Shepard catches a [[Hot Blade]] in the face... and dies. No [[Heroic Second Wind]] or other trope will conveniently kick in to bail the player out.
** The Extended Cut DLC adds one. The whole game has been drilling into your head the fact that while small victories are possible, the Reaper war machine as a whole cannot be beaten conventionally, which is why the galaxy has to resort to building the Crucible. When you finally get to it at the end, you are presented with three choices from a suspect source, all of which will reshape the galaxy but have some downside. The Extended Cut adds a fourth: Refuse to use the Crucible after all. If you take it, though, the galaxy loses, and all it can do is [[Fling a Light Into the Future]] in the form of a message to the next cycle. Did you really think that this was some kind of [[Secret Test of Character]] and that you would be rewarded for defiantly sticking to your principles instead of picking any of the poisoned chalices with a [[Deus Ex Machina]] leading to a [[Golden Ending]]?
* In ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'', Angela's prologue has her trekking through the aptly named Sub Zero Snowfield...in a highly [[Stripperiffic]] leotard. She doesn't get ten minutes in before she starts coming down with hypothermia.
* Used wonderfully in ''[[Rudra no Hihou]]''. A few days after the other protagonists have already received their magical [[Power Crystal]], Surlent is still lacking his. Being a scholar, he finds it inside an ancient artifact he's set out to research. It promptly flies towards him to merge with his body... and the impact kills him. Instantly.
* Used amusingly at the beginning of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''. How is the evil Umbrella corporation finally destroyed? Through a daring black-ops raid with soldiers fighting its myriad monsters in one final battle? Nah. The U.S. government freezes its assets in retaliation for the destruction of Raccoon City (though they hadn’t intended for the city to be destroyed, it could have been avoided if they had not been experimenting on people), and the highly publicized disasters plaguing the company cause its stock prices to drop, sending it into bankruptcy
* In ''[[Minecraft]]'s'' Survival Mode, you need to gather natural resources to build into weapons (among other things). Swords can be made of (in order of ascending rarity) wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond. For the most part, the rarer starting materials result in stronger weapons, except golden swords are functional identical to wooden swords. It came as quite a surprise when the players realized the second-rarest material made the weakest weapon, and a lot of people thought it was a bug... [[Fridge Brilliance|until they remembered gold is one of the softest metals in the world]]. Just like in real-life, gold weapons are only good for decorative purposes.
** This was initially true of ''all'' items made of gold, but this made gold so worthless that it was changed for balance reasons. Although gold tools still count as wood for purposes of durability and what they can actually do (a Gold Pickaxe can only harvest the same materials as a wood pickaxe), they work incredibly fast—a golden pick or axe can chew through materials in no time flat, outclassing even the diamond tools of the same type.
* The huge material properties overhaul in the latest{{when}} release of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' resulted in a few of these, as a simple damage multiplier for each metal was replaced with actual stats for tensile strength, shear and compressive yields and so forth. Adamantine turned out to be incredibly strong and lightweight, making for excellent edged weapons, but when players forged warhammers and maces from it the results were disappointing.
* In ''[[Utawarerumono]]'', the {{spoiler|rabbit-people bring out their ultimate weapon: [[Humongous Mecha]].}} The best anyone else has basically amounts to pointy sticks. They slaughter their enemies en masse, and are completely invulnerable to you, the player, fighting spirit be damned. Well, until you become {{spoiler|a giant divine monster yourself.}}
* In ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Chaos Theory'', Sam is facing down {{spoiler|Shetland on the rooftop, with their guns drawn. Shetland goes on a [[Motive Rant]], ending it by saying that Sam "wouldn't shoot an old friend" and putting his gun away. Sam can, at this point, opt to put his gun away, triggering an [[I Surrender, Suckers]] moment where Shetland draws his gun and catches a bad case of knife in the heart for his trouble. The other option is to just shoot him in the face the moment he puts his gun away.}}
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* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' and ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', Batman can take out dozens of prisoners with delicate uses of flips, jumps, punches, and Batarangs. But try to take on a group of gun wielding goons head on, and Batman will quickly be turned into Bat-paste. Especially true in the sequel, where he fights mooks with high-powered sniper rifles.
* In the backstory of ''[[Portal 2]]'', Cave Johnson is the [[Crazy Awesome]] [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] of Aperture Science, who has no qualms whatsoever about working with hazardous experimental substances, and wildly misapplies potentially revolutionary scientific breakthroughs because he doesn't realize what they could do. Unfortunately, it's not a cartoon, and these practices have the same result they would in real life, i.e., {{spoiler|he dies slowly and agonizingly from exposure to dangerous chemicals while his company collapses into financial ruin.}}
* In ''[[Homestar Runner|Peasant's Quest]]'', the humble peasant hero Rather Dashing goes through a bunch of trials to prepare himself to fight Trogdor the Burninator. When he finally reaches Trogdor's cave {{spoiler|he's immediately flash-fried, because he's one ordinary guy trying to fight a giant fire-breathing monster.}} The knight standing outside the cavern would have stood a better chance.
* In ''[[Ghost Tricks]]'', making a hard hat hit a guy in the face with the force of a moving bullet leads to [[Nonstandard Game Over|exactly what you think will happen happening]]. {{spoiler|Also, if you trick an item in front of Yomiel, he will notice and respond.}}
* This ends up happening in ''[[We Happy Few (video game)|We Happy Few]]''. While it is understandable that the town would want to be happy given what they went through in the past, they ended up designing a drug that caused people to take happiness for granted. So it’s only a matter of time before the whole town begins to fall apart. And it’s unfortunately too late to fix things, since the joy drug has a rebound effect that results in depression.
* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'': By lategame, John has brought down his old gang and won multiple scraps with superior forces. Then Edgar Ross decides that [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] and brings the army to his front door and quickly proves that even if you're a major league [[Badass]], you aren't winning this kind of stand-up fight.
* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'': For most of the game, [[Take Your Time]] is in effect and you can go freely between the three hub cities in between missions as often as you like with no penalty. Get to the end of the Moscow questline, though, and the mission "Prevent Surkov's Escape" appears. If you go somewhere else instead of taking it immediately, it becomes [[Lost Forever]], because a guy who's trying to get out of dodge isn't going to politely sit around and wait for you to finish other business first.
* In ''Infernax'', if you act like you're still playing ''[[Castlevania]]'' and eat chicken that falls out of the walls... you promptly vomit it back up.
== [[Visual Novels]] ==
* Despite passionate pleas, Masayuki in ''[[A Profile]]'' is ultimately completely unable to make Miou's parents reconcile. As he says to Miou, it's not like a kid like him can do much to convince adults of anything serious like that. On the other hand, it's not completely without results in that it made her father approve of him, whereas until then he was judging Masayuki as the street punk he used to be.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090901192335/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=16&issue=9 This] page of ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]''. Make sure to read the [[Alt Text]].
** Later on, Dan McNinja has to hunt down the last surviving member of the Belstein family, whose bloodline is the only thing that can defeat a powerful demon. It turns out that the {{spoiler|Belsteins had to engage in massive inbreeding to keep the bloodline "pure" so someone could fight the demon....and the last living Belstein is a crippled invalid thanks to that.}}
* [http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/72300/wee-army-man-comics-snipers-finished-on-page3/p1 This] comic on the ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' forums.
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* Occurs in ''[[The Dreadful]],'' for [[Improbable Aiming Skills|a given value of "reality"]]. A posse shows up at Kit's hideout. Their [[Smug Snake|arrogant]] leader threatens and insults Kit while flipping his gun around [[Metal Gear Solid|Revolver Ocelot]]-style. It looks like an epic gunfight is about to ensue, but Kit simply shoots the hammer of his gun mid-flip, causing it to shoot him in the head.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120729052734/http://doc.tf-media.net/Stories/Bahamad/drjekyll.html One transformation-fetishist rewrite] of ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' had Jekyll as the [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] of a woman he knew, after she becomes engaged. This gives him the inspiration to complete a potion that brings out his subconscious desires. Turns out his subconscious desire is to be a large, strong, [[Gag Penis|well-endowed]] possibly bisexual sociopath named Hyde. After assaulting and killing his beloved's fiance, he forces himself into his beloved's home, forces the potion down her throat, and her already comely form turns into a [[My Girl Is a Slut|loose-moraled sex goddess]]. After they're...done, they try and dose the rest of the city. The first person turns into a bisexual sex-goddess and they have a threesome. Then the story goes "no, wait, she really dies peacefully, since she had smallpox, as previously mentioned, and didn't want to live". The second one we see turns into a [[Super Toughness|fireproof]] pyromaniac (with a gigantic moustache and super-strength) trying to "purge" the world, and accidentally destroys the lab and the remaining stock of potion. Since the potion wears off eventually, once they're back to normal, their hosts obviously aren't going to make any more. The story ends with the city in flames from the pyromaniac.
* ''[[The New Adventures of Captain S]]'' has the hero constantly beating up enemies inside the world of videogames. When he punches someone in the real world he hurts his fist.
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_18791_if-movie-characters-didnt-make-horrible-decisions.html If Movie Characters Didn't Make Terrible Decisions] lists a number of humourous hypothetical examples, imagining what sort of films fictional characters would watch.
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* ''[[The Salvation War]]'' runs on this. One of the core themes is that Biblical depictions of the powers of angels and demons, quite simply, are not all that impressive compared to modern weapons. Sure, a demon may be nine feet tall, run thirty KPH without getting tired, regenerate from most injuries in a few hours or days, can rip through human beings like tissue paper, and throw lightning bolts, but all of that is terribly useless when the demon's most advanced weapon is a pitchfork and the humans are sitting twenty kilometers away launching missiles and firing artillery that rips through demonic flesh as easily as it does human.
* ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'': Near the beginning of Act II, Dr. Horrible gloats about his unstoppable plan to commit a heist using his Freeze Ray. Cue [[Gilligan Cut]] and a bruised Dr. Horrible explaining how he needs to be careful about what he says on his blog because both Captain Hammer and the LAPD watch it.
* ''[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLmtv4GfnEBSzxT5DNnOaEQ Dark Simpsons]'' takes certain segments of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' and makes them realistic. For example, in "Flintstones Parody", much like in "Marge vs The Monorail", Homer decides to imitate the Simpsons. However, instead of being uninjured when he breaks through his car window, he ends up having to go to the hospital instead, and is faced with the possibility of being unable to walk again for the rest of his life.
** In "Homer Is Dumb as a Mule and Twice as Ugly", Homer decides to start a new life under the sea. There's just one small problem...he can't breathe underwater. Inevitably, he drowns.
** In "Homes Goes To College", Homer cheats on a test so he could keep his job as a nuclear safety inspector. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't know what to do during a nuclear meltdown and he ends up blowing the entire town to smithereens when he presses the wrong button.
** "In Seymour Butts", while it's fairly unlikely that he would shoot Bart with a shotgun simply for prank phone calling him, he immediately recognizes him as the person who keeps prank phone calling him by the sound of his voice.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' loves doing this and it is almost like the writers flip a coin to determine if a specific action will play out according to [[Cartoon Physics|cartoon logic]] or will generate realistic effects. It's actually a good way to keep the audience guessing as they can never assume how things will play out based on [[Genre Savvy|genre conventions]]. Examples include:
** When Peter [[To the Bat Noun|"goes to"]] Peter-Copter and the Hinden-Peter he promptly crashes them into Joe's house causing substantial damage.
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'''Peter:''' Aaahhh!! It's not a liquid! It's a great many pieces of solid matter, that form a hard floor-like surface! Ahhh!! }}
* ''[[Mighty Max]]'': In one episode, a barbarian has recently rampaged through a village, killing everyone. Max the [[Kid Hero]] goes inside a house to check the carnage and immediately hops out, vomiting. He's seen gore all the time on television, but realizes it didn't prepare him for this.
* ''[[G.I. Joe: Resolute]]'' had this, when Storm Shadow asks why his uncle/sensei won't teach him his famed Seventh Step, which is basically instant death for anyone it hits. His uncle says he is not ready, and Storm Shadow pulls off his mask dramatically, symbolically divesting himself of his attachment to the dojo. {{spoiler|It's actually a signal for an assassin to snipe his uncle, so Shadow can take over the dojo. When he sees the assassin, Snake Eyes runs forward, and the assassin shoots him first. The sensei turns around, puzzled, and since he's standing still, it's much easier for the killer to hit him.}}
* ''[[Beast Wars]]'' had a scene seemingly parodying the one from ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'': Optimus is going all over the place showing off his sword moves, and Megatron just shoots him.
** This Megatron is a [[Combat Pragmatist]]. He'll do anything if it means his goals are met. Hell, when his plan to simply {{spoiler|kill off the proto-humans}} fails and he later {{spoiler|finds the Decepticon battleship ''Nemesis''}}, the first thing he does with it is {{spoiler|try to blow all proto-humans off the face of the Earth}}.
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{{quote|'''Chiro''': * Slams his fists into the ground* That's IT! I give up!
'''Sprx''': If this was just some TV show, kid, we could give up. [[This Is Reality|But THIS is the REAL WORLD!]] }}
**
*** Either that or the fact that the TV superheroes didn't ''actually'' use a [[Humongous Mecha]] while on set.
* A magnificent example from ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]''. During their first tête-à-tête confrontation the crime boss Tombstone offers Spider-Man a chance to work for him. Spider-Man refuses and calls him out to "finish this". "Very well," sighs Tombstone... and then [[Villain with Good Publicity|calls the cops]] and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|accuses Spidey of invading his personal space, attacking his guards and threatening him]]. Spider-Man probably suffered cognitive dissonance at that point from the fact that ''[[In Soviet Russia|the villain was legitimately siccing cops on him, the hero]]''!
** Perhaps even better was his fight against [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvdg9xcq2Ng Sandman and Rhino] , where Spidey uses Rhino's weight against him rather than fighting him directly (the relevant part is at 1:52). Also a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] ''and'' a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] at the same time.
** Speaking of the Rhino, Peter attempted to use the old cartoon clitche of knocking over a shelf and tripping him the the contents. Rhino just steps on them.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': After two episodes of turmoil, Aang finally unleashes his Avatar State. The assaulted army stops, watching in awe as the Avatar prepares to unleash his spiritual wrath upon them- and then gets shot down immediately. With Azula, [[Transformation Is a Free Action|transformation is]] ''[[Subverted Trope|
** One flashback sequence revealed that Avatar Roku tried to use [[The Power of Friendship]] to prevent Sozin from taking over the world. To say that it didn't end well would be a ''[[Evil Former Friend|HUGE]]'' understatement.
*** Interestingly, it ''almost'' worked. Roku had gotten Sozin to halt his plan. Later, a volcanic eruption threatened the village Roku lived in. Sozin showed up to help his old friend, who was rescuing the villagers...then Sozin had the sudden epiphany, that if he just left and ''let'' Roku die, he could resume his plans of world conquest.
* A rather jarring example on ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'': after moving into the gritty, more realistic Citiesville, the girls' attempts to fit in are all met with either laughter or cold dismissal. The final straw was when the mayor of Citiesville called them in after they had stopped some bank robbers - not to congratulate the girls, but for blowing up a bridge to stop their getaway:
{{quote|'''Mayor:'''Let me tell you some words. [[What the Hell, Hero?|At what point did it seem like a good idea to blow up the Citiesville Bridge?]]
'''Blossom:''' Uh...
'''Mayor:''' NO! Do you realize the two crooks that you caught stole approximately four hundred dollars? Do you realize that you did
** An even better (worse?) example was when Rainbow the Clown suffered an accident that turned him into the sound-and-color-hating "Mr. Mime." He almost succeeds in turning Townsville into a silent, monochromatic wasteland, but the girls set everything right with [[The Power of Rock]]. Rainbow's mind is freed from the evil and he thanks the girls for saving him - at which point they beat the tar out of him and have him carted off to jail, because... well... he broke the law.
* [[Sym-Bionic Titan]] fights the first [[Monster of the Week]] in the city and causes major damage. For the rest of the series, the city is shown being rebuilt, while the team tries to draw away future monsters out to the country where they're less likely to do harm.
* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', the [[Winged Humanoid|eponymous heroes]] always have to explain to their human allies that they can't actually fly; they can only glide, meaning there are often situations where their wings are of no use, like falling into pits and having to climb out.
* On ''[[The Simpsons]]'' in the episode "The Homer They Fall", Homer Simpson has a condition which renders him largely impervious to the effects of head trauma, which he uses to gain success in amateur boxing by tiring his opponents out. He winds up getting set up in a fight with an [[Expy]] of Mike Tyson, who pummels him so hard that [[It Makes Sense in Context|he forgets where he parked his car]]. Just because Homer can't fall down doesn't mean he can take on a well-trained boxer.
** Another example would be when Lisa befriended a beached whale, and Homer came to the rescue with helicopters to save it...But it turned out that it was just Lisa's [[Hope Spot]], and the whale died like many beached whales do.
** And in "Bart Vs Australia" where Homer tries to get in a kangaroo's pouch only to realize it's not a pocket, and actually full of mucus.
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{{quote|'''Tour Guide''': Of course for safety reasons, we don't keep the cannon ''loaded''. That's just common sense.}}
** When Homer builds a church in an island, he believed in the Flintstones by using a pelican as a cement mixer, as he gives it a pat, the bird just falls on the ground.
** In "A Milhouse Divided" Kirk and Luanne get divorced due to their fighting at the Simpson's dinner party being the final straw. At the end of the episode, Kirk tries to sing a romantic song (really badly) to her at Homer and Marge's second wedding and asks her to marry him again. She coldly refuses because neither were happy in their marriage and one song can't fix years of misery. It also helps that her new boyfriend is an [[American Gladiators|American Gladiator]].
** In "Homer to the Max" Homer sues the creators of Police Cops for improper use of his name when they made their Homer Simpson character a moron and pretty much Homer as a cop. The judge finds in favor of the creators instantly because no one has an exclusive right to their name.
** Homer assumes college is nothing but [[Wacky Fratboy Hijinks]] and partying and picking on nerds in "Homer Goes to College." In reality the [[Academic Athlete|jocks are studious and not the idiots they seem]], the [[Dean Bitterman]] is actually friendly and the nerds while intelligent in their studies, have no grasp of life outside college. Naturally this flies over Homer's head and he learns nothing about from the experience.
* [[Teen Titans]]
**Many villains like Mad Mod and Warp have treated Starfire as the damsel that Robin has to rescue, thinking she's the weakest link in the team. As Starfire cheerfully reminds Cinderblock in the pilot, being nice doesn't mean she's helpless. She's a Tamaranean princess trained in hand-to-hand combat in a culture where it's tradition to fight for the throne if you don't like the leader. Starfire knows how to fight, use her massive strength with control, and shoot Starbolts with extremely accurate aim. Oh, and she escaped from a Gordanian prisoner warship when she was still a teenager and unable to use most of her powers due to her handcuffs. She just would rather if an opponent would surrender before she has to resort to violence but if you get her ''angry'', watch out! Starfire has beaten her older sister twice in combat, four times if you count the spinoff comics, and shows that when she fights, she means business.
**"Fear Itself"
***Control Freak seems to have the Titans on the ropes, weaponizing a video store's merchandise and standee displays against them with a remote that brings inanimate objects to life. Robin finds a simple solution: set off the fire sprinklers. Water shorts out electronic devices, and dissolves cardboard as well as sugar from the candy that was biting Cyborg. Control Freak is left helplessly pushing buttons on his useless remote as Robin arrests him.
***On a similarly humorous note, Beast Boy thinks after the fight is the best time to check out the latest horror movie. He takes the video to the checkout where the poor cashier has been hiding from the fracas and digs in his pockets for his membership card. She tells him, "Just take it" and it's on the house; the Titans saved her life, and she wouldn't be able to process a rental anyway with all the machines shorted out from the sprinkler.
** Raven normally emphasizes that she ''cannot'' lose control of her emotions. As she tells Starfire during their body-switching episode, even the slightest tinge of excitement or joy can cause her powers to go haywire. There are some exceptions, like crushing on Aqualad, but in general Raven keeps tight control of her composure. Then in "The Prophecy," she finds out that {{spoiler|the last safe place that could hide her, her home Azarath, didn't survive an onslaught courtesy of Trigon, and he killed her mother Arella. The most Arella could do was leave a piece of herself behind in the ruins, along with an illusion that Azarath was fine but deserted, so that she could properly say goodbye to her daughter}}. Grief-stricken that she {{spoiler|was too late to save her mother or her teachers, Raven returns to Earth, rescues her friends from a firepowered Slade because she can't lose anyone else that she loves, and vents her emotions on Slade by beating him up}}. With complete control this time! There are some traumas that a little bit of meditation can't regulate.
**Another humorous example from "X"; Red X's attempt to hit on Starfire in the middle of a battle doesn't get him any reaction from her other than [[Eye Beam]]s to the face.
*''[[Archer]]'' often plays the various injuries encountered in [[Spy Fiction]] realistically:
**Whenever a character is exposed to explosions or gunfire, they suffer temporary deafness, sometimes accompanied by a [[Shell-Shock Silence|loud ringing noise]]. It's happened to Archer so many times he mentions that he thinks he's developing tinnitus.
**When Ray gets knocked out via a [[Tap on the Head]], he has to see a neurologist.
*In ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'', Killface and Xander run against each other for presidency for most of the second season before it's pointed out that neither of them are eligible, as Killface wasn't born in the US and Xander is under 35.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Indexing Ensues]]
[[Category:Consistency]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
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