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Reality Ensues: Difference between revisions
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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 the [[Tethercat Principle]] is actually ''not'' in effect and those [[Butt Monkey]] [[Mooks]] are angry. Or the plucky [[La Résistance]] [[Rock Beats Laser|has beat the Empire despite being technologically inferior,]] only to realise too late that [[Insane Admiral|Admiral I.N. Sane]] ''hasn't'' forgotten his [[Kill Sat|orbit-to-surface]] [[Nuke
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]]. 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
'''[[No Real Life Examples Please]]''', as that would just be [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant]]. We all know that reality is not a work of fiction, [[Wild Mass Guessing]] notwithstanding. Reality already ensues all the time in [[Real Life]].
'''Warning: As this trope frequently occurs at the climax of a work, spoilers are likely to be unmarked. Caution advised.'''
{{examples
== Advertising ==
* Sprite did a series of commercials based around subverting [[Cereal
{{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 [[Wrestler/Sting|Sting]] to a match - and was promptly [[No Holds Barred Beatdown|battered from pillar to post]] as his parents just stood by and laughed. It's probably the darkest soft drink ad ever filmed.
** In one Sprite commercial, a mom takes out some [[Bland
* [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".
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* ''[[Freezing]]'' features beautiful girls who attack each other with sharp weapons. When their clothes get ripped apart, so do their bodies.
* In ''[[Holyland (Manga)|Holyland]]'', gangsters often don't respect the results of [[Combat By Champion]] but instead beat the victor down anyway.
* Subverted in [[Bakuman｡ (Manga)|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 (Manga)|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:
{{quote| '''Chiyo''': So what should I do?<br />
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== Fan Fic ==
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|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.
* The ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1518794/1/The_Game_of_the_Gods The Game Of The Gods]'' is ''thirty-three'' instances of this. Morgoth fashions [[Mary Sue]] after Mary Sue; Varda carefully imposes reality and lets their own impossibility do them in. [[Just for Pun|Reality Ends Sues]]?
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* ''[[Forward (Fanfic)|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.
* Braid of the Limbo Clone Squad. When he was facing his demise he was plucked from his universe by a mischief god and given his choice of powers. His choice: the natural laws of his Earth will always rule him. How does this count as a power? {{spoiler|Well, the universe he was thrown into is an anime universe, meaning that the only reason the heroes haven't died is that the universe's laws seem to want to protect them. Which means he can see through the [[Paper
* Like the Fic above, a very old Latin Fanfic called "Strata" [[Lost Forever|(deleted since 2003)]] had this premise with a Ranma 1/2-[[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
* Frequently [[Played With]] in ''[[Hunting the Unicorn (Fanfic)|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.
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'''Mal:''' Good. ''[draws his gun and shoots him]''<br />
{{spoiler|'''Operative:''' ''[leaping back up and grabbing Mal from behind]'' I am, however, wearing full body armour. I'm not a ''moron''.}} }}
** Later on in the film, {{spoiler|Wash is killed right in the middle of a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]}}. [[Talking Is a Free Action|Talking Is Not A Free Action]]. And when the Operative tries to use his [[Pressure Point]] technique, it doesn't work because Mal had that particular nerve cluster removed due to a war injury. In [[Real Life]], susceptibility to pressure points varies widely and [[One
* ''[[American History X]]'': After learning the error of his ways, a former member of a Neo-Nazi gang is shot dead by the black boy he pissed off at the beginning. In real life, [[Easily Forgiven]] is very rare, and requires at the very least ''some'' attempt to make amends to the people you wronged.
* In ''[[Ninja Assassin]]'', the ninjas easily kill their way through their many opponents... until they lose the advantages of darkness and surprise and have to fight soldiers with automatic weapons.
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** There is a [[Recycled in Space|having Portugal as the setting]] 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 it's moments, like when the [[Anti
** 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.<br /><br />'''''Or does it?!'''''<br /><br />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 loading the Unconscious on 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]].}}
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{{quote| '''Bad Guy''': You're on the losing side of this one, Lieutenant. I could fire a thousand rounds before you get a shot o--<br />
'''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]]. }}
* ''[[Blakes Seven]]'' 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
* The series ''~16 And Pregnant~'' deals heavily with this, as the young mothers-to-be face the reality of their decisions. Turns out that [[Babies Make Everything Better|babies do]] '''NOT''', in fact, make everything better.
* In the [[Star Trek]]: [[Deep Space Nine]] episode Blaze of Glory, Sisko and a wounded [[Anti
* 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 [[Post Mortem One Liner]], "Maybe you won't twitch."
* 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.
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== Music ==
* Swedish songwriter Lars Winnerbäck tells us what really happened to some of [[Astrid Lindgren (Creator)|Astrid Lindgren]]'s characters in his "Balladen om Konsekvenser" (The Ballad of Consequences).
** Specifically: [[Pippi Longstocking (Literature)|Pippi Longstocking]] is in jail for assaulting a police officer, Rasmus is a homeless alcoholic, [[Ronja the Robbers Daughter (Literature)|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 ''Trapped in the Drive Thru'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGVYki-oyQ&feature=related needs to be seen to be fully appreciated].
* [[Will Smith]] had a hit song in the 80s with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson." ("[[One
== New Media ==
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* Kazuyuki Fujita fought Mirko Cro Cop twice. Fujita is a fighter known for his pitiful defense and general clumsiness. Cro Cop is a fighter known for his devastating striking. Reality ensues. Twice. Painfully.
** Not sure if "reality" and Cro Cop can even be used on the same page; before this, Fujita had beaten a few high-profile guys by simply outlasting them (i.e. letting them tire themselves out from beating him up too much).
** Arguably their fights could count as subversions as Fujita [[Made of Iron|was never knocked out in neither of them despite absorbing inhumane amounts of punishment]] and lost due to a cut in first and a decision in a second one. For a straighter example look at Fujita vs [[Scary Black Man|Alistair]] [[Lightning Bruiser|Overeem]]. Over-the-hill Fujita tries to use his old tactics against [[Seanbaby|265 pounds of death-dealing emasculation]] and [[One
* Fred Ettish vs. Johnny Rhodes, UFC 2. Ettish performs a textbook snap kick on the opponent to no effect. He is then brutalized to the extreme.
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** Games that heavily avert this trope (such as ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]] D20'') tend to create a very heroic, action-movie like feel.
** Grittier, meaner, more brutal games (''[[The World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|The World of Darkness]]'', ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', ''[[Call of Cthulhu (Tabletop Game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'', 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 (Tabletop 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 (Tabletop Game)|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
** ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' generally averts this trope. However, when it comes to 2.5 Edition, if one were to implement the [[Critical Hit|critical hit]] system from [[Expanded Universe|Combat & Tactics]], players can find themselves in need of [[Death Is Cheap|a resurrection spell]] fast. And, [[It Got Worse|to make matters worse]], depending on the type of damage inflicted (e.g., [[Hollywood Acid|acid]], [[Man On Fire|fire]], [[Gale Force Sound|vibration]]) a player may require a [[Reincarnation|reincarnation]] spell, [[Make a Wish|a wish]] [[Be Careful What You Wish For|spell]] or worse yet, [[Killed Off for Real|a new character]] [[Final Death|to continue playing]]. <ref>After all, what do you expect to happen when a 3rd level illusionist receives [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|TRIPLE damage]] from a rampaging [[Smash Mook|umber hulk's]] fists? Not to mention the damage [[Impromptu Tracheotomy|an arrow through the throat can do]], the horrific effects of the various kinds of [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon's]] [[Breath Weapon|breath]], the many [[Universal Poison|venomous/poisonous beasts]], the [[Brown Note|long term effects]] [[Telepathy|of getting]] [[Mind Rape|hit with a]] [[Psychic Powers|psionic attack]], and let's not even get started with [[The Undead]] and the many ways they can kill a PC [[One
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* Act one of ''[[The Fantasticks]]'' ends happily, with the couple together and the "feud" 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
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** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'' there's a point where you see one of [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Cobra Unit]] out in the open and defenseless. If you're quick you can [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|shoot him in the head, averting a boss battle with him later]]. Or since he's old, you can just wait a week (according to the [[PS 2]] internal clock) and he'll die of natural causes. On the other hand, the area is then manned by ''twenty'' guards instead of one boss character.
*** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'''s difficulty settings qualify for the trope: Even though one of the game's "features" was an expanded arsenal of firearms and associated controls, only on Liquid Easy (lowest difficulty) can he take enough damage to get away with anything approaching a stand-up or run-and-gun fight, as he's still one operator against however many enemies, whether human or GEKKO.
* In ''[[Halo Reach|Halo: Reach]]'' {{spoiler|almost everyone gets an over the top [[Heroic Sacrifice]] death with Jorge blowing up a Covenant super-carrier, Carter crashing a dropship into a [[Spider Tank|Scarab]], Emile falling over a ledge with the Elite who just impaled him with an energy sword, and Noble 6 getting a [[Last Stand]] and [[Taking You With Me|taking as many Covenant with him]] as he can. Only Kat gets shot in the back of the head by a sniper [[Killed Mid
* In ''[[Fable II (Video Game)|Fable II]]'' {{spoiler|you can shoot the villain as he is doing his [[Motive Rant]]. If you hesitate, one of your companions ([[Karma Houdini]] Reaver) will pull the trigger.}}
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'', a minor patron saint of deconstruction, lets reality happen quite a few times. At one point, [[The Dragon]] decides that it's much, much smarter to [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|just order his troops to kill you]], rather than actually having to go through the complicated business of waiting for the [[Explosive Leash]] to kick in. (Notably, he ''also'' activates the [[Explosive Leash]]- which for newer models like you is a relatively slow and seemingly natural death rather than instant death by explosion.) At another point, you confront an enemy [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] who realizes that trying to shoot the [[Super Soldier]] might not be such a good idea, so he waits until you turn around and leave, whereupon he shoots you in the back. At the "Realistic" difficulty level, there's a quite high chance that this will kill the player character in one shot. Of course, you can silently pick off the guards before he chance to sick them on you, resulting in a "You win this round, Denton."
* The agility and tenacity of the [[Game Breaker]] QAAMs' from ''[[Ace Combat]]'' may be what happens when you put a real-world (nigh-)undefeatable heater, ''a la'' Python 4/5 or AA-11/R-73 or AIM-9X, against planes that usually encounter missiles sloppy enough to be outflown without needing countermeasures. Also seen when Captain Bartlett in ''Unsung War'' draws a missile away from Nagase and the missile stays firmly on him despite his weaving here and there... and it proceeds to splash him. Must have been a QAAM. {{spoiler|He gets better.}}
** The [[Xbox 360]] game ''Over G Fighters'' is essentially what happens when [[Reality Ensues]] on ''Ace Combat''. Did you know that afterburner in the presence of heat-seeking missiles is a BAD thing? On the other hand, unlike ''Ace Combat'', the player (though also enemies) can sometimes break missile locks by turning enough to reduce their plane's radar cross-section.
* ''[[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
** 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 reimagining of ''[[The Bards 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.
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* The huge material properties overhaul in the latest 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.}}
* Many of the cutscenes in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 7'' invoke this with [[Annoying Arrows]]--In one scene, Pang Tong succumbs to a wound that resulted from taking an arrow intended for Liu Bei, Zhou Yu dies in a similar fashion, and another cutscene has the famous [[Eye Scream]] scene with Xiahou Dun (at least [[Gory Discretion Shot|as much as can be shown in a T-rated game]]). To say nothing of Wu.
* For ''[[Max Payne (Video Game)|Max Payne]]'', not so much. But reality ensued all over [[Butt Monkey|poor Vinnie]], a mob lieutenant with more enemies than friends and such an incurable fanboy for a cartoon [[Kid Hero]] that he'll cosplay without hesitation. Doing so straps him into explosives, and since that puts him in an [[Enemy Mine]] situation with Max, you figure [[The Hero]] should be able to save his life. [[Escort Mission|And he did]]. [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Temporarily]].
* In [[Grand Theft Auto IV]], {{spoiler|the game's [[Final Boss|Final Bosses]] (which differentiate [[Multiple Endings|depending on which ending you take]] are hardly any tougher than any of the other random [[Mooks]] you've been killing. They have slightly more health thanks to body armor, but other than that, they're no tougher, and will likely go down quickly.}}
* 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 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'', Cave Johnson is the [[Crazy Awesome]] [[Pointy
* In ''[[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|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.}}
* 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.}}
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* In ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'', Vaarsuvius succinctly deals with [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Kubota's]] [[Take Over the City]] [[The Chessmaster|chessmastering]]:
{{quote| "Disintegrate. Gust of Wind."}}
** The kicker here is that Vaarsuvius didn't ''know'' that he was dispatching a threat. He was just removing a distraction from his research. Of course, this garners him a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] from Elan.
* Occurs in ''[[The Dreadful (Webcomic)|The Dreadful]],'' for a given value of "[[Improbable Aiming Skills|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.
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*** Joe [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by asking [[Friends Rent Control|how the hell Peter can afford those things.]]
** When Joe manages to tackle the robbery suspect and severs his spine in the process Peter jokes about the man's resulting paralysis, but Joe informs him that the man died.
** When pretending to be the ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'', Peter and friends expect the workers demolishing the park to flee in panic, crashing their vehicles in the process and then slinking off in shame, defeated. The foreman educates them how even if they weren't killed outright by the [[A
** Stewie forgets about his babysitter's boyfriend whom he locks in the trunk of Brian's car. When he remembers after 3 weeks it is clear that the person has died.
** There's also the clown that Peter has kept in the ceiling somewhere in order to pop up when Lois admitted Peter was right. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened for years. So when it finally does, all Peter gets is a skeleton in a colorful wig.
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*** 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?]]<br />
'''Blossom:''' Uh...<br />
'''Mayor:''' NO! Do you realize the two crooks that you caught stole approximately four hundred dollars? Do you realize that you did ''over three '''MILLION''' dollars in property damage to that bridge?!'' '''IT'S NOT REPLACEABLE!''' }}
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